Hello the Internet, and welcome to Season three, h two, Episode four of Dir Dally's I Guystay production of iHeartRadio. This is a production of Uh. This is the podcast Woo. This is a podcast where we take a deep dive into America's shared consciousness. And it is Friday, September one, twenty twenty three. Welcome to September at long Last. I think maybe the biggest overrated we've had over the past couple months is summer. So we're nearing the end of summer.
Everybody's ready for some cooler months, some cooler climbs. My name is Jack O'Brien aka, Gonna steal some artifacts to sell to you.
My Twitter handle is my eBay handle too. I've got some stuff from Greece and Africa. Gonna sell the things instead of give them back.
O ooh that is courtesy a blank a little Africa. But Toto AKA about the British museum curator who was just taking that shit, just taking like priceless national treasures that colonialism had stolen and brought to England and just selling it on eBay on from an eBay handle that is the same as his Twitter handle. That's really an amazing story that we talked about on the past episode,
but I'm still not over it. Uh, And I am thrilled to be joined by a very special guest co host, the producer behind shows like Fake Doctor's Real Friend, A brilliant writer you can read at Culture av Club Team Vogue. You've heard around pop culture havevia. It's the brilliant, the talented Joel Money.
Hi Jack?
How you doing all right?
How you do?
It's Beyonce weekend here in Los Angeles. So I am beside myself, not emotionally prepared for what's about to come, just edge of my seat, not fully present. Anywhere I go, my mind is always with Beyonce.
It's always in that stadium, that future spaceship, future spaceship that landed somewhere in Englewood a couple of years ago.
It's wild.
Yeah, that place is wild. How are you observing? Are you going to a Beyonce show?
Jack?
So, instead of going on vacation this summer, I bought tickets to see Beyonce on her birthday the IP.
Section of So Far Wow.
My baby Cousin's flying up tomorrow, amazing, gonna come with me. I just found out one of my best friends also has tickets the same day. How we missed this information, I don't know. But we're gonna get ready together. It's gonna be a whole spiritual await he's my first time seeing Beyonce Jack. I'm very excited. She's my number one diva. Thank you.
That's very exciting. Well, we are very excited to have in our third seat a comedian who one woman bathroom graffiti musical The Writing on the Stall is about to have a three weekend run off Broadway starting September sixth. Has had runs at like places, prestigious prestigious places like the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Please welcome to the show, The very Funny, the talented Caitlin.
Cook woo boo, so good to be here.
What's up, Kaitlin?
Oh my god, I'm so jealous of your Beyonce tickets. That sounds so fun.
I'm very excited. Did you do any concerts this season? There's a lot.
Been to so many shows. Unfortunately, my partner's favorite band is Fish, So I've been to a lot of Phish shows this year.
And what do you think? Because I went to a Fish show like and I was like, there must be something to this, I'm gonna go. I'm gonna enjoy it, and I did not. What is your experience then.
Well, I'm a musician, so I can find things to enjoy. I like the way that they like sort of talk to each other through their instruments. The lights are really cool. It's fun to do drugs and go right. You know that, I've never felt so comfortable in a crowd of mostly white men because.
There are so many white men, happy hippies. For I was not prepared for how uniformly white and male. It was so very much that. But you know, it takes me a while to get into them. They are not a band that I would choose to go to nearly as many times as I have this year.
Watch out for the drugs at that At those concerts. My one and only experience with fish was back when I was still doing stuff like that, and I ate an almond that just made my brain disappear. Oh no, I don't know what happened after after that. I don't know an almond. They were like, this almond is a special almond.
I was like.
I might have been, but I would hope not. I would hope that like acid, I would have remembered. But yeah, anyways, that's true. It was lights out for me, Caitlin. We are going to get to know you a little bit better in a moment. Also, I woulder so your show is really cool, like you're taking actual graffiti from actual
bathroom walls and incorporating it into a musical journey. Yes, I got to watch a clip where you were comparing the difference between the graffiti and men's bathrooms and women's bathrooms. But how did you come to this idea? Have you just always been obsessed with graffiti?
I have. I studied art history in undergrad and I got really frustrated with how pretentious that world can be. And I was in a dive bar bathroom when I saw written on the wall. Since writing on bathroom walls is neither for critical acclaim nor financial reward, it is the purest form of art discuss and I just loved that. That really like made me giggle, and I took a
picture of it, and I started photographing bathroom graffiti. I ended up writing a whole section of my thesis on bathroom graffiti, and about five years ago, I decided this would be a really funny song if I could take these things that I've been photographing and turn them into lyrics.
And I bought a little foot pedal that is mostly used by like orchestral musicians that need to turn their sheet music, and I use it to tell dick jokes and projects of the images of the graffiti behind me as I'm playing guitar piano and singing what's on the screen behind me to the audience. And that song, that first song did so well that I was like, Oh, there's something here that people are really connecting to. Everyone's seen bathroom graffiti and thought like, what's the story behind
that one? Why did someone write that? So I did. I went back to my folder of a million bathroom graffiti images and I made a song that's men's first, women's stalls. I wrote a song that's called Conversations with Strangers. That's people that respond to me each other on the stalls. I wrote a song that's all the sad, poetic things that people write, and I turned it into a whole musical where there's literally a toilet on stage. I treat
the audience like we're women bonding in a bathroom. It's very silly and very fun.
So I feel like if we had a constant stream of just like what was being written on the bathroom stalls of America, like that would be one of the prime features of our podcast. Like, I think what better way to like plug into the zeitgeist than like what people are writing on bathroom stalls, Like it's totally yeah, wholly, unpretentious, a little bit drunk, Yeah, sometimes very drunk, but you know, sometimes that's when the truth comes out, not all totally.
All right, Well, we're going to 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. Ted Cruz is trying to like show off his conservative bona fides with this clip where he like went on Newsmax and went with his his patented catchphrase kiss my eyes, which I think he thinks he might have made up, because he really seems to like lean on it, Like he's really proud and witty hear this
one I came up with. Anyways, he's mad that someone might one day suggest that people only drink two beers a week, and he's treating it like it's the new bedtime that has been instituted for all of America by the FBI or something, So we'll talk about that. We'll talk about Rudy Giuliani's apartment on selling, I'll talk about the plandemic two point zero conspiracy theory that is making the rounds on social media. A lot of this stuff is just like too dumb for bathroom stall graffiti. I
feel like you will get scribbled out really quickly. HBO Max or sorry, just Max has come up with its worst idea yet Maybe I don't know. They got a lot of bad ones. And we'll talk about Taco Bells proposed switch to a cashless future and what cash list stores actually mean, all of that plenty more. First, Caitlin, we do like to ask our guest, what is something from your search history?
So I recently was searching dive bars in Midtown because I was doing some promotion for this show and I was trying and I had to do an interview in person, and I had to find They wanted it to be in Midtown. I don't spend a lot of time in Midtown. Why would you terrible place? But they wanted to do the interview there at a bathroom that had graffiti in it. So I had to do a bunch of research for
dive bars in Midtown found a couple. So now if I'm ever in Midtown, I now have some safe havens of places I can go that are actually cheap drinks and calm and not crazy filled with tourists and people dressed up as fake Elmo and whatever else they do in Times Square.
Yeah. Yeah, What is your definition of a dive bar, like, does it have loud music or no?
I I mean, I suppose some dive bars do, but my preference, my favorite dive bars do not. I want to go somewhere where there's cheap here and I can have a conversation and hear the person talk to me.
Yeah, me too. That's what I like about the dive bar that pops up in my head when I hear the word dive bars, that you can actually hear the other person. But there are some places I've definitely heard of referred to as dive bars that are not quiet and are just trying. It's just very loud bond jovi at inappropriate times. I think anytime any year now is inappropriate for very loud bon jovial.
Do you not like when people turn a regular bar into a karaoke bar.
I'm good with that. Yeah, I guess it's like on a one off thing, but like when it's just a wan, like a NonStop wall of sound, like that's not what I'm looking for from a dive bar.
Oh, definitely not. I feel like I do a lot of nodding like, yeah, I can absolutely hear you, and it's totally making.
Sense to Yeah, I can't ask what a third time, so I guess all time right too.
I think it should be understood at that point if someone said what and then the last time they just not kind of that that they are just giving up and you should give up as well. They didn't actually hear you, and you can proceed in the conversation as though we've just given up on ever hearing each other on that one. What's something you think is overrated?
I think people have been talking a lot about having main character energy, and while I think that is so great for people that maybe do not take charge in their own life, I don't think you should be the main character all the time. I think that's very overrated. I think sometimes you need to be a supporting character. Sometimes you need to be the comedic relief. Sometimes you're just like a little cameo that's dropped into someone's life. It doesn't have to be about you all the goddamn time.
It also sounds exhausting to constantly be in main character mode. If you're the main character of a book, bad things are happening to you, terrible things. Yeah, you're really struggling. It's hard, and you're winning, not often because otherwise the book is over. Yeah, there's a lot of drama. If you're the main character all the time, there's a lot of drama surrounding you, and that seems exhausting. No, thank you.
Yeah, I think too many protagonists, not enough wacky neighbors is probably a good prescription for the United States at this moment.
Really, don't you want to be the whacky neighbor. You can have so much more fun as a side character. You get to really be all character. As a side character. You're the person who's either making someone laugh or providing like structural support to them during their difficult time. Or you're the villain and that can be fun too.
Yeah.
Yeah, villain energy. I'm into that.
And you never have to change. The protagonist by definition has to change, which is uncomfortable. But like the wacky neighbor stays wacky. You know, it's like Kramer suddenly like learns to control his limbs. What uh? What is something you think is underrated?
Popsicles? I've been obsessed. I so I bike everywhere in the city and that's how I get around. And it's very humid. I know you were you guys were saying that someone, a previous guest had said summer was overrated, and I and I agree. It's very hot and human here and I'm biking everywhere, and when I get home, I want a popsicle immediately. And I just found these new popsicles. They're they're they're not sponsoring me. They're just
Halo tops pineapple popsicles. They're so good, They're so underrated. I ate a whole box and one night, two nights ago. Wow, I'm just obsessed with popsicles right now. So I think they're deeply underrated and everyone should be eating popsicles all the time.
Such a ringing endorsement. Now, are these halo pop Are they specially is they're like coconut and milk maketin there or is it just like pure pineapple flavor.
I think it's just pure pineapple. It's like it says like only forty calories per popsicle, and I'm like, how how they taste so good? How is this possible? Yeah, they're doing.
By some of these. I was looking at Rocket Pops is doing like some kind of advertisement for a new video game. But every time it comes on, I'm like, and it was a lot of sounded like a rocket pop. Like those things used to rule my summer because that's usually you get whatever is in like the little plastic and they're like blue, pink, green, whatever, and they're those are good, They're tasty, they're cold stampikes. If you get a rocket pop, you're balling. Somebody has paid you to
mow their lawn. Yeah, you have gone fat in the house. Who's rich and you're just really living high on a rocket top. Like I'm an adult, I have one of these one ever, I gotta reinvest in my childhood.
Yeah, I think. I think popsicles maybe is a smaller thing for what I'm really saying is underrated, which is like, yeah, absolutely doing the things as an adult that you wanted to do as a kid, and being like I can do this anytime I want to eat a.
Whole box of popsicles in a night.
Absolutely, Yeah, I did that.
Have we been improving on popsicles?
Yeah, it seems like we have, like the the Halo Top pineapple pop popsicle, like the again Halo Top, like doesn't I think they're lying to us, but at least we feel better when we're eating their ice cream and frozen treats.
There's also good pop and they make like a mango chili pop and like a watermelon a gave pop and those are also like very good and supposedly healthier for you.
So yeah, Total Wine is making margarita pops and I have just transcended to another earthly plane. They're eighteen dollars with the tequila in them or let me see hold on, let me see the variety path. They're gluten free. Children, give me that they got a mango margarita, pineapple, strawberry and lime. Does contain alcohol made with real tequila?
Wow? All right, freeze that. Though I don't understand that scientifically.
Cut water frozen margarita pops, I don't know, but I want to purchase these.
Yeah.
Every time I've tried to, like do the homemade popsicles like they don't turn out they're like more icy than I feel like the ones that you buy in the store, Like there's two. I feel like there has to be like some sort of concentrate, Like it has to be concentrated juice or m you.
Know what makes the best homemade pops Jack kool Aid?
Kool Aid does? I feel like it's very watery, not if you add extra powder too, So you just go extra yeah, yeah, you got extra.
Hard on it. And then you pour them in a Dixie cup, right, and like maybe about halfway stick your popsicle in, freeze the whole cup, and then you just like pop it out of the plastic. It's old school and it's delicious.
That sounds good. I'm gonna have to do that.
Popsicles are great. All right, Well, let's take a quick break and we'll come back and talk about some news. And we're back and Ted Cruz, I think we've talked to we've checked him with him before on his journey of trying out his catchphrase of kiss my ass. Like there was a point where he said my and my pronouns are kiss my ass, which I think he stole
from Roseanne, like a Roseanne stand up special. But he's he's back trying to differentiate himself, make people care what he has to say, and so earlier in the week, he shared a video of a cop car knocking down an environmental protester who's blocking the road to Burning Man,
with the caption play stupid games, Win stupid prizes. So seemingly he's in favor of cars mowing down peaceful protesters and also implicitly is a fan of people flying private jets to an event that has a literal orgy dome, because that's what they were protesting, as people flying private jets to Burning Man. But somehow that wasn't his cringiest
move this week. So recently, the director of the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism said in an interview that the group could hypothetically one day adopt Canada's recent health guidelines recommending that adults should consume no more than two alcoholic drinks per week. That there's no they Canada did not say you go to jail if you drink more than that. They just said we would suggest that it is healthier if you drink this much as opposed
to more than this much. And then the person from the US made this just loud, unwavering statement. He said, I mean they're not going to go up. I'm pretty sure with regards to like the alcohol guidelines. So if alcohol conception guidelines go in any direction, it would probably be toward Canada. And that is what the right has seized on and been like, no, you will take these beers out of our cold, dead hands unless it's bud Light. Unless it's bud Light, in which case they're cool. But yeah,
so then he went on this news. So he goes on Newsmax and does just the most performative act of beer drinking from anyone that's not a fourteen year old at their first house party. He's just I don't know, he just seems so uncomfortable, and he's like talking shit about how they don't want you to use house fans or ceiling fans. And then he's like, and if they want us to drink two beers week, frankly, they can kiss my ass. And then he cracks open a cold
one and then there's like these cowboys behind him. Did you guys see the video. He's like in a barn with like six cowboys standing behind him holding beers also, and then when he takes a sip of his beer, like they take a sip of their beer, but it's like very quiet, like they do it all very quietly, like nobody makes a sound, so it's all just like solemn, like men drinking in a dark room.
Is the vibe, which terrifying, Yeah.
Terrifying, and also like probably you know, if you're trying to be like, nobody has a drinking problem here, Like just all these guys silently drinking in a dark room, like with just the weirdest vibes, ever, is probably not not the thing you want to go for, but it's clear.
It's meant to be consumed quietly with no talking.
Yes, And then the anchor is like, well, haha, you said it, Ted, I'm gonna crack a non alcoholic beer here due to station policy because I'm not allowed to drink alcohol on air. But so that just like made
it even more embarrassing. And incidentally, the Canadian guideline classified as a standard drink twelve ounce serving of five percent alcohol beer and he was drinking a Shiner bock, which is four point four So the beer that he's talking about wouldn't even count as a drink under the Canadian guidelines that's amazing.
I think Ted Cruz was having flashbacks to his college days of like trying to get into parties and being roundly rejected, and he was like, no, guys, I'm really cool. Look how I want drink this beer? Like, yeah, watch me fit in. This is how you do.
It right, watch right, fellow? Yeah yeah, he's.
That's a character I like. Craig Mason, who some people might know as the showrunner of the Last of Us. He also worked on the Hangover movies back in the day. Was his roommate when Ted was a senior and he was a freshman, And he's got great stories to still live on Twitter if you want to re visits some.
Of Ted's crazy college days, I've seen this thread where I can't even remember any specifics, but just how crazy he was in college. Was like, ma'am, there's no way you could accept him as like a friend or a normal person. But maybe if we had, he wouldn't be here constantly trying to get acceptance from everybody.
Ted believe a greasy film on everything. My friend Eric dubbed the substance Cruz. See are u ah z rhymes with scuz. Now there's Cruz on my TV, Craig Mason, January tenth, twenty sixteen.
More delightful stories like wow, yeah, he also made Chernobyl, which was a favorite of ours, craigmans Oh, yes, a good show, very good show. All right, Well, just moving
down the conservative lineup, We've got Rudy Giuliani. So we had covered before that he was putting his apartment up for sale and the price point he's suggesting a six point five million dollars and so no one has brought it yet, bought it yet, probably because first of all, it's Rudy Giuliani's apartment, so it's like trying to sell
a murder house. It might have actually like been additive when he was America's mayor, but now things are wildly different, obviously, but it's it's being listed by the so called broker to the Fallen Stars, who also had to sell off Bernie Madoff's penthouse. What a title, I know, it was just this person is like specializes in selling off the homes of people who made their millions in Ponzi scheme
and now Rudy Giuliani. But people are pointing out that like it doesn't doesn't even make sense, like he's asking for like way more than it's worth. Another unit in the same building that's basically the same size currently on the market for two point eight seven five million, and this is on the market for six point five Wow, and the last sale in the building was three point seven Does.
He think that like the celebrity boost, Yeah, we'll put it there. That's wild.
I think it's desperation because he knows he's has giant legal fees coming up. There's no money coming in from anywhere. Everybody who's even halfway intelligent Cutock ties with him, so there's no I know, Trump's not helping him. Apparently he asks for some help Trumps like get out of here.
Well Trump does not money either, so that makes sense, right.
I Mean what one theory is that he's actually doing that. He's putting his house on the market to like show that he is in financial straits and like can't pay any of his lawyers or whatever, and like I think there's like some legal reasons for that, while also like he doesn't want to sell the apartment and so he's basically putting it on the market at like an irrational, like a completely unreasonable listing by it. Yeah, yeah, that's
kind of the idea. It is like that he wants to argue he's like close to broke in order to excuse the fact that he hasn't shared discovery documents in the case brought against him by Smartmatic, the election technology company that sued him and Fox News in twenty twenty one over false claims of election fraud, and that like this way, no one will pay in order to have like verifiable proof that you're broke and therefore immune from
certain legal responsibilities. And so in an earlier case, he actually automatically lost his defamation case in which he was sued by two election workers from Georgia for failing to turn over evidence, and in that case he was also slapped with a one hundred and thirty two thousand dollars bill for legal fees. So it's helpful for him to be like, I'm in duress, I can't pay all any of this stuff. Please leave me, leave me alone, Please have pity on me, sir, And it seems like nobody's buying it.
Essentially, it's nice to see people get what they deserve, even if it's just so little.
Yeah, nice karma.
I'm really I can't wait to see the behind the scenes of the mugshot, like how Trump's mugshot came about, but also like what the messaging was to cause, like Rudy seemed to have the same like be tough and like angry face as Trump did, but like I just want to know, like what went into all of those photos, because he also looks just like a a corrupt businessman who just got caught.
And do you think they.
Gave him a three two one countdown or I'm like smile click yeah he heads up, or where they're just like and stand here, click next. We're like wait, But because I feel like he would have tried to, like, I don't know, appear less guilty.
Yeah, they both looked so guilty. He looked really guilty. He was giving off like the subtext of his picture. The first word in the subtext of his picture is guilty. He's just like, oh, I would have gotten away with it too.
Now, I'm like, has anyone ever smiled in their mugshot pictures?
Oh?
For sure, Lindsay Lohands, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a bunch of like celebrity ladies are constantly like, listen, you won't catch me with a bad photo, I don't care.
Where is this side? Okay, now book me.
But in that earlier case, like the judge literally wrote, donning a cloak of victim is may play well on a public stage to certain audiences, but in a court of law, this performance has served only to subvert the normal process of discovery in a straightforward defamation case. And then you know, found him guilty and charged him one
hundred and thirty two thousand dollars legal fees. So it's not I don't I also don't know, like what the theory is that, like someone's going to feel sorry for him that his six point five million dollar apartment isn't selling. Like that doesn't feel like a great strategy for making people, like causing people to feel sympathy for you.
Yeah, listen, it's all what else could he possibly try? It was like, you know, bad housing markets totally. There's some people who could empathize with the difficulty there because he can't. What are you gonna use like his family, no, his job situation. You did that here, rich wakeye what else you got to but you try.
To buy my house? That's yeah, it's an interesting strategy, all right. And finally let's talk about the plandemic two point zero. This is a new conspiracy theory you're probably starting to see because Trump went on a long rant about how left wing lunatics are trying very hard to bring back COVID lockdowns and mandates, specifically to steal the twenty twenty four election naturally. And yeah, I don't know,
this kind of came out. It seemed like he came out of nowhere, but apparently it's been it's been a
thing that's going going around for a little while. First of all, I just want to note that under the video that he posted on X, like the two stories that they're linking off to that like disprove his claims are actually like approaching the debunking from the perspective of, like, actually Trump's the one who started the lockdowns, which I get the logic of that, like that even his even somebody who thinks the pandemic was like a scam, will
be convinced by that. But it does just feel like, I don't know, I'm I feel like I'm seeing that more and more, just the embracing of the logic of like, yeah, well we didn't need to go that hard and everybody overreacted right, like we can all agree on that.
Yeah, from folks who seemingly before were like, oh no, I'm definitely like mask on and stuff. It's been weird, like a weird turn of events to watch folks be like and I'll never go back again. I'm just at a convention. I just still can't understand why wearing a mask of seine is such an inconvenience. It's so easy. It hardly does anything of it make you spell your
own breath, which you know is nice. If it's bad, smell emotion, No, you should be aware of what's happening in that area of your body.
It's also a great if you're like on the subway and you're practicing lines for I don't know, an off Broadway show you're about to do in a week, and you don't want to look like a crazy person. You can put a mask on and no one will be the wiser. It's great if.
You're having a bad day looking not great, throw a mask on. Guess what now you're mysterious, who's that girl? What she's up to you? Yeah, it's honestly such a health it's weird. It's especially knowing that the numbers are going up, and I really feel like folks are like, I'm not going back inside screw of you.
Yeah, It's very funny that, like that's the mindset when it's like the opposition none, none of us wanted to do this. It feels like the argument is like someone's planning this and they want to do this, and I'm never going back.
It's like none of us enjoyed the lockdown, right, Yeah that was not nobody's like pro pandemic. But that's that is like how the argument is being exactly structured. Yeah, structured? Is that like we're for so anyways, they're like the There's been rumblings among right wing conspiracy theorists for weeks now, basically following suggestions from public health officials the people who are at higher risk may want to wear masks in public following a rise in COVID cases, and some colleges
and companies, including the movie studio Lionsgate, even reinstituted mask mandates. Briefly, they are claiming that like a countrywide lockdown is coming this fall, and you know, Alex Jones shockingly is responsible for this. He's claiming that On August eighteenth, he claimed that a TSA whistleblower informed him that mask mandates will return in September, followed by a full blown lockdown in December.
Called an anonymous Border Patrol agent who confirmed the oddly specific claims and said that we would eminently return to full COVID protocol of twenty twenty twenty twenty one, and then perhaps because this is total bullshit. He also gave himself an anap out, adding that the lockdown may not actually happen because he had exposed it on the show.
All yeah, another lockdown, crazy, I know.
But people on social media kind of picked up on his claims, suggesting that the new COVID surge was somehow connected to Trump's indictments. So this, this is like the social media brain malfunction where like everything like there's you just assume like everything is happening to the too. This like only two or three people that you're able to. It's like main character syndrome of like following world events, where like, oh, well, because COVID's going back up, that
must be related to Trump being indicted. Like you just want to connect to the dots on things that have nothing to do with one another because your brain is only so big and can only you know, hold so much information?
Oh man, I even know what to say about like these conspiracy theorists, who I think when anyone is controlling the spread of a pandemic, do you know how it would be so epic if somebody could. They're like, okay, dates coming up. I'm going to drop the pandemic right here, in the same way i'd drop a music video. I'm going to make sure this many people get it so
that we go into lockdown. Like there's just no possible conceivable way to start time releasing a pandemic or a disease, and then on top of that to then think how does this help and or hurt Trump?
Right?
Like the math is a mathing, like either we are insider, we're not. I don't know what effect that has on on whatever Trump is going other than maybe it would delay his trial for a little.
Bit, right, Yeah, Yeah, I think the main thing that is challenge is a challenge for Trump is that he's like the most indicted human being in the history of the United States is also trying to run for president while dealing with that.
Yeah, the heres on that guy amazing, it's wild, wild and paid a bail Bondsman too.
Right, Yeah. Steve Bannon's podcast co host Natalie Winters went viral for posting out of context screenshots of Department of Veterans Affairs purchase orders, suggesting that it was proof that the US government was buying up equipment for a planned pandemic and the equipment was testing supplies and computer equipment totaling seven million dollars, which is like, to put it in perspective, like they spent I think four trillion dollars on the pandemic, like across all of the different things
that they had to invest in.
I wish I could just post whatever and be fine with it.
I know that's what they've discovered.
Truly, Truly, they like the truth is suggested.
Write whatever the fuck you want and it will be so. And then so just like it's a it's a good study and how these stories kind of happened, because then you know, it's it becomes this thing where it's like all these dumb little like one person pointed to a suburban target store was putting in more pickup only spots
in their parking lot. Like so it's like all these ridiculous statements being made on various outlets, But then The Daily Telegraph published a op ed warning about Biden's lockdown plot, citing Biden administrations buying COVID equipment and hiring pandemic safety protocol officers not to mention the return of the mask
mandates at the Lionsgate Film studios in Los Angeles. So it's like, that's how they launder their bullshit from you know, a couple of Twitter posts, and you know what Steve Bannon's co host says to being in an op ed as like, and this is evidence.
I like that they were like Target's putting in more spots. It must mean the pandemic. So listen, Target do that because it's so easy to order online and then you're not tempted to order inside Target. This Target delivery slash pickup is one of the greatest inventions ever. No more are you perusing the aisles getting lost in pillows. You definitely don't need twelve more of You can just order and then they bring it to you, and then you can go home with the money you intended.
To spend still in your pocket.
It's beautiful. I promise it's not a sign of forthcoming pandemic lockdown.
But it does feel like it probably loses Target money though, because then you're not spending that money on ten pillows you don't need.
It probably hurts Target a little bit. But also i'd consistently coming back, so I don't there you go.
Yeah, it lowers the friction. That's what they call like the difficulty of buying something if you just like go, hit the button, show up and someone ribes and puts it in the back of your car.
I will say. Whatever AI is operating their system too, has gotten pretty good at being like, hey, this is on sale. You could just add this to your cart right now.
Yeah, well that's the other thing like they they've perfected like the AI and the you know, web design and all the things for like our little skinner box you know smartphones that we all live basically live inside, so that they can sell you more. And actually that's what our next story is about, which is kind of the reason that Taco Bell and a bunch of other companies want to go cash lists. So yeah, let's take a quick break and we'll come right back and talk about.
That, and we're back and yeah, So Taco Bell made news recently for reportedly announcing that they hope to soon go one hundred percent digital with only cashless payments in the future.
Cashless transactions really took off during the pandemic, but the push for cashless stores existed prior to COVID and was already pretty controversial because people have pointed out that eight point four million households are unbanked, So that's a lot of people who couldn't wouldn't be able to buy something at a cashless business, and in this case, wouldn't be able to and this is one of the most important
purchases somebody can make. Buy a crunchy Taco Supreme. Yeah, you know, that's not fair.
It's super not fair, especially when you consider like at least the last time I went to taco about which I'll be honest, was maybe six years ago. It's been a hot mini since I've been to talk about but they have like eighty nine cent little burritos and stuff, which if you are either a very broke college kid or someone living on the street, like you could scounde job eighty nine cents and get yourself a little bit
of food to eat. It blows that now that might not be an option for some people because they deserve fast, venient food too. It's rude.
Yeah, yeah, agreed. And it's like a prize if you find enough change on the couch cushion and you're high and you want to go to Taco Bell. That's that's the prize.
Yeah, yeah, I want.
To absolutely now I want to go to Taco Bell.
Wow, I really thinking about it.
This segment is sponsored by Taco Bell.
I should say thank you Taco Bell.
No, but cashless stores disproportionately affect people of color, not to mention adding more obstacles for undocumented Americans who have a harder time accessing banking services for obvious reasons. So it makes sense that like groups like the NAACP have called on Congress to pass legislation to ban cashless stores.
And contrary to what I would have thought, there's actually no federal law mandating that businesses need to accept currency as payment for goods or services, which I thought that was like kind of the whole thing.
Very stills.
Then just open a store and do you like treats.
It'd be like, uh, yeah, you washed my car, you can have that twenty pound ham. Sure.
Yeah. That's People are so horny for like a barter based economy, like they just they like they whenever they talk about like why economics is so good, they're like people used to have to just do. I'm an artisan, so I make you this pot and you give me one of your lambs or something like that should actually never happened, like they're they like that, that's there's no sign.
There's no evidence anthropologically though, like anybody ever did that shit, it's just a fantasy that people kind of really want. I feel like if you just created some I guess burning man. Is this like someplace for rich people to go to then like barter their.
Deaths to bargain for things.
Yeah, that's about super radical reliance, which means I don't have to give you anything if you choose not to be a part of the trading bar system at all, and you're like I provided for myself. You're thirsty, I have water. I definitely don't need to give it to you because it's not part of the rules here. It's an interesting system. It's it's lovely to see in actions when the heart of it is simply like, oh, I brought so much like extra stuff, like I have abundance
and I want to share it. And having been a part of like some burner events. It could be fun also scary.
Is this safe? Did you jug it? What's happening in here? It's a chaotic system.
I also think maybe too much ren fair slash like old Americana storytelling, Like your grandmother used to just give sugar to her neighbor and then her son would do our lawn and we were just we were more reliant on each other back then, and it was a beautiful thing. I really feel like that's where at least my ideas of trade and barter systems came from. Like it's never like this old world thing. It's like three generations ago.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, And I think that's like people looking out for each other is definitely a thing that happened. But like any sort of systematized like state barter system, there's not evidence of that, and I think it's used to justify like capitalism. I think in a lot of cases that like capitalism is the best because the only other option is that you pay ham to have the doctor look at you. I need to pay pay with ham, and ham goes bad. Maybe the doctor's not hungry for ham.
These are the things that they like to These are the problems they like to make up when suggesting an alternative to capitalism. But yeah, anyways, so with no federal law in place, some states and cities have passed laws banning stores from refuse and cash payments, but people can also just ignore those, like New Jersey band cashless stores in twenty nineteen, but businesses still risk finds and refuse
to accept cash. But so, yeah, that the reason for the cash list push is ultimately less about making things cheaper for small businesses, which is what they'll usually claim,
and or simpler for consumers. It's actually more about corporations screwing us out of like just a little bit more money, because cashless payments exploit a psychological phenomenon where we experience the loss more when we can see the money leaving our hands, but when it's just you know, all being done cashlessly or with credit cards or whatever it is, it's you know, they always talk about frictionless like consumer environments, like that's ultimately what they're going after is you know,
this is why I like Disney World has those bands that you can just like charge everything too. It's it's the same reason that casino use chips instead of cash. It's like makes it easier to spend money. And the more that you can not realize that you're spending the money, the more money you're going to spend, and the better it is for them.
When I'm tapping my car and I just be like, yeah, great money spent. Definitely, does it feel like it also feels like this will never run out. I'll just tap right into infinity right, Yeah.
Yeah. That's so funny because to me it's like flip. I mean, I know this is psychological, but because I almost never have cash on me when I do, I'm like, this isn't ever going in the bank. This is just my free money that I can buy anything with, whereas like the card, I'm like watching my bill climb up. I don't know, it's like flipped for me in my head recently, that's good.
Do you not have notifications on my card? So when I said, like, I know my friend when she spent that, she gets a notification on her phone and she's like, Okay, that's sort of replacing the handing over of cash feeling. It's like, oh, negative X amount of dollars in your account. Sucks to be you. I, on the other hand, went to a bookstore the other day and I was to kill time. Y'all, I saw like four books. I went,
of course, they are giant volumes of graphic novels. I spill like two hundred twenty five dollars in the books. I was like, Yeah, I for sure need all of these books. Can't wait, can't do a library, must own them. They're collecting us on a shelf. I'm sure I'll read them one day.
Such a problem.
Yeah.
And then the other thing that we were talking about, you know, Taco Bell will push people to pay through screens that allow the company to try and upsell orders with the suggestion of additional items based on past purchases. So obviously, like they you know, when you go to the store and pay with cash, they have like the signs and all the normal things that might get you to make additional purchases. But when you're online, they have
all your past information. They can make informed decisions about like what product to dangle in front of your face, right, I.
Wonder if that so obviously they'll be tracking the data for that and using that to package things later and everything. But some stories, if you upsell, you get like a percentage of that up sell. You know what, I mean, like today, your guys' goal is to sell so many of those like cinnamon curly fries. If you do, the whole team gets I don't know, five bucks or an
extra day off or something along those lines. Like there's always these incentives to try to up sell, and I wonder if these new systems remove that for employees.
Oh for sure, because it's the AI that's doing the up selling, or it's the you know, a programmer that can do it.
Across multiple apps.
And so therefore it's makes it makes it easier. So not to worry. Businesses have found a solution to this that will make everyone happy. Aka make the world a horrible black black mirriat Dystopia they are offering reverse ATMs. So these are machines where you can trade cash for store value cards in order to pay for stuff, so you can lose.
The card or not have exact chaane on the card till all that extra coinage runs over to the company.
Oh also, the cards cost as much as five dollars on their own, so no, yeah.
No, thank you.
I hate capitalism.
And sometimes they carry dormancy fees that start charging money if the card isn't used for more than three months.
Okay, fine, I'll take the ham God.
Yeah, just pay me in ham. Fuck it well, Caitlin, such a pleasure having you on the daily Zeitgeist. Where can people find you? Follow you all that good stuff?
My handle on everything is the Caitlin Cook. Caitlin is spelled the Irish way and not the stripper way, which I once said on the date and then the guy said, so not like my sister anyway. My handle is the Caitlin Cook I have. I'm posting a lot about my show. If you send me a picture of bathroom graffiti and want to come to the show, let me know. I'll give you a little discount code come for tickets. Yeah, and that's that's all I'm plugging. That's all I'm doing with my life is this show.
Is that where you get most of your graffiti is from like people who are fans at this point these days.
Yeah, I used to do a lot more photographing myself and seeking it out, and now I get like fifty dms a day. And you know, when like someone who you're not following dms you a picture, you have to like consent to seeing it. It's blurred. R.
Yeah.
I used to play like is it a dick pic or an illustrated and now it's always bathroom graffiti. People send me stuff from all over the world. It's so cool.
I love it.
It's great.
That's awesome.
Is there a a work of media that you've been enjoying.
Yes, I've been really into this illustrator named romy Naser. He posts a lot on Instagram. He's pretty popular on there. His most recent illustration is just it's great. It's about things being good. I just I mean, I won't be able to sum it up. You should go look at his Instagram. But it's just a little Every time I see him on my feed, I'm like that. I feel like there was a beautiful shining light in my day and it just brightens it a little bit. Great.
There you go, amazing, Joelle. Such a pleasure having you on as guest host. Where can people find you and follow you?
Thanks Jack? This was fun. You can find me all over the internet. Actual Monique, it's j O E L E m O n I qt you E can also find me over at Steven spark my film. It's thirty one percent funding. If you want to help us reach eighty percent so we can get those funds out. You can go to seven Spark slash fund dinner and give us five dollars. It would be so helpful. And there are really dope prizes which we love. And a social thing I'm loving is a channel on Instagram called Beyond
the brick to TV. They just do little tours of Lego sets, but the sets are massive. I'm talking the entire Disney ride of Haunted Mansion. I'm talking in a train set that runs the length and width of someone's backyard, around a pool, under a ladder. There's a many carnival there. They are cute sets. It's very calming. It's cool to see how much work people put in. My favorite one is an entire water park which includes a water slide,
a log ride, and a way cool. Who has the time to do this I don't know, but they're great.
I love looking up so I love that so fun.
You can find me on Twitter at Jack Underscore O'Brien. You can find us on Twitter at daily Zeikeeist for at z daily Zeichist on Instagram. We have a Facebook vanpage and a web site daily zeikes dot com, where we post our episodes and our footnote. We link off to the information that we talked about in today's episode, well as a song that we think you might enjoy. Super producer Justin is there a song that you think people might enjoy?
Yeah, this is a quick, little bop that's perfect for like a pregame playlist. And that's perfect actually because my sister Joel is going to the Beyonce birthday show this weekend out So honestly, I wish this song was like three times as long as it is. It's like a minute, but it's fun little beat. It has some up tempo jazzy flutes over some ato waits and it just reminds me of a summertime cookout energy, perfect for Labor Day.
This is a track called Starlight by the Odd Dreamers and d Note, and you can find that song in the footnotes.
Foot Notes The Daily ZEI guys are the production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from My Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. That is gonna do it for us this morning. We'll be back this weekend with highlights from this week STAPs, and then back on Monday, I'd tell you everything that was trending over the weekend, and we will talk to you all then By
M.