Hello the Internet, and welcome to season three twenty three, Episode five of Day. It's a production of iHeartRadio and it's a podcast where we take a deep dive into America, share consciousness.
Miles.
We made it to the end of season three twenty three.
They said we wouldn't. Three two three here Los Angeles. Yeah, let them know.
It is Friday, February second, twenty twenty four.
Two two four yep. Oh boy, you get ready because it's National Groundhog Day. It's National bubblegum Day. Oh shit, it's groundhog Day. Oh is it? Oh? Is that what that means? I'm like National groundhog Day. I'm like for groundhogs rather than it's groundhog Day.
Uh.
National Heavenly Hash Day, which is not something that I would use to prevent my dreams, but actually a wonderful chocolate and marshmallow confection. It looks like National Tater Todd Day. And also shout out to Elmo. But for the any other people today, better not be catching you wearing that flue because it's National wear red Day.
One of my best friends from growing up just hit like I don't usually do on the ground reporting on this podcast, but he hit me up and said that he has pretty good data suggesting that the ground hug thing is a myth and that whether or not the ground hug sees this shadow doesn't change whether there's two more weeks of winter. Yeah, that's Chris. I mean, that's Chris Man. He's usually a pretty reliable source.
So I don't know we're Chris then, because that just completely that up ends my whole understanding of the planets. I'm not a flat earther.
I am a groundherd ground hug earther, though I do. This is the one anti zidific belief that I hold, and everything else revolves around that. My name's Jack O'Brien, ak Elmo Sho, Big Bird dropped wet t shirt contest pop Oh No Sesame Streets Dark Now Brot's courtesy a rowdy drummer on the discord. Yeah, I think things have gotten leak in the in the world of Sesame Street.
As we've just asked the innocent question, who between Almo and Big Bird would survive a fight to the death, Just very innocent, straightforward question that everyone's taken to a really dark place.
It's activating with you, the listener shout outs because the things you're sending me and the Acha throw down. Yeah, stop ship down. I'm like, no, I agree, no, No, that's it's totally our fault.
I'm thrilled to be joined as always by my co host mister Miles Gray.
You better run before I count up to three. Don't want this, mascle smoke here up on sess of me. I'll kick you, I'll beat you. I'll rearrange your wings.
So beat it.
Get your beat out of my face. Just beat it, beat it.
Beat almost two feet tall and heat it. Your corneys can't even take light. I'll snap your legs and then turn out your life.
Just beat it, okay, I mean stouty on the fucking discord with the gifts too, with the fucking the most intense knife fight we've ever seen in music video history from the beat It video that's more like a West Side Story kind of choreographed dance with just like hands chained together. Yeah, is that a thing that actually happened? Like was that that happened after that? Right? Like, let's
bound our arms and knife fight. Wouldn't you just stab the dude's arm a bunch, because you like, right, that's what you would think. But anyway, That's the other thing that I always heard about that was that they were
actual like gangsters that they got Like. Actually, so my dad used to used to work for Michael Jackson as his photographer and he the last gig that he worked was on the set of Beat It and they had straight up crips on that set, and like my dad has a whole he took a bunch of pictures of the extras. One of the most gangster fucking photos are these dudes who are on the beat It set, like
wearing like leather fucking cowboy hats and trench. It was a different time, a different that is a different time. That's wild.
The leather cowboy hats was like the tough shit.
I got it. If you see this picture, you're gonna be like, who the fuck are these people? Those are the gangsters that were on the beat It set.
I love the idea, Like that's what makes me love the idea that they're actual gangsters, because then they asked them to do the most West Side story ass thing a the do all right, and now you're gonna just have a fight to the death. But it's really about you know, dancing and expressing yourself and they nail it like it really feels like, well, Corey, Well there was the.
One dude who is from New York Undercover, like who was in that video too, but like they were mostly just doing like they gangsters don't dance. The real gangsters were in the background. They were text failing it straight up texture. Yeah, yeah, Miles, We're.
Thrilled to be joined in our third seat by a journalist. We've had New York Times bestselling authors on before. This guy has written for New York Times bestselling books. He's a podcast host now whose new show is The Puzzler, which is a daily.
Put wait a second, this guy's coming for a fucking daily.
Serves up fresh puzzles daily.
No all right, I mean we're cannibalizing our own audience right now. Yeah, we'll allow it.
Please, Welcome to the show, the Brilliant, the Talented, the Puzzling ajj G.
Thank you, thank you, delighted to be here. And we are daily. But we're like eight minutes long, so I know we're much competition.
Oh, we don't even start talking about anything for eight minutes.
Were bullshit?
Can I add to that bullshit with one my favorite crazy sesame Street fact, yes, which is I looked up the history for some reason. It was some project the history of Oscar the grouchka and they introduced him, I think in the seventies because they wanted some socioeconomic diversity. They felt that they wanted someone more impoverished, so they put him in a garbage can. That is just to me, the craziest decision, right, Like, this is here you can you can relate to this. He's in a garbage can.
Yeah, hey, poor kids, this is you exactly. You live in a steel trash can you smell it? Shit anyway, something like that, just for more repum Christmas ornaments.
Out of fish skeleton's poor kid, we get it, we know how you are.
Yeah. I feel like that depiction of Oscar the Grouch as a child made me believe that it was possible to live in a garbage can. Mm hmm, you know what I mean. They're like, well, right, things are a bout. I guess that that could be a place that you might dlow. Yeah, there you go.
It's it's comforting or good.
Things are good or bad, Yeah, depends on your point of view. AJ.
Your show has what's been described as a batman villain ass name. Have you considered taking a major city hostage using your puzzles or maybe a mayor or something to confuse the police and rob Banks?
Interesting, now I had not until now.
I'm just putting it out there. Yeah I know that.
Yeah, podcasts needs some monetization, so thank you.
Yeah it's a great idea. Yeah, full the City of Millions hostage.
Yeah, yeah, I love the puzzler. Come on, that's why you guys are so good. Yeah, that's why you've been around for so long.
Yeah, we still haven't followed through with our plan to take an entire metropolitan area hostage, but you.
Know the number of hostages who are just waiting around for the dailies. Like anyways, AJ, we're gonna get to know you a little bit better in a moment. First, we're gonna tell our listeners a couple of things we're talking about.
Every once in a while.
We like to check in with this Trump guy. You know, this guy's always in the news. Things not going so great for him in the current news cycle, so we'll check in about that. Peter Teel is bringing a banger idea that's been kicked around by people like him for a while. But the idea of Olympics with peds like just you know, this is the the display of our greatest like scientific advances. Look what we made in the
lat folks. Larry David attacked Elmo on Laft TV. So we have new data on the point Big Bird v Elmo, all of that plenty more. But first, AJ, we do like to ask our guest, what is something from your search history?
I my favorite recent search was for the or spraint spr A I N T. Which I had not heard of, but it has its own Wikipedia page and it is otter dung, the the feces of the little cute water mammal Otter. And I saw it because I was doing We we create puzzles for our guests, like you will get your own special puzzles, and this puzzle involved in Otter, and I looked at their Wikipedia page and there was a link to Spraint and uh, yeah, it's the feces
of honors. But it's apparently like very special feces that smells like what did they say, freshly moan hey? Freshly real?
Yeah, I mean that is like sometimes you'll smell some horse ship that smells good. Actually like it actually like that smells good.
Sometimes I smell a worseshit.
That's like that smells like oatmeal. Spring should actually be the past tense of sprint, but there you go.
Yeah, or sprained. I thought that was like kind of like slang for a sprain my ink.
Oh yeah, like and tainted reminded me of taint in the general area exactly.
So I love that the sides of the taint the spring.
Yeah, just spray out from the taint and you get the spring.
I'm also like you, it does seem special because I've never seen like images of like animal feces, but with so many people holding it in their bare hand. Yeah, like it's a baby bird. I mean, like, ooh, I got a little sprint here for y'all. Check this out.
They're holding the sprint like it's a baby bird. Like that just a delicacy that they're tuck into.
Yeah, smelling, they're getting the essence right.
Are there any uses for it outside of just holding it?
I did not see that that. Yeah, I think that's yeah. If you ever have me back on I will do far more research on springs.
Well, I'm definitely.
But their ship smells.
Everything smells like freshly moaned head and they're right, this guy's getting close. What's something you think is overrated? All right?
For this one, I decided to do this the biggest argument I've had in my family in the last week, which was I was saying how much I enjoy watching movies on double speed, and my wife and kids were just furious. So my overrated is watching movies at regular speed. And because you know, I wanted to see Flowers of the Killer Moon, but I'm not gonna. I just did not want to spend four hours doing that. So I rented on YouTube and you can put it on double speed, and it was fantastic.
The way it was meant to be seen by a white man at double speaking.
On my yeah, on the toilet.
Yes, I'm sorry, I know maybe the experience was like, well, I still felt emotions, I just felt them faster.
I just you know, they're lying at you.
My my argument is I'm a writer and I don't I'm not going in and yelling at people who skim my books or yeah, I'm like, do what you want, here's my book, do you want?
Right?
Right?
So, but yeah, I know that my filmmakers and art and are not are on my family side that this is a terrible thing, but I mean no offense. I listened to you on double speed, and.
Why not. I mean, I think it's all I do. I do that with Like, I watch a lot of reality TV, and sometimes I can get through it faster by watching it at one and a half x speed, like because there's so much dramatic pausing that when you actually condense the information down, you're like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, great, I got the gist of that inane content pretty quickly.
But with oh yeah, now if you cut out the repeats when they say and then let's remember what happened before the commercial break, like yeah, there's literally like eight minutes.
Of actual new stuff, right, That's right, That's that's true. I've never tried to watch a movie at two x speed. I've listened to books at two x speed, and some of them I'm like, you know, flying through getting everything, and sometimes it's like too dense and I just do not, Like I'm I'm thirty minutes and I'm like, I don't know what the fuck just happened here?
Right, Well, there are some shows and movies definitely don't like Deep. I remember I tried to watch that at double speed and I was like, what the hell is going on because they are so fast and witty.
But yeah, like a.
Slow movie that's you know, got lots of nature shots like you mentioned.
I can deal with that. That's probably some kind of like speed comprehension test is to like take like a Tina Fey written show or ip and watch that as like three X speed, to be like, yeah, did you catch all that?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, she watched this episode of thirty Rock three speed and give me a solution.
Yeah.
Yeah, Terrence Malick, two X Speed like probably just looks like a regular like an eighties movie. It says like, oh, this is this is normal.
Well, sometimes I think when I listen to MPR normal speed, I mean double speed, it just sounds like normal talking people talking.
Yeah, yeah they're not like so they're they're there's not the pauses and yeah that makes sense to me. Older movies, I will say, incredibly slow. Yeah, just long periods with people being like all right, we've got a head to the store to like meet up for the package drop and then watch them stand up from that table, walk to the car, get in the card, to the support. It's like it's realistic.
Then like wall you hold on, I forgot my walin Okay, I'll turn around right hey, make sure you hang your coat up before you go inside. I will.
There are shots in the Godfather of like somebody's just walking down a hallway for a long period of a great movie and maybe like at the time people needed that breather or something, but it's just.
Like man and even old comedies, it's hilarious. I remember watching the Marx Brothers and they had like they're doing their ANTIQ stuff, which is it's not that antic compared to what happens now. But then they'll do a five minute harp solo, like Harpo will come out and actually play the harp for five minutes in a comedy movie, and you're like, what the hell.
Is going on? Well, I mean that legacy kind of lived on in our eighties and nineties films where like some band inexplicably had a full on song performance in the middle of a film when you're like, what, like why did they do?
The Blues Brothers is I mean, I've always said that John Belushi is like a little bit puzzling to me because I think because he, like Chris Farlee's was my favorite, like comedic figure growing up, and his whole stick was like kind of an evolutionary Blushi. But yeah, the Blues Brothers like when they just like break into long moments of them doing like white guy blues for you know, I'm just like, who is this for? Other than you guys?
We other than the performers who made this movie. Blame the cocaine man, blame thee you fucking sick dude, and then we do like a harmonica song.
But everybody fucking loves that shit. Like people.
I know so many people who are like, oh have you seen The Blues Brothers though.
Oh you like comedy, Who are you hanging around a bunch of cops? Yeah, it's cops.
It's mostly cops, and the cops that I played cards with. What AJ is something you think is underrated?
Well, this one I'm gonna go a little phil philis because a couple of days ago, I did a book event where I interviewed the author of a book called Uncertain or Uncertainty. I'm ironically I'm uncertain about the title. That's pretty funny, but it was all about how, yeah, we've got to stop being so certain and I just would love to see in a debate, Like if someone asks Joe Biden something and he said, you know what, I'm not sure. I'm gonna have to think about that.
I'll get back to you. I just feel that level of humility would be good for our society because I there's also that phrase deep seated beliefs. That's like, oh, I have I have one deep seated belief, which is, don't be an asshole, try to reduce suffering everywhere and increase happiness. Other than that, everything is shallow seated everything. Yeah, yeah, I mean I'm open to at the end.
Wind Yeah yeah, mine is that obviously that if a groundhog sees a check, I want to believe anything else that is unfucking shakable. Yeah, okay, so deep it's Chris. We're gonna need better We're gonna need better sourcing on this, man. Yeah, don't give me some science ship because they're all in on the fucking hoax. Man. Oh yeah, let me hear from a groundhog. I want to hear a straight from the source.
Phil. The book looks like it's called Uncertain The Wisdom and Wonder of Being Unsure by Maggie Jackson.
Is the sad part though, about Biden doing that is that everyone immediately go, look, how fucking.
Exactly that is the problem I'm not sure about.
Ah, you see, could you could I get back to you after consult with my staff.
Get back to us. What do you mean.
That would that would not be a good strategy I suppose for being elected.
But to your point, like, yeah, we are in such a world where everyone must know every single thing about it, every single thing at every moment. That yeah, we've always tried to say, like just we got to normalize just saying like I don't, I don't know. I can all look into it, but I don't know.
Yeah, and you mustn't know all those things like it's for yeah, for the purposes of conversation, like people put a great emphasis on it, but you don't. You don't need to know that shit.
Yeah, just yeah. I think I embodied that ethos when I was maybe my sophomore year of college, that I knew every single thing about every topic that ever existed at every moment. Very stressful. Coincided with probably my most severe use of drugs and alcoholic stuff.
There's just so much pressure, man, I gotta knowing how the fuck am I going to read all these Wikipedia articles like fucking ten thousand show up every god DMD and that's why white houses need like a drug dealer on staff at all times. Earlier this week, with the Trump White House having just non stop prescription medication, just whatever, just a Willy Wonkas factory of whatever prescription medication you can imagine, do you get the one that makes me like float to the top of the Oval office?
Oh yeah, lifting drink? Yeah, one second, let me get that.
All right, Well, let's take a quick break and we'll come back and talk about one of the guys who's trying to get back to the White House. Mister Donald Trump will be right back, and we're back, so back. The headlines have turned less confident that Donald Trump is
going to be the next president, it would seem. I've seen headlines saying, like the polling's bad for him, seeing headlines saying there's a lot there's a lot of polling suggesting that if he gets convicted, like half of his support will dry up.
Yeah, which feels wrong.
To me, Like I feel, yeah, oh he's gonna double down, and yeah, Like it just feels like this is yet another example of people waiting for the other shoe to drop. With him and then like he just uses the other shoe to beat us up, like that's just every time, oh a shoe. Well, surely now that we've seen him try to actually overthrow the government, like if that, if that doesn't do it, like what is a conviction going
to do? We saw him like do a coup live on TV, like try to do a coup, fail, be like a sore loser about it on TV, and then like nothing, it doesn't change shit.
I remember when he was president, I had every time a new scandal came up, I would tweet. I had it on like a cut and paste tweet, like this is the four thousand, three hundred and seventy eight straw that's gonna break the camel's back and then it never did, and then I would put a nine on the end. And yeah, I mean, I think the truest thing he ever said was he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and still be elected.
I think we're more slowly moving towards that. But yeah, like again, like this last week, a lot as we had like the monetary damages from the EG and Carrol defamation case that's like eighty three million, potentially we could see a decision about his business and the fines he's facing there, which could be upwards or near three hundred and seventy million. That could happen this week, it might happen next week, and then like yeah, like you say,
the pulling. So there's just like just a few other things that are a lot of people are talking about before we get to the conviction part. Is for so far, he's already spent about sixty million on legal fees this last year and it's all coming from his donors, you know what I mean. And so there's a there's a reporting about how the legal for him to take money from unfortunately and unfortunately it's illegal. It's like everything's more
of like it just raises ethical questions. I'm like, yeah, a lot of things raised ethical questions in our fucking world today, and we were just like leave it at that. It's like, well, ethically, but yeah, financially, he can just keep you know, rinsing his supporters for every little penny they have to you know, pay his fees, like like defending himself in court. And so the coffers seemed to be emptying and at the moment, looks like he's spending
more than he is raising. But before you go and put your party hat on and throw your Mueller time mugs in the air, just remember that this guy can raise mountains of cash at will, like I mean, even his stupid NFTs or people are buying. So as much as it's like, oh, he's out spending the pace that he can raise, it's just it. I don't think that
is that big of a deal. But again shows just sort of how spread thin he is at the very least, or that money that could be going to like the campaign is just going to legal fees.
The NFT thing I feel called out by, Okay, like that's I don't have to like his politics to have invested wisely in the NFTs. Like I didn't have to be a big Ken Griffy junior fan to like, you know, have his rookie card. Yeah, I guess this was a sound investment. Okay, Yeah, and you should you invested in Man. I am upside down on these.
Just so you know, just for the record, and I'm glad AJ is here to see this. You brought that up, not me this time, so.
I mean you kind of brought it up by being like some people do.
But but here's the other thing, there's plenty of polling that Joe's Biden is not doing well in key swing states. So it's interesting when to see like the sort of inverse of that sort of be like hallelujah, Trump's polling is starting to shift in the wrong direction. A lot of that is showing that like independents are much like like He's be like much likelier to flock to Biden, like by six points, like in sort of a generic race, and even like with five people in the race, Biden
is still a few points of of Trump. And also the like, the one thing I think is true is that the gender gap is actually widening when it comes to between Biden and Trump, because obviously the Republicans are running on a campaign slogan of I am the manager of your uterus now, and that isn't quite bringing everybody to under the same tent. But yeah, this feels like the one true thing that like people can stand on, like a number is being bad with women.
It's like yeah, yeah, shit, yeah, they're.
Like, oh my thought the problem. I think, well, first of all, I like to hear about the money. I'm one thing I would love to see as a public defender, like if he has to just to.
Like if you can't afford an attorney one.
Yeah, so he just got every bridge in Manhattan, Like over the course of his career, every lawyer he's been involved with, he is like, you know, just burned that bridge, like ruined their life. So like if he was just like, wait, what do you mean, we're out of attorneys in the whole city of New York.
Public defend are pretty upstanding people, you know what I mean? Like that's such thankless work. They've got it. Yeah. Yeah, I.
Met dealers and then Donald Trump like it's one of their six hundred cases. But the other thing about polling is, I'm it makes me very nervous polling any because the Trump base is so anti authoritarian, so wary of establishment, that if someone calls and says they're a pollster, they're either going to hang up or they're gonna lie, or they're gonna tell them fuck you. So I don't know, maybe there's some stealth polling, like you can like pretend you're not a polster and be like, isn't it a
Trump great? I'm going to vote for him.
Trumpercover is one of their kids at the dinner table.
What do you think, dad, Wait, what's rue to you? I'm I'm rick Ricky Trump. Come on, daddy, what do you think? What's your feeling on where the base is at?
But I think again, the other thing that a lot of people are thinking about, and to reference the mothertime coffee mugs, the group of people who were like, these are the things that will save us, not just you know, my actually stupid investment creating laws that what may actually create you know, stricter guidelines for that many people, you know, still hoping that the courts are going to get Trump's
ass before the election. But here's the thing. It is looking pretty unlikely that any of the trials of any kind of substantial consequence will start or end in time for a conviction to happen before election day. That's that's just the state of things right now as you look
at it. Like in Georgia, right Fani Willis is currently dealing with a scandal after one of the attorneys representing a defendant laid out these allegations of impropriety in her office, namely that she was like having a relationship with one of the special prosecutors who had, like their relevant experience seemed not quite as substantial as it might need to be for something like this, and just also being overpaid, and like many legal analysts don't think that's enough for
you know, to really cast the sort of aspersions you need to be like, Okay, well they need to actually get rid of this prosecution team. But if the judge does decide to do that and another team of prosecutors would have to be brought in, there's a whole other process that would have to take place, and that is just going to cause massive delays. So we're still we're still unsure where what's going on with that, And as of this time, like Fannie Willis hasn't made really much
up like direct comments about this. So that's one thing that is like wobbling the timeline for the Georgia Rico case, which felt like that one was like every day we were like, whoa, maybe this thing might do some shit.
But my oh sorry interrupt, but yeah, Mike, worry is that even a conviction, is that necessarily going to stop them? Because I remember researching this a little and deeply, but you Jene Debs ran for president while in jail, yes, and that like whatever four percent of the vote, So I don't know if a conviction is the way out.
I mean, oh, I mean it would only be Yeah, I think it would just be one of those things that it would be so unprecedented that it would really cause the Republican Party to have questions be like, how do you if the guy looks, you know, the best case scenario, he's convicted and has to go to prison, Like what happens from there? That's just crazy?
Yeah, like that we have every day is an unprecedented Selwich, Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, And I think that's why the overall it's not this isn't the basket people need to be putting their eggs in. It's like a judicial route to sort of save us from the mess that we've made in this country over the last few decades. And then in the Jack Smith DC case, things are slowing down because the higher courts are still trying to determine whether or not
Trump has the immunity that he's fantasizing about. And from there he can appeal that one decision, go to a higher court and then appeal again to the surprise Court. So that could take very you could take it really
long time. If like with that timeline, you can always delay, right, and in court, if you have the money, you can always delay, delay, delay, Yeah, And but now looking at just sort of like the questions that need to even be answered now and the courts that are determining those things, like,
we're just adding more complexity to this. And obviously in Florida, Judge Eileen Cannon is doing what any loyal Lackey would do and has slowed the pace down to the point that people are like, oh, is this thing like completely inert now? So not a lot to necessarily get excited
about on the legal front. So you know, I think just let's not hinge your hopes and dreams on Trump being convicted in time and just prepare for a messy election season and you know that's the only people or that are going to be able to do anything or I don't know, whoever's voting, whoever's like, you know, counting votes and not doing the murky work that the Democrats are doing or some shit like there's just going to be a I don't know, it's just going to be
We're stuck with this, guys, So get ready, like, no, no court's going to save us from this. And to your point about the polling. It doesn't like I feel like a lot of the time, there's one of these posters who came on, like on CNN or MSNBC recently and was talking about the difficulty in talking with Trump voters because like, a lot of the time you don't know, like sometimes they'll say what they think you want to hear, or sometimes they'll say what they want people to think.
They are, like, they're like, I'm not a depraved maga person. Of course I'm not going to back that. It's like because I'd rather say that and be like, I'm all in. So sure, it's a very the target is very Uh, it's up and down.
The polling I'm seeing quoted everywhere is that you know, Biden's now up six international poll I think, But it's from Quinnipiac, which is the poll that, even when I believed in polling like years ago, was the one where I was like, oh, well, we throw Quinnipiac out right. Quinnipiac doesn't mean shit like that. One is always skewed in favor the Democrats, just like res Musin is generally
skewed in favor of the Republicans. Yeah, so I don't know, doesn't feel all that reassuring to me, and polling is the opiate of the dumb dumbs, including myself. I just I reach for it when I need to get to sleep at night.
Well, of course, yeah, you don't want to be like, oh, Project twenty twenty five in full swing and ye whatever, whatever the fuck that brings, and you're like, please six points okay for maintaining the status quo, because that's what rich I think is so hard and difficult for many people too. It's like we can be doing so much better and we're just offered like very nominal change, if any at all. Like we're back to, like even with the Biden campaign, just being like ro man, remember that
one I said four years ago. I'm using it again. Let's do something about it.
I feel like I try to remind myself that they're eight months and that just don't pay attention to the polls. Now, maybe the polls will have something to say like a month out, but now it's like paying attention at like the first few games of whatever the NBA or something.
Living dying with like opening day for the Dodgers.
Yeah, yeah, the first week of baseball season, and you're like, oh, fuck fire, the manager.
Yeah, but yeah, it's uh, it's like it's it's like worrying about the weather report three months out, you know.
Yeah, none of the truly, truly, truly, truly. All right, let's take a quick break. We'll come back.
We'll talk about Peter Thiel and the Olympics, and we're back. We're and on Wednesday, Pressure Lease came out announcing the formation of the Enhanced Games. This is the best I mean, is he gonna just go full Madge like, like again not to doctor Moreau talking about yeah, but like batman villain shit, Like oh, they're like, yes, we will celebrate true human excellence.
Yeah, rise my mutants and throw this javelin seven hundred meters. Oh my god. Yeah.
So Peter Thiel and a group of investors believe that the world is dying to see athletes on a bunch of peds.
Yeah they're not wrong.
Yeah, I would watch it this. That's not the problem. The problem is moral.
But right, Yeah, the press of these is interesting, he says. Quote. Just as the ancient Olympics were revived and renovated in eighteen ninety six for the Victorian world, the Enhanced Games is once again renovating the Olympic model for the twenty first century. In the era of accelerating technological and scientific change, the world needs a sporting event that embraces the future,
particularly advances in medical science. Yeah. Yeah, so, like we're saying, this would be an athletic competition where the athletes are encouraged to dope, use stimulants and bank steroids in order to answer the question how many people can we see have simultaneous heart attacks during a two hundred meter sprint? And I think the odds are are pretty good. And yeah, the rules that are currently being used are dumb because fairness is for the week, and also who gives a
fuck if they die? And they've said, hey, we get it, this can be dangerous. They said there will be quote health checks before and after competitions. Okay.
What I love is that if this goes like in five years, it's just gonna be nuts because you'll have crisper and like you'll have athletes with like cheetah legs, like you know.
Oh that are hinged differently too.
Yeah, like why not? I mean, medicine is moving that fast. It'll be wild. And yeah, I would totally watch it, you know, ethically, it's like bear baiting. It's like about as Yeah, you know, it's a horrible idea, but but it is compelling.
Yeah, I'd like I remember Daniel Tosh had a bit about this in one of his early specials about being like, yeah, let him fucking do all of the fucking enhancing drugs, Like let's just see what the fuck that looks like. And so I think we all do have this like morbid fascination just to be like, yeah, how far can the human body go if you just open the door
to all these enhancements. But I think it's just dumb of them to act like this is a noble pursuit when you like clearly with like people like Peter Teele involved, they just want to cash in on a drug addled freak show where they can like basically use like their comp like pharmaceutical or medical companies to be like and look at team whatever company this is, like look how fast their guys go off?
Yeah, like Tim Peiser team Yeah, yeah, Team Olco, like in the powerlifting Yeah, Team USSR just a team of scientists from the nineteen eighties. USSR comes through. It's like the doctors behind Ivan Drago.
I do remember I wrote an article once about the history of the Olympics, and early in the Olympics, doping was not even an issue. And I remember the winner of the first modern marathon I think it was eighteen ninety six stopped in the middle of the marathon to have a glass of wine and maybe a shot of whiskey or something, so which I thought was like, that's the best, Like that is the marathon I can deal with. But yeah, so it maybe he's right, this is more like the original.
I mean to that point though, too. I think I'd also enjoy watching an Olympics where people were absolutely fucked off their faces trying to compete.
Too, like drug history, but for the Olympics.
Yeah, yeah, just totally enhanced just oh yeah, yeah.
Like because that would be wild to see someone like an archery or some shit be like, dude, every day these people had to polish off like whatever, like whatever drugs were giving them that to completely fuck up their equilibrium and there's still hitting it. Then I would be like, oh.
Yeah, everybody has that friend who like is is a better like test taker one stoned, you know, Like I feel like sometimes there would be like actual world records set by like one person. Yeah, like an archery or like yeah dark, yeah you do it.
You do the sub two hour full marathon because you're just drunk and you're like just so like dissociated for I don't know, I got there.
Yeah, oh man, it would just be it'd be so interesting to see what the upper limits were, to see what Like I one time I was watching an NFL game and there were before like during the Star Spangled banner, one of the players had these enormous tears pouring out of their eye and.
The size of the tears were enormous.
The tears like the drop drop The droplets were massive. And then I've read somewhere that that is like one of the side effects of like a type of performance enhancing drug that like people just aren't aware of. So like it would just be interesting to see the side effect that I'd be like, oh, yeah, okay, I recognize this.
This girl crying one gallonteer drops.
Instead of the gatorade dump you could just dump.
That guy just stands over you.
But my question was it because he was emotional? Was that a signific or just was the implication?
But it was like it was very strange the amount and you know, kind of stone faced, but just like giant tears pouring out of.
That is hilarious. Well, I love it too, because it's a It's a conversation I've had a hundred times with my friends like, well, let's have a major league where it's all in. Yeah, And then the other the opposite conversation I've had with my friends is like, what if you had a league that was totally the field was totally even, so, like if you were born with a certain advantage, this would take away like you know, sand
bags on horses. So if you're seven feet tall, you have like three pounds on your legs so that the five foot two guy can get in there and play against you. And what would that look like? Not very popular, I'm guessing.
That one would.
Yeah, that would be for like men in their forties to watch, Like I could be out there, man, oh.
Yeah, if it's like this, dude, I got Lebron day, man, Lebron.
Would still be so good like Lebron, Like that's what we're seeing in his old age, like he's still just like you know, it doesn't matter, he's just a basketball computer.
I mean for like the people that you know, they're always doping scandals and things like that. I'm always curious, like just how far ahead would they really be outperforming athletes who are quote unquote clean, you know what I mean, Because what if the times were exactly the same as good It's like you just have mediocre athletes getting like thin two one hundred, like five one hundreds of a second of Usain Bolt And you're like, right, okay.
Well, one thing I remember ten years ago, you're however long it was when Oscar Pretorious, right, the convicted Now he's a convicted murderer.
Yeah, so he he's out now, isn't he.
Yeah he's out, Yeah, but he free Oscar.
Yeah.
But I watched a Ted talk right after him, and the guy predicted that in ten years every runner in the Olympics would have artificial limbs because you can design them to be faster, right, And that hasn't come true. But I wonder why not? Like what is what happened? Is it just because they're not enough people doing it? Or is it that yeah.
Yeah, maybe that level of body modification. Some people are like, you know, I don't mind not having a limb amputated for a carbon fiber blade leg, but who knows, maybe
just need someone to really make that fashionable. I'm just I just feel like powerlifting is probably where you're gonna see the most like difference probably, Although I just saw like a video of this guy who's like a bodybuilder influencer who had like a caffeine induced heart attack because like he's just doing so many crazy stimulants to train. So it just this idea seems just so many things can go wrong.
Just everyone looks like the liver king.
Yeah, but if motherfuckers aren't jumping like nine feet in the air casually, then we're not really you know, like I feel like it's not going to quite pay off on the promise of being like what happens if everyone.
Yeah, that's why you need the gene splicing. So they like like they look like alligators and things, so it's like really interesting to watch. Otherwise it's like, you know, Okay, they ran five seconds faster, right right.
It's like Mutant Boy from Florida with his crocktail. Uh, like his gatortail is like just crushing the one hundred meter freestyle. Uh yeah, those are the things we want.
Yeah, all right, well, speaking of none of that, I guess Larry David attacked Almo on Live TV. Hey, mutant freaks, you know, mutant freaks, Yeah, performance enhancing. We don't know what Elmo was on in this appearance, but you know, we we've been we've been debating what whether Elmo would win in a fight with Big Bird that Elmo's I you know, we talked about how big Bird has eyes facing forward, so definitely a predator. But then Miles he pointed out Elmo's eyes are as close together as we've.
Ever seen as forward.
Yeah, so like Elmo is, you know, possibly an apex predator, possibly a super predator. But yeah, just broadly, this kind of has nothing to do with that. But he made an appearance on the Today Show, Elmo did, and man, it just keeps raining ship on Elmo.
Yeah, gus, because like, yeah, obviously this was that tweet that went viral. Bobby like, hey, just check it in with you guys. How's everyone's existential dread? And they're like, whoa, this was not the ratio I was seeking here on this tweet. But yeah, this is him on the Today Show talking about that tweet, and then randomly Larry David shows up to mush his face. I don't know, well, you decide.
Let's go over to Alpha check of the weather and wait wait wait wait wait wait wait.
Larry David, smushing his face, he took a swipe at the dads permission before you touch people. Nor did you hear his That was Elmo's dad, like like like fog horn leghorn?
Yeah, yeah, his dad.
His dad talks like this. He's like kind of a Southern fried jazz hippie. But then we kind of fucked up how I view Elmo. Like when I saw that, I was like, man, I didn't I didn't want to see his dad like I didn't. I didn't want to know that stand italy by that his dad has like a soul patch, you know. Yeah, his dad looks like the dad who wasn't really there for every birthday.
I mean, he's like, hey, Elmo, you get my Columbia House CDs that I said those were I got for a penny that I thought you'd love.
His dad smells like sandal wood and weed for.
Yeah, like in a little bit of petuli. Yeah, yeah, you can't have a soul patch and not be fucking with the petuli. But yeah, like like Larry David at the end, he just yelled off everyone somebody had to do it, and I'm like, I wasn't sure what he meant. Was it? That is Larry David team Big Bird and he's just letting him know what time it is, Like he's like, bro, it's ugly for you every single time I see you because all day?
Or is it that they made up the Big Bird or like that was just something Molly overheard a parent talking to their kid about. Ye, Like it's not a national debate, Like no.
This is all stems from Molly overhearing a father and daughter talk about this. A ro who could be Almo? Who would win in a fight?
Yeah, because well Big Bird was having like a big social media moment this like very crafted. Big Bird shrunk to small and like was like how am I going to get back to being big? And like it was getting some traction but not that much.
Mostly from nazis on Twitter, and then Almo just drops it and is like how's everybody doing? And like everyone's like, oh shit, Almo.
So we're like there's definitely some tension there.
Yeah, that makes sure.
I mean I think of it more like you know, the thought experiments, like how many babies would it take to kill John Cena, Like, that's I think it would take a few Elmos to take down. So that's right, Yeah, how many Elmos would you need?
Yeah? Yeah. It's like it's interesting though, too, like how people like their response to the clip wasn't necessarily like why would Larry do David do that? So a lot of people were like, why the fuck didn't Elmo's dad do something? This man just pulled up on your fucking child and wushed their mother fucking face in and he's just like, hey, hey, hey, now hey, uh what the what the fuck was that? So for me again, another data point in the fight between Elmo and Big Bird.
I mean, I'm sorry, like I think you know, as a parent, you grabbing my kid, that's instant smoke for you. Yeah, that's just that's guaranteed. But man, if Elmo's own daddy ain't built for it, what's what chance the Elmo got, you know? Even if he's speaking in third person. So I don't know, I don't. I don't like how it looks. I don't like how it looks for him.
Well a lot of I mean, the third person I've noticed is like elite athletes, serial killers sometimes talking the third person.
So maybe maybe, and maybe maybe seeing his father be emasculated like that just on live television, maybe just the thing that really pushes him over the line. When the bell rings in that fight.
Elma looks like in the clip, Elmo looks a lot like I did it whenever anybody would like fuck with me as a kid, like just being like.
Just yeah, totally masculine, and then wait and then wait to cry until your mom picked you up from school. Yes, yeah that's me. That was just not anything, because the very first word that comes out was going to be good.
Yeah, are you okay, Jack, say something? Now say something? Oh my gosh, yeah, I feel like Elmo, like me, not built for it. But I think Lady David needs to test you never know.
You'd be surprised what people unleash when they have it, you know, bottled in for so long too. That's true. It could come out people be like, oh my god, Elmo did not have to desecrate big Us corpse like that. That was just a little bit. I didn't. I didn't know he had that in him. But it's the darkness Helm Well.
Aj Jacobs has been a real pleasure having you on the daily ze Daily zeite Geist, where can people find you?
Follow you? All that good stuff?
Well, I loved it, Thank you so much for having me. You know, the usual stuff A J. Jacobs on whatever toxic social media there still is, and uh yeah, the puzzler. That's what you should do is listen to the Puzzler on iHeart Media. It's every day, but only eight minutes, so you can still listen to your Daily zeite Geist before or after whatever you go for.
And maybe Jack and I be on and will not cry if we don't get nailed all the puzzles. I can't guarantee that. I can't wait. I can't wait.
Yeah, you've given us permission to be completely uh sadistic, So this is.
Very what'd you think? What do you think of that puzzle? You call my mom? Call my mom? I rolled over my phone with my desk chair. Amazing. Is there a work of media you've been enjoying? Aga?
You know what I like to watch nowadays is Netflix shows that are set in other countries, but they're only a little bit different. Like I would watch, you know, an Italian show thinking like, oh, I'm going to learn about the culture, and like the only difference is the light switch.
Is slightly different.
Yeah, and so it's a little a little sad because it's like it used to be that countries were completely different. But I guess there's something comforting about it as well.
Yeah.
So yeah, there's one. Actually I did like an Italian Netflix show called The Law. According to Lydia Poet, I think it was I'm only sixty percent sure, but it was about the first Italian lawyer, first woman Italian the first woman Italian lawyer, not the first Italian lawyer.
Very good.
All right, Miles, where can people find you as their working media you've been enjoying.
Let's see you can find me on the AT based platforms at Miles of Gray. Let's see you can find Jack and on our basketball podcast and Jack got mad boosties.
And you know I'm watching I'm watching that reality TV at one and a half X, you know, because I like, I respect the content, but then I recap it over on four to twenty day Fiance with Sophia Alexandra.
So come come come visit me over there? Will you? Some tweets I like? First one is from at site Chris that tweeted site Chris Hill site Chris. Yeah no, see ite site or no, you know what it is. It could be city, Chris. I don't know with an H on the end, how people make fun of how man cunions say city, but the treats said quote, Hey, sorry, I didn't reply. My wife was making me watch our
five month old for a bit. But I'm back now you're so hot loll and then open Mike Egle past guest front of the show at Mike Underscore, Egle tweeted Taylor SWI Taylor Swift should invite Colin Kaeberneck to her super Bowl suite for the added chaos. I love that. That's a great idea. She should absolutely do that. The right would actually someone would actually cease to exist. I think like the outrage would be so they somehow physically could not handle it, like turn into pink mist on the spot.
A couple of people on Twitter were retweeting this old performance by Radiohead on SNL. There's just like every once in a while there's an old SNL performance that I just can't stop watching, and this is Radiohead performing the national Anthem from Tom Tom York is is really you know Tom York.
In it up? So I enjoy that, Go seek it out.
Zach Pugh was one of the people who tweeted it, and then I also enjoyed this from Eddie Robson.
I felt called out by this one, and he said, Oh, January has been going on so long, when will it end?
Well, now it has and what have we got February?
Well done, you idiots? And yeah, that's how I was feeling. All right.
Uh, you can find me enjoying tweets like that on Twitter at Jack Underscore O'Brien. You can find us on Twitter at Daily Zeikeeis. We're at the Daily Zeikeeist on Instagram. We have a Facebook fanpage and a website Daily zeitgeist dot com where we post our episodes and our footnotes no where we link off to the information that we talked about in today's episode, as well as a song that we think you might enjoy.
Miles, what song do you think people might enjoy it?
Well?
Luckily, one of my favorite bands, Hiatus Coyote from Australia. They have a new single out and they haven't put an album out since twenty twenty one and I and before that they're out. Took like six years for the that album to come out, so We've been blessed with a new single called Everything's Beautiful, and this track is very beautiful, uh, just giving a gift and giving us that rhythm in an odd meter and Nay Palm's voice
is fantastic, the bass playing and drumming is fantastic. Everything about this band is so dope.
Uh.
And so I hope you enjoyed this going into your weekend, and hope that Everything's Beautiful because that's the name of this track by Hiatus Coyote.
All right, we will link off to that in the foot notes. The Daily Guys is a production of iHeart Radio from our podcast from my Heart Radio, the iHeartRadio ab Apple Podcaster. Wherever fine podcasts are given away for free, that's gonna do it for us this week. We are back on Monday morning to tell you what is trending and we will talk to you all that.
Bye bye bye