Weekly Zeitgeist 267 (Best of 3/20/23-3/24/23)

I can't. I didn't have a time to improvise al right at aka. I am back from parental leave paternally. I will probably take a little more time later on, but thank you so much for everybody. Blowouts so man so blowouts. My god, I thought I was watching Liverpool versus Man United because it was a seven nil blowout. I think I did hear while you were out the your team's doing really well right top of the league, baby to a top league. I mean, yeah, we're eight

points clear right now, the Man City. How much of your mind was taken up by that versus? You know what's funny? We were doing so well the baby was born we took fucking els like and I'm holding and I went, oh my god, I'm like, I thought you were I thought you were touring us through and then shit leveled out. I was able to accept my child again and everything is good. But yeah, I'm I keep

telling everybody this, I'm not sure how to speak. I've only been speaking to her Majesty and the guys child himself. That is kind of the level of my banter. So bear with me as I get back into it. Although I might just come in on a tent. I don't know. Look, this is yeah, we're all experimenting right now. You sound great. We're so happy to have you back. I'm excited to be back, greatly missed and all and all serious. I saw all the good combinations. I remember being like, oh,

I'll call in when Gabers is there. I didn't, Yeah I know. Yeah, you were like you had big plans. You were like, I'll like check in every once in a while, yeah, like daddy man on the street. Yeah, reporting, And I was like, no, you don't do that. What are you talking about. Yeah, that comes from someone who's had a child. And I'm like, in the midst, I'm like, yeah, I think I got the bandwidth for all this. He

did not. He did not, He did not. Miles. Yeah, we are thrilled to be joined for your first episode back by a very special host executive producer at Big Money Players, responsible for some of the funniest podcasts in the world. Yeah, also one of our co workers. Yeah, because Big Money Players is our sister network. So it's weird to be this formal, but please welcome but brilliant and talented Olivia. Hello, my brothers. Hell that's too much.

Oh my goodness. I feel like honored that this is Miles is back from like paternity leave, and this like episode could worst. I was gonna say, the expectations that could be really high or people are going to be very disappointed by the end of this episode. Look, Olivia, I'm just relieved that you're the guests and it's not somebody I'm having to get to know, like from my first episode back. Like you know, we have a lot

of overlapping friends too. We even see each other outside of work a lot because of the people we know. So it's good to see you and I'm relieved that it's you and I will do my best. I was gonna say, we definitely have had a lot of overlapping

friends and a lot of baby overlap. I think when we last saw each other may have been at our friends baby shower, and um, of course I had to take I don't know if I ever told you this, but I definitely took like a sneaky photo of you sitting I think you were with your wife, and then I did like kind of like a back sneak photo and then sent it to the ladies of iHeart and I was like celebrity spotting, and of course, yes, of course I did. I got celebrity spotting in the way

I'll send you the photo. But you were like mid bite into eating like a macaroti salad. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's me. And you're like, this one was drinking all the juice that was meant for the kids. Yeah, this was all men for kids. They definitely have adult back juice. Yo, this is this is really just the juice box. Juice box I was scattered about. Yeah, I want. I went to my friends like baby's birthday party. I drank all

the juice boxes. There's so many juice box to the point that like other parents, like you know, someone for the kids there's like adult beverages to them. Mark, ain't drinking, man, I want these little apple juices. I never had these before. They're so small. Were they always this small? Or is that like part of this new woke Oh by the way, Miles, there's been some changes around here, this new woke shit where they are so worried about sugar. Yeah, I think so.

I mean, I remember, I remember when the tiny ones came out. I'm like, that's for babies, because yeah, in my day, we were sipping like you remember who boko? That might have been that that might have been like just a thing that happened when I was in Like, we had a juice box. They had a juice box those called boku that was just like two regular juice boxes stacked on top of each other. I'm sorry, did Richard Lewis? And Lewis was the spokesperson, like, and I

knew that at seven. I was like, oh, yeah, that's that Richard Lewis. J that's definitely not a woke juice box. If you got like prime Richard Lewis going, I don't even know what he's saying, but I was gonna say, stand up, era Richard Lewis being the folks person that is not a woke juice like it goes well with a cigarette. Ye. Yeah, he's out here being like, you know what you know? I don't even I don't even know. I haven't even seen Richard Lewis in a while. I

don't even know. I had to stop right there. My powers are coming back online. Give me a mon, who should we should we get for this? Who should we get for this child's juice box? How about the dark existentialist comedian Richard Lewis, who's like, isn't this like whole stand up thing just being let me, let me get let me get a screen chair really quick, justin. I just I have to hear what the how this guy

is selling fucking juice? He his nickname was like I feel like the like the Prince of I'm gonna get it wrong, but it was the Prince of mean or the Prince of something like. He was a burn like burnt. Richard Lewis is coming through. He's wearing all black and with a massive mullet. He's in a darkened room and this is how he's pitching bow cou drink. So I go to a party and I got my choice of coke or PEPSI this isn't right. I want a bow coup, a seven foot blend bow coup. I mean, all this

carbonation is very unsettling. I don't want to belch anymore. Belting is for babies, naturally calmly. I mean, it's my undeniable ride as a man of the nineties to quench my thirst in my own way. I want Man of the nineties. I need to get people invite me to a party. I'm bringing my own Boo bokoo fruit choice cooler from McCain. WHOA, Okay, I don't need to get dark. But when he revealed his boku, it looked like a

bomb attached to his body. Yeah, I'm like, no to big Richard, Richard the Man of the nineties, what a fucking marketing campaign man I totally associated was like when I was seven, but I guess it was the nineties or maybe also shout out to him that was one take. There was no contake. Yeah, yeah, one take is professional. He's yea, our best we got, we got his challenge. Now for our next ad read. I didn't quit Google search and just to like buck up his nickname, and

his nickname was the Prince of pain. The Prince of Pain is a phrase of bubble bubbles carbon you know, the nation thing it thinks carbonation is too uncomfortable. That's so funny that they steered so hard into being like a juice box for adults, that they got Richard Lewis to pick and that the that the main hook point is that you want to stop belching. Yeah, it's insane. I'm a man. If you're a man, you know you

hate belching. It's so rude and it's disgusting. That's for juice. Like, huh, all right, right, do a sophisticate John Stephan, What is something from your search history that is reeling about you? John? You want to kick us off? Sure? I look, you know you said you you Jack. You've been listening to a little bit of block Party the last few days, and um, well look, I'm a pretty white guy and just searched I think probably the most white guy thing

I've ever searched. This happened last week and Stephen was actually present for this, but I had to google search how to get kombucha out of a laptop. We were just about to record an episode of block Party, and I spilled about half a can of kombucha on my MacBook Air keyboard. And how I knew it was a mac Yeah, yeah, exactly, Yeah, no quick about it. Kimbucha has never been spilled on That would have actually been a first in history. I can't google it. There's no

results of you look up kombucha PC spill um. But yeah, so I did spill a kombucha on my MacBook and I was, yeah, googling how to take care of that, And turns out I took it into the Apple Store and blockily didn't hit the board. So I only look at that. I only owe them four hundred and eighty dollars for a bad Well. The guy the genius bar would have been like, it's like the most common. This happens like ten times a day. Yeah, so let me

ask kombucha. He just looks you up and down, like, let me guess, um, the I feel like there's a big portion of LA's population. That would have been like, that's actually good for your computer and don't need to take it in. You should just let it rock a little bit. It's gonna grows some healthy biomes in there. Yeah, how about you seth and what's something from your search history. Well this, so this is something John's gonna hear this and be like, of course, and he's gonna kind of

be mad at me. I think too. But I'm a big fan of like uh digital like card games, so like Hearthstone, I got like way too into and still kind of am. And this is a reason development for me, Like reason is in like the past like four or five days. But I've started playing a game called Marvel Snap, and so my search term is Marvel Snap beginner decks And have any of you played the game Marvel Snap? Assuming now, I mean I'll ask John. I know the answer is John, if you played Marvel. But I have

a life, Okay, well I don't. The thing is I don't like this has taken over my life. It's a very fast paced, very addictive digital card game. You can play on your phone or on your computer, and the games are like two to three minutes long, so you can play like, you know, one to four of them on the toilet, depending on kind of what's going on there.

Um And I'm I'm just like hooked to the point where it's like, oh, this is like going to be dangerous for me, Like there's no doubt in my mind, it's it's incredibly addictive, and you collect a Marvel like an individual card and then like that is yours. Like I feel like this is backing up into NFTs somehow. I just in my brain, I feel like it just

barely dodged being connected to NFTs. But yeah, and the thing is, like, I'm not even like a Marvel guy necessarily, Like I've stopped watching the Marvel movies and like I so it's not that, it's just that the gameplay itself is like so perfectly and like tightly designed to the point where I think John would actually like it, because John's a big board game guy and likes strategy games and things of that nature. So I think there's a

chance he would like it. But it's just like such a hard sell to get John past the Marvel stuff. I think, what are you talking about? Man? I love what Avengers s dot T dot A dot t dot I dot oh dot M I saw that the thing that's coming out. I don't know. I don't want movies, but Avengers station yeah, but it's an I can't read what what did you just spell? Station? Yeah? Station ad for it. I think it's I don't know what stations. I think that's a local thing in Vancouver actually only Oh,

you're right. Yeah, it's a completely immersive and educational experience that brings visitors into the world of the Avengers. Not educational in there. They probably got like a grant for funding because they have to, I guess about Marvel. So that's true, you've learned about the entire for what does station stand for? St that's how much scientific training and tactical intelligence operative network. Okay, this is where the minds that used to work for the CIA have gone to

write for the Marvel Cinematic uteraction. Like everybody's talking about STEM, we need we need our own, right, what's the acronic for us? Seven? Where did where did the Marvel Cinematic universe lose you? Because I have a pretty specific answer that I feel like it was. Um, was it Guardens the Galaxy too? I think No. I was kind of on and off. But the last one I saw in theaters because it was kind of like, well, there's nothing to do this weekend, let's just go see a movie

was the last Thor movie. And it was to the point where we almost like walked out of it because we were it was just not. Maybe it's just not for us. I mean it's it's not aimed at us, maybe necessarily, but it just like really piss me off. I guess like everything about it that was loving thunder yes, yeah, um would imagine dragons. I thought I thought Christian Bale was good, but see I do have range, Jody, But Jack,

where where did it lose? You? Like right around the same time with watching The Doctor strange one from Sam Ramie, Like, I was like, oh, this could be cool. It was like and it had like cool moments in it, but it just I feel like every time I watch one of them, it inevitably gravitates back towards a lightning fight

like CGI lightning. Yeah, like evert like if I I think they just need to set an internal rule for themselves that if a giant like purple lightning portal opens in the sky, we have made a mistake and need too late, you know, go back and rejigger things, because yeah, yeah, it's the beam stuff is just like it's everyone has the same power and then everyone gets hit by the beam and they're just like kind of they're just like singed a little bit. They're like fine, you know, it's

like daffy Duck logic. Yeah, um so yeah, I'm not. I don't like Marvel necessarily, but the game itself is like it's incredible. Like within like a day, I was like, oh, this is like taking over my entire life, and yes, all right, what is something you think is overrated? Oh? Man? Uh, you know something I think that's it's overrated is I think I might have done this in some way. Uh. And then this is just definitely I feel like the more you come on this pod, the harder the overrages

because you have those like built in overrateds. Yeah, like oh your opinion, and then as you go you're like, okay, now I'm searching from overrateds. But mine is just um like getting the first the first take. You know, Like there's one thing about takes. You know, we all know about the Internet take, but also think there's an even more fairies thing, which is people trying to be the first person to have the woke opinion. And I hate

saying it now, the word woke. It's it's really devolved, like we're you know, we're talking about back when I was on Mountain Zeemore and coming on regularly, how overused woke has been, and now it's become like truly a battleground. Like there's battleground states, and now we have battleground words, and woke is one of them, but it's only used by Tugger Carlson at this point. Yeah, yeah, yeah, just the the rush into having like the most conscious take

on something. A lot of times you just see people fumble because they didn't wait to see the situation pan out. And this is sounding very political, and it's about to get very not political in the second when I talk about the Bayonetta voice actress debacle, which I'm I'm asking neither of you have heard about that or no about about how could you think that I missed the Bayonetta voice actress debacle, But I do want to hear your take on it. I'm familiar with Bayonetta, I have not

gotten into the whole culture behind the voice acting of it. Well, then the new one isn't going to have the original voice actress. And she hopped on Twitter and she was like, I had to pass on this role because they were only offering me three thousand dollars and you know whoever, you know, you know whatever. The actress that took the role just no, you'll never be the real Bayonetta whatever whatever.

And the person who took the role was Jennifer Hale, who is like a very prestigious voice actor, most popularly known as the voices of Female Shepherd in the Mass Effects series Just Just the Goat. So and also she's very very like a like a union stand like she's

big about sag, making sure video games go sag. When she went the voice actors struck against you know, the video game community for sad rolls, she would host you know, these talks at her own home to help, you know, non non union voice actors why they shouldn't break the picket line like she's in it. So it's a rough accusation. And then of course it eventually comes out that she negotiated a price and they and they accepted it, and then she tried to negotiate higher and they're like, well,

we can't pay that, so they went somewhere else. But they're like, you know, but you know, we'll give you a cameo and you know, for all that done, it will give you three K. And that was the full story. And so that comes out and you have all these people who were like yelling and like standing on the front lines to be the first to like know what's going on, instead of just being like, oh damn, we

we had the wrong information and fucked up. They would they would do these this backpedaling where it's like, well it was still kind of fucked up that, you know, And to me, I was like, you put yourself in that position because you wanted to be the first person who was right, instead of being like, let me see

the situation unfold. And I don't mean it in the way where we had, you know, video footage of black bodies laying on the street, and you had you know, conservatives being like, well, let's wait till all the facts come out, because the facts was the video that we all could see. I'm saying that when one person is saying something and it's truly not you know, you don't

need to stand your ground there. You can just wait to see the response in that maybe you can wait that out so and rushing to get first if you're wrong, maybe maybe maybe just say you're wrong. Yeah, stop being afraid of being wrong. And that is a take that

I think I've said before. This kind of reminds me of that, like on the conservative side, that story where like Ben Shapiro was trying to get someone on his network and then they were like, oh, I'm mad about what I'm getting paid, And then people took sides and then the full story came out of like that guy was getting so much money and opportunity and he was

just complaining for no reason. But then the lines have been drawn and it just kind of span out, and Yeah, it's hard to have people really want to have a hot take. I think it's, you know, that instant gratification of like, look how authentic I was. But first and then you have to be like, oh, wait, no I didn't. I didn't mean that as soon as you are found to be wrong, which means you were never authentic, So you have to you have to really be careful and

pick and choose your battles. Yeah, what what is something you think is underrated? Baths? Baths? Now, I mean a lot of people like taking baths, but but I just think I don't think we talk about baths enough and how great they are. Probably my favorite kind of indulgent thing to do to take a bath in the middle of the day if I have time. I mean, I have a young child and during the work week, that's

usually not possible. But if I find myself in a pocket of time during the day when I'm alone in the house and I can take a bath while the sun is still out and it's midday, I mean, it's like it's amazing. I feel like we should talk about it more. And you can do so many things to your bath. You can put basalts in their bubbles, ducks, yeah, ducks, bath beeds like smell good. It's like it's going to a spot, but but you know, you don't have to pay any money and you don't have to leave your house.

I experienced a bit of a bath renaissance when I had a kid as well, just because you know, you remember, oh baths, right, is that what happened for you? You feel like it's both the ritual of giving him a bath, you know, every day or every other day. That kind of reminded me of bath and also of mister Bubble, which I advocate for as well. And then also I think just having an uninterrupted block of time alone is also in a high premium after having a kid, so

that's probably part of it as well. I think baths are for people who aren't me because I like, I feel like I'm steeping in my filth like a tea bag. Well, this is bath. Yeah, what's the end? Okay, shower before bath is before bath. Okay, now we're talking. That does make sense, because yeah, I just like there's a little soak. See I've always saw this by going shower after bath. Interesting okay because so yeah, but then you're still steeping in your own filth for a little bit. The shower

before bath had never occurred to me. Just a quick rince, you know, because also you don't have to kind of I feel like taking a shower right after a bath kind of washes the way the bath glow. I just want to get out to the bath and right, you're right, yeah, putting a little oils in there. Yeah, it's just it's just the bubble as I need the scam of bubbles to not see below the surface what's happening down there

when I'm in a bathtub. Personally, that's just how I feel. Well, this is this is a call back to the thighs thing that you they're distracting. I'll say, there, it's pretty distracting. My eyes can't see the light that you shine. The lyrics to kiss by a Rose are really kind of they seem like a day dream that someone like someone trying to write a lyric as they're falling asleep. It's very strange. Anyways, all right, well, I feel like we've gotten to know you a little bit better. Let's take

a quick break and we'll be right back. And we're back,

and um Paco. I was listening to an interview where you were talking about like what made you want to write your book, and one of the things you mentioned is that you were just looking at this world where finance is described in this really like strange way, and you mentioned that, like hell is tied into it, and so I was just like that that's always interesting, like America, America's obsession with hell, like the very early American texts of like Cotton Mather just being like we're all just

on the verge of falling into hell, and like how that informs culture in America to this day. But I was curious to hear you talk about that with regards to finance in particular. Wait, before I tied into finance. I think it's really interesting that you pointed that out because you guys earlier at the top of this show we're talking about that about how everything is going to hell in a handbasket because you know, scams and stuff.

So I think it's really fascinating that that's such a permanent fixture in our culture, this fear of like fear of hell. Yeah, we're in hell. Yeah, my famous catchphrase, We're all in hell. I'm having a great time though, right right, Yeah, the people go to hell. Yeah, it's like a party where you don't know if things are

going to go terribly wrong. Yeah. Yeah. When it comes to personal finance, and I would say, particularly with debts, what I was trying to unpack and understand is why we have such strong ties to morality and why people have this like people feel a sense of moral obligation

to pay back what they've borrowed. And I can understand that kind of from an arm's length, but like when you double click on it, you can start to see like a history of like the Catholic Church and when it broke and we had that like Protestant Reformation thing happened, and it all had to do with with like with debts. Right. But then if you zoom out even further, like ancient societies have always felt like a debt to the gods,

so they would do animal sacrifices or human sacrifices. They would you know, there was all this This idea of debt has been with society for I think as long as humanity has been around, and so I just really wanted to explore that. I think what makes people like my shit when it comes to finances is I'll just zoom all the way out and say like, hey, guys, we're just these fleshbags sitting on a rock that's hurling through space and time, and yeah, you should have like

an emergency fund and stuff. That's cool, we should do that and put money chair for one k. But like your actions and energy reverberates into the universe forever, so like be about that vibe, like I can hold those two things in the same breath, but also not make it about like you're shitty because you're not following along

to what God said you should be doing. So you know, and all of that just comes from being an intersectional person growing up when I grew up where I grew up, being the person that I am, being queer, and always feeling like I had to kind of negotiate or understand how people were going to perceive me and then try to make them comfortable so that I was safe. That that's a part of my upbringing and that just permeates my work, and and then the health thing, like the

Christianity thing. Why are we I'm just a curious individual. And the more I learn about money, the more I try to understand anthropologically, psychologically, evolutionary, biologically, like the weirder it is, the crazier it is, the more I'm seeing that everything is super connected and it's just a fascinating thing that we've created here. Yeah, it's all made in

like our own like the we built a system. We've been talking about fractals a little bit on the show lately, and like the these small patterns that then get like blown up into massive kind of patterns that look exactly the same over the course of like an entire civilization or over the course of all of history. And yeah, it feels like we've built a economic system that mimics how the like very first, you know, people in America with power felt about themselves and with regards to God.

And now you know people are like my credit card debt means God hates God is mad at me, you know, it's like a three hundred years later Jesus. I feel like another parallel too, is that all finance to me sounds like priests talking, you know what I mean? Like the like I feel like the entire financial industry is kind of there's a language. It's like learning. It's like the reason the Catholic Church was doing everything in Latin, you know, exactly, because it was like, well, no one

understands this. This isn't for the peasants. As far as I can tell, CNBC is or what's the financial one? Is it MSNBC CNBC As far as I can tell, CNBC is in lighten completely, I completely like I don't understand it, and it makes me feel like, oh, that's

that's above my pay grade. You guys can you guys can run all the banks and stuff like you know, like you guys, yeah, do do whatever it is you gotta do with the you know, the securities, uh stuff, and you know, so then the rest of us kind of just back out and we also take their word, like financial people's word. It's like it's like a priest.

They talk directly to the money god, you know, they they personally, they have a personal relationship with the invisible hand of the free market, so you know, I will let them. I've been on the inside and it's just like mad boring. It's like so painfully annoyingly boring, and I have a very high tolerance for boring shit. I realized that about myself, and I do wonder are they making it boring on purpose? Are they just boring? And then sometimes they take a left and I'm like, does

everything in society now have to be entertaining? Is there a problem with that? And I kind of feel like, yeah, the answer is yes. Like I'm literally trying to entertain people, like like do stupid shit about finance and then trick them and then be like, Okay, let me teach you a quick lesson for these five seconds that I'm holding your attention, and then do something weird and unexpected. Again. Yeah, it's just it's a weird. It's a weird thing that

we've created. And I agree with you it definitely. It's kind of like the law where it's terrifying, you don't understand what the hell is going on, and then you have to pay somebody to help you navigate it. Yeah, you know. In theme of a scam, in theme with this today's episode. Well, fortunately, the law experts are usually pretty kind and you know, on the up and up absolute law yours. I think they're called, yeah lawyers. Yeah, warm hearted individuals trying to do the right thing. Never likes.

All right, so let's let's get into one of the scams of the day. I'm not going to ask you to explain what it means that the FED just hiked rates despite the bank turmoil, because I don't even yeah, well that, yeah, we'll just let them do that, and yeah, they know what do I know? I don't set it to the adults. Adults are doing stuff. But uh so you might remember the guy who introduced Florida's Don't Say

Gay Bill. His name is Joseph Harding, and he claimed that the bill was about defending the most awesome responsibility a person can have, being apparent and therefore we can't acknowledge anything except my very strict interpretation of who should like who in in schools. Was basically his thing. You know, as a as a new parents, I want to say that being a parent means that you just you you take your kid away from anything anything that might, you know,

make you uncomfortable personally, exactly. It's not really about the kid as much as it is about just like, don't embarrass me, you know. That's that's that's me out with my child at any point, just like you're being weird right now and then just making sure that no one else embarrasses my child further or me. Yeah, don't say gay,

is what I'm saying. Yes, exactly. So anyways, that same person pled guilty to committing one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in COVID nineteen relief fraud, faces up to thirty five years in prison. So you know, so it's so good. Yeah, you can't write it. You got to teach your kids

to be on that grind set mindset, you know. Yeah, but so harding took COVID relief funds intended to aid struggling small businesses by using the names of dormant business entities and claiming that they were still in operation during the pandemic, which they weren't. The businesses were the Vacshack, which is a store selling discount vacuum cleaner bags. Oh wow, yeah, I wonder why. I don't know, that's a great question.

I was just talking to somebody about how strange it is that there are still like the places in this world that only sell vacuum cleaners, like they're just like coasting off the inertia of that being I guess like a business with good margins. But it's like, I you know, you never see anyone in there. There's like enough for breaking mortar store though. Vacuum story it's probably a front, right,

it's gotta be. It's yea almost person. Yeah, but then a vacu like going being like, no, the vacuum store is actually not specific enough. Yeah, just go drill down to vacuum cleaner bags. Nope, actually still not specific enough. On the corner. Only the market of discount vacuum cleaner bags. We're ross for vacuum cleaner bags. Don't buy any of

those fancy, brand new ones. We have some irregular bags, you know, going against the grain everybody else like Walmart, all these big box stores or places where you can get everything. And he was like, nah, I'm going the vaccheck. We got Hoover discount vacuum bags. We have i robot ones. So the roombot vacuum bags also crack cocaine in the back, right, Yeah, I mean definitely for sure, Joe's vacshack. Yeah, and then he had another one that was a supposedly a forty

six acre horse and cattle facility. Now that he was smart to keep nice and vague, so nobody really knows what that means. But it hadn't been active since twenty seventeen, and so yeah, that's how he's showing his kids what's up. Yeah, yeah, that's uh, you know, I love the thing is now at this point, every time there is like a morality police who a self appointed deputy of morality, the morality police. Yeah, yeah, they always like this always happens. There's always something, there's

always it's just like it's just it's inevitable. You just wait for it. And then it's just like, you know, it's like all the people who are just like groomor groomer groomer, and then they're all arrested for having like child porn and stuff, and you're just like it's just it's just the next legical step. You just know, it's it doesn't even it's not even fun anymore, you know what I mean. It's not even like poetic anymore. Like I used to have fun when I would be like

look at that. Isn't that some poetic irony? And now I'm just like, can can we stop with the it's cliche? Now it's clich Stop with the cliches, guys, please. It's just it's almost as if if you publicly, you know, try to ridicule others about morality, it's almost as if you're trying to cover up something each and every time, every single time. Oh my god, It's like, I'm not even offended that these guys are getting in trouble for these things. I'm offended that they're just so hacked. Yeah. Yeah,

it's just like, guys, get some new material. If this was pitched in a writer's room in succession, they'd be like, okay, but like we need something else. Yeah. It's just although the stupidity of the businesses that he was trying to make happen is kind of pretty succession level funny, that's true. Yeah, you could see Kendall Roy just pitching Joe's vaccheck to merge with the business. Yeah. And then on on another

parenting front, end scam front. So, Sophia Coppola's sixteen year old daughter went viral after posting a TikTok in which she I'll just read the quote from the video because it's pretty it really, it just really gets into it.

People are calling it the best couple of films since Godfather, too, she said, So she just opens up, make a vodka sauce pasta with me, because I'm grounded because I tried to charter a helicopter from New York to Maryland on my dad's credit card because I wanted to have dinner with a camp friends. It's you know, it's Hemingway esque. You know, like will just like go on one of those runs the short sentences and then follow it with a bunch of and then because because because yeah, pacing

and this is just breakneck right out of the gate. That. She also goes on to say she doesn't know the difference between a garlic and an onion and had to google image search pictures of onions. She then like cuts a shallot. I believe she's sixteen. Cool, Yeah, she is a child. Like That's why I'm not like I I like, it's just a like I kind of am just amazed.

It's it's just a little pinhole into the world of being, of being a copla, of being somebody who has enough money that you have to be like, we need to change the passwords on the credit cards again because our kids are trying to They're trying to, they keep trying to charter up. Yeah. Yeah yeah. She also says her parents have banned her from having any public social media accounts because they don't want her to be a nepotism kid. Yeah, that'll stop it. H yeah, foresight, Yeah, I mean, the

only way to stop this. They don't want a nepotism baby. They gotta murder their child. There's yeah, but I mean wait, but she was posting this on social media though, right, yeah, I think she took over she stole it parents account also, it was like their credit card and then like towards it. This this video, by the way, which you know i'm summarizing as if it's a feature film, is forty five

seconds long. Of course. Then her babysitter's boyfriend shows up and she says, my parents are never home, so these are my replacement parents. And then she's heartbreaking. I know, it's like super heartbreaking. Then she asks her babysitter's boyfriend what he thinks of the helicopter fiasco, and he says that he thinks she should call it fiasca because it's like a feminine fiasco. Yeas queen. So you know, they still got it. Those Coppola's and their babysitters boyfriends. Why

why is the babysitter's boyfriend there. I don't, I don't like. I mean, I guess if at this point, if the babysitter is essentially raising this baby, then then maybe they really are her replacement parents. But it's just feels a little weird to have the boyfriend just like, hey, what's all. Oh, I'm just here just grabbing this play a gobbel guel you guys, uh, you know, keep keep doing whatever you're doing. I don't like it. It's a good it's a good

gig if you can get it. Yeah, boyfriend of Coppola's babysitter. Yeah. Man. And it's it sucks because it's like I I you know, I of course I am not defending any rich nepotism babies or whatnot, but I do appreciate that Sophia Copela and her husband we're like, we don't want you on social media, and she just ended up doing it anyways.

By like like that to me is like that there's some normal kid trapped within that you know, who's just like there, she's acting out in the ways that she knows how to, which is like stealing parents credit card and trying to charter a private helicopter. Yeah, it's it's a different it's a level of privilege. But at the same time, you know, we'd all try to do it

if we had a helicopter to charter. Yeah, I guess like a regular person would be trying to log into their parents like lift account or something, right, yes, yeah, yeah, exactly exactly, So putting that into a little bit of perspective, and then also, uh, you know, I kind of get the Sophia Coupola not wanting her to have a an account, like a social media account, so that you wouldn't become

an epotism baby. I think it just is like, so I don't want you to be a public figure because then then you're going to just become like one of those many like you know, all those USC kids who like pretended that they knew how to ski or whatever, and then they got yeah yeah, and then they got into like USC like and so uh, there's there's something admirable there, I guess. I mean, my grinds a grindfulness here that I'm thinking, Okay, what is the money making

opportunity here? And it is an Uber for helicopters for rich people's kids, Like, oh, how does that not exist? Version though it disappears after right, I mean, it'll appear on the credit card statement. But as you know, Uber was trying to do helicopters. Oh that's right, they did have helicopters. What they were trying to have the route be right over um, the one ten, like the same route where that one it's like on the one ten I think where there's like a train there that takes

you to I don't know where that goes because they don't. Yeah, but there is a train in the middle of the Oh yeah that yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah it was gonna so I guess they everything goes around that because they don't want to contribute to like noise pollution. Yeah yeah, which because there's only like forty helicopters every hour going every house in Los Angeles because of the LAPD. Yeah, they they just circle sometimes sometimes I just like, I'm like,

you're bored, You're not fool of me. This isn't who are you looking for? Who? Could you possibly be looking for you know what I mean, like helicopter important? Yeah, very absolutely. Yeah. It's like we care so much about catching poor people that we are going to flash this helicopter's bright ass light into people's house. Is he there? Jack fucking h Those guys the ultimate flex. So that's why we can't blame Sophia Coppola's daughter for wanting to

totally take a take a helicopter. I mean, and I don't want to get in trouble with your audience. Obviously a cab. All couples are bastards, but I do feel for I mean, she's sixteen's yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm not I'm not passing any judgment, no judge. What a what a world we live in. Let's take a quick break and we'll come back right after that. And we're back and when it rains, it pours. We we've been highlighting

you know, the Air Jordan origin stories coming out. There was a BlackBerry origin story trailer that dropped earlier last week that actually looked fun. People seem like on board with this Tetris one. It's, you know, a very cool story, so like that this seems to be not just a couple isolated incidents, but like you know, we've been saying, like it makes sense that brands would be the new

movie protagonist. They're like what we're going to have in so superhero movies because or you know, what we have instead of like the royals that Shakespeare wrote about, We have brands because brands, actually corporations are the thing that makes all the decisions that rule us, which is why like succession is popular. It's like, these are the things

that control our lives. They're American dynasties. Yes. And so with all of that said, news of the latest one we knew we we had heard that this was in the works early on, but they actually just premiered the Flame and Hot Cheetos origin story at south By Southwest, and people seem to be on board. People are like,

it's actually really fun, y'all. Yeah, sorry, which is also what I'm hearing about Air and what I'm hearing about the BlackBerry movie and the Tetris movie is like that, sorry, this is just who we are unfortunately, Like this is that this is what a good movie is now. And you know, I liked the Social Network. I mean, I think I think it makes sense, you know, we are this uh we were. We're so consumed by brands now right yecause we're like locked in on the on the Internet.

And I think some good can come from from movies like this, like Air and So, where you kind of dehumanize the brand, where you're like, no, this is an idea made up of people and these are the people

behind it. Because there's this weirdness when you see brands of social media and like the brand managers running the account and doing memes that it gives these brands a personality person yeah, And I feel like movies like these can actually work against that hopefully and be like nope, this is a company and this is the people behind it. And I think Social Network is a great idea because I feel like that movie was the downfall of the

like making you know, Mark Zuckerberg seemed cool. Like I feel like that once that movie came out, people were like, oh, yes, kind of a dick and he hasn't it made me seem more charismatic than he really is, because Jesse Eisenberg is like an actor who's very charismatic on scree. But it also was like, yeah, but like what this dude decided ultimately to do was big and vast and fucked up, like real fucked up and you know, not something that he probably won to approve. Like that's you know, I

think best case scenario. It gives us more insights. Like that worst case scenario, though, we're like getting to see these people making corporate decisions and like they're being like made into heroes while like the things that make those corporate decisions possible is like you know, grinding lower paid workers to you know, and just you know, people being threatened with starvation and lack of healthcare. Yeah, I mean

work around the clock. Yeah, And I'm actually here for this, like we're are you alluded to this earlier Jack about there's like a big allegedly caveat with the origin story about the full truthfulness of it or not, And actually we should just talk about that before I give my

point about sure. Yeah, So this movie, the Flame and Hot Cheetos movie, is the story of a somebody who I think was like framed as a custodian in the original origin story who worked for Friedo Lay and was just like a big fan of their work and was also you know, a tinkerer, had a little shed in his backyard so Richard Montanez is his name, and he basically tells the story that he, you know, worked for Freedo Lay in like a custodial capacity or was like,

you know, a lower level worker. I think it was first pitched as like he was a custodian and then tinkered with these flavors, like putting elote like Mexican you know, the Mexican street food of elote, of like grilled corn with lime and chili, and he was like, what if we put those spices on Cheetos, Like what like these would be good? And then like it was so good that he then like brought it to the Freedo Lay CEO at the time, Roger Enrico, and he was like,

this is brilliant and flaming hot Cheetos was born. Except for the fact that Friedo Lay claims like none of that is true, and I still don't know like where I fall on this, Like somebody want to see somebody to do like a real deep dive into yeah, what part of it is true? Because obviously, like Friedo Lay is not going to want to be overshadowed or also like legally liable to like pay this person more than

what they have already paid. So they're like, you know, actually it was it was being test marketed already when he claims to have come up with this idea and just like real like their story seems to want it

both ways. They're like, we came up with this idea and it's a very boring story of like test kitchens and marketing and and none of his thing is true, but we love him and we're here to celebrate Richard and he contributed in some way, but not a way that's legally liable to us, Like, yeah, I'm actually here for this, like because you know how many examples of whitewashing do we have where we find out the person who really invented something was from a marginalized community while

some landowning white man claimed all the credit. So so and also to their credit, they're even willing to I guess they added in lines where they poke fun, like narrative lines where they poke fun at this maybe not being all the way true necessarily, which is much more

than my history books ever did. So I feel like, you know, this is a good like you know, if sure fictionalized more origin stories of companies or take all the white people out of it, put more black and brown people and people of color in there, people from marginalized communities, and say they did it, And I don't care if it's a lie. I like the representation. It's more than what we've had before. So yeah, yeah, I like seeing this. Yeah, no, I I yeah. I'm always

wary of companies being like, no, that's not true. We were doing the test kitchen. I was like, okay, who is the head chef? Who was it? Because it was a white person, then his story still stands because a white person like pull that from his culture, you know, where it's like it's like the cool show us the receipts, because you know, usually that's how they response the white guy's idea of mayonnaise cheetos. Yeah, instead they're like, take my word for it. Please, how about we dumped the

cheetos and milk. Yeah, I'm just a little worried that these cheetos are gonna be too spicy and they're gonna cause people to masterbate, which was that that's one so we'll get to it. Yeah, because that's where corn flakes came from, was them being like, we need to create a food so bland that it will make kids stop jerking on ye, but yeah, it's a it's a mess, but like this is apparently a messy fun movie that

like relishes in certain exaggerations. It's less the founder and more like it's got some adaptation like vibes to it where you don't know really what to believe, but it's it's a little bit fun and I'm I'm I'm happy with that. Yeah, this seems like a fun way to approach that. And apparently Ablongoria doing a doing some pretty good work and her directorial debut, so that's that's exciting. Yeah, And and these movies can be fun. We already pointed out,

like you know, the Mighty Ducks. I had fun with that when I was a child. That's kind of what you know, It's it's more about like team and stuff, but there's branding all over that shit. Oh yeah, yeah, Mighty Ducks, Angels in the Outfield of course, the true story behind the formation of the California Angels baseball team. But I mean, like there is a pretty good track record with these movies, like Moneyball I would put in this category because it's like telling the purported true story

behind like the Oakland A's like like relevance. They didn't even win anything, but they were like relevant for a period of time when they had a very low payroll social network. Ford versus Ferrari was I think the most recent example of this. That was, like Oscar nominated the founder all the Steve Jobs movies. Like that, the genre

of Steve Jobs movies becoming, yeah, its own thing. So that leads me to the question of, like we already pitched lunchables, like the lunchable story told from the perspective of because that was like Oscar Meyer was like, nobody wants to eat hot dogs and bologna anymore. What do we do? And they invented lunchables and became it became like one of the most profitable thing in foods, but also gave a bunch of people horrible health issues because it's one of the least healthy foods ever pawned off

like sold two children. But I I could definitely see, like I'm kind of surprised that I haven't already heard about a Coca Cola origin story movie that they must just be being very precious with that. But the origin story of Coca Cola is like has to be the Holy grill of these movies because it was invented by a heroine or like morphine addict who like veteran of the Civil War where everybody came out of that war addicted to morphine because they were all, you know, shot

up and in so much pain. I can I can imagine maybe Coca Cola doesn't want to be associated with the breaking bad type character, but I think they should poke fun at them. They would have so much respect for them if they did it. Yeah, yeah, And like so at that time, one of the treatments for morphine

addiction was cocaine. They're like, try this this healthy drug and that's where he found out about cocaine and how he started putting it in his beverage and just you know, the immediate, it out of control popularity of Coca Cola because it had cocaine and it people were like, give me a, give me a. I think they would call it a dope at the time, and it would be like three three times stronger than it was meant to be.

They would just like put extra extra syrup in it and people would just run around high out of their mind. It's the most American thing that's ever happened, like the whole pulling yourself up from your bootstraps, capitalism, drug induced mania, you gotta you gotta love it. Yeah, somebody like this might need to be its own, like long running HBO

series or something, because there's there's a lot of story there. Absolutely, And then the Elon Musk of course, like the Elon Musk movies probably you know, fifteen twenty years from now, are going to be coming twenty twenty four, relentlessly coming it. Yes, he's shopping it around right now. I also, and on a serious note, I did we I pitched the Patagonia movie at the beginning of the record session just because, like, that guy has an interesting legacy. I'm not fully immersed

in everything that happened there. I just know some people in the area that he took over in Chile. He bought a lot of property with the intention of preserving this area and making it pristine. And you know the guy who owned it was, you know, this rich white guy who was buying land in the country with indigenous folks who were skeptical of him. And there's a lot of stuff there. There's environmentalism, there's activism, there's capitalism, there's

adventure because that guy was going all around. I keep saying that guy because I don't know his name, but you know, he was climbing mountains, he was kayaking. There's a whole like fantastical like Yellowstone type of movie in there somewhere. Yeah, he left the company to the employees, I thought earlier, yeah, something, and then he died tragically while he was like he would think he was kayaking on a river and drowned or something. But yeah, there's

a fascinating story there. Yeah, how about you if if any like pitches for brands, I mean, there's got to be some good like the invention of the I want the Mountain Dew story story from their Mountain ale to X games, you know, and it'll be like it'll be like a like a like a Triple X action extreme sports from Moonshine to kick Flips. I love ya, like the Moonshiners. I mean that is actually the origin of NASCAR is true, like people running Moonshine around in those

cars that looked like that and evading the police. So I mean NASCAR and Mountain Dew could have a great both of them. Yeah yeah, oh hell yeah, that sounds amazing. Green lighted Hollywood taking our idea. There you go, you know. And also this is a very uh a, a very specific an extremely specific point of of hitting this up.

But there was a thing where there was this company called Chatters in Utah, and it was basically a bootleg in and Out because at the time, In and Out only was in California, and I think Las Vegas those were the like it was. It was being like, we're a California restaurant, and so they made the bootleg Chatters,

and In and Out sued them. I think they tried to have the defense of like, well, in and Out only exists in California, and so in and Out basically made an in and out in Utah after that case. And now that there's one in and Out that's in

Utah because of this Chatters. So it's like instead of the founder, it's like the origin story of McDowell's, Yeah exactly, it's like version if you build it, they would come type bund edible in Utah is fascinating, like just all the all the weird culture that that pop you up there floating soda shop from food too. Yeah, yeah, all right, that's gonna do it for this week's weekly Zeitgeist. Please like and review the show. If you like, the show

means the world demiles. He needs your validation, folks. I hope you're having a great weekend and I will talk to him Monday. By