Hello the Internet, and welcome to this episode of The Weekly Zeitgeist. These are some of our favorite segments from this week, all edited together into one NonStop infotainment laugh stravaganza. Uh yeah, So, without further ado, here is the Weekly Zeitgeist. Miles. We are to be joined by a brilliant, talented writer podcaster who's written for local publications like The New York Times, The New Yorker, The New Yorker View of Books, GQ.
She was the cost of the legendary podcasts Girls and Hoodies, Nike All, the writer, creator and host of the legendary podcast Heidi World The Heidi Playstory. Please welcome back to the show the Legends.
Mate, Oh you were my doll dollar dollar, Dolly, Dolly, doll, doll doll a.
Oh shit, I know I'm a Lambert but Malley boy.
Yes, Brake song for how.
Sad and alone that man is.
He just needs someone to be patient with me.
He's someone to be patient with him. He's got his thick thighs to keep him warm.
Yeah, he needs someone to give him fair repeat.
Also, my ak was a reference to a embroidered jacket Molly just told me about. He's wearing an embroidered jacket that says hard feelings, harder dick.
Yep, I think it's album that's going on there.
I think this has to be like a mixtape title or something, because he's done it a couple of times. He just wore another one that had a little cute puppies on it cuddling each other and it said hard feelings, harder deck.
Again, sir, sir, you're you're you're losing the plot.
Man, hard feelings, hard dick, soft puppies.
Soft puppies.
Also, my man, you're thirty six years old. Yeah, okay, we need to be doing that. But anyway, hey, dates their own.
No hard feelings, yes, hard feelings. I am mad right now. Yeah, is kind of whole energy and I'm so horny.
I'm mad and I have a bon It's like what I imagine it's like to be a man.
Yeah, you know, he's basically the male experience right there.
Mad and I have a boner because my favorite basketball team lost.
Yeah, where it's like or it's just like the two modes I'm in are angry or boner. So it depends on what when you catch me, that's what you're going to get.
Hard feelings, Harder deck. Those are the two.
Yeah, the two wolves inside you.
But he's he's suggesting that he has them both at the same time.
He's a that's why he's Drake.
Yeah, exactly, He's reached the Christ level consciousness because.
He's like, I'm a sad little bit with a titanium boner.
I also, I think it would be a big Feelings, Bigger Dick because big feelings is like what you say to children, and there's like something I feel like. There was a part of the writing process for the album cover USh Bag Embroidery Hard Feelings, Harder Dick, where he wrote big Feelings, Bigger Dick and someone was like, yeah, but you only talk to like five year olds about having big feelings and he was.
Only five year olds doesn't have the sun?
Well, yeahs were you were a Viagra racing jacket after that, which I thought was really funny. I was like, Wow, this is a hilarious album rollout whatever it is. It's like Viagra jacket implies that the hard Dick is like factory yeah.
Medical yeah, hey, look, and maybe that's a new thing he's doing because he's losing so much fucking money gambling online. I can see him being like, hey, Pfizer, you want me to like fucking do something with you, please.
Look, nothing is cooler than being addicted to gambling and.
All biagra, viagra and thirty six with a bazillion dollars and sex with me is super fast, Like it's just incredibly fast. Man, rescue me me at the club.
Okay, okay, okay.
So I think it's the hard dick first, and then the hard feeling. This is what I imagine.
Yeah, like hard dick, harder feelings. That's kind of that that that kind of gets you thinking a little bit.
It's like sex and then you cry, Yeah, you're lonely.
Not a great proposition either. Look, I think just in general, this this doesn't feel like the most rapper thing I've seen to wear.
It tracks, but that was cool about it about it.
But also here's why, here's why Trianna and asap Rocky looks so happy and in at.
The Metropolitan Gallivant.
They had so much fun at the Metropolitan Gallivant. And he just looks so happy to be with her. You know, it makes him and he's like so much much hotter than Drake. You know what makes Drake Wanting.
And he ain't rock him. He ain't rock him. I will use his legal name. You know what I mean? You ain't rock him.
Man as rock him as soon as.
Possible, looks so happy, as soon as possible, Rock him with Rihanna Robin Fenti at the Metropolitan Galivant.
Anna. We do like to ask our guests, what is something from your search history that's revealing about who you are?
I mean, I considered this for so long. You have no idea how deep I went into my own search history for this show. Okay, but honestly, the last like ten to fifteen searches have been different iterations of slutty little knees. So there is I was, yeah, but Molkie. Actually it wasn't actually even the pictures. It was trying
to find who had coined the term slutty little knees. Yeah, going deep into two would have been like what depraved mind, depraved and brilliant mind coined the term sully little knies?
And how poetic soul?
Yeah, I know it's my people came.
Oh you did you found out?
Yeah? Because we were talking about this with the there was somebody who had a full body orgasm during a La Philharmonic performance, and we were like, man like, whoever tweeted Okay, I just heard someone have a full body orgasm? That was the headline for everyone. It was just like the anonymous authorship of the Internet, Like one person came up with that and every fucking major media outlet went with that wording. But slutty little nees is is perfection.
We're doing it is prediction. Who's the author?
So this is a oh God. I went through like the Esquire videos, the TikTok rabbit hole, but I think it was this person on Twitter at Joel Guitar. Yeah, and their description is full time slut for Joel Miller, which I also think is a great a great profession.
Yes, and that's the origin point.
It's one thing about Petro Prescal is that he will pop his luty little knee out.
Yes.
Wow.
So this is in reference to Peter Pascal's Metropolitan gallivant outfit wherein he's wearing shorts with his long red coat, slight little knees, hyked up socks, looking good.
Wait, who's the who said? Can you repeat the quotes? Guitar guitar character in Last of Us character and Last of Us.
Yeah, but it's also it's about the Last of Us and the Mandalorian. He has this go to pose where he pops his knee out and extensively into the into the distance.
Ye love that, Love that, love that knee. Love to see more, you know, more like knee positive content out there.
And then.
Also I just love when the Internet collectively decides to thirst over someone and it or something very specific. It's like, oh, we're really we're really hot for like someone's ear lobe, and then we're going to create obsessive content just about that. That's what that's in the Internet for good and I appreciate it.
Yeah, yeah, I like someone comment on someone's meaty, meaty ear lobes in a recent episode of Succession and oh yeah, like Barnacle meat Yeah, like Barnacle That was a brilliant little piece of poetry, Barnacle.
To.
That's Tom to Shift.
Yeah, Tom is on a tear.
Tom is on a Jimmy Butler like tear right now in this season, what is something you think is overted?
Well, yeah, I was thinking about that.
My mind could change on this, but I recently tried earlier this week of Floating Float tanks and sensory deprivation, and I had an interesting experience, I think, and I'm not quite sure how I feel about it as a as a practice that could be like relaxing or even
like creative or contemplative. I was I just had this really hard time relaxing, I think, into just trusting that the float staff would tell me like when my hour was over, and they told me like they would play loud music, you know, like when the time was done.
And I just kept.
Waiting and waiting and the music didn't play. And I finally like climbed out of like the float tank and it was like an hour past the time and they hadn't played the music, and I think I was just also like when you're in the tank, you hear like this dull drone and I listened to like a lot of experimental music, and then I was hearing what sounded like echoes of like a female voice, and so I was just I didn't even know what the music was
like Swiss to sound like. So I just got like really neurotic, and so it maybe more like, you know, I had an expectation, and you know, in that way, I I you know, I couldn't manage that properly. So it isn't really overrated, but I found it a little bit overrated, Yeah.
Because like in your mind, half of the time that you thought spending to be sort of contemplative and like in a still space, you were just sort of had like this anxiety about like do they know like when to play the music? And am I hearing it? And because I don't.
Want you were correct, they just left you over time and then yeah.
They left me over time by four minutes, so like by the time I had I was just like, this is like this is late.
Maybe they forgot or like the music's broken.
So I just like climbed in the shower and then they just started playing this really loud instrument instrumental music and I was like, oh, okay, I get it, you know right. There was like this other moment where I was like in the tank and you know, like you float around and so there are these like buttons where you can access like the lights and the music, and.
You know, so well, I don't know anything about it, so please set the stage from I know, Jack, you've done it right.
Once I did it once, I'll talk about Mike experience after so it's.
Like a giant salt water kind of bath design for like somebody who's the size of like an eight foot athlete. And they put like ninety four degree warm water in this bathtub thing, and they put like twenty bags of Epsom salt in it, and basically you float in it, and then there's some buttons on the side console where you can basically like turn on like the blue light or like you know, kind of like constellation style lights, and they recommend that you do it in the dark,
and I was like really going hardcore. I was like, you know, they wanted they said, you know, the best experience is if you do it in the dark, So I'm just gonna go for it, even though that might make me anxious.
And so I didn't do it.
In the dark.
And then there was this point where I wanted to turn on the lights and I couldn't find them because I kind of like floated off like towards the back or the side.
And then I got like really really.
Anxious and freaked out a little bit because then I'm like feeling around the panel and the sides and the seam of the thing, and it was just like me not being able to relax. And I'm sure if I went like a couple more times, it might be like a different experience. But it said to me a lot about my knee to like control and to know and like my challenge is around like surrendering, right.
Right, Yeah, for sure, it's it's there's definitely something unnerving about it, And if you have any claustrophobia, I wouldn't recommend it, or at least the one that I did, I did not have like the Constellation option or anything like that. Mine was just it was the closest I've ever come to time travel. Like I went in there, I closed my eyes, and then the music started playing
and I was like, wait, what what just happened? And I went out and an hour had passed, and I don't know what happened other than I just like had the deepest sleep and like didn't realize I was even asleep.
It was.
It was really weird.
It's like the yeah, that's a very positive experience.
That sounds I I think so, But then I was like incredibly tired for like forty eight hours after that, So maybe it was just it reached a level of like relaxation that my body needed. But nice what you're saying. You're good for you you.
Were listening to experimental music. You said that you're kind of into this experimental music or that was just part of what was playing in the float tank.
No like in my in my life, I listened to like a lot of drone and experimental music. And I think actually the hum that was coming from the float tank was just kind of like the mechanism of like the machine itself. But I don't know, I hear music and a lot of things that just seem inherently musical.
Yeah, I've even like I have a newborn, and even the white Noise Machine, like I hear like harmonics in the white noise where I'm like, I was like my part was like, hey, I think the garbage truck is backing up and just like what I'm like, you don't hear that beeps? Like no, it's the White Noise Machine. But it's just it's just weird. How I'm the same way, like I can pick out a lot of sounds or
there aren't. I don't know if that's also part of like my sort of being up like wound up sometimes and being in a state of like sort of like like threat assessment on occasion. But yes, yeah I can. I can definitely that resonated with me.
Is there a particular like mechanical object or just a sound that you think makes really good music even though it's not actually music like a.
Mechanical object, you know, Like I used to have this really cool like heating event in one of the apartments that I lived in. And when I could clean the heating event with like Q tips, because the dust would get like in the metal vents, it would make like these really wonderful like pinging noises and.
Mmmm yeah yeah yeah. There are those radiators in New York City apartments and they make some of the strangest like little pinging and like weird noises because they're just chunks of metal that heat up and that's how you like heat your apartment in New York City and like they make these weird sounds.
Anyways, Wait, so SNY was the album coming out never with the Q tip with the Q tip event. If you listen to Mattmos, I don't know who that is, No Matt Most They're like these producers who like would do like bro. I got into them because they did an album that was all just surgical sounds that they used to make an album with and then like they worked with like B York and stuff like that. But they're they're kind of like in that world of like
sort of audio sort of artists kind of thing. Yeah, I would love.
To shout out a group here in Seattle called the Seattle Phonographers Union. So they are this like collective of composers who go around gathering found sounds from wherever and then they like play them back and live mix them in live performances, usually in like really weirdo places, like there's this abandoned or repurposed military airhannger in Magnuson Park
in Seattle. And I hosted them once when I was working for Obscura in this place called the Georgetown steam Plant, which is this defunct steam plant that stopped operating like in the nineteen seventies or eighties. So they collected all these like steam plant like noises and then they played them live and that was.
Just is that the park that's like right on the water.
Georgetown stein Plant is down by the Dwamish River in South Seattle, south of downtown, and it's owned by Seattle City Lights, and it's not operable, but it's this historic space that people do activate with like arts and music and dance, and it's super cool if you come here.
Yeah, no, I'll be sure to hit that up along with my Dick's driving fries. There you go.
All right, you make Seattle sound very cool?
It is it, dude, Seattle? I can't, honest, I always I'll say this. I love Seattle like I had been once when I was really young, and I went recently in October, and I just love like how rich it's history and the music. It's such a music I feel. It's like obviously people know about like the music that's come from Seattle, but when you're there, like seeing live
music in Seattle. I was so blown away to the Sea Monster and I saw like a really good band there and like and I was like, what's up with these? Like what band is this? They're like, oh, these are some locals who like to jam, and I'm like, this is like the best band and I've heard, but they're just doing this for fun. Okay, yep, I'm here, I'm here.
Yeah, we have wonderful musicians.
Tomo Nakayama did the music for my podcast Ten Thousand Things and he's just like Seattle indie rock Darling that's been like touted by the New York Times. And we live in an incredible city of music and musicians and people who are so deeply invested in the arts.
Yeah, I got to hit that next tour, Jack, We've got to go there.
Ever since I started this show, you've been talking to the Pacific Northwest calls to you, Miles.
I as a just like urban concrete boy from North Hollywood, California. I fantasized about the forest as a kid, like I think a It started with Endoor from Return of the Jedi. Yeah, because I was like, wait, there's places where it's just trees like this, And then I remember I went to the Sequoias once. My grandfather took me to the Sequoias and I blew my mind. And then I've just I just have, I don't know, a connection with like very wooded places and you know, cooler climates. So yeah, yeah,
loved it. Loved the Northwest.
Yeah, really, what is something you think is underrated? Pitch?
I feel like I and maybe I'm wrong, but I feel like nobody has been talking about Next in Fashion on Netflix.
I really liked that show.
Oh, is that the when Tim Gunn is on?
No, this is with this is with Tan France and whoa, Yeah, it's the second season came out a couple months ago, and it's with Gigi had died. He had a different co host the first season, and it like got canceled at first, but then I guess they brought it back, and I just I always liked Project Runway, of course back in the day. I haven't watched it forever, but I really liked Next in Fashion. I just thought all the designers were really interesting and it was just like
really fun to watch. And I don't want to spoil it, but like the person who won, I was like, this guy is incredible, Like this is exactly who I thought should win, you know.
I love, Yeah, I liked. I used to watch Project Runway like in the early Bravo days a lot, for sure, And then I actually did start. I watched the hype on Netflix, which is like the streetwear version of it, where it like they find all these streetwear designers and like they they all like have a challenge. Ever, it's like the same structure, except its streetwear. So maybe I will take a dip into Next in Fashion.
Get I just I really thought it was fun, and I like, I had watched all of them except for the last one. And then I was visiting a friend and he was like, well, what do you do You want to watch something? And I was like, would you watch the last episode of Next in Fashion with me?
Like, I know you haven't.
Seen it, but like and he and he was enthralled, and and I think that that speaks to how fun it is.
Yeah, Okay, I mean I really liked it. What does it have over Project run I feel like that's the one that I'm most familiar with and that I've watched like half Oh.
That new one, that new version with Tim Gunn is on Amazon.
I guess I can't say what it has over current day Project Runaway because I haven't watched it in the years,
But I just think, I I don't know. I feel like I was interested in all of the designers from the beginning, Like I liked all of them, and I thought the yeah, and I thought the the challenges were really interesting, and they do like they do some men's wear and women's wear, and they just have like more interesting models and different like body types and ages and stuff too, and just the challenges are kind of more interesting.
I guess, like they had one challenge where they had to make stuff out of plants, like they had to make clothes out. Yeah, they just do cool stuff. And I do like Tan France and Gigi Hadid. I think they have a fun chemistry as hosts. And I always love remembering that Ghadid has like a skater dude voice.
It's very so.
Yeah, she's like such a beautiful woman and then she's like like.
Brush she is sick.
So I just like, I just it has a good prime.
That is the head's sister with a Coca Cola commercial during the playoffs. I mean, like I keep bringing all these commercial questions and that, yeah it is, yeah, And I don't know, I'm not buying the authenticity of her friend group just hanging out and having a Coca Cola and making homemade.
Oh yes, I agree, now I can picture it.
Yeah with that kind of coke.
Yeah for sure. It's like, just replace the Coca Cola with cocaine and right it.
Give me another lump of Coca cola. Hey, keep me up, another sip of Coca cola. Coca Sorry there, cameras.
La. Yeah.
I liked imagining too because she because she has like a pretty young child, and I was like imagining in the commercial in the world of the Marshall, she got like a babysitter so she could have all of her friends over to drink Coca cola.
Drink Coca cola and do some handmade pastas hell. Yeah, yeah, that sounds right.
Like us normal people.
All right, all right, let's take a quick break. We'll be right back to talk about.
Other normal people like your king, my king, Charles Chuck ay, and we're back and uh yeah, So this is a story that I think is being pitted as like Disney versus Round DeSantis.
We all know which side we're on in that one, am I right? Folks?
Oh yeah, that's right.
Yeah. But unfortunately Disney is a massive corporation at a time in American history that is completely run by massive corporations, and they are using this opportunity smartly to basically try and grab more power in terms of how you can just how much power a corporation can possibly have.
Yeah, I mean it's right now. So we've heard that, like Rohnda Santis is like, I'm gonna get them so good because they humiliated me by doing an end around with their Reedy Creek Development District. So they filed a lawsuit against him, and they said that they have been the victims of a quote targeted campaign of government retaliation which was orchestrated at every step by Governor Ronda Santis
as punishment for Disney's protected speech. Yahka, coming late to the party to vocally criticize that don't say gay legislation that was happening Florida. They got late, they were late to that party. Let's let's not forget that part about Disney. And so they reportedly filed this suit, like quote just minutes after DeSantis is he put the new governing board of this Reedy Creek Development District that they basically passed a resolute to basically put a halt to Disney's control
in that area. And it's just like the whole thing is it reads like a terrible breakup letter. Disney's quote regrets it has come to this, and they've quote exhausted efforts to seek a resolution. So I think they're now going to have a conscious uncoupling with yeah, with Ron DeSantis. But again, this is where it gets a little freaky. Though. They're also trying to claim that they're standing up for small businesses and the little guys because you know what,
they have the resources to take on the state. And this is where I believe it gets very, very very murky. So the lawsuit does show that DeSantis is like his policy definitely was motivated by Disney's, like you know that
their First Amendment protected free speech. Even in his book that he's talked about this, like how he said that they they crossed the line, and you know, he had a like a special session to like terminate these special districts, which objectively are are fucking dumb to have or like a state's like yeah, yeah, yeah, you wealth group of wealthy people, do whatever the fuck you want and we'll.
Just stay the do whatever makes you the most money. Yeah. There's like a story about like their monorail, like that the Disney monorail doesn't have to comply to the Department of Transportation Safety standards and like a cast member, like somebody that's what they call, people who like work at the park was killed, like died because of this, and they're just like yeah, yeah, move it along because they can because they're like their own government. And yeah, in
that district. So it's fucking terrifying. But that's not why he's being fucked up about it.
Well, like the state could have tried to like just repeal their you know, weird ass stranglehold over this area, but because like DeSantis is in such a weird ego trip, like it had to be this whole thing to like score points and like like you know, keep escalating the fucking situation. And now like it's come to this major lawsuit. But this is the thing that's very kind of this is the thing I have my eye on. The rhetoric
in this lawsuit. Like, while there is a lot to like evoke their constitutional free speech and all this other shit, they're evoking this thing called the contracts clause, which was something that was very contentious at the turn of the previous century, going from the eighteen hundreds to the nineteen hundreds.
In that time, like the Supreme Court repeatedly quote use the contracts clause to preserve private monopolies over things like the water supply or preventing local governments from constructing their own water works. It also struck down a Kansas law and acted during a financial panic that let mortgage holders
stay in their homes for several months after foreclosure. So essentially the Supreme Court would say that if a state tried to intervene on behalf of the citizens to like nullify like an agreement or like a predatory contract, they would basically side with the businesses and essentially keep regulation
at bay. So building their lawsuit around this specific language is opening the door possibly for like an appeal to the Supreme Court where they may want to revisit this and have another opportunity to realign our legal system with the interests of business owners and not workers. Like that's like the that's the slippery slope that they're using this like language.
With and that has been the Supreme court'smo the entire like.
Yeah, they haven't for they haven't take ten years, they haven't taught, like, they haven't touched the contract clause in a while, because the sort of the flow of our culture was like, yeah, regulation is good because this is like coming out of the depression and shit like that.
So now I'm like, oh, I guess I'm on this side because you can distill sort of his argument, and this is a very charitable distillation down to no company should have this much power in a state where they can just flaunt like regulations or these other things, which is one percent true. And we talked to about already how fucked up this Reedy Creek Improvement District is. His reason for doing it is just absolutely fucked up, and
it's based on his like authoritarian ego. But this again, I just I'm bringing this up because Disney isn't the only company that's talking about the contract. Cause, like, many companies are trying to win cases based on this logic, but so far they have been unsuccessful. Quote this is from Slaate Hotels cite the clause to battle severance pay for workers and rehire and the rehire of laid off employees. Delivery apps used it to combat caps on the amount
of quote commission cash they can extract from restaurants. Corporations deployed it to fight data privacy laws. Police unions have seized upon it to hobble disciplinary procedures and conceal records of misconduct from the public. So when you put it all together, you're like, oh, this is to stay like Disney's using this fucking legal reasoning that's on the side of all the evil doers.
Yeah, it's just so fucked that this is the only place we get a politician pushing back on corporate power, just like unfettered corporate power, like complete deregulation, which is the like rule of in modern America. But because the two parties are essentially in the center working with corporations like that, you don't get anything like this from the left, and so you just like accidentally get it coming from like fascists, yeah, you know, right wing shit.
Is it possible for both sides of a lawsuit to lose because that would honestly be so sick, but.
Yeah, it would be some kind of sad settlement.
I mean.
The thing that like a lot of people pointed out is like we've talked about how Disney like they outsmarted DeSantis and they changed all their bylaws to like lock down their like stranglehold over this area. And if they like, like legal observers are like, why don't they just go back because they did everything to the letter of the law as it appears, and just fight it on the merits rather than like countersuing with this like contract clause shit.
And because they know that this is an opportunity where they're like they have public on their side. Right, it doesn't look creepy all of a sudden for them to be like, yeah, we want to actually have authoritarian power within this small district.
Right, So I guess it's kind of win win for authoritarians, Yeah, exactly, or how you paint it, so it's all fucking bad.
Yeah, So I got a shout out to capitalists for making inclusion just another tool.
Right, Yeah, essentially, yeah, mastered it.
Like anybody who's worried about the singularity, like that capitalism is the singularity. It's already like it's just constantly working. It's this hive mind that is constantly working around the clock to find ways to expand its power, and no matter what you give to it, whether it be justice or injustice, it's going to find a way. Yeah.
It's so weird too, because like they're the critics on their right and like people who have like observed the DeSantis camp or potential campaign and how he's setting himself up to run are like, I don't know if this is the best move because they're like while Republicans like obviously like a bit of culture war, they also know that, like they don't want to live in a world where potentially the government can dictate to them how to run their business, even if it is him doing that to
that side. And so some people are like, I mean, yeah, but it's the culture warshit really worth it. And right now, like if you just look at the polls, Ron DeSantis is like not not doing well at all, and the culture war stuff is like pulling like really low. Like if anything, it's it's it's not helping anybody. But again, this is sort of like the place that they want to make their like you know, policy battles over because
it prevents any kind of substantive debate over anything. And again we remember the Republicans are just praying for a disaster right now as their as their plan going into twenty twenty four because they don't have any policies that work. They need some new fucking financial meltdown or some new pandemic or something. This can be like, oh my god, Joe Biden did it all for us. We hate rights, So yeah.
I do worry anytime it's Republicans, Like, yeah, I've said this before, but they've been willing to put their foot on the scale and like shocking ways that cause lots of deaths. With Nixon, like prolonging the Vietnam War. But like they're also you know, every one of the billionaires who like runs the economy is at heart ultimately a Republican,
even if they claim to be a Democrat. Absolutely the same reason Disney here is claiming to be all about you know, LGBTQ rights, like they they ultimately the policy that they're in favor of is monopoly and you know, right wing, right wing economics.
So oh LGBTQ, you mean, let's get bags tonight, queens. That's our fucking model.
Over here at Disney. Yeah, I can't. I can't stand people who are socially liberal and fiscally.
Fiscally conservative, you know.
I mean, oh yeah, I've actually I'm actually the opposite. I'm actually socially conservative and fiscally liberal.
That's my new thing.
I think that colleges should be free and they should be segregated, you know what I mean.
Yeah, yeah, there you go.
I'm gonna just go all out with Hey, Brody.
That's that's do you know what they might they might take yup on that. Somebody's like they will.
Yeah, they actually just put together a nominating committee.
For you absolutely, ship. I think that private company should stop bottling public water. And I also want a water found that's just for me and my friends, and.
I want to turgure out how to do that. And we need we need water founds for black people who speak Japanese specific Thank you, you know what I mean. I'm with you on that for the two of us. How's your Japanese going, by the way, good, It's great, It's really good. Good. I'm like, I talked to my son so much in Japanese because I got a you know what I mean, And I just thought of that. Anyway.
One more thing though, to talk about Ronda Santis Oh, just he apparently has a huge cash advantage over Donald Trump though despite him being forty six points behind. He has before he even announcing, they said he's about he's just sitting on one hundred and ten million dollars going to this campaign. Trump at the end of last year had fifty five million, although I think with his recent indictment and NFT griffs that figure is most definitely higher.
But just an interesting thing to note. Even though like a lot of the reportings like donors are fleeing and they don't know what to do. I'm like, he's got a lot of cash. Looked.
That's just like a measure of what the like wishes are of the uber wealthy, right, Like Mike Pence, I think is if if he had like over one percent polling, would probably yeah yeah.
I mean Connor roy donor leader. Yeah, exactly, fucking less than one percent, probably being the leading fund raser because god, they love him.
They're just like just an empty He's almost like a robot that we can just control. Yeah, he sticks.
He literally will stick to the script like Ron Burgundy.
Yeah.
But one more thing about Rohn DeSantis, because this is really something he he doesn't really talk about his time as a JAG judge, advocate general or military lawyer as it pertains to his time at Guantanamo Bay, you know, the torture venue where America was trying to get to the bottom of are You al Qaeda?
Yeah, So, so he's not worried about a location being completely outside of the law there, just when.
It's Disney, just when it's in his state, then he's got issues with it.
Yeah.
So apparently, as like the timelines show Ronda Santa's first pulled up to Guantanamo Bay when the prisoners were engaged in a mass like mass hunger strikes. Yeah, because you know, they were being tortured and like, so they sent all these military lawyers down there to try and improve the conditions. However, by the end of him run, they had the most loss of life there on record. There were three prisoners that quote died by Sue was signed and I'm doing
that in the SpongeBob and you can hear that. Weird, aren't unlikely because these people were being tortured, and many other detainees were like none, these people did not, That's not how they died. And in twenty eighteen he even bragged about how he came up with the idea to force feed the prisoners that were on hunger strike, which is considered torture. Okay, and more than a few detainees recognized DeSantis and one even said that the governor was
present when he was force fed. And recently, Ron de Santis was asked about this during a trip to Israel and his answer was very calm and not shady or weird at all, and not defensive and fuck you, what are you fucking talking about? Let's listen to him be asked a very straight up question about Hey, people say you were in Guantanamo cared to comment on this? Just listen to how out of sorts this guy gets when being asked about his time at Guantanamo Bay.
During your You think we're saying incidents?
No, no, not all.
That's bs now totally.
President Young Yeah, seating who said that?
How would they know me?
Okay, think about that. Do you honestly believe that's credible? So this is twenty two thousand and six. I'm a junior officer. Do you honestly think that they would have remembered me from Adam?
Of course not.
They're just trying to get into the news because they know people like you will consume it because it fits your preordainedarrative that you're trying to spend.
Yeah, boo, we're not going to get tell their part there, we're in front of a board that says Museum of Tolerance is really ironic. It's also ironic because Disneyland is pretty much Guantanamo Bay for parents.
Am I am? I?
Right?
Hey yeah, right, hey, he just got back. They were forced beating me churros.
I tell you when I heard that anyway, But the thing is, like, did you hear this man?
His line?
His line of logic, Why would anyone remember me, the guy who offered them a solution to their horrible situation and only ended up making things far worse for them and probably and.
Most possibly the most fucked up.
Times of their lives. Why how would they remember me at all? Like also like visibly begin sweating, Like he like suddenly is sweaty.
He looked like Jordan Peele in that one me coming down his face.
Yeah, he's such an narcissist. He should be happy that they recognized.
Them, little old me. They recognized me? Why because I'm so stunning?
And that is wild though to see like how different it is like when he's like not in Florida doing his like you know, her solar type of events, and then you go abroad and I's like, hey man, motherfuckers recognize you from gipmo And he's like that and you're like, oh shit, no, they didn't moving on, And then like the rest.
Of the media it just like doesn't let him move on, whereas in Florida everyone's like terrified. So they're like, yeah, fuck you man, why that question?
Oh my god? Have you ever been in a traumatic situation and remembered the faces of people that were there that offered you a lifeline. Really, now, really that's the main character in his story. I don't think so.
Yeah, his objection was just no, they don't like he didn't offer any how. I was a junior off. Okay, but do you think you're a Santos man? Do you don't have a guntlet of power.
You can't just snap things into this.
Yeah, he had a tough trip to Israel because that was also where like somebody asked him about his polling numbers and he just like had a real meltdown.
Yeah.
Well, you know who else had a tough trip to Israel? Most of I don't know. Only I only the only thing I know I passover is the Rugbrat specials.
So yeah, yeah, all right, should we take another break and talk about drug sniffing dogs when we get back? Yeah that sound good. That sound good.
Drugs They dogs that sniff drugs. Yeah, I got that dogs that party, dude, manager dog party, Yeah, dogs done. My dog's here to sniff some drugs. Dude. All right, we'll be right back.
And we're back, and the w g A strike is official. Writers are set to pick it, uh yesterday, so I think they did pick it, and they did.
Yeah, you had to sign up, make sure you.
The unions have said that the production companies have created a gig economy inside a union workforce. When you see the details of like what is happening, but it used to be paid to writers and like what is on offer now it's just I guess the most pressing issues compensation. The number of scripted shows have skyrocketed, but writers pay
has completely stagnated. They started doing this thing, the mini writers room, where they just like have fewer people working on a show so they can pay fewer people, they like have them working for less time. You as the consumer, even if you're not a member of the WGA, you were going to see this in like the lower quality
of the content that's being produced. But it's yeah, and so like when you look at the details of the negotiation, the units like, so we want to like have at least a basement on like the number of writers and the number of time, like the amount of time that constitutes a writer's room, and the corporate you know, powers that be came back with like, how about we don't even response to that because fuck you.
Yeah, it's kind of the response and it is it's kind of just the way things are shifting. It's they're just slashing and burning, like the old ways of doing things, which rendered good content. But now yeah, but now we're also putting writers under pressure to be like, okay, you have three days to do this whole thing.
Yeah.
This has just been like the story of our lives is like they got rid of everything that made having a job a thing you wanted to do. Like, so they've made everybody an independent contractor even at jobs where you once would have had like a salary job I've had and and it happened first in journalism and now it's happening in Hollywood. But basically it's just like the tech companyization of everything. It's like when tech companies come
in and take everything over. What they mean by like move fast and break things is like fucking and break labor laws.
Yeah right, breaking yeah, spirits they're using like in this case, they used the switch from like cable television to streaming as like the excuse to completely like rewire everything, like rewar the contract. And it's like such an arbitrary difference. It's just like what people watch it on.
My logical brain. When I was like a young writer starting out, like as magazines and other ecosystems are like collapsing, and I thought foolishly like, okay, well it'll go to the internet and at some point they'll start compensating people fairly on the internet. But the whole time it's just been like no internet, other thing that's less valuable, so
we pay you less. And like race just haven't gone up for writers across the board in like twenty years, which is like insane, but it reflects other trends in the country of just like rates aren't going up. Jobs don't have the things that once made it for any reason, like useful to have a steady job.
You know.
It's like yeah, yeah, how about less perks, less benefits, more work, right, Well, it's like they offer it.
It's like you get to make choices. It's like this thing. I feel like it was also like marketed to us as like you get to like you get to have five jobs.
You get to let rite yea work all things right, You're.
Not tied down to this one job for twenty years, so you get to work seventy jobs all the time forever, with no promise of like any kind of contract pickup you know, especially something like writing where you can make people feel like they're lucky to be doing it at all for money, because it's like any kind of creative pursuit. This is on my next podcast is about about the most worker protections and content making and all that stuff in the most important American media industry.
Yeah, which is which is pornography. Yes, yeah, I'm sure.
I'm sure that was assumed by our listeners. Yeah, they know.
Well, it's just interesting because I've been working on it, and it is really about workers' rights and content merchantry and art making for money, right, and the way in which it went from being a thing where you could have a study job to being a thing where you are like a mercenary. Yeah, and how how even mercenaries deserve protections.
Especially you know, thank you, h Yeah Eric.
Eric Prince was just talking about that recently on Sebastian Gorka's podcast. I like one of the other things too, right, because we talk about technology and things, is like the w GA, the Writers Guild. They're also very concerned about AI.
But that stuff is crazy because that to me feels like shows you how dumb they are that they're like, we can replace you with robots.
Yeah, like because all the AI.
Stuff, it's like never up to the level that it's being advertised as.
It's like a friend of mine had like who has chat GPT they were showing me. I was like, they're like, dude, I got it to pitch like five movie ideas based on this candy or whatever, like, and it's like they're like and we put the prompt in and it's funny how it just it gives you, like the most like they're serviceable ideas, but they're clearly just aggregated from other ideas elsewhere and you're like, no, this is actually original.
Like one thing was just like The Avengers, but like but they skinned it over with like these candy things, and another one was like basically Tommy Boy but with like candy.
Maybe that's like the problem is writers are like, yeah, but like AI is going to give you like shitty content, and they're like, yeah.
That's what we want.
We don't care if it's fucking good. We want a robot to write the Avengers. That's obviously where this has been going all along.
Yeah, and Ultron wins in this one.
And there's something about just like de platforming writers as a group that is obviously fascist, you know.
Yeah.
The thing that's kind of spooky, right is like in the negotiations the WJ is like in regards to AI, they're like, we can't have it be normalized that you can use AI to be credited with any writing. And all we're asking is that you don't do that or you're doing some chat GPT script shit and then having a like a human writer punch it up after Like the Lord's so scary.
The idea of like a robot punching up scripts honestly does like frighten me to my very core in a way that like, I never I've never thought about it until now.
You know, right, yeah, And I like how like so the response of like the theater or the studios and stuff to like the AI question is we will have annual meetings to discuss advancements in technology. We're not gonna say yes to anything.
You said, what mean, right, Yeah, The whole thing is we make no promises. The whole thing I mean this is like you said, Mie, this is what's happening across all capitalist systems, especially in the United States. Things are being rewired, like everything is, it's just more and more being normalized, where now they don't even have to like engage with the requests. They're just like, weal in response to your concerns that AI will write scripts that you
then get like twenty dollars to punch up. We will have meetings to discuss that with you.
It's also like the.
Bigger the name of the corporation, the more they will tell you to go fuck yourself, you know. And so like, I know people who were working for Disney on like a show that was some of the issues that led to this, I feel like, and some of it is like they're having people write things on spec essentially, it's like they don't have to greenlight the show until after they've written an entire season of it.
Truly, the hoops that our people are jumping through is it just.
Makes no sense.
It's like if you cared at all about the efficiency, obviously, Hollywood is like not an efficiently run system.
One of the details that I've read in like how Studios Fucked people Over is there was a show, like a successful network show that had a like bump built into the writer's contracts from like going from the first twenty six episode season to the second twenty six episode season, and so to avoid doing that, the studio just changed the length of the season in the contract to fifty two episodes. It just had them work on a longer season one. Just most bad faith, no shitty kinds, the.
Kinds of workarounds they do, yeah for these things. And I've been in situations where I had what felt like it should be a very like tenured media job and would once have been like a tenured media job and the kind of thing you could like depend on for a few years, and instead they gave it to like three of us and made us all independent contractors and gave us just no guarantees that we would ever be working. It was just like no problem, you know, no promises of how much work.
This is.
When there's a column you'll know.
Gig work, but gigs that makes it sound funny, like you're doing a fun concert or something.
And then you can go to your rent fare and smoke weed, you know, and you smoke weed.
I think Also it's like like these things are intertwined. Also what my next podcast is about. But it's like often when the bottom falls out of an industry or the profit making is like not what it once was that's when they let people of color and women in, you know, because they're like, oh, well, nobody fucking cares now, Like this isn't it isn't like writing on cheers where you would buy how you know, a house why from it?
It's like it's gig work. So it's like as it becomes more diverse and like traditional gatekeeping is changing, it's like it also does feel like they're trying to crush that too. But it's also like when people are like, oh, once I would have the problem with all these executives is they just wanted to be the past.
You know.
It's like they're not interested in dealing with what's happening now. Because this was These are also the same issues as the two thousand and eight strike, which was that things were going to the internet. People weren't being compensated fairly for work on the internet. They weren't getting residuals. They were using it as an excuse to like pay people less, and it just never got fixed. Even in the first strike, it never really got fixed. They just did a million
reality shows. That was when they did a big push on reality because reality had no labor protections and like, really does it is like the most exploitative.
Yeah, And like we were saying on the Trending episode the other day, is like from the studio standpoint, like with the amount of downsizing and shit that they've had to do and scaling back, like a strike is actually not bad for them because they're like, well that's less money.
They're like, we're going to fuck everybody. We're just going to get rid of all these people and bring in scabs. And I truly think what's gonna happen is they're going to make a bunch of They're gonna sign a million, like fucking TikTok stars is what I think will happen. I think they're gonna be like fuck this, We're just gonna yeah, like yeah, because they don't respect writers. They
don't respect writing. That's what's crazy about show business is the people who are in charge like don't respect art and don't care about art. Yeah, somebody said like quibi it is very like quibbi vibes. It's like a bunch of people saying something that like any sane person is like, yeah, you can't do this shit without writers, and they're like, oh watch.
Us, Yeah, wait until they come back and HBO Max is like guess what Succession is coming back for a fifth season and helmed by Charlie de'millio and Logan Paul.
That's what I mean.
It's like I think they're intent to like strip all these brands.
For parts because that's just like yeah, I think yeah, And that is.
Ultimately like like it's TV writers or like a metaphor for everybody else where. It's just like this is a very once lucrative, prestigious job and it is not what it used to be.
Yeah, it's I mean, I think that's that's the thing that's become very fortuitous for like these greedy studios is like when you're dealing with people that are like already driven by a passion for something, they're probably more likely to want to go along with whatever you're offering because for them, they're passionate about it and like yeah, man, they're fucking we'll do it because where else are you gonna write on TV? Etceter.
True, But it's like the same thing is probably true for like Amazon warehouses, where people are so desperate they have to say yes to anything.
It's like, for sure, it's all about just like making people.
Desperate it's just different levels of making people desperate so that they have to say yes to whatever because they truly just like are scraping by. And I think also this is where democrats are really fucking failing right now. I do think it's like during the pandemic, they did the thing they never had done before where they just gave us all money to be freelancers, right, and it
like improved everybody's quality of life so much. Everybody I know is like that everything was bad, but remember how great it was to not be fucking stressed out about paying rent every month. Because like the government acknowledges you might need a little help, they should offer to help people, even if it's in bad faith. Then they're not going to do it. The fact that they're not even trying it is so depressing.
Let me get offer, man, come.
On, yea.
About the WGA too, They're like, look, we really want to negotiate with it, just like I've been in a lot of situations like this at this point where it's like, yeah, you're like we love you know what you do? Why would they treat me like a person? And I think that's the thing about capitalism too, is it's like.
No matter how valuable you become.
In capitalism, even if you become like a super high paid showrunner or whatever, there's still a fucking commodity to them, and that means they can throw you away.
In this version of capitalism, this hypercapitalism that's just all about creating value for shareholders and does not give a fuck about the people who are actually creating the value that then gets transferred into monetary value for shareholders.
Corporations are people and people are corporations.
Man, oh, I mean I am working on my branding.
Well, I think it's like you have to you have to make you mercenary and it's for better and worse.
Yeah.
Yeah, Well we've all had to commodify ourselves in someone.
And that's good. It's efficient, and that's what we want to leave you with.
But look, just because you don't win every time, does that make you a failure?
Yes? Yeah, Molly, such a pleasure having you. All Right, that's going to 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 you Monday by