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. Yeah, So, without further ado, here is the Weekly Zeitgeist.
Miles. We are thrilled to be joined in our third seat by a senior reporter covering racial equity at the Center for Public Integrity. She's been a full Bright Fellow, a Fellow with the International Women's Media Foundation, and Innovations in Food and Agriculture Fellow with the National Press Foundation. And she's the host of the third season of The Heist, which is incredible focuses on the long documented history of government discrimination against black farmers. Please welcome to the show.
April Simpson, April Welcome, April Welcome.
I'm really glad to be here.
Happy Halloween. Happy. Yeah do you celebrate?
I don't, but I have a daughter now and he will be.
Oh yeah, okay, So hold thanks six months. Okay.
So I'm a nine month old and we're doing the same thing, and part the whole time, I was really conflicted about costumes because I'm like, this child is not selecting this costume and we're now reducing it to a live action doll. But but I mean, if seeing him in a woody costume didn't bring a tear to my eye, you know, wow will Yeah, that was the one that was very flammable by the way that I was Okay, dude, this woody costume it was. That was the one that
was like reeking of like petroleum. I'm pretty sure it's like the most synthetic fabrics that have ever been made. So yeah, so how is your daughter liking the first Halloween?
Well, first, congrats to you too, Oh, thank you, thank you. I think he's gonna love it. He's going to be a butterfly. Wow, it could be fun. Yeah, but I think, you know, babies bring so much joy to other people, so that yeah, kind of the fun of it too.
Yeah, that is true, because there's no one sees a cute baby dressed up and goes like that's so trite, a nice try, Yeah, what a contrived outshit this is.
It's just it's always like, oh.
Like I remember I went somewhere else and someone was like, there's a baby here dressed like toy story.
I guess, yeah, we'll take that. Oh, that's so cute, amazing, those sound amazing. Congratulations to you both, and congratulations to every living human with a beating heart that runs into you on Halloween and gets to see you children and they're amazing Halloween costumes. Absolutely? What is something from your search history?
Math jokes?
Math jokes?
A math joke?
What's a math like? Give me hit me with one?
Okay, the I says to the pie, be irrational?
Why says to the pie irrational?
And the pie says BG. The pie says back, get real.
This rational umber? Oh?
Come on, you know the imaginary number?
I Oh, okay, I'm a ha ha love that math joke.
The uh one of the okay Samue Obayin has better math jokes than the ones I found on the internet. But math joke cartoons?
Wait? Wait, what got you onto math jokes?
Somebody told me that they don't like comedy, they just like math.
Yeah.
It was like some guy was like nagging me in a in the grocery storeline.
Why are you doing like a tight five about grocery lines or something?
I mean, okay, let's be real.
I'm a out of commission comedian right now, performing right now, which means that I'm performing.
Everywhere, everywhere. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Like I'm sorry, world, that's just what happens. Just trying jokes out on everybody.
Wait, so you ask someone randomly and lie you like, hey, like you wanna hear a joke?
Basically basically that's what I'm doing now. I just like I say a dumb, funny thing like, oh, I guess this line's gonna just keep going.
And I don't feel that a geometry Is that a geometry joke?
No, it gets there, you know, like I just like, keep at it, you know, just double down, like it's just a wrapping around corners, all the corners.
I'm sure there's a math joke to plug in here.
Yeah, well famously keep going. Yeah, and in geometry they just keep going.
And going and pie goes and goes forever. And the guy was like, I like math, just not jokes, And I was like, what the what.
The fuck are you talking about? Man? What the I don't know if that person, you know, they were just the person like.
Yeah, is he telling me to stop making nice?
I just don't.
I love that binary though it's math or humor, pick one. It's like, I don't know, but I guess why wasn't the geometry teacher at school because she sprained her angle.
You like that one. You like that guy and he's like crying. It's so like, oh fuck ah, you write that.
This moment has changed me, right right right?
I love it. I like math? Okay, like was he my seven year old son? Sort of thing. My seven year old son would say to me, like, I try and make him laugh and he's like, I like math, dad, Oh jokes. That's kind of fucked up.
That's actually probably the most scathing response you could give, where you're like, honestly, I like math.
Better than whatever the fuck this is.
I know.
Yeah.
I was like, man, come on, man, I thought I've.
Had a baby. I'm please, man, I haven't.
I haven't gone up in like months a little.
He just burst into tears and he's like, fuck, fuck, I'm sorry, Okay, I didn't know. I didn't fuck what the fuck?
That's when I dropped the fork lift on him.
Yeah, that's exactly. Hey, Blake, why don't you tell us something that you think is overrated? Yeah? I had here.
Written down the heat and I'm like, is are we talking about pat Riley? But of course not. I'm talking about the heat in your house where I for years thought that heat cost about four dollars and fifty cents per minute to run. So I was like, in gas money on your gas bill. So and I lived in la for forever, so I would never I would be like, let's just throw on sweatshirts or coat. And then I started living with my now wife and she was like, this isn't the right way to live, and so then
I started turning it on. You're also living on the East coast in it was clear breeze this morning, different temperatures, yeah, correct, And when we turn it on, if you haven't used the heat and a while, there's generally a lot of like dust and I don't know, mouse bones and there, and I'm allergic to some of that.
So allergic to mouse, like I don't.
It's not mice is a full you know, out of the garage mouse. It's fine, but it's bone.
Smoked a whole mouse this morning. I didn't. Yah, we is right off the bone.
Had a full mouse and yeah, no, it generally gives me allergies. So I just think it's over. I like to bundle up. I prefer or a blanket and like a nice comfy hoodie in home. Yeah I do, and which yeah, and I'm right. I was about to say, I realized that's strange. It's not strange, it's blake.
Will you do me a favor? Go ahead right now? Will you wait? Yeah? I'm right.
Okay, is the heat on right now at your place?
No? No, it can't be.
And you said it was thirty degrees this morning.
Yeah, but it's gone up to about forty nine.
Okay.
Will you touch the tip of your nose and tell me if that's warm or cold?
Right now?
I can't feel it. I can't even tell it. It just broke off. Oh yeah, fuck, that's like snowman.
That's always when I know the house is too cold, is when the tip of my nose gets cold. I'm like, now, let me I don't need to have all this shit on. But yeah, it's funny.
It is someone who loves to wear like warm, like cold weather clothing just for some reason.
I get in my house, I'm like, do I need to wear a parka on my couch?
I don't know, but hey, yeah, each their own.
When I was a kid, we I but we grew up like, never want it for anything, you know, grew up. My my dad had a good job. And I'm saying this because of what I'm about to say. Take those silver spoons out of your mouth real quick.
I can't hear you. I can't.
They're actually welded to my teeth. My teeth instead of fillings, I'd have silver swimmings melted down. I've formed the bowlers and we just I slept like in the a converted attic which had air conditioning but no heat. So when I would come home from college, win or break, I would sleep in a coat.
You know what.
That's probably why I don't give a shit about heat, because I did it when I was young. I was able to sleep in a coat. Why can't the woman I love more than anything on earth suffer along with me?
Yeah? No, she'll fingers and tell many people about you. Huh. It just kind of kept you up in that attic. No, no, And.
It was they wouldn't come up until my plates started piling up outside the door and feed me, Yeah, the little sloths.
Or if we had company over and they would blindfold me and give me my happy juice.
Yes, yes, And I met the broom once, the broom that they used to hit the ceiling and say, sorry, we have rats. Every time i'd sneeze or something.
We have rats, I said, The mice bones are rattling again up there. Hence who turned the heat? You got allergic to mice bones because they were your only friends for so long? But they were they were also they were also from a physiological No, it does that in the mental state.
And also if i'd like break a bone trying to escape, I would make a splint out of their bones.
Yeah, too weird, just bone supporting bones? Why not sometimes together? You know?
Thank you, m M exactly.
What's uh? What's something you think is underrated? Okay? Two things.
Stove top espresso, which I think is just like the percolators. They're just great.
Oh that metal thing, right, yeah yeah, the metal thing, yeah yeah, yeah, I think there.
I think there. I think it's better than French press. I think it's better than a pour over. You know, it might not be better than like one hundred year old French machine or something, but I think it's the best juga choo, you know. And then the other thing I like that I think is underrated are the cheapy headphones that you get from flight attendants on flights because they always come in handy at the exact time when you can't find your other shit.
Oh, it's like you're like, wait.
A minute, I have one of these in my purse, and then you need it and you have it and those.
Are my Yeah, it's for I'm like such a headphone nerd. Like I'm like, I got my own cans, thank you so much because the fidelity is way too fucked up from my ears. But hey, maybe maybe my mother would like it because she doesn't care about how shit sounds.
But yeah, it is.
I never thought of it as like so of like having like a package of Kleenex or something too, where you're like headphones, Wait, I got I know.
I have a pile of them from every flight I go.
On exactly how I will be less stuck up and I will accept them gleefully.
You just take them as your backup, right right. Some of them break like one and a half uses into a life cycle, but sometimes like that, that's not a rule, and sometimes they'll last you a year. You know, they'll just be you get the the real ones that are able to kind of stick together. I thought stuff Top Espresso was the stuff top stuff and brand expanding into the world espresso. So I'm very glad to hear that that's not what's happening. Just add water to like the powder.
There it is and microwave it.
Oh good god, you thought I mean Ethiopian. I would never.
Serious about the coffee. That's that's where my American brain went. Of course, of course, of course, so it's probably in a box, the stuff top espresso. It's like, what aisle is that in? Where do I find that? All right, well, let's uh, let's take a quick break and we'll come back and talk about presidents creating foreign policy based on some movies they just saw. And we're back. We're back, and I guess to kick us off, i'd just be curious to hear a little bit more about your background, April.
What kind of stories did you cover prior to this? How do you get to this story? Because I personally hear agriculture, and my brain it doesn't turn off, but it assumes that's somebody else's story to pay attention to. But then this one was so good, and it seems like, base on some of your credentials, that agriculture is kind of a sweet spot for you.
Yeah, I I'd say I almost fell into it because at my job prior to coming to Center for Public Integrity, I covered rural issues and really had the opportunity to shape that beat as I saw fit. And you know, at that time Trump was president, there were like subsidies basically that were given to farmers when there was a trade war with China, right to help keep them on
their feed. And there was you know, investigative reporting that showed most of that money, nearly all of that money went to white farmers, and some of that just has to do with the way, like the structure of the system. So I got just into role issues reporting into agriculture as like a beat within my beat while I was at my previous job, and during that time also learned
more about the history of discrimination at USDA. I learned against black farmers and other farmers of color as well, and you know, learn more about Pickford versus Clickman was, which was this big class action lawsuit black farmers were successful, and then the I guess the person installment in the late nineties, nineteen ninety nine, and doing that work, you know, led me to CPI and trying to like not sound super wonky about it, but not go Wonk and hearing
a farmer who actually recently passed away. His names Eddie Slaughter. He's, oh, yeah, yeah, he passed away like end of September. It just happened.
Yeah, I'm sad to hear that. Yeah that.
I mean, like, this story is so it like it touches intersect it with so many issues that the United States has been the cause of and never the solution to.
And it's the whole journey that.
You sort of take listeners on is really fantastic because, like Jack said, like when I hear, like when I hear people talking about big agriculture, I hear about big
agriculture and factory farming and farm subsidies. But I'm like, yeah, I don't know, it's just like that one industry, like the government is the one being like the money hose will never turn off for some of you, right, And then really beginning to zoom out to really understand the entirety of it, because in my mind, I'm like, it's probably like you just assume it's like it's probably like
five companies doing everything. When you lose sight of sort of what these origin stories are and you go back to, you know, the early twentieth century in Oklahoma and how a lot of these farming, these black farming communities were thriving, you know, And we've talked about like Black Wall Street on this show and just sort of the whole history there, But can you kind of just like sort of paint this picture, because I think more than even talking about,
like we're going to talk about what's happening now, but I think it's really important for people to understand how prosperous black farming was in the United States, to really get an understanding of like the tragedy that has been occurring ever since then.
Just to refresh people, Black Wall Street was Tulsa, Oklahoma, like this boom time, like all black or you know, prominently black community where business was just thriving, families were
getting rich. And because they're being left to operate a community on their own without a lot of white supremacy coming in and you know, using the tools of systemic oppression to crush them and then people Obviously this is a simplified way of saying it, but like the what white supremacy came in and burnt the town to the ground and like raised like literally raised the community in Oklahoma but yeah, totally a story that I didn't know
was that not far away. Also in Oklahoma around the same time, there was a similarly thriving community that you talked about April.
Yeah, we talked about Bowley, Oklahoma, which is where the main character of the podcast is from, Nate Bradford, and it was in some ways like a country version of that Tulsa. It was a thriving black community that was full of folks who came from the Deep South escaping Jim Crow around the turn of the century and trying to you know, get get a piece of land and
be free. And a lot of those folks ended up settling in Bowley because there was a railroad that was being developed and going from Oklahoma to Arkansas, so it was just, you know, a good place to be and that brought a lot of folks through there. So they settled,
you know, in and around Bowley. They were able to buy land be a part of this community that was for four black folks, by black folks, so you know, answering to local government leadership and everything that was done was in the interest of the people who were there, who were majority black, and a lot of those folks Cotton was huge. So a lot of them were cotton farmers.
Some of them were also in cattle farming, and Bully ended up and they really paid for Bully, right, Their money was what was making the town prosperous, and Bowley ended up being hugely successful. It had colleges, it had grocery stores, it had banks, It had what is believed to be the first black nationally chartered bank in the country, which is huge. And yeah, I mean that ended up changing for a number of reasons, but Bully it was one of fifty black towns at the time.
Yeah, and it's just so so devastating to the central narrative of white supremacy, like the existence of this thriving town that like if white supremacists all how this town to exist, is able to thrive and have this amazing community, and also like kind of devastating to some of the central tenets of capitalists, like individualism and capitalism where there's this you know, we we've talked about community action and how you know, Black communities and you know, indigenous communities
are some of the best models that we have of like how you know, communities that take care of themselves and start their own you know, circular communities and yeah, so it runs against the central coordinarrative of the American mainstream in a lot of ways that are probably scary to powerful people. Right.
It's it's also like like hearing about that era too, where you know, these these communities are thriving and here like that the change came once you know, like once statehood occurred and now Oklahoma was going to be like basically get like the other states that were like enacting
these Jim Crow laws. And now you had these communities that were for the most part able to do whatever they had to mostly free from any kind of like racial interference that suddenly now they're seeing segregation and they're seeing all these laws that are like are completely changing
the way they live. What was like from that moment on, because I think this is this is what becomes really interesting too, is this is sort of like the that was sort of like the height of things and now we begin to see the deterioration of these communities and the dispossession of land. What was like can after these Jim Crow laws were enacted, what sort of like the kind of next sort of beats that happened that are kind of that begins sort of this momentum even further.
Yeah, so Oklahoma became a state nineteen oh seven, it starts passing these Gym Crow laws. But Bully did thrive for a little bit longer. But then there were a lot of economic things that happened. Right There was the Great Depression, There was a bull evil that chewed up
the cotton. There was the Agricultural Adjustment Act of in the thirties that limited the amount of cotton a farmer could produce those that were sharecropper, and folks farmers got money to help them through that, but folks that were sharecroppers may not have seen any of that money. And black folks were kind of limited in what they could grow. So all those things led to the decline of Bully.
A lot of the folks there, and like the local historians say that even though there was this Jim Crow violence happening outside of Bowley, not even that far outside of Bully, because there were sundowntowns very close, it Bully felt, you know, kind of protected, but it's still that fear, that violence that's happening just outside. All these things came together and encouraged folks to move on to other places.
And then like I guess you know, part of like the whole you know, the focus of this season is talking about just the decline and discrimination in black farming and black farmers have had to face. Can you like there's some pretty staggering statistics. I think people should kind of like hear first, like as we dive into this is what, like what was the state of black farmers like in its prime as opposed to right now, just so we can give ourselves an idea of like how aggressive this process has.
Been so around the turn of the century when we know, you know, obviously coming out of slavery, there were a great number of black farmers and me we know, for example, there's a study that found black farmers lost three hundred and twenty six billion in land and wealth from nineteen twenty to nineteen ninety seven, which is a huge, huge number.
And we know that the number of black farmers has dropped since nineteen hundred, so that's that's a pretty big one now as well, black farmers now are only about one point four percent of all farmers, suggest.
A tiny number, and that that was not the case and like leading up to the nineteen twenties was not like one point four percent.
No, it was black folks had you know, we're much greater in number, and we're also you know, significant landowners as well.
Yeah, and the way the government accomplished this is kind
of a thing. We've you know, the systemic economic forces, economic racism, and it blends in more easily when they can just say, oh, well, you know, there was a bad run of bull weavils or something like that, and not focusing on well, in white communities, when there's a you know, bed string of crops because of all weevils, the government comes in and turns on the money hose, right, But in this case, there's just a different standard of one to intervene and how easy it is to get
government assistants and then like what happens once you get that government assistance.
Yeah, I mean obviously there's racial violence that had a pardon this, but also subsidies, for example, are more helpful to farmers that are larger landowners or farmers who are growing certain crops, and black farmers, you know, tend to be smaller guys, so they're not going to get as much money from those subsidy programs. The USDA, for example, is a lender of last resort, and that means you had to get rejected from other agencies, other banks in
order to get a loan from them. And there's this long documented history showing that black farmers have had a tougher time getting those loans, and when they get those loans, they're not as much as they would have wanted them to be, or maybe they're delayed so that they don't come when the farmer might need it for planting, they come much later, and then that kind of has a chain reaction to it.
Right, And yeah, like in this, like in this telling of it or just like this, you know, examination of the industry, you just realize that the USDA is doing some of the most vile shit, like in terms of disenfranchising these farmers or putting them essentially into like a debt trap.
To dispossess their land.
And I know, like it's like you'll never find a document that says this is our mandate as the USDA. But when you look at how the USDA was interacting with black farmers that were looking for loans and things like that, it's as wild how so many of the people that you spoke to were sort of saying like the second I took that loan was basically the end.
Like when I began to rely on the USDA and the just the hoops and things that people have to jump through just for the simplest things is really like mind blowing, Like can you kind of just paint a picture for people of sort of how the U like how this game is set up with the USDA of how like, because I think normal people would be like, oh, yeah, what's the problem. You get your loan if you have an off year, you tell them, they understand and then
maybe they work with you to make something happen. But that really wasn't the case for black farmers really ever.
Yeah, So like in the past, USDA had a system where county committees, who are like local farmers, would have a lot of influence deciding who is credit worthy, and so you know, they could decide like that black farmer, for example, we don't want to give him a loan.
Or one of the experts we talked to says how the county committee person could say, well, I have my eye on that piece of property that they have, and I know if this loan is delayed or denied that it's only a matter of time before that piece of property will be you know, out in the market. Right, So that was, you know, one way that affected black farmers.
Another is loan officers have a lot of discretion and deciding who gets loans and who doesn't and how supportive they can be when that farmer's in trouble and they're farmers, older farmers and then younger farmers like me who tells us his story of how he felt he didn't get the flexibility that he needed from his loan officer.
Right, it is like do you think you know, like in looking at it too, because you know, Nate, the one of the farmers that you speak with, talks about how when he's asking for his loan to be restructured or something, their solution is basically like, why don't you just sell your land then, and or like sell your cattle, And they're like, but that's how I make my living, So if I do that, that renders me like inert from a business standpoint.
And like with that, like.
Knowing that that you had these sort of credit bureaus of like local like landed farmers who are the ones determining who were like kind of behind the scenes or at least how to like a seat at the table to determine who got loans. It feels like that sort of I got my eye on that property sort of energy has just kind of persisted throughout like the like the decades following it.
I mean, I think we know for sure through what mid nineties, because that's what Pickford was based on, Like, we know that. The trickier question is to what extent is this happening now? Like, to what extent has it continued? And people like me, obviously through his experience, feel like it has. You know, other folks would argue that USAA has done a number of things to try to rectify this, but I guess the we're still trying to figure it out, right.
Can you talk about you did mention that there's racial violence that played a role in this over the course of like the transition from the from nineteen twenty to the late nineties. Can you just talk about what that was, what that looked like, because I think that's probably helpful when then coming into this and being like and then this is a world that was like self policing, where like the USDA just gets to use their own judgment
to make financial decisions. But what was what was happening at that time.
Yeah, I mean outside of the Deep South. I guess some would consider Oklahoma still part of that. But Oklahoma has like one of the highest documented things outside of the Deep South traditional Deep South, And you know there's stories Oklahoma elsewhere are folks kind of abandoning their property because of fear of racial violence from white farmers, white landowners. So I mean, that's that's kind of outside of USDA, but that's something that's functioned to dispossess black farmers as well.
Yeah, USDA, I'm mainly knew prior to this for like grating my eggs and meats, like kind of my experience with the USDA. But truly like they've set up this kafka esque like just system like that. There's one scene where they discover like that this USDA Civil Rights Agency that they've been sending their complaints to the office just
like doesn't exist. Their letters have been just like piling up in an office somewhere, and when it comes time to like actually look at their complaints and what the USDA was doing, the court is just like we can't use the letters as evidence because they never open, like basically the logic is like, they never opened them, so what are they supposed to do? But yeah, it's like the judicial historical equivalent of like plugging your ears and saying, yeah,
I can't hear you, so like it doesn't count. But yeah, it's just a whole different level of like illogic and injustice that I don't know, like it was crazy to hear about. Yeah.
Yeah. During with the Oregan administration, that's when the Civil Rights Office was like pretty much closed. So you had farmers sending in their discrimination complaints and they weren't going anywhere right, Like nobody was reading them. They were were just kind of piling up in a room that and nobody was monitoring them. So that was one of the things that really fed into the Pickford suit that even when farmers filed complaints of discrimination there, they weren't being addressed.
There was no one to address them, right.
And it's again like it feels like the USDA is just like another example of many other agencies or institutions that like, after decades of discriminatory behavior, they'll be like, oh, yeah, it turns out we may have been doing some bad stuff.
And then it just kind of feels like it sort of peters out there because it felt like, especially when discussing the Pickford for Verslickman, right, is the case that there was a moment for this to potentially create some kind of sea change, but it it just it just didn't.
And a lot of that, I'm sure too, like as you ex like as the reporting shows, like the in the show, is that a lot of it too is also like by design, by like offering these farmers, like when the like in a settlement that it was just kind of like pick your poison here and neither are actually going to fully address all of the injustices that you had to suffer.
Yeah, So there was a settlement agreement and so this case never went to trial, so farmers never had the opportunity to really like tell their case in court. But they decided on the settlement that didn't actually require USDA to come out and say, you know, we did wrong, We're going to change our ways, we're going to fire folks who were involved in this, Like none of that had to happen. And the settlement offered two tracks for
folks to follow. One of those tracks basically they had to show some level of paperwork they had just proved some level of discrimination and they would get fifty thousand dollars. But they also had to show, like that there was a white farmer in a similarly situated position that they suffered an economic loss. That was supposedly the easy track. And then there was Track B, and that one they had to gather more paperwork, They had to present it
at like a mini trial. They had to show that their damages were greater than fifty thousand dollars, and then they had to convince an arbitrator of all that and they could potentially get, you know, a substantial amount of money. The farmer that we talked to, Eddie, says that the lawyers really encouraged the farmers to go with Track A and not Track B, and part of that was because Track A offered the possibility of debt forgiveness if they
could find discrimination attached to the loan in question. So he argues, that's why a bunch of us went with truck A, something like I think like two percent or less than two percent went with truck B. Wow, And in the end, a lot of folks didn't end up who went with TRACKA didn't end up getting that loan. Forgiveness.
It's that's what's like really harrowing, especially that when you talk about Eddie and you know the never ending fight with the USDA, of how it's always him or the farmers trying to prove that they're worthy of these loans, that they're being left out all the while that the USDA uses things like offsets, which is like this practice to say like, well, if you can't pay some of this debt that you have, we'll just take this out
of your fifty thousand dollars settlement from the USDA. Like that, the it just feels like never ending, and like the the frustration that comes out in some of these these people's voices, it's really really like it's heartbreaking because at the end of the day, they're trying to do something as simple as just like grow things on the land and have a very simple life. They're not saying like I'm trying to live outside of my means or do
something extravagant. It's like I like to I like to farm, and we're not given this opportunity, and and every other turn, it feels like they have to constantly fight just to not have their their their their finances whittled away at to the point that they are so destitute that the only option is to give up everything and give up land. And they all talk about how important like the land is,
Like it's sometimes it's not even about the money. It's the fact that especially for uh, for Black Americans, that owning that piece of land is such a vital part of your longevity, of you being able to have something to give to your descendants and things like that. And that must have been so difficult to like, I mean, did you have any I'm sure you had a sense of how like backwards this whole thing was, but like, did it just kind of make you more angry or
what was that like? Because I like listening to it, I wanted to like scream half the time.
I would say it made me angry necessarily. I think sometimes when you're like you're so seeped in it, it's like you lose a little bit of that. But I think, I mean, folks like Eddie are so passionate about this cause, and I think farmers in general, regardless of race, are really attached to the land. I mean, it's a multi
generational life, right. They're not just thinking about themselves, They're thinking about who's coming up after them, because they want the name to be carried on, you know, well after them. And I think the stakes are obviously so much higher for black farmers. Is given everything that folks went through to desk to hold on to that land, with the violence and with the economic issues that they faced one hundred years ago, to have it now is like, it's
it's huge. So yeah, it's I mean, it does. It is a sad story when we think about just everything that's involved.
Let's take a quick break and we'll come back and talk about just where where you see things heading and where you kind of leave things at the end of the show.
And we're back and has anyone So there's that one there's that one picture of him on the beach right with Casey and it's like clearly photoshopped and there are no footprints behind them?
Is that because of something to do with like maybe his feet aren't even real?
Vampire?
Yeah, maybe he's a vampire, that's all.
If you're footless, Yeah we can, we can, we can get right on them feet pictures. I feel so terrible that I didn't actually put this into the document for us to look at.
But yeah, well you knew I would be described what.
He's got fike feet, folks.
Yeah, thick feet, thick foot king.
Yeah, those look like the inflamed foot of a man who's been wearing lifts.
Yeah, and one of his feet is propped up like a barbie foot.
He can't stop propping it.
His imagine that foot is stuck like that from overuse of the lifts.
They it took three days to get the left foot like flattened out, but they yeah, yeah.
He has extremely flat feet.
Yeah. Yeah, well, hey, Ron, not anymore, not with the magic of these lifts. No, not at all. All right, we have an update on the story that we've been covered breathlessly. We're like, guys, stop stealing from Target. There's a string that is putting them out of business. And it turns out that is bullshit.
Yeah, we've been covering, like I remember, the first one we were talking about is probably Walgreens in the Bay Area.
They're like, oh god, it's so out of control.
And then it's like, no, your rents too high, you're not doing enough business, and you've overexpanded too quickly, and you're using this as cover. And now the latest one was like about a month ago. Target is the latest company crying crime wave, and they.
Said, we're gonna have to close nine stores because they're shoplifting so much. And again every fucking place. CNBC.
Target says it will close nine stores in major city siting violence and theft. Wall Street Journal Target to closed stores in San Francisco other cities sighting theft. Bloomberg Target closes.
Nine NYC West Coast stores to stop losses from rising theft. The New York Times Target sighting theft to close nine stores. Everybody just took this and ran with it. Okay, and sadly for sw York Times is the most liberal publication in the world.
What obviously, Yeah, I'm so confused.
I know their coverage is so to the left, its right, that's how wild it is.
It's crazy.
But like sadly for them. Jud Legum's Popular information team took a look at the numbers of the stores affected in San Francisco and New York and guess what, These stores that are being shuttered actually had lower instances of theft than the fucking stores that are remaining open.
Wow does that work?
And then but politicians, they only read the Wall Street Journal, so naturally a few senators have introduced a bill called the Combating Organized Retail Crime Act, and that's really just more cop shit, right obviously, And they point to this statistic in their press release about why they need to act. Quote, organized retail crime cost retailers seven hundred and twenty thousand dollars for every one billion dollar sales. That's up fifty percent since twenty fifteen.
Damn, I'm in the wrong business.
Hey wait, quick math those are you love math joke? And I know you're really good at math? What percentage of seven hundred and twenty thousand out of one billion?
Three?
There you go, it's actually zero point zero seven percent of sales. And like the group that they say they get the stats from, this lobbying group, the.
National Retail Federation, is the one keeping the stats, and even they admit they stopped recording these specific stats like back in twenty twenty because the numbers are so minuscule.
Oh my god.
And really a lot of people are just like, just like the Walgreens thing, some people who are like savvy investors kind of looking into it and they're like, it looks like maybe a target is just trying to hide behind the theft. Argument to cover up the fact that their stores are just doing less business because they're poorly planned in the locations they're at, and maybe because the prices might still be too high.
Maybe that could also be a thing.
Too, But of course that couldn't be that what targeted be like we're losing business because our ship's overpriced.
Yeah.
Well, and also for them to have nine stores oh yeah closed down, Like and that's just the ones they close, Like there's more stores that they have. I mean it's poor planning yet, yeah, take down there.
Yeah.
But I've seen a lot of people argue about this story too, where they're like.
People really buy into it.
They love to people love to cape for retail stores. It's fucking wild. Like there's like there's a Twitter thread going on. I was like looking at people saying like, if you knew anything about being in retail, you know that, like law enforcement is so underfunded that they can't even do anything about it. And other people were like, have you ever worked at a store and have someone steal something? You never call the cops, you know why, because they're
gonna be like the fuck you want us to do? Yeah, like did you catch them? Their response to most things. It turns out, oh wait, hold on, there's someone having a fucking mental health crisis. We're right there, right there, guns thrown.
But yeah, like it's yeah, so this fucking this like little dumb story keeps coming back.
All the time. It'll never go away, but you cry out for that. Theft has gone up a little bit in the past ten years, and that is because of self checkouts. They introduced self checkouts because and it was a calculated risk that self checkout would save them enough money that it would offset the losses they would have from people just being like, oh miss missed that one.
But okay, okay, everyone knows that self checkout is where you go when you want to steal shit.
Yeah, of course, yeah, and they know that I do. I'm just saying, right, yeah.
And also what you do is the person who's like the monitor, like the one human they have over there, you get good with them. You're like, hey, man, you want I'm about to come up on a London broil. If you want me, I'll split it with you.
That's right.
Listen, I'm gonna buy this boot lift. Yeah, don't tell anyone about it.
That's how I that's how my sleep deprided brain.
Things. Hey, I'm going to commit an.
Act and you're like, uh, I think you're here for your child's three month checkup.
Oh oh my bad. Okay, so I thought it wasn't target all right. There's a story from dentists where I appreciate the specificity of their vision. The they're really like just being like, we don't give a fuck about any other part of the body. We're good here. So an article this week, a dentist of Virginia implored kids to eat all their Halloween candy and one sitting because it's much better for your teeth.
Oh hilarious.
It might upset your belly a little bit. Yeah, might get all your candy in one sitting. It might like put you into a diabetic coma. Like literally, but I don't know everything. Yeah, but this isn't like one way silly Denis Like every single year Dennis give the same advice where they're like, I mean, if you're gonna eat candy, like a big bag full of candy, you might as well get it out of the way now and then just go brush your teeth immediately.
Oh, rather than like a prolonged, a prolonged multi year's effort, like my weird bag candy vault would be.
You get all your candy in one city. You're exposing your teeth to that frequency one time, But if you're sitting there and you're eating it every twenty thirty minutes for the next few days, over the next week, it's causing more damage to your teeth. Oh that's that's a quote from one dentist.
I put it all in a bowl by my bed, and after I brush my teeth, I have one here you go.
I do not use hands. I just go face first into a bowl of peeah of I called it peeled candy. That's how much. That's how much I use. I'm consuming vegetables and fruits. That the only thing I can say is peeled candy. Peel the wrap, peel the skin off my candy, and then just go at it. Yeah, you gotta do.
You gotta do the thing where you know those flat jolly rancher candies.
Oh yeah, those are so good.
You just put those on each side of your mouth before you take a little retainer.
Yeah, wrap it around, soak on it for a little bit, and wrap it around both so you have one in your bottom jaw. Oh yeah, yeah, topjaw and then.
Or like X rays and like that film, you have to bite down on just those flat pieces.
I just love that. I just I don't know. I guess it could be argued that it's also not great for kids' teeth to have them bolt through a plate glass window and a sugar crazed frenzy after eating an entire pillowcase full of candy. But I'm with the dentists on this one.
Hey, you know what, I watch a lot of true crime. You know what lives outlives you? Your teeth?
Teeth, that's right.
Yeah, you know, after you've been murdered and manslaughtered, massacred, whatever, tortured by a serial killer, how do you want your teeth to look to the whole rest of the world.
That's what that's mainly. Yeah, when people are like, what am I going to leave behind when they're having existential crises? Teeth, Just your teeth, that's what you're going to leave behind.
So you sit down, little Jimmy, and you eat that entire goddamn bag of candy.
Yes, do you think I watch you? Do you think kids want to do that? Like?
I know everyone's like, I'm going to eat it now, But like I feel like there's always that sort of deferred gratification thing.
Like, yeah, no, he's taking to parents of kids with candy, like adults in charge of kids bags of candy, right right, I used to eat my knees is candy? They forget about it?
Yeah, yeah, they really do.
They sit they forget about it. After like three days, they're like, yeah, whatever, Halloween, Oh.
Jackie, do you dole it out? Do I dole it out? Yeah?
No, I'm saying, are they in control of their their bag account?
No? No, no, no. They got a couple of pieces on Halloween night and then like maybe one are too, in like a couple of nights after, and then they forget about it because they're also like they my wife raised them on the idea that fruit is dessert and fruit is the sweetest thing that you get, and so they are there they really prefer fruit to candy. And I'm just sitting there being like, you suckers. When I eat all of their candy and.
Dad has all my Jolly Ranchers in his mouth again, I'm going to go for the rest of the night.
Dad's teeth a rotting out of his head at such a rate that we can actually see it in real time.
I think I saw a worm come out of his incisor too, how's a gummy worm?
I think let's get a diagram on this.
Yeah, and finally we've got a great trend, a thriving subculture in New Zealand. There's been a bunch of headlines of the past week about how a New Zealand town has been plagued by drivers blasting Selene Dion ballads, which has turned people's lives into chaos.
It sounds to me like plagued is the wrong should be enhanced blest yeah, series blessed, thank you.
But yeah, it makes it sound like it's a prank of some sort of some sort, but it's actually kind of nuanced and beautiful. So there's this, there's this elaborate New Zealand subculture in which siren clubs have quote siren battles where they blair music on speakers hooked up to modded cars or bikes to compete for the title of Siren King to win. So this is like this was happening with like bass when when I was growing up
with like cars, with like war yeah, base wars. But the difference here is to win there, sounds can't just be the loudest, they also have to be the clearest, which is why competitors, many of them of the PACIFICA community, have been using Celine Dion because her music has high trouble, which it makes it very clear. You can play at a loud volume and three blocks away they just hear the voice of an angel sound out in the night, clear as a bell.
As if I didn't already want to move to New Zealand enough, I know, right, that's their biggest problem, is people blasting Celine Dion.
Yeah.
Well, and it's wild too because it's not even like even when people are like it's a gang or whatever, they're like, no, it's actually like a really positive thing for like young people.
It's not even like they're doing instead of a gang. They say, like the kids are like actually, like this keeps me pretty like it's like a fun, productive thing that we do together, right.
It like it reminds me of like how like in some cities on the East Coast, like they're they're like angry when they see like groups of kids and this like city on bikes and stuff. Yeah, and they're like it's a nuisance you're like, honestly, some of these kids like this is this is healthier for them to have fun together doing something like on a bike then you know, getting into some fucking nonsense or get in trouble. So it's it's it's always interesting to see how these subcultures
pop up. And then like I love that it's such a respect for the fidelity that they've had to dial in. And it's like Selene Dion is actually like it's not even about the style, it's about this is the music that helps us really determine who the siren king is.
I'm just picturing like a bunch of teenagers. It's like that scene in Shawshank when like the voice comes over and like all these teenagers just like look up in a single tier like runs down their eye, you know.
Right, Okay, what's your favorite Selene Dion ballad?
I mean the power of Lirve. Yeah, it feely has to be right power. I'm blasting that shit. If you're not by heart well going, that.
Feels I'm sorry, it feels a little kind of yeah, little played all those I'm not saying the power of Lorve is the you know, like an original banger either, but I just feel like that would if I'm trying to be a Siren King, I'll probably try and win with that one.
I think you would win, Siron King, Miles.
And you know, thank you so much. I'm you know, I am planning to just maybe make my way to Auckland to see how I can you imagine that fucking comedy movie about some dude in like America. I'll been like, I just want to be a Siren King dad and making the journey to New Zealand.
Do live your dream, Live your dream boy. But he's trying to like bring bass music to the Siren battles and they're like, everyone's like this fucking sucks man. It's just it's all muddled. Man, I can't this is not Siren King material. If you kiss me like this, oh like that, it's all coming all coming back. I'll come into back to I mean, now, wow, when it gets to bab.
That's when you're fucking That's when you just put your Siren King crown on. You're like, yep, any other questions.
That that ship's hot.
I feel like I will always love you. It would be a fun one to just like hear again ring out because it opens with that long a cappella just just her, just Whitney, you know.
I mean, she's got lines like the flesh and the fantasy.
Folks, it's all coming back when you when you said that line, it's all coming back to me. But it's all coming back to me. I just could smell the back seat of my parents car that song was playing, and I was nine years old.
Oh, I thought this was you like making like making out in the back of your parents caring and like.
Should I put the celine beyond on? Shall we? Uh? Shall we smooch to some celine?
Damn Jack?
Shall we bless the back seat with some celine? Like can you take me home? Yeah?
Yeah, Sorry, that was a big swing on my part. I didn't.
Sorry, why do you have goosebumps? All? Listen? Drop me off, drop me off up here?
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 to Miles. He he needs your validation.
Folks. I hope you're having a great weekend and I will talk to you Monday.
Bye.
Ba