Hello the Internet, and welcome to this episode of the Weekly Zeitgeist.
Uh.
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. Well Miles, we thrilled to be joined in our third and fourth seats by the host of season three of Beauty Translated, Yes, a podcast that celebrates the trans experience and has a lot of fun along the way. Please welcome Carmen Laurent and Janey Danger. We're returning champions.
Scord was so kind to us last time.
Yeah, it's rare when I get like exposed to a big audience and and people say nice things.
Yeah, we try and put out the good vibe, so you know, we're not talking that ship. Hopefully we have people who are you know, they're they're.
Y'all gave us some shooters. We appreciate.
They said, uh, they said, you didn't suck up yet. Have the next.
Appearance going, Oh for real, we need the BT Armie because we'd be talking that ship. We need to have the shooters to back up the insane things that we said both online.
And Yeah, they will come. You know, that's just just be just put out your honest self and then let that attract the other like people. And then yeah, when people start playing for audiences, shit gets weird.
For real.
I've had an interesting few weeks on the Internet. I had like two like big viral posts, and one of them got like an overwhelmingly positive response that I didn't expect, and then another one got an overwhelmingly negative response that I didn't expect.
I was like, oh my god.
On the Internet, Yeah, I believe it or not experience on x formerly known as Twitter believe it or not not.
In this house. I hate that.
I hate that Twitter isn't it's the artist formerly known as like Era.
I hate, well that was told we believe it's still Twitter.
I had some friends that like kept like preventing it from like updating it so they could still have the bird, And now it's gone.
No one can have the bird anymore.
They have that horrible Eastern European porn app.
Yeah, oh yeah, it does. It does look like that.
It's correct.
Yeah, definitely designed the logo too, like oh yeah, like it just looks like absolute ship.
It looks like it's comparable to like the middle school s, you know, like yeah, like the s that you drew in middle school.
Like he was definitely doodling that in fucking social study. Oh yeah, the equivalent.
Of he's like, mom, do we have a ruler?
Do we have another rulers? Two lines?
Actually three rulers to do.
He's been like obsessed with the letter X, like the whole career. It's it's a very like middle school thing. Like it's like the letter X.
It sounds so cool.
I mean, his whole persona is very middle school. Like the jacket of the hair plugs. All middle schoolers with hair plugs.
That's the one place that I actually defend Ela Musk. I don't think he got hair plugs. I think he just grew that ship back through.
I don't know.
Fanboy so so out there that he was like I'll tell you, no, that's not that's not on hair plugs.
Actually those are all tell you how he did it.
Astrogen.
It is possible that he's on some like variants of like Donkey testosterone, but like uber rich people can get to like grow their hairs.
Like Brian Johnson is like about to make.
Yeah, I love that guy stars. I want them to fight.
Elon Musk and Brian Johnson.
We need mother to save us.
Mother.
Brian, Wait, Brian Johnson is Mother's okay.
Yeah, Brian Johnson is the rich guy who's trying to make himself the.
Age by penis taking a little bit of estrogen.
Yeahs he is taking.
Yeah, he is like micro does saying estrogen. I can see it in his breasts, like I could see it any picture where he takes his shirt off. I'm like, those are female nipples. You can't you can't fool me. I know that sh soft.
He was using his son as a bloodbag at one point.
Yes, that was a Peter Teal move too.
Yeah, he's off Teals whole fucking sweat man.
Yeah.
Well he's doing it in like a in a gay er, in a in a slayer way.
I have toiate a little buff.
I mean she matches her nails to her her blouses.
She really does look so like if she like or if he like dressed like a little feminine, like he would like pass like he like literally looks like so like soft and like supple.
As a man. Why are you looking supple?
I think he's pulling it off. Brian Johnson Fashion.
Elon looks like ship. Elon looks like a fucking like elden Ring mob Like no Elon looks like he would deal like death, blight damage to you.
If you're like it's too close to like.
Yeah, but Brian Johnson serving fish.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Brian Johnson looks like an elden Ring NPC that like sells you like the good.
Sorceries right right, right right.
Like he looks like he will grant you a crown when you finish his tragic quest line. You have to like drive like an ancient stake through his heart. He's like a gimmick fight that like he kills you in five minutes if you don't do like the exact like platforming.
Right, Well that's why, Hey, that's what you gotta watch Jane's YouTube channel where you learn all the secrets to take down these obscure bosses.
I did make a TikTok video where it was like my elden Ring guide for today, and it's like today's guide is coming out to your parents.
Carmen Janey, we do like to ask our guests, what is something from your search history?
Well, the thing that's actually at the top of my search history is my own name book. That's embarrassing, so we're gonna step I was googling myself to find my look book from when I was sixteen, by the way, and I couldn't find it because I think the look book is no longer around, but if anyone finds it, let me know. And okay, the other thing I actually have.
I was watching Escape from LA last night. So of course, when you watch a movie, you google the movie you're watching so that you read about it the whole time you're watching it. And it sucks. That movie fuck is horrible.
It's terrible. It's so bad. I love Escape from New York.
Right, yeah, Escape from New York rules.
Yeah, I loved it. So I was like, I was like, my boyfriend is like dying from like the flu or something under like nine hundred blankets. So I was like, well, I can't find Escape from New York for free, so let's watch Escape from LA.
And it feels like a fever dream where you're dying.
Yeah, yeah, and it really was. I felt like the daughter in the electric chair at the end, the.
Scene when he's surfing is so sick.
Oh my god. It wasn't like through the La River.
I saw that ship in theater, like because of the because of the surfing on the La River, Like I think that was in the trailer, and I was like, yes, please what it was like the trailer promised Escape from New York crossed with like teenage mutant Ninja turtles too. Yeah, it was just like over the top cartooning fun and it was just yeah, it.
Didn't unfortunately, that was the best part of the movie.
Yeah, by far. I just remember. I still like, I haven't seen the movie in years, but I do remember that one of the last lines is right because Snake Plisken just dead's all the technology on Earth, and I think she goes he turned off the world.
You know.
On my mind, I was like, yo' shit, that was twelve when that movie came out. I was in ninety six or something.
I was like, yo, bro, he fucking turned off the fucking world.
Oh my god, never come back.
All of these are ideas that could be in a good movie. Something about the movie.
That's also how they Live and basically like he just like explodes the like system. That's like like.
He basically turns off his.
I have not seen They Live.
They Live is a lot better Wow. The first off of They Live is like amazing, this is so good.
It's wild to look at the soundtrack, like the acts that are on the soundtrack, like these kind of makes sense. Tool White song. Yeah, it's like he Kills Ministry, sex Pod, Death Tones, Torri Amos.
Trent Reznor's girlfriends in the nineties. If I'm not mistake.
Oh really?
Yeah? Oh ship, dude, I love what's what girl?
No?
No, no, it's professional Widow is the Toris track? Okay, that is amazing.
Oh my god. It was on that judgment night Ship where it was like Tory Yamos but like with some fucking heavy metal guitars. Maybe.
Okay, Well, can I talk about the craziest part of the movie is Pam Greer plays a trance woman.
Remember, oh my god.
I was like, that's when I started getting annoyed with the movie because they like had her voice. They had Pam Grew's voice like under like some sort of like a girlfriend from Yes, like under some sort of filter, And I'm like, wow, Pam Greer looks stunning, but oh my god, like did they have to put that voice filter on her?
They're like, no, that ain't that's car Jack Malone Carjack Malone Jack car Jack Malone character. Wow, Yes, and now that's her she lost Palmus.
Yes, exactly, and I was like, what the fuck a black guss name name is that?
Dude?
I was not prepared for a trans character in this in this horrible.
Movie done dirty like that right, Janie was something premier search history.
Ship, dude.
I got like, I don't.
I don't have anything as spicy as last time. I got an English Spanish translator pizza near me. I was looking at what the standard time was.
I found Jamie texts me today at eleven thirty while I'm at my laser appointment. She's like, I'm here, what's going on where? I'm like, it's eleven thirty pst.
Jamie, Okay, so what.
More context?
Come on?
I don't know the whole Also, uh yeah, I found a white pill on the ground at my parents house.
I was trying to see what drink hides your coat on.
It was oh yeah, just the mystery pill was for Google Yah history pill.
Googling a lot of elden Ring ty. I'm playing elden Ring again. I'm sure to do some of the quests I didn't do last time. A lot of that. Do dragons take bleed damage? That's they do?
Wow.
There, I guess one interesting thing was I've been I started watching the show The Curse on Showtime, the new Nathan Fielders Show, and I told my boyfriend that it's like improvised like that, It's like it's got like it's like Kurby Your Enthusiasm, where like there's a script, but like all the dialogues improvised, and he's like, no, the fuck it's not. And I was like, no, I swear I read.
It somewhere, and I was trying to find where I read it, and I think I made it up and I can't really confirm if I actually read if I actually did read that somewhere or.
Not on this show? Is that yeah, just off the strength of my male confidence, yeah, right, straight up?
Yeah.
And then I like occasionally I humble myself to like my partner, I'd be like, yo, okay, so I was so fucking wrong about this earlier, like you were right by even questioning it because even though you didn't look for it, I tried to find the evidence and I could not find it. So that was in my head.
I'm like, actually like crazy, so like I really can't. I don't feel like I should apologize because I did. It's very possible I did read that in my mind palace somewhere right right right, yeah, yeah, mixed up in the mind power. I'm not lying, and I'm also not wrong. Even if I gave wrong information, I'm not.
Oh. I like that. And this is something Trump is doing in court right now.
And as your lawyer, Jenny, I would I would just ask the advice that you continue along that path. Do not admit anything, no matter what.
What's something you think is overrated.
Okay, this is like pertaining to my book a little bit, but you know, like how people are. People will do this thing where they're like, yeah, I'm getting good with money. I've been doing some investing, and then it's just like the Rominhood app or something like.
That, right right.
You know, it's like these apps where you like buy small amounts of single stock. And I hate these freaking apps so much because I think like it almost perpetuates that kind of rich dad, poor dad, like girl Boss energy, where it's like you don't nobody actually takes the time to teach you. It's like maybe a lower middle class like actual like person financial literacy tools that.
Could help you.
Instead, it's like, well, just you know, you know, investing in stock is good, so just download this app, or you invest a few dollars in these single stocks, and you're not getting like the value of diversification. You're not
investing in index funds or mutual funds. You're not doing those things are actually good for lower income people, but it makes people feel like they're financially responsible, so then they like never pursue the next step, like they never actually look into what they should be doing that would be benefiting them more long term. Right, So I feel like there's almost like a pop finance thing going on
in the world. Like we have pop psychology, you know, we also have like pop finance, and I think that's kind of the same thing that goes along with like the rich dead porta thing, the single stock investment apps on your phone, you know, all of these kinds of things. Also, like the apps where they help you find your subscriptions and cancel your subscriptions, like, don't get me wrong, that
can be really really useful. But showing people these apps, especially in like advertising and saying like, well, you're broke because you're actually paying eight dollars a month more for one subscription service you forgot about.
Is just like so insulting to me.
It's like beyond the pale, and like people aren't broke because they forgot one eight dollars subscription service.
Like great, yeah, you have an app that does that. That's so cool.
But this whole world of pop finance kind of like in my head, does the personal accountability thing and totally denies all of the systemic, structural issues that actually affect people's real life and how they interact with money.
Right right, Avocado toast.
Right exactly, it's like more manifestations of that same idea.
Exactly.
Yeah. I mean, ever since I stopped eating avocado toast, my credit score has gone up.
It's it was the main problem in my life. Yeah, and I should admit how much avocado toast I was eating up front. It was a problem both for my health financially and physically, and for the local economy. I was told R two I was closing the entire cafes.
There's always some version of like being like, yeah, there's a problem with like sort of X industry or like societal threat or some existential threat we have. It's like, but the solution isn't to interrogate the like their lack of regulations or the greed that got us here. It's actually that you should buy this kind of straw and then that's the solution. And then we complete, Like most people are just like, oh, thank god, I've been offered
this consumer solution to a problem. I'm just feeding the machine.
That goes back to the Ronald Reagan thing too, where he was like the king of deregulation and when we talk about like a lot of what's happening financially in the world, but also like socially in terms of that kind of like peak liberalization of the economy where you're like, well, the government's not going to do anything, and we're going to have these private companies come in and they're going to solve all these problems, even if they're problems that
aren't actually the main issues we should be addressing, and they are. They're going to offer you consumption based solutions that it's and it puts everything on the consumer, this like personal accountability thing, and it does we become these pop culture kind of consumers of ideology as well. So it's like, okay, when you consume a special kind of straw. You're also consuming a special kind of ideology that goes
along with that. And that's where we see like our social and political issues overlap with like capitalism, just like people trying to sell you things all day long, and I think people get fatigued from that without even realizing that that's what's affecting them.
So at firstly right, and let me guess before we get your underrated I want to guess what it's going to be. The Stanley. The Stanley mugs.
So fucking dope that there's such a good investment they hold their value.
No, okay, I.
Like you, I'm a humble person on the internet.
I saw the video where that chick's car caught on fire and her cup still had ice in it.
I like you thought, now that's a cup, that's a cup. It's an impressive cut.
I love that video though, Like she opens the door and it's clearly frozen outside of the car too, and it's like, it's not like you left it in the desert for fucking three weeks. You left it in a refrigerator for a few days, and of course there's still ice in it. But yeah, the height, what is something you think is under rated.
We're gonna stick with the ice cream theme here, or a frozen yoguran de general, a simple tart flavored frozen yogurt or a plane vanilla ice cream is so superior.
And if you have.
Those done well, you don't need all the bells and whistles that everybody's doing right now.
Yep, who's your what's your who's your favorite tart, frozen yogurt or ice cream?
You know what, I'm pretty indifferent. I can get it from Yogurtland. I could do tooty Fruity, I could do pink Berry. I could do pretty much anything with a tart frozen yogurt. I haven't seen that messed up.
Yeah it's good, becaus got that little yogurty bite to it, just a little, a little pucker. Yeah it's good. It reminds you like when I could, like my mom wouldn't buy me like snack pack or like chocolate pudding at the storage.
Like you should be yogurt And I'm like, there's no fucker sugar in here.
But I'll but like that's all I could get down on. So once. I remember when pink Berry came out, I was like again, I'll just eat this. Yep, no topics.
You're like, if you put regular yogurt in the freezer, is it frozen yogurt? Or is there something special about frozen yoga? Is it not just yogurt?
What is it? I don't know.
I don't know how they make it.
I'm realizing this. It's always just been a ministry except and I pulled the handle right, It's probably good.
Yeah, Alex, are you a topping guy? Are you a simple pleasures guy? Because I know obviously you don't like your popcorn simple? Do you like yogurt? Simple?
Hey?
I think I'm very excited that I'm finding all three of us are so on the team of simple dessert and like, make dessert just one thing. When you're having dessert, just do it well, like even the how like winter always reminds me that I don't like eggnog very much because I don't need dessert to also be alcohol Like I can just have alcohol.
The flavor fucking goes.
I don't even put alcohol mine.
Yeah, the flavor go I will eat the ice cream.
We were doing so fucking well missus this year.
This past year, I found a ice cream sandwich that had eggnog in the middle. It was an eggnog ice cream sandwich.
But no, sounds pretty good. Where was that at?
It was at uh like Roups or Bonds, one of those main grocery store chains. It was the signature Selects brand by the groceryore chain brand.
Yeah. Yeah, sometimes sometimes they don't miss they understand our simple palettes that were little babies who just want to drink and have yogurt all day. All right, well, we're gonna take a break. We're going to come back and we're going to get into some just hard hitting those like just Trump have syphilis right after this and we're back.
And people might have seen the news story where the a door blew off an Alaska Airlines flight.
Yeah, I caught that.
You might have noticed that, Yeah, as you are flying around the world. Yeah, but United Airlines was trending go over the weekend because they found loose bolts on an undisclosed number of their seven thirty sevens.
There was just that.
The most hopeful I've been that something's going to happen here is Anthony Blincoln's trip from Davos had to be delayed because of a Boeing plane fucking up, So maybe something will actually get done, but probably you hate to see it, you know, I like, I'm okay with those people on the Alaska Airlines flight, but a great man like blinking at Davosh like, I just hate the idea of him.
Being inconvenicing any sort of in any way. Yes, yeah, exactly what serious man does so much. Totally agree, we're totally aligned.
So first of all, just when you're releasing a report of loose bolts on a undisclosed number of seven thirty sevens, my request would be that that number be more how you say, disclosed? Maybe, but Twitter did its thing and tried to tie the failure of these or these loose bolts to United Airlines having a DEI program and being like, you know, look at the woke United Airlines CEO.
He says he values DEI. That's why this has happened.
Makes the bolts blow up, keeping over skipping over the very clear culprit of Boeing, the manufacturer of these airlines, who have used their massive size and you know, just massive power military government relationships to evade regulations in a way that is putting all of us at risk constantly. There's a great article on a democracy. Now there's a
Politico article. Oh, that one's about the Anthony blinkoln thing, But the democracy now one covers like just the history of Boeing rushing to update these seven thirty seven MAC series to compete with Airbus, the European Consortium and everything. Like the guy who was in charge of like one of the heads there at the time was like everything was being rushed. We had a shortage of skilled employees, we were having all kinds of issues with quality problems.
There's just incredible schedule pressure. There's a saying in the factory they call it schedule list King Cool. And then so that guy, in response to two fatal crashes that happened as a result of this thing, that he was like, guys, this is gonna fucking kill somebody, like if we just
go forward with it. And because there's no regulations in place, because Boeing is so powerful and had lobbied and people died, he left and started the Foundation for Aviation Safety and is now saying like this incident with Alaska, I'm sure is shocking to passengers, but for those of us who have been watching this for a while, it's really not
a surprise at all. We've seen ever since the MAX has been put back in service, over twenty serious production quality defects that have surfaced and the public is unaware. And yeah, like Boeing was criminally charged in the wake of the two seven thirty seven Max eight crashes, but just like negotiated a deferred prosecution agreement. But it's just this is what we've got, Like the system doesn't even really try to work. It's like not doing any of
the things that would effectively like protect consumers. But it's you know, these companies are so big and powerful that there's there's just like nothing that can be done at this point, or nothing is being done.
It's just like it's just one that like this along with so many other stories in our country or just these perfect examples of like regulatory capture. You know, like we're corporate interest groups they lobbed, like whether that's through lobbying or just like the revolving door of like a capitol hill, like to the point where these interest groups they end up being the ones regulating the regulators. And like with Boeing, basically like the FAA was like, Yo,
we have people that we need to inspect it. They're like, yo, bro, what if you actually just ordained our own employees to do the inspections that you're supposed to do, and we'll let you know if we find anything like you know, on the like that might not be you know, might be not on the level. And they're like, yeah, sure,
go ahead. So it's like Boeing that did their own inspections on these planes too, and then just told just gave the FAA their report to be like all right, and that's what we're saying, So that's good enough, right, rather than having you come in as an independent body to look at like the products that we're making. And so yeah, it's like the same thing with how like the opioid crisis ended up up, same thing with how like just you know, our like the SEC and our
subprime mortgage crisis ended up. Like there's just so many examples of these things where the industry ends up being the one that makes the rules and then we somehow just like quite literally go into crash into disaster.
Yeah, this also goes back to Ronald Regan, doesn't it.
Everything goes back to these deregulatory practices and the pro business stuff. But yeah, it is interesting, like once you start learning too, about how the lobbying groups will literally write the laws that they want pass to regulate their own industries, and very often you'll find they're supposed to be sample bills, right, these are supposed to be sample language bills, and then you built, yeah, when you compare the language exactly, you're like, this wasn't even a sample.
Somebody just got paid to sign this basically, and it is. It's really really appalling. It is something that happens, I think in like every era of business, area of business in the United States now. And this is why when I'm googling things like Ronald Reagan FBI files and like, if only the FBI had not told Ronald Reagan about a really cool party he wasn't invited to, maybe we would have more regulatory standards from business in this country.
It's really appalling.
And maybe listen to the things his parents are trying to teach him, you know what I mean, and be more in line with that, because like, forgive me if I'm mistake, but I thought like his parents were like sort of like had almost antithetical sort of beliefs of philosophically totally correct.
His parents were FDR new deal kind of Democrats, but not just regular Democrats. They're like kind of what we would think of as DSA today. They were very much in favor of government spending. His dad, you know, was an alcoholic who struggled to hold down a job. The job he eventually did hold down was a New Deal job, Like his dad was employed because of you know, government spending.
And this is something that we see like throughout his life, even as he's performing to the political right and doing all of these things that would be the complete opposite of anything his parents had fought for. When you asked him personally, like, well, how did you feel about the New Deal, He's like, well, the New Deal gave my dad a job, so I loved it, right, And it's just like this real conflicting kind of viewpoint inside him.
Poor Ronald Poor that far Well, that's I'm just I'm an EmPATH, you know, And that's yeah. There's a great book called tear Down. Yeah, oh exactly right. Yeah, but there's a book about Reagan called tear Down. This myth that was like sort of my entry point into really like examining the the the real mythology of Ronald Reagan, because like growing up you're always like, oh man, everything's like named after him. It's like it's because all these
fucking people got so rich off of him. They're like, watch this, dude, I'm shout out to Ronnie for taking away all the fucking guardrails that were there that just made me a hyper billionaire. Mister Gorbachev, tear up this ass. I'm sorry you should have said that.
No, you shouldn't apologize for that.
Honestly, that was no, it was the other one was tear off My balls was the other one.
I think tear off, tear off my two all time great tweets that I can't source at the moment.
But now I just think of Ronald Regan kind of as like a general punk rock icon because you know, like what other way, Like I was born in the eighties, Like I know so much about Ronald Regan mostly because of punk songs from like nineteen eighty five, you know.
But then yeah, when you think into it, you're like, actually, this is all still so so relevant to our life because the eighties really started that trend towards massive deregulation, and he was part of that movement of like the New Right, and the New Right was even different than what the right wing had been before the nineteen fifties and sixties, and it really coalesced with him in a lot of ways.
And so, yeah, when you.
Talk about things like Boeing's door flying off mid flight or like the loose bolts, you think that these things are just And that's the thing, like we do as consumers, right, we think these are individual incidents, but like our brains are also trained for pattern recognition, and it's hard to miss the pattern that these things are increasing in rapidity. We see them happening across like multiple different sectors, and
all of it does tie back to. Yeah, this massive period in the eighties of deregulation that allowed businesses to kind of start running the country as an oligarchy.
A lot of lambos are bought though at.
They have so many lambos.
The Lambeau guys are hurting us all and the Boeing guys are lambo guys too.
Yeah, we need to let the lambo radicalize us, you know what I mean. Swap out Ronald Reagan and now we will hold up the Lamborghini Hurrican as our way, our entry point into radicalization. Let that be a lesson for all the for the youth.
I feel like, one day there's just going to be a Lamborghini on our money. It's just gonna be like we're gonna be like praying to the God and the Lambo. That's what's going to be on the money. There's gonna be like sixteen apartment buildings just like in a cube around the Lamborghini, like the same way we have like the pyramid with the eye now and it's like, this is this is our new religion in the state underneath.
It's like, Dad, what does this say? It's like it's Latin. I don't know to read it out to me. E pluribus lambeau. Oh yeah, yeah, that means of many lambeau. That's right.
All right, let's take a quick break and come back and we'll talk about Ted cruz.
Man. We're back. And after I made that New Order joke by about Blue Monday, I was like, what was that band like in the late nineties or odds that covered it and kind of brought the song back, And my younger esteemed guests were like, a, sir, are you talking about de banking again? What's on your hands? And I'm like, no, it was this band they brought the
whole wave back. It was Orgy And shout out to my geriatric millennials and older who remember when Orgy brought the Blue Monday song or blue New Damn New Order song Blue Monday back. All that to say, we need to talk about blue Monday, the capitalist hoax that continues to persist. I wasn't fully aware of this as a concept. Did you guys know about blue Monday at all? Alex? What about you?
I've heard that phrase, but I think it's mostly because of Kurt Bonnegut's writing. He's referencing like an advertising concept for washing machines. Right, you can beat blue Monday by having easier laundry to do in like the nineteen fifties.
Ah well, again along that similar vein. Apparently, like this is something that's really big in like you're mostly the UK and in Canada as well, they've heard tell of blue Monday. But apparently it is the third Monday in January and it is known as quote, the most depressing day of the year. And I'm like, what does that exactly mean? Like, here's headlines from the Standard in the UK Blue Monday twenty twenty four. When is blue Monday? And how to beat it. Another headline, it's officially the
most depressing day of the year. An expert offers some tips to lift the gloom on Blue Monday. Blue Monday is coming up. Are you prepared for the most depressing day of the year. So we had it. I didn't realize it was the most I guess that MLKA day for us was Blue Monday. Yes, get him out of here. I know, because I'm surprised. There wasn't like, oh coincidence much that Blue Monday is also Martin Luther King Day, the most depressing day for white people. Right, So they're saying,
are you prepared? I'm like, okay, so what is going on now? Some of these outlets do admit that there is no actual scientific evidence to back up this premise, this concept of blue Monday, but also not all of them call out the fact that Blue Monday is just a straight up scam. You're getting bamboozled. The culprit, perhaps
is late stage capitalism. This pseudo scientific reasoning why behind why quote blue Monday is so depressing involves like this actual I mean actual, I only say that because there are like equations, like it looks like a math equation, a legit looking mathematical equation which equates things like debt, motivation, weather, and the time that's elapsed since Christmas as a way to determine that, like to quantify that this is the
most depressing day. But anyone, anyone who like looks at this for like one moment, you'll realize, like, how the fuck can you even compute this? Because there aren't even like shared units of measurement, Like how do you compare It's like saying, Okay, a large pizza times a GDP of Brazil equals that Mickey Rooney is actually Billie Eilish's grandfather.
Yeah, and you're likeymmetric sads or imperial sads. I can't figure right.
How do we measure the depress and whose unit are we using? And I guess the inventor of this equation was a guy named doctor Cliff Arnall who was hired by a fucking travel company, Skytravel they're defunct now, back in two thousand and five to basically just contribute to
a press release. And they wanted to sell people on the idea that there is a most depressing day of the year, which would then inspire the consumer to consume and to book a vacation thanks to sky Travel bringing this all to light, and he kind of has like some credibility to back up these claims. He's like, yeah, well, you know, I was a Cardiff University psychologist. But then pretty quickly the Cardiff University was like, no, this dude was a quote former part time tutor. Like let's not
get this like fucked up. Like he was not, That's not what he was doing. And he later tried to walk back this great cultural myth that he created by saying it was never his quote intention to make January even worse for people, and and he even admitted the idea of Blue Monday was not particularly helpful. But guess what. That fucking apology was part of another commercial campaign for a travel company, Virgin Atlantic. Please keep fucking with this guy.
They said the campaign will encourage the nation to dispel their Blue Monday beliefs and instead embrace the new possibilities. Then another year can hold possibilities like traveling to Thailand or Vietnam or South America. It's just like one of those. Really, it's just super cynical when you're just like kind of like using this idea that yeah, winter's hard for people coming out of the holidays. It's hard for people having resolutions and like trying to stick to those can lead
to people being demotivated. But then to be like, damn, book your package holiday with us? Why check out mark Bella Spain. It's absolutely popping. And the time. He also he supposedly cracked the formula for the happiest day of the year. He said, oh yeah, I'm doing that now. Because he pivoted to saying he was a freelance happiness guru, which sounds like me when I was just like dating a bunch of people in smoking weeds in my twenties. I'm like, yeah, I'm like a whoa, what do I do?
I'm like a freelance happiness.
It's like a vibes curator.
Yeah, exactly exactly, But and for some reason I kind of respect a vibes more than a freelance. I think it's just the wording. Is this more with our times? Yeah, guru's bad? Guru bad? Overall? We have too many gus, especially on social media.
Yeah, vibes curator, you can say you're a VC.
That's kind of nice.
Wow.
Yeah, yeah we should be see are you are? You a vibe curator, do you.
I like to think so absolutely, I definitely do curate vibes.
Yeah, Like I think the same way if I'm having you know, like a like a gathering, or somebody's like being.
Like, oh, like I want to have like a dinner, I'm like, okay, what do you like? What are you thinking? Like you don't have a spread? Is it going to be like a spread? You want to bounty for people? Do people bring in their own thing?
Do you want to just have it so your guests are like blown away by hospitality? Is it a group effort? I feel it could be me overthinking. Maybe that's a vibe curator a.
Little bit, you know, a little type a, a little overthinking.
But nobody I like that though, I also like to host like that, so I feel it. Yeah, I mean I love can I For the record, I love a spread same when people put it spread out. There is nothing that blows me more away than somebody who's like you thought of.
All these other things just to put out here for this little gathering, Like these are fine meats.
Maybe not cheeses, No cheeses for me, but yogurt flavored ice creams and popcorn what's your sprays? It goes to me, frozen yogurt and fro yo.
Right there, some cheese it some gold fish oh oh we cheese it so oh yeah, I like cheeses, yes, but not cheese.
Flavor blast Yeah, I like the flavor blasts. Goldfish flavor blast are the great. Yeah yeah, the more the better. Okay, all right, I'm just making sure, just making sure.
Are you a vibe curator? Would you do you see yourself as a vibe curator? Alex?
I think maybe, I don't know if I aspire to it. I think I try to participate, you know, but I'm not a big spread builder. I'm more of a spread supporter or like, oh, good job, keep it up.
Okay, I like that. That's you. But that is good. You are contributing to the vibes in a positive way, ye, so vibe Yeah yeah yeah, vibes contributor. These are all contribute, consume or be a connoisseur or a curator. Either way,
you do, you do what you gotta do. But yeah, the reason why, like Blue Monday, it just like sticks around like apparently all like in so much marketing, people are still using it as like a fucking being like hey, man, like you want to buy a fucking big mac by get the fucking Vibe meal and shit, or I think a Burger king that a vibe meal anyway, But it seems like the com might be working because last year in the United Kingdom, online sales are reportedly shot up
by eighteen percent on Blue Monday because of all this shit like oh yeah, like like it's wild how you can get in people's minds right like in America Black Friday, Cyber Monday, it's like you better buy some shit. Don't be fucking stupid fucking around Black Friday, you fucking dumb man, Go fucking buy something you don't fucking need because that weird mobile phone charger costs like half off now, like
I don't and and look at me. I bought one, but I use it sparingly, sparingly, but like I try to, I try to. And then like so it's wild that like they're using this thing of like weaponizing people's own like mental health or like seasonal affected disorder or whatever, like just to be like, oh yeah, it's gloomy to be like you know what will fucking help you to buy some ship? Man?
That is so ugly. I don't appreciate being manipulated like that. This is so ugly.
Well, you know, what are they gonna do, like deal with root causes of people's feelings of loneliness, So support the pharmaceutical industry if we have to do. Yeah, exactly, Oh what I'm gonna do? Pay real wages? No, no, it's blue Monday. Okay, did you did you? Did you buy that? Whatever the fun? Did you buy that? Stanley Monk? Okay, right, yeah? Did you guys are Stanley oh Man?
Yeah?
Also just feels fake that it would be a Monday specifically is the saddest day, Like what, I don't know. Tuesdays can be harder, and it just know, I don't think that time.
I'm kind of with you. I think Tuesday's Monday's, like I get it, like just because it's the first day back. But Tuesdays you're like, fuck, bro, it's only like you do this here, like it's only fucking Tuesday. The other part Monday, you know, You're like, it's fucking Monday. But Tuesday you're like, fuck, now, there's Wednesday. Yeah, oh Thursday, you're so far from your weekend on You're like, no, never mind let me just put it out of my head right now.
We're at Friday today, so we're good.
Yeah, exactly, And Happy Friday to you, and thank you so much to our guests. Our guest Sequoya B. Holmes, thank you so much for joining us. It's always a pleasure having you. Where do the people find you? Follow you, listen to you, and all that very important stuff.
You can listen to my podcast anywhere you listen to podcasts, including YouTube. You can find me on social media at BPLP pod and listen to Black People up Here more. It's it's a fun time. Go see what we're talking about.
Yeah, what are some upcoming episodes you guys are talking.
About today, I'm talking about the Cheetah Girls. Oh my god, I'm so excited. I love the Cheata Girls so bad. When we talked about thirteen, which was a very dark teen movie that came out in two thousand and three, I don't know if you have seen it, it's wild. If you have not, please go check it out.
I I just remember hearing about it and be like, I.
Don't know about Yeah, it was what adult eyes and I remember being when I was a kid.
But yeah, that's a Raven's episode because I haven't seen it.
Yeah, I was like, oh, that was all that was in it?
What? Yeah? Yeah, who's in that in thirteen?
Uh?
Evan Rachel would that's right, that's right. That was the thing that kind of put her on right, uh huh yeah yeah.
And also the one that played the lady that played one of the vampires in Twilight. I can't remember her name right now.
Yeah, Nicky Reid, Nicky read there it is from your show.
Sorry, yeah, Nicky Reid.
Yeah.
Nicky Reid wrote it as a She co wrote it as a twelve year old or thirteen year old.
So, yeah, you know, interesting story. I used to get fucking high as hell one of the Cheetah girls. Oh whoa what what? What? Wo? Don't tell me after you got to sell me out? No, it was not you telling us now whatever? You know what that tracks? That track is really right. We were eighteen, you know what I mean. She had like her fucking hole, I remember she was. She had her little checks and things, and she was like, y'all buy a fucking ounce she kids,
I mean we buy by the pound. She said, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it was not playing. Did not came to play anyway, keey I hope, I hope you remember me as Miles just to hang out with Mic and them all the time. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Shilah buff that was a wave that was just a whole other era though. Anyway, Uh, what is a tweet or other work of social media that you're enjoying? Oh?
I forgot about this. It is I owe A Debourie and Quina Brunson on the red carpet singing the Cheetah Girls L O L together and then they put the little fight fake microphone next to Yamy rommy yusef.
Oh got it, gotta go.
And he finishes the lyrics for the Cheatah Girls. And I'm like, gang, that's.
How influential, Thank you man, Because like, what was the other was it?
Adrian Bilon too?
Adrian Bilon?
Yes? Yeah yeah? What was the group that the three L dub right three L w oh? Yeah, because that was the group Keiley and them, wasn't it came from?
Yeah?
Yeah yeah. See this's oh shit, this is all because I'm telling you all the little Child actors and ship they all lived in the Oakwood apartments over there off Barham in LA. And like that is sort of like the NeXT's point. For like, I grew up in the valley, so I would always meet these kids. So I have a lot the intersection with the open apartments I have. I have so many stories. Man, that should be its own fucking podcast.
All right, that's gonna do it for this week's weekly Zeitgeist.
Please like and review the show.
If you like the show, uh means the world the miles he he needs your validation, folks. I hope you're having a great weekend and I will talk to you Monday.
By nothing, love,