How old are your kids? And four and two and a half they survived. I was like, if I can get them to two and a half, I don't have to worry about them like suddenly getting like dying at night. Because about you guys. I'm always like checking, like check their breath everything. I gotta like poke my head in to make sure they're still there. And every time I hear like the door open, I'm like, did the kids just run outside? And now it's like a weapon style.
We're doing the movie That's Coming where all the children just like sprint outside.
It's the way they run that freaking ship out of me because they're not just running. Their arms are out like they're trying to get fucking swept away by the wind or some shit. And I'm gonna watch it. I don't give a fuck. Yeah, it's freaky. It's so free. I think I have to watch it just because the trailer fucked me up so bad.
You should bring your kids to see it too. Oh yeah, yeah yeah. I'm like, see, dude, that was freak mommy out. And I'm gonna get a special effects knife and start acting like I'm stabbing myself in the face like the one leading in the trailer.
That part is also so fucked up.
That happens in the stabs a bunch of times.
Like that, just like casual.
What better way to teach your kids not to play with knives?
Yes, blade, safety blade, just like, oh no, Dad, you could just say, don't do that, it's dangerous.
You don't have to take me to a two hour horror film where children are doing who knows what. Every scene, I like, lean in and I say, see, this is what happens when you don't listen to your parents exactly.
I showed them hereditary for safety about when you know, being sticking your hand out the door. I'll just in the car.
Just super narrow lessons like yeah, yeah, that's.
Why my dad took me to see a Jurassic Park when I was too He told me not to fuck with dinosaurs, and I never did.
Wow, see see what happened?
Dinosaur?
Dinosaur is important.
It's underrated that I was never about to be fucking with them dinosaurs.
Well now, oh yeah, you have to watch it in the arch of the doorway at the theater because I was screaming my face off, how old are you? How old are you?
Yeah?
Yeah, it was two years son.
Yeah again that starts off with a banger scene.
Yeah.
No, they trying to bring that rafter it in the first three minutes. I was gone. I'd be talking to your therapist years later and they're like, why don't you want to go to the museum with your friends? Like, I don't want to talk about it. I don't want to do I don't.
Hello the Internet, and welcome to season three, ninety five, episode two of Dirt.
Alley's In Case. It's a production of iHeartRadio.
It's a podcast where we take a deep dive into American share consciousness.
And it's Tuesday, Tuesday, July first, twenty twenty five. Oh yeah, what was that?
Okay, Ginger Snap Day National Creative ice Cream Flavors. That's come on, that's creative ice cream flavors?
Like what SoC and shade uncreative ice creams over here?
Yeah, I mean like what they're just sure mint? They're showing a picture of mint chocolate chip.
Whoa, all right, Mozart, why don't we slow it down mid chocolate chip?
Whoa? Whoa whoa? We're not ready for the queer nick of easily already? Yeah?
Is this a commentary on the Spanish Civil War, this chocolate chip ice cream. It's also National US Posted Stamp Day and National Postal Workers Day.
We love, we love the postal workers.
We love the postal service, one of the few parts of the federal government that fucking operates properly.
God cares, and don't nobody else care to quote TUPAC people, lock up your dogs, man, we're tired of it. Yeah, we're tired of them hurting people in our postal workers and lock up your federal government funding the fucking post office. Yeah well, oh boy, yeah.
My name is Jack O'Brien aka rolling out the sky to the tarmac when you just fin.
A puke bag lack with your vomb and my pocket and my pocket full of Volume one courtesy of Rezic on the Discord, in reference to the time that I flew fourteen hours with my seven year old thought we were good and then he got airsick on the land, like he got landsick.
Oh yeah, like on the tarmac and no bag, no airsickness bag.
Then I know about this, right, the lack of bags now, because they say it's it's.
Actually more stable now so people aren't as sick.
But it's like people still get motion sickness on airplanes, regardless that sucks.
It was like, I think the springiness of the shocks was just like fucking with his inner little bit. And it was also probably like right as the what's it called drama me wore off, But I had to walk up to the flight attendant with just my hands hands being like.
Help me my supper please.
Anyways, I'm thrilled to be joined as always by my co host mister Miles Gray.
Yes, he's back on.
The streets of the San Fernando Valley off a plane from Des Moyo, Iowasca.
It's your boy, Miles Gray.
Shout out to the zeitgang in Iowa, Des Moines shot on alex at Raygun. Shout out everybody who came through with the tips. Beautiful, beautiful town. Beautiful town. You got there, beautiful town.
I was on a I was on a call video call with you, and I took that flowing river in the background.
They got real rivers.
They just got water, like they don't even have to try to have water. They just have like green plants that are green just by accident.
Because we live in a city that wasn't meant to be inhabited.
Truly, like like so relaxing about being in a place that is meant meant to be lived where vegetation grows naturally without having to steal water from elsewhere.
Yeah, you don't have to like stop and just like here an entire city that sounds like it's on a life support system. Yeah exactly, now the various places and like an air conditioners, just a fucking be hive worth of air conditioners buzzing neighborhood.
It is humid as ship through in Iowa.
I thought I was in Japan or some ship.
It's the humidity is not a joke though, But anyway, thanks for having me Iowa.
I had all. I had all the local food. I have breakfast pizza.
I had crab Rand Goom pizza.
I had I ate case's, the gas station and everything I had to do.
A Crabrand Gooom pizza does get it. Like the thing that I feel like the Midwest is the best is just like finding creative implementations of.
Yeah, yeah, unless you're Asian and you eat it and then you go, the fuck is this? Which is what my experience was.
You gotta have the crab Rand Gooon pizza from Fong's pizza. I said, Fong, Oh, is this like some some Chinese people, some immigrants over this. Nope, Nope, just people with a vibe. They just went for a vibe here. They had very orientalist.
You saw a movie with the name Fong get at once, one of those cats that's like waving.
Yeah.
No, it was like, I'm like, that's Japanese.
Interesting but anyway, otherwise, so fucking yeah, wonderful, wonderful, great time.
Well, Miles, we're thrilled to be joined by one of our favorite guests and award winning writer favorite guess.
Oh yeah, baby, just wait till the other guests here that I wouldn't give you my iPhone to give you to your cousin for nothing, Yo, I still owe you that photo. I didn't look.
I was just trying to bring it up. But when you said, yo, I'm looking for iPhone for my cousin, I said, I got you. Yeah, you owe me that photo from your cousin.
You came through. So my cousin Malwood has it right now. And last I checked, he was in the Red Sea with his son Melick. All right, so let me see have him send you one. Yeah, it was a little bit concerning because he was sending me pictures from underwater, and I was like wonderings, like, is he some merging this phone in the red waterproof? That's just waterproof. He's good, He's good. That's cool. Crazy, what is the phone?
Just like an old iPhone pro that you know, like they were waterproof for a minute.
You could take underwater photos on an iPhone. Yeah, it's so hard to get an iPhone in the reds like Egypt, and you go there and every single person has an iPhone and you're like, how the fuck are they getting this? And it's just it's just people like Miles b Yeah, we're applying the whole country with iPhones.
Just specifically it is Miles applying Cairo.
I go to restaurants, I take people's I I just snatched people's iPhones off their tables when they're eating, and I send them to Egypt.
Hey man, stop, I need to introduce you. Stopping Bob the president of the Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association.
You might have seen his work in places.
Like I don't know, CNN, The New York Times, m PR, GQ, Columbia Journalism Review.
Welcome back to the Showman. Is my It's funny. I just updated my profile my bio to include the fact that I was arrested by the NYPD. Just as impressive as being sixteen before it was fashionable. Yeah, before it was cool and it's still cool.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I talked to yesterday's episode about the Heinz Mustard. I wonder, like, are they doing that with Kendrick?
I mean, they have to be right.
You just I don't know you reported on it?
Did they say I did report on it?
I mean, are you writing an article loud about it on a microphone?
Borders are getting lazier and lazier.
Man, Yeah, this is I did not look up anything other than that they did it.
And you got to call Kendrick and ask for coming. Yeah. Yeah, oh no, no, yeah, they did it with Mustard.
They're not They're not going to go full full whack a do to jack in the culture like that, although I wouldn't put it past them, and.
I'm famously known for respecting the culture. Yeah, so much cool ship. Bro Let me let me show you this. This is my book. Yeah, it's finally here. I have a real copy. Congrats. That must feel good. It's a beautiful book. This is the happiest day of my life.
Wonderful addition to the book shelf. You know, like a beautiful blue that just like pops.
You know, this is a school photo from like the first grade, and I would cover too much. Dude, you got too much sauce in that school photo. I'm so saucy in the school photos. At Angle said, yeah, I might look at you. I'm looking at the cameraman like he just called me a slur. Oh yeah, it his side for sure, Like I said, yeah, But I remember what was in my head at that time. I remember thinking, like, damn, anybody who's smiling in this picture is whack as hell.
I'm not gonna smile. Wow, I'm not. I'm not like that. I'm I'm like real dude. Yeah, yeah, that's what I was feeling. And it's funny because this was when I saw this picture. I was like, yeah, that's the cover of the book right right.
And it's an autobiographical it's a memoir, which is insane to say because it makes me feel like I'm old and I've got like a big beard and.
I smoke a pipe. But no, man, it's it's specifically it was called Becoming bubba, And it's specifically about that time period and every man's life. Ope, I mean not every man's, but it's about specifically about that time period when you have your first kid and your life flips upside down and you become a bubba. Bubba's just Arabic for dad or daddy. Yeah and yeah, I mean you guys are both parents. You guys are both fathers, and so I think you guys can both relate to like
that moment when you feel like you're prepared. You know, you don't really know what to expect, but you did your research. You're there for your wife. You saw her get bigger and big and bigger than the day comes and you just can't wait. And then the baby comes and you're old in them and you're just like, this
is this is real. I'm a dad now. Then like for the next year, you don't sleep at all, and then your social falls apart, and then you think of yourself different, and your priorities change, and your diet changes and everything just changes. So this book is chronicling what
that's like, you know. And another thing I'm trying to like dig into is the fact that this is like the first generation of like parents like us who care about our kids in like a very emotional way, or we want to be part of the day to day We want to raise them, we want to teach them, we want to show them the world as we see it. That's kind of new because I have yet to find
somebody whose dad felt the same way. Sorry. It sort of feels like this is the first generation of this kind of dad, and so I wanted to chronicle it. I wanted to write it out. And you know, it's really special because it's from the Muslim perspective, and I have never seen a piece of media that the center
is the Muslim father as they become a father. They're particularly ones when they're born and raised outside of a country and they're born in dispora, right, Because there's like this really big fear that the more I talk to people, the more I realize that they share, which is that they will be the reason why their kids have no
connection to their mother land. Right. And it's like my Arabic already is kind of like, Okay, it's not great, but I know maybe like ten percent of the Arabic that my parents know, right, And I'm so worried that my kid will have like ten percent of the Arabic that I know. Yeah, I'm going through that right now. Yeah. It's it's like your imagine like your kid going someplace and being like, I'll have the peak old de Gallo,
you know, it's sort of that's sort of where yeah. Yeah, So this book chronicles it, and it digs deep and it tries to figure out where those feelings come from, the weird ways that they surface, like trying to pick the right name for your kid. Right. Also, like when you're on the phone with your mom and then she gets mad at you because you're doing something that she expects your wife to do and dead It's like all of these weird things come up. And but more than anything,
it's an entertaining book. It's one of those books you can just read on the subway, you can. You know, I wouldn't recommend reading it while you're driving, but there's audiobooks for that.
It's so funny because like, yeah, some of my family in Japan, like they saw me with my kid and they're.
Like, oh god, I'm They're like, oh, you're like a mommy the way I was in you interact. Yeah, yeah, I'm like the fuck are you talking about this is my little baby.
I love the funk out of him.
Why are you holding him? Where?
Smoke a cigarette? Go smoke a cigarette outside with drink a beer. Yeah, be emotionally distant. All right, Well it's out now. People can go find it wherever books are sold.
It's about to be out. It's gonna be out next week, July eighth. July eighth, everybody mark the calendar. And you're doing some appearances with the book too. Yeah, so the first one July eighth. I would love for people to come, but it's already a little sold out. Humble humble brag, but sorry, yeah yeah, yeah yeah. If you do want to come in, you gotta stand outside and just yell must yeah yeah yeah. Or if you come up and say Miles sent me exact yeah, yeah, that's all good.
You can definitely or come with an iPhone to trade it.
I Phony Egypt, I'll give you a free book.
Well, congratulations on the book.
Thanks, man. I'm really dumb excited. Bro. You should you should be, man, it's such a great achievement. It's so hard to self promote. But I'm trying to get over that that hang up, you know, for sure? Yeah, and I get that you're doing great.
Thanks, Thanks, And do you have any non sold out appearances?
I do, Uh, the day after I'm gonna literally the next morning, jump on a plane going to Boston, where I'm gonna be doing another event there Bookline, Bookshop, and I'm gonna be doing another one in Queens and then a homecoming in Newark, New Jersey, where I was born and raised and where I live now. But I'm also trying to you know, it feels like I'm still trying to schedule some stuff. I'm in talks with a bookstore in Toronto. I'm trying to do one in Lexington, Kentucky. Hell, yeah,
you can live there, did you really? Yeah? For three years, gorgeous. I just got back a couple of days ago. They got books down there, but I got I got family out there, and there was like so many scenes in
this book that happened in Kentucky. Yeah, And it feels like that's one place I want to like bring this kind of story to because you know, if you're in the East Coast or on the West coast, you know Muslims, you got Muslim friends for sure, places like Kentucky you might you know, bump into somebody at the shopping store. You're the first Muslim person they've ever met, right right, right right, And that's that's sort of where I want this book to live.
Hell yeah, Well everybody should go check it out, go pre order it, order it you.
Somewhere that's not Amazon. And you guys are the best.
All right, Well, we're going to get to know you a little bit better in the moment. First, we're going to table listeners a couple of things that we're talking about today. We're going to check in with zorun derangement syndrome. Yeah, it's all right, and uh m three again, two point zero did not do great at the box office, but if one did, at one got that Daily Zeit Guy's bounce, you know when you.
When you advertise with us, that's a record.
Nothing to do with Brad Pitt, nothing, I never heard of them.
I mean, Brad Pitt powerful box office fourth Brad Pitt with the approval of the Daily Zeit guyst Uh yeah, I think people are going to see that movie. And that we got a new Trump animatronic at the Hall of President's that looks both more like Trump and the worse. Yeah, so be interesting how you respond to that? All that plenty more, But first statement, we do like to ask our guest, what is something from your search history that's revealing about.
Who you are? All right, let me open it up. I will just be as blunt as I could possibly be. Okay, Oh it's a bad one, slash good one. Marjorie Taylor Green nicob burka. I feel like this doesn't require any more explanation. Yeah, it's pretty self explanatory.
Yeah.
I was writing some of the staff writer for Slate magazine. I just finished writing this piece about Zoron Mumdani and the aftermath of attacks that he's facing. And one of my favorite things afterwards was Marjorie Taylor Green MTG posting an image of the Statue of Liberty dressed in a burka. And I was like kind of suspect because I've only ever read about it at that point, and I was like, well, it's not like, like who called it a burka? Did
he call it a burka? I was sort of worried that it would just be like a hit jab and people would just jump on it and call it something else, right, or like a niccob. There's like so many different styles of hair covering in the Muslim world, and so I looked it up. I was like, let me just fact check them out. Never, I'm not confident that like somebody
like Marjorie Taylor Green could be racist correctly. I just wanted to be sure, Yeah, just in case I needed to do like a quick fact check in my piece. But no, she was right. It was it was a broker. So go for you. And I'm sorry for doubting you. I didn't. I didn't realize your game. The caption on it which you said this hits hard.
Mm hmm, You're like, what the fuck are you saying?
You think about it though, when you think about it, sh h is hard? Dude.
Wow, Yeah, what's something you think is underrated?
Yeah? This is this is why I love coming on the daily's Like, guys, man, you guys, I love that. I love answering this question because it changes every time. Right now, overrated, I'm gonna say, like being in your feelings, you know what I mean, feelings, Being in your feelings. It's like I get it, Like, right now, we're in this moment where people want to be in touch, they want to like impress those bushwork girls, you know, which you totally should and I literally did just write a
whole memoir about like my feelings about thing. But at the same time, I think stoicism, unfortunately is getting pulled out of the space when people are trying to be more in touch with their feelings, because there are so many situations where you shouldn't and can't be emotional. For example, I mean, I work in journalism, and so I'm constantly trying to find the space to be like my authentic self,
but at the same time, you can't be. You sort of just need to be stoic, be control of your emotions, and try to look at things in a sober way. But I feel like that applies to everybody in so many different circumstances. And you know, I guess parents specifically. As parents, you have kids who rely on you. Man, they look up to you, and they want to be playful, and they you do need to hone your skills at locking in and zoning in on being the most present
version of yourself. And you've got to be able to regulate your emotions, sure, right, So if your kid likes spills some milk, you can't just like get pissed off at them. You gotta like, you got to be in control, and you gotta here's some here's some paper towels. Man's time.
Yeah, you have that moment where the road forks off and like, do I act out my childhood right now?
And then you're like no, no, no no no no no no no.
I'm like okay, So, okay, So here's the thing. We don't throw spaghetti on the floor or at me and my nice white tea. Okay, So I understand you want to play, but that we have to eat our food.
Yeah.
There's so many times where I realized too reflexively, I want to just be take ship personally from a toddler to like having to really cauterize. That sort of reflex has been again an exercise and being like present and really trying to be zen about it, like like.
You know, the tiger does as the tiger does, you know what I mean, And we cannot expect anything less and it's really freaking hard to do. Man. Yeah, like the first time your kid's gonna punch you in the face and it happens really really young. I got smacked up arty right before recorded. I got two peas by my son. Yeah. So yeah, man like feeling things and being in touch with their feelings important. Yes, do that,
Yeah for sure. Being able to control yourself. So yeah, yep, man, you guys are better at parenting.
I will be get like in my feelings, have my feelings hurt, but then I will immediately be like, all right, I'm sorry, that was supid, immediately let them know that I was.
Guys. Sorry.
I love admitting that I'm wrong, and they love me admitting when I'm wrong.
You're like modeling for them regulation of your emotions, and I think that's really valuable, right because yeah, they're going to see it, and they're going to feel it, and they're going to feel it with you, and then you're going to show them and they can hold it back. Yeah, exactly.
What's What's something you think is underrated?
I've been really wanting to scream about this for a long time. Journalism. Journalism is so underrated right now. It's driving men everywhere I look. There's so many people and influencers and it drives me nut to people just like shitting on the media. And I get it, like I get where it's coming from, because there's a lot of bad news out there and there's a lot of people
doing a bad job at doing journalism. But at the same time, if you can hold that thought with another thought that I want to share with you, which is, this is the only time in history where big outlets like The New York Times, like CNN, like BBC all have people from the communities working on stories about those communities.
It's literally never happened before. Right when I got into journalism, like fifteen years ago, I still felt like the only Arab in journalism, and that's sort of the reason why I wanted to get into that space in the first place. But now I'm like president of an Arab journalist association, and there's so many of us. There's we're literally everywhere.
We're doing shitty out in all kinds of way. It's plains, plains, but like it's insane, And I love the fact that you can reliably when you want to learn more about the LA protests against ice from like a couple of weeks ago, if you want to learn more about it, you could literally go on the La Times website and read an article written from an immigration reporter who's doing interviews in Spanish, who herself comes from a Spanish family and is on the ground talking to you know, like
that kind of journalism is unheard of, yeah, like twenty thirty years ago. And I get the instinct to be like, nah, fuck the media, they're so racist. Oh they're platforming all these things. They're responsible for Trump. We would have Trump
if not for Xyz. I get that, sure, But we are still in possibly the great the golden age of journalism, and people are missing it because all they want to do is talk about how bad the journal how bad journalism is right now, right right, Yeah, journalism isn't like the police, you know what I mean, Like there are good actors, be.
A you know, I don't know about that, Yeah, I think they really infuriating thing too, is usually television news because that has is like such a huge, huge effect on people's perceptions.
And like in LA they ran back some old ass footage again, like on like NBC.
Four that was pretty just like very disingenuous, like old burning car footage and trying to connect that to what's happening now, And you're like, this is this is absolutely reckless.
But I totally get that. I mean, like it's because so much of the good stuff that we're able to even talk about comes from journalists like you and other people who are actually, you know, very dedicated to reporting on being objective and telling the truth rather than shying away from like will my objectivity be seen as biased or politicized?
And in my community, in the Muslim in Air community, there was this big streak of people being really angry at the news media for saying, for quote unquote, manufacturing consent for the genocide of Palestine. I get that. At the same time, the only reason we know about what's happening as it's happening, is because of the journalists in Palestine, right, So when you're talking but like the media sucks, you gotta be specific, you know, because so much happening in that space. Yeah, for sure.
Yeah, I think I'm definitely guilty of just overall being like focusing on the negative when yeah, there are good.
Reporters doing good work on the ground. For sure, I forgive you, and that's what you've been forgiven by by journalism. Hell ye, I was looking to get out of that. Thank God. Just do a couple of hell Anderson Cooper's and you're good. Yeah, No, he's not. He's like the merry figure in our community, all.
Right, let's take a quick break and we'll be right back. And we're back, and the world is still trying to grapple with Zorimumdani's victory in the New York Democratic primary. I mean, mainly the Democrats seem to be at a crisis point, having been forced to confront an incredibly promising path forward. What are they supposed to do?
What am I supposed to do? Folks have a focused campaign on things like the economic issues that hit everyone and articulate a way to deliver on that as a politician.
What the fuck is this guy trying to doom so far as of disrecording.
The one high profile New York Democrat to see the bigger picture and get.
Behind Zoren is Jerry Nadler.
Jerry, I was.
I was shocked.
I did not. I didn't. I didn't think that was in Jerry Nadler's bag, but it is. He's Yeah. I was like, Okay, wait to read the room.
Jerry Schumer Jeffrey's crickets mixed with.
Handwringing over their very intentionally skewed view on his stance on civil rights AKA, they don't like that he is pro Palestinian Senator Kirsten gillibrand my goodness, so last week she fully lost it on the radio when a caller named Gabe phoned into like a New York talk radio station to spread a bunch of misinformation to paint Zorn
as like an anti Semite. The call almost felt like it was scripted and that this person calls in says a bunch of lies to smear him, and like as like some kind of person held like trying to be like Zorn is going to destroy the Jewish community in New York and then the world. And then she just went on and yes, ended that shit, this is like a little bit of a portion of like his. This guy had a huge monologue he did before he actually
the senator actually responded. He said, quote, how do we make sure that Jewish institutions are protected from his plans to punish and find our institutions which fundraised the medical nonprofits which do work both here in the United States and in Israel and other countries in the world.
And also, how can we hold.
Mister Momdannie accountable for his glorifying association of Hamas and other terror bombings of the Intefada in nineteen the nineteen nineties where over one thousand Jewish as railies were killed to his revisionist Holocaust knowledge, just went.
On, just fired, rattled off a bunch of shit, to the point that even before Gillibrand could chime in, the host was like, now just to caveat this senator, that was a lot of that was a lot this man just said.
And there it potentially could be inaccurate because we cannot fact check that in real time.
And she was like, Okay, I don't care. She just went on to go. This is her response to that quote.
The caller is exactly the New York constituents that I've spoken to.
That are alarmed.
They are alarmed by past public statements.
They are alarmed by past positions, particularly references to global jihad. My sweets, I've heard that one before. Yeah, exactly. That's one of the most you know, worn out attacks on him.
Right now.
The hosts again forced to clarify live on air quote on mom, Donnie, I just feel compelled to say, we can find no evidence that he has supported Hamas or supported violent jihad.
Good on you. So then he then asked entator Chili Bran, can you she rolling Stone reached out after that.
And was like, uh yo, what's up. What's up with that answer on the radio?
It feels like chock full of misinformation that you just it felt like an APAC word salad uh that she responded to to her office said that she misspoke and is looking to clarify things with Zorin Mamdani, which feels like politician talked for Look, this is what that APAC money does to your critical thinking skills, you know, reflexively reflexively being anti Palestinian.
It's just kind of part of the gig.
Yeah, it's it is kind of what we were expecting, but it's it's even sloppy for like what I was expecting from the demo. Yeah, like a little like saying global jihad.
Again, let's clarify, right, because this is one of the most distorted quotes out there that they used to attack Zorin Mamdani, the famous globalized the Intifada again, a ridiculous distortion on what he actually said and what he means. So this is from an interview, said, this is where it comes from this interview where he's asked, does that just make you uncomfortable? Like the phrase globalizing Intafada and
like the phrase from the river to the sea. Does that make you uncomfortable or do you think And Mumdanni answers, Okay, those are different, those are super different. The interviewer says, they're not really Mum Donnie says, those are like different genres. Interviewer, I'm sorry, I'm asking so wrong. Then they're not really different to me, and to some people they are not different.
This is where Zoran really clears it up.
So please get this tatted on your forehead if you need it to be cleared up for you.
Quote.
I know people for whom those things mean very different things. And to me, ultimately, what I hear in so many is a desperate desire for equality and equal rights and standing up for Palestinian human rights. And I think what's difficult also is that the very word has been used by the Holocaust Museum when translating the Warsaw Ghetto uprising
into Arabic, because it's a word that means struggle. And as a Muslim Man who grew up post nine to eleven, I'm all too familiar in the way in which Arabic words can be twisted, can be distorted, can be used to justify any kind of meaning. And I think that's where it leaves me with a sense that we need that what we need to do is focus on keeping Jewish New Yorkers safe, and the question of the permissibility of language is something that I haven't ventured.
Boom boom bo.
Wow, I'm scared. I'm scared for my friends in New York.
Now, yeah, right, he said, damn, he's advocating for human rights.
And again this is he handled it like a probe.
So he went on meet the press, and Christian Welker also had to do sort of like the establishment democrat sort of grill session, like going line by line. The first one was like, so this is what Welker said. Trump called you a communist?
Are you a communist? From Dani? I am not.
And I already have to get used to the fact that the president is going to talk about how I look, how I sound, where I'm from, and who I am. I'm fighting for the very working people that he ran a campaign to empower that he has since betrayed. I call myself a democratic socialist in many ways inspired by the words of doctor King from decades ago, who said call it democracy or call it democratic socialism. There must be a better distribution of wealth for all of God's children in this country.
He's already so communist.
That sounds I'm gonna mar I'm just gonna mark that down as communist.
Okay, so what that sounds like is communist.
Then she asked if billionaires deserve the guillotine. Oh wait, no, that's my writing. She asked if billionaires should be, like, if they're okay, should they exist? Another fantastic answer, clearing it up because there's so much fear mongering of.
Like what does that mean? This is his answer.
You're gonna make them walk the ice like in the dark Knight Rises.
Do you think that billionaires have a right to exist?
I don't think that we should have billionaires because, frankly, it is so much money in a moment of such inequality. And ultimately, what we need more of is equality across our city and across our state and across our country. And I look forward to work with everyone, including billionaires, to make a city that is fairer for.
All of them.
Hmmmmmm. Can't argue with that.
And when he said work with did he make a throat?
No, not at all, all right. I was just shout at all. Sure, sure was.
He wasn't crack and he's knuckling up when.
He said that, I mean work with billionaires.
Yeah, I mean I think anyone who saw that interview would really have a hard time convincing themselves that this guy was some kind of like rabid freak that wanted to destroy New York.
Scary.
Yeah, it's just everything.
I mean.
Obviously I have a different take because I agree with what he's saying, but he comes off as someone who cares very deeply about his city, and like, you know, but that, unfortunately is going to stop the people like Christian Welker and the people like Hakim Jeffreys who continues to be like he needs to actually clarify to globalize, even like where are.
The statement that it's coming from? Is him clarifying? Yeah, explaining it? Like there's no reading of that quote in context that hasn't already been clarified for you.
What's what's amazing about it is that this has all been litigated already for the past like twenty years. Like all of the time between now and nine to eleven has been spent going over the same talking points over and over and over again, Right, like this word you haead. I feel like at this point people understand what it means. They know that it's not specific to violence. And there's like this this concept in Islam of like the greater
ghead being the the energy had. So when you're going to therapy, you want to know what you call that in Arabic, So it's a little bit of a gehead, you know, and this idea of like.
We also don't like therapy, by the way, on the on the right, we were not fans of that. That's how Devil's work.
I was definitely not going to therapy. I heard of that guy said it was Did that just ruin therapy for everybody?
No?
Definitely not.
For everybody on the right friendly line who already wasn't going to try and sort out their own emotional trauma.
And why they acted out. Do you remember when like Obama was a candidate and they were like warning that he went to a madras up, which is just the Arabic word for my dress up. And remember when that happened, I was like, I go to a mad dress so this is just fucking normal. But it still took off like an entire news cycle. So it feels like, they don't really have anything on Zohoran other than the fact
that he's a Muslim guy. But I think they're banking on that, and they're hoping that at some point he's going to slip up and they could take whatever news clip excerpt to back up their own their predetermined claims about him being the scary back guy who's going to like exterminate a population in New York City for some reason. And because it's worked, right, it's worked in the past, I mean not that long ago. I remember Inland Almud.
I think we talked about it on the show, how Almud out of context was like saying something about like this, people say some people did something when describing about how the aftermath of nine to eleven touched the lives of every single Muslim and American beyond, and they that had so much, so much power behind it, and it had so many legs that it's still something that comes up to this day when people on the right thing about Almard, do they remember that comment and they go, oh, yeah,
she actually does. She downplayed nine to eleven, And so I think what they're trying to do here is they're just throwing shit at the wall. They're just trying to see where he's going to slip up. But the fact that he hasn't already, I think it tells us two things. One, he's been down this road before exactly he grew up in this grew just like yeah, yeah, these people have just been like introduced to the darkness. This guy was born born yeah.
Okay.
And there he Aiman is comparing him to Babe, who is the person who made the stockbrokers walk on the frozen river that they talked about on the NBC of the day after victory. The messages are there read between the line he's.
He's gonna be on the radio and he's gonna be like, well, I want you to have a free boss ride Jesus and they will be they will be on time.
No.
The other storyline I'm seeing that is also I feel like a little I don't know that there's a lot of reporting that has turned this into the wind is the win is about his talent and like it's it has nothing to do with his position. It's like he's a very talented politician and that that's what happened, and he won in spite of his left wing positions and in spite of his like that that's what how the
economist wrote it up. And they were like but still like he's going to lead to the Democratic Party deeper into the wilderness with these positions, Like, yeah, it was a nice win for him, but you know who else was happy the next day. Republicans and their fucking chops over here.
Dude, they got themselves a new op they can go after. I think in order to believe that, you have to completely ignore the fact that when he started his campaign, he started in districts in New York City that went for Trump. Yes, so these were Democratic strongholds. These were places where everybody voted Democrat. It wasn't even a question.
But then the last election, something went terribly wrong and a lot of districts in New Jersey, in New York and Pennsylvania that were traditionally Democratic strongholds went for Trump, which should make everybody go crazy. Trying to find the solution, Zoran did something which is surprisingly peculiar in the political spaces which he showed up and he started talking to people on asking them and looking for the Trump supporters and asking them, Hey, what about this policy you care
about affordability? Would you vote for somebody who believes in X Y Z and they were like, yeah, hey, you'll have my vote if you do this, and that's where his campaign starts. And I don't know, it's just it drives me nuts how the American politics in general, left and right, have it yet figured out that they're there
to serve a populace, not the other way around. Pole, Yes, yeah, yeah, And we saw it in the last election with Donald Trump and Kamala Harris where it felt like the Democratic agenda was we need to get people on board with Biden, we need to get them on board with Kamala Harris, where their entire elector at poll after Pole was showing that they were losing people because they weren't talking to them and they weren't incorporating them and inviting them into
the big tent. And we saw how that played out. So I'm really excited for somebody like Zorn because he seems to get how to fix the democratic institution. And yeah, it's just I feel like they're going to come around. They're still kind of freaked out because he was able to do it without them, and he was able to see the institutionalized supported candidate in Cuomo, who even then they they call him a bully, like they didn't like him,
but they backed him because he had the name. And so I feel like they they're going to come around. It's just it's gonna take some time. This probably wouldn't be the case if he was just like a white guy from Staten Island. But you know, he's he's a brown guy and he's Muslim, and he's not afraid of apologizing for it, and so I think it's going to take a little bit of time, but I think they'll come around.
I did have that thought what would be happening right now if he was a white guy, they'd be just like finding something else about him or just like really going hard on his politics or something.
I mean, you got to like see how they treated Bernie Sanders, right, Yeah, they love talking about Bernie Sanders, they love supporting him, They like putting him in front of the camera. The thing that they don't like about Bernie Sanders is him becoming president. But you know, or they'll they do the thing where like he's supported by a bunch of like terrorist sympathizers.
Is probably what they do.
Is like they you know, how they made like a pejorative Bernie bro kind of attacked like, and these are the fucking people that like this shit, I don't know, is this for you? That's their base? Like I think that's the part that they don't understand. It's like, this is where the Democratic voters are going. Yeah, and so you need to keep up with that. You need to be able to understand who your supporters are, what exactly your party wants, and then create the platform, not the other way around.
I think that's why this is so important that like it's the it's the generation of the Zoran type politicians that inherit this party if the party has any chance of surviving, because if they keep doing the thing of trying to just you know, bludge in a candidate like this, to try and curb their ability to achieve office because they're going against like the establishment, it's just we're gonna
have the same thing over and over. But the one thing that's heartening is their attacks are so fucking tired that they're just like they come off as really like ineffective, like the things like well, you know he's Muslim.
So uh uh They're like, yes, so what.
His credit? Because I've interviewed him a couple of times. To his credit, he hasn't yet or I don't even think he will, because it doesn't even seem like it feels like it's maybe beneath him. But he hasn't even mentioned to the fact that like half of his staff is Jewish, right. He's like he's working with people who are Jewish, and you're out here saying that he wants
to kill them, Like it doesn't make any sense. And I'm like sitting there wondering, like all he has to maybe do is like say, hey, I'm actually part of my staff, Like in order to reach out to me, you have to go through somebody who is Jewish, right to talk to me. And I'm almost like I kind of credit him for that because it's not relevant, right, It's just like I'm not doing it because I'm like, you know, how like a you know, a Democrat, Like
I mean, half of my staff are black people. One of my very good friends bad luck, right.
You know what I mean when he's say you're like, well, okay, but again, I used to get lunch with a racist and then I would get lunch with a black man and he was he was in a duop a cappella barbership.
No, man, this is this is different than like corn pop. This isn't much different.
But I'm saying no.
But I'm saying I think the reason is because what he stands on is so much bigger, Like it's it's almost impervious to that kind of attack because its like what his messages resonates so.
Deeply across the board with people. And it's not because he's done this thing like a polished candidate biers like, okay, you need to have like people of color that are like visible understaffed. He's like, no, man, I'm here to deliver for people. And guess what the other people that are with me, they this is just this is the crew that I have and it's diverse, it's broad.
It represents so much of the city. So you know what, Stephen Miller is Jewish? You know, like that's like that That's my issue with that whole like defense being like, how could we be support this administration? Yeah, be anti semitic when the architect of all the xenophobic raids is a Jewish man.
It's just it just bothers the hell out of me that this is the line of attack. Yeah, no, just sure, it bothers the hell out of me. And it's a trope. It's an Islamic Islamophobic trope in and of itself, and I wish that we had grown out of it as a company.
Yeah, it's I think that's the one thing you really realize, right, is the US. The US is just addicted to Islamophobia, like it cannot even when it makes no sense at all, Like I puts decades past nine to eleven and the the like the fucking horror that is unfold in the
Middle East because of US foreign policy. This still has this like reflex like, well, we need someone that everyone can have, like they won't think critically and be like, oh, this brown person is Muslim, so therefore I don't have to think anything of like I don't have to really interrogate this any further because the shorthand reflex is equals bad.
But I think, again, that's starting to eroad. You know, It's just it's not it's this isn't like twenty ten. But I know for some people it does.
Work like that, and people are susceptible to that kind of sort of rhetoric and propaganda. But there is something because he's he's speaking to something so much deeper.
It's it's just irrelevant for so many people.
It's gonna be interesting to see how far we've come as he goes against famous nine to eleven authority mayor Eric Adams, who you know pointed out that the great thing about New York City one day you're opening a business the next day nine to eleven, you know, and so you never know what's gonna happen, and that's why we love this town.
It almost feels like this is a calculated way to like try to drag him into the dirt, because yes, when you put it like that, it makes me feel like it's a trap, like they want him to like have to constantly defend his record as a Muslim person. Yeah, but yeah, no, I've seen a little bit of it. He's sort of like in this weird position where they're constantly asking him about like this global you had Global
into father thing. But I from the clips that I've seen, at least, he's done a pretty decent job of saying no, no, no, here's what here's the policies that I care about. He'll just like pivot into actually his policy. So, yeah, it's an interview your position to be in man. It sucks.
Of course it sucks.
I think being a person of color who's not towing the line of a party and really trying to deliver for people, aka just rocking the fucking boat, they're fucking They're gonna come at you with everything you know every time, and that's just. But again, I think, like to your point, even as he you know, somebody who has grown up in post nine to eleven America, being a Muslim man in America, you have already you already know how to
navigate the stupidity that exists in American society. He's trying to make you look a certain way, and you have already spent decades of your life having to prove your humanity to people who don't give a fuck about you. So I think he's That's why I think he's never looked shook when he has these interactions, because I think it's the.
Same way like black people.
When white people want to be like, well what about you know, what about the violence in your communities, people go nah. People who are used to hearing those attacks and go, okay, I know, I see how you look at the world, and that's not actually how it is. Okay, because what you're what we're not talking about is the larger picture about inequality and what that does to our communities.
And that's what you're saying is a distraction.
And he's he's seems very polished, you know, as like an organizer and politician at this point that it's would it would probably take something so inflammatory and offensive to try and get him to sort of wobble like that. But again, he seems very he's very adept, and he seems like he's built. He's built for this moment.
Yeah, truly born in the darkness of is long the archism.
He's like, oh, y'all, just fucking play with it, you know what I mean?
Yeah, I mean maybe maybe a bane man. I don't know, like I was born in the darkness. And honestly, my only issue with his uh, I think he's a little too nice to billionaires in that in that statement. I think he should be like, and you know, we'll see how did they ice skate.
The camera ice skate?
See how they do on the icy rivers of the East River.
You know what I'm saying. You know what I mean? You know what I mean? Maybe Nancy Kerrigan for some lessons my boy.
I mean, if if he really wants to be popular, all right, let's uh, let's take a quick break.
We'll be right back, and we're back.
And big weekend at the box office for F one F one, big big hit. M threegan two point zero not so much as we and three game threegan.
Yeah, the three Gans weren't They weren't feeling how much How many moneies did M threegan make?
M Threegan made ten million as a domestic the first one made thirty was like a big surprise hit. He made seventeen global, so that although to be fair, only cost twenty five million dollars to make. So I'm sure it's going to get a nice approving headline from Deadline like they did, like the opposite of what they did for Sinners, right. They were like, this might look like a hit to you because.
It made more money than it costs to make by by orders of magnitude, does not mean this is a hit.
I don't know, Ryan koog I don't know where Ryan Coogler gets as like the.
Tone of those articles.
Yeah, had an article about the biggest most exciting box office success of the year, the thesis, where does this guy get off. Yeah, a big news for the Hall of Presidents. That's a usually like that's where I rushed to. If I take my kids to Disney World, we're rushing right to the Hall of Presidents, to the Hall as.
Yeah, exactly is it.
One of the is it one of the first things?
Like is it set up like how Disneyland is, Like when you go through the gates you're kind of in that like main street area, so then you can go to the Hall of President's right, or you have to seek that?
Is it right there? I think you have to seek it. I've never been.
I would never go in anyway could possibly And I think we walked past it and it was like fucking I don't know if maybe this was when it was closed for but it like tumbleweeds. I was like, oh, they have tumbleweeds for the old West Town. They're like, no, that's an actually occurring.
Those are real tumbleweeds.
It was not a popular attraction, but that's just because they had the old Trump that looked like really legitimately looked like they had made the Hillary Clinton animatronic and then had to like last second be.
Like fuck yo, somebody get a blow dryer, so we can mop the face a little bit and turn it into a Trump face and getweight.
Stat just looked like a Hillary Clinton if she had like on a latex mask trying trying to pose as Donald Trump for like a you.
Know, it's like Hillary Clinton doing Frank Havoc from I think you should to my ship.
Exactly Clinton havoc energy. But yeah, now so they've replaced that with a more accurate Donald Trump. Just like more jolly essentially is what they did. Just gave me more droopy, more droopy or jals and the same exact outfit and kind.
Of smell here, yeah.
Vision yeah, yeah, yeah, fresh diapers, and.
I feel like there's no way he doesn't smell like hot right, like just they say no, people say he stinks. They say, people say he smells like cooked hot dogs.
You know, he smells like wet ones. He smells like boo boo.
Oh really yeah, they say it was like this entire expos his producer on the Apprentice, and they went into depth with some of that stuff. I mean, I wasn't in the room. I can either conform nor deny. All I know is that some people are saying he has the hugest, biggest, most beautiful poops.
And you are saying, many are saying, can't control his battle movements.
And Adam Kinsinger also said it. In the run up to the election. I remember, like on Kimmel he was like this guy, he said he was pungent, pungent.
Yeah, anyways, those are the big updates.
Kind of makes you feel bad for him a little bit.
Yeah, really, I feel so bad for him. Actually, that's what It's kind of what keeps me up at night.
That's kind of the whole point of this show is we want to just generate as much sympathy for Donald Trump as possible.
The c I a seemingly left leaning thing that we just secretly seed people with sympathy for Donald Trump, and how difficult it must be. It's all the pictures of him have in the background, the bad guy from the painting and Ghostbusters too. You see, Yeah, looks looked like Vigo.
Yeah, like who what.
President looked like? That clearly was before fucking cameras, this guy in as Hell.
You gotta be if you want to be president back then, that's true.
You just have to be an evil warlock most like the Number one.
That's why I don't buy that whole honest ape thing. That guy who's President of the United States, that guy was a thug.
Bro.
He's like, he's do your thing, Sherman, fu up Georgia for me. Boy.
There's another show we're working on that we got some research in on like Abe Lincoln, and like one of the anecdotes was him just like ripping on the this guy who worked for him, like for being Irish, Like you like.
Just like I know it, I know it American.
You got to eat a piece of fruit that like wasn't edible. He was like, he's like, yeah, have you ever heard of like a fig?
Yeah?
I mean you should try it. This tree has like the best figs. It was like not a fig tree. And then the guy was like spitting it out and You're like, what like Lincoln's in the back just laughing as.
Irish iribe Abe.
Anyways, Amen, truly a pleasure having you on this podcast. As always, Where can people find you?
Follow you?
Uh, find out more about your book all that good stuff.
You could follow me on Instagram at aman dot com spelled do t c O m A y m A and then do O T c O N. Also you can find me on AMAN dot com, A Y M A and N dot com literally to any of your favorite bookstores. And one of these guys up holding up the book Beautiful Blue. You got to find the Beautiful Blue big beautiful blue book. And while we're on the subject of like zoron and stuff, I feel like I should really want to understand the psyche of somebody who's
gonna grow up post nine to eleven. Yeah, and then become confident enough to be on meet the Press and run for mayor you should start on reading this book, which is about my life doing the same things, except not all of the things, but yeah, some same things go out everybody. Thanks. Man.
Is there a work immedia that you've been enjoying.
I've really been enjoying that show Adults on Effects. Oh see, I've not seen it. It's like really silly, funny. It almost feels like a sitcom. It's the kind of show you can watch with somebody and then like do references from afterwards. It feel good, it's cute. Yeah, Yeah, that's that's the sort of thing that I want to do after a hard day's work of looking up MTG tweets on the internet.
Yeah, all right, I've seen the billboards, I have not seen the show, and this is the first recommendation I got. So just ten more recommendations to go and I'll check an episode now one day. Actually yours counts for like five, so I need a few more.
Yeah, and I wonder if, like, I like it a little bit more because I can't do any of the things that they're doing, like going out and having a social life, right, you know, the things that you lose when you become a parent. So I don't know. Maybe I'm living vicariously through them. But it's silly. It's fun. There's this scene where they're trying to like sell a gun but they can't. It's super good. It's a cute show.
Miles.
Where can people find you as their workI media you've been enjoying.
Yeah, find me everywhere at Miles of Gray.
You probably missed the last episode ever of Miles and Jack got mad mosties.
I won't be saying it anymore.
Yeah, you want to check it out. It's over, but you know what it is. What it is. We will come back in some other iteration. I mean, it's not like we're any We've gone anywhere. There's this show so.
You guys just not here us talk about basketball as much.
There also find me talking about ninety d fiance on four to twenty Day fiance.
A couple of works of the social media.
I like first one at Sunday Divine the Sky do Social says I love the energy of mom Donnie, but I hope he doesn't try to socialize brunch.
But yeah, no, that's just don't cross that line. Don't cross that don't don't touch that third rail. And this is like an Onion headline from a few weeks ago that I don't think I talked about and I just loved. It's like a woman with like lovingly nestling, nestling like nuzzling with a predator drone and it says, grieving war widow finds comfort in the wings of drone that served with a husband. Correct fucking the Onion. Oh my god.
You can find me on Twitter at Jack Underscore, Brian Blue Sky Jacko b the Number one. Yeah, I like to tweet from Bonanza parentheses. Miffy tweeted, do you want to touch knees?
Later?
While we're sitting down and pretend to ignore the fact that we're touching knees that riding a train, that's riding a train, that's sitting at a cafe that doesn't have enough room for that. You're just trying to like cram in one too many seats.
They don't know, they don't ever account for knees.
No, yeah, and my, my wolbly ass weird knee etiquette. I got bad knee etiquette.
Is that you just jab your legs for my knees of a mind other people's knees. Yeah, check me. What's up? Do you think you hard? Yeah?
You can find us on Twitter and Blue Sky at daily Zekest, the Daily Zekeist on Instagram.
You can go to the description of this episode wherever.
You're listening to it, and you can find the footnotes, which is where we link off to the information that we talked about today's episode. We also link off to a song that we think you might enjoy, mild Is there a song that you think that people might enjoy? Yeah?
Yeah, if you like Toro Ey Moah Chazz from that band also, you know, puts out some nice electronic dancing music too. And this is a track I want to go out because I was listening to this and I didn't realize who this artist less sins was and it's Chatz from Tori Moa so l E S s I N S.
The track is called Grind and it's just again it's summer. Look. My dad sent me this.
Quote from like a Guardian article about like like to live, as Young said, with two existing opposite thoughts at the same time, and survival right now depending on our ability to swim in this duality.
So I use music to keep my.
Joy up, to keep my joy activated, and so I like music like this.
It kind of gives me a little you know, honey in my hips, makes my big toast shoot up in my boots. So this is grind by these scenes.
Hell yeah, all right, We will link off to that in the foot notes. Todaily the Zeitgeist is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio w ap Apple podcast or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. That's going to do it for us this morning. But we are back this afternoon to tell you what's trending, and we will talk to you all then, Bye bye bye.
The Daily zeit Geist is executive produced by Catherine Long, co produced by Bebe Wang co produced by Victor Wright, co written by j m mcnapp, edited and engineered by Justin Conner,