The Daily Zeitgeist - GOP Debate Circus, D.A.R.E. Kids To Do Drugs 09.29.23
Episode Date: September 29, 2023In episode 1556, Jack and Miles are joined by writer, speaker, social justice educator, and co-host of BFF: Black, Fat, Femme, Dr. Jon Paul Higgins, to discuss… Speaking of Trump And The UAW, GOP FI...GURED OUT HOW TO STAND WITH WORKERS!!! AAAAHGGGGHGHHH, Oh Yeah There Was a GOP Debate... It Was A Sh*tshow! D.A.R.E. Is Somehow Still A Thing and more! Donald Trump Campaign Offered Actors $50 to Cheer for Him at Presidential Announcement Did Donald Trump pay actors to attend Michigan rally? Sign holder makes confession GOP FIGURED OUT HOW TO STAND WITH WORKERS!!! AAAAHGGGGHGHHH Republicans Suddenly Desperate to Seem Pro-Union D.A.R.E. Is Somehow Still A Thing Sheriff: Kenosha County D.A.R.E.-based program to warn high school students of fentanyl threat in Kenosha County Roanoke City Sheriff’s Office sergeant talks importance of D.A.R.E. program A brief history of DARE, the anti-drug program Jeff Sessions wants to revive The DARE Program Is Back in Some School Districts — Here’s What to Know Drug Prevention Placebo: How DARE wastes time, money, and police DARE to Say No: Police and the Cultural Politics of Prevention in the War on Drugs Flashy Cars Taken From Drug Dealers Go To D.A.R.E. Officers DARE Marks a Decade of Growth and Controversy : Youth: Despite critics, anti-drug program expands nationally. But some see declining support in LAPD. Why the D.A.R.E. Program Failed LISTEN: Kimumbu by Akofa AkoussahSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult.
And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church.
And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me for I Have Followed.
Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and Shekinah Church.
Listen to Forgive Me for I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Hey, I'm Gianna Pradenti. And I'm Jemay Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk
Offline from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. There's a lot to figure out when you're just
starting your career. That's where we come in. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to
for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in people who do,
like negotiation expert Maury Tahiripour.
If you start thinking about negotiations as just a conversation,
then I think it sort of eases us a little bit.
Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
I'm Keri Champion, and this is season four of Naked Sports.
Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry,
Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese.
People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game.
Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's basketball.
And on this new season, we'll cover all things sports and culture.
Listen to Naked Sports on the Black Effect Podcast Network,
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or wherever you get your podcasts. The Black Effect Podcast Network is sponsored by Diet Coke.
Hey, BFF family, we've got some exciting news. That's right. If you live in Los Angeles,
honestly, even if you don't live in Los Angeles, we will be live, loud, and in color at the Elysian
Theater on October 11th. Ooh, girl, what time?
7.30 p.m. And we've
got some amazing guests with us, too, to
celebrate National Coming Out Day.
And my birthday, which is the
day before. Ooh, girl, I know
that's right. Join me, Joe
Holt, Travelle Anderson,
Charles Hassell, and Xavier DeLow
as we celebrate the BFF
experience. Head over to ElysianTheatre.com to get your tickets today.
Hello, the internet, and welcome to Season 306, Episode 5 of
Der Daily Zeitgeist, a production of iHeartRadio.
This is a podcast where we take a deep dive into American Shared Consciousness and it is Friday.
September 29th,
2023. Yes.
That means it is Urban National Wildlife
Refuge Day. It's also
National Coffee Day.
And also last Friday in September
is National Gay Men's HIV AIDS
Awareness Day. All those. There you go.
All happening. Last Friday. All those.
Coming at ya. Coffee Day. I am observing Coffee Day. I've had about a pot. All happening. Last Friday. Coming at you.
Coffee day.
I am observing coffee day.
I've had about a pot of coffee so far this morning. No, you haven't.
For no reason.
For real?
No good reason.
Hey, did you do Vietnamese coffee yet?
No, I still haven't done Vietnamese coffee.
Oh, Jack.
Like I said.
In fact, I had forgotten our conversation until you just said that.
Wait for a full moon.
Like I said, do it on a full moon.
Chain myself to a radiator.
Yep, in the basement.
And then just see what the coffee does to you.
I mean, I feel like it's going to make me have to go to the bathroom.
That's what it's going to do to me.
Honestly, you might not even notice because for me, I was in such a panic that I didn't even know I had bodily functions.
I was just like, am I just this consciousness that is on a really bad way?
But hey, teach's their own.
Well, my name's Jack O'Brien, a.k.a. Jaquille O'Neal.
Because of the way I bang in the paint.
Just dunk on people.
So casual with it.
Because of the way I bang in the paint.
You know, my high school coach always said,
man, if you were only 7'2", 325 pounds of pure muscular athleticism with your skills, even then you probably still wouldn't start.
Now stop asking me.
Yeah.
Hey, man, but we need the Gatorade thing is empty.
So why don't you go fill that up, man?
All right, Coach.
All right.
Well, I'm thrilled to be joined, as always, by my co-host, Mr. Miles Gray.
Miles Gray, a.k.a.
I always feel like somebody on the street gonna blow heroin on me.
Oh, I always feel like somebody on the street is airborne smack just a dream oh okay that's
shout out to uh the people of seattle who you know handled that fox news person there
very thoroughly when they're like i saw people using drugs when the lady was like
oh and were you in a car yeah were you afraid it was gonna come through your car
did it get you? No.
Okay.
Keep it moving out of my town.
Did that make you scared?
Yeah.
That's from La Carona on Discord.
Shout out La Carona.
Shout out Rockwell.
Shout out the son of Barry Gordy.
That's how he got that Michael Jackson feature on that track for people who don't know.
Is that right?
Yeah.
I had no idea.
Peppo babies, Jack.
They're all around. They're all around.
They're all around us, hiding in plain sight.
Miles, we are thrilled to be joined in our third seat by a brilliant writer, speaker,
social justice educator who's written for Ebony, Complex, Out, The Root, and appeared
on NBC News, BuzzFeed, and Vox, among many others.
Part of all of them.
They're also the host of the amazing podcast, BFF
Black Fat Femme, which
has a live show coming
up on the 11th of October.
You can still get tickets
as of right now. Go
get them. It's Dr. John
Paul Higa!
Hello!
It's so nice to be back.
It's so nice. I back. It's so nice.
I manifested this.
So I had said like earlier last week,
I was like,
I miss Jack and I miss miles.
And I said that like under my breath.
And then Anna was like,
yo,
you want to be on the show?
And I was like,
Oh my God,
I manifested this.
So I'm really,
we do have you bugged and are listening very carefully to anything that
happens. So, and just so you'm really we do have you bugged and are listening very carefully to anything that happens so and just so you know we only we only have you on when we know you have uttered the
words i miss them and then we're like okay let's go because i mean the last time i saw you was in
new york yeah i was like yeah i was like man i was like i miss it wait wait who do we who do we
run into at 30 rock that you fanned out on oh gosh we ran into uh heather mcdonald's i always call
her heather long boobs because that's what i know her as from from josey lately but right i was like
oh my god it's heather mcdonald's so so random and i was like i love her i think her comedy is
great so it was really cool it was wild though and because we were just i think we had just got a new york bagel together we did and the way the way you pulled up to heather mcdonald i thought you knew
her i was like of course they know heather mcdonald yeah no i didn't know her but i knew i was like i
know that lady and so i ran up on her and was like yo can i get a picture she loved it she loved yeah
she did yeah so my husband was actually thrown by it too he was like yo you met heather
mcdonald i was like yes so hey new york new york it's the city of dreams where was it concrete
jungle red green tomatoes yeah
yeah so what is that is that just like a meme no i always i've always sang it that way you
thought it was oh yeah i've always sang it that way in my head it's always been
yeah it sounds like you're saying there's nothing you can't do now you're in new york and i was like
why are you saying red green tomatoes and then i realized it was where dreams are made of and i was
like oh snap i was singing the wrong words so i just love that juxtaposition though concrete jungle red green
tomatoes now you're in new york that's right like wow what a random thing to say i don't know i'll
have to look out for those when i'm in town do you guys have these red green tomatoes yes yes
so oh man all right well dr higgins we're gonna get to know you a little bit better
in a moment first we're gonna tell our listeners a few of the things that we're talking about we're
gonna talk about the republicans attempt to stand with workers and how that's not going very well
including trump's speech in detroit much hyped speech in detroit where he was gonna ultimately like come out as
this time i am a man of the workers and it didn't quite go that way it looked that it looked that
miles you're gonna tell us about the gop debate i haven't read anything about what happened at the
gop you don't you don't need to. You already know without knowing.
I'm just here to
shine a light on some of the more chaotic
aspects of it because nothing really happened.
No one...
I would be surprised if after
a Republican debate, we're like,
you know what? I think so-and-so
actually has a chance here at
cracking the code to defeat Trump.
Because it's not at all.
It's just a bunch of foolishness, but it's all on tape.
And we'll talk about D.A.R.E.
D.A.R.E.'s making a comeback somehow.
All of that, plenty more.
But first, Dr. Higgins, we do like to ask our guests,
what is something from your search history that's revealing about who you are?
Well, first, I want to say crack is whack.
Crack is cheap. On the D.A. um on that dare tip uh i wanted to say that it just it literally rolls up in my spirit the uh our writer jm like was like yeah back in the days of the dare program when peewee
herman urging kids not to try crack was considered totally normal. And I had to look that clip up.
And man, there is a great PSA.
I think this was a time.
Even that.
What a time.
Do you remember that meth commercial where she was like,
staying up all night cleaning your house?
Meth, meth.
And it was like literally, there is a literal commercial.
I have to, I'll send you the link but
there is a commercial of a woman singing about being addicted to meth and it came out in the
90s and then i always remember that this is your brain on drugs with like i remember that one crap
but no that meth song literally every time specifically when i'm in downtown la which i call gotham city i'll see it and just it
starts playing in my head like meth meth yeah wait what is it this one yeah there is an actual
commercial yo this is ridiculous i know you didn't hear it i just heard the first bar a bit hold on
hold on hold on there we go get me busy as a bee where'd i get all this energy oh man wow i don't sleep and i don't need
but i've got the cleanest house on the street the visuals are not i'm sorry this this was an
anti this was an anti-meth psa well? Well, they've got the music matching.
The music makes me think that this is from the people who brought you Flintstones vitamins.
Yeah.
This meth commercial.
But then the visuals look like they're from early 90s.
Darren Aronofsky.
Yeah, like Soundgarden.
One of those things about the runaway train video, you know,
about kids who get kidnapped or run away from home.
It's, yeah, it's very strange.
The Pee Wee clip, I just watched for the first time
since I was a child,
and they make crack sound really appealing in the edge.
Like, because he's very serious,
but he is also like,
it's so potent.
Oh my god.
This is crack. Rock cocaine.
It isn't glamorous
or cool or kid
stuff. It's the most
addictive kind of cocaine,
and it can kill you.
What's really bad is nobody knows how much it
takes so every time you use it you risk dying it's such a not a peewee vibe that i don't know
he's the worst messenger for that message but then the end it's like the thrill is not worth
the chill or something like that oh. And like he yeah he goes on
to be like and it's the most
powerful form of cocaine.
It's like
the craziest high.
I opened up
Pandora's box. I'm so sorry.
I really did.
Ooh meth.
It feels like something Dolly Parton wrote.
Yeah. It has a very Dolly Parton wrote Yeah
Like it has a very Dolly vibe
Here's a little ditty I got to keep the kids off the meth
Yeah
And then they wrote a song about it
But anyway all that to be said
I'm sorry I opened that
I literally opened up that one hole
But what I'm searching is my crack
Which is Apple
So I got an iPhone 15 Pro on Friday.
Well, technically I got it Monday, but I ordered it on Friday.
Wow.
I think I made the wrong decision in the color.
I got the natural one, which I thought was going to end up being gold.
And it's not.
It's like a gray color and it's ugly.
I personally think it's ugly.
And so I've been kind of browsing around trying to see if they have any in store and then they do they
have a black one which is like way out in south coast and i'm like do i draw am i really that
awful that i'm gonna drive down to irvine right to get a new phone because i hate the color of
the one that i have capitalism yeah yeah and But anyone who knows me knows that I probably will.
So,
cause I'm a,
I'm an addict.
Apple owns me and it really sucks that I literally.
Do you have a,
do you have a Apple watch ultra?
Are you that?
I have the two.
Oh no.
Yeah.
Wow.
They just came through with the,
wow. It's everything. You just came through with the, wow.
It's everything.
You know,
it's funny because we were just talking about the new iPhone and how I
thought I haven't upgraded since 2019.
And I'm like,
I'm ready.
Cause the only thing I was like,
I want USB-C I'm off this lightning,
every phone.
I was like,
whenever they do USB-C I'm back.
And then I had a pro max.
I have a pro max now.
And I saw that video of this year's pro max. And the dude just bent it in half with his hands. And I was like, whenever they do USB-C, I'm back. And then I had a Pro Max. I have a Pro Max now. And I saw that video of this year's Pro Max.
And the dude just bent it in half with his hands.
And I was like, oh, fuck out of here.
Really?
Wait, isn't the whole thing supposed to be titanium?
It is titanium.
But it's very much on the lighter side.
It's very light.
Like, light to the point where I almost thought, I was like, is this a Pro?
When the person, I shouldn't say lady.
And when the person handed me the phone they initially handed it to me and I was like this
feels and looks like the pro and they were like no it's the pro max and I was like wow
so like it just it's it's a lot sleeker and it's a lot I don't know it just feels better in your
hand but like I said I just don't like the color of it and I'm like do I I'm like do I just you
know shrug my shoulders and say you know forget about it right or do i you know gas up my car for a hundred dollars because gas
is literally seven dollars a gallon in socal and drive down even though i have a hybrid but still
like do i am i going to be that person that drives across town literally to getting purely for look
of the color yeah because of the look
of the iphone do you do you not wear have a cover on your iphone i so this is the thing i wish that
i i and i have to say this i am a person who will spend ridiculous amount of money at apple but that
is one of the things that i just i cannot bring myself to be like oh let me just rock my phone naked and run the risk of it slipping out of my hand and you know and i'll tell
this story here because it's the perfect story to tell it this is a true story so one day back in
like i think it was like 2012 2013 do you remember when they used to test your phone for water damage
before you could get it like replaced yeah and it was like one of the look down that little hole
yeah they would they would literally like blow this light thing into it to like see if there's
red in your phone because it got wet well i remember coming in from work one day and i was
literally so the way my apartment was was when you walk through the front door you would immediately
have to make a like a left to go into my bedroom and the bedroom you would have to pass the bathroom
in order to get into my bedroom and so sure enough i walked into my apartment i was setting my work
bag down i was on the phone and literally as i was walking into my room to take off my work shoes
my phone slipped out of my hand and guess where it flew into the toilet the toilet and so ever
since then i've been like and that was at the time where i was like i
don't need a case i'm not a case girl and now to this day i'm like yeah that if that can happen
anything can happen and so i've always put a case on my phone i hate cases but yeah me too yeah as
much i always love like when i get the new one i'm like yo i want to rock it like this and then it
then it just takes me putting it on the table wrong and then i just have like i'm like you're gonna fucking break everything yeah i feel like when i take the case off if i've had a
case for a while i'm like oh that's that's what color the phone is like right so like i don't
when i when i have a case on my phone i have no idea what color it is or, you know.
Yeah.
So I told myself, I bought a black case for it.
So I have a, I have a, like a, I have that woven case on it, the, the woven one.
And I told myself, I said, I'm going to get the black woven case and see if it makes me like the phone a little bit better.
And if I can deal with it, you know, being black and silver in the woven case, if I like it, then I'll keep it.
But if I don't, then I'll go to the place tomorrow and I'll get a new one.
I'm like oh it's much lighter now and I think I was assuming that it was picking up weight like from dust just just aging getting heavier with age and that's probably not the case like a pillow
you know just dust mites yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. Dusty phones. Dead skin particles.
Just dusty.
Dead bugs inside my phone.
Yeah.
That's probably not scientifically accurate,
but I just realized when you described that
that that's what was happening in my head.
Yeah.
I'm a stupid person.
It's fine.
What is, Dr. Higgins,
what is something that you think is overrated?
Overrated.
I actually made a note about this.
So my overrated is being an adult.
I think being an adult, like the older I get, it just, it seems like I remember being a
kid, maybe because I was poor.
So like, I remember being a kid and being like, when I get older, I'm gonna, you know,
I'm gonna eat what I want and i'm gonna do what i want
whenever i want to do it and then it's like i look at my calendar my calendar is so full and i'm just
by the time like i actually get to sit down on my couch it's time to do this shit all over again and
i'm like damn it like can i rest so like i don't know just being an adult maybe because of the the
time that we live in like everything feels so so heavy. Like, you know, I was talking to someone about this at the airport this weekend.
Like it just every time we look up, there's something else that's happening.
There's something terrible that's coming our way.
And like just seeing gas prices, like my husband told me like lunch meat was nine dollars now.
Like everything just feels so heavy.
And I just like being an adult, it's like my nephew was five and I at him, and I'm like, you know, baby, like, just stay young.
Like, don't, stay young.
Like, enjoy being young, because, man, like, by the time you get to my age, it's probably going to be three times as worse.
Like, my mom used to tell me that, and I didn't, I never processed what she was trying to tell me.
But now, as an adult, I'm looking around, and I'm going,'m going yeah it really is kind of it's kind of rough out here yeah yeah
yeah i saw i saw uh like you know egg price has been going up and down i went to the store
8 50 for 12 eggs i was like i was acting like eggs was a brand of food i didn't need to fuck
with anymore i was like well i'm finished with eggs then yeah if they want to go that shit on me even shop at ear what's that place called
earworm or whatever it's called uh earworm yeah i look every time i see it it looks like earworm
to me but yeah it's not even like i shop at like air one or anything right we go to we go to ralph's
we go to like stater brothers and it's like man man, you literally like $250 for like, what, two weeks worth of
groceries. And we don't even eat junk like that. Like, I guess I'm that girl that's going to eat
a donut. I'm going to eat a lot of, yeah, like I eat what I want to eat. But man, it's like,
just to get like produce and milk. And so like, even thinking about it, like I saw someone,
there's been this TikTok floating around about a woman who I guess talked about having children.
And I, you know, when I talked about having children and i you know when i talk
to my mom and i talk to like some of my peers who don't have kids that's usually the number one
thing that drives the conversation of like why i i have so much empathy for people who have kids now
it's just the price of everything is expensive like everything is high even like daycare it's
like yeah a fucking mercedes payment like was it 8 50 a week it's something
yeah like i'm looking for the cheaper ones and the shit's like 2k a month
that's what yeah this is what you pay for rent so i know and like yeah yeah and like that's what's
interesting too because like i know people who have made the business decision to say
it's actually like i
might as well not work because i'm just going to be working to pay this thing off and i might as
well just be with the kid yeah yeah but yeah it's it is heavy it is very heavy that's why hey trader
joe's i like how my receipt looks when i go there because i'm like i buy nine we have bag salads and
i'm like yeah yeah we have to travel to our trader joe's is not in a very
it's not convenient at all to where we live so wait trader joe's is cheaper than like kroger
ralph most of the time oh yeah oh yeah like if you if you jack baby like you know like route like
i'll buy a salad right and do salad stuff you can buy those pre-bagged salads or whatever
you get like six of those some like meat you want to grill and stuff like that and you can buy those pre-bagged salads or whatever you get like six of those some like
meat you want to grill and stuff like that and you can walk out of there for under what that
would cost if i went to like a kroger sometimes it all depends on like you know what you're
looking for well all right yeah what is something dr higgins that you think is underrated underrated
asking people for help and i know that like i know that some i listen to the show daily and i know
people have such good responses but that was the only thing that came to mind for me in terms of
underrated and so that's why i'm on the show come to my live show on october 11th yeah help fill the
seats come come listen to us babble about absolutely nothing but no seriously asking for
help and i think i'm the older i'm getting know, I think there's this, you know, and again, this could be the social justice in me. But I think as, youate but i'm still not the smartest person in the room like what wouldn't anything say like support me bitch
like that is literally how i feel all the time now like i'm like if i need help i'm gonna ask
i'm not that girl that's like i've got it together like i'm good like my life is great no my life is
literally three seconds it's a string from falling apart
so like please help me like if you can help me in any way whether it be like you know giving me
you know a network or an email or a connect to something like i'm never below saying help me
right because this life is hard like just it's it's really really hard so oh yeah and i think
there's also yeah there's people don't want to struggle in public.
That's a huge reason why people don't ask for help or act like they got their shit all figured out.
But it is like the most liberating and sort of like life-affirming thing when you ask.
Like, you'll be surprised you ask for help, the help that you will receive from people that are like in your circle.
And I think that's also one of the underrated
aspects of asking for it is like you will also realize like damn i got people in my corner yeah
i'd say this is probably the most underrated thing of my adult life this is this is a great underrated
it's something i've had to do for like addiction issues i've had to do in, like it's made my marriage better.
And just in terms of it being good advice,
we did this thing, like there's this hack,
one hack that Ben Franklin wants you to know.
But there's this thing that Ben Franklin talks about
that he realizes this like counterintuitive thing
that if you ask someone for a favor,
they,
and they do the favor for you,
they will like you more.
And it's a weird,
because you're showing vulnerability and there's like something like subconsciously of them,
like doing something for you,
like their,
their brain is like,
well,
they must be cool then.
Cause I just did this thing for them. So it is like, well, they must be cool then because I just did this
thing for them. So it's like, it's all around, like just being willing to be vulnerable enough
to ask for help opens this world of possibilities and increased, you know, just everything. It makes
your life better and richer in so many ways, It decreases loneliness, which is such a huge problem right now.
And all that being said, I can speak about it for a long time, and I still don't do it enough.
Neither do I.
Because it's hard.
It is hard.
And I think I was going to say real quick, I think a really important thing is you know masculinity is as a is as a like a thing
right whether you talk about toxic masculinity or masculine as a whole like we're all three men
and i think so being even even for me being non-binary there's still this presentation of i'm
male presenting to people in some way and so i'm supposed to never be emotional enough to say
i'm struggling and i I actually had to acknowledge
that a couple of days ago, two weeks ago, I was literally sitting in my office going,
here comes the ideations, here comes the no one loves you, no one cares, you're feeling very alone.
So I had to get my therapist back up and I had to say, hey, I'm literally slipping into this
mindset again of being lonely and feeling like the world doesn't need me here, I'm literally slipping into this mindset again of being lonely and feeling like
the world doesn't need me here.
Like I need help.
And she was like, let me get you back
and let me get you back on the roster.
And so I think that that's something
that I try to emulate in everything that I do
that just because you see the shows
and you see me on the network
and you see me on TV
and you see me with celebrities.
I mean, I went to dinner with a celeb friend of mine
just this weekend. People are like, oh, that's so that's so cool i'm like yeah but we were sitting at the
table literally almost crying with each other because we're all struggling like we're all
going through it so yeah it's just you know ask for help literally like people are not going to
judge you for asking for help so yeah and that it's okay to be struggling i think that's the
other hard part is like whenever i start getting like, you know, I start having I start ruminating on shit or whatever.
It's like, hey, you don't feel why you get your shit together or whatever. It's like, no, that's not that's not how you get out of it.
You get out of it by being like, OK, OK, that's where we're at right now.
Let's try and find a way to sort of pivot to something that feels a little bit better and then incrementally get out of there.
But the whole like brute force of like, I't need to feel like this damn it like it's yeah
guess what it only makes shit worse what if you just said no to sadness though if you just said
no like to drugs yeah like i don't know that that seems well just like a no-er to me. Yeah. It's just going to make me do more. More sadness.
That's right.
More sadness.
All right.
Let's take a quick break and we'll come back.
And speaking of sadness, we'll talk about the Republican Party and how things are going for them.
We'll be right back. I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult.
And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church.
And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me For I Have Followed.
Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and LA-based Shekinah Church, an alleged
cult that has impacted members for over two decades. Jessica and I will delve into the
hidden truths between high control groups and interview dancers, church members, and others
whose lives and careers have been impacted, just like mine. Through powerful, in-depth interviews
with former members and new, chilling first-hand accounts, the series will illuminate untold
and extremely necessary perspectives.
Forgive Me For I Have Followed
will be more than an exploration.
It's a vital revelation aimed at ensuring
these types of abuses never happen again.
Listen to Forgive Me For I Have Followed
on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Hey, I'm Gianna Pradente.
And I'm Jemay Jackson-Gadsden.
We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline, a new podcast from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts.
When you're just starting out in your career, you have a lot of questions.
Like, how do I speak up when I'm feeling overwhelmed?
Or, can I negotiate a higher salary if this is my first real job?
Girl, yes.
Each week, we answer your unfiltered work questions.
Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice.
And if we don't know the answer, we bring in experts who do,
like resume specialist Morgan Saner.
The only difference between the person who doesn't get the job
and the person who gets the job is usually who applies.
Yeah, I think a lot about that quote.
What is it, like you miss 100 percent of the shots you never take? Yeah.
Rejection is scary, but it's better than you rejecting yourself. Together, we'll share what
it really takes to thrive in the early years of your career without sacrificing your sanity or
sleep. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
How do you feel about biscuits?
Hi, I'm Akilah Hughes, and I'm so excited about my new podcast, Rebel Spirit,
where I head back to my hometown in Kentucky and try to convince my high school to change their racist mascot, the Rebels,
into something everyone in the South loves, the biscuits.
I was a lady rebel. Like, what does that even mean?
The biscuits.
I was a lady rebel.
Like, what does that even mean?
I mean, the Boone County rebels will stay the Boone County rebels with the image of the biscuits. It's right here in black and white in print.
They lion.
An individual that came to the school saying that God sent him to talk to me about the mascot switch.
As a leader, you choose hills that you want to die on.
Why would we want to be the losing team?
I'd just take all the other stuff out of it. leader, you choose hills that you want to die on. Why would we want to be the losing team?
I just take all the other stuff out of it. Segregation academies. When civil rights said that we need to integrate public schools, these charter schools were exempt from that.
Bigger than a flag or mascot. You have to be ready for serious backlash.
Listen to Rebel Spirit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
an identity outside of you know they they just have collapsed into a personality cult with a person at their head who is struggling yeah he's not doing great he's the most indicted
human being on on planet earth right now i believe more indictments in el chapo that's for sure
so we were sitting back we were like, you know what would make sense for them?
Is if they did the thing that no mainstream politician in the U.S. has been willing to do,
at this moment of increased support, increased popularity for labor, for unions, what if the Republicans were just like, actually, we're kind of the labor party.
We can just rest on the laurels of decades and decades of being pro-corporations, and we can just pay lip service and start running as the we're with the workers party.
lip service and like start running as the we're with the workers party this is something tucker carlson said many years back like somebody's gonna somebody's gonna jump in here and do this
like why not have it be republicans and so they're they're trying that hat on and it looks stupid
it looks bad on them yes well i mean yeah the thing is like joe biden beat trump to the
picket line and we discussed this on the past episode he was like saying like hey i believe
that y'all deserve a significant pay rise and that was a first along with him being on the picket line
there's still concern though from the uaw over the government giving subsidies to ford
to make electric vehicles without mandating that they use union labor.
So that's still a bit of a sticking point.
But we'll see if Biden does something to improve that situation.
But yeah, but they're saying like, you know, Trump's also got something going on. I think we'll get to we'll get to his his little his moment where he gave a really fun
speech to a quote unquote.
Yeah.
I mean, should we just start off with that?
Yeah, might as well. Yeah, might as well.
Can I ask a question? Does he not have to
go to the debates?
Or is he just choosing not to go?
He's choosing not to go.
Yeah, he's just saying, no, I'm not going. Whatever.
Y'all do your thing.
Trash. People on the right are
like, why is he ducking the debates?
And I think the answer
is like, he has nothing to gain from
going because he's so far
from these people.
It would only make things worse.
Because there is the potential for them to start windmilling on him by talking
about his criminal record and stuff.
Who windmilled?
It would just be like,
I'm going to take a step
back. Then y'all just do that and I can
just scream from social.
Dominique from the dotted line.
Two-handed windmill.
Just windmilling on nonstop.
A duken.
Yeah.
Yeah.
A duken in him.
Yeah.
So we saw that he was going to speak in Detroit the night of the debate.
And we're like, uh-oh, maybe this is it. Maybe he's going to really do it.
First things first, he spoke at a non-union plant.
That was strange. He's speaking in Detroit
during an auto workers union strike
and he is speaking at a specifically non-union
plant. The event he a lot of vague platitudes
really coming out like that there are sentences where he says he's like pro-worker and pro-union
but they are surrounded by him like attacking union leadership yeah and just basically saying
all of the things that industry people would would have you believe like the industry
is going out of business like you guys are it doesn't matter you can win your strike in two
years from now the whole place is going to be out of business all your companies are going to be out
of business the the stuff that was basically like taken from the mouths of like the companies that
these people are striking against he's he's doing the same material that a union-busting consultant does
when a company is like, oh shit, my workers are unionizing.
Because it's the same things like,
these fat cats that are running your union,
they don't have your future in mind.
They're thinking about them.
They're thinking about how to make their own deals.
Yeah, exactly.
And they're just getting in the way.
And I feel so bad for you.
I feel so bad for you that your leaders are just kind of completely just fucking you over like this.
And that's where.
He's gaslighting them.
Yeah.
He's gaslighting them.
Yeah.
He's just lying.
To a room full of people who were, I guess, presented as workers.
So like the details always got murky.
It's like, oh shit, Trump's going to Detroit to speak to auto workers.
And then asterisk. Trump is going to a non-union plant to speak to asterisk mostly
retired uh workers asterisk that were invited only by the management of the non-union plant
and then then we get to the event and there are my my oh my the costumes that people were wearing
a journalist from the detroit news made the trip
down started looking around at the people who were at the speech and you know there's one woman
holding a union members for trump placard and went up and was like oh so you're a union member like
how what what made you support trump she was like i'm not i'm not a union i'm not a union
member there was another one who was holding a sign that said auto workers for trump much
much wider yeah target to hit a lot of i mean you're in detroit like you just ask most people
in detroit are you an auto worker of one sort or another and they'll probably be like yeah you know or i have been so ask auto workers for trump placard holder are you an auto worker uh no i'm actually not an auto
worker i'm just here yeah so now people are asking like you know they're remembering his campaign his
2015 campaign announcement where people looked around and were like there's like the all these
signs are written in the same handwriting what what is going on and they found out like they
had put out a call to new york-based extra mile casting to to cast some background actors to appear at his campaign announcement
so i can't every time sorry when y'all talk about this man i always think about scooby-doo
like this man is literally that person you know like at the end when they unmask them and it's
like this is this is not who would like literally these, oh, God, so many stupid antics.
It is wild.
I mean, he's lucky, though, that, like, union membership isn't, like, ethnic or whatever.
Because, like, when he has blacks for Trump, like, he's got to fuse the same five dudes every rally.
You know what I mean?
Because, like, you can't just, as much as he'd like to, I'm sure he'd be like, what about that lady there?
She could wear a blacks for Trump t-shirt to, like, Mr is she is not black the idea she supports the idea and that's what's
important and they're like yeah you're lucky that they can just wave unions for trump and yeah then
you just do a little asking they're like i i'm here because they're giving out outback steakhouse
coupons so yeah i don't know vouchers yeah it's like of course the last actor spiked appearance
you know was when he was announcing his campaign which ultimately successfully got him elected
president so who knows it's just it's kind of weird that he's needing to bring in people who
are lying about who they are at the height of you know yeah he's been around for a
while desperate he's but it's all like his whole thing is right it doesn't have it doesn't have to
pass the multiple levels of scrutiny from someone who is you know a bit cynical about what he stands
for because all he needs is a fucking image of signs being held that say auto workers for Trump, unions for Trump.
And that's it.
That's what gets pushed out.
There will be no further inspection about like who these people are, whatever.
It's just there it is.
There's your moment.
He's in Detroit, too.
And he's got the backing of the unions.
And next grift, please.
Yeah.
But it's not just Trump.
Next grift, please.
But it's not just Trump.
The whole Republican Party seems to be trying this on at least in a way that just seems unnatural given their policies.
All of their policies.
Given every single one of their policies.
On wax not giving a fuck about working people since the first album.
Policy. unwax not giving a fuck about working people since the first album yeah and so yeah you remember the so there was the pro act right that uh that came out at the beginning of the biden administration
the protecting the right to organize act and this is a bill that would have negated state level right
to work laws and these right to work laws are specifically designed to dilute union power to
like be like man collective bargaining ain't gonna because we've got these right to work laws. And they're all done under the guise of
protecting the worker from being forced to join a union. That's already not something you can do
under federal law. So you don't miss us with all of that shit. But those laws are also the reason
why auto jobs specifically too are migrating south of Michigan because they don't have any unionized plants there.
And that's why. So, again, this is where the Republican Party is at.
So anyway, very pro worker, but that won't stop them from cosplaying as pro worker.
So J.D. Vance has, you know, predictably said that, you know, it's the union bosses that are the problem, just like Trump said.
And Biden liking electric vehicles is also the issue here. said that you know it's the union bosses that are the problem just like trump said and biden
liking electric vehicles is also the issue here trump also said that at that rally that he was
like really worried that a boat that was powered by an electric motor would electrocute everybody
if something were to happen you have a battery and water i don't want to be there at all it's like sure man that science science
isn't for all of us any boat that's not a sailboat plus magnets how do they work i don't get it wow
he just watched that that insane clown posse video he's like this is my whole policy for science
uh but so then he also had shit to say about the UAW, uh, you know, head Sean Fain, who
was famously not mincing words when talking about people, especially Trump or even Biden.
He's like, man, I don't, he's like, I don't need Biden to send these people here.
We're working this deal out.
Or with Trump, he's like, man, what the fuck is he doing?
This is bullshit.
Which made Vance very upset.
His, his message to Sean Fain was quote, quote at the very least just shut your mouth and take
the support from wherever you can get it uh yes it's actually coming from the workers but anyway
the solidarity isn't their thing but and again the support certainly isn't coming from the gop
and let's also move on i also do want to talk about uh white power macho man uh senator josh holly he literally has a zero percent score from
the ua from the auto workers union okay and his ass decided to trot out to a picket line and say
some really vague shit like he really like the first thing fucking uh journalists there weren't
gonna say is like bro you have like a zero percent the fuck are you doing here this is josh holly um and you're you're not going to be able it the the
volume's kind of low but like the first thing that this journalist is bringing up is like you have a
zero percent rating from this union and then he's going to say oh i'm pro worker just so you could
in case you miss it you know what he's saying here we go go. Yeah. As of August of last year. Oh, you're probably a score.
A scorecard, yeah.
I'm a pro worker, so they can, what the various organizations, how they rate me doesn't matter to me.
I understand these Missourians, a few from Illinois, but we'll be for them too.
I want to stand with them in their bold struggle to actually get what they deserve.
And listen, we need to make things in this country.
We need to keep it.
All right. So I said, I want to stand with them their bold struggle immediately pivots to some like we got to keep jobs in america thing because he had he couldn't really speak on
what their fucking bold struggle was but i love that he goes look it doesn't matter what their
rating is of me well it what indicates that you're actually hostile towards the aims of the organization.
That's actually what that means.
The organization you're here supporting has said that you are an enemy to their aims,
gave you explicitly a zero, and said, and that's hard to do.
Right.
So any care to comment?
Well, I don't really care what they say.
I'm a pro worker.
Yeah.
That's just so wild to pivot off that.
You're like, no, this score.
I actually, you know, proves the ops.
Yeah, whatever.
Go off, man.
So he's here for their bold struggle.
But again, that was as believable as his tough guy act on January 6th, where he like threw up the fucking fist going into the Capitol and then was sprinting out of there.
Yeah.
They're going to fucking hurt me. But then being like, those are good
men and women. It's like, okay. Alright, Josh.
Yeah, yeah. Take her easy.
Take her easy.
She's my lady and that's
what I, son of a bitch.
Hey, that's one, no. That's one
of the last things he says in that sketch. Sorry
to keep touching on that SNL bit. Sorry.
That sketch is the rosetta stone you have
to watch it if you are going to understand anything we do on this show but yeah while
that was happening and trump was talking about the the horrors of electric motorboat electrocution
there was a gop debate going on yeah and trump was just saying the way he was he's shady he's
like he's like oh you mean
like the job candidates talk that they're doing they're all trying to get a job that was like his
take on it while he was talking to the auto quote-unquote auto workers but yeah it was basically
i mean the debates have only made one thing clear and that is donald trump is going to be the
fucking nominee and no one is going to break through sorry unless the supreme
court this is like a right nomination for if the supreme court comes through and does the right
thing on the off chance like this is who we're left with so like it started the whole thing
started off fucking janky okay the hosts couldn't get even get their shit together it started off
with stewart varney getting completely revolted by the teleprompter when he had to read a non-anglo
name uh specifically ilia calderon from univision so i just this is this was the fucking
mm-hmm news channel dana, Dana Perino and Ilya Kolderon, Univision.
Oh!
Good evening.
What?
Sorry, let me hear that again.
So this is the Fox News commentator.
What?
Yes.
So we do need to tell people because nobody knows who any of the candidates are because
nobody's paying attention.
Stuart Varney is one of the moderators from Fox News.
Yes, these are the moderators, Dana Perino, Stuart Varney,
and like I said, Ilya Calderon from Univision.
And this is how he kicks it off.
Nailed Dana Perino's name.
I wonder why.
But then just saying Ilya's name.
Here we go.
Just one more time for you.
Fox News channel, Dana Perino and Ilya Kolderon.
Univision.
Good evening.
Wow.
I mean, he did okay, but then he like.
Yeah.
He stepped on himself.
He put too much. He put too much.
Univision.
He used so much of his RAM, so much of his computing power to get through the Ilya Calderon part that when it came to the next part, he was out of gas, baby.
His brain couldn't believe that his mouth had just said it correctly.
I did it right.
Yeah.
I did it right.
It just melted down.
He's like, it's me.
Whoa.
Did you just hear that shit?
That was what was happening in his brain yeah i know as he just
melted down he yeah in his mind he was like celia cruz he was like me after saying that name he's
like i've become a legend in the salt and latin music game yeah he's like like he's like it's me
baby yeah he thought he did that so then it it was just incoherent talking points mixed with these people just yelling over each other.
This is just here.
You want to hear some yelling over each other?
This is going to make me tired.
I bet this is going to make me tired.
Oh, baby.
I had to turn it off.
Put your nightcap on.
And that's why I'm sparing everybody by just giving you some of the tidbits here.
You are scrapping. You are scrapping. I'm not scrapping. You know I fought. Here's a fact. why i'm sparing everybody by just giving you some of the the tidbits here so that's that's one thing
that happened okay so nikki haley and tim scott are yelling over each other while ron desantis is
trying to start talking towards the camera.
Right.
And then Vivek is holding up his hand to be like,
can I speak?
Can I speak?
It was just four people trying to talk.
Yeah.
Oh, and it gets worse.
Well, maybe better.
This is, this is, it just goes on.
Here's more people yelling over each other,
but with Ron DeSantis trying to say something.
We've waited and nothing has happened. Here's what you've done. more people yelling over each other but with ron desantis trying to say something i love it was michael's turn down he's like here's the thing that nobody's trying to it's like, here's the thing that nobody's trying to. It's like, brush. The chaos party.
Yeah.
Just stupid.
He did give us another one of the smiles, though.
The Ron DeSantis smile.
Yeah, the weird.
He's having some sort of neurological event.
He's having, like, his probably, like, electrode, like, anklet went off that reminds him to smile.
And that's, he's like.
Like, they're like, be fucking human ron uh here's nikki haley just fucking taking his shit on vivik ramaswamy's whole tiktok presence social media apps that we could have and what you've got
i honestly every time i hear you i feel a little bit dumber for what you say because i can't believe they
hear you've got a tiktok situation what they're so but she used that to pivot and be like tiktok
is chinese and bad every time i hear you i feel dumber is pretty good oh yeah yeah that's a good
little body blow from her and i think probably one of the worst moments came when Tim Scott just basically said that, you know, things like the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act were worse than slavery.
Here's Tim Scott talking about Johnson's, you know, Lyndon Johnson's Great Society.
Here's the challenge, though. Black families survived slavery. We
survived poll taxes and literacy tests. We survived discrimination being woven into the
laws of our country. What was hard to survive was Johnson's Great Society, where they decided
to put money, where they decided to take the black father out of the household to get a check in the mail.
And you can now measure that in unemployment, in crime, in devastation.
If you want to research.
Yeah.
So what was that argument?
He said they decided to take money.
I think he's trying to say like things like you know welfare and social safety nets essentially all
he's doing is he's saying a bunch of talking points to just really do the whole white supremacy
isn't the problem black people are the problem right yeah i was saying it's very much giving
he's shitting on black people 100 yeah 100 and i i get that in his mind because he's surrounded by white supremacy and
that's the and and you know embracing it is the only way that i'm sure he's been able to
achieve the heights that he has on the in the on the right yeah that he's like oh yeah this is
great this is doing something but you know all you're doing is just getting these like other
racist people like nodding along with you like it it's not scoring points. You look foolish selling your own people out like that
and being like, essentially being like,
what was bad was when civil rights
were like enumerated into law.
Come on, Tim Scott.
And there was one last moment.
I gotta see if I can find this clip.
Basically, Dana Perino treated it like like survivor and said, which of these people would you vote off the island?
Because right now, the way she framed it was if all of you stay in the race, Donald Trump absolutely gets the nomination.
So thinking about that, are there any people that you think should drop out and maybe get voted off the island?
Everybody, I want you to write the name down of who you think should be voted off the island tonight.
She really did that?
Yeah, Nikki Haley was like, wait, are you for real?
And she was really proposing this shit.
Wow.
Yeah, all around nonsense.
The overall response from Republican donors
seemed to have been panic.
Yeah.
And they're now being like,
Glenn Youngkin, you're not currently in the race.
Maybe you could do something.
So they're going to ask the Virginia guy
to come into the race.
Because that's what they need.
More people who don't yeah have
like any sort of more more things that are as interesting as watching like ice cream melt on
a sidewalk kind of people yeah but they're do it so well but yeah like a lot of the donors like what
do we do like what's what's the deal now it's like i don't know y'all this is this is what happens
when you let just trump completely
take over your party you have no party you just have trump now and until like it you the plurality
of them you know come around to being like i don't give a fuck what happens like we just have to
fucking get this guy out it's nothing good luck you're gonna have more of this shit yeah all right
let's take a quick break and and come back and talk about drugs. Yeah.
I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult.
And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church.
And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me For I Have Followed.
Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and
LA-based Shekinah Church, an alleged cult that has impacted members for over two decades.
Jessica and I will delve into the hidden truths between high-control groups and interview
dancers, church members, and others whose lives and careers have been impacted, just
like mine.
Through powerful, in-depth interviews with former lives and careers have been impacted, just like mine.
Through powerful, in-depth interviews with former members and new, chilling firsthand accounts,
the series will illuminate untold and extremely necessary perspectives.
Forgive Me For I Have Followed will be more than an exploration. It's a vital revelation aimed at ensuring these types of abuses never happen again. Listen to Forgive Me For I Have Followed
on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Hey, I'm Gianna Pradente.
And I'm Jemay Jackson-Gadsden.
We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline,
a new podcast from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts.
When you're just starting out in your career,
you have a lot of questions,
like how do I speak up when I'm feeling overwhelmed?
Or, can I negotiate a higher salary if this is my first real job?
Girl, yes.
Each week, we answer your unfiltered work questions.
Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice.
And if we don't know the answer, we bring in experts who do.
Like resume specialist Morgan Saner.
The only difference between the person who doesn't get the job and the person who gets the job is
usually who applies. Yeah, I think a lot about that quote. What is it like you miss 100% of
the shots you never take? Yeah, rejection is scary, but it's better than you rejecting yourself.
Together, we'll share what it really takes to thrive in the early years of your career
without sacrificing your sanity or sleep.
Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your
podcasts. How do you feel about biscuits? Hi, I'm Akilah Hughes, and I'm so excited about my
new podcast, Rebel Spirit, where I head back to my hometown in Kentucky and try to convince my
high school to change their racist mascot, the Rebels, into something everyone in the South loves,
the Biscuits.
I was a lady rebel.
Like, what does that even mean?
The Boone County Rebels will stay the Boone County Rebels with the image of the Biscuits.
It's right here in black and white in print.
A lion.
An individual that came to the school saying that God sent him to talk to me about the mascot switch.
As a leader, you choose hills that you want to die on.
Why would we want to be the losing team?
I'd just take all the other stuff out of it.
Segregation academies.
When civil rights said that we need to integrate public schools, these charter schools were exempt from that.
Bigger than a flag or mascot.
You have to be ready for serious backlash.
Listen to Rebel Spirit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
And we're back.
And dare is somehow still a thing.
We're back and dare is somehow still a thing.
Having been born in 1980 and like lived in like all my early memories are in a decade where it was just your brain on drugs, like just this weird, straightforward, just say no to drugs.
I thought drugs were a thing people were going to make me do, like force into my bloodstream when I got to high school.
Well, that's only in Seattle, Jack.
If you drive through Seattle, that will happen to you.
That will happen.
They will force it actually through your car.
Through your car window.
Yes.
Well, you can't.
You have to have your windows up.
Come on.
They're going to blow heroin into you.
And you have to have the air recycling in your air in your car air conditioning heroin gets in but so i i think we assumed that the dare program went away most of us
right yeah until i saw i saw some people outside of a best buy like best buy yeah did you see that
wait you saw dare people outside of a best buy also yeah it was the best buy yeah
dare people stand outside of the best buy i don't know if they have like a like there's a contract
where they work together yeah but that's where i saw dare people too i've seen dare people outside
two best buys before with like trying to get you to sign something and all i said was like y'all
are what the fuck i was like nah man i'm. Where the hell did y'all come from?
I'm here for a mouse pad.
Now leave me the fuck alone.
So, yeah, I mean, there's obviously a epidemic of overdose deaths.
Like the thing that Pee Wee Herman was saying in that PSA that we listened to up top is that was not true of crack.
Like crack didn't have like a
epidemic of ods i don't think but it did like that that is happening with fentanyl like fentanyl is
causing a massive spike in overdoses like and you don't know if there's too much and people like
that does seem to be like the thing that they told us about drugs in the 80s has absolutely come true.
It's called manifesting.
Yeah.
They manifested this.
It might not be this one, but one will happen and we will go fucking hog wild over this shit.
Yes.
So they've decided, OK, this is real.
No more fucking around.
real no more fucking around let's go back to that idea that was proven to not work and was just a way to get money to funnel money to cops right essentially yeah so the dare program is being
brought back to several school districts following a prolonged absence this time with a specific
focus on fentanyl doesn't seem like they've learned anything from the first time.
Like the thing that people say
was wrong with the D.A.R.E. program in the first place,
first of all, that it was cops.
Cops going into classrooms.
Yep.
Yeah.
That part.
Second of all, they were doing it too early.
They were targeting kids who weren't really,
they're trying to like get it in kids brains
before like drugs were a real thing to them yeah just like it that's why it didn't work for me
my drug was power rangers yeah right i don't like i have no idea what a crack pipe is you know yeah
totally or like i knew it from a movie but like other than that i was like yeah i
mean i've seen seen new jack city but yeah that's not that's not how i live so yeah what because i
think what i think i was in fifth grade yeah same i was probably in like fourth or fifth grade when
they started pushing dare down my throat and i just remember being like this is if anything you're
educating me on how like how to get drugs are yeah right that's all that was
that was like my first real conversation about drugs where like the cop brought drugs into the
classroom and we passed it around you smell that pipe that's the worst smell you're ever gonna
smell i remember him saying that i was like that smells good that's fine actually better than
cigarette smoke for failure but go yeah no. Yeah, no, 100%. Yeah.
It was, I didn't realize it was created by the LAPD chief of police, Daryl Gates, who his thoughts on recreational drug users
is that they should be taken out and shot.
Oh, well, okay.
taken out and shot.
Oh, well,
okay.
It's a very humane approach to drug abuse.
He was Duterte before Duterte.
Yeah, Duterte got his shit
from the
Johnny Appleseed
of the DARE program.
At its height, DARE was being taught
at a whopping 75%
of schools.
By 1998, it was reportedly costing taxpayers $600 million a year.
Yikes.
Yeah.
That is wild.
The presentations were just full of racist dog whistles.
Yeah.
Or just not dog whistles, just racism.
Like pointing to the broken black family as the source of the drug crisis
going to a predominantly white school have the officer be like miles you know about that
yeah yeah does your parents or your family yeah you're like um i have no idea what this is i always
see your mom picking you up right yeah wish day you're like man get out of my life but the thing
that always bugs me about dare was like it's like the gum theory i don't know if you all are familiar what i call it the gum theory it may
not be real but i think about it it's like when you tell some like when you tell kids to not chew
gum in school they're gonna chew gum because you're telling them not underground gum racket
yeah there was a whole like i was the girl that was bringing the gum to school to give to everybody
like what are you so like dare was always like it was so dumb gum to school to give to everybody. Like, what are you?
So like D.A.R.E. was always like, it was so dumb to me because I'm going, you're telling kids not to quote unquote do something. And all you're doing is you're just piquing their interest.
But yes, it was very much riddled in anti-Blackness.
And that is something that I've always had an issue with when it comes to this program. Yeah. You're paying the least cool, least trustworthy people in your community to come into school and talk to the part of your community that most despises them.
Right. And they put drugs on people. They put drugs on people.
Yeah. I don't know. I've always had issues with D.A.R.E. I've always had issues with the police. But I will say very openly that I think D.A.R.E. is just a way to make Black people look worse than what the world already does.
Yeah, just reinforce the police perspective on what drug use even is.
Policing.
Yeah, it's Black people mostly.
And then also getting kids to snitch on their parents and shit like that is absurd.
Tell me where the drugs are! like getting kids like snitch on their parents and shit like that it's like absurd they have
i remember them having a box that you put anonymous notes into the dare box and then at the end of the
class the dare officer would read the questions and this was just a thing that smart asses used to like be funny, make them read stupid shit.
But yeah, apparently it ended like that.
That dare box resulted in children like narking on their parents and being removed from their own homes by social services because they revealed that their parents were taking drugs aka smoking a little bit of pot
so really cool problem solving there creating fucking just horrible situation but like to
dr john's point like it it's like verifiable that dare did fuck all to prevent kids from using drugs, right?
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
The stats are officially in,
and it either had no effect
or made children slightly more likely
to use drugs and alcohol at an early age.
I'm telling you, it did,
because I legitimately wanted to smoke PCP
over what the D.A.R what the dare officer told us yeah he said
i'm not joking i'm here with my fucking best friend but it's so funny i know but this is my
fucking 10 like my 11 year old brain right officer first of all the first thing we always ask him at
the top of every dare class was can we hold your gun yeah he never he was like no there's no way
but we asked it every time he's like was like no there's no way but we asked
it every time he's like you guys have to stop asking what can you pull it out and show us the
bullets and he's like no he's like we have to get going he's like what is that and then like we have
kids who like new guns and he would always get annoyed but so he's talked about this like so
we're gonna talk about PCP angel dust shit like that I got this exact same speech right crazy
he said he went to a call at a jack-in-the the box where a guy had just beamed up, smoked some PCP and was fighting the police there.
And they had they needed backup.
He said when he got there, this guy who smoked PCP lifted a fucking dumpster above.
I remember that story.
And threw it at a cop car.
Yeah.
And me and my friends were like like holy shit we were like yes
are you for real powers yeah we're like how does it give you how does it give you strength he's
like i'm not sure it's like the drugs the drugs do to you it's like but then like we're like what
is it like you your muscles like could you work like i remember asking shit like if you worked
out on pcp would you keep that strength and he was so again irritated
by my curiosity around pcp induced superhuman strength but yeah he just got mad he's like guys
this is not a cool thing and and i and it's funny that everybody i guess someone everybody heard
this version of pcp gives you superhuman strength to the point where YouTube came out. I was
scouring YouTube for footage of
somebody on PCP with that kind of strength.
Never found it. And I was like, was
this cop lying to me?
And he was.
You believe that shit?
And so
as the stats are coming out,
the D.A.R.E. program is doing
their own research, you know, and they're like, all right, well, we're going to get the DOJ to fund this study to see what the like what actually happened, what's actually going on here.
Right.
And a month later, for the first time in memory, the DOJ refused to publish a study it had funded for the first time ever.
Wow.
refused to publish a study it had funded for the first time ever wow because it found that the dare program was useless and was taking money away from programs that actually worked behind the
scenes dare went ballistic and they just kept saying this one like every time they get they
get attacked the dare program is like criticizing DARE is like kicking your
mother or saying that apple pie doesn't
taste good. And then
a decade later, they were criticized
or proven to be fraudulent
again. And their response
was, it's like kicking Santa
Claus to me. We're as pure as
the driven snow.
We're as pure as
the Colombian cocaine we put in front of children
your colombian flake i just want to know where the money went like there was a lot of money that
was being moved in the 90s around dare and i'm just oh yeah where it went right right right to
police to corrupt cops i'm wondering but where where like did it go into some like benevolent
police fund i wonder or it was just like if you got go into some, like, benevolent police fund, I wonder?
Or it was just, like, if you got that D.A.R.E. gig, they're like, oh, shit, man, you're off the street beat?
Oh, you're just doing fucking D.A.R.E. classes?
Oh, that's right, right there.
They were confiscating luxury cars like Porsches and BMWs and turning them into D.A.R.E. vehicles.
Like, with a D.A.R.E dare decal on it that they got to drive around
they were like yeah well it becomes pretty apparent who's winning here though you know
what i'm saying right and then a kid's like wow the police department buys you guys cars like no
we can't afford that drug dealers get rich enough to buy cars like this and then you're like oh okay
that's the wave yeah in reality they were doing the same
exact thing that drug dealers were doing right 100 100 they were selling you something it's yeah
it's ridiculous but amazingly dare still uses the dare box like they still have the write down
questions for cops folks it's It's anonymous, purely anonymous.
It's like, we're actually going to investigate your parents.
If you say what any of these things are.
Right.
That, uh, that smell familiar to you.
Oh yeah.
And, and where to, like, I could totally see being like, oh yeah, I know.
I know what that smell is.
That's weed.
And then being like, well, yeah I know what that smells. That's weed. And then being like, whoa, yeah?
How do you know that?
My parents?
Yeah.
Just fucking panicking and throwing your parents under the bus?
I don't know.
I don't know.
I was at a reggae festival recently.
That's why I know.
Next question.
No questions.
I need a lawyer, officer.
For the questions, Your Honor.
Yeah. Next question. No questions. I need a lawyer. Officer. For the questions, Your Honor. Yeah.
All right.
Well, Dr. John Higgins, such a pleasure, as always, having you on The Daily Zip.
Yeah.
Thank you for having me.
Where can people find you, follow you, hear you, all that good stuff?
See you live.
Right.
All of the things.
So you can see me.
I've been getting this question a lot. So a lot of people, I'll say this and then I'll say what I'm going to say. A lot of people come up to me and they go, I know you. And I go, no, you don't. You think you know me, but you do not know me. What you do know me is from Netflix. I have been on a Netflix show. So if you want to watch my episode of Nailed It, it is season five, episode four.
Watch my episode of Nailed It.
It is season five, episode four.
I get this thing a lot.
A lot of people think that they know me and I'm like, no you don't.
It was Netflix.
I was on Nailed It.
So there's that for folks who want to go do that.
But otherwise you can find me online
at Dr. John Paul, D-O-C-T-O-R-J-O-N-P-A-U-L.
And then you can also go to my website
at www.drjohnpaul.com.
I'm doing a lot of advocacy work,
especially media advocacy around what's
happening to a lot of our queer youth. I don't know if anyone knows, but queer youth are being
targeted. They are being specifically trans kids are being targeted. There are a lot of different
policies that are going into order about basically them being outed. And so I just wanted to make
sure that folks know that I'm doing the work around that.
And then also you can find me at Black Fat Femme Pod,
where we're talking a lot about how to protect,
specifically Black trans queer youth.
You can find me over on the iHeart Network.
And then yeah, October 11th,
it is National Coming Out Day.
It's gonna be me, Travelle Anderson,
Char Jocel, and Xavier DeLoe from the XD
podcast. So come check us out.
We're at the Elysian Theater. Tickets are
selling quickly, so buy your ticket.
There are only 15 dwellers.
Yeah, and then other than that, that's
where I am. And that's in LA. For LA people,
if you're in the surrounding area, that is
for the LA SoCal
folks. Yeah, make sure you get your ticket.
Yay.
Amazing. Get there.
Amazing.
Is there a work of media
that you've been enjoying?
Besides your episode of Nailed It.
Yeah, I think a work of media
that I have been enjoying.
I've just been enjoying
kind of watching entertainment implode.
So I've been watching a lot of Twitter.
People basically going off
about what's happening around SAG and the WGA.
And so, yeah, I think the funniest tweet that I have found, there was a woman who had tweeted something and had said that she's excited to see Bob Iger in a couple of weeks in a meeting.
And that tickled me.
Like, she was just really excited to see him because obviously they won what they were asking for,
and Bob Iger was a big issue with that.
But yeah, just watching people talk shit about SAG and WGA on Twitter,
that has been my thing.
There you go.
Miles, where can people find you?
Is there a work of media you've been enjoying?
Find me on the internet at Miles of Grey.
If you want to hear more of this booming voice and jacks you
could check out miles and jack got mad mad we talk about the nba and if you want to hear this voice
ask us to remove a stalin joke from this week's episode so that's the type of show you got over
there you know check it out basically hey if you know anything about us we like to pull up from the
logo you know and just see what happens all the time, every week, week in and week out.
But also check me out on 420 Day Fiance with Sophie Alexander, where I talk 90 Day Fiance and The Good Thief.
All eight episodes are out, so check that out.
A thing I like is I found the tweet or the video of Dana Perino at the debate telling everybody to pretend this is Survivor.
I'm just going to play this for you because it is, it's absurd.
And at the end of the day,
like all of the candidates are like,
they,
for some reason they were like,
this is too far for us backing Donald Trump.
Fine.
But asking us to write on a notepad who we dislike the most,
we're not going to do it.
But here's Dana Prino actually saying this out loud to candidates at a
fucking debate.
But we only have a few minutes and candidates.
It's now obvious that if you all stay in the race,
former President Donald Trump wins the nomination.
None of you have indicated that you're dropping out.
So which one of you on stage tonight should be voted off the island?
you on stage tonight should be voted off the island please use your marker to write your choice on the notepad in front of you 15 seconds starting now of the people on the stage who should
be yes she was and they were like nah fuck that they wouldn't do it no they wouldn't it was a
bridge too far for them somehow.
I would have just loved to see them all be like. Oh, they're still trying to pretend they're serious people.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Berggrum would have been the easy choice.
Nobody's, you know, nobody's standing up for him.
Right.
Amazing.
Some tweets I've been enjoying.
Emily Murname tweeted,
Babe, what's wrong?
You've barely chugged your Eggo brunchunch in a Jar Appalachian Sippin' Cream
with a photograph of a product that is not photoshopped, as far as I can tell.
And the response is people are like, yeah, I saw that on the shelf.
It's real.
Eggo Brunch in a Jar Waffles and syrup Cream liqueur
Wait this is real?
This is real
Appalachian sipping cream
What the fuck is
Waffles and syrup cream liqueur
Oh man
That's when I thought I couldn't get any lower
Miles
You have to do it for the people.
I'm on my way.
I'm on my way.
Say less, fam.
Man, we're getting mashed on Eggo brunch
and a jaw appellation sipping cream in it.
Oh, man.
I'm going wild with this one.
You said it's at BevMo?
Yeah, you can get it at BevMo.
Oh, my God.
This is so bad! But I have to
I'm literally gonna leave right now and go
get that shit, because it's
wow, I don't even know what to say.
Don't even say it. The product
alone,
mixed with the fact that it is
liquor exclusively
designed to be drunk with breakfast
is so good. Like that just a level of
just full-blown knowing just giving up yeah give up juice you know give up give up juice yeah let
me get some give up juice can i get some of that give up juice real quick you absolutely can and
then at warm underscore hole tweeted your baby is crying
because it wants a cigarette and that's just important to remember um you can find me on
twitter at jack underscore o'brien you can find us on twitter at daily zeitgeist we're at the daily
zeitgeist on instagram we have a facebook fan page and our website, dailyzeitgeist.com, where we post our episodes and our footnotes.
We link off to the information that we talked about in today's episode, as well as a song that we think you might enjoy.
Miles, what is a song that you think people might enjoy?
First of all, I found the official website of this thing, and they have some of the most disgusting recipes to use this
eggo brunch in a jar to make cocktails there's one that's like you need fernet to make i don't
this is this is too much appalachian sipping cream suggests a like a legacy that this is like a
a tradition unlike any
other. Appalachian Sipping Cream.
Yeah, apparently it's this like
this place like sugar, this like distillery
makes, like they make their own
unbranded Appalachian Sipping Cream.
So, yeah.
I appreciate it.
They got Butter Pecan, they got Dark Chocolate
Coffee, they got Eggnog,
they got Eggo dog this is okay
i found a new thing to be completely uh intrigued by um let's see some music though here's some
music i'm actually intrigued by this is uh the artist akofa akusa aka ofa aka o-u-s-s-a-h she
is i believe from togo and uh does like what people describe as kind of like african
folkloric funk uh this is the artist was like had their heyday like in the 70s uh and this track is
called kimumbu k-i-m-u-m-b-u and there's just like some great guitar playing her voice is fucking
dope uh and just some i just like i just like that combination of
african folkloric funk and this is it so check this one out kimumbo by akofa akusa all right
well the daily zeitgeist is a production of iheart radio for more podcasts from iheart radio
visit the iheart radio app apple podcast or wherever you listen to your favorite shows
that is gonna do it for us this week. We are back over the weekend
with the weekly Zeitgeist recap of
some of the highlights
in case you missed them from this
week's episodes. And then
on Monday, to kick off a whole new
week with a trending episode,
Monday, late
morning, early afternoon.
Tell you what you missed over the weekend.
What's a trend in.
Miles and I tell you what we think is overrated
and overrated.
And maybe Eggo Brunch in a Jar
might make it.
We might have some product reviews, folks.
Oh, boy.
All right. We will talk to you all then.
I'm stretching my body in preparation
to even sip it. It's so weird.
It's giving me a reaction. All right. Later, y'all.
Bye.
I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series,
Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult.
And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church.
And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me For I Have Followed. Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and Shekinah Church.
Listen to Forgive Me For I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Hey, I'm Gianna Pradenti.
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Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice.
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If you start thinking about negotiations as just a conversation,
then I think it sort of eases us a little bit.
Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app,
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I'm Keri Champion, and this is season four of Naked Sports.
Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry.
Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese.
People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game.
Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's basketball.
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