The Daily Zeitgeist - Learn Or Die, “Op-Ed” 7.9.20
Episode Date: July 9, 2020In episode 668, Jack and Miles are joined by comedian Charla Lauriston to discuss Trump's approval rating going down in cities where the virus is spreading, Trump trying to force children back to scho...ol, and more!FOOTNOTES: Trump Support Withering in Areas Where Virus Cases Are Rising Trump Threatens to Cut Funding to Schools That Don’t Reopen in Fall DeVos blasts school districts that hesitate at reopening IS AMERICA HEADING FOR CIVIL WAR? OF COURSE IT IS… This Little Girl Was Caught Red Handed Stealing Snacks And Tried To Get Away With It By Pretending To Be Asleep WATCH: Blockhead - What That Dictionary Do? Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Hey, fam, I'm Simone Boyce.
I'm Danielle Robay.
And we're the hosts of The Bright Side,
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Why can't it be music as well?
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sponsored by Gilead, now on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Thursday. america's shared consciousness and say officially off the top fuck the coke brothers fuck fox news
fuck rush limbaugh fuck box sexton fuck jk rowling we're rolling uh fuck ben shapiro
it's thursday july 9th 2020 my name is jack o'brien aka no family is safe when I throw shade.
That was courtesy of Perfume Genius, and I'm thrilled to be joined as always by my co-host, Mr. Miles Gray!
Cut my life into pieces.
This is my last resort.
Reparations, no bail.
Release all prostitutes from jail.
Okay, now you probably should have said sex workers,
but that was a tweet
that Jessica Hill, at underscore
Jessica Hill, she said, look at this tweet
because I think it's an AKA.
And that came from at
BFA Home.
But anyway, thank you.
We all love those
those, what was that?
Who did that song? P.O.D.?
No.
Wait, Papa Roach.
Damn. Wow.
One of those P words.
Mine was really courtesy
of Perfume Genius. He just was like,
yeah, that was a dope line that I wrote, and he
rewrote it on Twitter today.
No family is safe when I sash it.
He was like, yeah, remember,
just a reminder, no family is safe when I sash it.
Well, we are
thrilled to be joined in our
third seat, all the way across
the pond. She is
the hilarious, the talented
Sharla Lorister!
It's me!
Sharla, guys, seriously, I'm sitting here
in awe of your level of energy.
I just got
back on cold brew coffee. Oh, good for you.
I haven't had a cold brew
since March until Monday
and I skipped a day. I'm back.
Cold brew is low-key
heroin slash cocaine.
It's incredibly
energizing. A speedball, if you will.
Yeah, it really is. It really goes right
to my veins.
And Jack said you were across the pond
because you were coming with
that accent.
Guys, I've been watching I May Destroy You
and I can't help but
do the British accent every time I talk to anyone.
And you know what?
My most embarrassing thing is when someone who actually has a British accent starts talking to me.
And this is in real life.
In real life, regular conversation, I will start doing a British accent and they'll look at me and they'll be like, did you just start doing a British accent?
And I'll be like, yeah.
Is that bad?
Should I not do it?
I'm not trying to make fun of you. I promise. bad? Hold on a tick. Should I not do it?
I'm not trying to make fun of you.
I promise.
I just love it so much.
I want to do it.
I want to be British.
Yeah.
I think any,
look,
I think it should not be offensive to do a British accent if you come from a colonized country.
That's just badass.
That's free.
Do any accent you want.
What if I'm also coming from a good place in my heart?
Is that enough?
Is that enough? Is that enough?
I don't see race or accents.
I don't see race.
I'm not making fun of you.
I love you.
But I love this one.
I bloody love this accent.
I'm going to tell you what.
I try to be respectful.
I try to be respectful and shut it down.
Do you do a thing where you hear someone speaking in the accent and in your mind you go,
Charlotte.
So that comes like 10 minutes later.
That realization comes 10 minutes later.
Literally, if it's someone with an Irish accent, Australian accent.
Irish is tough for me.
If it's a Jamaican accent, I can't even do a Haitian accent.
I'm Haitian, born and and raised and i cannot do one
because i just don't hear it because it just sounds like regular it's right it is funny like
when you especially you have an example too of your parents like you've been raised hearing an
accent like i had i have to work thank you thank you people will be like why can't you do a haitian
accent i was just like i don't even know where to start. I don't know how to do it. I don't know.
I can talk like this
because this sounds crazy.
You know,
you started off,
you started off the call
talking like that
and I legitimately
took a beat
to be like,
wait,
did,
wait,
like it's been a while
since she's been on.
Like,
was,
has she always had,
is she English?
No,
no.
This is what happened.
She was on this show.
Her career blew up.
She came back with an English accent.
Yeah.
You may have seen me on literally nothing.
No one knows who I am.
That's great.
Yeah.
Charlotte, we're going to get to know you a little bit better in a moment.
First, we're going to tell our listeners a couple of things we're talking about today.
Donald Trump is the president he is losing most of his support it's it's wild
man it's still wild uh he's losing most of his support in places where people are dying which
shouldn't be surprising but uh somehow i don't know it. We're going to talk about his policy towards opening the schools.
It's time to open those schools back up.
These kids got to get back to work.
I mean, school.
Hmm.
Ugh.
There is an article that's like fifth article down on the front page of the Drudge Report today.
It just says, Civil War Inevitable in America.
today it just says civil war inevitable in america and it's just this basically an opinion piece from a far-right person who doesn't realize they're far right just thinks they're like at the center
uh but essentially the thesis is they're going to have to kill us all pretty soon uh at who's
gonna have to kill who the the right the right is going to have to kill who? The right. The right is going to have to kill the rest of us.
And they're just very matter-of-fact.
I mean, it's the only reasonable thing to do.
People are going to totally be on our side.
But yeah, Civil War is coming
because the left is funded by George Soros.
It's very just the matter-of-fact way.
I don't know if this has been going.
Man, does the Drudge Report realize that they're distributing this kind of information?
Probably.
Probably.
Not information, inciting violence, essentially.
Matt Drudge kind of might have thrown some people off the scent because he has been pretty
critical of Trump, but he's still pretty far right.
And this article is actually critical of Trump.
Yeah, yeah.
And we're going to do a little, might comment on the surge in Karen-dom that we've been
seeing as a nation, all of that, plenty more.
But first, Sharla, we like to to ask our guests what is something from your search
history that's revealing about who you are hilarious um guys my search history lately
has been how to move to canada how to move to netherlands how to move to germany um and has
there ever been a black writer on the simpsons those are the things that i recently searched for
there hasn't been a black writer on The Simpsons.
There has actually.
I don't think there's ever been a black woman.
Michael Carrington is a black writer on The Simpsons.
And I'm pretty sure Mark Wilmore is also,
I don't know if he's currently,
but I'm pretty sure he did write on The Simpsons.
But anybody in those first eight seasons?
I don't know.
Right.
I don't know.
And I highly doubt it.
I highly doubt it. highly right yeah but yeah
interesting yeah you're and so you're also looking at some some cool getaway options some cool
getaways um some refugee situations um because americans have been blocked from going to other
countries you're not going anywhere i'm not going anywhere um but i just want to be prepared because
to me like i'm not looking at it just because of what's happening right now.
Because I've been black this entire time and it's been dangerous the whole time.
So I'm just like, I just think long term, do I want to be in?
And I'm thinking like this because of the response that America has had to a lot of these crises.
because of the response that America has had to a lot of these crises.
And I,
it just feels like overall America doesn't seem to have the political will,
at least not yet.
And I'm like, I don't know how bad it needs to get for there to be like,
you know,
every fucking mayor in America,
every fucking governor in America,
like,
you know,
standing up and being like,
this stuff needs to be passed right now. so it's that kind of mindset that long-term mindset that's getting me
to google these things yeah until the class of people changes that are right politics right it's
never going to change because we have people who are operating in a completely different realm of
existence and their antennae are are tuned to a completely different frequency than the human
beings that are their constituents so they're so oblivious to everything and nothing is pressing
it's only like they're so oblivious even in the midst of crisis even in the midst of everyone in
the country becoming enlightened to what's really going on and they're oblivious to their own bias and they're oblivious to their own ability
to like they're still very much tied to these these um the politics of six months ago you know
what i mean like i'm just like like the way that the los angeles in particular has put up such a
fight to defunding police doing anything it doesn't show any real
moral reconciliation it doesn't show any real like apology like holy shit we're sorry holy
shit we're racist and so are our policies and here's what we're gonna do to change it it is an
emergency and it's like and also everyone here is poor um and you. And there's too much income inequality, and we need to fix it right now.
What can we do?
So I just feel like, girl, I'm tired.
I'm just like, you know what?
Let me go.
Let me go somewhere that is not trying me mentally constantly.
Did you find out?
What's the easiest place to move to that's not America?
At this point, you're going to have an easier time getting into Holland, Texas.
None of them are easy.
None of them are easy.
My husband has some family in Canada, which is why that's the first option.
But otherwise, none of them are easy.
And I don't have any skills.
I'm like a television writer in Hollywood.
And I don't have any skills.
I'm like a television writer in Hollywood.
Like a lot of these for high skilled workers, you know, you can if you get a job there, you have to get a job.
And also it's just this is like a very I'm very privileged. Like I don't have ties.
I don't have children.
I don't have things that can make me that can make it even harder to move.
But it's hard to move anyway.
So I just started looking
into it especially when you look at that covid map of north america and you look at the like that
border wall up north they're like bro you must be out your mind yes we let a single one of you
assholes in here right now and i totally get it i totally get it you know i'm an immigrant
to america so i i get it but those were the an immigrant to America so I get it but
those were the days huh no problem
wanted to get in here instead of
the fuck out
the Mexican border also yeah
yes they have said no to us as well
I mean not officially though right
have they done it officially
there's definitely stories like
border towns are like on alert
please yeah
as they should be you know as they should be America has a completely There's definitely stories like, yeah, border towns are like on alert. Yeah, please. Yeah.
And as they should be, you know, as they should be.
America has a completely incompetent response to this crisis.
And if anything, I'm just like, you know, I don't know, man. Like when Trump won in 2016, it wasn't to me like a Trump thing.
It was just like an America thing thing like i didn't look at
like i still that's why i would still leave you know even if joe biden wins you know this is an
american problem like this this is not trump individually and the response to this crisis
has shown how incompetent our systems are you know structurally foundationally how racist they are
and how hard like i an executive the other day i was pitching a show about a black family and um
you know one of the things that i was talking about was like how they're gonna
how they experience racism and he's like but is that gonna be relevant you know
because the world has changed and the thing is like this person very
innocently said it because they they don't realize right they don't realize really and and it is like
that to me is so quintessential of the american problem yeah well we had that we had that march
so isn't it yeah we had the march yeah people saw People saw the video. Right. They painted Black Lives Matter on some streets.
That was done by a company that cuts trailers for movies.
Right.
It was.
That one on Hollywood Boulevard.
Oh, I didn't realize that.
They cut a deal with the city where they were like,
and you can power wash that shit off in 24 hours.
Oh, nice.
And it's like, okay, so this was just a branding exercise.
It's just a gesture.
Yeah, it's a gesture.
Yeah, it's empty bullshit.
And I'm sure the people on that company were like,
we didn't publicize it, but we paid for that there.
There's an article in The Atlantic that people should check out
called The Three Weeks That Changed Everything
that is by an amateur pilot.
And it compares, it tries to do,
I guess every time there's a plane crash,
the National Transportation Safety Board does a deep investigation.
And so it tries to do that same sort of investigation into what went wrong with coronavirus and the American response.
And it's pretty enlightening.
It does suggest that it really is basically we had all the systems in place.
uh,
suggest that it really is.
Basically we had all the systems in place.
We just had the wrong, uh,
administration in,
uh,
no way.
I'll read that.
Yeah.
It's worth,
it's worth checking out.
Uh,
what is something you think is underrated?
Um,
I hate these guys,
honestly.
I think profit sharing is underrated.
You know,
I'm just throwing it out there. I don't know. I think, I think underrated. You know, I'm just throwing it out there.
I don't know.
I think particularly in Hollywood,
this is a place where corporations take our stories
and then you don't own your,
even if you get a TV show, you don't own it.
And I'm just like, people should talk about that more.
Because even when you bring it up,
they talk about how there's no precedent for it.
But in the UK you know if you
create a show um there is precedent for owning a copyright to your show um but in America that is
not the case so I think if we start a conversation here about it and you know here you know when I've
tried to bring it up before there's a lot of gaslighting that happens that you know, here, you know, when I've tried to bring it up before, there's a lot of gaslighting that happens that, you know, that you're asking for too much.
There's also that, like, you're a poor artist, you know, and this is your shot.
So you don't want to fuck up your shot.
And that's how they get you to not ask for a thing.
It's a manipulation tool.
And it's how they get you to not ask for what you should get, you know, because if they give you a percentage of your copyright or
you own your copyright what does that mean for everybody else now we're not going to make it as
much money and i'm just like instead of gaslighting us into thinking that it's impossible and you're
everybody does it your lawyer your manager everybody does it um i don't see why profit
sharing if we really want to change the structures of this country if we really want to change the structures of this country, if we really want to distribute wealth, then let's give people, let's give artists
what they rightfully deserve.
So, you know, I'm like, that's mine.
I mean, I think every game is built on some person
who is the boss or the employer
holding some kind of infrastructure
over the creator's head and being like,
well, how are you going to do it without this? so if you want to do this then i get 60 percent or i get 70 or i get a
hundred percent or i get yeah that's like that's a fantasy version or it's like yeah like we'll put
your name on it yeah and then you know you get your created by and then you can walk around town
with that but uh and this is part of what the wga yeah i don't know if you guys i mean this is part
of what the wga has fought over with the agencies and things like
that.
It's because agencies became production houses who owned portions of the show
and you didn't have to,
and they told you,
Oh,
you don't have to pay us 10% cause you know,
it's packaged.
And it's like,
of course,
completely,
you know,
not in the best interest of the client.
Yeah.
You know, it's not a sound business practice to own something that belongs to your client
and then, you know, tell them, you know, placate them by telling them that you don't have to
pay 10 percent, you know, get out of here, dude.
So you mean that you and this studio and this network gets a profit off of the life of this show and I just get a paycheck?
Oh, yeah.
Is that what we're doing?
Yeah, yeah.
Okay, so I'm sorry, Sharla.
I realize you're not from this country.
What we do here is we take your labor and we exploit it exponentially.
So what ends up happening is you, the person who did all the work and spent a lifetime of putting these experiences together and educating yourself to the point that you could even verbalize or articulate these experiences into script form.
We take that and we say, we have cameras, though.
And that's why it's ours.
And then you get your little check and then we get everything else.
What a deal.
And then I'm poor again in like two years after I paid off my massive student loans and bought a house.
You know know thank you
look at what happened to the people who wrote the original Lion King script they like I think they
got maybe a hundred no like seventy five thousand dollars in the first place and nothing else no
rights to anything didn't and it was a script that they worked on with Disney for, I think, three or four years. So it ended up being below poverty wages.
The Lion King script?
The Lion King.
The original?
They wrote it.
No residuals.
Nothing.
Are you kidding me?
Completely uninvolved.
And then didn't get any residuals for the live action version.
Are you kidding?
That was a shot for shot remake.
That is their copyright this is you know what
this is and then on time last time i brought it up i'm like and then they ripped off japanese ip
to even come up with simba that was a character named kimba in japan that's unbelievable who was
the kimba the white lion and like pride rock and shit all looked at anyway whatever but see
this is this is the thing everyone has to think about like at every level right you don't have
to work in the entertainment industry it's like you could work at a job where you are on a factory
line and you are putting dude your body is aching you're the person doing all this work you're the
person waking up early the people who how is it that the people making the most money are doing
the least amount of fucking work yeah like realistically yeah that's how this that's how this whole game works is like the
smarter people like look bro eventually it gets to a point where you get so rich you just figure
out how to never work and just move shit around so these checks just keep stacking up and you
don't give a fuck what the fallout is for the people you quote-unquote employ yeah i'm so angry
this is why i need to leave or maybe it's why i need
to stay because i'm so angry i continue to be angry but i'm tired i think we just need to get
to a tipping point where people are able to make sense of what is happening more than just being
like oh this sucks like most people just it ends there it ends there yeah like that versus or or
you're too poor you're struggling too much you're too busy taking care of your kids,
doing your full-time job that pays part-time wages to even think about this thing.
Or finding out that you're paid a living wage through unemployment and not even working.
Yes, and not even through regular jobs.
Aren't you embarrassed, America?
Aren't you ashamed?
Like, what a shame, dude.
Well, that's the difference, right?
People like, you know, like us or who listen to our show,
like we're trying to look at it objectively and be like,
this can't be the best thing because I'm looking at other countries
where, you know, the GDP on paper is lower,
but the life expectancy is way higher. What the fuck is that? Yes, but you know the gdp on paper is lower but the life expectancy is way higher what the
fuck is that yes but you know what this is challenging our culture right because we have
a culture of individualism we have a culture of billionaire worship we have a culture of pull
yourself up by your bootstraps a culture of shaming the poor and feeling ashamed i remember
there have been the first time i applied for unemployment, I was ashamed to apply for unemployment
because I felt like it was a personal failure
and not something that is a societal safety net.
Like what is wrong with kindness?
What is wrong with taking care of each other?
What is wrong with making sure your neighbor
has somewhere to sleep?
Like Los Angeles, California is one of the richest places
in the world it has a glittering hollywood and we have the most embarrassing disgusting homelessness
problem i've ever seen in my life koreatown is is like ground central everywhere everywhere
everywhere you look aren't you embarrassed gavin newsom aren't you embarrassed garcetti
you put again you took you took the money and you brought in the fucking National Guard when we were protesting,
but you can't take that money and house some people?
No.
Why the fuck should we?
It's the class of people.
It's the class of people.
Yeah.
Garcetti is a career.
He comes from a dynastic political family.
He really does.
What are you?
Yeah, I'm sorry, Miles.
I'm mad.
I feel like this. I are you yeah i'm sorry i'm mad no i mean like you
should i feel like this if you have if you have not felt the pain of hunger or the confusion or
stress of not knowing where a paycheck is going to come from and balancing your own checkbook your
own needs with the needs of your family if you do not have that experience you have no place
telling people what it's like to live in
this country i'm sorry no place at a basic level i'm not saying every person has to be destitute
at the very least though you can't you can't you should not be able to step into the halls of power
on some like well i don't know i never really had a job because my dad don't sign companies
number one person he should resign watching garcetti suck the dick of the police while the
people are sitting while
he's kneeling with us like this is some sort of some sort of bullshit empty gesture don't give
people empty gestures people are are angry people are scared people are hungry people are worried
we we have food insecurity financial insecurity job insecurity get the fuck up and resign and say i didn't do a good job i don't get it
i don't get it okay i'm racist sorry that's the best actually the best shit anybody could say
any white person right now who fucks up publicly all your apology needs to be like fuck this
bullshit i'm listening because that's something that some pr company has come up with lately
where white people are like i'm'm listening. We're listening.
We're listening.
We weren't listening.
You know what would be a better apology is to be like, I'm racist.
Right.
I'm racist.
And I didn't realize it until just now.
Or maybe I did.
And I've never had to pay consequences for it.
You know what I mean?
Whatever it is.
Turns out, you know what?
Fuck it.
I'm racist.
I'm backwards as fuck, y'all.
I gotta go.
That's the only apology that I can imagine responding with a thank you thank you honestly
that could be one like trump wins a re-election if trump gets you know what i've realized i've
been on some fuck shit i've been on some bullshit racism i'm sorry you know i was
completely fucking up i gotta go i'm gonna take i'm gonna take a breather real quick people be like damn the fuck i mean we still voted but anyway i said he resigned please
you're you're in all of us so many people it's not even just him it's so many of these politicians
pretty much everybody except a handful of uh bureaucrats in the city i think are yeah worth
it yeah a handful maybe literally I mean like
five I think yeah yeah
even the people who now are like
okay with defunding the police
I'm just watching them because I'm
just like I don't trust
you yet and nor should I you know
nor should I
all right let's take a quick
break and we'll be right back with your
overrated image
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I've been thinking about you.
I want you back in my life.
It's too late for that.
I have a proposal for you.
Come up here and document my project.
All you need to do is record everything like you always do.
One session.
24 hours.
BPM 110.
120. She's terrified. Should we wake BPM 110. 120.
She's terrified.
Should we wake her up?
Absolutely not.
What was that?
You didn't figure it out?
I think I need to hear you say it.
That was live audio of a woman's nightmare.
This machine is approved and everything?
You're allowed to be doing this?
We passed the review board a year ago.
We're not hurting people.
There's nothing dangerous about what you're doing.
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In a story about faith and football,
the search for meaning away from the gridiron,
and the consequences for everyone involved you mix homesteading with guns and church and a little
bit of the spice of conspiracy theories that we liked voila you got straight away i felt like i
was living in north korea but worse if that's possible listen to spiraled on the iheart radio
app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
And we're back.
And Charlie,
we like to ask our guests,
what is something that you think is overrated?
Hollywood.
Okay.
Hollywood girl.
What about it?
What about it?
Girl,
you know what?
I came to Hollywood you guys
the glimmer in your eyes
you know I just been sitting in my house
you know looking around
and you know I came to Hollywood
I was born in Haiti came to America when I was
four you know I never imagined
that I could come here and work here
and do this I felt like oh my god
the American dream.
And you know,
when you like the first time I ever came to Hollywood,
it was on a first class flight.
I had never gone first class before.
I was just like,
you know,
like,
right.
What,
what an amazing blessing.
What,
how amazing that I land.
And then the racial segregation,
the economic segregation,
when you get here, the homelessness, the crumbling highways.
You're just like, hmm, interesting.
And then you get into the writer's room.
And then you start to meet, you know, the execs.
You start to meet, you go on these generals.
You start to meet people.
You sit in a writer's room.
And maybe you're the only black person.
Maybe you're not.
You know what I mean? But your boss certainly isn't black none of them are
like um and then you start to go man this place is literally exactly like the rest of this place
you know hollywood is exactly like the rest of america and the thing that is so disappointing
is that it claimed it espouses to be something else. It espouses to be something different.
And just to see how not different it is,
and not even just Hollywood, California, the entire place.
You know, I thought I was coming into like a liberal bastion,
into like a hippie paradise.
And you're just not, you know,
like this is still very much corporate America.
Hollywood is, you know, just as greedy as the rest of the
country, as every other corporation. And, you know, I just I just feel like it's overrated as
fuck. Yeah. Overrated or that needs to be rated. I mean, when you really take a second to think
about it, it's the epicenter of like our insidious media complex you know all the messaging we send out to our own
children us growing up the rest of the world at large it starts mostly out of here you know like
with the move the way we portray each other the way we put the shit really is coming at all it
really is this is from here we are the propaganda capital of the world and we
have a responsibility um to do things behind camera i remember like when that um oh my god
what was that like it was like effie what's her name like she started talking about uh she was
one of those producers that started talking about how there's no black people behind the camera you
know like how you put you put these black stories on but they're written by white writers and that was such a huge every brown yeah yeah and that was such a huge deal
yeah because hollywood was like it was like you know drama you know and i was just like girl
it's so much work like i had and i wasn't i didn't live here yet i don't think and so i hadn't
experienced what she was talking about because i was just like oh that's
so weird you know because hollywood not weird but no one talked about it before she really talked
about or not as publicly not to matt damon's face so i mean yeah you think you think uh
name calling is bad telling a white liberal they're racist yes that uh in the karen story there there
was that incident where a woman and her husband were threatening to call the police on somebody
for writing black lives matter on their own oh yeah the woman who had like the guy fox masks
eyebrows yeah yeah but she was like she seemed so amused and that somebody would even consider her racist.
Yes.
That just summed up everything about LA to me.
Yes.
Just this idea, this smugness of like...
Yes.
Yeah, okay.
I'm definitely not racist.
Yeah, I live in Hollywood.
Right.
I have a black maid, okay?
Yeah. Or nanny or maid, okay? Yeah.
Or nanny or whatever, you know, insert.
And she's family.
She's family.
Honestly, I give her all my clothes.
I give her all my clothes.
They're nice, too.
They're nice.
So don't tell me I'm racist.
No, no, no.
Not today.
Guys, that brings me to my myth.
I know you're leading this, it is oh yeah yeah it is
that liberals aren't racist that is a great myth um that you know i can debunk any minute you need
me to i can debunk any day you know yeah i mean i can only imagine too you know the coming to la
right because you think of like of all like it's all like, it's chilled out. Yeah.
It's like different than other cities you've been to.
But yeah, there is this thing of where I think people in this city pat themselves on the back even harder for this shit.
Yes, they do.
Like really to the point where they don't realize how far gone they actually can be.
Yes, yes.
Because every step you take, every turn you take you can see
just sort of there's a lack of real awareness like if you really saw the city for what it is
you're like man this thing's been redlined to fucking hell uh and it's you there's like five
there's five different las that you can experience um and but they're the one that is constantly
sort of you know projected outwardly is the one where
everybody's like you know at nice bars on the sand in santa monica everything looks like a
fucking stock photo it's like all inclusive and we're lgbtq friendly and we're poc you know all
this other stuff and you know what but i do think that um the democratic party is exactly like that the democratic party is very racist and doesn't
again like most liberals just don't understand their bias they don't see their unconscious bias
in their own racism so right and i want to say this because some people have come for me when
i've talked about the democratic party i'm not here to do fucking anyone's bidding when I say that.
I'm looking straight up at something
and I'm saying, this is not purpose.
This is politics.
Because purpose is pulling up for people
and funding the community.
The second you start watering shit down
because you give a fuck about what a lobbyist told you,
that's not the real shit.
And I think that's what is happening, right?
With all of this,
these ideas are starting to crumble a bit.
I think those are going to be the, hopefully the positives we come out of here is we abandon
that bootstrap shit.
We abandon the shaming of the poor.
We abandon the billionaire worship and can move on to something really substantive because
seeing all this lack of caring and lack of humanity around is only inspiring people to
be like, hold on man like
we should not be doing shit like this and that's why i look at a party i've been told to vote for
familially uh and culturally for a long time telling me what side of the fence i'm on but
now i'm i've well i've been at a point for a number of years since leaving politics where it
the purpose has to be the really the real driving
force behind everything and rather than like well it's if you're doing that then biden could lose
i don't yeah that's not what i'm looking i'm looking at people getting killed and lynched
in the street i'm looking at people getting left behind because they can't afford to live
that's what's fucked up to me not who if it's a d or r in the white house
and this is the same shit they do every time right like they always like it's again that
south park episode there's a south park episode where you have to vote between a turd sandwich
and a piece of shit or something like that and like this is the kind of fear that they instill
in us but without they instill this kind of fear that if
we don't vote for the democratic party, then we're, you know, then we're splitting the vote.
We're doing all these other things. But then I'm just like, isn't the onus on the democratic party
to put up candidates that we actually want to support? Like when we watched the democratic
party actively disenfranchise Bernie, actively not support him, even if he's getting the votes
to garner that support.
Should I give a fuck about who you want me to vote for? Like, should I even give a fuck? Like,
like, how do I think that's a difference as a party? You're because some people are moving
past politics and towards purpose. You know, I think it was easier in the from 2007 for a good nine years.
It was like, yes, you know what?
I know I trust this machine to do the equitable thing.
Then we sort of look and we're like, I don't know if it was doing really the best thing.
It couldn't have been, actually, when I look at it, when I think about it, because I'm
measuring that against what I see in my own community.
And I don't think things are getting better. And I think people have to, you know, obviously,
I don't, and I don't, I'm not critical of the Democratic Party, because I'm trying to,
you know, deflate enthusiasm to blow Trump out in November. And absolutely not. When I'm trying,
I say this because I feel like as Americans, people really need to begin re-examining
how this
political thing works because if we're just here because of d or r yeah get fucked in the end
either way if we're not demanding real like purpose-driven legislation yes and it's for
nothing i don't just want their game yeah i don't just want purpose-driven legislation i want thoughtful smart leaders i want people who yes i want people
the thing is to me it's like our racism problem that is in this country is a capitalism problem
it just is it's a cap like all of these problems are capitalism problem why can't i have thoughtful
smart leadership because capitalism has taken over our politics because money has
taken over our policy. It is never going to be equitable and real democracy until,
until these people aren't doing the bidding of, you know, whoever's paying them, you know,
it's really hard to have any kind of integrity. It's really hard for me to respect any of my
legislators when, I mean, honestly, honestly like i i support and i donate to
candidates who don't take corporate PAC money if that's if that's a little thing that i can do
and i'm not waiting for these people to legislate socialism you know what i mean i'm i'm gonna start
doing it little by little bit on my own if i have a little bit you know i help my friend i help my family
like i'm not i'm not waiting like the culture can't wait for them we gotta do it ourselves
people are dying people are dying people have been murdered people been dying that's the thing
people been yes and now we're at a point where we look at our politicians are like
come on like right now really right now because everybody's
seeing it in the most everybody's we might need more assistance i mean one of the first things
they should be doing is when the second they saw that some people are living a better life because
their their actual job is paying less than the support they were getting from the government
the first thing we like we got to change the minimum wage because there should be nobody out
here being like it actually makes more sense for me to be on unemployment.
Yes.
And states can do that on their own, right?
But it's a capitalism question.
It's a capitalism question.
Then that means the employer has to take less,
and that means there's less revenue to split up at the end,
and then the shareholder value goes down, and then you're stuck with people doing wage
or tip augmented income at you know at a restaurant
things like that like all this shit is meant for the rich people to not have to dig into their top
pockets too much yeah people who people who are saying that like we're doing we're helping trump
by criticizing biden like there needs to be something beyond it i feel like that's a a very outdated viewpoint that like well
you just have to swallow the medicine and support biden without like thinking about like connecting
that to that larger purpose like what are we gonna do because it just feels like it's way too easy
for people to be like yeah but it's better Trump. And then somebody said that like people, a lot of like the liberal class wants Biden to win so they can stop paying attention to politics again.
And like that's that needs.
That's why I'm moving.
Right.
Exactly.
It's like that.
Because you need to be engaged.
You need to be engaged the whole time.
And unfortunately, at a certain level of engagement
you begin to see a lot of things that will disgust you and you will begin to completely rethink
things so it's really depending on your level of engagement i don't i'm not out here saying don't
everybody fucking let's hope trump gets another thing because the whole i'm not an accelerationist
necessarily i think on some levels clearly we need this shit
needs to get popping a little bit quicker but not to the point where like a second trump
administration is going to be absolute absolute disaster more so than just getting another
smiling capitalist in but it's yeah i mean the stakes are the stakes are very clear to everyone
but at the end of the day, we will.
What we're saying is the real, at least from my perspective. That's what I look at, because if you're if you're out here saying you understand if you're going to wear a Kinte cloth and take a knee and you say you understand that black lives are at stake, then really put some legislation forward that actually communicates to me that you understand the problem.
Because the only legislation I saw shows me that you want to not piss the cops off that's what that's what you
didn't you don't give a you don't want to piss your wallets off you don't want to piss your
wallets off you don't want to piss anything off and it's just like that's why you guys need to go
that's why we need and and the thing is like i'm not done criticizing the democratic party i'm going to
criticize whoever comes into office because that is what you ask for when you be when you come into
public office you ask to be criticized um good or bad you know what i mean like i i don't want to
just clap for the good things you do but i want to i want to engage i feel like they in they are
condescending to us the democratic Party is condescending to us as
a voter base and
they want us to clap because
they're not as bad as the Republicans
but they're just as bad
I think because of that bullshit
kneeling with the can't take cloth because
of the complete
disconnect between
who they are and
what they believe and what they espouse to be to
us for to make us vote for them so i'm just like yes i will vote you know according to my own
survival but i would like it to get to a point where i can vote making a smart decision and not
just emotional decision right a decision based off of whether or not they like black people i would like
to legislate the shit out of this to the point where it's like it's not about if you have a
black friend if you know a black person if your daughter is half black i don't give a fuck like
it's not about your personal connection to me whether or not you like me it's about people
being able to live happy and free and safe and and not giving a fuck about your feelings yeah yeah
no but that's and again much there's too much work to do to sit around like clapping for yeah
yeah and it's stupid it's just it's really disingenuous and it's lazy to just say well
you're being critical because you want trump to win no the fuck are you talking
about i'm critical because i'm looking at real fucked up problems in this country and i think
we need to change them so i'm i will speak i will you know i'm i'm i will i will advocate on behalf
of what i believe the direction is that the country can move towards that can be more inclusive and
humane to people of all backgrounds and classes that's what it's all about it's not because i want don't what the
fuck you talking about it's because i think we can i think we can treat each other with a base level
of humanity that we've still not been able to get there that's that's step one is like can we get to
humanity people are fucking stupid like america you know is stupid frankly you know like and i'm
a part of that american culture of you know not a part of it but like people here are anti-intellectual
they're anti like they hated obama because he was too smart he thinks he's too smart. And I'm like, do you know what you sound like? You're shooting on
somebody because
they're educated.
And the idea that education here
is something that is, you know,
associated with the city, associated with
being like hoity-toity, like uppity.
You know what I mean? And it's just like,
go to school. Make your schools better.
Put books in your schools. Like,
have people read.
People don't read.
And we're distracted.
Like, there are just so many.
This is, you know what?
Like, I just feel like I'm too tired to focus on the problems anymore because they're so deep.
They're so entrenched.
I feel like all I can do is what I said before, which is I'm not waiting for these people to legislate. Um, I,
I want to start in my community amongst my friends, amongst my family to help, to distribute wealth,
to redistribute wealth. You know what I mean? Like if somebody needs help, I want to help them.
I want, I'm starting like a writers on fire group to help writers and artists learn about financial literacy.
Like, I just feel like what can I do that small right now?
What can we do that small right now?
And I feel like a lot of us have been doing it.
We've been donating to those bond jail bond funds, bail funds.
I mean, I've been donating to like politicians like we showed up at protests.
Those things have given me hope. Those things have given me like they've reinvigorated me they've made me love my fellow
human you know because people realize we're all in this together but i i just feel like it is
it is an emergency to get these these politicians the fuck out like i just hate them so much it's just tough i mean
we get nihilistic and it feels like nothing's gonna change and yeah naturally your solution
be like well if i'm in a situation where i have there's a high risk i could be murdered
purely based on my race um and i have to wait for legislators to put that into law or change the rules around it or change the oppressive systems around me that I can feel safe.
Like, yeah, then naturally be like, yeah, why the fuck am I going to wait for that?
If you have the ability to, because obviously that is like you acknowledged earlier, the very privileged position to be able to say like, well, I could take my ass to another country if I so wanted to.
If they are accepting me.
Yeah, right.
Yeah. Eventually, hopefully they will be you know borders will open i feel like this is like years into the future who knows when
that stuff will happen who knows if america will ever get the coronavirus under control
i just feel like i need for my own personal mental health like some sort of a exit plan um and not even just an exit plan it's just like me
just being very i'm very tired of the culture i'm i'm tired of the the infighting you know like
every time one of us has to answer to a ridiculous racist sentiment you know like um like that
anti-intellectualism that you were just talking about miles i'm just like
why do i even have to answer this bullshit this is so stupid there's so there are emergencies
and we're sitting here you know arguing about a flag arguing about well i don't know the
republicans actually freed the slave okay yeah i'm sorry sir please yeah over there to the to
the left please yeah or the Drudge Report posting that fucking
call to a civil war.
Like, this stuff is dangerous.
And it ain't a game.
It is very dangerous.
It's not a game.
And yeah, I don't think it's,
I think it's, like, we can't dismiss it.
Like, it's easy to just be like,
ah, that's fear-mongering me the guy in the article
even says like well i'm gonna be accused of doom-mongering but it's like they i don't know
it seems very real and very like they're spending a lot of time thinking about killing us all
didn't didn't tom didn't the tom cotton article get the New York Times editor like five? Didn't he leave?
Didn't he resign after that?
Why would the Drudge Report not take a page from that book and be like, you know what?
Because it's one guy.
Yeah.
Because it's one guy.
Oh, I see.
And he's a huge conservative.
Yeah.
And the format of the website, you know, not a lot of people, not a lot of staff for that thing.
Right.
I get it.
And it's, yeah, it's just, I mean, he's traditionally been very conservative.
And the fact that he's critical of Trump doesn't change anything.
It's because white supremacy is a death cult at the end of the day.
And that's the call to arms is not because of whatever they're saying it is.
It's because the people who are most energized in this sort of existential fight for their lives are racists.
Their biggest fear is the inversion of racial status and power in this country.
And that is the final battle to be fought in this country.
final battle to be fought in this country and you can tell when because there are yes racist people are getting much more aggressive uh there is there are more and more incidents because they see the
change they see the change and they're scared and i understand that they're they're scared but it's
interesting when you compare like what the existential dilemma to a comfortable white
person is who just doesn't like that you know
bubble wallace got nascar to ban the confederate flag versus people who are being killed in the
street terrorized by police uh being you know very much systematically uh gutted of any kind
of social services or welfare uh access to income those are also real stakes for people too yeah um and i think yeah there's
just a definite that all of this inequity is i i i'm not sure i'm not certain how it ends in a
nice way without there being real real change or upheaval on some level yeah you know what's the
most um sad thing about white supremacists it's not only is it a death cult but it's like don't you
guys realize that everybody or at least to me you're just screaming about the fact that you
think you're inferior or that you know you're inferior you're afraid of the fact that you're
inferior so it's just like so so you literally would rather die than be equal or,
or whatever it is.
It's just like such a,
it's such a pitiful mindset to me.
It's such a,
it's,
it's,
it's just a mindset that I just find so sad.
I'm just like,
it's,
it's just so sad.
I'm just like,
so you just are so afraid that you are inferior.
I mean,
so that you would rather kill yourself.
I'd hate to extend any empathy towards any white supremacist.
But in terms of their ideology, they've been fed all these things that they thought really made them better.
That were all illusory and not real.
So they were like, well, yeah, maybe we're not doing hot in this case, but at least the presidents are white.
Oh, shit. Then obama came along well you know at least that but we can at least the gop can
maintain control of these state houses and you know they people know what time it is oh wait
now that's even crumbling yeah well now at least we got you know the police force and that's a way
we can terrorize people oh wait more people are catching on to that and that's crumbling well at
least we got these statues like it keeps getting whittled down to bullshit to now they're just like well at least
we have these statues and now that that's coming down of course you would be like oh shit it's the
fucking fourth quarter and i'm on the bench i gotta get up out i gotta suit up yep and i i do
think it's a myth that they're all stupid like i yeah i think that i think that uh in the same way that
like people are always surprised to find that like when you look at cult members they actually score
higher on uh intelligence tests than uh the average person and it's no way because they're
able to be true because they're able to argue thinking they're able to argue. Contrary thinking.
They're able to make the argument in their own head to whatever is convenient for them to believe at that time
and whatever keeps them comfortable.
And so I think we underrate their intelligence
and also underrate how they know what they're doing.
They believe in white supremacy and they're protecting that.
They're using their faculties,
uh,
and what's available to them to,
to protect that.
Um,
you know what,
then I take it back.
I mean,
I just feel like it's just a pitiful state.
Like it just is like you screaming about how pitiful you are.
Um,
yeah.
Oh,
totally.
It's it's.
And,
but even worse is how they're reinforced or upheld by our legislators.
I remember when the Charleston shooting happened and Bree Newsome, I think her last name is Newsome,
Bree Newsome took the Confederate flag down from the Charleston state capitol or South Carolina state capital.
And she was arrested because it was a protest.
But just the fact that they wouldn't take that flag down
after those nine church members were murdered by a white supremacist.
Yeah.
Just the fact that, you know, like when white supremacists come to march, like or the fact that that conservative white supremacist views are talked about as something that are both sides of the argument.
You know, there are good people on both sides or, you know, reach across the aisle, you know, reach across the aisle to what?
To a white supremacist?
What the fuck are we talking about?
Like, this doesn't make any sense
you know the fact that hates me yeah right the fact that you know the drudge report can even put
up this argument as an argument and not something that is just a danger to the safety of the
american people is what upholds these things this is what i mean about the culture like the or the fact that like
when we talk about police you know defunding the police i have not seen any articles about white
fear you know like like let's address the fact that white people are afraid of the fact that
there might not be a police right and i'm and i'm just like let's talk about it because it's a
legitimate fear you know i've called then they could connect with how irrational that is and begin to see objectively that maybe these alternatives that people are talking about may be worth listening to.
Maybe they're worth listening to.
That's where the hand the media plays because they could be like, hey, man, white people probably scared.
You should actually probably know about this phenomenon sociologically that you're going through it's not just because this idea is bad or whatever whatever you think
of it first there your limbic system is being taken over and your flight your fight or flight
response has kicked in and that is what's determining what's happening you're not taking
a second to actually look at something think about it review the facts review the history
but that's not what it is it's always, is defund the police too aggressive and radical?
Are black people asking for too much again?
Yeah.
But I'm just like, you're watching these really chilling murders, you know,
and let's address the fact, let's address your own bias,
which you should absolutely have because of the way that the country works.
Like, of course you have bias.
Of course you're racist, you know, like you just are. Like that is the way that the country works like of course you have bias of course you're racist
you know like you just are like that is the way that america works so it's just like if you're
afraid let's talk about it let's let's let's debunk those fears um that the you know whatever
fears you have that black people are coming as an army you know black people are really busy
they're not coming for you like i promise promise they have things to do people have been systematically reduced to not be able to have the time to
we don't have time working low-income jobs we don't have time and our poverty is your poverty
racism is a capitalism problem so it's just like we all poor girl ain't nobody coming for you like let's talk about the fear when when black armed protesters
were like marching last week that was you those photographs of that were on the front page of the
drudge report okay they want yeah because to stoke that white fear you like white people should be
afraid of these black people who are demanding equality who are demanding equality who are armed because it's legal
right in the state that they are
for white people it's legal
that's also the trick is also recontextualizing
the fight for equality as violence
yes you know oh why are they
looting or what's that look
what happened I mean look we
get it these people are being
murdered by the police but that's not how to do
that or whatever that's not how to do that or whatever.
Yeah, that's not how to do it.
It's completely disingenuous to even look at something like that
when you should be like,
things are so bad.
There are people in this country
who will burn shit down
because they are...
I know it's hard to believe
from your place of comfort
and mine as a media analyst
slash anchor slash news presenter,
we know nothing of the strife and struggle of a media analyst slash anchor slash news presenter,
we know nothing of the strife and struggle of,
of a person of color in this country.
So we'll look at it that far removed and then be like,
Oh,
well I wouldn't do it like that.
You wouldn't do it like that. Cause you've never even been in a situation like that.
So how could you,
you don't even have the wherewithal to even begin to,
to analyze what you're seeing.
And then we get these like mixed messages out that then every other person's
like,
you know, I agree with the protests, but I don't know if it has to happen like that when it should be like i didn't realize it was burn shit down bad for some people yeah and i can't
believe and it's so abstract to me that i've never known burn shit down angry yeah what does that
mean for me as a white what does that mean for me as a white person in America that it's burned shit down bad?
And this is not the first time shit has been burned down.
What does that mean?
And your position as a white person is based on advantages and privileges that have contributed to things being that bad for other people.
And it does not mean that you should feel guilty about guilty about this this is not about you individually being white like i'm just
like if i hear another white guilt shit as like there is no time for this you do not have time
to stroke your you know your realization that you're white like it let's get over this and move on this is not about an individual
issue this is not about you it's about the country is burning down i remember it's easier i think
it's easier to look at that as a solution is to be like we should acknowledge our hand in this
and then and then what better and then what no it ends there no it ends it ends it ends that i feel
guilty great yep i did the work i did the i did the work that I connected with how bad it could be for a moment.
And now I've felt a requisite amount of discomfort.
I will now push that away and keep it moving.
But I did feel it, though.
So don't get me wrong.
I did feel it.
But I just didn't choose to keep thinking further, which is, yes, now put some action in.
Because it's not the tears that people are after. It's these laws that are going to keep
knees off of necks
and no-knock warrants and people mysteriously
getting murdered and the cops having the power
to be like, I don't know.
We're living in a dystopia.
And it has been that way for so long.
I was going to say, I remember in 2016
when Trump won,
a magazine reached
out to a bunch of Brooklynoklyn comics asking if we can
you know you know how are we gonna make fun of this how are we gonna make fun of trump and i
just remember as a black ass person just being like why would we make fun of this this isn't
funny we can't just everything can't just be hilarious it was one of the things that made me
like question do i want to even do stand up anymore if this is the way that we that i'm viewed you know what i mean like as someone
who is not who is first and foremost a jokester who when they are presented with an existential
threat first thinks about how is this hilarious you know what i mean and it's like i was just
like america you're fucked because if you think,
and there were so many articles like that about like,
how are comics going to make fun of this?
How are we going to make fun of this on TV?
LOL.
Isn't it funny that Trump just won?
And it's like,
no,
it's not funny.
It's not funny.
White supremacy.
And it's not going to be funny for a long,
even if,
even when Biden wins, if there's no tampering with
the election and there's not some sort of coup or whatever that trump does if any if anybody is with
him by that point um it's going to take so long it's gonna take so long because struck to undo
this shit these are at the very foundations you know like this is since
reconstruction like this appeasing of white supremacists of the south of confederate flags
of this bullshit this appeasement this hand-holding of white bullshit well yeah see what happens
to smash out the racists in the civil war and they're like all right sorry guys you want okay
here you go we could let you have your little flag over here and we'll name some of these military installations after
these people like braxton bragg that fought against you know people like william sherman
who he knew personally before but anyway it doesn't let's it it i think and there could be
a second moment right we're like there you know there will be the coddling of Democrats to Trump Republicans who have seen the light now.
Yes.
And we're like, no, we got to be.
No, you got to be able.
Even though they fully showed their entire ass for four years or however many years and they let everybody know what it was.
Yes.
Let's pretend.
Susan Collins, Mitch McConnell.
That's not going to happen.
How many?
Hey, man, Lindsey. Lindsey Graham's a good friend of mine, man.
He's a good guy.
Lindsey Graham's about face was hilarious.
That was hilarious.
I mean, that was funny.
Just seeing people have no integrity.
People are giving him credit for disagreeing with the president on one thing.
Yeah, because he had the lukewarm take that the Confederate flag is bad for business.
Right.
Oh, my God.
Give him the Nobel Prize, man.
I never heard deep thinking like that ever in my life.
Yeah.
Oh, my God.
And the thesis of that statement is that capitalism will fix all this, which is the exact opposite.
All right.
Let's take one more break, and then we'll come back and run through
a few of the stories real quick.
In 1982, Atari players had one thing on their minds,
Sword Quest.
This wasn't just a new game.
Atari promised 150 grand in prizes to four finalists.
But the prizes disappeared.
And what started as a video game promotion
became one of the most controversial moments in 80s pop culture.
I just don't believe they exist.
I mean, my reaction, shock and awe.
That sword was amazing. It was so beautiful.
I'm Jamie Loftus.
Join me this spring for The Legend of Sword Quest,
a podcast about the fall of Atari and the disappearing Sword Quest prizes.
We'll follow the quest for lost treasure across four decades.
It's almost like a metaphor for the industry and Atari itself in a way.
Listen to The Legend of Sword Quest on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
This summer, the nation watched as the Republican nominee for president was the target of two assassination attempts separated by two months.
These events were mirrored nearly 50 years ago when President Gerald Ford faced two attempts on his life in less than three
weeks. President Gerald R. Ford came stunningly close to being the victim of an assassin today.
And these are the only two times we know of that a woman has tried to assassinate a U.S. president.
One was the protege of infamous cult leader Charles Manson. I always felt like Lynette was
kind of his right-hand woman. The other, a middle-aged housewife working undercover for the FBI in a violent revolutionary
underground.
Identified by police as Sarah Jean Moore.
The story of one strange and violent summer.
This is Rip Current, available now with new episodes every Thursday.
Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
I've been thinking about you.
I want you back in my life.
It's too late for that.
I have a proposal for you.
Come up here and document my project.
All you need to do is record everything like you always do.
One session, 24 hours.
BPM 110, 120. She's terrified.
Should we wake her up? Absolutely not.
What was that? You didn't figure it out? I think I need to hear you say it. That was live audio of a woman's nightmare. This machine is approved and everything? You're allowed to be doing this?
We passed the review board a year ago.
We're not hurting people.
There's nothing dangerous about what you're doing.
They're just dreams.
Dream Sequence is a new horror thriller from Blumhouse Television, iHeartRadio, and Realm.
Listen to Dream Sequence on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you get your podcasts. Hi, everyone. It's me, Katie Couric. Have you heard about my newsletter
called Body and Soul? It has everything you need to know about your physical and mental health.
Personally, I'm overwhelmed by the wellness industry. I mean, there's so much information out there about lifting weights, pelvic floors, cold plunges, anti-aging.
So I launched Body and Soul to share doctor-approved insights about all of that and more.
We're tackling everything.
Serums to use through menopause, exercises that improve your brain health,
and how to naturally lower your blood pressure and cholesterol.
Oh, and if you're
as sore as I am from pickleball, we'll help you with that too. Most importantly, it's information
you can trust. Everything is vetted by experts at the top of their field, and you can write into
them directly to have your questions answered. So sign up for Body and Soul at katiecouric.com
slash body and soul. Taking better care of yourself is just a click away.
And we're back.
So Donald Trump is losing support,
according to recent polls from Pew Research Center.
He's losing support fastest in the 500 counties
where the number of cases have been more than 28 coronavirus deaths
per 100,000 people, which shouldn't be surprising.
This may be the answer to the question I raised yesterday,
like who voted for him in 2016 that won't now.
It's like people who are dying or seeing people who who died or know people who died
um but uh fortunately the for his electoral chances the president is doing the only thing
he knows how to do which is double down and uh in really like i i don't know what sentence went through his mind that said the the way to
win people back is to tell them they have to put their children in schools like where they can die
in a problem that i created like that seems like the very that's what we're so yeah because again
we're in such like that late stage of capitalism where
it's just being like yeah i know before we used to be able to like come up with these fancy ways
of talking about how we kill you but now it's straight up like look um we can't get this shit
going if our workers have to teach their kids at home so in order for that to happen you need to
order you need to open these schools which frees up my work and labor force to get their ass
into these offices because i need to reopen and start making money like though it's so dark because
there's nothing about this that has any concern for children like right to your point charla and
look what we see on the show the problems in this country the answer is either white supremacy or
capitalism or both sometimes you get both in one and this is clearly a capitalism uh problem because
we the the fucking desire to reopen everything because of because economy because the alternative
is to help people and you know maybe that but empathy costs money that alternative just doesn't
really hold up here and the way it's even the way he's even positing it
right like he starts off by saying uh he's trying to even say that the the democrats want schools
closed because they want to score political points he's saying yeah uh we hope that most schools are
going to be open we don't want people to make political statements or do it for political
reasons they think it's going to be good for them politically so they keep the schools closed no way we're very much going to put pressure on governors
and everybody else to open the schools to go get them open it's very important it's very important
for our country it's very important for the well-being of the student and the parents so
we're going to be putting a lot of pressure on open your schools in the fall um threatening
funding basically i mean other countries are opening their schools
uh yeah that's true ignoring the fact yeah ignoring the fact that we are we have the worst
outbreak and in the world it's like he lit one of the schools on fire and is like you still have to
go to school because the school down the street that i didn't light on fire is people are open
and that's fine yeah the whole thing yeah when you look at even those examples he cited there
are a lot of experts who are like rebutting that very specific take he had on the schools that are
the or the countries that had schools beginning to reopen and mind you this was like with limited
class size they're doing a lot to even open it looks nothing like back to 2019 shit um they're
saying a responsible strategy for reopening schools starts with
controlling the community spread of COVID-19 through distancing and the use
of face masks,
as well as robust tracing isolation and quarantining as all countries that
have opened schools without spikes in cases did before resuming instruction.
And we,
we have nothing like that.
The things I've heard about the tracing programs
have been really lackluster. Not to say that these people aren't trying, but whatever it is,
we're just not, there's just no leadership able to do that.
We've already talked a little bit about that Drudge Report article. But yeah, I mean,
you kind of have to read it. I don't want to go through it too much but
just the certainty
that the person
talking speaks with about
the fact that
basically the 2020 election is
going to cause a war because Trump
will delay or cancel the election
the left will riot
Biden will win via mail-in ballots
which he claims are constantly
used to steal elections but have never been uh and the right won't accept it and they will riot
and either way there's going to be a war and the just calm certainty that uh this writer has that
they have the moral high ground and the left is part of a conspiracy
funded by George Soros.
To what end isn't clear,
but it just is funded by George Soros.
He is just like,
yeah, we're going to start killing everybody.
And it kind of reminded me of that cop
in Wilmington, North Carolina,
who left his body cam on while he was talking about indiscriminately shooting black people in the street.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And how he can't wait.
There's like a giddiness to it.
It's fucking terrifying.
Yeah, it's very scary.
You know, that's why I would help to have laws, you know, that like look at our police departments to make sure there aren't sure there aren't people on these race war murder fantasies working there.
Right.
Or we can wait till we vote the right people in and then hope and pray that the bodies pile up high enough that it reaches their penthouse level of the building they live in.
And they go, whoa, what was that?
Right.
Something's going, uh-oh.
Okay, maybe we'll do something now.
That's why I'm like i'm where i feel like it
feels like the country is waiting for the election and i'm just like i'm like this can't this can't
wait you know like the political will to do a lot of these things like needs to happen with or
without trump and it just feels like if people keep using trump as this symbolism of like what's wrong with everything and him going away is going to be the end of what's wrong with everything.
Like I think Americans don't have like stamina when it comes to actually fighting because no so much of this country hasn't had to do that for so long.
Well, yeah, I mean, it's a country built on slavery.
Yeah. So not a lot of hard work yeah real chill um but i'm just like it's gonna
take so much it's gonna take so much um just wearing down our representatives that we have
now who are useless until you know like to make changes right now i don't know why we have to
wait months people are gonna be evicted people are going to be out on the street now you know so i'm just like what are we doing right now i hate it
yeah it's no i mean it's it's this thing where it's it's about ignoring the that the house is
burning down until you're that the hair even like right now like the hairs on our arms are being
singed by the radiant heat of the
fire in the other room and it's like nah it ain't that bad it's like sir everything's fine my arm
here my arm hair is singeing from this heat we have to it's it's in the next room what happens
when it breaks through and it's like i don't know man fuck it we waited too long yeah we are the
everything's fine meme this country yes uh and i'm just like but we
have but we have vr goggles on so we're like no i look pretty cool because i got v i might the house
may be burning but i have vr on and i am actually in narnia right now yeah it's chill so what should
we do jack about this uh judge report article i don't know i i uh i dm'd my uh friend jason pargen uh because he's like sort of a
you know he comes from a conservative town and i was just like what like help me make sense of
this like what do you uh so i i don't know what we can do do other than just like be aware of it
read it and know that that
that is out there
and know that when I was just
what I was reading skimming through they're like saying
his preferred scenario would be that
the optics are that the Democrats
stole the presidential election
to inspire the will to
rebel from people
on the right
well shit this has been a great episode Sharla inspire the will to rebel from people on the right. Right.
Well, shit, this has been a great episode, Sharla.
It's been wonderful having you on.
Where can people find you and follow you?
I literally just deleted my Instagram this morning.
Because I was like, I'd like some mental peace nowadays to you yeah it was like pretty hard
actually which i feel is um important to remember that like we're really attached
like genuinely attached to these things and i and i am and i was scrolling yeah too much doom
scrolling exactly so i got on scroll check yourself yeah i'm still on twitter at charlotte
larson sure follow sure follow me
you know i'm sure i'll tweet about the judge judge report trying to get that shit
shut down or some something or at least you know you know it's a violation articles hate speech
yeah put it up there that's what i do you know yeah so you can find me at charlotte larston that's it girl i don't have
any shows i don't have anything is there a tweet or some other work of social media you've been
enjoying um there was this tweet um by i think it was bossip where this little black this little
black baby um stole snacks and then she when her mother catches her she pretends she's asleep and that
was she's like just standing
up holding the snacks and she
closes her eyes and then
it was so cute and then finally
she opens her eyes and she just laughs
like I'm cute what are you gonna do
and it's like yeah you're cute
babies
had some great baby recommendations
straight up I just found out about the uh
the uh thank you baby who who thanks it's just super cut of him thanking his mom for food
adorable the chubbiest cheeks in the history oh i saw that so cute i love it uh miles where
can people find you and what's a tweet you've been enjoying? Oh, man. Twitter, Instagram, Miles of Grey,
my other podcast, 420 Day Fiance,
where we just get high, talk about 90 Day Fiance.
Check that out.
A new episode came out today.
Let's see.
A tweet I like.
First one is from Caroline Moss,
at Caroline Moss.
Friendly reminder that phase three
doesn't mean it's safer to go to the movies
or get your nails done than it was in March.
It just means that both the state and federal government don't care if you die doing it
right so keep that in mind that's what i'll talk really i mean until i'll come out my house when i
hear about some like real treatments that isn't hydroxychloroquine like where that young 17 year
old girl died because her mom was like trump told me to get uh tragedies unnecessary death um and the
other one i like is from at jurassic park to go uh just great tweets from this account just all
kinds of weird jurassic park updates like a comedy bit uh this one that i like it says warning a t-rex
has been spotted wearing Joker makeup.
That's a new account, right?
I started seeing this pop up maybe in the last three weeks.
More and more and more.
Oh, yeah.
Well, actually, no.
Joined July 2020.
So super new.
Jurassic Park updates.
We have developed a velociraptor that smokes cigarettes was another one I liked.
But yeah, it's all just...
You can find me on Twitter
at Jack underscore O'Brien.
I really like this
thread. Anna
at VerySmallAnna tweeted,
What's the thing you think everyone is exaggerating?
I'll start. No way is everyone
so afraid of fucking clowns.
And then
some other ones that people
suggested were
I think everyone is
exaggerating on being horny
and nobody dislikes
the word moist until about five years
ago now everybody claims they hate it
I think those are actually good
you can find me on twitter
you can find us on twitter we 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 a website
DailyZeitgeist.com where we post
our episodes and our footnotes
where we link off to the
information we talked about in today's episode
as well as the song we
ride out on. Miles
what are we going to ride out on today?
This is going to be just new vibes from Blockhead.
A great producer.
Makes a lot of the beats for Aesop Rock.
So if you're a big Aesop Rock fan, Blockhead is typically the producer.
The reason I like Blockhead is that he's one of these producers who uses samples.
But he really does no proper musical training.
He just knows how they work,
and I always think that's interesting
when producers aren't using keyboards.
They're just purely taking these palettes of sounds
and just their intuition always guides them to fire tracks.
And this is a new one called What That Dictionary Do.
It's upbeat, and it's just a little, again,
a little, again,
you know, a little background music to keep the vibe going.
All right.
We're going to ride out on that.
The Daily Zeitgeist is a production of iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
That is going to do it for this morning.
We'll be back this afternoon
to tell you what's trending.
And we'll talk to you then.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye. Hey, fam, I'm Simone Boyce.
I'm Danielle Robay.
And we're the hosts of The Bright Side,
the podcast from Hello Sunshine that's guaranteed to light up your day.
Check out our recent episode with Grammy Award-winning rapper
Eve on motherhood and the music industry.
No, it's a great, amazing, beautiful thing.
There's moms in all industries, very high-stress industries,
that have kids all across this world.
Why can't it be music as well?
Listen to The Bright Side from Hello Sunshine on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist
who on October 16, 2017 was assassinated.
Crooks Everywhere unearths the plot to murder a one-woman WikiLeaks.
She exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state.
Listen to Crooks Everywhere starting September 25th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Kay hasn't heard from her sister in seven years.
I have a proposal for you. Come up here and document my project. All you need to do is record everything like you always do.
What was that?
That was live audio of a woman's nightmare.
Can Kay trust her sister,
or is history repeating itself? There's nothing dangerous about what you're doing.
They're just dreams. Dream Sequence is a new horror thriller from Blumhouse Television,
iHeartRadio, and Realm. Listen to Dream Sequence on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you get your podcasts. Curious about queer sexuality, cruising, and expanding your horizons?
Hit play on the sex-positive and deeply entertaining podcast
Sniffy's Cruising Confessions.
Join hosts Gabe Gonzalez and Chris Patterson Rosso
as they explore queer sex, cruising, relationships, and culture
in the new iHeart podcast, Sniffy's Cruising Confessions.
Sniffy's Cruising Confessions will broaden minds
and help you pursue your true goals.
You can listen to Sniffy's Cruising Confessions, sponsored by Gilead,
now on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
New episodes every Thursday.