The Daily Zeitgeist - Men Of “Valor”, Die Hard Is Anti-Capitalist 12.21.20

Episode Date: December 21, 2020

In episode 783, Jack and Miles are joined by Alison Rosen Is Your New Best Friend's Alison Rosen to discuss a Trump appointee demanding herd immunity, Dan Crenshaw smearing a veteran who reported sex...ual abuse, the Mission Impossible set being shut down, an explanation of Die Hard politics, and more!FOOTNOTES: ‘We want them infected’: Trump appointee demanded ‘herd immunity’ strategy, emails reveal ‘Like a Hand Grasping’: Trump Appointees Describe the Crushing of the C.D.C. Political Appointees Meddled in C.D.C.’s ‘Holiest of the Holy’ Health Reports VA Opts Against Charges in Alleged DC VAMC Assault of Congressional Staffer VA Secretary Focused on Smearing Woman Who Said She Was Sexually Assaulted in a VA Hospital, Probe Finds TOM CRUISE 'MISSION' MASK NOT UP TO SNUFF ... CDC Warned Against These John McTiernan's Explanation of 'Die Hard' as a Christmas Film Is a Lot to Unpack 7 Films With Symbolism You Didn't Notice (And Can't Unsee) WATCH: Dirty Art Club - Plastic Drip Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 In 1982, Atari players had one game on their minds, Sword Quest, because the company had promised $150,000 in prizes to four finalists. But the prizes disappeared, leading to one of the biggest controversies in 80s pop culture. I'm Jamie Loftus. Join me this spring for The Legend of Sword Quest. We'll follow the quest for lost treasure across four decades. Listen to The Legend of Sword Quest on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, fam, I'm Simone Boyce. I'm Danielle Robay.
Starting point is 00:00:35 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 Latin Grammy winner, author, and TV personality, Chiquis, about raising her younger siblings after the death of her mother, singer Jenny Rivera.
Starting point is 00:00:51 I would do it over and over again. All of that has molded me to become the woman that I am today. Like, I wouldn't change anything. Listen to The Bright Side from Hello Sunshine on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Starting point is 00:01:02 or wherever you get your podcasts. Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16th, 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,
Starting point is 00:01:33 or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey y'all, Nimany here. I'm the host of a brand new history podcast for kids and families called Historical Records. Executive produced by Questlove, The Story Pirates, and John Glickman, Historical Records brings history to life through hip-hop. Get the kids in your life excited about history by tuning in to Historical Records. Listen to Historical Records starting on September 27th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Starting point is 00:02:09 Hello, the internet, and welcome to Season 165, Episode 1 of Der Daily Zeitgeist! The first and only episode of Season 165, so we're going to have to pack a lot in. This is a production of iHeartRadio. This is a podcast where we take a deep dive into America's shared consciousness, and I want to say up top, fuck Black Rifle Coffee. The Black Rifle Coffee Company advertised on our show. Not voiced by us, but somehow found its way onto our show. So this is where we tell you how we feel about
Starting point is 00:02:47 black rifle coffee uh they're a terrible company you should by no means patronize uh fuck black rifle coffee it's monday it's monday december 21st 2020 uh there are 30 days until january 20th 2021 uh there were zero new covid cases in new zealand on thursday zero deaths since late september there were uh 13 new cases in all of australia so i had uh this is uh mea culpa i'd been saying uh citing the overall australia number as just for Victoria. I think Victoria is just all zeros across the board all the way down these days. Oh, yeah, I've seen the people over there. All zeros.
Starting point is 00:03:33 All zeros. A bunch of zeros. Australia only had 13 new. It continued to be zero deaths in the month of December. And in the U.S., there were 238,000 new cases, 3,293 deaths. Matt K
Starting point is 00:03:51 gave me some comparisons. D-Day had 2,500 deaths. Pearl Harbor, 2,400. And the reaction to that was pretty, yeah. We paid quite a bit of attention when when that happened, when those two things happened. And just globally, we have 17 million
Starting point is 00:04:15 cases right now in the US. India is the next most with nine million. Brazil was seven million. We have nowhere near as many people as india we have a fourth as many people as india china's not even in the top 10 so uh just trying to keep things in perspective uh about how spectacularly our leadership fucked this thing right up uh my name is jack o'brien aka podding an elevator spitting hot takes while i'm going down podding an elevator chugging my dew before i hit the ground uh that is courtesy of the ramen king uh and also a make good for all the aerosmith fans who are mad that I didn't know that Back in the Saddle song by them. People are like, what? Yeah, and you've never heard Stairway either, I guess.
Starting point is 00:05:12 But no, I'm just not a big Deep Cuts Aerosmith fan or even Shallow Cuts probably. I'm thrilled to be joined as always by my co-host, Mr. Miles Gray! Well, the weather outside's delightful, but the COVID rates are frightful. And since we've no place to go, let us toke, let us toke, let us toke. And we can keep going on there. Let us talk. And we can keep going on there. Johnny Davis on the Disaccord with just a wonderful holiday-inspired AKA to take us on into this mini break or whatever.
Starting point is 00:05:53 I mean, we don't take breaks here at the Davis. Love the added syllable in Discord. You turned it into Disaccord. A Disaccord. That is canon. Well, we are thrilled to be joined in our third seat by the brilliant and talented Allison Rosen. Hello.
Starting point is 00:06:13 I always forget that there is singing that happens on this podcast. I don't know if the guests normally do, but just- It's called suppressed memories. The Aerosmith theme. Pod, pod, pod pod pod in your living room pod pod pod in your living room i again uh at a loss but i'm sure i'm sure that's how by aerosmith twitter again yeah i have a question um what did black rifle co coffee do uh they advertise there's an ad but they the the what started is they're like this right wing coffee company where they're like patriots drink this
Starting point is 00:06:54 it's like they like literally called it like tactical caffeination for like operators and not civilians it's like this hyped up hyper hyper militaristic, right wing fucking take. But they got into some shit when Kyle Rittenhouse, the kid who shot those allegedly shot those people. Ricky Schroeder bailed out and had to his house. Right. Fuck Ricky. So that photo in that photo with Ricky Schroeder, he's wearing a black rifle coffee shirt. With Ricky Schroeder, he's wearing a Black Rifle coffee shirt.
Starting point is 00:07:31 But then it got weird because then the owner of the company is like, oh, we're actually not aligned with that kid and we're not trying to bank. We don't support him or anything and it's a tragedy. And then right-wing Twitter came for Black Rifle coffee because they weren't racist enough. Either way, when you start putting on your – I think I think one of them is called like Blue Lives Matter, thin blue line coffee. It's just like utter trash. It's fucking the antithesis of everything we stand for.
Starting point is 00:07:53 But this is what happens when you have a huge advertising operation that will dynamically insert things sometimes. Or they just wanted a piece of the TDZ pie. Yeah, exactly.
Starting point is 00:08:04 And little did they know, listeners are already on a hair trigger Or they just wanted a piece of the TDZ pie. Yeah, exactly. They specifically targeted it. And little did they know, listeners are already on a hair trigger, and no pun intended there, but to hear something like that and be like, oh, fuck that. We're trying to be as responsible as possible. Well, I think they got their money worth. We've mentioned them a number of times now. Yeah. And we said how when I drank the coffee, it gave me instant diarrhea.
Starting point is 00:08:24 Yeah. And then all my grass died how when I drank the coffee, it gave me instant diarrhea, and then all my grass died in my yard. Yeah, we should mention it also tastes like shit. Not only is their politics bad, it tastes terrible, and they don't even have real caffeine.
Starting point is 00:08:38 It's barely caffeinated. It's all fake caffeine. Well, when you said it, I was taking a sip of coffee, not that brand, but I wanted to do a spit take. If there was video, I would have. Talking to the king of spit takes over here. That would have been amazing. You're just holding up a Black Rifle coffee mug to your mouth as we sip.
Starting point is 00:09:01 Hey, Allison, why do you keep covering up your t-shirt? What kind of t-shirt is that? What's the logo on there? I'm just a little chilly in here. Yeah. Cover it up with a black rifle coffee jacket. You're like, ah,
Starting point is 00:09:10 shit. It's a Confederate flag jacket. All right. Wait, wait. Allison, we're going to get to know you a better, a better,
Starting point is 00:09:21 in a moment, we are adding. A better. A better. To our words today, we're going to get to know you a little bit better in a moment. First adding a better uh to our words today we're gonna get to know you a little bit better in a moment first we're gonna tell our listeners uh just a few of the things we're talking about uh guys it's the last episode uh last regular episode of the year 2020 we made it we are gonna be talking about things that happened over the past three days trump appointees describing the utter
Starting point is 00:09:45 fucking up of the covid response um we're going to talk about dan crenshaw smearing veterans we're going to talk about the spike in overdose deaths uh mission impossible set shutting down all uh just equally bad news and then die hard the the director of Die Hard, John McTiernan, came out with a video that talked about the hidden social justice message in Die Hard. And I want to look at that because it made me reappreciate Die Hard for the first time in a little while. All of that, plenty more. But first, Allison, we like to ask ask our guests what is something from your search history uh I searched what shape is giraffe poop and the reason this came up in addition to it just being a passion of mine uh on my podcast so my podcast comes out twice a week Monday is a one-on-one Thursday is a panel show and on the most recent panel show one of my guests Jackie Johnson was
Starting point is 00:10:43 talking about having just moved into a house that has a yard. And I was asking, does her dog love the yard? And she thought he would. But turns out he just goes out there and eats. Sorry, she. The dog is a she. She just goes out there and eats squirrel poop. Chooch.
Starting point is 00:10:57 Chooch. Yes. We're familiar. Yes. We know. We're familiar with Jackie's dog in these parts. Okay. Well, apparently all Chooch does in the yard is eat squirrel poop.
Starting point is 00:11:06 And then I was saying, I don't think I could even identify squirrel poop in a poop lineup. And so then we were going around and, you know, tackling the important issue of whether we could identify squirrel poop. Poop ID. And then I brought up, I believe giraffe poop is cube shaped. And I don't know why I know this, but I feel like it's because my son is very into animals and has all these different zoo books. And there's like a book called What Do They Do With All That Poop? No, What Do They Do With All That Poop?
Starting point is 00:11:36 I just first- I was going to punch that up if you didn't. Yeah. What Do They Do With All That Poop? And I just feel like I have seen square giraffe poop. And then my producer, whom I love, was real slow on the Google, so I had to Google it. And anyway, it's sort of inconclusive. We decided it's sort of- Wombat poop is cube-shaped, I believe. That's what I'm thinking of. Yeah. Wombat poop is cube-shaped, I believe. Maybe that's what I'm thinking of. I was on a very specific podcast episode of Creature Feature talking about animal shit.
Starting point is 00:12:11 And I remember as I walked away, like, wait, hold on. There's cube-shaped shit and it's wombats? I know, yeah. I know wombats definitely have cube-shaped shit. But I think, shout out to all the cube-shitters out there. Yeah. I don't want to leave anyone out. I think that's what i was thinking of then because when i finally found a picture of giraffe poop
Starting point is 00:12:29 it was more um like we just we described it as cushion cut if you know different diamond shapes it's like oh okay love it wait what does squirrel shit look like apparently it's like pellety right apparently yeah apparently it looks a lot like rabbit poop. You'd think that's what I would have Googled, but I didn't. Which, by the way, rabbit poop is Trix-shaped. And they made a rabbit the... Why did they do that? Or did they do it on purpose?
Starting point is 00:12:57 Right. To be like... Trix are for kids. Eat shit, kids. Stop fucking with me. Eat my shit. Pretty good dunk by the tricks rabbit speaking of free so go ahead i i'm just curious how you would know like you know i'm i've i've lived in
Starting point is 00:13:13 areas where squirrels are frolicking around and i've had pets and i've never been able to be like all my dog does is eat squirrel shit and that's what I'm really confused about. Like, how are you witnessing that? I've never even been like, oh, there we go. I just stepped in more squirrel shit. Miles, you should have been on this episode. That's what I was saying. That's what I was saying. How do you know?
Starting point is 00:13:36 How do you know it's not rabbit poop? And are you seeing Chooch swallow it? Are you just seeing her play with it? What's going on i need a like eight episode podcast series looking into this true crime of of chooch eating squirrel poo i'm glad we have another fellow truth seeker on the show today because i'm i'm not accepting this description from jackie and when she is on this show again i will press her for more answers thank you thank you let's take this across all the podcasts in America.
Starting point is 00:14:05 Yeah. It's interesting. I always assumed the circular shape was that way because it has the smallest surface area to volume ratio. That it was covering it up so it wouldn't smell as much. So predators couldn't hunt them. But I guess- Oh my God. We got a scientist on our hands.
Starting point is 00:14:25 Well, I guess that's not even remotely true. It might actually have the worst volume to surface area ratio. I don't know. I just Googled it and it's like some other shape that I can't even pronounce. The Eicosahedron has the lowest surface area to volume ratio so what does it look like it looks I don't know I go Sahedron co Sahedron
Starting point is 00:14:54 how many sides is that but I assume because like spherical ice cubes isn't that the whole idea behind them is that they don't melt as much because they have lower surface area I just thought it was a cool thing from a Pinterest board. And I just thought it was a way
Starting point is 00:15:10 to sell more ice cube trays. Right. Yeah. Could be all those. I mean, it makes sense because I feel like it got big in Japan when some bartender was hand-cutting spheres of ice
Starting point is 00:15:20 and it's the only way to not water down your scotch. Okay. The sphere has the best ratio, I think. of ice and it's the only way to not water down your scotch. Okay, the sphere has the best ratio, I think. Eicosahedron is the one with the second best.
Starting point is 00:15:33 20 sides because it has 20. Anyways, this has been... Oh, so you mean a D&D die you would catch. Right, exactly. How come more animals aren't shitting out D&D die? But is there actually any animal that does that no there needs to be i mean i do when i've had a very specific uh combination of fiber and uh cheetos yeah oh it's just cheetos i forgot you're very familiar with uh all my sorry yeah you know we gotta know bowels? We got to know each other. Yeah, we know.
Starting point is 00:16:05 That's how people are like, well, how do you guys do it? You know, Nikki Glaser was on and before I'm like, the chemistry. I'm like, look, we know what each other's shits look like. That's how we keep it tight on this show. Yeah. It's the part of the doc, every day's doc, that we only share with each other is just a history of bowel movements
Starting point is 00:16:24 and diet. Quick snap. I'm normal. All right. And I think you made a mistake because when I got a link to the document, there were pictures at the beginning and I just didn't know what that was about. Well, consider that you've entered the circle of trust. Thank you very much. I do remember a good friend years ago, a good friend of mine was in his bathroom and through the door he yelled i wish you were a guy so that i could invite you in here to take a look at this and that's like one of those
Starting point is 00:16:50 weird things that i think about so frequently like is that a thing that guys do often so i have i'm not gonna lie i have to tell a really gross story right now this is a very scat scatological beginning to this episode but so my dad one of eight uh grew up very you know whatever you know they were very check to check it was like in a very small apartment in inner city philadelphia and him and his brother had a competition where they would save giant shits in a uh in a shoe box and like oh my god and show it to each other that's amazing and i think it just like that i was so desperate to have like that affirmed that that was that they weren't the only humans who did that that the second you talked about one human doing that i was like okay i gotta let this off my chest up the game yeah she just said hey i wish you could talk about it like, okay, so they were shitting the shoebox.
Starting point is 00:18:05 That's what I was going to say, Jack. I want you to feel seen and heard, but to me, there's something different between my friend wanting me to come into the bathroom and look at his toilet present versus a shoebox.
Starting point is 00:18:22 Once you take it out of water, that's a whole different animal. I agree. I can only imagine how bad it smelled and how yeah how many questions i don't know that you know the answer but these are things that you could find out um one shoebox do they have multiple shoeboxes and how are they even getting it out of the toilet were they using like the kind of net yeah like get a gold fish out of a clean do you clean it they clean the box every time is it a new box the fact that i someone work didn't ask more follow-up questions uh is i i don't know what's wrong with me that i wasn't like wait what weren't ready but i think i was like so young that it was just like yeah okay that's a that sounds like right uncle barry uh you gotta
Starting point is 00:19:05 give it the mad out treatment yeah how mad i would open an episode of her show and be like a shoe box a simple thing but what's really a shoe what is really contained and then you're like wait this is about some people shitting in a box but the i i was gonna say before jack completely scorched the earth with his anecdote i do have a there is a i know somebody look i'm not gonna lie yes i have a text thread where we send shit pictures for real do you really i don't send them i don't send them my one friend does it as a bit and he always acts he the bit is always he treats it like a art composition where he says what his motivation was and what, like what the process was. And then I always respond with a scathing art critique of the actual,
Starting point is 00:19:50 the dump he took. It's really stupid. I don't even know. I just said that out loud, but that's some insight into what's amazing is we have a bunch of, I think we have a bunch of TDZ ads that are going to run on the radio during Christmas break. And so there's going to be a bunch of new people ads that are gonna run on the radio during christmas break and so there's gonna be a bunch of new people coming to the show and this is gonna be the most recent full episode they
Starting point is 00:20:11 hear it's us opening up with 20 minutes on people on us just sharing pictures of poop uh and and poop but this is america's shared consciousness and i defy a listener to say they don't know anything about this or if not, their lives hasn't intersected with poo talk culture. Okay. It's around. And it's funny because I was a friend of mine who has a really young son who's like three or four, had like a play date.
Starting point is 00:20:36 And one of like her son's potty trained, but her friend's son isn't. So when he went to use like the bathroom, his friend came too because he's like oh i'm not potty trained and they both just watched him take a dump like up close like they're both like he was pooping and his friend was like okay okay i see what you're doing here okay that's cool and i was like you know what this is just this is since the times of the ancients you know this is just who we are how old are your kids allison um they're both they're gonna be four and two in february they both have february birthdays yeah we're we're right around the same uh spot and yeah that's a whole thing the kids like don't want to be lonely when it's happening
Starting point is 00:21:15 you know they feel like they're missing it out if you just like shut them out in a room by themselves so like that's that's a whole thing you have to get your mind around and uh i i do love the idea of the unpotty trained kid breaking it down like game tape being like oh damn wow or the one who is pie training he's like see this is what you gotta do that's the difference man you gotta start doing that rather than in your pants man and you will get a treat oh man yeah there's a definite fascination with it. My son has come in and said to me, Mommy, I want to watch you use this.
Starting point is 00:21:48 Like I pointed to the toilet. Right. It's a whole new thing for them. Yeah. It's very interesting. Because those are sort of like benchmarks of growth. You know what I mean? It's like now I'm a toilet user.
Starting point is 00:22:00 You know what I mean? So now I'm like, and I remember, and this probably goes back, and I probably have said this before. I remember when I i was six years old my dad got a camcorder like you know it's like 1980 or 90 basically he got a camcorder and the first thing that shot on it is me filming my own shit that christmas morning i took the camera and i'm zooming It's a slow fucking push in on a little six-year-old turd. And that's just like family lore. It's healthy.
Starting point is 00:22:29 It's healthy. And now you're a poop critic on that thread. Now I'm a poop critic. Yeah, you went from filmmaker to critic. Exactly. All right, guys. Let's take a quick break
Starting point is 00:22:40 and we'll come back, Allison, and talk about underrated and overrated. MTV's official challenge podcast is back for another season. That's right. The challenge is about to embark on its monumental 40th season, y'all, and we are coming along for the ride.
Starting point is 00:23:01 Woohoo! That would be me, Devin Simone. And then there's me, Davon Rogers. And we're here to take you behind the scenes of... Drumroll, please. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. The Challenge 40 Battle of the Eras. Yes.
Starting point is 00:23:15 Each week, cast members will be joining us to spill all of the tea on the relentless challenges, heartbreaking eliminations, and, of course, all the juicy drama. And let's not forget about the hookups. Anyway, regardless of what era you're rooting for at home, everyone is welcome here on MTV's official challenge podcast. So join us every week as we break down episodes of the Challenge 40 Battle of the Eras.
Starting point is 00:23:39 Listen to MTV's official challenge podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 1982, Atari players had one thing on their minds. Sword Quest. This wasn't just a new game. Atari promised $150,000 in prizes to four finalists. But the prizes disappeared. And what started as a video game promotion became one of the most controversial moments
Starting point is 00:24:06 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
Starting point is 00:24:22 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.
Starting point is 00:25:04 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.
Starting point is 00:25:35 Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, fam. I'm Simone Boyce. I'm Danielle Robay. And we're the hosts of The Bright Side, the daily podcast from Hello Sunshine Hey fam, I'm Simone Boyce. I'm Danielle Robay. And we're the hosts of The Bright Side, the daily podcast from Hello Sunshine that is guaranteed to light up your day. Every weekday, we bring you conversations
Starting point is 00:25:54 with the culture makers who inspire us. Like our recent episode with dancer, actor, host of Dancing with the Stars, and now novelist, Julianne Hough. I feel really whole. I feel like the last few years I've really unraveled a lot, which is part of what this book is about. And I really feel so content,
Starting point is 00:26:14 which is a word that used to scare the crap out of me. And I love that word now. Listen to The Bright Side from Hello Sunshine on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. And Allison, we like to ask our guests, what is something you think is underrated? I don't know if this is like underrated for everyone, but for me, I had underrated the value lately
Starting point is 00:26:56 of like what I would call comfort food TV because my husband and I have been watching all these prestige TV shows, which they're good and I enjoyed them. However, we recently got sucked back into Vanderpump Rules. I was very into Vanderpump Rules a few years ago. I couldn't stop talking about it. And somehow I made every podcast appearance I was on about it, which I feel like I'm, no, now I'm doing it about poop. um but and then I just sort of fell off and I I didn't keep up with it and then we were watching Real Housewives of Salt Lake City and I was sort of
Starting point is 00:27:32 getting back into the Bravo world and we decided let's just watch the most recent episode of Vanderpump Rules even though I we we weren't caught up and it is like hanging out with old friends it's so pathetic how comforted we feel the fact that we can just dive in we don't need you know we already know what they're like um and it like every night now we watch multiple episodes i don't know that i feel good no i don't feel bad about it though it's like exactly what i needed yeah no need to feel bad yeah it's good it's great i wish i had done it sooner because i've been sort of like looking for something to be excited about tv wise and now i'm excited about catching up with my friends on vanderpump every night yeah that's like me and the the ladies of salt lake city yes i just can't i just can't believe i can't believe what i'm seeing every week. Who's your favorite lady and who's your least favorite?
Starting point is 00:28:26 Because I ranked them early on. I hate Mary. I hate Mary. I can't stand Mary. Her self-loathing is just despicable. That whole thing of like, when I see black people at a convenience store, I'll go to another convenience store.
Starting point is 00:28:37 I'm like, you're black? Yes, that's what Jen said. You're black. And why are you saying this in front of a group of white women? It was like this performative self-hatred that really rubbed me the wrong way and then Anna started sending me subreddit posts about how she's a
Starting point is 00:28:49 full-on scammer who says she's a god and like forces all the parishioners at her church just to give her all this money so more than like who I like I just know Mary rubs me the absolute wrong way but I will watch because that's part of the thing you know because sometimes like I need something to get angry at I know that's the joy of thing. You know, because sometimes I'm like, I need something to get angry at.
Starting point is 00:29:05 Yeah, I know. That's the joy of it. Yeah. She's the one who is married to her grandfather. Her step-grandfather. Her step-grandfather. And also accused someone of smelling like hospital. Is that right?
Starting point is 00:29:17 Yes, and it just, the syntax of that bothers me. Is that how you say it? Like, you smell like hospital. Yeah. You smell like a hospital. Or the hospital. Well, yeah. It's very British.
Starting point is 00:29:27 That's like how babies talk. Well, the British also refer to it as hospital instead of the hospital. Oh, you smell like sick. Right. Do I? Yeah. I don't know. I don't know.
Starting point is 00:29:43 I don't know this thing. It's a mess and a half but it's also interesting because like these people are there's also this layer on top of like vapid house real housewives culture that's present in all shows then you have like the you know lds mormon church layer on top of it that's like pushing and pulling the cast members in certain directions so what's it's all very it's a lot to take i did what i didn't realize is that they're all like there are according to the show there are a lot of mormons who drink like i've only known in real life i've only known mormons who don't who are like pretty you know as far as i can tell devout and follow the rules. And like, I've never known a Mormon in real life who drinks.
Starting point is 00:30:26 Oh man, the Jack Mormon community. That's what they're called, Jack Mormons. But is that like ex-Mormon or does that just mean drunk Mormon? No, it just means Mormons who grew up Mormon. That sounds cool. Stay a Mormon. Like a Jack Mormon? Yeah, exactly.
Starting point is 00:30:40 New Jack Mormon. It's like a new Jack Mormon. It might not be called that anymore, but when I lived in Dayton, a bunch of our best friends were Mormon, and that was the thing back in the 90s that they referred to it as. I've also heard of a Nomo Momo,
Starting point is 00:30:56 which is someone who's no longer a Mormon. Nomo Momo. Oh, wow. No more Mormon. Oh, got it. Not super fans of the Dodgers pitcher Hideo Nomo. But also that. Very small group.
Starting point is 00:31:10 Huge overlap. I mean, that wind up, it was something else. That diagram is an exact circle. I'm so tired of that meme. Allison, what is something you think is overrated? Overrated. And this is controversial. It's controversial even for me to say it.
Starting point is 00:31:28 But of late, I have felt that sleeping in is a little bit overrated because I have children. I do not get to sleep in very much. However, my mother-in-law is here. And she wakes up early and she loves to take care of the kids or we tell ourselves that. So my husband and I have been sleeping in this week. There's days where I slept until
Starting point is 00:31:53 past 11. I mean, it is gross. And I wake up. Girl, loving it. Like, oh my god. You're more coming to than waking up catherine o'hara and home alone even though it feels like oh i needed that like i need i've been needing that for the last five years i also for the rest of the day feel out of it and irresponsible and gross it's like i can't
Starting point is 00:32:30 shake off the gross feeling of i woke up no yeah maybe i just need to yourself allison be kinder but i know what you're doing you know just i have that same uh thing like where i i feel like if i wake up too late or if i get too much sleep i'm like groggy the next day and also like i and i can't tell if it's just self like me being aware that i got a lot of sleep and feeling bad it also happens with showering like i have this like kind of loose theory that if i don't shower you'll never get sick actually physical like sleep left over on my body because like i'm always more tired if i don't shower and i'm like i can't just be a scientist i can't just be like all mental but i think it is i think it's all mental i'm just glad we're doing this on Zoom because it was getting ripe in the studio.
Starting point is 00:33:25 I'm telling you. That's my secret. I'm saying I need to shower every morning if I want to be fully awake. Right. Yeah. I don't know. I get like whenever I felt bad about sleeping in, it's because it's so late. I'm like, oh, man, I only have like a few hours of like a day left before like I'm about to shift my whole sleep cycle into the night where I'm like, well, I think that's what it is.
Starting point is 00:33:49 Because when I wake up super late, I'm aware that I needed sleep. And the way the like better way to get it would have been to go to bed early instead of staying up till two watching Vanderpump. It's a whole constellation of self-care. Self-care, no matter how you cut it, though. No, it's good. I'm not knocking it. And in no way do I want to give it up. I'm just saying I have found
Starting point is 00:34:13 that it's like a little overrated for me personally. Yeah. But I can't give it up. I just pray for the ability to sleep like I did when I was in puberty or going through puberty or high school. When my body was like this is when you're growing and you will just lie dormant and like I never to this day even like with a terrible hangover or something have slept like as solidly for such a long time than I did back then uh you know so do you not sleep well now
Starting point is 00:34:43 no I sleep well now but like even i wake up pretty normally like my rhythms are like i'm up even if i sleep late like i'm just up and i can't do the thing where i'm like well i went to sleep later i'm really tired maybe i get a couple hours just can't it's just that adult shit adult body i hear that well speaking of adult shit let's let's get back to poop so my theory on the spherical poop as i've been thinking about it skittish all the animals that have spherical poop are skittish like you got your deers your rabbits your squirrels so i think it really there is something to that poop scientists get at me uh all right you want courage shapes like a fist or a sword. Well, like humans, there's no design to it because we're not scared.
Starting point is 00:35:27 Same with dogs, right? They're predators. I had a homegirl who used to do rabbit poops. Right. I mean, we've all been there. I've been a homegirl who's done rabbit poops. Yeah, I've been that homegirl as well. But it's not like biologically decreed that we do that.
Starting point is 00:35:43 No. Right. Sure, sure. Log it Right. Sure, sure. Log it up. Kenny Loggins. It's interesting. What other animals have such wide range of poop shapes? Yeah, I think it's dogs, us,
Starting point is 00:35:55 and dogs have evolved to be part of our little ecosystem. Yeah, I need to see some coyote shit. They're copying our style, our shit style. I'm going to start shaming my dog. I'm like, yo, get your own swag, bro. I feel like bear shit is similarly amorphous. So it's like the stuff that needs to be scared, needs to keep it in tight little spheres
Starting point is 00:36:18 so that there's little surface area so the scent isn't going out there so that they can be tracked is my right my theory uh all right other poop stuff no uh let's talk about let's talk about these trump appointees who uh came out towards the end of last week and just you know said that basically it had been a complete utter fucking up of the covet response while they were working in the cdc they specifically said that they were being encouraged by members of the trump administration to pursue herd immunity which is basically like let everybody get it except the people who it is
Starting point is 00:36:58 actively killing and was completely inadvisable and just a confusing of the approach that has left us in the condition we're in where the U.S. and Brazil are far and away the most fucked up examples of how this can be exacerbated. Right now, and I read that in la 1 in 20 residents are positive right i think it's 1 in 80 confirmed and 1 in 20 spent like probably just haven't been tested and this is sorry this is like a tangent we'll go back to that story you're talking about but i remember at the very beginning new york it was like terrible in new york and everyone was kind of applauding california and the theory was well in california you know in new y and everyone was kind of applauding California and the theory was, well, in California, you know, in New York, everyone's on top of each other, so they can't socially distance. Whereas
Starting point is 00:37:50 like in California, we're really doing it right. We're spread out. But now L.A. is the epicenter. What happened? I guess we opened too fast. Is that why it's so bad here? Yeah, it's a combination. And I think, yeah, the time of being in the pandemic, like people are getting just sick of it at like more of like the emotional toll of like trying to lock down and be responsible. Like people are reaching that breaking point while the infection rates are going up. And I think they're meeting at an awful time. And on top of it, yeah, like we're just we're not doing what we should be doing in any sense in terms of curbing things. Apparently these numbers right now are not even reflecting Thanksgiving yet.
Starting point is 00:38:35 So it's going to get worse, like way worse before it gets better. Yeah, and Christmas. It's around now it's going to hit, yeah. My favorite aspect of all the revelations in the CDC was there was an advisor to the HHS who tried to get the CDC to downplay something in their morbidity and mortality weekly report, which is like this really important report that they put out. So they were trying to like censor something and in the email the guy was explaining this and it was a longer quote but he said something like i'll just focus on the my favorite part he spelled president president president hell yeah president yeah president oh no i see what it is this is designed to hurt this
Starting point is 00:39:23 president for their reasons which I am not interested in. Yes. Which it just it just feels like a trolling Twitter response. Yes. The only people who are in favor of the herd immunity theory were people who are trying to open the economy, which was the Trump administration, because their theory of the case was this is all an attempt to hurt the economy so that he loses because the entire universe revolves around them. And I think just similarly, I've heard this overall sort of model of the globe as like starting in Japan and moving westward, you go from a more collectivist view of the world just in terms of traditional values and then ending in Los Angeles
Starting point is 00:40:15 is the most individualistic view of the world. I feel like that probably plays into some of why the US is so bad and also why L.A. is now the epicenter is like even after we now know like what's so bad about like or how the virus operates, we're still willing to, you know, it's more about us as Angelenos, as Californians, than it is about the reality. I think Californians tend to be more up their own ass than probably the rest of the world. Yeah, the people that move here, honestly, I think that's the problem. People who are from here, though,
Starting point is 00:41:00 I think we're the real Americans. We're collectivists. LA is more than any place i've ever lived like composed of people who are like yes that is my shangri-la that is where i will go to actualize myself the torment of my high school right and i will make it there and prove to them i am not that person right i think it's very specific what about us who lived here and also it sucked, but we're still here. But yeah, I think with also the, like you're saying,
Starting point is 00:41:29 especially LA, like New York, you know, like you're saying you're on top of each other. There's a sense of your community, whether you like it or not in New York, like LA, you're in your car.
Starting point is 00:41:38 You're just, you're fucking closed the fuck off. And I think it's really easy. The weather too plays a huge part where it's almost like well the weather is nice how could like there's all these things that i think act on people's subconsciousness that just are force multipliers for how bad we're screwing things up and on top of it like the communication is absolute dog shit whether it's coming from the county or the state it's like half the time i'm have i'm seeking it out through news articles
Starting point is 00:42:04 more than like it passively coming to me because they're trying to inform the residents of what's happening. Yeah. How do you guys feel about businesses that are defying the stay at home order or the shutdown order and like still, you know, like there's a restaurant, I'm in Burbank and there's a guy in Burbank who's making news right now because he refuses to shut down his restaurant. And my visceral response is, fuck you, you are selfish and you're endangering people. been about building this business it's all i have and i've got a hundred percent bills and i'm making you know ten percent if i just do to-go orders i'm making ten percent profit not profit i'm like making earning ten percent of what i normally make and like he's gonna lose his business and
Starting point is 00:42:55 lose everything yeah i have compassion but i still feel like it doesn't it doesn't make it okay to endanger people at the same time like obviously I feel the government should pay people to stay home. That's the answer. Yes, right. No, that's exactly what it is. It's so easy to understand that impulse of someone who's like, well, my... So you want me to just lay down and die, basically, as a business with no help? I can't do that.
Starting point is 00:43:26 basically as a business with no help like i can't do that yeah my one issue is that usually the people who are like fuck the government stay home order are also are they're rarely the type of people who are like pay me to stay home they're more the people who are like you can't tell me what to do i'm this is america um and that i think is a fundamental misunderstanding of the problem. But yeah, I. Yeah, the conversation needs to shift from we need to be able to make money to it should be the government needs to be paying us. The government needs to be sorting out my bills. But everyone's so fucking OD'd on the bootstrap shit that even in this situation, it's like, I got to do this. that even in this situation, it's like, I got to do this. And yes, like you're saying, endanger other people, their own employees in the midst of all of this. When you think like,
Starting point is 00:44:14 oh, y'all are so close to the socialism part of it, to like understanding like what's fair, what's equitable, what is actually necessary and can acknowledge like, yeah, that's true. Don't worry though, that you can't work because the government is here to take people from people who, know tax them and the money's there to subsidize things and jesus when you look at the countries that are like have been subsidizing lost wages for people it's it's so fucked up to look at like how other countries are handling it and here it's purely like i don't know just burn up burn up upon re-entry that's sort of the strategy yeah i know that we like people understand that like we the number of cases that we've had in this country is so much more than other countries but just like in doing that opening that i've been doing for the past week of just the number
Starting point is 00:44:58 of cases number of deaths compared to other countries and then like i added the context of like doing research into like the portion of like how much smaller we are than china and india and like how we're so comparable to other countries it's just like anybody who is not viewing this as a stress test of like okay this version of running a country is not working. Like, you have to be burying your head in the ground. Like, these values do not function. They're not values. I mean, or they are. They're just in the completely wrong direction.
Starting point is 00:45:33 I was thinking about that today. And this is a really, like, it sounds snobby and elitist, maybe. But it's like, this country is so fucking stupid. Yes. Yeah. Sorry. Well well we're just so corrupted or i mean you know collectively the culture is just corrupted by greed and consumption and that's those are like the gods of this country it's also anti-science and paranoia and and i think a lot of those are born out of like this singular focus to just create value, create as much shareholder value to accumulate as much bullshit as possible. So if anything runs counter to that and it's an obstacle, then yeah, fuck science.
Starting point is 00:46:17 If science is getting in the way of making money, then fuck science. Science increasingly runs counter to the market. If poor people are getting in the way of making money then fuck poor people like it's it's a very simple equation you just have to put like is it in the way of making money then chances are that thing gets fucked and completely demolished in the pursuit of making money and that i i don't know like you think we've experienced enough pain collectively as a nation to begin to have a reckoning with that. But I think it's just so it's fundamentally the foundation that the entire country is built upon.
Starting point is 00:46:51 It's it's like being like our colors, red, white and blue. And people like, well, what do you mean? Right. I mean, you have like individual people defending their own right to be exploited. Like it is my American God given right to be completely exploited by this system. And it's like, I don't know how you break through to someone who feels that way. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:47:11 Yeah. How do you break through to the guy who has like Trump tattoos on his arm and is saying like with his dying breaths, dying from COVID is like Trump 2020, you know, even, even the, as he was like,
Starting point is 00:47:24 he started out being like plandemic this is all made up is dying of covid and is still with his dying breath being like trump 2020 like that's and there were multi like many people like that let's talk dan crenshaw real quick just because i feel like a lot of the news cycle about him has gotten overtaken with his snl shit his uh you know embarrassing avengers trailer avengers false valor he's like trying to pass himself off as an avenger um but the the reality of who this dude is uh recently came up as um basically there was a VA investigation, a veteran alleged that she was sexually assaulted at a VA facility, and the VA secretary, Robert Wilkie,
Starting point is 00:48:12 was just straight away trying to smear her, and Crenshaw was with him on that and basically approached him and said that he knew of her from serving together and that she was known for making up allegations, uh, which to put that in perspective, read any account of what it's like to be a woman in the modern military. It makes like the workplace from mad men seem like wildly progressive.
Starting point is 00:48:43 Like the, to this day, it is wild like the the shit that they are still getting away with uh and letting themselves and just the standards they hold themselves to and this asshole is like part of part of that problem and he's he's the guy who's you know out here using the fact that he was a veteran to big up himself. And meanwhile, he's smearing actual veterans who have actual problems and are trying to fix systemic issues with the military. So just a real piece of shit through and through. And being honest enough to want to create change for people after them to not to prevent these things from happening. And then Dan Crenshaw is just like, nah, like that's what you're using your time for is just to just smear someone who's trying to do good because you're playing on whatever side of this argument.
Starting point is 00:49:46 of make it worse for more women who want to come forward seeing how this was handled and seeing how there will you know they've shut down there won't be an investigation or they've shut it down um she claimed that the guy rammed his lower body into hers and said you look like you could use a good time right that's so gross yeah yeah i mean yeah I mean, yeah, that documentary, I don't know. Have you seen The Invisible War? That was, I think I saw it on HBO. It's like a Kirby Dick documentary just talking about, you know, the rape culture and how prevalent assaults and things are in the military. assaults and things are in the in the military uh and it's really it's shocking because yeah it's a problem that's so out in the open and known but then there is also this culture of fear around being able to speak up about it and to just to be on the side of like perpetuating or protect that you know the the ongoing uh culture of assault in the in the military just
Starting point is 00:50:43 fucked up yeah yeah and to. And to see her character. From someone like Dan Crenshaw, who's just shown himself to have no character at all, aside from wanting to play a literal fucking Marvel character. Right. Yeah. Watch The Invisible War instead of a Marvel movie. All right. Let's take a quick break and we'll be right back.
Starting point is 00:51:03 All right, let's take a quick break and we'll be right back. MTV's official challenge podcast is back for another season. That's right. The challenge is about to embark on its monumental 40th season, y'all. And we are coming along for the ride. Woohoo! That would be me, Devin Simone. And then there's me, Davon Rogers.
Starting point is 00:51:27 And we're here to take you behind the scenes of... Drumroll, please. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. The Challenge 40 Battle of the Eras. Yes. Each week, cast members will be joining us to spill all of the tea on the relentless challenges, heartbreaking eliminations, and, of course, all the juicy drama. And let's not forget about the hookups.
Starting point is 00:51:44 Anyway, regardless of what era all the juicy drama. And let's not forget about the hookups. Anyway, regardless of what era you're rooting for at home, everyone is welcome here on MTV's official challenge podcast. So join us every week as we break down episodes of the Challenge 40 Battle of the Eras. Listen to MTV's official challenge podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 1982, Atari players had one thing on their minds. Sword Quest. This wasn't just a new game. Atari promised $150,000 in prizes to four finalists. But the prizes disappeared.
Starting point is 00:52:21 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 SwordQuest on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Starting point is 00:53:00 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
Starting point is 00:53:37 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.
Starting point is 00:54:00 Hey, fam. I'm Simone Boyce. I'm Danielle Robay. And we're the hosts of The Bright Side, the daily podcast from Hello Sunshine that is guaranteed to light up your day. Every weekday, we bring you conversations with the culture makers who inspire us. Like our recent episode with dancer, actor, host of Dancing with the Stars, and now novelist, Julianne Hough. I feel really whole. I feel like the last few years I've really unraveled a lot, which is Hough. I feel really whole. I feel like the last few years, I've really unraveled a lot,
Starting point is 00:54:29 which is part of what this book is about. And I really feel so content, which is a word that used to scare the crap out of me. And I love that word now. Listen to The Bright Side from Hello Sunshine on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. Let's talk about uh mission impossible we've been tracking uh tom cruise's uh flip outs on the uh
Starting point is 00:55:08 on the trending episodes past uh at the end of last week but uh apparently yeah he's been just wiling i believe it's called uh in academic circles and so they apparently they have shut down production on the mission impossible movie and it's not because of any covid like misbehavior uh it is because he would i guess he got a sense he he saw himself in the mirror uh of these rants and was like oh maybe maybe old tommy needs a break yeah he's apparently uh friday was like the last day of shooting and he's i guess the plan is for him to go to miami to be with his dj extraordinaire son connor yeah to fucking you know hang out for the holidays or something but it's just very they're not saying it's obviously obviously not from anything to do with covid but there's no real explanation why he's doing that
Starting point is 00:56:09 but i think a lot of you're like yeah maybe he uh he saw a little bit of cringe from that leaked rant uh the other thing that's really interesting is uh on tmz there because they're just the messiest over there they were pointing out that the mask that Tom Cruise is always being pictured in on the set is one that the CDC is like, yo, don't fucking wear those valved masks. Those are actually worse because they're
Starting point is 00:56:36 designed to release a bunch of air as you exhale very quickly. It only protects you. Yeah, you're just jet shooting out your droplets out the sides of that thing. And they're like, yeah, this is a quote, this type
Starting point is 00:56:51 of mask may not prevent you from spreading COVID-19 to others. The hole in the material may allow your respiratory droplets to escape and reach others. Yeah, it's more for people fighting forest fires and preventing them from inhaling dangerous things but it it has no benefit if you're trying to prevent the spread of disease uh because everything that
Starting point is 00:57:13 you're exhaling is getting out there but it does protect you like allison said yeah so that's what i think it's a very appropriate mask given the circumstances. It's like the rich guy wears the mask that's like, well, fuck y'all. Like literally in that I don't trust you. So I'm wearing this. And also I don't give a fuck what happens to you based on what I'm exhaling. So cool. I saw a lot of debate about his rant. Like I saw a lot of people defending it and relating to it because they also have been very frustrated in their
Starting point is 00:57:46 workplaces with people not doing what they're supposed to protocol wise but then i saw people saying that well just first of all coming after tom cruise because he's like the face of scientology which is a pretty um you know problematic and corrupt organization and criminal. But then also saying that he was, and this is kind of my emotional reaction to his rant, was like, you are taking it too far and you're just excoriating an employee and kind of emotionally abusing them. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:58:20 Take it out on the corporations that are putting you in that position, not the like small time workers who work for you like that's not on them that is a systemic issue and the fact that you are this hyped up and stressed out and from talking to the insurance companies and the studios means that you should have a different relationship to those insurance companies and those studios because you are externalizing their inherent treat everybody like pawns that we're moving around to create value kind of worldview
Starting point is 00:58:57 and treating them like they're inhuman. There's never an excuse to talk to people like that. But also he's a couch jumper. So I feel like he's got this potential to be sort of manic like this anyway. Oh, for sure. Yeah. We were just – we're like we get – like we like where he's coming from in that like we – yes, people need to act out of what's in the best interest for others, given the situation. But yeah, in this context, it's like, let's be real.
Starting point is 00:59:28 So many of these things that they're saying are essential are not essential. And it's tough when you have people like I have family who works in production. They're going to cruise in the new COVID age where there's like the zones and the testing and things like that. But that's all because the studios can't shut off the spigot of like the of the revenue flowing and all of it sort of like leads to like what we couldn't we could just handle this like an actual pandemic and we have to say i know we're used to the slog and the grind of like this economy that we're in, but we actually have to stop it and we have to start refunding funds in the right directions to a cape, you know, keep everyone safe. But that's the thing we're just not able to get fundamentally.
Starting point is 01:00:17 Like, it's just like, well, but if some people are like really good about it, can they go and still make money for people? can they go and still make money for people and like you know there's reports on how some hospitals are like there's a hospital in california that's being used as a as a set when it can be when it can actually be used as a fucking hospital but what's gonna help more people joyous entertainment or you know medicine yeah yeah this uh you know directed TV holiday film that takes place in a whimsical hospital or ICU beds. But sure. All right, let's talk about Die Hard, the subject that I'm sure you guys have all been waiting to talk about. Yeah, this is a new thing you're saying? is a new thing you're saying well so our writer jm pointed out that uh you know he's he's written he actually wrote a piece back when we were at cracked about how not just die hard as a christmas
Starting point is 01:01:12 movie but how it's kind of like a socialist christmas movie um and john mctiernan came out the the director and basically just validated everything jm was talking about like word for word uh in a pretty cool way so basically he said that he when it came to him the script was the terrorists were leftist terrorists and like john mcclain was just you know authority he represented authority and was like a by the books cop or like a a cop who became a bug in the ointment because he happened to be there. And he changed it so that they were thieves who were motivated by capitalism.
Starting point is 01:01:56 They were robbing people who, like all the authority figures who work at the company, are these corporate empty suits who are like useless the the head of the company yeah yeah ellis uh but even the head of the company uh dies rather than giving up a password like to that would allow his company to be like robbed i've always been i've always been like what is he doing and the point is you're supposed to be like that he's dying for a ridiculous cause which is like this runaway uh what mctiernan calls unregulated cowboy capitalism and he said he was actually like he had been sent the script uh like seven times and kept telling joel sliver. And then he was watching It's a Wonderful Life, specifically the Potterville scene,
Starting point is 01:02:49 which he says is the clearest demonstration and criticism of runaway, unregulated cowboy capitalism in movies. And that's what inspired him. He also talks about how these paintings in the Louvre were like how he was thinking about it, how these artists would the Louvre were like how he was thinking about it, how like they would, these artists would paint like these nobles or like these monarchs.
Starting point is 01:03:11 And you would actually see like some small detail that they actually put all their artistry into, because like that was where they could just get their release and like do the thing they wanted to, because the King would have very specific ideas about how they wanted to be portrayed and so he's basically saying that by making a christmas movie uh it's a wonderful life and die hard can sneak in these sort of uh revolutionary anti-capitalist ideas and yeah just hearing him lay it out it's in a you it's like a 12 minute youtube video but it's really it's really cool he talks about how the villains are reaganomics personified in that
Starting point is 01:03:52 like gruber says i'm an exceptional thief reagan would always use the word exceptional about like calling america exceptional an exceptional nation every rich guy or bureaucrat is an idiot and like the people who are actually you know doing good in the movie are john mcclain who jam wrote about how holly his ex-wife is like sort of represents america and she's being wooed over to this like form of 80s capitalism like hard charging corporate bullshit and like they give her the gift of the watch and like she has this office but then mclean is like this more blue collar cop obviously but he has never ridden in a limousine and like him argyle and uh Al Pal, are like the only kind of good people in the movie. And then Holly kind of comes over to their side at the end.
Starting point is 01:04:51 I love this reading of it. I have a question. Okay, I'm going to say something which is going to change how everyone feels about me. I fear. I have... Here it goes. I haven't seen Die Hard.
Starting point is 01:05:02 That's okay. No, thank you. You've seen The Rock though, right? No. What is safe spaces? Oh my God! Dan, cut the mics. Cut the mics.
Starting point is 01:05:13 Question. But this reading of it, like the average, would anyone, aside from JM, like how apparent is this to someone watching it? So this was my favorite movie when I was eight,
Starting point is 01:05:26 uh, diehard and it's, I'm realizing the values did bleed through a little bit and just sort of the emptiness of the capitalist enterprise, the emptiness of, uh, the thieves just, you know,
Starting point is 01:05:42 like they seem like it seems like, yeah, what this is all, all these people are being killed for these bonds that are just pieces of paper that are snowing down, like from the building, like at the end and are just like meaningless. Like,
Starting point is 01:05:57 and yeah, you learn to think of at least the leadership in the FBI and, uh, you know, and corporate America as just complete empty idiots. Hmm. Do I, should I see it?
Starting point is 01:06:12 I mean, at least like, I think it's still one of my five favorite movies. And it's like, it's like, it's like a good sort of, you know, Christmas film.
Starting point is 01:06:20 You know, it's like one of those Christmas films. It's like, is it a Christmas film? And you're like, yeah, I'll call it a Christmas film. It's like one of those Christmas films. It's like, is it a Christmas film? And you're like, yeah, I'll call it a Christmas film. I feel like recently
Starting point is 01:06:27 this idea that it's a Christmas film has caught on. Yeah. Doesn't it feel very recent? It's been a online conversation for a while. It was like a meme. My favorite Christmas movie is Die Hard. It was like a meme that
Starting point is 01:06:43 was sort of a cool thing to say on Reddit decades ago and then now it's like crossed over into the mainstream and is like the conversation that people are you know that morning news casters would like have with each other
Starting point is 01:07:00 now I feel like. What will they think of next? I'll tell you what my favorite movie is Sally it's Die Hard I know I know but uh I love the machine guns I gotta tell you it's my favorite Christmas machine guns what will they think of next she just says what will they think of next yeah yeah but I I do love the idea of the king losing control of the content being like a thing that you can track throughout right throughout history and like the our king is obviously this vast you know network of values around consumer capitalism and so being able to sneak a critique of that into a movie that directly appeals to people who were the very core of those values.
Starting point is 01:07:52 You know, the 80s was all about like Stallone going to Vietnam and rewinning the Vietnam War. Change in history uh getting all those pows back from the camps where they were still totally being held by uh the vietnamese government uh and you know schwarzenegger that was like the authoritarian uh ideology of america from the 80s sort of personified in movies and then they created this action movie where it's like a sarcastic blue-collar cop who like thinks all the you know Reaganism is ridiculous yeah it's funny because then when he works with like Schwarzenegger again it's last action hero yeah it's like a very like self-aware thing and he's almost like look I know we worked together on predator. He's like, but I got some,
Starting point is 01:08:46 let's get, let's like lean into this Schwarzenegger thing a little bit more. Yeah. Sorry. McTiernan's got his eye out. Okay. All right. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:08:54 Uh, anyways, uh, Alison, it's been a pleasure, uh, having you. Sorry for just rambling about action movies for the last 10 minutes,
Starting point is 01:09:03 but it's okay. My mind just went to a place that had poop in shoeboxes. Nice. No, it's good. The magical land. Yeah. I need to see Die Hard. I need to catch up.
Starting point is 01:09:13 I think my favorite movie when I was eight was probably Short Circuit. Ah. That was up there for me, for sure. Yeah, that was a good one. It was also the first hard R-rated movie that i had seen and i think it just like blew my little mind i was like what so i think mine was batteries not batteries not included i think was mine yeah before short sir because i was like oh little robots when i was a kid i was like i like it like it. Johnny Five. Yeah. Yeah, and then you're like, are these characters offensive?
Starting point is 01:09:46 Well, look, man. Let's... It was the 80s, man. We were trying to figure it out. Yeah, yeah. Allison, where can people find you, follow you, hear you, all that good stuff?
Starting point is 01:09:56 Yes, please listen to my podcast. Allison Rosen is your new best friend. And my parenting-ish, and I say ish because you don't need to have kids to listen to it. I say like half of our listeners don't. On my parenting podcast that I do with Greg Fitzsimmons, it's
Starting point is 01:10:08 called Childish. Follow me on social media at Alison Rosen, A-L-I-S-O-N-R-O-S-E-N. I'm also on Patreon. I'm on Cameo and I'm on YouTube, youtube.com slash Alison Rosen. Awesome. And is there a tweet or some of the work of social media you've been
Starting point is 01:10:23 enjoying? Oh, yes. Let me find it. Okay. awesome and is there a tweet or some of the work of social media you've been enjoying oh yes um let me find it okay so um i actually don't know the people who tweeted this however uh someone called she's witty shitty and a little and then dot dot dot because it's just a screen grab. I don't know what the rest of the name is. Wrote, not everyone will get this. And it's a pie. And on the edge of the pie is like 3.141, you know, pie, the number pie going all the way around it,
Starting point is 01:10:58 the circumference of it. And then someone named Father Abraham quote tweeted it and said, literally everyone will get this. And it just cracked me up because I love when people think that they're smarter than everyone. And someone's like, no, that's pretty basic. Not everyone's going to get this. This is kind of, I'm a little bit of a math nerd. No, you're not Miles where can people find you
Starting point is 01:11:28 What's a tweet you've been enjoying Oh man Twitter, Instagram, Miles of Grey Also 420dayfiance If you want to hear me talk 90day A couple tweets A lot of people were tagging us In this one tweet from
Starting point is 01:11:43 Not like the soup And it looks like a thin blue line flag Butging us in this one tweet from at not like the soup uh and it looks like a thin blue line flag yeah but rather than like the sort of cobalt royal blue that we're using for those police flags it's a tinge it's just a bit greener than tiffany blue which we all know is the true color of a blast and this flag apparently someone this caption around it says the thin baja blast line represents represents our hardworking Taco Bell workers who put their lives on the line every day serving us delicious, gut-wrenching food, providing Baja Blast for the masses and saying, no, I do not know when potatoes are coming back, all for like $10 an hour. So, yes, true heroes. I'd like to see a play on that flag when it's not, you know, caping for systemic racism.
Starting point is 01:12:28 A couple other tweets I like. This one is from at MMLXXX Sith Lord. It says, bro, we really at zero percent ICU capacity in the fucking mall is open. LMAO. Oh, my God. Exactly. And another one is from simon gibson at simy gibson 600 is what rich people think poor people think is a lot of money yeah and that's exactly that's precisely the issue we are having uh but aside from that we just have goons who are so out of
Starting point is 01:13:00 touch with their humanity they don't know how most people are living day to day. I like to tweet by Yeet Lovers Pizza that said, next stimulus going to be one of these, and it's just one of those 20% off Bed Bath & Beyond. Oh, my gosh. Things that you get anytime you're new to a neighborhood. Can we at least combine them? If I got two, can it be 40% off? Nope. That does not work.
Starting point is 01:13:24 And if you haven't tried that, you aren't American. We've tried. I've tried. Real ones have tried. Yes, yes. At Rax King is dead tweeted, Guy Fieri looks like if Santa Claus was in Sugar Ray. Wow. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:13:45 I like that. I like that. 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 a website, DailyZeitgeist.com, where we post our episodes and our footnotes, where we link off to the information that we talked about in today's episode,
Starting point is 01:14:05 as well as the song we ride out on miles. What are we riding out on and into the holiday break upon? I mean, you know, is it really a break? We're, we're, we're still coming with it,
Starting point is 01:14:18 uh, to give you the takes over the next few weeks. Uh, this is a track, another track from dirty art club. One of my favorite, like, little sample-based artists, and this one's called Plastic Drip, and it's just got, again, I love sample-based music because it's really like the collage of music, if I were to compare
Starting point is 01:14:37 it to art. It's just really taking from all of these things, putting them together, and presenting us a complete thought with elements that seem familiar yet are giving us something new. So shout out to Dirty Art Club and this track, Plastic Drip. I don't know why the title appealed to me because the idea, I've been having a whole struggle with drip. And when I wear outfits anymore, when I go out and say, I would like to wear a nice sweater. And I just want to get in touch with that again. I think next time we Zoom, I'm like to wear a nice sweater. And I just want to get in touch with that again. I think next time we Zoom, I'm going to start wearing like a
Starting point is 01:15:07 suit or something. Like an outfit. I could have wore to a holiday party, but I couldn't. I'm going to just rock them on these Zoom calls. But anyway, I like this track. Plastic drip. I hope you do too. And I hope you'll have a great holiday. Next time we Zoom, I will be wearing this same sweatshirt and this same hat.
Starting point is 01:15:24 That's a promise cut to me we're doing the same shit also like i'll say this shit i'm like i don't know i'm not trying it's all bullshit i think i don't know when i'm coming back i hope it's soon but i'm just gonna sit in this chair and not move till then so i'll also be in the same outfit thank you thank you thank you all right uh the daily zeitgeist is a production of iheart radio for more podcasts from iheartartRadio visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows
Starting point is 01:15:48 that is going to do it for this Monday, we're back tomorrow with some year end episodes some holiday themed episodes coming at you over the next couple weeks this is the last standard episode so
Starting point is 01:16:04 we hope you guys have a great holiday and we will be back in the new year with more daily zeitgeist we'll talk to you all then bye Bye. In 1982, Atari players had one game on their minds, Sword Quest. Because the company had promised $150,000 in prizes to four finalists. But the prizes disappeared, leading to one of the biggest controversies in 80s pop culture. I'm Jamie Loftus. Join me this spring for The Legend of Swordquest. We'll follow the quest for lost treasure across four decades. Listen to The Legend of Swordquest
Starting point is 01:17:16 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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 Latin Grammy winner, author and TV personality Cheeky's about raising her younger siblings after the death of her mother, singer Jenny Rivera. I would do it over and over again. All of that has molded me to become the woman that I am today. Like, I wouldn't change anything. Listen to The Bright Side from Hello Sunshine on the iHeartRadio app,
Starting point is 01:17:52 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16th 2017 was assassinated. Crooks Everywhere unearthed the plot to murder a one-woman WikiLeaks. She exposed the culture of crime and corruption
Starting point is 01:18:13 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. Hey, y'all. Nimany here.
Starting point is 01:18:32 I'm the host of a brand-new history podcast for kids and families called Historical Records. Executive produced by Questlove, The Story Pirates, and John Glickman, Historical Records brings history to life through hip-hop. Get the kids in your life excited about history by tuning in to Historical Records. Listen to Historical Records starting on September 27th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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