The Daily Zeitgeist - Nine ElevTrend 9/11: Drew Barrymore, Grindr, Ashton Kutcher

Episode Date: September 11, 2023

In this edition of Nine ElevTrend, Jack and Miles discuss the Drew Barrymore Show returning to TV (regardless of the WGA strike), Grindr losing half its staff over RTO mandate, and the Ashton Kutcher/...Mila Kunis apology video!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 I'm Dr. Laurie Santos, host of the Happiness Lab podcast. As the U.S. elections approach, it can feel like we're angrier and more divided than ever. But in a new, hopeful season of my podcast, I'll share what the science really shows, that we're surprisingly more united than most people think. We all know something is wrong in our culture, in our politics, and that we need to do better and that we can do better. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Hey, I'm Bruce Bozzi. On my podcast, Table for Two, we have unforgettable lunch after
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Starting point is 00:00:58 or wherever you get your podcasts. 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. Legend of Sword Quest.
Starting point is 00:01:24 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. Hello, the internet, and welcome to this 9-Trend-11. Ooh. 9-11-Trend? Yeah. Episode.
Starting point is 00:01:50 Long weekend trending episode. I jack that is miles oh yeah oh yeah 9-11 which 9-11 are we talking about we're talking about 9-11 here or the other 9-11 when america helped uh chile overthrow allende because i was also on 9-11 oh yeah we're not familiar with that one here miles we'll look at gonna ask where are we talking about how this weekend was a 9-11 for martin short fans because it was i didn't even know until anna sent this tweet through our group thread saying that yeah uh what was the tweet it said i will never it says when when they say white people have no culture i will remember the day they mounted up for martin short and i'm like what that is from yc on x.com yeah all right no it's not it's a fucking tweet twitter on twitter twitter twitter man not bothered not bothered uh i am not bothered about
Starting point is 00:02:48 martin short one way or the other i feel like he is cilantro i i treated this discussion like like i do any internet controversy controversy uh where where it's like yeah like i can see how this could be distasteful to some people tastes like soap to you oh hell yeah that sounds terrible i don't i don't fuck with that um on the other hand i i don't think it's like that that big a deal i don't i don't want him to stop some of the tone of the weekend felt like he's he's been canceled he's like there there must be implications that he's a shitty person or something right it really feels like the whole thing is just somebody being like this guy's not fucking funny right like right and absolutely everyone's like he is blair sock
Starting point is 00:03:39 even matt rose just said what did blair say an enemy of martin short is an enemy of mine damn i can totally see also shout out sarah sarah sherman aka sarah squirm also put the disrespect martin short all day every day till i fucking die hashtag i feel like yeah i feel like people who are in comedy like there there's gonna be respect on martin short's name i mean he's been around for so long he's had you know a lot of iconic roles i'm i just i'm like one of those people where i get why some people might be tired of him or whatever that's your own personal taste like when i think of the things that i've been i've enjoyed the most from martin short has been jiminy glick yes uh but also like you know clifford was cool too there's like i don't know
Starting point is 00:04:25 i think it's also kind of those things where like he really resonates with you when you're younger yeah yeah kind of like has that energy of like kids show comedian but does it very well yeah um he's i i really like some moments from jiminy glick and i really like the uh harry shearer martin short sketch about uh synchronized swimmers who like can actually swim yes um that shit's very funny to me yeah uh anyways uh so sorry to the people who had a hard week getting their fucking yum yucked the fuck out and they're like absolutely not not we will ride on this canadian now um all right what do we want to do first we want to do our underrated our overrated
Starting point is 00:05:05 let's do unders let's do unders because i think our overs overlap okay um yeah all right my under is the confidence of a mediocre boomer white man um i just opened volume three, issue nine of Boston Brick and Stone newsletter. Do you remember this from the pandemic? No. This guy has a chimney construction company, and he has used his money to create a small five page zine where he waxes philosophical on life and just like writes the most basic opinions. Like, so let me just,
Starting point is 00:05:55 yeah, the front, the front page story from this edition is basically that he just watched the movie cheer or watched the Netflix show Cheer, and thinks that Monica is cool. Like, that's basically it. What? He titles it,
Starting point is 00:06:13 If You Want to Become Great at Something, Do This. But his whole thing is just like, practice makes perfect. Wait, where do you find this? In the mail. It just comes to my mailbox every day the fuck so i do not get wow boston brick and stone newsletter front page if you want to become great at something do this and he connects the uh cheer team winning the championship
Starting point is 00:06:39 year after year with his the philosophy at boston brick and stone uh-huh but then uh page two florida man the unpredictable phenomenon it's just he just found out about florida man oh just being like how come we always hear about these florida man types it's just the most basic ass shit is he reading cracked like nine years later yeah it's like very poor man's version of it's like if any random dad was like i'm going to make a website but he publishes it and sends it and like puts it in and he's in pasadena so i'm not that close to pasadena so this is reaching a wide swath of people just with, just with you holding it up, that quote-unquote zine has the vibes of like Lyndon LaRouche newspapers
Starting point is 00:07:30 that they would throw at you on college campuses. It just seems like, what's in there? I don't even know. Stupid caveman trivia. Unusual things you can make with a blender. Tiki bars. Last chance to get a summer cocktail. And this is all just written by him he's not a
Starting point is 00:07:47 good writer yeah it's it's just an amazing testament to the ego of this fading generation that will not let go of power and it's just like yeah no everybody needs to hear what i think i'm yeah right as this person inevitably is like grappling with their own mortality they're like this is what i need to do i need to ramp my output of my words to share that with the world boston brick and stone newsletter is going to be my legacy i just had a feeling that god told me that i had to add something important to do i have a feeling you're driving crooner right right right i have a feeling your legacy will probably be the chimneys that you restore
Starting point is 00:08:30 that will probably be standing long after your physical body has expired a long time man just be proud of be proud of your chimneys bro yeah exactly that's enough what's your underrated underrated god damn a muse A fucking museum gift shop. Because. I don't know what. They got it, man. They perfected it. I feel like.
Starting point is 00:08:51 They somehow have the best version of the gift shop scam. You know what I mean? Of like. This is probably why Banksy mentioned it in his work. Like exit through the gift shop. Like normally when I'm forced through a gift shop at the end of like visiting a place or seeing something very interesting like when you visit like a historical site or some shit it's easy to be like to walk through there and be like i don't need a i don't need coasters with a catholic church
Starting point is 00:09:14 on it for fucking 30 i don't fucking need this i don't need a t-shirt that says whatever the fuck it is but somehow when you go to a museum gift shop and suddenly you're like i guess i can pay 60 dollars for this t-shirt because it has basquiat art on it basquiat like it's almost like this store is sort of like you know that this is like fine art tchotchkes right and you're not dumb and fucking not not cultured so you should overpay for this baby onesie and it will tell people that you know what keith herring is yeah that's like a it's like an npr tote yeah baby onesie but like i don't know why you it's intoxicating it's intoxicating the museum the art specifically the art museum because you're like this is a high-minded calendar well yeah and they also have free reign to pull instead of like just pulling
Starting point is 00:10:11 clip art from the internet they are pulling from like the greatest art ever created yeah and they probably have like good design minds like working at the at the gift shop so yeah they they they have some good merch man it's just like i think it's just the part of me that like suddenly but it's just like weird how my brain shuts off where i'm like this is all worth exactly what they say they are merely because it's like everything yeah yeah yeah like i bought i went to the brode to see the keith harring exhibit and went with her majesty and the geist child and like as a kid, my dad always rocked Keith Haring, like apartheid commentary kind of shirts and things.
Starting point is 00:10:51 And I would wear that as a kid. So there was something nostalgic about me taking the baby there and aiming him at the art, even though he's like, what the fuck? You feel like you got it? You feel like he was picking up on you? On the apartheid undertone? Yeah. We're going gonna get to the
Starting point is 00:11:05 cultural appropriation part that isn't actually discussed in this exhibit but we will save that for another time right uh but like it was i don't know then immediately my defenses were just completely down and i'm like you need this onesie and i need the matching shirt that you won't fit into quite yet because you're still tiny uh but we will put this on ice so that we could walk the earth together proclaiming our love for art so amazing yeah they know they've done it they've done it they have um all right well similarly uh so for my overrated i similarly had a weekend of culture with with my kids um we watched so so my son is like really into um naval stuff now this is the star wars one my seven-year-old was really into star wars i don't know if it's like the nautical terminology in star wars or what but he's like now just like friday is movie night and he's like i want to
Starting point is 00:12:00 watch a military movie oh shit i was like what does that even mean man oh no yeah and i was thinking about top gun but it felt like i don't want to give my son's heart and mind to the military just yet because in your mind it's instant it's instant yeah oh it's so good like that's that is just the most potent cocktail that the military has concocted. And so I was searching and I found this movie, Tiger Cruise, which seemed like a straightforward kids movie taking place aboard aircraft carrier. And the... It's a Disney movie, right?
Starting point is 00:12:39 Like a live action. It's a Disney channel movie. Not a Disney movie. Like a Disney channel. Like a made for Disney channel movie starring Bill Pullman and a disney chant like a made for tv disney channel movie starring bill pullman and hayden penitentiary okay and i was like yes this is good like it seems silly in a way that they're going to appreciate i think uh aircraft carriers are are inherently interesting like yeah how they fit everything in there they're fucking so big man whenever you see
Starting point is 00:13:05 them like put the the fucking killer machines below the deck and stuff and how they organize it underneath you're like holy shit yes it's crazy i get why we don't have health care this is awesome paragraph in or a good chapter in ministry for future. It's just a one-off where it's like somebody who is a Naval veteran and is like talking about how, if you just like put the organization, the amount of like time and effort and focus and, you know, just crackerjack,
Starting point is 00:13:40 like people running things well towards a good cause, as opposed to war, like you could really do some amazing shit uh anyways so starts the standard disney channel movie um you know they they like get into hijinks hayden penitentiary the protagonist her entire conflict seems to be that she can't get past the phrase military brat. Like someone calls her a military brat and she's like, I'm not a brat. And instead of the person being like, Oh no,
Starting point is 00:14:09 it's just a phrase. She's like, that is her central character. And there's, there's a couple others. There's like a drummer from New York. There's a dad who, whose son is a sailor.
Starting point is 00:14:20 But when he gets there, he finds out that he is actually a cook and he's like ashamed. Um, but they just like sneak off they get into hijinks 10 minutes in it the day is over wait that's in the first 10 minutes yeah i mean like probably that's probably like 20 minutes in you know oh i okay okay go on go on so i mean i i'm compressing a lot in uh but like but it's not like a third act moment no no no which is 20 minutes in they cut to black end of the day and they say september 9th 2001 and over the next hour i watched 9-11 happen with my five-year-old and seven-year-old who did not know what 9-11 was uh
Starting point is 00:15:06 like right at all yeah like i don't know i had that thought earlier in parenthood where i was like how do i tell my kids about 9-11 and i was i hadn't come up with a good answer for that so i was like the disney channel is going to do it and it was like that you see you don't see like the towers like come down you just see like people are watching the news on the aircraft with the smoking towers though but people are crying you're seeing a lot of smoking towers um my son asked how the guys who flew the plane into the building jumped off in time oh he's more innocent baby oh no uh okay let's let's it's time to talk about martyrdom yes the concept for you young lad it's it really just took me back to, I don't know, the movie.
Starting point is 00:16:08 There's this one scene where Peyton Panettiere is like, why do you keep watching this stuff? It's so depressing to the kid from New York. He's watching the news. And she's like, how do you keep watching it? I just find it such a bummer. The day after 9-11, he's still watching the news. And he's like, some of the people in my neighborhood worked in that building.
Starting point is 00:16:27 Um, right. Girl, I know his dad was a firefighter, but then he like has a speech where he's like those towers. They were just, this is a direct quote. They were just there.
Starting point is 00:16:37 You know, I never got tired of looking at them. They were so big and cool. That part, the way the sun would reflect off of them it's going to be so different it's just not the same anymore i don't know it's just it reminded me of this like weird thing that we were in are still kind of in where like we're just very like dumb when trying to like write about 9-11 yeah because we don't want to be honest about it had
Starting point is 00:17:06 like a very poignant commentary artistic commentary uh on on 9-11 i guess like you know united 93 uh there's obviously that mark walberg uh tonight show interview where he talked about how it would have gone down different if he had been on the plane. Hell yeah. It would have bro. But I, I still think the best nine 11 culture is Tobias interested development when he's like talking about how his marriage is on the rocks. And Michael's like, when did that start? And he says,
Starting point is 00:17:37 I don't want to blame it all on nine 11, but it certainly didn't help. Um, I think that's the best thing I've seen about 9-11 because it's like it captures the deep core truth of 9-11 which was that everyone was like trying to get a piece to like adopt it as their own problem right and everyone kind of wanted to be a 9-11 victim and we were like clamoring for stories about people who were like almost on the plane i hadn't really like the mark walberg thing was him saying like i was almost on that plane that morning bro it was like i was supposed
Starting point is 00:18:12 to be flying back to la but but i don't know i fly private so it wouldn't actually have happened but i could have been then four weeks before we decided to go to tiff instead um but yeah we were just we we really i don't know one wanted to experience the tragedy we were like kind of glorying in the tragedy a little bit and then obviously like the darkest cultural legacy was shows like 24 and you know so many action movies and tv shows where it was just like being a brown person was automatically grounds for you are a terrorist suspect right um so i don't know it's just i was well when i saw you write about this i immediately went on youtube and just searched tiger cruise 9-11 scene yeah and i couldn't believe like i found myself in your position where it's like they're all
Starting point is 00:19:07 sleeping sudden it's like like across the battleship and it's like frantic as shit and then bill pullman gives this speech about the attacks everyone's sobbing and i was like this is probably the opposite of what you even wanted to even watch with your kids because it's not even just acting like and then 9-11 happened it's like no this fucking movie's about 9-11 yeah it becomes about like after being a straight it's almost like a piece of experimental art where they just like sheared a disney movie in half and just had 9-11 happen in the middle of it um and i mean yeah you could have read the true story where uh where they like the tiger crew is a real thing where like family members come and like stay on a aircraft carrier and like while
Starting point is 00:19:52 that was happening 9-11 happened and they had to figure out what to do with the family members but they just yeah yeah it is also funny too that one the one guy who's like the chef on the ship like his dad comes down like it's 9-11 you're making cookies guy who's like the chef on the ship like his dad comes down like it's 9-11 you're making cookies like he's like shaming him for making cookies and then he's like wait our uncle works in the pentagon yeah it's so fucking doesn't make it bro the spoiler alert unfortunately oh uncle uncle bob or whatever his name was uncle bob the only person that we meet who doesn't survive 9-11 is like a tangential uncle of a guy who's a problematic asshole oh wow yeah i mean i remember too like to that point like i felt like
Starting point is 00:20:33 every reality show that was about like improving someone's life like like an undercover boss or like home makeover type shows there was all like they they would prioritize people that had some connection to 9-11 um like all the time by the way was saying that like i should have checked common sense media uh for that all all the descriptions of this movie were like fun family fun uh patriotic was the was the only thing 9-11 yeah i i was starting starting to like google around 9-11 movies and be like what what have we had and that is a description like that comes up it's like 9-11 like this one is a trenchant meditation on loss patriotic like that right for whatever reason like when it when
Starting point is 00:21:20 it comes to 9-11 movies it's that that becomes a a value that we keep in mind when we're reviewing oh man i feel like someone hit us up they're like we do we do tv reviews on our website yeah yeah totally i need to i need to check out their website i'm gonna check it at my screen time too like again i don't know if it's i don't know if it's problematic or off the rails but anyway i'm sure it's not they listen to our show they must be flawless they're like don't know if it's problematic or off their rails, but anyway. I'm sure it's not. They listen to our show. They must be flawless individuals. They're like, don't listen to the daily zeitgeist. It's for socialist cowards who don't want their kids to know about 9-11.
Starting point is 00:21:54 Which brings me to mine. It's a little bit of both. American basketball exceptionalism, a bit overrated because the U.S., they did not do good. They crashed out in the semis to Germany and in the FIBA World Cup of basketball. And a lot of American fans could not wrap their heads around this. We're calling for blood in the streets.
Starting point is 00:22:15 They're like, Steve Kerr doesn't know what he's doing. I think he does. Who are these people? Anyway, but just looking at the staff is Steve Kerr and Eric Spolstra the guy who their their assistant coach is the guy who is like acknowledged as like the fucking wizard of the nba right now right so i don't know what that says but like when you look at the statistics we never the u.s never beat anyone ranked higher than a seventh seed so it was clear that there was uh there was like
Starting point is 00:22:44 limits to what we were able to do anyway and plus these teams play for a lot longer together but i just think like i think more people should have used this result to say wow other countries in the world play basketball and know how to play well yeah then this thing of like oh what the fuck we're seeing it's a little we're seeing a thing like repeatedly happen repeatedly that like it's, it hasn't traditionally been the way it is. And so it's not like how our mind about basketball is built, but where teams who have played together for a long time are better and are
Starting point is 00:23:20 more like, like who have, like we see it in the NBA with like teams that are like kind of built from the ground up and like aren't just like trading for big uh stars at the last second um are are doing better in the in the championship you know with golden state having this dynasty right um but like this is a great example like it really like what what better example that and obviously this isn't the nba this is like a different style of basketball but like we have way more nba talent than any other team but it's it doesn't matter because they just like know how to play together
Starting point is 00:24:00 they know exactly like how the other person's gonna cut so right yeah there's a little more yeah the unspoken la communication is much better because their instincts are better anyway so that was just nice to watch uh shout out germany uh who and then old old dennis uh who came through big shrewd uh but also just on 9- just the overrated, it's like the 9-11 coverage that absolutely abandons any commentary about US foreign policy. Like it's expected, but like, come the fuck on. Are we still talking about this in a vacuum? Like, and how could this have happened? How?
Starting point is 00:24:40 What we do wrong for 9-11 to happen and no one is talking about it. And that's why I was like, interesting too, when a lot of people point wrong for 9-11 to happen yeah and no one is talking about it and that's why i was like interesting too when a lot of people point out that 9-11 is also when uh the u.s helped you know a military-backed coup in chile uh to ouster president allende who is you know democratically elected socialist president for pinochet which a lot of the how'd that go new right fash love to talk about heard of that yeah yeah he seems so he's probably made a good a good mark on history and like you can and then you by extension you could like even with that like we've been talking about the like the situation in chile you have to talk about the school of the americas where the u.s was just training people to kill
Starting point is 00:25:20 like for you know their their western interests um and yeah with 9-11 it's just still like oh man can you believe it the skyline will never look the same way now what about all the stuff that was going on in previous administrations that was radicalizing people like that whole time uh but now we'll just we'll keep it to tiger cruise and things like that tiger cruise that's right it does end with them stretching a giant American flag across the aircraft carrier, uh, like whatever deck.
Starting point is 00:25:51 And that kind of solves everything. And then hidden penitentiary is like, dad, I don't need you around for moral support. You need to go to war. Um, you're the best. So,
Starting point is 00:26:03 uh, all right. Anyways, let's,'s uh let's take a quick break yeah and we'll come back and talk about uh some other news stories 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. Woo-hoo! That would be me, Devin Simone.
Starting point is 00:26:32 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. 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.
Starting point is 00:26:52 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. Fantasy football fans, the NFL season is here and now is the time to get ready to dominate your leagues. The best way to crush your opponents this season is to listen to the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. Come hang out with me, Marcus Grant, and my pal Michael F. Florio as we give you all the info you need to absolutely steamroll your fantasy league and bring home a championship.
Starting point is 00:27:34 You don't need to spend hours each day breaking down every stat and every stitch of game tape to set a winning lineup. That's our job. We'll provide all the insights you need to set the best lineups each week. All you need to do is listen to the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast when it drops five times a week. If you're looking for a smart, fun, and entertaining path to dominating your fantasy leagues, then look no further than the show Straight From the Source at NFL Media. Do it before it's too late. Subscribe now and listen to the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast on the iHeartRadio app, on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Bruce Bozzi. On my podcast, Table for Two, we have unforgettable lunch after unforgettable lunch with the best guest you could possibly ask for. People like Matt Bomer. Thank you for that introduction. I'm going to slip you a couple 20s under the table for that. Emma Roberts.
Starting point is 00:28:26 When it came into my email inbox, I was like, okay, I know I'm going to love this so much that I don't even want to read it. Because if I can't be in it, I'm going to be bummed. And Colin Jost. You know, your wife was the first guest on Table for Two. It's come full circle. As long as I do better than her, I'm happy. Table for Two is a bit different from other interview shows.
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Starting point is 00:29:06 or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. And should we talk about Drew Barrymore? Yeah. Drew America's sweetheart, Drew Barrymore. Yeah. It's, I don't know, man. Is she America's sweetheart? I think i'm anti-labor now
Starting point is 00:29:40 she's so charming so sweet so um but yeah she just announced that her show uh creatively named the drew barrymore show will be returning to TV regardless of the strike. Um, but she has a good exclamation exclamation exclamation. Uh, she has a good explanation miles. Uh, she claimed that the new season of the show will be in accordance with the rules of the writers guild of America and SAG after strike. Oh,
Starting point is 00:30:04 um, how, how you do that? Exactly. No details on that necessarily, but, uh, of the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA straight. Oh. How you do that, exactly? No details on that, necessarily, but it will be. Can you guys just trust Drew Barrymore? Okay, well, why are you doing this, Drew? Why? Because she wants to simply
Starting point is 00:30:20 be there to provide what writers do so well, which is a way to bring us together or help us make sense of the human experience what the fuck does that even mean what and provide what writers do just means you're gonna you're just gonna scab or like what is this how and yeah so her answer to like what the fuck so how are you gonna do a thing when writers are on strike is like we want to do what writers do which is so does that mean that you were just trying to like put writers out of business well we will have the producers do the writing now and they are not in sag or are they're not part of the WGA is that I mean I'm assuming that's what she means
Starting point is 00:31:05 oh yeah which is just I just really wild because she's like obviously like the guests aren't gonna talk about struck work during the show but the WGA is like uh here's something interesting the Drew Barrymore the Drew Barrymore show itself is a struck show because it's only one of two of these daytime talk shows that use wga writers right so i'm in the talk so how how i want to i i just want like i feel like she also is using like a lot of uh psychiatry like therapy speak in her like answers where she's like i take full responsibility the buck stops here and i'm still doing this shit i don't care what anybody says i hope for a resolve for everyone as soon as possible we have navigated difficult times since we first came on air and so i take a step forward to start season four once again with an astute humility i'm sorry you're still
Starting point is 00:32:07 whatever the wj is like yeah okay well we're gonna be picketing the fuck out of this show yeah we'll see how that goes interesting um yeah it's uh she she was like she left or you know she decided not to do the mtv movie awards remember at the beginning of the strike back in the spring and like that was the right move but like maybe her agents or her like management are like all right so you did one for them now it's time for one for you and that one for you is getting your show back up and running so we can start making some fucking money here drew baby yeah i mean go yeah but that's that's not the kind of solidarity uh we're looking for drew yeah i guess solidarity with the agents and networks it does like i don't know that just her her whole vibe is like kind of self-empowerment like woo woo and i i feel like this does get at the inherently selfish or or not not that it's inherently selfish but that it can
Starting point is 00:33:15 be selfish that it can always be back around to just being selfish and being about whatever you want it to be about right yeah because a lot of that language is used in service of like, I'm going to do whatever I want to do though. Right. Yeah. It's like, it might not be the best for everyone actually. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:33:35 Um, and, uh, yeah. So like, rather than looking to self empowerment, maybe let's look to each other. No self empowerment, not collective.
Starting point is 00:33:46 No, it's empower myself. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right. Other bullshit on the labor front. So Grindr just, basically they told their employees that they would all have to move to a new location and start coming into the office. all have to move to a new location and start coming into the office like relocate to a hub city and work in person two days a week uh or be fired and uh they have since that time lost about 45 of its staff and yeah this is something we're seeing um kind of in a lot in a lot of different places but this specific
Starting point is 00:34:27 instance is kind of fucked up because uh they were talking about unionizing and people think that what is happening is they basically when it seemed like the majority of employees were interested in unionizing they started putting these onerous demands in place that would make it hard for people to continue working there right to be like oh okay you want to do that well then now come here or lose your job i'm like oh look just like that we lost 45 of our staff maybe that's a good thing but like like we've talked about this a lot about how you know this is not a good like a lot of employers i'm like yikes i kind of fucked up with that return to the office mandate even though my company was on fucking cruise control for the last couple years like still
Starting point is 00:35:16 making money over like just constantly so yeah it does it does feel a bit suspicious yeah yeah they so grinder in particular their shares are up this year um while everyone was still working remotely um research has shown that employees work actually suffers when they're forced to go back to the office but employers are just very dead set on getting that extra bit of control putting the toothpaste back in the tube and it seems like it's not it's not going well for them but with regards to the labor side of it the community communication workers of america is the union that they were planning to join uh they've claimed that this policy was actually an unlawful retaliatory measure made in response to a union drive at the company um their current ceo incidentally uh was pretty unpopular already
Starting point is 00:36:15 due to his extreme conservative political tweets which included supporting michael bloomberg and trump so the ceo of grinder yeah it's a bloomberg supporter who's like i think trump's got some pretty good ideas just hear him out hear him out yeah really quick okay yeah there's a oh i wonder did he delete some of his tweets oh interesting he deleted a lot of them yeah i guess wasn't willing to say some of those chest out but yeah i mean it's just it i don't know like it's just a very uh it's it's hard to look at something like this and not see it as just an absolute intentional way to like purge like your workforce that they see is like not like people aren't gonna who aren't going to be uh
Starting point is 00:37:05 subordinate to like these kinds of demands um especially when they talk about how they're like a queer friendly workplace culture was just very rare in the tech industry and now it's sort of like yeah man take it or leave it assholes yeah but i have a 15 year lease on this office building so what the fuck do you want me to do it's very very uh yeah he had previously supportive remote work because he was seeing great results from it which makes the you know allegations that he was just pulling this shit to try and purge the workforce right pretty credible yeah well yeah i mean i i still don't like i get i get like the psychology of the boss that just thinks like this is what you need to do because i want to be able to lord over
Starting point is 00:37:54 people every day so i feel powerful because that's where i derive my sense of self from but i but also like try and be a good capitalist here your fucking stock is up line go up so don't fucking don't take away the their freedom to like work how they want to i think it's a huge thing that people are missing with the pandemic is like before it didn't seem possible to like demand to work remotely if you could do a job that could but now so many people that were able to are sort of like this is i i don't see a reason to go back and the arguments aren't compelling so the only argument they have is well then you want to fucking lose your job right yeah okay yeah i don't i i guess it is just real estate shit but it's it's crazy that it keeps coming back to that that they just keep
Starting point is 00:38:43 their they're unable to walk away from this idea of like i'm sure there's many dimensions yeah because also too they that probably is in like creating a like a deeper sense of like worker power when they don't have to go into an office and then they're like but i i that i don't know what they're doing behind my back. And what, you know, so, uh, shout out to those of us that can still work remotely. And also, God, please fucking figure out,
Starting point is 00:39:13 figure out, just figure out those commercial leases. You know what I mean? Could someone just forgive those? No, no. Uh, we're going to take one more break and then we're going to talk about Ashton
Starting point is 00:39:23 Kutcher and Mila kunis uh and their apology video from over the weekend and what they were apologizing for i'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 00:39:54 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
Starting point is 00:40:10 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 00:40:27 Listen to MTV's official challenge podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Fantasy football fans, the NFL season is here and now is the time to get ready to dominate your leagues. The best way to crush your opponents this season is to listen to the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. The best way to crush your opponents this season is to listen to the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. Come hang out with me, Marcus Grant, and my pal Michael F. Florio as we give you all the info you need to absolutely steamroll your fantasy league and bring home a championship. You don't need to spend hours each day breaking down every stat and every stitch of game tape to set a winning lineup.
Starting point is 00:41:00 That's our job. We'll provide all the insights you need to set the best lineups each week all you need to do is listen to the nfl fantasy football podcast when it drops five times a week if you're looking for a smart fun and entertaining path to dominating your fantasy leagues then look no further than the show straight from the source at nfl media do it before it's too late subscribe now and listen to the nfl fantasy Podcast on the iHeartRadio app, on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You know, New Yorkers have a reputation of being very tough, but it's not. It's not that way at all. They're very accepting. Are you saying secret fries? Secret fries. What? That's what you're saying?
Starting point is 00:41:51 Yeah. I just became so aware that I'm such a loud chewer. My husband's just like, sometimes I'll be eating and he'll just be looking at me. I'm like, I'm just eating. Like, I don't know how else to chew. eating. Like, I don't know how else to chew. Table for Two is a bit different from other interview shows. We sit down at a great restaurant for a meal, and the stories start flowing. Our second season is airing right now, so you can
Starting point is 00:42:14 catch up on our conversations that are intimate, surprising, and often hilarious. Listen to Table for Two with Bruce Bozzi on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. an apology video from Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis,
Starting point is 00:42:43 uh, where, um, you know, they're, they're looking direct to camera sitting side by side. You can tell that they're serious because they're dressed like they just showed up to help you paint your apartment. He's like a dirty white t-shirt.
Starting point is 00:43:00 She's in one of his t-shirts. It would appear that that collar is way too big yeah yeah it looks like they were naked and the their lawyers are like you have to wear clothes for this apology and they're like fuck just give me that then okay ready oh my god yeah yeah like the the camera started like they were mid countdown from the camera crew and realized that they were naked and just like throw shit on but yeah i think that maybe the strategy was like to humble themselves before the people but anyways let's talk about what they were apologizing for um as we talked about last last week danny masterson was sentenced to 30 years to life for drugging and raping three women and it was revealed over the weekend that kutcher and mila kunis had penned letters to the judge
Starting point is 00:43:57 praising his exceptional character um and the content of the letters concerned how masterson avoided recreational drug use like as if you were on trial for possessing a dime bag of weed not drugging and raping people yeah um yeah letters read terribly like the one line from ashton kutcher when he's like talking about how like this danny mashins was quote, a role model with exceptional character. He said, anytime this is from the letter quote, anytime that we were to meet someone or interact with someone who was on drugs or did drugs,
Starting point is 00:44:34 he made it clear that that wouldn't be a good person to be friends with. I'm sorry. This is written in the language of a middle schooler. Like I, again, the perception of that people that do drugs, it's like, we all know people who do drugs are bad. And he was one of those people who was like, don't do drugs. Don't be near people that do drugs.
Starting point is 00:44:56 Therefore, good. Yeah, it's a little hard to read, especially when we're talking about this was part of the sentence. It's not like they didn't know he was convicted of these crimes. They knew that, and then they're like, yeah, so he never did drugs in front of me. Wait, what? Huh? I don't know. Maybe this is, once again, proof that our vilification of drug use is a bullshit moral structure that is used
Starting point is 00:45:25 to make horrible men more powerful than everybody because I don't know I mean people always yeah like how people talk about well Trump doesn't do drugs right Trump doesn't do drugs Reagan just say no the Danny Masterson just say no guy I actually
Starting point is 00:45:42 don't know enough about Danny Masterson's drug policy right uh it's it's just funny that like they were they were just like this guy doesn't like drugs for so a trial that had nothing to do with him using drugs but uh that from the kutcher letter it says i do not believe he is an ongoing harm to society and having his daughter raised without a present father would be a tertiary injustice in and of itself which just the use of tertiary yeah first of all like great sat word uh i think that means like a third level injustice yeah so who's the prime who's the primary injustice who are the primary and secondary
Starting point is 00:46:22 injustices the primary injustice is the is that primary and secondary injustices? The primary injustice is that Danny Masterson goes to jail or that he is a perpetrator of sexual violence. That you're continuing to ride for. And then secondary is that Danny Masterson has to account for that. And then tertiary that his daughter, Ben. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's a very... He knows the definition of tertiary, maybe.
Starting point is 00:46:44 I don't think he knows the definition of injustice or vice versa i'm not sure um yikes man uh there was a bunch of backlash to those letters tofer grace was even trending on twitter purely because everyone was praising him for not keeping praise onto an abuser and attempting to uh attack the credibility of the victims yeah and yeah that they're so in the in the speech in the apology video where they're dressed like they're painting an apartment uh they despite what they're just rolled out of bed look might suggest they are reading a statement that has clearly been lawyered
Starting point is 00:47:29 within an inch of its life. To the point that they themselves as actors couldn't even convincingly perform the lines to camera. It felt so canned. It was interesting. The pace of the video is really weird because Ashton
Starting point is 00:47:45 kutcher is like really seems like contrite and he's like i don't even know like why like we obviously wouldn't do that and then like then it was time for mila kunis's line and then her energy was like never have we done this our careers are about you know uh standing up and advocating for victims okay now it's your line ashton and like it was just a very yeah felt very contrived um but yeah it's then this sort of led to a wave of a bunch of people just being like let me share a story with you about this person or this person and it kind of kind of went all over the place over the weekend yeah ak-47 ashton kutcher not a good guy, turns out, in a lot of respects. Maybe fewer Doritos commercials in their future.
Starting point is 00:48:31 The one that I saw that was pretty wild is a clip from Punk'd, where they're about to punk Hilary Duff when she's 15. And he's like, Hilary Duff is in Lizzie McGuire. She also has an album out she's gonna be in a movie called cheaper by the dozen with me and she's one of the girls that we're all waiting for to turn 18 along with the olsen twins you know you know what i'm saying no i don't i don't know what you're saying please get away in. He was in a movie with her. Like, that's fucking horrifying. Yeah, I mean, a lot of the old clips that surface,
Starting point is 00:49:09 you just realize how much, just how violent just casual talk would be on television. Right. Like, there's another clip of Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher on the Rosie O'Donnell show, and she's talking like, I was 14 and he was 19 when I had to kiss him on screen for
Starting point is 00:49:25 that 70s show and then Danny like like uh dared him for like 10 bucks or something to like to put his tongue down my throat for that kiss and like they're all like laughing and then but like Rosie O'Donnell's like oh huh and then like Ashley Critch is like come on if it's like your girlfriend you're gonna kiss with tongue because like she's supposed to be my girlfriend it gets like very uncomfortable but like when you look at it through the lens of like 15 20 years ago people were just were not willing to sort of pick up on how like nuanced like the sort of like how much rape culture is in our like the way we were talking even in a way that was perceived as normal or innocent and you're like dude no you're talking what are you talking about a 14 year old kid and then yeah anyway there's also i was reading an article about this in la
Starting point is 00:50:11 magazine and like it's they did kind of like a like a chat gpt kind of flub in it where like they talk about ashton kutcher and then it says co-star kushner wrote of masterson i'm like what jared kushner now are we okay whatever it is but yeah that is definitely uh we'll see where that backlash ends up but yeah i mean like god what a fucking terrible look yeah yeah yeah like and it's not just them there's a lot of people like giovanni rabisi deborah joe rup there's like a ton of wrote wrote letters wrote letters but these are the ones that i think getting the most attention right and so it's not it's not oh yeah giovanni rabisi is yeah yeah yeah it's not clear i know kushner or kushner ashton kutcher has been not i don't know like you can't really find a quote
Starting point is 00:51:03 that says either way like Like the people say that like 15 years ago or something, he said he was open to learning more, but is not like an avowed Scientologist. Yeah, yeah. No, but Danny Mash said what is a Scientologist? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:51:19 Okay. Alright, well those are some of the things that are trending on this Monday, September 11th, 2023. We are back tomorrow with the whole last episode of the show. Until then, be kind to each other. Be kind to yourselves. Get the vaccine. Don't do nothing about white supremacy. And we will talk to you all tomorrow. Bye. Bye. Bye. of my podcast, I'll share what the science really shows, that we're surprisingly more united than most people think. We all know something is wrong in our culture, in our politics, and that we need to do better and that we can do better. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. In 1982, Atari players had one game on their minds Sword Quest because the company had promised
Starting point is 00:52:26 150 grand 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
Starting point is 00:52:40 across four decades listen to The Legend of Sword Quest on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Bruce Bozzi. On my podcast, Table for Two, we have unforgettable lunch after unforgettable lunch with the best guests you could possibly ask for.
Starting point is 00:52:59 People like Matt Bomer, Emma Roberts, and Colin Jost. Did you say a Caesar salad with lobster? Yeah. Whoa. Our second season is airing right now, so you can catch up on our conversations that are intimate and often hilarious. Listen to Table for Two with Bruce Bozzi
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