The Daily Zeitgeist - Steve Trendenberg: Local Hero 01/08: L.A. Wildfires, Steve Guttenberg, Trump

Episode Date: January 8, 2025

In this edition of Steve Trendenberg: Local Hero, Jack and special guest co-host Pallavi Gunalan discuss the firestorm in Los Angeles and all the chaos surrounding it (feat. Steve Guttenberg), Donald Trump doing/saying dumb stuff and much more! Actor Steve Guttenberg jumps into action as brush fire burns Pacific Palisades | KTLA (1) Acyn on X: "Trump: They want very, very little water to go into your dishwasher, almost none. And you know what people do? They just keep pressing, pressing, pressing, keep it going. They end up using more water. Likewise, washing machines. https://t.co/GKnXgLRor9" / X See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Does my mic sound good by the way? Your mic sounds nice. Your mic sounds nice. Brian, during the break, that was in my head. I was saying that. What is that from? Just puttering around my house. Just Brian and I being fucking weird doing mic checks.

That's my mic check. Oh, nice. Nice. My Oh, nice. Nice. My mic sounds nice. Oh, that was crisp. My crisp mic, crisp, crisp mic. Unique New York, crisp, crisp mic, mic, hot pod. This is hot, hot, hot.

I thought it hot topic, hot topic. Pod. I thought it was hot topic. Hot topic. I'm Jason Alexander and I'm Peter Tilden. And together on the Really No Really podcast, our mission is to get the true answers to life's baffling questions like why they refuse to make the bathroom door go all the way to the floor. We got the answer. Will space junk block your cell signal? The astronaut who almost drowned during a spacewalk gives us the answer. We talk with

the scientist who figured out if your dog truly loves you and the one bringing back the wooly mammoth. Plus, does Tom Cruise really do his own stunts? His stunt man reveals the answer. And you never know who's going to drop by. Mr. Brian Cranston is with us today. How are you two? Hello my friend. Wayne Knight about Jurassic Park. Wayne Knight welcome to Really No Really sir. Bless you all. Hello Newman and you never know when Howie Mandel might just stop by to talk about judging. Really? That's the opening? Really No Really. Yeah, really. No Really. Go to ReallyNoReally.com and register to win $500 a guest spot on our podcast or a limited edition signed Jason Bobblehead. It's called Really No Really and you can find it on the iHeartRadio app on Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello the internet and welcome to season 370 episode

for I don't know what this is. It's your daily zeitgeist. It's a production of I Heart Radio. It's Wednesday, January 8. We're kind of off cycle because I don't know if you guys seen this, but L.A. is on fire right now. It's a city on fire. Wow. And there she is. There she is.

Thrilled to be joined by a very special guest co-host, Pauli. Be good now. We must laugh because we'll cry. Oh, my God. It's chaotic. It is fucking crazy out there. But my mic sounds nice. We're in here. Sounds nice. Doing vocal warmups, doing mic tests.

Yeah I'll let Miles speak to his experience when he's back whenever that is. I'll just say he's safe but unable to record at this time. At my house we're just like over here doing the analog version of doom scrolling, which is watching the local news. Uh, is we got the local news on in some rooms, trying to like hide it mostly from my kids who are like, my eight year olds always had like a fear of fire. And now I'm like wondering if he's psychic. Um, but he's, it's like half of his nightmares are, oh my God, fire based for some reason. Because we live in L.A. Wake up. That's why because he's grown up in this fucking city.

We live in Los Angeles. So I've been, I don't know, trying not to make like freak him out too much. But also dreams are about the economy. He's like, oh, they're going up all the houses. Yeah, that's right. All those dreams are about black. He's just like really plugged in to the current events. And I'm like, what is it with this kid?

Paul, how are you doing? I am grateful that I'm doing OK. I am worried about people in L. LA. I'm worried about my friends and people in the affected areas. I'm worried about the aftermath of this. I'm worried about unhoused people. I'm worried about the environment and wild animals. But I am grateful. I have power. I have running water. I'm doing okay. I hope they stop this soon. Yeah. Yeah.

Although, like the running water thing, isn't it? Like I've never noticed this where the fire is so out of control that they've been like, you need to stop using water because we need it all to spray at the fire. Like last night, we didn't have enough water to like fill the tanks that they're pulling from. There also has been like things going around about people like spraying, wetting their own houses to stop the fire. And I'm like, I'm wondering if people are doing that like in pieces they don't need to.

Yeah. I've been told that is a smart thing to do. I have not done that this time. I have done that in the past when I lived in a different area that was, when I left that house for the last time, there was like ash raining into our yard. It was like, wow, this is really happening. Yeah. I remember like years ago, I was so stupid. I went to college in the LA area and like we would still play basketball outside when there were fires. Like we were so so stupid. I went to college in the LA area and we would still play basketball outside

when there were fires. We were so fucking stupid. Why do I keep getting a nosebleed every time I cross you up? I know. And then there was another time at the beginning of standup, of my standup career, where I was still hosting the Flappers's open mic and I walked outside and there was ash raining down on me and I was like, this is the grind, the hustle of comedy. That's right. That's how real I keep it out here. Yeah, air quality is definitely kind of one of the main concerns for me. There is a unnaturally bright gray clouds hanging over everything. It's like overcast, but the quality of the light is very weird and wheeled. That sounds like a...

I went baby mode on that one for a second. It's very wheeled. It's very wheeled. And I'm scaled. I am a little scaled. Your kid's like, get your shit together. We need our to-go bags. And I'm scaled.

He jumps on me and smacks me in the face. Wake up get your shit together. We need our to go bags. And like, I can feel it. It smacks me in the face. Wake up, get it together. That seems like such a meta, the clouds with the weird light, it seems like such a metaphor for like our Los Angeles dreams. Yeah. Like we're all like overcast with patches of light shining through us. Might need to revise that California dreaming song

at some point. Maybe Zack and the Rippers can do it and we'll save by the bell reference for other 45 year old people. Who love being on the left according to Vivek Ramaswamy. What's that? His whole analogy about Screech and Zack and Slater, did you guys cover that? Vivek Ramaswamy wrote this whole post about it. Oh no, I missed it. Oh sorry, I thought the audience would know.

He wrote a whole thing about how we're, when the H1B visas were the hot topic in the moment, he wrote a whole post about how we're elevating Zack and Slater instead of screech. And he had all by the bell references. But how are you just kind of doom scrolling? How are you experiencing the whole thing? I am probably going to start cleaning more just to handle it.

I'm trying not to do that. I'm trying to do it. I'm trying to do it. I'm trying to do it. I'm trying to do it. I'm trying Just handle it. I'm trying not to watch. I have my app open, but there's a watch duty app that I suggest. Watch duty is blowing up. Yeah. Everybody download. It has where the fires are. You can turn the flags thing off

so you can see the actual borders. It has evacuation orders. It has where shelter locations are. That app is doing great right now. I'm looking at the things that I need to look at, but other than that, I'm just like, this would be a great time to catch up on Real Housewives or something that I don't need to Anxiety my way through you know yeah, yeah

Yeah, how is your dog reacting in any weird ways or well this morning. There's no birds Anywhere oh my god. That's so sad. That is so sad. Yeah, they're any of them. They're like deuces like my That is so sad. Yeah, I didn't hear any of them. They're like, deuces. Like, bye, bitches. See you in 2026. Yeah. I went outside this morning for like a minute just because I was like, my one dog wasn't peeing or pooping inside

because he's great. But and then I went outside for like a minute and then they started sneezing and I was like, we're going back in, it's inside time. I can't do this. You're just gonna have to figure out how to pee inside. And I went outside for like a minute and then they started sneezing and I was like, we're going back in. It's inside time. I can't do this. Yeah. Like you're just gonna have to figure out how to pee inside.

I was immediately aware of like how long it's been since I changed the air filters in my house. Like the second that I was like, fuck. Yeah. Meaning to change the air filters. Um, yeah, it's kind of hard to politicize and make sweeping generalizations from like inside a news story that feels like it is still ongoing. And it does in many ways feel like it's like, you know, just nature rolling the dice and taking out entire chunks of our city. But that has not stopped people

from trying. I will, I will say the one like political reality this is driving home, I remember during the election, one of the stories that was used to highlight like why a next Trump administration would be different from the first Trump administration was, I think it was Ezra Klein pointed out that during the first Trump administration at one point and that this is like the shape of this story is echoed repeatedly by people who worked in the first Trump administration, but there was a wildfire. He was mad at Gavin Newsom. He's also like currently, you know, tweeting wild shit at Gavin Newsom. Like he hasn't contained this fire at all, which, uh, yeah, Gavin Newsom isn't reading the tweets. He's doing photo ops. Come on.

He's not. Yeah. But during his first administration, he told people in his cabinet to withhold funding, like federal support for a wildfire catastrophe in California to like just get back at like in a like bitch off with Gavin Newsom. And the only reason California like hasn't been on fire ever since then is because the people in his cabinet just fucking ignored him. And yeah, the moral of that story was like, it's going to be really bad this next administration because like he's surrounding

himself by people who won't ignore him, who will actually do what he said. Like sycophants. Yeah. I mean, that's like, seems to be the entire operating principle of this administration. So it's just kind of eerie to have this climate catastrophe happening, like as we're days, mere days away from that reality being upon us the the other I feel like politically salient detail it's salient it's salient the point the detail is salient my mic sounds nice the detail is

salient and weird I'm scared salient but people are like the mayor is in Africa Like when she should be here like I don't know man Like she didn't know this shit was about to happen like I'm sure there's some coded racist shit involved in People being outraged that she's in Africa. I will say that one detail that keeps coming up that does seem worth talking about is that the LAFD budget was cut by $18 million this year, which is a small amount considering the overall budget of the department, but they also increased the police budget by $138 million.

Okay. But they needed that money because they needed to buy the add-ons for Candy Crush on their phone. Okay? That's right. They needed it for all the app purchases. Yeah, at a time when crime is going down and the danger of fire due to climate catastrophe is going up. Isn't this more just like a fire crime though?

Can't you? Can't they just arrest the fire? It is funny because the police. Yeah. The police are tweeting about the, about, you know, they're obviously completely helpless and useless for many scenarios in this one in particular. But they did tweet at 2 a.m. last night. So this is from the LAPD HQ.

The LAPD remains vigilant during the ongoing fires throughout the city of LA and has deployed officers for high visibility patrol during the tactical alert. At this time, we have received no information regarding looting or other criminal activity in the affected areas. So like the only thing they're worried about is looting. And then followed up, individuals taking part in such activity may be subject to enforcement. Please check back for updates. Individuals taking part in such activity is just like such fucking dumb guys, smart police language.

I think they're calling out the fire because they view it as a person of color because it's like red and orange and stuff. You know what I mean? That's true. Yeah. You know they would love to report information regarding looting in the affected area. So that means there really ain't shit going on. They really are useless here.

I would not be surprised if they started like arresting people who were just taking their belongings and putting them in their car. Yeah, exactly. You can't be looting this house. Where's your ID? And you're like, it got burned. Buddy, where are you going with that? They're like, we're going to have to confiscate this for our coffers. Cat. Is it registered? Do you have a license for that kitty?

But yeah, high visibility patrols, which is basically their strategy for everything. If the fucking helicopters are any indication, although they, they What does that mean? They're just like, they're just out there. Just walking around, just strolling. Yeah, but they like want to make sure that you see them. They're like, we're out here. Maybe they're putting their lights on a little bit. They're flexing.

I'm definitely hearing sirens, but I assume that's for the fire. Yeah, they're just out there just running their sirens, just trying to be like, hey, don't forget about us. They're like, it's go time. Wee woo, wee woo. Really seems like it would be a good, good opportunity for somebody to be like, all right. So like clearly climate is the problem and not, uh, you know, shoplifting. Uh, maybe, maybe we shift that budget over here.

I really do hope that people that are affected are able to like, not just the people that are affected, but it feels like if they have more power in the city, like, or connections or whatever, then they use those to like make a change because it just sucks. Like all of this could have been prevented within the first, like, isn't it like 15 minutes, if you can quell a fire,

it prevents it from turning into like hundreds of acres of damage or whatever. Yeah. I mean, yeah. The winds are bonkers. Yeah, it's crazy. But you know, it's up to 100 mile per hour winds. And yeah, I have, you know, friends and parents of friends, mostly whose like houses have burned down and it's really wild out there. It's devastating. It's so sad. Let's take a quick break. We'll come back. We'll finish talking about this story and move on to a couple other things that are happening in the news. We'll be right back. I'm Jason Alexander. And I'm Peter Tilden.

And together on the Really No Really podcast, our mission is to get the true answers to life's baffling questions like why they refuse to make the bathroom door go all the way to the floor. We got the answer. Will space junk block your cell signal? The astronaut who almost drowned during a spacewalk gives us the answer. We talk with the scientists who figured out if your dog truly loves you and the one bringing back the wooly mammoth Plus this Tom Cruise really do his own stunts his stuntman reveals the answer and you never know who's gonna drop by

Mr. Bryan Cranston is with us. How are you? Wayne Knight about Jurassic Park Wayne Knight. Welcome welcome to Really No Really, sir. Bless you all. Hello, Newman. And you never know when Howie Mandel might just stop by to talk about judging. Really? That's the opening? Really No Really. Yeah, really. No Really. Go to ReallyNoReally.com. And register to win $500, a guest spot on our podcast,

or a limited edition signed Jason Bobblehead. It's called Really No Really, and you can find it on the iHeartRadio app, on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back and we do want to say a positive word about one member of a police force, the Police Academy police force, Steve Gutenberg out here acting like a wildfire hero. Just he was caught on the local news, moving people's cars to ensure

that fire trucks could get through. So the over in like the Pacific Palisades, which is where the first big fire broke out and like entire like towns were just like wiped out. People were evacuating their cars because there was an evacuation order and there was a traffic jam because everybody was evacuating at the same time. And so they just all had to leave their cars behind and that clogged the roads. And so Steve Gutenberg was still there for some reason, and he just like was, they found him on the street

moving people's cars out of the way so that fire trucks could get in. And so he went on the news to urge the public to leave their keys in their cars if they were leaving them behind so that they could be moved. When I first saw this screenshot of the interviewer and Steve Gutenberg, it looks like Steve Gutenberg is the interviewer because that's how I imagine him in my head from like police academy.

But now he's like older, obviously. Yeah. He's the person being interviewed. Yeah. But that's like cool that he's encouraging people to do that. What if the police arrest him? Because they think he's losing. You know, I mean, I will say like, so he says in a crisis, always remember that you are

you're part of a community. Great advice. And if you're able bodied, you've got to help. I think situationally really good advice. But like the thing that you seem to hear from authorities is like, stay the fuck home right now. So I don't know. Like, but I do think it's admirable that he's out there helping people, especially because it sounds like they needed the help to get these cars out of the way. Yeah. But he is saying, like, when you walk by by like if somebody's in a wheelchair or something

Yes, exactly. That's good. And I think that's really good advice. So shout out to Steve Gutenberg one of my Childhood heroes coming through for me, you know an adult hero Yeah childhood into adulthood, but that was were you a police Academy fan? Yeah, my family watched those for sure huge huge fans of the the franchise yeah the Two through because police academy one was rated R. I don't think I still don't think I've ever seen police academy one I feel like I have I don't know but I feel like my parents were like They they didn't encourage me to see like crazy movies, but they also weren't like super restrictive about it.

So I feel like it made me like well balanced on that end. So I might've seen it or like the TBS version of it or whatever, you know? Yeah, that was like a very formative series of films that I have not gone back to revisit, but I'm sure I do remember how they treated gay nightclubs in that film as just a place where if you walked in by accident, they were going to force you to slow dance with them. I love that. We need to do that more to them to slow dance with each other. But Gutenberg, you know, was fucking holding those films down with his, he was like sort

of like a more charming Chevy Chase, I feel like was his energy. I feel like he also had like the Tom Hanks vibe too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just friendly guy. That's a better one. Yeah. Rather than picking somebody with a bad personality and saying, he's like that guy with a good personality.

I think you picked the better example. He's like Tom Hanks. He's like just really likable. And it's nice to see him doing a nice thing for people when my other favorite film, like Sylvester Stallone is like hanging out at Mar-a-Lago, you know, being super Trump supporter. Wait, can I say something? That's off topic, but fun.

I went to Monday Night Raw with Juckeys. Oh, you did. We talked about it. We had... The moment, we were so upset because we thought Stone Cold was gonna come and then it was Hulk Hogan instead and we were like, oh, this sucks. And like the line to get in was really long. They were letting other people in and not us and like our gate or whatever.

And we were like, oh, like what's happening? And then we, when the Hulk Hogan moment happened, oh my God, we booed so loud. It felt so powerful, booing with an entire arena of people. It was a magical moment. You were underrated yesterday, I think. Yeah, because friend of the show, frequent guest, Joey Cliff, big wrestling fan, and was talking about how great wrestling audiences are. It's so fun.

And specifically called out you guys for booing Hulk Hogan which we've been the fuck out of Hulk Hogan and you could we couldn't even hear in the arena like what he was saying on mic because we booed so loud yeah and McCauley Culkin huge pop like so the timing that he had when he lifted up his hat like to the audience that little reveal, oh my god. I'm like, this man is an entertainer. Everybody loved him. So those were two highlights of the night for sure. So Macaulay Culkin was there in the audience. Yeah, Macaulay Culkin was in the audience and they had... I think it was Seth Green or something.

And then they pan over and you just see a baseball cap and then it raises up. And Macaulay Culkin is like does a little hammy fun thing to the camera. Yeah and then everybody was like we just watched Home Alone for Christmas! You know and it was super fun and then it was like the exact opposite even worse for Hulk Hogan like the booing. I know he was so mad when he went backstage because there was some tweet that was like he dedicated his whole life to the WWE. And then and then he came back for his moment. Everybody was like, fuck you. A tweet from Hulk Hogan saying that. No, no, no, no, no. Like somebody was saying like he must be so upset

because he spent his whole life doing this stuff. And like he's been fucked up whole. Yeah. Yeah. Shouldn't have been fucking Trump's hype man. Like what the fuck he's also always been racist. Oh, he's openly racist. Yeah. Busted unions within the WWE so he could earn more. Like he was awful. The Reagan of WWE, WWF wrestling at the time.

Yeah, brother. That's the only thing is that's really fun to say. So I can't not say it. I know. I say it too. He's like so bad that I don't think anybody at this point is like, oh, guy's a big Hulk Hogan fan, I guess. You know what I mean? Yeah. I think we can just call each other brother. We can take that from him. Yeah. Yeah. One of the lesser problems caused by the fire is I'm having a hard time keeping up with the myriad stupid and dangerous things that Donald Trump is doing. He's on a fucking heater right now of just stupid bullshit. He just like riffed a press conference at Mar-a-Lago where he talked about renaming the

Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of America, just going full risk on the nation of Greenland or the territory of Greenland, I guess he's like threatening massive sanctions on Denmark if they don't just like give us Greenland because we need it for, I think like his, his exact quote was something to the effect of like, we need it for military stuff so they should give it to us. It's fucking insane. Also, does he not know that it's North America? So even if he names it the Gulf of America, like, that's not the US. What does he think?

I think he just wants it to be more equitable. He's going to name Mexico like South America or something like that. Yeah. And then we change South America to, I don't know, some bullshit. He said the thing about Canada. He wants it to be the 51st state. And it's like Puerto Rico is right there. And like DC, they're just like, what the fuck?

Give us representation. Nah. That would let the libs win. just like, what the fuck? Like, give us representation. Nah. That would let the libs win. Yeah. He has to come up with an idea that nobody has thought of because it's completely insane. I don't know if I could handle if we,

if the United States of America became more French, I think it would cause me severe discomfort. You know what I mean? Right. Yeah. So he like seemed to be threatening to annex like a bunch of countries. Like this feels like the, I don't know, like start of something different where it's just like, yeah, we're going to actually like go full

Hitler. We're going to like be evading. We're, we're just going to like take over a bunch of the world. Um, it seems like that's like, I don't know, Elon Musk's influence, but I don't know. Maybe, I mean, like, I don't, like, how realistic are we, like, at doing that successfully without destroying ourselves first, like, in those hands? No, so bad. You know what I mean?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a very, very stupid decision. It's gonna ruin other people's lives and American's lives. Like it's so it's the end of a it's the end of an era. You guys, we had our time. We really did it. Someone else can take it. The theory because the big outcome, the big consequence of so the way he's trying to get Denmark to give

Greenland to us is by threatening them with massive sanctions, which would cause huge spikes in the weight loss drugs like the Ozempic and all those would always want to say would go via. But I think that's like a bank in the Midwest or something. There is something that's UVA. I know. I know what you're talking about. But those medicines are all made in Denmark, so they would all get incredibly expensive. It's just like he thinks things one step ahead, essentially. We would think that like, oh, if there are weight loss drugs

that, like, rich and powerful people, like, want to keep taking, like, first of all, they'll still get them. But second of all, like, he would love to do that to, like, the Hollywood elite, even though he's part of them, you know? Right, yeah, yeah. And also, you know, we have talked about how

the weight loss drugs, the way that they get you to lose weight is by eating less. Yeah. And so it's hurting the profits of grocery stores and big food. McDonald's, his favorite. Maybe this is him working with like Yum Brands and McDonald's and the dairy industry to make America overeat again. It is wild, our writer, J.M. McNabb pointed out that in this press conference that could have massive international relations,

implications. He also went on a long rant about how dishwashers, he said, they want very, very little water to go into your dishwasher. Almost none. And you know what people do? They just keep pressing, pressing, pressing, keep it going. They end up using more water. Likewise, washing machines, which I don't think is true, but who the fuck knows what

he's talking about at any point? I think he knew about the fires. I think he knew and he was using this moment to talk about water and conservation. Thank you. He's just like 10 steps ahead, you know what I mean? Always. He's really got it together. He really does.

Also, when the fuck has Donald Trump ever used a dishwasher? Like, he has a dishwasher and like, they probably have a name. Like, that's like, he doesn't have a, he never uses a machine. They keep pressing, pressing, pressing. What is he, so they just like have to keep running the dishes multiple times? I don't think that's true. This man is just upset that he hears dishwasher sounds in his vicinity and doesn't understand

how they work. Right. Yeah, exactly. All right. That's what's going on. Basically, it's the wildfires is what's going on. We're just hoping everybody and your families are staying safe out there if you're being affected by this. And yeah, send good energy to Los Angeles.

Paula V, thank you so much for joining us at this kind of crazy time. Where can people find you, follow you, see you, all that good stuff? I'm at PaulaVeganAllen, P-A-L-L-A-V-I-G-U-N-A-L-A-N everywhere. Our show featuring South Asian, Middle Eastern, North African comics called Facial Recognition Comedy is on the 17th at the Comedy Store, I believe at 10 or 10.30, who knows? But you can get tickets online. And then we also are gonna be at SF Sketch Fest.

I'm doing Comedian Clash on the 25th and also a facial recognition comedy. So if you're in the Bay and you're part of the zeit gang, come out, tell your friends, buy tickets. The more tickets you buy, the sooner, the probably bigger, better shows we get to do next year. So come out, stay safe. Is that where you and other comedians just fight each other?

That is Jackie's show that his his game show has morphed into. It is now called Comedian Clash. And they're doing, I believe, two shows in the Bay. And it's going to be fucking awesome. The format is going to be slightly different different but just it's fun just as Really like amazing guests are gonna be there So come through I love Jekes's game shows are such a blast everybody should go check them out. Yeah sounds great

All right. Well, those are the things that are trending on this Wednesday, January 8th We are back tomorrow. At some point, we'll check in with you and we'll talk to you all then. Stay safe, everybody. Bye. Stay safe. Bye.

Stay safe. Stay safe. Stay safe. Stay safe. Stay safe. Stay safe. Stay safe. Stay safe.

Stay safe. Stay safe. Stay safe. Stay safe. Stay safe. Stay safe. Stay safe. Stay safe. Stay safe. Stay safe. I'm Jason Alexander and I'm Peter Tilden and together our mission on the Really No Really podcast is to get the true answers to life's baffling questions like why the bathroom door doesn't go all the way to the floor what's in the museum of failure and does your dog truly love you we have the answer go to really no really.com and register to

win $500 a guest spot on our podcast or a limited edition sign Jason Bobblehead the Really No Really podcast. Follow us on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.