The Daily Zeitgeist - VIP PPE, Demolition Man Too Real? 5.7.20

Episode Date: May 7, 2020

In episode 625, Jack, Miles, and Jamie are joined by The Black List founder Franklin Leonard to discuss the film trends, the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, Trump not wearing a face mask while visiting a fac...tory, what we learned from the whistleblower from Jared Kushner's coronavirus task force, how venues will be re-opening, Demolition Man, and more!FOOTNOTES: Ahmaud Arbery: anger mounts over killing of black jogger caught on video Trump does not wear coronavirus mask at Honeywell factory that makes masks Kushner coronavirus effort said to be hampered by inexperienced volunteers What will concerts look like after the pandemic? Upcoming show, experts give us ideas Uh Oh, We’re Inching Towards the ‘Demolition Man’ Future Demolition Man 2 in the Works at Warner Bros. Fauci: 'In a perfect world' Americans would stop shaking hands The Writer of Demolition Man on the Predictive Power of His 1993 Movie 5 WTF Scenes You Forgot Were In Your Favorite Movies Sylvestor Stallone On Instagram: Questions and answers WATCH: Common - Heat (prod. by J Dilla) 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 Señora Sex Ed is not your mommy's sex talk. This show is la plática like you've never heard it before. We're breaking the stigma and silence around sex and sexuality in Latinx communities. This podcast is an intergenerational conversation between Latinas from Gen X to Gen Z. We're your hosts, Viosa and Mala. You might recognize us from our first show, Locatora Radio. Listen to Señora Sex Ed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Starting point is 00:00:29 How do you feel about biscuits? Hi, I'm Akilah Hughes, and I'm so excited about my new podcast, Rebel Spirit, where I head back to my hometown in Kentucky and try to convince my high school to change their racist mascot, the Rebels, into something everyone in the South loves, the biscuits. I was a lady rebel.
Starting point is 00:00:45 Like, what does that even mean? It's right here in black and white in print. It's bigger than a flag or mascot. Listen to Rebel Spirit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I am Lacey Lamar. And I'm also Lacey Lamar. Just kidding, I'm Amber Revin.
Starting point is 00:01:04 What? Okay, everybody, we have exciting news to share. We're back with season two of the Amber and Lacey, Lacey and Amber show on Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network. This season, we make new friends, deep dive into my steamy DMs, answer your listener questions and more. The more is punch each other. Listen to the Amber and Lacey, Lacey and Amber show on Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Just listen, okay? Or Lacey gets it.
Starting point is 00:01:32 Do it. Captain's Log, Stardate 2024. We're floating somewhere in the cosmos, but we've lost our map. Yeah, because you refuse to ask for directions. It's Space Gem. There are no roads. Good point. So where are we headed? Into the unknown, of course.
Starting point is 00:01:49 Join us on In Our Own World as we uncover hidden truths, navigate the depths of culture, identity, and the human spirit. With a hint of mischief. One episode at a time. Buckle up and listen to In Our Own World on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Trust us, it's out of this world. Hello, the internet, and welcome to season 132, episode 4 of Der Daily Zeitgeist,
Starting point is 00:02:13 a production of iHeartRadio. This is a podcast where we take a deep dive into America's shared consciousness and say officially off the top, fuck the brothers and fuck fox news it's thursday may 7th 2020 my name is jack o'brien aka i don't want to wait in this line any longer mouth breathers don't know how to gauge six feet uh that is courtesy of Nick Dracovsky. I was wondering where that was going, but I did it. And yeah, you nailed it, man.
Starting point is 00:02:51 I'm thrilled to be joined, as always, by my co-host, Mr. Miles Gray! I watch the TV, blazed with my blaze. Wait, let me start that over. But keep this in, because I'm a busker. Look, you don't have to give money but i watch the tv with my blazed out companions i take notes and write shit because
Starting point is 00:03:14 fuck it's my job the virus has fucked us and not with the hot pigs. But I can't get worried. I'm gonna get high. And I don't ever wanna deal with this shit again. Please get this fucking real. Dump this fucking president. I don't ever wanna deal with this shit again. I don't want to deal with this shit again. All I really want is to joke about trash TV all day. And I could keep going, but you know, when you're lonely in the quarry, you become Anthony Kiedis.
Starting point is 00:04:00 Thank you to Ben Bainey at Bainey84 for, I don't know, man, affecting my brain. I'm going to listen to that album again tonight uh and we are thrilled to be joined in our third seat by the hilarious and talented quark co-host jamie loftus jack and miles are here every day with lil zam and hosniye wash your hands and you will see. An end to the quarantine. This is quarantine. This is quarantine. In our homes in the day and night. Oh, thank you to Lisa P. at Amazing Pockets
Starting point is 00:04:37 for really challenging my lower register today. There could have gone up the octave, but I don't want to hurt anybody. there could have gone up the octave but i don't want to hurt anybody and we are thrilled to be joined in our fourth seat by the very talented franklin leonard i feel like i should have a song inspired by mid-90s rock and i that's my favorite part there was no prep for that i feel like feel like I could have stepped up my game and delivered. That's kind of a power move that we do is we all get to
Starting point is 00:05:10 sing a song and then the guest has to be like, hi. Yeah, it's a good strong power move. It's a built in bit where it's like song, song, song, then spotlight on the guest. Oh, what? Hi, I don't have a song uh i'm the boring part of this conversation oh welcome to the show franklin first time welcome first time guest thanks for
Starting point is 00:05:34 having me yeah we are gonna get to know you a little bit better in a moment first we're gonna tell our listeners a couple of things we're talking about uh we are going to talk about ahmaud arbery uh in georgia that horrifying story uh we're going to talk about the president going to a mask factory uh not wearing a mask and with live and let die blaring in the background uh we're going to talk about the new whistleblower we got a new whistleblower uh we are going to talk about the president's new plan uh to just send everybody back to work uh we're gonna talk about concerts we're gonna talk about demolition man all that and plenty more but first franklin we like to ask our guests what is something from your search history that is revealing about who you are uh there is a long section of my search history
Starting point is 00:06:33 as recently as yesterday but going back throughout the quarantine that's basically like when is professional soccer going to start again um yeah i'm a degenerate soccer fan it is one lens through which i consume the world and i'm just desperate for the return i know i think it's the uzbeki league is still uh active but i haven't like gotten myself to actually watch those games apparently they are being televised but i just can't i can't do it uh yeah if If anyone has a pirate stream of that, let me know. I'm the same way. I feel really bad, especially I have a lot of Liverpool fans in my midst. And for anybody who knows the Premier League,
Starting point is 00:07:14 Liverpool has not won the Premier League as it's become the Premier League. So it's been many years, and they were on the brink of pulling it off. And this season ending has left them on the brink of pulling it off. And this season ending has like left them like on the brink of like creating their own history. And they're just left there. Like, what are we doing? And they're like,
Starting point is 00:07:31 maybe we'll vacate the results. I don't know. And it's just, it's, it's interesting to see the trauma from a sports perspective, which is not anything close to people's actual loss, but like to see the stress that's come out of people, not even knowing like how standings end at the end of the season yeah yeah well in relegation there's still sort of uh tbd i mean
Starting point is 00:07:50 the wildest part about the liverpool thing right is like not only were they about to win their first premier league title they have arguably put together one of the greatest seasons of professional soccer ever like literally ever yeah their record is such that that it is better than any record on any top league in Europe ever. And it was obvious that they were going to win the league. And they've had sort of close calls before and like random slip ups, like the Girard slip. Literally. Literally slip ups. 2014 slip ups.
Starting point is 00:08:19 And I remember having conversations with Liverpool fans like, yeah, we got it. The only way we don't win the league is if we don't finish the season. And here we are. If there was ever an argument for Liverpool being cursed, it was not the Gerrard slip. It's literally the global viral pandemic that may prevent them from having a trophy. It's just wild.
Starting point is 00:08:40 Yeah. I definitely understand. You got to feel for him. Right, Jamie? I love love it i think that i totally agree and it's it's you know i love i love a soccer ball my favorite is finally because all there are so many times we get caught down sports american sports wormholes that I can talk soccer with somebody. Yeah. I really just need to have my documentary.
Starting point is 00:09:09 This is my Jordan documentary. All right, guys, here's a part where we're just going to bring Franklin in and we're just going to wax about the, about European soccer for about 40 minutes. I would be happy to do it. Okay. Well,
Starting point is 00:09:19 we'll have to talk after this. All right. Franklin, what is something you think is underrated? I don't think people are talking enough about the plot against america uh the new david simon show on hbo it's really exceptional and like the writing the performances like we all expect this from a david simon show but i feel like as good as it is i haven't heard enough people talking about how good it is it is so i'm gonna go with that for now man i didn't even know that was a david simon show yeah right wow holy shit and like zoe kazan is just like zoe kazan just gives the performance i think we all knew that she was capable like it's just a
Starting point is 00:09:56 really really well done bit of television i i recommend and i don't feel like people are talking about it enough what do you think is getting, what is it? Do you think Tiger King is just taking up too much of the oxygen? Or what do you think the reason is for the lack of conversation around it? You know, it's interesting. I feel like it's very similar to The Wire, right? Like everybody sort of knows The Wire is one of the best TV shows of all time now, but it really didn't catch on. Like I didn't hear about it in the zeitgeist until like the third or fourth season.
Starting point is 00:10:22 And I feel like people were late to it. I also feel like probably in this moment, like, you know, depressing stories about white supremacist presidents feels a bit on the nose, maybe. I get that on the news. I don't need to be reminded that, yeah, things are seriously, seriously messed up right right now and so I feel like people
Starting point is 00:10:46 might not be as interested in watching it but if you want to avoid that you can watch this show just to appreciate the incredible craft on display on every front there's a lot of really solid prestige shows coming out right now that I feel like
Starting point is 00:11:02 are not getting talked about a lot I've been watching Mrs. America and i haven't really heard people talking about that run's been coming out no one's really talking about that it's weird mrs america contest they're still having it mrs america is excellent no no it's it's the it's like the jack touche i will say the thing about mrs america that weird is like, it's weird to feel like sympathy for Phyllis Schlafly. I don't like, yeah, that whole trend, I think in general, that I feel like Bombshell kind of ascribed to as well. They're like, okay, we're going to make a show about a woman,
Starting point is 00:11:37 but like the worst woman we can find. And you're just like, why? And we're going to make you feel bad for her. We're going to make you like try to understand where she was coming from. And I'm like, look, yes, her life was not ideal. I still don't like her. I still reject everything she stood for. And I don't want to feel bad for not liking her.
Starting point is 00:11:58 Exactly. And so should we all reject her. Yeah. So that part of it is weird. But yeah, again, everything about the craft on display on that show is bananas. Like Cate Blanchett is acting her face off. Like Uzo Aduba is amazing as Shirley Chisholm. Like give me that limited series.
Starting point is 00:12:14 The Uzo as Shirley Chisholm limited series. I will watch that as appointment television. And Franklin, I should say for people who aren't familiar with your career, that everybody should be listening the fuck up when it comes to your opinion on movies and TV shows. Can you explain, you are the founder of The Blacklist. Can you explain what The Blacklist is? Yeah. So The Blacklist started as this, I was working as a junior executive at Leonardo DiCaprio's production company in 2005. And my job was to find good screenplays.
Starting point is 00:12:44 So I either make them as our company or work with the writer to make other things. And I felt like I was not doing a very good job at that job. Most of the scripts that I was reading was mediocre to bad. Which meant either that I was bad at my job or that the job was reading bad scripts and passing on them.
Starting point is 00:13:01 In which case, my mother's weekly phone call was asking me if my LSAT scores were still valid. It was something I had to take more seriously. And I really didn't want to go to law school. So I took a survey of my peers and said, send me a list of your 10 favorite scripts that haven't been produced. In exchange, I'll send you the combined list. And it was really selfishly just a way to find good screenplays.
Starting point is 00:13:19 And I did it anonymously and slapped this quasi-subversive name on it, The Blacklist. And it went sort of viral in the industry at a time when the notion of internet virality was still new. And then over the last 15 years, the scripts that are on that list have gone on to a great deal of success. So four of the last 12 best pictures, 12 of the last 26 screenwriting Oscars
Starting point is 00:13:39 were scripts that were on this list before they got produced, and the writers that are on it have gone on to great success. I'm sure you guys saw the the star wars announcements uh on may 4th like taiko ytt was on the blacklist years ago with jojo rabbit uh christy karens wilson who co-wrote 1917 who's co-writing the script with him was on it with another script uh years prior leslie headland who's doing the tv show was was on it with Bachelorette years ago. So it became an arbiter of taste very quickly
Starting point is 00:14:09 and a way to identify good stuff. And then we built on top of that an organization that sees as its mission to identify and celebrate great screenwriting. So we have a two-sided website where people can upload their screenplays, have them evaluated. If it's good, we'll tell everybody in the industry, like, industry like yo this is dope y'all should probably do something with this yeah um we do screenwriters labs two of which are with women in film specifically for women screenwriters uh we have a podcast on luminary where we interview people about like the role
Starting point is 00:14:38 of film in their lives um and then we started making movies so our first film premiered at south by southwest last year it's now available on VOD. It's called Come As You Are. It's about three disabled men who escape their helicopter parents to go on a road trip to lose their virginities at a brothel that caters to disabled men. It is 97% on Rotten Tomatoes,
Starting point is 00:15:00 which is pretty cool, and Questlove tweeted about it in sort of the most random thing to happen in my 2020. He was like, hey, I just caught this film randomly. Everybody should see it. It should be my big fat Greek wedding. And yeah, so I'm going to frame that tweet. Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 00:15:15 And yeah, so look, at the end of the day, we just want to be a tide that raises all boats, but especially the boats of writers to try to get better movies made. So selfishly we can all sit on our couches and watch dope shit. Yeah. And not watch the same story over and over. Yeah. Like I think,
Starting point is 00:15:34 I think audiences want things they haven't seen before. They want good stories told. Well, they don't really care like about like, like the gender or race or gender gender gender preference of the people that are starring there's just like give me something that makes me feel something and makes me care about the people that i'm watching and if you can do that for two hours or 12 episodes like i'm gonna be with you um so to the extent that we can be helpful in making sure that happens because most
Starting point is 00:15:59 of that starts with the writing that's what we we try to do. Nice. What is something you think is overrated? I mean, Tiger King, maybe. Look, I'm not going to lie. I watched the whole thing. But at the same time, I was deeply aware of like, it just felt wrong to be watching it on some fundamental level. And like people's enthusiasm about it like i wish some of that oxygen could go to stuff like mrs america or normal people
Starting point is 00:16:33 or plot against america or mindy kaling's new show or the half of it like there's just so much other great stuff out there that's not you know super fucked up or it is super fucked up. It's just not, you know, it doesn't feel weirdly exploitative. I don't know. It just, it,
Starting point is 00:16:50 it, that show made me feel not good and not in a good way, if that makes any sense. Yeah. Yeah. No, it definitely felt bad for the soul. I think at a time when we didn't necessarily need our souls to feel any
Starting point is 00:17:07 worse but it was like yeah but i yeah i think there's something about this period where like we want comfort food uh for our pop culture and a lot of times comfort like my comfort food is taco bell and mac and cheese with cheese on it uh like added cheese on top of my mac and cheese and those things aren't good for me um yeah yeah yeah um finally what is a myth what's something people think is true you know to be false um i'm gonna take it back to what i just said about like what audiences want, right? There's this conventional wisdom in Hollywood about a lot of things that is just,
Starting point is 00:17:50 it's all convention and no wisdom. So a few examples, like when I was coming up in the film industry, you'd be told like female driven action movies don't work. I can't make a successful female driven action movie. And like, I remember thinking like, that doesn't really make any sense to me.
Starting point is 00:18:06 Why wouldn't they? And you'd be told something like, well, men won't go see women-driven action movies, but women will go see male-driven action movies, so you should never make a female-driven action movie. And it's like, I don't know, Titanic was kind of a female-driven action movie. That did pretty well.
Starting point is 00:18:22 Like, really, all of James Cameron's movies are sort of fundamentally female-driven action movie, that did pretty well. Like, really, all of James Cameron's movies are sort of fundamentally female-driven action movies, and he has made most of the biggest movies of all time. Yeah. So, like, that's a big one. The other big one that frustrates me personally as a black person is, oh, well, you can't sell black movies abroad.
Starting point is 00:18:43 Like, there's an audience in the U.S., but, like, you know, people outside of the U.S. There's an audience in the US, but people outside of the US don't want to see black people on screen. Yeah, those Sony emails were shocking. The whole thing about the Equalizer and Equalizer 2. It was like, black doesn't travel, guys. I don't want to be the one to say it because Denzel's my favorite actor of all time.
Starting point is 00:19:02 I was just like, shut the fuck up, man. Right, but the wild part about it is when you really think about it, right? Like, okay, let's just say that people believe that for whatever reason, right? But then you step back and you're like, okay, so wait a minute. You want me to believe that hip hop
Starting point is 00:19:15 is the most important cultural force worldwide over the last 40 years. Anywhere you go, you can hear hip hop. Literally anywhere. People root for black athletes on their local teams no matter where they are in the world but somehow when it comes to movies they're not interested oh and also denzel will smith all these guys have been like crushing it internationally for years and like even coming to america did like 300 million dollars foreign
Starting point is 00:19:42 so like there's this weird sort of racism. And then like the wildest part about it was, so the most recent excuse people use is like, look, yeah, things are getting better like in Europe and elsewhere, but like China is a real problem. Like China is super racist.
Starting point is 00:19:56 Chinese people don't want to see black people. And I was in Shanghai two years ago and I was walking back to my hotel late at night and right above the hotel, there's an ad for the new iPhone and it features a black model like the photo is a black woman I just remember thinking like oh so Apple thinks they can sell their products with black faces but somehow movie people don't think they can sell their products with black faces right and I realized that it was like this weird double racism it's like it's it's folks in the business who are neither black nor asian saying it's not us that's racist it's them that's racist and it's like look
Starting point is 00:20:30 yes there's anti-blackness everywhere like let's be clear and it comes from at its root white supremacy but like they're getting that from the culture that we export right like there's this amazing video of like man on the street interviews in Korea after Black Panther came out. And one of the interviewees is like, yeah, I mean, it was amazing. Like we've never seen black people on screen this way. They're usually like, you know,
Starting point is 00:20:55 hip hop stars or criminals. And I'm like, they're not seeing that on Korean television or like the local news. They're seeing it from other Hollywood movies. And that's the assumption that they make about about sort of what black people are and sort of are limited by so it's just uh yeah it's again it's a frustration there's like a moral and ethical issue there but i'm also just kind of like i'm trying to get this money by making movies and there's money to be had on these movies because
Starting point is 00:21:22 people want to see them like black Black Panther didn't make a billion dollars because no one wants to see black people in movies. Right, right. So like maybe be less racist and sexist and we can all make more money. Seems like a good plan. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:21:36 Yeah, right. And those like conversations never take into account either like what you were just saying of like how like when you do see black characters or you see women or you see like really anyone uh on screen written poorly and written to stereotypes like that is a turnoff for a lot of viewers or they're like oh you know like but then when you actually write a character or give a writer with some lived experience and not just uh someone that is like a whatever,
Starting point is 00:22:06 like a white guy who's been working in Hollywood for 500 years, usually it works. And if there's like the marketing money put behind it too, which is like another thing that just doesn't even come up in those conversations of like, well, are you investing in this movie at all? Or are you just like dooming it to fail by assuming it couldn't possibly succeed? Or are you just like dooming it to fail by assuming it couldn't possibly succeed? Yeah. Yeah. It's wild. I mean, the, yeah, on that question, I've asked that question a bunch.
Starting point is 00:22:30 Like, so how much marketing money did you put behind it? And they're like, well, we didn't because it's not possible to succeed. I'm like, you don't, you don't see the circular logic here. Like I'm not the smartest person in the world, but I'm pretty sure that's flawed logic. Yeah. Yeah. All right, guys, let's take a quick break. I could honestly talk about this.
Starting point is 00:22:47 I want this to be the rest of the podcast, but let's take a quick break, and we'll be right back. When you think of Mexican culture, you think of avocado, mariachi, delicious cuisine, and of course, lucha libre. It doesn't get more Mexican than this.
Starting point is 00:23:15 Lucha libre is known globally because it is much more than just a sport and much more than just entertainment. Lucha libre is a type of storytelling. It's a dance. It's tradition. It's culture. This is Lucha Libre Behind the Mask, a 12-episode podcast in both English and Spanish about the history and cultural richness of Lucha Libre. And I'm your host, Santos Escobar, the emperor of Lucha Libre and a WWE superstar. Santos! Santos! Join me as we learn more about the history behind this spectacular sport from its inception in the United States to how it became a global symbol of Mexican culture.
Starting point is 00:23:44 We'll learn more about some of the most iconic heroes in the ring. This is Lucha Libre Behind the Mask. Listen to Lucha Libre Behind the Mask as part of My Cultura Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you stream 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 00:24:22 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.
Starting point is 00:24:48 This is Rip Current. Available now with new episodes every Thursday. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Substance use disorder and addiction is so isolating. And so as a black woman in recovery, hope must be loud. It grows louder when you ask for help and you're vulnerable. It is the thread that lets you know that no matter what happens, you will be okay. When we learn the power of hope, recovery is
Starting point is 00:25:22 possible. Find out how at StartWithHope.com. Brought to you by the National Council for Mental Well-Being, Shatterproof, and the Ad Council. 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. Every weekday, we bring you conversations with the culture makers who inspire us.
Starting point is 00:25:51 Like our recent episode with Grammy award-winning rapper Eve on her new memoir and the moments that made her. It became a theme in my life, the underdog syndrome of being questioned, of the, would they say this to a man? No, they would not. Like, why? That was one of those moments where you're just like, oh, wow. It was a bit shocking, but it didn't take any steam away or anything like that. If anything, it was more of the, okay, I'll show you. No worries. Listen to The Bright Side from Hello Sunshine on the iHeartRadio app,
Starting point is 00:26:16 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back uh before we move on to the news though i like that just a general thesis statement of this show is that movies are kind of a good representation of the kind of collective unconscious of the culture. And that's kind of, I don't know. I'm curious as somebody who is like in the stream of all the scripts that are being written and being produced and bought by Hollywood, like are there random like trends that you've noticed that are like cropping up more in the Trump administration that are cropping up more in the era of COVID-19? Yeah, I think we don't have enough. There hasn't
Starting point is 00:27:14 been enough time to really track the COVID-19 response yet. Funnily enough, my team just put together a way for us to because when you upload a script to the site, you can tag it with all different kinds of search terms. We just created a sort of thing that will allow us to track the volume of those tags being in use changes. And it was really because in six months, I want to be able to look back and be like, oh, yeah, there are a lot of pandemic scripts now.
Starting point is 00:27:40 Or actually, no, there aren't any. So I don't think there hasn't been enough time to track that really, because once it happened, it's been like three months really, and so people haven't really written anything yet. But I will say one trend that I've seen sort of post, really starting in 2017, I think,
Starting point is 00:27:58 with the annual blacklist, was a rise in scripts about institutional corruption. Can't imagine why. So that was really big. And then, or actually no, it was 2016, right as the election was happening. And then I think the year before that, this was sort of the advent of Me Too,
Starting point is 00:28:16 a lot of scripts about women taking extrajudicial sort of revenge on men who had wronged them. Can't imagine why that was a prominent theme coming out of the Me Too moment. So I just, look, I think that writers, generally speaking, are trying to, like you said, capture the zeitgeist and tell stories about what it means to live now. And so I think that they're highly responsive to sort of the world events, but also to sort of the thematic underpinnings of what those things mean to be alive during this moment. Even if it's like a period story
Starting point is 00:28:48 or like a weird sci-fi thing, like it's all sort of fundamentally about what it means to just like live. Yeah. I have this thesis that robots have stopped being scary to people like probably 15 years ago, but like Hollywood hasn't figured that out yet because they keep making like terminator movies yeah do you feel the same way are there any other like kind of
Starting point is 00:29:14 misconceptions that hollywood's still on board with that you feel like the the public is not it's interesting the robot thing is weird you're right they keep making terminator movies i actually think that there's been a shift in sort of how technology is viewed as a danger yeah uh and so you're seeing less like sort of anthropomorphized technology and more like this sort of god mode uh sort of diffuse like the internet right like i guess the first movie like that would have been the net with Sandra Bullock. But this notion that aggregating information, predictive technology, all these things
Starting point is 00:29:52 pose a real existential threat to humankind. I think you're seeing a lot. And sort of the way we interact and our fundamental humanness. So I think you're seeing a lot more stuff about that rather than like, you know than humanoid robot rolling through town shooting people.
Starting point is 00:30:10 Yeah, we just did a rewatch of the movie Her. This is all to say we're getting there. Yeah, we just did a rewatch of the movie Her and it was funny how benign that movie views a lot of the technology that Jamie was pointing out that the amount of information that they're giving to that operating system about themselves is like you can't watch that now and not be like oh my god it's still very what are you doing yeah they're
Starting point is 00:30:37 like she's not like the other girls she's literally stealing every piece of data and giving it to someone right yeah she's like hi I've commodified your data for you in the form of this book proposal. Let's kiss. Like, you're just like, oh my God. Let's kiss. All right, let's talk about the actual world, which is awful.
Starting point is 00:31:01 So a guy named Ahmaud Arbery was jogging in georgia and by all accounts it seems like two racist white guys i think a father and son yeah decided that he was a threat and chased him down in their pickup truck and pulled a shotgun on him. And then a scuffle ensued and they murdered him. I haven't seen a single detail where it's like, oh no, but this is actually, like it just seems like a straight up, they murdered somebody. they hunted him down like
Starting point is 00:31:46 for jogging murdered him yeah yeah he was just sit merely his mere presence in this neighborhood they just decided to you know connect these dots to presume that he was someone who was committing some kind of like break-ins or something they were saying on this 911 call you know you could hear the operator saying well what what is he doing is he somewhere he's not supposed to be like no the thing you don't get is we've got this guy on camera a bunch you need to send somebody down here and apparently in their minds they were justifying their actions through some kind of some kind of bizarre citizen's arrest loophole which has no legal carries no legal weight at all it's like absolute it's a murder
Starting point is 00:32:25 it's a straight up murder and it's i think like you know the media needs to have that needs to take more responsibility to try and like rather than dissecting it it's like no these two men decided to just posse up and go murder this young black man that's that's it that's really all that's all that is and that's just sadly that's so normal here you know that right i found myself i this is again on top of all the terrible shit that's going on with the economy in the world and working people already struggling to on top of it i have to just see a young young man of color just killed for no reason is this is a lot for me to to process yesterday when that video came out yeah yeah i still haven't seen it and i'm not gonna watch it it's frankly as a black man
Starting point is 00:33:15 from georgia it's a little too much yeah yeah yeah man here's the thing that really kills me about it like look i i grew up in in georgia in columbus um i was on the cross-country team used to run a lot like in my like upper middle class neighborhood weirdly enough during the pandemic i've taken running back up so i'm often running in my neighborhood and um as bad as the murder is and obviously awful uh the fact that there weren't immediate charges brought against these two people that murdered him is almost more terrifying. Because if it hadn't been for this sort of groundswell of attention that this thing has gotten on social media, these guys would have gotten away with it.
Starting point is 00:33:56 They still may get away with it, to be clear. And that is the thing that frankly traumatizes me most because it's not only that I could get murdered in the street for literally trying to keep my cardiovascular health good. It's that the people that did it, I would never get justice. And those people would just go on about their lives as though they were somehow heroes. And that's fundamentally fundamentally disturbing and it should be disturbing to literally everybody it's dehumanizing to know that your life you have no legal recourse if your life is just taken from you so aggressively without thought or maybe with
Starting point is 00:34:37 plenty of thought either way that there is no legal recourse and i think yeah that's really it's tough and like you're saying like it shows you too how these communities operate because this father and son duo the father worked as a police officer in the county worked with the da was you know linked up with the the the uh legal apparatus apparatus apparatuses in that area so it was able to be ignored for a long time to the point where three uh district attorneys had to recuse themselves because of their connections to the suspect so now they're like i guess maybe we'll impanel a grand jury but that can't happen till at least mid-june because of you know the outbreak and on top of it people can't demonstrate when this is clearly such a
Starting point is 00:35:21 frustrating thing to have to see and see absolutely zero response that would make anybody that would signal to anybody that this life is worth anything. Yeah, well, they can demonstrate the racist white people certainly feel like they can demonstrate and go armed to the fucking state capitol. they thought that it was the communication between them and 9-1-1 where they were like yeah we like they thought they were within their rights and it's just it's mind-boggling that they basically were treated as though they were yep and the media narratives that like built around these stories does i mean it's it's awful because it's i it's mainly built around like the what really happened narrative which and and miles like you were saying it's so like very very clear what happened because we've seen it happen so many times but the focus is still like well let's hear all sides let's consider every and it's just like well what's the's the yeah, no. Look at it. Look at the video.
Starting point is 00:36:30 This man is chased down in a truck with guys with guns and it ends with him dead. And the scuffle is imagine if somebody any like black child in this country, especially if you're a young man, you will be told about how you you will be you will be pulled over and you just need to shut the fuck up because shit can go south just deal with it people are going to treat you differently just deal with it you're going to have to do twice the amount of work for half the money just deal with it that's just what it is and for i can my god if two white people hopped out of a truck with a gun with guns on me. What the fuck am I supposed to do? Like my first response might be to run. Honestly, probably could be. I don't know if I'm,
Starting point is 00:37:12 if I don't know what my fight or flight response would be in that moment, but that is a terrifying situation. And what any kind of scuffle that ensued is because someone is clearly confronted with a situation where their life can be taken away and they're fighting for their life. That's all it is. And I think, yeah, there was, I think something in the New York Times was like, what has Defenders
Starting point is 00:37:32 had to say? There's like a slug in the article about that. And I'm like, what the fuck are you talking about? And those stories always come up. And it's like there's more consideration and more facts in editorials about how this was a clear hate crime done in plain sight,
Starting point is 00:37:47 but that's only presented in an editorial sense. And it's just like, it's fucking awful. Right, because the media has to both sides to do what they think their job is instead of just saying what the fuck is right in front of everybody's eyes. And it's just really it's really frustrating to you know in this case we have video showing us what what happened and like think about how many times things like this happen and there's no video
Starting point is 00:38:19 and just throughout history it's just been swept under the rug. The Kent State story coming up and the fact that the same thing happened at multiple black colleges and it was just swept under the rug because people of color in America are just not given the benefit of the doubt or the benefit of personhood, essentially. It's incredibly frustrating and terrifying. I mean, even to that point, you were saying, Franklin, about just how we export white supremacy in the media too. And we are a product of a lot of the media we consume. And when a majority of the images we present of african american people or people who are not white as dangerous we've we've lost the plot because we've already set the table for people's subconscious to just have this like association because of media to do that i mean there's a an unarmed black man who got shot after a car accident in minnesota i think this last week and because what because
Starting point is 00:39:26 somebody was like upset or whatever but the first thing is oh no this person you know it's just dangerous i have to protect myself from their we have this yeah we just have this really awful cycle and you know again it's it's so weird like white supremacy is such a huge problem in this country it's actually so big. Most politicians are resigned to not know what to do about it. It's sad for us. It's heart-wrenching on top of everything that's going on. It's constant.
Starting point is 00:40:07 I'm sure the president will have something just mind-bogglingly horrifying to to say on this subject but uh for the time being we we just have his mind-bogglingly horrifying behavior uh in the context of literally every other front yeah literally every other subject so this is a question that comes up a lot that I like so a couple days ago he was touring a mask factory refusing to wear a mask and well even though he was in a big group of people and the song live and let die was being blared behind him and it just made me wonder, like, what, right. But are they doing it on purpose? Like, was that something that he specifically or, like, his people specifically staged because they know that it's just the sort of, like, I don't know. that it's just the sort of like, I don't know. I've been reading a lot about the Weimar Republic in Germany right before the rise of Nazism
Starting point is 00:41:11 and how much of the media at that time was very similar to ours in the sense that they had a morbid fascination. Like true crime was a huge trend at that time, just like it is right now in the united states and they also like had a morbid fascination with hitler in the same way that i think our media has a morbid fascination with trump like they treated him as an entertainment and would like breathlessly describe these like absurd appearances by him and i i just wonder like
Starting point is 00:41:47 is this part of like i guess it doesn't matter like the intention of it like how much is intentional and how much isn't but it just seems like it's the it's the same thing where it's it's like a one absurdity layered on top of another one that just makes it very difficult from just like a mental standpoint to like have the stamina to you know take this on as a serious thing i don't know i mean my instinct about it is that like there's like three things happening simultaneously one is that you know to extent, their strategy is literally just to flood the zone with so much that it's actually impossible for anybody to keep up with it all. And eventually, if you're a member of Congress, you're like,
Starting point is 00:42:38 we literally don't have the infrastructure to manage every investigation we would have to do to maintain normal congressional governmental oversight. So it's literally like trying to run drugs across a border. It's like, yeah, if half the drugs get caught, we still got half through, and we'll be able to sell them and make billions. And then the second thing is white supremacy, sexism, Trump and his administration's stock and trade.
Starting point is 00:43:04 But then layered on top of that is i think this is where the intentional stuff comes from i think that he's like a savant at sort of giving his base just just to saying things that will make people that don't like him rightfully say holy crap you a disaster. And that rallies his people even more to defend him and say, no, you're not just making fun of Donald Trump. You're making fun of us. We want our country back. And so we're going to make sure to back this guy. And so I weirdly feel like a lot of this stuff is designed to whip up the left so that he can use the left being whipped up to whip up the right right um which is you know disturbing on so many levels but um and that doesn't mean
Starting point is 00:43:54 that we can't be upset about this and be vocal about how disturbing all of it is but i do think the weird consequence of that is right like when he's attacking colin kaepernick and we're all just like this is madness and there's race involved here he then takes our anger and goes to his base and says they don't love the country they they don't not only do they not love the country they hate the country and they hate you because you're the real americans not colin kaepernick a guy who grew up in like, you know, sort of suburban Northern California and love playing American football and just wanted to be a good football player and took his team to the Superbowl. He's somehow not a real American for like meeting with the Navy seal and
Starting point is 00:44:37 coming up with the kneeling protest as like a respectful way to show his protest. It's all of you people that, you know, take an American flag and put her on your boxer shorts um and go protest that you know and break into the michigan uh governor's office you guys are the real americans right and i think also too like he's just really it's it's like a pattern too there's always like there's always some there's like three bullshit trump stories a week that will just eat up hours and hours of the news cycle that aren't nearly as poor as important as the abject failure to get testing done to
Starting point is 00:45:12 secure ppe so yeah it's great it's like well hey every hour they spend going i'm like can you believe this guy played live and let die am i also do you remember that reggae part of the song wasn't that weird do you think that's part of his? But like, yes, of course, playing that as a headline, you'd be like, yeah, of course, they're just going to, this is going to be a thing to talk about because it's so absurd and offensive as all of this is happening. And as he insists on like, hey, yeah, literally go back to work and possibly lose your life. Yeah. Don't worry about the fact that more people have died than during Vietnam, that there's literally a nine 11 every day in America,
Starting point is 00:45:48 just in terms of numbers. Like that's great success. Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of, I mean, it's, it's frustrating too.
Starting point is 00:45:53 Cause at this point I feel like a lot of people are pretty aware that this happens, that like when Trump does something that is like so absurdly ridiculous, it's, it's calculated to an extent i mean sometimes obviously it doesn't seem like he can help himself but it is calculated but then it's just a matter of like well but do we even know what this is supposed to be diverting our attention from or do we not know like it's just oh it's impossible yeah yeah we're gonna be more so we have a new whistleblower that we want to
Starting point is 00:46:26 i missed this honestly yeah there's so many well there's two there's there's so much bad shit going on uh like they said handing out speeding tickets at the nd 500 there's just so much bad shit going on that it's hard. Like there, there's hundreds of whistleblowers and a couple breakthrough, but miles. So this is one who is from within Jared's bro party, super task force, a Jared Kushner super. So there's also the other whistleblower who's the doctor who,
Starting point is 00:47:00 you know, had the, they just, he was so stupid. He actually dared to question whether or not hydroxychloroquine was worth researching even though it showed no results. That's a separate
Starting point is 00:47:11 case where he's talking about how disturbing that process was. I literally just Googled whistleblower. That was the one that came up, not the other one, which is just wild. So now we have another one from the task force that Jared Kushner disaster like disaster bro party, where it was like all these private sector people telling these FEMA experts like, yeah,
Starting point is 00:47:32 we got it from here. People whose job it is to understand disaster relief and procurement of medical supplies. I think we think we know something. So when they started off this task force, they were dealing with like over a thousand leads from people about possible places to get masks, ventilators, gowns, all kinds of again. PPE is like the fucking word of 2020. I feel like personal protective equipment. It's what all these frontline workers need to stay safe and keep themselves from getting infection. If you really want to depress yourself, look at comparison photos of what PPE looks like for doctors and nurses in this country and other countries and tell me you want to flex on your, you know, America's number one. So they're going through this list. It got to a point where they didn't know how to work the list properly because they're not they're not used to this.
Starting point is 00:48:17 They're come from the private sector. They have no experience that they started resorting to this other thing that was literally called the VIP update. And it was a spreadsheet and they're like what the fuck is this well they resorted to their private sector ways they weren't you think like oh the vip is like we're talking chinese distributors medical supply companies what's going on no fox and friends host brian killmeat called two people in the administration to pass along a lead about ppe that he knew about to help out. Janine Pirro was using this task force to try and back channel a way to get a hospital in New York that she was specifically identifying to get a large quantity of masks.
Starting point is 00:48:56 And this is just kind of, meanwhile, while this is all going on, relying on these hosts, there were actual doctors and experts who were trying to get a hold of the administration because they had legitimate leads to PPE. But because they were working their own private VIP list, this thing went by the wayside. There was a doctor who said that in April, he was sending all these messages to volunteers. The messages went unreturned. Quote, when I offered the viable leads at viable prices from an approved vendor, they kept passing me down the line and made terrible deals instead because they were just going to cronies. So that's a glimpse into how that absolute shocker went. I wish I could say that there's a comedian who made an amazing joke, and I need to find his name.
Starting point is 00:49:43 And you guys can include it in the show notes. And he said that he figured out the equation for the reaction to Trump, and it's disappointment plus surprise squared. So if you do the binomial multiplication, it's like you're disappointed that you're disappointed, you're disappointed that you're surprised, you're surprised that you're disappointed, and you're disappointed that you're disappointed. You're disappointed that you're surprised. You're surprised that you're disappointed and you're surprised that you're
Starting point is 00:50:08 surprised, which is shit. As a math nerd myself, it's like the best joke I've ever heard. Yeah. And so accurate because you're like, yeah, that's who he is.
Starting point is 00:50:21 But it's still just like, man, I can't believe that that's what's happening yeah yeah i know disappointed that you're not disappointed also there's like some of that mixed in i feel like because you're like am i getting too used to this i feel like uh uh yeah i just got to give a shout out the comedian's name is Daryl Charles it's at Daryl Daryl underscore on Twitter it is his joke it is brilliant y'all follow him
Starting point is 00:50:50 because that is it's the best joke I've heard in the pandemic that's for sure the despair feedback loop is real alright let's take a quick break and we'll come back and talk about some bullshit. It doesn't get more Mexican than this. Lucha Libre is known globally because it is much more than just a sport
Starting point is 00:51:25 and much more than just entertainment. Lucha Libre is a type of storytelling. It's a dance. It's tradition. It's culture. This is Lucha Libre Behind the Mask, a 12-episode podcast in both English and Spanish about the history and cultural richness of Lucha Libre.
Starting point is 00:51:40 And I'm your host, Santos Escobar, the emperor of Lucha Libre and a WWE superstar. Join me as we learn more about the history behind this spectacular sport from its inception in the United States to how it became a global symbol of Mexican culture. We'll learn more about some of the most iconic heroes in the ring. This is Lucha Libre Behind the Mask. Listen to Lucha Libre Behind the Mask as part of my Cultura Podcast Network on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you stream 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 00:52:34 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.
Starting point is 00:53:01 Available now with new episodes every Thursday. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Rip Current, available now with new episodes every Thursday. 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 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 Grammy award-winning rapper Eve
Starting point is 00:53:30 on her new memoir and the moments that made her. It became a theme in my life, the underdog syndrome of being questioned, of the, would they say this to a man? No, they would not.
Starting point is 00:53:41 Like, why? That was one of those moments where you're just like, oh, wow. It was a bit shocking, but it didn't take any steam away or anything like that. If anything, it was more of the, okay, I'll show you. No worries. Listen to The Bright Side from Hello Sunshine on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. podcasts. Substance use disorder and addiction is so isolating. And so as a Black woman in recovery, hope must be loud. It grows louder when you ask for help and you're vulnerable. It is the thread that lets you know that no matter what happens, you will be okay. When we learn the power of hope, recovery is possible.
Starting point is 00:54:29 Find out how at startwithhope.com. Brought to you by the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, Shatterproof, and the Ad Council. And we're back. And Coachella still hasn't been canceled technically. I was surprised to learn that. I thought for sure that we had covered the fact that it had been canceled. Postpone, man.
Starting point is 00:54:53 The Mali economy will crash. The Mali economy will crash if they do not have Coachella. The Mali economy will, they will need a bailout. I mean, yeah, because you know, I don't
Starting point is 00:55:05 know why it hasn't been canceled because most experts agree that this is a quote um most experts agree that quote there's no fucking way that this shit is happening in 2020 end quote that's that's fauci that's fauci i heard that one um you know i it's it's it's going to devastate that local economy because that is like the hugest thing. But yeah, with concerts, a lot of people are like, you know, I've seen articles where like there were people who were like trying to design cool like bubble suits that you could wear at a show.
Starting point is 00:55:39 So it wasn't, and I get it. People want to find solutions because the idea of not seeing live, I certainly don't ever want to find solutions because the idea of not seeing live i certainly don't ever want to not go see live music again um but you know as states are opening up again uh which is a terrible idea but some states are opening up and we're starting to see what some music venues like have in store basically to keep people safe so there's a venue in arkansas um that has you know running down a few points of what they're doing. So their capacity is being reduced by 80%.
Starting point is 00:56:08 So they're going from 1100 people in the audience to 229 people. Uh, they're going to have the venue sanitized by a third party using like fog spraying. I guess, I don't know if that, how effective that is. I'm sure it is. Uh, attendees will be checked for fevers at entrances. Normal masks will be required for all concert goers. Seating groups and fan pods will have at least six feet between
Starting point is 00:56:30 them. Bathroom capacity will be limited to 10 people. All drinks will have lids. Okay. So a fog sprayer, is that like the dry ice machine? It's the fog machine during the show. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:56:46 Disinfectant. It's aerosol during the EDM show. It turns out it also sanitizes. It's disinfectant in it. It's aerosol, hydrochloric acid. It solves all problems. That's why EDM fans are so healthy. Right, exactly. It's true. Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of the industry analysts who were quoted in this story,
Starting point is 00:56:59 people just are, in general, they don't see ticket sales ever recovering until there's a vaccine. I think that's the bottom line. Yeah, of course ever recovering until there's a vaccine and that's the bottom line yeah because yeah there's clearly a group of people who are like i'm i'd rather not risk anything until there's a vaccine like i'm just not it's not worth it to me um while there's clearly a group who's like there's clearly people who just don't give a fuck that's one group who will always buy the tickets then there's the next group after that it's like they don't give a fuck
Starting point is 00:57:21 but they give a fuck enough that maybe if there's treatment options then they'll start going to shows and then you have to fully like no don't fucking talk to me until there's a vaccine but it's also like weird right like you don't go to a show just for the performance like you kind of go to the show to be part of a crowd that's super into the music and like yeah okay you you have your little fan pod like your squad's there and everybody's hype but like if you're if there's five of you who are super hyped about a show and then there's a gap six feet to the nearest other person like as an artist like who wants to play that show like i'm just trying to imagine like you know imagine trying to be the hype man to an artist who like who got to go out and be like y'all are
Starting point is 00:58:02 y'all ready are y'all pumped and people were just like yeah please don't cough because i don't want to die like that's like that's just not a vibe that is conducive to a good night out and i think movie theaters are by the way going to deal with the same thing like their movie theaters opening in texas right now and they're like yeah it's basically going to be like tsa wouldn't check your temperature like whatever and it's like look i love going to a movie theater more than literally almost everyone in the world it's literally why i work in the film business maybe i'll go to like a big movie when and if that gets released but i'll tell you what if i go to a bond and someone coughs halfway through i will find out what happens at the end on streaming right like i i'm out like
Starting point is 00:58:43 and i'm not even a germaphobe i'm just like the cost benefit analysis even for me where the benefit is high to have that experience in a theater the costs are literally your life so you're never going to be in a position where it's like yeah sure like let me just you know put myself at risk for this movie that i know will be available in a couple weeks like on my very nice tv in my comfortable apartment it's an interesting conversation to kind of like track as people are having it because this is like affected uh like the comedy community like you know really significantly and no one knows what to fucking do everyone's sick of instagram live no one wants to say it out loud uh and also i'll say it it. Everyone's sick of it.
Starting point is 00:59:25 But it's interesting. My partner works at a small comedy theater, and it's interesting listening to the conversations of, how could we conceivably reopen safely? It affects every size venue, which is kind of a new problem. Obviously, the stadiums have it the worst, but they also have the most resources to deal with these problems. And so it's, it is interesting hearing like, you know,
Starting point is 00:59:51 could we have partial audience capacity? What does that mean? Does that mean ticket sales need to be jacked up for people to potentially not feel safe? Or are there ways to get innovative with it? Are there ways to have live stream technology installed so that you can sell some physical tickets, some digital tickets at maybe different rates? Like, I mean, it's a horrible circumstance to see live entertainment have to like adjust. But I mean, people are trying. I don't know. I don't know how it'll work out.
Starting point is 01:00:23 There's no, there is absolutely no golden standard to, and it's just going to have to be like based on people's comfort levels. Like you can't fault anyone for not wanting to go to a live show. Yeah. I mean, the thing is fundamentally like no one knows what's going to happen because we're literally dealing with a massive reorganization of human interaction on a global scale. Definitely the first one of those in my lifetime. Like even 9-11 was a big deal. I was living in New York at the time, but it didn't affect literally every
Starting point is 01:00:57 moment of my existence. It didn't affect every interaction I have with another human being. And that's literally what everyone on earth is dealing with on some level. And, and, and look, if the stakes weren't so enormously high, it would be fascinating, you know, as a viewer and sort of, you know, to get to experience this moment, but the costs of it are, you know, historically unprecedented. And, and that's, I don't know that we even like our, I don't know that we even, I don't know that our brains are capable of processing
Starting point is 01:01:28 the reality that we're living through right now, because we're not meant to know about every human being on earth and to know that every human being on earth is dealing with the same fear and many of them are dying. Like that's just not the way our brains are built. Even during the Spanish flu, right? How did you get your news? The newspaper and maybe a newsreel?
Starting point is 01:01:53 We all knew Boris Johnson went to the ICU within five minutes. And that changes the dynamic when you know that everyone around the world, including prime ministers and presidents, are like, oh my God, I don't want to get this disease. I might die. I don't want to get this disease, I might die. I don't know what it does to humankind, but the result is going to be
Starting point is 01:02:11 real. I just don't know what it's going to be yet. It's palpable for sure. Not just that we can find stuff out in five minutes, but that we have to have a very nuanced and yet hilarious take on it within ten minutes. That's exactly right. that's exactly right. That's exactly right.
Starting point is 01:02:29 It's like, how quickly can you cut together a Ghanaian pallbearer video? Right. People have been lightning fast with those, man. Yeah. I saw a lot of them after the King John Moon rumors. Yeah. Here's the one thing that I will say. I will say that the internet and social media of like in social media in particular and for me twitter specifically has been like it's toxic in so many
Starting point is 01:02:50 ways but there are moments where it is the one thing that allows you to sort of like survive like the teddy riley the teddy riley baby face instagram live versus thing put it in great moments of Twitter history great moments of black history like people just cracking jokes on that moment gave me legit three days of happiness you know and I think that like the way we come together to watch the Michael Jordan doc like all of those things weirdly sort of give me hope about the world because there is still a community that exists even if we're not together in person. Well, speaking of ways that our reality might change, some possibilities are explored by the great, the seminal intellectual work, Demolition Man.
Starting point is 01:03:41 Demolition Man our writer J.M. McNabb went back and did a rewatch of the movie and he's saying that there's some interesting things but you can easily watch it as an allegory
Starting point is 01:03:58 for everything that the right is saying about the current crisis so the kind of surface level stuff that I immediately thought of, I think a lot of people did when this crisis hit, was greetings like high fives have been modified to avoid physical contact.
Starting point is 01:04:17 Sex is all done virtually because humanity has endured a slew of outbreaks. Even kissing isn't allowed anymore. And there's a monologue from Sandra Bullock where she says, after AIDS, there was NRS. After NRS, there was UBT. Not even a mouth transfer is condoned. So it's like a series of outbreaks essentially change the way
Starting point is 01:04:44 that we physically interact with each other. There's even a kind of meditation on our use of toilet paper. And one of the good lines of the movie is Sandra Bullock being like, what, you just used to wad it up and rub it on
Starting point is 01:05:00 your ass? Why did you do that? Hey, now I'm getting defensive. I'm like, fuck you. Yeah, that's all we knew. Good. So they have that. So instead of that,
Starting point is 01:05:15 they have a three seashell system, which like they never get into. They're just like, yeah, you use the three seashells um but jam was pointing out that it's kind of a weird movie to watch right now and has sort of a conservative libertarian message uh when viewed at this moment in history um so one of the problems with the future in demolition man is that pc culture has gone too far uh and the problems with the future in Demolition Man is that PC culture has gone too far. And the problem with the future police force
Starting point is 01:05:48 is that they don't use guns, which is insane that police not shooting enough people would be a problem. And then there's like a doctor who kind of has taken control because of future pandemics. This doctor consolidates control and makes it so nobody can kiss.
Starting point is 01:06:12 And then at the end of the movie, there's this triumphant moment where Sylvester Stallone grabs her and they physically kiss. And it's like, yes. Because this doctor, Dr toe cock toe used these disasters to take over society and is now like a messianic overlord of of their new society so it's like it's basically what uh i think people who follow q think of Dr. Fauci.
Starting point is 01:06:45 It's like, right, this guy's just lying to us so that we follow his liberal bullshit. Yeah, I don't know. And then, by the way, the heroes of the story, the Dennis Leary characters, like, gang, are
Starting point is 01:07:01 this literal underclass of rebels. Yeah, Dennis Leary's in it and stops for like five minutes to just regurgitate one of his like stand-up routines well here's what's really amazing i just googled demolition man uh while you were talking apparently there's a sequel coming yeah so that's two days ago stallone announced that he was working on a sequel coming. Yeah. So that's... Two days ago, Stallone announced that he was working on a sequel, which is like, wow. Hey, you know, they want to see more John Spartan.
Starting point is 01:07:33 Shout out to the screenwriter of Demolition Man, Daniel Waters, because he also wrote Heathers. Really? Which is like, yeah. Yeah, he wrote Heathers, Hudson Hawk, The Adventures of Fort Fair Lane, and Demolition Man. Multitudes. And other things.
Starting point is 01:07:47 I love Hudson Hawk. But look, if you can put up Heathers and Demolition Man in one career, you're doing pretty well. Anyways, yeah, Stallone is now, because it's getting a lot of attention, and he is nothing if not an opportunist. He's like, yeah, we're doing the sequel. It's already been written.
Starting point is 01:08:04 And now someone has to actually write the sequel. yeah that's all people forget man stallone wrote rocky don't don't bet against him don't bet against him he is an oscar winner as a writer i think but who could they the i mean honestly like marco brambilla who directed you know like one of his only films he ever did because he's more of an artist than an actual film director yeah i would i would love to i mean it would be great if they're like hey will you just come back for this one we'll stop fucking with you we know the studio completely repulsed you from filmmaking which is why you were a one and done director but like maybe this like demolition man has a look because the director was such a sort of artist who was being willing to be just so free with it and just just kind of weird that I'm curious.
Starting point is 01:08:46 I wonder, I don't know. I want Marco Brambilla to take over that. Cause it'd be a shame if it was like, I don't know who, whomever, someone without the, the vision to bring San Angeles back to life.
Starting point is 01:08:57 Yeah. I'm just looking at it. I'm looking at Brambilla's bio right now. And like, wow, what a life. Yeah. Is a,
Starting point is 01:09:04 besides demolition man he was like an artist right yeah he's a visual artist yeah um like and i was telling when gabrus was on like if you've been to the standard hotel in new york and you see the visual art in the elevator where you're like ascending and descending it's like a stitched together video piece that's marco brambilla's work. Oh, that's cool. And he does these massive video installations, which are, if you can ever see them, I can't suggest them enough.
Starting point is 01:09:33 They're three-dimensional. He'll project them like eight feet high by like 15 feet wide, and it'll just be a side-scrolling just mural of video stitched together where you'll see like, you know, stormtroopers from Star Wars and the Munchkins and Wizard of Oz like meticulously cut out and stitched together where you'll see like you know stormtroopers from star wars and the munchkins and wizard of oz like like meticulously cut out and stitched together it's really it's like his work's really out there but that's the guy who gave us like visually
Starting point is 01:09:54 demolition man and i think right i would hate for it to just fall flat and it just kind of look like you know like judge dread or something that's amazing the only actors he ever worked with were like sylvester stallone wesley snipes and sandra bullock and he's like yeah so that's that's what actors are like i think it looks great i'm just gonna go on record i think we're due for a wesley snipes reconnaissance uh i don't know if you guys saw dolomite is my name he's amazing in that like legit gives a great performance. That's another movie that was underrated last year. So underrated, yeah.
Starting point is 01:10:29 By the way. And, yeah, I just feel like Passenger 58, are we due for that yet? Yeah. Just one seat over. Yes. I'd even watch a Drop Zone sequel, be honest he's amazing man i mean he was great and white man can't jump there's also like he is a font of like these just off the cuff things like it we we compiled a list of like things he was overheard saying on film sets that are just like so great and cool
Starting point is 01:11:06 like at one point he said some motherfuckers are always trying to ice skate uphill like he said that just off the cuff about somebody hell yeah snipism he's just like yeah he's like a philosopher and like uh yeah i would too man man another underrated thing is specifically Divine Joy Randolph's performance in Dolomite is my name people need to know her name she's a very talented actress and it was a hell of a performance
Starting point is 01:11:35 maybe it's time to rewatch that movie I haven't seen it since it was first released and I'm already ready to see it again it was really good well Franklin it has been a real pleasure having you on the Daily Zeitgeist. Where can people find
Starting point is 01:11:52 you and follow you? Franklin Leonard on Twitter. Franklin J. Leonard on Instagram. The Blacklist is the T-H-E-B-L-C-K-L-S-T on both platforms. And then the website is just Blacklist with no vowels, B-L-C-K-L-S-T.com.
Starting point is 01:12:09 Check us out if you like movies, if you're trying to write movies or television. We got a lot of, like, there's the website that has fees, but we have a lot of free stuff that will be valuable as you learn about movies and learn about the film industry and all of those things. We really just try to be a place where people can get the opportunity to do what they're capable of. Awesome.
Starting point is 01:12:31 And is there a tweet or some other work of social media you've been enjoying? There is. So the Pulitzer Prize, obviously, they were awarded yesterday. And a bunch of people who I am lucky enough to know personally actually won Nobel Prizes, which is not Nobel Prizes, but Pulitzers. Trump confused me with the Nobel Prize. But Nicole Hannah-Jones, who did the 1619 Project and runs the Ida B. Wells Center, tweeted literally just a few hours ago. It's a photo of
Starting point is 01:13:06 her in childhood. And she literally, the tweet is just, this little girl on the left from the black side of Waterloo, Iowa, went on to win a Pulitzer. Don't let someone tell you what you can't do. And it literally is like, on the left is a photo of her as a child. She's probably maybe four years old, maybe younger. And on the right is literally her and in the background on her television is the pulitzer prizes logo um and it's just like yeah man like don't let anybody tell you what you can't do uh you might not be able to do it but don't trust them about it you know figure like look if i came and said i'm gonna play in the premier league people would rightfully be like yeah man not gonna happen i should figure out on my own that i am 41 years old with bad knees and ankles and have no business probably even playing competitive soccer
Starting point is 01:13:57 much left at the highest level in the world but don't like unless you really trust somebody don't don't listen to them. Which is like a cliche and like weirdly like L.A. inspirational. But like on a fundamental level, it's definitely true. And like as a black kid from Georgia who finds himself in a situation where like this week I was on a panel with Pulitzer Prize winner Nicole Hannah-Jones. Definitely didn't see that as part of my life story. And that means I'm definitely doing something right. Right, exactly.
Starting point is 01:14:27 Ignore the other haters. Be your own hater. Be your own hater. It's like a true creative. Be your own hater. I mean, yeah, that is weirdly the mantra I probably have to acknowledge. Teresa Lee just tweeted, don't hate the player, hate yourself.
Starting point is 01:14:40 Oh, yeah. Love that. Man, that is too real. Jamie, where can people find you follow you uh you can find me on twitter at jamie loft is help instagram jamie christ superstar listen to the bechtel cast we've got a bunch of great episodes coming out soon we're doing one on bad moms this week for mother's day um and i'm going to i think this is the second time i've recommended my mom's online content uh but my mom finally after years of pressure dropped her one and worst recipe which i think i've talked about on the show before my mom's taco salad that has nothing to do with tacos or salad.
Starting point is 01:15:25 She finally dropped the recipe and I posted it to my Twitter. It's truly disgusting. I'm gonna, I can't wait to make some. It's ingredients, a pound of ground beef, a package of taco seasoning, an entire bottle of Kraft Catalina dressing, a bag of, a one pound bag of shredded mexican cheese
Starting point is 01:15:48 and a single bag of uh nacho cheese doritos so oh my god that sounds so good consume three million calories in a single bite i do you gotta it's it You gotta, it's, it's, it's, it tastes like, it tastes bad and it tastes like everything that I've ever loved in my entire life. I mean, I just love,
Starting point is 01:16:13 I don't even know how it's a salad, like I'm reading the recipe, but the way your mother writes a recipe, she's making this sound really elegant though because it's like,
Starting point is 01:16:23 you know, it's like, yeah, obviously brown the beef, but it's like, know it's like yeah obviously brown the beef but it's like place seasoned crumbled ground beef in a mixing size
Starting point is 01:16:29 serving bowl there drizzle and fold Kraft Catalina dressing fold in shredded Mexican I'm like ooh okay
Starting point is 01:16:39 we're dude open gentle sensual process making this horrible dish open Doritos bag to release air and crush chips gently right inside the bag. Pour crushed nacho chips over the mixture and fold in. I love it. I'm going to eat this.
Starting point is 01:16:55 It's good. It's good. Miles, where can people find you and what's a tweet you've been enjoying, friend? You can find me on Twitter, Instagram, PlayStation Network, Miles of Grey, also my other podcast, 420 Day Fiance. Talking about 90 Day Fiance, because trash is what will sustain us in the future. Some tweets that I like.
Starting point is 01:17:15 One is from past guests, guestjossiecoffman at jossie.com. It says, if you've been on Instagram, you know this trope. Her tweet is is people love posting pictures of themselves and their significant others standing on a beach in north face jackets saying quote can't wait for more adventures with this one uh i just fucking hate those posts man uh and then there's another one uh this is from at jadeelyn123. She just writes, I just saw this on FB and I about snorted.
Starting point is 01:17:49 I'm going to show you this photo that she has. These women in leather dominatrix outfits with whips, and they're whipping a bunch of bald white men in a pit mine wearing thongs. This is the future. The women of dominatrix wow because when women are in power they're going to want to wear uh just wildly uncomfortable dominatrix gear right and and that's and that's why real men don't give head yeah that's right slippery slope man next thing you know you're in a pit mine wearing a thong did you see that uh that thread
Starting point is 01:18:25 don't lean in strong man about like men uh oh i gotta send it to you but this this guy has this like long thread about like reading the body language of couples together and if the guy is leaning into the woman then he's like a cuck but if if the woman's leaning into the man, but it's like so elaborate and like deeply thought through and just wrong. It's amazing. Broez AY tweeted, the Sherwin-Williams logo goes so fucking hard. It's just a can of paint being poured on the globe and it's covering the globe and it's just a can of paint
Starting point is 01:19:05 being poured on the globe and it's covering the globe and it says cover the earth but it's red paint so it's like very ominous and then Christina at Floozy Esquire tweeted you're telling me a random house published this book
Starting point is 01:19:21 you can find me on twitter Jack underscore O'Brien you can find us on twitter jack underscore o'brien you can find us on twitter at daily zeitgeist we're at the daily zeitgeist on instagram uh we have a facebook fan page and a website dailyzeitgeist.com where we post our episodes and our footnotes we link off to the information that we talked about in today's episode as well as the song we ride out on, Miles. What is that going to be today? I just want to connect some dots for people. So we were talking, I was talking,
Starting point is 01:19:51 I don't know if I brought it up on the show, but Tony Allen passed away. I think maybe he was on a Trends episode, who's one of the godfathers of Afrobeat music and a fantastic drummer. And yeah, a sad death. Wasn't from COVID-19 but uh he passed away last week and the reason I even got into Tony Allen is because I'm a huge you know sample based hip-hop
Starting point is 01:20:14 head from the 90s um and there's a beat that Jay Dilla produced for Common called Heat on the Like Water for Chocolate album and this beat is really dope and I was just like this is such an interesting sample uh and then you know as a kid you start obsessing you figure out what the sample was it's on the Like Water for Chocolate album. And this beat is really dope, and I was just like, this is such an interesting sample. And then, you know, as a kid, you start obsessing, you figure out what the sample was. It's Tony Allen. So this is the song Heat, produced by J. Dillon by Common. So check that out.
Starting point is 01:20:35 And then if you like that, get into Tony Allen. He's done a lot, and he's funky. All right, we're going to ride out on that. The Daily Zyka is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. That's going to do it for today. We'll be back this afternoon to tell you what's trending.
Starting point is 01:20:54 Talk to you then. Bye. Bye. Bye. I'm out. Hi, I am Lacey Lamar. And I'm also Lacey Lamar. Just kidding. I'm Amber Revin. What?
Starting point is 01:21:43 Okay, everybody. We have exciting news to share. We're back with season two of the Amber and Lacey, Lacey and Amber show on Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network. This season, we make new friends, deep dive into my steamy DMs, answer your listener questions, and more. The more is punch each other. Listen to the Amber and Lacey, Lacey and Amber show on Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network
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Starting point is 01:22:54 We're floating somewhere in the cosmos, but we've lost our map. Yeah, because you refuse to ask for directions. It's Space Jam, there are no roads. Good point. So, where are we headed? Into the unknown, of course.
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Starting point is 01:23:16 to In Our Own World on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Trust us, it's out of this world. There's so much beauty in Mexican culture,
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