The Daily Zeitgeist - Weekly Zeitgeist 295 (Best of 10/9/23-10/13/23)
Episode Date: October 15, 2023The weekly round-up of the best moments from DZ's season 308 (10/9/23-10/13/23)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
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Hello, the internet, and welcome to this episode of the Weekly Zeitgeist. These are some of our
favorite segments from this week, all edited together into one nonstop infotainment laughstravaganza.
Yeah. So without further ado, here is the weekly zeitgeist.
Miles, in our seat, we are thrilled to be joined by a professional futurist with a PhD
in the history of science. He's been a visiting scholar at Stanford and
Oxford universities and is the author of four books, including Shorter and Rest.
Please welcome to the show, Dr. Alex Soojung King-Pang.
Alex!
Thanks for having me and happy National Angel Food Cake.
Yeah.
Right?
Are you a fan of Angel Food Cake?
I love Angel Food Cake.
Oh, okay.
And cake decorating, actually.
So, you know, two for one.
Oh, wow.
Okay.
Is that like a hobby of yours, decorating cakes?
Or you just admire the artwork?
I admire the artwork, though my wife and my daughter are both pretty amazing bakers.
Oh, okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Well, we're so glad you joined us here today.
Obviously, the listeners probably have heard me
really talking about my grind set mindset.
How I get to Lambeau is the thesis statement of this show.
Yeah, but as quickly as possible.
You know, Tim Ferriss gave me some ideas.
They aren't working very well.
Not fast enough.
I don't know why.
Not fast enough.
I wasn't able to outsource enough of my work to enough people who work for $5 an hour, unfortunately.
It didn't work that way.
But we are curious to pick your mind because, yeah, it was the talk of shortened work weeks.
And if that's better, I don't know.
The jury's still out in my mind.
it's good to enlist the help of someone who has an like their area of expertise isn't precisely that to fight the voices that tell me to keep grinding every day and every night so we're
mainly going off vibes on this end and you've actually looked at data whatever that means uh
so we're gonna we're gonna dig into it but before we get to before we get into that, we do like to get to know you a little bit better and ask
you what is something from your search history that is revealing about who you are or what
you're up to?
Well, this morning I was on Google Translate for a while looking at four-day week in other
languages.
So it's something that I've been interested in for several years. And it's a
movement that keeps growing. And I have to keep like tracking it now and like Turkish and Hungarian
and stuff. It used to be relatively simple. It was like English and maybe one or two other languages.
But now it's like just all over the place. How is that spreading? Is it just like kind of word
of mouth that different companies are learning about it? Or is it coming usually from the workers themselves? Or how do you see that kind of happening?
Yeah, you know, a lot of it is spreading through sort of word of mouth with like,
within industries. So, you know, you get a couple people in like HR and recruiting who try it in
their organizations, and then sort And then their competitors will do it
because those competitors are starting to lose people
to the company that did it first.
And then it gets written up in the news
and there's some ambitious politician who thinks
this is how they become governor or senator or something,
right?
Championing the four-day week.
And so, you know, and it kind of builds from there.
And it's fortunately been something that's gotten, you know, plenty of press and plenty
of attention.
And so it's, you know, it's been really great to see it acquire that kind of momentum and
take on a life of its own.
Yeah.
Is there anything to like you think, like, are there certain cultures where the just like innately some cultures are going to be a little bit harder for them to like cross the barrier into the four hour work week just based on sort of like ideas of what productivity or what, you know, someone's worth is based on work? Or is it or is there also a thing where to like humanity is just kind of
naturally maybe progressing towards this or it's like, I mean, culture or not, it's like this is
this feels better. This works better. Yeah. You know, I think if you've got 24 hours in a day,
you're going to you're going to value this. So, I mean, you know, I have seen this in like two of
the hot spots for the four day week are Japan and Korea, which are both countries whose languages have their own words for working yourself to death.
Right.
So, you know, it's not just like Sweden and Denmark and places with really good work life
balance.
You actually see it most in places that have really serious issues with like stress, overwork,
et cetera.
No.
OK.
It's definitely that yet. I haven't hit. Yeah, Hmm. Okay. I haven't hit that yet.
I haven't hit that yet.
Yeah, we're not on board yet.
You said 24 hours in a day?
My man, you got to find some more hours.
That's right.
I got 30 in a day over here, but anyway, go on.
That's another story.
It does cut against the standard narrative that we see in the mainstream media, I feel like.
That's one of the things that made it jump out to me is like, this wouldn't be getting coverage unless it actually worked because so much of the mainstream narrative is focused on emphasizing the impact of these billionaires and how they worked so hard and did it all by themselves
and bootstrapped their way up. And so to have this thing that keeps getting media attention
that feels like really counter to the logic that the entire, that is like the software that the
entire media that we consume runs on like that. That's one of the things that made me be like huh i feel like
there's must be something here because if it wasn't true like the the media wouldn't allow it
you know yeah like weapons of mass destruction we were saying that too why would they talk about
that the yellow cake that's right it's got to be true uh What is something, Alex, you think is overrated?
This week, I think having an opinion that you feel like you really need to share immediately, I feel like is overrated.
Yeah.
Speaking on things that you haven't read about or have no experience with, big overrated, stating allegiance to particular foreign policy campaigns without knowing anything about them.
Yeah, these things are, you know,
I know that this is like an old man complaint,
but the internet's kind of like,
hey, if you have an opinion, share it here.
I don't think you need to all the time.
Right, right, right.
Even if you don't, just like kind of make one up
and just go with it and then state it
as if you believe it's the right one.
Yeah, zealously put it forward.
Yeah, right, right, right.
So I'm feeling- A lot of people, I feel like, have to jump in with takes all the time.
You don't always have to.
And I get that the internet makes it feel like the spotlight is on you and everyone is waiting for what you're going to say.
But you can just say, I'm just kind of just checking of just just checking this out, having my own feelings about it.
I'll address them if I feel appropriate publicly, whenever that happens.
And I think like there's like a symptom of a feeling of like powerlessness with that.
It's like I think everyone feels like generally powerless.
And I think that like if they immediately have a take on something or share it immediately or whatever, it like might do something and it won't.
And it's fine to to not
know for a minute so and that's especially you know obviously this is a big international news
week and that's uh when yeah it happens more more often than not yeah it's it's it's really
apparent like when you see so how many celebrities just deleted shit so quickly and you're like hold
on did you are you doing this because you're like, hold on, did you,
are you doing this because you feel like,
well, everyone's posting about the thing.
I have to also post about the thing.
And then you're like, oh, this is, okay,
I'm not actually sure what foreign policy is, so.
For sure.
I'm gonna, I'm just gonna delete that.
I'm gonna delete that. Yeah, yeah.
I don't know, I get all my foreign policy information and ideas from Jack Black. Yeah. See where he came down. And fortunately, he came through with a heater. So it's such a we're all good here. It's such an overshare week that I know exactly what Jack Black said. So that's where we're at.
Did Jack Black come out with... Don't worry, Jack Black waited.
Jack Black waited.
We're good.
Oh, okay.
It was just one of those, like...
All right, JB.
You know.
Yeah, it does feel like people are hurting
in a very particular way that they are asking people to.
Like, a lot of the things that are going viral
are like, come out and say what you think about
this or else you're not doing the right thing so like right i i also understand why people are
making this mistake you know yeah no doubt i i think especially it's just like especially
important and it's always been important to like pause generally but like now as it seems that like
every place we get information has been particularly the one owned by elon musk has been
crushed and stripped of context and sort of like disinformation is increasingly more prevalent by
the day yeah it's it's maybe a perfect time to hone your reflex to find, you know, to substantiate your news.
Oh, 100%. I mean, this was like, this was like, this was the moment I was like,
I can't use Twitter for shit anymore now. Like it's only for jokes. It's only for jokes because
I've dude, I, on the other one, like I've, I fell for like, what did I sadly mistakenly had
regurgitated something that was not true on the show about the $8 billion
being okayed from the administration to go to Israel. And that was like, that was shared by
a couple accounts that I was like, Oh, I think they have their shit together. Now I'm like,
it's a fucking absolute cesspool now. So apologies for any listeners who thought that was actually a
true fact was in fact not. And'm like all right sticking to actual like
legitimate news sources as usual because even the times that like you know journalists or people who
appeared as journalists were sharing things we're very quickly we're out of that era and it's so
unreliable to the point that like like i've i've just gone through thread after thread of people
who are like disinformation, misinformation specialists.
I'm like, here are the most prevalent things that are being talked about like this week on this platform.
And I'm like, this is useful because so much discourse is shaped by Twitter still.
Fortunately, I think most people just come to us for like lifestyle things and like how to get to Lambeau and how to live their life, not necessarily for information.
So I think we're good.
No, no, no.
Well, yeah, considering that it's mostly just our opinions, man.
Yeah.
Miles, we do want to check in with a report from Daniel Van Kirk
on the ground in a Midwestern airport filing from his phone.
He just recorded it, sent it to us over email this morning. on the ground in a Midwestern airport filing from his phone.
And he just recorded it, sent it to us over email this morning.
So let's listen.
This is an interview with somebody who works for one of the airlines.
And wanting to, I think he starts off, just from the little bit I heard at the very beginning,
getting some travel tips from who else who would know best than somebody who works at the airport.
Here we go.
Hey, it's Daniel Van Kirk. I am doing an on-the-ground reporting for the Daily Zeitgeist.
Best podcast to get all the happenings going on around the world.
I'm actually at the airport in the Midwest right now talking to somebody who knows.
TM, the best place to get all that better than anybody
they work for for an airline in the midwest i want to i want to ask you let's call you max
and i want you to not let's call you max saying anything what's the what's the best tip like
around thanksgiving christmas season how early should somebody get to the airport because i
have my theory but i want to hear yours.
I'm two hours, Miles.
Three hours early.
Three?
Consolidate your bags.
Wait, you really think three hours?
I mean, I don't think that's too far off.
Have you been to the airport?
Yeah.
Has that given yourself two?
Two hours?
Traveling domestic?
During the holidays? Yeah, maybe the holiday is a little different but
i have a hard time getting i don't do that extra hour getting myself to commit to the extra hour
i do two hours that's like my standard for domestic flights usually because that's usually
what it is unless i'm flying out of burbank shout out burbank which i'll pull up 30 minutes before
boarding and i'm good i treat burbank Burbank like I'm catching the bus.
I'm like waving to the plane as people are boarding.
I'm like, wait, wait, wait, wait.
Hey, don't miss me.
Hey, don't close the door.
Don't close it.
I'm here, asshole.
Let me in.
If you're going to make me walk outside to get to my plane, you better assume that I'm going to be a little bit haphazard.
Yeah.
Here we go.
Moving on.
So he's saying three hours.
Yeah.
Security.
I mean, that's what they've been saying.
Oh, because you just never know what you're going to run into?
Nope.
I tell people, even if you fly twice a year, you should do clear.
Right?
Yeah, that's a good tip.
Because so many people are so stressed.
I love this guy's energy.
This guy's energy rules.
DVK pulls up to this dude and is like,
hey, man, can I do an interview real quick?
And he's like, yeah, all right.
You are listening to clear.
Proof that David and Kurt can get along with, like, truly anyone.
Not that there's anything wrong, but, like, this is just,
this is how he talks to you. This is how he talks talks to me this is how he talks to the guy in yeah at the airport at the airport who works for an airline also clear I don't know you
have clear no I don't know I have TSA pre-check yeah I got TSA pre-check isn't it clear like I
feel like clear I didn't do it because like involved more steps. And I was like, no, dude. Well, you have to do it at the airport.
And you have to...
My wife keeps being like, all right, let's do it.
Let's get you clear now that we're at the airport.
But we're never there in time.
Why are you taking me to a Scientology center?
Whenever I'm traveling, I have a bag that's half open with paper streaming out of it.
Just behind me.
Yeah.
Now, I wanted to ask you this.
Do you have more or less drunk passengers around the holiday season?
Way more.
Really?
Oh.
Because there's people who don't fly as much and they have anxiety?
Yep.
They get to the airport, they wait, and they drink.
Yeah, man.
Now, how often do you know ahead of time?
Like, you know who your people are going to be before they ever even approach the gate?
Usually see them sitting at the bar.
That's a good point, though.
Of course.
Your drinking is fully on display at the airport.
You know, it's not like there's, like, a back bar.
Yeah, yeah. for it you know that's not like there's like a back a back bar like yeah you know and and so
it's just interesting to hear that like the people who work for the airline are clocking you as they
walk by and see you at bellied up to the bar right with like an empty like double pint of beer and
three shot glasses yeah next to the thing as. Just like a whole row of empty shot glasses
upside down on the bar. You're like, alright, this one's
trouble. I'm a bad flyer.
I'll see you later.
I'm going to see you later.
That's how it usually is.
Is there a limit to how many dogs can be
on a plane?
Like physically?
Like by the laws of physics?
You could have 20 dogs.
That would be like five or six.
Have you ever seen an animal that wasn't a dog or a cat?
Have you had a bird?
No.
I haven't seen any, no.
There was a story once, I don't know if it was true or not,
that somebody tried to bring a goose or a peacock a peacock yeah onto a plane actually i've seen
penguins on the plane you've seen the movie penguins on a plane they had the sea world
flight coming in no kidding they had penguins coming off they walked off okay now here's this
guy might be a little bit drunk but it's like it's hard to tell it's like is he like fucked up on like on benzos on the job
or is he like one of those super laid back like one note people because like i have friends like
like like where they have like stephen wright kind of cadence and delivery and you're like this guy's
fucked up you're like nah man this is just this is them they got one tune they play and it's this one
if i'm wrong if you're only allowed to bring
so many items onto a plane right personal item and a carry-on bag i think that's pretty universal
around airlines but if you have a bag of food that you bought at the airline does that count
towards one of your items of course not d daniel no but if it's a huge bag, they do count it. But if you're a regular size food bag, no.
So could it be possible if you have some third item you have to bring on?
I mean, this is great food bag.
Put it in the food bag and then you probably will get on the flight with that item because they'll just assume you got like a twenty seven dollar chicken sandwich.
People get creative.
Carry-on bags that look like McDonald's bags.
I'm just saying.
I'm putting it out there.
It's a brilliant idea.
Right.
That we all have all these like new stealth bags to bring on.
Because like every airline is like, hold on, hold on, man.
Your baby needs formula?
Oh, that's 40 bucks, man.
That's 40 bucks. Oh, wait. Oh, it's McDonald's?
All right. Never mind.
Wow, this is heavy. What is this? 60 pounds?
Man, just put it in the overhead, please.
My McDonald's, I just like to keep it up there.
In most airports, if you need
a quick bite to eat, because I have a
theory that those
pre-made peanut butter
and jelly sandwiches, what do they call the ones that are circular?
They've got a $17 half a ham sandwich right here.
Is it worth it?
No.
Okay.
Never.
No.
It's never been worth it.
No one has ever bought airport food food and been like this was the right
price they priced this correctly it is pure price gouging it is the cruelty of capitalism
on display for all to see i will give it up to like in like a airport in the uk like you can
always go like a mark and spencer's type thing like m&s or sainsbury's and get like just like the meal
deal sandwich which is like like three pounds like i'm like yeah okay cut to burbank i thought
you meant the sandwich weighs three pounds no three pounds sterling three great british pounds
gb uh gbp and then at art like in fucking burbank bro the other day i got a fucking turkey sandwich you
know how much that shit was yeah i do 19 yeah oh yeah i was gonna guess 16 yeah i think this
happened to us together yeah yeah yeah yeah it's it's a fucking anyway but that's a that's that's
what it'd be sometimes out here in the u.s i think people should be able to carry on guitars and play a nice little song about
you know jesus christ slippery exactly that's the thing though it's gonna be it's gonna be
like fucking raise you up on eagle's wings or like wonderwall yeah you know or wonderwall but
like it ends up being about how much you love Jesus. Oh, it's talking about...
They tweaked a couple lyrics.
Can you make Wonderwall...
Youth pastor vibes.
Can you make the Wonderwall be about the passion of the Christ?
Oh, yeah.
Like his crucifixion?
Like, today is going to be the day that the throne...
Whoa.
It's just Jesus talking to Judas.
Wow.
Backbeat, the word is on the street, that street that the fire wow talking to Pontius Pilate
on that one yeah okay okay
alright we got a point moving on
and then where would you do you recommend
people park on the line
like at the actual airport
oh hell no I think it's usually better to find
a something somewhere
else no it's easier and more secure
to park in the garage.
Okay. That's what I did
here today, so that makes me feel pretty good about that.
I recommend you just park
in the loading area,
the passenger loading area, and then
pick up your car when you get back.
It should be there. That's my advice.
I don't travel much.
And then, yeah, when you hop out, throw the skycap
your keys like they're the valet.
Or the airport cops like, hey, you can't pass.
You're like, hey, man, you don't have to gas her up.
Just make sure she don't got any dings in her.
Flights where people have opened up literal three course meals on a flight.
Is there anything that somebody could ever say like, hey, I'm sorry, you can't eat baked salmon on the flight?
Only if it's an offensive order.
Okay.
And that's a discretionary decision as well.
It's up to somebody.
They decide if they think that's too offensive or non-offensive enough.
Yep.
Man.
All right.
Well, that's going to be
my report where I talk to somebody who's in
the know here at an airport in the
Midwest. I assume just from both
of our dialects, you can tell that
we are in St. Louis.
And everybody hates it down here because it's
St. Louis.
I throw it back to you guys. This is Daniel Van Kirk
on the ground. Wow.
On the ground, not in the air
unfortunately uh but what a report from the street yeah yeah yeah i think we learned a lot
learned a lot learned a lot about each other uh that one for sure like you you really like to cut
it close on the holidays you're trying to do like a mcallister family trying to make the flight
through the airport if we are not frantic, we are not traveling.
Oh.
Yeah.
What am I going to do?
That doesn't give you, I mean, like, if I get three hours,
so the earliest I've ever, I think this is part of it,
the earliest I've ever gotten to the airport was the flight for my honeymoon.
Uh-huh.
And we got there three hours early.
Right.
And we did it up a little bit,
and we got access to the, like, Captain And we did it up a little bit.
And we got access to the, like, Captain's Club or, you know, whatever.
The lounge, yeah, yeah. The lounge area.
And went in there.
And we missed an international flight because we were having too much fun.
And also, I hadn't changed.
It was back at a time when, like, the phones didn't automatically change with the time so so oh my god i've been married 15 over 15 years my wife still hasn't forgiven
me for that shit well like but also i feel like the airlines usually like at a lounge like that
they they scan your boarding pass so they have an idea of where a passenger might be if it's going to take off yeah yeah no it uh maybe
they invented that after you yeah i think it's called the uh o'brien rule yeah but we we got
there the plane was still there but they wouldn't let us on it was oh yeah and i was wearing a
internet video i was wearing a t-shirt i had had since like eighth grade and it had holes in it
and my wife had told me not to wear it to the airport because she was like that like it's just
they're not gonna be nice to you they think you're and i was like what are you talking about i just
want to be comfortable when i'm traveling the shirt is it is vintage and they were like no
you're not allowed on this plane. Get the fuck out of here.
Go back outside to rebook.
You have to go back through security.
And yeah, it probably was at least partially due to my ratty ass T-shirt.
You know, man, classist bullshit, man.
You're just a man of the people wearing your vaporized whatever was like an REM shirt.
It was a House of Pain t-shirt.
Oh, my gosh.
That's right.
Yeah.
You ain't getting on that plane.
Unless you're leaving from like Boston.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
All right.
All right.
Although they're from L.A.
Anyway.
Yeah.
Anyways.
Well, we're all a little bit wiser heading into this holiday travel season.
We're going to take a quick break and we're going to come back and talk some news.
We'll be right back.
I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult.
And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M
Films and Shekinah Church. And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me For I Have Followed.
Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and LA-based
Shekinah Church, an alleged cult that has impacted members for over two decades. Jessica and I will
delve into the hidden truths between high control groups and interview dancers,
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Through powerful, in-depth interviews with former members
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Forgive Me For I Have Followed
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It's a vital revelation aimed at ensuring these types of abuses never happen again.
Listen to Forgive Me For I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Hey, I'm Gianna Pradente.
And I'm Jemay Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline, a new podcast from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts.
When you're just starting out in your career, you have a lot of questions like,
how do I speak up when I'm feeling overwhelmed?
Or can I negotiate a higher salary if this is my first real job?
Girl, yes.
Each week, we answer your unfiltered work questions.
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get your podcasts. I'm Keri Champion, and this is season 4 of Naked Sports, where we live at the intersection of sports and culture.
Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry, Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese.
I know I'll go down in history. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game.
Every great player needs a foil.
I ain't really near them. Why is that? I just come here to play basketball every single day, and that's what I focus on.
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And we're back. yeah so you started as a historian of science and i've heard you talk
about like what what you learned from darwin and you know ernst macht talked about kind of these
ideas of you know letting the subconscious have take its turn.
But can you just talk about just looking at the historical record around these great thinkers and what they knew?
So part of the reason that I talk about these folks in rest is,
number one, their lives are really, really well documented, right?
Right. these folks in rest is, number one, their lives are really, really well documented, right? There were 14,000 letters in the Darwin Archive at Cambridge University.
So we actually know an awful lot about their daily lives.
We also have enough perspective so that we can say with a pretty high degree of confidence,
Charles Darwin was an important person who made an enduring contribution to our understanding of the natural world.
And, you know, finally, in contrast to today's great, so many of today's great achievers,
they don't, you know, we can see them without the filter of like PR handlers and sort of,
you know, people who are worried about their stock price, sort of
making the argument that, you know, these people actually sort of never rest. They're always
serving the customer, you know, creating delightful products, blah, blah, blah. And so we have
actually a better understanding of how they worked and how they did their work than we do of many
inventors and entrepreneurs today.
I don't know, that little fish with feet that Darwin came up with was pretty sick marketing,
I got to say.
That branding is pretty tight.
He's kind of a marketing genius.
He did have his moments.
You know, it's just too bad that he was working before there was actually any, you know, social media.
Yeah, I've always thought of him more as an influencer than anything,
but yeah. Okay. I think he did other important stuff. You know, I mean, you know, he definitely
had a lot of influence. No question about that. And the other thing you see when you look at these
lives is there's a, there's an amazing consistency in things like their daily schedules and sort of when they worked, when they took
breaks, and how they kind of layered these periods of really focused work of only like
90 minutes or 90 minutes to two hours, and then a break, and then another deep dive,
what Cal Newport calls deep work.
And you do that like three times a day.
Cal Newport calls deep work. And you do that like three times a day. And that's about all they needed in order to, you know, come up with ideas that sort of changed the world. And I think that's
a, you know, it is a, it's a great challenge to the assumption that in order to do, you know,
world-changing stuff, we have to work enormously long hours. We have to, in effect,
sacrifice ourselves and our happiness and our health and sometimes our families in, you know,
to make, you know, to reach some mountain top, make a discovery, etc. And that it's possible to have, you know, sort of lives that are longer, that are
more sustainable, but also still let us do really amazing work that, you know, lets us express our
passions and that sort of is deeply satisfying for a really long time. So that ultimately is,
you know, darwin taught me
along with the fish with the feet yeah which is i've got a i got a ton of those in my garage
trying to get rid of if you want to buy something yeah that is kind of the whole point of this
episode is actually trying to help miles move that product because he is underwater on those
things man i shouldn't have made it in pure gold i think that's right i shouldn't have made it in pure gold
yeah um but what do you think like so i you know from my we talk about culturally right like how
some places work themselves to death i know that from like i'm i have a japanese family who when i
first like was working in media they thought my job was not serious because i wasn't like working
day and night are what like sort of what was sort of the evolution of being able not serious because i wasn't like working day and night are what like
sort of what was sort of the evolution of being able to be like i don't know darwin works like
a couple hours a day to sort of this like new like the exaltation of like the the non-stop
working person and that is why they are successful how did we like what what jumps did we make i'm
assuming the industrial age had a lot to do with that,
but where were we and where are we now, essentially?
It did have a lot to do with it,
but even, you know, 100 years ago,
there was this sense that, you know,
super successful people have kind of earned the right
to leisure because of their success. You know, not that getting rich
meant that you had to never, ever stop. Like, if you look at old issues of Forbes magazine from
the 1910s, 1920s, right? Forbes magazine has never been one that's been especially critical
of capitalists. But, you know, lots of those profiles have stuff about how these guys spend, like, you
know, still go to Minnesota to tramp in the woods where they grew up before, you know, sort of coming
back to Wall Street and, you know, sort of, you know, and sort of cornering the silver market.
I think, you know, so, you know, part, but what happened to change that, I think, really starts in the 70s and 80s when you have the realignment of the computer industry, of the high-tech industry, and finance simultaneously, both of
which teach us that the way to be successful now is not to start at the bottom, pay your dues,
and work your way up, right? The age in which both General Electric and General Motors could be
run by guys named Charlie Wilson, both of whom started in the mailrooms of their companies,
was now over, right? The way you became rich was to be like Steve Jobs, right? Or overnight success, or like, you know, Charlie Sheen in Wall Street. And that becomes the model for what a successful career looks like, in a sense, you get rich before the next, either before your technical skills become obsolete, before the next turn of Moore's Law means that someone else has a chance at bat, or the next stage in the global economy or economic turndown wipes everybody out. And then, you know, other structural factors like sort of the growth
of increasing reliance on sort of temporary labor, stalling of wages, and culturally,
I think the sensibility that, you know, work goes from something that is important in every
American's life to essentially the only thing, right? More important than family, than community, than religion.
It means that it is like the undisputed champion of everybody's existence.
And so, you know, all of that stuff together means that it's been really hard to push back
against all of that and to imagine an alternative.
all of that and to imagine an alternative. And it's taken something as dramatic as the pandemic,
right, to sort of shift, to make a lot of us shift gears to see that actually, you know,
all these things that we took for granted that we thought were like inevitable and inescapable turn out to be things that we can change and to begin to take seriously the possibility
that we can actually you know rather than have our workplaces changed by a virus make these changes
ourselves for ourselves for the better but you know that's that that's a that's a brief history
of how we got how we got in here and how we're getting out it's interesting to me that it happened in like the 70s and 80s at a time when like people started really like hoarding and getting immoral amounts
of wealth for like doing things that like building things that weren't lasting or you know doing
corporate raiding and stuff yeah corporate raiding like it reminds me of the anecdote from the
people's history of the united states where, the War Department changes its name to the Department of Defense at the moment that they start waging non-defensive wars because they're like, they need this, you know, linguistic defense mechanism to, like, throw people's attention away. And it's like the powers that be in capitalism
need this idea that like,
well, you just have to work harder.
You just outwork everyone to justify
that they're actually not doing anything
that is harder or more worthwhile
and certainly not millions of times more important
than the people who they're out earning by a
factor of a million. You know, Jack, that points to another important thing, which is that, you
know, we've come to see both success and challenges in the workplace as totally like sort of individual
and personal, right? Sort of my success is because I worked enormously long hours, not because I have a social network,
I have patrons, friends, you know, et cetera, right?
And if I have a problem at work or if I want to be more successful, part of the, you know,
the key is all in what I myself do.
Get up earlier, hustle harder, et cetera.
And I think that even those of us
whose clocks have 30 hours in a day
discover that at some point,
you run out of hours.
And the ability to solve problems that way
hits a limit. And the fact that we all share, that we all have these kinds of problems,
suggests that actually maybe a more powerful and enduring way to deal with them would be to solve
them together, right? To act collectively. And that's one of the big things behind stuff like part of the four-day
week is that, you know, it's something that's done in companies where everybody does it from the CEO
or of, you know, CEO on down. And part of the success of the movement has been that it has,
you know, it has shown us that, shown us the power of collective action to change how we work and to make work better for us all.
Yeah.
That just made me think of the fact that Zach Morris is the ultimate capitalist because he can freeze time.
He can freeze time.
Yeah.
And that saved by the reference.
That's saved by the bell.
Yeah, of course.
I don't think I have to explain that to anybody here, but I'm sure this comes up all the time in academic circles.
But it was like that he was and that that was a fantasy.
That was like a thing that I was when I was younger.
I was like, oh, man, to be able to freeze time, you have like so much extra time.
I could like get so good at things or like do all the all my work and then just like come back.
And it's really, you know, live my life on, on Zach Morris's clock, you know, how, like, I'm curious to see, like,
you know, when I got a lot more on Zach Morris here, Miles, uh, if you, if you,
oh no, I was about to, I was actually about to talk about, uh, the Zach Morris when he had to
take two people to the same dance, uh. Jack, let me finish the question.
Okay. No, but Alex, like we, I think when we talk, we talk a lot about on the show,
just sort of the just terrible habit we have, especially in America and other like Western
capitalist societies, just like, it's all about work. Productivity is the only metric to define
your life. And like, you know, we see that obviously
like in the more professional level,
but I feel like it's also really difficult
for people who like have like, you know,
hourly wage working jobs and things like that.
What is this sort of same way?
Because obviously I feel like when people go like,
I'm sure if you tell a business owner,
it's like, oh, four weeks,
well, for all my productivity to go down,
how do those sort
of lessons apply to various industries? Because I can easily see how like in a professional thing,
it's like, well, we've got all these like invoices we have to process as an accounting firm or
whatever. Once you're done, then you have something there. But like for something that's
like sort of like an always on business, like retail consumer sort of facing business, what is
the same way? What is the way that that needs to be
messaged to those people for them to not think, well, my line will go down if this happens? And
how does this, how does this sort of vision offer a new sort of form of, I guess, you know,
time liberation for workers that are like in, like in every, every sector?
Right. So, okay. First of all, I think that the, you know, it's, it, it, the four
day week is something that the very, you know, who's very earliest adopters tended more to be
in like professional and creative services. And partly because that work is kind of more malleable
or more shapeable by individuals. It's also tends to be a little more project based. And so, and,
you know, you're not like actually moving physical things around.
So sort of easier to imagine how to redesign it.
But one of the really interesting things is that we've seen is it move into places like
nursing.
And I'm actually working with a police department that's moving, that is experimenting with
32 hour work weeks for officers, you know, and talk about,
you know, talk about two industries where you don't want, you know, sleep-deprived or of
overworked people coming in and making mistakes is like in an ICU and, you know, sort of during
any interaction with sort of with law enforcement. And what we found there is that, okay, a couple things.
Number one, that that kind of work turns out to be just as creative as what we think of as
creative work of people sitting around in meetings, drawing on whiteboards. It's just,
we don't recognize it as such, right? There's just as much ingenuity or problem-solving skill, et cetera, required to
either defuse a situation to, you know, assess what's going on in an emergency room to calm down
people. And so this kind of work is just as responsive to the benefits of a shorter work week on the part of individuals.
Now, the way that organizations make it work is for nurses, you know, like places like
nursing homes, they have huge issues around sort of turnover and sort of recruitment and
retention, right?
These often are jobs that are not very well paid.
They're highly stressful.
These often are jobs that are not very well paid.
They're highly stressful.
And so it's easy for people to come into those jobs, work for maybe a year or two, and even if they like it, to find the stresses are too much and for them to leave.
Moving to a shorter work week means that they have more time for recovery. So more time to, you know, and that, but also it means that the organizations themselves,
like nursing homes that have moved to six hour shifts while still paying people the
same amount of money that they were paying for eight hour shifts, they save enough in
like in temp agency fees. You know, when someone calls in sick, you got to get someone from a temp agency fees.
You know, when someone calls in sick, you've got to get someone from a temp agency, and it's like five times as expensive per hour as to have a regular full-time person.
You save so much money on that that the programs pay for themselves, and you get higher quality of care.
And you get higher quality of care. So less administration of psychotropic drugs, fewer like bed sores, slips and falls, all the kinds of things that indicate whether nursing home residents or people in a hospital are hidden costs to overwork and high turnover that a four-day week are subsidized by. And we're seeing that in the restaurant industry, in healthcare, the trial with the police force.
It's an 80-person force, and they've saved something like $200,000 in overtime,
which is, like, incredible
in, like, the last, you know, four months or so
that they've been doing it.
And so, you know, it's not just that,
you know, these are jobs that, you know,
in which individuals benefit,
but it turns out that once you dive into the
numbers, there often are kind of systemic savings that justify moving from, you know,
from eight-hour shifts to shorter ones. So, you know, even when you have to pay more people,
you have to hire more staff, it's, you know, the numbers still work out.
And then with retail, the most interesting thing I'm seeing has been sort of places that
will stay open now for 12 hours and have two six-hour shifts.
So that means that you get more walk-in, you know, you get more walk-ins.
People can, you know, come into the store or the garage before work, you know, maybe get some work done or before they've got to, you know, into the store or the garage before work you know maybe get some work
done or before they've got to you know drop the kids off and it means that you know for you know
you get more customers and more revenue and so even if you have to hire sort of one or two more
people it often can pay for itself that way as part of right you know sort of on sort of more
sales yeah it's wild to think about the creative work that police do.
That's crazy.
Cause every time I'm pulled over, they're like, why are you in this?
Why are you in this neighborhood?
Cause they're coming up with like really interesting reasons why I shouldn't be there.
But in their mind, yeah, they have that.
It's an exhaustion issue.
I'm like, dude, just get some rest.
Yeah.
Hey buddy, you could, you need a nap.
Sorry. Sorry. Officer, sir maybe you could you need a nap sorry sorry uh officer sir
you you seem so sleepy you seem so sleepy go to bed go to bed but no it's it it is like i'm is
there are there any is there potentially any like this could apply to any job right like is there
like in when looking at sort of the way we toil and labor is there any job where you're like okay
maybe that one has to kind of stay that way that's's sort of, it seems, I don't know, from my perspective, I'm
like, I think it supplies everything, right? Can we just call it a day? Everyone goes to four days?
I think, you know, there were, looking at it economically, I think if you commute to work
by helicopter, it's going to be hard to move to a four-day week. So like if you're working on an
oil rig or something, right? It's like 10 days on, 10 days off. Just the cost of getting to work and
back is such that a four-day week is probably not going to work very well. And then after that,
it becomes, it really becomes a matter of like a professional ideology.
Hedge funds are not going to do it because they have constructed incredibly profitable systems for hiring 22-year-olds,
working them to death, and then discarding, you know, discarding the desiccated husks
three years later and hiring new kids, right?
So until their, you know, Viking freezers are full of Wagyu beef in their, like, apocalypse
bunkers, they're not going to have a lot of incentive to change that.
Oh, you're looking at my vision board?
Yeah, exactly.
But there were, you know, and then places like law and medicine, you know, they pride
themselves on being able to work these kinds of titanically long hours.
And even though they recognize that there are high costs to it and it leads to sort
of instability for organizations and unnecessary burnout, Until now, it's been hard to envision constructing something different. But so, you know, and some of the, you know, there were there definitely are older people in these fields who really resist the idea that you can, you know, sort of, you can scale back hours and make the
work better without making the work worse. Right. You know, occasionally you get people who say,
I can't do this because look, I don't have another life other than reading SEC filings or,
you know, x-rays. So don't ask me to do this. Yeah. Yeah. Let's actually, let's take one more break.
And then I have another thing that I heard you say that kind of made the whole
thing fall into place for me. So we'll be right back.
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And we're back.
And this report, Miles, from Moody's,
nothing has ever made more sense to me in my life than the news that the Cheesecake Factory
is propping up America's consumer economy.
Yeah, everything.
You know, Moody's likes to get in the business of business and put out their little analyses about what's going on.
They talk a lot about malls.
Apparently for Mean Girls Day that we completely fucked up.
So sorry about that on October 3rd.
Humiliating.
They released this like report report on the state of certain
malls. And the observations, the most obvious one at the top was pretty clear to everyone.
Obviously, e-commerce has obliterated mall traffic. Then there were a few others I didn't
really think of, but totally make sense in terms of the survival of a mall. People prefer lifestyle
centers or outlets that
are more that aren't enclosed because people just kind of these days rather park and walk directly
to the store they need to go to rather than walking through nine dead department stores
just to get to like the inside part of the mall like we used to have to. And having like
non-traditional businesses like an arcade or a trampoline park or a bowling alley helps like plays, I guess, a somewhat immeasurable role in the ability of a mall's, you know, survival factor, survival rating.
But here's the other part, right?
Malls that do not have a cheesecake factory are 21% more likely to be behind on loan payments than malls that do have a cheesecake factory yep and
they're like and again they're like we're not saying you know the causation is correlation
here or correlation is causation here but it's clear that people go to a fucking cheesecake
factory it's like having an apple store people if you got it there people will will go to it. Maybe it has somewhat to do with
the layout, but these are the kinds of stores that no matter what, people will be like, oh yeah,
I have to go to the mall because that's where the Apple store is. Or now the Cheesecake Factory.
And now I'm just like, what is it? Is it the brown bread? Is it the menu as thick as phone books?
Yeah. I've been saying for a long time i think the cheesecake factory menu is the height of
western colonial culture it is like the thing that will be in our like the the wing of the
museum dedicated to this period in history and this place in in the world right where does
how do they fucking fit this many places into a single kitchen like that that doesn't make sense pf changs
but like pf changs they like took two things from the pf changs menu and like that's in there
you know like that at all they did it all i i'm from i i grew up as a teenager i worked at the
mall for five six years into my college and uh and mall was like, and I grew up white trash.
And so our mall, the anchor restaurant was a Ruby Tuesdays,
which is a real number.
But like when I grew up again, like Cheesecake Factory was like aspirational.
Like you, it was like a fancy.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Our family wasn't going out to the Cheesecake Factory every night,
you know, like once a year, maybe.
Yeah.
One of the first dates that like
i went on like as a freshman in college i was like fuck here i'm like we're here dude like i've
saved a little money and it's time to take shorty the cheesecake factory like i was so fucking
excited and so yeah and therefore we're doing therefore we're doing it. Therefore, we're doing it. We're going to the Cheesecake Factory. And I'm having Chicken Littles again.
Don't criticize my choice.
I was a big, like, as a teen, as a, like, feral teen,
I was a big, like, let's go with your girl to the restaurant
and, like, go to, like, what I considered a nice restaurant,
which in retrospect all was, like, incredibly cheesy.
Yeah.
But, yeah, I loved that.
Go to Red Robin or something.
Yeah.
Bottomless fries forever. Yeah, yeah, yeah i loved that go to red robin or something yeah bottomless fries forever yeah yeah yeah fudruckers those are like the early date spots where you're like these are places my
parents would take me and therefore this is all i have in terms of knowledge of a restaurant for a
date this is the only proximity to adult knowledge i have yeah exactly it's like i know there's a
fudruckers over there. play music at Eastside Mario's on your date with some whatever some girl and it was so of a time
it was remarkable I really I really miss how weird that was the simpler times have you ever
can you think of a cheesecake factory that's gone have you ever seen a cheesecake factory
go out of business I've seen one against its will yeah no they yeah I've seen them relocate
cheesecake factory decides when it's done with you. But Cheesecake Factory is not. Yeah, it'll just be like, we're of roman concrete that's why they still stand to this
yeah it's the only thing that's left standing of america in 3 000 years is just cheesecake factories
yeah i like it's it's interesting is this because the cheesecake factory brings so much people to
you know so much business or does the cheesecake factory have like some magic
understanding of like where to locate you know based on all the all the malls i know that do
or do not have a cheesecake factory like it's like the high-end shit yeah the balls that are
like predisposed to already have people who are regularly going to come with with disposable
income are hitting that cheesecake factory exactly Exactly. I'm shocked that our mall
that had Ruby Tuesdays as an anchor
is still trucking.
It is?
Oh, yeah.
The main mall in South Portland, Maine
is still somehow vibrant.
Do you know what they put into the department stores?
Are they now like the bubble world oh you mean like what did
they replace all the selfie stores yeah i don't i don't know although like that is that's some of my
there's a there's a mall unfortunately that name i can't remember but there's a mall in portland
oregon that has like a full comic and zine shop and like a spot and that's i love that it feels like truly you know
sideways apocalyptic in a way that i enjoy yeah yeah i feel like that there's probably there's
got to be a lot of haunted houses that have gone into those places for sure right oh yeah you got
to yeah you got to it's always interesting to see like because it'll always then there's like small businesses where you can see it and like oh this poor fucking
motherfucker this shit is not gonna last and like you probably put your whole fucking life
into this terrible retail concept and then you see ones that have been there for decades in a mall
like a one-off retail concept at a mall oh god and i get like and you like see it you're like no i feel so i'm
so sorry you are oh you're just doing anyway then but then it lasts for like 10 years and you're
like oh it's a drug front oh never mind yeah okay i don't have to feel bad because you don't care
that no one's in there because you're just laundering money through here yeah the one
the one i was just talking about in portland oregon is called the lloyd center and it's like
just like it feels like a flea market it feels like it's all just like
small businesses that people like put it all on the line for yeah they're like you know it's like
custom snuggies or whatever and you're like all right i guess okay i hope that i hope that's what
i love about like portland is the specificity of the businesses like it the entrepreneurial
spirit of portland oregon is fucking i've never seen anything like it where they're like yeah man it's like a bespoke hot sauce
and beer place there's and it's like what there's another so our of my podcast i co-host with sarah
marshall from you're wrong about and there's another sarah marshall from portland oregon
who runs a bespoke hot sauce company oh really, really? And it's funny, too, because I'm not knocking it,
because instantly I'm like, I mean, yeah, beer's cool,
but I love hot sauce, and I love to see when people are just
aggregating a ton of local hot sauce.
I'm like, this is great.
And I was asking some people locally, I'm like,
is it high turnover in this area with the business?
And they're just like, yeah, it can be.
It can be.
But some things remain.
For sure. All right. in this area like with the business like yeah it can be it can be it can be but some things remain for sure all right well at the top we mentioned that there has some has been some misinformation going around and i have to assume that you guys were talking about skittles when you when you
mentioned that uh yeah yeah yeah because there have been erroneous claims that Skittles are now banned in California,
specifically Mario Lopez, who, along with Jack Black, is the person who I go to for most of my information.
Most of my reported reportage has to come through Mario Lopez.
He tweeted, crime is through the roof.
Worst drug epidemic ever.
And homelessness at an all-time high in California.
Let's focus on Skittles.
And then posted a video, or posted a picture that says,
California becomes first U.S. state to ban Skittles
and 12,000 additional products for cancer-causing additives.
I don't know.
Maybe this is the first step Mario Lopez is going to run for president.
We can all hope. Atio lopez viva did this news come from next door i feel like this is something that would like yes right you would see on next door the other day i was like i got
i don't even know why i'm on next it was like i found a pet once a lost pet and i was like i
should go next door and now i'm never gonna get off. But they people were very up in arms about the fact that I think California, there's a law that was passed that you can't make your employee run after a shoplifter anymore.
Rightfully so.
Like that should never have been a thing in the first place.
And people were angry as if the government had come into their house and taken all their money and then burned it down.
This is like the Skittles news is another one of those,
it feels like. So is it true? It's not true? It's not true. It is not true. So, I mean,
they tried it. Gavin Newsom signed a bill banning certain food additives. And one of the things that he pointed out, because everyone was like, oh, you're going to ban Skittles? Skittles go out of business then, dude.
California, you're not going to be able to buy Skittles? Fuck that.
And he was like, here is a bag of Skittles from the EU where the carcinogenic chemicals that they put in the American version of Skittles is illegal.
that they put in the American version of Skittles is illegal.
They just made it less cancerous in the EU and are still able to sell both things
and not go out of business.
And people were like, nah, fuck that.
And so that got taken out of the bill, the Skittles ban.
Just keep it as it.
They could have made it less potentially cancerous yes and that just isn't gonna happen yes so he held a
package of skittles from the eu argued it's demonstrable proof that the food industry is
capable of maintaining product lines while complying with different public health laws country by country.
And therefore, an earlier version of the bill had a ban on titanium dioxide,
which sounds like a thing that you want to ingest with your food. Just like, you know,
pepper a little. It's got two oxygens. Titanium dioxide on there, which we've talked about it before. It's a controversial food additive found in Skittles and a bunch of other foods.
We've talked about it before.
It's a controversial food additive found in Skittles and a bunch of other foods.
And it's been banned in the EU.
It was banned last year.
And, you know, it's just not great. Like, they think it could be bad, like, when it gets into your cells.
But it was removed from the California bill after lobbyists argued that it was safe to use in these applications.
Don't worry.
Small amounts in products like Skittles.
This is how you know Gavin Newsom is running for president eventually.
Like he's already doing like he's like, you know, like, oh, I'm not like, well, fine.
We're good with titanium dioxide or like the thing where he's like, I'm going to cap insulin costs.
No, I'm not.
Actually, I'll say that out loud.
And then when it comes time to cut time to sign a bill, I'm not going to do that.
Or be like, we're going to get striking workers' unemployment.
He didn't.
Right.
So he's really good at presenting himself as someone who's got his head in the game and has his progressive credentials,
while also being like, and I'm a friend to business and healthcare.
Don't worry, my man.
I still got this. Am I making up he was like a progressive guy at one point that was the
case right like he was the he was like an actual progressive politician from yes like it's the
mayor of san francisco like i guess comparatively but he's always i think the thing that people have
always that the sort of criticism is like he's all he's always been very sly about it he's very coy
you know and he so he knows what to say when to say it and not say things when to not so it's
you're always like he presents like a total piece of shit but he might be a total piece of shit too
so yeah so that that pushed back hair though you know you gotta you gotta know what a head of hair
yeah it's like back jack we already know i can't think of somebody whose hair i would
want to touch less than gavin newsom's yeah his hair feels like it whatever you would get on your
hand from touching it would be on there for a while it would stick around yeah yeah yeah like
i'd rather touch, like,
all, like, the male leads
in, like, Boardwalk Empire
who you saw them put, like,
lard in their hair.
I'd be like, I'm having a go.
Yeah, lard never hurt anyone.
I'd rather touch that
or, like, pomade
than, like, the,
whatever Gavin Newsom's got going on.
You know whose head
I bet is filthy is Bill Maher.
I bet his,
I bet you would touch his head
and your hand would never be the
same yeah yeah i just wanted to get that in a bill yeah fucking hair new rules your hair is terrible
you just have to be like stuck to your hand like a spider web you'd like wash it i say this is
someone with like a radically receding and depleting hairline, but I don't ever want to touch that hair.
The texture of it, though, it feels like it could be like a cat's tongue somehow.
When you're like, what the fuck?
That's hair?
Yeah.
Yeah, buddy.
It sure is.
It's what karma does to your hair.
Oh, it's not hair?
Okay.
Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
Have you never touched a nest
of spider webs before?
Okay. Powered by Islamophobia?
Okay.
Okay. Sorry, Snowflake.
It's scary. Both of your impressions
like facially are scarily
accurate.
You really go to a...
Oh, I'm sorry.
We as like a people i've had to listen to that for 30 years we're upset about it
oh shit yeah so this is one of those things the science is uncertain but usually like wait if
they all things being equal the you know people in charge of making decisions on behalf of millions of people would be like, we don't know. And therefore, you can't put it in food that is mostly eaten by children. it works in the eu but in these united states you you know you got you got lobbying groups that are
more powerful than the the young children candy eating lobby but it's it's funny though how much
like my brain has been shaped by this like american attitude towards stuff and i'm like well
yeah you can't even prove it though so like fine let her rip yeah rather than be rather than like no it the we
don't know it's better to know it's better our thing is it's better to know what you're putting
in your body than letting it rip and i'm like oh okay well maybe maybe yeah the american to me is
kind of like why don't you suck it up and then I realized that I've just internalized a terrible ideology.
Yeah.
And then you're like, oh, wait, that's the titanium dioxide talking.
Oh, shit.
Yeah. You've internalized a bunch of microplastics in addition to American.
It's fine.
It's fine.
It's fine.
Let it rip.
Let it rip.
My teeth are glowing.
How come the red ones taste the best?
It's because of the flavor inside it's not because of the yeah that's what they tell you all right that's gonna do it for this
week's weekly zeitgeist please like and review the show if you like the show uh means the world
to miles he he needs your validation folks uh I hope you're having a great weekend,
and I will talk to you Monday.
Bye. Thank you. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradenti.
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