Speaker 1: Hello the Internet, and welcome to this episode of The
Speaker 1: Weekly Zeitgeist. These are some of our favorite segments from
Speaker 1: this week, all edited together into one NonStop infotainment laugh stravaganza.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, So, without further ado, here is the Weekly Zeitgeist. Miles.
Speaker 1: We are to be joined by a brilliant, talented writer
Speaker 1: podcaster who's written for local publications like The New York Times,
Speaker 1: The New Yorker, The New Yorker View of Books, GQ.
Speaker 1: She was the cost of the legendary podcasts Girls and Hoodies,
Speaker 1: Nike All, the writer, creator and host of the legendary
Speaker 1: podcast Heidi World The Heidi Playstory. Please welcome back to
Speaker 1: the show the Legends.
Speaker 2: Mate, Oh you were my doll dollar dollar, Dolly, Dolly, doll,
Speaker 2: doll doll a.
Speaker 3: Oh shit, I know I'm a Lambert but Malley boy.
Speaker 1: Yes, Brake song for how.
Speaker 3: Sad and alone that man is.
Speaker 1: He just needs someone to be patient with me.
Speaker 2: He's someone to be patient with him. He's got his
Speaker 2: thick thighs to keep him warm.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he needs someone to give him fair repeat.
Speaker 1: Also, my ak was a reference to a embroidered jacket
Speaker 1: Molly just told me about. He's wearing an embroidered jacket
Speaker 1: that says hard feelings, harder dick.
Speaker 3: Yep, I think it's album that's going on there.
Speaker 2: I think this has to be like a mixtape title
Speaker 2: or something, because he's done it a couple of times.
Speaker 2: He just wore another one that had a little cute
Speaker 2: puppies on it cuddling each other and it said hard feelings,
Speaker 2: harder deck.
Speaker 3: Again, sir, sir, you're you're you're losing the plot.
Speaker 2: Man, hard feelings, hard dick, soft puppies.
Speaker 1: Soft puppies.
Speaker 3: Also, my man, you're thirty six years old. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 3: we need to be doing that. But anyway, hey, dates
Speaker 3: their own.
Speaker 1: No hard feelings, yes, hard feelings. I am mad right now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: is kind of whole energy and I'm so horny.
Speaker 2: I'm mad and I have a bon It's like what
Speaker 2: I imagine it's like to be a man.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, he's basically the male experience right there.
Speaker 2: Mad and I have a boner because my favorite basketball
Speaker 2: team lost.
Speaker 3: Yeah, where it's like or it's just like the two
Speaker 3: modes I'm in are angry or boner. So it depends
Speaker 3: on what when you catch me, that's what you're going
Speaker 3: to get.
Speaker 2: Hard feelings, Harder deck. Those are the two.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the two wolves inside you.
Speaker 1: But he's he's suggesting that he has them both at
Speaker 1: the same time.
Speaker 2: He's a that's why he's Drake.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, He's reached the Christ level consciousness because.
Speaker 2: He's like, I'm a sad little bit with a titanium boner.
Speaker 1: I also, I think it would be a big Feelings,
Speaker 1: Bigger Dick because big feelings is like what you say
Speaker 1: to children, and there's like something I feel like. There
Speaker 1: was a part of the writing process for the album
Speaker 1: cover USh Bag Embroidery Hard Feelings, Harder Dick, where he
Speaker 1: wrote big Feelings, Bigger Dick and someone was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: but you only talk to like five year olds about
Speaker 1: having big feelings and he was.
Speaker 4: Only five year olds doesn't have the sun?
Speaker 2: Well, yeahs were you were a Viagra racing jacket after that,
Speaker 2: which I thought was really funny. I was like, Wow,
Speaker 2: this is a hilarious album rollout whatever it is. It's
Speaker 2: like Viagra jacket implies that the hard Dick is like
Speaker 2: factory yeah.
Speaker 3: Medical yeah, hey, look, and maybe that's a new thing
Speaker 3: he's doing because he's losing so much fucking money gambling online.
Speaker 3: I can see him being like, hey, Pfizer, you want
Speaker 3: me to like fucking do something with you, please.
Speaker 2: Look, nothing is cooler than being addicted to gambling and.
Speaker 1: All biagra, viagra and thirty six with a bazillion dollars
Speaker 1: and sex with me is super fast, Like it's just
Speaker 1: incredibly fast. Man, rescue me me at the club.
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, okay.
Speaker 2: So I think it's the hard dick first, and then
Speaker 2: the hard feeling. This is what I imagine.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like hard dick, harder feelings. That's kind of that
Speaker 3: that that kind of gets you thinking a little bit.
Speaker 2: It's like sex and then you cry, Yeah, you're lonely.
Speaker 3: Not a great proposition either. Look, I think just in general,
Speaker 3: this this doesn't feel like the most rapper thing I've
Speaker 3: seen to wear.
Speaker 1: It tracks, but that was cool about it about it.
Speaker 2: But also here's why, here's why Trianna and asap Rocky
Speaker 2: looks so happy and in at.
Speaker 1: The Metropolitan Gallivant.
Speaker 2: They had so much fun at the Metropolitan Gallivant. And
Speaker 2: he just looks so happy to be with her. You know,
Speaker 2: it makes him and he's like so much much hotter
Speaker 2: than Drake. You know what makes Drake Wanting.
Speaker 3: And he ain't rock him. He ain't rock him. I
Speaker 3: will use his legal name. You know what I mean?
Speaker 3: You ain't rock him.
Speaker 1: Man as rock him as soon as.
Speaker 3: Possible, looks so happy, as soon as possible, Rock him
Speaker 3: with Rihanna Robin Fenti at the Metropolitan Galivant.
Speaker 1: Anna. We do like to ask our guests, what is
Speaker 1: something from your search history that's revealing about who you are?
Speaker 5: I mean, I considered this for so long. You have
Speaker 5: no idea how deep I went into my own search
Speaker 5: history for this show. Okay, but honestly, the last like
Speaker 5: ten to fifteen searches have been different iterations of slutty
Speaker 5: little knees. So there is I was, yeah, but Molkie.
Speaker 5: Actually it wasn't actually even the pictures. It was trying
Speaker 5: to find who had coined the term slutty little knees. Yeah,
Speaker 5: going deep into two would have been like what depraved mind,
Speaker 5: depraved and brilliant mind coined the term sully little knies?
Speaker 3: And how poetic soul?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I know it's my people came.
Speaker 3: Oh you did you found out?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Because we were talking about this with the there
Speaker 1: was somebody who had a full body orgasm during a
Speaker 1: La Philharmonic performance, and we were like, man like, whoever
Speaker 1: tweeted Okay, I just heard someone have a full body orgasm?
Speaker 1: That was the headline for everyone. It was just like
Speaker 1: the anonymous authorship of the Internet, Like one person came
Speaker 1: up with that and every fucking major media outlet went
Speaker 1: with that wording. But slutty little nees is is perfection.
Speaker 3: We're doing it is prediction. Who's the author?
Speaker 5: So this is a oh God. I went through like
Speaker 5: the Esquire videos, the TikTok rabbit hole, but I think
Speaker 5: it was this person on Twitter at Joel Guitar. Yeah,
Speaker 5: and their description is full time slut for Joel Miller,
Speaker 5: which I also think is a great a great profession.
Speaker 3: Yes, and that's the origin point.
Speaker 5: It's one thing about Petro Prescal is that he will
Speaker 5: pop his luty little knee out.
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 1: So this is in reference to Peter Pascal's Metropolitan gallivant
Speaker 1: outfit wherein he's wearing shorts with his long red coat,
Speaker 1: slight little knees, hyked up socks, looking good.
Speaker 3: Wait, who's the who said? Can you repeat the quotes?
Speaker 3: Guitar guitar character in Last of Us character and Last
Speaker 3: of Us.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but it's also it's about the Last of Us
Speaker 5: and the Mandalorian. He has this go to pose where
Speaker 5: he pops his knee out and extensively into the into
Speaker 5: the distance.
Speaker 3: Ye love that, Love that, love that knee. Love to
Speaker 3: see more, you know, more like knee positive content out there.
Speaker 6: And then.
Speaker 5: Also I just love when the Internet collectively decides to
Speaker 5: thirst over someone and it or something very specific. It's like, oh,
Speaker 5: we're really we're really hot for like someone's ear lobe,
Speaker 5: and then we're going to create obsessive content just about that.
Speaker 5: That's what that's in the Internet for good and I
Speaker 5: appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I like someone comment on someone's meaty, meaty
Speaker 1: ear lobes in a recent episode of Succession and oh yeah,
Speaker 1: like Barnacle meat Yeah, like Barnacle That was a brilliant
Speaker 1: little piece of poetry, Barnacle.
Speaker 3: To.
Speaker 5: That's Tom to Shift.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Tom is on a tear.
Speaker 1: Tom is on a Jimmy Butler like tear right now
Speaker 1: in this season, what is something you think is overted?
Speaker 7: Well, yeah, I was thinking about that.
Speaker 8: My mind could change on this, but I recently tried
Speaker 8: earlier this week of Floating Float tanks and sensory deprivation,
Speaker 8: and I had an interesting experience, I think, and I'm
Speaker 8: not quite sure how I feel about it as a
Speaker 8: as a practice that could be like relaxing or even
Speaker 8: like creative or contemplative. I was I just had this
Speaker 8: really hard time relaxing, I think, into just trusting that
Speaker 8: the float staff would tell me like when my hour
Speaker 8: was over, and they told me like they would play
Speaker 8: loud music, you know, like when the time was done.
Speaker 9: And I just kept.
Speaker 8: Waiting and waiting and the music didn't play. And I
Speaker 8: finally like climbed out of like the float tank and
Speaker 8: it was like an hour past the time and they
Speaker 8: hadn't played the music, and I think I was just
Speaker 8: also like when you're in the tank, you hear like
Speaker 8: this dull drone and I listened to like a lot
Speaker 8: of experimental music, and then I was hearing what sounded
Speaker 8: like echoes of like a female voice, and so I
Speaker 8: was just I didn't even know what the music was
Speaker 8: like Swiss to sound like. So I just got like
Speaker 8: really neurotic, and so it maybe more like, you know,
Speaker 8: I had an expectation, and you know, in that way,
Speaker 8: I I you know, I couldn't manage that properly. So
Speaker 8: it isn't really overrated, but I found it a little
Speaker 8: bit overrated, Yeah.
Speaker 3: Because like in your mind, half of the time that
Speaker 3: you thought spending to be sort of contemplative and like
Speaker 3: in a still space, you were just sort of had
Speaker 3: like this anxiety about like do they know like when
Speaker 3: to play the music? And am I hearing it? And
Speaker 3: because I don't.
Speaker 1: Want you were correct, they just left you over time
Speaker 1: and then yeah.
Speaker 8: They left me over time by four minutes, so like
Speaker 8: by the time I had I was just like, this
Speaker 8: is like this is late.
Speaker 5: Maybe they forgot or like the music's broken.
Speaker 8: So I just like climbed in the shower and then
Speaker 8: they just started playing this really loud instrument instrumental music
Speaker 8: and I was like, oh, okay, I get it, you
Speaker 8: know right. There was like this other moment where I
Speaker 8: was like in the tank and you know, like you
Speaker 8: float around and so there are these like buttons where
Speaker 8: you can access like the lights and the music, and.
Speaker 3: You know, so well, I don't know anything about it,
Speaker 3: so please set the stage from I know, Jack, you've
Speaker 3: done it right.
Speaker 1: Once I did it once, I'll talk about Mike experience
Speaker 1: after so it's.
Speaker 8: Like a giant salt water kind of bath design for
Speaker 8: like somebody who's the size of like an eight foot athlete.
Speaker 8: And they put like ninety four degree warm water in
Speaker 8: this bathtub thing, and they put like twenty bags of
Speaker 8: Epsom salt in it, and basically you float in it,
Speaker 8: and then there's some buttons on the side console where
Speaker 8: you can basically like turn on like the blue light
Speaker 8: or like you know, kind of like constellation style lights,
Speaker 8: and they recommend that you do it in the dark,
Speaker 8: and I was like really going hardcore. I was like,
Speaker 8: you know, they wanted they said, you know, the best
Speaker 8: experience is if you do it in the dark, So
Speaker 8: I'm just gonna go for it, even though that might
Speaker 8: make me anxious.
Speaker 9: And so I didn't do it.
Speaker 2: In the dark.
Speaker 8: And then there was this point where I wanted to
Speaker 8: turn on the lights and I couldn't find them because
Speaker 8: I kind of like floated off like towards the back
Speaker 8: or the side.
Speaker 5: And then I got like really really.
Speaker 8: Anxious and freaked out a little bit because then I'm
Speaker 8: like feeling around the panel and the sides and the
Speaker 8: seam of the thing, and it was just like me
Speaker 8: not being able to relax. And I'm sure if I
Speaker 8: went like a couple more times, it might be like
Speaker 8: a different experience. But it said to me a lot
Speaker 8: about my knee to like control and to know and
Speaker 8: like my challenge is around like surrendering, right.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, for sure, it's it's there's definitely something unnerving
Speaker 1: about it, And if you have any claustrophobia, I wouldn't
Speaker 1: recommend it, or at least the one that I did,
Speaker 1: I did not have like the Constellation option or anything
Speaker 1: like that. Mine was just it was the closest I've
Speaker 1: ever come to time travel. Like I went in there,
Speaker 1: I closed my eyes, and then the music started playing
Speaker 1: and I was like, wait, what what just happened? And
Speaker 1: I went out and an hour had passed, and I
Speaker 1: don't know what happened other than I just like had
Speaker 1: the deepest sleep and like didn't realize I was even asleep.
Speaker 6: It was.
Speaker 1: It was really weird.
Speaker 3: It's like the yeah, that's a very positive experience.
Speaker 1: That sounds I I think so, But then I was
Speaker 1: like incredibly tired for like forty eight hours after that,
Speaker 1: So maybe it was just it reached a level of
Speaker 1: like relaxation that my body needed. But nice what you're saying.
Speaker 1: You're good for you you.
Speaker 3: Were listening to experimental music. You said that you're kind
Speaker 3: of into this experimental music or that was just part
Speaker 3: of what was playing in the float tank.
Speaker 8: No like in my in my life, I listened to
Speaker 8: like a lot of drone and experimental music. And I
Speaker 8: think actually the hum that was coming from the float
Speaker 8: tank was just kind of like the mechanism of like
Speaker 8: the machine itself. But I don't know, I hear music
Speaker 8: and a lot of things that just seem inherently musical.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've even like I have a newborn, and even
Speaker 3: the white Noise Machine, like I hear like harmonics in
Speaker 3: the white noise where I'm like, I was like my
Speaker 3: part was like, hey, I think the garbage truck is
Speaker 3: backing up and just like what I'm like, you don't
Speaker 3: hear that beeps? Like no, it's the White Noise Machine.
Speaker 3: But it's just it's just weird. How I'm the same way,
Speaker 3: like I can pick out a lot of sounds or
Speaker 3: there aren't. I don't know if that's also part of
Speaker 3: like my sort of being up like wound up sometimes
Speaker 3: and being in a state of like sort of like
Speaker 3: like threat assessment on occasion. But yes, yeah I can.
Speaker 3: I can definitely that resonated with me.
Speaker 1: Is there a particular like mechanical object or just a
Speaker 1: sound that you think makes really good music even though
Speaker 1: it's not actually music like a.
Speaker 8: Mechanical object, you know, Like I used to have this
Speaker 8: really cool like heating event in one of the apartments
Speaker 8: that I lived in. And when I could clean the
Speaker 8: heating event with like Q tips, because the dust would
Speaker 8: get like in the metal vents, it would make like
Speaker 8: these really wonderful like pinging noises and.
Speaker 1: Mmmm yeah yeah yeah. There are those radiators in New
Speaker 1: York City apartments and they make some of the strangest
Speaker 1: like little pinging and like weird noises because they're just
Speaker 1: chunks of metal that heat up and that's how you
Speaker 1: like heat your apartment in New York City and like
Speaker 1: they make these weird sounds.
Speaker 3: Anyways, Wait, so SNY was the album coming out never
Speaker 3: with the Q tip with the Q tip event. If
Speaker 3: you listen to Mattmos, I don't know who that is,
Speaker 3: No Matt Most They're like these producers who like would
Speaker 3: do like bro. I got into them because they did
Speaker 3: an album that was all just surgical sounds that they
Speaker 3: used to make an album with and then like they
Speaker 3: worked with like B York and stuff like that. But
Speaker 3: they're they're kind of like in that world of like
Speaker 3: sort of audio sort of artists kind of thing. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I would love.
Speaker 8: To shout out a group here in Seattle called the
Speaker 8: Seattle Phonographers Union. So they are this like collective of
Speaker 8: composers who go around gathering found sounds from wherever and
Speaker 8: then they like play them back and live mix them
Speaker 8: in live performances, usually in like really weirdo places, like
Speaker 8: there's this abandoned or repurposed military airhannger in Magnuson Park
Speaker 8: in Seattle. And I hosted them once when I was
Speaker 8: working for Obscura in this place called the Georgetown steam Plant,
Speaker 8: which is this defunct steam plant that stopped operating like
Speaker 8: in the nineteen seventies or eighties. So they collected all
Speaker 8: these like steam plant like noises and then they played
Speaker 8: them live and that was.
Speaker 3: Just is that the park that's like right on the water.
Speaker 8: Georgetown stein Plant is down by the Dwamish River in
Speaker 8: South Seattle, south of downtown, and it's owned by Seattle
Speaker 8: City Lights, and it's not operable, but it's this historic
Speaker 8: space that people do activate with like arts and music
Speaker 8: and dance, and it's super cool if you come here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, I'll be sure to hit that up along
Speaker 3: with my Dick's driving fries. There you go.
Speaker 1: All right, you make Seattle sound very cool?
Speaker 3: It is it, dude, Seattle? I can't, honest, I always
Speaker 3: I'll say this. I love Seattle like I had been
Speaker 3: once when I was really young, and I went recently
Speaker 3: in October, and I just love like how rich it's
Speaker 3: history and the music. It's such a music I feel.
Speaker 3: It's like obviously people know about like the music that's
Speaker 3: come from Seattle, but when you're there, like seeing live
Speaker 3: music in Seattle. I was so blown away to the
Speaker 3: Sea Monster and I saw like a really good band
Speaker 3: there and like and I was like, what's up with these?
Speaker 3: Like what band is this? They're like, oh, these are
Speaker 3: some locals who like to jam, and I'm like, this
Speaker 3: is like the best band and I've heard, but they're
Speaker 3: just doing this for fun. Okay, yep, I'm here, I'm here.
Speaker 7: Yeah, we have wonderful musicians.
Speaker 8: Tomo Nakayama did the music for my podcast Ten Thousand
Speaker 8: Things and he's just like Seattle indie rock Darling that's
Speaker 8: been like touted by the New York Times. And we
Speaker 8: live in an incredible city of music and musicians and
Speaker 8: people who are so deeply invested in the arts.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I got to hit that next tour, Jack, We've
Speaker 3: got to go there.
Speaker 1: Ever since I started this show, you've been talking to
Speaker 1: the Pacific Northwest calls to you, Miles.
Speaker 3: I as a just like urban concrete boy from North Hollywood, California.
Speaker 3: I fantasized about the forest as a kid, like I
Speaker 3: think a It started with Endoor from Return of the Jedi. Yeah,
Speaker 3: because I was like, wait, there's places where it's just
Speaker 3: trees like this, And then I remember I went to
Speaker 3: the Sequoias once. My grandfather took me to the Sequoias
Speaker 3: and I blew my mind. And then I've just I
Speaker 3: just have, I don't know, a connection with like very
Speaker 3: wooded places and you know, cooler climates. So yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: loved it. Loved the Northwest.
Speaker 1: Yeah, really, what is something you think is underrated? Pitch?
Speaker 10: I feel like I and maybe I'm wrong, but I
Speaker 10: feel like nobody has been talking about Next in Fashion
Speaker 10: on Netflix.
Speaker 9: I really liked that show.
Speaker 3: Oh, is that the when Tim Gunn is on?
Speaker 10: No, this is with this is with Tan France and whoa, Yeah,
Speaker 10: it's the second season came out a couple months ago,
Speaker 10: and it's with Gigi had died. He had a different
Speaker 10: co host the first season, and it like got canceled
Speaker 10: at first, but then I guess they brought it back,
Speaker 10: and I just I always liked Project Runway, of course
Speaker 10: back in the day. I haven't watched it forever, but
Speaker 10: I really liked Next in Fashion. I just thought all
Speaker 10: the designers were really interesting and it was just like
Speaker 10: really fun to watch. And I don't want to spoil it,
Speaker 10: but like the person who won, I was like, this
Speaker 10: guy is incredible, Like this is exactly who I thought
Speaker 10: should win, you know.
Speaker 3: I love, Yeah, I liked. I used to watch Project
Speaker 3: Runway like in the early Bravo days a lot, for sure,
Speaker 3: And then I actually did start. I watched the hype
Speaker 3: on Netflix, which is like the streetwear version of it,
Speaker 3: where it like they find all these streetwear designers and
Speaker 3: like they they all like have a challenge. Ever, it's
Speaker 3: like the same structure, except its streetwear. So maybe I
Speaker 3: will take a dip into Next in Fashion.
Speaker 10: Get I just I really thought it was fun, and
Speaker 10: I like, I had watched all of them except for
Speaker 10: the last one. And then I was visiting a friend
Speaker 10: and he was like, well, what do you do You
Speaker 10: want to watch something? And I was like, would you
Speaker 10: watch the last episode of Next in Fashion with me?
Speaker 9: Like, I know you haven't.
Speaker 10: Seen it, but like and he and he was enthralled,
Speaker 10: and and I think that that speaks to how fun
Speaker 10: it is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Okay, I mean I really liked it. What does
Speaker 1: it have over Project run I feel like that's the
Speaker 1: one that I'm most familiar with and that I've watched
Speaker 1: like half Oh.
Speaker 3: That new one, that new version with Tim Gunn is
Speaker 3: on Amazon.
Speaker 10: I guess I can't say what it has over current
Speaker 10: day Project Runaway because I haven't watched it in the years,
Speaker 10: But I just think, I I don't know. I feel
Speaker 10: like I was interested in all of the designers from
Speaker 10: the beginning, Like I liked all of them, and I
Speaker 10: thought the yeah, and I thought the the challenges were
Speaker 10: really interesting, and they do like they do some men's
Speaker 10: wear and women's wear, and they just have like more
Speaker 10: interesting models and different like body types and ages and
Speaker 10: stuff too, and just the challenges are kind of more interesting.
Speaker 10: I guess, like they had one challenge where they had
Speaker 10: to make stuff out of plants, like they had to
Speaker 10: make clothes out. Yeah, they just do cool stuff. And
Speaker 10: I do like Tan France and Gigi Hadid. I think
Speaker 10: they have a fun chemistry as hosts. And I always
Speaker 10: love remembering that Ghadid has like a skater dude voice.
Speaker 3: It's very so.
Speaker 10: Yeah, she's like such a beautiful woman and then she's
Speaker 10: like like.
Speaker 3: Brush she is sick.
Speaker 9: So I just like, I just it has a good prime.
Speaker 1: That is the head's sister with a Coca Cola commercial
Speaker 1: during the playoffs. I mean, like I keep bringing all
Speaker 1: these commercial questions and that, yeah it is, yeah, And
Speaker 1: I don't know, I'm not buying the authenticity of her
Speaker 1: friend group just hanging out and having a Coca Cola
Speaker 1: and making homemade.
Speaker 9: Oh yes, I agree, now I can picture it.
Speaker 3: Yeah with that kind of coke.
Speaker 1: Yeah for sure. It's like, just replace the Coca Cola
Speaker 1: with cocaine and right it.
Speaker 3: Give me another lump of Coca cola. Hey, keep me up,
Speaker 3: another sip of Coca cola. Coca Sorry there, cameras.
Speaker 1: La. Yeah.
Speaker 10: I liked imagining too because she because she has like
Speaker 10: a pretty young child, and I was like imagining in
Speaker 10: the commercial in the world of the Marshall, she got
Speaker 10: like a babysitter so she could have all of her
Speaker 10: friends over to drink Coca cola.
Speaker 1: Drink Coca cola and do some handmade pastas hell. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that sounds right.
Speaker 3: Like us normal people.
Speaker 1: All right, all right, let's take a quick break. We'll
Speaker 1: be right back to talk about.
Speaker 6: Other normal people like your king, my king, Charles Chuck ay,
Speaker 6: and we're back and uh yeah, So this is a
Speaker 6: story that I think is being pitted as like Disney
Speaker 6: versus Round DeSantis.
Speaker 1: We all know which side we're on in that one,
Speaker 1: am I right? Folks?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1: Yeah. But unfortunately Disney is a massive corporation at a
Speaker 1: time in American history that is completely run by massive corporations,
Speaker 1: and they are using this opportunity smartly to basically try
Speaker 1: and grab more power in terms of how you can
Speaker 1: just how much power a corporation can possibly have.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it's right now. So we've heard that,
Speaker 3: like Rohnda Santis is like, I'm gonna get them so
Speaker 3: good because they humiliated me by doing an end around
Speaker 3: with their Reedy Creek Development District. So they filed a
Speaker 3: lawsuit against him, and they said that they have been
Speaker 3: the victims of a quote targeted campaign of government retaliation
Speaker 3: which was orchestrated at every step by Governor Ronda Santis
Speaker 3: as punishment for Disney's protected speech. Yahka, coming late to
Speaker 3: the party to vocally criticize that don't say gay legislation
Speaker 3: that was happening Florida. They got late, they were late
Speaker 3: to that party. Let's let's not forget that part about Disney.
Speaker 3: And so they reportedly filed this suit, like quote just
Speaker 3: minutes after DeSantis is he put the new governing board
Speaker 3: of this Reedy Creek Development District that they basically passed
Speaker 3: a resolute to basically put a halt to Disney's control
Speaker 3: in that area. And it's just like the whole thing
Speaker 3: is it reads like a terrible breakup letter. Disney's quote
Speaker 3: regrets it has come to this, and they've quote exhausted
Speaker 3: efforts to seek a resolution. So I think they're now
Speaker 3: going to have a conscious uncoupling with yeah, with Ron DeSantis.
Speaker 3: But again, this is where it gets a little freaky. Though.
Speaker 3: They're also trying to claim that they're standing up for
Speaker 3: small businesses and the little guys because you know what,
Speaker 3: they have the resources to take on the state. And
Speaker 3: this is where I believe it gets very, very very murky.
Speaker 3: So the lawsuit does show that DeSantis is like his
Speaker 3: policy definitely was motivated by Disney's, like you know that
Speaker 3: their First Amendment protected free speech. Even in his book
Speaker 3: that he's talked about this, like how he said that
Speaker 3: they they crossed the line, and you know, he had
Speaker 3: a like a special session to like terminate these special districts,
Speaker 3: which objectively are are fucking dumb to have or like
Speaker 3: a state's like yeah, yeah, yeah, you wealth group of
Speaker 3: wealthy people, do whatever the fuck you want and we'll.
Speaker 1: Just stay the do whatever makes you the most money. Yeah.
Speaker 1: There's like a story about like their monorail, like that
Speaker 1: the Disney monorail doesn't have to comply to the Department
Speaker 1: of Transportation Safety standards and like a cast member, like
Speaker 1: somebody that's what they call, people who like work at
Speaker 1: the park was killed, like died because of this, and
Speaker 1: they're just like yeah, yeah, move it along because they
Speaker 1: can because they're like their own government. And yeah, in
Speaker 1: that district. So it's fucking terrifying. But that's not why
Speaker 1: he's being fucked up about it.
Speaker 3: Well, like the state could have tried to like just
Speaker 3: repeal their you know, weird ass stranglehold over this area,
Speaker 3: but because like DeSantis is in such a weird ego trip,
Speaker 3: like it had to be this whole thing to like
Speaker 3: score points and like like you know, keep escalating the
Speaker 3: fucking situation. And now like it's come to this major lawsuit.
Speaker 3: But this is the thing that's very kind of this
Speaker 3: is the thing I have my eye on. The rhetoric
Speaker 3: in this lawsuit. Like, while there is a lot to
Speaker 3: like evoke their constitutional free speech and all this other shit,
Speaker 3: they're evoking this thing called the contracts clause, which was
Speaker 3: something that was very contentious at the turn of the
Speaker 3: previous century, going from the eighteen hundreds to the nineteen hundreds.
Speaker 3: In that time, like the Supreme Court repeatedly quote use
Speaker 3: the contracts clause to preserve private monopolies over things like
Speaker 3: the water supply or preventing local governments from constructing their
Speaker 3: own water works. It also struck down a Kansas law
Speaker 3: and acted during a financial panic that let mortgage holders
Speaker 3: stay in their homes for several months after foreclosure. So
Speaker 3: essentially the Supreme Court would say that if a state
Speaker 3: tried to intervene on behalf of the citizens to like
Speaker 3: nullify like an agreement or like a predatory contract, they
Speaker 3: would basically side with the businesses and essentially keep regulation
Speaker 3: at bay. So building their lawsuit around this specific language
Speaker 3: is opening the door possibly for like an appeal to
Speaker 3: the Supreme Court where they may want to revisit this
Speaker 3: and have another opportunity to realign our legal system with
Speaker 3: the interests of business owners and not workers. Like that's
Speaker 3: like the that's the slippery slope that they're using this
Speaker 3: like language.
Speaker 1: With and that has been the Supreme court'smo the entire like.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they haven't for they haven't take ten years, they
Speaker 3: haven't taught, like, they haven't touched the contract clause in
Speaker 3: a while, because the sort of the flow of our
Speaker 3: culture was like, yeah, regulation is good because this is
Speaker 3: like coming out of the depression and shit like that.
Speaker 3: So now I'm like, oh, I guess I'm on this
Speaker 3: side because you can distill sort of his argument, and
Speaker 3: this is a very charitable distillation down to no company
Speaker 3: should have this much power in a state where they
Speaker 3: can just flaunt like regulations or these other things, which
Speaker 3: is one percent true. And we talked to about already
Speaker 3: how fucked up this Reedy Creek Improvement District is. His
Speaker 3: reason for doing it is just absolutely fucked up, and
Speaker 3: it's based on his like authoritarian ego. But this again,
Speaker 3: I just I'm bringing this up because Disney isn't the
Speaker 3: only company that's talking about the contract. Cause, like, many
Speaker 3: companies are trying to win cases based on this logic,
Speaker 3: but so far they have been unsuccessful. Quote this is
Speaker 3: from Slaate Hotels cite the clause to battle severance pay
Speaker 3: for workers and rehire and the rehire of laid off employees.
Speaker 3: Delivery apps used it to combat caps on the amount
Speaker 3: of quote commission cash they can extract from restaurants. Corporations
Speaker 3: deployed it to fight data privacy laws. Police unions have
Speaker 3: seized upon it to hobble disciplinary procedures and conceal records
Speaker 3: of misconduct from the public. So when you put it
Speaker 3: all together, you're like, oh, this is to stay like
Speaker 3: Disney's using this fucking legal reasoning that's on the side
Speaker 3: of all the evil doers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just so fucked that this is the only
Speaker 1: place we get a politician pushing back on corporate power,
Speaker 1: just like unfettered corporate power, like complete deregulation, which is
Speaker 1: the like rule of in modern America. But because the
Speaker 1: two parties are essentially in the center working with corporations
Speaker 1: like that, you don't get anything like this from the left,
Speaker 1: and so you just like accidentally get it coming from
Speaker 1: like fascists, yeah, you know, right wing shit.
Speaker 11: Is it possible for both sides of a lawsuit to
Speaker 11: lose because that would honestly be so sick, but.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it would be some kind of sad settlement.
Speaker 1: I mean.
Speaker 3: The thing that like a lot of people pointed out
Speaker 3: is like we've talked about how Disney like they outsmarted
Speaker 3: DeSantis and they changed all their bylaws to like lock
Speaker 3: down their like stranglehold over this area. And if they like,
Speaker 3: like legal observers are like, why don't they just go
Speaker 3: back because they did everything to the letter of the
Speaker 3: law as it appears, and just fight it on the
Speaker 3: merits rather than like countersuing with this like contract clause shit.
Speaker 1: And because they know that this is an opportunity where
Speaker 1: they're like they have public on their side. Right, it
Speaker 1: doesn't look creepy all of a sudden for them to
Speaker 1: be like, yeah, we want to actually have authoritarian power
Speaker 1: within this small district.
Speaker 3: Right, So I guess it's kind of win win for authoritarians, Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 3: or how you paint it, so it's all fucking bad.
Speaker 11: Yeah, So I got a shout out to capitalists for
Speaker 11: making inclusion just another tool.
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, essentially, yeah, mastered it.
Speaker 1: Like anybody who's worried about the singularity, like that capitalism
Speaker 1: is the singularity. It's already like it's just constantly working.
Speaker 1: It's this hive mind that is constantly working around the
Speaker 1: clock to find ways to expand its power, and no
Speaker 1: matter what you give to it, whether it be justice
Speaker 1: or injustice, it's going to find a way. Yeah.
Speaker 3: It's so weird too, because like they're the critics on
Speaker 3: their right and like people who have like observed the
Speaker 3: DeSantis camp or potential campaign and how he's setting himself
Speaker 3: up to run are like, I don't know if this
Speaker 3: is the best move because they're like while Republicans like
Speaker 3: obviously like a bit of culture war, they also know that,
Speaker 3: like they don't want to live in a world where
Speaker 3: potentially the government can dictate to them how to run
Speaker 3: their business, even if it is him doing that to
Speaker 3: that side. And so some people are like, I mean, yeah,
Speaker 3: but it's the culture warshit really worth it. And right now,
Speaker 3: like if you just look at the polls, Ron DeSantis
Speaker 3: is like not not doing well at all, and the
Speaker 3: culture war stuff is like pulling like really low. Like
Speaker 3: if anything, it's it's it's not helping anybody. But again,
Speaker 3: this is sort of like the place that they want
Speaker 3: to make their like you know, policy battles over because
Speaker 3: it prevents any kind of substantive debate over anything. And
Speaker 3: again we remember the Republicans are just praying for a
Speaker 3: disaster right now as their as their plan going into
Speaker 3: twenty twenty four because they don't have any policies that work.
Speaker 3: They need some new fucking financial meltdown or some new
Speaker 3: pandemic or something. This can be like, oh my god,
Speaker 3: Joe Biden did it all for us. We hate rights,
Speaker 3: So yeah.
Speaker 1: I do worry anytime it's Republicans, Like, yeah, I've said
Speaker 1: this before, but they've been willing to put their foot
Speaker 1: on the scale and like shocking ways that cause lots
Speaker 1: of deaths. With Nixon, like prolonging the Vietnam War. But
Speaker 1: like they're also you know, every one of the billionaires
Speaker 1: who like runs the economy is at heart ultimately a Republican,
Speaker 1: even if they claim to be a Democrat. Absolutely the
Speaker 1: same reason Disney here is claiming to be all about
Speaker 1: you know, LGBTQ rights, like they they ultimately the policy
Speaker 1: that they're in favor of is monopoly and you know,
Speaker 1: right wing, right wing economics.
Speaker 3: So oh LGBTQ, you mean, let's get bags tonight, queens.
Speaker 3: That's our fucking model.
Speaker 11: Over here at Disney. Yeah, I can't. I can't stand
Speaker 11: people who are socially liberal and fiscally.
Speaker 1: Fiscally conservative, you know.
Speaker 11: I mean, oh yeah, I've actually I'm actually the opposite.
Speaker 11: I'm actually socially conservative and fiscally liberal.
Speaker 7: That's my new thing.
Speaker 11: I think that colleges should be free and they should
Speaker 11: be segregated, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, there you go.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna just go all out with Hey, Brody.
Speaker 3: That's that's do you know what they might they might
Speaker 3: take yup on that. Somebody's like they will.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they actually just put together a nominating committee.
Speaker 11: For you absolutely, ship. I think that private company should
Speaker 11: stop bottling public water. And I also want a water
Speaker 11: found that's just for me and my friends, and.
Speaker 3: I want to turgure out how to do that. And
Speaker 3: we need we need water founds for black people who
Speaker 3: speak Japanese specific Thank you, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: I'm with you on that for the two of us.
Speaker 3: How's your Japanese going, by the way, good, It's great,
Speaker 3: It's really good. Good. I'm like, I talked to my
Speaker 3: son so much in Japanese because I got a you
Speaker 3: know what I mean, And I just thought of that. Anyway.
Speaker 3: One more thing though, to talk about Ronda Santis Oh,
Speaker 3: just he apparently has a huge cash advantage over Donald
Speaker 3: Trump though despite him being forty six points behind. He
Speaker 3: has before he even announcing, they said he's about he's
Speaker 3: just sitting on one hundred and ten million dollars going
Speaker 3: to this campaign. Trump at the end of last year
Speaker 3: had fifty five million, although I think with his recent
Speaker 3: indictment and NFT griffs that figure is most definitely higher.
Speaker 3: But just an interesting thing to note. Even though like
Speaker 3: a lot of the reportings like donors are fleeing and
Speaker 3: they don't know what to do. I'm like, he's got
Speaker 3: a lot of cash. Looked.
Speaker 1: That's just like a measure of what the like wishes
Speaker 1: are of the uber wealthy, right, Like Mike Pence, I
Speaker 1: think is if if he had like over one percent polling,
Speaker 1: would probably yeah yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean Connor roy donor leader. Yeah, exactly, fucking less
Speaker 3: than one percent, probably being the leading fund raser because god,
Speaker 3: they love him.
Speaker 1: They're just like just an empty He's almost like a
Speaker 1: robot that we can just control. Yeah, he sticks.
Speaker 3: He literally will stick to the script like Ron Burgundy.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: But one more thing about Rohn DeSantis, because this is
Speaker 3: really something he he doesn't really talk about his time
Speaker 3: as a JAG judge, advocate general or military lawyer as
Speaker 3: it pertains to his time at Guantanamo Bay, you know,
Speaker 3: the torture venue where America was trying to get to
Speaker 3: the bottom of are You al Qaeda?
Speaker 1: Yeah, So, so he's not worried about a location being
Speaker 1: completely outside of the law there, just when.
Speaker 3: It's Disney, just when it's in his state, then he's
Speaker 3: got issues with it.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So apparently, as like the timelines show Ronda Santa's first
Speaker 3: pulled up to Guantanamo Bay when the prisoners were engaged
Speaker 3: in a mass like mass hunger strikes. Yeah, because you know,
Speaker 3: they were being tortured and like, so they sent all
Speaker 3: these military lawyers down there to try and improve the conditions. However,
Speaker 3: by the end of him run, they had the most
Speaker 3: loss of life there on record. There were three prisoners
Speaker 3: that quote died by Sue was signed and I'm doing
Speaker 3: that in the SpongeBob and you can hear that. Weird,
Speaker 3: aren't unlikely because these people were being tortured, and many
Speaker 3: other detainees were like none, these people did not, That's
Speaker 3: not how they died. And in twenty eighteen he even
Speaker 3: bragged about how he came up with the idea to
Speaker 3: force feed the prisoners that were on hunger strike, which
Speaker 3: is considered torture. Okay, and more than a few detainees
Speaker 3: recognized DeSantis and one even said that the governor was
Speaker 3: present when he was force fed. And recently, Ron de
Speaker 3: Santis was asked about this during a trip to Israel
Speaker 3: and his answer was very calm and not shady or
Speaker 3: weird at all, and not defensive and fuck you, what
Speaker 3: are you fucking talking about? Let's listen to him be
Speaker 3: asked a very straight up question about Hey, people say
Speaker 3: you were in Guantanamo cared to comment on this? Just
Speaker 3: listen to how out of sorts this guy gets when
Speaker 3: being asked about his time at Guantanamo Bay.
Speaker 2: During your You think we're saying incidents?
Speaker 1: No, no, not all.
Speaker 12: That's bs now totally.
Speaker 1: President Young Yeah, seating who said that?
Speaker 4: How would they know me?
Speaker 12: Okay, think about that. Do you honestly believe that's credible?
Speaker 12: So this is twenty two thousand and six. I'm a
Speaker 12: junior officer. Do you honestly think that they would have
Speaker 12: remembered me from Adam?
Speaker 1: Of course not.
Speaker 12: They're just trying to get into the news because they
Speaker 12: know people like you will consume it because it fits
Speaker 12: your preordainedarrative that you're trying to spend.
Speaker 11: Yeah, boo, we're not going to get tell their part there,
Speaker 11: we're in front of a board that says Museum of
Speaker 11: Tolerance is really ironic. It's also ironic because Disneyland is
Speaker 11: pretty much Guantanamo Bay for parents.
Speaker 7: Am I am? I?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 1: Hey yeah, right, hey, he just got back. They were
Speaker 1: forced beating me churros.
Speaker 3: I tell you when I heard that anyway, But the
Speaker 3: thing is, like, did you hear this man?
Speaker 9: His line?
Speaker 13: His line of logic, Why would anyone remember me, the
Speaker 13: guy who offered them a solution to their horrible situation
Speaker 13: and only ended up making things far worse for them
Speaker 13: and probably and.
Speaker 3: Most possibly the most fucked up.
Speaker 1: Times of their lives. Why how would they remember me
Speaker 1: at all? Like also like visibly begin sweating, Like he
Speaker 1: like suddenly is sweaty.
Speaker 3: He looked like Jordan Peele in that one me coming
Speaker 3: down his face.
Speaker 7: Yeah, he's such an narcissist. He should be happy that
Speaker 7: they recognized.
Speaker 1: Them, little old me. They recognized me? Why because I'm
Speaker 1: so stunning?
Speaker 3: And that is wild though to see like how different
Speaker 3: it is like when he's like not in Florida doing
Speaker 3: his like you know, her solar type of events, and
Speaker 3: then you go abroad and I's like, hey man, motherfuckers
Speaker 3: recognize you from gipmo And he's like that and you're like,
Speaker 3: oh shit, no, they didn't moving on, And then like
Speaker 3: the rest.
Speaker 1: Of the media it just like doesn't let him move on,
Speaker 1: whereas in Florida everyone's like terrified. So they're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: fuck you man, why that question?
Speaker 3: Oh my god? Have you ever been in a traumatic
Speaker 3: situation and remembered the faces of people that were there
Speaker 3: that offered you a lifeline. Really, now, really that's the
Speaker 3: main character in his story. I don't think so.
Speaker 1: Yeah, his objection was just no, they don't like he
Speaker 1: didn't offer any how. I was a junior off. Okay,
Speaker 1: but do you think you're a Santos man? Do you
Speaker 1: don't have a guntlet of power.
Speaker 7: You can't just snap things into this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he had a tough trip to Israel because that
Speaker 1: was also where like somebody asked him about his polling
Speaker 1: numbers and he just like had a real meltdown.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 7: Well, you know who else had a tough trip to Israel?
Speaker 7: Most of I don't know. Only I only the only
Speaker 7: thing I know I passover is the Rugbrat specials.
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, all right, should we take another break
Speaker 1: and talk about drug sniffing dogs when we get back?
Speaker 1: Yeah that sound good. That sound good.
Speaker 3: Drugs They dogs that sniff drugs. Yeah, I got that
Speaker 3: dogs that party, dude, manager dog party, Yeah, dogs done.
Speaker 3: My dog's here to sniff some drugs. Dude. All right,
Speaker 3: we'll be right back.
Speaker 1: And we're back, and the w g A strike is official.
Speaker 1: Writers are set to pick it, uh yesterday, so I
Speaker 1: think they did pick it, and they did.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you had to sign up, make sure you.
Speaker 1: The unions have said that the production companies have created
Speaker 1: a gig economy inside a union workforce. When you see
Speaker 1: the details of like what is happening, but it used
Speaker 1: to be paid to writers and like what is on
Speaker 1: offer now it's just I guess the most pressing issues compensation.
Speaker 1: The number of scripted shows have skyrocketed, but writers pay
Speaker 1: has completely stagnated. They started doing this thing, the mini
Speaker 1: writers room, where they just like have fewer people working
Speaker 1: on a show so they can pay fewer people, they
Speaker 1: like have them working for less time. You as the consumer,
Speaker 1: even if you're not a member of the WGA, you
Speaker 1: were going to see this in like the lower quality
Speaker 1: of the content that's being produced. But it's yeah, and
Speaker 1: so like when you look at the details of the negotiation,
Speaker 1: the units like, so we want to like have at
Speaker 1: least a basement on like the number of writers and
Speaker 1: the number of time, like the amount of time that
Speaker 1: constitutes a writer's room, and the corporate you know, powers
Speaker 1: that be came back with like, how about we don't
Speaker 1: even response to that because fuck you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's kind of the response and it is it's
Speaker 3: kind of just the way things are shifting. It's they're
Speaker 3: just slashing and burning, like the old ways of doing things,
Speaker 3: which rendered good content. But now yeah, but now we're
Speaker 3: also putting writers under pressure to be like, okay, you
Speaker 3: have three days to do this whole thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: This has just been like the story of our lives
Speaker 2: is like they got rid of everything that made having
Speaker 2: a job a thing you wanted to do. Like, so
Speaker 2: they've made everybody an independent contractor even at jobs where
Speaker 2: you once would have had like a salary job I've
Speaker 2: had and and it happened first in journalism and now
Speaker 2: it's happening in Hollywood. But basically it's just like the
Speaker 2: tech companyization of everything. It's like when tech companies come
Speaker 2: in and take everything over. What they mean by like
Speaker 2: move fast and break things is like fucking and break
Speaker 2: labor laws.
Speaker 1: Yeah right, breaking yeah, spirits they're using like in this case,
Speaker 1: they used the switch from like cable television to streaming
Speaker 1: as like the excuse to completely like rewire everything, like
Speaker 1: rewar the contract. And it's like such an arbitrary difference.
Speaker 1: It's just like what people watch it on.
Speaker 2: My logical brain. When I was like a young writer
Speaker 2: starting out, like as magazines and other ecosystems are like collapsing,
Speaker 2: and I thought foolishly like, okay, well it'll go to
Speaker 2: the internet and at some point they'll start compensating people
Speaker 2: fairly on the internet. But the whole time it's just
Speaker 2: been like no internet, other thing that's less valuable, so
Speaker 2: we pay you less. And like race just haven't gone
Speaker 2: up for writers across the board in like twenty years,
Speaker 2: which is like insane, but it reflects other trends in
Speaker 2: the country of just like rates aren't going up. Jobs
Speaker 2: don't have the things that once made it for any reason,
Speaker 2: like useful to have a steady job.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: It's like yeah, yeah, how about less perks, less benefits,
Speaker 3: more work, right, Well, it's like they offer it.
Speaker 2: It's like you get to make choices. It's like this thing.
Speaker 2: I feel like it was also like marketed to us
Speaker 2: as like you get to like you get to have
Speaker 2: five jobs.
Speaker 1: You get to let rite yea work all things right, You're.
Speaker 2: Not tied down to this one job for twenty years,
Speaker 2: so you get to work seventy jobs all the time forever,
Speaker 2: with no promise of like any kind of contract pickup
Speaker 2: you know, especially something like writing where you can make
Speaker 2: people feel like they're lucky to be doing it at
Speaker 2: all for money, because it's like any kind of creative pursuit.
Speaker 2: This is on my next podcast is about about the
Speaker 2: most worker protections and content making and all that stuff
Speaker 2: in the most important American media industry.
Speaker 4: Yeah, which is which is pornography. Yes, yeah, I'm sure.
Speaker 1: I'm sure that was assumed by our listeners. Yeah, they know.
Speaker 2: Well, it's just interesting because I've been working on it,
Speaker 2: and it is really about workers' rights and content merchantry
Speaker 2: and art making for money, right, and the way in
Speaker 2: which it went from being a thing where you could
Speaker 2: have a study job to being a thing where you
Speaker 2: are like a mercenary. Yeah, and how how even mercenaries
Speaker 2: deserve protections.
Speaker 1: Especially you know, thank you, h Yeah Eric.
Speaker 3: Eric Prince was just talking about that recently on Sebastian
Speaker 3: Gorka's podcast. I like one of the other things too, right,
Speaker 3: because we talk about technology and things, is like the
Speaker 3: w GA, the Writers Guild. They're also very concerned about AI.
Speaker 2: But that stuff is crazy because that to me feels
Speaker 2: like shows you how dumb they are that they're like,
Speaker 2: we can replace you with robots.
Speaker 4: Yeah, like because all the AI.
Speaker 2: Stuff, it's like never up to the level that it's
Speaker 2: being advertised as.
Speaker 3: It's like a friend of mine had like who has
Speaker 3: chat GPT they were showing me. I was like, they're like, dude,
Speaker 3: I got it to pitch like five movie ideas based
Speaker 3: on this candy or whatever, like, and it's like they're
Speaker 3: like and we put the prompt in and it's funny
Speaker 3: how it just it gives you, like the most like
Speaker 3: they're serviceable ideas, but they're clearly just aggregated from other
Speaker 3: ideas elsewhere and you're like, no, this is actually original.
Speaker 3: Like one thing was just like The Avengers, but like
Speaker 3: but they skinned it over with like these candy things,
Speaker 3: and another one was like basically Tommy Boy but with
Speaker 3: like candy.
Speaker 2: Maybe that's like the problem is writers are like, yeah,
Speaker 2: but like AI is going to give you like shitty content,
Speaker 2: and they're like, yeah.
Speaker 4: That's what we want.
Speaker 2: We don't care if it's fucking good. We want a
Speaker 2: robot to write the Avengers. That's obviously where this has
Speaker 2: been going all along.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and Ultron wins in this one.
Speaker 2: And there's something about just like de platforming writers as
Speaker 2: a group that is obviously fascist, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: The thing that's kind of spooky, right is like in
Speaker 3: the negotiations the WJ is like in regards to AI,
Speaker 3: they're like, we can't have it be normalized that you
Speaker 3: can use AI to be credited with any writing. And
Speaker 3: all we're asking is that you don't do that or
Speaker 3: you're doing some chat GPT script shit and then having
Speaker 3: a like a human writer punch it up after Like
Speaker 3: the Lord's so scary.
Speaker 2: The idea of like a robot punching up scripts honestly
Speaker 2: does like frighten me to my very core in a
Speaker 2: way that like, I never I've never thought about it
Speaker 2: until now.
Speaker 3: You know, right, yeah, And I like how like so
Speaker 3: the response of like the theater or the studios and
Speaker 3: stuff to like the AI question is we will have
Speaker 3: annual meetings to discuss advancements in technology. We're not gonna
Speaker 3: say yes to anything.
Speaker 1: You said, what mean, right, Yeah, The whole thing is
Speaker 1: we make no promises. The whole thing I mean this
Speaker 1: is like you said, Mie, this is what's happening across
Speaker 1: all capitalist systems, especially in the United States. Things are
Speaker 1: being rewired, like everything is, it's just more and more
Speaker 1: being normalized, where now they don't even have to like
Speaker 1: engage with the requests. They're just like, weal in response
Speaker 1: to your concerns that AI will write scripts that you
Speaker 1: then get like twenty dollars to punch up. We will
Speaker 1: have meetings to discuss that with you.
Speaker 4: It's also like the.
Speaker 2: Bigger the name of the corporation, the more they will
Speaker 2: tell you to go fuck yourself, you know. And so like,
Speaker 2: I know people who were working for Disney on like
Speaker 2: a show that was some of the issues that led
Speaker 2: to this, I feel like, and some of it is
Speaker 2: like they're having people write things on spec essentially, it's
Speaker 2: like they don't have to greenlight the show until after
Speaker 2: they've written an entire season of it.
Speaker 3: Truly, the hoops that our people are jumping through is
Speaker 3: it just.
Speaker 4: Makes no sense.
Speaker 2: It's like if you cared at all about the efficiency, obviously,
Speaker 2: Hollywood is like not an efficiently run system.
Speaker 1: One of the details that I've read in like how
Speaker 1: Studios Fucked people Over is there was a show, like
Speaker 1: a successful network show that had a like bump built
Speaker 1: into the writer's contracts from like going from the first
Speaker 1: twenty six episode season to the second twenty six episode season,
Speaker 1: and so to avoid doing that, the studio just changed
Speaker 1: the length of the season in the contract to fifty
Speaker 1: two episodes. It just had them work on a longer
Speaker 1: season one. Just most bad faith, no shitty kinds, the.
Speaker 2: Kinds of workarounds they do, yeah for these things. And
Speaker 2: I've been in situations where I had what felt like
Speaker 2: it should be a very like tenured media job and
Speaker 2: would once have been like a tenured media job and
Speaker 2: the kind of thing you could like depend on for
Speaker 2: a few years, and instead they gave it to like
Speaker 2: three of us and made us all independent contractors and
Speaker 2: gave us just no guarantees that we would ever be working.
Speaker 2: It was just like no problem, you know, no promises
Speaker 2: of how much work.
Speaker 7: This is.
Speaker 2: When there's a column you'll know.
Speaker 1: Gig work, but gigs that makes it sound funny, like
Speaker 1: you're doing a fun concert or something.
Speaker 3: And then you can go to your rent fare and
Speaker 3: smoke weed, you know, and you smoke weed.
Speaker 2: I think Also it's like like these things are intertwined.
Speaker 2: Also what my next podcast is about. But it's like
Speaker 2: often when the bottom falls out of an industry or
Speaker 2: the profit making is like not what it once was
Speaker 2: that's when they let people of color and women in,
Speaker 2: you know, because they're like, oh, well, nobody fucking cares now,
Speaker 2: Like this isn't it isn't like writing on cheers where
Speaker 2: you would buy how you know, a house why from it?
Speaker 2: It's like it's gig work. So it's like as it
Speaker 2: becomes more diverse and like traditional gatekeeping is changing, it's
Speaker 2: like it also does feel like they're trying to crush
Speaker 2: that too. But it's also like when people are like, oh,
Speaker 2: once I would have the problem with all these executives
Speaker 2: is they just wanted to be the past.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 2: It's like they're not interested in dealing with what's happening now.
Speaker 2: Because this was These are also the same issues as
Speaker 2: the two thousand and eight strike, which was that things
Speaker 2: were going to the internet. People weren't being compensated fairly
Speaker 2: for work on the internet. They weren't getting residuals. They
Speaker 2: were using it as an excuse to like pay people less,
Speaker 2: and it just never got fixed. Even in the first strike,
Speaker 2: it never really got fixed. They just did a million
Speaker 2: reality shows. That was when they did a big push
Speaker 2: on reality because reality had no labor protections and like,
Speaker 2: really does it is like the most exploitative.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And like we were saying on the Trending episode
Speaker 3: the other day, is like from the studio standpoint, like
Speaker 3: with the amount of downsizing and shit that they've had
Speaker 3: to do and scaling back, like a strike is actually
Speaker 3: not bad for them because they're like, well that's less money.
Speaker 2: They're like, we're going to fuck everybody. We're just going
Speaker 2: to get rid of all these people and bring in scabs.
Speaker 2: And I truly think what's gonna happen is they're going
Speaker 2: to make a bunch of They're gonna sign a million,
Speaker 2: like fucking TikTok stars is what I think will happen.
Speaker 2: I think they're gonna be like fuck this, We're just
Speaker 2: gonna yeah, like yeah, because they don't respect writers. They
Speaker 2: don't respect writing. That's what's crazy about show business is
Speaker 2: the people who are in charge like don't respect art
Speaker 2: and don't care about art. Yeah, somebody said like quibi
Speaker 2: it is very like quibbi vibes. It's like a bunch
Speaker 2: of people saying something that like any sane person is like, yeah,
Speaker 2: you can't do this shit without writers, and they're like,
Speaker 2: oh watch.
Speaker 3: Us, Yeah, wait until they come back and HBO Max
Speaker 3: is like guess what Succession is coming back for a
Speaker 3: fifth season and helmed by Charlie de'millio and Logan Paul.
Speaker 4: That's what I mean.
Speaker 2: It's like I think they're intent to like strip all
Speaker 2: these brands.
Speaker 1: For parts because that's just like yeah, I think yeah,
Speaker 1: And that is.
Speaker 2: Ultimately like like it's TV writers or like a metaphor
Speaker 2: for everybody else where. It's just like this is a
Speaker 2: very once lucrative, prestigious job and it is not what
Speaker 2: it used to be.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's I mean, I think that's that's the thing
Speaker 3: that's become very fortuitous for like these greedy studios is
Speaker 3: like when you're dealing with people that are like already
Speaker 3: driven by a passion for something, they're probably more likely
Speaker 3: to want to go along with whatever you're offering because
Speaker 3: for them, they're passionate about it and like yeah, man,
Speaker 3: they're fucking we'll do it because where else are you
Speaker 3: gonna write on TV? Etceter.
Speaker 2: True, But it's like the same thing is probably true
Speaker 2: for like Amazon warehouses, where people are so desperate they
Speaker 2: have to say yes to anything.
Speaker 4: It's like, for sure, it's all about just like making people.
Speaker 2: Desperate it's just different levels of making people desperate so
Speaker 2: that they have to say yes to whatever because they
Speaker 2: truly just like are scraping by. And I think also
Speaker 2: this is where democrats are really fucking failing right now.
Speaker 2: I do think it's like during the pandemic, they did
Speaker 2: the thing they never had done before where they just
Speaker 2: gave us all money to be freelancers, right, and it
Speaker 2: like improved everybody's quality of life so much. Everybody I
Speaker 2: know is like that everything was bad, but remember how
Speaker 2: great it was to not be fucking stressed out about
Speaker 2: paying rent every month. Because like the government acknowledges you
Speaker 2: might need a little help, they should offer to help people,
Speaker 2: even if it's in bad faith. Then they're not going
Speaker 2: to do it. The fact that they're not even trying
Speaker 2: it is so depressing.
Speaker 3: Let me get offer, man, come.
Speaker 1: On, yea.
Speaker 2: About the WGA too, They're like, look, we really want
Speaker 2: to negotiate with it, just like I've been in a
Speaker 2: lot of situations like this at this point where it's like, yeah,
Speaker 2: you're like we love you know what you do? Why
Speaker 2: would they treat me like a person? And I think
Speaker 2: that's the thing about capitalism too, is it's like.
Speaker 4: No matter how valuable you become.
Speaker 2: In capitalism, even if you become like a super high
Speaker 2: paid showrunner or whatever, there's still a fucking commodity to them,
Speaker 2: and that means they can throw you away.
Speaker 1: In this version of capitalism, this hypercapitalism that's just all
Speaker 1: about creating value for shareholders and does not give a
Speaker 1: fuck about the people who are actually creating the value
Speaker 1: that then gets transferred into monetary value for shareholders.
Speaker 2: Corporations are people and people are corporations.
Speaker 1: Man, oh, I mean I am working on my branding.
Speaker 2: Well, I think it's like you have to you have
Speaker 2: to make you mercenary and it's for better and worse.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Well we've all had to commodify ourselves in someone.
Speaker 1: And that's good. It's efficient, and that's what we want
Speaker 1: to leave you with.
Speaker 2: But look, just because you don't win every time, does
Speaker 2: that make you a failure?
Speaker 1: Yes? Yeah, Molly, such a pleasure having you. All Right,
Speaker 1: that's going to do it for this week's weekly Zeitgeist.
Speaker 1: Please like and review the show. If you like, the
Speaker 1: show means the world demiles.
Speaker 3: He needs your validation, folks.
Speaker 1: I hope you're having a great weekend, and I will
Speaker 1: talk to you Monday by