Speaker 1: Hello the Internet, and welcome to this episode of News Speratu,
Speaker 1: because we talked about the news, but mostly no Sparatu.
Speaker 1: My name is Jack and I'm thrilled to be joined
Speaker 1: by today's special guest.
Speaker 2: Co host, Kaitlyn Dorante. Katie Durany.
Speaker 3: That's one of my my father, Jimmy Duranty.
Speaker 2: Jimmy Duranty, he was very old.
Speaker 3: And our son, Kevin Durant, the son that I saw.
Speaker 3: I forgot that I said that Jimmy Duranty was my father.
Speaker 3: We have a kid together.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, that's horrible.
Speaker 3: Are falling apart?
Speaker 1: Well, we're breaking news on this one, all right, Caitlin,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining us. This is the
Speaker 1: episode where we tell people what is trending right now
Speaker 1: on Wednesday afternoon. We'll start with like a good one
Speaker 1: because there's not a lot of them to go around.
Speaker 1: Congestion pricing is working. We talked at the time that
Speaker 1: it was being rolled out that it felt like something
Speaker 1: out of like another era or like another country, Like
Speaker 1: a small progressive policy that is like kind of common
Speaker 1: sense is meant to positively affect people's lives, like it
Speaker 1: is done on behalf of people instead of corporations.
Speaker 3: And this is happening in America.
Speaker 1: In America, in New York City, which is part of
Speaker 1: a big one. Yeah, that's one of the big that's
Speaker 1: one of the big ones. I think I gotta double
Speaker 1: check my Wikipedia, but I think New York City one
Speaker 1: of the big ones. It's a great city. You could
Speaker 1: open up a business and then planes could fly into
Speaker 1: the towers. That's that's also wow any given day. That's
Speaker 1: what Eric Adams said about New York City, the city
Speaker 1: that he is the mayor of, about why it's a
Speaker 1: good city. You know, you never know what's going to happen,
Speaker 1: big plot twist. You know, you're just celebrating your business
Speaker 1: that open and then nine to eleven. Anyways, this is
Speaker 1: a piece of policy that you know, progressive politicians were
Speaker 1: fighting for for a long time, where basically they were
Speaker 1: going to charge people fifteen dollars. They you know, via negotiation,
Speaker 1: it got pushed down to nine dollars. The idea is
Speaker 1: to dissuade people from driving their cars into New York City,
Speaker 1: a thing that they do repeatedly for some reason. Even
Speaker 1: though I can't think of a worse hell, I've done
Speaker 1: it a couple of times in my life. It is
Speaker 1: a fucking nightmare.
Speaker 3: The scariest experience I've ever had driving in Manhattan.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah.
Speaker 1: I pulled out of a car rental place in Manhattan,
Speaker 1: like my first time ever driving in Manhattan. I had
Speaker 1: to rent a car and like go somewhere outside of
Speaker 1: the city. Pulled out in like the thirties, and somebody
Speaker 1: immediately laid on their horn and like screamed by me
Speaker 1: at fifty miles per hour, giving me a finger, Like wow,
Speaker 1: I was like second one.
Speaker 2: They're like fuck you. I was like all right.
Speaker 1: Anyways, you know, it's not only a policy that is
Speaker 1: designed to positively impact people's lives in a way that
Speaker 1: like could potentially be seen as like damaging to commerce
Speaker 1: and corporations who sell cars at the very least, but
Speaker 1: pushing back against cars and car culture, which is simply
Speaker 1: not done in these United States. Simply not Yes, so
Speaker 1: of course tons of freak outs. We covered them last
Speaker 1: week when this was being rolled out. There's a guy
Speaker 1: who is basically like democracy is dead because I can't
Speaker 1: drive nine blocks to work, and like the defector like
Speaker 1: looked into the drive that he was talking about, and
Speaker 1: it's like the most beautiful. It takes as long to
Speaker 1: walk the distance, and it's like a beautiful walk through
Speaker 1: Central Park And he's.
Speaker 3: Like, oh, does one like parking costs a bazilion do?
Speaker 3: Like why would you we? New York is one of
Speaker 3: the few cities in the US that is actually set
Speaker 3: up where you can get around without a car.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so we're just like tar brand gun brand, Like
Speaker 1: we just like we don't we want it. We don't
Speaker 1: care about the consequences. But anyway, like I guess there
Speaker 1: are some consequences, like nine dollars that do impact people's decisions.
Speaker 1: Because despite the freak out, the law went into effect
Speaker 1: and the results were kind of immediate and like startling,
Speaker 1: Like you just there's all sorts of videos of people
Speaker 1: being like this is Manhattan, like on Thursday afternoon, and
Speaker 1: it's like it's just quiet. Like the areas that were
Speaker 1: under congestion pricing saw a massive drop off in traffic.
Speaker 1: The city quieted the buses, like all now it makes
Speaker 1: sense to take the bus, which was kind of part
Speaker 1: of the idea. Along cabs became a functional thing for
Speaker 1: Miles and I were in New York. We had to
Speaker 1: like get to a meeting quickly, and we took a
Speaker 1: cab and it took forty five minutes to go like
Speaker 1: three blocks.
Speaker 2: It was bonker, you know, it was so wild.
Speaker 1: It was like, all right, well we should be getting
Speaker 1: out to walk. Anyways, there are stats that are saying
Speaker 1: the number of cars entering those parts of the cities
Speaker 1: that are under congestion pricing have fallen by anywhere between
Speaker 1: seven point five and eighteen point five percent, which is
Speaker 1: like kind of right in line with like what their
Speaker 1: goal was. So, yeah, New York will become more livable
Speaker 1: because they got this one piece of legislation through.
Speaker 3: I thought it already cost like eight dollars if you
Speaker 3: wanted to drive into.
Speaker 1: Their bowls specific to like various tunnels and stuff. But
Speaker 1: this is like an additional more expensive thing for just
Speaker 1: like being there, and they like just take a picture
Speaker 1: of your license plate and then send you the bill.
Speaker 1: So I don't know, maybe people are just like freaked
Speaker 1: out by it, and only for now they're just avoiding it,
Speaker 1: at which case, like maybe it gets crowded again and
Speaker 1: then people start using it again, but then they start
Speaker 1: paying a bunch of money that is going to go
Speaker 1: towards improving the public transit.
Speaker 3: So I was going to ask what they're using these
Speaker 3: nine dollars.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's all of public transit. Okay, that's nice. It's nice,
Speaker 1: like all around, like a very simple idea that like
Speaker 1: might be on the list of like one hundred ideas
Speaker 1: that would make this city better, and like ninety nine
Speaker 1: of them. Of course they're immediately shot down by like
Speaker 1: the fucking Commerce Department or whatever.
Speaker 2: But they got one through.
Speaker 1: They got their one through, So congratulations to New York.
Speaker 2: Obviously.
Speaker 1: The big news of today is that it appears there
Speaker 1: is a ceasefire deal between Israel and Palestine, a ceasefire
Speaker 1: between Israel and Hamas following mediation with a face approach
Speaker 1: that we'll have Hamas releasing some hostages in exchange for
Speaker 1: Israel releasing what the mainstream media calls Palestinian prisoners but
Speaker 1: are just also you know, hostages being held by Israel,
Speaker 1: and then the rest of the hostages will be released
Speaker 1: in exchange for more prisoners and the complete withdrawal of
Speaker 1: Israeli forces from Gaza. But just on the way out,
Speaker 1: with a ceasefire imminent, Israel decided to go on a
Speaker 1: rampage while they still could, and targeted a residential block
Speaker 1: in what was described as one of the bloodiest and
Speaker 1: most difficult nights for the Gaza Strip. And there's no
Speaker 1: shortage of those. They killed sixty two Palestinian citizens and
Speaker 1: injured two hundred and fifty three more in the twenty
Speaker 1: four hours leading up to the seasfire news.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Plus, I mean, as people have pointed out, there's
Speaker 3: absolutely no guarantee and it's actually probably unlikely that Israel
Speaker 3: will actually obey the ceasefire if this deal does go through,
Speaker 3: which different officials in the government of the imaginary State
Speaker 3: of Israel are trying to block. So there's that. And
Speaker 3: even if it does go through, Israel has a history
Speaker 3: of not obeying a ceasefire and still dropping bombs and
Speaker 3: inflicting violence against Palestinians. So we'll see. And as so
Speaker 3: many people are pointing out, ceasefire is like the first step.
Speaker 3: There's so much to do beyond this and the siege
Speaker 3: and the occupation. Basically there's many steps beyond this. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I think a lot of people will be like, oh, ceasefire, Well,
Speaker 3: we can be right, but now there's much to do
Speaker 3: from this point on. This is only the beginning.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is trying to get back to a you
Speaker 1: know situation where Israel was still you know, had snipers
Speaker 1: targeting citizens for just peacefully protesting by the border. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it's obviously you know that there are some aspects of
Speaker 1: it to feel like they could be good news, but
Speaker 1: definitely just keeping an eye on it for sure.
Speaker 3: Proceed with caution, proceed with oh.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1: Oh and there's also just some pulling that suggests that,
Speaker 1: like you Gove, for instance, like some of the mainstream
Speaker 1: polling places are surveying some of the people who stayed
Speaker 1: home and didn't vote for a Harris that had voted
Speaker 1: for Biden and being like, what what was that all about?
Speaker 1: And the number one most common reason that they gave
Speaker 1: was because she wouldn't break with Biden on Gaza. So
Speaker 1: just like for all the people who are like that's crazy,
Speaker 1: even suggest that she might break with Biden on Gaza
Speaker 1: doesn't seem like it seems like, yeah, it seems like
Speaker 1: a one of those straightforward, common sense things that would
Speaker 1: have made people be like, oh cool. So maybe like
Speaker 1: that is a leader who has a sense of humanity
Speaker 1: at a time when everything's in crisis, that might be
Speaker 1: something we need all right, let's take a quick break.
Speaker 1: We'll be right back, and we're back, and Severance is
Speaker 1: coming back.
Speaker 2: Kitlyn. Did you ever watch Severns.
Speaker 3: I only saw the pilot and then I was like,
Speaker 3: I'm I'm busy. I have movies to watch. Why would
Speaker 3: I be watching television when there's so movies. I said bitterly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Hey, you know, I liked this movie. I just
Speaker 1: wish it took three weeks to watch. Yeah, no, thanks, guys,
Speaker 1: I actually really liked.
Speaker 2: But it seems like a good show. It is like
Speaker 2: one of the rare.
Speaker 1: I think it's one of my favorite streamers of the past.
Speaker 1: I don't know how many years, but it was cool.
Speaker 1: It's definitely like a mystery box thing that I've yet
Speaker 1: to see one of these. Land you know, lost your mileage, Mayberry.
Speaker 2: I'm lost.
Speaker 1: But I didn't think it ended particularly well.
Speaker 3: Well, that's ridiculous. It ended perfectly.
Speaker 1: Are you a being lost head?
Speaker 4: Not really.
Speaker 3: I did see the whole series back in the mid
Speaker 3: to late two thousands. No, I think that it ended poorly.
Speaker 3: But I really liked the time travel season when they
Speaker 3: like go back to the seventies and Hurley's trying to
Speaker 3: write the screenplay to Star Wars before George Lucas can.
Speaker 1: That's amazing. That is wild that that is something that
Speaker 1: happens and.
Speaker 3: Lost that is a plot point of Lost.
Speaker 1: Yes, that's great. So seventh good show. They have season
Speaker 1: two coming up. And the reason we know that because
Speaker 1: there's like this just seems to be a thing that
Speaker 1: happens with streaming is like they'll do a good season
Speaker 1: one and then it's like hard to know when the
Speaker 1: next season is happening because it just blends in with
Speaker 1: all the other seasons of the new seasons and new shows,
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, how to find the one that
Speaker 1: is like good out of the thousands that are bad.
Speaker 4: There's too much content, too much content, but they did so.
Speaker 4: Apple's strategy around their streaming content to this point has
Speaker 4: seemed to be largely they thought they were supposed to
Speaker 4: like keep it a secret. It seems like when they
Speaker 4: had a good show.
Speaker 1: They were like, don't shut up much to anyone.
Speaker 2: Kill any one.
Speaker 1: But this time they were like, what if we did
Speaker 1: something where like people actually kind of found out about
Speaker 1: the show, And so they did a publicity stunt where
Speaker 1: they had a group of actors working inside a glass
Speaker 1: cubicle in Grand Central Station, which you're thinking, how many
Speaker 1: people walk past that cubicle twelve thirteen.
Speaker 3: Well, now that New York City has instated this, you know, congestion.
Speaker 1: Congestion pricing, those numbers probably skyrocketed to like forty people
Speaker 1: at least walked by dozens. But then there's also and
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've heard about this because this
Speaker 1: is your first trending episode, but there's also this thing
Speaker 1: called social media, where like people, so they have cameras
Speaker 1: on them, and they took cameras that people then looked
Speaker 1: at on the social media and so then it went viral.
Speaker 2: The thing that was.
Speaker 1: Really wild about it was at some point those workers
Speaker 1: got switched out for the actual cast of the show,
Speaker 1: and you got to just watch Adam Scott and Britt
Speaker 1: Lauer and Zach Cherry sitting there working at their little
Speaker 1: cubicles right there in front of you, like it was
Speaker 1: like a little person zoo. And people seem to really
Speaker 1: enjoy that, which again everybody a little bit surprised since
Speaker 1: Apple is famous for quote under mark it shows.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, they're too busy stealing resources from the congo,
Speaker 3: So I guess that's what they're doing instead.
Speaker 1: They only Apple is only five people and they have
Speaker 1: a very busy to do list. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I do miss publicity stunts like this to promote entertainment
Speaker 3: of some kind. I like my favorite example is the
Speaker 3: Blair Witch Project.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Were they websites.
Speaker 3: Where they murdered three people?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't remember.
Speaker 1: The website was the web they put the website up
Speaker 1: being and like people were like way.
Speaker 3: They were basically like, yeah, this this is a documentary
Speaker 3: that's coming out, and those people really died, right, and
Speaker 3: everyone believed it because no one had There was no
Speaker 3: like yeah internet etiquette back then really because it was
Speaker 3: ninety nine and people didn't really know how to fact
Speaker 3: check on the Internet, and they like, you know, you
Speaker 3: were able to withhold a lot more information back then.
Speaker 2: Like documentary coming out Blair Witch Project, and then everyone.
Speaker 3: Was like, oh my god, that this is real and
Speaker 3: those people really died. And it was so effective at
Speaker 3: marketing the movie that it made like a bazillion times
Speaker 3: it's budget back I know.
Speaker 1: It was also just well done. That movie.
Speaker 3: It's to me still one of the scariest movies ever made.
Speaker 1: That final shot with the guy where he's standing in
Speaker 1: the corner really fucked me up. I still remember where
Speaker 1: I was and how I felt, and it was worn now.
Speaker 1: It was very scary, very scared hand I was sitting in.
Speaker 1: My writer JM. Mcknab pointed out that this is similar
Speaker 1: to a stunt done by Office Space when that movie
Speaker 1: was coming out in ninety whatever that year was ninety eight,
Speaker 1: where they hired a guy to work inside a glass
Speaker 1: cubicle in Times Square to promote that movie, and then
Speaker 1: a billboard had his email and phone numbers so Bo
Speaker 1: could contact him for advice and nobody knowed nobody did.
Speaker 3: Because email www dot office guide dot com. That's not
Speaker 3: an email address, that's true. Remind me, I love That's
Speaker 3: another thing I love about. You know, movies from this
Speaker 3: era is like if you go back and watch the
Speaker 3: first Mission Impossible movie, it's like the email address is
Speaker 3: something like ethan dot com or something.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah email.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they don't even have that at someone in there anything.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: It's great when they do a search on the web
Speaker 1: and it's always zero results until they like find the
Speaker 1: right name.
Speaker 3: Mm hmmmm.
Speaker 1: It's like, no, that would just be a million results
Speaker 1: of something that you had to then look through anyways.
Speaker 1: Don't even get me started, Caitlin on the story these
Speaker 1: movie internets. I swear to god, God, it things sucks
Speaker 1: the movie Internet, all right. And finally, Lack and Riley
Speaker 1: Act is advancing in the Senate. It is a bill
Speaker 1: that would make it so that any immigrant accused of
Speaker 1: a crime would face like basically mandatory federal detention. So
Speaker 1: it's basically going to be a tool to engage in
Speaker 1: mass deportation at a statewide level, like the Trump administration's
Speaker 1: policy of just you know, trying to deport anybody. But
Speaker 1: the reality is that it like creates for every immigrant
Speaker 1: in the country, like every citizen has like near absolute
Speaker 1: power over them because all the citizen has to do
Speaker 1: is accuse them of a crime and they go to jail. Like,
Speaker 1: this is not it's not saying that they face mandatory
Speaker 1: sensing if they're convicted of a crime.
Speaker 2: It's if they are arrested for a crime.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, so that they're not entitled to you know,
Speaker 3: a fair trile anything like that.
Speaker 1: It's just none of it. They go to jail for
Speaker 1: being accused. So yeah, it's like robbing people completely of
Speaker 1: due process. It's like hard to even really get your
Speaker 1: mind around how bad it would be. But yeah, to
Speaker 1: quote the La Times, it would require immigration agents to
Speaker 1: take into custody people who have been arrested for burglary, theft, larcena,
Speaker 1: or shoplifting, and would override the current discretion afforded to
Speaker 1: federal officials to prioritize the detention of people with violent
Speaker 1: criminal records. It's just if you are an immigrant, you
Speaker 1: go to federal prison, federal jail, you're put into custody.
Speaker 1: It's just like understanding like how abusers work, and like
Speaker 1: how abusive America can be in general, Like giving this
Speaker 1: much power to anyone over any other person is just
Speaker 1: going to.
Speaker 2: Be going to.
Speaker 3: This is fascism.
Speaker 1: Yeah, fascist, that's straight up, like no punch is pulled, no,
Speaker 1: Like this is just fascism. You can just claim somebody
Speaker 1: shoplifted something and there they go horrible.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's bad.
Speaker 1: Pete haig Seth, who everyone was like, WHOA Trump fucked up.
Speaker 2: Nominating that guy. Uh.
Speaker 1: Now the word I'm seeing about his Senate hearing is unscathed.
Speaker 1: He made it through unscathed. So just an update on
Speaker 1: a previous story where I was like, I don't know
Speaker 1: if it's gonna be Everyone's like, this guy's about to
Speaker 1: get fucked up on a national stage.
Speaker 2: He yeah, was not.
Speaker 1: He weathered the grilling to emerge largely unscathed, the guy
Speaker 1: who was cartoon alcoholic. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean, what do you expect for, you know, someone
Speaker 3: with power and privilege and money. Of course they.
Speaker 2: That's what happened.
Speaker 3: Yep, that's that's how it works.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, Kaitlyn durn say, what a pleasure having you?
Speaker 2: Uh? Where can people find you? Follow you?
Speaker 1: All that good stuff?
Speaker 3: First of all, pleasures allmine. Second of all, you can
Speaker 3: follow me on Instagram. I guess I don't know. I
Speaker 3: don't even care anymore. Uh, you can come to upcoming
Speaker 3: Bechdel Cast shows. The details for those are on link
Speaker 3: tree slash Bechdel Cast. Uh. And then you can also
Speaker 3: listen to that podcast if you must, have you must,
Speaker 3: if you must, and then, uh, yeah, I don't know
Speaker 3: what else. I teach screenwriting classes sometimes. There's information about
Speaker 3: that on my website Kaitlin Durante dot com. Although right
Speaker 3: now I just started a new semester at Caitlin University.
Speaker 1: So Kalen University spin off of Santa University. No, not
Speaker 1: a spinoff from Santa University. This is actual university where
Speaker 1: you can take this.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is an accredited, edited Ivy League school, so.
Speaker 2: The hell why not?
Speaker 3: So yeah, come and get your masters, coming, get a PhD.
Speaker 3: That's a higher degree than I even have. I don't
Speaker 3: know how it works, but that's how it works at
Speaker 3: Caitlyn University. Anyway, you can, Yeah, check out all that
Speaker 3: stuff of mine. What can people follow you?
Speaker 1: Oh? At who gives a shit? We will link off
Speaker 1: to miles as families go fund me actually and they
Speaker 1: redirect to a spreadsheet. So so many people donated and
Speaker 1: you know, supported them that they're now suggesting some other
Speaker 1: families that you can give to, which is really nice.
Speaker 1: So go go check that out. We will link off
Speaker 1: to that in the footnotes in the episode description of
Speaker 1: this and that is going to do it for today.
Speaker 1: We're back tomorrow with the whole last episode of the show.
Speaker 1: Until then, be kind to each other, be kind to yourselves,
Speaker 1: get your vaccines, get your flu shots, don't do nothing
Speaker 1: of it about white supremacy, and we will archielda I
Speaker 1: mhm