Speaker 1: Hello the Internet, and welcome to Season to twenty four,
Speaker 1: episode one of two Dailyshi Guys stay production of My
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. It's a podcast, this one where we take
Speaker 1: a deep dive into America's share consciousness. And it is Monday,
Speaker 1: February four, Valentine's Day. Happy Valentine's Day to one and all.
Speaker 1: My name is Jack O'Brien a K. He makes his
Speaker 1: money off tragedy. Yeah, he's a selling nine eleven tease.
Speaker 1: Oh he's an old grifter, way out of line Julianni.
Speaker 1: That is courtesy of Rumham McDuck, Rumham McDuck two a
Speaker 1: K s in uh in the span of a week.
Speaker 1: Well done. Good call back to the great Rudy Giuliani
Speaker 1: and his nine eleven T shirts that he was selling
Speaker 1: for I believe seven dollars to try and raise to
Speaker 1: try and raise money for his legal fees. Anyways, I'm
Speaker 1: thrilled to be joined by today's special guest co host,
Speaker 1: a producer behind shows like Fake Doctor's Real Friends, Welcome
Speaker 1: to our show. You've heard her on Pop Culture Happy
Speaker 1: Hour and read her at Vulture, The A V Club
Speaker 1: teamboat Paste, many more. She is the brilliant and talented
Speaker 1: Joe Alimony, the Purple Lipstick Don, the four Local Survivor,
Speaker 1: and the Marble Defender. Yes, yes, yes, we're back. We're ready.
Speaker 1: Entine's Day? Have you? Valentine's Day to you two? Speaking
Speaker 1: of four Local, which is I think the traditional beverage
Speaker 1: of Valentine's Day in this household, and you don't you
Speaker 1: want to have a good time, you don't want to
Speaker 1: remember it his money exact. Yeah, Joel, We're thrilled to
Speaker 1: be joined in our third seat by a very funny
Speaker 1: TV writer for animated shows such as Sonic Boom, you'n
Speaker 1: a Kitty, the upcoming Transformers BOS and the award winning
Speaker 1: short The Accomplice. Please welcome, the very funny, the very
Speaker 1: talented great but hey, you guys, what's up? Man? Me?
Speaker 1: A k A. I did not prepare and also known
Speaker 1: as that's okay, you don't you don't have to do that.
Speaker 1: I have had one and my brother is a producer
Speaker 1: on the show, and he was like, do you make
Speaker 1: me want to come up with some more? And I
Speaker 1: was like, that's a good yeah, leave Joe alone. No, no,
Speaker 1: he's he was like, they miss smiles. I was trying
Speaker 1: to get the fans of shout out who Joel did
Speaker 1: not credit for her A k is by the way,
Speaker 1: so trying to discord, and I looked at the discord
Speaker 1: and saw what they were talking about, and then made
Speaker 1: them up myself. So that's how we got here. We're
Speaker 1: all together now, Greg, are you coming from the Ninja
Speaker 1: Turtles headquarters? That is my backdrop today. That's wonderful. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's uh, it's just a backdrop. It doesn't smell as
Speaker 1: bad as I imagine it does normally for the Ninja Turtles.
Speaker 1: Did they ever come aeremony in video game? Sweats perfect
Speaker 1: and sewage? We don't talk about that. It just candles.
Speaker 1: It's like Brewer notes over there. It's not in our
Speaker 1: forefront of our heads. I love it. Good good hangout spot.
Speaker 1: It's not bad. Yeah, yeah, it is a It is
Speaker 1: a fun background. You're telling me. It's only a zoom background.
Speaker 1: It's not an actual No. I don't live in a
Speaker 1: sewer currently. At least I didn't know you work in animation.
Speaker 1: I didn't know if you actually lived in an animated
Speaker 1: world or what we were working with here. Roger Rabbit
Speaker 1: style about working in and animation. Sometimes I worry that
Speaker 1: I might end up having to live in the sewer.
Speaker 1: But I'm sure we'll get to that. Let's talk, let
Speaker 1: us know, yeah, yeah, what's what's happening in the world
Speaker 1: of animation. Well, if you if you've been paying attention
Speaker 1: and on Twitter or I guess you have, maybe you
Speaker 1: have to be in the same circles as I. But
Speaker 1: currently going on and starting again today, the Animation Guild
Speaker 1: is going back into negotiations with the AMPTP, the Association
Speaker 1: of Motion Picture and Television Producers. And uh, this is
Speaker 1: a good thing that gives us a chance to kind
Speaker 1: of fight for more money and and and and you know,
Speaker 1: just get a better deal overall. And you know, I'm
Speaker 1: not hearing any official capacity. I'm not on the negotiating
Speaker 1: not negotiations team, I'm not you know, I'm not an
Speaker 1: elected official in the guild. I'm just an engaged member,
Speaker 1: active in the writer's community. And I was looking at
Speaker 1: my paychecks, and I was looking around at my colleagues
Speaker 1: and frankly wondering why so many of us who were
Speaker 1: active working as writers and another places in the industry,
Speaker 1: we're kind of still struggling to get out of our
Speaker 1: like one bedroom apartments and like why why are we
Speaker 1: still in this position? And so, you know, I wanted
Speaker 1: to help out in in any way I can. So
Speaker 1: I thought, you know, how can I contribute? And I
Speaker 1: you know, so I started like making some memes and
Speaker 1: contributing in the dumbest way possible that could still help
Speaker 1: spread the word. And that's just kind of part of
Speaker 1: the campaign that has turned into hashtag pay animation writers
Speaker 1: and hashtag new deal for animation and so, uh yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what I'm here to discuss. That's awesome, man, I
Speaker 1: mean not awesome that you're in the position here in,
Speaker 1: but very cool that you guys are doing something about it.
Speaker 1: I think it's come up a couple of times on
Speaker 1: Zeitgeist before, like just in passing, I think we talked
Speaker 1: about the fact that one of like the writer of
Speaker 1: was that it was one of the class sick Disney
Speaker 1: films that made billions of dollars maybe a Laddin, maybe
Speaker 1: Lion King. Like I think they got paid in pizza,
Speaker 1: like they did. They did not like they they are
Speaker 1: not living in a mansion somewhere. They spent like four
Speaker 1: years writing and rewriting the script for Disney and got
Speaker 1: like a lump sumb and they're like, all right, and
Speaker 1: we'll sometimes credit you. Yeah, I can't be a percent sure.
Speaker 1: I think it's Lion King you're talking about. And I
Speaker 1: feel like the writers were they weren't you know, they
Speaker 1: weren't w g A. They were maybe in TAG and
Speaker 1: they weren't getting quite a great rate. And then you know,
Speaker 1: the Lion King has been remade practically shot for shot
Speaker 1: in a live actor that's why it came up. And
Speaker 1: those and whoever wrote that is getting like bank compared
Speaker 1: to the person who wrote the original material that everybody
Speaker 1: knows and loves and it's the reason why another one
Speaker 1: was even made. So, yeah, these are the kind of
Speaker 1: struggles that are that are going on. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's wild to me that we have this problem in animation,
Speaker 1: particularly when you consider about jobs that are like one
Speaker 1: to one in the industry, like writing an animated feature
Speaker 1: is no different than writing a live action feature, and
Speaker 1: yet the price disparity between those writers it's huge. It's
Speaker 1: like phenomenal, and trying to wrap our minds around fat
Speaker 1: and then when you get into the artists of it all,
Speaker 1: you know, if you are outside the Pixar bubble, like
Speaker 1: it's really a struggle. Yeah, yeah, it's it's pretty crazy.
Speaker 1: And you know, yeah, the I mean, the numbers are
Speaker 1: massively different, you know. And like you said, like a
Speaker 1: thirty minute script written by you know, for an animated
Speaker 1: show versus a thirty minute script written for a live
Speaker 1: action show, that's the same number of pages, that's the
Speaker 1: same amount of work, except one gets paid significantly less.
Speaker 1: A a live action compared with live action and animation
Speaker 1: freelance script gets twenty six to sixty six percent less
Speaker 1: than a live action script. Like it's a huge disparity.
Speaker 1: Oh my Lloyd, it only makes sense for the purposes
Speaker 1: of you know, CEOs and massive corporations keeping their bottom line. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it has nothing to do with it has nothing to
Speaker 1: do with like the revenue that any of these things
Speaker 1: are pulling in. You know, Like what what has made
Speaker 1: historically more money over time? Is it SpongeBob and Transformers
Speaker 1: and Ninja Turtles or you know, I'm just gonna pick
Speaker 1: on some shows from the eighties, so I'm not picking
Speaker 1: on anybody current. You know, Like what is Remington's Steel
Speaker 1: or Jag or Pacific Blue. You know, like those aren't
Speaker 1: pulling in the same kind of money in the long
Speaker 1: term as a SpongeBob SquarePants, which is like the number
Speaker 1: one most binge show on Paramount Plus. Well, if they
Speaker 1: would pick up my Remington's Steel reboot that I've been shopping,
Speaker 1: then maybe they would start making some money. They should,
Speaker 1: they should, Yeah, it makes no sense. Is there like
Speaker 1: a standard explanation for why the difference in price? Like,
Speaker 1: is there is there something intry comes back and like,
Speaker 1: well x y Z got different. Yeah, I mean part
Speaker 1: of it is like the the union that we're in.
Speaker 1: We're not part of the w g A, so like
Speaker 1: it was a different contract initially. I don't want to
Speaker 1: get into the semantics of all of that, but basically,
Speaker 1: like there we need to close the gap on that
Speaker 1: parody between the two because it really just doesn't make sense.
Speaker 1: You know, I always wanted to write. I mean, like
Speaker 1: I always wanted to write for cartoons as a kid.
Speaker 1: You know, a nine year old me would be ecstatic
Speaker 1: to learn I've written for characters like Sonic or The Transformers.
Speaker 1: But nine year old me also thought I'd own a
Speaker 1: house one day. Sorry, kids, So I'm very excited to
Speaker 1: be talking to somebody who wrote for the Transformers. When
Speaker 1: we say bedtime prayers at night. My my three year
Speaker 1: old standard bedtime prayer is that he have cool transformer dreams.
Speaker 1: This is big. I'm going to be bragging about it
Speaker 1: to him, and not in a nice way, like really
Speaker 1: rubbing it in his face when he gets home from preschool.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I don't know, We're we're gonna talk. This
Speaker 1: kind of leads nicely into our first story, which we're
Speaker 1: gonna get to after we get to know you a
Speaker 1: little bit better. But yeah, I mean, the first story
Speaker 1: we have on the dock is like inflation and the
Speaker 1: like the standard narrative in the media like is like
Speaker 1: economists are saying, oh, it's because of all these you know,
Speaker 1: the pandemic disrupted the supply chain and all these various things.
Speaker 1: But Dr Lindsay Owens, who is the executive director of
Speaker 1: Groundwork Collaborative, is pointing out that if you listen to
Speaker 1: their earnings calls, it just sounds like they are raising
Speaker 1: prices because they can, and making record profits, like they're
Speaker 1: making more money than they've ever made before during a
Speaker 1: global pandemic because they can. And it's just I feel
Speaker 1: like this is all part of the same sort of
Speaker 1: system that we're talking about where you know, like we
Speaker 1: talk a lot of ship on capitalism on this podcast,
Speaker 1: but it's not like like all the all the you know,
Speaker 1: things that are supposed to happen in capitalism that are
Speaker 1: supposed to be like checks and balances and like well,
Speaker 1: if like one company decides to raise prices, that's bad
Speaker 1: for them because the other companies will come in and
Speaker 1: you know, offer the same thing. For Look, like that
Speaker 1: ship isn't happening anymore because like the corporations have all
Speaker 1: the powers and they haven't been checked in terms of
Speaker 1: like monopolies. So we'll we'll we'll get into all that
Speaker 1: ship in the second act. That's gonna be fun. We're
Speaker 1: gonna maybe get to what is happening at military bases
Speaker 1: because very mysterious, like a bunch of crime, A very
Speaker 1: mysterious bunch of crime, a new the True Crime podcast.
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about the fact that it is Valentine's Day, which,
Speaker 1: according to Gordon Ramsey and me, after fourteen years of
Speaker 1: being married and going out to dinner on bound, this
Speaker 1: day is the worst day to go out to dinner
Speaker 1: of the three hundred and sixty five options available to us.
Speaker 1: So talking about why that is, why it's still sometimes fun,
Speaker 1: and whether it's cool to sit on the same side
Speaker 1: of the table with somebody that you're on a date topic.
Speaker 1: Maybe I'd also like to get you guys thoughts on
Speaker 1: the best non traditional romantic movies. Around Christmas, there's always
Speaker 1: the damn okay uh I did kind of spring that
Speaker 1: on you, and like I added back to the dock
Speaker 1: five minutes before we start recording, it's a little worried,
Speaker 1: and then I was like, oh, I'll never mind. It's Joel.
Speaker 1: But yeah, like around Christmas where everyone's like, Dieheart's actually
Speaker 1: my favorite Christmas movie. I say that, So I don't
Speaker 1: know why I made it. That person sound like an asshole,
Speaker 1: But the you know what, what is the equivalent Valentine's Day? Like,
Speaker 1: what's the romantic movie that's not overtly classic romcom? So
Speaker 1: we'll talk about that plenty more. But before we get
Speaker 1: to any of that, Greg, we like to get to
Speaker 1: know our guests by asking, then, what is something from
Speaker 1: your search history? Search history? All right, I'm gonna start
Speaker 1: in a weird place. Guys. We're going we're going real
Speaker 1: deep cuts. So I I love going to the flea market.
Speaker 1: My wife and I go to the flea market. I'm
Speaker 1: a big toy collector, so I like to find like old,
Speaker 1: you know, vintage retro stuff from my childhood that I
Speaker 1: can get, you know, for for pretty cheap. Though recently
Speaker 1: I went to the flea market the other week. I
Speaker 1: only spent ten bucks and I walked away with some
Speaker 1: cool stuff, including something called SNA alliens. I don't know
Speaker 1: if either of you remember know what SNA aliens is
Speaker 1: at all, but this is what I did. This sounds
Speaker 1: like one of the bad pitches from the movie Big,
Speaker 1: like the scenes where they're like in the toy boardroom
Speaker 1: and like one of the out of touch middle aged
Speaker 1: people is like, what about like aliens that are snails?
Speaker 1: I think it was like Robot Buildings was one of
Speaker 1: the ones that, yeah it was a building that Transford
Speaker 1: to shoot down. I still think building would have been
Speaker 1: a great toy. But but snailly And so here's the
Speaker 1: snailien that I bought. You could see on the and
Speaker 1: the visual medium that we're all listening to, but I
Speaker 1: can't really it looked like a small mauformed wolf person.
Speaker 1: They're horrifying to look at. Yeah, a little yellow dude
Speaker 1: a little rubber thing. But so the Snailions were a
Speaker 1: line of toys that was it was these Snailions from
Speaker 1: outer space. They moved, they flew down to Earth and
Speaker 1: settled down in Snail Francisco and and they fight against
Speaker 1: the evil Lunar Ticks. And the thing about him is
Speaker 1: they're basically another one of those Ninja Turtle rip offs.
Speaker 1: So each of the characters, and you know, the Ninja
Speaker 1: Turtles are named after famous painters Leonardo Donna, Tella, Michlanta, Rafael.
Speaker 1: The Snailions are are all named for presidents, so it's Washington, Jefferson, Rosevelt,
Speaker 1: and Lincoln. And then if you like look at the
Speaker 1: if you look at the art on like the packaging
Speaker 1: that I've stumbled upon through my Google search, they even
Speaker 1: do this shot where like all of them are standing
Speaker 1: heroically and then they have the coins. You know, there's
Speaker 1: like there's like a quarter, a nickel, a diamond, a
Speaker 1: penny that they're just standing so proudly in front of. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I don't know what more to say about the Snailians,
Speaker 1: but this does say something about me that this this
Speaker 1: is something I spent significant time looking into. And there
Speaker 1: is a VR video game on Steam called Snailions. Yes, unrelated, okay, okay,
Speaker 1: I was like, did somebody ReVibe this? No? Yes, that
Speaker 1: of course I stumbled upon that in my Google search
Speaker 1: as well. But no, that's that that is unrelated. So
Speaker 1: there's a little, uh, there's a little peek into my
Speaker 1: Google search history. Yeah. That that picture that you were describing,
Speaker 1: I found it on one of the first Snailiens search results.
Speaker 1: And it's on a single web page that has just
Speaker 1: combined all the text and pictures on a single like
Speaker 1: a like a word document, first sentence, first sentence on
Speaker 1: the page. So it says Snailiens like it's the title
Speaker 1: of a term paper, and it says I've been running
Speaker 1: this sad little website since early two thousand one. It's like, damn,
Speaker 1: all right, you got me, Greg. They do not appear
Speaker 1: to be snails, is my? Is my? No? Well, they came.
Speaker 1: They initially came with some sort of armor that I
Speaker 1: guess makes them more but it does not. But it
Speaker 1: looks cool as hell. It's like almost as techy because
Speaker 1: they're still bipedal, which makes no sense for a snail. Uh,
Speaker 1: And I guess they're squishy bodies. Are the snail part.
Speaker 1: And then the armor is quote unquote the shell. It
Speaker 1: doesn't have a nice swirl pattern on it. Again, I
Speaker 1: think a miss from the design team, but it does
Speaker 1: look cool. It's like as Tech meets Transformers armor. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But so they are lying to consumers to convince them
Speaker 1: that these creatures are the slowest animal like that kids
Speaker 1: know about basically, Like, I mean, I doubt that that
Speaker 1: was a push like, oh, they're really slow. Like I
Speaker 1: don't know, I don't know what it is about snails
Speaker 1: that they thought explicitly appealed to kids. But like you said,
Speaker 1: they apparently ignored it entirely. So it just had They
Speaker 1: had a sort of good name that was catchy, and
Speaker 1: they were like, let's roll with it. Was the plan
Speaker 1: to eventually make an animated television show, because I feel
Speaker 1: like that's a little lot of groups were back in
Speaker 1: the day. Damn, we really missed out. I don't think
Speaker 1: it would have been good, but I do think it
Speaker 1: would have been great to make fun out of something.
Speaker 1: I would kill to write the Snailien's TV show. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you guys, very Greg hire him. Now Salt has to
Speaker 1: be like figure into this and some where, like the
Speaker 1: Evil Salt Monster the evil salt truck or something. Yeah,
Speaker 1: if the lunar tics had yeah, salt guns that fired
Speaker 1: on them, I mean that wouldn't that would be horrifying.
Speaker 1: You we've seen salt can do to these things. Yeah,
Speaker 1: every kid has seen that. Man, I just really want
Speaker 1: to be at the pitch session where this guy greenlight
Speaker 1: it sounds amazing. Where where was Josh Baskin when you
Speaker 1: needed him? What is something you think is overrated? Greg Man?
Speaker 1: I don't want to talk about toys all day, but
Speaker 1: I but I'm going to the funk pop vinyls. You
Speaker 1: guys shot fired fired, Well, this is everybody's favorite everybody's
Speaker 1: favorite toy, I guess. I I understand the charm of
Speaker 1: having one toy with one aesthetic and you can get
Speaker 1: every line of everything so they all look nice next
Speaker 1: to each other. But I don't want my toys extra deep.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't want them like cute and adorable
Speaker 1: and and and I want them extra detailed and craggy
Speaker 1: and pustulating or or alternatively on like really cheap, poorly
Speaker 1: made stupid things, but snail based things. But yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't know they're they're they're too cute for me. And
Speaker 1: everybody loves them, and I just go, like, that doesn't
Speaker 1: appeal to me. I don't want something adorable. I want
Speaker 1: something that that looks like it was from a horror movie.
Speaker 1: I totally respect that, and I would say that they
Speaker 1: are not toys, Like I don't know who's like to me,
Speaker 1: And toys got to inspire imagination and storytelling and all
Speaker 1: of that, Like you want to like take it down
Speaker 1: and like pose it or something, and it has none
Speaker 1: of those capabilities. It is to your point, it is
Speaker 1: specifically designed just to be cute. As a person who like,
Speaker 1: I'm super into Carre. I don't know if you can
Speaker 1: see on my back wall, those are a lot of
Speaker 1: my portraits of some of my favorite animated characters, um,
Speaker 1: gro Goo Catwoman. But I think I like pop punkos
Speaker 1: because they look nice in my collections. You don't have
Speaker 1: a bunch of iron Heart Rerea stuff and then there's
Speaker 1: right in there and it's all like cute and packaged
Speaker 1: and just from a design. I don't understand the people
Speaker 1: who keep them in boxes and then just have rows
Speaker 1: and rows of boxes of pop punkos. Um, you can't
Speaker 1: see them. They're not on display. They come with cute
Speaker 1: little stands so that you can easily display them. I
Speaker 1: feel like they're like nineties meaning babies. Put them all
Speaker 1: over your desk and show a little bit about your personality,
Speaker 1: highlight what characters you like, good conversation starters. But to
Speaker 1: your point, definitely not a toy, and these are these
Speaker 1: are a valuable toy. It would appear like there are
Speaker 1: they trade, it varies, it varies, are probably very worthless.
Speaker 1: They I mean, they make them for literally every franchise,
Speaker 1: and I p you can imagine. So I think that's
Speaker 1: the appeal. Really I get that, But I'm looking at
Speaker 1: the list of the most valuable as of Alex de
Speaker 1: Large Clock, Quark, Orange Funco. Really, I'm disappointed in US
Speaker 1: as a society. Horrible little rapists. I know. I've always said, like,
Speaker 1: somebody needs to bring out how adorable this character is.
Speaker 1: And finally, okay, get your Jamie Jamie Lanister. Your Dumbo
Speaker 1: was was a valuable one for a little while. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: they seem very collector oriented and not very toy oriented.
Speaker 1: What is like, what is the most valuable toy other
Speaker 1: than beanie babies, which I know we can all agree
Speaker 1: are never going down to value, and my children's entire
Speaker 1: education is based in beanie baby investments. But besides that,
Speaker 1: what's valuable these days? You know, that's a good question.
Speaker 1: I I I'm not entirely sure. I'll tell you one
Speaker 1: that I know is particularly valuable. The the the Kenner
Speaker 1: Star Wars original nineteen eighties Boba Fett figure that came
Speaker 1: out was you know, released in very limited quality quantities
Speaker 1: rather and so that one has like a a big following.
Speaker 1: I don't know that it's the most expensive, it's certainly
Speaker 1: one that I know goes for a pretty high price
Speaker 1: tag because of the nostalgia of it being like almost
Speaker 1: the first thing that made Boba Fette popular. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: between that and the Christmas special. Sure, it makes sense
Speaker 1: because that was like a character that they didn't do
Speaker 1: enough with. But it was like, so by creating a
Speaker 1: fan an action figure, you were like doing the first
Speaker 1: fan fiction or like not the first fan fiction, but
Speaker 1: like you were letting children do their own bad little
Speaker 1: fan fiction stories, and it like kind of grew from there.
Speaker 1: That's kind of interesting. Yeah, it's great. I also know
Speaker 1: that the Transformers toys, like the early ones, you can
Speaker 1: fetch a high price and then now even some of
Speaker 1: the detailed new constructions of them go for quite a lot.
Speaker 1: It's my friend got me into, like he collects Transformers
Speaker 1: toys and of like anime bust figures basically and different.
Speaker 1: Now is like that is the whole world I had
Speaker 1: no idea about. It's wild to me, the accuracy of
Speaker 1: the detail and the money spent. But then when you
Speaker 1: see someone's full display case, it's a little bit impressive.
Speaker 1: You're like, wow, this is It's right. It's like collectible art,
Speaker 1: but in your favorite fandom and I can dig it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like it. I feel like Transformers highest form is the
Speaker 1: toy like they are like they are, they are toys
Speaker 1: that then have movie. And I haven't seen the animated show, Greg,
Speaker 1: that you wrote for, so maybe I will change my tomb.
Speaker 1: But like that that it's so amazing to have a
Speaker 1: toy that can transform between robot and like vehicle and
Speaker 1: if they like nail the making of the toy, like
Speaker 1: that's so aising. Anyways, great great insight from me there, Greg,
Speaker 1: What something you think is underrated? Underrated? Okay, here I'm
Speaker 1: going out on a limb here, I'm gonna say buttered noodles,
Speaker 1: you know, I think I think everybody wants to give
Speaker 1: a lot. You know, you give credit to the you know,
Speaker 1: a marinara or or a vodka sauce or a carbonara.
Speaker 1: You know, that's that's your go to in your head
Speaker 1: when you're thinking about pasta. But when you just take
Speaker 1: a little bit of butter, maybe throwing some grilled onions,
Speaker 1: if you're making like a bone in chicken, you add
Speaker 1: a little schmaltz into that top with some parmesan. That's
Speaker 1: that's like really good food. That's like really easy to
Speaker 1: do and isn't a whole it's not a whole headache
Speaker 1: in the kitchen. You can just kind of like toss
Speaker 1: it together and suddenly that's a that's a top quality
Speaker 1: side dish or hole dish. Right. Controversially, No, it is
Speaker 1: kind of controversial. It's like not controversial with young children.
Speaker 1: I think young children think love that love a buttered noodle.
Speaker 1: It really I I think of it as like too
Speaker 1: bland for me. I'm a real I'm a real tomato bitch.
Speaker 1: I love sauce, I love tomato salsa. But yeah, I've
Speaker 1: never been into the buttered noodles because it tastes too
Speaker 1: much like noodles to me and not not enough, Like
Speaker 1: I don't know what I have associated pasta with, which
Speaker 1: is the marinara sauce, But maybe that's the key to
Speaker 1: the greatness of butter noodles. It's like this is the
Speaker 1: base of the dish, right, Like technically you're showing up
Speaker 1: for spaghetti and you've associated it with the marinera on
Speaker 1: top of the noodle should be the highlight of that dish.
Speaker 1: And as to get more into like like I've recently
Speaker 1: really gotten into ramen and I'm like reading recipes on
Speaker 1: how to make it from scratch and stuff, and like
Speaker 1: there's so much technique in a noodle and create like
Speaker 1: crafting it. You know, what kind of flower, what kind
Speaker 1: of grind on that flower? How long are you mixing
Speaker 1: it at? What to picture that? I think if you
Speaker 1: get a quality noodle and you're just tasting which a
Speaker 1: little bit of butter, you're really putting that noodle like
Speaker 1: on a pedestal and asking people to taste just that noodle,
Speaker 1: And I can see I can see where that would be,
Speaker 1: like you know, this is the highlight, Like really experience
Speaker 1: and enjoy this part of the dish. I typically you're
Speaker 1: just trying to get through. Okay, I see it. Are
Speaker 1: you putting high quality like noodle in into a buttered
Speaker 1: noodle dish? No, I'm saying you get you get some
Speaker 1: egg noodles, and then you just you just get something
Speaker 1: like grilled onions. You fix that and suddenly parmesan on top,
Speaker 1: and you've got you've got something more than just butter noodle.
Speaker 1: I think, okay, yeah, all right, I think I think, yeah, alright,
Speaker 1: but controversial will be hearing from our listeners, maybe more
Speaker 1: than any guest we've ever had. But all right, let's
Speaker 1: take a quick break. We'll come back. We'll talk about
Speaker 1: inflation and bountie stuff. Mh. And we're back, and yeah,
Speaker 1: a lot on a record inflation these past couple of months.
Speaker 1: And the standard media economist narrative seems to be that
Speaker 1: it's a number of factors, but they always end up
Speaker 1: pointing back to that the government just gave you guys
Speaker 1: too much dang money for your own good and now
Speaker 1: we we have to just charge you all this, all
Speaker 1: these high prices, and that that doesn't fully make sense
Speaker 1: to me, because that's not how right like you're supposed
Speaker 1: they're supposed to be competition in a in a market,
Speaker 1: if you will, like that that's supposed to be a
Speaker 1: thing that you can't just do just because you you
Speaker 1: want to, and that that appears to be what's happening.
Speaker 1: So this Dr lindsay All Owns, executive director of Groundwork Collaborative,
Speaker 1: which is dedicated to advancing progressive economic ideas, actually did
Speaker 1: the work of going and listening to earnings calls, which,
Speaker 1: if you're not familiar, like every public company has to
Speaker 1: every quarter, you know, reveal their information to investors, and
Speaker 1: then they have a call where people can then ask
Speaker 1: them questions. And this is where you're going to get
Speaker 1: some honesty, right because you know, people want to know
Speaker 1: what's really going on, what's driving the numbers they're seeing,
Speaker 1: and whether they should stay invested, all that all that
Speaker 1: fun stuff. And so she looked at these and she
Speaker 1: was like, Oh, they just decided to charge more money
Speaker 1: and in in exchange got record profits. Like they're they're
Speaker 1: making more money than they've ever made at this time
Speaker 1: when we're inflation is supposed to be out of control.
Speaker 1: So some ample, she pulled the company three M, which
Speaker 1: produces N nine masks and other things crowd on its
Speaker 1: earnings called that the team has done a marvelous job
Speaker 1: in driving price price has gone up from point one
Speaker 1: percent to one point four to two point six percent.
Speaker 1: We see that to be a tail wind. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: just stop. I'm gonna look for my look elsewhere from
Speaker 1: my double sided sticky tape mounting hooks or something. Right,
Speaker 1: I'm going to m yeah, I'm sure they like on
Speaker 1: them too. That's the other problem is that, like, there's
Speaker 1: so much consolidation that you can do this. If you
Speaker 1: are just a massively powerful major corporation in a industry,
Speaker 1: you can just be like, all right, we're going to
Speaker 1: raise the prices, and that will either you know, put
Speaker 1: pressure on our competitors to raise the prices so they
Speaker 1: can keep up with our record breaking profits, or the
Speaker 1: you know, the company will try and undercut us. But
Speaker 1: somehow that's not happening. We don't know why. Weird Tyson
Speaker 1: one of the big four meat monopolies that Biden is
Speaker 1: targeting for fixed price fixing, which is supposed to be illegal,
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure, but not not a huge scandal for
Speaker 1: some reason, because it's a massive corporation doing the robbing
Speaker 1: at a high level of people and so nobody like
Speaker 1: the American media and just like public is not it
Speaker 1: feels incapable of having the story of meat monopolies price
Speaker 1: fixing become like a craze, Like it just seems like
Speaker 1: the sort of thing that the media will ignore the
Speaker 1: ship out of because they it's just like they're they
Speaker 1: don't do that, they don't give a fuck, Like, but
Speaker 1: Tyson has us in such a chokehold, Like if you
Speaker 1: think about if if you're on a low income, like
Speaker 1: Tyson's probably the most affordable meat product that you can buy,
Speaker 1: and it's every goddamn where, like including like I think
Speaker 1: mcdonaldy's is Tyson Chicken as well, Like there's it's everywhere.
Speaker 1: It's impossible to escape. On top of that, Tyson has
Speaker 1: a lot of nerve like price gouging us when the
Speaker 1: way it treats its workers has been on blast for
Speaker 1: so long, just completely inhospitable conditions, long hours, horrible, egregious
Speaker 1: like wounds and accidents happening on site that it's it
Speaker 1: does seem like they're kind of moving in plain sight
Speaker 1: and are just kind of gangsters about it. Not to
Speaker 1: give them any kind of flair, but they're just like
Speaker 1: you just have to deal with this. You're gonna keep
Speaker 1: paying us for this product, so just eff and deal
Speaker 1: with it. I mean, that's the that seems to be
Speaker 1: the entire model though with every one of these is
Speaker 1: that they are not you know, after the two Financial crisis,
Speaker 1: like when the banking sector funked up as bad as
Speaker 1: a sector can and got out of it with like
Speaker 1: still getting their annual bonuses while people were like being
Speaker 1: driven into like not having homes, Like I they are
Speaker 1: not dumb. They paid attention to that, and now like
Speaker 1: it's just it really feels like that part of the
Speaker 1: civilization is just out of control and knows that they
Speaker 1: like don't don't have to do ship that they don't
Speaker 1: want to do. And so in the case of Tyson,
Speaker 1: they saw their profits nearly double after price hikes of
Speaker 1: on beef and on chicken, which the CEO attributed to
Speaker 1: the quote continued resilience of our multiprotein portfolio. I think
Speaker 1: it is. But it's also like if you step back
Speaker 1: to like so if you look at the corporateness of
Speaker 1: it all, or look like these giant corporate monsters making
Speaker 1: so much money and devaluing human life, and it's awful
Speaker 1: if we look at the human condition of it, the
Speaker 1: idea that there are individual people actively engaged in doing this, right,
Speaker 1: I think there's something about like the corporate structure that
Speaker 1: just has to be dismantled from the outside because all
Speaker 1: they're doing is their job, right, It's such tunnel vision,
Speaker 1: Like my job is to figure out how much we
Speaker 1: can make off this product. And if we can make
Speaker 1: more than I'm rewarded for that and I keep my
Speaker 1: family and money and we're good like and and because
Speaker 1: these companies are so large and so just connected from
Speaker 1: especially the higher up you go, the more you're disconnected
Speaker 1: from the people at the bottom of your company, the
Speaker 1: less like actively engaged you are in the pain that's
Speaker 1: being caused. And I think having that emotional distance allows
Speaker 1: you to keep like chucking along in this in this
Speaker 1: way that allows you to abuse so many people. And
Speaker 1: I think, like I've started to see it, yes, in
Speaker 1: my own grocery bill, but also in like watching people
Speaker 1: tweet out like previous grocery bills to their current grocery
Speaker 1: bills has been like a little bit horrific, you know. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: especially see like single moms being like I'm not buying
Speaker 1: anything else. There's no additional things being purchased. And I'm
Speaker 1: paying fifty dollars more a week to feed my children.
Speaker 1: That's money out of French or prescription pills or whatever
Speaker 1: it happens to be that they need that week. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know what gets to them to make them
Speaker 1: change that structure. Yeah, it makes you look at the
Speaker 1: inflation that we're all seeing and going like, how much
Speaker 1: of this is inflation? How much is of this is
Speaker 1: based on you know, the problems going on with you know,
Speaker 1: COVID and and you know that whole thing, and how
Speaker 1: much of it is just some greedy ceo dragons sitting
Speaker 1: at the top boarding the money and and and that
Speaker 1: seems to be what's happening here. Ever since that one dude,
Speaker 1: the prescription pill guy, got busted for raising prices like
Speaker 1: I don't know d or whatever he decided to do,
Speaker 1: I feel like they've gotten craftier, Like they're really you know,
Speaker 1: you just read Jack, They're like, oh, like that one
Speaker 1: point four to two and a half percent, that's really
Speaker 1: great for us, and we'll just if we keep doing it,
Speaker 1: and that, you know, the frog in the boiling water style,
Speaker 1: then maybe no, one will notice, or if they do notice,
Speaker 1: it'll be too little for them to care. But they're
Speaker 1: no more greedy than CEOs from past decades. They they're
Speaker 1: like they've been trying to do this sort of thing
Speaker 1: for years, for century. They tried to overthrow FDR. They
Speaker 1: like got a American general to like be part of
Speaker 1: what was called the business plot, tried to overthrow FDR
Speaker 1: and it didn't work out. But like that's the sort
Speaker 1: of like they just want as much money as they
Speaker 1: can possibly get because that is sort of a corporate
Speaker 1: corporation working in its normal form, Like that that's what
Speaker 1: they're built to do. But the system does has not
Speaker 1: provided the pushback in any real way or decades now,
Speaker 1: and yeah, they're they've realized like oh and we can
Speaker 1: get away with just lying in the mainstream media or
Speaker 1: because the mainstream media are all owned by massive corporations,
Speaker 1: like they just nobody's gonna say ship, we can just
Speaker 1: do like at a time when more people are in
Speaker 1: a desperate situation than you know, in the last hundred years,
Speaker 1: they've been priced couging because Americans got like a two
Speaker 1: thousand dollar check like one time. They're they're like, well,
Speaker 1: we're gonna just soak that money up real quick, which
Speaker 1: also saw families consolidating, you know, whether that met we're
Speaker 1: all gonna go live under the same roof or you know,
Speaker 1: or we're giving up our second homes and like whatever
Speaker 1: it was leaving our apartments in New York to go
Speaker 1: back to our our familial homes. I think that there
Speaker 1: was a lot more for the first time Americans had
Speaker 1: like a little bit of like a slush fund or
Speaker 1: or at least a little bit more than they had
Speaker 1: to spend before. It doesn't surprise me that they took
Speaker 1: advantage of that, and especially doesn't surprise me when we
Speaker 1: consider that these people are no longer and by these people,
Speaker 1: I mean like government officials no longer need to work
Speaker 1: for the individuals that vote for them. They just need
Speaker 1: to work for the corporations that are paying them enough
Speaker 1: money to create larger like visual campaigns. You know, can
Speaker 1: I say the right the right things to get my side,
Speaker 1: whether you're a Republican or Democrat, to to acknowledge me,
Speaker 1: and then do I have enough money to outdo commercials?
Speaker 1: And is my marketing team better than yours? Like there's
Speaker 1: no they don't have to serve us directly. And while
Speaker 1: I think that there are definitely some individuals, you know,
Speaker 1: both in Congress hand and Senate who have their their
Speaker 1: communities at heart and and are trying to make, you know,
Speaker 1: quality changes, I also think that the dollar is so insurmountable.
Speaker 1: I just don't know if people will care over you know,
Speaker 1: you need this dollar to survive, and having more dollars
Speaker 1: needs you're more likely to survive. I just don't know
Speaker 1: how we, you know, as a country, as a community,
Speaker 1: get over that. You know, we're trying past it or
Speaker 1: try to change that. Our money means everything to us.
Speaker 1: It's the only way we're going to make it. Speaking
Speaker 1: as someone who used to have no money at all,
Speaker 1: it's just I think it's going to have to implode first.
Speaker 1: I think it's gonna have to emplode because I don't
Speaker 1: see anyone giving that up. Yeah, And I mean, like
Speaker 1: Biden has put the blame for inflation, like he has
Speaker 1: said the things that we're saying now, and it's been ignored,
Speaker 1: it's been you know, explained away by economists and by
Speaker 1: the mainstream media, and it's just you know, there there's
Speaker 1: like many examples of this. By the way, Johnson and
Speaker 1: Johnson talked about raising prices despite breaking in billions from
Speaker 1: the COVID vaccine, and their CEO specifically like talked about
Speaker 1: their model being addressed suffering and death and that's why
Speaker 1: jan J's optimism and opportunity for its future is so bright.
Speaker 1: So se whoa that? Yeah, people are dying, So we've
Speaker 1: got a very right feature. Sure if you can just
Speaker 1: charge whatever the funk you want and nobody's gonna get
Speaker 1: mad like that, it's not truly, he's not great. How
Speaker 1: was that the dollar king the other day? Everything was
Speaker 1: a dollar fifty one? Yeah, we gotta take down the
Speaker 1: dollar king at Yeah, that's that's right. Yeah, But the
Speaker 1: mainstream media is is willing to blame the stimulus being
Speaker 1: too much supply disruption, which the supply chain problems, Like
Speaker 1: we there were definitely like temporary supply chain problems. I
Speaker 1: think the car cars, you're still seeing it, Like I
Speaker 1: have friends who are trying to buy cars and like
Speaker 1: that industry is still having major supply issues. But for
Speaker 1: the most part, like there wasn't a significant period of
Speaker 1: time where like grocery shelves were empty or anything like.
Speaker 1: The to act like that is the reason that they
Speaker 1: had to raise races. I mean, like, even regardless of that,
Speaker 1: the fact that they're making record profits at this time
Speaker 1: that we're all supposed to be kind of struggling and
Speaker 1: scrapping is all you need to know. Really, like it's
Speaker 1: right anyways, So no answers here, but it is very
Speaker 1: frustrating and sorry listeners. Yeah we thought, but yeah, I
Speaker 1: had a feeling. I thought we had this one. All right,
Speaker 1: let's take a quick break and we'll come back and
Speaker 1: talk Valentine's daff and we're back and okay. So something
Speaker 1: I had always suspected based on many years of going
Speaker 1: out to dinner on Valentine's Day and the food and
Speaker 1: service and every every aspect of it being bad was
Speaker 1: confirmed for me by um Gordon Ramsey. So Gordon Ramsey
Speaker 1: says Valentine's Day is the worst. He said this, like,
Speaker 1: you know, not at Valentine's Day. Wasn't an interview about
Speaker 1: Valentine's Day. It was just him being like, oh, you
Speaker 1: want to know the worst day, Well, that of course
Speaker 1: is Valentine's Day's the worst day of the year. To
Speaker 1: go out busy kitchens with tons of diners means you
Speaker 1: don't get the true feeling of the restaurant, and then
Speaker 1: I think unnecessary adds this part you should be cooking
Speaker 1: on Valentine's Oh yeah, maybe you should be cooking. That's
Speaker 1: the height of romance. To Gordon, Ramsey has a lot
Speaker 1: like you know, like have you ever seen his like
Speaker 1: solo cooking show where he's just like showing you how
Speaker 1: to cook basic dishes and a space that kind of
Speaker 1: looks like his home. He loves that. He's like, no,
Speaker 1: look at this fold in this egg. It's beautiful. He's
Speaker 1: really you have to love it. He's just so passion
Speaker 1: about it. And I think his that's this expression, that's
Speaker 1: his love language. Jack is just let me just make
Speaker 1: you something delicious. It takes me when I when I
Speaker 1: do one of those recipes where it's like, okay and
Speaker 1: this is a thirty minute prep time like that is
Speaker 1: three and a half hours, and I am exhausted by
Speaker 1: the end of it, Like I don't. It just does
Speaker 1: not agree with me. My brain doesn't work in the
Speaker 1: kitchen with that sort of thing. My wife ends up
Speaker 1: being annoyed because it takes so long and we eat,
Speaker 1: Like by the time we're eating, it's not Valentine's Day anymore.
Speaker 1: It's like two in the morning. Oh no. But according
Speaker 1: to the National Restaurant Association, Ramsey is right that this
Speaker 1: is the busiest day for restaurants of the American population
Speaker 1: dines out on Valentine's Day. Thought, if you as long
Speaker 1: as you're not putting pressure on the meal and the
Speaker 1: experience to be anything but entertaining, Like, go for it,
Speaker 1: but don't don't expect it to be a nice experience
Speaker 1: other than like maybe a fun people watching experience. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because there is this this pressure on Valentine's Day, especially
Speaker 1: if you know, if you don't make a reservation, I'm
Speaker 1: sure you're you're kind of screwed over. But like, you know,
Speaker 1: waiting around in the restaurant and there's like there's it's
Speaker 1: just so crowded and there are people there and and
Speaker 1: and it's louder than usual, and like I don't want
Speaker 1: to be around that. I I gotta agree with Gordo here.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm happy to put on an apron and grill
Speaker 1: up something nice, just a couple of days in advance,
Speaker 1: by by something I normally wouldn't buy, and instead of
Speaker 1: paying the sixty dollar price tag, on a filet and
Speaker 1: yonn I you know, I spent like fifteen twenty bucks
Speaker 1: on two of them, and then I could grow them
Speaker 1: up myself. Sante some a sparing against bing bang boom
Speaker 1: Valentine's Day dinner. Not if that's a stick. By the way,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be if you're lucky. You just hear you
Speaker 1: say that, and they were like, actually, gonna be much more. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think. Also you can avoid being around other people,
Speaker 1: which to me is way more roundmantic waiting in line,
Speaker 1: not romantic. Dealing with annoyed waiters. No romance. They're having
Speaker 1: to watch like eighty people propose while you're like just
Speaker 1: trying to chilling for you people. It's like great, another one,
Speaker 1: so good. Yeah. And the food is definitely gonna be
Speaker 1: sub part. It's it's there's you're gonna sacrifice speed for
Speaker 1: art in the kitchen, stay home. Yeah. Compare that with
Speaker 1: putting on an apron and nothing else grag cats. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So on the people watching front, my my favorite Valentine's
Speaker 1: Day meal that we ever had, I got reservations well
Speaker 1: in advance. Took my wife to a fancy restaurant on
Speaker 1: Valentine's Day out here in l A and got a
Speaker 1: front row view of Kevin Nealon and his wife on
Speaker 1: a date together, dressed very nicely with Adam Sandler tagging along,
Speaker 1: and like it was just like yeah, come to oh
Speaker 1: not third wheel on Valanche as a perpetually single lass,
Speaker 1: I'm not vibing with it, Like you just see him,
Speaker 1: like what was happening that day? I don't know, he's
Speaker 1: like shoul I forgot. I would say maybe his gift
Speaker 1: was to his wife to be like, listen, you can
Speaker 1: call space for me today. Yeah, you just here's some
Speaker 1: alone time. The kids have a babysitter. I'll be out.
Speaker 1: You just relax, babe. That's romantic. But so, speaking of
Speaker 1: people watching and the view when you are eating a restaurants,
Speaker 1: the takeout has a breakdown of weather. It's weird to
Speaker 1: sit side by side on a date rather than across
Speaker 1: from one another. I am of the opinion that it
Speaker 1: is weird. And also who gives a ship like I'm
Speaker 1: those are those are both good takes it It is
Speaker 1: strange for like who really cares? I guess there's this
Speaker 1: weird you know, feeling off if there's an empty side
Speaker 1: of the table like that doesn't that doesn't work. There's
Speaker 1: something missing there, right, it's not it's not even And
Speaker 1: then what if what if someone you you know you
Speaker 1: don't want to show up, shows up and pulls up
Speaker 1: a chair because they've got a whole side of the
Speaker 1: table too. You need to get the chairs out of there, right,
Speaker 1: so it looks like you're at a like you're a
Speaker 1: married couple at a wedding, you know, like, right, you're
Speaker 1: getting married. Everyone's there to watch you, yeah, and you're
Speaker 1: there to watch them. In turn. The problem with a
Speaker 1: side by side isn't so much for me the optics,
Speaker 1: but when a couple is to feeling themselves, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, go home, don't be like making out
Speaker 1: and I'll touch you under the tap. No, this is
Speaker 1: not the time. Replace we were in public. People are
Speaker 1: trying to there's food literally everywhere. That's to me the
Speaker 1: problem like when you're practically in each other's laps and
Speaker 1: the like. If you it's just it's obnoxious. I'm not
Speaker 1: trying to kill your vibe. I'm just saying, if you
Speaker 1: could finish dinner, maybe take dessert home and get give
Speaker 1: you that atmosphere and mode there, but leave it out
Speaker 1: of the public domain. We don't need it. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: strictly in it for the people watching. What my wife
Speaker 1: and I both like to be the one facing out
Speaker 1: so you can see what's happening in the restaurant. Or
Speaker 1: she likes to do the people watching. And I just
Speaker 1: always wanna make sure if a hit man comes in
Speaker 1: the door, they don't get the drop on me. So
Speaker 1: but yeah, it's but what I do either one The
Speaker 1: only thing don't do it if it's one of those
Speaker 1: like clearly made for sitting across from one another thing
Speaker 1: where you like have to pour all your food in
Speaker 1: a single bowl. But I say, if you're like in
Speaker 1: a booth or something that could be two people sitting
Speaker 1: side by side, go with God. You know that makes sense. Alright,
Speaker 1: let's talk movies. The Diehard conversation around Christmas movies gets
Speaker 1: shipped on a lot, but I do like watching Diehard
Speaker 1: at Christmas. Also the Lethal Weapons underrated Christmas Eve movies.
Speaker 1: No romance plot at the heart of Lethal Weapon, right
Speaker 1: there is, But those are Christmas movies. I'm saying, what
Speaker 1: is the equivalent to you know, die Heart is a
Speaker 1: Christmas movie for Valentine's Day. Doesn't need to be about
Speaker 1: Valentine's Day? But what are like some movies to watch
Speaker 1: on a date or in around a significant other. They'll
Speaker 1: like get you in that sort of romantic mind space.
Speaker 1: I guess to go, Yeah, okay, I'll throw one out there.
Speaker 1: What about Little Shop of Horrors? Pretty good one, got
Speaker 1: some romantic songs suddenly seem but you know, it's still
Speaker 1: got some excessive comic violence and and uh, you know
Speaker 1: you're still feeding people to a giant plan. So you
Speaker 1: got that side of it, but there's still the romantic
Speaker 1: between Audrey and Seymour. Yes, yes, I was gonna say.
Speaker 1: It's got up be like sixties poptoons in it. Some
Speaker 1: of your greatest late eighties early nineties comedic performers in there.
Speaker 1: There's it's class act all the way. That is an
Speaker 1: excellent Valentine's Days choice, as I've seen it before. I'm
Speaker 1: a perpetually single lass and so these are a single
Speaker 1: person's idea of romantic movies. I my dream is to
Speaker 1: host a double feature of Phantom Thread and The Lobster.
Speaker 1: It is because I think they're hyper romantic movies. But
Speaker 1: nobody understand well, not nobody, but a lot of people
Speaker 1: don't understand them. Like a lot of people walked out
Speaker 1: of Antis. They're being like, what the fuck? Like, that's
Speaker 1: a deeply deranged couple. Now there's a couple who have
Speaker 1: found each other. Okay, those two people live in a
Speaker 1: world of billions and out each other and they enjoy
Speaker 1: the weird as ship they do to each other. That's love.
Speaker 1: So romantic. I love the lobster because listen, the world
Speaker 1: is constantly trying to force relationships on us. It's so aggressive.
Speaker 1: It's like, you're alone and you'll die alone and there'll
Speaker 1: be no children to take care of you. How awful
Speaker 1: for you. I really like and moving the challenges. What
Speaker 1: if it's terrible to be in a relationship? What if
Speaker 1: it's just not fun for me? What if it's awful?
Speaker 1: Do I still have to do this? Do I still
Speaker 1: have to harm myself in order to try to be
Speaker 1: with the first thing to please other people? Again? Deeply romantic,
Speaker 1: not a couple romantic, but that self love romance. Really
Speaker 1: asking yourself these questions, Do I even want to be
Speaker 1: in a relationship in the first place? You should we
Speaker 1: have a love relationship with yourself. I firmly believe that,
Speaker 1: and Lobster invite you to do that. So yeah, I
Speaker 1: think go for the weird routemances. Really invest in the
Speaker 1: idea of what does it mean to be in a relationship.
Speaker 1: And I think if you have found a solid partner
Speaker 1: and you guys really love each other, you guys will
Speaker 1: be able to cackle at your friends who are not
Speaker 1: happy romances and be like, who just remind you of both?
Speaker 1: Exactly exactly wild the lobster. The lobster of the premise
Speaker 1: is that what now I forget, I forget the premise
Speaker 1: of a lobster, but I remember it's very high concept, right, yes, okay,
Speaker 1: so yes, it's very high concept, but I don't think
Speaker 1: it's hard for people to understand. So it's here's what happens.
Speaker 1: Single couples get to or the single couples look at me,
Speaker 1: Oh god, okay. Single individuals go to this agency and
Speaker 1: they're like, hey, I want to find a partner. They're like,
Speaker 1: we have a great success right, we have that because
Speaker 1: if you do not fall in love with the person
Speaker 1: we pick for you after a week, we're going to
Speaker 1: turn you into an animal. It can be an animal
Speaker 1: of your choosing. Don't stress you wanna be a dog? Great,
Speaker 1: you will be a lobster. Fine, your main guy, he
Speaker 1: wants to be a lobster because lobster is the cold
Speaker 1: claws with the people they love and it's very sweet
Speaker 1: or whatever. Forever yeah, wherever, but they do live for
Speaker 1: a long time. Great choice overs. Yeah, boil a lobster
Speaker 1: alive and hear it scream boil two of them alive,
Speaker 1: so they're with their loved one hand romantic comic side
Speaker 1: but yeah, and something. As as the movie progresses, he
Speaker 1: has to you know, am I going to conform and
Speaker 1: commit to this woman who is cruel beyond measure a
Speaker 1: spoiler alert from a movie from like or whatever. But
Speaker 1: she his brother goes through the program, becomes a dog,
Speaker 1: she kicks him to death so that he can prove
Speaker 1: that he loves her the most super just awful, And
Speaker 1: then he has to make some decisions. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna stay here and and be with this person. Am
Speaker 1: I gonna run away with this woman I think I'm
Speaker 1: in love with? But I'm still very confused about one
Speaker 1: to figure it out. Secret society in the woods right
Speaker 1: that tries to get out of there. It's a bunch
Speaker 1: of people who tried to run away basically, and now
Speaker 1: they're out in the woods trying not to be turned
Speaker 1: into animals, but still really desperately seeking love. Oh man.
Speaker 1: It really laughs at the idea that you have to
Speaker 1: be in a relationship, and I found find it a
Speaker 1: very cathartic watch. Thread is just it's so good, so funny,
Speaker 1: like a funny movie, and very gorgeously just gorgeously shot.
Speaker 1: It's a wonderful rom com that it not trying to
Speaker 1: be but just happens to fall into that category. And
Speaker 1: I really appreciate it for its weirdness. Yeah, one of
Speaker 1: the best times I ever had watching a movie with
Speaker 1: my wife was Wet Hot American Summer, which, if you
Speaker 1: haven't seen it, not quite as horny as the title
Speaker 1: makes it sound, not very horny at all, But it's
Speaker 1: just a it's a very silly comedy that we saw together,
Speaker 1: not even like early in our relationship. But I was
Speaker 1: surprised by how much she laughed at it too, and
Speaker 1: that was just like, oh, wow, we really are the
Speaker 1: same person. This is great. And yeah, there's also just
Speaker 1: beautiful sex scene featuring Bradley Cooper. I think, amazing something
Speaker 1: for everybody. Yeah, So anyways, any other movies we want
Speaker 1: to call out. I think you could also watch um.
Speaker 1: Any Miyazaki movie to me is a little bit of romance.
Speaker 1: How's Moving Castle is my favorite Miyazaki movie, timeless epic
Speaker 1: romance in there. But I mean, even if you wanted
Speaker 1: to do something along of like My Neighbor Totoro, which
Speaker 1: is much less of a romance movie but so much
Speaker 1: about love and heart, Gosh just gets swept up in
Speaker 1: the beauty of the animation, and then the sweet and
Speaker 1: simplicity of his tales is really delightful. Is it weird
Speaker 1: to be like movies like a Moonrise Kingdom and stuff
Speaker 1: like that, where it's like about children's romance, but there's
Speaker 1: like definitely something sweet about that. Is that? Yeah? I
Speaker 1: don't think so. I think you should totally be able
Speaker 1: to watch his movies. Uh, there's the philosophy that you're
Speaker 1: always the person you were even today, there's still that
Speaker 1: child inside, So why not, you know, engage your inner
Speaker 1: child with the person you want to spend the rest
Speaker 1: of your life with. Come on now, yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: you're not talking about like that would be quite that
Speaker 1: would be very weird to have an actual conversation after that.
Speaker 1: What another animated classics. Pretty pretty cute and romantic. One
Speaker 1: of my favorite movies. Any old movie like The Shop
Speaker 1: around the Corner. I mean, listen, we said not cliches,
Speaker 1: but when Harry met Sally. It's a top It's a
Speaker 1: top movie, guys. It's it's my favorite fall movie. I
Speaker 1: like watching it in September because it's got those great
Speaker 1: New York leaf changing scenes, always walking through the park
Speaker 1: and everything is orange and golden. But you could literally
Speaker 1: watch it any time, and why not pop it in
Speaker 1: on Valentine's saying, get all those old couple of stories.
Speaker 1: I realize that your love story is unique and it's
Speaker 1: good no matter what it is. Yeah. Perfect, I'll throw
Speaker 1: a bride of frank it Stein. I'm not sure she's
Speaker 1: super receptive to him, now that I'm thinking about it,
Speaker 1: But but there's the there, there's a there's a parallel,
Speaker 1: and you could go, um, okay, what's mel Mel's version?
Speaker 1: There you go, popping Young Frankenstein. Excellent, round com excellent,
Speaker 1: there you go. I need to I need to watch that.
Speaker 1: Actually I never I never watched that. Oh it's great, Jack, Jenny,
Speaker 1: you've never seen Young Frankenstein, Joel, I have watched the
Speaker 1: movie Jaws two thousand times. It didn't a lot of
Speaker 1: a lot of times for other movies, but yeah, I
Speaker 1: need to watch it is. I'm actually jealous of you.
Speaker 1: I'm actually jellous. That's what I'm watching with my wife.
Speaker 1: It's a good one. Perfect. Also, there's this movie that
Speaker 1: I think influence Shop around the Corner a lot, called
Speaker 1: You've Got Mail. If people want to check that one out,
Speaker 1: isn't that isn't You've Got Mail? Based on Shop around
Speaker 1: the Corner? Probably the other way around? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: ok yeah, yeah, yeah, Okay, here we are great together.
Speaker 1: I got it is language. Uh, such a pleasure having you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: thanks for having really wonderful Where can people find you?
Speaker 1: Follow you and join in your campaign to get people
Speaker 1: paid a fair wage? Sure? Yeah, you can follow me
Speaker 1: on Twitter at It's Greg Han. And you should totally
Speaker 1: follow the tag writer's Twitter account as well as the
Speaker 1: Animation Guild Twitter account and follow the hashtags hashtag new
Speaker 1: deal for animation and uh hashtag pay animation writers. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: and is there a tweet or some other work of
Speaker 1: social media that you've been enjoying? Sure? Well, you know,
Speaker 1: while we're on it, I will share this one in particular,
Speaker 1: Joey Cliff I believe he's a friend of the show.
Speaker 1: He helped put together a video campaign with you know,
Speaker 1: tons of animation workers and and other really talented people
Speaker 1: speaking out. It features Adam Conover, Phil Lord, Raphael, Bob Waxburg,
Speaker 1: Marrow Wilson, Ellie, council member, uh Nitya Ramen, tons of
Speaker 1: other talented people all saying, hey, pay attention, let's get
Speaker 1: a new deal for animation, and let's pay animation writers.
Speaker 1: So that is on the tag writer's Twitter account and
Speaker 1: you should totally check it out. Nice ntthew Raman was
Speaker 1: the city council representative for my neighborhood. And then they
Speaker 1: you know, we've interviewed her here on the show, a
Speaker 1: great leader with very progressive ideals, and they were like,
Speaker 1: we're going to read district that she can't have that
Speaker 1: much power, and like when nobody was looking to change
Speaker 1: your district, So real function and local l A politics. Joel,
Speaker 1: Such a pleasure having you uh today and these past
Speaker 1: two weeks. Truly all star performance, one of the one
Speaker 1: of the great where it can be people find you,
Speaker 1: follow you. Yeah, thanks for having me, Like gang this
Speaker 1: was fun. I love you all, You're so funny on Twitter.
Speaker 1: First of all, you can find me. I know me
Speaker 1: uh j O E L E M O N i Q.
Speaker 1: I usually do that better, but that's fine. Perfect tweets
Speaker 1: I like, thank you Jack at Dr Dan Schumacher on
Speaker 1: Twitter posted a screenshot of North Carolina's online death certificate request.
Speaker 1: In there, it says the person listed on the death
Speaker 1: certificate is you can check a box myself or someone else,
Speaker 1: and Dr Schumacher says, I have a few legicial questions
Speaker 1: at Gabby d v J tweeted eavesdropping in the West Village.
Speaker 1: Everything I wrote failed because it was too sophisticated and
Speaker 1: I can relate random person in the West Village. No
Speaker 1: one gets me far too sophisticated. And finally from Reductress
Speaker 1: gross successful interview results in full time job and yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: like he's dropping on conversations in l A are way
Speaker 1: way different in the cafe. Were all the writers right
Speaker 1: and just enjoy? Yeah yeah, and then the occasional life
Speaker 1: coach comes in and interesting things to say. Okay, you
Speaker 1: can find me on Twitter at Jack Underscore O'Brien. Some
Speaker 1: tweets I've been enjoying. Robin Lopez, NBA player tweeted, Salvador
Speaker 1: Dolly died in nine, it's weird to think that he
Speaker 1: may have seen the movie Predator. Very work, Robin and
Speaker 1: then Ozrich the flap at Chris are Yates tweeted, was
Speaker 1: reading about the silent film era and think about how
Speaker 1: silly the word talkie is and was then forced to
Speaker 1: really consider for the first time the word movie and
Speaker 1: that fucked me up because that is where that word
Speaker 1: comes from. Is them just being like, it's a picture
Speaker 1: that that moves, it's a it's a day movie time.
Speaker 1: The Last Airbender when they broached like the twenties calls
Speaker 1: them movers, and I think it might be a better
Speaker 1: word movers. Yeah, movies. I'm gonna go check out a mover.
Speaker 1: Yeah amazing. All right, Well, you can find us on
Speaker 1: Twitter at Daily Zeitgeist, where at the Daily Zigeist on Instagram,
Speaker 1: we have Facebook fan page and a website Daily zigeist
Speaker 1: dot com, wh we post our episodes on our foot
Speaker 1: notes where we're going off to the information that we
Speaker 1: talked about in today's episode, as well as a song
Speaker 1: that we think you might enjoy. Super Producer Justin what
Speaker 1: is a song that you think people might enjoy. Oh, well,
Speaker 1: today I'm since I think this is the last day
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna leave it with a
Speaker 1: very black song, very black experience. When you're listening to this,
Speaker 1: this kind of reminds me of how to up to uh,
Speaker 1: my grandfather's barbershop to get my hair cut on Saturday mornings.
Speaker 1: But my dad would always play jazz music in the
Speaker 1: car on the way up there, and and it brings
Speaker 1: me back to that time. This song called Afro Blue,
Speaker 1: This is an Eric about Doo track featuring Fonte and
Speaker 1: Ninth Wonder. If you ever heard Robert Glaster Experiment unbelievable band,
Speaker 1: Robert Glasters the obviously the leader of that band, incredible musician,
Speaker 1: So check this out. It's Afro Blue Robert Glaster Erika
Speaker 1: about Fonte and Ninth Wonder. And you can find that
Speaker 1: in the Foes Amazing well as justin Mabe reference to
Speaker 1: Miles Gray should be back the next episode of the
Speaker 1: show that you listen to. I think I'll be on
Speaker 1: this Afternoons trending episode and then on the regular Epps
Speaker 1: going forward. The Daily Zyka is a production of my
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. For more podcast from my her radio, visit
Speaker 1: the I Heard Radio, Wrap, Apple Podcast, or wherever you're
Speaker 1: listening your favorite shows. That is gonna do it for
Speaker 1: us this morning. We're back this afternoon to tell you
Speaker 1: what's trending, and we will talk to y'all then by
Speaker 1: H