Speaker 1: Hello the Internet, and welcome to season two seventy three,
Speaker 1: Episode five of jediis I Geist Yeah, production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. This is a podcast where we take a
Speaker 1: deep dive into America's shared consciousness. And it is Friday,
Speaker 1: February third, two three, two three. My name is Jack O'Brien,
Speaker 1: a K. Potatoes O'Brien, and I'm thrilled to be joined
Speaker 1: my second seat by one of the very faces on
Speaker 1: Mountain site, Mara, hilarious and brilliant writer producer writes on
Speaker 1: shows like Mixed Dish, that nineties show you know him
Speaker 1: from yos This Racist, which has a live episode this
Speaker 1: Saturday at Cops in San Francisco as part of SF
Speaker 1: Sketch Fest. It's Andrew T. I'm not just the guest
Speaker 1: co host. I'm the co host that guessed it up.
Speaker 1: That's right what I watched. I was like debating before
Speaker 1: we got here. I was like, that is simply too
Speaker 1: dumb to say out loud, and now I think I
Speaker 1: have to I have to try. Yeah, you absolutely good. Well,
Speaker 1: Andrew were thrilled to be joined in our third seat
Speaker 1: by James Beard, Award winning writer and host of the
Speaker 1: podcast Radio Lingo. Please welcome amm it. Oh yeah, well, hey,
Speaker 1: it's going all right. I did listen to the pilot
Speaker 1: episode of the show, which is all about how people
Speaker 1: mispronounce your name, how to pronounce your name? Did my
Speaker 1: best just there? That's pretty good? Okay? I would, I
Speaker 1: would probably, I would probably give that a pass. I would,
Speaker 1: I would go no, note like I would is a
Speaker 1: pet I think. I think. I'm like you learned to
Speaker 1: be okay with lots of different ways of pronouncing And
Speaker 1: there are a lot of different ways of pronouncing my name,
Speaker 1: even in my own family. I realized doing that pilot
Speaker 1: half the people in my family don't say my name
Speaker 1: the same way. So I've learned to be pluralistic and
Speaker 1: open minded about it. Amazing, How and how deep are
Speaker 1: you in the show's We finished the first season first.
Speaker 1: All eight episodes are out on streaming platforms of radio Lingo,
Speaker 1: and it's the show we did with some crooked media
Speaker 1: and dual lingo, so like we kind of got a
Speaker 1: little bit of that cultural criticism. We got a little
Speaker 1: bit of the linguistics, you know, science culture. It's like
Speaker 1: it's it makes linguistics fun. I mean, I think language
Speaker 1: is like really interesting and uh, you know, sometimes getting
Speaker 1: good info about it it's hard. So we hope to
Speaker 1: do a lot of accessible and interesting information about the
Speaker 1: way language shapes our world and how our world shapes language. Yeah, so,
Speaker 1: how exactly did I mispronounce it? Though? Because so here's
Speaker 1: the thing. You can't be expected to say it the
Speaker 1: way that I say it, given the way it's written.
Speaker 1: It's a h M E D that is so misleading.
Speaker 1: It's actually am mud and mud. There you go. Oh
Speaker 1: that was very good, honestly, not out not out of
Speaker 1: t Wow, look at me, um Emma is how it
Speaker 1: said in Ammad. That's so good, honestly, one of the better, better,
Speaker 1: better announcers of a non Pakistani person i've heard. So
Speaker 1: I think grating got a curve. Grading on the white
Speaker 1: curve is important. It's always important for me Andrew get
Speaker 1: graded on that white curve. Low expectations. You know. Potatoes
Speaker 1: O'Brien is you know my nickname because it is the
Speaker 1: most average side side dish possible and I'm aggressively mediocre
Speaker 1: on the topic of potatoes. I guess that could be
Speaker 1: Emma alukabar potato um, you know, like Ali Gobi. But
Speaker 1: I wanted to say like, there's probably Arabs listening, and
Speaker 1: who are like, he's saying his name wrong because they
Speaker 1: say that's also right to them, but to me, it's
Speaker 1: in my family. Everyone says, Emma ahmad. So yeah, alright, Emma,
Speaker 1: We're going to get to know you a little a
Speaker 1: bit better in a moment. First, we're gonna tell our
Speaker 1: listeners a couple of the things that we're talking about
Speaker 1: on today's episode. Apparently a big strike happening in the
Speaker 1: UK that's not getting a lot of coverage over here
Speaker 1: in the mainstream, so we're gonna talk about that. We're
Speaker 1: gonna talk about the civil suit against Kyle Rittenhouse being
Speaker 1: able to go ahead, and just there's some good descriptions
Speaker 1: in the suit that give you a nice to re
Speaker 1: contextualize things that I think maybe people have lost sight of.
Speaker 1: In that case, we'll talk about Shell Oils. We we
Speaker 1: just always like to celebrate when Shell Oil reports record profits.
Speaker 1: We like to crack open a barrel of crude. It's
Speaker 1: another banner day for shall that's right. We'll talk about
Speaker 1: ugly produce. We'll talk about ticket Master, Ticketmaster anxiety that
Speaker 1: I think everyone's having around the upcoming Beyonce tour, So
Speaker 1: we'll talk about all that plenty more. But first, Emma,
Speaker 1: we like to ask our guests, what is something from
Speaker 1: your search history? I wish it was something interesting, but
Speaker 1: really what I used Google for now is just looking
Speaker 1: up things about the video games I'm playing currently, fire
Speaker 1: ump Whom Engage. I'm like, this game does not explain
Speaker 1: anything to you. How do I promote this character into
Speaker 1: a class that is cool and does cool things? The
Speaker 1: game is not explaining it to me, so it's all
Speaker 1: like fire Umpleman Engage, how to promote Ellier to next class?
Speaker 1: Like that's literally it nice. I'm not a gamer, Andrew,
Speaker 1: do you does anything? Do any of those words make
Speaker 1: sense to you? One of my they kind of do
Speaker 1: because one of my I believe first appearances on this
Speaker 1: very show, I was talking about how one of my
Speaker 1: favorite things to do is as a non gamer, is
Speaker 1: watch people play video games on YouTube, so I feel
Speaker 1: like more familiar. I was at my friend's house the
Speaker 1: other day and his kids were playing God of War
Speaker 1: and I knew where stuff was, even though I had
Speaker 1: literally never played the game before, and I think I
Speaker 1: haven't capable of it. Right, You're like, you missed the
Speaker 1: chess chew over that ledge and the fire the acts
Speaker 1: the other way. It's right there. Yeah, I really like
Speaker 1: hearing people talk about video game like storytelling and like
Speaker 1: all the ways that it's innovating. Again, like, don't play
Speaker 1: video games. Haven't played video games since uh the N
Speaker 1: sixty four a sort of consistent basis, and but yeah,
Speaker 1: sometimes people just you know, because you know playing you're
Speaker 1: sort of involved in it. And I feel like there's
Speaker 1: just a level of like commitment and vividness and color
Speaker 1: that comes with sometimes hearing a video game like gameplay
Speaker 1: described that that I really enjoy. It's like being a
Speaker 1: little brother all over again. Exactly, Jack, you don't play
Speaker 1: in a Candy Crush or like Wordscapes or any of
Speaker 1: that on your phone, Like I got into wordle and
Speaker 1: Candy Crush at various times. Yeah, but to me, that
Speaker 1: means you play video game. I feel like the intense
Speaker 1: gamer bros have monopolized that identity. It's like you play
Speaker 1: games on your phone, you're you play video games. That's
Speaker 1: that's how I see it. And I always feel bad
Speaker 1: every time I play like Candy Crush or like one
Speaker 1: of those games, I'm like, what are you doing? Where
Speaker 1: is my because the time Like I think the reason
Speaker 1: I stay away from it is because the most that
Speaker 1: I've engaged in non pharmaceutical time travel where it's just like, oh,
Speaker 1: I've been sitting here for three hours, but I have
Speaker 1: no awareness, like the time just absolutely disappeared. Has been
Speaker 1: playing like you know, Candy Crush or something like that.
Speaker 1: So I wanted to do I wanted someone to do
Speaker 1: a deep dive into those like clearly spam video games
Speaker 1: that get advertised on Instagram. Like it's like, this is
Speaker 1: clearly not a thing, like but dozens of generations, it's amazing,
Speaker 1: nine out of ten guys can't solve this, Like what
Speaker 1: what is the game that you're would you mind engaging
Speaker 1: in a little video game storytelling description and tell us
Speaker 1: about what was the name of the game fire and
Speaker 1: engage It's I would not. I would be very embarrassed
Speaker 1: to have you watched me play that game, because they're embarrassing.
Speaker 1: The game before Fire Upon Three Houses was kind of
Speaker 1: like this great like political drama in like a kind
Speaker 1: of anime high school, like medieval anime high school kind
Speaker 1: a situation, but like there was actually some smart like
Speaker 1: character writing in it. This new one is just like
Speaker 1: you know what, it's camp. It's all camp, and your
Speaker 1: units will your your units will die, like they'll actually die,
Speaker 1: like they will be dead, and the game will not
Speaker 1: comment on it. It's like a It's a game where
Speaker 1: you like feeld a bunch of cavalry and like archers,
Speaker 1: and they all have like blue hair and red hair,
Speaker 1: and they like are dressed in ridiculous outfits and you
Speaker 1: just have to send these child soldiers out and hope
Speaker 1: that they don't die and try to text the kingdom
Speaker 1: from like dragons. It's it's really not a very cool game,
Speaker 1: but it is a game that I've been playing for
Speaker 1: probably like twelve years. Every time they come out with one,
Speaker 1: I play a new one because the game plays very good.
Speaker 1: It's a very fun game. And how are you with
Speaker 1: the are you? Are you watching the Last of Us?
Speaker 1: And just like I saw on Twitter that you are,
Speaker 1: how is everybody doing with that? I actually wasn't because
Speaker 1: it's the game was too harrowing, So I I was
Speaker 1: joking about it. But I'm going to catch up at
Speaker 1: some point. So yeah, the Last of Us game, which
Speaker 1: is like you know about those you know, fungus people
Speaker 1: taking over the world and you know this journey to
Speaker 1: you know, I won't spoil the journey of what the
Speaker 1: journey is about, but there's a big journey. The name
Speaker 1: game was very yeah, like harrowing and nihilistic this, and
Speaker 1: I was like a little um worried about what they
Speaker 1: would do here because every zombie show likes to be
Speaker 1: the real enemy is actually humans. It's not. He's like, yes,
Speaker 1: we know humans are terrible, but this, the last episode
Speaker 1: they did, was so beautiful. It was so so beautiful.
Speaker 1: It was about like survival, I guess, and love. And
Speaker 1: I just thought that the way they did it was
Speaker 1: like it was just a little short film and that
Speaker 1: really sold me on it. Andrew, I wasn't sold on
Speaker 1: it before then either, but okay, well, I was just
Speaker 1: like I'd heard because this episode is a deviation from
Speaker 1: the game, and prior to that it sounded like it
Speaker 1: was very close to the game. However, my my pitch
Speaker 1: on Twitter was because I'm horribly bad at video games,
Speaker 1: and this is actually one of the few video games
Speaker 1: I played. We should I would like to see a
Speaker 1: last of us Prestige TV show sent to the pacing
Speaker 1: of my gameplay. Uh So, everything takes about like four hours.
Speaker 1: They spent like like really really like unbelievable amount of
Speaker 1: time missing shooting at one zombie, one of the early
Speaker 1: ones that kind of ship, the main character keeps dying
Speaker 1: just like just like looking at a pile of bolts
Speaker 1: in his hands, like I gotta make some stuff. I
Speaker 1: guess what is something that you think is overrated? This
Speaker 1: is a very basic high school opinion of mine. But
Speaker 1: waking up early having had to I'm a I'm a
Speaker 1: new dad, and for the last five weeks I have
Speaker 1: been alone with the baby and have had to every
Speaker 1: single day be the only person waking up and when
Speaker 1: the baby wakes up, and now that my partner's back
Speaker 1: and we're splitting the duties, I'm like, I don't want
Speaker 1: to go back to that. That is not pleasant for me.
Speaker 1: I know some people get a lot done there. I
Speaker 1: was waking up early and still not getting as much
Speaker 1: work done in the morning as all these morning people say, Like,
Speaker 1: I tried it for six weeks straight. It did nothing
Speaker 1: for me. All my work was happened after eleven am.
Speaker 1: I'm famously on the Mark Wahlberg schedule where I wake
Speaker 1: up at two am and get a full full, just
Speaker 1: absurd work out there, just to make sure that I
Speaker 1: know that I have the mental edge over my fellow
Speaker 1: humans a k. Competitors because I view everybody else as
Speaker 1: a competitor. And first breakfast at six am, second breakfast
Speaker 1: at nine get like, let's cook five different meals a day. Yeah,
Speaker 1: camp podcasts without the pump. Yeah, you gotta get your
Speaker 1: pump on before before rolling. Yeah, no I don't. I
Speaker 1: don't have that either. I I've tried it. And yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm mostly through the very early waking up with the
Speaker 1: baby part portion of fatherhood. But it's yeah, I just
Speaker 1: I just can't wait to sleep in until nine one
Speaker 1: time in the future and be like, wow, I don't
Speaker 1: even I'm not waking up in a panic wondering what
Speaker 1: has happened that has allowed me to sleep until night. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this might be similar to y'all's fatherhood journey. But I
Speaker 1: just have a dog who wants to go out. But
Speaker 1: I have a very and this is you know, if
Speaker 1: this were a human being I was talking about, I
Speaker 1: think I'd be calling you know, child protective Services would
Speaker 1: be called on me. But I have I get to
Speaker 1: make the choice of like, look, it's only gonna be
Speaker 1: some pe If I I could in exchange for sleep,
Speaker 1: I can know that I will have to clean up PA,
Speaker 1: and then I can make that decision that which I
Speaker 1: guess if I can't do with the child. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: we we just we just let the ride kids. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we let them sleep in it for you know, hopefully
Speaker 1: if they sleep through the night, that's good. They had
Speaker 1: to have slept through a little bit of p to
Speaker 1: do that, and that's actually better than the alternative sound
Speaker 1: sleep for them and for us. What's something you think
Speaker 1: is underrated? Here's a controversial one. I think maybe for
Speaker 1: some people, but I think SNL. I'm a huge sn
Speaker 1: L head. I don't know if it's something about like
Speaker 1: being an immigrant kid, where like we're like child of immigrants.
Speaker 1: When it was like a weekly view into pop culture,
Speaker 1: that like it was really a grab bag. Like I
Speaker 1: find myself continually, you know, not always loving it, but
Speaker 1: finding it a useful thing to watch every week and enjoy, like,
Speaker 1: and you know, occasionally I think there's a lot of
Speaker 1: underrated sketches there. And also having done live podcast US
Speaker 1: and really struggling with them, that job is hard. It's
Speaker 1: really hard, like doing stuff live is not easy. So
Speaker 1: I think SNL is it kind of still an achievement
Speaker 1: to me, and I will I will ride for many
Speaker 1: many seasons of it. There are some seasons that are
Speaker 1: not good. But even then, deep deep in the deep,
Speaker 1: in the back end of the hour and a half,
Speaker 1: you'll find a good sketch here and there. I think
Speaker 1: you've gotten much better in the last with the new
Speaker 1: The new cast members are great. Maybe they're just because
Speaker 1: they're Yeah, they're just like more more my speed. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I've just always you know, gone in hoping for as
Speaker 1: much Alec Baldwin as possible in my SNL. Concerning now,
Speaker 1: I haven't watched it in a in a while. I
Speaker 1: think it was like those Baldwin Trump episodes that was
Speaker 1: like but but yeah, when I do get a sketch
Speaker 1: forwarded to me, I always enjoy it, and it is
Speaker 1: the ultimate death knell of you're I feel like relevance
Speaker 1: is to be like SNL sucks now. It used to
Speaker 1: be good when I was in my twins. That is
Speaker 1: an objective fact and in no way tied to my aging. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: what are they gonna do with Baldwin's case? I don't
Speaker 1: know if you're ever gonna come back on with the
Speaker 1: with the shooting kiss, I'll see, I guess. And have
Speaker 1: you been ammad you've ridden with it for like the
Speaker 1: whole time? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I never stopped watching it.
Speaker 1: My family watches it on like it's something my siblings
Speaker 1: I've always done. We continue to do it. I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't know why. I think. Also I'm printed on
Speaker 1: my older sisters who are like almost ten years older
Speaker 1: than me. It was like, weirdly something we agreed on
Speaker 1: and you know, never changed. Really yeah, yeah, it's a
Speaker 1: nice little ritual. Well. Also the YouTube of it really helps,
Speaker 1: like sketch comedy, because it is like you could just
Speaker 1: watch the good parts, like you know, you can watch
Speaker 1: it on two times eat. It doesn't waste an hour
Speaker 1: and a half of your time, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: There's no commercials you I watch it on YouTube. By
Speaker 1: the way, I don't watch it like but yeah that
Speaker 1: to be fair when I mean, like I actually do
Speaker 1: ask my sister, like I was like, did you see
Speaker 1: that Michael B. Jordan's one, which was the last one
Speaker 1: that was just odd? And we don't like talking about
Speaker 1: the sketches and stuff. So yeah, yeah, I love a
Speaker 1: good family like media tradition, Like I have a friend
Speaker 1: whose family just always watch sixty minutes together and they
Speaker 1: won't miss sixty minutes like no matter what. And yeah,
Speaker 1: so as somebody who's watched, I feel like more SNL
Speaker 1: than anybody and that I've ever spoken to having like
Speaker 1: stuck with it through the thick and thin. Is there
Speaker 1: a season? Is there a cast member that you feel
Speaker 1: like everybody slept on a season or cast member everybody
Speaker 1: slept on? Well, I was gonna say a sketch that
Speaker 1: I think is really good sketch for you to go see,
Speaker 1: because I feel like, give us a deep cut sketch.
Speaker 1: It's not that deep of a cut, but I'll just
Speaker 1: I mean maybe if you're not medium. Which is the
Speaker 1: Career Day sketch with Adam Driver where Adam Driver plays
Speaker 1: like this decrepit twenty year old father of like a
Speaker 1: team like a twelve years like Pete Davidson is like
Speaker 1: supposed to be like fifteen, and he just comes in
Speaker 1: and like talks about you know what it was like
Speaker 1: growing up? Is like a robber Barry. It's like because
Speaker 1: he commits to the sketch so hard. You've seen Adam Driver.
Speaker 1: You know, you know good soup. You know, like how
Speaker 1: intense he gets. He brings that level of intensity of
Speaker 1: that character. And it is like also like a good
Speaker 1: example of why live is good is he freaks everyone
Speaker 1: out in the room. He's so dead about it. I
Speaker 1: can see there's moments where like he like stabs like
Speaker 1: a like a prop raven with his cane and everyone
Speaker 1: jumps because he wasn't supposed to do. It's like that's
Speaker 1: something that's magical about it that like he done. It's
Speaker 1: like it's a weird alchemy that you wouldn't see in
Speaker 1: other places. Yeah, that's great that he does SNL because
Speaker 1: I feel like, you know, the super committed but I'm
Speaker 1: Dringald blank on the guy Blade Lincoln and is for
Speaker 1: freaking everybody out on set. Yeah, what's what's his name? Daniel? Yes,
Speaker 1: like Dan day Lewis as I call never never like
Speaker 1: kind of we we never got to see that aspect
Speaker 1: of like his intensity freaking everybody out. So that's cool
Speaker 1: that Adam Driver does it. I commend that. I like
Speaker 1: when the guests are like drama kids that really go
Speaker 1: for it. I feel like Joseph Mark, it's a great example,
Speaker 1: where he's just like he's been ready for this his
Speaker 1: entire life, and like everything is the same level of
Speaker 1: commitment no matter why. Yeah. One person that I will
Speaker 1: ride for that I think is very funny is Vanessa Bear,
Speaker 1: who's the cast member who has this like amazing gummy
Speaker 1: smile that she uses to great effect on like the
Speaker 1: Totino sketch. If you remember the Totino sketches where she
Speaker 1: plays like the disaffected housewife who all the guys watching
Speaker 1: the super Bowl like want her to make that for
Speaker 1: a hungry guy. It's like it's such an amazing and
Speaker 1: unusual role like for that, like she gets to you know,
Speaker 1: like kind of an energy she you wouldn't see as
Speaker 1: much in sketch count comedy that she she does really well.
Speaker 1: I feel like, yeah, she's no longer in the show.
Speaker 1: She's a former cast, but I really like the current cast. Andrew,
Speaker 1: like you're saying, there's a lot of new people like
Speaker 1: Ego and Pinky and and there's a lot of new
Speaker 1: people that I like, Yeah, yeah, weird l A people.
Speaker 1: It's the best. Yeah, they really went with that La
Speaker 1: Comedy scene Vanessa Bears character where she's playing the young
Speaker 1: boy Who's I think being bought Mitz foed or bar
Speaker 1: Mitz fed is one of my favorite things. That's just
Speaker 1: one of my favorite comedic comedic performances. And now if
Speaker 1: you know that, yeah, I just just not I've like
Speaker 1: fallen off in the past few years. So but Vanessa
Speaker 1: Bear currently has a podcast on our sister network, Big
Speaker 1: Money Players Nice. So that's been very cool. I guess
Speaker 1: I'll have to listen to that if I'm writing for
Speaker 1: we Get Weird. All right, let's take a quick break,
Speaker 1: we'll come back, We'll talk about some news, and we're back.
Speaker 1: And so big strike happened in the UK. Teachers, train
Speaker 1: drivers joined civil servants and other workers for a mass
Speaker 1: strike on Wednesday, dubbed walk Out Wednesday, the biggest strike
Speaker 1: action in a decade, which closed of schools. And this
Speaker 1: is just the latest strike action in the UK protesting
Speaker 1: low wages. There's been a wave of strikes in recent
Speaker 1: months across the public and private sectors, including Amazon workers
Speaker 1: and postal staff. Nurses, paramedics, other healthcare workers are set
Speaker 1: to strike next week. And I feel like, I don't know,
Speaker 1: it doesn't do you feel like this is being covered
Speaker 1: much in in the US. Media. I feel like I
Speaker 1: haven't seen a great deal of coverage on this. No,
Speaker 1: it's I feel like like the the extra lifeblood of
Speaker 1: America is like suppressing labor and anything to do that
Speaker 1: is what it takes to keep America running. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: really feels like a like a an allergic reaction that
Speaker 1: we have to any any message, that any story that
Speaker 1: leads you in in a left left word direct or
Speaker 1: even yeah, or even to consider should I be striking?
Speaker 1: Like that is the question they absolutely do not want
Speaker 1: anyone asking themselves in America. Yeah, well, this is a
Speaker 1: related story, which is the nurses walk out and Montefior
Speaker 1: and the Bronx in New York. That was like, I
Speaker 1: felt like that got a decent amount of coverage on
Speaker 1: NPR where you know. And then the other thing that
Speaker 1: was brought up was the that I saw in that
Speaker 1: story was the ridiculous wages that the that the scab
Speaker 1: nurses or the travel nurses or whatever you wanna call them,
Speaker 1: the travel that the one that kind of filled in,
Speaker 1: they're being paid some ridiculous like hundreds of dollars an
Speaker 1: hour to fill in. And then I think, what's interesting
Speaker 1: because also when the strikers resolved, it's kind of like
Speaker 1: it's fine now, Like, you know, it's not really. It's
Speaker 1: just like the reason they're striking is because things have
Speaker 1: been so unsustainable for so long. It might get you
Speaker 1: closer to equilibrium, but it's really not where the workers
Speaker 1: want to go a lot of the times too, So
Speaker 1: it's like a little bit of both. It's like the
Speaker 1: coverage is like, oh, the strike is happening, but you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's a it's a reflection of like a longer
Speaker 1: trend of devaluing workers. And then when it's like resolved,
Speaker 1: it's like it's usually abandoned. It's really abandoned for inflation
Speaker 1: and all the other stuff happening that's causing them to
Speaker 1: you know, want to walk up. Yeah, the Amtrak strike
Speaker 1: being broken was like just fucking horrible. It was just brutal,
Speaker 1: moving along, moving along. Yeah, Okay, everything's good now. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But again, like the public public opinion is in like
Speaker 1: more than half of people are in favor of the
Speaker 1: educational sector striking in the UK. Generally, there's always more
Speaker 1: public support for strikes and labor organizing in the US
Speaker 1: than I'm usually expecting based on how just kind of
Speaker 1: much of a non story. It's always treated as in
Speaker 1: the media, and it really it really feels like, I
Speaker 1: don't know, like people are at a point after you know,
Speaker 1: so many years of just being being like seeing over
Speaker 1: and over again, and we'll kind of keep returning to
Speaker 1: this and the stories about Ticketmaster and Shell. But that like,
Speaker 1: the corporations will treat you as badly as they can
Speaker 1: legally get away with treating you, or worse if they
Speaker 1: if they could get away with it just quietly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think the pitch to like every worker
Speaker 1: is like, hey, you know the thing that gives you
Speaker 1: the most power against the boss that you hate, it's
Speaker 1: actually doing the thing that you like most, not working,
Speaker 1: So consider it is powerful and actually good. Yeah. There
Speaker 1: was one like little viral moment where like Channel four
Speaker 1: earned praise by showing solidarity with the workers by airing
Speaker 1: the Simpsons episode where Homer goes on strike on Wednesday,
Speaker 1: the day of the walkout, and they but they like
Speaker 1: claimed it was a coincidence. It's just like snuck is weird,
Speaker 1: Like why do you have to claim it's a coincidence.
Speaker 1: This is a thing that's happening, don't you know? Do
Speaker 1: you have to do it? Isn't it? I mean, I
Speaker 1: guess it's I will say, like playing reruns from my
Speaker 1: brief time when I worked at Comedy Central, it seems
Speaker 1: like much more complicated and longer thought out than I
Speaker 1: ever realized. So I guess I'm saying there is a
Speaker 1: chance it was a coincidence. It was a coincidence. Okay,
Speaker 1: I got it. You know, you never know, but like yeah,
Speaker 1: because that that it's just like unbelievably tedious to like
Speaker 1: which episode of The Simpsons are we playing now? Okay,
Speaker 1: we have to clear everything everything every Yeah, that makes sense,
Speaker 1: all right. Moving on to the a civil suit against
Speaker 1: Kyle Rittenhouse that a judge refused to throw out. John Huber,
Speaker 1: the father of one of Kyle Rittenhouse victims, is suing
Speaker 1: Rittenhouse and the government, claiming that he conspired with officers
Speaker 1: to cause harm to protesters, which seems pretty undeniable. Like
Speaker 1: just reading like parts of the case, it's just like
Speaker 1: it's like, yeah, that that happened that, you know, we
Speaker 1: we've kind of gotten some distance from it. And the
Speaker 1: there was the case that where he was found not guilty,
Speaker 1: but like that just the description like despite openly caring
Speaker 1: a rifle. The complaint states that Rittenhouse was never questioned
Speaker 1: by authorities at the time. Written House was a minor
Speaker 1: unauthorized to possess such a weapon, and like couldn't have
Speaker 1: looked more the editor realized, but they couldn't have looked
Speaker 1: more like a child holding it us all rightful law
Speaker 1: enforcement forced protesters into a confined area with hostile armed
Speaker 1: individuals and failed to protect the protesters from violence perpetrated
Speaker 1: by the armed individuals. Yeah, that's like also though, every
Speaker 1: police like every time the police are dealing with protesters
Speaker 1: who aren't Nazis, so like right, that's the thing where
Speaker 1: I mean, if the civil suit goes through, I think,
Speaker 1: like I do feel like the whole like quote unquote
Speaker 1: justice system is going to be like fighting against this
Speaker 1: because it's really like hits to the core of their
Speaker 1: business model. Yeah, it's so fucking grim. It's terrible to
Speaker 1: have to see written Houses face on Twitter every now
Speaker 1: and again. It's like, it's actually amazing. Yeah, And the
Speaker 1: so I was assuming like, yeah, it was the their
Speaker 1: argument for throwing dismissing the case that this judge overturned was,
Speaker 1: you know, something along the lines of the argument that
Speaker 1: he used to be found not guilty, but in fact
Speaker 1: it's just he's been hiding from them when they were
Speaker 1: trying to serve him with the with the papers. One
Speaker 1: of the main arguments was that he wasn't properly served.
Speaker 1: In order to sue him, Huber had to hire private
Speaker 1: investigators to track down Mr. Rittenhouse's residents, which required searching
Speaker 1: addresses in seven states. All they could find was his
Speaker 1: mom and sister's play in Florida, so they served his sister,
Speaker 1: who claimed he was not at home, and the judge
Speaker 1: was like, that's what you're talking about. It is a
Speaker 1: wild like part of the US justice system that you
Speaker 1: can just like that, there's like a hide and seek
Speaker 1: stage of getting to well. It's also funny because like, yeah,
Speaker 1: when you talk about Kyle the House on Twitter, he
Speaker 1: gives us or like that, he's like, I'm like a
Speaker 1: brave patriot. He's like he's a child hiding from the
Speaker 1: consequences of his actions. Is it really shows you what
Speaker 1: you know the character there? It is like, yeah, he's
Speaker 1: like such a weenie at every stage of everything. It
Speaker 1: is just like yeah, just kind of some kind of
Speaker 1: fascist Alfredy Newman walking around with a gun, right, yeah,
Speaker 1: but yeah, it just feels like, I don't know, a
Speaker 1: good maybe this civil suit can be a sort of
Speaker 1: this is water moment where you get to take a
Speaker 1: step back and see this event for what it is.
Speaker 1: That like, there's just an implicit assumption in our society
Speaker 1: that the conservative, gun toting, white supremacist side is going
Speaker 1: to be treated like they're on the same team as
Speaker 1: the police. That's that's wild. It's it's very spitor man meme. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: all right. And then finally some good news shell Oil
Speaker 1: is the profits who boo, Yeah, profit profits hit thirty
Speaker 1: nine point nine billion in two, double last year's total
Speaker 1: and the highest and it's fifteen year history. So the
Speaker 1: year two, we remember what that year was was like
Speaker 1: with the prices skyrocketing and everyone saying this is unavoidable,
Speaker 1: and this being a key feature of how we were
Speaker 1: feeling the pressure of inflation and lack of affordability that
Speaker 1: is driving the strikes that we just talked about, you know,
Speaker 1: and people just not being able to live. So that
Speaker 1: that year was double year over year profits for a
Speaker 1: company that is one of the biggest, most profitable companies
Speaker 1: in the world. And I know this is like a
Speaker 1: The fact that I even have to ask this probably
Speaker 1: tells you exactly. It's like a problem with both my
Speaker 1: like rear in general, and like it's just like what
Speaker 1: is enough money? Like at a certain point, like you
Speaker 1: have to have enough money, right, like in what is
Speaker 1: the point of even this? Like what are you gonna
Speaker 1: spend it on? You're gonna be living in God, I
Speaker 1: guess you're gonna be in the dome and everyone else
Speaker 1: is in the water world. But yeah, this is money
Speaker 1: you're accruing. It's and it's the scene in Doctor Strange
Speaker 1: Love where they're like, well, you know, we could all
Speaker 1: just move into this cave, and you know there would
Speaker 1: be a lot of men, but we would need to
Speaker 1: really like procreate for populate the world. It's it is
Speaker 1: that grim, like dark moment where the masters of the
Speaker 1: universe are secretly plotting to just be like, yeah, well
Speaker 1: that's it sounds like a y plan change, sounds like
Speaker 1: a you're you problem. And I'm over here trying to
Speaker 1: figure out how to move this forty billion dollars best
Speaker 1: so I know I will be long dead when this
Speaker 1: goes down. But when these people's militias turn against them
Speaker 1: at the very first second of the apocalypse will be
Speaker 1: very satisfying. Yeah, they're also being sued by fourteen thousand
Speaker 1: people in Nigeria for completely destroying the local ecology their
Speaker 1: way of life and are so sensitive to that sort
Speaker 1: of thing. I know, so, but again, like I don't
Speaker 1: know that these these sorts of lawsuits. You know, even
Speaker 1: when they do win in local court, they find a
Speaker 1: way to just tie it up and endless. You know,
Speaker 1: they put that forty billion to good use in legal fees.
Speaker 1: All you could do is hurt that pile of money
Speaker 1: which appears to be the thing worth destroying the world for.
Speaker 1: And there's like no amount of fines you could give them.
Speaker 1: It's yeah, kind of like they're bad, bad thing for
Speaker 1: the earth. I'll get kind of almost like that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well we'll google that and get back to you on
Speaker 1: that one. All right, let's take a quick break, we'll
Speaker 1: come back. We'll talk about the ugly produce movement, and
Speaker 1: we're back. And so sprouts will now have an ugly
Speaker 1: section for their produce in California, Like in addition to
Speaker 1: organic that there will be an ugly section where just
Speaker 1: misshapen off color, over or undersized let me see which
Speaker 1: fruits they actually named, because it would be they named potatoes, onions, grapefruit, lemons, oranges, pears, carrots,
Speaker 1: kiwi and bell peppers were the most fucked up dish
Speaker 1: you've ever had, exactly. But basically, the there's a sorting
Speaker 1: process us that happens before produced reaches grocery shelves, and
Speaker 1: they get rid of any that have visible imperfections in
Speaker 1: favor of, you know, whatever looks like the platonic ideal
Speaker 1: of that fruit essentially, and so people have kind of
Speaker 1: had the idea for a while now actually that this
Speaker 1: is probably contributing to the fact that the U. S
Speaker 1: d A estimates that as much as thirty of the U.
Speaker 1: S food supply goes uneaten. So it's well, we're talking
Speaker 1: it in a little bit, but so whole foods. A
Speaker 1: couple other places tried to start a similar movement in
Speaker 1: but like really couldn't get consumers on board. And there
Speaker 1: was a recent study that said that just the natural
Speaker 1: human assumption is that ugly food is actually worse for us,
Speaker 1: even though it's not like completely incorrect. But a University
Speaker 1: of British Columbia School of Business study found that people
Speaker 1: assume ugly produces less nutritious and less delicious than it's
Speaker 1: better looking counterparts, which is a bummer because it's not true.
Speaker 1: I feel like it says such bad things about humanity
Speaker 1: that like our our idea of you, I mean, you
Speaker 1: say platonic ideal. I'm like, basically, we can't process any
Speaker 1: food that doesn't look like a five year old druid.
Speaker 1: This is like apple, but it's exactly like shape like this.
Speaker 1: Let me search in my emoji apple and typically the
Speaker 1: one that looks the most like an apple has all
Speaker 1: the flavor bread out of it. You don't like the
Speaker 1: red delicious your worst you're you know, platonic ideal of
Speaker 1: what an apple should look like. And it's don't get
Speaker 1: started on red delicious. And we you know this that
Speaker 1: you know article that I wrote. I wrote this article.
Speaker 1: But the mango market on WhatsApp and mangoes in America
Speaker 1: are very beautiful, and the ones that come from India
Speaker 1: box down Asia are these like bruised, little soft, messed
Speaker 1: up things and you and they like covered can be
Speaker 1: covered in black spots, and they are literally ten times
Speaker 1: better than any like people like all your you know,
Speaker 1: Asian parents are gonna be like, mangoes in America aren't mangoes,
Speaker 1: and they really are. When you try them, it's like
Speaker 1: it's like they like taste like apples, you know, the
Speaker 1: Tommy Atkins, and like all they don't have that kind
Speaker 1: of like calmly sweet goodness that And so like this
Speaker 1: article that I wrote, you know, back in was not
Speaker 1: is like about how people will pay eight dollars a
Speaker 1: mango because they know how much better they can be.
Speaker 1: And I think it comes down to people just uh,
Speaker 1: not really being very educated about seasonality. The other thing
Speaker 1: that's crazy about that is when I've people have heard
Speaker 1: about this, they're like, it'll be in January. They'll be like,
Speaker 1: can I get some mangoes. I'm like, you think mangoes
Speaker 1: grow in January? They do not. They only grow for
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks, like you know, it's in the summer,
Speaker 1: like they're not or it's a season, it's not something
Speaker 1: you can get. But here in America you can actually
Speaker 1: get mangoes literally every month of the year because they're
Speaker 1: importing from all sorts of different places, you know. So
Speaker 1: on the misfits thing, I'll just say one thing, which
Speaker 1: is if food waste is the primary problem. Then the
Speaker 1: misfits thing is like a really small part of it.
Speaker 1: Because even still all of the stuff that's coming to
Speaker 1: the market, like they plan to make a profit on it,
Speaker 1: to charge to charge as little as they do, that
Speaker 1: half of it is going to be thrown out like
Speaker 1: they just want you to, you know, they it's it's
Speaker 1: it's a model already built on waste. And yes they're
Speaker 1: slightly supermarkets are slightly reducing their wastes, but it's it's
Speaker 1: really probably not as sustainable as supporting a local farmer
Speaker 1: or cesa, which is you know, they're trying to still
Speaker 1: get you in the door and support their overall very
Speaker 1: bad for the climate. And so I'm a little skeptical
Speaker 1: of these misfits markets. Yeah, I I am too, because
Speaker 1: I mean one of the even even in this article
Speaker 1: and the takeout that covers it, they mention and that
Speaker 1: like when the food gets sorted before it's delivered to
Speaker 1: the grocery stores, it's not just like thrown in a
Speaker 1: can and picked up by the garbage truck. It's actually
Speaker 1: used to feed animals or folded back into the soil
Speaker 1: to add nutrients to the soil. So yeah, it doesn't.
Speaker 1: It doesn't feel like this is the thing that's driving
Speaker 1: food waste. Yeah, yeah, it's not the primary thing. Yet.
Speaker 1: The whole supermarket model in general is just a huge
Speaker 1: contributor to food waste. So they're just trying to kind
Speaker 1: of launder their reputation a little bit. I think, yeah,
Speaker 1: of course, and even these subscription boxes, like I'm not sure, like,
Speaker 1: you know, sure you're eating the wasted stuff, but if
Speaker 1: it's being you know, driven on a gas power, you know,
Speaker 1: a huge massive truck like or delivery event, like, is
Speaker 1: that really more sustainable than just you know, not doing that.
Speaker 1: I don't know, buy from a local farmer or something.
Speaker 1: But to be fair, buying c s A is those
Speaker 1: things are expensive. I've tried, and I waste a lot
Speaker 1: of my C s a s. So you know, I'm
Speaker 1: calling the pot calling the kettle black over here, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, we have a very productive lemon tree at
Speaker 1: my house and I love it. It's one of the
Speaker 1: one of the greatest gifts in my life. But it
Speaker 1: produces i'd say, like ten percent of the lemons it
Speaker 1: produces look like hr Geiger like designed them. There there
Speaker 1: is some wild ship which which I feel like is
Speaker 1: actually cool. Like if I saw some lemons that look
Speaker 1: like that at the grocery store, I think I'd have
Speaker 1: to be be on board with that. You know, a
Speaker 1: lot of zesting surface area if you want to lemons
Speaker 1: zest with that has like zulu tentacles coming out of
Speaker 1: the top of it. Growing zucchini by the way, the
Speaker 1: night king horns, right, if you don't cut them by
Speaker 1: the time they become like that perfectly like even shape,
Speaker 1: they just become these giant bulb like clatures that are
Speaker 1: just horrified. And it's like I wouldn't know that unless I,
Speaker 1: like my sister, had like a summer of trying to
Speaker 1: grow zucchini's, Like I had no idea that like there
Speaker 1: was a perfect time to cut a zucchini off the
Speaker 1: stem where it like looks nice, and after that just
Speaker 1: becomes so scary that like you don't want to eat
Speaker 1: it obviously, like probably like the water content is too
Speaker 1: high and those bigger ones. That's probably why people harvested
Speaker 1: at that time. But it's like, yeah, and plants are
Speaker 1: it can be really scary looking sometimes and they're still
Speaker 1: we would eat those john zucchinis. It would be really
Speaker 1: hard because it'd be huge. But I feel like there's
Speaker 1: other stuff about the you know, to your point about
Speaker 1: even if this isn't true, our snobbiness around how pretty
Speaker 1: the fruit is like kind of works against the ultimate
Speaker 1: product that you're getting with Like the isn't bananas are
Speaker 1: all clones of the same banana that have like lost
Speaker 1: a lot of there because the thing every other banana
Speaker 1: is better than what you think is a banana, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: because when when you were designing the fruit, which all
Speaker 1: fruit is like designed in a lab essentially, like at
Speaker 1: this point, like when when you look at what corn
Speaker 1: used to look like, it like, it wasn't on a
Speaker 1: big dick shaped cob. It was like it looked like
Speaker 1: a little garden weed for for a long time, and
Speaker 1: then farmers were like, no, this should look more like
Speaker 1: a big dick I think covered in corn. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: there's there's an interesting balance. Some of them do look
Speaker 1: good on a shelf, but we've also seen improvements, like
Speaker 1: I don't know if you have not like this brussel
Speaker 1: sprouts thing, where like everyone was like, we used to
Speaker 1: hate bustle sprouts, and part of the reason that is
Speaker 1: is because they bred the bitterness out of Brussels sprouts,
Speaker 1: so like the night so the russell sprouts were eating
Speaker 1: now are much better. So that's why they're so like
Speaker 1: so much more delicious. So it's like it's interesting like
Speaker 1: the balance of like consumer education versus like the scientists,
Speaker 1: like sort of like sneaking a vegetable in by improving.
Speaker 1: Like sweet corn also used to like many varized of
Speaker 1: sweetcorn would like stop being sweet within like a minute
Speaker 1: of harvesting them or something like that. Like you have
Speaker 1: to like literally just grab them and put them on
Speaker 1: the grill. So you know, it's interesting how sometimes you
Speaker 1: get a benefit from that scientist, an other time it's
Speaker 1: like why why don't you just make the fruit taste better?
Speaker 1: Like our fruit in general in America is awful. Sorry
Speaker 1: to say. I can't think of many fruits, but I'm
Speaker 1: very fond of especially in the American supermarket. Yeah, is
Speaker 1: mango the number one the people need to go try
Speaker 1: when they're outside of the US. I have had a
Speaker 1: I was in Guatemala last year and had a scoop
Speaker 1: of mango that I tasted like ice cream. It tasted
Speaker 1: like it was made and you know, by a candy company.
Speaker 1: It was the most delicious thing, and that it was
Speaker 1: a consistency that I've never had in any sort of fruit,
Speaker 1: Like it was just so buttery and delicious. Simmons the
Speaker 1: best person and I had this year. I I picked
Speaker 1: it up and I bruised it with my like almost
Speaker 1: went through the skin with my fingers. I was like,
Speaker 1: basically like a water balloon. Yeah, well, remind me when
Speaker 1: mayor June comes around, I'll try to get hook you
Speaker 1: up with my mango dealer. And if you're willing to
Speaker 1: spend you know, eight dollars on a mango forty dollars
Speaker 1: for two cages, you know, you might have a life changing,
Speaker 1: changing experience. You might not ever be able to go back.
Speaker 1: But yes, I would say mangoes are definitely something you
Speaker 1: need to try when you're outside of the US. I'm
Speaker 1: not that familiar with the South American wants to be honest,
Speaker 1: but it's a similar situation to what you're describing with
Speaker 1: the bananas. That all of the ones in North America
Speaker 1: much like coffee, like like eight like South Asia. East
Speaker 1: Asia is like like coffee for coffee beans in Ethiopia,
Speaker 1: which is like there's more genetic diversity there, so there's
Speaker 1: like a lot more varieties there. So I'm not that
Speaker 1: familiar with the with the South American ones, but I
Speaker 1: know that they're better than the American ones. The American
Speaker 1: ones that come over the border from Mexico are not
Speaker 1: really designed for flavor. There are some good Mexican varieties,
Speaker 1: but it's like not the ones you get to the supermarket. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think Americans assumed that because of American exceptionalism and
Speaker 1: you know, ship like that. They're like, well, we have
Speaker 1: to have the best, and it's like no, They're they're
Speaker 1: designing this product for you, a not very well informed consumer,
Speaker 1: so like they just know that you're gonna you're gonna
Speaker 1: be okay with it. That's available in December, like when
Speaker 1: it should not be available. Yeah. I forget what Barry
Speaker 1: it was, but there was a kind of long read
Speaker 1: article about a company that designed its berries to be
Speaker 1: like it the berries that we have now, we're designed
Speaker 1: to be pickable by robots, essentially, because like that, that
Speaker 1: is why it's that way. It has nothing to do
Speaker 1: with how good it tastes. It's like it looks good
Speaker 1: in a cart when you're going around the grocery store,
Speaker 1: and it's a robot can pick it without destroying the fruit.
Speaker 1: All the all the energy goes into harvesting and trucking,
Speaker 1: and if it tastes better, that's a maybe a Brussels sprout.
Speaker 1: I feel like those sprots is just the anomally. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The other thing I'll say about those Box Sunni mangas
Speaker 1: is that they try to get them in supermarkets, but
Speaker 1: they go bad within two days. So like they the
Speaker 1: supermarkets are like the consumer doesn't want these ugly things,
Speaker 1: you know that are like brown all over and getting soft,
Speaker 1: and it's like, well, they're better than any mango you've
Speaker 1: ever had access to, but it's like they're not willing
Speaker 1: to pay pay the price for that. I mean it's
Speaker 1: also very expensive to fly them from Box, So I
Speaker 1: mean that's also like a like a terrible climate change
Speaker 1: story that like Box Sunnies like myself are so wild
Speaker 1: about it that they're willing to like loaded up in
Speaker 1: an airplane and get it blown over here. That's not
Speaker 1: so good for the environment. So yeah, that's I wonder
Speaker 1: if Brussels sprouts where it's like a story where it's
Speaker 1: just they hit such a deep, dark bottom and they
Speaker 1: it was like they were just you know, synonymous with gross.
Speaker 1: Someone's gonna spit this out if I try and feed
Speaker 1: it too, And and that, you know, the people at
Speaker 1: the at Big Brussels Sprout like really had to come
Speaker 1: to Jesus moment where they're like, we need to actually
Speaker 1: make these taste good. I think Mafia was like, broccoli
Speaker 1: is over there, and they're laughing at us. The kids
Speaker 1: are eating their broccoli. But if they will, if it's
Speaker 1: just bitterness, it feels like genetic variation just naturally is
Speaker 1: gonna Look, they couldn't be more bitter. So if you
Speaker 1: just randomize Brussels sprouts for a couple of generations, they
Speaker 1: like almost have to taste better. There's like no no
Speaker 1: other way. Yeah right, Yeah, It's like they actually had
Speaker 1: been designing them in the forties and fifties to punish children.
Speaker 1: It turns out they were just like, we need a
Speaker 1: taste like ship that these kids make sure they know
Speaker 1: that God doesn't love them. You know. All right, let's
Speaker 1: talk about Beyonce. Let's talk about taking master. Beyonce is
Speaker 1: about to go on tour, and in addition to just
Speaker 1: general concerns that the tickets are going to cost the
Speaker 1: same as black market organs. A lot of fans are
Speaker 1: worried that Ticketmaster is gonna totally screw this up for
Speaker 1: some reason. I don't know where they're getting this concern from.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that literally just happened with Taylor Swift. So
Speaker 1: they were just Ticketmaster was just the subject of a
Speaker 1: Senate Judiciary Committee meeting, which didn't seem to solve that
Speaker 1: much except it gave a platform for politicians to quote
Speaker 1: Taylor Swift lyrics in a just wildly cringing fashion. This
Speaker 1: will get me on Twitter dot com, right, all right,
Speaker 1: there we go Twitter dot com. Senator Richard Blumenthal of
Speaker 1: Connecticut said Ticketmaster ought to look in the mirror and
Speaker 1: say I'm the problem. It's me. Amy Klober said that
Speaker 1: consolidation within an industry is a problem the United States
Speaker 1: no knows all too well, and they should be forced
Speaker 1: to if they're going to do that. Yeah, absolutely, yeah.
Speaker 1: Senator Mike Lee characterized restrictions on selling tickets as a
Speaker 1: nightmare dressed like a day dream, which, god, yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: excited for them to bring out the Beyonce lyrics when
Speaker 1: that exactly and so the president of Ticketmaster's parent company,
Speaker 1: Live Nation apologized to Taylor Swift. Fans claimed it was
Speaker 1: just the damn bots that are responsible for the terrible
Speaker 1: consumer experience, saying they'll quote do better in the future.
Speaker 1: But it's that that may be the case, that may
Speaker 1: be like the problem they are failing to solve, but
Speaker 1: from from the outside, it really appears to be that
Speaker 1: Ticketmaster is a monopoly and so when their website breaks,
Speaker 1: there's not another website that you go to them be like, well,
Speaker 1: Ticketmaster sucks, so we'll go buy the tickets over here,
Speaker 1: which is pretty straightforward. Like it feels like you you
Speaker 1: we end up having to explain the dynamics of capitalism
Speaker 1: a lot capitalists, you know, is I I is there
Speaker 1: a reason why is some monopoly? Is it just the
Speaker 1: artists are a lot It's easier just to give all
Speaker 1: our tickets to or the venues I guess technically sell
Speaker 1: the tickets. Wasn't that the merger with Live Nation or something.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's a long time ago now, I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that's one of the ways that that I
Speaker 1: think a lot of things happen, you know, and and
Speaker 1: there's just not the appetite to push back against corporations.
Speaker 1: It's it's so they we allow these massive mergers to
Speaker 1: go through. We're coming off of like forty years of
Speaker 1: deregulation being the operative word in the US, and it's
Speaker 1: like this is what you end up with. You end
Speaker 1: up with like broken systems that like don't work because they,
Speaker 1: like a corporation naturally wants to be a monopoly. You
Speaker 1: can't can't just like passively hope that it's not going
Speaker 1: to be one. Like that is a massive advantage for
Speaker 1: them because they ultimately just want to make as much
Speaker 1: money as possible while spending as little money as possible.
Speaker 1: And you know that's bad. And like the bots don't
Speaker 1: seem to be bad for them. I mean they want
Speaker 1: like the sneaker drops, like they want their sneaker drops there,
Speaker 1: the tickets, like all these companies benefit from the box.
Speaker 1: It seems like to me, yes, their public opinion goes down,
Speaker 1: but there's if there's no alternative, right, you have one place,
Speaker 1: If you have one place that does good bought protection
Speaker 1: and you have one place that doesn't, you're gonna go
Speaker 1: to the place that has good protection against bots. But
Speaker 1: if it's a monopoly they want, like they're not gonna
Speaker 1: they're not gonna see a hit to their pockets if
Speaker 1: the bots are taken down there, they want their their
Speaker 1: tickets to sell up. I mean the we sell maybe
Speaker 1: even benefits them to something extent because it becomes even
Speaker 1: more highly valued so they can charge more and more.
Speaker 1: So I don't buy it, but the d and it
Speaker 1: benefits like the bots benefit Ticketmaster because Ticketmaster has agreements
Speaker 1: with the reseller sites that they get a cut of
Speaker 1: every resale, so they are just making money on top
Speaker 1: of the initial money that they made, and so they've
Speaker 1: been busted like actually like making deals with resellers, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean they get they get a cut a portion
Speaker 1: of like every ticket that gets resold on one of
Speaker 1: these like other official resellers. But in twenty nineteen, the
Speaker 1: company's president of US concerts was literally caught sending ninety
Speaker 1: thousand Metallica tickets to a broker who Live Nation was
Speaker 1: directed to hire with the participation of Metallics, Metallica's ticket consultant.
Speaker 1: And just like we didn't notice that one because nobody
Speaker 1: gives a shit about Metallity, I guess, but like it
Speaker 1: was also like literally, what are you gonna do? I mean,
Speaker 1: every artist, every Ticketmaster, every venue, their their response to
Speaker 1: any of this is what are you gonna do? Yeah,
Speaker 1: like a little bit. It's like huge artists like offloading
Speaker 1: the being a bad guy to Ticketmaster. Ticketmaster doesn't care
Speaker 1: that they're back. Like, it's just like creates a layer
Speaker 1: of the service that Ticketmaster provides. Is creating a layer
Speaker 1: of plausible deniability to artists to say to their fans, So,
Speaker 1: I don't know it tick a master's fault. Ticketmasters, Like,
Speaker 1: I don't know who cares, right, Yeah, that that really
Speaker 1: seems It's good for the artist because there's it creates demand,
Speaker 1: it creates a story about how hard it is to
Speaker 1: get the tickets to their show. It's good for Ticketmaster,
Speaker 1: Like the only people that screws is the consumer. And
Speaker 1: this is just I feel like this is naturally what
Speaker 1: we'll be seeing more and more unless there is a
Speaker 1: actual concerted like political movement to push back against consolidation
Speaker 1: and deregulation and like these massive mergers. But we just
Speaker 1: haven't seen it in any real way in our lifetime,
Speaker 1: you know, like that this this is what was happening
Speaker 1: in the like end of the nineteenth century early twentieth century,
Speaker 1: where like the robber barons were just consolidating all their power,
Speaker 1: and then things had to get like really fucking bet
Speaker 1: for there to be like a massive pushback, and it
Speaker 1: seems like that's where we're headed. Is there anyone you
Speaker 1: would brave the ticket master chaos for what would be yours?
Speaker 1: That you would be willing to do this for? Probably
Speaker 1: Frank Ocean's Yeah, yeah, I would do I would do
Speaker 1: it for Frank Ocean. I really like Frank Ocean. I'm
Speaker 1: too out of it to like ever. I only ever
Speaker 1: know these things are going on sale. Would people start
Speaker 1: complaining that they couldn't get tickets on Twitter? Right? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: how about you? No? I think I think everybody that
Speaker 1: I would have done it for is probably not somebody
Speaker 1: that I would want to buy tickets from anymore. Let's
Speaker 1: just say the probably the biggest castor ever went to
Speaker 1: is Scotty back in the Easiest. That was one of
Speaker 1: the rare times I was like, Okay, I'll put a
Speaker 1: lot of money to go see that, And now I
Speaker 1: out want to do that anymore. Why would happen? Music
Speaker 1: didn't realize I live like, I don't know five flocks
Speaker 1: from Dodger Stadium, and I did not realize that night
Speaker 1: that Elton John was doing whatever his like last show
Speaker 1: ever at Dodger Stadium, and I, you know, popped out
Speaker 1: to go get a taco and literally like was just
Speaker 1: stuck on sunset for man. I took the turn and
Speaker 1: I was like, oh no, And then I looked on
Speaker 1: Twitter and everyone's like going to Elton John. I was like, well,
Speaker 1: I guess I live here now, Yeah, this is just
Speaker 1: where my car is going to be. Yeah, you could.
Speaker 1: But I also like grew up in that, like for
Speaker 1: Midwestern punk ethis was like a place of selling more
Speaker 1: than twenty Like they're selling tickets for more than twenty dollars,
Speaker 1: Like I'm not going was cool, That was right. We
Speaker 1: were right back then. We were like talking about bands
Speaker 1: selling out and talking about like you know, we're we're
Speaker 1: skeptical of ticket Master and there's a big like Ticketmaster
Speaker 1: movement and it just kind of went away. But and
Speaker 1: like the idea of sellouts just like went away at
Speaker 1: a time when I feel like we need that protection.
Speaker 1: That's sort of natural fan based skepticism because it's it's bad.
Speaker 1: But on the other hand, I'm like, wow, like yeah,
Speaker 1: of course, like you want all the just to be
Speaker 1: able to access the show, and like under twenty dollar
Speaker 1: ticket is great for that, but it's like, how do
Speaker 1: these bands survive that are not you know, who are
Speaker 1: who are doing? Who are selling tickets for? I've actually
Speaker 1: made a concerted effort to go to a couple of
Speaker 1: like tickets shows of bands that I've like, I'm like
Speaker 1: slightly interested in. I don't have to be like the
Speaker 1: biggest fan, and I'm just like, yeah, this doesn't seem
Speaker 1: like a lot of people for this to travel the
Speaker 1: country for. It's a hard it's a hard gig. So
Speaker 1: maybe like now that I'm older, like I would actually
Speaker 1: give these bands like fifty dollars, you know what I mean? Yeah,
Speaker 1: throw throw them a bomb. Yeah they're not getting a
Speaker 1: record deal, that's gonna their Spotify streams are not paying
Speaker 1: the bill. Gonna say they make their money off of
Speaker 1: all those lucrative Spotify streams right the tenth of a cent?
Speaker 1: Yeah bye bye them. My my friend Tonty, who is
Speaker 1: my podcast go host you can see us now. She
Speaker 1: has a rule which is like, if you listen to
Speaker 1: an artist on Spotify, you know whatever number of times
Speaker 1: by their record on vinyl because also they can never
Speaker 1: take that away from you. Yeah, that's right. I just
Speaker 1: got a record player to do that very same thing.
Speaker 1: I have never been a vinyl person. I I fear
Speaker 1: it'll be a dangerous habit for me, but I do,
Speaker 1: like I want to throw throw them some money because
Speaker 1: not a huge concert person. Yeah, and then Ticketmaster is
Speaker 1: going to buy all the vinyl production get the corner
Speaker 1: of the market. It's alright man. I've listened to tapes
Speaker 1: which are made of oil so show and it's been
Speaker 1: such a pleasure having you on the show. Where can
Speaker 1: people find you? Follow you, hear you all that good stuff.
Speaker 1: I'm on Twitter most actively at Rod Brown. Dad's sadly
Speaker 1: still on Twitter. I have nowhere else to go if
Speaker 1: but I also have this new podcast, like I mentioned,
Speaker 1: m Radio Lingo from Crooked Media and du A Lingo.
Speaker 1: You can find that anywhere you find your podcast. It's
Speaker 1: also you know, linked on my Twitter profile. And then
Speaker 1: I would also like to plug that Eater article I
Speaker 1: didn't say it was for Eater earlier about mangoes. It's
Speaker 1: like inside the secretive high stakes, semi elicit what's that
Speaker 1: trade of mangoes? It's on Eater. That's the piece that
Speaker 1: I wanted James Beard, for which I still can't believe,
Speaker 1: like still an amazing moment in my professional career, and
Speaker 1: I'm really proud of it. So yeah, those are kind
Speaker 1: of my my three things. Please please, you know, read them,
Speaker 1: listen to them, share them, and some more people can
Speaker 1: find him. There you go. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: It was really fun. Thanks for doing it. Is there
Speaker 1: a tweet or some other work of social media you've
Speaker 1: been enjoying? Well? I had prepared media, so I was
Speaker 1: going to talk about last of Us. Yeah, do media,
Speaker 1: but we already talked about last of us. So it's
Speaker 1: last of us that it's last of us. I mean,
Speaker 1: I can I can try to cram for something here
Speaker 1: look back through my you know, Okay, I will say one.
Speaker 1: I do have one. I do have one, which is
Speaker 1: Derek Guy die Work. Where who is this men'swear blogger?
Speaker 1: I you know, I don't wear like suits or anything
Speaker 1: in my daily life, but I am fascinated by the
Speaker 1: online traditional like young guys who wear suits that like
Speaker 1: dead guys in the sixties war like die Work. Where
Speaker 1: is this guy on Twitter who has just become like
Speaker 1: like there's a lot of articles written about how he
Speaker 1: became Twitter's main character, and everyone is like, like, who
Speaker 1: is this person? I'm sick of seeing them? But personally,
Speaker 1: I have benefited from reading Derek guys stuff for years,
Speaker 1: so he's not like a random person. He's like an
Speaker 1: old Internet person who has been putting in the work forever.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, good for you that the algorithm pick
Speaker 1: to you. Like I I'm defending him against the haters.
Speaker 1: I think he's been putting up great content for years,
Speaker 1: even if you're not somebody who likes suits. He has
Speaker 1: a really interesting and open minded perspective on what dressing means.
Speaker 1: And I support his success. I hope he gets like
Speaker 1: a TV show or something like a reality TV show.
Speaker 1: I'm all for it. There you go, amazing, Andrew pleasure
Speaker 1: having you on as host. People find you, follow you,
Speaker 1: all that good stuff. Uh Andrew t everywhere and yeah,
Speaker 1: if you know, if you if you like your as
Speaker 1: This Racist or I guess we've had more because my
Speaker 1: co host Tony Newsome on the podcast You As This
Speaker 1: Racist is also on Star Trek Lower Decks, so we
Speaker 1: uh get some Star Trek people come in to our
Speaker 1: live shows now. But yeah, so if you're Star Trek fan,
Speaker 1: if you're a whatever the hell I just did fan
Speaker 1: and you're in the Bay Area where at Cobbs Comedy
Speaker 1: Club this Saturday as part as F S s F
Speaker 1: Sketch Fest, And yeah, actually I think I recommend as
Speaker 1: also fashion Relay. Did I saw this on I think Twitter, Instagram,
Speaker 1: and I guess I haven't fully vetted these folks, but
Speaker 1: I their websites seems to indicate their good people. There's
Speaker 1: a group in Houston called the Screwston Anti Fascist Committee
Speaker 1: and I just bought a shirt from them that has
Speaker 1: a picture of a crocodile eating a Klansman and the
Speaker 1: Texas racist ain't safe in the Dirty South, And I
Speaker 1: was so looking. That's so good, amazing. Um. You can
Speaker 1: find me on Twitter at Jack Underscore O'Brien. Julia Claire tweeted,
Speaker 1: can someone make a deep fake of my dad apologizing
Speaker 1: to me? I just want to see what it would
Speaker 1: look like. I think that's a good use of deep
Speaker 1: fake technology that hasn't been explore. You can find us
Speaker 1: on Twitter at daily zeitgeis were at the Daily Zeitgeist
Speaker 1: on Instagram. We have a Facebook fan page on a website,
Speaker 1: Daily zeitgeist dot com, where we post our episodes and
Speaker 1: our footnotes where we link off to the information that
Speaker 1: we talked about into day's episode, as well as a
Speaker 1: song that we think you might enjoy. Super producer justin
Speaker 1: do you have a song that you think people might
Speaker 1: enjoy that we could link off to in the footnotes?
Speaker 1: I do. There's this song that you may have heard
Speaker 1: if you spent enough time in certain corners of the internet. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's blowing up pretty big is from a young Nigerian
Speaker 1: artist goes by Vic Tony the I c t o
Speaker 1: in Why this song is called Soluato. It's featuring tempo.
Speaker 1: It's so good. The thing I love about this song
Speaker 1: is the versatility of it. Like if you want to
Speaker 1: feel like you're on a beach with the open top cheep,
Speaker 1: it works for that. If you want to smoke a
Speaker 1: little bit on your couch, it works for that. If
Speaker 1: you want to play it while you're getting ready for
Speaker 1: a party, it works for that. It's it's very very
Speaker 1: relaxing and it can take it to a bunch of
Speaker 1: different places. But you know, it's got It's got a
Speaker 1: nice rhythm to it, so you can move your hips
Speaker 1: and get into it. So that's Sweto by Vic Tony
Speaker 1: and Tempo and you can find that song in the footnotes.
Speaker 1: But notes alright, well, The Daily ZA Guys is a
Speaker 1: production by Heart Radio. For more podcasts for my heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows. That's going to do
Speaker 1: it for us this morning, back this afternoon to tell
Speaker 1: you what is trending and we will talk to you
Speaker 1: all then Bye past