Now Comes The Hard Part… 11.05.26

0:05 The Daily Beast is so fucking diabolical. They were like, John Husted in tears as he gives concession speech. He cried when he mentioned that he was adopted and was thanking his foster parents.

0:16 Yeah.

0:17 I was like, what the fuck kind of headline is that?

0:20 I was even like, oh shit, he's going to be like, my big butt wasn't enough for you guys. I kind of wish he had just overperformed the polls a little bit so that we discovered that that line that Trump... what about like people having great asses, like just really worked with Republican voters. Yeah. A really like confusing message for Republican strategists to come away with the, like the one thing that works was him talking about how great Husted's ass was giving like straight conservative men, like a reason to be okay. Talking about another man's body. I kind of felt like we could, we could kind of be ourselves saying that.

0:58 Yeah.

0:59 It's like a pile of muscle back there. Big pile of muscle.

1:03 Yeah, God.

1:04 You have any thoughts on Houston's ass?

1:06 Sherrod Brown, terrible ass. It was really just by comparison that Houston's looks so good. And I wonder if Democrats will get that message now.

1:17 Better ass.

1:18 It's okay.

1:19 It is okay.

1:19 A couple of flapjacks back there.

1:21 Yeah.

1:23 You think Sherrod Brown, like when he heard all that, he was looking at his own ass and he'd be like, Like.

1:28 If they had any meetings where they were like, well, Hal's shared this. Yeah. I mean, it's got to be. His chief of staff's like, no. Don't talk about it. It's not good.

1:38 He has strong hands. Maybe we can talk about his strong. He's got bear paws.

1:42 Right. Ass? No. No. Silver dollars back there. Also, we were winning complimenting him by saying he has claws. Yeah, and we were trying to figure out if that felt very... It's like birds. Birds have claws. No, I think he said paw. No, he said claws. Claws would have made some big meaty mitts. I think he was referencing swingers.

2:03 Oh.

2:03 That's what I thought.

2:05 He said, you got these big fucking... This little baby bunny, man. You got these fucking claws. I feel like that could be the kind of thing Trump just thinks about. He's like, that was a great... Do you remember that?

2:13 When... Remember swingers? Remember swingers? They followed it up with maid. Tall drink of water, gotta stretch my shit out. Hello, the internet, and welcome to season 463, episode 4 of Dirt Daily Zeitgeist! It's a production of iHeartRadio, it's a podcast where we take a deep dive into America's shared consciousness through... The day is news. We also have a non-news history version of the Daily Zeitgeist dropping each Monday morning called The Iconograph, where we do a deep dive in the Zeitgeist through the lens of a different icon.

2:52 We have recently done Yoko Ono. We have recently done a whole run of spooky icons. We explained why we're so scared of children, why Dracula is cool, why Hannibal Lecter is cool. Why ghosts are real. Yeah. Good, good, good, good. Ghosts. Those episodes drop on Monday with Icon in the title. But right here, right now, it is Thursday, November 5th, 2026.

3:19 What an interesting day. It's National Redhead Day.

3:23 But these things are kind of interesting based on what happened in the midterms. It's World Tsunami Awareness Day or Blue Nami.

3:32 And also it's Guy Fox Night. Remember, remember the 5th of November. So here we are. That's it.

3:39 There's a bunch of other weird things going on, but those are our two days. And if you like it, it's also national international stout day for people who like a nice stout.

3:48 Which one is that? Is that the dark brown one? Yeah, yeah. Guinness. I hate when a beer is too thick. Been out of the game too long. Yeah. Yeah. Big loaf of bread. Yeah, you got to have a liquid bread. I like to drink my bread. My name is Jack O'Brien, a.k.a. I'm Blue. Talafrico's my guy. I'm in Texas alive. Mega's end of the line. That is courtesy of Tell the Truth. On the Discord Tell the truth And I'm thrilled to be joined as always By my co-host Mr. Miles Gray Miles.

4:19 Gray aka Flip to send his seat Roy Cooper Like work Hallelujah.

4:26 One nation. Praise Allah. Real commies taking money from the oligarchs. OK, shout out Christy Yamaguchi main for that BMF Rick Ross, a.k.a. I saw your post that was doing numbers.

4:38 Well, yeah, we said he was a drop taking old people from Republican districts and dropping them in parts, dropping off in random parking lots dozens of miles away. And then a picture of an old person on a walker. It was a photo that was so diabolical because it was like one of those shrinking elderly people who like...

4:55 just was turning into like a snail shell of a person, but yeah.

4:58 Yeah.

4:58 Yeah.

4:59 In a completely empty like mall.

5:01 Yeah.

5:02 Yeah. It's kind of like, Hey, peace exercise. You're right. That's right. Uh, well, miles, we are thrilled to be joined in our third seat by a very funny comedy writer. I was the host of a couple of my favorite podcasts, including Hollywood handbook and the flagrant ones on Patreon. I recently launched a very cool independent Los Angeles news company called LA Material.

5:23 Please welcome back to the show. It's Hayes Davenport. Oh, thank you so much for having me back. It's been so long. I was trying to find out when I was last on. I Googled Hayes Davenport Daily Zeitgeist. The internet forgot.

5:40 There's no record of that happening.

5:42 There's no record of.

5:43 It at all. I'll tell you. Okay. Your first appearance, October 30th, 2018.

5:48 And doesn't it feel like a little bit, this more than anything has me feeling like we did go back.

5:53 Right.

5:53 Yeah. We're back.

5:54 Yeah.

5:55 We went back to 2018. It's been fucking eight years since you were on. Just crazy that we've been doing. What a fucking, that actually kind of fucking me up. It's like, Hey bro, been eight years since you were on.

6:06 Yeah.

6:07 Eight years since you've been on the show. That's still been going on.

6:10 Fuck me. It shouldn't be going on. I think that's the lesson.

6:14 In this same office. And now I'm here too.

6:18 Now you were here too.

6:20 It gave me the bug.

6:22 I had to get in here. It was a subtle bug. It took you a little while to get back. It took a few years. But that table, that table, you saw that table. You're like, I got to get back to that table. What are we what are we allowed to do? Once again, guys, what are we excited to do now that the Democrats are ascendant? Oh, God.

6:42 Well, I can finally talk about Taco Bell again over and over again. Like there's no more important news on Earth like I used to.

6:48 Yeah. What else? Obviously, brunch.

6:52 Yeah.

6:52 Can't wait for, I know LA brunch spots are going to be going up, even though, what was the turnout in LA? I feel like, wasn't it like, was it less than like 40%?

7:01 We do this every year.

7:02 This is a great LA tradition where a bunch of people show up to scold the turnout. Yeah. And then over the next two weeks- Like you realize hundreds of thousands of more votes come in.

7:15 Yeah. Yeah.

7:15 Yeah.

7:16 And no one writes the article. That's like, Hey, we.

7:19 Were so sorry. They just do it again.

7:23 Next time we have too much.

7:25 Yeah. Democracy.

7:26 It's like, we, you know, we need less, but, uh, it, it, it, it is a thing that is very unique right here. And that's why we, uh, it takes a long to count.

7:36 Yeah.

7:36 Yeah.

7:37 Yeah. Yeah.

7:37 Is, uh, Cool L.A. brunch spots, the sort of thing you can find on L.A. material? Not yet. We don't have a brunch vertical.

7:44 Yes. We're a small shop and brunch reporters in this town are like, you know, really. It's a loss leader.

7:52 Yeah.

7:53 Because you just like you you you need one.

7:56 Yeah.

7:57 Like the seller's market sticker price is very high.

7:59 Yeah. Amazing. Well, we're thrilled to have you here. We're going to get to know you a little bit better in a moment. First, we're going to tell the listeners a couple of things we're talking about. We're going to look forward to the Democratic Party. Where are we at? How do we deal with all this power in one branch of the government? We're going to talk about how the media is dealing with progressive wins and losses and how they're spinning that narrative. How J.D. Vance is dealing with his whole situation. And we might even talk about Harry Potter for some reason. All that, plenty more. There's protests, man. Yeah, there's protests. But first, Hayes, we do like to ask our guests, what is something from your search history that's

8:45 revealing about who you are? I did.

8:48 I just searched my own name and the name of the show. But I also, so I took a little time off work leading up to the election. I was just kind of walking around the city. And I Googled Bonavista Lounge. You know what the Bonavista Lounge is? No. It's the rotating bar at the top of the Westin Bonaventure Hotel, which is the iconic glass building with four...

9:13 It's made up of four cylinders with the elevators on the outside, if you've seen the movie True Lies.

9:18 Yep. Or Nick of Time. Or Nick of Time. I quoted Nick of Time yesterday. On yesterday's episode, I said, always trying to shave an edge. That's one of Christopher Walken's lines from Nick of Time.

9:33 The building is awesome. It is such a portal to... 40 years ago even inside now the water features the right right like peak 80s design yes and so i spent my off day trying to i've never been to the bona vista lounge okay and i was like i'm gonna go i'm gonna go by myself i'm gonna have a 24 martini or something at the top of this building and it was closed it's only open wednesdays it's only open Wednesdays? Wednesdays through Sundays.

10:01 Oh, okay.

10:02 That'd be so random. Monday and Tuesday. Yeah, it was not available to me. Oh, so like our parks in LA.

10:07 Right. Yeah.

10:09 Like Kenneth Hahn Park, which is only open from Wednesday to Sunday.

10:12 This is, I mean, this is the craziest thing in LA right now.

10:16 Right.

10:17 That I feel like is mainly a parent thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You cannot explain how crazy. crazy it is that on sundays right the park in my neighborhood is not open oh really yes wow uh and that is a consequence of city budget cuts like over the year and so like this is the kind of stuff that was being talked about in this last election kind of stuff you can really feel yeah right and what drove a lot of the the you know the response in this election when you show up With your kid to a park on a Sunday and it's closed. Right.

10:53 And you're duped. That's a death.

10:56 Yeah.

10:56 Not enough money for the park. You promised something to them. You failed them. Right. What do you pivot to? There's nothing. Yeah.

11:04 It's just, you just sit in the car and die.

11:08 Right, right, right. Yeah.

11:12 It's wild. Yeah. So anyway, that's a little something like, I feel like that's a glimpse into... the kind of stuff I like.

11:19 Yeah. Speaking of, not to get too local, but speaking of LA elections, we, last we spoke, Nithya Raman and Karen Bass were kind of neck and neck. We were like, too close to call, but Hayes, you are the person I go to. Whenever I'm worried about Nithya Raman's election results, this happened in the Spencer Pratt one when early results were like, Pratt's up 6%. And I came to you, tears in my eyes. Yeah, hat in hand. Hat in hand.

11:49 And I said, we're screwed, Hayes. And you assured me that it wasn't... The gap was not big enough.

11:56 Right. Well, I was doing the fraud. I was kind of in charge of the voter fraud operation.

12:00 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

12:01 He was running out a lot of ballots that night.

12:03 Yeah.

12:04 No, so I used to work with Nithya. I worked with her for a long time. And because of that, I don't do any election coverage or anything like that for Ellen Material.

12:12 But... I mean, the.

12:15 Election hasn't been called still. So by the time this comes out, there will have been one more tranche of votes that comes out around 4 p.m. today on Wednesday. But it is over. It's a wrap. It's over. It's over.

12:32 It is going to win.

12:34 It was basically over. When the first drop of votes came out, those are the most conservative votes It's a lot. The dividing line in this particular election was age.

12:48 Sure.

12:49 Like the dividing line being 50. It's great. But isn't it great to be young?

12:54 Yeah. Younger than the dividing line. To be considered young and one. I'm in the under 50s category. Yeah, yeah.

13:01 And over 50 voters tend to vote very early. Those votes came out early. And that's the first drop. Nithya was down less than two points in that first drop. Bass needed to be up probably over 10 to ride out the shift that is coming.

13:19 Look at that.

13:20 Yep.

13:20 Look at that. Hard politics. We can call it. The Daily Zeitgeist is going to be the first to call it. Nithya Rahman will be our next mayor.

13:29 It's a weird thing. And again, I was not involved in this at all for LA Material. But you would like a news organization to... That gets those first returns. And even when the candidate is behind, is able to stamp it.

13:45 Or say the same thing. It's like, same thing happened with Bass against Caruso.

13:48 Exact same thing.

13:50 Yeah. No. Yes.

13:53 Again, that's what it looks like always in the beginning.

13:55 Yeah. Same with the primary. It's just like, yeah. That's a very insulting, but accurate. Impression of me.

14:04 Did you see that clip of Javier Becerra with Karen Bass?

14:07 Yeah, the Bass appearance on Election Day. Oh, that was so funny. Going to the polls. So you're here with Karen Bass.

14:16 Yeah.

14:18 That was essentially. And like, so you're here to support her. Oh, I love Democrats. So are you. You're also here with her.

14:25 Yeah.

14:25 Like, you know, we're all like, you know, we're just like, you know, we're not. Oh, but I'm here with this guy over here. I don't even know who that is. So you will be supporting her. And he's like, look, we go back a long time. Personal level.

14:41 Yeah.

14:41 Everything but actually saying it. It's just funny to watch her be like.

14:45 He ran a remarkably. disciplined race for someone who was running against a British Republican in California, you would sort of think that in that position, wouldn't you kind of like wild.

15:04 Out a little bit?

15:05 Have fun with it.

15:06 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

15:07 Have just like a cigar in your mouth all the time.

15:10 Right, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

15:12 He kept it pretty tight.

15:15 Just like George Washington. He's like, you don't want to see what I do to the British.

15:19 And it's like, whoa. That would actually be like Apollo Creed style. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That could have been fun.

15:24 There was a quote near the end. He did an interview. Did you see the NIMBY YIMBY interview answer?

15:29 No, I didn't see that yet.

15:31 So it was like, you know, we talk about housing, like the NIMBY YIMBY sort of divide. Where do you land on this? And he says, well, NIMBY YIMBY. You know, it's interesting. Some people don't even have backyards. So they don't get to be a part of that conversation.

15:42 Well, that's a masterclass.

15:45 So maybe we like shift the frame here a little bit.

15:49 Start thinking about it. I'm thinking about those people. You don't even know what that is. Next question.

15:57 What else you got? Hayes, what is something you think is underrated? So my life is in my phone. Like all of us, like every, every experience is, is the phone.

16:10 And I am enjoying.

16:12 Do you guys have a Discord?

16:14 Yeah, we have a Discord server. We got one.

16:16 This is going to function as a plug as well.

16:19 Okay.

16:19 LA Material has a Discord. Nice.

16:22 I was not a Discord guy. Yeah.

16:24 It has functioned as a real phone methadone for me.

16:29 Oh, interesting.

16:30 Because it is... It's not endless. Right. It is a better sort of defined community of people... Every new social media pitch is like, yo, it's the people you actually know. Like, it's your real friends. Like, Discord, you know, the people in our LA Material Discord group are not... They're mostly not people I know. But it does feel more like talking to actual people.

16:55 That run through the planet you live on. Yes.

16:58 Then the internet. Just the open internet does.

17:02 Yeah, yeah.

17:03 So... As my phone life goes, I think Discord is underrated because it is famous for people planning assassinations on it and being home of new slurs. They're inventing new slurs all the time in the gaming culture. And so to persuade people to do, they're like, well, no, I don't do that. I'm not a discord person. No, you're this kind of discord person. You know, like the neighborhood.

17:37 It does.

17:37 For me, it works pretty well.

17:40 Yeah. Yeah.

17:41 Same.

17:41 I think it's also been like a great place just to have other people like for our listeners to, to be able to just connect where they go, Oh, I already know we're on a similar wavelength because we have this show like in common. And yeah, it's, it's great to see how like sort of lively the community is.

17:57 For a local fit, like just for people that, share a city yeah you have that common thing and like i have a shared language for we have a celebrity sightings channel which is just ripping all the all the celebrities what's.

18:12 The latest what's the latest spottings we've seen.

18:14 John waters this was a really fun one uh john waters i think he was at um flitzies oh okay and got carded.

18:25 Was this someone working the door or something?

18:26 Someone behind John Waters watched him get carded going into... Did someone.

18:31 Just do it maybe just to make sure it was John Waters? Let me see your ID real quick.

18:37 Oh, shit. All right, dude. Wow. Dude, I love Cereal Mom. All right, there you go. Cereal Mom. One of his less talked about films. What is something you think is overrated?

18:49 You guys heard about these prediction markets?

18:51 I heard about these.

18:52 I've seen these. For.

18:55 I didn't go to any of the main news sites. That's just, I just followed what the prediction markets were saying.

19:00 Well, that, I mean, the problem is that is something you can do, right? Because they do react in real time. They change all the time. And if you are addicted to watching numbers change.

19:13 Which you are, we all are. And I, I really, really am.

19:16 It indulges. So like, Prediction markets, we talk about people gambling on them, right? But actually, looking at them is... I wonder how many people are using them just as a news site. Yeah, to be informed, sure.

19:36 Yeah.

19:36 And at what point did they start selling banner ads and stuff? Because they're not... making money off me yet. Refreshing them more than any other site on the internet at like the peak of.

19:50 What were you, what was a big thing you kept refreshing on, what was like on Polymarket or something?

19:53 Any election thing. So like if you're tracking, and like often it would be, so it's just the most incredible thing. It's stupid. It's often really, really stupid. And often your thought is like, why is this not my job? I could be so rich.

20:09 Just gambling.

20:10 Yeah.

20:11 This is wrong.

20:12 I know what's happening is wrong. But it's a feedback loop where because it is now a news site, it has such a huge impact on the narrative.

20:23 Right.

20:24 The viability narrative, which is a huge thing for any candidate.

20:27 Yeah.

20:28 There's a market for... even tiny little races. So you're tracking like a tiny little race with like, that can obviously swing wildly. But now that is like the, the, the preeminent news resource over like, for example, you talked about the ramen bass race. Yeah. That's the only new site that has called that race.

20:49 Oh, really? I mean, like, you know, they haven't, like, closed the market or whatever. Because they know enough. They're like, this isn't going to change. It's called. Yeah, right. It's done. Yeah.

20:58 But no other site has come out and actually said that. So what does that mean for the news media?

21:05 I think these media markets are underrated.

21:08 Right.

21:08 Yeah.

21:09 Well, look, and so what have they started to do? What do you see everywhere? The news sites are now reporting the markets.

21:16 Yes. So I think. That's overrated.

21:20 That's kind of a bad feedback loop. I think that's kind of bad.

21:23 It's like AI devouring itself. It starts getting weird and bad.

21:29 But it does tell you something about how fast you have to be in the coverage to try to replace that. It goes back to the Discord because... In that setting, you have people that, you know, for the most part are smart about. So you have a bunch of people that are like pretty well researched on something that are like talking about it also in real time.

21:57 Right, right, right.

21:57 So you can kind of get a community news thing that way that replaces it a little bit.

22:02 Right.

22:03 But our traditional media is not close to keeping up with that cadence that we all need.

22:10 Right, exactly. Yeah, yeah.

22:11 And like the commentary on it is just like not useful, especially when it comes from like, the most like archaic sort of viewpoints on politics. You're like this, what do you guys, what's this analysis I'm even seeing? Like, like it's comes into like the.

22:23 People that I follow are like doing the analysis on the prediction.

22:27 I mean, or even like on, on, on cable news.

22:29 Sure.

22:30 You're just like, it's so far, it's so different than even like how we see the stakes of an election. What we like the information that's worth knowing about a race is, But yeah.

22:39 And they like, let's make it clear. They didn't predict what happened on Tuesday either. The prediction markets did not have it.

22:47 Yeah. I saw things that they were directionally correct.

22:50 It was weird.

22:50 You're seeing a lot of articles now trying to pop up prediction markets.

22:54 That's just like total. Obviously, they were like 60, 40 on Dems winning predictions. the senate right that's not.

23:02 Correct right yeah 40 that's like that's way off yeah yeah yeah like i think they also had the keisha lance bottoms race completely wrong too i mean there's again it's it's a mix of things.

23:13 It's a mix yeah and like that's not to say that i i didn't know but like sure i think most people were surprised by it but they're not correct in a predictive way yeah However, they do still set narratives, and they just give you something that no other news coverage does.

23:31 And to the point about contrasting it with Discord, where you're getting a full, specific human's take. This is the most... abstracted from a person version of a person that you can.

23:43 Get yeah if it's a person like yeah like i i think there is a lot of you can see the automated betting on some of these things.

23:49 And also like all the people that like i turn to on social media i'm like they're like the wonkiest fucks alive who have done this for years cycle after cycle yeah that's the analysis i want not like katie turr on MSNBC or MSNOW or whatever, just sort of like doing the broad strokes. Yeah, like when it comes down to it for people that are really invested, like you want to actually hear from the local, local experts on things because they're giving you like texture that you just, is not available anywhere else.

24:17 Here's a name we probably all know, John Ralston, the Nevada guy. Like he's like the person that you go to.

24:24 Right.

24:24 He talks about the Clark County firewall every year.

24:27 Right, right, right. Every couple years for like.

24:29 back in like his, his world.

24:32 You're all still by the phone. There's, there's one wolf.

24:36 And what's the one person from Arizona who has like the count as his avatar. That's like another person I follow for like Arizona returns. Like there's always, there's a person for each place. I'm like, I don't know, but he's got the count from the Muppets. I fuck with him heavy.

24:50 Yes.

24:51 Those people are great. And I wish, and I feel bad.

24:54 Because, Garrett Archer. Garrett Archer, yeah.

24:56 Garrett Archer. And every year, they're like, hey, I am a person with a job. Would you like to support me in some way beyond just consuming my free social media feed?

25:07 It's like, yes, I will buy you a few coffees.

25:09 Yes, but it's hard to justify that when you do not live in Arizona.

25:13 Yeah, right, right, exactly.

25:15 But I'm like, ah, but you're doing such a thing. You're doing the job that wonky and wonk-adjacent people are interested in.

25:22 And with that, I honor you. The Giannis ad. Is he Polymarket?

25:28 I forget which one he was.

25:29 New team, same Giannis.

25:31 That's right.

25:32 All over my Twitter feed. So that's the one thing that I'm still making up my mind because I really like that. You like the ad. Yeah, yeah. Because we all know Giannis and it's like, whoa, it is a new team for Giannis. But will it be the same Giannis?

25:48 No. Yeah.

25:50 It turns out no. Yeah, he was wrong about that. Not if he's playing Luka. My prediction would be no. Let's take a quick break. We'll come back and we'll talk about the news.

26:11 And we're back.

26:12 We're back.

26:13 And.

26:15 What do we think, guys? Where are we at now? Now comes the hard part. Yeah. That's what I think. I think, yeah, great wins. Seems like we're on easy street to me.

26:24 Oh, yeah, man.

26:25 Kick back. Everything is going to correct itself now.

26:28 I mean, I think, again, historic night, one that people, you should definitely take some relief from. All the people who worked on campaigns, give yourself a big pat on the back.

26:36 Trump is weakened. for sure.

26:39 Although he still has tremendous powers of the president's office of the Oval Office. MAGA is looking around watching their coalition just like vaporize like the waistband of 20 year old underwear. And I think now the question I have and want to discuss with everyone is how do we see the Dems handling this amount of legislative power? Because obviously, Trump said he will just veto whatever. And then whatever comes across his desk, he's like, it's funny how he's talked about that. He's like, and you know, veto power is actually pretty tremendous. Like the people were telling him, he's like, well, he used to have veto power, sir.

27:12 Right.

27:12 Like to not, just to kind of reframe the loss here and the conversation that he's quoting. You used to be the fucking president with, control of super, you had it all. And now you're like, well, now you have veto power. And now like, well, now they're gonna be like, well, now you have pardon power. It's kind of where we're going.

27:27 That seems like the big one.

27:28 So I guess maybe for the Democrats, does it become more of an exercise of like putting forth these bills to be like, hey, this is what we want to do. But this guy's just going to veto it, knowing that it's probably going to be more serum or, you know, more of a gesture than like actual real sweeping legislation that gets passed. But my big concern is that like the party is going to willfully ignore what the election actually meant for people. And we'll sort of just come away with the distillation of like they want our version of neoliberal politics rather than is this really a moment for us to fucking fully try and do something different that will tangibly have like an impact on people, which

28:06 will get us more votes and more votes and continue this sort of run. Because again, I'm like looking at a Schumer's Jeffrey led Congress.

28:14 That was the one thing that I was, I was flying on Twitter, man. I was really, you know, high on all the fun posts. And then somebody retweeted Nancy Pelosi being like speaker of the house. Yeah. Team Jeffrey's.

28:30 Chuck Schumer did post a picture of him barbecuing every Republican leader. I don't know if you saw it. He had like the photos of like JD Vance and Trump. Like on a spit? No, on like a grill outside. Oh, wow. On like burgers and hot dogs and stuff.

28:46 Oh, okay. All right.

28:48 I'm back.

28:48 So he came to play.

28:49 And I'm back.

28:50 And I'm going to grill them. Yeah. Okay. That's what we're doing.

28:53 I think Ed Markey was like, they're going to have to like, all those tech guys are going to have to regrow forests for all the paper and the subpoenas we're going to be sending out. And I was like, all right, Ed Markey. A little bit of a long walk for that one. Ed Markey, he's working hard for the people of Massachusetts. But again, I'm like looking at all these, Obviously, the biggest takeaway is when people are asking, what was this about for you?

29:15 Affordability is a huge thing, obviously.

29:18 And I'm wondering, now I'm really curious what these plans are going to look like, what their pitch is to America that actually looks like something that feels transformative.

29:29 There's a divide, I think, within the electorate about what it is that people actually want out of this this majority, you know, you're talking about like policy and things like healthcare and affordability and things like that. My mom wants, uh, blood. Right.

29:49 Yeah. Yeah. She wants, she was at James Carville. Yeah. Yeah.

29:53 My in-laws want, bodies, like they, they want to see pain on this, on this administration.

30:04 Yes. Yes. And so what that can look like different things too.

30:08 Of course it can look like a couple more rounds of impeachment. I hear, you know, just for fun, like, you know, snipping a couple heads off the cabinet.

30:17 Like, yeah. Yeah.

30:19 Yeah.

30:20 Seems like something that pretty much does it first. Most of the.

30:23 Coalition can can get behind at this point. But, you know, I think that's that's part of the question.

30:30 Yeah.

30:30 Right.

30:30 And it's not like you can only do one thing. But one for me, just to take it local is. The National Film Tax Credit. This is something that was a bipartisan thing that was going through Congress.

30:45 Our local Congress member, Laura.

30:47 Friedman, was kind of leading it. She came on the LA Material podcast to talk about it. And this was in kind of a unique spot where Trump liked that it could be his thing when it was a Republican Congress, but with a bipartisan push behind it. that he could be the person who saved Hollywood. Right. What happens now, now that it is a fully, fully democratic Congress. And if he's seen as like being pressured to do this or anything else, like.

31:24 That's all it is.

31:25 Like it's, it's all a personality thing. It's all like a legacy thing. Like what's his, right. The way to get that stuff accomplished that you're talking about is to cozy up to the administration.

31:36 Sure.

31:37 And to say, like, this is something that will be your actual legacy, and we are doing this together.

31:40 Right.

31:41 Is that something that they.

31:43 Is he going to go into legacy mode beyond renaming everything after himself? Because, you know, he had that, like, there was that housing bill that he was like... Yeah.

31:51 Stinky.

31:52 No.

31:52 No.

31:52 No. But I but to your point, like all those calls that he had, like listening to him last night, he was like, I mean, you know, we'll see what we can do.

32:01 Remember, I do something. And I'm like, OK, well, then can can will he?

32:06 I guess that's the thing I'm worried about, too, is like, are the Stephen Millers and if Susie Wiles is still chief of staff because there's talk about her maybe not making it.

32:13 Are they going to be like, no? If I had to bet, who is not going to make it? It would be Suzy Wiles or any woman. It seems like that's the one person he's very comfortable with. That has been a safe bet so far.

32:23 Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

32:25 But yeah, I think that's going to be the very interesting thing. Because at the end of the day, Trump, it's weird. Like when Mamdani won, he's like, I like a winner. I mean, like he just likes a winner.

32:33 Do you take the Mamdani approach if you're Jeffries and Schumer and- print the fake newspaper of like, here's what we can accomplish together.

32:42 And you'll be a legend. Right.

32:44 If you get this past, that works.

32:47 Sure.

32:48 Like up to a point, obviously, but like it is more successful than, than an adversarial relationship. But that conflict is maybe more what people were voting for.

33:00 Yeah.

33:00 We don't know really. But I know, like, we know it's a lot of what people wanted.

33:05 Right. Right. For sure.

33:06 So like, I don't, I don't totally know the answer. One, another option is neither. Yeah. So like that's, that's something that has played out in the past. Yeah.

33:16 Nice to Trump mean to other oligarchs maybe would be a plot like the nice to him, but then like take dead aim at the corporations and other oligarchs like Elon Musk. Like, I feel like he can be turned on Elon Musk. And so you just like focus that, that would like be in keeping with overall messaging that like, fuck oligarchs, fuck, you know, the cost of, they're the ones who are harming your cost of living, but you keep Trump somehow happy by just like doing, you know, Trump's bill to save Hollywood.

33:48 It's a balancing act, and also someone who doesn't really think linearly at all, so you're like, ugh, fuck, how do I approach this?

33:55 I feel like you could even go after Don Jr., and he would probably not mind that much. He'd be like, all right, so we have this list. He's like, you're gonna have to go to jail, son. What? Yeah.

34:07 First meeting.

34:08 I don't like it, but yeah. You're going in. This is going to hurt me more than it's going to hurt you. I was just watching that movie with Kevin Hart and Will Ferrell. We'll figure something out like that for you. Just to make sure you're good in there. I feel like that would be, you know, take dead aim at the rich boys as Bill Murray. Do you split them?

34:26 I mean, something I can see happening is like You know, there's the oligarchs that we've gotten more used to, like the Tim Cooks.

34:33 Sure.

34:34 But the Apples and like even Meta feels like something that we have more familiarity with than like the AI oligarchs.

34:44 Right. Yeah, yeah.

34:46 And like... do we do with like is it going to be AI targeted I guess right.

34:51 Well that's like such an odd thing right because data centers are now what as they're called compute campuses they're rebranding hard because they're like data centers just it sounds as bad as it is. So hopefully Compute Campus is the way Sam Altman's trying to do things.

35:06 Yeah, I think that was the problem. Yeah, yeah, it was that. The wording. It was the name.

35:09 It wasn't that if you just were near it, you're like, I think I'm getting, like, low-grade radiation or some shit from this place.

35:15 And they're making, like, a Never Have I Ever, like, coming-of-age story about an agent on a Compute Campus.

35:23 Right, exactly.

35:24 We're doing, like, where's our YA series about, like, a... torture tortured data center engineers who actually end up star-crossed lovers um but like again Going anti-data center was a big winner for candidates. And that's where I'm like now thinking like, so what do you do now? Because typically Silicon Valley was a huge donor to the Democratic Party.

35:46 But again, they're going where the wind blows. So they got big behind the GOP. And now I'm curious what that looks like, because obviously a huge part of the economy is propped up by AI spending, even though it's all like circular investment. Like, I wonder what that balance is for Democrats. Like, how the fuck do we do this? Like, do we totally fucking just like kneecap them and then watch it go up in flames? Do we how do we balance that act of actually hearing people saying, like, this is bad for my living conditions, for my energy costs, etc.

36:18 While also at the end of the day, like, you know, they are so beholden to the line go up and down on Wall Street.

36:24 So like that's one that's kind of sticky that I'm really curious to see what how they are able to thread that needle, because obviously it's really easy to talk. I mean, I think that's where probably, again, at the state and local level, you'll see the most change. And then maybe they'll just be able to kind of like draft behind that and be like, well, there's great things happening at state and local level. We're looking at bigger picture stuff of like regulation, really, which I'm sure will be welcomed with open arms as long as it's not, you know, totally diluted to the point that it's kind of toothless.

36:52 Yeah. You can really see what is hitting in national polling when it makes it into local.

36:59 You can see it in L.A.

37:00 Races when it makes it into races that don't actually have anything to.

37:03 Do with those things.

37:04 You remember in 22, so much of the mayoral race was about Rick Caruso having had a pro-life Republican history with his political donations and things like that. Not a job where you're really overseeing women's health in that way. But this time data sent so much of the ads were about like this person supports data centers here and here.

37:28 And it's like, it's not, it.

37:30 Does not happen in LA.

37:32 It does not really happen in the city of LA.

37:34 Right.

37:35 To that extent.

37:36 Sure.

37:36 But it's, it's just, it's such a clear look at like, Oh, this is like the secret sauce of, of this particular elect.

37:44 Definitely. Yeah. Yeah.

37:46 So I guess it's, there's, I think there's like a lot of new energy to in the House, which helps. So I'm just like also curious how like the, you know, the sort of incoming like DSA candidates are now elected officials. Are they going to caucus together? What kind of like sort of formal relationship will we see being built there?

38:06 And then I'm just also thinking about like, man, if it ends up being a 75 seat fucking majority in the House, I'm like, yeah, very hard for progressives to really kind of be like, take a stand when they'll be like, sorry, guys, like there needs to be like 76.

38:18 I saw a lot of people like saying that this was it was not very empowering for the for the DSA electeds in the way that like, Thomas Massey was just like, you know, one Russian roulette every day. He's like, I'll fucking do it. Enormous power.

38:38 Yeah. Yeah.

38:39 This is a little.

38:40 But I think that's probably what helps, though, too, is like with having more legislators with that sort of mindset in there, inevitably they will be that will have somewhat.

38:48 Of a seat at the table. They're going to have to be doing some farming things. And yeah, and we'll be able to be.

38:52 Speaking from the pulpit and telling people like this, this would be the ideal version of legislation. But, yeah, I think like the big thing now is just really try and find a way that keeps people's faith. Because like, you know, like the dumb the dumb version of the electorate could go, well, we gave him power in the midterms and nothing happens. Like, well, you know, there's only so much that can be done when there's a Republican president with veto power.

39:16 Yeah. Does that ever happen where they're like they blame Congress for the overall state of things? I feel like it usually is the president, right?

39:23 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

39:24 I guess this is the most resounding like congressional decision that the country.

39:30 Yeah I guess given the intensity of the switch yeah it feels like maybe really important that they are they do find a way to be like dude we're fucking trying man we're trying.

39:39 I sort of wonder if you get I think people hate Congress and to a very consistent, like huge extent all the time. And so if you're in it, if you've been in it for 30 years, like you, you've, you've seen it come and go. Like you, I wonder if you invest too much in this idea of like, we're going to get people to actually like us for a long time. Or if you're like, They hate us.

40:05 They're always going to hate us.

40:06 Like, why try? Yeah, why even do it?

40:09 I was seeing today as like the smoke was clearing this morning. There are a bunch of new Congress members who had dropped out of their races and now have to go to Congress because they got caught up in a wave that they didn't see coming that far.

40:25 Yeah, yeah, yeah. And like, shit, I'm in Congress now.

40:29 Fuck.

40:31 All right. How much is rent in DC? Right. Oh, fuck. All right. I guess I'm going to have to have a couple of roommates.

40:38 Yes. Can I go home caucus?

40:40 Yeah. Yeah.

40:43 I mean, look, Hey, the progressive need to get to them. Hey, like, Hey bro, I know you don't want to be here. I'll do your homework for you.

40:47 I don't even know if there's enough staff. Like there are people were talking about it. There's not even a, like a.

40:52 Pool of staffers to staff all of these new fucking, uh, new Congress people. So yeah, maybe that could be a part of it.

40:58 Like, Hey bro, I'll do your fucking homework. Don't worry about it. I know you don't want to be here. Just tie your vote to mine.

41:04 And my shit is unpopular in your district, so you get voted out in a couple years.

41:08 You're good. You're good, dude. And the majority is a 75 seat majority, bro. You're fine. You're fine.

41:13 Just fucking stay home, bro. Just come in for the votes. I'll give you your marching orders and we're good. Just like the Republicans. Let's take a quick break and we will be right back.

41:34 And we're back. We're back. I do just want to talk about Angie Nixon real quick. Yeah. To your point, there were like some very clear wins by candidates who were supposed to be unelectable. Yeah. Like in Michigan. Troy Jackson in Maine. And then there's this one case where a DSA candidate loses in Florida. And I feel like I can see people trying to be like, you know, see?

42:02 Yeah.

42:04 DSA heard us there. But I hadn't really been following that race that closely, but the Democratic Party basically abandoned her. They were just like.

42:13 It wasn't until multiple people were like, dude, she's up there fucking on her own. And she's actually polling close that the DSCC then started spending some money. But at that point, it felt like a little bit too late. She lost by less than 300,000 votes.

42:30 And that feels.

42:31 Yeah, a lot of people were like, If the support was there from the jump, what would it, would.

42:35 It be different? I don't know if the support was different in this race, but like you also, you do have a comp in the governor's race where a much more traditional Democrat was running.

42:45 Yeah.

42:46 And I, he also was.

42:48 Yeah, sure.

42:50 And I, you know, I, I don't think it was a huge difference between how he did and how Angie Nixon did. I wonder if what's happening in Florida, when I was working at LA city hall, they went through a redistricting process. And I learned the terms pack or crack. Uh-huh. Yeah. Strategically, you either, if you have a constituency that you're trying to marginalize, you either shove them all into one district.

43:16 Mm-hmm.

43:17 So they're kind of powerless in there. I mean, this is like classic redistricting. Or you spread it among a bunch of different districts. And Florida is becoming kind of a packed state in a way that is actually, I think, affecting their margins across the country.

43:34 Yeah.

43:35 Like, it's... It has shifted so violently from the Florida that we grew up with.

43:41 Where it was in play.

43:42 The hanging Chad Florida to what it is now because straight up, like, people have gotten older.

43:51 And moved there. Yeah.

43:53 And so, like, you know, is it possible that, like, with a little... I'd love to see the numbers on DSCC spending and how that actually works or doesn't work. They took some L's in congressional races. Randy Villegas up in Bakersfield. Wax job in that race against Valdeo. But he was up against someone that was getting... uh, money from the DCCC and, you know, barely squeaked that one out.

44:27 But like, that's a lot. Does that money work?

44:30 Yeah.

44:31 I think the broader thing too, that most people look at, it's like, what happens when they're specifically black women are running.

44:36 Right.

44:37 And like at the, at the national level for the party, they're like, we'll see.

44:41 Right.

44:41 Kind of like, and I think that's, we have an electability problem.

44:43 Yeah.

44:44 Yeah. And I think that's part of like, you at least want to put that argument to bed or something where it's like, well, give it a fucking shot first before you do the thing.

44:50 I mean, we're worried about electability.

44:52 They also, I mean, like, you know, this may be an indicator of, like, how much this money matters. They didn't have money this cycle. It was not a good fundraising cycle for the committees. Like, some particular campaigns did extremely well. But people were out on the committees, for sure. Yeah, but, like, the committees, I'm sure, are like, We did it, guys, but it's like.

45:13 We should tell you something about, yeah, what your job is going forward is not to, like, keep doing what the committees have been doing up to this point.

45:23 I will always bring it back to LA, but we're seeing historic lows in crime and murder rates as the number of police officers that we have is also at, like, a 30-year low. So, like, some things just are not correlated in the way... that they would seem to be.

45:43 Like uh in the mainstream yeah all right and then the the other kind of bad piece of news i i just go through the good news looking for the bad new i'm like okay this is good news where's the bad yeah where's the bad news okay angie nixon we can uh feel bad about and then uh prop 40 was the one that i mean we we had a feeling coming in was not necessarily going to do great.

46:06 When you see the spend, you're like, there's no fucking way. That's a lot of the times how ballot propositions end up. It's like, who has the money to blow out the airwaves?

46:16 And they did.

46:16 And my God, all those commercials were like.

46:18 I'm a teacher! And it's like, what the fuck? I thought you were talking about taxing billionaires. No, I'm a nurse! And you're like, hold on, hold on. What the fuck does that have to do with you? And I'm saying it's bad. I mean, they did a.

46:31 The propaganda was... It did its job, man.

46:34 And they spent, they ended up spending less than they would have been taxed.

46:37 So I guess it all worked out as an investment for, you know, the billionaires of the golden state for sure.

46:43 Yeah. I feel like it's easier for them to just create a fiction around like a proposition more than like a candidate, right? Like a candidate has a history, but like this, they were able to just completely like spin a narrative. But even in Los Angeles, it was 50, 50, like, That.

47:01 Will change over the coming weeks. And if it's 50-50 now, it will probably have a pretty solid victory. And I'll just say it. It could pass.

47:12 Oh, really? Prop 40? I mean, it seems to be.

47:19 Later and later breaking like youth turnout. And, you know, that's that's pretty much true across the state. The story of California was younger Latino turnout. This was like by far. And this was true in a lot of parts of the country. But like younger Latinos were voting at really, really high rates. And so we'll see everything change. I think, you know, a lot of that spending, record-setting spending, was from Sergey Brin and those billionaires. But those traditionally reliably progressive unions like the California Teachers Association and like others, like they actually were showing up to oppose this thing.

47:59 And that comes from a state revenue environment that is really, really hooked to income taxes, in particular income taxes at the top. So they had a legitimate expectation that these 10 people were going to move out for a year and just blow a hole in the revenue. And the reason for that is Prop 13, passed in 1979, which shifted all the revenue from property tax to income tax.

48:34 Our property taxes are very low because of Prop 13. They're very low compared to other places. And that leads to, you know, like the market, like our state revenue really goes up and down with the market, with IPOs.

48:49 Right.

48:49 Like when suddenly people are like, hey, I'm trying to buy a fucking like four bedroom house in San Francisco.

48:56 Do you guys take anthropic shares?

48:59 They're like people offering houses when they're like anthropic shares and shit.

49:03 And so much of that goes to the state because they tax those incomes extra heavily. It's not necessarily a healthy system where you have teachers legitimately saying, like, we are going to lose resources. revenue if this, if they leave, if this pass, you know, they're like, they're, they're, they're being pitted against each other, like, because of the way this system works. But it, it, it wasn't like, you know, you often do see like a fake nurse, like a clipboard.

49:37 Yeah, exactly. But they were.

49:39 Actually showing up for that particular race, which could absolutely pass. But, but it, So then the question becomes, does 42 pass, which is the one that neutralizes it?

49:50 Which one has more votes, right? Like that's what it comes to.

49:52 Which one has more votes. And so like that's, it is possible that both could pass, but that 42 has more.

50:00 Then the way 42 is worded, people will think of like prop 13. They're still like, oh, I don't know about this. Like it ends up, I see how it can fuck with people's minds. I mean, luckily, it can be overturned. I think a lot of people are like, if it passes, then it can never do that again.

50:14 Right, that's the thing that I'm just hoping is not the takeaway, that you can never... Do a wealth tax based on this. You absolutely can. You absolutely can. And I don't think wealth tax was the thing that was unpopular. When you look at polling, people are like, yeah, no, I would love to tax billionaires more. But that narrative of just not this one, it wasn't written the right way.

50:35 As always. Seemed to have been. It's just poorly worded.

50:40 They do a thing that they did with Prop 13 that makes it almost impossible to get rid of some of them. I don't think that's true for 42. But you have to get a two-thirds majority.

50:50 Yeah.

50:51 So you have to reach a threshold that the original proposition did not get in order to enact stuff or get rid of stuff. Yeah. So it is a little like, you know, you're just like a kid and saying, like, you know, I kill you and I'm invincible, so you.

51:06 Can't kill me. Now what?

51:08 Yeah.

51:09 Yeah, I think 42 can be overturned with a simple majority. I think it's like the language that I remember is that. But yeah, I mean, I think that was one where everyone in my text was like, what the fuck?

51:21 What's going on with it? Like, what's going on right now?

51:23 And I'm like, dude, we really, people don't realize how effective some ads are for people who just, like that's their interaction with a ballot proposition because they're not actually as tapped into thinking about like, okay, what does this mean or whatever?

51:35 And the messaging is like, It could hurt them. And eventually it could lead to more taxes for me. Yeah.

51:41 And I think that was sort of how people, a lot of people like to sort of internalize the message about it.

51:45 California can go the other way on the props. Obama was elected was the night California made gay marriage illegal.

51:54 Yeah.

51:55 When Trump was elected was when LA passed Measure M. It's like huge transit, tax expansion. HHH, the first big homelessness investment.

52:04 Yeah, yeah.

52:05 It's, you know, it's on the other side of the country.

52:08 Yeah.

52:09 Shows the ceiling right now of the progressive, you know, bona fides of the state, I'd say.

52:15 Yeah or yeah i i just i do think that this was a bad like you know not i i didn't want to fall in the category of like it's not perfectly written but like the coalition building around it like as they were putting it together like the guy dave reagan or reagan or however you say his name like was like kind of not building alliances and like doing the sort of thing that would have been helpful so i just like I'm hoping that this isn't like, well, turns out you can't do something that's progressive.

52:44 Well, I think that the appetite to tax the wealthy didn't go away.

52:48 You know what I mean?

52:48 Just broadly because this didn't pass. Because even the people were like, are you sure? I was trying to get people up to speed.

52:55 I'm like, are you sure?

52:57 Yeah. Because at the end of the day, they're like, I mean, they definitely got to pay. I just don't know. Is this the way? Right, yeah. I'm like, what do you want?

53:01 Like an actual progressive tax system? Is that what you'd prefer?

53:04 I mean, because, hey, we'd love that too. So most of these show up... as a bargaining chip.

53:10 Yeah, right.

53:10 Like, there is some other deal that they're trying to make. Locally, there was a real back and forth between Unite Here, the Hotel Workers Union, and the Hotel Associations, where they were basically waging policy war completely outside of government, like, around these ballot measures. And none of them ever made the ballot. It just became, like, something that was resolved between the union and the hotels. But in this case, you know, it's a health workers union that Dave Reagan runs.

53:38 that they wanted money from the state, more money to be allocated towards the health system because Trump did cut off the funding and it was an issue for them. And the deal-making just didn't happen. They weren't negotiating it. It just fell apart. And I think Gavin Newsom and the other opponents of this Said we can beat this at the ballot box. So like that, that affects your ability to, to, to bargain.

54:04 Right. Right.

54:05 And it just ended up being one of those ones that got all the way through for, for us to vote on it. But that was not a foregone conclusion there. It could easily have ended up like most of the others where it just gets pulled because of a deal.

54:19 For sure. Right. There's still time. I want to be optimistic about Prop 40 now. And I mean, 42, I don't know what the latest is there. Why does it take so long? Just counting. Just we count votes in other places are like, well, why is L.A. so slow?

54:35 We obviously we have a, I mean, what obviously really changed was COVID and the number of absentee ballots that we have. But actually what takes the longest time is not the counting. It is the processing of the ballots. Like honestly, just like opening them up, verifying the signature, like really takes the longest. And so when they count, like in LA, for example, The tranches, like they count them so fast. That's how many ballots they could prepare over the course of an entire day. Now there is more like there's like 24 seven counting happening now. But it's really a consequence of state investment in our electoral process.

55:18 They could double the number of people doing this work.

55:21 Right.

55:21 It would take half as much time. But then it's just a question. It would be more expensive.

55:27 Yeah.

55:27 Like, you know, more machines, things like that. And at the end of the day, like we're getting used to it. It's more just like, you know, it's more for the people that are completely ignorant about the process.

55:36 The podcast lobby. Yeah.

55:37 Or the people that want to use it to justify like their own electoral outcomes or say that it was.

55:45 Fraud and things like that. Yeah, exactly.

55:47 And that is, you know, at some point that is a legitimate reason to do something.

55:51 Yeah.

55:52 It also, I mean, like, a lot of people are sworn in city of LA. Everyone's going to be sworn in December 15th.

55:57 Yeah.

55:59 That's not a long transition time. And so the longer you don't really know what's happening with your race, the less time you have to get ready.

56:11 The better for the status quo, kind of, right? Kind of.

56:14 I mean, there's no real guidebook or anything like that. It's like you do just kind of show up having to learn on the fly. And so when you find out that you actually won on November 18th or something, you're like, yeah.

56:28 So many people waking up this morning like, fuck. Oh, shit. Yeah, fuck it. I'm into it. I'm into it.

56:35 What got you most excited in terms of locally the results that we saw in LA?

56:41 I mean, the turnout is really notable. The younger turnout, I think by the end, will tell a real story.

56:51 Right.

56:51 And that's pretty new here. We taxed ourselves again, which I was a little surprised by. Homelessness tax measures have gradually gone down in their success.

57:05 They've always passed.

57:06 We haven't had one go forward that hasn't passed yet, but it's getting closer and closer to 50. And now some of those also have to be two-thirds. But there was a park funding measure that requires a set-aside for parks measure, PRK, that It's like it's going to win by like 50 points.

57:25 Right.

57:25 Oh, well. Measure FD is closer, which is a that's an actual like half sales tax.

57:31 Yeah.

57:31 That goes to the to the fire department. That one, I guess you could say potentially underperformed.

57:38 It was opposed by the police union. They put a lot of spending into it. So funny to watch that. I'm like, oh, because we're capped out.

57:44 We cannot go higher on our sales tax by state law at this point. You have to find like workarounds. And, you know, now that that's going to the fire department, other entities say like, well, like that, that's money that is not going to us anymore.

58:00 Yeah.

58:01 And so that one is at like 53% or something. And you think maybe after the fires that should have done better, better fire department polls pretty well.

58:11 Yeah.

58:12 They don't shoot people, but it's, it's, it's notable that even after, a huge amount of coverage of like where our public spending is going and whether it's being administered properly, people were still ready to, to invest in parks and invest in the farm.

58:30 Yeah.

58:30 All right.

58:32 Well, wonderful having you on. Thank you for bringing your expertise to our second rate podcast. Where can people find you, follow you, hear you, all that good stuff.

58:42 I'm in the LA Material Discord, baby. If you live in LA or you're interested in seeing what we're doing, we're at lamaterial.com. You sign up. You can get our daily newsletter for free with your email. People, can I just vent a little bit? People say, paywall. I'm not reading this. It's a paywall.

59:03 That's not a paywall. You can complain about having to give your email.

59:06 Yeah that's not it's not a paywall that's a type wall yeah and.

59:12 You're not gonna fuck with their information you're just saying this is so we can get it to you.

59:16 And then you can't reply and say it's actually just your email because then they will destroy your reddit karma yeah which is so.

59:23 Precious no no keep that karma up.

59:25 Dude Uh, and you know, we're, we're, we're, we're covering LA, but it's like neighborhood stories that I hope would be fun to read for anyone in the country. And of course I'm on Hollywood handbook, part of the big money players, uh, podcasting family here, here at I heart.

59:43 We are family really. Yeah.

59:46 Family that sees each other every eight years.

59:49 The best kind. Great hats from Hollywood Handbook. I got my hat pack hat. Yours is black and yellow. Black and yellow. Black and yellow. It's such a good hat that it has pushed back a haircut for me. Wow. I've not gotten a haircut because it makes it so easy to just like.

1:00:07 Do you wear the hat to avoid your wife being like, Jack, you need a haircut?

1:00:12 Just like being able to come to work without taking a shower.

1:00:17 Oh, sure.

1:00:17 Sure. We have material hats too.

1:00:20 Of course. I mean, it's all the hat business, right?

1:00:23 End of the day.

1:00:25 I mean, it's like, especially in LA, you gotta have a fucking hat. Like whether it's like the plants, LA hat, like there's just so many neighborhood specific hats.

1:00:35 Yeah.

1:00:36 Yeah. It's a little time. My multiple Altadena hats. Yeah. Is there a work of media that you've been enjoying?

1:00:43 This is a little related to what we're talking about. I was just reading a book called The Greening of America. You ever heard of this book? It's wild. It was written in 1970 by a guy named Charles Reich. And it is basically talking about how the hippie movement is going to revolutionize the entire country. And he was wrong about this.

1:01:01 It did not end up happening.

1:01:02 It was basically over by the time.

1:01:04 The book came out? The book came out because the Manson family.

1:01:09 Killed a bunch of people and people were like, oh, these are, is this what I don't think we should do this.

1:01:14 Yeah.

1:01:14 Uh, but it's like, he talks about how amazing natural peanut butter is and jeans like bell-bottom jeans help you like feel your body in this new way.

1:01:24 Um, he was a Yale professor who was just like, this is it it's happening.

1:01:29 But reading it, it feels very relevant now because it's about how new technology gave birth to this movement as a, as a response. And in the age of AI, he talks about how new technology requires of man a new mind.

1:01:45 And like you.

1:01:47 Every other paragraph, you're like, this paragraph is wrong. This paragraph is interesting. Now, you know, of like, uh, I, we have never encountered a new technology that has required in one way or another, a new mind of us.

1:02:02 Right.

1:02:03 Uh, so it's just been an interesting little, uh, time capsule to read from. 2026.

1:02:10 Love a book rec. Oh, I think I'm like 250 book reps behind book recs behind. Yeah. From our show, but, uh, I'll add it to the pile. Thanks. Hayes, uh, miles. Where can people find you as their work media? You've been in.

1:02:26 Yeah. Find me everywhere at miles of gray. I'm talking about 90 day fiance on four 20 day fiance. And I'm talking about football soccer on ain't a footy with Jamel Johnson and Chris Martin, uh, work and media. Like, Dude, I've just been watching that same YouTube channel. you gotta fucking check out that YouTube channel that I was talking about.

1:02:45 What's it called again? The Rewind Vault. The Rewind Vault.

1:02:48 Dude, watch one hour straight of MTV music videos with the commercials from 1997.

1:02:53 Yes, dude.

1:02:54 That's the fucking cheapest form of time travel a millennial can engage in right now. You will see, I can't tell you how many fucking, just because I have one of those stupid brains where I remember commercials, that for me, they are so energizing. I just want people to normalize putting on throwback MTV on in the background.

1:03:12 And pretend you're 13.

1:03:13 Yeah.

1:03:14 Okay. The best of times when we knew nothing more than that. It's good to.

1:03:18 Raise your kids the way you were raised.

1:03:20 Oh, yeah. The way I have. I mean, I've really fucked myself. Like dog-toothing them on that. That's just the only thing that they're able to see. I like fucked.

1:03:27 I kept saying, like, when I was having a kid, I was like, dude, we're only going linear TV, dude. They can't know about shit on demand.

1:03:32 Cut to now.

1:03:33 Everything's on demand. But now I have to lie about things being.

1:03:37 Off the air now.

1:03:39 I'm like, oh, that show, it's not on the air anymore. And my kid's like, you're fucking with me. My friend saw it at school.

1:03:44 I'm like, fuck.

1:03:44 We have everything all the time.

1:03:46 Yeah, yeah, yeah. My kids don't understand the concept of something being over. Like a sporting event being over, they're like, whoa.

1:03:53 I feel like I should have just got like a VHS machine and just put tapes in, but then just like navigated to shit on my TV. So like my kids are sort of like, oh yeah, you got to put the tape in for the thing to work. And I'm like, I got the tape right now.

1:04:04 Right. But anyway.

1:04:05 I do that. And I do recommend it. We go to the video store.

1:04:08 Yeah.

1:04:09 So we either have it or we don't.

1:04:11 Nice. Yeah.

1:04:12 Which is very dog tooth.

1:04:14 That is very.

1:04:15 It is a social experiment.

1:04:17 That onion headline about like cool dad making sure his kid doesn't know any of the pop culture references from their generation.

1:04:26 Yes. Our kids are four and two.

1:04:28 Okay.

1:04:28 And it works for my daughter for a long time, but my two year old son. broke us immediately yeah sure and so now yeah he he for some reason gets to know about.

1:04:37 Youtube he's working the remote he's like yeah we got unsubscribed to.

1:04:41 This one unsubscribe what all right uh working media i've been enjoying i just like all the you know we just had a steady stream like the I talked about Django Gold's thing that he had to get to bed early to wake up and beat your high school daughter's ass in volleyball. I like this from Nugget Handbank. Dave Portnoy tearfully reading a land acknowledgement before every pizza review.

1:05:10 That's the sort of thing I've been enjoying. You can find me on Twitter, Jack underscore O'Brien, Blue Sky, Jack OB, the number one Instagram, Jack underscore O underscore Brian. You can find us on Twitter and Blue Sky at Daily Zeitgeist. We're at The Daily Zeitgeist on Instagram. You can go to the description of this episode wherever you're listening to it.

1:05:28 And there at the bottom, you will find the footnotes. Oops, sorry, footnotes. Which is where we link off to the information that we talked about in today's episode, as well as a song. That we think you might enjoy, Miles. You might have just heard it slightly playing from my laptop. But, you know, Texas, you did the damn thing. So I want to shout you out with one of your bands, Crungbin. Also doing a song that I love, which is their take on Green Onions by Booker T and the MGs.

1:05:53 But their version is called Cebollas Verdes. And it's featuring Quantic. So this is a great one. Krungbin and Quantic. Shout out to you, Texas.

1:06:03 Look at you. Look at you. Turning it blue. Look at what you did. Okay, schoolboy Q.

1:06:07 All right.

1:06:07 We will link off to that in the footnotes. The Daily Zeitgeist is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. That's going to do it for us this morning, back this afternoon, to tell you what's trending. And we'll talk to you all then. Bye. Peace.

1:06:23 The Daily Zeitgeist is executive produced by Catherine Long. Co-produced by Victor Wright. Co-written by J.M.

1:06:29 McNabb.

1:06:30 Edited and engineered by Justin Conner.