In episode 1756, Jack and Miles are joined by journalist and host of The Sam Sanders Show, Sam Sanders, to discuss… Hurricane Milton - Another Sad Opportunity For The GOP To Be Racist And Spread Misinformation, Can We Put An End To The “October Surprise” Discourse? And more!
LISTEN: Toro by Remi Wolf
She brought these dusty ass cookies over and I remember I took a bite and I was like, this ship is just trash ba something is it's? It had like it had taken on the taste of being in like like as if it was sat next to celery for fucking five weeks or some shit. Wow, it was the weirdest taste for like a triple chocolate cookie. Like You're like, brother, this should not be That's not a good combo.
Hell, triple chocolate with celery is not what I'm looking for. Do you think it was Do you think it was stored next to celery? Is that what it taken on the taste?
And also it was in a bag inside a bag because the original bag had torn and they didn't rebag it and then rebag it. You gotta rebag, I texted regift, you gotta rebag. So what the fuck is up with these cookies. She's like, oh, yeah, yeah, she they got him in August or something, but she wasn't eating them, so I thought you'd want it. And I'm like, cause you didn't want it to fuck it, I'm like, how long did you have She's like like maybe a week or something. She didn't want to make it a way around. She brings her She brings her old food and puts it in my refrigerator that she doesn't want to throw away.
I feel like they probably had like three conversations about those cookies, like yeah, like I don't know, maybe Miles, do you think, Miles? Maybe Miles?
Yeah, yeah, he smokes weed. He won't even know. These shits are two months old.
Hello the Internet, and welcome to season three point fifty nine, Episode three.
Of Derney's I Guys Stay production of iHeartRadio. This is a podcast where we take a deep dive.
Into America's shared consciousness.
And it is Wednesday, October ninth.
Twenty twenty four, ten nine eighty four, seven six spots.
So it starts elections, like what twenty something days away?
Boy, I don't want to talk about that, Miles on this news podcast.
Well, let's focus on what today is done. At October ninth, National Moldie Cheese Day. It's also National Curves Day. It's also National bring your teddy bear to work or school Day, National take your parents to Lunch Day, and National Emergency Nurses Day. Shout out everybody who's keeping people alive.
We were talking about moldy something or other, you know, but before Sam even joined us.
But I still like, don't feel like so.
We're talking two and a half months on some cookies.
We're bringing that up. Yeah, I don't know. It just doesn't feel that bad to me. Don't.
And it's not the fact that they were stored with the celery I think is what.
It's not the only thing that fucked it up. You have to look at it this way. This was a like artisanally baked cookie. It does not have like the preservatives to give it an extended shelf life, maybe past the five days after it's been baked, you know what I mean. Like it was like one of those gift basket. Yes, he was like in a cellophane with a ribbon on it. This was some high end hit, you know what I mean. This wasn't. I'll man, I'm sorry Jack you. I'll dig them out of the trash and I'll drive them over to your house. And I mean, I don't dare want them out of the trash. I'm just saying, like, I'm kind of with your mom on this one. I would have bought the cookies over and thought I was doing you a solid okay, all right, all right, anyways, all right, my name is a shout out to moldy cheese, which I will I have in the case of American cheese, I think it. I think for me it has to be American cheese.
But if there's like a piece of mold on a slice of American cheese, I will pull the mold piece off of the slice of American cheese and then consume the rest of Americans.
How are you like you're talking about like cracked singles. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're you're holding on the craft singles to the point that the mold is getting in the cell of phane. I know. It's like science.
Yeah, that's too Yeah, just anyway, Yeah, I'm revealing too much right now. My name's Jack O'Brien aka Potatoes O'Brien aka Banjo Eric or aka rick E Banjo. You can go the other way, you know, like a chuck e cheese. Yes, yes, band entertainment band, Ricky Banjo, Rick Entertainment Banjo. We're we're distant cousins, me and Charles Entertainment Cheese. I'm thrilled to be joined as always by my co host, mister Miles Gras.
Yes, It's Miles Gray coming live to you from the eight one eight, also known as the Lord of Lancasham, the Showgun with no gun and occasionally no buns because I do have podcasters, but that I am struggling with every day. But I am on the bike. We're just rejuvenating my backside. So it's just.
Achilles tendon right up to the back to your back, this.
Disarray. No no buns, it's not that bad. It's not that bad.
But you know, sir, mix a lot would not want none because there are no buns.
No, not here, none detected. But hey, look you when you're forty, you gotta you gotta focus on that detective. Focus on that part. You have to focus. Yeah.
Anyways, we are thrilled, Miles to be joined by a journalist, a podcast host who you know is one of the hosts of Vibe Check and the host the host of the Sam Sanders Show.
Because it's Sam Sander.
I love this. Welcome there, Thank you'll, thank y'all for having me. It's so nice to loving the.
Energy we have to bring our a game because you are a first rate podcast one of the show, you know what I mean.
We're too kind we're writing here, but I've been thinking about cheese as all were talking. Can we count blue cheese as moldy cheese, in which case moldy cheese, blue cheese exquisite?
What about roque Fort? Who is that? That's the that's the level up? How do I saw her name?
R r o q u e f o R t roke high falutin? You are high faluten I like the I like cheese. I like stinky ass cheese. I'm not gonna lie saying the funkier the better.
I don't know.
I want like a little crumple of blue cheese on like a Trader Joe's, the little crackers with like raisins in them, and you drizzle a little honey.
Ye Sam, we gotta yeah, let's have a cheese party. Yeah, I'm ready, I'm ready. I'm absolutely ready.
Yeah the Hollywood Bowl, you know, with that little.
Oh yeah, yeah yeah, bring out some crackers, some nice cheese while you're watching the Justice concerts. I was there, was it. It was pretty.
Let me tell you something, we all picked the wrong career and this is no shade on the skills of Justice as DJs. But I will say their live set they stand in one place for two hours, the lights move, everyone else is dancing. You feel alive and in it. But those dudes get to just stand up. I want that job.
I want that job. It's a gig and then you just have to I mean it's it is kind of like another job too, where it's like, oh look busy, now, look busy, look busy. All about jobs. We've all had that position at least once in our lives. Yeah.
A species of blue cheese of the family blue cheese or is it, like, I don't know, rope Fort different than blue because blue cheese just seems somewhat vague.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean it is a blue cheese made from sheep's milk in the Kamba Balu caves of roque Forts or sol France.
No creamy texture and sharp tangy saltya something else from Wikipedia, I'm gonna say that's just looking at the wikipedias for both blue cheese and roque Fort, I'm gonna say blue cheese goes to a private school, Roquefort goes to a boarding school. Yeah yeah, rope for it's like it goes to Sidwell friends.
Yeah, oh yeah, you know what I mean. You put it in some decent context. Yeah, yeah, it's it's in class with Malasho Obama basically.
Oh yeah, definitely cut forth period with Malia Obama.
Smoking cigarettes because I'm from France and you should try these cigarettes. They're actually good for you when you get them from friends. Yeah, it's like a steam cleaner for your lungs. How you say how you say cigarette? Yeah, four or five cigarette.
And the teacher's just like, yeah, no, that's actually cool with us because we're on some like next level the great friendship.
Authors smoked cigarettes.
Yeah, we are teaching Camu right now, so the students are permitted to smoke cigarettes in class.
All right. I love that Camu reference. Yeah, he has even stranger references coming up.
By the way, I do spell Camu the same as Shamoo, so I'm not don't don't like.
A m u.
A m o o is Shamoo as distant cousin of Tima.
Yeah. His grandson is actually like a talent in Japan, which is really wild. Camus Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's like Shamu has a no Albert Camus. Albert right is that his name is? Yeah, his grandson like fame is a like he's a presenter on Japanese TV and he's like fluent in Japanese, and I was always like, I remember being like, what how do you what's that pass interesting?
But hey, yeah, I like that for him, I like that for the Camu legacy, existential dread and truly the only interesting question for humanity is why we don't kill ourselves? And then his great grandson is like, welcome back back to the mask singer. He would do as a mask singer because he's like this blonde hair dude.
He would go there's a show that he would go on where he would go around the streets of Tokyo or Osaka or something, and he would ask a question, He's like, what's your pet peeve? Like your biggest pet beef? And they, because he's fluent in Japanese, the answer in Japanese, and he would always go okay now in English. And that was always like the bit And then like the fund was watching people struggle with their English to say some like really funny version of what their pet peeve was.
But anyway, the implication being everybody does know how to speak English. You couldn't do that shit in America with like any other language.
No, No, it would be wildly offensive.
I think like, yeah, oh for sure, the responses would be wildly offensive for sure. All right, Sam, we're going to get to know you a little bit better in a moment. Right first, we're going to tell the listeners a couple of things that we're all going to be talking about a little bit later on. We're going to talk about preparations for Hurricane Milton, specifically the GOP just ramping up the racism and the what is causing this is?
Could it be would the Green just say that like they control the weather maybe with lasers?
With lasers?
She said, yeah, yeah, Marjorie, come on.
Research, Sam, do some research Sam on Twitter. Clearly you're not doing your own research.
We're going to talk about the mainstream media's favorite discourse at the moment, which is is.
This an October surprise?
Is is Trump's wife writing a book we all knew about an October surprise?
The real October surprise is call her Daddy doing a better interview with Kamala than anyone else's cycle.
But yes, you started.
So we're going to talk about the October surprise, where it comes from, where that phrase even comes from, and why it might be time to you know, quiet down about the October surprise. All of that plenty more. But first Sam, we do like to ask our guest, what is something from your search history?
I was so when I when they sent this question over to me, I was like, oh Lord, let me not go back and look at incognito mode. But I am going to go right now to my phone and.
Wow, we're getting the live results.
The results are.
Coming as we speak, and I feel like, you know, there's always this divide with what you search.
It's like the.
Default browserund my iPhone is Safari, so I think my first searches come there, but my favorite saves tabs are in Chrome. So my third fourth wave searches live there right right. But we're gonna start with my recent Safari Google searches.
How do I? Okay? I googled roquefort cheese. There you go.
Oh.
I was talking in another podcast this morning about one of these far right conspiracy theories about some people on the right saying that Biden has been slow on hurricane response because he's been at his beach house sunning his testicles. So that led me to google the time that Tucker Carlson was pushing testical tanning on his show. So my last real Google were the three words Tucker Carlson testicles.
Yes, fantastic and are we how are the results?
What?
We don't want to go down that ball? You don't want to go down that Now that is surprising to me.
It just kind of outlines how this dude was like fully crazy and like two years ago he was telling people to sun their testicles to up their testosterone, and he had someone called a bromo therapist on or something to talk about all this stuff just kook science.
Romeopathy or something like that. Yes, yes, yes, bromeopathy.
Yeah.
Yeah.
There's a Vanity Fair headline that reads, Tucker Carlson Colon tan your balls if you want to.
Be a real man. Wow. Wow.
And while we're here, and I can say this because I'm gay, so I can be offensive to straight men who on the what straight man in the world has taken how to be a man lessons from Tucker fucking Carlson.
The most Yeah, the most misguided? I think. Hold on, ye, what did tuckles Tucker say? It's like, I guess, do I keep my bow tie?
Yeah?
When I tanned my balls because I remember wasn't there someone like around Like at the start of the Lockdown someone was talking about like sunning your butthole too, and like your taint was like that was the thing.
Also then for a while when it, Paltrow was like, stick this jade egg up your nony.
Yeah, yeah, And then there was some nony sunning as well on the side, if I'm not mistaken.
And for a second there was nony steaming, right And I know this because years ago when that was a trend, I was like, oh, they can't keep this from the man. So I went to a spot in LA that did the vaginal steaming in all earnestness. I went with my former partner and I was like, well, can you do it for us too? And they were mad that I would even ask. I was like, well steamline too, like a last They wouldn't steam me why. It's probably for the best, it's just for vagins.
But I mean, like, is the technolo I mean what I'm picturing just maybe someone having like a garment steamer like under the sheet.
You know, and then like a barber shopped like cape that you put like around your waist.
Right right right? Okay, Well yeah, hey, for the one day I'll find out. Yeah, if you're being discriminated, just get yourself a garment steamer or maybe a humidifier. We legally cannot give this a buzz yep ye yeah yeah yeah uh. Anyway, check out my live stream on Saturday morning. But don't do what I do. Do as I say, not as I do. That's right.
Also, Gwyneth, if you need a male volunteer as tribute, right, yeah, I like your Gwyneth. I think you're cool. I volunteer to be steamed.
It does suggest that the people who are doing the steaming are like in it for the wrong reasons, Like what why are they discriminating between you know, like right, hmm.
Because if because I'd imagine right, like if are they saying like that you just won't get the benefits from it? You're like, well what if I just want to feel the steam up there?
Or they're just like I don't see that, you know what was happening. I get it, and I understand this response. They were just like, why is a man even trying to get up in there?
It's for women?
And is as as well intentioned as I was going to that storefront? They probably were like, is this guy pranking us right right to get it.
Yeah, you did have an entire YouTube video crew with you. I had James O'Keefe right behind me, yeah.
Wearing a ponzo. Yeah, Sam, what's something you think is underrated?
Walking? Mm hmm.
I live in LA and nobody wants to walk. Nobody wants to freaking walk. And like, I have two dogs, so I walk a lot with them. But I also believe in if you have an errand to run that you can get to in less than a mile and a half, walk it if you have to die, yeah, walking to it.
Like literally, I always feel better after a walk.
My mind is clearer after a walk. And you know, y'all know this Angelino's will drive a block.
Yes you do, Yes, I just walk more, Yes I do. I also, like I've I've been trying to use like my bike more as like in between where it's like, see that's a bridge too far because these drivers out here are too fast, too furious. That's why I have like created my own network of residential streets that I used to not be on like those main thoroughfares, because yeah, because they'll get you. There's nothing more frightening than being on a bicycle, like on a main street in Los Angeles, because people fucking just are so unaware.
Have you noticed how one since pandemic lockdown road rags has gotten worse. And then two the basic rules and laws of traffic people just disobey. Everyone runs red lights. If you had a four way stop, a car behind you might just come around you and zoom through. Like the basic laws of how we commute in cars, people ignore them.
Now in LA it's people are I'm seeing more and more of people doing the Pittsburgh left turn. What is that that? That's like when the the second the light goes green, the person in the left turn lane just cuts it across before New York. But I like that you're slandering Pittsburgh with this. That's how I heard it from a dude who I know, like, lived in Pittsburgh any And if you look it up, if it's it's Peopleburgh left, Yeahan's doing the Pittsburgh left. He's doing Pittsburgh left.
Hell Yeahan's doing the Pittsburgh left anymore.
You ever hear Pittsburgh people just adding anymore on to the end of the sentence for some week.
I like that.
It's kind of fun anymore. It's like a nice open ended thing. People also called the whole shot, which I think. Yeah, that's also known as a Boston left or a New York left either way illegal. Yeah, yes, we look down on New York in this household, not the Yeah.
Yeah, I'm actually curious that gang us know, because this is something that we've talked about a little bit here and there. But it does feel like people have become less and less aware that other human beings exist, or like willing to drive as though other human beings exist.
Oh, it's just yeah, and everyone is like everyone sees the slightest inconvenience while they're driving as like the biggest crime. Yes, I'll be trying to change lanes. I will signal, which is my way of saying please and thank you, and the other car will speed up to block me. I signaled courteous.
Right.
It's very competitive.
There's a competition going on, and there's like a rage that is just in every single interaction in a car.
Yeah.
This is actually something I talked about in therapy because I would get petty. Right, I'm like, oh, you're not about like you know the thing, like, especially on freeway interchanges, it'll be backed up and people just want to go to the side and then in at their last time on the shoulder, on the shoulder, and I'm like, hell, no, you're not not to me. Not to me. H. My therapist shout out. Doctor Shimitra was like, maybe we should maybe we should investigate what is it about? Is it because is it your ego? And I'm like, yeah, I think it's like is it because you don't you think to them, You're not that person who should be getting cut in front of And I'm like this might be true. So I now I have to like use it as an exercise to like separate myself from my ego and be like, yeah, people are trying to get places too, I'm not in a rush. They might be fuck it. Yeah fine.
I always tell myself when I'm dealing with traffic and people being assholes in traffic. Most of the time they don't know who you are and they don't care. Yeah, you're a car they're trying to get by. No one is like, that's Sam in that car, and I'm gonna show them.
Oh that's Sam Sanders. Oh I'll be waiting for this fucking day. I know they would be an asshole to any car you were just in the way. Yeah, exactly, a bogie yep. Sam Sanders on the road in front of us. He's trying to zipper merge. He's trying to ziper merge.
I backed out of my driveway this morning to take my kids to school, and a car, like two cars stopped to let me out.
It was like, thank you so much. Third car zoomed around all of us, and just I just.
Can I tell you my worst fantasy about dealing with road rage. I've thought a lot about whether or not I could acquire those spikes that flattened tires and just have them to toss out like Mario Kart when someone.
Kisses me off somehow, like drive fast enough to get around them. Yes, but they're still giving you the finger out the back of their car, like laughing, laughing, and then you just say, I am.
Not the one. I am not the one, and today is not the day. I always had a fantasy that like I could have enough money, like fuck you money, where I just had a car that I just talked lessons in it. I'm not slowing down. I know you think you can cut me off, but we'll get no light out. That's bab and it will be your fault. And I have time and guess what I am on my fifth insurance provider boom, because they know this is my fuck you car, This is my fuck you car around to find out. Yeah, and that's what I'm like. This is again, these are all things that the car in more ways.
So all this to say, let's walk more as a society exactly, let's walk, Yeah, walk more, and be very careful when you're walking across the street because people no longer can see pedestrians.
It's just not they they it's it's not happening anymore.
And if you ever are on the fence about thinking you want to exhibit road rage, just remember you do not know who has a gun and there, yes.
You actually who has or who has a strip of spikes you knows.
Right, or who has the red shell from Mario car? Hey, Sam, what's something you think is overrated? Oh?
Controversial opinion? Here?
The Spotify algorithm. Oh it was really great for a while, but have you noticed over the last year it's gotten worse.
I've as I'm a long time Spotify user. The algorithm has half giveth many great suggestions and now my Discover weekly is like a mess. It's a mess. It's not it's not giving me the great And I've talked about who the DJ the DJ part.
Of it, whoeveryone is like does that sounds that sounds like sim People like, oh the Spotify DJ sounds like you, Sam, and I'm like, one the racism not.
All, I don't know, it sounds like you.
And two if Spotify was paying me to be a DJ voice, I wouldn't be doing shit else but taking on Spotify money. You know, when I hear me on podcasts like this, I'd be taking Spotify money. And no, it's bad now, right.
Isn't it bad now? I definitely feel like because the thing is it in? You know, like we use a like my account on like whatever like smart speaker we have so when we say so, sometimes we put other music on that isn't my taste and then the next thing is like, oh so you love this kind of a like indie pop music and like not really, man like please take it in totality like that was a that was a moment, but that's not where my entire interests lined. So yeah, it's gotten a little bit harder. I had a theory about this.
So a few months ago Spotify made news because they said and announced that new an upcoming artists could pay Spotify money to have their songs show up higher in people's algorithms and show up more frequently. And I think as soon as that happened, it it really screwed with the algorithm just tuning into me and my interest. I also think that they have leaned more on giving you more of the songs you already listened to a lot, like I think we all had that three or four months this year, where as soon as a playlist was done or an album was done, the next song you heard was Espresso by Sabrina Carpenter.
I couldn't avoid it.
And it felt like the algorithm of two or three years ago was more expansive and just gave me more new stuff that you'd never heard before.
But they felt aligned with their interest. It exchanged.
They're going through the shit the radio went through with like Payola and exactly, yeah for sure.
But also we love spotifym my podcast thank you.
Yeah, yeah, we love Spotify to remember, we love it, and also and Apple especially the podcast app doesn't have any of these problems.
So no Apple Io Apple a friend of Woke a woke god. We love the iOS updates, we love the iOS find out. We love to have a podcast.
The I mean, I remember when this happened to Facebook. It feels like every every piece of technology that is designed around helping you find information or a thing that is going to be entertaining to you goes through this process where algorithm is designed to find a thing, like and it gets it gets really good at helping you find the thing that you want. And then they're like, okay, and now we're making money, Like now we have these massive numbers, and now we slowly make the product worse and worse and worse. And I still remember like Facebook was a good place for people to find things.
I had my phone numbers and my address on Facebook. It was so great. Yeah, and then they were like okay, and now we.
Like I remember, you know, on the other side, as like somebody who was making content at that time, like our you know, content was having a ton of success on Facebook. And then slowly they were like, okay, you can pay us to be like positioned better. And then eventually it was you will not show up unless you pay us, and that at that point, it's just only the most gullible and not aware of like what is actually happening to them. Aka, you know boomers are still going to use that product at that point.
Can I tell you?
This brings up what is one of my favorite essays that has explained the way the internet and apps have treated us for fifteen years. You've probably read it before. This writer and thinker called Cory Doctorow. He has a theory called in shiitification.
Yeah, and he wrote this es.
Say about the incertification of everything. Y'all have heard it before. But basically he argues that first these new apps, these new vendors, these new players, they do whatever it takes to attract users and be good to users. Then they do whatever it takes to attract business customers, which means that users matters less. And then they make their business model just serve the shareholders in maximizing profit. And so, without fail, an app that was really good to users, within three to five years, it's only good for shareholders.
And this happens with whatever the app is.
Yeah, and it's currently the app that is gaining steam because it's not doing the in stification aka rot economy. We've called it before on the show shout out to what's that his name, Ron, who calls it the rott economy. But it feels like TikTok's the one place that isn't actively making its product worse.
Or just wait monitor way once they find out how to monetize it.
Yeah, the fact that like they're trying to figure out, like how what's the next money making thing? Is it Ai, like ai that writes shitty news articles for you or you know, it's just like no, just have the thing that is going to be good once TikTok starts being shitty, because that's an inevitability.
Because they're trying, because like TikTok is really trying with that TikTok shop.
But I think people really figured out quite quickly that the stuff on the TikTok shop is.
Like worse than Timu. It's bad stuff you don't.
Want that, you don't want that turn green, even if it's not a piece of jewelry that goes around your neck.
Somehow. Mm hmm.
Sorry, I like geek out on the incentification ship. It explains everything.
It explains Oh yeah, cause most people just do the thing where they're like this used to be good it used to be good. Yeah, and then you're like, we're just like so it's called shareholder value. Shareholder value, and it's ruining everything.
Literally when Mark Zuckerberg walked into shareholder meetings and flip flops, yeah, I'm aldoh bitch, and then he's eventually like, we need to capture shareholder value.
So yeah, yeah, right now what shareholders are ruining and what VC is ruining. There's tons of coverage around this VC and venture capital. They're buying up veterinary care, so a lot of vats that were private are now owned by these vcs. And you'll notice all the rights of going up. Yeah, all the rights for private equity is uh, the devil private equity You're right, not.
Via the devil, Corey doctor al. He's got a really good substack post on just private equity too. That's just how it's like everything died because of this red well it's just smart.
Yeah, it's perverse sentives because their goal is not to make a good company, is to make things that they can sell for parts. Right, Yeah, you don't get me started, okay, all right, sorry, yeah, we we won't.
Let's take a quick break. We'll be right back and we're back and just a whore.
You know, we recently talked about Hurricane Helene and these storms that are doing things that storms used to not do. They used to be or they would happen, you know, once a century, once every two century, and now they're happening on a pretty regular basis. And before we were finished saying that sentence, another even bigger hurricane started developing in the Gulf of Mexico. Just like chilling in the Gulf of Mexico, fucking terrifying storm. Hurricane Milton. It's intensifying at a rate that like, I don't know, this clip you found, Miles kind of blew my mind.
Yeah, I mean I think you saw things like it started as a tropical storm and then became a Category four just over the weekend. And people are like, that's a progression that is pretty wild. And yeah, like you said, I'm like, like hearing meteorologists and atmospheric scientists talk about it, I'm like, I'm a podcaster. What does this all means? Simple? Put right? So, like Helene brought like a four day between four and eight feet of a storm search which is to cause terrible damage. Milton is expected to bring between ten and fifteen feet of like water, like we're the wall, Yes, a wall of water storm surge that has been described by the mayor of Tampa as unsurvivable. They're saying, if you do not leave, write your name on your body so people can identify. Listen, if you got Tampa people saying it's unsurvivable, believe them. Yeah. And so the thing that really freaked me out or not freaked I mean, yes, freaked me out or I got I understood, just the severity of it is this clip of this meteorologist, nam John Morales, who's in Florida. He's merely just watching the storm sort of you know, evolve, and he is absolutely his breath is taken by this. And I'll just play this for you because I think it's like one of those scenes in a movie where you hear like a scientist like sort of like just like clutch their shirt or something in horror. That's kind of what this feels like. So this is John Morales sort of talking about just how powerful it's becoming and how quickly it's become powerful.
It's just an incredible, incredible, incredible hurricane. It has dropped he has dropped fifteen mili bars in ten hours. I apologize.
This is just.
Horrific when maximum sustained winds are one hundred and sixty miles per hour and it it is just gaining strength in the Gulf of Mexico where you can imagine the winds. I mean, these are just so incredibly incredibly hot, a record hot as you might imagine.
You know what's driving that. I don't need to tell you, Globerg what what what is this guy talking about? I didn't know that we were I was just channel Come on, man, well, here's the thing. Is obviously the lower the pressure, the higher the intensity, right, so when it's dropping that quickly, it's intensifying at a rate. That's why he was just like the he just couldn't believe what he was seeing. And you and you understand that's why you're going to get these like storm surges that are catastrophic. So while this is happening now, that's that's someone who's trying to communicate the severity of this storm that people need to get like to evacuate if possible, and do whatever they can to stay safe. You got Ron DeSantis over here, the governor of Florida, just like now, evoking like the specter of people of color looting, right, this is.
Not going to be an opportunity for folks to take advantage of people. If you think you're going to go in and loot, you got another thing coming. You go into somebody's house after the storm passes, think that that you're going to be able to commit crimes, You're going to get in really serious trouble and quite frankly, you don't know what's behind that door in a Second Amendment state, So do not try to take advantage of people who are suffering because of the results of this storm.
Yeah, so that's what he's most concerned about.
That.
What about people who like, what about critical medical infrastructure if the power goes out? What of those people? And you're doing this thing where it's like.
Yeah, dirty, hairy about what about Ron DeSantis fighting the disinformation coming from Donald Trump ahead of his party?
What about that? Yeah? What about him actively avoiding phone calls from Joe Biden or Kamala Harris because he doesn't want their help, because he doesn't like he's trying to politicize him, Like we're fine over here, I meet Paul rob And also like, aren't all states Second Amendment states, like if we're talking about the whatever, that's just that's associate.
With the ability to shoot anyone who like accidentally steps on your property to with Florida. But yeah, I mean technically the Second Amendment does exist in all states. He it's just so wild because like to get to that messaging that he's so desperately wanted to get to, he has to set up a scenario where everybody's sticking around, which is the whole fucking point he's trying to like he's supposed to be getting is like get out, get out, And he's like, and you know, if you're sticking around, those homeowners might be super tough and cool and sticking around. So like he's he's doing the opposite of sending the message that he's supposed to be sending. Yeah, which, well just one of like three thousand frustrating things about that.
But yeah, I don't know, horrible.
Yeah, I've been upset with all of the misinformation that's been circling around recovery.
Right.
You know, there's some theories that were just coming from the Internet. There's some theories that were coming from like Marjorie Taylor Green, but like Donald Trump has had his fingers and all of this just spreading lies. Yeah, like there's a long list that I compiled. I don't even want to go through it all, but it's just like ridiculous. He has claimed that FEMA and the federal government were quote going out of their way to not help people in Red states. He claimed that Kamala spent all the FEMA money on housing illegal immigrants. Yeah, he said there were no helicopters or rescue in North Carolina. Like, it's just nonsensical and so unhelpful at a moment when the number one priority should be how do we get money, aid and relief to whoever the fuck needs it? And that's what FEMA's trying to do. Not a perfect organization, but they're trying.
Yeah, and exactly. And also, like you know, the budgets aren't dictated by Joe Biden or Kamala Harris. That's from Congress exactly, and that's part of the that's part of DHS. There's a lot of stuff that like again because like the structure of the government is not really something most people are paying attention to. That it's easiest one, Oh, immigrants, they get all the money. So there's no, there's no disaster relief money, Like, no, that's not what is happening. Yeah. Good.
And the politicization of what is usually and customarily something both sides they I'll get along on.
That's been so strange.
I remember when I was a kid, it didn't matter if the governor of your state was a Republican or a Democrat. If there was a natural disaster, you made an emergent declaration, you asked for that femal money and you got it, and the President called the governor and they talked, and party didn't matter because you wanted to get money and aid to people.
Right.
And the fact that you got Ron DeSantis and Trump and others politicizing what should actually be the moment of the most bipartisan collaboration.
Yeah, it is disgusting. Yeah, it's all. It's costing lives. More people will die because of this bullshit. And like Marjorie Taylor Greenow, she posts like, oh, you don't believe me. Look at all these patents the US government has filed. And if you like bother to click one, you're like this one says about like dropping water from balloons to make it to simulate rain, or just things have nothing to do with actually controlling the weather, because as you were saying earlier, she said they whoever they are. And I know, you know, if you look at her history of talking about people controlling the weather and shit, yes she means usually antisy nonsense. And so the other thing too is then you have like people like you know, sexual predator and Sea Pac chairman Matt Schlapp, who's like wondering out loud, tweeting stuff like quote, we will see what happens with this most terrifying of hurricanes in the Gulf. At some point we have to ask ourselves if there's a divine attempt to get our attention and stop all the insanity in our modern existence. And I'm like, I guess if the insanity of our modern existence is the continued burning of fossil fuels that hastens the death of this planet, yeah, then this is definitely one of those Jesus warnings. But if this is just a sad, you know, regressive attempt to connect this shit to like trans rites or something, then please fuck right off. Like we've retired of this nonsense like trying to be like, you know, you know why, because God hates you know, who that's like us.
And then here's the most annoying part of all of it. After the dust settles with this and the rain dries up, the same Republican political leaders who were spreading lies about FEMA and recovery will make campaign ads talking about how they got federally funded to their districts.
Yeah, it has some bullshit. Yeah, and it's always funny too, because I remember Lauren Bobert was like saying, like, you know, the state didn't give Colorado anything. It's like, you voted against these bills and then you said, then you touted the benefits of it. She's like, well, you know, you have to understand. But again, for that base, it doesn't matter. It's just it's all it's it's all just part of the narrative that they need to invest in. And yeah, and here we are, here, we are here, we are Yeah. I do feel like you still hear stories about people just working together at a local, like human to human level, like regardless of what their political affiliation is.
You know, people are still helping each other out when a major disaster like this happens. It's just that the leadership has gotten so polarized that they well, this isn't work together.
Yeah, well, it's like you'll see these stories, especially in like Louisiana and that part of the country.
It'll be like it'll be these.
Grizzly ass, middle aged white dudes who look like full Trumpers. They would scare me if I saw them at night on the street. But then the storm comes and they just get in their boats and start saving people, and it's just this beautiful harmony, like you will see the most coming together of American people at the after a disaster like this, black folks, white folks, rich folks, poor people. And the fact that DeSantis and Trump and Marjorie are trying to shit on that right now.
Oof yeah, yeah, pisses me off. It's just the I guess, you know, especially looking at this election, that's just the playbook is just to turn up the rhetoric to the most disgusting levels and then just hoping it's like, well, maybe we can turn out the people who really respond to this really vile stuff, because like, we're not winning people in the middle, so we might as well just go further to the right and see who we can turn it out mathematically there.
And it seems like a true extension of what Vance and Trump were doing in Springfield, Ohio just a few weeks ago, spreading lies about migrants eating cats and dogs. They knew it wasn't true, but they lied and then basically said they were lying and kept doing it. Right, Like, even if these officials are called out about the lies about hurricane stuff, they won't retract the statement, they won't apologize, They'll just say, all right, whatever.
Yeah exactly. It's like, well, I guess maybe it wasn't one of those warnings from God.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, all right, let's let's take a quick break and we'll be right back, and we're back. You might have seen a headlined maybe two that mentioned the idea of October surprise. Hell, we've covered it on this podcast. We're not we're not innocent. Our hands aren't clean. It's it's kind of a perfect story because it's, you know, it's like being scared of the dark. It's like, you know, we don't know what it is, and so our imagination can concoct all these things that could totally flip the election on its head. Right, But it does seem to have turned a corner to the point where the media is just using this story to get clicks, get attention, create a heightened sense of anxiety without there being really anything there. So I'm just gonna read a couple headlines for you. The first is from the BBC Notable tabloid. The BBC wrote the headline Trump and Harris are deadlocked? Could October surprise change the game?
Could it?
The potential October surprise looms a month before election?
Deck?
The potential October surprise looms a month before Like, that's not even a sentence. That's from the State Press Statepress dot com. Could us port strength be the October surprise that trips up Kamala Harris? Is Malania Trump her husband's October surprise?
That's courtesy of Northeastern.
And then this is my favorite because I actually clicked through read this article how an October surprise could impact the twenty twenty four election comma. According to Pulling Nostradamus, uh So, I was like, Okay, I think I know who they're talking about. It's the guy who has like thirteen keys of the election.
He's been everywhere, he's been everywhere, hungry they're even doing that is a horse race. They're like, ooh, she's got ten of the thirteen keys. Ooh, maybe she has nine of thirteen and Trump that's spot like okay, so it is just want to pick me energy, look over here, click over here, pick me yeah. Yeah.
So, first of all, it's interesting they call him the polling noster Domas because his model does not take poles into account at all.
In fact, it like explicitly does.
The point is that he's only looking at big picture stuff, not polling, and is still able to do this. Also, he's been able to pick the right election every time since nineteen eighty.
Except for al Gore.
And he's like, yeah, but al Gore won the popular vote, and then people are like, okay, so then what about Trump because he picked Trump in twenty sixteen and he did on the popular vote. Yeah, And he's like, and then he throws a smoke bomb on the around and dives through a window. But the so the way the headline is constructed, how an October surprise could impact the twenty twenty four election, You would seem to think that there's an answer in the article that is like, here's how could it.
Yeah, The answer, in fact is it won't. It won't impact. That's how they.
Literally ask him and in the first paragraph, he's like, yeah, I've never once changed my prediction based on an October surprise. I think October surprises are bullshit. And yeah, he's just like, you know, the all the stories that have happened in October not necessarily that as impactful. It's just a thing that you know, the media is on heightened alert, and you know, when you are super amped up, like the memories that forma at that moment seem more significant.
Yeah, it feels like can kind of Yeah, can I tell you, as a legacy or as an alumni of a legacy newsroom, can I tell you what I think an October surprise is. Yes, it is a message to everyone in your newsroom that you got a month left to get as many clicks as possible for during election coverage, because after election.
Date it falls off a cliff, right. Yeah, this is a message to the industry, not a message to voters. Yeah. Interest, And it's very.
All these October surprise headlines you listed, it very much feels like crying wolf and there's no wolf.
Look over here. I think I hear something. Oh, I don't hear anything. It's just such bs And I think the last.
Time that we thought we had a real, real, real live October surprise was probably that Trump.
Access Hollywood tape. And you know what, it didn't do.
It didn't cost that man the election. It didn't cost some of the election at all. So no, I'm so over the October surprise discourse. And it's just like the last grasp. And I still love legacy media. I listened to it. I like it, but it's the last grasp of legacy media pretending as if they can control a media narrative around politics.
Right, it is just grasps for control. Even if it were surprise, yeah yeah, even if it was real, at one point, it would no longer be real, right, because the legacy media doesn't have the ability to.
And it's not for lack of trying. I do want to, we try, Yeah yeah.
The New York Times did have this opinion piece yesterday, this year's October surprise maybe that there isn't one. So the October surprise in this case is the fact that the real October surprise was the friends we made.
Friends we made a lot of way.
My thing with these October surprise is that a story isn't it's a story if you can write a whole story that changes not one iota of any reader's worldview or perspective or knowledge. The article shouldn't be written, right, If you have a whole article of a thousand words of maybe.
We'll see you didn't need to write it. Yeah, I don't know. It pisses me off.
That would be so dope if like just the New York Times, like any media outlet, only published when they had something that was actually new, and you were like, holy shit, you guys, The New York Times just dropped a story like they hadn't dropped one in eight days and we're only a week out in the election.
This must be important.
I want I want legacy newsrooms to drop headlines and articles the way Beyonce drops albums.
Yeah yeah, yeah yeah, Only.
When it's ready, only when it's good, usually by surprise, at a time that is connected to when the story is ready.
Yeah, and not when they think it's optimal for viewing, right, not like how like Taylor Swift has new albums that are like special editions and all the time like was this new? It's like, oh, well, it's on a different kind of vinyl, Like I guess that's.
Let me tell you one thing I'll never do on a microphone ever again, is say anything not even nice about Taylor's.
Well, oh yeah, we've already we've already burned those bridges. We don't have to analyze something. But look, it's all love. I'm just saying, get your money, you know, get your money.
Yeah, but I see famous to your point. Some of the most famous recent examples of October surprises were Bush's dui and Trump's Access Hollywood tape. I'd forgotten Dui. Yeah, but they both won, and people considered the Comy letter also like some kind of Yeah, I guess the Comy letter is the one that still seems to like hold weight as well. This might have hurt, and I do think it probably cuts in the direction of like people didn't trust Hillary Clinton, and so it undermined in the same way. And I also think like the Access Hollywood tape probably didn't help him.
I think he probably won. No, I think I think, yeah, even if both of those things didn't exist, I think that election probably was going to end the same way. But yeah, yeah, again, I think that's all because in that when we do post mortems on election, it's always like, well, we have to describe all this importance to these things to make it seem like logical, like how we got here.
Two October surprises that are pretty wild. And so the first was Nixon kind of going behind the scenes with it and trying to hold off the negotiation of peace in the Vietnam War until he was elected and being like, I actually have a better plan, it will be more favorable to you. Then he gets elected psych two and a half more years of war, more than that, more years of war. And then there's also where we actually got the idea of an October surprise. So it was invented by the Republicans. And I know that's going to be hard for people to believe because it is an annoying, a moral scheme and that doesn't cohere with what we think of the Republicans. But basically it was coined by Ronald Reagan, ally William Casey, who later became the director of the CIA, but at this time he was working to try and get Ronald Reagan elected in nineteen eighty and he was warning Republicans that President Jimmy Carter was preparing an October surprise, which was the release of the American hostages in Iran. Because they had yet to be rescued by Ben Affleck.
And so.
In the very first place, October Surprise was just a threat being used by the Republicans to scare themselves. So that is its proud tradition, is it is a threat of something that doesn't ultimately come to pass. And that threat led them to secretly negotiate the delay of the release of the hostages until after Reagan had been elected damn. And there were some congressional investigations into that, and they were like, the congressional investigations were like, actually, we found out this didn't happen. And then last year, former protege of former Texas Governor John Connolly admitted his name is Ben Barnes. He admitted to The New York Times that he was involved in those secret negotiations and that they reported them back to Casey. So it did happen according to this source who was involved in it. And that is that is like the October Surprise that like does actually seem like it would cause changes. But to me right now, it feels like every day there are three Trump stories. Like we talked yesterday about Trump talking about the genes of people coming into this country, like them having like murder Jens like race science.
All right, I didn't see that. Wait where do you say that? Which broke said that? Which like not even his ultimate conservative bro, Hugh Hewitt. He was on Hugh Hewitt's that ship.
Yeah, Donald Trump go on a podcast hosted by a woman challenge.
That would be how Laura Ingram fact checked him though the other day. Oh, she was checking him in real time and he was like trying, like when he was talking about you know, different again like Helene misinformation. She was like, you know, I think he should be here. I'll just play this clip because it is really interesting just to see how he is getting fact checked by Laura Ingram of all people. But here it is.
Yeah, they're offering people seven hundred and fifty dollars for immediately for the worst. Yeah, but for the worst hurricane that anybody's seen. But she shouldn't be there anyway, she should be I would say that North Carolina is so bad.
And she was there today for three hours. I believe Kamala Harris. Oh, Laura said not on my watch. Yeah, just somehow was like I'm done with you, bro, I'm done with you. She was there three hours, asshole, anyways.
Yeah, but yeah, I mean that would be like in it in and out with another presidential candidate.
That would be news.
Him just going full eugenics would be news. Him saying that when he gets into office he would like to develop Gaza into like an island resort resort would be news. There's also you know, Bob Woodward has a book coming out that talks about how Trump during his administration sent Vladimir Putin like his private stash of COVID tests at a time when like the nation was sure. It was like straight up private stash, like here you go, buddy, and Putin had to be like Okay, thank you, but do not tell anybody about this. They're gonna they're gonna know something's going on.
Oh yeah, So all these things. We talked about these on trending yesterday.
But I just got like, yeah, I want to give these examples as like things that every day, there's like four things that could be an October surprise. So I just I think it's interesting to keep in mind the context whenever somebody says October surprise, the context they're using is a story about Kamala Harris that is going to torpedo Hart because we there is no conceivable story that would damage Donald Trump at this point, like we because we get three four of them every day, Like he doesn't give a fuck, He's throwing just shedding these stories.
Well, and this is what's so crazy and frustrating to see. I mentioned earlier, Kamala is really good and impressive interview on Alex Cooper's Call Her Daddy, where they went deep on women's rights and sexual assault, and it was a deep and introspective conversation that you would not have seen Kamala have in a legacy newsroom. It was beautiful to behold and a surprise to me as someone who's covered politics before. And like, she is continually getting better as a candidate, better at doing this thing. Trump consistently gets worse every day. He's saying more foolishness. And if the polls remained locked and tied and close, close, close, it baffles me.
It baffles me. Yeah, I think it's just like I think at this point, it's clear to most people. It's like, yeah, you're when you're looking at this binary between the two candidates, most people are like, yeah, I'm not moving from where I'm at. Yeah, there's no amount and that's the thing with this October surprise. It's like just for people's confirmation bias, you know, and just to be like, well is this this could be this if look, if everything is in October surprise, then nothing is in October surprise, So yeah, leave it alone.
The October surprise is that we as a nation still make it really hard for most people to vote. And I'm surprised by that, and so I want to use this moment. Does anyone listen to this podcast right now who doesn't have a voting plan and isn't registered. It's actually hard to do in America to work on it. Now you have a month, yeah, yeah, we have a month.
Yes.
I just I think it's worth like keeping an eye on the effect, not like keeping an eye on like wait for the October surprise, but just keep like the media is thirsty for an October surprise, and they can't conceivably come up one with one for Trump. We've seen them come up with not an October surprise, but like the Dean Scream was a situation where I was like that the mainstream media was like this guy not not really right, Like yeah, you guys like them, but not really and so I'm not saying they're definitely gonna concoct something, but I think they are going to give a good hard look at anything that they can take the take heed of, you know, the not so subtle message coming from the head of their newsroom, like you said, Sam, that like this is your warning.
Get big ass news stories cooked up now.
Well, and I mean, especially for the cable news players, we know now we've seen the numbers, Trump is actually good for their bottom lines. Trump isn't good for their bottom lines, good for their ratings. And so if you're seeing INN, if you're MSNBC, if you're any of those players, you actually know in your heart of hearts that him being foolish.
Is good for you.
And so my question and my challenge to my colleagues and these legacy newsrooms is just like, how can you see that reality, know that reality, but still like call out the bullshit and speak truth and understand.
That, like.
You need to be looking for the surprises or non surprises, like even after this election cycle, even if Trump goes away, It's just like I hate to see what the October surprise symbolizes, which is this real business cycle and money cycle of the way news is covered, and there's more attention paid to journalism in election years. There's more attention paid to journalism and journalists when the candidates are crazier. And it's just like these perverse incentives that I'm really tired of.
AnyWho? Any Who?
Sam, Yes, truly a pleasure having you on the show today. Where can people find you? Follow you, hear you all that good stuff? Yeah?
Well, One, thank y'all for indulging me and letting me ramble and soapbox and shake my fist like an old man.
Thank you for class to join us. And two, in terms of.
Socials, I'm on most platforms at Sam Sanders all one word S A M S A N D E R S. But I really want to talk about my two podcasts. One's been around for a few years, the other is new. I'll mention the new one first. It's called The Sam Sanders Show. It's an entertainment and pop culture show about the fun stuff we obsess over in our free time, movies, books, TVs, internet, memes, et cetera, and the people who make it. We've got two episodes out right now. You can hear it on KSRW here in Los Angeles. You can find it in podcast feeds and it's also on YouTube. Full video in studio. Two EPs up now, one conversation with Joel Kim Booster Activity Writer, anothernversation with Sesher Zameta, one of the witches and stars of Agatha. All along, they're fun, The show is fun. It's good, big energy. And then my other show that's been around for a while is called Vibe Check. It's a weekly chat around news and culture in the spirit of this show, and I talk with my dear friends Zach Stafford and Sai Jones every week and publish those episodes every Wednesday. And we soapbox a lot about politics. And let me tell you, what's fun hearing a poet like Saii Jones soapbox on politics. It's music of the years.
AnyWho? Those are my shows. Great. Is there a work of media that you've been enjoying?
Ooh, this novel is bonkers. It's called Rejection. It's a fiction work that was long listed for the National Book Award this year. It's by Tony Tula Tamute and it's these seven connected short stories all about asshole people facing rejection. The first essay fiction is about this guy who purports to be an ally and supports women and is woke as fuck. But after too many women FriendZone him, he becomes an inceell, and the essay chronicles the shift. Then the next essay is about a woman who becomes an inceell, And then you realize, over the course of the book, all these horrible people facing rejection end up with plotlines that converge and connect. It's wild. I've been covering my mouth reading the whole thing.
Read it. It's insane rejection. I like it.
Damn classy media recommendation for a classy guests. Oh my god, Mile Miles, Where can people find you? Is there a work media you've been enjoyed? Yeah?
Find me on Twitter and Instagram at Miles of Gray. If you like the NBA basketball talk, you can find Jack and I on that podcast Miles and Jack Got Mad Boosties. You can also find me talking about ninety day Fiance on four to twenty Day Fiance a tweet I like, is I think I have a tweet? Yes? Where is it again? I'm going off of the conspiracy theories from Marjorie Taylor Green at Candorade. The Great el Wilkisimo on Twitter tweeted as a lib. The worst part of controlling the hurricanes is you still have to send ninety five percent of them at random Caribbean islands or the Yucatan or wherever to keep up the ruse that they're natural. Now, the tornado machine, you can really go wild on conservatives with that thing. That tornado machine.
Oh wow, that's where you really get to cook, all right, tweet I've been enjoying PJ at PJ Evans tweeted, Hey guys, I'll be doing some stuff with mister Beast on this channel soon. Don't want to give too much away, but I'll be killing a dentist.
Whoa Also everything mister Beast makes me feel one hundred years old. I don't want it. Yeah, I don't get it. What sounds like that that things starting to crumble a little bit?
Him?
Yeah, I mean it killed that dentist.
Uh.
You can find me on Twitter at Jack Underscore O'Brien. You can find us on Twitter at Daily Zeitgeist. We're at the Daily Zeitgeist on Instagram. We have a Facebook fan page and a website, Daily zeitgeist dot com, where we post our episodes and our footnote. 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.
Hey, Miles, is there a song that you think you might are doing? I think so. Uh, we've I think we went out on a track before by Remy Wolf. It was Cinderella. Last time I suggest one to say a little birdie named Novena Carmel. I overheard this today. I heard our very Sam Sanders is also a fan of Remy Wolf. Uh, and that's why there's another track called Poro that I really like to. Remy Wolf has a great voice, her style is really dope for like these newer artists. She also if you like Lola Young, I've suggested a few Lola Young's tracks. Similar same production team, so like they have overlapping collaborators. So that's why I think they kind of they have like that little bit of swag to them. So this is choral by Remy Wolf.
All right, we will link off to that in the footnote from the daily is guys is the production of by Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit Yeah Heart Radio, Wrap, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your pavorite shows. That is gonna do it for us this morning, but we are back this afternoon to tell you what is trending, and we will talk to you all then.
Bye bye,