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Life is Meaningless...Just Have a Ki
7 Plays2 years ago
Twitter: @GatherThemPod
IG: @GatherThemPod
Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/weallgatherhere
Email: Gatherthempod@gmail.com
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Transcript
Navigating Post-Pandemic Life
00:00:27
Speaker
Hey, what's up, everyone?
00:00:28
Speaker
I'm back for another episode of Gather Room Podcast.
00:00:31
Speaker
My name is Jerome, and I am back this week.
00:00:35
Speaker
It was a really crazy week for me.
00:00:38
Speaker
I don't really know what was going on, but it just was a lot.
00:00:44
Speaker
Like, this week was a lot.
00:00:48
Speaker
Last week was, too, and I think, you know, if anyone listened to last week's episode, you could probably tell I was just kind of out of it.
00:00:55
Speaker
Like, I really just...
00:00:57
Speaker
wasn't in the mood um but it was just like a lot of stuff going on this past week uh or past two weeks and uh i think part of that um was just i think it's also like contributing like to the the fact that life is changing and things are i mean you know
00:01:19
Speaker
like life's going back to normal ish um i mean things are way worse than they used to be uh three years ago but um i feel like things are um like everyone's outside everyone's you know the mass policies aren't really a thing anymore you know you don't really have to have your covid vaccine to do any like
00:01:39
Speaker
to go anywhere, do anything, you don't need to show record of like any boosters, anything like that.
00:01:46
Speaker
So I don't know, it just feels virtually like we're back to where we used to be.
00:01:50
Speaker
And part of me feels like that's a good thing.
00:01:53
Speaker
And part of me not like I was just having a conversation today at work.
00:02:00
Speaker
with my co-workers about how we are now, I mean, past the, I mean, you know, quote unquote, past the pandemic, we're still in it.
00:02:12
Speaker
But, you know, society, I mean, a government, I guess, society and the government,
00:02:17
Speaker
have decided that we're past it now and so I kind of feel like um people are I don't know it feels like we're dealing with a little bit of the residual effects of the pandemic like I don't know if people were always just so selfish and like
00:02:35
Speaker
egotistical and, you know, just really thinking about themselves versus everyone else.
00:02:41
Speaker
But I feel like it is worse now than it ever was before.
Personal Growth and Life Path Reflections
00:02:48
Speaker
And I feel like that really had a lot of time.
00:02:51
Speaker
Like we had Trump still as president and then we had, you know, the presidential election and, you know, it just was a lot going on.
00:02:58
Speaker
And I just, you know, feel like
00:03:02
Speaker
overall we haven't recovered from that and then it's like and it's like this edit thing that just makes everything worse um so you know i definitely have been feeling like the pressure around that where things are like really just back in the way they used to be kind of um and then i
00:03:26
Speaker
It's also kind of weird because I'm realizing a lot of my friends are really like their lives are becoming different.
00:03:36
Speaker
And, you know, and it's all for the better.
00:03:38
Speaker
Like, of course, like everyone's becoming like more responsible or at least, you know, trying to be more responsible and being more on the, you know, getting their lives together.
00:03:53
Speaker
And, you know, it's kind of.
00:03:57
Speaker
I mean, it's a little lonely, I think, sometimes to really sit back and watch these things happen.
00:04:03
Speaker
But I also feel like in some ways I'm getting my life together, too.
Astrology and Emotional Extremes
00:04:09
Speaker
It's just that I don't lead this very traditional life where...
00:04:15
Speaker
You know, I'm, you know, I have a partner that is, you know, like we built together and, you know, the possibility of, you know, children are there and, you know, this and that, like, you know, one of my friends recently, you know,
00:04:34
Speaker
got a second house, which is amazing.
00:04:36
Speaker
And, you know, one of my other friends passed her clinical license for social work.
00:04:43
Speaker
And, you know, I have another friend that's like, you know, in a stable relationship and, you know, this in doing a pretty decent job working in city government.
00:04:54
Speaker
And it's like, even, you know, when I had Terrence on the show, like hearing Terrence talk about how
00:05:00
Speaker
And he's moving in with his partner and, you know, moving out of state and things like that.
00:05:06
Speaker
It feels like I don't know, like, it feels like a lot of my friends are starting to, like, do these like really big, amazing adult things.
00:05:14
Speaker
And I still feel a little.
00:05:18
Speaker
Like, I don't know.
00:05:19
Speaker
I still feel a little trapped a little or like not trapped, but like, I don't know.
00:05:24
Speaker
And I guess it's because I think part of it is because I had to like adult so quickly.
00:05:30
Speaker
Um, and so I think that now that I'm in a place of like, I feel a lot more stable in myself.
00:05:39
Speaker
Like I wasted a lot of my time in my twenties, like being an adult and being responsible and being, you know, like really, um,
00:05:48
Speaker
Just like really, I guess the word would be like really just
00:05:53
Speaker
focused on stabilizing myself.
00:05:56
Speaker
And now that I feel like I'm becoming like, I think I had this realization this week.
00:06:01
Speaker
And this is kind of funny because it's almost in line with the Mercury and retrograde, which, you know, they've been saying that there's been things that, you know, if you have any Scorpio placements, take this however you want.
00:06:14
Speaker
If you have any Scorpio placements, basically the Metro, not the Metro grade.
00:06:19
Speaker
Oh my God.
00:06:20
Speaker
The retrograde,
00:06:22
Speaker
would basically... You would be confronted with those same feelings of things that you've wrestled with before, but you come out of it, as you reflect and you start to change things, you come out of it, you start to realize or hopefully put those past...
00:06:51
Speaker
Things or whatever they were like, you know, relationships or, you know, ideologies about yourself or whatever it was.
00:06:59
Speaker
You put those things, you're supposed to basically challenge those things and you either move on or you don't.
00:07:04
Speaker
It's kind of what I surmised from the situation of what this is supposed to mean.
00:07:11
Speaker
um and so interestingly enough i have scorpio in my rising um which is very interesting and i it's funny because i feel like it's a lot of times scorpios come off as intimidating um and as a water sign you're more prone to like emotions but um or being like emotional or really having strong emotions but um
00:07:38
Speaker
And being an Aquarius is like being a water bearer.
00:07:44
Speaker
It gets oftentimes like confused as a water sign.
00:07:49
Speaker
But, you know, being able to kind of like, I don't know, like bear water or whatever is,
00:07:57
Speaker
Um, you know, oftentimes I think that, um, I do let like my emotions fuel me and I do let, um, things that have happened to me really take a hold of me and, um, um,
00:08:12
Speaker
I get stuck, I think, because I often feel like things are always going to be the way they are, even, you know, when I've been responsible in the past and when I've been irresponsible as well.
00:08:24
Speaker
And I don't know, sometimes I feel like it all doesn't really matter or that it, you know, even if it does, and this is going to be interesting because I'll talk about this later, but even if it does, then kind of so what?
Financial Challenges and Resolutions
00:08:39
Speaker
I think that's more of like...
00:08:41
Speaker
I slide between those extremes of, you know, either everything is like...
00:08:50
Speaker
terrible nothing's working out like everything sucks um i suck um you know this that and the third i slide between that and i slide between the other extreme which is like even it's like okay like i don't give a fuck or um i'm the best i'm you know the greatest i'm this i'm that like i really um i really don't know how to be in that like in between of like
00:09:19
Speaker
Humble, but like prideful, but also humble or like, you know, or anything like that.
00:09:26
Speaker
Like, I feel like I slide between extremes often in my life or, you know, where I can also like envision people as like the being the best versus like being the worst.
00:09:36
Speaker
Um, yeah.
00:09:38
Speaker
And there's times when I'm able to sit down and recognize that people have, like, layers and that things are complicated and, you know, things like that.
00:09:45
Speaker
But, like, needless to say, I don't want to drone on about this too long, but needless to say, it just feels like I think I'm starting to see or at least understand that.
00:10:03
Speaker
What is happening in my life, even if I can't really put like words to it right now, it feels like, I don't know, this week, I just kind of had this like epiphany on I think it was so.
00:10:18
Speaker
I started out the week, like, really just down, and it was because I was like, fuck, I have to go back to work this week, like, I have to do my, like, weekend shift this weekend, like, I don't want to really do that, and I have to do this, and I have to do that, and blah, blah, blah, and, like, all this stuff, but, like, I think when I, like, by Tuesday, and also I had, like, $3 on my bank account, so that was also, like, fucking...
00:10:42
Speaker
Like horrendous.
00:10:43
Speaker
So I think that by Tuesday, I was just kind of like, you know what?
00:10:50
Speaker
Fuck it.
00:10:51
Speaker
Like, I was like, I went to the dentist, which that was a shit show.
00:10:56
Speaker
I didn't realize it was going to be, I went to like one of those, um,
00:11:00
Speaker
Okay, so, like, if you're in Philly and you ever go to, like, a dental school, one of the dental schools at one of the colleges, I didn't realize this, but, like, it's basically a fucking shit show.
00:11:10
Speaker
Like, you basically go in, you go, there's a bunch of people there, there's this huge room that you sit in, and you basically have a cube, like, the students have cubicles, so they call a bunch of people back at one time, you have a cubicle, and
00:11:28
Speaker
where you go and then they do your exam and everything basically.
00:11:32
Speaker
So since I was a new patient and I couldn't go to my previous dentist without paying out of pocket first and then getting reimbursed later, which was going to like, really, I was like, I can't fucking do that because I don't have the money.
00:11:44
Speaker
And I love my dentist office.
00:11:47
Speaker
Like I miss them so much.
00:11:49
Speaker
But because I couldn't do that, I had to go to, I went to dental school because my jobs insurance or my work insurance is paying for that.
00:11:59
Speaker
Um, I felt like I was going to have an anxiety attack.
00:12:01
Speaker
Like I felt like I, it was just so many people.
00:12:07
Speaker
There were so many people moving around.
00:12:08
Speaker
There was so much going on.
00:12:11
Speaker
Um, I didn't even get my teeth cleaned.
00:12:13
Speaker
Like that was a big thing for me.
00:12:15
Speaker
Um, I really wanted that done.
00:12:17
Speaker
Cause the last time I had it done was last February.
00:12:20
Speaker
When I had when I thought I had insurance through my new job, my travel job, but it hadn't kicked in yet.
00:12:27
Speaker
So I owed my dentist office like 200 and something dollars for cleaning.
00:12:34
Speaker
And so I was just like, what the fuck?
00:12:38
Speaker
Like, I can't.
00:12:41
Speaker
I was like, I don't know if I can do this.
00:12:42
Speaker
Long story short, I'm going to definitely have to go back just because they did do the x-rays and I don't want to have to run into any issues going to a different office.
00:12:55
Speaker
But the next time they're supposed to be able to do all the exam work and
00:12:58
Speaker
tell me if I can get a cleaning or not that day.
00:13:01
Speaker
And if I can, great, I'll be in.
00:13:03
Speaker
And, you know, I mean, they said four hours, but I'd be there for around four hours for whatever reason.
00:13:12
Speaker
And I would get my cleaning done.
00:13:14
Speaker
But needless to say, in that moment, like afterwards, I was just like, you know what, like, I'm gonna just
00:13:25
Speaker
I'm going to overdraft on my bank account and I'm just going to get I'm gonna eat out and I'm just like, that's going to be my thing.
00:13:32
Speaker
And I was just like, so anxious about overdrafting on Monday, I think because I was just like, fuck, like I have until like, the end of the week to wait.
00:13:41
Speaker
And then but by Tuesday, I just was like,
00:13:45
Speaker
either way, I'm going to have the money.
00:13:47
Speaker
Like, I'm going to have the money.
00:13:50
Speaker
If I borrowed $50 from a friend, I would have to pay the $50 back.
00:13:57
Speaker
Anyway, so like, if I overdraft, I overdraft.
00:14:00
Speaker
And it is what it is.
00:14:02
Speaker
And I'll just eat that.
00:14:04
Speaker
So I felt like so much more
00:14:09
Speaker
cool about it.
00:14:10
Speaker
Like, I didn't really, I didn't stress about it.
00:14:12
Speaker
I was just like, fuck, like, it is what it is.
00:14:14
Speaker
And...
00:14:16
Speaker
I'll be back, you know, together by the end of the week.
00:14:19
Speaker
And so fast forward, it's the end of the week now.
00:14:23
Speaker
And, you know, I was able to, you know, pay some bills off and do some stuff and which was great.
00:14:31
Speaker
And so I feel like by the end of next week, I'll probably be back to where I was because I did, you know, spend a little, you know, extra extra because I had some money to
00:14:42
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:57
Speaker
I'm actually doing a lot better than I thought I was.
00:15:01
Speaker
And it just, I think the issue has been over the past nine months or so, I've just been hit like back to back to back with so many like curveballs and things that have been really just...
00:15:18
Speaker
out of my control that have come up and that have left me like really, um, I don't know what's the word, like really just overwhelmed by like my finances.
00:15:31
Speaker
Um, and then when I kind of did the math about like, um, you know, combining my two jobs and, you know, if I work about the salary, um, um,
00:15:40
Speaker
If I, like, work around the hours that I'm supposed to work for my second job and then I do my main job, like, what my salary is, I'm actually making, like, pretty, like, middle, what is it, middle class money.
00:15:56
Speaker
And so it's interesting to see how...
00:16:02
Speaker
I don't know.
00:16:02
Speaker
In a way, I've kind of like reframed some of my thinking.
00:16:07
Speaker
And I looked at my bills.
00:16:08
Speaker
I looked at my board of all the things I owe or back debt that I owe, which is nothing to sneeze at.
00:16:17
Speaker
It's bad.
00:16:18
Speaker
But once I get...
00:16:22
Speaker
A personal loan paid off and I can take out another one and then kind of scoop everything into one thing.
00:16:27
Speaker
Like, it's really not that bad.
00:16:30
Speaker
And I was like, oh, OK, I think a lot of times I just get in my head about stuff.
00:16:36
Speaker
And I think this week was almost like a realization that like.
00:16:40
Speaker
I'm actually doing okay, like overall.
00:16:42
Speaker
Like, it's not nowhere where I want to be, but I feel like I am making strides to where I want to be.
00:16:52
Speaker
And there was some good news, I mean, potentially at work that happened this week as well.
00:16:58
Speaker
And I don't know.
00:17:02
Speaker
It feels like things are slowly, like, falling into
Future Goals and Career Aspirations
00:17:05
Speaker
place for me.
00:17:05
Speaker
And I think that...
00:17:08
Speaker
if I can just hold out, like I said, I have a five-year plan, and my five-year plan involves moving to LA, getting my clinical license and social work, and really trying to continue growing my podcast.
00:17:25
Speaker
And at some point, I mean, voice acting, I think, will probably fall into my next five-year plan before I'm 40.
00:17:31
Speaker
But
00:17:33
Speaker
I'm like, I'm still, it's weird.
00:17:35
Speaker
Cause I'm like, I'm still young.
00:17:36
Speaker
I don't consider myself old.
00:17:37
Speaker
I'm 31.
00:17:38
Speaker
Like I really do have a grip on my life in some sense.
00:17:43
Speaker
And I don't know.
00:17:46
Speaker
It's just very interesting how I can just kind of slide between these like feelings of like just being negative versus like being like positive and you know,
00:18:02
Speaker
sometimes like the being negative thing.
00:18:04
Speaker
I don't know what it is.
00:18:05
Speaker
It's like liking that like liking the
00:18:09
Speaker
It's weird because it's like logically or like my brain would say like you hate like being you hate struggling.
00:18:20
Speaker
But I think part of it is too that like I'm so used to struggling that like it's hard to kind of break out of that, you know.
00:18:29
Speaker
And so I've always kind of felt like an underdog or someone that has always just been.
00:18:35
Speaker
um, like almost like an outcast or a stranger, um, to say to society.
00:18:41
Speaker
So I don't know.
00:18:43
Speaker
I'm starting to feel a little bit more confident.
00:18:45
Speaker
I think this week that I can handle things and that, um, I'm starting to craft and mold more of what I want, um, for myself.
00:18:59
Speaker
And yeah, I hope that that, um, inspires some people, um,
00:19:05
Speaker
Um, but yeah, I'm, I'm really hoping that this, the Metro, uh, the, um, the Metro grade is over.
00:19:11
Speaker
Um, I think it's next.
00:19:14
Speaker
No, it's Monday or not this Monday, but no Sunday mother's day.
00:19:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:23
Speaker
Mother's day.
00:19:24
Speaker
I think that's the last day.
00:19:25
Speaker
Don't quote me, but I think that's what it is.
00:19:28
Speaker
Um,
00:19:29
Speaker
Yeah, so that was my week.
Impact of Writer's Strikes
00:19:32
Speaker
To jump into the news pop culture topics, there is a writer's strike right now.
00:19:39
Speaker
The Writers Guild of America, which is a labor union for writers, is striking for better pay, better labor equality, and
00:19:54
Speaker
And that kind of goes into the residuals situation.
00:19:57
Speaker
So if you don't know what residuals are, residuals are basically money that actors get paid.
00:20:07
Speaker
Actors, writers, people get paid when an episode of a TV show or whatever gets paid.
00:20:20
Speaker
So like if it comes on like TV again, they get a kickback from that, but the money becomes less and less and less over time.
00:20:30
Speaker
And there's been celebrities have been open about it that have said like, hey, I worked on.
00:20:35
Speaker
Bill Cosby show or I worked on Full House or whatever.
00:20:41
Speaker
And, you know, I get 30 cents like every time the show airs right now.
00:20:47
Speaker
And, you know, my check came in and it was like two dollars and some cents.
00:20:51
Speaker
so it's like you get less and less over time so the issue now um with it is the fact that streaming is now a thing and writers aren't being fairly compensated for the material that they're creating
00:21:07
Speaker
And so they feel like companies like the big companies oftentimes make out and they don't.
00:21:15
Speaker
And I have been hearing this for a while.
00:21:18
Speaker
I just didn't realize that the strike would actually be like now, like.
00:21:24
Speaker
When I heard about it, I was like, it was like next, like Met Gala Monday, Rider Strike, they struck on Tuesday.
00:21:35
Speaker
And I was like, whoa, like I did not expect that.
00:21:39
Speaker
But there was a Rider Strike 15 years ago.
00:21:47
Speaker
I'll get to more about that one a little bit later, but there was one 15 years ago.
00:21:53
Speaker
So the, you know, the Writer's Guild of America, of America.
00:22:01
Speaker
rejected the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the AMPTP, AMPTP.
00:22:13
Speaker
I don't know.
00:22:14
Speaker
I don't know if they do the AMPTP.
00:22:17
Speaker
That's a lot of fucking letters to say, though.
00:22:20
Speaker
Offer, they rejected their offer, which basically, you know, the offer wasn't...
00:22:33
Speaker
Like the offer wasn't great.
00:22:34
Speaker
Like it wasn't great.
00:22:35
Speaker
So, you know, that's kind of like the end all be all.
00:22:38
Speaker
Like they didn't like the offer.
00:22:40
Speaker
The offer sucked and they, you know, they went better.
00:22:45
Speaker
I've seen posters that said protect the residuals, not the CEOs and various like other posters like that while people were striking.
00:22:57
Speaker
Um, according to Jonathan Handel, he is a former entertainment lawyer, now a journalist.
00:23:05
Speaker
Um, he said that people have been talking about this strike for six months or longer at this point.
00:23:12
Speaker
Um, which I mean, makes sense because I feel like I've been hearing like, you know,
00:23:19
Speaker
a little bit here and there about it, but like it, I just, again, I didn't realize it was going to happen like now.
00:23:25
Speaker
Um, but he was also saying, um, they were also overdue for one.
00:23:30
Speaker
So it also, uh, because of the COVID pandemic.
00:23:35
Speaker
So they would have negotiated, um, uh,
00:23:39
Speaker
They would have negotiated in 2020, but because of the pandemic, they didn't.
00:23:48
Speaker
And so like no one was working.
00:23:50
Speaker
Like it wasn't like there was no one working.
00:23:52
Speaker
There was no one that was, you know, really available to work.
00:23:57
Speaker
So it made sense that like that didn't happen then.
00:24:00
Speaker
But now that we're like, I mentioned earlier in the show, like now that we're out of the pandemic and people are working again, it's really an issue now.
00:24:09
Speaker
So as of Tuesday, all the kind of late night talk shows went dark.
00:24:15
Speaker
So The Daily Show, Jimmy Fallon,
00:24:23
Speaker
you know, Stephen Colbert, like things like those shows, those late night shows.
00:24:28
Speaker
Um, and then on this weekend, SNL was supposed to have Pete Davidson and little Uzi Vert, but that got, uh, canceled as well.
00:24:39
Speaker
Um, because of the writer's strike, um, which is wild because I just like, basically I think SNL was going to like have a season finale coming up soon or whatever.
00:24:52
Speaker
But I don't know.
00:24:54
Speaker
They were supposed to have one, I guess, either this month or next month.
00:24:57
Speaker
I feel like a lot of season finales are ending right now.
00:25:02
Speaker
Seasons are ending right now.
00:25:04
Speaker
Finales are coming out.
00:25:05
Speaker
So I think they're using the material that they had left.
00:25:10
Speaker
for shows, which is interesting because Quinta's, even as I talk about this out loud, I'm thinking like Quinta, like the season finale of Abbott Elementary was last month and it almost feels like it was an anticipation for this writer's strike.
00:25:28
Speaker
So that's interesting.
00:25:30
Speaker
I think they would have put it out anyway because the episode was already filmed.
00:25:35
Speaker
um it just so happened that it happened that way it just is very interesting um and so yeah so shows that are live like snl um they need the writers to write the show and if they went on strike this week they couldn't write the show essentially um
00:25:57
Speaker
They don't think that streaming content is really going to be as effective because there's flexibility in the shows and in the schedules.
00:26:08
Speaker
Like, I'm thinking about this out loud now, and I'm like, shit, is that why all these shows are coming out in 2024?
00:26:14
Speaker
Fucking Euphoria and The Last of Us, I think about, like, those shows aren't coming out until then.
00:26:21
Speaker
And I'm like, well, why would y'all tell us about this?
00:26:23
Speaker
now if these shows aren't coming out until then like i'm just thinking about this out loud like did y'all does this like what's going on um it seems like it was planned almost um which fair i mean you're not gonna you know i'm not gonna sit down and write a series and
00:26:41
Speaker
or season, and then, you know, have you put it out, and then I go on strike, and then everything just kind of falls apart, or you have all the rights to the show, or whatever, like, I just, you know, I get that, so, um, yeah, that's, like, very interesting.
00:26:57
Speaker
Um, how that, how this is working out, but, um, the danger is that, you know, network television and, um, local television shows like, you know, on Fox or, uh, ABC, things like that, the fall lineup, uh, is more so in danger because, um, usually during the summer is when these shows start to like, well, they start to kind of like go into production and things like now to, um, um,
00:27:27
Speaker
you know, for in anticipation and then they film and stuff over the summer and they give you like your first couple seasons or whatever, or first, I keep saying seasons, first couple episodes of the season in the fall and try to stagger them around the football schedule and things like that.
00:27:43
Speaker
But yeah, so I mean, if they don't come to an agreement soon, there'll be some delays in the fall lineup, which is the biggest moneymaker for
00:27:56
Speaker
These companies, which is, you know, smart on the writers and because that means that they can they have leverage there where, you know, the executives are going to be so like stressed for content that they're going to, you know.
00:28:12
Speaker
most likely give in to what they want.
00:28:14
Speaker
So the previous strike was around like DVD residuals, union jurisdictions over animation and reality program writers and compensation for new media.
00:28:31
Speaker
So that would be like internet release content or
00:28:35
Speaker
Because that was, like, around, like, 2008 when that first strike, or the last one happened, I'll say.
00:28:43
Speaker
And that interrupted Girlfriends.
00:28:49
Speaker
Girlfriends was, like, in the mid-order season, they struck, I want to say in February 20, 2008.
00:28:56
Speaker
And then...
00:29:02
Speaker
it just ended like they never went back they were like there's no gonna be no final it was just kind of left on a cliffhanger which sucked because girlfriends was a really good show and i feel like they was really like the character development was really coming together um there was just so much there was so much i think that um
00:29:25
Speaker
Could have
Marijuana Legalization Debates
00:29:26
Speaker
happened.
00:29:26
Speaker
It was a good show to still watch casually.
00:29:33
Speaker
Why can't I talk today?
00:29:34
Speaker
Like, what the fuck is wrong?
00:29:35
Speaker
But yeah, it was a good show to watch.
00:29:38
Speaker
And also, One on One was another one that got cut.
00:29:43
Speaker
And interestingly enough, I kind of forgot this, but I was like in high school at the time, so I really didn't pay attention.
00:29:50
Speaker
But this was also around the time when that CW merger happened and a lot of those shows that were on like a lot of the black shows.
00:30:00
Speaker
sitcoms that were on UPN were taken off the air and that whole thing happened and we got the CW which was very interesting because we're also in that same situation where we're talking about
00:30:18
Speaker
You know, are black television shows going to be impacted?
00:30:21
Speaker
Like, I think about Abbott Elementary as one.
00:30:25
Speaker
I don't think that's going anywhere, but because it's such a hit.
00:30:28
Speaker
But I just think about how, like, we have...
00:30:36
Speaker
You know, these we've had these really good shows, like really good black TV shows that have just been canceled or discontinued because of a previous strike.
00:30:46
Speaker
And, you know, I just think of how like this could eventually like how this could again impact us in that way.
00:30:54
Speaker
I think one of the benefits is right now that we have streaming.
00:30:58
Speaker
but with the thing with streaming is that like your show can be on for one season and like cut like mid-season and then you're just like well fuck like there's no second season so um i don't know it's going to be really interesting to watch i definitely respect the um writers striking because i you know like come on now like y'all got the fucking money pay pay a bitch like stop fucking playing um get the money together
00:31:28
Speaker
So something that was good, I guess, in terms of the tri-state area was that marijuana is now legal in Delaware for recreational use.
00:31:40
Speaker
Growing weed for personal use is weirdly still illegal, which is kind of like I'm going to talk about that a little bit.
00:31:47
Speaker
But like you could buy and, you know, I don't know, really have all the ins and outs of like the law.
00:31:55
Speaker
uh, around it, but, um, I did read some stuff, um, you can have a max of 12 grams or a less of hash, um, 750 milligrams of edibles, um,
00:32:15
Speaker
Okay, so I read it wrong.
00:32:16
Speaker
So it's like, you could either have one ounce, you could have 12 grams or less of hash, or you could have 750 milligrams of edibles, and it's all or.
00:32:29
Speaker
You could have either or, but you can't have both.
00:32:32
Speaker
So if you get caught with more than that, you know, you clink clink, I guess.
00:32:40
Speaker
But they said that
00:32:44
Speaker
all the regular rules apply, like, you can't drink in, I mean, you can't smoke and drive, you can't, you know, be in public, just smoke in, like, you ought to be in the house, um, all that, so forth, and so on, um, it was very interesting, because in this, like, I mentioned, like, growing it for personal use, like, you could brew alcohol, from my understanding, you know, for your own use, if you wanted to, um,
00:33:08
Speaker
um like you can make wine or whatever like you there's crafting kits like you can do that um but growing your own weed being illegal it's like this article i read was basically like you know the issue was that legalization and retail sales aren't happening um simultaneously like they're oftentimes happening um
00:33:34
Speaker
Where it's legalized first, but then it's still technically illegal to do certain things because the law hasn't caught up to the actual...
00:33:46
Speaker
distribution if that makes sense so which is i don't know like that's very interesting as these kind of laws come out and i think that's why we just need to have a federal law that just says like weed is legal like you can do it whatever no one gives a fuck um i think that that needs to be a thing more so than um
00:34:10
Speaker
I think more so than the states rolling it out and, you know, having their own individual laws around it.
00:34:19
Speaker
I think that, to me, makes more sense.
00:34:22
Speaker
Again, the government's not there yet.
00:34:24
Speaker
Like, I don't think, like, fucking, like, we've had, like, the shittiest...
00:34:30
Speaker
federal government and of like it's it's so bad like it's it's terrible um and it sucks because at the end of the at the end of the day like states oftentimes end up creating their own laws that end up you know being racist or being you know
00:34:50
Speaker
being misogynistic or being homophobic and you know the federal government i'll be like sometimes i'm just like are we the united states or not like which like like do i live in this the the country of pennsylvania like what the fuck is going on
00:35:08
Speaker
So I don't know.
00:35:10
Speaker
But I mean, good news is, is that if you're using now and it's recreational, I mean, nine times out of 10, like no one's checking your house or no one's going through your thing.
00:35:18
Speaker
So as long as you're, you know, cool about it, like, I guess you're fine.
Airline Rankings Analysis
00:35:24
Speaker
WalletHub released this annual list of airlines that are listed as the best airlines, or best U.S. airlines.
00:35:34
Speaker
So, like, from top, you know, number one being the best, number 11 being the bottom.
00:35:41
Speaker
So, they interviewed people.
00:35:44
Speaker
Oh, my God.
00:35:45
Speaker
There's, like, fucking baseball.
00:35:50
Speaker
I am so sorry, y'all.
00:35:51
Speaker
That is crazy.
00:35:54
Speaker
My house is, like, vibrating.
00:35:55
Speaker
But anyway, they interviewed people.
00:35:59
Speaker
They, you know, wanted to see which airline was going to be the...
00:36:05
Speaker
You know, which one's the best one?
00:36:07
Speaker
Delta came out on top.
00:36:10
Speaker
Spirit came out second, which I'm going to get to that in a second.
00:36:14
Speaker
SkyWest came out third, but I never hear about anyone ever taking SkyWest.
00:36:20
Speaker
United came out fourth.
00:36:21
Speaker
Alaskan Airlines came out fifth.
00:36:24
Speaker
Again, I don't really ever hear about people going to Alaska.
00:36:28
Speaker
Hawaiian came in number six.
00:36:30
Speaker
Jet Blue came in number seven.
00:36:33
Speaker
Envoy, never heard of them.
00:36:37
Speaker
Came out at number eight.
00:36:39
Speaker
American Airlines, number nine, which is a little shocking.
00:36:43
Speaker
Frontier, number 10, which is less shocking.
00:36:46
Speaker
And shockingly to me personally, Southwest at number 11.
00:36:51
Speaker
So I'm not going to go through every single one.
00:36:53
Speaker
I'm just going to kind of like go over like the ones I felt like were more significant to me.
00:36:59
Speaker
Delta being number one really did make sense.
00:37:02
Speaker
They said in the article on Forbes that Delta is the most reliable airline, mostly because it didn't have any denied boardings over the past year.
00:37:12
Speaker
It also had the second lowest share of delayed flights just recently.
00:37:18
Speaker
just around 11.5%.
00:37:21
Speaker
Some of the main factors that contributed to Delta being the winner included the lack of denied boarding in the past year, the lack of animal-related incidents, which I didn't realize that was a qualifier.
00:37:36
Speaker
um and the fact that it had or has no fatal injuries and aviation incidents um plus there's also the extra leg room entertainment options complimentary refreshments um adding it to the top of the list so um shout out to delta like i really do like flying delta i wish i could do it more um
00:38:00
Speaker
um but it's i mean it's expensive like that's like the end all like the end of it all like it's expensive it's never um it's rarely cheap like when i have gotten a cheap flight on delta it's been um okay like it hasn't been like the greatest thing ever but when i flew delta when i was in high school um and i went to italy like that was the best shit i ever been on and i know the planes are different for like domestic flights versus like
00:38:29
Speaker
you know, international flights, but, like, that was the best flight I've ever been on, uh, when I think, when I think about flying, um, the one that got me fucked up was Spirit being number two, because people are constantly complaining about Spirit, they're constantly complaining about the fact that, you know, you have to, you know,
00:38:50
Speaker
pay for carry-ons and the plane is falling apart at the seams and they're taping it up while you're on the fucking runway and you know their boarding situation is stupid or whatever like I always hear like things about Spirit being quote-unquote ghetto and I I've flown Spirit before and I hated it so much like it was one of the worst uh
00:39:17
Speaker
flights like we got there in one piece but i just hated the seats were so fucking tight like the seats were tight the you had to pay for the fucking carry-ons like that was stupid um you had to the boarding pass situation was stupid like i don't like they were like oh you have to like have it this way and if you don't have it this way then you know
00:39:45
Speaker
You're not getting on or whatever.
00:39:46
Speaker
And I just don't remember having a really great, enjoyable spirit experience.
00:39:54
Speaker
But according to the article, they're saying that spirit is listed as number two, the reason being that, you know, however the small number of mishandled bags reported and high...
00:40:09
Speaker
Safety rankings were key factor that contributed to wait.
00:40:15
Speaker
So that doesn't make sense.
00:40:17
Speaker
Like the small number of mishandled bags reported and the high safety ranking were the key factors that were contributed to the airline being second overall.
00:40:31
Speaker
So I'm like, where did y'all get that from?
00:40:33
Speaker
Like, I could get the high safety ranking, but the... I guess they're saying, like, the small number of mishandled bags reported, so, like, they haven't been missing their... I guess, because, bitch, I'm actually... Like, you can't, like, miss my fucking bag or, like...
00:40:48
Speaker
I can't fucking lose that shit because I fucking paid for it.
00:40:51
Speaker
I guess that's maybe what they're saying is that like, because the bags, you know, we're missed.
00:40:57
Speaker
There's not really that many mishandled bags or, you know, reported that they do pretty well.
00:41:03
Speaker
But either way, I'm just like, where did y'all kind of get this from?
00:41:07
Speaker
Like, I'm always seeing a video where there's a fight at either Southwest, not Southwest, at Spirit or what's the other one?
00:41:16
Speaker
American Airlines.
00:41:17
Speaker
Um, so I don't understand that, um, and you have to pay for everything.
00:41:24
Speaker
I don't understand.
00:41:26
Speaker
Um, and I've always seen, and I'm always seeing videos of people taping up the plane, like with duct tape on the outside.
00:41:32
Speaker
Like, I don't, I don't get that.
00:41:34
Speaker
Um, but the one that gagged me was Southwest because I fly Southwest a lot.
00:41:38
Speaker
Um, and I will admit the seats are tight.
00:41:40
Speaker
Like, I will say like, they're not, um,
00:41:44
Speaker
The best seats, you know, but the refreshments are often good.
00:41:47
Speaker
And people don't really like to choose your own seat thing because they like having assigned seats.
00:41:56
Speaker
I don't mind it because oftentimes I get to I when I get my ticket off the times get a window seat or I'm able to get a window seat.
00:42:05
Speaker
Um, so I don't mind it in that way.
00:42:08
Speaker
And I love that you get two free bags to check.
00:42:11
Speaker
Like you don't have to worry about bringing your bag onto the plane because oftentimes what happens is everyone brings a fucking carry on and no one can put their carry on up top.
00:42:25
Speaker
So you have to get your, you have to check the bag anyway.
00:42:28
Speaker
So for it to be just free.
00:42:31
Speaker
And I had that experience on American before where I had to check a bag because everybody used the overhead bin space.
00:42:38
Speaker
And I'm like, well...
00:42:41
Speaker
Like, what the fuck?
00:42:41
Speaker
Like, I might as well had just checked his bag, but American would have caught, like, that would have been like $35.
00:42:46
Speaker
And so I just, I'd love that you can just check your bags and, you know, they just go under.
00:42:53
Speaker
You don't have to worry about it.
00:42:54
Speaker
And, you know, that's kind of that on that.
00:42:57
Speaker
But the reason Southwest ranked so low was mainly due to the fact that there was so many cancellations over the holiday season.
00:43:06
Speaker
And then there's been one, like literally one fatal injury in aviation accidents over the past five years, more than 50 injuries sustained by passengers and aircraft personnel that required medical care over the same period of time of five years.
00:43:26
Speaker
But I feel like the biggest reason they did that was just, I mean, I personally think the biggest reason was the fact that the holiday season sucked and everybody's shit got canceled and everybody was like annoyed about it.
00:43:38
Speaker
But...
00:43:39
Speaker
Like, flights get canceled all the time.
00:43:41
Speaker
Like, I don't understand.
00:43:44
Speaker
I understand that this impacted so many people, but it was the holiday season.
00:43:49
Speaker
And again, it was like the pandemic impacted it, too.
00:43:54
Speaker
Like, that was part of it as well.
00:43:55
Speaker
But like...
00:43:56
Speaker
I just feel like if you travel over the holiday, like, that's almost to be expected.
00:44:01
Speaker
Like, I remember Family Guy made a joke about it.
00:44:03
Speaker
Like, they literally were like, yeah, all flights are, you know, fucking canceled because of the holidays and you don't have to actually go home and see your family.
00:44:12
Speaker
Like, that was literally the joke on the show.
00:44:16
Speaker
So, I feel like...
00:44:18
Speaker
That was mirrored out of real life because we know that you traveling during the holidays is very hit and miss, especially for delays and cancellations.
00:44:29
Speaker
So I don't know.
00:44:30
Speaker
Like, to me, I just didn't...
00:44:33
Speaker
I'm still going to fly Southwest.
00:44:35
Speaker
Like, fuck it.
00:44:35
Speaker
Like if they giving me free bags and the money's right and all of that, like, I wish I had taken them up on that offer of, um, what was it?
00:44:44
Speaker
The low fares around the time when that happened.
00:44:48
Speaker
Cause I could have like booked a couple trips, uh, for this year, but I also didn't have the money at the time.
00:44:54
Speaker
So, but you know, it's whatever I'll, I'll still fly.
00:44:57
Speaker
I don't, I don't give a fuck.
00:44:59
Speaker
Um,
00:45:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:45:03
Speaker
What else happened?
Shanquella Robinson Case Update
00:45:06
Speaker
Oh, I just wanted to do an update really quickly because we talked about Shanquilla Robinson before on the show.
00:45:14
Speaker
So authorities have not charged any of the individuals that were, you know, suspects in her death.
00:45:22
Speaker
The federal prosecutor told the family that they didn't have enough evidence to prosecute the individuals that were suspected to be involved in her mysterious death.
00:45:33
Speaker
The death certificate lists her cause of death as a severe spinal cord injury and... I guess, wait, spinal cord injury...
00:45:49
Speaker
I don't know what I fucking wrote.
00:45:51
Speaker
Child.
00:45:54
Speaker
But I'll move on.
00:45:55
Speaker
But anyway, it said that also like her also her death certificate indicates that it was an accident slash violent incident, which is.
00:46:09
Speaker
interesting um but they imagine that the approximate time between the injury when she got the spinal cord injury and her death was 15 minutes so i mean i can't imagine experiencing an injury like that and then dying like after 15 minutes like that felt that i can't imagine that sounds like torture um
00:46:34
Speaker
Some of the arguments around the case, which I think are interesting, are the ideas around the international law.
00:46:44
Speaker
Like, you know, they were in a different country and it moved.
00:46:51
Speaker
That was a big reason why everything moved so slow.
00:46:54
Speaker
Like an article I read on CNN was basically saying that, like, you know,
00:47:02
Speaker
The case is particularly, I think, interesting in the sense that because this happened in a different country, there's so much that had to have, you know, happened in terms of like legally, like what...
00:47:20
Speaker
you know, can happen in X amount of time.
00:47:23
Speaker
So, you know, it took a while for her body to get back to the United States.
00:47:28
Speaker
It took, you know, they had to then do the autopsy, then like kind of do all the interrogation and whatnot.
00:47:37
Speaker
So it wasn't like they could just go do all the stuff, do the interrogation, you know, have people come to the station right away and like all of this stuff.
00:47:47
Speaker
So it wasn't like
00:47:49
Speaker
There was just some it was some time lapse in between, like, when her death occurred, when the incident occurred versus when things started to be actually done about it, which is sad.
00:48:05
Speaker
You know, that's really sad.
00:48:07
Speaker
And I think that another argument, too, was like, you know, not having enough evidence to prosecute the suspects.
00:48:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:48:17
Speaker
The deletion of text messages, cleaning up alibis, you know, trying to distance yourself from the case or distance yourself from her death is also like a big thing that can happen when you leave too much time in between.
00:48:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:48:38
Speaker
you know, a trial and autopsy and, um, you know, getting kind of an idea of what's going on.
00:48:46
Speaker
So, you know, I just hope that, um, she rests in peace and that, you know, the family can find some sense of closure because I, I just can't imagine, um, um,
00:49:01
Speaker
going through that, like going through a situation where your family member goes missing even, or like murdered overseas, um, or, you know, gets even accidentally, you know, killed, um, you know, anything can happen anywhere.
00:49:17
Speaker
Like you could literally be hit by car or you could be, you know, at the wrong place at the wrong time and get shot.
00:49:24
Speaker
Or, um, you know, your loved one can have a heart attack or,
00:49:30
Speaker
Something like anything can happen at any time.
00:49:33
Speaker
And, you know, I feel like it's especially worse when, you know, the person that you care about is in a different country, somewhere where you can't immediately go to see the body.
00:49:45
Speaker
Like you can't immediately just get up and go and see them.
00:49:48
Speaker
You can't.
00:49:50
Speaker
There has to be.
00:49:53
Speaker
Ways to get there and, you know, time to take off work and things like that.
00:49:57
Speaker
And even if you were able to do all that, like by the time you get there, you know, everyone else is involved.
00:50:04
Speaker
You might not, you know, it's just a lot.
00:50:06
Speaker
It's a fucking lot.
00:50:08
Speaker
So I hope her family can find peace.
Art vs. Artist: The Met Gala Controversy
00:50:16
Speaker
Yeah.
00:50:16
Speaker
And the last thing I wanted to talk about was that the Met Gala happened.
00:50:24
Speaker
And that was on Monday.
00:50:27
Speaker
The theme was basically honoring Karl Lagerfeld.
00:50:32
Speaker
Oh, my God, I cannot fucking talk.
00:50:35
Speaker
um carl lagerfeld and his history um in in the fashion industry essentially and so um something that a lot of people brought up was that and even i like was questioned i literally just listened to a um black history not a black history
00:50:57
Speaker
Dark History episode by Bailey Sarian on YouTube about how the fashion industry is riddled with like bigotry and, you know, evil and this and that and blah, blah, blah.
00:51:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:51:16
Speaker
So it was interesting to be like, oh, okay, so they're honoring this person and even seeing certain people publicly, someone on Twitter, I think it was a post or group that usually follows the Met Gala.
00:51:30
Speaker
It wasn't them Met Gala.
00:51:33
Speaker
It wasn't them specifically the Met Gala staff or anything, but it was...
00:51:43
Speaker
I think someone that follows them and would post outfits and stuff.
00:51:46
Speaker
And they were like, well, we're not supporting this.
00:51:48
Speaker
And we don't stand for bigotry and X, Y, Z. And so interestingly enough, and that's kind of what his history is.
00:51:57
Speaker
He was this white man that has a history of being fetphobic, misogynistic, racist, homophobic, even though people were like, aren't you a little gay, honey?
00:52:09
Speaker
What's going on?
00:52:10
Speaker
Um, Jamila Jamil brought up, um, she posted on a statement on Instagram about how, um, people, a lot of people, a lot of celebrities that are, you know, proclaimed feminists shouldn't have went to the Met Gala, um,
00:52:31
Speaker
And, you know, they should have, like, rejected the theme, which kind of then makes me think about, like, why Beyonce wasn't there.
00:52:38
Speaker
And I'm like, yeah, that actually kind of, it adds up.
00:52:41
Speaker
Like, she's not wrong.
00:52:43
Speaker
Like, she really is really deadass about the fact that, like, if you were or if you consider yourself a feminist or someone that really stands for the rights of people, that being in attendance is,
00:52:59
Speaker
especially because you have to pay to go like being in attendance uh is almost opposite of well not almost it is opposite of what you quote unquote stand for um yeah because zendaya wasn't there like every time i think about um zendaya or the met gala i think about her outfit when she was uh like cinderella um and that was amazing i always think about that but um
00:53:28
Speaker
Anyway, and I don't want to give her too much.
00:53:30
Speaker
Like, I don't want to give Jamila Jamil too much because she'd be really, like, questionable with her own opinions.
00:53:37
Speaker
But I do think she is right about this.
00:53:40
Speaker
And...
00:53:43
Speaker
I think it's unfortunate because oftentimes we have to choose between do we love the art or do we support the art or do we support the artist?
00:53:57
Speaker
And what does that look like?
00:53:58
Speaker
Is art there for art's sake or is it just or do we have to get behind it in this like
00:54:07
Speaker
other like political aspect of it and i don't know i kind of feel like in a way like she's kind of right about that like i feel like we shouldn't have you know we shouldn't we should be thoughtful about what we're doing and um i feel like right now we're in such an age of
00:54:27
Speaker
fake activism where people, you know, you raise the money or you can create a link, raise the money, donate, and then you wash your hands or you can sign a petition and then that's kind of it.
00:54:40
Speaker
Like it's, you know, that's kind of where it ends.
00:54:43
Speaker
And then the rest is just gags and fashion and this and that.
00:54:47
Speaker
Like, it's very the look of things and how things are very superficial right now in history.
00:54:59
Speaker
And we don't really account for, and I say we as in like the royal we, like in terms of society, we don't really consider...
00:55:12
Speaker
We don't really stand, like, I'll say it like this.
00:55:15
Speaker
We don't oftentimes stand for the shit that we really, that we say.
00:55:19
Speaker
Like, our actions don't match up to, like, the words and things that we're saying.
00:55:27
Speaker
And I feel like we say the things because they're the right things to say.
00:55:31
Speaker
But I feel like a lot of people are scared to actually, like, do...
00:55:39
Speaker
like, actually put the action, you know, to the word.
00:55:42
Speaker
So I don't know.
00:55:44
Speaker
I don't know.
00:55:45
Speaker
Maybe, you know, I'm thinking too deeply into it.
00:55:48
Speaker
Maybe it's just the, you know, people maybe felt like, oh, well, you know, we're not going to let this be his legacy, even though he died and, you know, he never really denounced his bigotry or never said, oh, I'm sorry.
00:56:05
Speaker
So I don't know.
00:56:06
Speaker
I really don't know.
00:56:07
Speaker
And that's...
00:56:10
Speaker
I think that's very questionable.
00:56:12
Speaker
And I kind of leave it up to, like, people to decide, I guess, at that point, like, do you, you know, like, we talk about it even, like, with extreme cases like R. Kelly, where he, like...
00:56:25
Speaker
literally like sexually assaulted and raped and, you know, did horrible things to, um, children, but people still like argue down that they support him and this and the other, but it's almost like you can't like he did the shit.
00:56:41
Speaker
Like, you know what I mean?
00:56:42
Speaker
So it's like the same thing here where it's like, we know he did the shit because he said the shit.
00:56:47
Speaker
Like he said that, you know, he,
00:56:51
Speaker
He said those things about fat people.
00:56:53
Speaker
He said those things about, you know, women.
00:56:55
Speaker
He said those things about gays and how they can't really be considered, you know, fashion icons and things like that.
00:57:02
Speaker
Like, so I kind of feel like.
00:57:07
Speaker
It's hard then, you know what I mean?
00:57:08
Speaker
To be like, oh my god, this guy created this amazing thing.
00:57:12
Speaker
And I think about that every day with this Tesla situation where I would see a Tesla every fucking time I turn my head.
00:57:19
Speaker
I see so many people driving Teslas and I'm like, we all think Elon Musk is a horrible person.
00:57:26
Speaker
He created a car that's great.
00:57:28
Speaker
It's a...
00:57:30
Speaker
great car and it's very stylish and everything um and it saves on gas and you know xyz because of it's electric and whatnot but it's almost like do we give in to like these kinds of people then like or do we just reject them all together and i don't know i kind of would like to think that
00:57:55
Speaker
I'm the kind of person, for me personally, like I don't think I could sacrifice my own beliefs to do something like,
00:58:08
Speaker
because of i don't know the gram or because of you know to think that like well this is a rebellion like i wouldn't just show up you know what i mean like i just wouldn't show i wouldn't show the up like that just is me um because i just feel like my morals are just so rooted in what i believe in and that's
00:58:30
Speaker
kind of where I'm at.
00:58:31
Speaker
Like, I'm not doing it.
00:58:32
Speaker
So yeah, I don't know.
00:58:35
Speaker
It's just very interesting.
00:58:37
Speaker
I would love to hear like other people's arguments to that.
00:58:40
Speaker
Like, I would love to hear and maybe I'll have an update next week.
00:58:43
Speaker
Like maybe a celebrity will come out and say, well, I attended because of blah, blah, blah, blah.
00:58:47
Speaker
And I can just kind of
00:58:48
Speaker
Talk about that on the show, but I thought that was just very interesting to hear her say that because it's like what I was thinking, but I just didn't...
00:59:04
Speaker
I don't know.
00:59:05
Speaker
I just felt like no one else was like saying it or thinking it, you know?
00:59:09
Speaker
Um, so I just, um, it's very interesting, but I'm not, like I said, I'm not gonna give her too much, like little dip on your chip, not, but not too much.
00:59:18
Speaker
Like you get a little bit, like you ate that one thing, like calm down.
00:59:22
Speaker
Um, yeah.
00:59:24
Speaker
So that's it for the media lab.
Nostalgia and Critique in Media
00:59:26
Speaker
Um, I wanted to talk about just the power Rangers movie really quickly or special or whatever.
00:59:32
Speaker
Um,
00:59:35
Speaker
um i feel like i liked it but um i don't know i feel like it could have been better like it looked there were things about it that i felt like okay this is nostalgia but then there were other things that i was like this seems horribly done so i'm not gonna i'm gonna try to dance around like
01:00:02
Speaker
Some of the spoilers.
01:00:03
Speaker
I'm just going to kind of say like that the big thing is that they acknowledged Trini's death on the in the well, the actress.
01:00:15
Speaker
I'll say it like that.
01:00:16
Speaker
Like they honored.
01:00:19
Speaker
basically her death and Jason David Frank's, I guess, by the end, um, which was kind of weird.
01:00:27
Speaker
Um, I don't know.
01:00:28
Speaker
I think they probably started, um, filming before, uh, Jason David Frank, um, had died by suicide.
01:00:42
Speaker
Um, um,
01:00:45
Speaker
But yeah, anyway, so they honored Tro Chung.
01:00:53
Speaker
No, Tro Trang.
01:00:56
Speaker
I can't pronounce her name.
01:00:57
Speaker
I'm so sorry, babes.
01:01:00
Speaker
I've never heard.
01:01:01
Speaker
It's so funny.
01:01:01
Speaker
I've never heard her name said out loud.
01:01:04
Speaker
Like, I've never heard anyone say it out loud.
01:01:08
Speaker
But anyway, they honored her death, which I thought was really great.
01:01:13
Speaker
I love that.
01:01:15
Speaker
That was one of the things I really loved seeing.
01:01:18
Speaker
It was wild because we've never at this point...
01:01:21
Speaker
I mean, I'll say it like this.
01:01:24
Speaker
We've never seen a ranger murdered in that way.
01:01:32
Speaker
Like, in the way of it being intentional to where we're like, we're killing this, we're killing her off.
01:01:42
Speaker
Because all the rangers were morphed in the beginning and you couldn't tell who was who.
01:01:46
Speaker
They were using some voice...
01:01:49
Speaker
I feel like they were using some of the voices from the past show.
01:01:52
Speaker
They just kind of dubbed the voices.
01:01:54
Speaker
They do that anyway when they're in their suits because it's not them in the suits.
01:01:57
Speaker
It's the stunt doubles.
01:02:02
Speaker
So they dubbed the voices.
01:02:06
Speaker
She was like Rita killed her.
01:02:10
Speaker
Robo Rita.
01:02:12
Speaker
We find out later how she came back.
01:02:14
Speaker
Um, but she kills, she kills her and, you know, was trying to kill Billy.
01:02:21
Speaker
Um, and then that kind of is what progresses and kind of starts this whole, um, thing.
01:02:30
Speaker
so some of the things i liked i like that they honored her all throughout i love that um because trini was like one of my favorites on the show um i feel like everybody was up kimberly's ass and that's fine like cool but i thought trini was so interesting as a character because
01:02:52
Speaker
I remember she was afraid of heights.
01:02:54
Speaker
Like that was a thing they even talked about on the show.
01:02:56
Speaker
That was like an Easter egg for the fans that remember episode two or three.
01:03:01
Speaker
I forget which one it was.
01:03:03
Speaker
And she had to save Billy because he was up so high.
01:03:10
Speaker
I love that she was.
01:03:14
Speaker
I love that she really... I know in one episode she did the... What was it?
01:03:19
Speaker
The Praying Mantis mode of martial arts, I believe it was.
01:03:27
Speaker
Which I thought was really cool.
01:03:30
Speaker
I felt like they gave her really good story arcs.
01:03:32
Speaker
And I felt like... I always felt like... Even when Aisha came on board, I always felt like the Yellow Ranger was a really great support.
01:03:40
Speaker
to Billy because they oftentimes would help him with his science experiments and things that would help the Rangers.
01:03:50
Speaker
So I really loved her as a supporting character and as someone that was...
01:03:59
Speaker
Vital to the team.
01:04:00
Speaker
I can't imagine the original Power Rangers without her, honestly.
01:04:05
Speaker
She acted really well in it.
01:04:08
Speaker
I love that.
01:04:09
Speaker
I love the fact that they didn't change the morphers.
01:04:15
Speaker
I love the fact that the command center got a little bit of an upgrade.
01:04:19
Speaker
I love that Billy basically owns...
01:04:23
Speaker
like all like he's running the gig like i love that um i did love they didn't make billy gay but i did love that they put a gay couple in the show um i feel like that was a big again like a big f you to like the original team um so i did love that i loved um that all of there was this mix of like the cast um in a way in which uh you know
01:04:53
Speaker
There was like Aisha, Adam, Rocky, Kat, but then also like Zach and Billy.
01:05:01
Speaker
Even though I feel like I'm going to just say I love the second team.
01:05:08
Speaker
of Power Rangers, like, I like Kat, too, I feel like Kat, um, I don't really feel connected to her as the Pink Ranger of Mighty Morphin, because she came in very late in the game, and then by the time, like, she was really getting her powers under control, like,
01:05:24
Speaker
they turned into children and that was kind of that.
01:05:27
Speaker
Um, so, um, yeah, I, I loved, uh, her and I think she was better or I loved her more in Zio and Turbo because it felt like she took on more of this motherly role, but seeing her, um, in the role of Kimberly was a lot only because, um,
01:05:49
Speaker
uh or not kimberly in the role of the pink ranger um and then saying pterodactyl it almost felt like in a way like damn we finally got her to say it but like i also kind of would have rather have seen amy joe johnson like in a way like it was weird like that um i'm trying to think what else what else um i feel like that was maybe it
01:06:18
Speaker
I didn't really... I thought... I don't know.
01:06:21
Speaker
I really did want Adam and Aisha to not... To be like Rangers.
01:06:28
Speaker
But I get it.
01:06:29
Speaker
Like they couldn't all fucking fit.
01:06:32
Speaker
Like I get that.
01:06:34
Speaker
I love that the daughter... That Trini's daughter was next in line to become a Power Ranger.
01:06:40
Speaker
Even though I'm like that's not really how that works.
01:06:43
Speaker
Or that's not... I get it.
01:06:45
Speaker
Like it's fine.
01:06:46
Speaker
Like...
01:06:48
Speaker
I think I was wrestling when I was watching this show with the initial Power Rangers lore of like how these powers don't exist anymore.
01:06:58
Speaker
And I'm like, I don't know.
01:07:00
Speaker
And I wrestle with that a lot because I feel like they do a lot of these like callbacks or bringing like...
01:07:09
Speaker
Past Rangers on to like newer seasons and things like that, like for our guest slot.
01:07:14
Speaker
Like I feel like it just really, it fucks with me because I feel like
01:07:20
Speaker
That's not how it fucking happened.
01:07:22
Speaker
Like, this is not what the fuck is happening.
01:07:23
Speaker
Like, why the fuck... If they was able to fix your powers, like, why the fuck did y'all get three different powers, like, in the Zordon era?
01:07:32
Speaker
Like, I don't understand that.
01:07:35
Speaker
Like, what happened to the Zeo Rangers?
01:07:37
Speaker
Like, what happened to the Terp... Like...
01:07:39
Speaker
It's like, just be consistent.
01:07:41
Speaker
Like, I don't know.
01:07:41
Speaker
To me, that's my thing because, and I get it.
01:07:46
Speaker
Like, at the time, like, you know, they were, Saban, you know, was getting this, you know, show from Japan and they had, um...
01:08:00
Speaker
And they had but so much to work with and they were splicing the scenes together and all of this and that.
01:08:04
Speaker
Like, I get that.
01:08:06
Speaker
But I also just kind of feel like if y'all want these past rangers to come back, then I need some explanations as to, like, how they got their powers back.
01:08:15
Speaker
Like, I don't understand that.
01:08:18
Speaker
And I feel like a lot of that comes out in the comics where I don't read the comics.
01:08:22
Speaker
Like, I don't.
01:08:24
Speaker
I don't, you know, read to see, like, what's happening.
01:08:28
Speaker
And I don't know if, like, this show in itself was, like, a...
01:08:34
Speaker
Like they, you know, did the show, they did Mighty Morphin, then they did the comics, and then the comics, you know, stopped at a place, and then they picked this up, or if this is like a multiverse thing, or like am I thinking, I'm thinking too deeply about it, I know, but it's just the fact that I love when shit has continuity, when the shit is not episodic.
01:08:56
Speaker
Like this isn't like an episodic
01:08:59
Speaker
thing like you know they referenced the fact that zordon's um tube got cracked and i'm like so if that fucking happened then how did y'all get y'all powers back and also if zordon's sacrifice was all for nothing because rita is still floating out there like i don't understand like it doesn't make sense to me if her essence is still out in the world
01:09:26
Speaker
then it almost feels like he died for nothing.
01:09:28
Speaker
And they were, and Billy was trying to find Zordon and get him back and all of this and that.
01:09:33
Speaker
Like, and I just, I was like, I don't know.
01:09:36
Speaker
I felt like I was watching a different, like a time jump that happened in a different universe almost.
01:09:43
Speaker
And then they tried to do this logic of like, well, we have the power coins and, you know, we have these, you know, contingency coins just in case we ever needed them.
01:09:54
Speaker
And I'm like, okay, so then why don't
01:09:58
Speaker
these rangers have just have them like i don't understand because that means that rocky and aisha should have them too like i don't understand that like is it that they can't all be morphed under the same thing at the same time and if so like
01:10:17
Speaker
Wasn't it risky anyway to do it because those Rangers that were captured, like, quote-unquote Jason and Kimberly and Tommy, like, they were already captured.
01:10:29
Speaker
And that's another thing.
01:10:29
Speaker
How did y'all get the Green Ranger's powers back if y'all made that seem like, or at least back then they made that seem like, oh, that was just, that was gone and we're on to the White Ranger now.
01:10:39
Speaker
Like, it would have made more sense if he was the White Ranger, like, to me.
01:10:42
Speaker
Like, so...
01:10:44
Speaker
it felt like there was a lot of stuff going on that was just like nostalgia for nostalgia's sake.
01:10:50
Speaker
Um, and I get it.
01:10:53
Speaker
Like it's an hour show.
01:10:55
Speaker
There's only, but so much you can do.
01:10:56
Speaker
And, you know, I think that's what it was, was just a show about nostalgia and passing the torch and this, any other, but I'm also just like, girl, it don't matter now.
01:11:06
Speaker
Like it, I mean, you know, it just kind of feels like we, if that was what this was supposed to be,
01:11:15
Speaker
then we could have not had it.
01:11:17
Speaker
Like, I don't understand.
01:11:19
Speaker
I don't know.
01:11:20
Speaker
I don't know.
01:11:20
Speaker
I'm not trying to be a hater or anything.
01:11:22
Speaker
I'm just, and I felt like also the morphing sequence was cheap as hell.
01:11:27
Speaker
Like, I feel like I love the way it was in the nineties where the way in which the, um, they're, they weren't morphing and they're already their clothes.
01:11:39
Speaker
Um,
01:11:41
Speaker
I love that.
01:11:42
Speaker
I love the... From the 90s.
01:11:46
Speaker
And then the morphing or the Megazord scene.
01:11:49
Speaker
I thought that was pretty cool how the Zords went to the moon.
01:11:54
Speaker
I think that would have made sense all along for that to have happened.
01:11:58
Speaker
Instead of them fighting on Earth and destroying all the buildings and stuff.
01:12:01
Speaker
I think that should have...
01:12:02
Speaker
happened back then.
01:12:04
Speaker
Um, the scene looked a little cheap with the CGI though, uh, or the special effects and all that.
01:12:10
Speaker
Um, it looked way better.
01:12:13
Speaker
Loma and they did it in the nineties to me.
01:12:18
Speaker
Yeah, and that was kind of a letdown, I think, for me.
01:12:23
Speaker
But again, they use like real, from what I remember, they use real actors to dress up as the Zords.
01:12:30
Speaker
And they did like a lot of, or at least as the Zords.
01:12:35
Speaker
At least as the Megazord, I don't, I can't really say about the, you know, the Zords when they're separated, but as the Megazord, they had the Japanese actors dress up as them and created this, like, landscape of, like, teeny buildings to, like...
01:12:50
Speaker
mirror that of a city um and so they looked bigger than what they actually were when you were like recording the shots um from my understanding it's a lot of stuff i don't understand about tv but um when i see the behind the scenes this is kind of the shit i'm noticing but um it seems like in place of that they just decided to do a cgi megazord and i didn't really care for that um
01:13:17
Speaker
Yeah, and also the daughter of the Yellow Ranger is her daughter or was her daughter in real life.
01:13:28
Speaker
That was another thing that I thought was really cool.
01:13:36
Speaker
Yeah, so all in all, like I...
01:13:44
Speaker
would prob i mean i'm gonna probably watch it again and i think that maybe i'll probably just come in with a um i don't know like a different um a different attitude about it maybe um
01:14:10
Speaker
But yeah, it just was, it was very, I don't know, in parts I was just let down, I guess.
01:14:15
Speaker
Um, I didn't really, I don't know.
01:14:23
Speaker
I just feel like, I feel a little sad.
01:14:26
Speaker
Cause I feel like I was so excited for this thing and then it came and it's like, great, like, here we go.
01:14:33
Speaker
And you know, now we have this thing and, um,
01:14:38
Speaker
It just didn't hold up.
01:14:40
Speaker
And I don't know.
01:14:41
Speaker
I'm a little disappointed by that.
01:14:45
Speaker
But again, I shouldn't have had my expectations way too high.
01:14:55
Speaker
Yeah, I didn't have my expectations way, way too high.
01:14:58
Speaker
I think she's her real daughter.
01:14:59
Speaker
I don't know.
01:15:00
Speaker
I'm looking at this shit now because I was like, something made me say that.
01:15:04
Speaker
And I was like,
01:15:07
Speaker
Let me not.
01:15:08
Speaker
Let me roll that the fuck back.
01:15:14
Speaker
Let me roll that all the way back.
01:15:16
Speaker
Oh, nope, she wasn't.
01:15:17
Speaker
Nope.
01:15:18
Speaker
Scratch that.
01:15:19
Speaker
I was wrong.
01:15:21
Speaker
She's her daughter on the show.
01:15:22
Speaker
But...
01:15:25
Speaker
Yeah, that's pretty much it for the Media Lab.
01:15:29
Speaker
I didn't really have too much else, but I was going to combine and I was just going to combine a Media Lab with the final thought until I remembered the Power Ranger situation.
01:15:39
Speaker
And I was like, oh, yeah, I can talk about that for the Media Lab.
Philosophical Reflections on Existentialism
01:15:43
Speaker
Um, but for the final thought, I was going to talk about The Stranger because I read it and I wanted to talk about it last week, but I didn't get a chance to talk about it.
01:15:54
Speaker
So, um, I'm going to talk about it now.
01:15:57
Speaker
Um, The Stranger, if you've never read it, I'm just, I mean, I'm just going to spoil it.
01:16:03
Speaker
You can read it still.
01:16:05
Speaker
It's not a long read at all.
01:16:07
Speaker
It's like a hundred and something pages.
01:16:08
Speaker
Like it's really not that long.
01:16:11
Speaker
But basically, the book is about a man who is...
01:16:20
Speaker
He lives in the French Algiers, and he basically gets this, you know, call or whatever that his mother died and that she's being buried tomorrow or something.
01:16:37
Speaker
And so he essentially has to take off of work and go see his mom.
01:16:46
Speaker
And then, you know, he goes to use his mom.
01:16:48
Speaker
He finds out that his mom.
01:16:50
Speaker
uh had all these friends and you know she was loved and this and that but he's like kind of whatever and indifferent about it and he seems very annoyed that he had to go like that was something that i thought was kind of like funny in a way because i'm like okay like you seem annoyed about going so like why did you go um he's very much um
01:17:16
Speaker
annoyed by the fact that people are crying about her death, which is very odd and strange.
01:17:24
Speaker
Um, he, then after like, you know, they, you know, the funeral, um, he goes back and he, uh, the next day, essentially he is, um,
01:17:42
Speaker
The next day, he goes on this date, or basically a date, with this woman that he used to work with.
01:17:51
Speaker
And essentially, she is a...
01:17:57
Speaker
Like she's she's admits that she likes likes him and that she is in love with him and yada, yada, yada.
01:18:04
Speaker
So he's spotted out by his, you know, his his community.
01:18:10
Speaker
And they all know the business like they know that his mom died.
01:18:13
Speaker
They know that he came back and they know he's spending time with this woman.
01:18:17
Speaker
And doesn't seem to be grieving his mom at all.
01:18:19
Speaker
So they're like, huh, that's odd.
01:18:21
Speaker
But no one calls him out on it.
01:18:23
Speaker
Like no one says anything about it.
01:18:26
Speaker
And then there's like a bunch of other stuff that happens in between then.
01:18:32
Speaker
But then he ends up, you know, the thing that the big thing that happens is that he ends up murdering a man kind of for no reason, honestly.
01:18:44
Speaker
He admits that he did it because the sun was hot.
01:18:49
Speaker
Something that I, you know, that we see often in the book is that he is motivated or driven by
01:18:59
Speaker
physical things.
01:19:00
Speaker
So he smokes, he always talks about like how he wants to have sex or, you know, he mentioned that the sun, like it made him do it.
01:19:13
Speaker
The heat made him do it.
01:19:14
Speaker
So it's like very physical.
01:19:17
Speaker
And when these like really
01:19:19
Speaker
big emotional things happen like where um the girl he was seeing um asked him oh do you want to get married he's like yeah let's get married and she's like oh do you love me and he's like i don't know i don't know i don't think so and she's like well why would you want to get married if you don't love me and he's like well if it makes you happy like i don't care like we can get married um
01:19:44
Speaker
Knowing that he doesn't really like, we don't really know, like we don't know where he stands on, like, do you love her?
01:19:51
Speaker
Do you not love her?
01:19:52
Speaker
Like, like, the point of getting married is because you love each other, not just a thing to do.
01:20:00
Speaker
But he kind of sees it as a thing to do and that it kind of that it doesn't matter either way.
01:20:07
Speaker
Um, and so he kills this man, um, and then he goes, you know, to, uh, jail and then they basically tell him, you know, he has to do a trial.
01:20:18
Speaker
They do the trial.
01:20:19
Speaker
And the second part of the book, um, there's a whole thing where like the priest, uh, comes in and tries to talk with him, even though he rejects talking to the priest.
01:20:28
Speaker
And, um, when the priest comes in, he's like, well, you could just, you know,
01:20:34
Speaker
Give yourself over to a higher power.
01:20:36
Speaker
And he says, no, I'm not going to do that.
01:20:38
Speaker
That doesn't make sense.
01:20:41
Speaker
And he he almost like accepts the fact that he's going to die.
01:20:47
Speaker
But it's like.
01:20:52
Speaker
Yeah, like it's weird.
01:20:53
Speaker
It's like he accepts the fact that he's going to die, even though he had multiple kind of chances to kind of not go to get the death penalty.
01:21:02
Speaker
He showed a lot of like emptiness and like very much what I would kind of deem like, you know, antisocial behavior in the sense of like...
01:21:12
Speaker
being on trial and not saying the right things, it made him seem like he killed this man because he was, you know, kind of, um, not right in the head, um, that he was, you know, kind of like he, that was, I think kind of the thing, like he really did a thing where it was like, he wasn't connected to the earth, even though he was, um,
01:21:39
Speaker
driven by the physical which i thought was like very interesting in the book um but they're like you're not you don't have emotions like you basically you said kind of fuck your mom um you put her in a home like first like that people that people i think noticed they brought that out first like it was like they had that ready in the back pocket like um you put your mom in a home instead of like taking care of her
01:22:04
Speaker
why would you do that?
01:22:05
Speaker
And he was like, well, I couldn't afford to do it.
01:22:07
Speaker
And they're like, okay, but when you were at the funeral, you weren't, you didn't shed a tear, you didn't cry, you just were worried about drinking your coffee and having a cigarette.
01:22:15
Speaker
And he's like, yeah, you know, like I was and, you know, it doesn't matter if I was sad.
01:22:22
Speaker
And so it kind of feels like people then begin to like feel like,
01:22:29
Speaker
he's someone that is a threat to the community.
01:22:35
Speaker
And the only way to deal with him is to sentence him to death, um, and get the guillotine.
01:22:39
Speaker
So, um, yeah.
01:22:42
Speaker
So I thought the book was, I love the book.
01:22:43
Speaker
Like I love like the, uh, the stranger so much because I feel like, um, it really does, um,
01:22:54
Speaker
I don't think it's like the pinnacle of like literature, but I feel like it is, it does highlight a lot of ideas that we often come up against regularly.
01:23:10
Speaker
And those are the theories around like nihilism, existentialism, and absurdism.
01:23:18
Speaker
And so...
01:23:21
Speaker
I was kind of doing a little bit of a deep dive into, you know, each one.
01:23:26
Speaker
And there's only but so much time I have to kind of like go into like super great depth about, you know, the absurd.
01:23:37
Speaker
But I think that they all sort of.
01:23:45
Speaker
It's interesting how they all kind of play off of one another, though, in a way, like all of these concepts.
01:23:50
Speaker
So for anyone that doesn't know, nihilism basically means that like if you're nihilist, you basically mean that there's no meaning to life and trying to create meaning is pointless because you're going to die one day.
01:24:05
Speaker
Like you're going to die and it's not going to matter.
01:24:07
Speaker
Like nothing matters.
01:24:09
Speaker
Um, which is very interesting because we often hear that on, like, I often hear Rick say that, like Rick from Rick and Morty often says that.
01:24:17
Speaker
Um, and then there's existentialism, which basically says that, well, you have free will, you have, you know, personal responsibility, you have like self-awareness.
01:24:30
Speaker
So you're able, you should be able to create your own meaning in life.
01:24:38
Speaker
if that's the case, like, since there is no meaning for in life, um, or life doesn't have a meaning, we assign meaning to it based on, like, what, you know, we, um, I don't know what's the word, like, what we, I guess, want it to be, but the absurd is interesting in the way in which it basically, um, says that the search for meaning in life or even creating meaning is, um,
01:25:10
Speaker
basically stupid and that we should just accept the idea that life is meaningless and rebel against it by embracing everything that life has to offer.
01:25:22
Speaker
So basically like, you know,
01:25:27
Speaker
You know, like, it's interesting how, like, let's say going to work every day, like you're going to work, you're doing your job, you come home, you go to bed, you're, you know, waking up, going to work, coming home, going to bed, like how there's like that cycle.
01:25:43
Speaker
But you know, it's like pointless and you know, it's like futile, but
01:25:53
Speaker
And you recognize that, but you, instead of giving in to, like, the idea of, like, okay, this is meaningless work, like, you're going to find ways to... Or you're going to, like, still enjoy your life.
01:26:08
Speaker
Like, you're still going to live life, and you're still going to reject the idea that there is no meaning.
01:26:13
Speaker
Like, there... You know, that even though you're doing a meaningless thing, that, like, you're still...
01:26:21
Speaker
And I guess that's what we see in the character and the stranger where he is often like, well, you know, people die.
01:26:29
Speaker
And, you know, it's nothing that I there's nothing I can do about that.
01:26:35
Speaker
But I'm going to enjoy this like cigarette and I am going to have sex with my girlfriend.
01:26:40
Speaker
um because those things i guess you know like i'm gonna have fun so i see that a lot in that in the um in the stranger um because i was kind of like the point um there's also an essay um by camu who wrote the stranger that basically is about um
01:27:08
Speaker
the how do I say this?
01:27:10
Speaker
It's like the metaphor
01:27:13
Speaker
it's a matter like basically how sif sif sif sifus um who was a greek anti-hero um how the basically the lesson of from that and how he you know rejected death a bunch of times and you know he was kind of a dick to the gods um and got punished then by having to roll a boulder up to the top of a mountain and come back down and how that
01:27:41
Speaker
in itself is, you know, absurd, um, because it's meaningless work.
01:27:46
Speaker
Like you roll this boulder all the way up for it to come back down.
01:27:50
Speaker
Um, there's no meaning to it.
01:27:52
Speaker
Like there's no meaning to the boulder.
01:27:53
Speaker
There's no meaning to, um, the act of, you know, of any of that.
01:28:03
Speaker
And even to like, you know,
01:28:06
Speaker
outsmart the gods and then go back to his life and try to enjoy it and have fun.
01:28:11
Speaker
Like, it seems like that, um, it's very much like, you know, I guess an idea of like what, you know, you would think of when you think of like the absurd, um,
01:28:24
Speaker
And so something I was wondering is if whether or not this can apply to like psychology and like in the way in which we kind of think about like ourselves and our ability to cope and like, because oftentimes, like when you deal with like depression, like people often feel like,
01:28:43
Speaker
like nihilist like they often feel you know like you know nothing matters so like i might as well die which you know camu basically rejects he says like you shouldn't do that because you're then like you're giving in um and then to the people that are like well if i find meaning in life which is the existentialist if i find meaning in life then that means that
01:29:09
Speaker
I have purpose and then that fulfills me, whatever it is I assign, whether it's like religion or, you know, giving myself up to a higher power or whatever.
01:29:18
Speaker
Like it's basically you basically commit.
01:29:23
Speaker
Yeah.
01:29:27
Speaker
I guess it's like physiological suicide in that way.
01:29:32
Speaker
Or like... No, not... It's like... Oh my God, I'm trying to think of the word.
01:29:39
Speaker
Philosophical.
01:29:40
Speaker
That's what it is.
01:29:41
Speaker
Philosophical suicide.
01:29:43
Speaker
You basically commit philosophical suicide when you do that.
01:29:49
Speaker
Because you're not... I guess the point is that you're not...
01:29:53
Speaker
You're still trying to find meaning when there is none.
01:29:56
Speaker
You are basically rejecting the idea of there's a God, there's something that comes after this.
01:30:04
Speaker
It's not... And even if there was, it doesn't matter or it's way beyond our comprehension and we're not going to get it because as humans, we're not...
01:30:14
Speaker
built for understanding that so um we should just you know i again recognize it and then enjoy that we're not well recognize that we're not going to see what that means or see what that um thing is and then just kind of enjoy life and i wonder if that means that
01:30:40
Speaker
And accepting, I don't know if that helps with coping then, because if we accept that life is meaningless, and there's nothing we can do about it, and we just decide, well, hey, like, well, let's just have fun, like, shit is boring, like, let's just, you know, kind of do what we want.
01:30:56
Speaker
Then...
01:31:02
Speaker
I don't know.
01:31:03
Speaker
It feels like it should make things better or it makes it make life a little bit more interesting.
01:31:09
Speaker
But I almost feel like... I think I kind of reject it in a way because I kind of feel like... Even if there isn't meaning in life, like...
01:31:23
Speaker
people are allowed to create their own meaning.
01:31:27
Speaker
And, you know, and I think that by saying, like, hey, like, I don't know, by saying that life is...
01:31:43
Speaker
I don't know.
01:31:44
Speaker
It's very interesting.
01:31:45
Speaker
I'm like thinking out loud as I kind of talk about this, but it just kind of feels almost like by saying that life is like meaningless and, you know, assigning any meaning to it almost feels like, okay, well, that's not satisfactory enough.
01:32:01
Speaker
If that makes sense.
01:32:02
Speaker
Like, it's not, that's not enough then, because it feels like then what's the point of assigning me like a meaningless task or having a job that's meaningless or like, you know, if I had a job, let's say just crunching numbers all day and like,
01:32:21
Speaker
um putting data into like a you know a database and not doing anything else or um picking up trash and you know like it's a trash as a waste management person picking up trash and you know having to do that every day and have having to constantly smell trash and handle trash and deal with like the animals and you know the the extreme weather like if i have to do all of that it's like well
01:32:52
Speaker
I don't know, I guess, do I just kind of laugh about it?
01:32:55
Speaker
Or do I, like, create purpose in saying, like, well, I'm helping someone to do X, Y, and Z thing?
01:33:05
Speaker
I feel like either way of looking at it is almost, like, fair.
01:33:09
Speaker
Like, I don't really see a reason why people can't assign meaning to their lives.
01:33:18
Speaker
But I also kind of get it if someone didn't want to
01:33:22
Speaker
um assign meaning to their lives i think the issue is that the third thing of nihilism of just kind of the empty despair of it all just feels like you might as well kill yourself like if that's kind of what that was i'm not saying anyone should um i'm just saying that that's almost like what that theory just says like it to me it's like
01:33:46
Speaker
The idea of, you know, religion at that point of saying, like, well, if I'm not going to kill myself, then, like, there has to be something else, like, there has to be a thing after this, or there has to be a greater purpose, like, it almost feels forced in some ways, it feels, like.
01:34:04
Speaker
It feels a little disingenuous, but it also gives people reason to live and to do right.
01:34:12
Speaker
I think about that too, how religion's going out the window at this point.
01:34:17
Speaker
And I don't fully believe in religion at all.
01:34:20
Speaker
That's not what I'm saying.
01:34:23
Speaker
I think I'm saying that people...
01:34:27
Speaker
um were more were more behaved if that makes sense on a societal level with the idea that god is watching and that if you do something uh terrible that you're going to be punished for it um and in that belief um
01:34:50
Speaker
people you know behave way better than they do now like people stop going to church and so i kind of wonder sometimes if like that existentialism makes a little bit more sense in a way of which we have to have some kind of alignment of purpose in order to make life bearable if that
01:35:17
Speaker
can be a thing, you know?
01:35:19
Speaker
So I don't know.
01:35:19
Speaker
It's just something to think about.
Upcoming Discussions and Engagement
01:35:21
Speaker
Um, something that I really have been pondering and, um,
01:35:28
Speaker
kind of thinking about as I've like read the book and have just been kind of looking at different, um, interpretations and theories and thoughts and, uh, ways in which people, um, feel about each theory.
01:35:42
Speaker
Um, so I don't know, it kind of, it's very interesting to think about.
01:35:46
Speaker
And I love literature that kind of challenges your brain and that makes you, um, really think about things, um, versus like, um,
01:35:57
Speaker
I don't know, like just empty.
01:35:59
Speaker
Like I'm reading another book now called A Thousand Pieces of You and it's like...
01:36:05
Speaker
very it's not thought-provoking at all like it feels like i'm reading twilight all over again with like the way in which this girl is like falling for both of these graduate students both of which that are like terrible for her or whatever and i thought the only picked the book up because i was interested in books about um multiverse theory um like fiction books about multiverse theory and i didn't realize one it was a teen book two it's
01:36:35
Speaker
um, really like cringe at times, like the way in which the characters talk to each other.
01:36:43
Speaker
Um, it's very, it gives a little, like, it gives CW, like it gives, um, Disney channel, it gives like ABC family, like it, that's what it's giving to me.
01:36:58
Speaker
Um, it's not, it's not giving a lot.
01:37:00
Speaker
Um,
01:37:00
Speaker
um so yeah i don't know i i don't think i might review that one because there's not much to talk about and i and i found out too it's a trilogy which i'm not down with so i'm gonna just finish this one book and then i'm gonna just get another book i got another book um i got two other well three other books on hold at the library um one of which i'm really interested in reading and talking about um
01:37:24
Speaker
Only because I don't understand anything about the military.
01:37:27
Speaker
And it's kind of about that.
01:37:30
Speaker
I think her name is Chelsea Manning is the author of the book.
01:37:33
Speaker
And she talks about how she exposed...
01:37:39
Speaker
how she basically exposed the government and she was a whistleblower and, um, against the, uh, United States army.
01:37:47
Speaker
And yeah, I'm just like really interested in, in that whole story and how, and she's a trans woman as well.
01:37:54
Speaker
Like that's like very interesting to me.
01:37:56
Speaker
So like, I just, I'm excited to read her book.
01:37:58
Speaker
It's on hold at the library and I'm gonna read it and we'll talk about it.
01:38:01
Speaker
But, um,
01:38:02
Speaker
Yeah, so that's basically it for the episode.
01:38:05
Speaker
If you have any, you know, thing you want me to, you know, kind of talk about, let me know.
01:38:14
Speaker
If you want more or something, lesser something.
01:38:17
Speaker
If you want to send any listener letters, send them to gatherthempod at gmail.com.
01:38:22
Speaker
If you want...
01:38:25
Speaker
to follow me on the socials, gather them pot on Instagram and on Twitter.
01:38:32
Speaker
You can also follow me if you want to at my main on Twitter, big bad Roman.
01:38:38
Speaker
And then it's big underscore bad underscore Roman on Instagram.
01:38:43
Speaker
I fucking hate that.
01:38:45
Speaker
I have to have underscores because the person that has the handle that I want, it's they don't use Instagram anymore.
01:38:53
Speaker
Um, so that's fucking irritating.
01:38:57
Speaker
Um, but yeah, that's it.
01:38:59
Speaker
Um, that's all I got.
01:39:00
Speaker
Um, I will see everyone next week and I hope everyone has a good weekend.
01:39:06
Speaker
Peace.