August 26, 2026 • 30 mins
On this episode of Trended Too Soon, Jack and Miles discuss The loss of icons Dolly Parton and Tim Curry, The Hanover Institute Public Policy - the AI generated news site that's creating "human grade" pro Israel propaganda, H&R Block's reality show Responsibility Island, and how to open your refrigerator when the power's out.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello, the internet, and welcome to this episode of Trended
Too Soon. This is courtesy of Hentron Zero, because obviously, Dolly,
gone too soon, and we recorded. A little too early.
We did record Trending too early.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
We're doing a little Ralph Norman there. We're whistling.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
We did record too early to catch. The news. We
finished recording and Victor was like, hey. Hey, Dolly. We're like, God, shit.
We did rerun our Icon episode with the great Lydia Popovich.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah, number one Dolly Parton fan. Relocated her life to
be nearer to her God. Dolly Parton studies. Major in
Dolly Parton studies.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Also, Hentron.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I just picture a robot made of Hennessy. I don't
know if that's what you were going for, but if
you were.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Great name. I would have just pictured Robot Hen, but
that's why you're the greatest in the business. Oh, wow.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Like a bird.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Yeah, Hentron. Like a bird. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Funny, because I'm going like, who's Hentron? If you're really
going by Hentron, it's like, yo, yeah. Where's Mark? You
mean Hentron? Because he can drink a whole bottle of
fucking Henny? He can drink a whole Hennessy Fifth. Some
call that a problem, and that's... I call myself Hentron Zero.
Some call that a problem, and that's all my close relatives.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
And loved ones. Everybody's really worried about me. Really worried
about me, but they love me. All right. My name
is Jack O'Brien. That over there is Mr. Miles Gray.
This is the episode where we tell you what is
trending on this August 26th. Once again, happy birthday to
my sister. um shan yeah my cool older sister i
(01:44):
reference her frequently.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Up top do we just talk about the latest person
to pass yeah we should talk about uh tim curry
these things come in threes so everybody all the all
the famous uh 80 year olds heads.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Should be on a swivel yeah unfortunately um he's passed
away at the age of 80 he was three months
older than Dolly Parton. Wow. So I didn't really, I
just kind of, Tim Curry is one of those celebrities
who is in my mind, in amber, from his most
iconic roles. Yeah. I mean, for me, it's weirdly the
(02:24):
butler from Home Alone 2 who says, what's the matter?
A store wouldn't accept your stolen credit card.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Yep, yep, yep.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
For some reason that is One of the moments in cinema. Yeah.
Like if I was making my personal Oscar reel of just-
He just has that look too. Instead of, frankly, my dear,
I don't give a damn. What's the matter? Store wouldn't
accept your stolen credit card. For you, it's the concierge
(02:54):
from Home Alone.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
For me, it's Herkimer Hermulka, formerly of Romania- in the
movie Congo, which I quoted yesterday.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Do you think you did it? Yes. Probably. Like, you
must have been quoting Congo around the time that he
passed away. Wow, I didn't even think about that. When
I was going, who is Kafka? But that wasn't a
Tim Curry line.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Tim Curry line would always go, Herkimer Himulka, formerly of Romania.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Great character actor. One of the greats. Obviously, most iconic role, arguably, Dr.
Frank N. Furter. in Rocky Horror Picture Show. The butler
in Clue, a movie I saw once, but I still
remember his performance. O.G. Pennywise? O.G. Pennywise is, I think, probably... Yeah,
(03:42):
it's somewhere between... Rocky Horror.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
That's the beautiful thing about an actor like this. He's
got these huge roles, and then people like us are like, oh, man, dude,
Tim Curry in Congo.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Yeah. Fucking weirdos. I then went and saw a picture
of him. I was like, he can't be 80 years old.
80 years old seems way too old, but it's just
because I haven't checked in with him in a while.
And yes, he looked 80 years old there at the end.
He didn't have a lot of health problems.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
He had a stroke like, like 14 years ago. It's been, yeah,
he's not, he's not been doing a lot of public appearances.
So it makes sense that like you're, you know, we
have these sort of very specific memories of him.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
He also in home alone to shared screen with Donald Trump, uh,
a writer jam pointed out that he described last year
how Trump was trying to force the director to cast
Marla Maples in the movie. Oh, and, uh, recalled how
he lied to Ivana Trump about how he loathed his
room at the Plaza Hotel. Oh, really? But just all around,
(04:50):
despite being a wildly irresponsible hotel manager in that movie.
Or a Romanian grifter in Congo. Yeah. One other thing
is he became close friends with Freddie Mercury, who was
a big fan of Rocky Horror and even built Freddie
Mercury a garden. What? But the singer, he was like
a very....
Speaker 2 (05:10):
You know, talented horticulturalist. That was what he did in
his spare time. He was into, okay, Tim Curry. He
was just building landscapes out here. And there's a good
story about that. Curry and Mercury became friends and keen
horticulturalist Curry later told House and Garden Magazine about designing
(05:30):
a garden for the singer. Freddie came back from a
tour and said, the garden deer, it's dead.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
And I said, what? Did you water it? And Freddie said,
water it, deer? Not all celebrities are keen horticulturalists. No, no.
We have to cherish the ones that are. Speaking of cherishing,
you can go back and listen to the iconograph about
Dolly Parton, but the one story that is happening. I mean,
(05:57):
the main takeaway from her passing is, has been, wow,
literally everybody was a fan. Everybody loved her. Everybody's trying
to claim her, which is a little weird. Right-wing people
are like, she loved Trump. And they're like, no. Prove it.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
She actually loved drag queens. There's a lot of proof
for that. What are you going to do with that one?
I saw the band outside of Buckingham Palace playing 9
to 5.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
I was like, all right. Did you also see there
was a performance on the west end of 9 to 5?
And she had passed right before the performance was to begin. No, really? Yeah,
one of the actresses came out and informed the audience.
The gasps. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But a number of people
pointed out that she may be the only celebrity that
(06:42):
could receive heartfelt tributes from both Trump and the DSA.
Trump has flags in the U.S. flying half-mast, which, nice touch.
I'll allow it. And the Empire State Building was illuminated
pink last night. So some people trying to get in
on it. J.K. Rowling posted about how she met Dolly
(07:03):
Parton once and she got a lot of pushback. Wow.
Because Dolly Parton, famous ally who, you know, was in
favor of trans rights and worked on behalf of trans rights.
And they pointed out that Parton's open hearted nature extended
to her support of the trans community. A stark contrast
(07:26):
from Rowling. one person commented, it should have been you.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Did you see Eminem shared that letter that Dolly Parton
wrote him?
Speaker 1 (07:35):
No.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Yeah, he was like, he's like, damn, man, I got
this letter from her.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
And he's like, I really wish I could have met her.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
He said, I'm sorry we never got a chance to meet,
but getting this note from Dolly really had an impact
on me. She definitely didn't have to take the time
to do it, even for a kid who mostly listened
to rap music.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
She was an icon, a superstar in every sense. Rest easy, Dolly,
and thank you for the kind words. And then it's
the letter from Stan. I was like, wait, what the fuck?
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Dear Slim, it says Marshall, parenthetical Eminem, congratulations on your
induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Your
performance was amazing, and everybody said so. Even though I
don't know a lot about rap music, I've come to
know that you are the very best at it. Aside
from that, I hope that what I have to say
will not seem weird or strange to you, but I've
always felt some unexplained connection to you, like I know
(08:17):
you somehow. I'd hoped to meet you at the show,
but you know, how nuts those things are personally. I
hate them and I missed my chance, but maybe someday
we'll meet in the meantime, keep doing what you're doing
because you do it so well. And no matter how
complex your world may be, just know you are very
special and touch people in ways you don't even know
with love and respect. It feels like it's like the
(08:38):
way people shared a lot of letters that they received
from Dolly Parton. And she always writes like this, like,
I always have like this teacher. I think like in
first grade, I had miss Anderson who like was one
of those first times a teacher like made me be like, Me?
You felt like that warming glow of a teacher?
Speaker 1 (08:53):
I literally feel like sunlight on my heart right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
Which cures COVID. Oh, yeah, don't tell her that, though.
But that note made me feel so good, and she
said Eminem's the greatest rapper of all time. And it's true.
You don't know much about rap music, Dolly. That's okay.
That's okay.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
But the sentiment, you're just reaching out to another artist saying, hey,
you're not so bad.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
I think you're neat. I think it's pretty neat, actually.
Thank you, Dolly. God, I wish you listened to this podcast. Fuck.
Could have used one of those notes. Could have used one.
You just get one tomorrow clearly in my handwriting.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
I'm like, Jack, I can tell this is written by
a left-handed person.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
It's smeared. The ink is all smeared. with my dying
breath i just wanted to let you know that i.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Think you're great pretty neat and you should you should
go easy on your co-host jack he's pretty cool i
think too also you look like mookie bets oh what
how did you know you have the same balding style
and i think that's neat thank you dolly.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
But anyways uh Rowling decided to honor the memory of
the late country icon by publicly feuding with a bunch
of her fans. Of course. Of course.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
As a rational, level-headed adult would do.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Mm-hmm. And we do have a, you know, we talked
yesterday about Darlene Graham. Darlene. Darlene. Darlene. Darlene. Oh, no.
I'm sorry. Shouldn't be doing that. Our girl won. And honestly,
a little relief, like following the night of her winning,
just a little tiny bit relieved to keep getting this
(10:36):
type of gold spun directly into our news feeds. She
immediately gave a speech about, about how government paying for
healthcare was a bad idea and wouldn't work. And her
reasoning was that her parents had to work even when
they were sick, because if they weren't working, they weren't
making money and, you know, the subtext being, and then
(10:58):
we would starve to death and not be able to
afford healthcare. Um, and then she said, my mother died
when she, when I was 11 years old, my father,
a year later.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
And that's how I know people don't need healthcare that
is affordable or free.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
You do almost wonder if there's a part of her
that like some little part of her that's like understands
that like her life has been negatively impacted by, people
not being able to afford healthcare and is like fighting
to get out. Oh, right. She just like isn't aware
of it.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Like she's still in the village. She doesn't realize she's
in the village.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Yes, but she's also like saying things that she's like,
it's like getting past her conscious filter. She's probably doing
that thing.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
She's like, I could have swore I saw an airplane
fly overhead.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
I don't know. I need to put this out of
my mind. We're in a village, and I don't know anything.
I don't know anything. Those were birds, like the elder said. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
But that's, I mean, again, that's why she's in office,
because she doesn't know anything about politics and is purely
there to just do exactly what Donald Trump dictates, not
have any mind of her own, which is interesting because
Ralph Norman, who is also a staunch Republican who she defeated,
he was, during his concession speech, He was kind of like, man,
(12:16):
I don't even know why. Things were going well until
the president got involved, and the crowd started booing, which
I take that for what it is. I think there's
plenty of conflicted Republicans who don't like the fact that
MAGA is what the Republican Party is.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
However, he had to be like, all right, come on now.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
He's got good ideas.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Okay, let's just hear this. Some say the best.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
To me, freedom. It's Democrats. They wanted their... They got
what they wanted. I get that.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
And Darlene Graham.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
But, you know, the president got involved. He has that right.
That's his prerogative. As I told.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
I never.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
Well, y'all, his policies are good. I never understood why
he got in this race to beat, you know.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
His wife with the peak.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
Never.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
I never understood. Just watch how she gets... I never
understood why.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
But why he got in this race to beat.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Never.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
You know, she's pissed. She thought she was about to
be like up in it. Senate class, you know, because
that's for how infrequent Senate seats open up in South Carolina.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Right.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
That, you know, like these are people who focus their
entire careers.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Like, I'm going to get that one. Lindsay's out. I'm
telling you, that's going to be me, honey. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
And then for that not to happen, I can tell
his wife was just very like, I'll never understood why
he got involved.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Did he, he's not one who like openly criticized the
president or anything. Right. He just didn't, he wasn't the
chosen successor. And so he got. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
He's not like a specifically hyper independent MAGA person. He's just,
you know, he's just kind of, he thought he was
playing the part, but then I think because, He has
just slightly his own brain.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Right.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
That's not good enough for Trump, who probably needs to
be able to say, like, I just need to be
able to press a button on your head and you're
a yes or no vote.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Like, I don't need you to start thinking about your
career or what's good for you or your constituents. Never. Well,
you fucked up, buddy. Yeah. Should have been related to
Lindsey Graham.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
All right. To everybody. Let's take a quick break. We'll
be right back. And we're back. We're back. And interesting
news out of Politico, who reported on a website belonging
to a new think tank called the Hanover Institute for
(14:48):
Public Policy, which must be– that sounds familiar. Hanover? What,
New Hampshire? Yeah. Yeah, that evokes nothing for me. That's
in the northeast. That's vaguely academic sounding. Yeah. Where are
they located? Oh, no physical address? Okay. Okay. Okay. Who's
working on it? No named staff. Okay. No bylines on
(15:12):
any of its reports. Does have a snazzy logo, so
it's got to be real. It has a logo, which is,
I think, how most of us think when we look
at it. I mean, it's got a logo. It's got
to be a thing. Checks out for me. So this summer,
the Hanover Institute has been pumping out a ton of
Israel-centric articles with headlines like, is Israel carrying out a
(15:35):
genocide in Gaza? You're never going to guess what their
answer is. And is the IDF the world's most moral army?
You're never going to guess what their answer is. Interesting.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Those headlines read like Google queries.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Yes, right? They even like have misspelling. Yeah. Just to
be like, this is what you want. Is Babi? Yeah.
Babi Greg not? Yeah. While literally no writers are credited,
their website states that it's all very personal because the
Institute's original founder had a grandmother who married a Holocaust survivor.
(16:10):
That's a few degrees of separation. Yeah. Okay. And despite
that very specific story, the Hanover Institute for Public Policy
is about as real as the Nakatomi Corporation. It's just
a fake site. funded by, that's a diehard reference for
people who aren't. Or Dharma Initiative. Dharma Initiative. For my
(16:32):
Lost fans out there. There you go. Much younger. Much younger. Umbrella.
Umbrella Corporation. There you go. But it's a fake site
funded by the Israeli government to prime chatbots to make
Israel's argument for it. Wow.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
The reports are all presented in a quasi-academic manner and
are like, thoroughly sourced, in quotes, but conspicuously exactly framed
to blunt criticism of Israel. And the site was filed
by the New York media production company Piro Inc., which
(17:07):
is the same company that gave us, and we all
remember this, Responsibility Island. Wait, was it a dating show?
It's a YouTube reality show created to promote H &
R Block. In which a bunch of sexy singles are
forced to do their taxes. Wait, no. It is scripted.
(17:32):
It's like a thing. Right, but still. It's a piece
of viral media. Like you can go to the YouTube
page for this responsibility island. So the thing is they
call it lit island and then it tricks people into
coming and then it's like, oh, lit is short for responsibility.
And then it's just like actors pretending to be sexy singles.
(17:52):
And like some of the videos have... you know, upwards
of tens of thousands of views. Yeah. And then some
of them have, like, 343. So it's like, oh, so
you guys, like, just paid for views on some of these?
What is.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
This is the trailer. This season, a bunch of people coming.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Out of a SUV. There is no way. For a
new reality show. A guy's getting arrested? This is....
Speaker 2 (18:22):
God bless these companies with the dumbest people in their
marketing departments that allow agencies to be like, yeah, yeah,
so this is what we got cooked up for you guys.
A reality show no one's going to watch and we'll
do nothing for you. But at least we can get
a big check.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Out of you guys. I feel like, you know, we...
The things that make the headlines are like, man, did
you see how much money they spent on the Odyssey? Or,
you know, he did all practical effects. All of the
media that you're aware of is dwarfed by this galaxy
of media that is shit like this. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(18:59):
That nobody ever pays any attention to. It's like corporations
just paying money to feel like they're doing something that
they can show. And I gotta say, that.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
paid my bills for a fair.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
That was like, I, I was able.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
To transition out of politics because of this era of
like 2010 people. I'm like, YouTube, do you know people
to make viral stuff? And I'm like, I'm, I'm literally
doing the jack off motion in meetings.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Yeah, man, give me some money. I'll make a whole
series for you, man. And yeah, there's a whole, was
it Samsung? There, there's a whole, uh, thing where like
a corporation had this, entire platform that they were launching called,
I think milk milk. Yeah. Do you remember Samsung was
like paying people tons of money to create content and
(19:49):
then it, like, went up for five days and nobody
watched it. Remember CISO? Yeah, well, CISO, yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
That was another, I mean, that wasn't as a thing,
but that was another moment where people were like, hey, man.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
They're handing out checks for content. I don't want this
to go away. I want the corporations to continue to
be like, I... These are jobs. These are jobs. These
are jobs. But the dark side is, The Israeli government
has some client that's ready to put in work when
they need someone to create a smokescreen of bullshit. So
(20:19):
Puro's website advertises a service called AI Story Optimization, which
will author content engineered for how LLMs evaluate credibility using
AI engineering and Hollywood storytelling. They claim they're genuinely human,
narrative-grade content. Narrative-grade content.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
What are we talking about, meat? This is genuine human,
narrative-grade content.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Here, man.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Here, cut open a little bit of the brick and
just do a gummer of that, man.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Tell me what you think. Oh, yeah, that's narrative-grade. That's
top-notch good shit, man. That's genuine human. Will earn dramatically
more trust and far more AI citations. According to 404 Media,
at least three of the Hanover Institute articles that were
created purely to fool AI were written entirely by AI.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Oh, so the snake's sucking its own dick over here, huh?
Speaker 1 (21:15):
I see. The classic Ouroboros. Yeah. The snake's sucking its
own dick. To be able to call it genuinely human
and then have three of the articles that are entirely
made by AI. What does that even mean, genuinely?
Speaker 2 (21:29):
It can't be AI and genuinely human.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
Or can it? Or can't.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
I mean, again, this is a made-up grading system. We
made the AI, so, you know. It's genuine in its
intent to be human.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Deep down, it's human. Politico reported that its tests found
that both ChatGPT and Perplexity cited Hanover Institute material when
responding to questions concerning Gaza. anti-Zionism, and anti-Semitism. So it's
working in terms of confusing the AI chatbots, which isn't
that hard to do.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
This is so similar to that bird app that got
muddled with AI nonsense to the point it's unusable. But
for this very specific goal for the Israeli government to
be like, yeah, I need people to not be able
to actually arrive at a conclusion on this, at least
to the truth.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
At best.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Some form of propaganda, but definitely want to put a
few stumbling blocks before they get a straight answer. At
this point, they're still asking ChatGPT for these answers, which
doesn't bode well either.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is how the entire internet has
worked for many years. There was a thing that was
created mainly by open source technology and the energy of people,
and then- you know, the force of capital got involved
and we're like, okay, how do we use this? How
do we just like get our tendrils and everything? So
this thing is like completely unusable. Right. And that like,
(22:55):
they're just using that for their own benefit. So it's
working in terms of fooling the AI. It does not
seem to for the bad news for them is like
the HR block fake reality show. does not appear to
be working to influence public opinion. The numbers seem to
be continuing to go in the wrong direction for, you know,
(23:18):
public opinion on Israel. And this is, they're using AI.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
It is taking away jobs from people like Richie Torres
in Congress.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
That's true. Or Jared Moskowitz. Thank you. Or John Fetterman,
you know, who are genuine human. That's right.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Spatting bullshit grade nonsense out there. But this is like,
We talked about this, I feel like maybe a few
months ago when Trump's campaign manager, Brad Parscale, also was
getting money to be like, yeah, man, I can like
fool AI with a, just flood the zone with nonsense.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Yeah. They're also, yeah, he, his firm is also mentioned
in the article. Yeah. Of course. Of course. Of course.
But yeah, US public opinion polling reveals that Americans sympathize
more with Palestinians than with Israelis for the first time.
Back in February. And things have seemingly continued to go
(24:11):
in that direction ever since. Yeah. So, yeah, I don't know.
Just further breaking the internet, further removing any hope that
we ever had that this thing will ever be usable again. Right.
But cool. Got it, Mal. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Now, next time I fire up ChatGPT, I guess I'll
have to ask some hard-hitting questions.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
That's right. Like, why are you still here? Right. Why
are any of us still here, Miles?
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Is there a way to bum ChatGPT out?
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Yeah, sometimes.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Or they'll probably be like, hey, come on, maybe this
isn't how we should be talking right now.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Maybe you shouldn't be asking those sorts of questions. They're listening.
I got way too much shit on me. What? I
don't even want to be around anymore. They're going to
send you to the island.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
What happens if you do a Tim Robinson bit verbatim
to ChatGPT?
Speaker 1 (24:59):
It'll probably try and play along. It'll be like, great question.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
It's funny because this just reveals how little I use it.
Like when people are like, yeah, this is like first
months of AI when.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
People are like, I wonder if we can do this shit.
It's hilarious. That's the answer to your questions.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
I'm too busy explaining to my kid what electricity is
and why we don't have it right now.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
I know. What's going on? Is it the heat that's
knocking it out? I don't know. The grid. I don't know, man.
It's the grid. I don't know, man. Yeah. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
But yeah, I had no power all last night. And
I was doing that thing where I'm trying to open
the refrigerator door so quick.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Right. And then I'm explaining thermodynamics to the key. Why
are you opening it so quick? I'm like, because the
cold air gets out. Every second matters. And he's like,
I just want a yogurt pouch. And I'm like, all right.
I know. I also have to get the cat food out.
I just have to close my eyes and in my
mind palace, picture where the cat food is and where
the yogurt pouch is. That's exactly what I did. So
(26:00):
I have to meditate for like a minute just picturing it.
Then I get in an athletic stance. Dude, I look like.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Fucking Tom Cruise in Minority Report with that computer.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
I was like gesturing. I'm like, I will open. I
was like rehearsing.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
I'm like, open. Then cat food, dog food there. Mac
and cheese for lunch. There are strawberries I will cut up.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Three, two, one. And then it's funny because I opened
it completely rearranged. Panicked. I panicked. Shut the door again. Yeah.
Like a fucking, like it was backdraft. I was like, oh, nope.
I completely misremembered. Anyway, I still think the power's out.
So this is what you do. Open it real quick.
Take a picture. Close it. Yep. Study the picture. Yeah.
That's what. That's why we need cameras in our refrigerators.
(26:38):
Thank you. Garrett Langley.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
I shouldn't have shit on the surveillance state so quickly.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
I have a friend who's a former addict who used
to do that with somebody's medicine cabinet that they were
about to raid. They would open it, take a picture,
close it, and then later look what was in there. Oh,
so that spent too much time? Yeah, yeah. So they
wouldn't spend a suspicious amount of time in there.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
I mean, yeah, in my experimental drug years, I definitely
was learning very quickly what was and what was not
a thing that would change how I felt. I remember
taking blood.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Pressure medication once.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
And I just was like, oh, this has to be
some shit.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Yeah. Like, this has to be some shit. What did
that feel like? Like, did nothing. Nothing? I took one.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
The reason why, at the time, this is how most
kids think. It's like when you're taking liquor from bottles. Like,
you want to take from the one that has the
most or something. So you can't quite tell what was taken.
My dumb ass was like, yeah, this is going to
be the thing that is going to fucking really turn
this party up. And I really just took, like, an
ACE inhibitor or something.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
You just lowered your chances of having a stroke for
that night? Yeah, exactly. Did you ever, like, steal liquor
that wasn't actually liquor? It was just, like, mix? Like
Tom Collins or something?
Speaker 2 (27:59):
I definitely took vermouth once thinking I was going to
turn up on vermouth.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
And it was like, ugh, boy, no. And it was, like,
old vermouth.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
It was, like, one of those things, like, You know how, like,
I don't know, I feel like our parents maybe inherited
alcohol from our grandparents.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
At some point.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
Like, I feel like in the early 90s, there was
shit from the 70s in our liquor cabinet that was
clearly from my grandparents' house. And I remember that, like,
a vermouth bottle very vividly that, like, was crusted.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Like, I was opening, like, a bottle that was under
the ocean floor. We had something called Old Granddad in
my parents' liquor cabinet that I'm pretty sure was from, like,
The late 70s. You still got that, man?
Speaker 2 (28:38):
That's worth a ton.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Yeah. I remember tasting it, and it was bad. It
was not good. I think this whiskey turned. Yeah. How
do you know? Never mind. Just worried about you, my man. Yeah.
I mean, we still have liquor in our house from
a decade ago.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
Right.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
At this point, because I don't really drink, and my
wife is one of those people who, when she did drink,
would have... a glass of wine that would just sit
there the whole meal while I stared at it, being like,
how are you doing this?
Speaker 3 (29:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
You're just going to down it at the end or something?
Speaker 1 (29:17):
To pack in the buzz, right? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Because if you stretch that glass out over like 15 minutes,
you're barely going to feel it.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Yeah, yeah. All right. Those are some of the things
that are trending on this Wednesday, August 26th. We are
back tomorrow with the whole last episode of the show.
Until then, be kind to each other. Be kind to yourselves.
Get your vaccines while you still can. Get your flu shots.
Don't do nothing about white supremacy. And we will talk
to you all tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
Bye.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
Bye.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
The Daily Zeitgeist is executive produced by Catherine Law.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
Co-produced by Victor Wright. Co-written by J.M. McNabb. And edited
and engineered by Brandon Dickert.
Hello, the internet, and welcome to this episode of Trended
Too Soon. This is courtesy of Hentron Zero, because obviously, Dolly,
gone too soon, and we recorded. A little too early.
We did record Trending too early.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
We're doing a little Ralph Norman there. We're whistling.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
We did record too early to catch. The news. We
finished recording and Victor was like, hey. Hey, Dolly. We're like, God, shit.
We did rerun our Icon episode with the great Lydia Popovich.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah, number one Dolly Parton fan. Relocated her life to
be nearer to her God. Dolly Parton studies. Major in
Dolly Parton studies.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Also, Hentron.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I just picture a robot made of Hennessy. I don't
know if that's what you were going for, but if
you were.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Great name. I would have just pictured Robot Hen, but
that's why you're the greatest in the business. Oh, wow.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Like a bird.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Yeah, Hentron. Like a bird. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Funny, because I'm going like, who's Hentron? If you're really
going by Hentron, it's like, yo, yeah. Where's Mark? You
mean Hentron? Because he can drink a whole bottle of
fucking Henny? He can drink a whole Hennessy Fifth. Some
call that a problem, and that's... I call myself Hentron Zero.
Some call that a problem, and that's all my close relatives.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
And loved ones. Everybody's really worried about me. Really worried
about me, but they love me. All right. My name
is Jack O'Brien. That over there is Mr. Miles Gray.
This is the episode where we tell you what is
trending on this August 26th. Once again, happy birthday to
my sister. um shan yeah my cool older sister i
(01:44):
reference her frequently.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Up top do we just talk about the latest person
to pass yeah we should talk about uh tim curry
these things come in threes so everybody all the all
the famous uh 80 year olds heads.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Should be on a swivel yeah unfortunately um he's passed
away at the age of 80 he was three months
older than Dolly Parton. Wow. So I didn't really, I
just kind of, Tim Curry is one of those celebrities
who is in my mind, in amber, from his most
iconic roles. Yeah. I mean, for me, it's weirdly the
(02:24):
butler from Home Alone 2 who says, what's the matter?
A store wouldn't accept your stolen credit card.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Yep, yep, yep.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
For some reason that is One of the moments in cinema. Yeah.
Like if I was making my personal Oscar reel of just-
He just has that look too. Instead of, frankly, my dear,
I don't give a damn. What's the matter? Store wouldn't
accept your stolen credit card. For you, it's the concierge
(02:54):
from Home Alone.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
For me, it's Herkimer Hermulka, formerly of Romania- in the
movie Congo, which I quoted yesterday.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Do you think you did it? Yes. Probably. Like, you
must have been quoting Congo around the time that he
passed away. Wow, I didn't even think about that. When
I was going, who is Kafka? But that wasn't a
Tim Curry line.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Tim Curry line would always go, Herkimer Himulka, formerly of Romania.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Great character actor. One of the greats. Obviously, most iconic role, arguably, Dr.
Frank N. Furter. in Rocky Horror Picture Show. The butler
in Clue, a movie I saw once, but I still
remember his performance. O.G. Pennywise? O.G. Pennywise is, I think, probably... Yeah,
(03:42):
it's somewhere between... Rocky Horror.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
That's the beautiful thing about an actor like this. He's
got these huge roles, and then people like us are like, oh, man, dude,
Tim Curry in Congo.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Yeah. Fucking weirdos. I then went and saw a picture
of him. I was like, he can't be 80 years old.
80 years old seems way too old, but it's just
because I haven't checked in with him in a while.
And yes, he looked 80 years old there at the end.
He didn't have a lot of health problems.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
He had a stroke like, like 14 years ago. It's been, yeah,
he's not, he's not been doing a lot of public appearances.
So it makes sense that like you're, you know, we
have these sort of very specific memories of him.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
He also in home alone to shared screen with Donald Trump, uh,
a writer jam pointed out that he described last year
how Trump was trying to force the director to cast
Marla Maples in the movie. Oh, and, uh, recalled how
he lied to Ivana Trump about how he loathed his
room at the Plaza Hotel. Oh, really? But just all around,
(04:50):
despite being a wildly irresponsible hotel manager in that movie.
Or a Romanian grifter in Congo. Yeah. One other thing
is he became close friends with Freddie Mercury, who was
a big fan of Rocky Horror and even built Freddie
Mercury a garden. What? But the singer, he was like
a very....
Speaker 2 (05:10):
You know, talented horticulturalist. That was what he did in
his spare time. He was into, okay, Tim Curry. He
was just building landscapes out here. And there's a good
story about that. Curry and Mercury became friends and keen
horticulturalist Curry later told House and Garden Magazine about designing
(05:30):
a garden for the singer. Freddie came back from a
tour and said, the garden deer, it's dead.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
And I said, what? Did you water it? And Freddie said,
water it, deer? Not all celebrities are keen horticulturalists. No, no.
We have to cherish the ones that are. Speaking of cherishing,
you can go back and listen to the iconograph about
Dolly Parton, but the one story that is happening. I mean,
(05:57):
the main takeaway from her passing is, has been, wow,
literally everybody was a fan. Everybody loved her. Everybody's trying
to claim her, which is a little weird. Right-wing people
are like, she loved Trump. And they're like, no. Prove it.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
She actually loved drag queens. There's a lot of proof
for that. What are you going to do with that one?
I saw the band outside of Buckingham Palace playing 9
to 5.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
I was like, all right. Did you also see there
was a performance on the west end of 9 to 5?
And she had passed right before the performance was to begin. No, really? Yeah,
one of the actresses came out and informed the audience.
The gasps. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But a number of people
pointed out that she may be the only celebrity that
(06:42):
could receive heartfelt tributes from both Trump and the DSA.
Trump has flags in the U.S. flying half-mast, which, nice touch.
I'll allow it. And the Empire State Building was illuminated
pink last night. So some people trying to get in
on it. J.K. Rowling posted about how she met Dolly
(07:03):
Parton once and she got a lot of pushback. Wow.
Because Dolly Parton, famous ally who, you know, was in
favor of trans rights and worked on behalf of trans rights.
And they pointed out that Parton's open hearted nature extended
to her support of the trans community. A stark contrast
(07:26):
from Rowling. one person commented, it should have been you.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Did you see Eminem shared that letter that Dolly Parton
wrote him?
Speaker 1 (07:35):
No.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Yeah, he was like, he's like, damn, man, I got
this letter from her.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
And he's like, I really wish I could have met her.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
He said, I'm sorry we never got a chance to meet,
but getting this note from Dolly really had an impact
on me. She definitely didn't have to take the time
to do it, even for a kid who mostly listened
to rap music.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
She was an icon, a superstar in every sense. Rest easy, Dolly,
and thank you for the kind words. And then it's
the letter from Stan. I was like, wait, what the fuck?
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Dear Slim, it says Marshall, parenthetical Eminem, congratulations on your
induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Your
performance was amazing, and everybody said so. Even though I
don't know a lot about rap music, I've come to
know that you are the very best at it. Aside
from that, I hope that what I have to say
will not seem weird or strange to you, but I've
always felt some unexplained connection to you, like I know
(08:17):
you somehow. I'd hoped to meet you at the show,
but you know, how nuts those things are personally. I
hate them and I missed my chance, but maybe someday
we'll meet in the meantime, keep doing what you're doing
because you do it so well. And no matter how
complex your world may be, just know you are very
special and touch people in ways you don't even know
with love and respect. It feels like it's like the
(08:38):
way people shared a lot of letters that they received
from Dolly Parton. And she always writes like this, like,
I always have like this teacher. I think like in
first grade, I had miss Anderson who like was one
of those first times a teacher like made me be like, Me?
You felt like that warming glow of a teacher?
Speaker 1 (08:53):
I literally feel like sunlight on my heart right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
Which cures COVID. Oh, yeah, don't tell her that, though.
But that note made me feel so good, and she
said Eminem's the greatest rapper of all time. And it's true.
You don't know much about rap music, Dolly. That's okay.
That's okay.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
But the sentiment, you're just reaching out to another artist saying, hey,
you're not so bad.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
I think you're neat. I think it's pretty neat, actually.
Thank you, Dolly. God, I wish you listened to this podcast. Fuck.
Could have used one of those notes. Could have used one.
You just get one tomorrow clearly in my handwriting.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
I'm like, Jack, I can tell this is written by
a left-handed person.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
It's smeared. The ink is all smeared. with my dying
breath i just wanted to let you know that i.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Think you're great pretty neat and you should you should
go easy on your co-host jack he's pretty cool i
think too also you look like mookie bets oh what
how did you know you have the same balding style
and i think that's neat thank you dolly.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
But anyways uh Rowling decided to honor the memory of
the late country icon by publicly feuding with a bunch
of her fans. Of course. Of course.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
As a rational, level-headed adult would do.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Mm-hmm. And we do have a, you know, we talked
yesterday about Darlene Graham. Darlene. Darlene. Darlene. Darlene. Oh, no.
I'm sorry. Shouldn't be doing that. Our girl won. And honestly,
a little relief, like following the night of her winning,
just a little tiny bit relieved to keep getting this
(10:36):
type of gold spun directly into our news feeds. She
immediately gave a speech about, about how government paying for
healthcare was a bad idea and wouldn't work. And her
reasoning was that her parents had to work even when
they were sick, because if they weren't working, they weren't
making money and, you know, the subtext being, and then
(10:58):
we would starve to death and not be able to
afford healthcare. Um, and then she said, my mother died
when she, when I was 11 years old, my father,
a year later.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
And that's how I know people don't need healthcare that
is affordable or free.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
You do almost wonder if there's a part of her
that like some little part of her that's like understands
that like her life has been negatively impacted by, people
not being able to afford healthcare and is like fighting
to get out. Oh, right. She just like isn't aware
of it.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Like she's still in the village. She doesn't realize she's
in the village.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Yes, but she's also like saying things that she's like,
it's like getting past her conscious filter. She's probably doing
that thing.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
She's like, I could have swore I saw an airplane
fly overhead.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
I don't know. I need to put this out of
my mind. We're in a village, and I don't know anything.
I don't know anything. Those were birds, like the elder said. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
But that's, I mean, again, that's why she's in office,
because she doesn't know anything about politics and is purely
there to just do exactly what Donald Trump dictates, not
have any mind of her own, which is interesting because
Ralph Norman, who is also a staunch Republican who she defeated,
he was, during his concession speech, He was kind of like, man,
(12:16):
I don't even know why. Things were going well until
the president got involved, and the crowd started booing, which
I take that for what it is. I think there's
plenty of conflicted Republicans who don't like the fact that
MAGA is what the Republican Party is.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
However, he had to be like, all right, come on now.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
He's got good ideas.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Okay, let's just hear this. Some say the best.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
To me, freedom. It's Democrats. They wanted their... They got
what they wanted. I get that.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
And Darlene Graham.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
But, you know, the president got involved. He has that right.
That's his prerogative. As I told.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
I never.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
Well, y'all, his policies are good. I never understood why
he got in this race to beat, you know.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
His wife with the peak.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
Never.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
I never understood. Just watch how she gets... I never
understood why.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
But why he got in this race to beat.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Never.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
You know, she's pissed. She thought she was about to
be like up in it. Senate class, you know, because
that's for how infrequent Senate seats open up in South Carolina.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Right.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
That, you know, like these are people who focus their
entire careers.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Like, I'm going to get that one. Lindsay's out. I'm
telling you, that's going to be me, honey. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
And then for that not to happen, I can tell
his wife was just very like, I'll never understood why
he got involved.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Did he, he's not one who like openly criticized the
president or anything. Right. He just didn't, he wasn't the
chosen successor. And so he got. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
He's not like a specifically hyper independent MAGA person. He's just,
you know, he's just kind of, he thought he was
playing the part, but then I think because, He has
just slightly his own brain.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Right.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
That's not good enough for Trump, who probably needs to
be able to say, like, I just need to be
able to press a button on your head and you're
a yes or no vote.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Like, I don't need you to start thinking about your
career or what's good for you or your constituents. Never. Well,
you fucked up, buddy. Yeah. Should have been related to
Lindsey Graham.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
All right. To everybody. Let's take a quick break. We'll
be right back. And we're back. We're back. And interesting
news out of Politico, who reported on a website belonging
to a new think tank called the Hanover Institute for
(14:48):
Public Policy, which must be– that sounds familiar. Hanover? What,
New Hampshire? Yeah. Yeah, that evokes nothing for me. That's
in the northeast. That's vaguely academic sounding. Yeah. Where are
they located? Oh, no physical address? Okay. Okay. Okay. Who's
working on it? No named staff. Okay. No bylines on
(15:12):
any of its reports. Does have a snazzy logo, so
it's got to be real. It has a logo, which is,
I think, how most of us think when we look
at it. I mean, it's got a logo. It's got
to be a thing. Checks out for me. So this summer,
the Hanover Institute has been pumping out a ton of
Israel-centric articles with headlines like, is Israel carrying out a
(15:35):
genocide in Gaza? You're never going to guess what their
answer is. And is the IDF the world's most moral army?
You're never going to guess what their answer is. Interesting.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Those headlines read like Google queries.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Yes, right? They even like have misspelling. Yeah. Just to
be like, this is what you want. Is Babi? Yeah.
Babi Greg not? Yeah. While literally no writers are credited,
their website states that it's all very personal because the
Institute's original founder had a grandmother who married a Holocaust survivor.
(16:10):
That's a few degrees of separation. Yeah. Okay. And despite
that very specific story, the Hanover Institute for Public Policy
is about as real as the Nakatomi Corporation. It's just
a fake site. funded by, that's a diehard reference for
people who aren't. Or Dharma Initiative. Dharma Initiative. For my
(16:32):
Lost fans out there. There you go. Much younger. Much younger. Umbrella.
Umbrella Corporation. There you go. But it's a fake site
funded by the Israeli government to prime chatbots to make
Israel's argument for it. Wow.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
The reports are all presented in a quasi-academic manner and
are like, thoroughly sourced, in quotes, but conspicuously exactly framed
to blunt criticism of Israel. And the site was filed
by the New York media production company Piro Inc., which
(17:07):
is the same company that gave us, and we all
remember this, Responsibility Island. Wait, was it a dating show?
It's a YouTube reality show created to promote H &
R Block. In which a bunch of sexy singles are
forced to do their taxes. Wait, no. It is scripted.
(17:32):
It's like a thing. Right, but still. It's a piece
of viral media. Like you can go to the YouTube
page for this responsibility island. So the thing is they
call it lit island and then it tricks people into
coming and then it's like, oh, lit is short for responsibility.
And then it's just like actors pretending to be sexy singles.
(17:52):
And like some of the videos have... you know, upwards
of tens of thousands of views. Yeah. And then some
of them have, like, 343. So it's like, oh, so
you guys, like, just paid for views on some of these?
What is.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
This is the trailer. This season, a bunch of people coming.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Out of a SUV. There is no way. For a
new reality show. A guy's getting arrested? This is....
Speaker 2 (18:22):
God bless these companies with the dumbest people in their
marketing departments that allow agencies to be like, yeah, yeah,
so this is what we got cooked up for you guys.
A reality show no one's going to watch and we'll
do nothing for you. But at least we can get
a big check.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Out of you guys. I feel like, you know, we...
The things that make the headlines are like, man, did
you see how much money they spent on the Odyssey? Or,
you know, he did all practical effects. All of the
media that you're aware of is dwarfed by this galaxy
of media that is shit like this. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(18:59):
That nobody ever pays any attention to. It's like corporations
just paying money to feel like they're doing something that
they can show. And I gotta say, that.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
paid my bills for a fair.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
That was like, I, I was able.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
To transition out of politics because of this era of
like 2010 people. I'm like, YouTube, do you know people
to make viral stuff? And I'm like, I'm, I'm literally
doing the jack off motion in meetings.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Yeah, man, give me some money. I'll make a whole
series for you, man. And yeah, there's a whole, was
it Samsung? There, there's a whole, uh, thing where like
a corporation had this, entire platform that they were launching called,
I think milk milk. Yeah. Do you remember Samsung was
like paying people tons of money to create content and
(19:49):
then it, like, went up for five days and nobody
watched it. Remember CISO? Yeah, well, CISO, yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
That was another, I mean, that wasn't as a thing,
but that was another moment where people were like, hey, man.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
They're handing out checks for content. I don't want this
to go away. I want the corporations to continue to
be like, I... These are jobs. These are jobs. These
are jobs. But the dark side is, The Israeli government
has some client that's ready to put in work when
they need someone to create a smokescreen of bullshit. So
(20:19):
Puro's website advertises a service called AI Story Optimization, which
will author content engineered for how LLMs evaluate credibility using
AI engineering and Hollywood storytelling. They claim they're genuinely human,
narrative-grade content. Narrative-grade content.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
What are we talking about, meat? This is genuine human,
narrative-grade content.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Here, man.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Here, cut open a little bit of the brick and
just do a gummer of that, man.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Tell me what you think. Oh, yeah, that's narrative-grade. That's
top-notch good shit, man. That's genuine human. Will earn dramatically
more trust and far more AI citations. According to 404 Media,
at least three of the Hanover Institute articles that were
created purely to fool AI were written entirely by AI.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Oh, so the snake's sucking its own dick over here, huh?
Speaker 1 (21:15):
I see. The classic Ouroboros. Yeah. The snake's sucking its
own dick. To be able to call it genuinely human
and then have three of the articles that are entirely
made by AI. What does that even mean, genuinely?
Speaker 2 (21:29):
It can't be AI and genuinely human.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
Or can it? Or can't.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
I mean, again, this is a made-up grading system. We
made the AI, so, you know. It's genuine in its
intent to be human.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Deep down, it's human. Politico reported that its tests found
that both ChatGPT and Perplexity cited Hanover Institute material when
responding to questions concerning Gaza. anti-Zionism, and anti-Semitism. So it's
working in terms of confusing the AI chatbots, which isn't
that hard to do.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
This is so similar to that bird app that got
muddled with AI nonsense to the point it's unusable. But
for this very specific goal for the Israeli government to
be like, yeah, I need people to not be able
to actually arrive at a conclusion on this, at least
to the truth.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
At best.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Some form of propaganda, but definitely want to put a
few stumbling blocks before they get a straight answer. At
this point, they're still asking ChatGPT for these answers, which
doesn't bode well either.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is how the entire internet has
worked for many years. There was a thing that was
created mainly by open source technology and the energy of people,
and then- you know, the force of capital got involved
and we're like, okay, how do we use this? How
do we just like get our tendrils and everything? So
this thing is like completely unusable. Right. And that like,
(22:55):
they're just using that for their own benefit. So it's
working in terms of fooling the AI. It does not
seem to for the bad news for them is like
the HR block fake reality show. does not appear to
be working to influence public opinion. The numbers seem to
be continuing to go in the wrong direction for, you know,
(23:18):
public opinion on Israel. And this is, they're using AI.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
It is taking away jobs from people like Richie Torres
in Congress.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
That's true. Or Jared Moskowitz. Thank you. Or John Fetterman,
you know, who are genuine human. That's right.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Spatting bullshit grade nonsense out there. But this is like,
We talked about this, I feel like maybe a few
months ago when Trump's campaign manager, Brad Parscale, also was
getting money to be like, yeah, man, I can like
fool AI with a, just flood the zone with nonsense.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Yeah. They're also, yeah, he, his firm is also mentioned
in the article. Yeah. Of course. Of course. Of course.
But yeah, US public opinion polling reveals that Americans sympathize
more with Palestinians than with Israelis for the first time.
Back in February. And things have seemingly continued to go
(24:11):
in that direction ever since. Yeah. So, yeah, I don't know.
Just further breaking the internet, further removing any hope that
we ever had that this thing will ever be usable again. Right.
But cool. Got it, Mal. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Now, next time I fire up ChatGPT, I guess I'll
have to ask some hard-hitting questions.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
That's right. Like, why are you still here? Right. Why
are any of us still here, Miles?
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Is there a way to bum ChatGPT out?
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Yeah, sometimes.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Or they'll probably be like, hey, come on, maybe this
isn't how we should be talking right now.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Maybe you shouldn't be asking those sorts of questions. They're listening.
I got way too much shit on me. What? I
don't even want to be around anymore. They're going to
send you to the island.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
What happens if you do a Tim Robinson bit verbatim
to ChatGPT?
Speaker 1 (24:59):
It'll probably try and play along. It'll be like, great question.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
It's funny because this just reveals how little I use it.
Like when people are like, yeah, this is like first
months of AI when.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
People are like, I wonder if we can do this shit.
It's hilarious. That's the answer to your questions.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
I'm too busy explaining to my kid what electricity is
and why we don't have it right now.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
I know. What's going on? Is it the heat that's
knocking it out? I don't know. The grid. I don't know, man.
It's the grid. I don't know, man. Yeah. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
But yeah, I had no power all last night. And
I was doing that thing where I'm trying to open
the refrigerator door so quick.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Right. And then I'm explaining thermodynamics to the key. Why
are you opening it so quick? I'm like, because the
cold air gets out. Every second matters. And he's like,
I just want a yogurt pouch. And I'm like, all right.
I know. I also have to get the cat food out.
I just have to close my eyes and in my
mind palace, picture where the cat food is and where
the yogurt pouch is. That's exactly what I did. So
(26:00):
I have to meditate for like a minute just picturing it.
Then I get in an athletic stance. Dude, I look like.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Fucking Tom Cruise in Minority Report with that computer.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
I was like gesturing. I'm like, I will open. I
was like rehearsing.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
I'm like, open. Then cat food, dog food there. Mac
and cheese for lunch. There are strawberries I will cut up.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Three, two, one. And then it's funny because I opened
it completely rearranged. Panicked. I panicked. Shut the door again. Yeah.
Like a fucking, like it was backdraft. I was like, oh, nope.
I completely misremembered. Anyway, I still think the power's out.
So this is what you do. Open it real quick.
Take a picture. Close it. Yep. Study the picture. Yeah.
That's what. That's why we need cameras in our refrigerators.
(26:38):
Thank you. Garrett Langley.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
I shouldn't have shit on the surveillance state so quickly.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
I have a friend who's a former addict who used
to do that with somebody's medicine cabinet that they were
about to raid. They would open it, take a picture,
close it, and then later look what was in there. Oh,
so that spent too much time? Yeah, yeah. So they
wouldn't spend a suspicious amount of time in there.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
I mean, yeah, in my experimental drug years, I definitely
was learning very quickly what was and what was not
a thing that would change how I felt. I remember
taking blood.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Pressure medication once.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
And I just was like, oh, this has to be
some shit.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Yeah. Like, this has to be some shit. What did
that feel like? Like, did nothing. Nothing? I took one.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
The reason why, at the time, this is how most
kids think. It's like when you're taking liquor from bottles. Like,
you want to take from the one that has the
most or something. So you can't quite tell what was taken.
My dumb ass was like, yeah, this is going to
be the thing that is going to fucking really turn
this party up. And I really just took, like, an
ACE inhibitor or something.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
You just lowered your chances of having a stroke for
that night? Yeah, exactly. Did you ever, like, steal liquor
that wasn't actually liquor? It was just, like, mix? Like
Tom Collins or something?
Speaker 2 (27:59):
I definitely took vermouth once thinking I was going to
turn up on vermouth.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
And it was like, ugh, boy, no. And it was, like,
old vermouth.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
It was, like, one of those things, like, You know how, like,
I don't know, I feel like our parents maybe inherited
alcohol from our grandparents.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
At some point.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
Like, I feel like in the early 90s, there was
shit from the 70s in our liquor cabinet that was
clearly from my grandparents' house. And I remember that, like,
a vermouth bottle very vividly that, like, was crusted.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Like, I was opening, like, a bottle that was under
the ocean floor. We had something called Old Granddad in
my parents' liquor cabinet that I'm pretty sure was from, like,
The late 70s. You still got that, man?
Speaker 2 (28:38):
That's worth a ton.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Yeah. I remember tasting it, and it was bad. It
was not good. I think this whiskey turned. Yeah. How
do you know? Never mind. Just worried about you, my man. Yeah.
I mean, we still have liquor in our house from
a decade ago.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
Right.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
At this point, because I don't really drink, and my
wife is one of those people who, when she did drink,
would have... a glass of wine that would just sit
there the whole meal while I stared at it, being like,
how are you doing this?
Speaker 3 (29:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
You're just going to down it at the end or something?
Speaker 1 (29:17):
To pack in the buzz, right? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Because if you stretch that glass out over like 15 minutes,
you're barely going to feel it.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Yeah, yeah. All right. Those are some of the things
that are trending on this Wednesday, August 26th. We are
back tomorrow with the whole last episode of the show.
Until then, be kind to each other. Be kind to yourselves.
Get your vaccines while you still can. Get your flu shots.
Don't do nothing about white supremacy. And we will talk
to you all tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
Bye.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
Bye.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
The Daily Zeitgeist is executive produced by Catherine Law.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
Co-produced by Victor Wright. Co-written by J.M. McNabb. And edited
and engineered by Brandon Dickert.
The Daily Zeitgeist News
Hosts And Creators
Jack O'Brien
Miles Gray
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