Single Teens, Journalism on the Decline & the Climate Crisis in Hollywood

ICYMI: Hour Two of ‘Later, with Mo’Kelly’ Presents – Guest Host Chris Merrill filling in with a look at a new study that reveals “today's teens more content being single, than in a relationship’…PLUS – The pursuit of careers in Journalism is facing a dangerous decline AND Hollywood is desperately looking for ways to tell better stories about the climate crisis - on KFI AM 640…Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
You're listening to Later with Moe Kellyon Demand from KFI AM six forty.
Little known fact about me, Iactually wrote single Ladies. Beyonce stole it
for me. My lawyers are lookinginto what kind of options I have,
but it's true. In fact,let me give you a few bars.

(00:23):
This is I mean. I wasgonna be a multi platinum artist soon.
All the single ladies, all thesingle ladies, all the single ladies,
all the single ladies. See nowthat you hear it, now that you
hear me singing it, you go, oh, yeah, we see it.
Beyonce really ruined the original, didn'tshe. Now. The reason I

(00:47):
was inspired to write about all thesingle ladies was I was looking at all
the youngsters that all the kids statesthat don't like to They don't like to,
Yeah, no they don't. Infact, they don't even necessarily like
to date. There was once atime when you were a youngster and you

(01:11):
were you were hitting the puberty,and you couldn't wait to date somebody.
You were nervous as all get outto ask somebody to go with you or
to go steady. You are allkinds of nervous. But when it happened
cloud nine. Somebody likes me veryvalidant. It's wonderful. Something is changed

(01:34):
and I don't know exactly what itis, but young, it's not just
me. A study you show thisPersonality and Social Psychology bulletin, which is
one of the periodicals you probably havealready seen it. I know that you
probably have that on your coffee team. It examines how satisfaction with being single
has changed over time for different agegroups. The most striking finding is that

(01:55):
adolescence who were born between one andthree reports significantly higher satisfaction with singlehood compared
to those born just a decade earlier. The trend, they say, appears
to be unique to teenagers. Thestudy found no similar increases in singlehood satisfaction
among adults in their twenties and thirties, but teens like being single. From

(02:19):
the article, they actually use thephrase nowadays, God bless Nowadays is one
of those terms us old people usewhen we talk about the way things aren't.
Adolescents nowadays may be postponing entering relationships, prioritizing personal autonomy and individual fulfillment
over romantic involvement, and embracing singlehoodmore openly. The researchers speculate. They

(02:43):
do caution that more investigation is neededto understand the exact reasons behind the ship.
But I want you to think aboutthis when you're dating in your teens.
Very few of us find our lifepartners in our teams, and we
know that people are actually get marriedless. The younger generations aren't as interested
in tying than non They're more interestedin dating, not necessarily long term committing.

(03:07):
So that is another shift that's changed. So once you once you are
in a committed relationship, you don'tnecessarily want to go through the next step.
But at the same time, wesee that there are more and more
people who are simply cohabitating and theyare they're doing the whole What do they

(03:28):
call that a bromate? Yeah,it's it's not a roommate, it's a
bromate. We're buying a house together. Don't do that. Don't buy a
house to friend. Don't buy ahouse to friend. And if you do,
make sure that you've got a contractdrawn up ahead of time, so
that if one of you wants toleave or one of you wants to move
your your new fiance in that youuh have it spelled out. This is

(03:49):
what's going to happen. Get thatahead of time. See when you're married,
you've got that contract, and thenwhen you when you buy the house,
that is that is the property betweenthe two of you. And so
if something were to happen in themarriage, there's already a process were splitting
up assets. If you go andbuy something with a buddy and then you
decide you're mad at each other,or your buddy sleeps with your girlfriend or

(04:12):
something of that sort, now you'retied to a house together and it's very
awkward. So get out of that. But I want to go back to
this, the whole not dating inthe teams, being single and just not
having a relationship in the teens.I'm concerned about genuine that because we're not
because we're seeing some Gen zs andyoung millennials that have decided they're going to

(04:32):
postpone marriage and certainly postpone starting afamily, starting a family later in smaller
families, I'm not so concerned aboutthat. What I'm concerned with is teens
not dating. Is that's when welearn think back to when you were a
teenager, maybe you were a freshman, sophomore in high school, maybe you're
a jnior high I don't know whenyou started dating. I had my first

(04:54):
girlfriend when I was a sophire Itwas a long term high school relationship.
We date for two months, soI mean at that point you're basically picking
out caskets together in high school.I mean that was long term. So
we were together for two months,and you know what I learned. I

(05:17):
learned I'm a bad kisser? Whatand two I learned an awful lot about
relationships. It wasn't until later thatI was able to reflect back and figure
out what I had learned. Andwhat I learned was I had a lot
of growing to do. And thenfuture relationships, we start to learn how

(05:38):
to deal with people in a relationship. We start to learn other perspectives,
and that comes through trial and errorin our teenage years. Some people marry
their high school sweethearts. That's fine, congratulations. If you did that,
whatever, you're in the distinct minority, and I'm sure you already know that.
For most of us dating in juniorhigh and high school, that's practice.

(06:00):
That's practice so that when we aremature enough to get into a long
term relationship, we've already made abunch of mistakes along the way. When
the teens today are not getting intopractice relationships dating right they decide I want
to be single for one reason oranother. Maybe they cherish their friend friend
group more than they do one onone time. Maybe they they they're not

(06:23):
going out socially physically together. Maybethey're doing a lot of online conversations and
that doesn't really lead to much inthe way of a relationship. Whatever it
is, they're not getting the practicethat they need. We talking about practice,
man, We're talking about practice,and they're not getting the practice that
they need to get better at relationshipslater on. And of course, if

(06:46):
they're not better at relationships later on, that means they're they're they're not going
to get married. And if they'renot getting married, that means they don't
have dual income. And if theydon't have dual income, it makes it
very difficult to buy a house.It makes it very difficult to grow equity
in that home. You can becomea forever renter and then you are part
of the system and has got histhumb on you all because you didn't want
to date in the high school.That may be a slippery slope parcument,
but I'm here here. Well,moral of the story, tell your teenage

(07:14):
kids to get out on the scene, put the headphones down, stop playing
your Xbox, get out there andask somebody out for the love of Pete,
America depends on it. I'm ChrisMerril. I am six forty.
We are live everywhere on your iHeartRadioapp. You're listening to Later with Moe
Kelly on demand from KFI AM sixforty. I have just pository information here.

(07:42):
I have three kids. They're ontheir twenties, and my oldest would
be considered millennial. My youngest twowould be considered gen c. My daughter
is twenty six, and my son, who's twenty fine about finds try to
nineteen months apart in something so myoldest son twenty nine years old. He

(08:07):
is constantly on the Zilla trying tofigure out if he can buy a house.
I want to buy a house.I want to buy a house.
I want to buy a house.I want to buy a house, and
wants to buy a house so bad. He's he's kind of at that point
where he had a bit of adelayed maturation in his twenties, and now
he's at the point where he wantsto catch up. He's got friends that
have had some successes. He's doingfine. By the way, he's doing
fine. He's working it, andhe's trying to do more cybersecurity. He's

(08:31):
got some ambition. He's got astable girlfriend. I'm so excited about that.
She's really good for him. Butnow he wants to he wants to
have a house, wants to havea house, wants to have a house.
It's really trying to get his acttogether. And I could not be
proud of My other two have nointerest in owning their own home. None
single. Renting is fine. Justowning a house is It's not even like

(08:56):
it's not even like it's a thoughtand then almost a hopeless dream. It's
just like they've accepted that not goingto do that. Steep housing costs,
according to Axios, are putting genZ home ownership dreams on hold. Gen
Zers, as I mentioned, mydaughter twenty six, twenty seven is the
top of the gen Zes feel deeplypessimistic about the world around them. There's

(09:22):
nothing left to put away for adown payment after shelling out for rent and
other bills and saving for retirement.According to one renter out of Minneapolis who's
twenty three years old, talking toAxios, a renter in Dallas. Unless
someone's married or they get home buyinghelp from family, I don't see how
gen Z can't afford it. Andthen some say that they'd rather rent in

(09:45):
buzzy neighborhoods than cough up for housesfurther from the action. We all know,
the further you get from quote unquotethe action, the cheaper it is,
the more you get for your money. But also you've got to sit
in traffic so long. Nobody knowsthat better than southern California. Many younger
adults struggling to swing pricey rents,and they're returning to their childhood bedrooms or

(10:05):
basements. They're moving back in withmom and dad. And you know how
much mom and dad love having somebodyelse back in the nest. We were
just getting used to not having youhere. New York Times is running a
spread that was talking about how peoplespent their money based on age in nineteen

(10:26):
seventy two. This is particularly sillientto me only because my father turned eighteen
in nineteen seventy two. Graduate highschool nineteen seventy two, was very worried
about being drafted and his number nevercame up. It was Fortunately my mother
was three years older. Okay,so for them, this is somebody who's

(10:46):
first going out on their own,both going to college, out on their
own. In nineteen seventy two,here we go the typical American household housing
costs including rent payment toward mortgage principle, mortgage interests and charges, property tactics,
property taxes, and maintenance and insurance. In nineteen seventy two, you

(11:09):
would spend about twenty percent of yourincome on housing today. And we're only
talking about the medium, right,We're not even talking about the people are
spending twenty seven percent on their housing, right. Spending on restaurants has actually

(11:31):
remained pretty similar, entertainment pretty similar. Both of those, About five to
six percent of your income has beenspent on that. So where's the cost
gone way up? Housing? Whenit comes to transportation, nineteen seventy two,
people spent about twenty percent of theirincome on transportation. Today, they
spent about nineteen percent on transportation.Let be your car or whatever you're using

(11:52):
for transit. When it comes tofood, as much as we have been
pained recently because of inflation, andwe've food costs explode nineteen seventy two.
Again, you spend about twenty percentof her income on that. Today we
spend about fifteen percent. You knowwhat has gone up though, other than
housing healthcare, we used to spendabout five percent. Now we're spending closer

(12:16):
to ten percent. These are twothings that are big expenses. These are
major monthly hits. Housing and healthcare, cost of insurance. The cost of
these things has continued to go up. The cost of clothing has come down,
cost of entertainment has we made prettysteady. The cost of education,
surprisingly, as a percentage of yourincome, hasn't gone up that much,

(12:39):
although student loans and the debt thatwe take out on it far far more.
I was fascinated to read these studiesbecause some in my mind, some
of the numbers didn't seem right.Like food I would have expected to be
much higher today than it was fiftyyears ago, not really. Education I
would have expected to be much highertoday than fifty years ago. Not really.

(13:03):
However, what is interesting, though, is the debt that we've taken
on, which is significantly more todaythan it was again fifty years ago.
So while we might not be spendingmoney on groceries, and produce like we
were back then. Largely, Ithink because of subsidies the farmers are getting.

(13:24):
We are spending so much on ourhousing where so many of us are
house poor. Nobody is house poorer. A poor house poorer been in California
right New York City, Washington,d C, Hawaii and pretty much any
of the big cities in California,or even the West coast North Seattle in

(13:46):
there too, houseport and it's crushingnuts. So here you've got gen Z
that says it's out of reach.They're giving up on the dream of home
ownership altogether because frankly, I justdon't see how they're ever gonna be able
to save enough money even from thedown payment. That sucks. You're listening

(14:07):
too later with Moe Kelly on demandfrom KFI AM six forty if you've been
watching the news lately. But thereare a number of different layoffs going on
and shake ups at some of themajor news media outlets. He had lakeups
at the layoffs at the La Timesthis year, Time Magazine, NBC News,

(14:28):
Forbes, National Geographic, Business Insider, and remember Sports Illustrated. It
looked like that was gonna go away, but then somebody swooped in last minute
and saved my swimsuitition, thank goodness. So an awful lot of people in
journalism are feeling burned out and they'regetting out of the game. They're going,
I'm outing here, I don't wantto do this. And what's happening

(14:52):
too is that it becomes more andmore difficult to recruit new journalists. It's
more and more difficult to inspire youngpeople to join the workforce in the world
of journalism because they feel like they'reand it's to some degree always been that
it's a thankless job. So rightnow you don't like something. In fact,

(15:15):
even listening to the presidential debate,at one point, Joe Biden said
something about Donald Trump calling uh theSea soldiers suckers and losers, and Trump
said that that was a it wasa no good magazine that that reported that,
and that we had witnesses to sayotherwise, Well, you don't have

(15:37):
witnesses to something that didn't happen,right, So if his assertion is it
didn't happen, you would have nowitnesses anyway, because like saying, I
have witnesses that Chris jumped off theEmpire State Building no, you don't have
any witnesses, right. I can'tcome forward and tell you that I have

(15:58):
witnesses that I didn't because the onlyevidence is that I'm standing here, right,
So there would be no witnesses tosomething that didn't happen. But it
doesn't matter. Blame the media forthe reporting. We claim media is all
off, and we have people thatlike to attack the media for doing their
jobs, for not doing their jobs, for not doing the job that we

(16:19):
want them to do, for reportinga story we didn't want to hear,
for not reporting a story we didwant to hear. And if you are
in high school right now, andyou excel at English, and you excel
at some of these other traits thatwe find in journalists, maybe you're curious,
maybe you're nosy, maybe you likedbeing in your book, maybe you

(16:41):
work for the student newspaper, whateverit is, do you want to set
yourself up for a life of constantlybeing blamed for everything that goes wrong.
We have conversations oftentimes about hiring problemsthat they have within police forces, and
many, many times we are goingto hear that the reason that we have

(17:04):
the shortages of cops across America isbecause we have demonized cops for so long,
and this is why the streets aren'tsafe. It's because we've turned against
police. Some of that might betrue, right, Some of that might
be true. We may have senta message that there's no respect for law
enforcement any longer, or at leastthat might be the message some people are

(17:27):
hearing. Okay, But how isthat any different than the message that journalists
are the problem. So if nobodywants to be a cop because we blame
cops for things and cops are villainized, why would journalists be any different.
So scholars of journalism are studying theeffects of the shrinking press sport, and

(17:48):
they focus on how it hurts acivil society. Right, they say,
listen, we're getting news deserts.We've got more people who are having difficult
time making educated decisions around a politicalengagement. This will study find fewer reporters
means less oversight of people wielding politicaland economic power. In other words,

(18:11):
the fourth of state is weakened.But I gotta tell you the idea that
we're having a more and more difficulttime recruiting the next generation of people who
are going to keep our elected officialson the up and up is a massive
concern, massive concern. One ofthe other thing, too, is if

(18:32):
you are in journalism thankless general,when do you feel like when do you
feel like you are making it?In fact, at what point do the
journalists who are already working become whatis it the gen Z likes to call
it? Drives me that the TikTokers, what do they say? It's quiet
quitting? They just mailing it.Okay, I'll just write up a story.

(18:56):
Oftentimes I would even say this,if you're watching some of the debate
and analysis, I always feel likethe data analysis is oftentimes so disingenuous.
Just be real, tell me whythis was important, tell me how we
got to this point, and oftentimeswill hear well, I thought that the
stance of the podium was off andthis was that, and that was that.

(19:17):
Listen, I'm as guilty as anybody. I just want to get a
little bit deeper. And honestly,if we are not hiring great people in
journalism and they're not being paid becausecuts newsrooms, things like that, and
we're spreading it out over not justThe Gray Lady, the Washington Post,
the LA Times, the major papersof record in large cities, but instead

(19:37):
it's Politico and Seveophore and Axios andVox and all these different resources spread so
thin and nobody's making a profit.What's the incentive to do a really great
job other than your own personal desire? But at some point that motivation you
had when you were young starts togo away and you start quiet quitting.

(20:00):
It's not just in journalism either,as much as I will met journalism,
in the threat that we have todemocracy by journalists not really having their heart
in it any longer. A studysays only thirty percent of workers report being
fully engaged with their jobs, notjust journalists, any job. Why about
work layoffs? What is it?Some say it's that people are just being

(20:23):
asked to do things that leave themfeeling unfulfilled. Some people are looking at
it and they're going job is justa three letter word. It's a job
I used to pay the bills.In other words, I don't feel value.
I gotta tell you, the morethat we keep condemning the media outlets,

(20:45):
the journalists, the more that problemis going to grow. It's not
gonna get better anytimes. Heava allright, enough rain, Chris Merrill can't
buy Am six forty were live everywherein your Ieheart radio app. You're listening
to Later with Moe Kelly on demandfrom KFI AM six forty. How about
we do There's no business like There'sno business like shell business. God,

(21:10):
bless you love a pro loved itso good. I was seeing a story
that was written from last is itlas? Their last La La. Now
Hollywood wants to tell better stories aboutthe climate crisis. They said types of
narratives are necessary to show the gravityof the situation that we're in. Narratives

(21:33):
like Mad Max or The Day AfterTomorrow. But there's way more to the
climate story than the do or diesituations that we mostly see in the media,
and Hollywood needs to reflect that that. According to Hollywood Climate Summit co
founder had their fips, we're seeingthe world depicted on screen that is either
divorced from reality and not showing climatechange happening, or it's showing us a
future that is not the future thatwe want. So they have the fifth

(21:57):
annual Hollywood Climate Summit going on thisweek. It's supposed to inspire diversity and
nuance in climate storytelling. Oh Ican't wait for that. Great thriller around
recycling. The forty conference begins withfilmmakers, actors, activist journalists, climate
experts, blah blah blah. Reflectingon the impact of the climate crisis.

(22:18):
They're all going to say climate crisisbad. You know. Was really good?
Was Oh, help me out,mark the Leonardo DiCaprio. It was
Jennifer Lawrence don't look Yeah, yeah, Oh I like that movie. I
thought that was pretty good. Ithought that was a good climate change movie.
It was because it was entertaining andnot just a lecture all the way
through, right, right, Andit was told in almost kind of a

(22:41):
satirical way, right. It wasthey were drawing parallels. I love analogous
storytelling. Yeah, nobody wants tobe that a lectured. That That is
the key to good storytelling. Yougot to make it an enjoyable, entertaining
story. And here's something else.And this just occurred to me as you
were talking about climate change in movies. I realized, do you remember the
old nineteen six the Spy movie withJames Coburn our Man Flint. I did

(23:04):
not see it, but I knowthe movie. You're thought, Okay,
this is probably a deep cut forold stirs and I'm not that old,
but I love old spy movies.The first Flint movie starts with scientists manipulating
climate. It's a climate change movieway back all of that. Yeah,
oh that's crazy. I just wonderhow do you tell that story? And
this is up for a great writer, I suppose, but how do you

(23:25):
tell that story? Don't Look Upwas a wonderful example of how you tell
a story about climate change that isn'tabout plant. You know, they told
the climate change story without beating overthe head with it. But I mean,
how do you do that? Imean, do you have to sort
of cleverly weave it into does MichaelBay talk about boyds hotter? Now that
it's ever been, do we havejust subtle references to climate change? Allegory

(23:45):
always works. Allegory has been aI mean, look to Rod Serling in
fact, you know you bring thisup. Over the weekend, I had
a couple of cocktails and watched acouple old Twilight Zone episodes and there was
one that addressed this perfectly. Itwas about three hours astronauts on a ship
who discover their own crash ship anddead bodies on a planet and refused to

(24:06):
believe what they'd seen. Now,how many metaphors could you make out of
that? How is your girlfriend keepher hands off of you? We have
separate lives, completely separate lives.Wow, I just I turned on just
listening to you. Well, Butthe point, the point is, and

(24:26):
I'll accept your ridicule. The pointis that Rod Serling was a master at
taking things that he felt passionate aboutthat were going on in the world.
I mean, he's like me.He woke up angry, he went to
bed angry, and it was allbased on what he read in the paper.
He used that as fuel to makefantasy stories that were entertaining, and
you can just look them. Iwould look at them on that level.
But they also had serious stuff goingon that reflected the reality and commented on

(24:49):
it that we're living in. Yeah. Rodberry was great for that too,
right, I mean they That's reallywhat the Star Trek was all about too.
The old series was of course allcommentary. Yeah, and some of
those Hollywood on climate change specifically.I mean the beauty of those things is
that they had the ability to touchon a number of different issues, social

(25:11):
issues, economic issues, whatever,it was through a sort of fantastic license
that Sci Fi gained them. Canyou do that with climate change in a
Michael Bay movie? Can you dothat with climate change in a Martin Squersese
movie. I think if anyone isgoing to do it, it's going to
be Mark Ronner who does the GretaGerwig action story. That's what I mean.

(25:37):
Well, Chris, you should knowthat Twala is the Michael Bay expert
on staff here. He's the one. He's the one who's seen the transform
and I think that that story isready to be told, the story of
a climate change activist who is reallya spy and is now being hunted by
big oil. Jason Bourne meets don'tlook up. I love that. Yes,

(26:02):
yeah, I like the Greta Gerwig. Maybe a Barbie sequel or Barbie
sunburns and get skin cancer or somethingof that sort. Mark, did you
want to avenue? Oh yeah,Ken is a very likely skin cancer patient
in the future. I mean,the guy never wears a button up shirt.
Come on, yeah, he neverwears sunscreen. Yeah, that's great,
that's wonderful. You're listening to Laterwith Moe Kelly on demand from KFI

(26:29):
AM six forty. Is it possiblethat America may be deciding the next leader
of the free world based on whois going to have the strongest military presence
on the moon. Remember Trump startedspaceports. In fact, it seemed a
bit ridiculous and I still don't knowthat the branding was very on. Probably
should have gone back to Madison Avenuefor that one. But was it that

(26:55):
Trump was just a little bit aheadof his time? There is a new
space this time between this from theWall Street Journal. This time the space
race is between the US and China. And China took an important step forward
because they went to the Pink Floydside of the Moon. They touched down

(27:17):
on the grasslands of China's Inner Mongoliaregion. Did the Chinese spacecraft after it
came back from the pink Floyd sideof the moon and the first ever rock
samples from that side? A scientificbreakthrough in itself. The success also advanced
China's plans to put to see you'vegot astronauts, cosmonauts. What are they
if they're from China, Chinas shinnats, I don't know what you would call

(27:45):
them. Anyway, they want toput the They want to put the Chinese
on the moon by twenty thirty andbuild a lunar base by twenty thirty five.
That is worrying to American space officialsand lawmakers who have their own ambitions
to build moon bases. So isit possible we end up with some sort
of a moon base race? Maybe? Can I give you a television recommendation?

(28:07):
I know Mark, you hate these. I think I have talked about
this on my Sunday show. Pleasejoin me on Sundays. By the way,
I have talked about this on theSunday Show. There is a show
that Apple TV has and it's calledfor All Mankind. And I think I
have seen the first two seasons threetimes because I have this tendency that every
time another season comes out, Igo back and I rewatch the first seasons,

(28:30):
and then my wife hadn't seen anyof it, so I went back
and rewatched the first seasons into thethird and the fourth season is out.
I've not yet watched the fourth season, but I'm catching up to it because
I had to go back and powerwatch the other ones. And if you
haven't seen it, it reimagines thespace race had the United States lost to
Russia in nineteen sixty nine and whatthat brought about as far as change and

(28:52):
everything else that goes you know,that came of it. In fact,
the United States losing this space racebecame the big headline, and marry Joe
Kopecne not coming up from Ted Kennedy'scar at the bottom of the river became
a page three story, and allof a sudden, Ted Kennedy becomes president.
As it's imagined, and this fictionaltale, but they end up with

(29:15):
space races on the Moon, onthe south pole of the Moon, which,
by the way, is what theWall Street Journal goes on to explain,
is that it's the southern pole ofthe moon that people are looking at
it may be rich in water.That is true to the television tale,
the television telling of the fictional spacerace. And then eventually they end up
trying to get to Mars and theybuild a base on Mars, and this

(29:37):
all happens, I want to say, it happens prior to the early two
thousands that we're on Mars, andhere we are a quarter century later and
we're just thinking about what what's itgoing to take to get to Mars?
I mean, come up with that? Yet? I love that. I
love that in fact. Mark andI were discussing earlier on the show,

(29:57):
if you're just joining us, somegreat science fiction from the past that tackled
the human condition and some social issuesthat were hot at the time. I
mentioned Gene Roddenberry at Star Trek andwhat was going on, how Star Trek
really was commentary on society. Hetalked about Twilight Zone. Twilight Zone is
so brilliantly written, and it's stillrelevant today because it's commentary on the human

(30:22):
condition set in the circumstances of sciencefiction. Right, But the human condition
doesn't change. Hasn't changed from thevery first challenges. I don't know if
you're religious or not, but let'sjust take the story of Adam and Eve.
The very first challenges of Adam andEve had to do with temptation and
a man succumbing to the temptation ofa woman. Well, guess what happens

(30:47):
in relationships even today, We succumb, We are tempted, We tempt and
oftentimes succumb to the temptations of someoneto whom we are attracted. Right,
that hasn't changed. It's the humancondition. It's why Shakespeare is so relevant
today. He didn't write about thekings and queens necessarily. I mean sure,

(31:14):
they were vehicles to tell the storyof the human condition. I love
that. One of the things Ilove the most about good science fiction.
Good science fiction uses the circumstances totell us the story of the human condition.
Okay, I'm getting a little deep, right, it's a little esoteric.
I'm geeking out just a little bit. You're seeing my super geeky side.
And I was, never, bythe way, a science fiction fan

(31:36):
growing up, but as I've grownolder, I guess I recognize the subtext
to everything in science Mark You've seenit for a long time, I know,
because you've written some Oh I lovethe you brought up Star Trek.
Yeah, I've written a lot ofTwilight Zone comic books, and you can
actually find those on Amazon. ButStar Trek is hilarious because sometimes they were
subtle. Sometimes they weren't so subtle, Like they had the episode with this

(32:00):
these hippies, and they had theepisode with the two guys black on one
side, white on the other side. Yeah that's true, but they were
they were black on different sides.If that was too subtle for everybody,
right, and then they fought overwhich side, right, So great God,
I love it. The human condition, that's all right, more human

(32:20):
condition, and we'll see what kindof a condition we're in tomorrow. Thanks
a lot for joining me. HMark, you are brilliant. Thanks for
dealing with my analysis of politics tonight. I could heel your eye rolls.
Bless you, sir, bless you. People don't know how much work Twala
has been doing to help me notsound like a total boob. And Tuala
forever and eternally grateful to you.And Fush has to deal with me when

(32:44):
you don't. When we're off theair, Foosh still has to listen to
me ramble, and for that theman should be canonized. I love you,
guys, I love you guys,Love you guys. Thank you so
much. Chris merrill In from OKelly k IF I AM six forty live
everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. I'veheard any of our our secret mind control
hidden messages recently. No, that'sbecause we're really good at h k F

(33:07):
I K O S T h Dtwo, Los Angeles, Orange County,
Live everywhere on the radio.