Checking In: Some Thoughts on Uvalde, & Heard vs. Depp - plus an "Unsolved Summer?"

Before discussing some upcoming projects for the show, Dark Dark World host, Jordan Crittenden, shares some thoughts - mostly on the shooting in Uvalde, and the Heard vs. Depp defamation trial.

Check out Jessica Winter's article on the defamation trial for The New Yorker magazine: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-depp-heard-verdict-is-chilling

Music by Jordan Crittenden

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Episode Transcript

(00:04):
Hello, everybody, Welcome back toDark Dark World. I'm your host,
Jordan Crittenden, and today I don'treally have an agenda. I just thought
I would check in, see howeveryone's doing and give you a little preview

(00:24):
of what's to come here in thecoming weeks. It's been a while since
I've checked in, so I hopeyou're well. I'm okay. I you
know, I was joking with afriend the other day about how I sort
of have a reverse seasonal effective disorder. Like I live in a desert,
really a warm climate, and forme, summertime is like my down period,

(00:50):
you know, Like I'm not surewhy, but every summer I tend
to get down. I get alittle depressed, lack of motivation, things
get weird. I mean, youknow, school has ended, the kids
out of school, there's just asense that things are over for a while,
and I guess I just don't dovery well with that. People go
out of town. I'm just kindof alone, and I don't know,

(01:14):
it's just not a great time forme, really, And I guess that
was the seasonal effective disorder thing,right, because it's like people in cold,
dark climates get depressed during the winter, they can't go outside, there's
not much light in the day.For me, it's the opposite. I'm
depressed in the summer. I don'twant to go outside. It's one hundred
and fifteen degrees out and there's plentyof light. There's too much light really,

(01:38):
so a little bit of the oppositethere. But this isn't a pity
party for me. I'm fine,doing fine. It's a weird time,
you know, we had just wellnot we had every day we have a
mass shooting, essentially Yuval Day beingthe most recent darkest shooting. I think
it's fair to say it's not acontest. We're not arguing about what the

(02:00):
worst shooting is, but when itinvolves little kids, that tends to trump
things. And you know, Idon't have any big thoughts on v All
day. I don't have anything profoundto say about it. It's just sad,
business as usual. My takeaways arethat guns are awful and cops are

(02:21):
useless, and also awful. Gunsare awful, cops are useless and awful,
always have been, always will be, just like mass shootings. So
yeah, that's dark. I didwant to read. There was also the
Amber heard Johnny Depp trial, whichadmittedly I did not follow closely. I'm

(02:44):
sure some of you followed it muchmore closely than I did, But you
know, I would catch little blurbsnews blurbs from time to time or on
people's social media. I would seestuff, and you know, throughout the
coverage of the trial, I guessI just it was a little uneasy about

(03:04):
not so much the blurbs that Iwould see or people's posts on social media,
but the comments below it, becauseI just got this uneasy sense throughout
that everyone just sort of hated Amberheard and loved Johnny Depp, and it
didn't seem to go It didn't seemto have much reasoning beyond we're a misogynist

(03:27):
culture and we don't like women,and Johnny Depp's really charming and funny,
and I like his movies. That'sobviously a very broad generalization, but that
was kind of the vibe that Iwas getting reading through these posts and seeing
people's comments. And you know,I have to say, now that it's
ended, I still sort of feelthat way. I'm sort of stunned that

(03:49):
she lost, and yet it alsomakes complete sense. It always seemed like
she was going to lose. Really, I guess if you really think about
it now, again, some ofyou probably know a lot more about this
than I do. I am notreally, I'm probably not qualified to be
talking about it at all, frankly, but I did want to read a
little bit from this really good articlethat Jessica Winter wrote for The New Yorker

(04:14):
about the trial. Just a littlebit. Here. She talks at the
opening of the article about how oneof Amber Heard's attorneys, Benjamin Rotterborne,
described a series of catch twenty twosthat often ensnare women who, like Herd,
accused their partners of domestic violence.Quote. If you didn't take pictures,

(04:35):
it didn't happen. If you didtake pictures, they're fake. If
you didn't tell your friends, you'relying. And if you did tell your
friends, they're part of the hoax. If you didn't seek medical treatment,
you weren't injured. If you didseek medical treatment, you're crazy. Rotterborne
did not name a few other damned. If you do scenarios that were advanced

(04:57):
by Depth's ferociously a Depth legal teamthe course of the six week long trial.
If you surreptitiously record abusive behavior,you're conniving and untrustworthy. If you
don't, it didn't happen. Ifyou ever try to laugh off your partner's
ghastly behavior, then it's not abuse. If you talk back or fight back,
then you are the real abuser.And yeah, that's kind of the

(05:23):
sense that I get right, like, and cultures out there talking about how,
yes, the me too movement hasfinally died because Johnny Depp got justice?
Did he did he really get justice? I mean, did he need
justice? I find it very unsettling, and I just feel like, well,
I don't need to tell you thatwe live in a misogynist culture here

(05:45):
in the United States and the worldat large, really, but you know,
more and more I find that womentoo seem to be misogynists. So
many women seem to hate women.You know, men you sort of expected
from. We're just a bunch ofidiots in general. But again, I
just find it very disturbing, unsettlingthat. I mean, look, I

(06:06):
know, Amber heard didn't do herselfany favors, right, she kind of
made a fool of herself on thestand a little bit with some of the
fake crying and stuff, and Iknow there were other little hurdles. She
stumbled over. But that's not reallythe point, is it. I mean,
granted, she did some things wrongtoo, but why does it not

(06:29):
matter that Depth was clearly an abuser? Are we just saying that he wasn't
because he's won this defamation suit,than he didn't do any of these things
that it seems pretty clear that hedid. Just because society at large doesn't
find Amber Heard likable, then hedidn't abuse her. He's more charming and

(06:50):
we like him better, so hewins. That doesn't sit well with me,
regardless of what you think of AmberHeard. That just feels like a
really slippery, scary slope. Nowagain, some of you probably know a
lot more about this. Please respond, tell me why I'm wrong or you

(07:11):
know why I'm right. I guess, but I did just want to read
a little bit more from Jessica Winter'sarticle here if you'll allow me. Don't
worry, I'm not going to readtoo much. She says it would have
seemed to be Hurd's case to lose. This is a quote from Rotterborne again,
quote one time, Ladies and gentlemen, one time. If he abused

(07:32):
her one time, Amber wins.Actually, if he fails to prove that
he never abused her one time Amberwins end quote. And yet she lost.
She lost despite vile text messages fromDepth spinning out violent fantasies of rape
and murder. She lost despite photographafter photograph of cuts, bruises, and

(07:57):
swelling. She lost despite audio recordingsof Depth verbally abusing her. She lost
despite her sister, multiple friends,a makeup artist, and a couple's counselor
attesting to seeing her injuries. Andshe lost despite facing the jury and recounting
graphic, painful episodes of alleged physicaland sexual abuse. Yeah. It's dark.

(08:22):
It's dark, and it makes meworry about abused women in general.
Now, I mean, even withoutthis, it was already grim for these
women, but this just the wayit's being celebrated, you know, I
just find it so unsettling. Yeah, Look, they can both be wrong.
Amber can be awful, you cantotally believe that, But we can't

(08:46):
use that as a reason for herto be wrong in this, or for
Johnny Depp to be absolved of theclearly awful things that he has done.
Both things can exist in my Letme know yours in the comments below,
or if you're listening to this onthe podcast, email in or write in

(09:07):
a review or something. But enoughof that. What else I wanted to
talk about? What am I workingon? How about that? So?
I'm working on my new narrative episodewhich should be out soon. It's about
the Vincent Simmons story. If youknow that case, it's a harrowing one
for sure, So that'll be comingout soon. And I was kind of

(09:31):
thinking, you know, some ofyou have asked before that I do more
unsolved crimes ed and I talked aboutit in one of the Q and a's
that someone had asked, Hey,you guys should do more unsolved stuff,
and we notice that, Yeah,you know, that tends to be more
popular. Most of our unsolved casesthat we discuss get more views or listens,

(09:52):
downloads, And I guess that's becausewe all like the mystery, right,
We want to know who done it? Who donawahpa, and that's why
it's compelling. So I thought,maybe I'll do some more of that.
Maybe that'll be my project this summer, to get out of the muck and
meyer get out of my head anddo something like that, some unsolved mystery

(10:15):
kind of things Unsolved Summer Jordan's Unsolvedsummer. Well, goll of that.
So after the Vincent Simmons story,I thought I might tackle some of the
mysterious crimes that are floating out there, disappearances, unsolved deaths, things like
that. So if you have anysuggestions of things that you think would be

(10:35):
good, let me know. Dorespond and let me know about that.
I've also got a collab tentatively scheduledwith my man Nate Bartels, so that
could be fun. That's mostly allthat's in the pipeline at the moment.
Yeah, So just to check inand a little rant about Johnny Depp.

(10:56):
Do go read that article. I'llleave the link to that in the show
notes by Jessica Winter in the NewYorker. It's really good. Whatever your
feelings are on the case, Ithink it's worth reading. And yeah,
r I P to the Uvalde victims, r I P to all victims of
gun violence, and shame on youlaw enforcement. Shame on you.