Sunday, June 13
· Recap of the Week – “Magnetic vaccine” conspiracy theory, New York mayoral election
o New description of the white void – “Entertainment’s most upsetting bastion of whiteness not counting the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.”
o I loved John roasting Bill de Blasio’s pizza-topping analogy to explain ranked-choice voting, especially him picking green peppers for his first choice – “There isn’t even a green pepper character in the VeggieTales series because they disprove the existence of a loving God!”
o I loved this description of Andrew Yang – “The answer to the question, ‘What if the concept of dabbing was a person’?”
o I laughed so hard at the mayoral candidate who spent his “products he can’t live without” interview detailing the difficulties his “big, strong hands” have with inferior toilet paper – I especially loved John turning it into a Frankenstein’s-monster-style tale of woe that ended with, “But sadly, these cursed brute hands wreak only destruction.”
· And Now This – Stuart Varney’s favorite saying
o “Flatter is the mother’s milk of television” – ew.
· Main Story – Prison heat
o Come on, everyone knew the topic of the “summer fun” episode wasn’t going to be “popsicles” – “You remember what our summer fun episode was last year? Voting by mail. Don’t be mad at me, be mad at yourselves. You chose to be here!”
o The issue at hand was the fact that most prisons don’t have air conditioning, and prison temperatures in many states can climb to well over 100 degrees in the summer – the situation is made worse by the fact that over 40% of inmates have a chronic condition that increase their risk of heat stroke.
o Additionally, inmates with mental-health conditions may take medications that inhibit their body’s temperature regulation – when it gets too hot, some inmates decide to stop taking their medications, and this contributes to increased suicide watch during the summer.
o John’s response to anyone who thinks inmates “deserve” this was beautifully succinct – “First: fuck you. They’re human beings who, I would argue, deserve humane treatment.”
o The UN’s council on torture has spoken out against this, and one prison guard put it in very stark terms – “These are third-world conditions. We’re supposed to run prisons, not concentration camps.”
o Many prisons point to the cost of installing AC as being prohibitive, but that was undercut by stories like a prison spending $7 million on a lawsuit fighting the order to install a $4-million AC, or a prison that installed AC in the on-site hog pens but not in the actual inmate facility – “If people don’t care about fixing a problem, they’re not going to fix it no matter how simple the solution may be.”
o So what can we do about it? Put AC in prisons, plain and simple – “I know this show has trained you to expect nuance, but this one’s pretty simple. We shouldn’t be cooking prisoners to death, end of story.”
· And Now This – Man-on-the-street interviews
o This was an old montage from a retired local news reporter, featuring such scintillating man-on-the-street questions as, “Can you spell ‘Caribbean’?” and, “Is there a nickname you wish you had?”
· Finally – Local car commercials
o We kicked things off with a true work of art involving a UFC fighter claiming that, if he’d had one of the dealership’s Corvettes to drive to the hospital after putting an electric drill through his testicles, he “would’ve made it on time” – “Wow. That commercial raises a thousand questions and it answers none of them.”
o The main thrust of the piece, though, was a marketing company that sells dumb scripts to local car dealers, leading to the same bizarre ads popping up all over the country – I loved, “Usually when you see that many white guys in pickle costumes, they’re screaming Rick and Morty quotes at every woman in the nearby vicinity and ruining Comic-Con for everyone.”
o Not only did John lament the lack of individuality, he also questioned the point of paying for scripts that are so tired and lame – “‘We’re in the dog house and we need cars’? Don Draper would put out a cigarette on your forehead if you pitched a line like that.”
Monday, June 14
· Headlines – Man claims he was swallowed by whale, spread of COVID Delta variant, Florida bans teaching about systemic racism in schools
o This made me smile – “Yo, I’m sure this guy is glad that he’s alive, but on some level, he’s gotta feel bad. You know, ‘cause whales eat anything, and it still spit you out? That’s gotta bruise your ego a little bit, to know that you’re the human equivalent of black licorice. Bleh!”
o Great bit – “Seriously, though, people, they really need to work on the names of the new COVID strains. Because ‘the Delta variant’ doesn’t sound serious, it sounds like a straight-to-DVD action film starring Steven Seagal.”
o This was an excellent point – “Wow, this is crazy. Florida isn’t just banning teaching about systemic racism, they’re doing it while quoting Martin Luther King Jr. I don’t know if you guys know this, but systemic racism was kind of MLK’s whole thing. If you wanna talk about MLK without teaching about systemic racism, then you’re just quoting some guy who like to take long walks for no reason.”
· Main Story – Biden at the G7
o I loved Trevor’s reaction to Queen Elizabeth’s awkward attempt to cut a cake with a ceremonial sword – “The real problem is, she couldn’t do it! How are you gonna show everyone on worldwide television that the queen of England doesn't know how to use a sword? I mean, now they know the whole country is basically undefended. You know there’s Vikings watching that right now like, ‘This is our chance! Invade!’”
o I liked the description of the G7 world leaders photo as looking “like the white side of a chess board.”
o Good bit about world leaders’ evident relief to be dealing with Biden instead of Trump – “Let’s be honest, though, the bar is incredibly low. You know, people are like, ‘Biden’s so much better!’, but anyone is so much better! America could’ve sent over a dog in glasses, and Macron would’ve been like, ‘You know, the glasses, they make him seem willing to learn, which is, shall we say, different than before. Yes, the dog did make a poo-poo on the floor, but that is not much of a change, so, uh, comme ci, comme ça, eh?’”
o I always love Trevor’s Putin impression, and this was a great reaction bit – “See! Only killers laugh at, ‘Are you a killer?’ Because normal people are like, ‘What did you call me?!’ But Putin is like, ‘Ha, ha, ha. I get called this all the time, no surprise.’ Why isn’t it a surprise?! I mean, it would surprise me! Because I’m not a killer!”
· Correspondent Piece (Ronny) – Addictive political outrage
o Ronny talked to an expert on the addictive qualities of retaliation, which then leads to cycles of both parties/sides continually clapping back at one another – it’s not like that’s become depressingly relevant in American politics or anything!
o This was a good line from the interviewee – “When you retaliate against someone, you also experience the pain you inflict.”
o I liked Ronny’s description of the phenomenon, particularly as it applies to rage-tweeting – “It’s like a perpetual motion machine powered by petulant bullshit.”
· Interview – Former NBA player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
o Abdul-Jabbar was there to tak about Fight the Power, his new documentary on historic protest movements.
o I know Abdul-Jabbar has long been a big proponent of different marginalized groups coming together to stand up for one another, and I love how he explained that here – “Whenever any one marginalized group is oppressed, we’re all oppressed. It might not be my particular group this month, but pretty soon they’ll get around to my month and I’ll be out there alone. We can’t do that. We have to understand that the basis for all of these protest movements is the lack of equal, fair treatment. That’s what it’s all about, and that crosses every line that you can imagine.”
o While he talked about his anger and desire for retaliation in his youth, he also discussed the leaders and movements that inspired him to walk a different path – “You can’t go out here and change people’s minds because you’re angry, and your anger might be justified. But you have to take the time and respect the people whose minds you want to change. It’s expansionist, and it takes determination.”
Tuesday, June 15
· Headlines – Unsold girl scout cookies due to the pandemic, 2021 Olympics restrictions, Marjorie Taylor Greene “learns” about the Holocaust
o Relatable – “No, guys! 15 million girl scout cookies are just sitting on the shelves? Well, I was gonna start my post-pandemic diet this week, but… the girl scouts need our help.”
o I also liked Trevor that he was going to find the warehouse where the cookies were stored and “pull the world’s tastiest Ocean’s Eleven.”
o Trevor wasn’t sure about Tokyo’s pandemic protocols for the Olympics – “Hold up. Your plan is to not let Olympic athletes have sex with each other? Well, what’s the point of going to the Olympics then? To ‘bring glory to one’s nation’? Wrong! It’s to smash!”
o Yeesh, Majorie Taylor Greene – “Yo, guys, this country is insane. This woman writes the laws, the laws that govern the land, and she’s out here like, ‘Yo, have you guys heard about this Holocaust? Shit’s wild!’”
· Main Story – Chrissy Teigen’s social media apology
o I appreciated this statement – “I’m glad that she’s owning up to being a horrible person online because that is what we want, right? We want people to be better and we want people to grow. It doesn’t mean that we excuse what they did before, but I think it’s way better than them not learning and growing.”
o Good line – “Being on Twitter is a lot like when dogs meet at the park: there’s assholes on display everywhere.”
o Even though this is a point that countless others have made before, I liked where Trevor took it – “Most of the things that people say online, they would never dare say to another human being in real life. There’s something about the platform that incentivizes people to be the worst version of themselves. And until we ask ourselves why, all we’re doing is chasing after the symptom and not the cause.”
· Interview – Soccer player Christian Pulisic
o Trevor praised Pulisic for this enthusiasm for soccer and for showing the rest of the world that Americans can care about the sport – Pulisic replied, “It’s really just a love for the game. I have so much passion for this sport. And I mean, there’s a lot of other people who would love to be doing what I’m doing, and honestly, I feel grateful that I’m able to just own the pitch.”
o I liked his philosophy for playing – “I just try to go out there and enjoy every moment. Because like you said, whether it’s one or ninety, one minute can change a game, can influence a game, and that’s my mindset going into it.”
· Interview – Composer-Lyricist/Actor Lin-Manuel Miranda
o Miranda was there to talk about In the Heights, along with his new book on the creation of the show and the movie. I laughed at Trevor’s first question – “Tell me what this book is about, and most importantly, if I read this book, will I be able to also make Hamilton? Can I do a Hamilton?”
o I loved Miranda’s response when Trevor asked him if he always knew how successful it would be to cast BIPOC actors as the Founders in Hamilton – “I think I doubted it at every phase, but your belief in the idea has to be stronger than what the world is proposing, right? Like, your job as an artist is to write what’s missing.”
o Miranda looked back on In the Heights as seizing his opportunity to “tell stories that are not about, like, Latinos from the ‘50s with knives in their hands. Which is incredibly overrepresented in musical theatre, weirdly.”
o I really liked this remark, about criticism he received over the lack of Afro-Latino representation in the film – “When you make something, you’re creating a frame, and the folks who are not in that frame are going to tell you they’re not in the frame.”
Wednesday, June 16
· Headlines – Biden-Putin summit, bill to make Juneteenth a federal holiday, Capitol rioter runs for office
o Great introduction to the Juneteenth story – “Let’s break Florida law and talk about slavery.”
o I laughed at this bit, about the Juneteenth bill’s easy passage in the Senate – “And this, my friends, is why I love America’s government. It has all these old Republicans go like, ‘We’ve gotta stop talking about slavery. Quit talking so much about it all the time! …But I’ll take some time off for slavery, hell yeah!’”
o This was well-stated – “I’ve heard people point out that America seems much more willing to offer symbolic gestures instead of actual solutions like reforming the police or ending discrimination in the workplace. But I don’t think symbolism is nothing, you know? Symbols are a big part of America, and they can have real-world effects.”
o I loved Trevor’s reaction to the Capitol-rioter-turned-congressional-candidate not realizing he was running for U.S. Congress, not state Congress – “Oh boy, there goes the media again with the ‘gotcha!’ questions. ‘What are you running for?’ ‘What state is that in?’ How many fingers am I holding up?’”
· If You Don’t Know, Now You Know – Controversy over loan forgiveness for Black farmers
o Silly but fun line – “You might be hearing this story for the first time and wondering, ‘Wait, why should Black farmers get special treatment? Are their cows the ones that make chocolate milk?’ Well, yes. But that’s not the reason why.”
o The reason, of course, was systemic racism, with Black farmers losing 90% of their land over the last century due to discrimination in federal loans.
o Good bit – “Farming is hard enough on its own! I mean, think about it. You’ve got pests, you’ve got droughts, you’ve got ghosts trying to get through to build a baseball field. The last thing you need is for the federal government to be up against you.”
o Worst of all, after the USDA openly reported that they’d cheated Black farmers out of a colossal amount of money due to racist loan practices, they buried the farmers in red tape when they tried to get restitution for that racist treatment (that, again, the USDA openly admitted to having committed) – “So next time you hear about how Black farmers are getting ‘extra-special treatment from the government,’ think about the treatment they’ve been getting for the last 100 years.”
· Interview – Author Ashley C. Ford
o I loved Ford’s answer when Trevor asked whether she was more excited that her new memoir Someone’s Daugther was a New York Times bestseller or that Oprah was a fan of it – “Let’s look at this personally: I know who Oprah was before I knew what the New York Times was, so I gotta say, in my heart, it means a lot that Oprah’s on board.”
o Really beautifully said – “You know, when I set out to write this book, one of the things that was important to me was that no one was truly a hero or a villain in the course of the book, because I wanted to write something that was true and something that was real. And the truth of the matter is that superhumans and superheroes are called super for a reason, and it’s because they’re separated from their humanity, and we are not. We’re human beings 24/7, all the time, everyday. Which means our capacity for human good and human evil is always, always, always, on the same spectrum. Nobody gets out of that. Nobody gets away from that.”
o She thought it was especially important to be able to tell such complex stories within marginalized communities – “The more we pretend that, you know, all good people have never done a bad thing and all bad people have never done a good thing, the more we are sowing division within ourselves that is unsustainable.”
· Interview – Comedian Sam Jay
o Jay told Trevor that her new show PAUSE takes its title from a few different meanings, including the following – “It’s asking people to take a beat and hear another perspective, take a beat and consider another angle than just your own.”
o Trevor noted that the show often feels like Jay just hanging out and talking with her friends, which Jay said was very purposeful – “I think that hangs are where you get honesty. I feel like whenever I’m kicking it, I’m not not getting these, like, pre-packaged Twitter answers or even pre-staged ideas of what the world is. I think when you’re kicking it and just hanging, people are not afraid to say something that they’re not necessarily ‘supposed’ to say.”
o This was a good observation from Trevor – “I think maybe that’s what I love about your show, is that you yourself have had to break out of the one label that people want to give you. They go like, ‘Oh, you are a Black woman, so that means you have to be this.’ Or they go like, ‘Oh no, you’re a lesbian, so you have to be this,’ etc., etc.”
Thursday, June 17
· Headlines – Record-breaking temperatures, new NASA telescope to hunt asteroids, Pelaton vulnerable to hacking
o In response to one state’s grim, frank extreme-heat warning – “That’s right, ‘very hot for a long time,’ also known in meteorologist circles as the Halle Berry phenomenon.”
o This bit about the asteroid-hunting telescope made me laugh – “Shh! Dude, what are you doing?! Don’t tell them it won’t launch until 2026! Now the asteroids know they’ve got five years to light us up! What are you doing?!”
o Love – “We cannot let the asteroids wipe us out. The dinosaurs are gonna roast the shit out of us in heaven!”
o Inquiring minds want to now – “My question is, why would you want to hack into someone’s Pelaton camera? We’re in the golden age of television, and you’d rather watch someone’s bike-face for half an hour?”
· If You Don’t Know, Now You Know – Streaming music services
o After hearing just how much music users have streamed, Trevor wasn’t sure what was left to listen to – “After 40 billion hours, you’ve heard everything: from Kanye to the sound of six squirrels after a knife fight, or maybe that’s still Kanye.”
o But the crux of the story was how streaming services shaft the artists who create the music, with only 12% of the $43 billion in profits going to musicians.
o Very valid – “Guys, you know the music industry’s messed up when the guy singing the song on the subway is making more money off of it than you.”
o I loved Trevor’s reaction to one expert explaining that, in order for an artist to make money off of streaming, “You have to be Drake” – “Whoa! ‘You have to be Drake’? No, people, that’s asking too much. I don’t know how many artists have the emotional range to be both the biggest pimp on the planet and also depressed because she won’t text me back.”
· Correspondent Piece (Jordan) – Mike Lindell’s pro-Trump rallies
o Jordan is always so quick at these events – When one pair of rally attendees complained that Biden’s America was “the country [they] grew up in,” Jordan replied, “Things were better in the ‘60s,” and soon had them nodding along to, “yeah, in the ‘60s, you knew which drinking fountain to drink from.”
o In most of these pieces, Jordan only gets to speak to attendees, but he actually got to speak to Mike Lindell briefly. I loved this exchange – “I already have the evidence [of election fraud]! Do you know what this [rally] is doing?” “It’s perpetuating anger, fear, and attacking our democracy.”
o Did I say brief? Yes, very brief – The interview ended with Lindell stomping away saying, “You guys are horrible.”
· Interview – Musician Mary J. Blige
o As usual, Trevor had some lovely compliments to offer his guest – “You are a soundtrack to periods of time. You are a soundtrack to emotions and feelings that human beings have experienced over many, many years.”
o Blige was promoting when her documentary on the making of her My Life album, which was made during a very turbulent period of her life – “Putting my pain out there and stuff like that was like a cry for help. And then when all the fans responded, it was like, ‘Oh wow, now it’s a responsibility, self-consciously. Because I can’t do anything for you because I’m still in pain, I’m still in hell.’”
o On her decision to finally turn away from the dark path she was on – “That was a decision that I made. I had to choose life. I chose life, and I chose life for my fans as well, because I said, ‘If I check out, I’m gonna take a bunch of people with me.’”
o I liked this quote – “When we’re young, we look at things as success, but that’s not success. Success is when you can enjoy the things.”
· Hiatus Announcement
o The show is going on hiatus for three months, and while I’ll definitely miss having it on the air, Trevor and co. have more than earned a break. They’re also going to be using to time to figure out what they want the show to look like going forward.
o Trevor’s whole speech was very thoughtful and earnest. I especially liked these parting words – “Think about not going back to the way things were, but going forward to the way we would like them to be.”
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