Monday, January 24
·
Headlines
– NFL play-offs, Europe prepares for Russian invasion of Ukraine, antivaxxer
rally in Washington, D.C., lawsuit over movie trailer
o
Good
description of the NFL – “The sport so good, we totally forgot about the brain
damage.”
o
Trevor
thought doing a coin toss to decide possession in overtime was unfair – “Both
teams should get a Bitcoin, and whichever side can explain why it’s not a scam,
they should get to go first.”
o
Great
line – “Personally, I don’t think America is ready to fight Russia over
Ukraine. I mean, America’s been fighting brown people for so long. Does it even
remember how to fight white people?”
o
I
loved this bit – “After, ‘What shoes should M&M’s wear?”, asking whether
vaccines are good is literally the dumbest thing people can fight about.”
o
Oof,
Robert Kennedy Jr. at that antivaxxer rally. Any hot take that begins “Even
during the Holocaust, people could…” is bound to badly.
o
Trevor,
needless to say, was savage in response – “Yeah, the man is right. Who can
argue? No one ever talks about how good Anne Frank had it. Free room and board.
All the time in the world to write. Pretty sweet deal, if you ask me.”
o
This
was a great point – “I will say, though, crazy is relative. Because RFK may be
saying wild shit about the Holocaust, but half the people he’s talking to don’t
even believe the Holocaust happened.”
·
“West Elm Caleb”
o
Trevor
had some interesting thoughts on “West Elm Caleb,” a guy who went viral after a
number of women on TikTok realized they’d all had bad experiences with the same
guy.
o
On
West Elm Caleb’s huge rise in infamy – “He just ghosted, and then, the guy’s
viral on every newspaper in the country. And all I kept thinking was, the
Uyghurs in China-- they should ghost someone. I’ve never seen them get this
much coverage.”
o
Some
of the women involved have come out and opposed the vitriol West Elm Caleb has
gotten, saying they only intended to tell a funny story about a bad date on
TikTok – “But then the algorithm goes, “Ah, conflict!’ You know? It’s like the
conflict monster.”
o
In
parsing through some of the behavior West Elm Caleb was accused of in the
videos, Trevor wanted to distinguish between abuse and shitty behavior – “I
don’t think all rejection is abuse. Life is about getting rejected,
unfortunately. For everyone to get a yes, someone had to get a no. Every one of
us here. The fact that you’re in a relationship with someone is because other
people rejected them or rejected you. That’s the only reason we get there.”
o
That
said, he made zero allowances for the unsolicited dick pics West Elm Caleb sent
– “Nobody’s day is made better by you randomly sending them your dick. You seen
penises? They look like depressed old men.”
·
Interview
– Mindfulness expert Jay Shetty
o
I
wasn’t familiar with Shetty, but I really enjoyed his interview.
o
In
discussing his training as a monk, Shetty recalled a time when his teacher
noted that, on a long train ride, Shetty only did his meditations during the
stops – “He said, ‘Do you think life is peaceful like the stop, or is it
difficult like the train?’”
o
Shetty
went on, “So that’s how monks think. Monks think, how can we be in the chaos,
be in the clutter, but still look for stillness in that time?”
o
Shetty
didn’t continue on as a monk but now works to help bring mindfulness to the
mainstream – When Trevor asked whether a mindfulness app to help you
“disconnect” is a paradox, he replied, “I understand that people can’t just
leave. They can’t just stop. Everyone has bills to pay. Everyone has lives to
lead. Everyone has children or family, whatever it may be. So I think we have
to meet people where they are, and to me, that’s what the apps do.”
o
On
what people don’t understand about meditation – “I think people are trying to
quiet their mind. They’re trying to stop everything from happening. And meditation’s
not about stopping—it’s about observing. It’s about sitting with. It’s about
understanding. It’s about being curious.”
Tuesday, January 25
·
Headlines
– Biden cusses out reporter on a hot mic, China addresses COVID before the
Olympics, changes to the SAT
o
Trevor
noted Biden’s difficult relationship with the press – “They nitpick everything
he says. They challenge all of his decisions. And they even get their own room
in his house, which is insane. Nobody else has to set aside a guest room for
their haters.”
o
Loved
Trevor’s pushback against any claim that Biden and Trump treat the press “the
same” – “I’m sorry, guys, no, I can’t accept that. I cannot believe that people
would even say something so disrespectful about my man Donald Jujitsu Trump.
First of all, he wouldn’t mumble that into a hot mic. No, he would scream that
shit into your face. He’d be like, ‘Get that son of a bitch out of here! So
rude! So rude! My crimes are my business.’”
o
Truth
– “This story gave me perspective, ‘cause Americans complain so much when a
restaurant asks them to wear a mask, but then China will shut down your entire
block because somebody bought Advil.”
o
I
enjoyed Trevor’s take on people who are against the SATs going digital – I
liked the crack about how, before long, it was just going to be a Buzzfeed quiz
called “Tell Us Your Favorite Ninja Turtle and We’ll Tell You if You’re Smart
Enough for Yale!”
·
Music industry beefs
o
I laughed
at this description of Neil Young – “The dude who owns your dad’s CD shelf!”
o
We
looked at Young being prepared to pull his music off of Spotify due to the
COVID misinformation on Joe Rogan’s podcast – “At the same time, though,
Spotify should think about this. Think about who’s gonna leave a greater
legacy. You know, in 30 years, what are people gonna be slow-dancing to at
their weddings, a Neil Young ballad or clips of Joe Rogan being wrong about the
vaccine?”
o
I
loved this tee-up to the Taylor Swift feud with Damon Albarn – “She’s been
dropping albums almost every week, but according to that guy from that British
band that wasn’t Oasis, she’s not putting in enough work!”
o
This
was Trevor’s advice to a YouTuber who got sued for libel by Cardi B – “If you’re
going to talk shit about people, don’t print them as allegations. That’s libel.
What you should do is add a beat. Now it’s a diss track.”
o
Valid
– “This really drives home that being an expert at one thing does not
necessarily make you an expert at everything. Because Eric Clapton is an
amazing guitar player. I’m just not gonna listen to him about COVID any more
than I would buy an album from Dr. Fauci.”
·
Interview
– Comedian/director W. Kamau Bell
o
Trevor
and Bell joked about how he’s leveled up from coming on the show to talk about
racism to now coming on the show to
promote his docuseries We Need to Talk
about Cosby – “Oh, you thought I brought the room down before!”
o
When
asked what drove him to make the documentary (and what encouraged him to keep
going,) Bell replied, “I’m always drawn to difficult conversations. That’s kind
of my thing. And because Bill Cosby was such a huge cultural, racial figure in
my life, and so charted a path, that I was like, ‘That’s the path I should be
on. Do good work, be a comedian, but also do good in the world.’ Like, a lot of
Black folks, specifically of my generation and older-- we were just gutted to
find about all these allegations.”
o
This
was an interesting point – “You can’t talk about American in the 20th
century without talking about Bill Cosby. But you also can ignore all the
things that have come out in the 21st century.”
o
Bell
discussed the difficulty of completing shooting on the same day that Cosby was
released from prison – In talking about why he didn’t attempt to interview
Cosby himself for the series, Bell explained that it was meant to be “a
conversation about him,” exploring
his legacy and reactions to the allegations within the industry and the Black
community, and he added that to involve Cosby in the project would be a
violation of the trust the survivors who participated placed in Bell.
Wednesday, January 26
·
Headlines
– Justice Breyer to retire, live-action Snow
White remake, Joe Rogan questions the word “Black”
o
I’d
say this is a truth universally acknowledged for all older Supreme Court
justices – “It probably isn’t fun being hounded all day by people screaming at
you to retire.”
o
Even
though there are still 10 months before the midterms and the GOP rammed their
previous Supreme Court nominee through with only 5 weeks until the presidential
election, Trevor wasn’t so sure this was going to be obstruction-proof from
Mitch McConnell – “It’s a longstanding Senate tradition that we cannot confirm
a Supreme Court justice in a year where there’s a new season of Ozark on Netflix. We all got to watch it
first and then process what happened.”
o
Trevor’s
take on classic Disney films – “They’re the reason we all believe in true love
and all hate our stepmothers.”
o
We
looked at Peter Dinklage expressing doubt over the live-action Snow White remake – While Trevor
acknowledged that he’s not a dwarf and never found the original animated film
offensive, he said, “But I do understand what he’s talking about. I genuinely
do. Because if that movie was called Snow
White and the Seven Blacks, I mean, that would be weird. And you could tell
me, ‘Oh, Trevor no, the Blacks are actually the heroes. It’s still a… it’s-it’s
a great story.’ Let me tell you something. Yo, man, that’s still a white lady
and her friendly Blacks. It still set off my spidey sense.”
o
I
laughed at this description of Joe Rogan – “King of podcasts and Aaron
Rodgers’s personal physician.”
o
The
Joe Rogan clip in question concerned him and a white guest trotting out the old
“well, no one’s skin is really white
or black” chestnut – Trevor’s reaction was great, shouting, “Yo, this changes
everything! This changes everything!” as he ran out of the studio. We heard a
few sirens, then did a hard cut to Trevor back in his chair, glumly announcing,
“The police said I’m Black.”
o
This
was excellent – “The thing these guys seem to be ignoring is that Black people
didn’t call themselves Black. You understand that, right? It’s not like Black
people were like, ‘We’re Black.’ No, in Africa, we have tribes, we have
cultures—Zulu, Xhosa, Baganda, Igbo, Wakandans. But then white people got
there, and they’re like: ‘Wow, there’s a lot of Black people here. Lot of Black
people.’”
·
If
You Don’t Know, Now You Know – Stock trading among lawmakers
o
There’s
a new bill in the Senate that would discourage lawmakers from trading
individual stocks – “By the way, this bill is quite a move for new senator Jon
Ossoff. Think about it. The guy just got to the Senate, and he’s already coming
after the wallets of his coworkers? It’s like showing up to prison on your
first day and being like, ‘Hey, Warden, I think these guys are using spoons to
dig something.’”
o
The
reason for this bill is to prevent insider trading among lawmakers. While it’s
ostensibly illegal now (but scarcely enforced,) there were zero regulations on
lawmakers’ trading habits for most of U.S. history – “So, if Thomas Edison
testified behind closed doors, senators could just call up their broker going,
‘Dump all my shares in candles. That shit’s over, I tell you!’”
o
In
the ‘90s, studies showed that members of Congress outperformed the market by an
average of 12%, while Warren Buffett only
outperformed it by 2.5% - “Obviously something fishy is going on when members
of Congress are doing better in the stock market than Warren Buffett! I mean,
it definitely makes those fundraising emails even more annoying. ‘I need five
dollars by midnight.’ Bitch, go talk to your E-Trade! What are you talking to
me for?”
o
In
addition to being difficult to prove, current laws are insufficient because the
penalties for violating them are so negligible – “Ooh. $200 is the penalty? I
mean, look, I’m not math expert, but if I have to pay a $200 fine to make a
trade that earns me millions of dollars, I feel like I’m coming out ahead.”
o
This
was a great line – “$200 is not a penalty, people. That’s the chip you throw to
the dealer after you win the poker tournament. Hell, you lose $200 just
carrying the million dollars to the bank.”
·
Interview
– Actor/comedian Rick Glassman
o
Glassman
was there to talk about his new series As
We See It, in which he and his costars are neurodiverse actors playing
neurodiverse characters.
o
I
really liked what he said about receiving his autism diagnosis as an adult – “When I first found out, it was like a
superpower. I was so excited. All these obstacles that I had in my life that
were unrelated, patterns kind of started showing themselves, and I was like,
‘Oh, my God, this makes so much sense.’”
o
Glassman
shared his love for the quote, “If you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve
met one person with autism,” explaining that it took the pressure off of him to
be a “spokesperson” for the whole community – “I don’t have to explain who I
am. I could just be it and… I’m accepted or I’m not.”
o
This
was a really neat observation about his costars and their performances as their
characters – “For every person that I met on set, I met two people with
autism—their representation of it, and then who they really were.”
Thursday, January 27
·
Headlines
– Justice Breyer officially announces his retirement, Boris Johnson scandal
over Afghanistan evacuation, Tennessee school board bans Maus
o
Trevor
had some words for the gnashing-of-teeth at Fox News over Biden’s plan to
nominate a Black woman for Supreme Court justice – “Most importantly, being a
Black woman isn’t the qualification. All right? Joe Biden is gonna pick a Black
woman who is also qualified. These people act like Biden is just gonna show up
at the mall and be like, ‘Yo, Shaniqua, come with me.’ ‘My name is Regina!’
‘Uh, doesn’t matter. Just put on these robes. I need help with abortion.’”
o
Boris
Johnson’s latest scandal is an email suggesting he authorized the evacuation of
shelter animals in Afghanistan while the U.K. was scrambling to evade people – “Yo,
can I be honest? This is the most white people scandal of all time. You rescued
pet before human beings?”
o
This
made me chuckle – “Now, Boris says that this whole scandal is ‘total rhubarb,’
so you can tell he’s stressed, because British people only bust out the obscure
vegetables when their backs are against the wall. ‘Prince Andrew, what were you
doing on Jeffrey Epstein’s island?’ ‘Oh, brussels sprouts, it’s not what you
think.’”
o
On
banned books and “critical race theory” – “Basically at this point, if it’s not
math, science, or how to hide from a shooter, they don’t think it’s appropriate
for kids to know about.”
o
Trevor
explained why Maus’s format and
narrative device is an effective way to teach students about the Holocaust – “It helps people process this event
that’s unthinkable otherwise. I mean, it’s either a comic book or that Peanuts
special It’s Genocide, Charlie Brown.”
·
Main Story – In-person schooling during COVID
o
Valid
– “It’s disorienting not to know what each day is gonna bring. Are they gonna
be in class? Are they gonna be home? Is the bullying gonna be in person or
cyber? You need to plan!”
o
To
reduce COVID spread during Omicron, some schools have moved classrooms
outdoors, including some schools in Maine and Wisconsin! – “Not to mention,
these kids will be the first generation that can outflex their grandparents
about how hard they had it. ‘I used to walk ten miles in the snow just to get
to school!’ ‘Bitch, the snow was my
school!’”
o
With
a severe teacher shortage due to infections and people leaving the profession,
schools have been pulling in everyone from alumni to parents to the National
Guard for substitutes. Trevor was surprised to learning that off-duty police
officers are subbing in Oklahoma – “Wow. They’re using cops as substitute
teachers? I guess that’s one way to get the Black kids raising their hands in
class.”
o
Meanwhile,
school boards are struggling to balances the desires of parents who want their
kids to be safe and parents who think masks will turn their kids into “tiny
little Faucis” – “I’m home from school, Mom! And all the data supports me getting
some mac and cheese right now.”
o
These
days, it’s just not a story about schooling without some footage of an unhinged
rant at a school board meeting – “I mean, this does show you how often school
boards get death threats screamed at them. Did you see how calm those people
were? This woman is talking about bringing every loaded gun to school, and
they’re like, ‘Time is up. Thank you. The next speaker is Jennifer Higgins, who
has a proposal for burning down our houses. Go ahead, Jennifer, and please
remember, keep it to three minutes.’”
·
Correspondent piece (Ronny) – American football
o
Ronny’s
started a new segment on things that only Americans think are normal, and his
inaugural piece was on American football – “Before the game even starts,
everyone has to stand up and sing the national anthem together? Nobody else on
the planet does that. We just assume everyone knows what country they’re in
before the game starts.”
o
This
made me laugh – “Balls are supposed to be round, okay? That’s the main thing
that makes it a ball. But in this insane sport, even the ball looks like it has
brain damage.”
o
The
scoring system also confused Ronny – “If you ask me, a touchdown should be
worth 100 points. The player deserves it. He basically dodged a mugging with a
slippery almond in his hand.”
o
Commercial
breaks at football games allowed for a nice tangent on prescription-drug ads,
which Ronny explained really aren’t a thing anywhere else in the world – “If
someone needs a drug, their doctor will prescribe it. You shouldn’t have to ask
them if it’s right for you. This doesn’t happen in any other part of medical
care. Okay? There’s no TV ads asking you to ask your doctor whether they should
cup your balls and make you cough.”
·
Interview
– Skier Lindsey Vonn
o
This
exchange, over whether Vonn’s life as an Olympic skier made her immune to the
cold, was cute – “Why do you think I ski fast?” “To get out of the cold?”
“Exactly. Literally! I make it to the bottom as fast as I can, I put my clothes
back on.”
o
Vonn
was there to discuss her new memoir, and while they of course talked about her
skiing career, they also looked at what followed that – Trevor noted, “One of
the hardest things athletes face is the fact that their careers are essentially
‘over’ when life… sort of begins.”
o
Vonn
acknowledged a difficult transition after she retired from skiing, but she
said, “I found new passions and new ways to challenge myself. I think that’s
the most important thing. You know, athletes are very driven and goal-oriented,
and we just need something to push ourselves towards.”
