In this episode, the hosts discuss various topics including the recent news about Ronda Rousey apologizing for sharing conspiracy theories about the Sandy Hook shooting, the delay in the return of the Boeing Starliner capsule from the International Space Station, and the issues with Boeing’s planes. They also touch on the importance of critical thinking and the need to consider multiple perspectives when consuming news. In this part of the conversation, the principal themes discussed are travel safety, the potential for another season of Ted Lasso, George R.R. Martin’s writing progress, job security in North Korea, and Elon Musk’s controversial statements. They also talk about the cancellation of the show ‘The Acolyte’ and the impact of the showrunner’s comments on its reception. The conversation ends with recommendations for TV shows and movies, including ‘Signs of the Psychopath,’ ‘Jackpot,’ ‘Chaos,’ and the upcoming release of ‘Beetlejuice.’
Chapters
00:00 Introduction and D&D
04:47 Controversy Surrounding Ronda Rousey’s Comments
17:53 Challenges Faced by Astronauts
23:02 The Future of Ted Lasso
25:57 GRRM HOTD Critiques
31:23 Job Security in North Korea
34:39 Elon Musk’s Controversial Statements
41:51 The Impact of PeDisney not renewing the Acolyte
45:07 TV Show and Movie Recommendations
51:15 What we’ve been watching
Takeaways
- Ronda Rousey issued an apology for sharing conspiracy theories about the Sandy Hook shooting, but some believe it was disingenuous and motivated by the need to improve her public image.
- The Boeing Starliner capsule faced issues, causing a delay in the return of astronauts from the International Space Station. This adds to the growing concerns about Boeing’s reliability.
- Critical thinking and considering multiple perspectives are crucial when consuming news, as misinformation and conspiracy theories can easily spread.
- The hosts discuss the importance of accountability for companies like Boeing and the need for stricter regulations in the aviation industry. Travel safety is still a concern, but some participants express interest in alternative methods like telepathy and astral projection.
- There may be plans for another season of Ted Lasso, but opinions differ on whether it should continue without the main character.
- There is skepticism about whether George R.R. Martin will ever finish writing the remaining books in the A Song of Ice and Fire series.
- The harsh consequences for officials in North Korea highlight the lack of job security in the country.
- Elon Musk’s controversial statements and actions have damaged his reputation, but his companies like SpaceX continue to do important work. Platforms like Facebook and Twitter should fact-check misinformation to prevent the spread of false information.
- There is a push to hold everyone’s opinion in the same regard, which can lead to the validation of conspiracy theories and misinformation.
- The comments and actions of showrunners can impact the reception and success of TV shows.
- Recommendations for TV shows and movies include ‘Signs of the Psychopath,’ ‘Jackpot,’ ‘Chaos,’ and the upcoming release of ‘Beetlejuice.’
Titles
- Delays and Concerns with Boeing
- Ronda Rousey’s Apology for Conspiracy Theories The Future of Ted Lasso
- Lack of Job Security in North Korea The Impact of Showrunners on TV Show Reception
- The Importance of Fact-Checking and Free Speech
Sound Bites
- “There’s certain things that you don’t say out loud.”
- “People are thinking, ‘I can say what I want. Look how popular I am. I can get away with anything I want to get with.'”
- “It’s not the worst thing in the world. Yeah, they weren’t supposed to be there for that long, but it’s not like they’re up there like hunting for food because there’s nothing to hunt.”
- “And it’s quite honestly still the safest way to travel.”
- “I tend to think that telepathy is a little safer, at least for now.”
- “If it happens to me, none of you can have any of my stuff.”
- “If people are spreading misinformation, you can say whatever stupid thing you want to say anytime you want to say it. But it should be like even the job of applications like Facebook, Twitter, and other places like that to put a note on it.”
- “Your stupid idea, your conspiracy theory has as much validity as real scientific proof or something. That’s just the movement.”
- “It has nothing to do with politics. It has everything to do with you didn’t put the asses in the seats because the product wasn’t good.”
Ryan (00:00)
Didn’t something crazy happen in Nashville recently? There was some weird news out of that. yeah. Yeah. Thoughts and prayers. But we’ll leave it. Yeah. No, definitely.
Cinik (00:04)
Something happened in Georgia just today.
Justin Gild (00:04)
possible.
Ig (00:09)
Terrible world, man.
Cinik (00:14)
Well, that’s going to solve it all at end of the day. Thanks, Tony Danza. Thoughts and praise.
Ryan (00:21)
Bye.
Welcome to the portable. Yeah. yeah. Welcome to the portable whole podcast. I’m Ryan George. I’m here with cynic, egg and Justin. we just, just coming off another, round of D and D, where cynic you’re doing a great job as our DM. so how’s everyone doing today?
Cinik (00:27)
You’re just making more work for yourself. Now you’re have to edit all this.
Justin Gild (00:47)
Pretty good. Re -acclimating back to the city.
Ig (00:48)
I’m doing all right. just I’m still they didn’t heal my hit points from the last one You know, it’s like we had a little healer menu run around throwing hit points at people everyone except for me So like I’m hurting a little bit but doing okay
Ryan (00:53)
You
Yeah.
Hey, how does that work? Do we heal up in between? Okay.
Cinik (01:05)
Yeah, you gotta take a long rest, which that’ll happen as long as you don’t encounter anything on the way to Bear Island.
Ryan (01:12)
Okay, got it. All right. So, so we’ll we’ll be back to full strength. Are we going to stay at level two or are we moving up?
Cinik (01:17)
Yeah, yeah, only because I want you guys to kind of get used to your characters and maybe some of you to read your characters. So I don’t have to explain how everything works all the time. And because it gets a little more complicated for a lot of the character classes at level three.
Ryan (01:26)
Yep.
Yeah, no, I was actually going through it. I got to, I printed out my character sheet the first time and I got to do it again just cause so I have easy access to all everything. then the equipment and everything. yeah, so be a little bit more prepared next, next game.
Cinik (01:44)
And we got to figure out why egg is so fluffy because not wearing armor is supposed to be a benefit. And I started reading Reddit and they’re like, just wear armor. And that doesn’t go along with the whole barbarian scheme.
Ryan (01:48)
Okay.
Yeah. Well, make it work. It’s you’re the DMC.
Justin Gild (01:56)
The whole thing for me is the role of the die is very weird for me because I’m used to playing Dragon Quest, which there’s almost very little luck. Like you might have more luck in whether you get a powerful blow or something like that. everything is based on the way that you build your character, the items and the armor and the weapons that you use.
the way that you divvy up the statistics for their powers. So this to me is just very different where so much is reliant on the role of the die. That’s just the system though.
Ig (02:38)
I think you’re thinking about, because the thing is Dragon Quest still rolls a die. I think you’re thinking of when you have actually leveled the character and when you’re a low level character fighting things that are maybe a little higher than you, your chances to miss are a lot more often. Same thing in World of Warcraft. Like when you’re a low level character, the rolls happen still. It’s still a dice rolling game. just, if you’re already leveled, your chance of missing
Justin Gild (02:54)
Absolutely. Yeah.
Ig (03:04)
or not critting or things like that are much lower. When you’re leveled up, you’re going to hit all the time because you build it into your character.
Justin Gild (03:06)
or sitting alone.
And I figured that that was what it was gonna be. Once the characters are stronger, you’re gonna have less variance with, we hope that if I don’t roll a 14, I’m not gonna do any damage. So I figured that would happen.
Ig (03:23)
Right.
Cinik (03:26)
Well, the problem is, that after you level, then you start fighting things that are equivalent to your level. So yeah, they’ll still be equally as hard to hit or stronger or more hit points, but we’re going to have to do an internal investigation on the Georges because they were both rolling out of their minds all weekend and lots of twenties and high damage rolls. And I think there might be some performance enhancing rolling going on over at the George residence.
Justin Gild (03:32)
that are strong. Yeah. See, that’s what I was saying.
Ryan (03:42)
Ha ha ha.
Yeah, right. Yeah. Well, although there were a couple of really bad roles too. So I feel like it was like all or nothing for us this time around. Yeah.
Cinik (03:55)
Yeah, but that was at beginning and I think you only did that to throw us off the set.
Ryan (03:59)
Yeah, right. Yeah, like when it counted, got, we had our, we got our twenties. No, but I like, I enjoy the, the kind of luck of the draw. think it makes it, it makes it fun. I think, and, and as, but I think definitely I see how it also becomes a very strategic game. you know, with all the gear that you have and just everything going on. So I think as that, the, what, what do I, what do do and how do I, what goes on? You know, part of it also, I think is just trusting that you’re going to, you’ll, you’ll guide us.
in the right direction as our fearless leader, Sinek.
Cinik (04:31)
I just love the fact that you sent your poor Rogan to get an opportunity attack and then he stood up and just wailed her across the room as if he was Babe Ruth, damn near cleaved her in half.
Ryan (04:37)
Yeah. Yeah. It was gay. Yeah. We do it again. All right. All right. So let’s get into some news. There’s a bunch of news that I’ve kind of accumulated over the last few weeks that we have been off. And so some interesting stuff, some weird stuff, and then some stuff that’s kind of relevant to us. So I guess the first thing, this is from a few weeks back.
Ig (04:43)
It was a good plan. It didn’t work, but it was a good plan.
Ryan (05:06)
but it’s just so ridiculous that, that I wanted to get, get your guys thoughts. So, know, Rhonda Rousey, who can’t seem to, you know, find her, you know, find her way into any decent press, had to issue it. So she, she had a Reddit, you know, ask me anything type of a session a few weeks back, maybe a month now. And I think it basically became, got taken over by people like asking her about like some of the dumb things that she’s said in the past, which includes.
Sharing conspiracy theories about the Sandy Hook shooting among many other things and so she she finally what? 12 years later to nine or eleven twelve years later Issued an apology calling it her most regrettable decision And then deleted the post You know acknowledging that the damage had been done And said that she was afraid to address it sooner fearing that it would cause more harm So what do you think about that? Do you think you really?
Cinik (05:39)
Oof.
I think that’s complete bullshit. I think that she was hoping people would forget. But the problem is that with this still actively going on with Alex Jones, who basically started those conspiracy theories, him still being sued and in the process of paying these poor families, it’s never really going to go away until Infowars is shut down and it becomes a Spirit of Halloween store. And I think we’re headed in that general direction and hopefully Alex will be able to get a job there.
Ryan (06:30)
Yeah.
Cinik (06:31)
be able to hawk stuff for three months out of the year and then maybe live on unemployment for the rest of the time. But I mean,
There’s certain things that you don’t say out loud, and I’m not just talking about the C word or the N word or the R word. There’s certain things that you think that maybe amongst your closest friends you can talk about, but to go on a public forum and run with these terrible fucking conspiracy theories just makes you look like a moron and you always end up losing in the end, and that’s what she did. She lost in the end.
I mean, respect for Ron Rousey’s probably at an all time low, but I think the one thing that changed with her is she started having kids. And with kids come perspective that, hey, if my kids are hurt, I don’t know how I would deal with this. That’s part of the reason why I never had kids because I don’t, I think that would be the end. If anything happened to my kids, I think I would just be done. And to think that you lose your kid and then somebody is just saying this vile thing like, they never existed. They were crisis actors. This is all set up false flag.
It’s fucking, it’s probably the worst possible thing next to calling some, a pedophile that you can do.
Ryan (07:37)
Yeah. Well, in this day and age where like, you know, everything we say and do is scrutinized. And as a celeb, I would think as a celebrity, like you, have to know that, like, do you think it’s realistic that she just thought she could kind of just get away with it over time or, or like, was she just completely misguided?
Cinik (07:53)
Well, I think she functions 100 % on hubris. What do you think?
Ig (07:57)
Yeah, I think that at the time it was one of those things where she thought she was basically untouchable. She was so popular in so many things. I think at that time she was just about done with her MMA career and was just starting in WWE, right? So she was so popular and there was, and Alex Jones at the time was very popular even though he started saying that and people were shying away from him with a quickness.
And I don’t know why people think that they should just say anything. And especially like so soon after the aftermath. mean, I think it’s still too soon to kind of joke or come up with conspiracy theories about about children dying. Like you want to conspiracy theory about 9 -11, you want to conspiracy theory about about the things that are going on in Israel and stuff right now. You know, go ahead, because, you know, if you’re talking about the adults, but when you start talking about children, like there’s no cause, there’s no reason.
Ryan (08:41)
Justin.
Ig (08:54)
that anybody’s out there trying to kill kids. And that’s just a recipe for disaster. It’s never okay. No matter who the kids are, no matter where they are, no matter who their parents are, it’s not okay.
Ryan (09:07)
So Justin, do you have any sympathy for someone who maybe kind of dived down the conspiracy rabbit hole and maybe you just get, you get stuck and you know, maybe a combination of hubris and ignorance makes you post things you probably shouldn’t have posted.
Justin Gild (09:19)
So.
So I think that there’s what I would call reasonable conspiracy theory rabbit holes to dive down. And it’s easy to get into it. There’s something sort of fun about conspiracy theories. learning about this information that the masses don’t know, that people don’t seem to know what’s going on. And you’re finding out these secrets. It’s kind of…
Ig (09:43)
See you guys.
Justin Gild (09:49)
It’s kind of similar to the online sleuthing phenomenon that we’ve seen in the past, you know, become very popular in the past 15 years or so, but there’s levels to the game. So yeah, do you want to say something like, if you say something like, well, I believe that Dick Cheney had some sort of hand in 9 -11, whether he let it happen or like something like that, you could say that.
and you can sort of get away with it because if there’s some intellectual sense behind it, would you put it past Dick Cheney to murder his own people for his game? I would, but there’s a big difference between that and saying that a school shooting where people died and everyone saw it didn’t happen with children as Ix said. So there is a this
Cinik (10:41)
Well, history has shown that… history has shown that…
History has shown that we’ve been complicit in just about every war. Like we’ve let things happen for provocation. So to say that we were complicit in the planning in 9 -11, sure. I mean, that’s within the realm of possibilities politically. To say we were detonating buildings at ground zero is fucking asinine. know, seeing people fall from the sky that day, I don’t know how anybody, especially us, because we’re, well, the three of us, because we’re so tied to the area.
Justin Gild (10:53)
Yes.
Yes.
Cinik (11:17)
that you could ever just shrug that off that, now can you say that, you know, maybe the government did stand down or maybe they didn’t have aircraft in the area on purpose so they could start whatever war that they’re grinding access for? Sure. I think that’s what, but I think sometimes it just, it goes too far. It leaves logic.
Justin Gild (11:33)
know, realm of possibility is the.
Ryan (11:36)
Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And just, it’s not to mention like just the pain that families are going through and to just rub that in. It’s like, even if I, know, even if right, that happens and you’re reading something that seems like, this is interesting. Like, you you still can’t do that because there there’s like grieving families. And unless I 100%, I know with 100 % certainty, I’m not going to do that because that’s causing them more pain than they’re already going through.
Justin Gild (11:41)
and she’s beyond.
Yeah.
Ryan (12:05)
you know, and it’s just, it’s kind of, it’s, it’s insane. And, know, it’s like, I’m glad that she kind of got that pushback and I’m a little surprised maybe it took so long, but also I think now with her book, well, you know, I think so.
Justin Gild (12:13)
I’m wondering about the why. know, the why. Like, with Alex Jones, when you have someone whose job it is to stir up controversy and, you know, in dealing with media and you’re trying to, like, get a rise out of people, then that makes sense. But for Ronda Rousey, I’m not getting the why, for me. That’s the big thing. Why?
Ryan (12:30)
So, like, I mean, like, think, Sinic, Ig, I forget. you know, I think, like I said, is, part is hubris, right? Part is like, these are famous people who are not necessarily the most intelligent people, you know, the, and, you know, logical and critical thinking people. And, you know, you combine it. So you combine a huge platform with some ignorance and, and a willingness to, say things, I’m just putting it out there. And that’s what you get.
Justin Gild (12:38)
to hubris.
Ryan (13:00)
And so I don’t, I’m not, not really shocked.
Ig (13:01)
I think there are people that grew up with the idea that no press is bad press. And that used to be true when press was slow. It would take a long time to get across the country and it played the telephone game across. And what you originally said isn’t what got printed on the other end of the country. But we’re in an instant world now. You say something and everyone in the world knows it. You can’t do those things anymore. You need to think about what you say. And it’s pure hubris because people are thinking,
Ryan (13:05)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Ig (13:30)
I can say what I want. Look how popular I am. I can get away with anything I want to get with. And if he’s saying it, I can say it. And you said it right on the nose with the level of intelligence. They are so easily swayed to believe something that is just absolutely ridiculous to believe because they’re not intelligent enough to bring up that thought on their own. they’re mimicking, they’re parroting something that somebody else is saying because they think that
Ryan (13:31)
Yeah.
Ig (13:58)
it makes them look intelligent. And if it’s not in your purview, if it’s not where you belong, shut the fuck up about it, honestly.
Justin Gild (14:01)
You know.
Haha
Cinik (14:07)
Well, I encourage everybody to watch Into the Storm. I was gonna bring it up in my what I’m watching, but since we’re talking about it. If you remember QAnon and its heyday, those motherfuckers believed anything. Anything that was put out by Q or higher up in QAnon went everywhere and it was like wildfire and it started to affect normal everyday life. So I think it’s kinda like QAnon and it’s kinda like MAGA now. These people believe that they’re part of a group.
Ryan (14:11)
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Cinik (14:35)
that they’re going to be supported regardless of what they say in there in the know, somehow like the rest of us clubs don’t. had a guy the other day like just shit all over the news and I nicely asked him I said, Well, sir, where do you go get your news? Are you getting it from social media? Are you getting it from means? Are getting it from the outlet that was just sued for record high defamation settings as our settlement? I said, Where do you get your news that you’re so much in the know and nobody else does?
Ryan (14:38)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And that’s the big thing.
Cinik (15:04)
And the answer to that question is there is no answer. You’ve got to dig through whatever shit that you watch and figure out what the truth is to you. And, you know, look at it from all sides. Don’t shut off CNN because they say something that upsets you. Don’t shut off Fox News because they’re spouting ridiculousness. You’ve got to hear it all over and then you got to make up your own mind. And a lot of people can’t do that, nor will they take the time to.
Ryan (15:10)
Yeah.
Yeah, no, no, that’s a fair point. think, you know, I think with, especially with, with Rhonda, I think it’s a little disingenuous. Like, I think it’s more that, you know, she could get, get by on, was a great MMA fighter for a time. She was good at pro wrestling for a time. She had her name. And now that she’s kind of branching off into other endeavors, you know, writing a book and I think writing comics or something like that. I think she needs to ingratiate herself to a larger portion of the public. And so in the past where you could just ignore or block people on social media.
Now you can’t because you want to try to get people to like you. And so I think part of it is that, you know, in a, you know, so it’s like, I’m not shocked by the why I’m more curious as like why now to apologize. And I think that’s really what it has to do with is like, this is the, you know, I’m a cool, cool person down to earth person tour. And yeah, in order to do that, you gotta wipe the slate clean, I guess. So I think it’s a little disingenuous, but.
Justin Gild (16:10)
businesses.
Ig (16:19)
Well, if there’s any conspiracy to go with that, they may have hired her publicist, may have hired people to come in and ask those questions to give her the opportunity to apologize. So it makes it look like she’s a decent human being. So maybe she can sell her comics or something. You know, what right does she have to be writing books or selling comics? Like, know, OK, you know, unless it’s a book about, you know, how to do certain jujitsu styles or something like.
Ryan (16:25)
Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Ig (16:45)
mind your business, go somewhere else. Like just cause your name is Rhonda Rousey, that doesn’t make you anywhere near in the realm of writing like a comic book like you did because like you spent your whole life in nerd culture. So writing a comic book for nerd culture people, that that’s, that’s your right, because that’s where you live. But like she’s been a combatant, go be a combatant, go do that. And if you’re not there, like go, go announce combating, go stand and tell people what’s happening and why it’s good or bad, you know, but I,
Ryan (16:46)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Justin Gild (17:14)
Part of it is she’s a sufferable person. She’s not a good person. Like we saw it in the Ultimate Fighter against Misha where she just came off as a brat, where she was very narcissistic and she was just emotional in a bad way. And Misha came off as very likable and just like, this is the, you see these two sort of female pioneers of MMA and it was totally Rhonda’s chance to say, I really like her.
Ig (17:14)
All these people think that they can do everything.
Justin Gild (17:43)
She came off very unlikable and Misha came off as, this is the pioneer that I want to like. And then of course, around Holly Holmes, Ronda really came off unlikable as well. she, I think it’s damage control, you know.
Ryan (17:56)
Yeah, that’s fair. All right, so on to the next story. So this is a little bit of a quick follow up on what we talked about last time. also like, we should probably not fly Boeing if we can. But as we mentioned last week, there were a couple of astronauts were stuck as their Boeing Starliner capsule had some issues. They’re stuck in the International Space Station. They were set to return and that was delayed.
Justin Gild (18:10)
No.
Ryan (18:22)
So now as it stands, the Boeing Starliner is set to return from the space station, sends the two astronauts who will stay on the International Space Station until February and return with SpaceX. You know, one of the good things that Elon’s done and he’ll be in the news a little bit later. So, yeah, like, yeah, there’ve been several issues with Boeing, both their Starliner and their planes, and it just seems like a mess, but I guess like…
Justin Gild (18:36)
weird.
Ryan (18:51)
How rough does that? mean, you know, obviously when you’re an astronaut, do what you, you know, you’re, doing this for, because you love it and, you know, and, and, and there’s a certain amount of risk associated with it, but, but how rough would that be if like you go away for like a two, you know, a weekend away and then now you got to be away from your family for six months.
Ig (19:08)
It’d be rough, but you know, that’s one of those things where just like Ron DeRossi, they’re going to be able to turn this into huge paychecks because they’re going to be able to write books about like how this all happened and tell me they’re not going to tell me they’re not going to go on speaking tours and get paid huge amounts of money to go do these things. Of course they’re going to. So, you know, I’m sure I’ve seen, you know, all kinds of videos coming from the space station because like
Ryan (19:17)
Hmm
Justin Gild (19:17)
Yes.
Ryan (19:22)
Yeah, that’s a good point.
Justin Gild (19:25)
yeah, heroes.
Ig (19:36)
You know, the Americans that have been up there have done all kinds of things to like for kids and for everybody to see what it’s like to be up there. It’s not the worst thing in the world. Yeah, they weren’t supposed to be there for that long, but it’s not like they’re up there like hunting for food because there’s nothing to hunt. There’s food there. You know, there’s air there and like, OK, you’re going to lose some bone density. But people have been up there that long before. I think the people that they’re going to be there with are going to be up there just as long as they are.
Ryan (19:45)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mm.
Ig (20:05)
It’s okay, you know, and just look at it like, hey, I’m up here. They get good internet connectivity. They can still talk to their families every day. You know, it’s, you know, and someone’s gonna cash a huge paycheck. And a lot of it from afterwards, but they’re gonna get paid a huge amount of money for getting left there, right? Somebody’s gonna give it to them.
Ryan (20:23)
No, they’re not actually. Well, yeah, but yeah, actually surprising that like, is part of their pay. I think they, you know, they’ll make a little bit of extra money, but they’re not going to get like any extra, like major bonus for being there. But yeah, you’re right. Like speaking towards the book.
Justin Gild (20:35)
Well, the money’s gonna come from speaking tours and endorsements and things like that.
Ig (20:38)
Well, it’s going to come from somewhere and they might just sue NASA when they get back for, you know, not moving faster, having a backup plan.
Cinik (20:45)
Yeah, but is that money worth the butthole clinch ride home that they’re going to have to go through? if that, that, yeah. And if that ship blows up five minutes out of port, you know, like, do, would you ever want to leave at that point? Would you ever trust?
Ig (20:50)
That’s only if they get on the Boeing ship.
Ryan (20:56)
man.
Yeah, imagine that like, yeah.
Ig (21:01)
I just live here now, I’m in space. It’s good.
Cinik (21:04)
Now, you’ve got a company that’s floundering. They used to be the end all be all in aviation. And talk about failing up. Their CEO was given a $33 million bonus for their planes falling out of the sky, for new planes that they’re building being grounded, for subverting FAA regulations and investigations. And the guy took a $33 million bonus. People should go to jail behind that shit.
Ryan (21:18)
Yeah.
Yep.
Ig (21:33)
Well, you know, that’s corporate America, right? He made whatever numbers that got to that bonus and everything. And I dare you to go go find a major airline that 90 % of their fleet isn’t Boeing aircraft. Any of them. They’re all Boeing, like in the whole world. They’re all Boeing.
Ryan (21:36)
Yeah.
Cinik (21:40)
What numbers?
Ryan (21:47)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know what say? If there’s one industry that you do not want to, know, that you want all the regulations, it’s like aviation. yeah. Yeah. But it’s a little scary now when I, you know,
Ig (21:57)
And it’s quite honestly still the safest way to travel.
Justin Gild (22:03)
I tend to think that telepathy is a little safer, at least for now.
Ig (22:04)
It is scary.
You
Ryan (22:09)
Yeah, Astral projection.
Ig (22:11)
You’re just going to think about where you’re going and enjoy it in your mind. Take some mushrooms and…
Justin Gild (22:13)
You
Cinik (22:15)
Well, if I could take a trip on Expedia through telepathy, then I’ll absolutely do that.
Ryan (22:19)
So yeah, seriously.
Ig (22:22)
You know, it’s funny that you bring that up because like some of you are traveling very soon and some of you have just traveled. And I’m willing to bet that like both of you have, all three of you, because I, travels all the time too. You get on planes, most of them are Boeing planes.
Ryan (22:37)
Yeah. yeah. And it’s, it was really bad as you saw, did you guys see that plane that went down in Brazil a couple of weeks ago? I saw that that was like a couple of days before I left. And so like that, and I think at some point I was, I like add a dream on the flight that I was on, like that, was happening. And like I jumped, I jolted myself awake and it was not fun.
Cinik (22:38)
Thanks, Ik.
yeah.
I’m just putting it out there now. If it happens to me, none of you can have any of my stuff.
Ryan (23:02)
I’m going to take the cynic sign. All right. all right. So, now we’ll get into a little pop culture news. so Ted Lasso, which we all thought was over, apparently, they’re renewing, they’ve renewed the contracts for the cast members. And so I’m not sure if the, I don’t know that it’s completely green lit, but it’s looking like there are plans to set up a writer’s room and that may, we may get another season of Ted Lasso. So
Ig (23:03)
I’m coming to take it.
Ryan (23:31)
Siddick, know you’re, I was a big fan of the show, know you’re big fan. Justin, not, I don’t think you’ve watched Ted Lasso, have you?
Justin Gild (23:37)
I saw a little bit of it. sort of, it was the sort of thing that it didn’t make me like want to keep watching. So I thought it was funny. I don’t remember. don’t remember. That’s, what I was told that, that I need, that you got to give it the call. All right. I’ll give it another go.
Ryan (23:45)
Yeah, well –
Cinik (23:45)
You need to, you need to give it, how much of it did you see though? Cause you need to give it a little bit of time. It’s, it starts off rough.
Ryan (23:51)
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. So, Cynic, how excited are you excited about it? Or is this a show that like you would glad it ended the right way and we should just leave, you know, leave it, leave it be.
Cinik (24:03)
Well, I don’t think the story is necessarily over, but I think you need to spin it off and call it something else like Richmond. You know, just call it Richmond and and drop the Ted lasso because he’s obviously not gonna be a part of the show anymore. And I think that there’s enough talent. mean, if you look at the last season, it was barely about Ted lasso anyway. Once he announced that he was going home, the story became about everybody else. And I think that was intentionally and well, he placed and I just think that there’s enough talent and enough story with these people that you could
Ryan (24:14)
Mm.
Yeah.
Cinik (24:31)
you probably could ring two or three more seasons out of it. mean, any amount of Roy Kent is not enough. I can in my book anyway.
Ryan (24:37)
So.
So do you think we can get by with a, with a show that does not feature Jason Sudeikis as Ted Lasso?
Ig (24:46)
Maybe, but they’re gonna have to, I mean, like Joe said, Roy Kent was a big force in that last season and all the seasons, honestly. And it’s just one of those things where if they take the time and they spend the money and they write it well and they don’t just like, we’re gonna cash in on some money, which I think Apple TV has been pretty good about not just cashing in on money because they aren’t selling a lot of merchandise, right? They aren’t making money off of other places.
If your stuff sucks, people are going to stop subscribing and they just leave. Apple’s done pretty good about most of the stuff they put out is worth watching. So I think that if it’s not good, if it’s not written well or something, they may not even film it. Or if they film it and the first one sucks, they’ll just stop. And that’s fine. And I think that there’s possibilities. I want to know what they’re going to do. Because as much as it was about other people in the final season,
Ted Lasso still kind of brought it all together. So maybe it’s a little difficult to run without him. And Joe’s right. Call it Richmond if you’re going to go further. Don’t call it Lasso’s legacy or something weird like that.
Ryan (25:57)
No, think yeah, Richman’s perfect. All right. So in other pop culture news, recently, so George R .R. Martin, who seems to do everything but write The Winds of Winter, has recently, recently criticized some of the changes in House of the Dragon season two, particularly the removal of Prince Maylor from the Blood and Cheese plot. And he argued that this weakens key future storylines, such as certain things that happened to Helena.
and a kind of societal impact. And although he was initially opposed to some of these changes, I think he accepted it due to production and budgetary constraints. But he seems more concerned about writing about what’s wrong with a season of a show based on what’s effectively like an encyclopedia entry than writing and finishing his series. So, Cynic, do you think George R. R. Martin should just lock himself in room and finish Winds of Winter?
Cinik (26:51)
Well, Ryan, that’s the thing. mean, it was about a year and a half ago now that we went and saw that talk and I left that theater fully convinced that we’ll never get those books just because watching someone watching my wife write her dissertation and she’s much like he is in his process where things need to be perfect for her to sit down and start putting pen to paper. I just don’t think he’s going to find the time. I think he’s doing things in lieu of writing, like to replace writing.
I don’t think we’ll ever get the end of the story. I would be highly surprised if we ever have those books in our hands or on our audible. It just, didn’t inspire me with a lot of hope at all. And the fact that he didn’t even talk about them, just the process of writing how hard it is, not what he wants to do in the books or not what he saw different from the TV show that he would like to do. There was none of that. We got his background and we got it that writing is hard.
And then Kevin Smith, seemed very high at the time said, yeah, I pretty much can write on the toilet. You know, I can write anywhere because he’s writing dick and fart jokes.
Justin Gild (27:51)
Huh.
Ryan (27:53)
Yeah. Yeah. Well, what the?
Ig (27:57)
just think it’s funny that like, isn’t this the same book that when the original Game of Thrones started? We’re waiting for? Same book? He hasn’t released a book? Or did he release a book during the original Game of Thrones?
Ryan (28:07)
Yep. Pretty, almost. He did release one. He did release one.
Cinik (28:09)
No
No! Pimp down, pimp the distress.
Ig (28:18)
So, but I know at least halfway through, like we didn’t have wins a winner, you know, so that’s what 12, 15 years. mean, at this point, can you call yourself a writer anymore?
Ryan (28:29)
Yeah. Well, he writes. He’s just not writing this book. Yeah.
Ig (28:31)
He writes blog posts and I write blog posts. That doesn’t make me a writer.
Justin Gild (28:31)
Well, so it’s.
Yeah, it’s so true when the cynic you nailed is like, he’s more interested in doing everything but writing. And I’m not gonna compare myself to him on the level of success he has, but it reminds me of myself, right? When I’m busy being creative, working on either new songs or podcast ideas or articles or script stuff, I don’t care about anything else. It’s like I’m…
having a ball working on this stuff. And when I’m sort of in a creative funk, I’ll go on to Quora or Reddit or whatever and start writing dumb political rants and starting trolling people. So I get that mentality. It’s like when you feel, when you have momentum in the projects that you’re doing, you don’t care. It’s like if he was really happy with what he was doing, he’s like, all right, you write two words and be like two lines, be like, yeah, I don’t love this or not mention anything and just move on. to me,
Sinic, it sounded like exactly what you said. He’s interested in doing everything, but, and I think it’s because he’s not enjoying writing anymore, or at least he needs to find some new mojo with it.
Cinik (29:47)
Well, he won’t be complaining when he’s cashing those hot D residual checks. I’m sure he that’s the thing is like, you know, you, want to keep putting these shows on because we’ve got, nine to the seven kingdoms right around the corner, like next year. So I’m sure he’ll have a hand in that as well. Just sit down and write the novel or pay someone to write them for you and just give them ideas.
Ryan (29:47)
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
Justin Gild (29:50)
Of course, of course. Well.
Ryan (30:00)
Yeah.
Ig (30:07)
Even if you get that executive producer credit or something, they’re still, they’ll still writing you a check.
Justin Gild (30:09)
So have Chad CPT do it.
Ryan (30:13)
Well, he did. one thing he did say on this that I think we can all wholeheartedly agree with is that, Patty, he said Patty Constantine’s, portrayal of, Viseris made him want to rip up what he wrote and start over. Like that’s how good he was. that, you know, that, that, that’s a fair, can’t, can’t argue with that, but I’m just afraid he might actually do that. And again, spend more time working on, on that than, than his actual book.
Ig (30:37)
You’re not writing that book, dummy.
Cinik (30:40)
I don’t want to see anything happen to the old fella, but I really do think we need like an Annie Wilkes type figure to swoop him up and lock him in a cabin somewhere and break his knees till he starts writing again.
Ryan (30:45)
Yeah. Log him in. Yeah. Exactly. There’s a little hope that maybe he’s wasting all this time because he’s finishing the two books and he’s going to just announce it, but I’m highly doubtful. No, not at all. Did not get that sent. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. No. Yeah. Yeah. Autograph book. Well, we just had to pay for the tickets.
Cinik (30:59)
Did you get that? Did you get that sense from?
Ig (30:59)
I think he’s spending too much time doing other things.
Justin Gild (31:01)
So.
Ig (31:03)
He’s too many other places. He’s got to sign, go to Comic Cons and sign autographs for a dollars a pop.
Cinik (31:09)
We got this order.
Ig (31:12)
How much did you have to pay for it?
Cinik (31:14)
Yeah, it was the price of the tickets. So that was kind of cool.
Ryan (31:15)
Right. Yeah. So the price of the tickets. Yeah. That was great. Cause I don’t think I expected that or I’m not sure if I forget now. that’s right. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, it was fun. all right. So now, we’ll, we’ll switch over to, probably the worst job security in the world. so, Kim Jong -un, the North Korean leader ordered the execution of between 20 and 30 officials for failing to prevent
Cinik (31:22)
Well, we bought the upgraded tickets that were a little more.
Justin Gild (31:38)
Ugh.
Ryan (31:42)
severe flooding and landslides in July, which resulted in about 4 ,000 deaths. They were accused of corruption and neglect. And I guess he called for strict punishment after touring the flood affected area. like, you were in anywhere in any capacity in North Korea, would you take a chance at taking any position with any kind of power? Justin? Yeah.
Cinik (32:10)
Well, especially those physicians after what happened to those people.
Ryan (32:13)
Yeah. Yeah, Justin, would you replace any of those people with any amount of money?
Ig (32:17)
Seems a little Lord Vader.
Justin Gild (32:18)
Yeah, that’s kind of like, I don’t know. The thing is, I don’t know if you have a decision. It’s not about your place. It’s kind of like you’re taking the job, right? Be like,
Ryan (32:20)
Yeah
That’s her.
Yeah. Well, it’s almost a place where you just like, have no ambition basically, you know, although I guess like, if you have no ambition, you’re going to be starving. So I don’t know what’s worse.
Justin Gild (32:37)
Well, so this is the, I don’t know what else is wrapped up in there with the corruption, but it’s like, you take that position, but you’re very pro -government and pro -Kim Jong -un and just like, lick his nut sack, you probably have good job security, regardless of what happens.
Ryan (32:59)
I don’t know about that. I think there’s about 30 people that would say otherwise because I think they I’m sure that they all.
Ig (33:00)
Yeah, I’m not sure.
Justin Gild (33:05)
Well, we don’t know. Do you think they all did the same? You think they were all countless?
Ryan (33:08)
Yeah, I feel you can’t get into a position without being very acquainted with his nutsack.
Justin Gild (33:14)
That’s part of the job application.
Ryan (33:18)
Yeah, no, seriously, I think it’s
Cinik (33:19)
You look at situations like that and you wonder why don’t they rise up?
Justin Gild (33:20)
description.
Ig (33:24)
Well, I was just thinking, you know, do you want to have your government overthrown? Because that’s how you start getting your government overthrown is just willy nilly killing people that probably didn’t have anything to do with preventing a flood. do you floods happen sometimes? Like you get torrential rain storms and things happen and my God, it’s a tragedy. But like, do think they were out there like plotting like, hey, let’s make a flood happen. That’d be fun.
Ryan (33:36)
Yeah, it’s like, how do you prove?
Yeah.
Justin Gild (33:43)
you
Ryan (33:47)
Yeah, yeah, no.
Cinik (33:48)
We were just one culvert away from avoiding this whole flood.
Ryan (33:51)
Yeah, seriously. All right, and then from…
Justin Gild (33:53)
I mean, is he thinking that it’s like that doing that is going to get better productivity out of the next people that take the power or is it just he feels that as the leader, he needs to make an example out of people to regain sort of public, you know, I don’t know about trust, but like faith in his power to show he’s doing something about this.
Ryan (33:59)
Yeah.
That sounds like more.
think that’s, that sounds more like it, you know, like.
Cinik (34:16)
Well, it’s it’s he’s the supreme leader and the buck stops with him. So what do we do when the buck stops with us? You pointed somebody else and that’s all he did was those people died so he wouldn’t look bad. Look like he did something progressive.
Ryan (34:23)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. Completely passing a buck.
Ig (34:32)
Well, and when all the news that you get is controlled by the state, know, there people might not know any better.
Ryan (34:39)
Yeah. Well, from, one dictator to somebody who probably wouldn’t mind it, based on his, his recent words, so Elon Musk, somebody who like, it’s funny, like, I feel like five years ago, maybe, you know, he’s like, he had an amazing, great reputation. He was this mad scientist who was into all these things. And, know, it’s just reputation, just constantly taking hits, you know, by his, you know, self self -inflicted, but, he recently reposted a contribution or controversial theory from 4chan.
Ig (34:44)
You
my
Ryan (35:09)
on Twitter, I refuse to call it X, suggesting that only quote, high status males, including high testosterone men and neurodivergent individuals are capable of free thinking and should govern a republic. And he labeled it as an interesting observation. So obviously, it is an incredibly sexist and exclusionary theory.
But of course he promotes a lot of, not interesting, harmful and divisive ideologies. what are your thoughts on that? On Elon Musk’s, yeah.
Ig (35:46)
He is a strange man because like, of course he has to pick that one. Because I don’t view Elon Musk as a high T individual. So he had to make sure the neurodivergent part was encouraged in there. Because even listening to him talk, sometimes I have problem with like, he’s got some speech impediment that like, when he says such awful things that he says with the speech impediment, it just makes him seem like a really, really bad person.
Ryan (35:56)
Yeah.
Justin Gild (35:58)
Yeah.
Ryan (36:13)
Yeah.
Ig (36:15)
And I used to be the biggest fanboy. I thought all the stuff he was doing was great. We got SpaceX going, and Tesla looks interesting, and you got internet that you can take anywhere in the world, and it works just with a little portable satellite. There was all kinds of things that he was doing. But then I just see those, like, places in the world that need internet right now because they’re having natural disasters and everything. like, yeah, we’ll send it to you if you send us some money. It costs you nothing, and it gets you so much
So many better things. like getting into bed with some of these other politicians and some of the things he said, it’s like, don’t you realize if you just sat in the middle, you could collect from both sides, be the happiest man on the planet. And if you just, it’s the same thing with so many other things that I’m going to say today. There’s a lot of times where just shut the fuck up. Like, and what does he know about politics? He’s not a politician. He’s not even a scientist. Most of the stuff that he’s involved with, he backdoored his way into. He’s not an engineer.
Ryan (37:12)
Yeah.
Ig (37:13)
He can’t write the code. He can’t build anything. He just backdoored his way into SpaceX. He backdoored his way into Tesla. He backdoored his way into getting money out of PayPal. All of this stuff that he did is not of his own doing. He’s ended up one of the richest men on the planet, but it’s not his own doing.
Ryan (37:24)
Yeah.
Cinik (37:28)
Somebody’s about to lose their Twitter account.
Ryan (37:33)
Yeah, no, no, well said. don’t know if I can add anything. And it’s like, he’s done such kind of irreparable harm at this point to his reputation. And I think, I, you know, it’ll be interesting to see what happens with Twitter. Cause like, you know, like it’s weird. Cause on one hand, like you have Twitter, which seems like it’s become like a cesspool and I’m shocked that it’s still surviving. Although a whole other news story that I was going to bring up, but we, you know, won’t talk about is just the amount of money that everyone’s losing in Twitter.
Justin Gild (37:59)
Yeah.
Ryan (37:59)
But then you have something like SpaceX, which is actually doing some really great stuff. And like, we, you know, you kind of have to hold out hope that the version of Elon that like is this kind of megalomaniac, you know, is able to keep him temper his own issues to allow SpaceX to do it, do the good work it’s doing. Yeah. And, you know,
Ig (38:14)
He’s hired the right people there, quite honestly. And as long as he leaves them alone, they’ll do the right thing. The more he’s involved with SpaceX, the less well it’s gonna do.
Ryan (38:23)
Yeah, so it’s like, him stick with Twitter.
Cinik (38:23)
He’s about a day away from becoming the living embodiment of Lex Luthor. He really is. At some point the government will have wherever he is surrounded and there’ll be a standoff and he’ll shoot himself into space. It’s coming. He’s going off the rails. this is the problem. it happens with a lot of these people that with big ideas or super talenteds. Nobody ever tells you no. He has enough money where he can do whatever he wants.
Ryan (38:30)
you.
Justin Gild (38:31)
Yeah.
So.
Cinik (38:52)
he does copious amounts of drugs because every time I see him interviewed, he’s really fucking high. It’s, you know, it’s just one of those things. It’s, it’s, it’s unfortunate, but he isn’t gonna turn out to be our generation’s Einstein or anything.
Ryan (39:06)
You see, you said he isn’t.
Justin Gild (39:06)
But he also has followers. Like he has people that now be very similar to the Trump ism and he’s sort of which makes sense that he’s attached himself to that. are people that he is now sort of worshiped. He is sort of this even this sort of like now right wing of sorts hero, right? That he represents like the he represents the voice of a lot of sort of Trump Trumpist type people.
right? And he’s like, well, there’s the successful person.
Cinik (39:36)
Well, what I think it is, Justin, I think he’s counterculture. If being Republican was the in thing to be, he would be Democratic. Yeah, he’s just counterculture. If that’s the popular thing, that’s the in thing. So he’ll roll with the right wing. And if it was the other way around, he’d be a diehard liberal. Absolutely.
Justin Gild (39:43)
right wing, he’s like right wing counterculture, yeah.
You think so?
Ig (39:59)
Well, just like he talks all the time about how other places want to stop free speech, where if they want to put a community note on something saying this isn’t necessarily true, somehow that’s stopping free speech. And it’s like, well, if people are spreading misinformation, you can say whatever stupid thing you want to say anytime you want to say it. But it should be like even the job of applications like Facebook, Twitter, and other places like that to put a note on it. If you say something that’s just lunacy and say, this is might be not necessarily the truth.
Maybe you ought to look a little further into it. Here’s somewhere to go look because, you know, and he says that in itself is censorship. And I’m like, but it’s not.
Justin Gild (40:32)
Well, it’s this whole movement.
Cinik (40:36)
But he’s guilty of doing that just this past week. When Trump fell out of his face in Arlington, you better believe that all the articles about that had that warning on it. It could be spam or it could be not worth your time.
Ryan (40:38)
But he censors. Yeah.
Justin Gild (40:51)
Well, was reading something, I forgot what the comment was, but it’s this push that your idiot beliefs have the same value as scientific evidence. like there’s this sort of push to hold everyone’s opinion in the same regard. And it’s not true, right? Yes, everyone’s entitled to their opinion, but that’s the push now. And it’s sort of perpetuated and pushed by this idea of,
censorship, free speech, sort of it’s this new, this sort of right wing -esque thing. Don’t let anyone tell you what to believe or what you could say. You could say whatever you want. And it’s like, yeah, we know that already. And it just gets, it gets wrapped up in this idea that your stupid idea, your conspiracy theory has as much validity as real scientific proof or something. That’s just the movement.
Ryan (41:47)
No, that’s fair. it’s coming. It is definitely going. All right. And final, final news before we get into what we’ve been watching is this a few weeks back. I know, Cynic, you were sad, you were sad to hear that Lucasfilm decided not to renew the Acolyte for a second season on Disney+. Despite a decent viewership. Initially, I think it didn’t, you know, it didn’t quite keep up the momentum. It had
Ig (41:48)
I’m waiting for him to start talking about Flat Earth or something. I’m waiting. It’s next.
Ryan (42:17)
you know, had good ratings from critics, but it was very divided among Star Wars fans. And while their ideas pitched for second season, looks like they will not be pursued. So, Cynic, how disappointed are you in that?
Cinik (42:29)
Well, I mean, it wasn’t nearly as divided as you think it is. OK, because it was canceled due to lack of ratings. And this just harkens back to for before the show even began, the creator Leslie Hedberg said, if you don’t like it, don’t watch it. And people checked it out, didn’t like it and stopped watching. And that I think it was like one hundred and fifty million dollar budget. And she went back to Disney for more. And then that extra money wasn’t used.
like appropriately or added to the show, like the scenes weren’t put in. I mean, it’s simple mathematics. It has nothing to do with politics. It has everything to do with you didn’t put the asses in the seats because the product wasn’t good.
Ig (43:14)
the product wasn’t good enough, and the product might have been good enough. If she’d learned to just shut the fuck up. Again, I said it a few times in the show, she was saying things that had nothing to do with the show in press interviews leading up to the release of the acolyte.
Cinik (43:27)
Well, we’re seeing it again to the slow moving car crash that is the Snow White live action movie. The actress now finally has learned to quiet down and stop with spouting your beliefs every time she’s asked a question about the movie. But it might be a little too late because I think they released a trailer the other day and it was at a million dislikes. So it’s going to happen again and again. We get it. Just act. Just do your job. I go into my job every day.
Ig (43:50)
because they can’t shut up. Just shut up.
show up and say I had a good time filming this it’s a really fun movie we had a great day everything is fun we’re gonna have a good time you’re gonna enjoy it say those things why why would you like bring in political views or or personal views or anything else into any of these places or try and instill something that isn’t maybe there unless you’re really digging deep you know and they did that for the acolyte
Cinik (44:13)
I love this movement of shitting all over the source material. And that’s what she did. I’m a woman, I don’t need to be rescued, blah, blah, blah, blah. It’s like, I can’t wait to see what they may end up releasing the Snow White film on Disney+. That’s how badly it’s being received and nobody’s even seen it yet. And then that’s all due to you basically can’t tell the people that are paying your bills, which are the audience, which are collectively all of us to go fuck off. Regardless of what you feel about what we’re saying,
We’re the ones that are going to take part in what you’re doing and provide you a second season. And I’m sure she lost a fuck ton of money with the second season. And, you know, I don’t know. I don’t believe the pundits on on YouTube that are like, she was fired from a bunch of other projects. And I don’t believe all of that. But I do believe that she misplayed her hand. And Ryan, I’m so bored. I don’t give a fuck about your discourse.
Ig (45:10)
What?
Ryan (45:10)
What?
Cinik (45:12)
Isn’t that part of the song?
Justin Gild (45:14)
Ha
Ryan (45:15)
What song?
Cinik (45:17)
the Amanda Seppers song. We’re so bored we don’t give a fuck about your discourse.
Ryan (45:20)
Okay. that’s right. Okay. Yeah. I mean, like, I think there’s a way to approach fandom. There is a toxic part of the Star Wars fandom. I don’t think that it’s incumbent on a show runner or, or an actor to address that part of the fandom, especially when they’re trying to put something out. Cause it just creates more division and it makes the story about something else. So it’s like,
Cinik (45:33)
absolutely.
Ryan (45:49)
You can say whatever you want and that’s fine. But if you’re trying to make kind of a, a judicious or kind of a smart business decision, then it’s best to like focus on, here’s what we’re doing. Here’s what we’re trying to do. Here’s why we’re trying to be different, without insulting a lot of part of them that a large part of them do need to be smacked over the head, but somebody else should be doing that. Not the show runner who is trying to, you know, build an audience. Huh? Yeah, exactly. Right. So yeah.
Ig (46:14)
Put together a cohesive project. Put together a cohesive project. Like go do that.
Ryan (46:19)
Do that, put together something good and, let other people handle the discourse, at least until you’re done with, you know, you’re done with it. But, but then when the story became about more than that, and the other part, you know, it’s two parts, right? One is like the story became about her, the show runner and, and this fight. And then the product was not great. And so then that just made it even worse.
Ig (46:42)
Yeah, even if it was pretty good, if it’s not great, you don’t have any room to do that stuff.
Ryan (46:45)
Yeah. Yeah. Like if it’s and, or say whatever the hell you want, it’s so good that, you know, you, you effectively are immune. I mean, not even, but, but still it’s like.
Ig (46:52)
Funny you bring that up though, but how many times you see the showrunner out talking nonsense during Andor? You don’t see any of it.
Ryan (46:56)
No, didn’t. Yeah, no, see it.
Cinik (46:57)
You don’t, you don’t. And as Star Wars fans, and we’re all diehard Star Wars fans, we’re in the goddamn shit right now. I got a bunch of stuff behind me. and I talk about Star Wars. Yeah, see? I will never actively root for a Star Wars property to fail. Give me more Star Wars. I just don’t want to hear shit like, it’s the gayest Star Wars. R2 -D2 is a lesbian. I don’t care about any of that. Don’t bring your stuff over into my stuff.
Justin Gild (47:06)
You’re not all of us.
Ryan (47:06)
I’m wearing a Tatsween shirt, except Justin.
Yeah.
Cinik (47:24)
If it is the gay Star Wars as long as it’s a good show fantastic, let it be the gay Star Wars Let let our 2d2 be the best lesbian he could be just fucking put on a good show and and I’ll be happy with that and by the way and not to to Add to the the the negativity but one of the videos I watched they called her What was it a dead faced vacuum of charisma and ability I was like jeez
Ryan (47:53)
And we’re talking about JD Vance.
Cinik (47:54)
I don’t think I would be able to recover from that.
Ryan (47:59)
All right. So.
Ig (48:01)
Well, it’s like, you you talk about that, right? The Last of Us had a huge gay storyline running in it. And if you go back and look at the Cynic Radio podcast and we reviewed that episode, that was one of the strongest episodes that we reviewed. So you can have, it’s not that we’re like gayphobic either. That was the best storyline in that season of that show.
Cinik (48:13)
yeah.
because it’s not what the show was about. It was about great writing, suspense, horror, great acting. That’s what the show was about. And that’s all I care about at the end of the day.
Ig (48:22)
Right.
Ryan (48:30)
Well, yeah, I think it’s a fine line between, telling a story and shoehorning your, I don’t even wanna say agenda, it’s a little, I feel like it’s a little too harsh word, but like.
Ig (48:41)
Well, I watched every episode of the Acolyte. I didn’t see any of the gay they were talking about.
Justin Gild (48:42)
But see, it comes across like an agenda. See, that’s the thing. You’re saying that it’s not an agenda, to someone, especially to a casual fan like me, when I start making jokes like, it’s the Wokelite or something like that, it’s like going into it. Now it’s in the back of my mind, something, maybe I want to dislike. Now, look, I disliked the show because it was bad and for no other reason than that.
Ryan (48:47)
Yo!
Justin Gild (49:10)
but it doesn’t help when you go into watching a show wanting to dislike it. So I think that even though it might not be agenda, if to your fan base, it seems like an agenda, well, that’s bad news. It doesn’t help.
Ryan (49:25)
Well, I think that’s part of it is that like it, I, there were definitely, obviously there were definitely attempts to incorporate more diversity. And, I don’t think it was shoe horn. didn’t feel like it was shoe horn except for what they said outside of the show. And so then when you say that, that’s going to color your, your, your, your, how you received the show at that point. Cause then it’s like, well, now I see what they’re doing. And then, and then you’re almost going be looking for that. So I think that’s part. Yeah.
Justin Gild (49:42)
Yes.
Cinik (49:50)
It’s almost like a self -inflicted cancellation.
Ryan (49:52)
Exactly. it kind of like, they, yeah. So it’s like on that level, it’s like, yeah, if you’re trying just from a business standpoint, it’s like, Hey, well, you know, let’s, let’s just go with it. It is what it is and let people enjoy it or not enjoy it, but, to kind of add fuel to the fire was going to make it much more difficult. And when you do have a fan base, it’s like, look, if I ever had the chance to write something for star Wars, I would, you know, I’m not, I would be quiet and write my thing and then just be positive and talk about that. Right. And then just like, let it be what it is. Cause
You know what the fan base is like and they like their Star Wars and no matter what people criticize and or initially, know, so, you know, no matter how good or bad it is, there will be criticisms. It’s how you take those criticisms and, and, you know, keep moving forward. And I think that, you know, that’s part of the issue.
Cinik (50:33)
Well, if we’re being fair, the first episode of Endor was painfully slow. But if you hang in there, if you’re a fan, it got exponentially better and it turned out to be one of the best things Star Wars has done. And I can’t wait for the next season of that. I mean, just give us good product and we’ll go. You know, that’s what I keep hearing is the phrase bad product. And that’s basically what it boils down to. It was a bad product. Great idea, great antagonist, bad product.
Ryan (50:46)
Yeah.
Yeah. And that’s the thing is I think that’s the saddest thing of it all is I want to see that antagonist. Yeah. I hope so.
Cinik (51:05)
Well, maybe we see him again. it doesn’t necessarily taint the fact. We don’t need an acolyte 2 to see that character again.
Ryan (51:13)
Yeah, that’s fair. That’s Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That’s didn’t even mention that there’s some news on that, we got, but let’s get to what we’ve been watching. So, Justin, let’s start with you. I know you’ve been busy. So have you been watching anything recently?
Ig (51:14)
Yeah, let’s put him in the new Mandalorian movie. Let him be that antagonist.
Justin Gild (51:28)
busy. I have I’ve been I’ve been sort of digging this show. It’s an Amazon show. I believe it’s called Signs of Signs of the Psychopath. It’s a true crime show. And it’s it’s interesting. I’ve always been a fan of the true crime genre. But this one is is is really interesting because you really hear a lot more from the psychopaths. You hear long police interviews and you and you know, you get their affect.
Ryan (51:37)
Okay.
Justin Gild (51:57)
And you see sort of the difference, like how different sort of psychopaths, how they reacted, how they went about doing what they were doing. And then of course they have experts in that are actually sort of talking about the differences. I feel like with a lot of the crime shows, they just sort of throw it to you. They don’t go that much into the psychology of it. They talk about the terrible acts that have happened.
and maybe they’ll talk about the bad guy a little bit, but this one really goes into the psyche of it and lots of interviews and some of it is really, really creepy when you see what some of these people do.
Cinik (52:39)
So Justin, any of those signs that they want to capture, torture every person that they encounter in their D &D game?
Ryan (52:47)
You
Justin Gild (52:48)
Yes. Yes. Well, it’s funny because they say that video games were a cause, but actually not the video game themselves, but I think for one kid who did some heinous things because the video game that he became addicted to, and it was a violent video game, he was addicted, it was taken away from him and then he acted after that. but no.
Having a character in a fantasy game does not necessarily mean psychopathy, but it might.
Ryan (53:22)
So, about you? Have you watched anything good?
Ig (53:26)
I watched a movie on Prime that I thought was just, it’s a fun popcorn movie. It’s called Jackpot with John Cena and Awkwafina. It was a really fun popcorn movie. You just want to sit down and watch something mindless with a lot of good action and some crazy stuff. It was fun. So basically the base premise of this is they have a lottery in California in the not too distant future because why not?
Ryan (53:28)
Which would.
Okay, yeah. Is it good?
Okay.
Ig (53:55)
right? But the lottery is a winner is chosen and the winner has to survive until sundown and it and if you kill the winner and you can’t use guns so it has to be knives thrown weapons things like that but no guns if you can kill the winner before sundown you collect the prize so there’s it’s just all kinds of crazy stuff and people chasing this stuff it’s a real good just kind of you know
Justin Gild (54:23)
Sounds fun.
Ig (54:25)
exciting fighting running around movie that is full of my god that is crazy you know a lot of cameos a lot of crazy things happening in it it’s got a the guy that played shum chi from the shum chi movie simulant yeah he so he was in it running an agency of people that you can hire for 10 of your winnings or 30 of your winnings to protect you until sundown you know it’s
Ryan (54:39)
Okay, Simu Lu or whatever it Yeah.
Ig (54:53)
all kinds of crazy stuff like that. But it was really just funny and entertaining. if you just want to sit down, put on something that you don’t have to get too deep into, you don’t have to pay attention. If you got up and walked to the bathroom and came back, you’re fine. You can still watch the movie. There’s not that much crazy story going on that you can’t just sit down, put it on, and watch it. It’s just pure fun. And I’m all about, once in a while, just putting on something for pure fun.
Ryan (55:18)
Yeah, that’s fair. How about you Seneca, what are you watching?
Cinik (55:21)
Well, we caught up and finished Stranger Things getting ready for the next season, which I’m extremely happy about because I realized that I hadn’t finished the most previous season. I was happy to. Yeah, yeah. I don’t know why I kind of lost contact with the show, but I did. But I’m happy that I went back and watched it. And the other night we sat down and watched a movie called The Instigators.
Ryan (55:25)
Okay.
wow.
Ig (55:35)
so you got all the Eddie now.
Cinik (55:48)
with Casey Affleck and Matt Damon. It’s on Apple TV. And it’s basically about a robbery gone wrong. And it’s a lot of fun. It’s kind of like what Iq was saying. It’s not as serious as the town. There’s a lot of dark humor in it. Matt Damon plays the elder actor kind of pretty well in that movie, like just somebody that’s over life. So I kind of identified with that quite a bit. So I would definitely, I definitely take the hour and 41 minutes and sit down and watch it.
But more importantly, I don’t want to talk about what I’ve been watching. I want to talk about what I’ve been listening to. So there’s this whole genre of podcasts that center around Stuttering John Melendez from the Howard Stern Show. Even though he’s been out of fandom now for a good 20, 25 years, he started podcasting. And from that podcasting, a group called Who Are These Podcasts, who critique other podcasts, and they didn’t do us luckily, I checked.
Ryan (56:31)
Okay.
Cinik (56:47)
They started kind of critiquing one of his episodes and he lost his mind and threatened to sue them all. So it became this thing where there’s multiple shows have grown from this where all they do is critique this one show, but there’s been other antagonists have popped up that they now center on as well. It’s called the double verse and they just had their second gathering up in Rochester, which I don’t know why you would choose that as your home base, but it’s been very, very interesting because there’s a lot of
not only good podcasters, but interesting characters wrapped up into this. the main, the main podcast is who are these podcasters, but there’s also another podcast called Uncle Rico, which is ran by Shulie Agar, who used to also be a part of the Howard Stern show and equally hates John Melendez. So it’s, it’s really fascinating. Like you can jump down the YouTube rabbit hole and just listen to these past shows and it’s grown to other shows like Steel Toe.
Ryan (57:45)
Wow.
Cinik (57:47)
starring this guy, Aaron Emholt, who now has lost his wife because he started swinging with the wrong couple and they all got addicted to cocaine and his wife left him. And now he’s in, he called the cops on them and they got arrested for the cocaine abuse. And now they’ve put restraining orders on it. It’s fantastic. Like if you’ve got nothing to do on the train and you know, a few brain cells to kill.
I would absolutely jump into the stuff and give it a listen because it’s pretty interesting, it’s engaging. John Melendez is a void of human being and he deserves every bit of attention that he’s getting.
Justin Gild (58:23)
You
Ryan (58:25)
Yeah. Wow. Okay. I did not like, you know, somebody who’s kind of fairly versed in the in podcast world. I did not know about the, yeah. Wow.
Cinik (58:33)
There are some shows, Ryan, there are some shows that are doing really well just critiquing this guy. They’re paying their bills just waiting for him to put out another… We may need to start doing this.
Ryan (58:38)
That’s insane. Wow. Yeah. Hey. That’s good. That’s great. All right. All right. So I’m going to give, I’ll give a couple that I’m watching and then I’ll see if you guys are have anything else to recommend. So first is called Chimp Crazy, which if you haven’t watched it, it’s by the guy, I believe that, that did the Tiger King about
Ig (58:41)
So next week on the portable hole.
Ryan (59:05)
basically focusing on an exotic animal broker named Tanya Addix and kind of her love of, you know, love in quotations of chimpanzees. And it is, it is wild. You know, in a lot of ways it is as wild as a Tiger King, but, kind of in its own way. She’s as crazy, you know, the character as, what’s Tiger King’s name again? Joe Exotic in her own way.
Ig (59:31)
Joe Exotic?
Ryan (59:35)
is as kind of delusional and crazy. And just some of the stuff that she does in front of camera is just mind boggling. Like, you know, and you don’t know if it’s out of love, out of obsession, out of obscen – insanity. it’s only, I believe it’s only three episodes in, I think it’s a six or eight episode season. So who knows where the hell it’s going to go? Cause already it’s batshit crazy. but definitely recommend if you know, you enjoyed the chaos of the tiger King, this is interesting. It’s a little different because like with tiger King, obviously we were all at home during COVID.
And it was Netflix, so everybody could binge it. This, it’s like a slow burn because we’re watching it one episode at a time, but on HBO, you know, definitely worth watching. And the second thing I watched, I did binge this weekend on Netflix is Chaos. So Chaos is kind of a modern re -imagining of Greek mythology. And it’s kind of a, it’s like a dark comedy, although I feel like it starts off much more comedic. And then as the show goes on, it gets much, much more serious.
But I think it does a really good job of balancing kind of, you know, you know, gods and mortals and, famous figures from Greek mythology. and, Jeff Goldblum’s in it and, know, I’ve been listening to different reviews of it and some love it. Some don’t. I think he’s great and kind of perfectly cast for that role, but it’s also like, he’s playing Jeff Goldblum. So it is what it is, but I, but I found it very entertaining. I think.
It goes on a little long. feel like it’s a show that it was eight episodes. It probably could have been, you know, a solid six episodes. but other than that, I do think it’s, highly entertaining, really interesting. does a good job of balancing the comedy with some serious drama. and just really unique and interesting story that is able to kind of weave Greek mythology into a modern, you know, world and modern context. And, you know, I definitely, definitely recommend it.
So anybody else have anything to recommend?
Cinik (1:01:29)
actually I do. I’m jumping back over and you guys may want to take part in this, we’re like a month away from the return of the Daryl Dixon show on AMC. And believe it or not, I actually kind of liked the first season. I caught up on it late. I caught up on that in City of the Dead, which is the Maggie and Negan spin -off. Mostly out of my love for the Michonne and Rick show. Like that got me wanting to watch more Walking Dead. So I jumped over and watched these other two spin -offs.
And believe it or not, it’s nonsensical as Daryl finding his way to France in the middle of the apocalypse. It is such a beautifully shot show. And it gives you just enough substance to kind of keep you going. In the second season, we’re gonna get a little more Carol, and it’s supposed to move from France to Spain, which should give it a whole different visual. just the visuals alone actually makes it worth watching, but it is a pretty compelling story.
and eventually they’re going to bring the whole cast back together, Avenger style. So that really could be worth checking out and covering.
Ryan (1:02:34)
Okay, that might be interesting. Yeah, I’ve got to kind of catch up on all the Walking Dead spin -offs and think season the last season of it.
Ig (1:02:41)
We thought it was bad before when you had the walking dead and fear the walking dead and other things happening and now they’re just running spin -off after spin -off after spin -off.
Ryan (1:02:45)
Yeah.
Walking Dead Avengers, yeah. Yeah.
Cinik (1:02:48)
I mean, at least it’s got main characters in it. You know what mean? Like some of the spin -offs they did just had nobodies and they never really picked up traction. it was worth it. I’m not the biggest Daryl fan in the world, but I thought it was superior to City of the Dead. I think it might be leading to a bigger story, which is kind
Ryan (1:03:07)
Cool. All right. Anything else for you guys, Ig or Justin to add or?
Ig (1:03:13)
No, I’ve been watching all the things you guys have been recommending. So we’ve already been going on those things.
Justin Gild (1:03:13)
Not at this moment.
Ryan (1:03:15)
Yeah. Nice. Well, this, this weekend, I don’t know if anybody’s going be able to go out, but I think Beetlejuice comes out this weekend and is something else out? No, is anybody else excited? Am I the only one excited about Beetlejuice? Yeah.
Cinik (1:03:28)
No, I want to see it. definitely, you know, I love Michael Keaton. I love the original. You know, they’re bringing back most of the cast that haven’t diddled kids so or been involved with child porn. So, you know, I’m excited for it.
Ig (1:03:29)
Yeah, I loved the first one.
Ryan (1:03:31)
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think it’s one of those, I definitely the nostalgia, you know, the, the nostalgia factor, the, the trailer, as we kind of talked about, I think it was a little underwhelming. Like it didn’t make me not want to see it, but I’m not like, you know, jumping, you know, you know, jumping off the wall, bounce off the walls to go see it. But I mean, it’s definitely like, I, know, it’s, it’s Beatles use and I’m going to try, you know, definitely try to go get, get into it. Yeah.
Cinik (1:04:04)
It kind of felt like more of the same and they I think they could have done something a little different with it to to put fresh eyeballs on I know that they’re promoting a hell out of it though. Like I’m pretty addicted to crumble and they’re doing like a crumble Beetlejuice cake this week, which looks pretty good
Ryan (1:04:08)
Yeah.
Yeah.
wow. OK. Cool. All right. Well, it should be fun. So we’ll see if maybe we’ll talk about that a little bit next week. Next week, we’ll
Ig (1:04:25)
Yeah, whatever you guys are doing, if anybody watches this, the chase glitch is not a thing. Don’t go do that. The chase glitch. You didn’t see all the videos running around about it. That’s called that’s called check fraud. And you go to jail for that. Don’t think it’s a glitch. Banks are going to get their money one way or another.
Ryan (1:04:30)
The what? is that the TikTok thing? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Don’t do that. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. This week’s PSA is yes. Do not, do not listen to it. Yeah. Yeah. And you will go to jail. All right. Well, as usual, all of our stuff is at a portable whole publishing .com and a new issue of the newsletter is coming out next week.
So until next time, Justin.
Justin Gild (1:05:01)
I think, think egg should take it.
Ryan (1:05:03)
Alright, egg.
Ig (1:05:06)
Don’t go in the hole where you get captured.
Cinik (1:05:10)
You generally get captured by the whole.