PHP #18: Kaos, Chimp Crazy, lots of news

Introduction and D&D watch out for the hole what [Music] hole watch out for the portable hole rock out to the portable [Music] home the welcome to the portable whole podcast I'm Ryan George I'm here with cynic gig and Justin uh we just just coming off another uh round of d and d uh where cynic you're doing a great job as our DM uh so how's everyone doing today good uh I'm doing all I 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 minion run around throwing hit points at people Everyone except for me so like I'm hurting a little bit but doing okay hey uh cic how does that work do do we heal up between in between uh yeah you got to take a long rest which that'll happen as long as you don't encounter anything on the way to Bear Island 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 we uh 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 uh because it gets a little more complicated for a lot of the character classes at level three yeah no I was actually I was going through it I got to I printed out my character sheet the first time and I got to do it again just cuz so I have easy access to all everything CU in the equipment um and everything so yeah so be a little bit more prepared next uh next game and we got to figure out why egg is so fluffy because not wearing armor is supposed to be a benefit and I should have reading Reddit and they're like just wear armor and that doesn't go along with the whole uh Barbarian scheme yeah well the whole thing for me the role of the die is very weird for me because I'm used to playing Dragon Quest so which there's almost very little luck like you might have L more luck in whether you get an ex you know a powerful blow or something like that but there's not that everything is based on the the the way that you build your character the the items and the armor and the weapons that you use the way that you divvy up the statistics um for their powers so this to me is just very different where so much is riant on the the role of the die 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 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 lowlevel character the rolls happen still it's still a dice rolling game it just you're if you're already leveled your chance of missing or not critting or things like that are much lower when you're leveled up they're you you're going to hit all the time because you build it into and I figured that that was what it was going to be once once the characters are stronger you're going to have less variance with oh we hope that if if I don't roll a 14 I'm not going to do any damage so I think I figure that would happen yeah well the problem is 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 hit point 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 20s and high damage rolls and I I think there might be some performance-enhancing rolling going on over at the George res well although there were a couple really bad roles too so feel like it was like all or nothing for us this time yeah but that was at the beginning and and I think you only did that to throw us off the set yeah right yeah like when it counted we got we we had our we had our 20s you know but I I look I enjoy the um the kind of luck of the draw I think it makes it it makes it fun I think um and and as um but I I think definitely I see how it also becomes a very strategic game um 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 I do and how do I what goes on you know part of it also I think is just trusting that you you're gonna you'll you'll guide us in the right direction as our as our fearless leader cynic I I just love the fact that you you sent your poor Rogue in to get an opportunity attack and then he stood up and just wailed her across the room as if he was Babe Ruth near damn near cleaved her in half yeah it was a good plan it was yeah it didn't work but it was a good plan we do it again all right all right so let's Controversy Surrounding Ronda Rousey's Comments get into some news there a bunch of news that i' I've kind of accumulated over the last few weeks um uh that we have been off uh and uh so you know some interesting stuff some weird stuff uh and then some stuff that's kind of relevant to us so I guess the first thing this is from a few weeks back um but it's just so ridiculous that that I wanted to get get your guys thoughts so you know Ronda Rousey who who can't seem to you know find her you know find her way into any decent press um had to issue so she she had a Reddit um you know ask me anything type of uh session a few weeks back uh maybe a month now and I think it basically beca got taken over by people like asking her about like some of the dumb things that she's said in the past uh which includes uh sharing conspiracy theories about the Sandy Hook shooting among many other things and so she she finally what 12 years later nine or 11 12 years later issued an apology calling it her most regrettable decision um and then deleted the post uh you know acknowledging that the damage had been done um and said that she was afraid to address it sooner fearing that it would cause more harm uh cic what do you think about that you think that's complete [ __ ] I think that she would hope was hoping people would forget but the problem is 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 um it's never really going to go away until infow Wars is shut down and it becomes a spirit of Halloween store and uh I I think we're headed in that general direction and hopefully Alex will be able to get a job there and uh be able to Hawk stuff for 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 nword or the RW there's certain things that you think that maybe amongst your closest friends you can talk about and but to go on a public forum and and run with these these terrible [ __ ] conspiracy theories just makes you look like a [ __ ] and you always end up losing in the end and that's what she did she lost in the end I like I mean respect for Ronda 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 uh 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 uh to think that you lose your kid and then somebody's just saying this vile thing like oh they never existed they were crisis actors this is all setup false flag it's it's [ __ ] it's probably the worst possible thing next to calling some a pedopile that you can do well in this day and age where like you know everything we say and do is scrutinized and as a I would think as a celebrity like you you have to know that like do 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 well I think she she fun functions 100% on huus what do you think yeah I think that you know 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 with her MMA career and was just starting in WWE right so like she was so popular and like there was you know and Alex Jones at the time was very popular even though he started saying that and like people were like shying away from him with a quickness and I I don't know why people think that they should just say anything and especially in like so soon after the aftermath I mean I think it's still too soon kind of joke or come up with conspiracy theories about about children dying like you want a conspiracy theory about 9/11 you want a conspiracy theory about about the things that are going on in 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 that anybody's out there trying to kill kids and it it 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 so Justin do you have any sympathy for someone who maybe kind of dive down the conspiracy rabbit hole and maybe you just get you get stuck and you know maybe a combination of huus and ignor ignorance for makes you post things you probably shouldn't have posted so I I think that there there's what I would call reasonable conspiracy theory uh rabbit holes to dive down um and it's easy to get into it like it it's there's something sort of fun about conspiracy theories like this that learning about this um 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 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 the there 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 9911 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 to me 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 history is shown that so there is a history shown that history has shown that we've been complicit in just about every war like we've let things happen for provocation yes so to say that we were complicit in uh the planning in 911 sure I I mean that's within the realm of possibilities political yes to say we were detonating buildings at Ground Zero is [ __ ] asinine you know seeing people fall from the sky that day I don't know how anybody especially us because we're well well the three of us because we're so uh tied to the area that you could ever just shrug that off that oh now can you say that you know maybe the government did stand down or maybe they didn't have uh aircraft in the the area on purpose so they could start whatever war that they're grinding aess for sure I I I think that's what but it goes too far it it leaves logic exactly and just just not to mention like just the pain that families are going through and to just rub that in it's like even if I you know even if right that happens and you're reading something that seems like oh this is interesting like you know you still can't do that because they're there's like grieving families and unless I 100% I know with 100% certainty I'm not going to do that cuz that's causing them more pain than they're already going through um you know and it's just it's kind of it's insane and and you 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 wonder why well you know I think why like with Alex Jones when you have somebody who whose job it is to stir up controversy and you know when dealing with media and you're trying to like get a rise out of people then that makes sense but for ronzo Rousey it I'm not getting the why is is is well like I mean like I think C I forget so you know I was you know like I said part is part is huis right hub um part is like these are famous people who are not necessarily the most intelligent people you know that and uh you know logical and critical thinking people and you know you combine a so you combine a huge platform with some ignorance and and a willingness to to say things oh I'm just putting it out there and and that's what you get and so I don't I'm not I'm not really that grew up with the idea that you know no press is bad press yeah and that used to be true when press was slow right it would take a long time to get across the country and play the telephone game across and yeah 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 and it's pure huous because 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 and if he's saying it I can say it and and you said it right on the nose with 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 so they're they're they're mimicking they're paring something that somebody else is saying because they think that it makes them look intelligent and if it's not in your perview if it's not where you belong shut the [ __ ] up about it honestly well I encourage everybody to watch Into the Storm I was going to bring it up in my uh in my what I'm watching but since we're talking about it if you remember kinon in its Heyday those [ __ ] believed anything anything that was put out by Q or or any higher up and Q and on went everywhere and it was like wildfire and it it started to affects normal everyday life yeah so I think it it's it's kind of like Kon and it's kind of like mag now it's these people believe that they're part of a group that they're going to be supported regardless of what they say and they're in the know somehow like the rest of us clubs don't yeah and that's the big thing I had a guy the other day like just [ __ ] all over the news and I I nicely asked him I said well sir where do you go get your news you know are you getting it from uh social media are you getting it from memes are you getting it from the outlet that was just sued for record high defamation settings or settlement I said where do you get your news that you're so much in the know and nobody else does and the answer to that question is there is no answer you've got to dig through whatever [ __ ] that you watch and figure out what the truth is to you yeah 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 yeah yeah no no that's a that's a fair point I think you know I think with especially with Rhonda I think it's a little disingenuous like I think it's more that you know she could get get by on she 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 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 you know so it's like I'm not shocked by the why I'm more curious as like why now uh to apologize 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 toe person tour and yeah in order to do that you gotta wipe the Slate clean I guess um so I think it's a little disingenuous 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 you know okay you know if unless it's a book about you know how to do certain Jiu-Jitsu Styles or something like mind your business go somewhere else like just because your name is Ronda 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 live but like she's been a combatant go be a combatant go do that and 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 part is she's an sufferable person she's she's not a good person like we saw it in the uh the in The Ultimate Fighter against Mesa where she just came off as a brat where she was uh very narcissistic and she was just emotional in a bad way and Misha came on is very likable and just like oh this is the you know you see these two sort of female female pioneers of MMA and it was totally ronda's chance to say oh I really like her and then she came off very unlikable and Misha came off as oh this is the Pioneer that I want to like and then of course around Holly Holmes Rona really came off unlikable as well so she I think it's damage control you know yeah that's fair all right so on to next story um so this Challenges Faced by Astronauts is a little bit of a quick followup um on on uh what we talked about last time and also like you know just we should probably not fly Boeing if we can but um as we mentioned last week there a couple of astronauts were stuck um as you know their Boeing Starliner capsule had some issues uh they're stuck in the International Space Station uh they were set to return uh and that was delayed 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 AR um and return with SpaceX um you know one of one of the good things that elon's done and he'll he'll be in the news a little bit later um so you like yeah there have been several issues with Boeing uh both uh their Starliner and their planes and just seems like a mess but I guess like how rough ises that I mean you know obviously when you're an astronaut you do what you you know you're you're doing this for because you love it and uh you know and and there's a certain amount of risk associated with it but uh but how 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 it' be rough but you know that's one of those things where just like Ronda Rousey they're gonna be able to turn this into huge paychecks because they're they're gonna be able to write books about like how this all happened and tell me they're not going to they're not gonna 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 you know the 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 the there there's air there and like okay 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 it's okay you know and just look at it like hey I'm up here they they get good internet connectivity they can still talk to their families every day you know it's you know and someone's going to cash a huge paychat and a lot of it from afterwards but they're going to get paid a huge amount of money for getting left there right no they're not actually somebody's gonna give it to them well yeah so they but yeah actually surprising that like this is part of their pay so I think they you know they make a little bit of extra money but they're not going to get like any extra like major come froms and they might just Sue NASA when they get back for you know not moving fast or having a backup plan yeah but is that money worth the butthole clinch ride home that they're going to have to go through or if that if they get on the get on the bo sh and if that ship blows up five minutes out of port you know like do would you ever want to leave at that point ever TR I just live here now I'm in space it's good now you've got a company that's floundering they used to be the end all be on 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 uh uh regulations and investigations and the guy took a $33 million bonus people should go to jail behind that [ __ ] well you know that's Corporate America right yeah he made whatever numbers that got to that bonus and everything and what numbers I dare you to go go find a major airline that 90% of their Fleet isn't Boeing aircraft yeah any of them they're all Bo like in the whole world they're all Boeing aircraft you I say if there's one industry that you do not want to you know that you want all the regulations it's like Aviation and it's quite honestly still the safest way to travel yeah yeah but little it's a little scary now teley is a little safer for at least for now yeah sure estral projection you're just going to think about where you're going and enjoy it in your mind if I can take a trip on Expedia through telepathy then I'll absolutely do that seriously 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 Justin travels all the time too you're getting on planes most of them are Boeing planes yeah oh yeah and was really bad is you did you guys see that plane that went down in Brazil a couple weeks ago I that that was like a couple days before I left and so like that and I think at some point I was um I I like had a dream on the flight that I was on like that that was happening and like I jumped I jolted myself awake and it was not fun so I I'm just putting it out there now if it happens to me none of you can have any of my stuff I'm coming to take it I'm going to take the cynic The Future of Ted Lasso sign all right um all right so uh now get into a little little pop culture news um so Ted lasso which we we all thought was over um apparently um they're renewing they've renewed the contracts for the cast members and so I'm not sure if the in 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 um cynic I know you're I was a big fan of the show a I know I know you're a big fan um Justin I'm not I don't think you've watched I saw a little bit of it it's it's it's 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 how much of it did you see though because you need to give a little bit time I don't remember that's you know what I was told that that I need that you got yeah all right how ex are you excited about it or is this a show that like you were glad it ended the right way and we should just leave you know leave it leave it be 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 Le dro the Ted lasso because he's obviously not gonna be a part of the show anymore and uh I I think that there's enough talent I mean if you look at the last season it was barely about Ted lasso anyway yeah once he announced that he was going home the story became about everybody else and I think that was intentionally and uh Welly placed and I I just think that there's enough talent and enough story with these people that you could you probably could bring two or three more seasons out of it I mean any amount of Roy Kent is not enough Roy Kent in in my book anyway so do you think we can get by with a with a show that does not feature Jason sedus as Ted lasso um maybe but you know they're going to have to you know I mean like like Joe said you know like uh Roy Kent was a big force in that last season and 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 they don't and they don't just like we're going to cash in on some money which I think Apple TV's been pretty good about not just cashing in on money because they they aren't selling a lot of merchandise right they 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 is worth watching so I think that the 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 there's possibilities I want to know what they're going to do because you know 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 to run without him and Joe's right call it Richmond if you're going to go further don't go don't call it like lasso Legacy or something weird like that no yeah Rich's Perfect all right so in other pop culture news um recently so George R GRRM HOTD Critiques Martin who seems to do everything but write the Winds of Winter uh has recently recently criticized uh some of the changes in House of the Dragon season 2 um particularly the removal of um Prince malor uh from the blood and cheese plot and he argued that this weakens key future storylines um such as certain things that happened to Helena and the 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 you know season of a show based on what's effectively like a you know an encyclopedia entry than writing and finishing his uh Series so uh cynic do you think George sh Martin should just lock himself in room and finish uh winds winter well Ryan that's the thing I 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 uh 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 um I just don't think he's gonna find the time I think he's doing things in lie of writing like to replace writing I don't think we'll ever get the end of those story I would be highly surprised if we ever have those books in our hands or on our AUD um it just it didn't inspire me with a lot of hope uh 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 uh different from the 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 who 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 Jets well I 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 yeah he hasn't released the book almost did he release a book during the original game no y he did release one pimp down pimp in distress so but I know at least halfway through like we didn't have wins a winner yeah you know so that's what 12 15 years I mean yeah at this point can you call yourself a writer anymore yeah well he writes he's blog post that doesn't make me a writer yeah yeah it's it's it's so true when um yeah the cynic you nailed as like he's more interested in doing everything but writing and and I'm not going to compare myself to him on the level of success he has but it reminds me of myself right when I'm busy working be being creative working on either new songs or podcast ideas or articles or you know 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 started trolling people like the so I I get that mentality it's like when you when you feel when you have momentum in the projects that you're doing you don't care it's like he would like if he was if he was really happy with what he was doing he's like all right he write two words and be like two lines be like yeah I don't love this or you or not mention anything and just move and just move on so to me cynic 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 uh new Mojo with it well he won't be complaining when he's cashing those hot D residual checks I'm sure of course that's the thing is like you know you want to keep putting these shows on because we've got uh um uh night of 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 if executive producer credit or something they're still they're still writing you a check well he did um one thing he did say on this that I I I think we can all wholehearted heartedly agree with is that uh Patty he said Patty Constantine's uh portrayal of uh viseris made him want to rip up what he wrote and start over like that's how good he was and that you that that that's aair can't can't argue with that but but I'm just afraid he might actually do that and again spend more time working on on that than uh than his you're not writing that book dummy I don't want to see anything happen to the old fow but I I really do think we need like an Annie wils type figure to swoop him up and and lock him in a cabin somewhere and and uh break his knees till he he starts writing again exactly you there 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 doubt did you get did you get from no not at all did he's too many other places he's got to sign go to comiccons and sign autographs for $100 a pop exactly no we got his autograph yeah yeah autograph book how much did you have to pay for it well we just had to pay for the tickets yeah it was the price of the tickets yeah the price kind of cool yeah that was great CU I don't think I expected that or I'm not sure if I forget well we bought the the upgraded tickets that were a little more yeah yeah yeah know it was fun um all right so now uh we'll switch over to uh Job Security in North Korea probably the worst job security in the world um so um Kim Jang un the North Korean leader ordered the execution of between 20 and 30 officials for failing to prevent severe flooding and landslides in July which resulted in about 4,000 deaths um they were accused of corruption and neglect um and I guess he called for strict punishment after touring the flood affected area so like do like if you were any if you were in anywhere in any capacity in in North Korea would you would you take a chance at taking any position with any kind of power well especially those positions after what happened to those people yeah Justin would you replace any of those people seems a little L any amount of money like it's kind of like um I I don't know if the thing is I don't know if you have a decision it's not about you place it's kind of like you're you're taking the job right yeah be like a place where you just like I have no ambition basically you although I guess like if you have no ambition you're going to be starving so I don't know what's worse the I don't know what else is wrapped up in there with the corruption but it's like if you um if you take that position but you're um very Pro government and pro Kim Jong-un and just like you you you know you lick you lick his nut sack you probably have good job security regardless of what happens I don't know about that yeah I'm not sure there's about 30 people that would say otherwise because I think they I'm sure that they all we don't know do you think they all did the same you think they were all yeah they I don't feel like you can't get into a position of power without without being very you know acquaint part of the job that's part of the job uh the application yeah yeah no seriously I you look at situations like that you wonder why don't they rise up well I was just thinking you know do 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 like how do you yeah floods happen sometimes like you get torrential rainstorms and yeah things happen and oh my God it's a tragedy but like do you think they were out there like plotting like hey let's make a flood happen that' be fun we were just one cul away from avoiding this whole flood yeah seriously all right and then that it's like that 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 I think that's that sounds more like it 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 point at somebody else and that's all he did was those people died so he wouldn't look bad yeah look like he did something Progressive yeah exactly yeah exactly completely passing well and when all the news that you get is controlled by the state you know there people might not know any better yeah well from from one dictator to somebody who probably wouldn't mind it uh based on his his recent words uh so Elon Musk Elon Musk's Controversial Statements somebody 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 it know just reputation just constantly taking hits you know by his you know self self-inflicted but uh he recently reposted a contribu controversial Theory from forchan on Twitter we refuse to call it x uh suggesting that only High quote high status males including high testosterone men and neurode Divergent individuals are capable of free thinking and should govern a republic uh you know there and he he labeled it as an interesting observation so obviously you know obviously it is an incredibly sexist and exclusionary Theory um and uh but of course he promotes a lot of not interesting harmful and divisive ideologies but uh what what are your thoughts on that on on Elon Musk strange man because like of course he has to has to pick that one yeah because I don't view Elon Musk as a high te individual so you had to make sure the neurod Divergent part was encour encouraged in there because you know I I even listening to him talk sometimes I have problem with like he's got some speech impediment that like you know when he says such awful things that he says with the speech impediment it just makes him seem like a really really bad person and I used to be the biggest Fanboy like I thought all the stuff he was doing was great you know like we got SpaceX going and Tesla looks interesting and you got like 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 okay like places in the world that need internet right now because they're having natural disasters and everything it's 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 and 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 [ __ ] up yeah like and what does he know about politics he's not a politician no he he's not even a scientist yeah most of the stuff that he's involved with he backdoored his way into he's not an engineer he can't write the code he can't build anything he just back doored his way into SpaceX he back doored his way into Tesla he back back doored his way into getting money out of PayPal yeah all of the stuff that he did is not of his own doing he's ended up one of the richest men on the planet but not his own doing yeah no no I well said I don't know that can add anything and it's like he's done such kind of reparable harm at this point to his reputation and I think um you know it'll be interesting you know to see what happens with Twitter because you know like it's weird because on one hand like you you have Twitter which seems like it's become like assess 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 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 the good work it's doing quite honestly as long as he leaves them alone they'll do the right thing it's more the more he's involved with SpaceX the less well it's going to do so it's like let him uh away from becoming the living living embod of uh otman of Lex Luther yeah he really is like 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 it's coming he's going off the rails and this is the problem and it happens with a lot of these people that with big ideas or super talented nobody ever tells you no he has enough money where he can do whatever he wants he he does copious amounts of drugs because every time I see him interviewed he's really [ __ ] high it's you know it's just one of those things it's it's it's it's unfortunate but uh he isn't going to turn out to be our generation's Einstein or anything no you see he also has followers like he has people that now be very similar to the trumpism and he sort of which makes sense that he's attached to himself to that there are people that 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 he represents the voice of a lot of sort of trump trumpist type people right I think is he's he's counterculture if being Republican was the end thing to be he be demat he's like right-wing counterculture yeah yeah he's just counterculture if that that's the popular thing that's the in thing so he he'll roll he'll roll with the rightwing and if it was the other way around he would he'd be Die Hard liberal absolutely well just like he he talks all time about how other places want to stop Free Speech where if they want to put a a 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 in into it here's somewhere to go look because and he says that in itself is censorship and I'm like but it's not 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 that warning on it like it could be spam or it could be you know not worth your time yeah well I was I was reading something I forgot what the comment was but it's this um it's this push that you your idiot beliefs have the same value as scientific evidence that like there's this the 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 per and sort of perpetuated and pushed by this idea of oh censorship Free Speech sort of it's this new of this this sort of right-wing esque thing don't let anyone tell you what to believe or what you could say could say whatever you want and it's like yeah we know that already and it just get it gets wrapped up in this idea that you're stupid idea your conspiracy theory has as much validity as real scientific proof for something that's just the movement yeah no that's fair no I'm waiting for him to start talking about Flat Earth or something I'm wait it's it's next it's coming it is definitely going um all right and final final news The Impact of PeDisney not renewing the Acolyte before we get into what we've been watching is uh this few weeks back uh and I know synic you were sad you were sad to hear that lucasfilm decided not to renew the acolyte for a second season on Disney plus um despite uh decent viewership um initially I think it didn't you know it didn't quite keep up the momentum it had um you know it had good ratings uh from critics uh but it was very divided among Star Wars fans and while their ideas pitched for second season uh looks like they will not be pursued so uh synic how disappointed are you in that well I mean it wasn't nearly as divided as you think it is okay because it was cancelled due to lack of ratings and this just hearkens back to for before the show even began the Creator uh 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 at I think it was like $150 million 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 uh the scenes weren't uh 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 enough well the product wasn't good enough and the product might have been good enough if she'd have learned to just shut the [ __ ] 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 well we're seeing it again too the slow moving car crash that is uh the Snow White liveaction movie the actress now finally has learned to to quiet down and and stop with spouting your BCE 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 gonna happen again and again because they can't shut up yeah just shut up just act just do your job I had good time filming this it's a really fun movie we had a great everything is fun we're going to a good time you're going to 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 I love this movement of [ __ ] 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 it's like I I can't wait to see what they may end up releasing the snow white film on Disney plus that's how badly it's being received and nobody's even seen it yet and that's all due to you you basically can't tell the people that are paying your bills which are the audience which are collectively all of us to go [ __ ] off regardless of what you feel about what we're saying we're the ones that are going to uh uh uh take part in what you're doing and and provide you a second season and I'm sure she lost a [ __ ] ton of money with the this second season and you know I I don't know I don't believe the pundits on um on YouTube that are like oh she was fired from a bunch of other projects and I don't believe all of that but I do believe that she uh misplayed her hand and Ryan I'm so bored I don't give a [ __ ] about your discourse what what isn't that part of the TV Show and Movie Recommendations song what song I'm like I'm the Amanda sbir song we're so bored we don't give a [ __ ] your discour that's right okay yeah I mean I like I think that there's a way to Ro um fandom there is a toxic uh part of the Star Wars fandom I don't think that it's incumbent on a showrunner or or an actor to address that part of the fandom especially when they're trying to put something out because it just creates more Division and it makes the story about something else so it's like look 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 um without insulting a 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 showrunner who is trying to you know put together a project huh put together a cohesive project yeah exactly right so yeah go do that do that put something good and 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 more than that and the other part you know it's two parts right one is like the story became about her uh the showrunner and and this fight and then the product was not great and so then that just made it you know even even if it was pretty good if it's not great you you don't have any room to do that stuff yeah like if it's Andor 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 fny 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 yeah yeah as Star Wars fans and we're all DieHard Star Wars fans eggs wearing the goddamn [ __ ] right now I got a bunch of stuff behind me Ryan and I see like I will never actively root for a Star Wars property to fail give me more Star Wars I just don't want to hear [ __ ] like oh it's the gayest Star Wars uh uh uh R2-D2 is a lesbian I don't care about any of that don't don't bring your stuff over into my stuff I if it is the gay Star Wars as long as it's a good show fantastic let it be the gay of Star Wars let let R2D2 be the best lesbian he could be just [ __ ] put on a good show and and I'll be happy with that and and by the way not to to uh add to the the the negativity but uh one of the videos I watched they called her uh uh what was it a a deadfaced uh vacuum of uh Charisma in ability I was like gez you wer talk able to recover from that all right right well it's like you know 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 when we reviewed that episode that was one of the strongest episodes that we reviewed oh yeah so you can have it's not that we're like gay phobic either that was the best storyline in that season of that show because it's not what the show was about yeah right it was about great writing you know Su spense horror uh you know great acting that that's what the show was about and that's all I care about at the end of the day there's a fine line between I think telling a story and like and and uh shoehorning your I don't even want to say agenda because it's I watched every episode it comes as cross like an agenda see that's the thing you're saying that they're not it's it's it's not an agenda but to someone especially to like a casual fan like me when I start making jokes like oh it's the wal light or something like that it it's like going into it now it's in the back of my mind something oh maybe I want to dislike now look I disliked the show because it was bad uh and for no other reason than that 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 Cas you know your fan base your casual fan base it seems like an agenda well that's bad news it doesn't help well I think that's part of it is that like it it I there were defin obviously there were definitely attempts to incorporate more diversity and um I don't think it was shoehorn I didn't feel like it was shoehorn 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 um how you received the show at that point because then it's like well now I see what they're doing and and then you're almost going to be looking for that it's almost like a self-inflicted cancellation exactly so it kind of like if 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 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 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 and just be positive and talk about that right and then just like let it be what it is because you know what the fan fan base is like and they like their Star Wars and no matter what people criticized Andor initially you 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 and you know keep moving forward and I think that if we're being fair the first episode at Endor was painfully slow yeah 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 So I mean just give us good Pro uh just give us good product and 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 uh antagonist bad product and that's the thing is I think that's the saddest thing of it all is I want to see that antagonist well maybe we see him again I hope it doesn't necessarily taint the fact we don't need an acolyte 2 to see that character again yeah that's fair yeah let's put him in the new Mandalorian movie let him be that that antagonist yeah yeah that that's actually I didn't even mention that there's some news on that but we got um What we've been watching but let's let's get to what we've been watching so um Justin let's start with you I I know you've been busy so have you been watching anything recently uh I I've been sort of digging this show it's an Amazon show I believe it's called signs of uh signs of the psychopath it's a true crime uh show and it's it's interesting because I've always been a fan of the True Crime genre but this one is is is real 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 and you and it's like and you see sort of the they're 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 the differences I feel like with a lot of the um you know the 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 uh you know the bad guy a little bit but this one really goes into the to the psyche of it and lots of interviews and some of it is really really creepy when you start when you see some of these people do are any of those signs that they want to capture torture every person that they encounter in their D and D game yes yes well it's it's funny because they they um they uh they say that video games are were uh were a clause but actually not the uh not the video game that El but I think for one kid who did some heinous things because the video game that he he became addicted to it was a violent video game he was addicted it was taken away from him and then he acted after that so but no um having a character in uh in a fantasy game does not necessarily uh mean psychopathy but it might so how about you have you watching anything good uh 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 Aquafina okay yeah is it good 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 the base premise of this is they have a lottery in California in the not too distant future because why not right but the lottery is a winner is chosen and the winner has to survive until sundown and if 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 and stuff it's a real good just kind of you know exciting fighting running around movie that is full of oh my God that is crazy yeah you know a lot of cameos a lot of crazy things happening in it it's got uh uh the guy that played uh shuni from okay yeah 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 all kinds of crazy stuff like that but it's it was really just funny and entertaining and and like 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 like pay attention like 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 a pure fun and I'm all about once in a while just putting on something for Pure fun yeah that's fair how about you C what are you watching well we caught up and finished uh stranger things uh getting ready for the the next season which I'm I'm extremely happy about because I realized that I hadn't finished the most previous season so oh I was you got all the Eddie now yeah yeah um I don't know why I 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 uh instigators with Casey Affleck and Matt Damon it's on Apple TV and it it's a it's basically about a robbery gone wrong and it's a lot of fun it's kind of like what EK was saying it's not as serious as the town there's a lot of dark humor in it you know Matt Damon plays the uh the Elder actor kind of um pretty well in that movie like just somebody that's over life so I kind of identified with that uh quite a bit so I would definitely um I definitely take uh 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 okay so there's this whole genre of podcasts that that uh center around Stuttering John Melendez from the Howard Str show okay um even though he's been out of fandom now for a good 2025 years uh he started podcast and from that podcasting a group called who are these podcasts who critique other podcasts and they didn't do us luckily I checked but they started um 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 a multiple shows have grown from this where all they do is critique this one show but there's been other uh antagonists popped up that they they now Center on as well it's it's it's called the dabble verse and they just had a uh their second Gathering up in Rochester which I don't know why you would choose that as your home base but uh it's been very very interesting because there's a lot of uh uh not only good podcasters but interesting characters wrapped up into this so the the main um the main podcast is who are these podcasters but there's also another podcast called Uncle Rico which is uh ran by shulie AAR who used to also be a part of the Howard St show and equally hates John Melendez so it's it's really fascinating like you can jump down the YouTube rabbit hole and and just listen to these past shows and it's grown to other shows like uh steel toe uh starring this guy um Aaron mol who now is uh his lost his wife because he started swinging with the wrong couple and they all got addicted to uh cocaine and his wife left him and now he and uh he called the cops on them and they got arrested for uh the cocaine abuse and now they they've put restraining orders on it's fantastic wow like if you've got nothing to do on the train and uh you know a few brain cells to kill I would absolutely jump into this stuff and and give it a listen because it's it's pretty uh it's pretty interesting it's engaging uh John Melendez is a a void of human being and he deserves every bit of attention that he's getting yeah wow okay I did not I like you know somebody who's kind of fair barely versed in the in podcast world I there are some shows ran there are some shows that are doing really well just critiquing this guy that's insane they're paying their bills just waiting for him to put out another on the portable hole we may need to start doing this we hey that's that's great all right all right so I'm gonna give I'll give a couple that I'm watching and then I'll see if you guys have anything else to recommend so first is uh called chimp crazy um which if you haven't watched it it's by the guy I believe that um that did the Tiger King um about basically focusing on an exotic animal broker named Tanya hadex um and kind of her love of you know love in quotations of chimpanzees um and it is it is wild um you know in a lot of ways it is as wild as a tiger King but but kind of in it in its own way um she's as crazy you know thect character as um what was Tiger king's name Joe Exotic Joe Exotic um in her own way is as kind of delusional and and crazy and just some of the stuff that she does in front of camera is just mindboggling like you know and you don't know if it's out of love out of obsession out of insanity um it's only I believe it's only three episodes in uh I think it's a six or eight episode season so who knows where the hell it's going to go because already it's that [ __ ] crazy um but definitely recommend if you know you enjoyed the chaos of the Tiger King um that this is interesting it's a little different because like with Tiger King obviously we were all at home during Co 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 uh you know definitely worth watching um then the second thing I watched I did binge this weekend on Netflix is chaos so chaos is kind of a modern reimagining of G Greek mythology um 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 gets much much more serious um but I think it does a really good job of balancing kind of you know uh you know gods and Mortals and you know famous figures from Greek mythology um and uh Jeff goldblum's in it and you know I've been listening to different reviews of it some love it some don't um I think he's great and kind of perfectly cast for that role but it's also like he's playing Jeff gold Blum so it is what it is but but I found it very entertaining I think it goes on a little long I feel like it's a show that it was eight episodes it probably could have been you know a solid six episodes um but other than that I do think it's it's highly entertaining really interesting it it does a good job of balancing the comedy with some serious drama um and just a really unique and interesting story that is able to kind of weave Greek mythology into a modern you know world and modern context and uh you know I definitely definitely recommend it so anybody else have anything to recommend um actually I do um jumping back over and um you guys may want to take part in this but uh we're a like a month away from the return of the Daryl Dixon Dixon show on uh AMC and uh 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 and Negan spin-off um mostly out of my love for the Michonne and uh Rick show like that got me wanting to watch more walking dead so I jumped over and watched these other two SP off and believe it or not the uh it's nonsensical is Daryl finding his way to France in the middle of the Apocalypse it is such a beautifully Shot Show and uh it gives you just enough substance to kind of keep you going in the second season we're going to get a little more Carol and it's supposed to move from France to Spain which should give it a whole different Visual and uh it it just the visuals alone actually makes it worth watching but it it is a pretty compelling story and eventually they're going to bring the whole cast back together Avengers style so that really could be worth uh checking out and cover yeah okay that might be interesting yeah I've got to kind of catch up on all the The Walking Dead spin-offs um and I think season the laston 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 spinoff Avengers I mean at least it's got main characters in it you know what I mean like some of the spin-offs they did just had nobody's and and they never really picked up traction but uh it it was uh 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 and uh you know I I I think it might be leading to a bigger story which is kind of cool cool all right anything else for you guys uh IG or Justin to add or no I've been watching all the things you guys have been recommending so we've already been well this uh this weekend I don't know if anybody's gonna 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 no I want to I you know I love Michael Keon I love the original um you know they're bringing back most of the cast that have idd kids so uh or been involved with child porn so uh you know I'm excited for it yeah I think it's one of those I definitely The Nostalgia you know 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 WS to go see it but it's definitely like you know it's Beetlejuice and I'm going to try you know definitely try to go get 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 the hell out of it though like uh I'm pretty addicted to crumble and they're doing like a crumble Beetle Juice cake uh this week which looks pretty good cool it should be fun so you know we'll see if maybe we talk about that a little bit next week uh um yeah whatever you guys are doing if anybody watches this the chase glitch is not a thing don't go do that the what the chase glitch you didn't see all the that the Tik Tok thing yeah yeah yeah that's called check fraud and you go to jail for exactly yeah this week's PSA is yes do not don't think it's a glitch banks are gonna get their money one way or another yeah and you will go to jail so all right well uh as usual all of our stuff is at uh portable whole publishing.com uh and uh new issue of the newsletter is coming out next week so um until next time Justin I think I think IG should take it all right IG don't go in the hole where you get captured you generally get captured by the hole [Music] [Music] the what hole [Applause] [Music]