Inauguration Week

Summary

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Flightless Bird Podcast – "Inauguration Week" (Jan 28, 2025)

Host: David Farrier (with Rob)
Theme: An outsider’s view on the chaos, comedy, and consequences of Trump’s second inauguration week

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Overview

In this episode, David Farrier, the ever-curious Kiwi marooned in America, teams up with co-host Rob to process the week following Donald Trump's return to the presidency. What was planned as a whimsical look at American peculiarities pivots into a candid, at times darkly funny, and frequently bewildered exploration of how the Trump 2.0 inauguration upended America’s cultural, political, and digital landscape. The episode balances doom, humor, and acute observations, making sense of a barrage of headlines and existential questions about why David remains in the US.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Inauguration: Horror, Humor, and Surreality

• David’s Check-in with New Zealand (00:18–02:46)

  • David calls Hayden in NZ for an outside perspective, noting the world’s fearful watching of America:

    “We're just cowering in fear, seeing what you guys will do next.” —Hayden (00:33)

  • The inauguration combined dark comedy (Trump’s ‘cake cutting sword dance’) with international dismay (Elon Musk’s Nazi-like salutes; Jewel’s unexpected performance).
  • America is described as both “incredibly corny and not very self aware and at the same time able to nuke every single one of us out of existence” (Hayden, 01:48).

• David’s Reflections on the Show’s Purpose (02:46–04:14)

  • The show, meant for “whimsical” outsider perspectives, now must “hit the brakes and go, ‘what the fuck is going on?’”
  • Watching Trump’s return: a spectacle of tech billionaires, TikTok/Meta/Amazon execs—those “whose platforms increasingly steal our time, brains, and reality.”

2. Living in a Bubble: California vs. the Rest of the Country

• Rob and David acknowledge their “layer of protection” in California (07:26–09:25) — white, relatively safe, and in a liberal stronghold.
  • Serious existential questions arise for non-white friends considering emigration:

    “He was talking to me about… does New Zealand take people? We’ve got skills. How could we get in there?” —David referring to a worried friend (09:15)

3. Sheer Velocity of Changes & Executive Orders

• The episode details the return to “overdrive” of American political whiplash, including mass deportations, TikTok drama, and the rapid signing of executive orders.
  • Ezra Klein quote on Trump’s focus:

    "Almost everything mentioned was an executive action that Trump would take and the courts would decide... What interests Trump is what he can do alone." —Ezra Klein, via David (10:34)

4. TikTok & The Return of Disinformation (11:22–13:16)

• Discuss the irony and impact of Trump first pushing a TikTok ban, then being hailed as its savior upon its reinstatement.
• Media’s struggle to keep up with "what is factual and what is not," and fears about acclimating to a “boiling lobster” climate of craziness.

5. The Pardons and Rewriting of Historical Events (14:12–15:53; 33:59–35:37)

• Pardons of Jan 6 rioters and far-right figures:
  • “He’s basically making his truth come true.” —David
  • A police officer, beaten during Jan 6th, found the pardons deeply demoralizing after working the inauguration (35:16).
• Both hosts note: “there is no accountability... that’s gone.” —David (35:37)

6. Elon Musk’s Inaugural Nazi-like Salute (24:02–28:46)

• The hosts dissect Musk’s gesture—debating media reluctance to call it what it plainly appears to be, the ‘dog whistle’ effect, and the chilling normalization of such imagery.
  • Quote from The Present Age (Parker Molloy):

    "A billionaire can make a gesture that Neo Nazis celebrate…and major news organizations feel compelled to describe it as exuberant…” (28:11)

7. Social Media, Tech Billionaires, and Chaos (21:27–23:28; 45:30–51:29)

• Social platforms are now perceived as “controlled by people in the President’s inner circle.”
• Friends grapple with quitting social media for sanity and resistance, but note:

  "If we can't even sacrifice our little meme yum yums in order to hurt one of the biggest threats to democracy, what hope do we have?" —David quoting a friend (22:10)

• Instagram/META Account Snafu: Many users found themselves auto-following J.D. Vance and Trump due to transferring administrative accounts, sparking confusion and conspiracy (45:44–51:29).

8. Petty Culture War Orders & Their Legal Implications (53:04–55:47)

• Trump’s “Only two genders” executive order, with embedded fetal personhood language, alarms abortion rights supporters:

  “A fully enacted fetal personhood would…lead governments to treat abortion as murder…” —David reading The Guardian (54:40)

9. Cultural & Media Absurdity: Team America, Doge.gov, and “Dick Waving” (32:35–41:04; 51:48–52:34)

• The “propagandistic” WhiteHouse.gov website (“Team America World Police ridiculousness”), Musk’s Doge.gov “Paw Patrol” aesthetics, and petty redefinitions (renaming the Gulf of Mexico “Gulf of America”, claims of planting a US flag on Mars).

10. Religious Courage: Bishop Marianne Budde’s Inauguration Prayer (41:25–44:49)

• Bishop Budde’s calm, gently confrontational prayer for mercy and empathy for immigrants is highly praised as a moment of genuine sanity and courage, contrasted with immediate right-wing media demonization.

  “I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. The vast majority of immigrants aren't criminals. They're our neighbors." —Bishop Budde (42:31)

11. The Fracturing of American Families and Social Fabric

• Example of Billy Ray Cyrus’s son publicly grieving his father’s choices after the inauguration (29:05–30:21)
• Acknowledges renewed rifts in families, echoing first Trump presidency and Covid divides:

  "It did feel like there was some progress in mending... and now it's just, like, ripped... that wound's ripped wide open." —Rob (30:33)

12. Federal Aid Used as Political Weapon (56:08–57:39)

• Trump withholds disaster aid to California unless state complies with his policy demands, compared by hosts to past politicization of federal help.

13. Historical Perspective & JP Morgan’s ‘Augeruption’ (58:05–59:49)

• JP Morgan describes Trump 2.0 as a “hodgepodge” of contradictory American presidential styles. Rob notes some comfort in the cyclical nature of American weirdness—though the present feels distinctly dire.

14. Listener Feedback and Everyday Surreality (67:21–78:00)

• Letters include wildfires, Blockbuster, lazy rivers, American Girl dolls in Iceland, and existential fatigue.
• A poignant final dedication to a late listener, Alex, bringing home the fragility and interconnectedness underlying the week’s madness.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Opening Tone:

  "America is so unintentionally hilarious at the same time... it's sort of hard to know the balance of terror and laughter." —David (01:33)

• On Media Confusion:

  "The information is so busy. Right. We can't keep up. And I think that's how he can keep pivoting where his audience doesn't recognize..." —David (15:37)

• Elon’s Gesture:

  "Just for me as a New Zealander in America... it was a batshit insane thing to see." —David (25:37)
  "We're living in a media environment where the truth has become nearly impossible to state directly..." —Parker Molloy (The Present Age), paraphrased by David (28:11)

• On TikTok/Fact vs. Fiction:

  "It’s crazy how quickly that, like, switch of this isn’t true, what is factual and what is not..." —Rob (12:52)

• On Pardons/Accountability:

  “These guys that beat the shit out of me are now...” —David referencing pardoned Capitol attackers (35:29)

• Petty Orders & Deeper Dangers:

  "Something that just seems petty and silly, suddenly becoming something potentially incredibly terrifying." —David on gender definitions and fetal personhood (54:57) "Is this pettiness, or is this something to be terrified of?" —David (55:05)

• Religion & Empathy:

  “It was like a moment of sanity. It was incredibly satisfying to watch...” —David on Bishop Budde’s prayer (42:58)

• History Repeating:

  "History repeating itself, we're never learning. We're doing the same old dumb..." —David (59:40)

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• 00:18–02:46 — Hayden from NZ: How the world sees America
• 09:11–09:25 — Considering emigration: "Does New Zealand take people?"
• 11:22–13:16 — TikTok ban/savior saga, return of disinfo
• 14:12–15:53 — Trump rewriting history, pardoning January 6 rioters
• 24:02–28:46 — Elon Musk’s hand gesture: analysis and media reaction
• 33:59–35:36 — The impact and implications of widespread pardons
• 41:25–44:49 — Bishop Budde’s prayer: empathy and backlash
• 45:44–51:29 — Instagram account chaos: forced follows, conspiracy, technical failures
• 53:04–55:47 — "Two genders" order: Fetal personhood, abortion rights, and pettiness with teeth
• 56:08–57:39 — Federal aid as political weapon
• 58:05–59:49 — JP Morgan’s reaction: “Augeruption”
• 67:21–78:00 — Listener feedback on fires, Blockbuster, scrapbooking, and life’s randomness

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Episode Tone & Style

• Alternates between incredulity, bleak humor, and genuine empathy
• Willingness to embrace “what the fuck” bewilderment
• Offers outside perspective without condescension
• Threaded with personal asides, listener stories, and existential reflection

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Final Thoughts

The episode illustrates the chaos and cognitive dissonance of American life in the Trump 2.0 era: new forms of propaganda, social media dystopia, the collapse of common facts, and petty executive actions with profound legal consequences. The hosts balance panic, mockery, and empathy, continually inviting their audience to process—however clumsily—the “balance of terror and laughter” that defines this moment. The episode closes with letters from listeners, a dedication to a departed Kiwi fan, and the hope that—even if America has been absurd before—this time, maybe, the bubble of privilege can be pierced by bravery, community, and clear-eyed conversation.

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For feedback: [e-mail]

Watch on YouTube: YouTube.com/FlightlessBirdPodcast
Next week: Return to the regular (slightly less apocalyptic) format.

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Transcript

[Hayden]

Hello.

[David Ferrier]

Hi, Hayden, how are you?

[Hayden]

I'm good, thank you.

[David Ferrier]

What are you up to?

[Hayden]

Oh, just doing some work. I'm back at work now.

[David Ferrier]

Oh, that's nice.

[Rob]

Yeah, yeah.

[Hayden]

It's not.

[David Ferrier]

I'm calling you the day after the inauguration. I am in the United States. You're in New Zealand. You're almost 12,000 kilometers away, or just. Just over 7,000 miles. What is the vibe like in New Zealand?

[Hayden]

I wouldn't say that I'm a bellwether for the entire nation, though I am as close to it as you can get. I think it's much the same as it's been for the last eight or so years, which is that we're just kind of cowering in fear, seeing what you guys will do next. I saw that the Doge department has its website now and it has that stupid dog on it. Elon Musk did a Nazi salute twice. Jewel performed. That was a bit disappointing.

[David Ferrier]

Jewel performed?

[Hayden]

Yeah, apparently Jewell performed. So that's obviously ripped the hearts out of quite a few millennials worldwide, not just in the United States. Me, you know, the thing that I did quite like is that Trump did that little dance with the cake cutting sword. He did a dance with the cake cutting sword. And. And to me, that. That was good. Like, that spoke to the level of decorum that I believe politics in the United States actually deserves. So, looking on the bright side, there's that.

[David Ferrier]

There's something I'm trying to figure out over here is it feels like you can either look at things with extreme unease and terror, but then it's also America is so unintentionally hilarious at the same time. So it's sort of hard to know the balance of terror and laughter. Do you know what I mean?

[Hayden]

Yeah, but that's America in a nutshell. You're both incredibly corny and not very self aware and at the same time able to nuke every single one of us out of existence at the drop of a hat. So, I mean, there must be something that you're doing right there because you have become incredibly powerful.

[Rob]

I think there's a lot of American.

[Hayden]

Literature, pop culture, movies and stuff about the kind of dark comedy at the heart of America. In Watchmen, there's literally that character, the comedian. This is all a big joke. It's not a very profound observation from us here on this podcast today, but I hope that no one's listening for some sort of deep insight into the soul of America. I thought I'm just here to stop you from doing another episode about how New Zealanders don't keep eggs in the pantry or the fridge. I keep my eggs in the fridge. You are not a good indication of what all New Zealanders do. New Zealanders don't keep eggs in the fridge.

[David Ferrier]

Get out of here. I'm David Ferrier, a New Zealander accidentally marooned in America, and I want to figure out what makes this country tick. Now, just to stop and state the obvious for a second, what a time to be making a podcast about American culture. When we started the show almost three years ago now, I guess the idea was to take a sort of whimsical look at what made America unusual and unique. An outsider looking on in this country. That is so many things to so many people. And the show is still that. But also, at times, we kind of have to hit the brakes and go, what the fuck is going on? Last week's episode was that when we looked at the Californian wildfires. And today we can't really avoid looking at what's happened since Trump came back into power. Whatever you think of the guy, there's no denying that his style of politics, Both back in 2016 and in the second term, is changing the fabric of how America does things. That said, this is the first year I've really gone, why am I here again? And do I really want to be here? Watching the inauguration was watching Trump, but it was also watching the tech billionaires gathered around him, the dweebs from TikTok, Meta, and Amazon, the men whose platforms increasingly steal our time, brains, and entire reality. So get out that American flag and decide whether that Nazi salute was just an enthusiastic hand gesture, because this is the inauguration episode.

[Rob]

Flagness.

[David Ferrier]

Flagness.

[Rob]

Flightless birdshots. Flightless bird touchdown in America.

[David Ferrier]

Now, Rob, I always forget at the beginning of the show to say that we're on YouTube now. I feel like we should tell people. So if you're listening and you want to watch us, it's YouTube.com lightless bird podcast. It looks beautiful. If you see us referencing things, we might be holding them, you might be able to see them.

[Rob]

And when there's, like, a visual version of the document, photos and stuff.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah. Andrew's putting together, like, a really beautiful illustrated version of what I'm rambling on about. We've got birds in the studio. I'm surrounded by dead birds right now. That might not be appealing for everyone.

[Rob]

But they're flightless birds since they're dead.

[David Ferrier]

That's a really good gag that I haven't understood until now. It's really really good. If you want to get in touch with us, we're flightless bird chat gmail.com, and every episode we read out feedback. And so you're welcome to email in with any thoughts you have.

[Rob]

Yeah, I thought, yeah.

[David Ferrier]

This week, right. It's. It's Friday when we're recording this. It's about 9pm I just thought it would be good to kind of try to grasp what's happened. Like, not in a comprehensive way. Like, we're not the daily, but, you know, we're both living in this. And I just kind of want to talk through some things that have happened and kind of go, what the hell is going on?

[Rob]

Yeah. We haven't seen each other most of this week and we've been texting, I think. Yeah. We send each other a lot of news.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah.

[Rob]

And because of the inauguration on Monday, I think it just. There was so much.

[David Ferrier]

I would argue too much. I mean, I feel we're always seeing each other bits of American culture, but this was like, overdrive, and it felt more batshit than usual. Maybe.

[Rob]

I think by, like, Tuesday, you were like, I think we need to do an episode that just covers whatever else, this and whatever else happens the rest of this week.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah. Because the original intent. I'd recorded three episodes in Australia.

[Rob]

Right.

[David Ferrier]

So we done Sharks, and then I had two more episodes. Then suddenly there were wildfires. We couldn't ignore those. And then literally one of the biggest things to happen in America's history, and I'm not sort of exaggerating, has happened. It seems silly to ignore it. I. I couldn't sort of do an episode like, here we are in Australia when this is an American podcast. So talking about American culture.

[Rob]

So we're going to take one more pause from your Australian. Hopefully the last pause we need.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah. And don't panic. This isn't going to be a, like, whacking over the head with like, to, you know, we want to sort of take a bit of a. I don't want to say humorous, but, I don't know, just kind of like a what the fuck? Look at things in a way.

[Rob]

Yeah. I think that's mostly what this is. And obviously everything that's happening has a lot more implications for people around the country. So our humorous take on it is not meant to.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah.

[Rob]

Speak lightly of the severity of all of this. I can maybe speak for both of us that we feel a little bit safer being in California.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah.

[Rob]

There is some comfort that we're in California while all of this insanity is happening. Not that it's not reaching us. But being from this state, like, it has such a large economy and.

[David Ferrier]

No, I mean, it's like, it's that thing of the being multiple countries. It feels like within America.

[Rob]

Yeah.

[David Ferrier]

And we're in one of them and.

[Rob]

It'S called California, and we're in, like the biggest one with the most politically aligned to how we feel. And I mean, the fact that our governor is mostly been. Who's Trump's been fighting with.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah.

[Rob]

This week.

[David Ferrier]

Did you see that video of Trump landing and them standing side by side, side, trying to sort of tolerate each other. Yeah. The other thing, I do liken this to when we were talking about the fires as well, because we were both in a part of California that, you know, our houses didn't burn down. We're fine. And I feel like we were kind of in this bubble with the fires in a way where all this chaos is happening around us, but we just were. Technically, we were fine.

[Rob]

Yeah.

[David Ferrier]

And I feel like with the election, I sort of feel in a similar way where from my perspective, I have this extreme advantage where if shit goes crazy, I can go back to New Zealand. The borders are open. The whole premise of the show of me being trapped here is no longer a reality. But also, as you said, we're in California and we're in this bubble. And so all this shit, while on some level it's terrifying for us personally, it's this weird thing where we are sort of. Because of where we are. You know, we're two white dudes, we're okay.

[Rob]

There's this layer of protection I feel like California brings.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah. I've got a friend who calls me. He's American, but he's not white. And he's like. Him and his partner are, like, scared.

[Rob]

Yeah.

[David Ferrier]

And he was like, talking to me about what is the realistic way, like, does New Zealand take people like, we've got skills. How could we get in there? And that's the way people around me are thinking, which is a really. Yeah, it's a weird place to be. All right. I've got a lot of notes on the laptop. I mean, we've been going back and forth kind of all week looking at things here, and I think we've.

[Rob]

We've almost tried to avoid getting into conversation about most of this. I think we've been sending a lot of these articles back and. Yeah, back and forth, but really just leaving it at that.

[David Ferrier]

Like, yeah, we're going to record on Friday night, so let's talk about it then.

[Rob]

Throw this in the dock.

[David Ferrier]

A headline that came up just as I was coming in here tonight. Hundreds of illegal immigrant criminals, those are in quote, marks in the United States, were arrested on Thursday and hundreds of others were flown out of the country on military aircraft as President Trump's promised mass deportation operation got underway. The White House said. And I feel like there's just a barrage of headlines similar to that of, like, all these things he was saying are happening right now. I also wanted to give a quick shout out. Do you listen to Ezra Klein show at all?

[Rob]

Yeah, occasionally.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah. He just had a line in his latest episode, and it was a print article and it's in his podcast as well, that I just thought was a good sort of summation. And I like him because I don't. When it comes to politics here, I don't know what I'm talking about. And so I feel like he does have a grasp on things he said. I was struck in Trump's inaugural address how almost everything mentioned was an executive action that Trump would take and the courts would decide to accept or reject. He talked little of laws he wanted Congress to pass. What interests Trump is what he can do alone.

[Rob]

Yeah. I mean, that was kind of the summation of all of it, was, here's all these executive orders that are happening.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah. And I'm doing it, and, like, come at me other states, but this is what I'm laying down, and it's me doing it.

[Rob]

Well, I mean, can we start with even before the inauguration, the whole TikTok thing? Oh, that was crazy.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah. I wrote about this on Webworm a bit. I got my friend Rachel, who's a creator there. She makes her entire Living on TikTok. She does cooking videos and the posturing involved in that shit.

[Rob]

Yeah. Well, did you see just the, like, timeline of articles of, like, when the TikTok ban was introduced and it was Trump?

[David Ferrier]

Yeah. He was pushing for it.

[Rob]

He was the one doing it.

[David Ferrier]

I think short memories. Like, I feel I forgot that. I think most of America forgot that.

[Rob]

Yeah. Him pushing it, and then, like, somehow he becomes the, like, white knight that comes and saves it. And then, like, even in the message that it was blocked was like, don't worry, we're talking to President Trump.

[David Ferrier]

And then when it came back, they thanked him. They thanked him. And that's. You log into this app, which is used by millions and millions and millions of America, and it's like, thumbs up, Trump. He's our hero. This is why you have this platform back, a platform which Americans love.

[Rob]

There was this Amazing piece the Daily show did on it too, where they were basically saying Trump was doing this because he's trying to win over the young vote and like the young demographic and like, how well he did and that he, like, there was one interview where he's saying he won the. The. That young demographic by 34 points, and another one he was saying 36 points.

[David Ferrier]

And.

[Rob]

And then the Daily show comes on and they were like, no, he lost it by 11 points. It's crazy how quickly that, like, switch of this isn't true, what is factual and what is not. Like, I feel like there was some normalcy the last four years.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah.

[Rob]

Now it's just fucking back. And it's crazy.

[David Ferrier]

My. My worry is that we're going to adapt to this crazy like a fucking lobster in a hot boiling pot, you know, we're not going to realize how crazy it's getting. We're just going to sort of adjust to it. That's my kind of worry. I was here when he became president in 2016, but then I went back. I was here for like a month, but then I was back in New Zealand living. And it feels like that crazy started crazy, but then we all got a bit used to it. And I'm wondering if that will happen even more so as this gets more batshit. And certainly with the fact checking, I mean, it feels like we're having big discussions back in 2016 about what reality was and there were constant fact checks, but it's like the. Is coming so fast, no one really has time or the brain space. And so you hear these figures and.

[Rob]

You'Re just like, yeah, I guess he's telling the truth, or. And it doesn't matter because he's just gonna plow ahead as. As if that is the reality and so is his base.

[David Ferrier]

I even feel it's like that with the Capitol riots. Right. Like, his whole thing, I feel like, has always been everyone is peaceful. Back then, no one did anything wrong. They were supportive and great and this is the way it is. And it feels like in him pardoning hundreds of people involved in that, he's basically like, making his truth come true. Whereas, like, they're free, nothing bad happened here. Everything's fine.

[Rob]

Well, there was another Daily Show, Jordan Kepler. I think he was at the inauguration Talking about the January 6th riots, right. He was talking about the pardons of all of the people from there. And then he was showing them photos because they were like, no, it was peaceful. And then he was showing photos of someone with, like, bear spray and like, all of the violent stuff. There was one guy that was like, oh, I have not seen these photos. I did not know this is what happened. Like, I guess I'm watching the wrong news because that's not the spin that I've seen.

[David Ferrier]

What an incredible comment to get from someone.

[Rob]

Yeah. Like, he acknowledged, like, yeah, he didn't know, but like, that was also. They were the ones saying that it was at one point like, it was antifa, it was blm, it was the FBI that were doing all of this.

[David Ferrier]

That was one of the conspiracy theories. Yeah, he's pushing. Yep.

[Rob]

But then why are you pardoning if it was a conspiracy? Like, it's just all so contradictory. It's maddening.

[David Ferrier]

I think it's just because things are happening, like the information is so busy. Right. We can't keep up. And I think that's how he can keep pivoting where his audience doesn't recognize. Even I don't recognize, I forget what the hell happened. I find it hard to trace.

[Rob]

And there's no accountability for anything said.

[David Ferrier]

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[Rob]

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[David Ferrier]

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[Rob]

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[David Ferrier]

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[Rob]

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[David Ferrier]

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[Rob]

Well, yeah, now we're on video. So I know you need to look your best.

[David Ferrier]

I know.

[Rob]

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[David Ferrier]

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[Rob]

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[David Ferrier]

Get 15% off with Code Bird at OneSkin co. That's 15% off OneSkin co with Code Bird. After you purchase, I'll ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them we sent you. Invest in the health and longevity of your skin With One Skin, your future self will thank you. I had a like a work meeting for about three hours as the inauguration was happening and I was just getting texts from my friend the entire time. I thought they were just worth reading out quickly. She oh, my God, David, you're not watching the collapse of the country in real time. And she said, bro, seeing all these tech CEOs on stage is freaking me out. It's unreal. Also, where's Zuckerberg? This is so demented. Maybe two black people in the room on MLK Day. Apparently Zucker's here, but very short, so I still can't see him. J.D. vance's wife looks like she just learned to smile today. Clinton looks like he's going to die tomorrow. Oh, Trump said the word annihilate. Goody. There was a standing ovation for. I'm declaring a national emergency at the border. He just said, drill, baby, drill. All these updates are just blowing my mind as I'm trying to have this, like, coffee meeting. He's ending the new Green deal. He's revoking the EV mandate. Standing ovation for that as well. There's only two genders.

[Rob]

Was Elon applauding the EV mandate?

[David Ferrier]

Well, that's the thing. Like, you read that and you're like, surely he'd be angry. But the thing with that EV mandate is, for Tesla, that's a huge advantage because, like, they're in a space where they're kind of fine.

[Rob]

Yeah, yeah.

[David Ferrier]

It's like a massive blow for all his competitors. So he kind of will be cheering it. I think that's the thing. Anyway, she just ended up by saying, God, if you exist, put me out of my misery now. Which I just thought was a great take on the inauguration. How are you feeling about social media right now? I wanted to sort of start off by thinking about that because it's kind of. All the platforms now feel like they are controlled by people in the President's kind of inner circle.

[Rob]

Yeah.

[David Ferrier]

Has that changed? I mean, are you a big user of. I am a huge user of social media. Are you?

[Rob]

So, I mean, yeah. I mean, so much of how we connect with our audience is Instagram and.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah, completely. You've never done the X thing, though, right? You're not X.

[Rob]

No, I'm more visual than I am.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah.

[Rob]

Yeah, X. But not also, like a big TikTok user.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah. It's a conversation amongst a lot of friends of sort of combined with, like, privacy versus, like, what do we want to support? It's just a weird time to be alive. And I think also just the noise around as well. People just wanting to they. That level of how much do you connect with the chaos and how much do you, for your own mental health, kind of step back a little bit.

[Rob]

Yeah.

[David Ferrier]

A friend of mine texted me this. I thought it was. I mean, maybe it's a bit doom and gloom, but I resonated with it. He said, I'm so close to just shutting down all my social media. I realize it's something of a privilege to even consider that. I know it's probably impossible for you, David, but I just can't anymore. I can't give Zach any more of my time and attention. I just wish there was a cohesive movement. Deactivating in a vacuum feels like a wasted opportunity. Like, I'm not self righteous about it. There is a lot of it I like. I'm just not hooked on it. I just feel like if we can't even sacrifice our little meme yum yums in order to hurt one of the biggest threats to democracy, what hope do we have? Like our granddad, Storm Normandy. And the idea of deactivating my Instagram feels like a big ask. Yeah. And it does. Like, I think of turning all that stuff off and I'm like, it is. Does feel like a big ass, which is crazy.

[Rob]

Well, I mean, it hurts us as like a business.

[David Ferrier]

My two main things in life are my newsletter, webworm, and the show. And the only way of getting new listeners is by sending it out into the social media world in the hope that people will read that and come on board. I thought we could go through some of the crazy and just cover it off. Just as we all, you and me and whoever's listening can kind of come to terms with this in their own brain.

[Rob]

The crazy thing is like, looking at the things we jotted down. This was four days ago and this feels like old news already.

[David Ferrier]

I know. And, and so we're recording this Friday. It's going to be out Tuesday. I mean, so much will have happened in that space. Which again, is why I don't think this show should never be a reactive news podcast. Because it's just not the way we do things. But if some crazy shit's happened and we're not talking about it. Purely a timeline issue. Wanted to cover the mysterious hand gesture by Elon Musk.

[Rob]

Mysterious in quotes.

[David Ferrier]

This was fascinating. I'm sure everyone listening is aware that Elon Musk did a fist bump to the heart and then a sort of Heil Hitler, arm extended. It's a very specific motion. Did that twice.

[Rob]

The argument was he was grabbing his heart and throwing it to the audience.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah, my heart is for you. For me, there's no debate this, what he was doing was not a particularly mysterious gesture. Like we know what it was. I just found the dialogue around it so fascinating.

[Rob]

Yeah. There was a point, I think before I even saw it that I was like, he can have done that. Like, I know that they're throwing around that it's because he has Asperger's and doesn't know what he was doing.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah. A lot of that sort of conversation.

[Rob]

And at first that was like, that must be like, I.

[David Ferrier]

That must be the reason. There must be a reason.

[Rob]

I try to, I try to approach a lot of these headlines the same way that I wish the other side would too. Where like, okay, maybe there's an explanation to this.

[David Ferrier]

You essentially, you go into a thing with a level of goodwill.

[Rob]

Yeah.

[David Ferrier]

Not just going and going, oh, this.

[Rob]

Headline study did this.

[David Ferrier]

It must be true.

[Rob]

It must be true.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

[Rob]

But then seeing it and that it happened twice and yeah. How specific the gesture was Very specific. Don't think there is much question.

[David Ferrier]

Just for me as a New Zealander in America, it's just a, it's a, it was a batshit insane thing to see. I just, I couldn't believe it.

[Rob]

And at the inauguration, like with quite a big event, people watching, like, even to get close to that and to know like they've had this issue on the right with alignment with these groups, at the very least, getting close to it is like being a dog whistle to these groups. And just like, oh, we see you. And now we have plausible deniability that.

[David Ferrier]

It wasn't that 100%. I think the most kind reading would be that it is a dog whistle. And that's still pretty horrific.

[Rob]

Yeah, yeah.

[David Ferrier]

The thing that was sort of from a media point of view, the headlines about this were fascinating to watch. The New York Times headline, musk ignites online speculation over meaning of a hand gesture. The Washington Post, of course, owned by Jeff Bezos, said the controversial gesture, which some interpreted as a Nazi style salute, drew criticism and invigorated fans on the far right.

[Rob]

Their ability to walk the line to where, like they can deny it, but then they're also able to use it as like, oh no, we were doing that. So if anyone did see it, like that would have liked that, like, that's what they were doing.

[David Ferrier]

It's wild to see that.

[Rob]

It's crazy that they can talk out of both sides and they can like go on and say like, oh, no, I didn't do that. But that message is still there to the people that would have liked him to do that.

[David Ferrier]

Oh, completely. And that's all they take Away from it is that message. The Anti Defamation League did a tweet. This is a delicate moment. It's a new day and so many are on edge. Our politics are inflamed and social media only adds to the anxiety. It seems Elon Musk made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute. But again, we appreciate that people are on edge in this moment. All sides should give one another a bit of grace. That was pretty incredible to me. The ADL being saying we should give some grace to someone doing a Nazi salute, I just find pretty incredible. The Present Age is a newsletter that Parker Malloy writes. I really like their writing. They wrote a piece about this saying, why are mainstream outlets so reluctant to say the obvious? The answer lies in a broken defamation laws and the way wealthy individuals can weaponize them against critics. This is legitimate free speech crisis. We're living in a media environment where the truth has become nearly impossible to state directly. A billionaire can make a gesture that Neo Nazis celebrate as explicitly supporting their cause, and major news organizations feel compelled to describe it as exuberant rather than risk saying what it actually appeared to be. That's something I didn't really clock at the time. He is a very wealthy man and to be an outlet saying certain things, he could very easily go up to you for defamation and so why would you take that risk?

[Rob]

That being said, I guess we're saying it.

[David Ferrier]

We're saying it. Look, if Flightless Bird doesn't come back next week, you know what's happened. All right. Billy Ray Cyrus.

[Rob]

Yeah. Well, I didn't realize Jewel performed.

[David Ferrier]

No. Until Hayden told me. I had no idea. He's a big Jewel fan. He's mortified.

[Rob]

I do know that Billy Ray Cyrus performed.

[David Ferrier]

I didn't see this.

[Rob]

He performed, but then his son, like, posted this, like, heartbreaking thing about his dad, and I haven't read any of his posts. It was a picture of him and his dad when he was like, a little kid. And it was since my earliest memories, all I can remember is being obsessed with you and thinking you were the coolest person ever. I wanted to be just like you. The day you adopted me was the happiest day of my life. Sadly, the man that I wanted so desperately to be like, I barely recognize now. Seems the world has beaten you down and have become obvious to everyone but you. You may be upset with posting this, but I could really care less at this point. Fuck. We're all hanging onto memories of the man we once knew and hoping for the day he Returns. You're not healthy, dad. And everyone is noticing. Just like I showed up preu it mama's funeral and you didn't expect me to. I'm here right now as I write this with tears in my eyes. I hope you realize this message only comes from a place of love and also fear that the world may lose you far too soon. I love you, dad. We haven't talked in a while, but I'm over a year and a half clean from alcohol. Guess what? I feel amazing. I don't know what you're struggling with exactly, but I have a pretty good idea and I'd love to help you. If you open up and receive the help, you know how to reach me. Until that day, I will continue to pray for you.

[David Ferrier]

Holy shit.

[Rob]

It's crazy how quickly it seems to be tearing families apart again. It did feel like there was some progress in mending over the last four years.

[David Ferrier]

Yep.

[Rob]

And now it's just like, ripped. Like, that wound's ripped wide open.

[David Ferrier]

Because I feel it's like it was first Trump presidency ripping people apart, then it's Covid ripping people apart, and now it's this again.

[Rob]

Yeah. I think I do feel like there was healing. There was some healing. I don't know if that was in a bubble also.

[David Ferrier]

No, I think just. I mean, cheesy. But, like, time helps, right? Like, that heals. We had a bit of time to, like.

[Rob]

And now that it's back, it's happened again. It's just like, ripped wide open. I don't. I feel like people feel vindicated and are doubling down now. And it's this revenge tour now. And, like, people are not holding back.

[David Ferrier]

I mean, I think that's a perfect example of what so many families are going to be dealing with. Right. That's like a very public example of what a lot of people are going to be dealing with.

[Rob]

Yeah.

[David Ferrier]

And we're only. We're not many days into this.

[Rob]

Oh, we're four and a half days in.

[David Ferrier]

And I do. I genuinely do have that thought of. You know, when I got stuck here, the intent was, this is my life now. And I like this life. And I do. But it is that thing of. It's the first time in a long time where I've thought about, like, going back to New Zealand or going somewhere else. That's not America, because I have that option. And it's just a very odd place to be. Whitehouse.gov if you haven't been there already, you've been there. Rob, if you're listening haven't been. Please go there. All I'll say is that it's sort of like North Korea style propaganda vibes. It's kind of. I watched it as a video that plays when you open the site. The music, the jet planes, the messaging, it's just, it's. On one level it's like Team America. Team America World police ridiculousness. But then on another level, it's like, oh, no, this is where we are right now.

[Rob]

Yeah.

[David Ferrier]

Just wanting to acknowledge how batshit the White House intro video is. I can't really take it seriously, but it is serious because it's where we're living.

[Rob]

Well, I think there's been like a lot of pages taken down. I don't. So I don't know the logistics of like a new administration coming in. If they just change how URLs are written or. I'm assuming a lot of this is intentional, but there's just like sections of the site. Gone.

[David Ferrier]

I understand there was like, there was like a Spanish language version that's axed completely. That's gone. I mean, that's not an accident. Like, that's a message.

[Rob]

Yeah. And there was like reproductive rights.gov was taken down, which was meant for helping women find health care and understanding their rights.

[David Ferrier]

Gone. Yep. Don't need that. That stuff for me is the most. Some of the most insidious stuff because it's stuff that just happened and it's. And it's just gone. And it's not being talked about. It's just happened.

[Rob]

Well, and then it also, like calling it out makes us feel like conspiracy theorists.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah. It's gone. Have you seen this thing? It's gone. Yeah. You start to sound. No, I mean, it's the thing when you start to rant about some of the stuff, you do start to sound unhinged because you start to have that desperate, crazy sort of wild look in your eyes. I mean, I feel like I've had a wild look in my eyes a week. You know, you start to feel crazy.

[Rob]

You have.

[David Ferrier]

I wanted to talk about the pardons a little bit.

[Rob]

Yes.

[David Ferrier]

Because they have been. Yeah. Fascinating. We mentioned this earlier. 1500 criminal defendants charged in the January Six capital attacks have been pardoned. And that included the sentences of individuals associated with the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers.

[Rob]

I think it was like the 18 year sentence.

[David Ferrier]

There was a 22 sentence. 22 year sentence and an 18 year sentence. They're now out in the world and just something I sort of. Again, I start to sound conspiratorial. But Imagine if you are one of those, you know, you're in for 22 years, you're in for 18 years. Suddenly Trump has pardoned you, you already on his side before and willing to like break into the capital. Think how willing you will be to like, do whatever for him now.

[Rob]

Yeah.

[David Ferrier]

You know, they are empowered.

[Rob]

As I did See another like, heartbreaking article too. It was a police officer that was at January six, had been beaten by the mob, was working the inauguration this year. Worked like a 14 hour day protecting, keeping peace at the inauguration. Comes home from his shift and sees all of these people have been pardoned.

[David Ferrier]

Holy shit. You imagine like you have a bad day at work. That's the ultimate bad day where you're just like, he will be. I imagine like, why the. Why am I doing this job? Like, it's pointless.

[Rob]

Yeah.

[David Ferrier]

Like these guys that beat the shit out of me are now the guy I've just been. I can't even.

[Rob]

Yeah. I mean, it goes back to the like accountability thing.

[David Ferrier]

Oh, no. I mean there is no accountability. Like, that's gone. Like that doesn't exist here. Right. Done. Stay tuned for more Flightless Bird. We'll be right back after a word from our sponsors. Support for Flightless Bird comes from Quince. Now with the new year comes a chance to reimagine ourselves for the better and importantly, our closets. This year I'm resolving to refresh my look and quality pieces and stay on budget. And I can, thanks to Quince.

[Rob]

I did get the Quince Mongolian cashmere sweater. It was only $60 and it is very soft and very nice. I do like when it gets a little cold in LA because I can bust out the sweaters and I've been wearing that one a lot.

[David Ferrier]

Oh, Rob, I love it. However you choose to refresh yourself this year, all Quince pieces are priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands. They're able to do this by partnering directly with top factories, cutting out the cost of the middleman and passing the saving on to you. They only work with factories that use safe, ethical and responsible manufacturing processes.

[Rob]

And of course, they use premium fabrics and finishes for that luxury feel in every piece. Upgrade your closet this year without the upgraded price tag. Go to quince.com/bird for 365 day returns plus free shipping on your order.

[David Ferrier]

That's quite n c e dot com bird to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com bird support for flightless Bird comes from Helix. Now we have spoken a lot about Helix on The show, they've been a sponsor for quite a long time and I feel really proud of that because I've been sleeping on a Helix bed for a few years now and I friggin love it. And so it's not a difficult thing to sell to people.

[Rob]

Yeah. When I first met you, you had a lot of sleep issues. You were complaining all the time about how poorly you slept, about ghosts visiting in your sleep, your bad back.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah, multiple reasons.

[Rob]

All of these things.

[David Ferrier]

Ye look genuinely at the moment. It's combined with how cold it is as well. But I've never slept so good. I get in that bed and I'm in that mood where sometimes I'm so glad to be on this Helix mattress, I literally laugh myself to sleep. Do you know what I mean? You're so happy to be in there, you're giggling and then I'm asleep and then suddenly the alarm's going off and it's the next day. It's the best thing in the world.

[Rob]

Are you a side sleeper or.

[David Ferrier]

I do side and back. Never the tum. I can do the tum for about 10 seconds and I'm not there anymore.

[Rob]

I can do the stom, but then I do like the hands under the pillows.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah.

[Rob]

Then I eventually rotate and I got hand over the eyes. Go to helixsleep.combird for 20% off site wide and two free dream pillows with mattress purchase.

[David Ferrier]

That's helixsleep.combird for twenty percent off site wide and two free Dream Pillows with mattress purchase. Helixsleep.com. Trump pardoned the creator of the Silk Road Dark web website. This is a guy who. Yeah, not a great guy. Let go of him. He's out in the world. Great. He also pardoned two police officers convicted and a murder of a black man in Washington. Yeah. So these people being pardoned, it's quite a list.

[Rob]

I did see there was. I don't know if this was real or not.

[David Ferrier]

This is where we live in now, by the way. Yeah, yeah, there's going to be a lot of that.

[Rob]

Joe Exotic posting that he was sad that he forgot him again from the pardons.

[David Ferrier]

I feel like that was from his legit account.

[Rob]

Oh, no, it's real. I'm on his account.

[David Ferrier]

It's like a little illustration, right. Of someone crying.

[Rob]

Of someone crying. It says, president Trump, you forgot me again. And then the caption is if I was a crack dealer, maybe if I had broken the Capitol or even have been related to the Bidens, I might have gotten some relief on being in Prison, innocent. Hell, the guy who killed two FBI agents even got a hot pardon today. I can't even get a new trial based on admitted perjury testimony.

[David Ferrier]

You know what I hate most about this is you're making me side with Joe Exotic, a man that I do not want to side with ever. Also, doesn't Tiger King seem like another, like, a lifetime ago? Yeah, that was when Covid first kind of kicked off, Right?

[Rob]

Yeah. So that would have been 2020 that came out. I mean, that was almost five years ago.

[David Ferrier]

Holy hell. Okay, Doge, look, I don't want to talk too much about this Elon Musk, obviously, in charge of this government entity, the Department of Government Efficiency, Essentially, him just doing a little joke because that shortens to Doge, which is his coin that he and his little horrible cryptocurrency. Crypto. Yeah. Anyway, there's a logo they [e-mail] it looked like. If you're familiar with Paw Patrol, the animated show, it looked like an illustration.

[Rob]

From that Paw Patrol right now.

[David Ferrier]

And that's where I go back to, like, is America terrifying or just dumb and hilarious? Because I looked at that and I'm like, how is this real? How is this logo real? How is Musk's little nod to Doge now official, like, name of a government, like, entity? That's weird, right?

[Rob]

Yeah.

[David Ferrier]

That's not just me.

[Rob]

No. That's crazy.

[David Ferrier]

It's weird.

[Rob]

Yeah. I mean, it also is, like, very on brand for Elon of just, like, I'm going to in plain sight, say, fuck you.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah. It's edgelord shit. It's like, stuff that was happening on forums when I was 14. We had, like, horny, pimply, gross kids just being little shitheads. It's that. But it's now adults doing it, and they happen to have hundreds of millions and billions of dollars.

[Rob]

Billions. Yeah. And a lot of power. I want to talk about Bishop Marianne Boud.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah. We love her. You sent me this clip.

[Rob]

Yeah.

[David Ferrier]

So, in short, Trump and Vance were.

[Rob]

Sitting with their families.

[David Ferrier]

With their families. And this Bishop. Bishop Bud. Just unloaded on them.

[Rob]

I mean, not unloaded. Nice. Yeah. They're like, the conservative coverage of it.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah.

[Rob]

Is like, what I just said, far left and went crazy Raid.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah.

[Rob]

Rantings of a lunatic, disgrace, propaganda. This arrogant speech. And it is this, like, sweet, sweet Bishop just saying, like, I want you to have mercy for these people. And, like, even her tone as she's saying it is so, like, kind. And then they have the camera still on Trump and Vance and, like, you can see Vance, like, kind of stewing.

[David Ferrier]

Oh, they are squirming.

[Rob]

And they're smirking a bit, too.

[David Ferrier]

One of the quotes. I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. The vast majority of immigrants aren't criminals. They're our neighbors. Have mercy on our community. And she went on and, yeah, it was like a moment of sanity. It was incredibly satisfying to watch because I feel that's when it was sort of peak in the week, when we were just like, peak. This is horrific. And this dialogue was awful. And she was just so beautiful.

[Rob]

And, yeah, this lady was brave enough to say that, knowing that he was sitting there. And she also, like, didn't attack it in a way that you really could say. I mean, they did anyways.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah, they did anyway. No, by doing what you said. By framing her.

[Rob]

Yeah.

[David Ferrier]

As being a lunatic. So if you just read that headline without seeing what she said, you'd just go, oh, some crazy, deranged, leftist Christian, like, let out on them.

[Rob]

Yeah. Both having come from the church.

[David Ferrier]

It was cool. And I feel like we. I mean, I often. I feel like I rag on Christianity a lot in all my work, but it's just nice to see a proper, real Christian, like, actually, like, following what Jesus taught and being not insane. That exists. And it's a nice. It's a reminder of that still there.

[Rob]

It gave me this, like, weird comfort of when I did go to church when I was a kid.

[David Ferrier]

Identical.

[Rob]

Same thing of like, oh, yeah, there was this piece of it, and this is what people were taught.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah, this exists.

[Rob]

No, it didn't matter what side you were on. You understood this. And there was this empathy, this inherent empathy.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah. And goodness there. And I think it's what both of us probably see in our parents that still have that faith, that that is what they are about. It's not all this other lunacy of what Christianity has come to represent.

[Rob]

There's all the best pieces of the church.

[David Ferrier]

That bishop has a book that I would like to recommend because apparently it's amazing. I just ordered it. It's called How We Learn to Be Brave, Decisive Moments in Life and Faith. And so if you liked what she had to say, I imagine the book is going to be equally as great. So shout out to her. I hope she's okay. Like, I can only imagine the shit she's getting in various ways, because she is. She is out there.

[Rob]

It does remind me. I just watched Conclave. Did you watch that?

[David Ferrier]

Oh, I haven't seen it. Yet I want to see it. Right. It's about electing a new bishop, new Pope.

[Rob]

A new pope when the Pope dies. And it's like all the political happenings.

[David Ferrier]

Within the church because they basically seal it off right.

[Rob]

At the Vatican until they decide where they vote. And you need to majority vote. You need.

[David Ferrier]

Right.

[Rob]

And it's like all these political powers within, like, competing with one another.

[David Ferrier]

It's Ralph Fiennes. Right. I can't say his name.

[Rob]

Ralph Fiennes or Ralph Raph. Raph.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah. There's a way.

[Rob]

That's not Ralph.

[David Ferrier]

I never say it correctly.

[Rob]

I know. It scares me.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah. Imagine if he's. He's the guest and you have to say the name. Good. Good film.

[Rob]

Yeah, I liked it.

[David Ferrier]

Okay, I'm gonna watch. All right. I wanted to talk briefly about just the craziness around Instagram. People logged in, basically, and found out, for one thing, they were suddenly following people they didn't want to be following.

[Rob]

They were following J.D. vance and Donald Trump.

[David Ferrier]

Yep. Which, like, what?

[Rob]

I think I'd, like, realize the explanation for what was happening as it was happening. Like, clearly there's this at VP account and this at POTUS account. And when the administrations change, they take over those accounts.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah. The old ones archived on a different.

[Rob]

Account, which I think you still follow. And it's like, VP46 archive. POTUS 46 archive. But then it was just here, auto follow. I mean, I. I think just the timing of all of it with the, like, fact checking happening and how demonized all of the social media platforms have been, it just, like, couldn't have been worse timing for that to be happening.

[David Ferrier]

People were on edge over it.

[Rob]

The crazy thing was, like, it was throughout the whole day, all of this was happening. So I went in the morning and looked and was like, I. Why do I have 90 mutual friends that follow J.D. vance?

[David Ferrier]

And, like, it's like, what is happening in my life?

[Rob]

And I went in, like, went to the Mutual and, like, screenshot it and, like, sent it to a handful of people. And we're like, just so you know, I think you are auto following.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah.

[Rob]

J.D. vance now.

[David Ferrier]

So you understood pretty quickly what had happened.

[Rob]

I was like, there's.

[David Ferrier]

My friends have changed their political persuasions very quickly.

[Rob]

Because when Trump was on Instagram before, like, and you can tell, like, oh, these. These eight people follow him. And I know these six are politically. This person, like, finds it funny. And this is. It's like Jon Stewart is falling in because he's a reason.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Rob]

This was 90 and are you suddenly.

[David Ferrier]

Like, am I a Republican? Do I follow him? Do I not know who I am?

[Rob]

Well, so I'm sending it. I sent it to some people they unfollowed and then like throughout the day. So the VP account started when I first saw it was at like 8.7 million followers and I had 90 mutual followers. The POTUS one was at like 3.7 million and only like 30 mutual follows. But then I checked it later that night, the VP went 1 up to 17 or 18 million and I had 200 mutual followers. Oh, like it just kept growing.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah.

[Rob]

And then there were like some of the people I told and warned were re following again.

[David Ferrier]

Huh.

[Rob]

Even though they had unfollowed. And then I saw these accounts like Gracie Abrams had posted. Like, I've unfollowed this account three times. It keeps refollowing.

[David Ferrier]

I was finally unaware of this completely.

[Rob]

Again, like, yeah, this is now a conspiracy. Benefit of the doubt. I think it was just a really clunky tech unveiling of like it was processing too many people, 20 million people, and hitting unfollow.

[David Ferrier]

And some of that wasn't registering well.

[Rob]

And just the like processing of it, turning it over wasn't instant. It maybe took 12 hours for it to happen. I mean it was not handled greatly.

[David Ferrier]

No. And again, not great optics for the platform, right?

[Rob]

No. So by Tuesday night the POTUS account was up to 20 million and I had and went from 30 to 170 mutual.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah.

[Rob]

Sending the people again and they're being like, what the fuck? I unfollowed this.

[David Ferrier]

And I, I hadn't clocked that their back end had potentially fallen over. And yeah, it wasn't keeping up. That's.

[Rob]

I mean, I think that is like the. Giving them the most grace.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah.

[Rob]

It could not have been that.

[David Ferrier]

I'm deeply curious about any follow up from that as well. That's fascinating. I know Tick Tock definitely did some dicey moderation. Like Free Palestine as a term was like removed. Like you couldn't find certain things on Tick Tock. So that was going on at the same time as well.

[Rob]

I think there was some like abortion things too. Yeah, well, yeah. So I think the other thing that was circulating too of just like what, what it means for TikTok's regulations now that Trump, Trump brought them back.

[David Ferrier]

I'm like you in that I don't use TikTok and I'm a 42 year old man. I'm not on there. A friend that does use it a lot. And again, this might Just be their emotional reaction to what's happened. But they think the vibe there is different, that what they're being served is different. It feels like a different. A different thing that they're now using. But again, that might just be what happens with the algorithm when you get it's kicked off the app store in a country and then comes back online and everything's kind of reset. But I'm curious where that ends up.

[Rob]

I wonder. Let's take a look.

[David Ferrier]

I want to see mutual follows where it's at currently. Go on to Old Trumpy now and see what your mutuals are looking like.

[Rob]

Okay, so he's up. JD Vance is up to 15.2. I'm down to 73 mutual. So it was almost 200 people are dropping off now. These are a lot of people though that I know wouldn't be following J.D. vance.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah, I also imagine they just have busy, crazy lives and haven't gotten around to logging in and hitting unfollow yet. Right. Like there's more important things to do in the day.

[Rob]

Yeah. Like Tim Walls is falling.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah, really, J.D.

[Rob]

Vance.

[David Ferrier]

Come on, get on that and let's.

[Rob]

See what the pot is. Count. 16 million 55 mutual. Okay, that's even less. But yeah, again, the top four or five are people I know didn't actively go and yeah, follow this account.

[David Ferrier]

Just in general. The whole mutual friends thing I find always fascinating with anyone, be it this or just a person that, you know.

[Rob]

Yeah.

[David Ferrier]

Also it's that whole six degrees of separation.

[Rob]

I love that piece of it of like the best. Oh, why? How do you know this person?

[David Ferrier]

It's the best thing about social media.

[Rob]

Yeah.

[David Ferrier]

Wanted to cover off just like the dick waving of Trump. Just saying like we're going to rename Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. I mean, I don't have a lot to add on that besides him just being Trump. Also saying we're going to be planning a flag on Mars. Yeah, that's not going to happen.

[Rob]

Are they going to re. Like, are they going to republish textbooks and maps?

[David Ferrier]

And it's the thing. I mean, are they just going to update it online? Are they going to like log into Wikipedia and change it there?

[Rob]

Let's see Google Maps. It still says Gulf of Mexico on Google Maps.

[David Ferrier]

It's that thing. It's like he's not gonna get a flag on Mars. You know, it's just this dumb, weird posturing. I mean, it goes in with the new White House introductory video on their website. You know, it's the Same ridiculous over the top bullshit.

[Rob]

There's like a mountain in Alaska they had renamed for the, like, indigenous people of the area. And he changed it back. It's just shit stirring and dog whistling.

[David Ferrier]

To a certain part of America. All right, another big Trump moment. Only two genders, I feel it's this whole anti woke tirade, right? It's all this. It's this idea of like, we've gotten too woke. It's all this. It's just him basically yelling about wokeness. This is one of them.

[Rob]

It all just also seems so petty.

[David Ferrier]

Incredibly petty.

[Rob]

That is not the time or the place to say that to me.

[David Ferrier]

Like, picking on trans people is always the. Like, why? It's like they've gotten hard enough time already. Like, why are we always needing to pick on them? And, and why at this moment does he have to do this? It's incredibly petty.

[Rob]

Well, and it's just like nothing to do with you. How these people identify. It's almost like shouldn't matter to you at all.

[David Ferrier]

Like, yeah, probably like a little like beetle is going to interrupt your day more than a trans person is going to do anything to you. Like a beetle. Do you know what I mean? Like, nearly anything is going to affect you more than this. I'm just reading from the Guardian. One of Donald Trump's new executive orders, which claims there are only two genders, quietly incorporates tenets of fetal personhood, which is not a term I'd heard before the legal doctrine pushed by the anti abortion movement. The life begins at conception and the embryos and fetuses therefore deserve full legal rights and protections. Female means a person belonging at conception to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell, reads the order, which was issued just hours after Trump took office on Monday. Male means a person belonging at conception to the sex that produces the small reproductive cell. The words at conception have set off alarm bells among abortion rights supporters. A fully enacted fetal personhood would have sweeping repercussions for all US law. Not only would it outlaw abortion n nationwide, but it would even lead governments to treat abortion as murder and treat people who undergo the procedure as murderers. And there you have something that just seems petty and silly, suddenly becoming something potentially incredibly terrifying.

[Rob]

Yeah.

[David Ferrier]

And I feel like that's what I'm finding hard to keep up with is like, is this thing that is happening?

[Rob]

Yeah. What are the real dangers?

[David Ferrier]

What are the real dangers? Like, what are the repercussions? Is this pettiness or is this something to be terrified of?

[Rob]

Yeah, because a lot of times it is Just pettiness. And there's no bite behind the bark completely. But even just the nature of allowing that pettiness fuels more and more. And yeah, I mean, I, I saw like a bunch of posts going around about that of just being like, trans people were here before this and we're gonna be here after this.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah. It's not a new thing.

[Rob]

Yeah.

[David Ferrier]

They haven't just suddenly popped up out of nowhere.

[Rob]

Well, and in the, in there just being a statement that, oh, no, there's only two genders that we recognize.

[Hayden]

Yeah.

[David Ferrier]

They're having their day, they're having a cup of coffee. Suddenly that's being yelled at them. It's like, great.

[Rob]

Yeah.

[David Ferrier]

It's quite a list, all of this, isn't it? Okay, we're almost at the end of what jumped out at us during the week. Federal aid to California. Trump seems not to love California a lot. Is that the deal?

[Rob]

Yeah. I mean, this kind of ties back to our wildfire episode. Like, there's a lot help Californians need right now. And of course, because of the feuding between Newsom and Trump, there's been a lot of politicization of that. So what Trump said, I want to see two things in Los Angeles, voter id, so the people have a chance to vote, and I want to see the water being released and come down to Los Angeles and the state. Those are the two things. Basically saying he's not going to provide federal aid until these two things happen. So using like this time of crisis as a political push to get what he wants.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah, it's pretty low.

[Rob]

Yeah. And so there was a representative, a Republican representative from Orange County. Playing politics with people's livelihoods is unacceptable and a slap in the face to Southern California wildfire victims and to our brave first responders. Representative Young Kim said, but then Trump went on Fox and said, I don't think we should give California anything until they let the water run down and then fact checking that California pumps as much water now as it could under prior Trump era policies. So, yeah, it's just these like two realities.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah, again, yeah, but that's the thing. He's not dealing in facts, but who's going to have time to check that? You know, your typical supporter of him isn't going to check that.

[Rob]

Well, and I think they're getting riled up of like, oh, yeah, California's the bad guy.

[David Ferrier]

Like, yeah, we're the liberal Hollywood elite. Right. That's the thing. I mean, I've had that leveled at me since I've been here. If I say something. You are part of the liberal Hollywood elite. Like, that's the way this state is seen.

[Rob]

Yeah. And yeah, he's finally sticking up to them. Yep.

[David Ferrier]

To round this up, I found that even JP Morgan, this investment bank, was kind of like, what the hell is going on? They just released in their Eye on the market column. The headline was an augeruption, as in interruption. Thought that was quite funny. The flurry of Trump 2.0 executive orders and JP Morgan wrote Trump 2.0 is a hodgepodge of distinctly American political strains. The bear knuckled nationalism and anti elitism of Andrew Jackson. The tariff loving protectionism of William McKinley, the small government pro business policies of Calvin Coolidge, the unforgiving enemies list of Richard Nixon, the deportation policies of Dwight Eisenhower, the manifest destiny of James Polk and the isolationism of 1914 era Woodrow Wilson. So yeah, I just thought, you know, I sort of expected JP Morgan to come out swinging support, but they were just like, this is a crazy hodgepodge. This is a bonkers.

[Rob]

The only somewhat comforting thing of that list is here's a bunch of people that acted similarly in previous positions of power.

[David Ferrier]

As in, we should take comfort in that. America's kind of been batshit before.

[Rob]

I'm sure it's uniquely awful now.

[David Ferrier]

But that it's been bad before.

[Rob]

It's been bad before.

[David Ferrier]

I know what you're saying.

[Rob]

We're uniquely in tune to politics now.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah.

[Rob]

And connected to it at a different level.

[David Ferrier]

We survived that.

[Rob]

We survived it.

[David Ferrier]

So we'll survive this.

[Rob]

Yes.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah. The other annoying thing though is like history repeating itself. We're never learning. We're doing the same old dumb.

[Rob]

Yeah. Yeah. It doesn't necessarily make it any less frustrating.

[David Ferrier]

And I think frustrating is the main feeling. Right. That I'm having is just like frustration with all this. Just massive step backwards. It seems silly. Not to mention that Trump has also ordered. And maybe this is the one thing I can get behind, he's ordered the declassification. Declassification. The declassification of records related to jfk, RFK and the MLK assassinations so that.

[Rob]

He'S ordered the declassification. But it hasn't yet been declassified.

[David Ferrier]

Not yet.

[Rob]

So we don't know. Okay.

[David Ferrier]

There's a newsletter I love called Shit you should care about, which is written by some New Zealanders. I'm just going to read what they wrote. Everything will be revealed. Trump said as he signed an order to release thousands of classified governmental documents about the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Along with releasing info about jfk, the order also aims to declassify the remaining federal records about the assassinations of Senator Robert F. Kennedy and the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. According to Time magazine, the public shouldn't anticipate any earth shattering revelations, but there is still an intense interest in details related to assassinations and the events surrounding it.

[Rob]

Yeah, well. And I'm sure it'll spawn more interpretations and conspiracy theories.

[David Ferrier]

Oh, absolutely.

[Rob]

The other. I don't think the correct term is poetic.

[David Ferrier]

We don't always have to be correct.

[Rob]

No. But the fact that the inauguration was on Martin Luther King. Martin Luther King Day was also crazy.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah. Wild. It's like what my friend was saying, like not a lot of black people in the room that day.

[Rob]

What that day represents and then what is actually happening on that day. And just everything that is happening is essentially ignoring what the representation of this day was supposed to be.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah, 100%. And I think that's something I haven't really. I hadn't fully clocked that. Like it's batshit timing. And not to acknowledge it is crazy.

[Rob]

Yeah. It's not poet, it's. I mean, it's poets.

[David Ferrier]

No, poetic's not the word. There is a. There is a word for it. It's not coming to me at all right now at 10pm at night. Right.

[Rob]

Bad. Poetic.

[David Ferrier]

What's the bad form of poetry where something is like obnoxiously conflicting. If you know what we're trying to say. It is flightthespreadchatmail.com we will correct it.

[Rob]

I mean, obnoxiously conflicting.

[David Ferrier]

It's obnoxiously conflicting.

[Rob]

Yeah.

[David Ferrier]

And just finally Trump issued an executive order that aims to end birthright citizenship before he came in here to record. A judge has blocked that as blatantly unconscious constitutional. And I guess that's what we're going to see. Right. Is like various judges and states pushing back against all of this shit.

[Rob]

I mean, hopefully that's how it should hopefully work. But there's also been the four years that he stacked the judges.

[David Ferrier]

Oh God.

[Rob]

And the Supreme Court. So we'll see how much abuse of power is possible.

[David Ferrier]

And this is where I start to feel so out of my depth with understanding this entire system. It's just confusing to me how we got here and how it's even possible.

[Rob]

Yeah. I mean, I don't even fully get it. A lot of my knowledge is just like I watch that John Oliver on judges.

[David Ferrier]

I mean, holy shit. That's what John Oliver does so well, is like summarizes incredibly complex shit in a really compelling way that actually makes sense. I'm one of those people that will read a book about something dense and as I'm reading it, I will understand it. I'll feel incredibly intelligent. Then I go to retell that to someone two days later, fumble around, nothing, fumbling like a idiot. And it's so frustrating. Okay, this is the final, final thing. And this is just a personal bugbear. Maybe I'll get for it. I stumbled on a rabbit hole on YouTube basically of YouTubers vlogging their experience in the Californian wildfires.

[Rob]

Yeah, you sent me some pictures of.

[David Ferrier]

These I came across and I'm not. Even though we are on YouTube now, I wouldn't classify myself as a YouTuber. I don't really understand the environment.

[Rob]

You're a YouTuber?

[David Ferrier]

I'm a YouTuber now. There is an account I came across called the Royalty Family. Going on how big this account is probably some listeners to this podcast probably know them.

[Rob]

Almost 30 million followers.

[David Ferrier]

One of their videos up until recently that was like a top watch video was we adopted a girl but our son gets jealous. So that's kind of sort of a.

[Rob]

Few furious looking kid and 71 million views.

[David Ferrier]

I guess what I'm saying is I don't really understand this kind of vlogging culture but a lot of people love this family. Very popular. They did two videos about evacuating their One was called Our City is on fire that has 50 million views. The other is escaping the LA wildfires. The thumbnails I could only describe as. I mean I thought. And they may be AI generated but I think it's just bad photoshopping of.

[Rob]

Their kids or good, I mean or good photoshopping.

[David Ferrier]

Really good photoshopping.

[Rob]

They're like have a weird like stock photography vibe.

[David Ferrier]

They do them. The family's in the car, they turned a camera looking shocked whilst a house burns in the background.

[Rob]

Yeah, it's all like looking directly, directly at camera.

[David Ferrier]

I'll put the link to this in the show notes. It felt for me like I wanted to stab my eyes out with a fucking fork. It is like a parody of what YouTubers are. It is an incredibly privileged family fleeing from the fire, making it the most. The music, everything under it. It's like the worst, most bad taste treatment of this disaster that I could even imagine. It's kind of like they're inserting themselves into this narrative clearly for views they're in. From what I can tell, kind of a mansion. They evacuate to a very fancy hotel. That's the extent of it. We move from our fancy house to a fancy hotel. They somehow stretch that out to being a 45 minute vlog about the whole thing. I just found it kind of incredible. The one good thing I suppose is that they linked to where you could give donations, but I would argue that they're probably just doing it for views and it just felt horrific. Am I overreacting?

[Rob]

I didn't watch it so I can't. Okay, at first impression, I don't think you're overreacting.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah.

[Rob]

Looks crazy and I guess clickbaity.

[David Ferrier]

Yeah. Just in regards to our last episode, I just found this.

[Rob]

Yeah, absolutely.

[David Ferrier]

All right. Is there anything else from Trumpland that jumped out at you? That's kind of the stuff that I wanted to tick off as being what the hell.

[Rob]

I think that kind of does it for now. I'm sure though. I'm sure it's going to keep coming.

[David Ferrier]

It'll keep coming. We're always flightless. Breadchatmail.com if you had any thoughts about the inauguration and maybe how it's sort of affecting you and what you're thinking as far as being in America right now goes, I wanted to get back into a little bit of feedback. There's a lot of it coming in. As I always know. We read all your emails that come in. There's so many we can't get back to you.

[Rob]

I saw your cute little autoresponder.

[David Ferrier]

I've got a little autoresponse on. It took me a long time to figure out how to do that. It's quite fiddly to set up in Gmail. It's not just like a turn on an order response. Anyway, there was a lot of feedback to the fires episode. Lucy wrote in saying. As someone who grew up in a high fire prone area of Australia outside Melbourne, I find the reaction to the wildfires in la, or bushfires as we call them here, kind of fascinating and concerning, particularly the idea that many of you waited until the sky was red or you could actually see flames before evacuating. This is shocking to me as here in Victoria we have a massive focus on bushfire awareness, with particular emphasis on leaving before there's even a fire. I also find it sad, although it is inspiring that a nonprofit has to create an app to keep the public updated. She's talking about Watch Duty as we have a similar app, but it's funded by the Victoria government and the Country Fire Authority that basically does the same thing. Kelly wrote in Just and a lot of people did giving a shout out to the Air Hustle podcast. Apparently they did a really good deep dive on incarcerated firefighters. The episode is called Crew Number seven.

[Rob]

You listen to it.

[David Ferrier]

I haven't had time yet. I've been too stressed.

[Rob]

Mean got me calling you out on that.

[David Ferrier]

Oh yeah, and I have not listened. But so many people wrote in I assume it's to going good. I apologize if it's a complete piece of shit. And also it's a recommendation from a book that I also haven't read but so many people wrote in I wanted to say so Sarah said, I want to recommend a fabulous, terrifying must read book Fire Weather by John Valiant is a gripping account of the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire in Alberta, B.C. sea. This fire was so fierce and fueled by such intense winds it formed its own weather system. So yeah, apparently fire weather is really great. She also said, David, I share your hatred of leaf blowers and understand your fury at the folks using them to blow around toxic ash. When we were trapped inside by ash and toxic air three years ago, the city had banned the use of leaf blowers as well, and a neighbor of ours decided to use her blower to try to blow the accumulated ash out of her driveway. I was so pissed I covered my mouth and nose with a wet cloth, ran outside and told her as nicely as I could muster that the city had placed a ban and she needed to stop. She looked at me as if I had lost my head and continued to use the blower.

[Rob]

Yeah, I've still been seeing leaf blowers around.

[David Ferrier]

It's a lot of it. Alex wrote in I lived in central Oregon for five years and originally from Washington. I've been surrounded by wildfires my whole life and have been preaching and telling everyone to use watch duty for years. This last fire season, Oregon lost 1.9 million acres, which is a number which blows my mind. Lastly, and a coincidence because I was already drafting this email in my head while listening. I live in Bend, home of the very last blockbuster. You'd love this town so much. It's got a brewery, it's got a great concert hall, mountain biking, skiing, and an outdoorsy community with a beautiful river to float.

[Rob]

I know a few people that live up in Bend.

[David Ferrier]

It sounds great.

[Rob]

Yeah, I think it's like three hours or so from Portland.

[David Ferrier]

I feel like we should figure out a live show in Portland. We should go to Bend.

[Rob]

Yeah.

[David Ferrier]

And I want to float, which I understand is an American thing where you.

[Rob]

Oh, you don't know about lazy rivers?

[David Ferrier]

No. You okay you get in a tube or a boat and you just float. Where?

[Rob]

In the water.

[David Ferrier]

But you float to like down river. River.

[Rob]

Yeah.

[David Ferrier]

How do you get.

[Rob]

I mean some, some lazy rivers are just man made and there's like a very subtle current.

[David Ferrier]

Okay.

[Rob]

You just kind of sit and float. But then there are like people will do them in rafts and just kind of float down a stream.

[David Ferrier]

Okay.

[Rob]

I think it's a big drinking thing. Like you get a cooler floating with you too that's tied off to your.

[David Ferrier]

So I could get a bottle of Bailey's and ice and just float and drink.

[Rob]

Yeah.

[David Ferrier]

How do you get picked up? You park your car, you float.

[Rob]

I haven't done it.

[David Ferrier]

Suddenly you're like miles away.

[Rob]

Yeah, I haven't done it out in the wilderness. I've been in a lazy river though, that has been at like a water park.

[David Ferrier]

Just one more question.

[Rob]

Yeah.

[David Ferrier]

When you say lazy river, I originally thought that was like a theme park. Are you saying a lazy river versus like a river with rapids?

[Rob]

Yeah.

[David Ferrier]

In it. Yeah, a lazy river.

[Rob]

So I think it's just that it's like very calm and moot and you're not gonna drown. Yes. And you just have you.

[David Ferrier]

Lays you.

[Rob]

Yeah. I want to lounge around.

[David Ferrier]

Let's do it.

[Rob]

Yeah.

[David Ferrier]

Okay. I need some joy in my life and I think a lazy river.

[Rob]

Is it relaxing? I think we could. We could use that.

[David Ferrier]

Just on the topic of Blockbuster, because I think I do need to do a Blockbuster, kind of like VHS episode. Lacy wrote in saying one aspect that I do know doesn't get discussed much with the development of Blockbuster.

[Rob]

Where's Lacy? R. Lacy river off.

[David Ferrier]

You're so annoying. One aspect that I. One aspect that doesn't get discussed much with the development of Blockbuster. This is really nerdy, this email, but I kind of loved it was the computerization of the video rental system. Before Blockbuster, the neighborhood rental stores often just had index cards to write down who or when videos were rented. However, David Cook saw the possibility of computerizing that system. My dad wrote that original software. Software. And I remember spending some weekend mornings in stores when they would first open up as my dad fixed whatever software glitch came up on a busy Friday evening. That same group that David Cook and associates, whatever it was called, also did toll tags in Dallas, which were the very first electronic tolls in America before EasyPass and Fast Track.

[Rob]

And his brother was Tim Cook.

[David Ferrier]

I probably imagine just like the story that doesn't get celebrated. It's like, damn it, we're.

[Rob]

Tim did this.

[David Ferrier]

But Abby wrote in with a fact check about some bullshit I said about New Zealand. I said New Zealand didn't have Blockbuster. Apparently we did. We had Video, Easy and Blockbuster. The last Blockbuster in New Zealand closed in 2020 in a city called Dargaville. Beautiful Dargaville. So there you go. Hayden's right. I do not speak for all New Zealanders. I'm often completely full of shit in regards to our Sharks episode. Episode from Australia. Hi, David and Rob. As a Mexican, I'm kind of an outsider of American culture, even though some of the things you talk about in your podcast are not so strange to me. Like the toilet episode I'm writing about Sharky. And Sharky was a guy we mentioned last week who got attacked twice by sharks but then passed away in a car accident. I'm writing about Sharky because as a medical doctor, I see things like that every day. People who survive against all odds and end up dying of something unrelated. My grandpa used to say something that roughly translates to, you survive the lightning but not the storm, implying that if it's not your time to die, you won't. I thought that was really great. Chris wrote in, I'm from Australia. Every day I drive south about an hour to my office for work and back. I listen to Flightless Bird as my first pick of podcast. Thank you, Chris. I listened to the Shark Attack episode, naturally, as I was driving past a certain beach, and then boom. I was in kayak. It was mentioned in the episode Crazy. I found it crazy how Brett spoke on all the people driving past the highway, unaware he was fighting for his life, essentially as I was just driving past that very same beach. I'm writing this email to you now as I sit near the blowhole. I think it's such a special thing because it's the biggest in the world, which we never really cared about when we were growing up. We always just found it funny how many people came to see it. There are actually two blowholes here. I've seen people jump off the end of it too wild. So thank you, Chris. I just love that people are listening next to the blowhole that we were talking about rules. Keen wrote, at some point, Rob, you were harassing me about how I pronounced someone's name. So it's about that I wanted to write in to give you some support for your name pronunciation.

[Rob]

The Danielle.

[David Ferrier]

Yep, mostly for the pronunciation of Danielle. I think the difference is that down here in the Southern hemisphere, we pronounce it with two syllables as it is a combination of two names. Danny and El. Whereas in the north, it tends to get combined into one syllable. More like Danielle.

[Rob]

Sounds like you said Daniel, though.

[David Ferrier]

Danielle. Danielle. So it's either Daniel or Danielle, but I'm with you, David. Danielle it is. Thank you. Keen for having my back. One point to me, Kelly wrote in. In regards to the American Girl episode. I'm currently traveling in Iceland and I did a Northern Lights tour, which was incredible. Anyway, there was an American couple on the tour who insisted on having their American Girl dolls in their photos. They were holding them with the Northern Lights in the background. It was very strange and creepy. And the first time I'd ever seen an American Girl doll in person.

[Rob]

Well, now you know. If we ever go to Iceland to see the Northern Lights, we gotta bring.

[David Ferrier]

Your American girls back, our American Girl dolls with us.

[Rob]

Did you have to send those back?

[David Ferrier]

I've kept them.

[Rob]

You've kept them? You stolen them?

[David Ferrier]

I've kept them. I've stolen them. So, yeah, if we do go to the Northern Lights, we are both going to be holding. But imagine, like, traveling. I never thought of that. Like traveling with them as an American. That's such an American thing to do.

[Rob]

It's a lot of suitcase.

[David Ferrier]

Based on completely going to Iceland and packing two dolls.

[Rob]

Yeah.

[David Ferrier]

Very American.

[Rob]

Should we bring them to the live show in Seattle to put on stage?

[David Ferrier]

I think we absolutely should.

[Rob]

With the birds.

[David Ferrier]

Oh, my God. I've got my one locked in the wardrobe at the moment. It was too light. It feels like the eyes follow you around the room. I had it on my desk where I work. Didn't like it. It's locked up. But then I went to get a.

[Rob]

Sweater out and it was holding it for me.

[David Ferrier]

No, it was just at the bottom of the wardrobe and it was like looking up at me.

[Hayden]

Yeah.

[David Ferrier]

The last two bits of feedback that I really enjoyed this week. Elizabeth wrote, At 66, I'm not your target demographic, but I'm a day one listener. One of my favorite things in literature and entertainment is exploring different perspectives. So your format is right up my alley. I tried Waffle House for the first time thanks to you. Buc EE's, however, still doesn't appeal. And you write about shower curtains. But today I'm writing because I'm a scrapbooker. I've made well over 100 scrapbooks over the last 25 years. I've made quite a few albums for other people as well. Honestly, I feel pretty embarrassed about the time as well as the money I've invested in this hobby. It's a creative outlet for me Even though I have several others, it's been a way to relive favorite moments and to record stories I might otherwise forget. But I've definitely gone over the top. Elizabeth, you're amazing. Thanks for listening and for scrapbooking. And finally, finally, Rach wrote in and this kind of sums up a lot of the feedback we've had. I have a story of both Blockbuster and Toxic smoke in the mid-90s in Lewiston, Idaho. A Blockbuster was going to open in our town. Two days before it was going to open, it burnt to the ground for weeks, if not months afterwards. There was a toxic burnt plastic smell in the entire neighborhood, presumably from all the burnt VHS tapes. It was in the middle of summer and I remember it being extremely hot. Even as a kid, I remember thinking, this can't be good. The fire marshal said it burnt so easily because the construction of the building was so flimsy. A true testament to 90s construction. They ended up rebuilding Blockbuster on the same site. Big deal for small town Idaho. And she ended by saying, I've been meaning to write to you about my friend Alex. He suddenly passed away at 35 years old from unknown causes. Right before than he was a Kiwi living in Auckland and a big fan of your show and the reason why I started listening. When Mr. Organ came out, he kept insisting that I travel to Vancouver for the screening at the Rio. I regret that I wasn't able to attend. Thanks for your research and commentary about the weirdness of the United States, a topic that Alex and I discussed often. So, yeah, let's dedicate this whole episode to Alex. Respect. Thank you for listening and introducing Rach to that. And yeah, I don't know, it just seemed to sum up the whole thing. I feel we've been talking lately about the fragility of life and all that stuff. And yes. So thanks, Rachel, writing in and much respect to your friend Alex. So look, it's chaotic. I hope that with us you can make some sense of the craziness of this last week. Any feedback? As always, flightthesbreadchatmail.com thanks for listening and.

[Rob]

Check out YouTube, YouTube.

[David Ferrier]

Check out YouTube, YouTube, YouTube.com Lightless Bird podcast. All right, see you next week.

[Rob]

See you next week. We'll be back next week with our more regular format.

[David Ferrier]

We will. But wanted to acknowledge the madness and thanks for figuring it out.

[Rob]

And we'll keep doing. We'll keep doing fun ones like this if. If people like it. Yeah, we'll see.

[David Ferrier]

No, fun's the right word, but we'll keep doing some off kilter. What the hell is going on? America vibes.

[Rob]

Yeah, let's do it.