236. A Kind and Caring They

AlexThis is Do By Friday, a weekly challenge podcast. This week's challenge, watch the WeWork documentary.

MerlinHi, Quinn. I like to start early just because, you know, you never know. Anyway, I'm just waiting for Alexandra. Alexandra's getting a vaccine today, and I'm very excited about it. Let's see. What else am I doing? I'm looking at my lists on tract.com, and I'm looking at my list on letterboxd.com. Now, John Syracuse calls that letterboxd, which is funny to me because he is somewhat famously obsessed with pronouncing things correctly. But then you also have to consider what is his baseline, given how he is, where he lives,

what's his background. So that's a thing that we're all dealing with. But I think Alexandra is coming. I don't like being chided. I don't like being chided by the man. If it's letterboxd, say letterboxd. You know? So anyway, Quinn, I think Alex is here.

AlexYeah, and apparently I'm coming, which good, I guess. Good way to start the day. Good morning, Rebecca.

MerlinAlexandra, how is this week's – how's this – insert Jewish joke. How's this thing different from other days? What's happening today? Why are we doing a 53-minute episode?

AlexOh, I got to go to the suburbs and get a big old shot. And then a month later, we're going to have another, or two weeks later, we're going to have another 53-minute show. Well, hopefully not. I can try to schedule it for another Wednesday.

MerlinWell, again, Wednesdays, huh? All right, a little bit of time theft inside the time theft.

Speaker AAlexa, set a 53-minute Alexandra vaccine timer. Alexandra vaccine timer, 53 minutes.

MerlinOkay, okay, be funny.

Alexall right all right uh um show notes okay okay uh the aristocrats i i have mixed feelings about getting back not not whether or not you should be vaccinated no no no just because of the nanobots it's nanobots right yeah i i'm uh someone pointed out there's there's a trend going around on tiktok i uh where autistic folks are being like have this script and

they're like guess what i got vaccinated and it's just very it's very funny oh my god okay i didn't

Merlinlike how that started but that's pretty fucking funny oh no i yeah yeah i got de-spectrum thanks

Alexbill gates that's literally yes that's literally it uh anyway look go go to uh if you do hashtag Autism Vax on TikTok. Okay. No, okay. No, no, no. It's no longer a bunch of crazy moms. It's a bunch of young people being funny.

MerlinI got to get you off the internet. I got to get you off the fucking, the things you tell me.

AlexOh, my goodness. Yeah. Well, one thing that I feel that I'm, like, less alone about is feeling not weird about going back to, quote, normal, but feeling less weird about it. Because I've always hated doing all the normal things.

MerlinI'm telling you. I'm going to send you this now that I'm excited about pin board again.

AlexYeah. Oh, the bookmark? Huh? The bookmark? Bookmark. Bookmark. Bookmark. Bookmark.

MerlinYeah, yeah. There's something going on with pin board. Oh. It's exciting. And so anyway, because, you know, I did a thing a long time. Oh, goddammit. I want to hear it. Put a pin in the vaccine or a jab, as they like to say.

AlexIs that what we're calling it now?

MerlinWell, one thing I've done since Christ was a corporal is every time I add – this is such a nice little chunk of funk – is that you can have your – well, I mean there's lots of things you can do. But one thing I do is anytime I bookmark something to Instapaper, about 10 percent of which I actually read, it automatically also goes to pinboard as a private bookmark. So my whole history of Instapaper stuff is also in pinboard, which is just nice. It's one of those, it's almost like that sort of ambient health stuff where you're like, I don't need to know the 2,800 steps I took today, but I'm glad someone's writing it down.

AlexYes.

MerlinAnd this has been handy because you know what I was able to do? I don't have a good name for this. The tag is currently my COVID because I don't have anything better. But go look at that and you'll see all the things I've bookmarked that I found thought provoking about the pandemic, leaving the pandemic, what is the new normal, et cetera. And some of these are really good. How to cope with reemergence anxiety during COVID. A wonderful article in Vogue. Sorry, but hanging out should take two hours or less.

AlexOh, God, yes. I literally set a timer any time I have. I shouldn't say this. I shouldn't say this.

MerlinIt's like a chess timer, but for conversations.

AlexI always set a one-hour timer. And then I set another, like a repeat timer. And if I've gotten to the second one, I know that I got to peace out. unless it's for work.

MerlinThat sounds like you're using do. Are you using do to remind yourself about your reminders and to do?

AlexNo. Oh, no. I use the persist. Well, before I just used a timer on my watch because I don't need that to be an evergreen timer, you know, and it used to be just a shortcut, but now it's that there's a big timer Apple face. So people can see me. Apple face. I'm sorry.

MerlinGot that one.

AlexI'm quite a fruit. uh but i don't like i i don't know all reading oh i like i recognize some of these headlines that you have bookmarked here these a lot of these are that i've read are very good and i guess i didn't really i am more i i don't know if i believe of the true like introvert outrovert like binary spectrum of things but i'm like wow i really do like staying inside more than most

Merlinpeople. It's just it needs more. It's like Roderick and I've been talking about. I'm not even saying we get this right. I'm just saying it's an interesting conversation. I've thought for a long time, Alex, cut this out. I mean, you even go back to his name rhymes with Botky. But you see people who are like, oh, here's this link on the care and feeding of your introvert. And I'm like, oh, sweetie, are you OK? You seem awfully famous for someone who's an introvert. But that's why I think it needs nuance now that john has infected me with this idea that people tend to derive or

spend energy based on exposure to other people which seems so straightforward it's just that is anybody always the same way for the same amount of time with the same people i mean like i you and like this is real this is a true fact stated i miss the two cats comics comics meetup 320 west portal avenue i miss doing that so much for so many reasons it brought people into the store that i loved and i like to think helped a little bit you know with a tough business but i also just i

Speaker Aloved so many of the people who came every time i saw people meet i saw people get engaged this is

Merlinreal this is real i got a dm from a super nice guy who shall remain nameless who basically he proposed to his fiancee in front of what used to be two cats comics because that's where they met at a meetup. I've met a

Speaker Ababy of a couple

Merlinthat like, it was two people who used to work at Google and used to come and they were so fucking funny. And eventually they had an adorable baby and the mom would bring the baby. I miss all of that so much because I love seeing those same people. I love meeting new people. I love going and approaching. One, it's always like a gawky guy who does IT and is in town for a week and I go, hey, I'm Merlin. And I'm Like, hey, any chance you're here to hang out? Come on over and meet that. And I used to love that so much.

AlexYeah.

MerlinBut and then we go out for a drink usually and I bounce like so fucking hard. I'm out of there.

AlexYeah.

MerlinBecause nothing gives me more joy and more like I mean, I met Steve Garvey when I was 12. I know what it's like to meet somebody who's like in your life, but at a distance. And and then they became my friends. But like, I can't do that 12 hours a day every day.

AlexYeah. Yeah.

MerlinAnd I used to feel so ashamed of like John Roderick has remarked numerous times about how at any time there's a meetup like that, you'll always find me very near the front door or the back door or a door you didn't know about because my exit shall be French. Allons-y. Allons-y, baby. Tell me how you feel about that and then I want to talk about your job.

Speaker ABecause you kind of like people when you're having drinks at a talk show thing and you go pee with me in the men's room, the they room.

Alexthat they i was i was reflecting on um oh gosh well let's quickly get into i guess uh recap previously on merlin and alex's friendship friendship don't skip it don't skip it don't skip

Merlinthe recap you're gonna you're gonna forget about what happened at the veil you're gonna forget

Alexabout who went through the moonroof uh anyway go ahead i i i yeah i'm trying to think of the reference is that the one where you you go into the big pit with the weird incesty boob kit there

Merlinwe go all right yeah yeah yeah you gotta go fight the rancor no no yes yes yes and then little finger little finger's doing some business you remember the first time you see the little boy little boy you see the the tween sucking on his mom's teeth yes yes oh god i think about it caitlin what happened with your family love little finger i want to dress like little finger he always looks so fit. Who would you dress like on Game of Thrones

Alexif you could? Arya.

MerlinBrienne of Tarth. Oh, God.

AlexNo, too much. I am not cool enough

Merlinor brave enough. I saw the one last night where Brienne fights the Hound. Oh, it's so...

AlexOh, God. Kill me! Kill me!

MerlinBoy. I could see you looking like Brienne of Tarth. That would be a strong look for you.

AlexBrienne of fucking Tarth. Oh, she's hot.

MerlinFor your stature, you might want to – oh, shit, dog. Are you kidding me? Uh-huh. To quote Melissa McCarthy, what did she say?

Speaker AI'd climb that like a mountain or something.

MerlinShe's tall, man. Gwendolyn. So tall. I'd love to meet a Gwendolyn.

AlexOh, my gosh.

MerlinGod, she would ruin me. Can you imagine what she'd do to me? Just with her basic mass, she would destroy me.

AlexThat's the thing. It's like I'm not a tall person, but I would be like, yeah, step on me.

MerlinYou're sturdy.

AlexI am. That's why.

MerlinYou have a good center of gravity and you could probably tolerate. Yeah, we're bringing a medical expert to talk about it. We're Brianne's feet off the ground when her knees are on you. Not going great for the defense. God, I love that show. I love that show so fucking much.

AlexI liked the ending. I didn't love the ending, but I really liked the ending.

MerlinI just, you know what? I was so slightly soured on parts of the last season because, you know, I went in loaded for bear. because it's just one of those shows where I just started dipping back in for the dumbest reason. God, we're deep in the stack. I went into HBO Max, which is a terrible, terrible app. And it's just all like, you know, do you want to start watching Suits? Or not Suits. Do you want to start watching Arliss again or whatever? It's like, no. Where's the stuff? And then I saw, hey, it's the 10th anniversary of Game of Thrones. Here's some good episodes.

And I think a lot of them are good episodes.

AlexOh, incredible.

MerlinSo as with, say, Parks and Rec, season four, baby.

AlexBut season one is really good, too.

Speaker ASeason one is good.

AlexI did indeed kind of like Game of Thrones before it was cool because the first season is totally cheesy. The wigs are terrible. It's not cheesy so much in story, but like, oof.

MerlinThey talk about it. The dudes talk about like how the budget, like the famous second to the last episode where a terrible thing happens.

AlexYeah.

MerlinYou can go, did you watch that? You see the CG for what they did to try and make it look like anything. You had like no money.

AlexYeah, yeah.

MerlinWhat about a greet? Would you let a greet? I would let a greet do. I would let her shoot me with an arrow in any part of my body she wanted.

AlexOh, I mean, I don't know. That's the thing. I don't know if I would get a choice in this matter.

MerlinWhat about a Tormund? Would you lay with a Tormund?

AlexNo, no. Aren't they? Wait. Yeah. No, no, no, no. Ramsey, though.

MerlinHe's in love with the tall woman. Ramsey Bolton, man.

AlexI think I could fix him, Merlin. I just think he needs a kind and caring they.

Speaker AOh, my God. Do you feel it?

AlexI think I could fix him.

MerlinHe starts out as Ramsey Snow. He's not, you know, I don't want to use the B word, but you got to carry that around with you. You know what I'm saying?

AlexYep, yep, yep.

MerlinPeople just don't flay like they used to.

You know what? Can we talk about who's hot on Game of Thrones? What's your name? Misandra?

AlexOh, she's the witch lady.

MerlinOh, sorry. I'm sorry. I'm probably getting the wrong. Melisandre is the scarlet witch lady.

AlexYes.

MerlinThe translator lady? And you remember when Grey Worm sneaks a peek while she's bathing?

AlexWait, that's... Yeah, that's... All right, hold on.

MerlinNo, no, this is the black lady. I'm not going to say African-American because she's not from Africa.

Alexand she's not american what am i i'm thinking of melisandra melisandra's the one and she burns the little girl with the with the wood horse yeah but she's the she's the one who's like everlasting and then when she takes off her necklace you see she she gets all she's like

Merlinthe shining lady and all wrinkly i'm talking about daenerys slave translator who eventually

Alexgets with gray yes miss sunday is dan not danny i they call yes i see what you're oh fuck she's

Merlinis she also australian there's a scene where she's everybody's taking a bath and she sees gray worms sticking sticking out of the water like a crocodile and you know he's you know what did she say did they take the pillar or just the stones and she says i don't know but i think that pillar is still operational because a minute later when he comes to apologize yeah he's got he's got some serious lumber down in the on-deck circle i know i was so oh god did you notice that

Alexi did well that's why i'm like wait did they intend for like it feels like benioff and weiss do indeed care very much about details to the chagrin of many people uh like certain details where other ones they just throw out the window and so i'm like huh i'm gonna close this because

Merlinnow the phrase Daenerys slave breasts is in my Google image.

Speaker ANo, I hate it.

MerlinWell, it's bad. There's a lot of deviant art. I'm going to close that tab. The art is very deviant. Tell me about your mixed emotions about your jab, as they say. Do you know which one you're getting? Are you getting one of the

Alextwofers? Yeah, yeah. See, I say Moderna because that's like the cream I've used, but it's Moderna.

MerlinModerna

AlexModerna yeah yeah

MerlinModerna

AlexMurdered

Merlinwhat's that one famous for? I got the J&J one so I'm probably gonna clot what's the Moderna famous for?

Alexoh oh oh dear

Merlinno I'm not clotting I feel fucking great man strong like bull Saturday's my two week mark

Alexoh gosh oh that's so see I told initially it was next week that I had my appointment and I'm like Merlin I thought I wouldn't be excited to

Merlindo you remember what I said?

Alexcongratulations

MerlinNo, I said, no, we can't reschedule. This is your work.

AlexOh, right, right. Sorry. Yeah. Yeah. He's like, well, what are you doing? People give us money for this show. How dare you? How dare you want only 53 minutes?

MerlinWait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, pump the brakes, Moderna. What? Moderna of Tarth. What? Okay. That might work. That's really a gentleman's B, but we'll write it down. Moderna of Tarth. Alexandra, I don't know what you're talking about. How do people give us money?

AlexOh, well, well, you could, you could, you read professionally. You need to go to giveusyourfuckingmoney.com and that will take you to your Patreon page. Your Patreon. No, it's mine. It's mine. Well, it's ours. I apologize. Oh, boy. This is going great.

MerlinI am in your base killing all your patrons.

Alexand there you can subscribe for five dollars if you want to hear the after show and ten dollars if you pretend if you want both the after show and potentially a little treat or dumb thing that i

Merlindecide to do with merlin's permission yep we'll also uh we'll do a little little bit of hand stuff but not a lot i'm an introvert 37 minutes and 58 seconds left oh my god really oh what's your uh what's your uh what's your what's your what's your feeling what was the part that you

Alexyou're thinking about oh i i'm just excited to see my family oh i thought you said you had mixed feelings oh in in that i'm uh it feels weird because i don't need or want to be out that's

Merlinmy thing i cannot shake the feeling that i'd somehow jumped the line yep i actually voideered my my wife about this in detail i said look you work for a medical school which i mean just in itself is handy because that means she sits in endless fucking meetings hearing about a lot of this stuff even though it's not directly germane there's like more general sorts of meetings where she'll hear what the docs really think about this and what they really think about that you know actually the school thing's probably cool we can probably be doing the school thing all this stuff

from actual doctors and epidemiologists because that's what she does um but so that's really great but then she's like like i and the entire pretty much almost the entire rectus that comes out on the day that this comes out or thereabouts is about vaccine. John trying to get a vaccine, my experience of trying and then getting the vaccine. Like what a, you know, kind of an uneven shit show this is in so many ways. You know, she goes, okay, it's Friday night. She goes, I just heard from my friend that some spots for J&J opened up at the Oakland Coliseum.

I'm sorry, apparently I have a blood clot.

AlexYou sure? All right, J&J, easy there, easy there. I don't want to go trending on Twitter please I don't want to be a Twitter story

Merlinand I was like yeah whatever and then she'll hear in that episode or the listener will hear like I've been doing everything I've been going to my turn I've been going to all the sites I go to the things you fill out a form you fill another fucking form and it's all such horseshit John is actually literally editing the dom well that sounds bad he's like changing stuff in the web browser to like try and get an appointment and he's like of course he's jealous because he's basically a very envious person. But, um, Sir Kusa, but, um, I felt the same way. I said, look, I need to know from you. I said, I don't want to jump the line.

And if this represents any kind of insider information that a normal person wouldn't have, I'm not comfortable doing this. And she's, I think she said something like, are you fucking kidding me? And I said, well, I just, I don't want, I feel bad. I mean, I, every anecdote I hear about somebody faking something to get this for selfish reasons makes me a little sick because as I said to Syracuse and I'm not trying to like white knight this but like this is not for me I'm fine man I'll stay inside forever I just don't want to make other people sick and the more of us

that are incapable of making other people sick will necessarily mean that we won't get sick yeah yeah I mean it's it's sort of like you know one of those accessibility helps everybody kind

Alexof things yeah exactly that's how i mean i i had to kill an old lady or what how'd you get in exactly uh oh no i i took all the patreon money and was like dear walgreens hello i'm a i'm an

Speaker Aobese i'm an obese person with a limb disorder who's also a first responding waitress honestly let me in my name is delilah and i'm very worried about getting sick oh now i have diabetes let me in line let me in line make room for delilah

Merlinso you're gonna do it you're gonna do it it's exciting did you set aside time tomorrow to like

Alexnot feel that good uh no but i was like here's uh here's the here's the here's the thing bro uh i was told that it's like it's it's bad but it's not as bad as the second time around and yeah i think that's right i think we're not it's not that we are experiencing a mass hysteria but we're all experiencing similar symptoms to the same thing at once unlike like more people than who got COVID. So now we are all talking about the same thing.

It's like we're all getting the flu at once, you know? And I-

MerlinThe weird part is it's the, those, I'm not a scientist, but it's my understanding that like in my case, I didn't even have technically a fever. I did have a high, you know, body temperature, but it wasn't over, I think it was only over a hundred for just a little bit, but I was very achy. So, but basically I was achy in the next morning. I had a fever in the morning and afternoon. And then, like I say, I watched the WeWork documentary twice in a day that day, so I could have been too bad. But it is said that those symptoms, those side effects, that feeling like you've got something is the sign that – a sign that it's doing something.

It's making – you know what I mean? It's doing its job to make you a little sick like any sort of inoculation would.

AlexI yeah. And I realized how few people actually get flu shots because every year I am various degrees of miserable after my really depending on well. Well, it depends on the flu vaccine that year.

MerlinThe annual the annual mix. Yeah, right. Yeah.

AlexSo I am just like, oh, this could make me feel terrible or or nothing at all. So, yeah, yeah, I never that never really crossed my mind.

MerlinI would, if you can, if you can. Wait, no, where's Matchy figuring this?

AlexThe, oh, well, he does not have an appointment until we made, we got in appointments for next week together. But I opened the Walgreens app and it was like free appointment or, you know, open appointments. Anybody eligible? And I was like, what? And I.

MerlinWell, if you, I'm going to give you a piece of unsolicited advice that you consider pivoting from Delilah to Martha. because the story, you hear a lot of stories about just unbidden them saying, oh, hey, we had some cancellations and so we have some extras due. You both want it. You might want to just say, hey, just FWIW, can we get two jabs? Please and thank you. You might ask.

AlexThat's the plan. Yep. And I know a lot of people show up at Walgreens, CVS, and sites at the end of the day, and I don't know anybody.

MerlinIt's so goddamn random.

AlexYeah. Like, I mean, I'm sure people are being turned away, but I don't know anybody. Like, I don't know. I don't know.

MerlinI don't know. I don't know.

AlexSo it's, but like my rational brain knows how this is not, like how vaccine works. like everybody that can get it needs to like that is dow anybody i don't care me personally i don't

Merlinfeel it's mortal scene are you worried about like are you worried about like like interactions with

Alexyour other medicinals medical no wait are you worried about your brain millennial oh yes i'm no no not millennials they can't have a house uh yeah like my other meds and stuff uh yeah but But again, it's the same thing with the flu vaccine every year. And I, you know, most people have not had a vaccine since they were children or like babies. Because the only reason I remember getting the HPV vaccine is because it was when I was, it came out when I was a bit older.

So I was 12.

MerlinThey were doing that when you were, wow, interesting.

AlexYeah.

MerlinWasn't that very, I think it's still pretty controversial, right?

AlexYeah.

Merlinand my mom to her credit it's like along the lines of handing out condoms where you're like well this

Alexis going to make you go bone down but now it's also kind of bundled with everything else like i when i got it when i was 12 i had you know already had all of my vaccines and i'm like mom i'm not i'm i'm in middle school and also probably gay i'm not like this is i'm good and she was like no no no it's don't let's just do it as long as you're using like thoroughly thoroughly clean toys

Merlinand stuff. Sharpen the scissors, as they say. Yeah.

Okay, 29 minutes, 41 seconds.

Alex29 minutes. Anyway, I hope...

MerlinDo we go straight to the challenge, or do we talk about... No, sorry, go.

AlexWell, I hope that everybody...

MerlinI'm all keyed up, because we don't usually have a time limit. and now I'm all keyed up.

AlexI know, I know. I'm, oh gosh. And we've had, last week we were pretty good about keeping things in check. We can't talk about my big black box.

MerlinWe finally broke our streak of three hours of released content. Yes. It is basically, Dubai Friday has become the better part of a day for me.

AlexOh God, I'm so, oh, that's brutal. Well, and that's the thing is I, after, because I have,

Speaker Athis maybe is time theft

Alexwhat I'm doing, but really then I'm working late. And so really, I have like due by Friday days, which are kind of nice. And but but but then they're not nice when I'm like, oh, boy, Merlin really has taken six hours.

MerlinOh, this is. But like, I mean, as John Gruber likes to say, you can't get black lung from this stuff, you know? Well, talking to my friend Alex, not so good. Excuse me, Moderna of Tarth, I meant to say. OK, Matt Gaetz. You know, man, I just keep thinking. I said to my lady, I want to say last night I was like – because as I've stipulated here, I don't follow things the way that, say, you follow things. But, of course, I'm all over this like white on rice. I cannot wait to just see this continue to develop.

And I was just like – last night I was like a junkie, like scratching at my arm and being like, is there any news? Is there any news?

AlexWhat's going to happen? What's going to –

MerlinI know. But I'm like, it just keeps the check line.

AlexThe deal might happen. Previously on Dubai Friday, we talked about how Matt Gaetz's buddy, who is a tax collector in Florida, is now imprisoned and is thinking about making a deal with Department of Justice or is it just the Florida officials?

MerlinWell, according to my journalism girlfriend, Katie Benner, who rules, Katie Benner's icon is her with a little Pokemon hat on. She's having fun with it. She's adorable. I mean, no, she's also very competent, but she's adorable. Like when she's on MSNBC, she wore this blouse with a collar that looked like fingers pulling a bow tie. It was so cute. It's like she's having fun with it. She's at the New York Times. She covers justice. The latest thing – well, second latest thing I believe was yes. We heard that the Seminole County tax man had been talking to DOJ because he's got over 30 felonies coming in his book.

Oh, gosh. There's, I mean, that we know of. There's like a lot going on with that. Some of that stuff has been announced. And the story goes, a couple of the things that came out and jump in here was that he probably has been at least talking. That basically he's been, he's been like, not working with, but like he's been kind of groomed by DOJ since like December. We also know that, was it Gates' iPhone that got? Yeah, I think it was Matt Gaetz's iPhone got collected.

AlexOh, I didn't know that. I thought they –

MerlinI think so.

AlexWell, you're following closer than I, and I just know about the Venmo payments.

MerlinYeah, that was a generation ago at this point.

AlexSee, that's the thing. I can't even imagine what's going to happen next week. I've never been closer to actually – what is it? Quote, investing in –

MerlinOh, yeah, in the market?

Alexyeah yeah exactly i was like should i ride this wave new details is politico yesterday new details

Merlinshed light on gates's bahamas trip federal agents executed a search warrant and seized the florida

Alexcongressman's iphone last winter oh wait oh what because the thing is this is sort of like that

Merlinwait is last winter 2021 or 2020 i think 2020 that's when they were like charging the dude but like the pieces that are and forgive me you guys i don't usually traffic in this kind of bullshit but the pieces if you just look at these it's like you've got the pieces all on the table you're making the statue of liberty out of puzzle pieces and there's like some parts where you're like oh that's pretty wild so you get to like there's the paying of people are they are they of age let's set that aside for a minute but it's pretty clear either way he paid someone

Alexor something.

MerlinWell, they've been going to websites for sugar daddies. They never say this. They'll say sugar daddies, but they never say sugar babies. When, in fact, that is the nomenclature on that bone-down-connection.biz or whatever.

Speaker AYeah.

MerlinYep, yep, yep. There's the IDs thing, which seems really random. You think, oh, this is that guy who likes wearing a badge and a gun, so he's probably making he says he's deputy dog or whatever. But then it's like, wait a minute. is there any chance that those ids were created to tell make is a fake id for somebody who's not the age they appear to be so that they can do stuff like when they went to the bahamas gates flew wait let me get this right some of the dude no gates was not in on this this is a greenberg

Alexthing when they flew to the bahamas the dudes and greenberg is a florida gun bitcoin tax yes

Merlinfire, unintentional Bitcoin fire.

AlexOh, you just can't describe him with one thing. All right.

MerlinHe flew commercial, but the gals flew private.

AlexThat was such a sad sentence when I read that. Matt Gaetz flew commercial. And I'm like, is that?

MerlinYeah, one of the, I don't know if it was Gaetz. This might be the one where Gaetz wasn't involved, but the hand surgeon, I think the hand surgeon and the state rep were involved in the Bahamas trip. They flew commercial, but the girls flew private.

AlexThat's so bad.

MerlinWhere one imagines there might be a little less scrutiny if you had a driver's license.

AlexUh-huh. Like, there's so many reasons. Like, oh, God. Whether or not it's... I'm sure I'm not the first person. I must have heard this from somebody. Like, but why isn't Cube all over this? Like, the age? 17? 17? Like, what?

Merlinthat's their special number that's their trigger it's just based on a few of the like the broad kind of universe of apparent facts or evidence it's like it's not that different from jeffrey

Alexepstein it's not which is why i think i'm glued it's just that the tax man is his gilane yeah

I try not to delight in the downfall of evil people because I just want there to be less evil in the world.

MerlinKerr Vonnegut says you should never celebrate, you know, never celebrate the death of your enemies.

AlexOh, I just try to be kind, babies. I know that it's I know I'm wrong. Don't tweet me. But I just – he is – no one is coming forward to defend this guy.

MerlinHe is by all accounts. And you know when people say this in this particular way, they're like, the problem is that Mr. Gates is – and Ashley Parker said this last night with something – I just think she's so cool. And Ashley Parker's like, the problem is that a lot of people we talk to think that Representative Gates is a jerk. But they used a more explicit word than that.

AlexYeah.

MerlinYou can hear all these people going, well, just on background, the guy's an asshole.

AlexYeah.

MerlinNobody likes him.

AlexOh, and that's the thing is like, I'm like, all right. either he is truly the asshole that i assumed well i mean i've i've what i have done is watch a lot of past clips that i've seen of him on you know fox and um that further right channel and it's like yeah no he's as much as a scumbag as i remember this isn't like a confirmation bias i

Merlinthink but he's you know he's slick he's slick in his way and he provokes people in the right way

Alexhe's Republican Colin Jost it's very funny how weird like I was gonna say

MerlinI think he's not Kendall exactly he's a little bit Kendall

AlexKendall? Kendall? Oh from Succession I've never seen Succession

MerlinKendall 21 minutes

Alexokay Kendall oh no that's like Stephen Miller with hair or wait no oh I love that actor I love him yeah Kendall Roy TikTok challenge?

MerlinTikTok challenge. The challenge this week was, I think, it doesn't matter who's.

AlexIt was to watch and be prepared to discuss. It was mine. That wasn't. Sorry. Continue. Continue.

MerlinChallenge. 25 seconds. Three, two, one. Okay. Three, two. Sibilance. Sibilance. Red leather, yellow leather. La la la la la la.

Speaker ALa la la la la. La la la la la.

MerlinLa la la la la. La la la la la. Challenge this week is. challenges

Alexpreviously on Dubai Friday we decided that this week's challenge would be to watch the WeWork documentary which is on Hulu I don't know why I said it like Hulu

MerlinHulu Hulu was to watch and it's called WeWork or the making and breaking of a $47 billion uniform

Alexand I was led to believe that this was a very interesting and compelling documentary and I believe I was lied to because I felt like I learned very little about what actually went down at WeWork that we didn't previously know.

MerlinIt's kind of more about the dude in a lot of ways.

AlexBut that's the thing is like, okay, why aren't they talking about the third dude? Is this like a Fyre Fest thing where the one Fyre Fest was like basically paid for by the people who made it?

MerlinThe chronological founders, the factual founders are Adam and I want to say Miguel.

AlexYeah, I think so. Which is the I think I was a little bit not racist, but Americanist because I was like, oh, Miguel is that's right. Miguel's the American one. And the other guy is Jewish. He's from Israel. Yeah. And sorry, go on. He's disappeared. He's John Ralphio. Yep. And his sister is Mona Lisa. He has a model sister. And once you see once, at least in my case, once I started thinking about John Ralphio, I couldn't unsee it because he basically created.

the office rental version of entertainment 720 oh no see i i i disagree he is he is like the love child of elon musk and tommy bousso like that first shot of him with that hair i'm like oh i know where this is going yeah i'll allow it because that's the thing even 720 was probably less obnoxious to be in than a we work i i've never worked like but like they got a vip room that they can't even go in yeah yeah i'm like wait oh god but i just want to know what happened

to that guy basketball players handing out shrimp cocktails kombucha on tap oh gosh they got the

Merlinlike the money machine you can go inside with the money flying around um so so uh just what how do you give the log line on this we work as a company that came along and uh achieved a fair amount of cachet even initially as being this co-working space that was more than that and the word on the street anyway was hey if you're in new york and you need a desk check out we work it's really cool and like the it's like very much into this idea of community first like you know you get a desk or you get an office but it really to quote that one guy i like from i forget which paper you

know ultimately they were renting desks it's they were a real estate company who was adamantly saying that it's not a real estate company. And pretty much any time somebody would very lightly challenge Adam Neumann about any of this, he would say something like, you know, we're here to elevate human consciousness. That's the goal. But when will you do an IPO? Well, we'll do an IPO when I think, at this point he's very sweaty and he has big rings under his eyes because they're just bleeding money. But he always said all along, it's about human consciousness. So it went from being this like hipster value add office sub-lessor because they were just leasing other people's stuff.

They were subletting and subdividing.

AlexNo, it wasn't a lease. It was a membership, Merlin.

MerlinOh, sorry, my bad. God damn it. I have so many corrections for this one already. But then fast forward even just a little bit, they were getting like a ton of funding and weren't even like talking about how much funding they were getting because they wanted more funding. They did become, as they say, a unicorn, which just means however your bullshit arithmetic works, you're worth a billion dollars on paper. But then it went from – and I remember watching this with Emma. I was like we haven't even gotten to the crazy part yet because like then SoftBank comes along.

And SoftBank has so much money that needs to find a home and they don't want to miss out. They don't want to be – they don't want to miss the next Uber or whatever, right?

AlexYeah. And this this guy, what I didn't realize was SoftBank, like the whole purpose of that. Oh, what's his name? Like he wanted to invest.

Speaker AMom.

AlexYes, yes, I think so. He he wanted to invest in AI and tech specifically.

MerlinRight, right. But he also he wants he wants a moonshot. Probably the single worst piece of advice you could give to Adam Neumann is when the guy from the giant SoftBank fund says, who wins a fight? What did they say? That's a really great analogy. Who wins a fight, the smart one or the crazy one? And Adam Newman says the crazy one. He says, well, your problem is you're not crazy enough. He basically said this, people said this to us, my company, our company in the dot-com boom, you're not spending money fast enough. You can't get a second round until you spend your first round. So start throwing parties downtown and

giving away oven mitts. Yes. Yes. For our realestate.com, we had oven mitts. Because that we said that while you are you're never gonna blow through that 37 million fast enough

Alexunless you start doing some banana shit and so he did yeah i the more i thought about it and i'm like ah i don't know why i'm surprised by this documentary well one i'm not just technically in this tech world but like on the out like i don't i don't know people have referred to cards against humanity as a startup like i mean not really but all right but it's but i mean it's the same the

Merlinsame weird thing i mean again i'm sorry to be such a fucking old man but like the one of the lessons we we should have learned as civilians even though people who knew better knew better was that a lot of the dot-com companies were not a technology company so like today it's very fashionable to say that something like instacart or lyft or whatever is a technology company because they We'll get to this in a minute with WIO. WIO. WIO. They have the operating system for groceries, right? But the – no, but think about Peapod.

Think about Pets.com. Think about Cosmo. Those were all – I mean depending on how you look at it, those were shipping fulfillment and essentially trucking companies.

AlexYeah. Yeah.

MerlinThey weren't about the website and that's why most of them fell apart is that like how do you – without having a relationship with Safeway or whatever, how do we have a truck full of milk just sitting in different neighborhoods like yeah it's insane

Alexi mean the thing i i i actually should ask my spouse who is not in like entrenched in all of he wasn't reading uh what was it uh valley valley wag when it was like and being like wow this wasn't reading town tech silicon uh like what god it was like a fucking tabloid it was so gross but i eventually i'm like is this this is kind of shot and it's a startup for turning envy into

life destruction oh it's oh it's horror it's all of it's just so no it's yeah i'm like oh yeah yeah it ruined ruined people's lives oh by the way i've forgiven none of you just people i knew who worked there i've forgiven none of you the i'm like shuddering at just

Merlinthinking about they basically pointed like they basically pointed red laser beams at people i

Alexknew and just said go stalk this person there yeah it was the first like it was one of the first like oh oh cancel this person but not like oh god looking back i feel gross but it was like

Speaker Ayou know it's that nick guys thing though because it's just like so fucking english tabloid it's

Merlinit's all just english tabloid scorched earth destruction did you see the article about perez hilton and the other lady and how they're trying to like rehabilitate the terrible gossip Mean gossip people are now trying to rehabilitate themselves. I'll find it for notes.

But so this documentary, it wants to tell this story. I do still, I mean, I watched it because I was a little bit obsessed with it. And I think I sent you the article from The Verge that I think is, if you're going to read one thing about this, The Verge article. Did you get a chance to look at that? Pretty good, right? Yeah.

AlexWell, and I thought this was new. And I read about WeWork before. It was cool. So I'm like, oh, yeah.

MerlinYeah, that was 2000. That was like, I think, not August, but 2019.

AlexYeah. And because I like and also like, you know, then this downfall started with the I'm OK. I'm sorry. This movie is shot for like the male tech gaze, which is when and that's not a bad thing necessarily. But when they like have this cut or this like they have that voiceover. well when you tell a man in his 30s he's jesus he's gonna believe you and i'm like well duh and i'm like oh right but that's not necessarily what some people realize i love the thing toward

Merlinthe end where he's got to do the video for the road show because and we did actually end up watching the 30 rock episode called jack tour do you remember the one where jack has done the commercial and you discover how bad he is yes he's like can i can i get two coffee cups oh my god What do I do with my arms? That's what it reminded me of. He's like, I would take the 20-foot wave over this because I control the 20-foot wave. And it's like, dude, are you okay?

AlexYeah, yeah.

MerlinAnd also just the accounts of like every time you hang out with the guy, he gets some drinks in him and has more like bold ideas.

AlexThere's a part where I think it was the New Yorker journalist went to – I'm not sure.

MerlinHe went to visit the woman with the mask at the end or the –

AlexOh, God. That was the other thing.

MerlinOh, the guy with the haircut.

AlexAt the ending shot, spoilers. They're like, this is now COVID time. And everybody puts their masks on.

MerlinThese are the people spreading COVID. I'm like, yeah. But no, like the cute assistant with the chin. Like, she's obviously, like, this has been really hard for me. It's like, this is what Roderick and I were talking about with people who don't have a platform for their personal performance. I do. I'm doing it right now.

Speaker AThank you.

MerlinYes. But like, there are people who like, if you don't get to go to a bar and yell, you just don't feel alive. If you don't get to like – and the way that they would like hustle people into common areas to show how the community was working, like ugh. It's also gross when they give their tours.

AlexWell, and Adam was like, oh, I want a latte. And the other guy says, I'd like a cappuccino.

MerlinOh, my God. Yeah, tell that story. Tell the story.

AlexSo the reporter was going to publish a big bad piece about WeWork and Adam's like, no, no, no. Let me just show you what we're doing. And he's giving this reporter a guide through the office and they stop at their, you know, of course, fancy coffee bar.

MerlinCheck it out. We've even got a barista now.

AlexAnd the barista. And so the reporter, I think, orders a cappuccino. Adam orders a latte. And the barista then gives Adam the cappuccino and the other guy a latte. And the journalist is like, hey, I oh, this is our we switched them off. that's my cappuccino dude yeah and he's like no it's not and and it's like yeah that is what you

Merlindo with people who the barista apologizes yeah and it becomes clear that as one inside the company this who knows how exaggerated this is but it's certainly something we've experienced we've all experienced before the reality distortion field of somebody has anybody had a boss before i'm like why is this surprising right now we just refer to lattes as cappuccinos and vice versa because no one wants to tell adam he's calling it the wrong thing yeah and and i'm and like you said

Alexi'm sure it was like exaggerated at some point and then he got he got like really flustered apparently yeah like that seems a little bit like i'm sure it was like exaggerated a bit but it's like yes this is why these companies you you bend i don't want to say bend to the the will but you just work around the will of somebody. Like, if it's impossible...

MerlinBut it's also that, like, you have to... I mean, God, this is not a very cool thing to say, but it's true. In life, you really have to pick your fights. I know there's a lot of folks who disagree, but, like, you know, you're not going to be effective at stuff you care about if you try to care about everything. And there are times where, for example, you know, and you hear this with corporate speak, you know, all the different kinds of, you know, the au courant, is this project going to be needle moving and you're like that's not a thing what are you saying needle moving that's not a thing or in this case let's say you've got a boss who just loves the frog and

boiling water analogy and is used so often and so well just as an example and he uses it so often and so much that like it might as well be science to that man and it is a man at that point so if who wants to be the person who pops up and goes just so you know that's that's not really true frogs will not stay in water as it boils that it would be it would be so frustrating and as a man i know i want people to hear what i'm saying not what what i'm saying and that's this is my powerful

Alexmetaphor how dare you rob me of this right right like it's it's good to be the scorpion and and the is it a frog i don't know i've got the frog yeah i've tried to get that parable or whatever the fuck it is out of my brain because nobody no man has ever used that correctly when explaining

Merlinit to me i think is that right it no wait is the scorpion in boiling water i'm a little confused

Alexuh the scorp no no they just can't help it because there are scorpions they can't help themselves

Merlinhe says the aristocrats oh god what do you expect this is how i am i think what do you expect

AlexI think I can fix them.

MerlinAnd he says, how are you a talking scorpion? And the scorpion says, well, how are you a talking frog? And they said, maybe it's really the animal companions we made along the way.

AlexExactly.

MerlinAnd then there's the S1, which I've included in notes. And the S1 is apparently something that you have to file when you're about to, I guess, go public. Including stuff like, you know, it's really it reads like a timeshare brochure mostly.

AlexYeah.

MerlinAs they mentioned, as the one dude mentioned, Adam is named by name over 150 times in this document, which is very unusual. This is also where we're learning more about his weirdly robotic wife. Boy, she's strange.

AlexThey're the Van Houtens. They look too similar. Didn't it freak you out a little? I'm like, ooh.

MerlinI'm trying to find a good human education for my offspring. I mean, baby. Ha, ha, ha. We baby will be. initiative growth.

And now she counts as a founder. She's the only one who's allowed to name a successor to him. He's getting six million dollars to license his trademark on the word we.

That's a hell of a document.

AlexYeah, I haven't ever read the whole thing.

MerlinNo, it's like 300 pages.

AlexYeah, but the charts that go into that thing.

MerlinOh, there's a lot of technology. And I love how they're written like what's called UML. They're written almost like explaining a database cluster or a CDN. Except it's about, you know what's huge though, Alex? Five minutes, 38 seconds. What's huge is what we call WIOS, which is the operating system for physical spaces.

AlexOh, my God. Oh, what's WeOS, Merlin?

MerlinHuh?

AlexWould you like to explain quickly what WeOS is and what actually happened to it?

MerlinWell, it's about elevating human consciousness and community.

AlexShalom. It's the social network that everybody who's part of WeWork can use.

MerlinWell, OK. So I had a real whiplash. I had a whiplash with this because, first of all, I hear fucking Adam Neumann. And I want to say Neumann like the mic. But Adam Neumann says something like, oh, we have WOS, which is the operating system for physical spaces. And you're like, but then you understand on the second level of that is, oh, he's talking about shit like like pretty mundane shit, like probably HVAC. Right. He's talking about probably checking in, check out stuff, reserve a conference room, all the kind of stuff that you would usually get from a third party stuff. I think that's what he meant.

But then you're like, hmm. He starts showing the demo of how they use cameras to record how people interact in the space. And that's going to have something something impact on future decisions. But then in the actual S1, it's kind of even – well, let me read you this. Let me read you this. I discovered this this morning. I just took a flyer. and there's still a lot of pretty fucking wild stuff about we work out there that has not been

Alexthey're still in business like i know i know well they pivoted it's wild oh yeah that's true this is

Merlinan ad this is a job ad from i don't see the date unfortunately looking for a full stack engineer to work on we os um so i guess just a little bit of the quick about we work section uh platform for creators providing more than 10, more, God, you've got to stop writing like this. Providing more than tens of thousands of members around the world with space community and services that enable them to do what they love and create their life's work. Isn't that nice? They believe deeply in the power of we

and in the movement. So if you're a full stack developer, this is all going to be really useful. About the role as a full stack developer for weOS. And if you're keeping track, that is the operating system for physical spaces.

Speaker AFor this role,

Merlinwe're looking for a full stack engineer who is compelled to work on a team and a product that combines physical space, hardware, and software to reinvent the way we think about where we live. We aspire to find someone capable of working with existing microservices, adhere to best practices, come up with elegant software solutions that is both maintainable and scalable. You know what? We're also hiring for an editor. You will be responsible building amazing software experiences

in our member app, along with any other interfaces that make sense for our spaces. So, got to know some Ruby. You write dry code. I got to get that code dry.

AlexAnd also you need to be a community manager and, you know, all the normal.

MerlinYou know when to apply duct tape and when to rebuild.

AlexIt's very elegant. You need to be a very elegant person.

MerlinYou should be. You know, the thing is, now you're part of the OS. God, such a... You get the cult vibe. You got a cult vibe, right? Not just me.

AlexWait, what? What?

MerlinCult vibe. It feels like a cult. You get in there.

AlexOh, yes. Absolutely. Oh, totally. I mean, a lot of...

MerlinThose weird events where the poor designer man had to sit in the mud?

AlexMm-hmm. Yeah. We're a family. I loved him.

MerlinBut like it really, really hit me. It keeps hitting me and they walk right up to the edge of a cult. And then, but like I think the one that got me is when they started talking about their weekends or their retreats or whatever, where you have to like sit on the ground and listen into eight hours of them talking about we work that sounds a lot like jonestown yeah it wasn't

Alexclear to me either that was the other thing is how many people worked there and i'm like oh oh wait this is just the people who work or sorry work for we work not at like a we work location

Merlinright and like the dude with the tattoo on his left arm the dude who said shut the fuck up I feel bad for that guy. He lives there. He works there and he kind of works for the people working. It's like a pyramid scheme. It's so weird. One minute and 26 seconds.

AlexFun, fun, fun. I don't know.

MerlinOh, but then you get to the end of the big payout. Holy shit. And the lawyer is not holding back.

AlexI loved him.

MerlinI loved him too. He seems like a guy you'd want to hang out with.

AlexYeah, because he's the one to be like, let's stop sitting in the mud.

MerlinRight. I love the gay designer, man. I like the lawyer, man. I liked a lot of them, 58 seconds. Alex, we must never do this again.

AlexNo, no. We're making it worse as it goes along.

MerlinShould we try and end early?

AlexOh, do you have a zinger? I think people are expecting a bell.

MerlinOh, shit, a zinger. Okay. Fuck, let's see. Let me go back through my notes.

AlexOh, God, and we forgot about the lady who, like, hacked into the email.

MerlinOh, my God. Yes. She's the one. She spoke the truth. I like that lady. You know, she has no fucks to give.

AlexNo, no.

MerlinAnd that's why she's doing an offshoot called We Fuck.

AlexYeah. The rest of cats.

MerlinWe fuck, you fuck.

AlexOh, we. Oh.

MerlinFucko, fuck off, fuck us, fuckamos, fuck on.

AlexIt's fuckies.

MerlinFuckies, the collective you. Hey, After Show!

AlexAfter Show!

MerlinWait a minute, AlexanderVexy6. 5, 4, 3, 2...

AlexAfter Show! I don't know what we're doing! This is a bit... After Show, welcome everybody.

MerlinIt said your Alexander vaccine timer is done. Do you want to split this one off? Or should we just keep going?

AlexNo, no, no. That's the end of the show. This is the After Show.

MerlinI know, I know, I know.

AlexAlexa, stop. Alexa, go home.

MerlinShould we pinch one off or just keep going with the same recording?

AlexYes. I want to pee. That's what I was going to say. Don't talk. Don't trigger a poop in me. Oh, no.

MerlinOh, boy. Okay. Now that's the end of the show. I'll see you in five minutes. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you.

Thank you.

236. A Kind and Caring They

Show notes

Transcript

236. A Kind and Caring They

Show notes

Transcript

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