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Hello, ladies. Hello, divas. Hi. Happy November. We made it. I'm Sam Sanders. I'm Zach Stafford. I'm Saeed Jones, and you're listening to Vibe Check.

This week, we're going to be diving into the recent attack on the Pelosi household and the ongoing rise of political violence, not just in the U.S., but globally. We're going to make an argument today that the Oscars are seeing the rise of women really taking over and becoming the best actors in the world, really. And that's because Cate Blanchett is here to save us all. I'm going to argue. Wow!

But before we get into all of that, how are we all doing today? I'm feeling my age. I tried to be out in these streets Halloween weekend, and I just got tired. I had so many plans, but I went to two parties on Friday night, and they just wore me out. The second one was this epic backyard extravaganza, probably like a thousand people there. And the gag was the bathrooms were like off-limits.

So everyone had to just pee outside. Oh, no. Why did they do that? Was that someone's home? Yes. It was like literally hundreds of gay men in crappy costumes. It was just massive energy. Just peeing in the bushes. And I had to go pee in the bushes several times. But by the end of the night, I realized that there was like mud. And I was like, oh, it didn't rain. And I was like, oh, the mud was...

And after that, I said, no, no, no other Halloween things for me. No other Halloween things for me. So I get home. I get home and my white titty shoes are just covered in the mud. They've been outside since Friday night. They will not come back in this house. Wow.

But that was enough Halloween for me. Yeah, no girl, that's enough Halloween for all of us. I went out three nights in a row because that's the thing. I forgot that if Halloween, the actual holiday falls on a Monday-

Then what happens is, at least here, people start actually going out Thursday night. It's a Halloween week. It's a Halloween week. By the time we got to yesterday, I was like, why are people still posting costumes? We've got to stop. So three nights in a row. Yeah, I'm tired, girls. And of course, I have an incredibly busy week. I have so much to do. Going out of town this weekend. You know, it's like, oh, I should have planned this better. So I did not go out.

Okay. All right. Okay. All right. Who could have foreseen that it would be Saeed and Sam that would be like, we were oars. We went out. We lived. He was walking through pee mud. Literally. PUD. Let's call it PUD. Ew. That's the acronym. Oh, God.

See, listen, I like last week wore me out because I flew to New York. I had like a bunch of things around a strange loop and other things. And I landed Friday night and I was like, I'm not leaving my house. I want to hide from everybody. And I really protected my energy. So I'm feeling really rested today. Oh, praise be. And I think I have tennis later. Praise be. It's going to be great. I'm so happy for you. Thank you. I'm really thriving. I'm thriving. Well, I'm glad that you all survived the holiday weekend because I don't know what I would do without you.

Before we move on, I just have to ask, were all three of us able to make it through the weekend without seeing any racist and or Jeffrey Dahmer Halloween costumes? I'm in the clear. I was impressed. I saw no Dahmers. I saw a bunch of Jamie Lee Curtis from Everything Ever All at Once with the hot dog fingers. Saw a lot of that. That's good.

That's fine. That's not like racist. I liked it. No, not at all. I just feel like, you know, being a black gay man, you're out on Halloween weekend minding your business and the next thing you know, you see someone dressed as like, you know, and it's like, whoa, this is not fun anymore. Okay. I did not, but on my flight back to LA, I sat somehow near all gay men. Like everyone, my flight attendant was gay. Everyone next to me was gay. Everyone was watching Dahmer besides me.

It was like a thing. Well, before we get into our first topic, we want to thank all of you who have sent us fan mail this week. I want to share one note from Tyler C. And she writes, Hey, girlies. I just wanted to reach out and say thank you and that I love Vibe Check and wish it were on daily. This podcast gives me life and laughter. I'm a black woman recently married, living in a very white city in Colorado. And having you all to listen to makes me feel as though I have a sense of sisterhood and community.

Also, I wanted you to know I make it a point to do at least two of the recommendations of the week. And already I feel my world expanding, sending you all my love and gratitude. I love that. Tyler, we love you. Stay strong out there in Colorado. Girl, listen, because that's a whole other kind of white. Yeah.

I've been there a couple of times. I will say the one redeeming quality about Colorado, or one of several, you could just be outside all the time. Get out in nature. It is really beautiful. That's all I can offer. I hope you're doing all right out there. Well, before we jump into our topics, I want to do mention some breaking news. Takeoff, a member of Migos was shot dead at the age of 28.

He was playing Dice in Houston with Quavo. They are part of the band Migos. But we just want to shout that out. It's really sad and I feel bad for the fans. I know personally when I've lost people like Nipsey Hussle, it's really hard when you have an artist pass away because you feel really connected to them. And I know Migos has a lot of fans. They make great music. So I just wanted to shout that out. Yeah. And I think it's really haunting where it feels like

our country's ongoing crisis with gun violence is absolutely intersecting with like celebrity and hip hop in particular. And yeah, you're right with, and I really, I feel like Nipsey Hussle, it was like the beginning of this era of the last few years where unfortunately it's like, if you love this music, you know, there's grief, you know, far too frequently. I mean, 28 years old. Yeah. Well, and I think about Nipsey, I think about Migos, um,

These were fun, charismatic, engaging, and incredibly talented, multifaceted young men. To think of Nipsey, he wasn't just a rapper. He was building business and community in South LA. And I remember seeing Migos in season one of Atlanta on FX. These are really fun guys who were doing more than just rapping. Yeah.

Yeah, it just hurts. It hurts. And they're in the culture. And I got to meet them once. I got to hang out with Takeoff once. We watched Post Malone perform. And I just thought it was the funniest thing to sit there with them and watch this white man with tattoos perform rap. So I will always cherish that memory with Takeoff. Yeah. All right, ladies, should we get into the show and talk about the rest of this burning dumpster fire of a war? Sure. Let's do it. Let's go. Let's do it. Let's go.

All right, so to kick things off, we want to talk about the recent attack on Nancy Pelosi's husband, Paul Pelosi, in San Francisco just a few days ago. So what we know is that an attacker named David DePapp entered the Pelosi home on October 28th. He was carrying zip ties, tape, and a rope. According to the criminal complaint filed in court, DePapp told local police that he intended to find the House Speaker and hold her hostage. As we know, Nancy Pelosi was not present at the time she was in D.C.,

DePapp has been charged with assault and attempted kidnapping. And CNN has reported that DePapp posted memes and conspiracy theories on Facebook about COVID vaccines, the 2020 election, and the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. So he was deeply involved in different conspiracy theories that have really been shaking this country for a while.

But bigger context, as we've seen this attack in a lot of news, we've seen the right really rush to contextualize the attack as part of a larger trend, they say, of crime rising in liberal cities like San Francisco and Chicago. I'm saying that progressive cities just have lots of crime and that he was just a guy just breaking and entering.

we know that not to be true. And sadly, the New York Times even this week fell for this type of ploy by conflating the attack with an alleged larger uptick in crime stats in the city, which do not correlate with a political assassination attempt. We have seen rising political attacks across the world recently from countries in Brazil, which just had an election the past week, Argentina and Japan just a few months ago with the former prime minister being shot. We're

Earlier this year in the Atlantic, in a piece about political violence rising, they wrote, the United States now faces a different kind of violence from people who believe in nothing or at least in nothing. Instead, all of us face random threats and unpredictable dangers from people among us who spend it.

too much time watching television and plunging down internet rabbit holes. Months after this article came out, the Department of Homeland Security said publicly for the first time that the United States is facing growing threats of quote violent domestic extremists emboldened by January 6 attacks, which we will come to find out more details soon. But we can assume that this attack on the Pelosi household was definitely related to that. I think what has been just as disheartening as the attack itself

is to see how news media has covered it. For days, I didn't hear journalists call this what it was. It was an assassination attempt. Someone tried to kill the most powerful woman in American politics, and they were going to go through her husband to do it.

It's an assassination attempt, and it is an outgrowth and a direct result of the escalation of political rhetoric over the last several years, an era almost ushered in by Donald Trump. And it didn't just stop there. We have seen GOP politicians crack jokes about this incident. We have seen commentators on Fox News almost be apologists for the attacker, and

It's really, really, really disheartening. And, you know, Zach, when you talk about political violence, not just in America, but all over the world, we're probably going to need to expect more in the run up to the midterms in just a few days. We have seen Republicans and those tied to Republicans sending out armed vigilantes at polling sites across the country just watching.

This is a disheartening and frightening season, and I think it's dangerous enough, but when journalists and the fourth estate don't call it what it is, it makes it even worse. And that's what I'm watching for the next few days and weeks. Does the news media speak truth to what's going on right now?

They really haven't yet. Yeah, there are two fronts of this that I find really concerning. And one is what you're alluding to. And I want to talk about the New York Times in particular, the fact that in one of their initial articles about this, they were focusing on and really kind of mythic ideas about crimes in San Francisco, rising crime over the last few years and how that might have correlated to the attack. And I just want to underscore that our country's paper of record

In its initial reporting on, as Sam pointed out, an attempted, I mean, a terrorist attack, a political assassination, terrorist attack, attempted kidnapping, however you want to frame it, of the most powerful woman in American politics. They start going, well, it happened in a rough neighborhood. And I'm like, no one said that on January 6th.

No one said that when we were discussing Charlottesville. It's like, well, you know, Charlottesville has been struggling with a lot of poverty and disenfranchisement. When the politician Scalise was shot at that D.C. base, no one was like, oh, you know, D.C. crimes. Like, it's so pointed out.

that even institutions that worship the God of objectivity, when push comes to shove, and it's like, this is about as black and white as it can get, suddenly, you know, and I don't even think it's like they fell into the trap. No, I think it's a bias and an agenda that we are seeing bear out. Yeah. Well, and you'll see politicians like AOC go to the data. Several of the safest counties in the country

are in New York City, right? This idea that big cities, black and brown cities, are more dangerous than small-town America, it's not actually true. There are pockets of the Midwest that are more violent than parts of New York City. But I think

That what's happening is that it's not just about the violence. It's about the rhetoric that causes the violence and the rhetoric that supports the violence. So we see the news media almost aid and abet this stuff in the way they cover it. But we also see social media platforms play into it. Where are these men? And it's mostly men radicalized.

In social media spaces, in social network spaces, online, like Reddit, like Twitter. This is why it's so important to connect the dots between the attack on Pelosi and what someone like Elon Musk is going to do with content moderation on Twitter. It's connected, right? It is very connected.

Yeah, and what's really frightening about this, and I said it in there earlier when quoting The Atlantic, is that people, unlike when we saw in Civil War times, are not unified in their attacks against government officials. They're kind of spread out. They're really influenced by pieces of news they see on Facebook.

pieces of news they see on Twitter, they become really reactionary and they fall down these holes. And just because it's not unified doesn't make it dangerous. What we're gonna see happen is a lot of random attacks that even the FBI can't even measure. Because in the past, there's been organized

criminal attempts. And organized for a cause. The Civil War was about slavery, right? Now it's about pedophilia and the new Black Panthers and trans kids in schools. And like, what is it actually about? And also Pelosi's the devil. What is it about? And it's also like all based on people's imaginations a lot. Like, you know, a lot of what, and I can say this because Elon Musk tweeted it. Elon Musk tweeted an article that was not

real that stated that Paul Pelosi let this person in because it was maybe potentially a gay hookup. You know, Paul Pelosi's in his early 80s and there's been all these allegations that he may be gay, which we're assuming any man that lives in San Francisco is gay and that he would let a hookup in. So there's ways in which there's threatening homophobia into all this and this imagination. But, you know, you're really seeing people empathize

through the power of social media through their falsehoods that they're hanging their hats on. And that's the dangers of having Elon or having Mark Zuckerberg not engage in content moderation because it's not to... It's like it's point last week where you said Twitter is us. We are created from Twitter. This is a fantastic example of that.

We can't take someone's random tweet as, oh, it's just a tweet. No, that tweet can be a hammer in someone's house against someone's head, and that's really dangerous. Yeah, and I think for a long time, people said, well, we can fight this insanity through facts and through reason and through logic.

No, you can't. These people aren't logical. They're unhinged and they're hanging on to wild conspiracy theories that have no basis in reality. And when you realize that about these folks, you know, the only way to get them to stop is a threat of imprisonment. That's why it's so important that everyone involved in January 6th gets prosecuted. Because unless you set those examples and tell folks, if you pop off like this and go crazy, you're going to jail. Unless you tell them that, they'll just keep doing it.

There is no rhyme or reason or logic left. They have to be stopped. And that's the thing, because in the meantime, we're seeing just, I mean, a clear escalation. I mean, in 2020, a group of two or three men from a suburb here outside of Columbus, Ohio, were arrested for an attempt to kidnap and attack the governor of the state of Michigan, another important woman in politics. And so it's striking to me, you're right, Sam, I think

As we see people kind of waffling on, are we going to take these proceedings seriously? I'm like, no, you really do. Because just two years ago, someone tried to break into the house of a prominent politician. And now two years later, they succeeded and almost got to the politician. So where will we be two years from now? You know, it's like we can see how this is playing out.

Yeah, and what I wanna make very clear for people, I feel like our listeners get it. But if you are a Fox News watcher that are now finding yourself on Vibe Check, I want you to listen very clearly. There's a massive gulf between protesting in front of Supreme Court Justice's houses

And someone entering the house of a- Breaking and entering with a hammer and attacking someone. Saying they want to kill. Exactly. And that's where I'm seeing that conflation happen, where people are saying because of the rise of protests, of people in the streets fighting for their equality, that we're going to see more attacks like this on Pelosi. That's not the same. And we should not conflate the two. This is not a left and right equal action that we're seeing. We're seeing one is an assassination attempt. The other are your basic civil rights, which is protesting. And we should not conflate these things.

Well, and then when you just think about the character of Nancy Pelosi, I don't love that woman. But I do remember seeing just a few weeks ago when they released new footage from January 6th, the day of the insurrection. She was on the phone with Mike Pence for hours trying to keep him safe, trying to keep him safe. You know, this is the thing. It's like, say what you will about Nancy Pelosi.

She is a member of old establishment Washington who celebrates a level of camaraderie across the aisle. Well, there was a point, and it was probably around Sandy Hook, where many of us realized too late that

That there was not going to be a moment where a horrific incident, you know, oh my God, school children, you know, what, like pick your nouns and verbs and the right kind of arrangement of a tragic sentence. There was never going to be a specific incident that would suddenly happen.

jar people into taking action to address gun control in this country, right? And sadly, we've seen in the years since that's only become more true. Every iteration of these horrific events has happened, and unfortunately, it has not led to a galvanization of support and reform. And so we really need to pay attention to what's happening with political violence, because I think that trajectory could also happen.

We could also get to the point where it's like that point of no return. And I think, Zach, you were kind of alluding to that where we see globally, you see this across countries, across cultures. There's a tipping point where you can become so – well, I guess it just becomes so normalized in a way where it just feels hopeless, where you're like, I don't know. I guess part of being a politician is this is just the violence you just might have to deal – you know, that's –

very scary. And so I think we really need to pay attention to just how it feels now where we're like, there's nothing we can do with gun violence. I mean, we don't want to have to get to the point where we have to say this in a different iteration. Well, that's the thing. It's like we can't just move on from this. I as a hypothetical, imagine that Ted Cruz's wife was attacked in her home with a hammer and the guy wanted to get to Ted. That would be all we talked about for weeks, if not months. That

There needs to be a level of outrage about all of this, regardless of the politician or the party, because it is toxic and it will keep happening and it's insidious. We have to call it out. We have to respond to it.

Just, I mean, the erasure of the severity of this attack, it is quite chilling to me. It's really disturbing. Yeah, it's so disturbing. And it's because we are not treating our politicians like humans. They're people. And it should frighten everyone that someone broke into someone's house with a hammer and tried to hold them hostage so they could attack their wife. Well, I mean, January 6th should have been it. I mean, January 6th, they were chanting, where's Nancy? Yeah.

Then, too, that should have been, wait a minute, the moment where everyone— They brought nooses. Yeah, I mean— They brought nooses to the Capitol. Like you said, Mike Pence, Mitt Romney, we've already actually had the incidents where Republican politicians' lives were endangered. And it's just, you know, I don't want to be hopeless, but we need to stay on alert for this. Amen. Well, with that, we need to take a quick break. But stay tuned. We'll be right back with more Vibe Check. Vibe Check.

This message is brought to you by McDonald's. Did you know only 7.3% of American fashion designers are black? Well, McDonald's 2024 Change Leaders Program is ready to change the face of fashion. The innovative program awards a monetary grant to five emerging black American designers and pairs each with an industry professional to help them elevate their brands.

I know specifically and distinctly how McDonald's can support and empower not just black Gen Z but black people. My first job was McDonald's. I learned a lot there about customer service and how to relate to people. I still love that place and go there very often. Look out for the change of fashion designers and mentors

at events like the BET Awards and the Essence Festival of Culture. And follow the journey of the 2024 McDonald's Change Leaders on their Instagram page, We Are Golden.

All right, we are back. And look, the rise of political violence, fascism, you know, it's heavy. It's real out here. And we're never going to lie to you about how real it is. But we also are very aware of being like, well, but we do need joy. We need levity. We need enthusiasm to remind us why it's worth fighting for the culture that we all live in. So we decided to cleanse the vibe.

by enacting an important ancient gay ritual. We only pull it out when we most need it. That's right, girls.

It's time to argue about the Oscars. It's so important. Look, it's important. Straight people don't know. Gay men in particular have been holding this country together by a thread by arguing about the Oscars for decades. It's our gay fantasy football league. And we've gotten lax lately, and look at us. Look at us. The world is untethered. This is like the Oscars are about to be our Super Bowl. I mean, we need it.

This is the thing, and the reason it kind of came up is, and y'all have noticed as we've all been talking about Viola Davis, we've been talking about Cate Blanchett, we've been talking about everything, everywhere, all at once, just organically, you know, the last few months. This is, I think, a really exciting Oscars where there are just like a lot of great performances and films to choose from. You know, some years it kind of feels like, well, obviously it's probably going to go to this person, in which case it's not that exciting, but it's exciting to get into it and

I don't know about y'all. It was interesting. Zach, you said you feel it's a little different where women's performances are being honored differently. I'm like, I've always been more interested in best actress and best supporting actress. What do y'all think? First, I want to point out the ones that are in the most contingent for the Best Actress Award. For us. It's Viola Davis. Yeah. It is Viola Davis for her work in

the woman cane, Cate Blanchett as the worst conductor ever in Tar and Michelle Yeoh in Everything Everywhere All at Once. They are the three favored to be locked in battle for the best actress Oscar this year.

But yeah, it's a great year for all three of them and a great year for us to watch it. And what I would just throw out there, and we can kind of argue this out, I think why there's been this big divergence of us obsessing over men. We used to pick your male fighters. It was like, well, Denzel, Leonardo DiCaprio, all these men would be the people we'd be watching. We've now switched to women. And I think it's because the Marvel industrial complex. Most big movies of the year, most of the big action movies or big movies in the box office are men playing

superheroes. But Leo and Denzel aren't doing those movies. No, no, no. I'm just saying we're not making as many of those movies anymore. But I will throw out before we dive into this debate, because I don't really want to talk about the men. I do think Colin Farrell with his new movie is the one going to win Best Actor. He has that movie. The Banshees of Inishirin. There we go. That movie. Good luck to that man. He looks great in that movie where he was naked years ago, but I've erased it all from my mind. Yeah.

Colin Farrell is a wonderful actor, and I like, you know, because he entered as, like, you know, the handsome hottie. And, like, as he's kind of matured, he's actually become, like, a really great character actor. So it's been nice to see him in those roles. But we are here for the girls. Yes, we're here for the girls. I want Sayid to begin. Please.

And I'm going to finish. Who are you feeling, Zay? Who are you feeling? Wow. Wow, wow, wow. I see. Wow, wow, wow. So I surprised myself as I was doing some research on Oscar races. I didn't realize that there's a whole digital cottage industry around Oscar race predictions. It's a betting industry.

It's a betting industry. I mean, people... I was just like, well, that's not the vibe I'm trying to go for. I've been thinking about everything everywhere all at once and why I think Michelle Yeoh should win for Best Actress is because I love... And I feel like the Oscars like this where it just feels like this once-in-a-lifetime synergy between the actor's journey as a person...

Their kind of career journey. And when it syncs up, if not with the plot of the film, the themes. And when you think about someone like Michelle Yeoh, I mean, you know, she grew up as a ballerina. She grew up as a classically trained ballerina who injured herself. She hurt her back one semester and then had to change and then started learning about martial arts and then became...

the Michelle Yao of the Taiwan film scene. Let us not forget Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon as well. Right, exactly. So what I'm trying to get at is that she's lived these different lives. And so it's so cool to then see with Everything Everywhere All at Once that

all of those different experiences have come to bear. And I just think, you know, as she's described it really it's five genres in one film. It's sci-fi it's action. You got a little bit of the touches of the Marvel superhero there. You have horror, you have comedy. And then at the heart of it, you have a mother reconnecting with her daughter, you know, and really trying to break through to each other again across well, the multiverses. I love it. Here's where I,

will come down because for me it's really between Cate Blanchett and TAR and Michelle Yeoh and everything everywhere all at once and

Everything Everywhere All at Once is a great film on multiple levels. Every actor in it deserves an Oscar. That's true. The screenwriters deserve an Oscar. The ensemble is great. The editing and effects deserve an Oscar. Just the effects work is phenomenal, the music, the references. But that movie just exists to get Cate Blanchett an Oscar. That movie is two and a half hours long, and about an hour plus of it is just her acting. Mm-hmm.

Like it is a vehicle. It is a vehicle that she drives to heaven, hell and back. There are certain scenes in this movie where she's doing these tiny, small things. And you can tell she's thought about them for months. Yes. Her character, this conductor is crazy, unhinged, awful, toxic, but also has a touch of OCD. And Cate Blanchett performs these little tics.

throughout the movie in a way that just haunts you to your core. I think just because we know that Academy voters aren't that sophisticated and have the memories of Goldfish, I think because Tara came out later, it will be stuck in their heads longer.

And I think that Everything, Everywhere, All at Once is a beautiful, amazing film. But there's so much beauty in it besides Michelle Yeoh. And it's been months since that film. I put money on Cate Blanchett for Tar. But you know the other thing Oscar voters love, and this is a knock against, and I love Cate Blanchett. Y'all know I love her. She does the work. They love transformation.

Yes, yes. Think the trope of Nicole Kidman wearing the prosthetic nose that kind of like I didn't even recognize. I think the issue with Cate Blanchett is you see Tara and you're like, this was of course this is a Cate Blanchett movie. Of course this is her. She's so good at playing the beautiful sinister. She uses this combination of masculinity and femininity in all of her roles in such a great way.

Watching Michelle Yeoh, like, she's funny. She's actually not a good fighter at the beginning of the film. She's, you know, she's doing drama. There's more of a range with Michelle. Yeah, watching someone that, someone we know, you're right, from crazy rich Asians that kind of dignified, cold elegance to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, like the perfect martial arts. To see her do all of these other kind of modes of performance, that to me is a little bit more compelling where I'm like, I know Kate's going to deliver.

Okay, Zach, what do you got? What do you got? So what I will say is that when Everything Everywhere All at Once came out, I said, and that was the beginning of this year, I said this should win everything. And I thought that all year long until I saw TAR. And why I think TAR's going to win beyond my own love of Cate Blanchett

And I think all gay men, I will make this argument all day, gay men love Carol more than lesbians for some reason. Like that is our movie. That is not a hill I am brave enough to die on. I will make this argument. But when I saw Tar, I loved it.

so much because I think she's an incredible performer. But why I think the Academy is going to love it so much is that we have another fighter in the wings that comes out later that I don't think is going to do well. And that is She Set, the movie based off the New York Times reporting on Harvey Weinstein. And that movie will deliver some nominations probably around it. And people really want it to do incredibly well. But

whispers are that it's not as good as everyone expected it to be. And Hollywood still needs to do with spearing of Harvey Weinstein in public through a Me Too movie. And Tar is that movie. So it almost becomes like a proxy. It's about, exactly. It's about the culture and it's a

movie exploring does canceling someone actually ruin them, bring redemption? What does it do to a person? And how do people, regular people fall into these power dynamics without ever realizing it? And I think it's something that Hollywood's gonna be like, yes, we can give this awards because it makes us be able to talk about Me Too without talking about Harvey Weinstein. And that's why it's gonna win.

Well, it is the perfect vehicle for Hollywood to talk about it without talking about it because you have Cate Blanchett in this role as a woman where she's performing toxic man. Yeah. You know, all of the tropes and stereotypes that she inhabits, they're things that men would do. Even the fact that she's a conductor, that's still a mostly male medium. But what I find interesting in the Oscar race this year and what it says about women

the shifting power dynamics in Hollywood and in prestige Hollywood. If you look at the big three women this year in their roles, you've got Viola Davis in the woman cane playing a literal cane. You have Cate Blanchett playing a conductor who was living out all of the toxic

nasty traits of powerful men. And you've got Michelle Yeoh as an action hero in a part that was first written for a man. The women have not just taken over prestige Hollywood. They've taken it from the men. They are inhabiting the very roles that would have gone to men 15 or 20 years ago. And I see that happen and I say, yes, keep it up. I fucking love it. The roles are reversing right in front of our eyes. And not just a beautiful way, but like...

a really, really good way. All of these roles are phenomenal. And crucially, phenomenal and crucially to address something we've been talking about lately with representation. It's good. It's good material. It's not just like, oh, the themes are in sync with the headlines and the Twitter discord. No, it's,

Good work. It's good work. It's good. Yeah. And to kind of put a cherry on what you're saying, Sam, is that we're not saying that women are becoming men. We're saying that Hollywood's giving women space to be complicated, to contradict themselves, to be expansive. Yeah, all these things. And the roles that are worthy of their talent. There used to be a time when the only way to get an Oscar as a woman would be to be in a shitty biopic and just perform...

Jackie O or perform Harriet Tubman or perform some sad woman from history or become ugly or become a serial killer with the woman king, with tar, with everything everywhere all at once. We're seeing women allowed to inhabit truly sophisticated and powerful roles, and that's a beautiful thing.

So regardless of who wins, I'm just happy to see all these great women getting these great roles. And I also think we're entering a phase where Viola is going to be giving Meryl energy, just an Oscar nomination every year or two for the rest of her career. And I hope she gets more and more of those great roles.

Well, we'll leave it there for now. Obviously, look, we got a lot more. Tell us how you feel. I had my international markets argument, but y'all ain't ready for that, though. Y'all ain't ready for that because y'all forgot about parasite. Y'all forgot about what's going on, you know, beyond the state squid game. But we'll leave it there. But it does fit kind of with the theme of everything you're talking about, of like women getting their due, taking the reins. I wanted to point out that the international titles for Michelle Yeoh's film are really fun. And in Hong Kong, this just feels like a perfect button.

the title translates to Weird Woman Warrior Fucks Around and Saves the Universe. Now, that might not apply to Tar because it feels like her character's on some other bullshit. But at least for Woman King and Everything Everywhere Once, I love that. I love it. Also, before we go to break, listeners, tell us who you're favoring this Oscar season. Give us your picks. Tell us what films we should be watching. And give us some reasons. Don't just throw out a name. Don't throw out a title. I need some justification, Starling. Let us know. Let us know.

All right, don't get anywhere. We'll be right back. This message is brought to you by McDonald's. Did you know only 7.3% of American fashion designers are black? Well, McDonald's 2024 Change Leaders Program is ready to change the face of fashion. The innovative program awards a monetary grant to five emerging black American designers and pairs each with an industry professional to help them elevate their brands.

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at events like the BET Awards and the Essence Festival of Culture. And follow the journey of the 2024 McDonald's Change Leaders on their Instagram page, We Are Golden. We are back. You're listening to Vibe Check. And before we end the show, as we always do, I want each of us to share something that's helping keep our vibe right this week. A recommendation of any sort. Saeed, go first. Sure. So I think...

I famously disliked the television show, The White Lotus, the Caucasian lotus blossom. It's not for me. It's not for me. I liked the first season. Second season premiere was meh. Right. But I will admit, I love the premise of wealthy people in a hotel, resort, whatever, and everything goes wrong. Yeah.

This weekend, I randomly happened across this show, also on HBO, called Avenue 5. Have y'all heard of this? What's that? Yes. Okay, it's decades in the future. It stars Hugh Laurie from House.

And a bunch of other faces you will recognize. But basically, it's like a space cruise ship that's been designed by a kind of Elon Musk kind of jackass figure. And everyone's on the space cruise ship. And it's supposed to be a space cruise, very elite. That's like, I don't know, like 65 days long as you kind of travel around some kind of galaxy. And in the pilot, they get blown off course. And it's going to be like six years.

And all hell breaks loose. So it starts and luxury and glitz and it all goes wrong. And there's just something, as people start talking about these billionaires being like, we're going to go to Mars and all these elite. Well, it just shows what a nightmare that is.

And it's very fast-paced. The dialogue, it's just excellent. It's very funny. I think y'all would like it. I was surprised to kind of stumble into it. And Hugh Laurie is great. He's really good. And everyone has secrets. So it's also kind of like everyone is performing the role they think they're supposed to perform. But, of course, there's a strain there. So Avenue 5. Check it out. Avenue 5. Okay. All right. Zach?

So my vibe this week is an article on the website, theverge.com, which is very good. Well, they were really good this week because they published an article called Welcome to Hell, Elon. You break it, you buy it. It was written by Nilay Patel and their Twitter handle is at Reckless if you want to follow them. But the piece is amazing as someone that used to work at Grindr or in tech

and very familiar with content moderation and what tech requires these days. And the whole... You'll read it. But the whole purpose of it is that Elon has just purchased himself at the end of the day. And now he's entering a hellscape that is running a content company globally because every country has different rules. And when we talk about rules, these are like... In certain countries, you are killed for certain things you tweet versus in other countries where people want nobody

rules around it. So he's going to have to balance the globalization of the company in ways he's never had to experience with Tesla or any of his other companies. And I just am getting so much schadenfreude knowing the government investigations are going to happen due to GDPR around his ass, around what's going to happen in the US, everything. It is not going to be a fun ride for him. And I'm so hyped for it.

Well, this article is so good because it makes a point. It's like the only way Twitter makes money is through advertising. And the advertisers only want to advertise on your site if people want to be there. So the site can't be too toxic that it drive folks away. And on top of that, if you really say that you're for free speech, Elon, you're going to have to become lobbyist in chief because all across the world, Twitter is in court or in halls of power.

lobbying to maintain the right to control their own content. A lot of other countries across the world want to take away that power from them. So Elon has signed up for more work. Yeah, I'm thinking of, you know, there are certain countries where, you know, if they have certain monarchies, you could not get on Twitter in those jurisdictions and tweet, as they would frame it, disrespectful of the crown. Like, you're right, that could easily end you up in jail. So I'm like, well, how does that work with that?

free speech. And it's also, at the end of the day, he's also somehow become submissive now to Apple. Whenever you enter an app space, your company can be- Oh, Apple's in charge. Is ruled by Tim Cook. Ruled. And let him mess up in a real way and they pull him from the app store, the company falls apart overnight. And even not just being pulled from the app store, the mere addition that Apple had to all these apps where it now asks you, ask app not to track. Right.

That is costing businesses billions of dollars because they can't track you for ads anymore. Apple runs this show and watching the way that Elon has to interface with them is going to be quite interesting because you can't tweet your way around that, buddy. Can't do it. It's going to be amazing. So you think everyone, Elon is creating, he's very Trumpian these days, but I think a check and balance called capitalism is going to come. Come on.

I will say, I hate that we're also ensnared in the meantime. I wish he could have his own downfall and it wouldn't impact our lives in any way. But also just, I mean, you know, the harassment, the toxicity, everything that he's going to invite onto the app to basically make it where I'm like, I just, I don't know if it's going to be a space where a lot of us can stay or should stay, you know? Yeah. We'll see. I agree. Sam.

Rack, what you feeling? I have a recommendation and I don't want y'all to watch it because it's good. I want y'all to watch it because it's so bad. So I appeal-

I appeared on Matt Rogers' HBO Max podcast this week. On that show, he talks about films and TV that are on HBO that you can watch. He asked me to rewatch The Bodyguard and talk about it with him. I rewatched The Bodyguard on Sunday night. It's even worse than you remember. It's a horrible movie. How dare you? It's a horrible movie. I rewatched it during the pandemic.

I enjoy it so much. I enjoy it because I laugh. Like, I am just like, I marvel at how a movie this bad could produce things so good. It gave us the soundtrack to The Bodyguard, perhaps the greatest soundtrack of all time. You didn't feel anything when she got off the boat.

playing at the end? No. Oh, my God. Oh, I was bowling. It gave us iconic visuals. It gave us iconic visuals like Winnie in the scarf. You're right, the scarf that she's running around to run to Kevin Costner. It gave us iconic visuals like her in that nightclub performing Queen of the Night dressed like a robotic Cleopatra. Yeah.

this movie is this weird thing where like my memories of snapshots of it live beautifully in my mind. But when you watch the film that the original, you know, piece that gave you all this is horrible. It's a really bad movie. I would argue most movies, like I watched Child's Play last night. Also awful. But in like the Chucky movie, it's like horrible, but it gives you iconic scenes that really exactly on your brain. So I let you have that. So,

And so what's crazy to me is... I am shaken. I am shaken. No, here's the thing. I love...

The visual snapshots that still linger in the culture. I love the songs. But it's really interesting to look at how those two stars, by just sheer force of their charisma, power, and ubiquity, made a hit. This movie made $120-something million a year that it was released, second in 92 to only Aladdin. And in the global box office, it made over $400 million. Wow. And everyone agrees it's bad. Mm.

But it's just because Kevin Costner and Whitney were the biggest stars of the moment. Go rewatch this movie and laugh. What I will say is interesting, because you're right. Her acting is not... She's trying to do this bratty, snobby pop star. What is interesting is then if you watch Waiting to Exhale, her acting is really good. It's an excellent comedic performance. Whitney Houston with those sex scenes...

So funny. So funny and sexy. So good. So it's kind of interesting. It's like, you know, what acting coach was she working with between? Because it's a noticeable improvement between things. I think someone sat her down and said, Whitney, get it together because you can't keep doing this. On that note, listeners, tell us what you're feeling or not feeling this week. What is your vibe? What's your recommendations? Check in with us at vibecheckatstitcher.com.

Thank you all for listening to this week's episode of Vibe Check. If you love the show and want to support us, please make sure to follow the show on all your favorite podcast listening platforms. Also, the best way to spread the word about any podcast, especially this really good podcast, is to tell your friends about it. If you like the show, tell someone to their face that you do. Ask them to listen, okay?

Huge thank you to our producers, Chantel Holder, engineer Brendan Burns, and Marcus Holm for our theme music and sound design. Special thanks to our executive producers, Nora Ritchie at Stitcher and Brendan Sharp from Agenda Management and Production. And last but not least, thank you to Jared O'Connell and Imelda Skender for all of their help.

And as we say every week in between segments, we want to hear from you. So don't forget, you can email us at vibecheckatstisher.com and keep in touch with us on Twitter at at Zach Stafford, at The Ferocity, and at Sam Sanders. And you can use the hashtag there, hashtag vibecheckpod. Also, follow us on TikTok at at vibecheckpod. So stay tuned for another great episode next Wednesday. Goodbye. Bye. Bye. Stitcher.

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