WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.059 Hello. We made it through another year. But stuff 00:00:05.059 --> 00:00:07.980 still happened. So what's up, dear listener? 00:00:08.099 --> 00:00:11.019 It is the end of the year. And you didn't warn 00:00:11.019 --> 00:00:13.980 me. Not a single one of you sons of bitches sent 00:00:13.980 --> 00:00:16.660 me a calendar invite for the end of the year. 00:00:16.800 --> 00:00:19.320 I don't know how I was supposed to know this 00:00:19.320 --> 00:00:21.780 was happening otherwise. Uh, yeah. End of the 00:00:21.780 --> 00:00:24.920 year. It's true December. Cold time. Unless you're 00:00:24.920 --> 00:00:26.480 in the southern hemisphere, in which case, warm 00:00:26.480 --> 00:00:29.629 time. Enjoy that. So just real quick before we 00:00:29.629 --> 00:00:31.850 get into everything that I'm gonna talk about 00:00:31.850 --> 00:00:34.509 today I just want to say remember to take a second 00:00:34.509 --> 00:00:38.090 to just like Be in the moment as we close out 00:00:38.090 --> 00:00:40.189 the year. It's been a it's been a hell of a year. 00:00:40.189 --> 00:00:42.950 It's been a lot It's been a not good one. I ranked 00:00:42.950 --> 00:00:44.890 them I ranked every single year and this one 00:00:44.890 --> 00:00:49.310 it wasn't in the top 50 % But that's okay. I'm 00:00:49.310 --> 00:00:51.210 gonna keep saying that at least because if you 00:00:51.210 --> 00:00:54.250 go outside and you take a second you're gonna 00:00:54.250 --> 00:00:56.899 hear The wind rustling through the trees, you're 00:00:56.899 --> 00:00:59.820 gonna see some critters hopping around, prepping 00:00:59.820 --> 00:01:03.899 for the winter. Life is going on. And yes, life 00:01:03.899 --> 00:01:06.840 is really bad for a lot of people right now. 00:01:07.420 --> 00:01:10.280 And things are getting pretty crazy. At the same 00:01:10.280 --> 00:01:14.560 time, we can't fix all of it by just... being 00:01:14.560 --> 00:01:17.060 aware of it. We fix it by taking action. We fix 00:01:17.060 --> 00:01:19.939 it by being able to take care of ourselves and 00:01:19.939 --> 00:01:22.319 the people around us. Spiraling out of control 00:01:22.319 --> 00:01:24.599 and just saying everything is hopeless and just 00:01:24.599 --> 00:01:28.060 being purely doomer is not what I'm going for 00:01:28.060 --> 00:01:30.500 here. So I highly encourage you to just take 00:01:30.500 --> 00:01:32.900 a second and just base yourself every once in 00:01:32.900 --> 00:01:35.439 a while. I'm asking you to be based. Can you 00:01:35.439 --> 00:01:37.879 do that for me? Let's move on. We'll start with 00:01:37.879 --> 00:01:41.120 the big one, the obvious one. They released the 00:01:41.120 --> 00:01:45.340 Epstein files. Kind of. Sort of. So there's this 00:01:45.340 --> 00:01:47.239 like pesky little thing in the United States 00:01:47.239 --> 00:01:49.560 government called the Legislative Branch. It 00:01:49.560 --> 00:01:51.959 contains the Senate and the House and they made 00:01:51.959 --> 00:01:54.920 a law that said release the Epstein file. They 00:01:54.920 --> 00:01:57.579 voted on it. It was a whole ass law and it went 00:01:57.579 --> 00:02:00.900 to the desk of the guy that's the president who 00:02:00.900 --> 00:02:03.500 signed it. Keen listeners will recall that when 00:02:03.500 --> 00:02:06.359 the Legislative Branch passes a bill and the 00:02:06.359 --> 00:02:08.900 president signs it... that becomes a law. So 00:02:08.900 --> 00:02:10.879 what's in the bill? It's like two pages long 00:02:10.879 --> 00:02:12.699 and it's actually pretty short, which honestly 00:02:12.699 --> 00:02:15.340 is a bit of a problem. So the bill says that 00:02:15.340 --> 00:02:17.280 the Department of Justice has to release the 00:02:17.280 --> 00:02:19.699 unredacted Epstein files within 30 days of the 00:02:19.699 --> 00:02:22.460 bill becoming law. That time has come and gone. 00:02:22.699 --> 00:02:24.900 But here's the thing, that's kind of all it says. 00:02:25.520 --> 00:02:27.599 That's basically it. It doesn't say what happens 00:02:27.599 --> 00:02:31.539 if they don't. It just says, we... We super expect 00:02:31.539 --> 00:02:33.240 this to happen. And so there's been politicians 00:02:33.240 --> 00:02:35.400 that are like, ah, Pam Bondi is breaking the 00:02:35.400 --> 00:02:38.500 law by by not releasing the Epstein files. And 00:02:38.500 --> 00:02:41.300 it's like, OK, so arrest her. There should not 00:02:41.300 --> 00:02:44.500 be any expectation that they're going to do something 00:02:44.500 --> 00:02:46.599 about this. Like there's not nothing's going 00:02:46.599 --> 00:02:48.460 to happen. There does not exist the political 00:02:48.460 --> 00:02:51.460 will to actually hold the administration accountable. 00:02:51.840 --> 00:02:54.479 Now. That doesn't mean there won't be fallout 00:02:54.479 --> 00:02:57.139 from the Epstein files. So they released like 00:02:57.139 --> 00:03:00.360 300 ,000 documents or so and they said that more 00:03:00.360 --> 00:03:03.000 are going to be coming over time. These documents 00:03:03.000 --> 00:03:06.259 were super heavily redacted. The bill says that 00:03:06.259 --> 00:03:08.800 it could be redacted but that they couldn't redact 00:03:08.800 --> 00:03:11.979 for the sake of protecting a public figure who 00:03:11.979 --> 00:03:14.219 should not be protected for being a pedophile. 00:03:14.479 --> 00:03:17.020 And like obviously... Like, we know that Trump 00:03:17.020 --> 00:03:19.520 is in the Epstein files. Anyone who says otherwise 00:03:19.520 --> 00:03:23.360 is delusional. But of course, as I kind of predicted 00:03:23.360 --> 00:03:25.780 on my stream recently, they essentially just 00:03:25.780 --> 00:03:28.099 released the files that are going to incriminate 00:03:28.099 --> 00:03:30.020 low -hanging fruit for the Republican party. 00:03:30.319 --> 00:03:32.860 Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, really anyone named 00:03:32.860 --> 00:03:35.240 Bill. Sorry to all the Bills out there. Maybe 00:03:35.240 --> 00:03:37.060 one day you'll become a law and then it won't 00:03:37.060 --> 00:03:38.699 be a problem anymore. So they release a bunch 00:03:38.699 --> 00:03:40.500 of redacted files. People aren't particularly 00:03:40.500 --> 00:03:42.360 happy about that. Everyone's scouring through 00:03:42.360 --> 00:03:45.960 the files and they discover a handful that didn't 00:03:45.960 --> 00:03:48.770 redact Trump's name. And then some of those have 00:03:48.770 --> 00:03:50.870 now gone missing from the Department of Justice's 00:03:50.870 --> 00:03:53.590 website. They were like, oh, we removed them 00:03:53.590 --> 00:03:55.770 because there were other concerns that had nothing 00:03:55.770 --> 00:03:58.050 to do with Trump. Stop asking questions. There's 00:03:58.050 --> 00:04:00.310 been murmurings of the victims of Epstein, like 00:04:00.310 --> 00:04:02.530 releasing their own concrete list or something. 00:04:03.169 --> 00:04:05.610 We've learned a bunch of garbage about the FBI 00:04:05.610 --> 00:04:08.270 ignoring warnings about Jeffrey Epstein, but 00:04:08.270 --> 00:04:10.370 like it's the FBI. I don't know what anybody 00:04:10.370 --> 00:04:13.509 expected. If I'm coming across jaded here, I'm 00:04:13.509 --> 00:04:16.759 not trying to just be... jaded. I'm just trying 00:04:16.759 --> 00:04:19.600 to look at things through a sober lens. This 00:04:19.600 --> 00:04:21.779 administration is just doing crimes. They just 00:04:21.779 --> 00:04:24.500 do crimes, right? Like we're just... That's normal 00:04:24.500 --> 00:04:26.339 now. And so people being like, oh, the Department 00:04:26.339 --> 00:04:28.300 of Justice is doing crimes by not releasing the 00:04:28.300 --> 00:04:31.579 full Epstein list. Like, okay, sure. But they've 00:04:31.579 --> 00:04:34.000 also been doing crimes this whole time by not 00:04:34.000 --> 00:04:36.519 enforcing the TikTok ban. Those aren't morally 00:04:36.519 --> 00:04:39.620 the same thing, but legally they're the same 00:04:39.620 --> 00:04:41.420 thing. Like the Trump administration has just 00:04:41.420 --> 00:04:43.540 been not enforcing that law because it's politically 00:04:43.540 --> 00:04:45.930 expedient. It's the same situation. So to think 00:04:45.930 --> 00:04:47.670 that they're going to act differently and to 00:04:47.670 --> 00:04:49.430 think that this time Congress is going to go 00:04:49.430 --> 00:04:52.829 after people because it's the Epstein List, I 00:04:52.829 --> 00:04:56.310 just don't see that happening. And so I'm tempering 00:04:56.310 --> 00:05:00.670 my expectations and remaining angry at all of 00:05:00.670 --> 00:05:02.470 them. Like we've got Tim Kaine over here being 00:05:02.470 --> 00:05:05.329 like, nah, nah, it's too early to hold them accountable. 00:05:05.470 --> 00:05:07.250 We can't be doing that. That's too aggressive. 00:05:07.569 --> 00:05:11.029 God. The Democrats are wild, man. Guys, we can't 00:05:11.029 --> 00:05:13.949 support trans people because Republicans might 00:05:13.949 --> 00:05:18.089 make fun of us. That's the platform, basically. 00:05:18.310 --> 00:05:20.610 Let's move on. Let's move on and be more patriotic. 00:05:20.850 --> 00:05:23.550 As patriotic as we can get. If you are a viewer 00:05:23.550 --> 00:05:25.410 who does not live in the United States of America, 00:05:26.170 --> 00:05:29.829 you are now an honorary member of my nation. 00:05:30.069 --> 00:05:33.290 I determine who has citizenship and you haven't. 00:05:33.350 --> 00:05:35.110 You can have mine. You want to switch, actually? 00:05:35.610 --> 00:05:39.060 So we're all Americans now. Yeehaw. whiskey, 00:05:39.899 --> 00:05:44.279 baseball, so... War. We're doing it, right? Like, 00:05:44.300 --> 00:05:45.319 we're doing it. Like, we're trying to do it with 00:05:45.319 --> 00:05:47.000 Venezuela right now. We're, like, stealing their 00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:49.600 boats and bombing their boats. Lots of stuff 00:05:49.600 --> 00:05:53.279 with boats and bombs. But besides that, the so 00:05:53.279 --> 00:05:55.199 -called Department of War has decided to send 00:05:55.199 --> 00:05:59.800 out checks to service members at a value of $1776. 00:06:00.459 --> 00:06:03.439 For all my new Americans in the audience, that's 00:06:03.439 --> 00:06:05.879 our freedom day. That's when the Declaration 00:06:05.879 --> 00:06:08.620 of Independence was signed. And it's like a big, 00:06:08.620 --> 00:06:11.560 it's a big deal number over here stateside. So 00:06:11.560 --> 00:06:14.920 Trump goes on TV and he announces that he's giving 00:06:14.920 --> 00:06:18.079 a payout to members of the military paid with 00:06:18.079 --> 00:06:20.920 tariffs. Like the money made from tariffs will 00:06:20.920 --> 00:06:22.279 be going to members of the military. They'll 00:06:22.279 --> 00:06:26.800 each get a check for 1 ,776 buckaroonies. Hey, 00:06:26.860 --> 00:06:29.779 guess what? That was so easily disprovable. It's 00:06:29.779 --> 00:06:32.579 not from the tariffs. And it's dumber than that. 00:06:32.819 --> 00:06:34.420 Instead of taking from the tariffs, which is 00:06:34.420 --> 00:06:36.870 already stupid as fuck because that's basically 00:06:36.870 --> 00:06:38.649 saying we're gonna give you a check for money 00:06:38.649 --> 00:06:40.569 that you had to pay extra and the check that 00:06:40.569 --> 00:06:42.290 we're giving you is less than you would have 00:06:42.290 --> 00:06:45.910 had to pay otherwise. What they're doing is worse! 00:06:46.149 --> 00:06:49.189 They're taking it from a fund that was appropriated 00:06:49.189 --> 00:06:52.569 specifically for housing assistance for low -income 00:06:52.569 --> 00:06:55.290 members of the military. It was a 2 .9 billion 00:06:55.290 --> 00:06:57.350 dollar budget that was earmarked in the so -called 00:06:57.350 --> 00:07:00.129 Big Beautiful Bill that was supposed to go towards 00:07:00.620 --> 00:07:03.459 helping these people have housing. It's a common 00:07:03.459 --> 00:07:05.240 program in the military. It's basically like, 00:07:05.379 --> 00:07:07.660 okay, we need to put these many people in this 00:07:07.660 --> 00:07:10.420 place. They're low -ranking members of the military 00:07:10.420 --> 00:07:13.220 and we pay them like trash. So we'll subsidize 00:07:13.220 --> 00:07:15.639 their housing using this fund. Now, depending 00:07:15.639 --> 00:07:17.980 on the level of income of the member and where 00:07:17.980 --> 00:07:20.620 they need to be stationed and various market 00:07:20.620 --> 00:07:23.889 factors, that money was doled out. case by case. 00:07:24.310 --> 00:07:26.269 So what they did was take that money instead 00:07:26.269 --> 00:07:28.410 of using it for its intended purpose, which was 00:07:28.410 --> 00:07:30.629 supporting affordable housing for the military 00:07:30.629 --> 00:07:33.970 for the next year. They're just doing this little 00:07:33.970 --> 00:07:35.709 gimmick check. Is it going to help some people? 00:07:35.829 --> 00:07:37.730 Yeah, definitely. Absolutely. You got the money? 00:07:37.910 --> 00:07:42.709 Spend it. Go hard. Have fun. Yikes. The back 00:07:42.709 --> 00:07:46.250 of the napkin math is that this is a $2 .6 billion 00:07:46.250 --> 00:07:49.949 spend out of a $2 .9 billion fund. They have 00:07:49.949 --> 00:07:52.720 essentially cleared out the fund that was meant 00:07:52.720 --> 00:07:55.720 to help pay for housing for the military. Cool. 00:07:56.540 --> 00:07:58.399 Well done. This is essentially what we're gonna 00:07:58.399 --> 00:08:00.379 see on Loop Forever, right? It's what we've been 00:08:00.379 --> 00:08:03.600 seeing on Loop Forever. It is performative gesturing 00:08:03.600 --> 00:08:06.040 towards the military that's not actually for 00:08:06.040 --> 00:08:08.759 the military. It's for people who are not in 00:08:08.759 --> 00:08:11.019 the military, who think that empty gestures to 00:08:11.019 --> 00:08:13.480 the military equates to patriotism. If you are 00:08:13.480 --> 00:08:16.420 a struggling military family, and you were told, 00:08:16.639 --> 00:08:18.699 hey, you're getting a one -time check for $1 00:08:18.699 --> 00:08:23.879 ,776, but now we can't supplement your housing 00:08:23.879 --> 00:08:26.420 costs, which are far more than that per year, 00:08:26.740 --> 00:08:29.040 you're probably not thrilled. Instead of, you 00:08:29.040 --> 00:08:31.199 know, covering for our veterans and providing 00:08:31.199 --> 00:08:33.179 mental health care so they stop killing themselves 00:08:33.179 --> 00:08:36.080 at an alarming rate. We're just doing this, and 00:08:36.080 --> 00:08:40.019 it's 1776, guys. It's the patriotic number. Don't 00:08:40.019 --> 00:08:41.820 you feel American, doll? Doesn't that make you 00:08:41.820 --> 00:08:44.539 feel good? What are you talking about? What affordability 00:08:44.539 --> 00:08:48.320 crisis? Speaking of affordability crisis, Disney 00:08:48.320 --> 00:08:52.080 cannot afford for you to not see Avatar a lot. 00:08:52.279 --> 00:08:54.659 So Disney slash Marvel have been working on the 00:08:54.659 --> 00:08:57.480 upcoming new Avengers movie, Avengers Doomsday. 00:08:57.879 --> 00:09:01.399 And it's kind of a mess. We'll go over some of 00:09:01.399 --> 00:09:03.799 the reasons why it's a mess, but... Up front, 00:09:04.200 --> 00:09:06.980 they've decided recently to make four different 00:09:06.980 --> 00:09:10.039 trailers for the movie to send out to theaters 00:09:10.039 --> 00:09:12.840 to show before showings of the new Avatar movie. 00:09:13.080 --> 00:09:15.200 Also, there's a new Avatar movie. I didn't even 00:09:15.200 --> 00:09:17.740 know that. But the idea is that they're only 00:09:17.740 --> 00:09:20.940 going to show one trailer per showing of Avatar. 00:09:21.039 --> 00:09:23.000 So if you want to see all the trailers, you have 00:09:23.000 --> 00:09:27.159 to go to at least four showings of Avatar. It's 00:09:27.159 --> 00:09:29.779 certainly a choice. It is certainly a choice. 00:09:30.080 --> 00:09:32.240 Now, I want to get a few things clear up front. 00:09:32.580 --> 00:09:36.600 I'm not a giant Marvel fanboy. I am just a casual 00:09:36.600 --> 00:09:40.279 member of society in which Marvel exists as an 00:09:40.279 --> 00:09:42.600 entertainment franchise. I've seen the movies, 00:09:43.360 --> 00:09:46.580 most of them, and they're fine sometimes. That's 00:09:46.580 --> 00:09:51.200 fine, okay? But... This shit's whack. So 10 years 00:09:51.200 --> 00:09:53.759 ago in 2024, they announced Avengers Doomsday. 00:09:54.100 --> 00:09:56.279 And in that announcement, they made a big deal 00:09:56.279 --> 00:09:58.720 out of how Dr. Doom, the new big bad evil guy 00:09:58.720 --> 00:10:00.740 for the entire franchise, is going to be played 00:10:00.740 --> 00:10:03.379 by Robert Downey Jr., who used to be Iron Man. 00:10:03.600 --> 00:10:05.840 Now, Robert Downey Jr. had, there was a scene, 00:10:05.940 --> 00:10:09.340 spoiler alert, there was a scene in Endgame where 00:10:09.340 --> 00:10:12.220 some rocks killed him. And then he left the MCU. 00:10:12.659 --> 00:10:15.360 So RDJ was just like, OK, I've done this enough. 00:10:15.519 --> 00:10:19.879 I'm out. Whatever. He's back. Bitches, so okay 00:10:19.879 --> 00:10:22.120 cool. Whatever fan service That's kind of weird 00:10:22.120 --> 00:10:24.899 that you're gonna have like one of the main characters 00:10:24.899 --> 00:10:27.059 who played a hero turn around like I get what 00:10:27.059 --> 00:10:30.299 you're doing Maybe it'll land so one of these 00:10:30.299 --> 00:10:32.799 four trailers comes out and turns out Chris Evans 00:10:32.799 --> 00:10:36.360 Captain America is also returning so also in 00:10:36.360 --> 00:10:38.879 Avengers Endgame the previous movie Chris Evans 00:10:38.879 --> 00:10:42.559 also leaves the franchise, but he's back He's 00:10:42.559 --> 00:10:45.039 back. So we've got that But apparently we've 00:10:45.039 --> 00:10:47.379 also got a situation where the script hasn't 00:10:47.379 --> 00:10:49.980 really been completed, which is not super rare 00:10:49.980 --> 00:10:53.159 for Marvel projects, but there are actors who 00:10:53.159 --> 00:10:55.159 don't even know if they've finished recording 00:10:55.159 --> 00:10:56.970 or not. They've basically been in like a non 00:10:56.970 --> 00:10:59.769 -stop rewrite in part because Dr. Doom wasn't 00:10:59.769 --> 00:11:01.870 even really supposed to be the next big bad evil 00:11:01.870 --> 00:11:04.169 guy. It was supposed to be Kang the Conqueror. 00:11:04.389 --> 00:11:06.490 So this is what I'm really getting to the limits 00:11:06.490 --> 00:11:09.809 of my Marvel knowledge here, but my understanding 00:11:09.809 --> 00:11:13.730 is that Kang and Thanos and Dr. Doom are all 00:11:13.730 --> 00:11:17.090 like real big bads, right? Like real big bads. 00:11:17.039 --> 00:11:18.559 And so they were going to try to go from like, 00:11:18.639 --> 00:11:20.500 okay, Thanos, you know, everybody knows the snap 00:11:20.500 --> 00:11:23.360 thing, the, you know, all the memes. We've moved 00:11:23.360 --> 00:11:25.860 on, right? The next big one was going to be, 00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:28.080 hey, but there were a few problems. One of those 00:11:28.080 --> 00:11:30.600 problems was that his like, debut villain movie 00:11:30.600 --> 00:11:34.179 was Ant -Man Quantamania and did not do well. 00:11:34.379 --> 00:11:36.419 And then the other problem was that he was played 00:11:36.419 --> 00:11:40.179 by Jonathan Majors, who was arrested for domestic 00:11:40.179 --> 00:11:43.360 assault. Disney didn't like that. Very much and 00:11:43.360 --> 00:11:45.600 so they had to scramble and instead of recasting 00:11:45.600 --> 00:11:48.440 him. They just said fuck it We're gonna do an 00:11:48.440 --> 00:11:50.679 entirely different everything. This is the part 00:11:50.679 --> 00:11:53.139 where I'm just gonna raise my hand and say They 00:11:53.139 --> 00:11:55.299 could have recast him to Michael B Jordan and 00:11:55.299 --> 00:11:57.320 it would have been fucking spectacular That would 00:11:57.320 --> 00:11:58.779 have fucked that would have saved the franchise. 00:11:58.919 --> 00:12:02.700 But instead very thankfully we got sinners instead 00:12:02.700 --> 00:12:07.580 of that so Nature's healing Anyway, they had 00:12:07.580 --> 00:12:10.279 to pivot away from Kang the Conqueror as their 00:12:10.279 --> 00:12:12.139 new big bad guy. And they're like, what do we 00:12:12.139 --> 00:12:16.779 do? Doctor Doom? Played by Robert Downey Jr. 00:12:17.320 --> 00:12:20.460 Fixed it. It's a mess. It's a mess. And I'm genuinely 00:12:20.460 --> 00:12:22.559 curious to see what happens here because like 00:12:22.559 --> 00:12:25.480 it's a Disney Marvel movie. It's going to do 00:12:25.480 --> 00:12:27.440 well. It's going to make a lot of money. I have 00:12:27.440 --> 00:12:29.980 no expectation that it's going to flop. But if 00:12:29.980 --> 00:12:33.259 it did. I am so curious to see what happened. 00:12:33.379 --> 00:12:35.000 I've barely even touched on all the problems 00:12:35.000 --> 00:12:36.320 that have leaked out of the production of this 00:12:36.320 --> 00:12:39.320 movie. I'm genuinely curious to see what happens 00:12:39.320 --> 00:12:43.460 if it did fail. Could this fuck up Marvel? Could 00:12:43.460 --> 00:12:46.799 this actually end it? I don't think so. I don't 00:12:46.799 --> 00:12:48.539 think so. I think the most likely case is it's 00:12:48.539 --> 00:12:50.460 gonna do just fine and like it's just gonna continue 00:12:50.460 --> 00:12:53.399 being a cheap win for Disney every once in a 00:12:53.399 --> 00:12:58.360 while. Who knows? But damn, four trailers. Go 00:12:58.360 --> 00:13:01.440 see Avatar, guys. Dear listener, we are heading 00:13:01.440 --> 00:13:05.720 into the last lightning round of 2025. I want 00:13:05.720 --> 00:13:09.080 to say thank you for being here with me and for 00:13:09.080 --> 00:13:12.279 spending what little time we have together, together. 00:13:13.419 --> 00:13:16.259 What I decided to do for this last little lightning 00:13:16.259 --> 00:13:19.299 round is just pick some stories from the entire 00:13:19.299 --> 00:13:22.649 year that... I think are really cool scientific 00:13:22.649 --> 00:13:24.929 advancements that give me some hope. So these 00:13:24.929 --> 00:13:26.570 are in no particular order and they didn't even 00:13:26.570 --> 00:13:28.990 all happen recently necessarily, but they all 00:13:28.990 --> 00:13:31.529 happened this year. And it's important to remember 00:13:31.529 --> 00:13:34.990 that good stuff still happens. So with that said, 00:13:35.389 --> 00:13:37.350 lightning round! For the first time ever in the 00:13:37.350 --> 00:13:40.750 first half of 2025, renewable energy produced 00:13:40.750 --> 00:13:44.200 more energy than coal. worldwide. This is led 00:13:44.200 --> 00:13:46.379 in part by China and Australia who have been 00:13:46.379 --> 00:13:49.460 making massive strides in solar production. It 00:13:49.460 --> 00:13:51.480 is genuinely getting to the point that energy 00:13:51.480 --> 00:13:54.740 companies seem to be spooked at the idea of too 00:13:54.740 --> 00:13:57.759 much energy production, making it not profitable. 00:13:58.000 --> 00:13:59.659 There was a lot of drama around Nobel prizes 00:13:59.659 --> 00:14:01.500 this year, but I want to talk about one of the 00:14:01.500 --> 00:14:04.120 recipients in the in the chemistry sector. A 00:14:04.120 --> 00:14:06.179 small team of scientists created a device that 00:14:06.179 --> 00:14:10.440 is capable of extracting potable water from desert 00:14:10.440 --> 00:14:13.169 air using nothing but ambient sunlight. like 00:14:13.169 --> 00:14:16.250 hundreds of liters of water per day, drinkable 00:14:16.250 --> 00:14:19.309 water, just using ambient sunlight and whatever 00:14:19.309 --> 00:14:21.509 else is available. That's incredible. In the 00:14:21.509 --> 00:14:24.389 field of HIV research, we are inching ever closer 00:14:24.389 --> 00:14:27.370 to an actual cure for HIV. I'm not going to say 00:14:27.370 --> 00:14:29.789 we're right there, but there was a really cool 00:14:29.789 --> 00:14:32.889 advancement this year using mRNA. mRNA, you know, 00:14:32.889 --> 00:14:35.070 it came into the public consciousness when the 00:14:35.070 --> 00:14:37.450 COVID vaccine started to roll out. It can do 00:14:37.450 --> 00:14:39.710 a lot of cool shit. And one of the cool shit 00:14:39.710 --> 00:14:43.470 it can do is essentially make its way into the 00:14:43.470 --> 00:14:46.629 white blood cells of a person to convince that 00:14:46.629 --> 00:14:50.490 white blood cell to narc on HIV. So, like, HIV 00:14:50.490 --> 00:14:53.389 hides in white blood cells, and it's difficult 00:14:53.389 --> 00:14:56.049 to find, it's difficult to target. They essentially 00:14:56.049 --> 00:14:58.210 use it to camouflage themselves. But researchers 00:14:58.210 --> 00:15:01.370 found a way to devise some mRNA and bundle it 00:15:01.370 --> 00:15:03.350 in such a way that it can get through the white 00:15:03.350 --> 00:15:07.070 blood cells, and it reprograms them to reveal 00:15:07.070 --> 00:15:10.490 the HIV. Now, because mRNA goes away pretty quickly, 00:15:10.549 --> 00:15:12.789 it doesn't create a lasting effect, that's just 00:15:12.789 --> 00:15:15.830 not how it works. So it can temporarily just 00:15:15.830 --> 00:15:18.990 help target HIV. There's not really a next step 00:15:18.990 --> 00:15:21.629 yet. Here it's more of like a, ooh, this opens 00:15:21.629 --> 00:15:24.269 up a new avenue, but that's rad. More biology. 00:15:24.509 --> 00:15:26.870 Hoo -ha! Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University 00:15:26.870 --> 00:15:29.649 may have found a new alternative to how we currently 00:15:29.649 --> 00:15:32.210 approach antibacterial stuff. So there's a huge 00:15:32.210 --> 00:15:34.009 problem in the world of medicine about, like, 00:15:34.269 --> 00:15:37.590 bacterial resistance, where if you use that antibacterial 00:15:37.590 --> 00:15:41.110 soap that's like, oh, it kills 99 .9 % of bacteria, 00:15:41.289 --> 00:15:45.230 guess what? That .01? Coming back with a vengeance. 00:15:45.429 --> 00:15:47.190 We are essentially speeding along the process 00:15:47.190 --> 00:15:49.990 of natural selection to make bacteria resistant. 00:15:50.379 --> 00:15:53.019 tube antibacterials. But these researchers have 00:15:53.019 --> 00:15:55.559 found a new way to target the bacteria that doesn't 00:15:55.559 --> 00:15:58.759 just kill it, but essentially deactivates it. 00:15:58.879 --> 00:16:01.899 This could be huge. Bacterial resistance is a 00:16:01.899 --> 00:16:04.580 massive problem. So that's pretty exciting. And 00:16:04.580 --> 00:16:06.360 finally, this is not a scientific advancement, 00:16:06.360 --> 00:16:09.139 but I think it's just as important. This year 00:16:09.139 --> 00:16:11.799 in California, the indigenous Yurok tribe completed 00:16:11.799 --> 00:16:15.179 the largest land back deal in California's history. 00:16:15.340 --> 00:16:17.340 I flubbed the reading here and it was supposed 00:16:17.340 --> 00:16:19.659 to be California. I said American in California 00:16:19.659 --> 00:16:21.929 history. Still a big deal. They were fighting 00:16:21.929 --> 00:16:26.870 for 23 years to reclaim some 73 square miles 00:16:26.870 --> 00:16:32.190 of land. That is 47 ,000 acres. I cannot conceptualize 00:16:32.190 --> 00:16:35.750 acres, or square miles, or time. They got back 00:16:35.750 --> 00:16:37.509 a bunch of ancestral land that has culturally 00:16:37.509 --> 00:16:40.009 significant landmarks on it, and largely it's 00:16:40.009 --> 00:16:43.629 just, it's a major milestone. I think that we 00:16:43.629 --> 00:16:47.350 could do with a bit more of Do It Right by the 00:16:47.350 --> 00:16:49.919 Indigenous folks. that we've got here. I don't 00:16:49.919 --> 00:16:52.000 know. I could think of a few more steps we could 00:16:52.000 --> 00:16:53.980 take. Thank you so much for listening to today's 00:16:53.980 --> 00:16:56.340 episode of Stuff Keeps Happening. Head to skh 00:16:56.340 --> 00:17:00.440 .news for sources, bonus content, and a two month 00:17:00.440 --> 00:17:03.720 extension on the end of the year to finish up 00:17:03.720 --> 00:17:05.960 all the things that you meant to be doing. My 00:17:05.960 --> 00:17:07.940 name is Endeavorance. We'll talk again soon. 00:17:08.140 --> 00:17:09.819 Take care and be well.