Vibes Only
The polls are broken. The stakes are unprecedented. And the future of democracy, like it or not, hinges on one thing – VIBES. Vibes Only is here to check the vibes of American politics and break down the need-to-know news of the week. And while one of the two major parties in the country has overwhelmingly embraced a right-wing movement whose whole vibe is undermining democracy and social progress, it’s clear we need voices that can meet voters where they are and clearly and effectively call that BS out for what it is.
Co-host Brian Derrick has earned a reputation for his ability to break down political news and define the stakes to his sizable and dedicated social media audience. Co-host Glennis Meagher is a digital media savant who has built platforms to encourage millennials and gen z to engage with politics, some for the first time. Even when the news of the week could easily kill the vibe, Brian and Glennis are like those needed friends that have the unique ability to keep it real AND pull us out of a doom spiral.
New episodes of Vibes Only are available on Wednesdays wherever you get your podcasts.
Vibes Only
Trump Spiraling, Leaning Into Disgusting Attacks
Donald Trump has been going way off his advisors' scripts - going all in on personal attacks and promoting content one would expect to find only in the darkest corners of the internet. And on reproductive rights, he's struggling to even find the right script.
This week, we discuss Trump's recent unhinged behavior both on and offline as well as how Harris handled her much-hyped CNN interview.
All that before we play an it's giving, pull up our group chat and leave you with a good vibe.
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You can find out more about COURIER at couriernewsroom.com
Glennis Meagher: [00:00:00] No polls.
Brian Derrick: No pundits.
Glennis Meagher: Just vibes. This is Vibes Only, the podcast that checks the vibes of American politics every week. And the vibes this week, same old tired playbook. Next question, please.
Kamala Harris: That's it.
Brian Derrick: That's it. We'll break down that much hyped CNN interview with Harris and Walls.
Glennis Meagher: Then we'll talk about Trump's decision to lean into his base This
MSNBC: is wild stuff, Katie.
I don't have any other way to explain it. This is Trump reposting memes he sees from his fans on Truth
Brian Derrick: Social. Then we have to get into Trump dancing around the issue of reproductive rights and what his vote on his home state's six week abortion ban tells us about his priorities.
Glennis Meagher: All that before playing an It's Giving, pulling up our group chat, and leaving you with a good vibe goodbye.
Let's get into it.
Brian Derrick: Glennis.
Glennis Meagher: It
Brian Derrick: is the final sprint to the finish.
Glennis Meagher: I know.
Brian Derrick: How are you feeling?
Glennis Meagher: I'm [00:01:00] feeling like my body is tense knowing it's the final sprint, but I saw someone posted on Instagram the other day. They were like, I woke up and I feel like something's changed. I'm like, yeah, we're in the final stretch.
That's what's changed. You're not going to sleep. What does Tim Wall say? You'll sleep when you're dead.
Brian Derrick: Exactly. Labor Day is the official kickoff to election season, which to most of our listeners is probably laughable because you've been watching polls and debates and all these things for many months, but.
This post Labor Day sprint really steps up the amount of communication coming from the campaigns, both the presidential and further down ballot. This is when a lot of the spending kicks in, particularly from like independent expenditures. Almost 40 percent of all political donations are given between Labor Day and election day.
So it really is this huge, inflection point and increase in political activity. And we are at the top of the roller coaster, hands up, [00:02:00] buckled in, ready to go,
Glennis Meagher: ready to go. I need one more good night's sleep, and then I'm ready to go. That's how I feel. But no, I mean, we're gonna be talking about it truly ad nauseum for the next two months of all the different ways that you can get engaged.
And we're gonna be talking about every moment of the next two months of this season. This
Brian Derrick: is actually the point of the cycle where all of your non political friends start to tune in. So today is a perfect day to send someone a link to this episode of Vibes Only so that they can get all of their news in quick 30 minute recaps every week for the next nine weeks until election day.
Glennis Meagher: Totally. Low key started though last week with this CNN interview. Did you catch it?
Brian Derrick: Yeah. If that was the start, then it was very much the video of that girl, like coming off of the stumbling blocks with [00:03:00] like her shoe falling off. It was
like, yeah,
Brian Derrick: the CNN interview was so overhyped and I think they did a great job, but it was just kind of like a flop in that it just didn't have the sort of effect that the media.
I think wanted it to, or, or tried to make it out to be this like super important thing when in the age of digital communication, like we get to see and hear from the candidates all the time.
Glennis Meagher: Yeah. It de, it definitely was like legacy media at its worst. Like they had a by the second countdown clock in like the right lower corner, CNN did, and it was the same way with a Trump Biden debate, how they set it up like it was WWE or some massive like pay-per-view fight.
And it was. Just not that our friend, Keith Edwards, Democratic strategist, front of the pot. He kind of said it best when it wrapped. He said, okay, so Kamala Timmer asked about a phone call from Biden, a picture of her niece, Gus crying, Kamala's quote blackness. And he said, why the F was the interview so important?
This is all a bunch of nothing. [00:04:00] What a disgrace. Now I wouldn't go that far, but I understand where Keith is coming from. Because we were sold on a meaty policy focused interview. We didn't get that.
Brian Derrick: Yeah, it had above average ratings for CNN. It was like one of their best prime time nights of the last several months, but it doesn't hold a candle to how many people watched the convention, how many people watched the last debate, how many people are going to watch the September 10th debate.
Um, and
Brian Derrick: so. We'll start our second by second. I mean, that's actually I think worth counting down to. But, um, yeah, I think that it's important for both candidates, all candidates to engage with the media. Like the media is an important institution of the electoral system and like holding people to account.
I just think that hanging all of your hopes and dreams on one CNN interview is probably Not going [00:05:00] to deliver what you think it is. You know?
Glennis Meagher: Yeah, I thank God more people watch the DNC because Harris definitely anchored herself much more in her policy proposals and the opportunity economy, etc. She did touch on that in the interview.
But yeah, it didn't feel meaty enough for a true kind of persuasion.
Brian Derrick: Let's talk about what they did talk about. I think by far The most viral clip, Dana asks her a question about Trump's comments at the National Association of Black Journalists, which we have discussed on the pod before when he accused Kamala of like, quote, turning black, and that she like suddenly turned into a black person.
And I thought that her Kamala's response was chef's kiss.
Dana Bash: What I want to ask you about is what he said last month. He suggested that you happened to turn black recently for political. Purpose is questioning a core part of your identity. Yeah,
Kamala Harris: any same old tired playbook Next question, [00:06:00] please. That's it.
Brian Derrick: That's it. It was perfect. It was perfect. Like, I'm not going to be pulled into some debate about my race that Donald Trump is using personal attacks to try to derail the national conversation and my campaign. I'm not going to be pulled into it. I'm not taking debate. Next question. I'm obsessed with that.
Glennis Meagher: Yeah, same. Something that got a lot of traction online, which really, really chapped my ass and I'll get into why was Harris. Uh, was asked, uh, whether she would appoint a Republican to her cabinet, and she said, Yes, I
Kamala Harris: would. Anyone in mind? Yes, I would. No one, no one in particular in mind. I got a, we got 68 days to go with this election, so I'm not putting the cart before the horse, but I would.
I think, I think it's really important. I, I have spent my career inviting diversity of opinion. I think it's important to have people at the table when some of the most important decisions are being made that have different views, different [00:07:00] experiences. And I think it would be to the benefit of the American public to have a member of my cabinet who was a Republican.
The internet didn't like this, like the left side of
Glennis Meagher: the internet. And I wanted to just scream at everyone and say, newsflash people, every single. Almost every single president, like, since George Washington has appointed opposing parties to their cabinet. This is not some new thing, and also it just speaks to the way that the left kind of imploded a line around this just speaks to this division, this stark division in this country, and it's like, no, we do want Uh, you know, a moderate Republican in the cabinet because we want additional viewpoints.
So that, I really was like, okay, internet, let's, let's turn it down a notch here.
Brian Derrick: It's because people are dumb. Auto tune that. I, it's, it's ridiculous to me and very predictable, like overreaction from the far left, I guess. I posted about [00:08:00] this. And my comment was that I feel like the Democratic Party went from Amelia Bedelia to Seal Team 6, like overnight with Kamala in charge.
They are
Brian Derrick: making the most strategic choices about how to expand her path to victory, which is newsflash. What a campaign is supposed to do. Right. That is the goal, is to attract every possible voter into your camp. Right. And then push them. For the agenda that those that those people are electing you to enact and so brilliant move by her smart to highlight it in an interview like this and very silly for people who actually support at least 95 percent of her policy agenda to try to have a backlash to some sort of footnote.
Glennis Meagher: Right. Um, I was like, okay,
Brian Derrick: decision like this. It's very silly.
Glennis Meagher: Yeah, take a break, take a break and get a grip.[00:09:00]
Brian Derrick: So whether it's a CNN interview, or messaging choices made at the convention, I think that Kamala has been incredibly disciplined in what she wants to focus on always bringing things back to How she's going to help the middle class and keeping a focus on cost of living and the issues that affect people the most every day, Trump is doing the exact opposite where he's drifting further and further and further from what the republicans want to talk about, namely like immigration and instead focusing on personal attacks against Vice President Harris against Tim Walz and kind of anybody who just comes across his newsfeed, it seems like.
Glennis Meagher: Yeah. He's not just like going further and further away from policy. He's going further and further away from basic human decency and respect.
Brian Derrick: Say that. It's clear that there's this growing rift between Trump and all of the people running his campaign where He's actually at [00:10:00] rallies saying people keep saying quote don't get personal you'll win it on the border You'll win it with inflation.
Donald Trump: You know, they always say Sure, please stick
Brian Derrick: to policy. Don't get personal But then he just asks the crowd what they want to hear.
Glennis Meagher: Right?
Brian Derrick: Like it's a WWE match.
Glennis Meagher: Yeah.
Brian Derrick: And they always respond that they want to hear him bashing Hamala and making sexist and disgusting jokes about her the way that they are on Fox news and sort of repeating QAnon conspiracy theories and like these types of things, which are red meat for the base, but do absolutely nothing for swing voters.
Glennis Meagher: Totally. Just in the last, we have a list here, kind of a hit list. Oh God. Last week, just in 24 hours alone, Donald Trump, he amplified he retweeted a vulgar joke about the vice president performing a sex act, implying that she owed her political rise to sexual favors. Disgusting. Disgusting. Uh, falsely accused her of staging a [00:11:00] coup to secure the democratic nomination.
Come again? Blamed her on the assassination attempt.
Brian Derrick: Because we all know the vice president's the head of secret service.
Glennis Meagher: Right. He shared a manipulated email. Online image of Bill Gates in an orange jumpsuit and called for Barack Obama to face a military tribunal. Uh, you know, when
Brian Derrick: someone's using the term military tribunal, we've lost a
Glennis Meagher: lot.
Brian Derrick: We've lost a lot.
Glennis Meagher: Yeah. Like what he. I don't know if you saw this. He's selling additional digital trading cards.
Inside Edition: Donald Trump's latest moneymaker is a new collection of 99 digital trading cards.
And get this, anyone buying 15 digital cards gets a physical card with a tiny piece of the suit Trump wore in the debate against President Biden.
Donald Trump: People are calling it the knockout suit. I don't know about that, but that's what they're calling it.
Glennis Meagher: And you know, he also just continues to promote explicit QAnon conspiracy theories.
And then I don't know [00:12:00] if you saw this. This was like a big to do. This even made it like to NPR, so it really cut through. All of the media, his team at Arlington National Cemetery, something happened with his staffers and one of his staffers roughed up one of the, you know, officials at Arlington National Cemetery, which is just everyone knows Arlington National Cemetery is like, you don't touch it.
You're very respectful there. It is. It is like these. tribute to our veterans and heroes of this country. So that, that really was just for me, like, Whoa, he really has him and his team are just totally, totally off the mark.
Brian Derrick: Yeah. Literally so much to unpack here. Let's circle back to the Arlington thing.
Cause I think it's actually going to come up again at the debate him being as unhinged. As he has been, especially with the conspiracy theory, like QAnon stuff with the personal attacks on Kamala, it is easy to just like write these things off. And it's like Trump being Trump, like we've had to put up [00:13:00] with it for almost 10 years now.
And it just kind of sort of like rolls off. You're, you're back, but it's worth it to just pause and think like, imagine if Ronald Reagan had tweeted, Are you kidding me? You can see the wires on the moonwalk. Or like, if Obama had tweeted, Who really did it? Hashtag 9 11. You know what I mean, like crazy, crazy things that it is sort of unbearable to see someone loan the stature that comes with being a president or former president in this case.
To these wild, outlandish, disproven, dangerous conspiracy theories really cuts deep for me in a way that is so harmful to our country. And it can't be looked over and it can't be like, Oh, that's Trump being Trump. We have to push back against it. It's, it's infuriating.
Glennis Meagher: Yeah. And I mean, the [00:14:00] best way to do that over the next two months is to do everything in your power to make sure Kamala Harris is elected because he represents a large body of individuals in this country who identify with what he's saying and doing and his like, you know, chipping away at basic democratic values and the institution that people have fought very, very hard to protect.
Brian Derrick: And this is not the point of the episode. So I will stop after this. But the point that I want to make is that when he came down that escalator, it was not a significant portion of America that believed in these types of conspiracy theories. He has built A pipeline with a fast track
of
Brian Derrick: like, how do we move as many people into the far alt right conspiracy theory land as possible because it helps him electorally and someone willing to do that to this country is, is not someone that we should ever entrust with power ever again.
Re Arlington Cemetery because we have to comment on it. It's literally a law that you cannot campaign [00:15:00] at Arlington, that it is illegal to shoot any type of campaign ad or do anything partisan at Arlington National Cemetery. So when Trump decided that he wanted to do an event there, they were explicit with him that he could not record for his campaign and that he could not create campaign related content.
while he was there. And of course, they just ran roughshod over the whole thing, brought a photographer who was denied entry. And then as you already said, like physically pushed aside in Arlington cemetery employee in order to gain access, shoot a essentially ad and then put it up on Tick Tock. It's lit.
You can go watch it. And That I think really turned a lot of people who should be like open to Trump off. Like we've seen a lot of content online of people that thought that that was like just a bridge too far.
Glennis Meagher: One more thing on Trump. Trump lives in Florida. He votes in Florida. Florida has a ballot prop. This November. [00:16:00] Number four, it's about the constitutional right to have an abortion in Florida, which we've talked about on the pod, how if the Supreme Court is going to overturn, overturn Roe v. Wade, which they have done, it is now going to the state constitutions to uphold the right to abortion.
Trump has been like tiptoeing around this, about how he would vote on the ballot prop. And we finally got him.
Brian Derrick: Yeah. This is a huge deal. Like I actually stopped what I was doing when I got this push notification, which I got a lot of push notification. So that doesn't happen a lot.
Glennis Meagher: You broke the news for me.
I saw it on your story right away.
Brian Derrick: Yeah, this was. Something that we've been waiting for from him for many, many months. He's been asked by reporters dozens of times how he would vote on the Florida ballot measure because the current law in Florida is a six week ban. So you have two options. You either oppose a six week abortion ban, which is, as we all know, essentially a total ban or you oppose it and you vote [00:17:00] yes.
Like those, those are the two options that you have. And so. Trump, who we know values his ego above everything, has been trying to distance himself from the anti abortion, anti choice movement in recent weeks. And his campaign has literally been like pulling him back because these anti abortion extremists are losing their minds.
Their minds over it, right? Because like he, they kind of thought that he was their guy and he needs them. He cannot win in November without vote.
Yeah.
Brian Derrick: And so what we have now is solid, concrete proof that Trump will do whatever it The anti abortion extremists want him to do. And we all know that what they really want is a national ban.
So to me, this news is huge because it impacts Florida, yes. But what it really showed was that there is a very clear path to him enacting. a national abortion day. [00:18:00] And he just walked us through the steps of how that would happen.
Glennis Meagher: Right. And then as soon as he was on the record saying that he then got asked by abortion opponents, like, wait a minute, what are you talking about?
Like, we thought you were with us. And then he said, cause he's so delusional and doesn't have any concrete fact bone in his body said,
Donald Trump: I'm voting that I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks.
Glennis Meagher: That's not voting works. You can't like qualify your vote with a yay or a nay. But with this one little amendment to the boat, it's a circle.
You circle it in or you put it into a machine. What, what is he talking about? I don't know if you saw this also, but he said that he is now going to have the government pay for IVF treatments.
Donald Trump: I'm announcing today in a major statement that under the Trump administration, your government will pay for, or your insurance company will be mandated to pay for all costs associated with [00:19:00] IVF treatment, fertilization for women.
Brian Derrick: Yeah, it's a classic spaghetti at the wall scenario. Um, because he really does. He sees how damaging this issue is for his electoral prospects. And as we know, he has no principles. He has no personal values to which he's trying to hold true. He just wants to attain power. And he sees the popular path as abandoning what the far right wants.
which is like these bans and bans on IVF and birth control and all these kinds of things. And he, he's like, Oh, then I'm going to lose. But he also can't win without those people because that's who he has now sort of gone all in for, for the last eight years is this far right contingent. Politico did run a piece last week of an anti abortion activist named Lila Rose and how she isn't voting for Trump because quote, he's alienating his [00:20:00] base.
And so I think that it, it is an actual electoral problem for him that he can't break away from the far right because he can't win without them. And he knows that their positions on abortion and reproductive rights are so unpopular that it's one of his biggest electoral vulnerabilities at the same
Glennis Meagher: time.
And it shows because he's flailing.
Brian Derrick: Period. It's
Glennis Meagher: giving.
Brian Derrick: So, as we've talked about on the pod before, one of the most consequential things that the next president will do is actually tax policy. There are a bunch of tax laws that are set to expire next year and the next president will decide who gets tax breaks moving forward, the super rich or the middle class.
Dana Bash: Yeah.
Brian Derrick: And so we, we got our boy. Joseph Gordon Levitt to weigh in on, on how this affects him.
Joseph Gordon Levitt: So Donald Trump wants to give me 70, 000 in tax cuts per year. And by [00:21:00] the way, he doesn't want to give that to everybody, uh, but I just read that's the average tax break for the top 1 percent if Donald Trump is elected president.
70, 000. And you might say, well, he's going to give tax breaks to everybody, but not really because of all the tax cuts, of all that money, nearly half of it. It's going to go to just the top 5 percent of people. Now, do I need an extra 70, 000? Honestly, no, my family and I are doing fine. Do I deserve an extra 70, 000?
I don't think so. It doesn't feel right to me. Especially when he's also talking about cutting programs that help. Most people are country. If you want to talk about who's going to really help most Americans, it's Kamala. Trump's going to help the same people. He always tries to help the wealthy himself.
He was born a wealthy guy and look, I completely respect needing to [00:22:00] vote for the candidate that's going to make it easier for your family, but Donald Trump isn't that candidate. Donald Trump's trying to give me 70, 000. So Mr. Trump. Thank you, but no thanks.
Brian Derrick: It's giving math, algebra, calculus,
like,
Brian Derrick: I'm obsessed, anybody can do that math.
That is so straightforward and simple. Do you think that Joseph Gordon Levitt should have 70, 000 more dollars per year of your money?
Glennis Meagher: No! You know, he's good. He's in syndication, baby.
Brian Derrick: It's an exception for me.
Glennis Meagher: Inception. Yeah, 100%.
Brian Derrick: That's like his thing. That's Wait, did you
Glennis Meagher: also see the internet imploded about Kamala Harris, uh, introducing an unrealized cap gains tax?
And everyone's like, don't come for my unrealized cap gains. I won't even get into, like, what an unrealized cap gains tax is, especially on unrealized, you know, equity or wealth, [00:23:00] uh, like, taxing Elon Musk on his, you know, X amount of ownership of Tesla, whatever. Beyond all that, the threshold for that tax to even kick in Is that you have a net worth of 100, 000, 000
Brian Derrick: Yeah, I have had that sent to me a bunch of times.
There was a Facebook post going viral that talked about your mom's home ownership or like her property being an unrealized capital gain and that they were gonna have to start paying taxes on the increased value of their house, which is The opposite of how the policy works makes no sense completely like divorced from the reality of the, of the policy proposal, which as you said, only applies to people worth over a hundred million dollars.
Yeah. I think
Glennis Meagher: that much money. I'm okay. The more
Brian Derrick: you can make This election about everyday people versus the billionaires who are [00:24:00] only looking out for themselves and trying to get more billions, the better off Kamala is going to be because the policies, the facts all point to her helping the economy and driving an expansion of the middle class and tax cuts for people making less than 400, 000 and everything about Trump's policies.
point to trillions of dollars of giveaways to the absolute wealthiest individuals and corporations in the country. So good on Joseph Gordon Levitt, absolutely love this kind of messaging and we need to see more of it.
Glennis Meagher: Trump has invented essentially a new, uh, Writing style or speech style. We know that he doesn't actually use complete sentences really ever and just speaks out out of his ass.
But now he has a new definition for what that exactly is.
Donald Trump: You know, I do the weave, you know what the weave is? I'll talk about like nine different things and they all come back brilliantly together. And it's like, [00:25:00] and friends of mine that are like English professors, they say, It's the most brilliant thing I've ever seen and but the fake news, you know what they say he rambled That's not rambling when you have what you do is you get off a subject to mention another little tidbit Then you get back onto the subject And you go through this and you do it for two hours and you don't even mispronounce one word
Glennis Meagher: It's giving Catholic to Jehovah.
Catholic to Jehovah: My father gets a job at the Palm Restaurant. My Uncle Junior works there, who is a Jehovah's Witness, believe it or not. He went from Catholic to Jehovah. So basically, my grandmother wanted us all to switch from Catholic to Jehovah. You know, meanwhile, we're from Harlem. My father's doing coke. You know, my mother thinks she's Aunt Margaret.
She's teasing the hair with a bottle of vodka. You know, so dysfunctional. Cross addicted family. Still cooking pasta on Sundays. Um, and uh, and the meatballs, they wind up being burnt. You know, it just got [00:26:00] so dysfunctional. It got pretty bad.
Brian Derrick: A hundred percent. That's Trump all the time. And it's like your friend who cannot get enough.
Finish a story literally cannot and now is trying to claim that that's like a sign of intelligence or something
Glennis Meagher: That's what I'm exactly trying to claim. He's trying to claim that he has no like tangible thought process but in fact, he's invented a new style of Argumentative thought
Brian Derrick: it's giving like when Everyone around you is on your payroll and so you just like have no idea how you actually present in the world because you live in a bubble.
That's, that's Trump to a T.
Well, I did have a group chat moment spill out into my socials.
Glennis Meagher: Oh yeah, I voted.
Brian Derrick: What'd you vote? Well, let me, let me set it up.
Glennis Meagher: Okay.
Brian Derrick: I was chatting in, in one of my group chats about the appropriate amount of time to use gym equipment. That is like. limited weight [00:27:00]
Glennis Meagher: gym equipment, like cardio machines. It's like not cardio 30 minutes.
It's totally different. I'm busy. Yeah. A
Brian Derrick: hundred percent. A hundred percent. No, I mean like if there's only one of something in your gym, like a specific type of machine, like what's the appropriate amount of time to use it. While still being considerate. And it's sparked some fierce debate in the group chat and then in my DMs.
Glennis Meagher: What was, what do you think?
Brian Derrick: I mean, the real answer is of course, just letting people work in. Like if you're going to be there for a long time, you should just like let someone alternate. But if you take that aside and say that you're going to be like a machine hog, I think in like the 10, Yeah. 15 minute range.
15 is
Glennis Meagher: pushing it. I'm like, how many sets are you doing? And it's also like, if you're going to be on that machine for 15 minutes, I don't want to see your phone in your hand texting for one minute of that.
Brian Derrick: Okay. I'm very guilty of that, but I am always on a timer. All of my rests in between sets are timed.
So I'm texting and like [00:28:00] reading the news and stuff, but like for 90 seconds at a time. And it's, it's time. And I stop when my timer goes off.
Glennis Meagher: Yeah.
Brian Derrick: But I'm sure people think that I'm a dick.
Glennis Meagher: Yeah, for sure. Um, myself included. Ah!
Brian Derrick: Oh my god, it dragged me. Um, what's been going on in your group chat?
Glennis Meagher: Here's something, I, I think this is like the best show on television.
Do you watch it? It's called Industry. What is that? Third season, HBO, it was a sleeper hit, I would say, because it used to have like a Friday night slot, and now they're on the Sunday, 10pm, coveted HBO slot. Max, whatever it's called slot. It's very, very good. I love it. So if any vibes only listeners are in the industry, hive DM me.
Brian Derrick: Okay. I have seen it on my HBO. I'm mostly just biding my time until the new dune series comes out because that's, are you doing head?
Glennis Meagher: I didn't realize that I'm
Brian Derrick: absolutely a dune head.
Glennis Meagher: I'm reading a new book, long Island compromise. It's super good. People should read it. I'm trying. I'm trying this election season to [00:29:00] Like purposely, like create time where I'm not on my phone and or on a screen of any sort and I have to read again to do that.
And not even the New Yorker, I can't read The New Yorker 'cause that's even too in the weeds. I need a book baby. And some people suggested Long Island compromise. I picks it up this weekend. It's great.
Brian Derrick: Absolutely. And you know, I'm, I texted you. I'm friends with Taffy, the author, and she's a superstar. She also wrote Fleishman's in Trouble.
Glennis Meagher: Yes. My friend who has read that book as well said this one is markedly better. And considering Fleishman's in Trouble became a TV show, that's saying something.
Brian Derrick: Absolutely. I did have someone write in to us. After the episode last week, and it was a Zennial, someone who's like cusp Gen X millennial. And they were like, please continue to explain the younger Gen Z phrases.
They loved that we had, um, explained girl rot
Kamala Harris: on the last
Brian Derrick: episode with Deja. And they said, some pods don't explain a [00:30:00] phrase modern or otherwise it can be a turnoff. and make me opt to listen to more mainstream pods like NPR, which I still love, listen, and support. So yeah, we are here to explain the Gen Z isms.
Maybe we'll bring more in to future episodes and help people understand the internet.
Glennis Meagher: I don't know if I know anymore, to be honest. But we definitely
Brian Derrick: do. I will say I was like almost code switching at the DNC because we were hanging out with so many 20 somethings like young content creators. I was like, yeah, that's so mid.
That's so someone said
Glennis Meagher: to me, actually, I was at this like off site right before the DNC. And someone asked a question. And there was a college student there, actually, who works part time for this organization. She's amazing. And it's like doing way more than I ever did as a junior in college. And I asked her a question.
And she was like, dead ass. And I was like, Deadass. Like, cause deadass means like, kind of like
Brian Derrick: Seriously. Like, yes.
Glennis Meagher: Seriously. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Brian Derrick: It's like an emphasis. And I was like,
Glennis Meagher: okay.
Brian Derrick: Like, I'm [00:31:00] not joking. It
Glennis Meagher: doesn't really fit into my vernacular. I say that all
Brian Derrick: the time. Deadass? Deadass. Absolutely.
Glennis Meagher: Oh, I don't.
Oh, for sure. I say, I don't know. I don't even know what I say.
Brian Derrick: You say period. Sabrina
Glennis Meagher: Carpenter,
Brian Derrick: I say period a lot. Period.
Glennis Meagher: Yeah, period. That's millennial.
Brian Derrick: I don't think Gen Z says that.
Glennis Meagher: No.
Brian Derrick: Um, wait, and I didn't even define it right after saying that. So mid is something that's like middle, like not great, not terrible, but something's like mid.
It was like meh. I would say like meh, but I definitely started saying mid at the convention in front of these little babies. Gen Z uses the word Ohio as an adjective.
To me,
Brian Derrick: meaning something's like boring.
Um,
Brian Derrick: which as someone from Ohio, I both am offended and agree with.
Glennis Meagher: Yeah. What else?
Brian Derrick: I don't know. We have to ask a Gen Z.
Glennis Meagher: Can more people, can people DM
Brian Derrick: us? Yeah. Send us, actually, that's a great one. So please do send us your favorite Gen Z phrases or Gen Z phrases that you've heard that you literally don't [00:32:00] understand what they mean, and we will break them down in our group chat next week.
Should we send them off with a good vibe?
Glennis Meagher: Yeah.
Brian Derrick: This week was Labor Day, and I have absolutely loved seeing how central labor has been to the Harris Walls campaign. They have made it a focal point. There were multiple labor union presidents at the convention who spoke, and they have continually returned.
Their talking points and policy proposals to how are they going to help the middle class. And so that was out in full force on Monday.
Kamala Harris: Everywhere I tell people, look, you may not be a union member. You better thank a union member
for sick leave. You better thank a union member for paid leave. You better thank a union member for vacation time.[00:33:00]
Because what we know is when union wages go up. Everybody's wages go up
when union workplaces are safer. Every workplace is safer when unions are strong, America is strong. And
Glennis Meagher: those are all the vibes this week. Thanks for listening. We're just one week away from the first Harris Trump debate, and you know, we are waiting anxiously. Keep checking the space for our takes on that debate and everything else that is happening in the home stretch.
The best way to make sure you don't miss an episode is by hitting subscribe or follow on your podcast platform of choice. And if you feel like your friends and family need this kind of vibe, check, send them a link to our pod. [00:34:00] We are loving seeing this vibes only community grow. Thanks. And we'll catch you next week.
Brian Derrick: Vibes Only is a production of Courier, a civic media company that protects and strengthens our democracy through credible, fact based journalism, and seeks to create a more informed, engaged, and representative America. Vibes Only is produced by Devin Maroney, with support from Courier's Kyle Tharp, R. C.
D'Amezzo, Daniel Strasburger, and Lucy Ritzman. Video editing is by Shane Verghest. Tara McGowan is founder and publisher of Courier.
