S2E9 - Moving Beyond Polarization + Feel Good Viewing & Listening

Host Chauncey Zalkin defines Actual People for its second year but not before diving into the movies, tv, and music that held the keys to change in 2025. Despite a backdrop of sadness and uncertainty, we will start anew like we always do.

Actual People is about TRANSITIONS, EVOLUTIONS, NEW CHAPTERS, from the personal to the global.

Topics Include:

• Lingering Post-Election Sadness and a Newfound Optimism 👁️
• Beyond Polarization to a 'Middle Way' 🙏🏼
• Impact of Short-Form Content 😶‍🌫️
• Welcome Generation Beta ! 🐣
• Significance of Wicked, Emelia Perez, Blink Twice, Ronny Chieng, Jamie Foxx, Ellen DeGeneres, Lola Young, Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, and a lot more.

Written, directed, and executive produced by Chauncey Zalkin. Intro/Outro sound engineered by Eric Aaron. Photography by Alonza Mitchell with Design Consulting by Paper + Screen.

Want to go deeper? Follow my Substack and don't forget to pledge subscription. (;

Want to see the episode? Subscribe to the Actual People YouTube Channel.

Follow us on Instagram for the latest updates and behind the scenes.

We want to hear from YOU so if you want to be a guest, have a pithy but kind retort, or for business inquiries, drop me a line.

Actual People, a Podcast
www.chaunceyzalkin.com

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 0:38 Enshittification Viewing, Generation Beta, and AI.
• 4:59 Movies and TV in 2024
• 14:12 Women In Music
• 17:17 Imagining Our Way Forward
• 18:13 A Podcast about Our Evolution

Transcript

We're not all walking the streets with tears streaming down our faces.  But sadness is in the air.  We haven't thrown in the towel. But we've come to the end of one long road and found a dead end.  Many of us are sad, scared, confused. And maybe even out of ideas but if Janis Joplin was right  and freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose, we're in a good spot to change everything in 2025.     The day after election day, when we knew our fate, I woke up feeling a spark of   optimism shining in the rubble.  That spark comes in part from all the conversations I've had this year on actual people  and from my own gut.  That we're moving ever so slightly away from the sharp corners of our polarized world and toward a middle ground, a middle-way as it's referred to in Buddhism, a place where we can reinvent and embrace our fellow human beings that does not exist on the extremes where we've been living for years.   Kumba F'in ya you might say but I've untapped a deep, well of hope. That well comes from exhaustion. We're all tired of pointing fingers and having fingers pointed at us. Of the onslaught of urgent messages.   The fatigue that has set in has opened up a space to start a new journey. How did that space figure into the movies and music we consumed this year? I'll leave books for another time but when I started this annual wrap-up, I was trying to remember all the movies and shows I saw, and I ended up hacking through the endless weeds of my viewing history.

I knew I shouldn't be going down that rabbit hole at all, but I just kept trudging along, which is a lot of how social media feels to me these days.  It just feels like a terrible use of my time.  I always have the nagging feeling that I should be doing anything else. And so I asked myself, what are the hundreds of shows that started and stopped amount to in the end when only a fistful of gems emerged?   Just as social media has beat us into cognitive dissonance. Which will only accelerate with AI. If we don't gather the reins and steer it, drinking from the fire hose of streaming content has had a similar effect to social media. And now many of us are snapping to, and we're looking around and seeing what we've become. The way we have let tech control us needs a rethink pronto. And it's interesting that organically, you see people turning away and wresting back that control. Especially as we see phenomena like Ivy league freshmen, not being able to read whole books anymore and teens with such fragmented attention  that scientists are studying the changes that have taken place in our brain chemistry. And now in 2025, a new generation is being   born: generation beta.  People are already predicting that in the near future, a swath of the friendships that these kids make will be with a AI. In other words, friends that don't exist,  friends that aren't human.  What a world we are entering.  My first response to this is abject terror. But I imagine it's like the terror that we felt when people first saw airplanes in the sky or could hear sounds coming out of a little machine on a table, which was the radio or a picture coming across the screen.  I'm trying to keep that perspective. But no matter what we have to go into this with our eyes wide  open.  

 10 years ago, I did some work from one of the major media conglomerates. And part of that work was telling the story of their content acquisition strategy, where they used the term good enough content to talk about the YouTube style, DIY storytelling  that they could no longer overlook.  Each individual piece might not be worth that much financially to them, but in bulk, With our waning attention spans,  it was going to be worth a lot.  This was before TikTok perfected the medium of short form attention retention. It's obviously fantastic that we've democratized the process  but are we creating too much so that the great stuff gets lost and garbage shows cloud our minds and clutter our time. After having written this, my neighbor, who's an editor told me that there's been a huge amount of layoffs in media journalism and in the book industry.  I thought I was having a flashback. Wait, didn't that happen last year?  I didn't know that there was anybody left to let go of. 

 Then today I encountered another article talking about the death of literary fiction, the exact area where I've been trying to carve a little corner for myself to exist my entire life. But now I'm reading that literary fiction is being edged out entirely.

 One of the things that I thought about when looking back at shows  is just because it's devastating deranged or depraved, AKA edgy, it doesn't mean it's good. This gripe figured into the movies and shows that did make my list. Next I talk about music where women ruled the roost and will do so into the future.

 So here it is the best of 2024.  Here's that list.  Wicked the movie of the year for me was a wicked. It was entertaining. It was profound. It had dazzling sets and costumes. It was life affirming. Similar to Barbie the year before it was pitch perfect. It almost felt like a part two.  Where Barbie dismantled and healed us from harmful self-beliefs that were instilled in us through the stereotypes of a doll, Wicked helped us shift perspective  and look differently at what is good, what is evil, what is benign and what is not.  With all the shows that use depravity and ,soullessness as a proxy for authenticity,  real bravery and vision comes from being able to tell a story that doesn't seek to be clever by telling us that we're all sick monsters.  Producing shock and disgust has become a proxy for true  nuanced  insight.  Over the last several years,  there has been a reframing of women  previously demeaned like Paris Hilton, Pamela Anderson, and so on. Watching wicked felt like I had done myself a kindness. 

 

  Number two Emelia Perez. Wow. Wow. Wow. Here is big, bold storytelling from the heart. Following no trope, and using a most inspired narrative device to talk about identity and self understanding beyond the showiness of identity politics. Perez evokes and intuitive sense of longing and shows us how that longing gets it meshed with violence and desperation. It's a story of friendship, loneliness, altruism, alienation, and love. All told without a morsel of moralizing.    

 Next up is Ronnie chain's new standup called love to hate it, which is on Netflix right now.  If you don't know him, he is one of the correspondents on the daily show. He was in crazy rich Asians. I was already gutting for Ronnie as the next full-time host of the daily show. He's hilarious. He's sharp as attack. And this special only magnifies how very singular has taken politics is as he exposes hypocrisy. With compassion. It's a rare lens. This special is a must. See, I'm also halfway through interior, Chinatown on Hulu, which is amazing.    Next up is Jamie Fox. What had happened was that's the name of his standup? I'm a longtime fan of this multihyphenate Hottie. In addition to being hilarious, Jamie Fox is a fantastic actor. I remember discovering this side of him watching collateral. Where he plays along Tom Cruise. He can also sing his ass off. 

 His just got like this voice  it's  sounds the way. A really good men's cologne smells he is a national treasure and we all thought he was going to die last year. So this comeback special is beautiful and emotional for how utterly unslick it is. It's more a show of raw humanity and vulnerability than an effort to make us think. He's , just fine. And everything's okay. And I love him for that. Also, his shoes looked goofy with his pants on the special, and for some reason, this makes them even more lovable.    Next up. And this is a controversial one. And I guess that's sort of the point it's Ellen DeGeneres  her comeback standup called for your approval.  Now. Full disclosure. Ellen DeGeneres did pet my dog once in a store. And my dog pulled away and went to another customer and totally dissed Ellen  DeGeneres. And Ellen looked in my face for this reassurance and I found that very endearing, but maybe I have it all wrong. Maybe she's a jerk and she's a bully. And she sucks. And banana peels all that, but she got up and acted human and became vulnerable and told us she deserves to continue to exist. I'm just done with a polarization of everything and everyone, I wanted to hear what she had to say. And she's fucking funny as hell. I missed her and I'm glad she's back. And I hope she treats people well, and that people treat her well, too.   

 Next on my list is Penelope.  It's about a girl who finds herself in the woods. And you wander along with her. As she's forest bathing and adapting to nature.  It's not real life. And I don't think it even really tries to be, it's a tween movie. I'd say aimed at like nine, 10 year olds., that's a worthwhile meditation. It kind of feels like a low-fi track in movie form, and it's what you might need on a rainy Saturday. I found it  really calming, soothing and sweet. Again,  really am tired of  depravity as a device to signal realness, most people. Are not living depraved sick lives.  next up, speaking of sick depraved lives, um, blink twice. 

I really loved this movie. And I had to say I was engaged, but not enthralled until the 39.  

And a half mark. 39 minute.  Plus mark, as someone stalled on a book, vaguely on the same topic   the line at that timestamp pricked up my ears.  The scene. Is this they're partying on a secluded island. 

There are guests of a rich, powerful man and his bros. And there's nothing incessantly, bad going on. Nothing you can put your finger on. Even the suspense music is very sparsely used. It isn't knives out, which is awesome. It's not invitation to a murder,  which I thoroughly enjoyed. But as women who live in certain cities in our twenties, we all know that feeling of being in a social situation with men. And conscious of the fact  that we are being played like cards. And that to them, we're not quite people we're not equals we're decor or worse.  I have limited my time in these situations, as I always felt very afraid in them. Cause you're inherently not in control when you're in that gilded cage. And these women in this movie are reliant on their host to be good people. They're at their mercy, whether they're good guys or bad guys that are at their mercy and that alone is uncomfortable and they start off feeling very grateful. 

That's overplay this, like, oh, the gratitude and this pick me feeling.  Like they're in this club  they finally arrive  they've been accepted and they've been seen by these. You know, celebrity males. But what we come to find is that yeah, they're in a club. All right. 

But it ain't a good one. I definitely recommend blink twice.    The other shows that I mentioned that I really liked, but I won't get into with such depth for the sake of timing is presumed innocent Supacell, absolutely loved Supacell. And I wrote about it in one of my Dominant Narrative newsletters on LinkedIn that I also mostly repost to Substack so definitely go check those out; um, Baby Reindeer; Rebel Ridge; Nobody Wants This, which was particularly appealing to me because  I grew up with a Jewish father and a Gentile mother; Society of the Snow about the plane crash in the Andes, Man in Full, The Lost Children also about a plane crash in the Amazon; Colin from Accounts, this Australian sitcom, if you haven't unearthed Colin from Accounts I recommend that you do that. It's absolutely hilarious.  I was laughing out loud, like gut laughing, every single episode, then there's English Teacher, which is also hilarious.  Between the Temples.  This is  about a rabbi and he is questioning his faith after his wife dies  it's very weird, but it's good. It has a little bit of a Harold and Maude vibe. And I also really enjoyed bingeing alone and outlast, they were both riveting and I also recommend perfect couple, which is a little silly. But still fun. 

Nicole Kidman is always the lead actress in those skewer, the Ridge. Rich woman come on. Done type of roles. And this is another one of those, but it's really fun to watch.  I haven't seen the substance. I promise I will. I'm waiting for a day when  I can sit down on an empty stomach and  brace myself but I feel I have to watch it. There's two episodes of actual people that are about. Deconstructing beauty standards, episode six, where it's a monologue that I talk about my own beauty standards and my own relationship with beauty  growing up in Miami, in the eighties and living in New York in the nineties and two thousands. And an interview with Elise Hu, where she talks about K beauty, the cyborg or tech gaze replacing the male gaze. And the future of our beauty standards and "lookism."  so the last movie that I'm gonna mention is conclave, which I just saw a couple of days ago. And I have to say, I didn't love it. It felt a little bit like watching CSPAN in parts. It kind of dragged on.  They use this device of opening and shutting doors drawers and lifting shade to the point of tedium.. But other than that fact,  I like the central message, which is accepting uncertainty. Certainty is the way the Catholic church has historically controlled its flock and abused its power. Certainty wears this cloak of false bravado and led us to elect Donald Trump. Because even in his profound ignorance, he exuded, to more than half the country, a kind of certainty. That held sway over the masses.  It's the same way. Hitler took power. It's the Democrats vagaries that got us in the end, all despots and demagogues shill certainty. So for examining the evil of certainty alone, conclave is a major movie this year.   

 Next I would like  to take a moment to celebrate all the women that are creating a huge impact on the music industry. 

It's indisputable that female voices are crushing it with a freshest and most vibrant music and most wry delightful lyrics over the past few years, rising to a crescendo in 2024.  This is my list of women that I absolutely love in music starting with Lola Young. Lola Young is the dazzling quote mess of south London and makes me remember being 20 with a voyeuristic dreads slash thrill. And I call her a mess because her latest song is messy where she gives herself permission to be messy  and cuts her lover off at the knees for saying otherwise.  After Lola young, who I've been listening to for a while now, I'd say in the entire list of women who defined it 2024 in music. My very favorite is Sabrina carpenter.  Here is somebody who is  borrowing from the past. . She's making it her own. And she's also very, very funny.  Her turn of phrase and her sense of humor is what makes her so special and kind of rise above the rest for me.  Like everybody else. I love the brat album by Charlie XCX. I love Chappell Roan. I still think Kink is my karma is her best song though. I love SZA who has a new album out Doja Cat who promises one by may. 

She's brilliantly weird.  Then there's the Philly punk band mannequin, pussy. who came out with a brilliant track on their new album called loud bark.  You have to go and listen to it. It's just so, so very good. Then we have Billie Eilish. That album I just put on at any time,  in the background, it's just always magical. Olivia Rodrigo, who has a rare talent for specificity in her lyrics. She really captures what it's like to be the age that she is. And then there's Blondshell, who is at the opposite end of the spectrum vibe wise.  Her songs are slightly suffocating because they are very dark. But they're just so damn good that I cannot turn away. She just came up with a single and an album is going to follow. And then of course, there's Taylor swift. I'm not a big Taylor swift fan personally, but I really respect her undeniable songwriting chops, and I'm happy for her enormous success, especially of the Eras tour which only seems to have spread joy and money to the right people. 

And the last thing I'm going to mention as a side note is how the whole country has gone country this year. 

Beyonce post Malone, Sabrina carpenter has a very definite. Country Twain to most of her songs on her latest album. Lana Del Ray.  And then there's jelly roll. I'd never heard of jelly roll until he made this plea to Congress this year  about putting measures in place to stop the opioid crisis and it was just so  emotional and so articulate. And I said, who's this guy and I looked him up and then I just fell in love with his music. He really captures the malaise of most of America, especially the opioid plague, but also the alienation and the joblessness. And the pain of this entire country in crisis.  

Music, like movies gives us hope. And paves a path for the future. So if we're going to put our minds to what we want to imagine and not just what we can imagine, because of course we can imagine pain and loss and war, but if we're going to put them on, so what we want to imagine  we might be in better  hands by this time next year.  here's to 2025, everybody.

  I have to  say , that I am so proud of what I accomplished in 2024. I launched this podcast. This is our 26th episode. And before this I had completed, I realized 25 episodes in 2024. What a nice, neat number to go into 2025 with.  I've had amazing guests in fields ranging from psychology and psychoanalysis. 

 Writers from television movies and advertising  brand strategists.  Designers, editors, futurists, journalists, publishers after year one, looking back on all of it, I've come to the conclusion. that what this podcast. Is really about is evolution.  How creative people navigate evolutions big and small, the transitions in their own life and the major evolution that the whole world is going through right now. I like to highlight people who give themselves permission to change. To alter their path. And to develop things further  this podcast is about examining the cultural moment that we're in.  The transition that we're in as a civilization, as a society.

 It dawned on me that everything I've written in fiction and everything I focused on in my interviews has been about transitions. Big leaps, new chapters. The first time I attempted and finished writing a novel. It was right after I completed a huge change in my own life and moved to Europe. I was in my thirties and my priorities and interests were shifting or just solidifying. And I gave myself that permission to go for what I wanted exactly. 

To make a go of a different life. The average age of a cell in the human body is seven years. And I drew a lot of inspiration from that idea. That people change all the way down to the cellular level. I changed my life completely from one day to the next. And the second novel I wrote, it was also after a major change had taken place. And I was assessing that change which was.

I had had kids and I got divorced and I moved again.  And I realized that is my life's work to talk about and examine these major transitions that we go through as people, as professionals, as creatives, often as women.  Because I'm a woman. 

I see this in a very female lens. That's my experience. And I speak to a lot of women on this podcast and I've done a lot of work throughout my career, highlighting the creativity and accomplishments of women who take. Risks.  Nowadays, I like to bring men into the fold too. And talk to men who are creative and visionary. and open.  In year two of actual people, I'm going to be doubling down on this focus  of transitions in our life and in the world where we constantly grow and expand our imagination and our creativity. And our vision and the work that we do and the way we live.  Our lives don't have to look the same from year to year. We're constantly expanding and growing, and it's so easy to get in these sticky places where you're going after something and banging your head against a wall. And I think it's okay to shift slightly and know that there might be another path to getting to where you want to go. Or just find a new path completely.  I brought my kids a Nintendo Switch for their birthday. I'd been resisting doing this free years. 

I didn't want them to have another excuse to just be stuck on a screen. But I thought if they're going to be playing games, I want them to game on a platform that's really aesthetically engaging. And we got Zelda as one of our first games and I'm not a gaming person, but I have absolutely loved delving into this world and the world building and problem solving opportunity. 

It offers.  It's this ever unfolding journey. And we can think of life like this big open world gaming platform. Where we can make different decisions and open up rich possibilities, open up new worlds, and we can keep building and evolving new levels of imagination, new worlds, new ideas. You can arm yourself with new tools, new treasure chests of opportunity. 

Along with all the tough stuff that goes on, we should always feel that inner mobility and emotional ability to expand. I'm going into year two, focusing on people who are evolving. Starting new chapters, closing and chapter. Making a huge change or evolving something small that they already started into something new or wildly wonderful.

I'm speaking to. people, who would describe themselves as creatives. People like visual artists, writers, designers, architects, animators, filmmakers., those working creative fields like producers and editors.  But also people who are doing things to solve climate change or forge real community. and solve real problems, and bring people together.  Make life better. and make life work where it's broken.

 The focus of actual people is cultural analysis and creative evolution. So if you're loving actual people, I implore you to please share this with your friends so I can continue to grow. 

I have a loyal following here, and I'm very grateful, but I need to grow in 2025 by a lot. So I can continue to put this podcast out and make it financially viable. And I'm relying on you to help me. If you haven't please subscribe, comment, share  wherever you get your podcasts.  Did you know we have a YouTube channel? Follow the YouTube channel or follow me on Substack, actually, please follow me. On Substack. I had been posting articles all year competing with journalists  building their community on Substack, really talented writers so there's a lot of people that I'm competing with for eyeballs.  I think it is a great way  to reach other creative people  but I haven't quite found my community there yet so I would love if you would join me on Substack. last but not least, I plan on making actual people t-shirts this year and I'll be selling them to help support this podcast as well. So let me know if you'd like a t-shirt 

that's it. Here's to 2025 being a year where we can accept ourselves and take back our power, even in a scary time. I hope that you plan on doing something that feels really great and unique to you. And any area that appeals to you, any area that you feel is calling you. Thank you for listing  join me next week for my first interview of the year. Until then have a great week. 

Happy 2025

  You've been listening to Actual People. This show is written, directed, and executive produced by me, your host, Chauncey Zalkin. Show sound designed by Eric Aaron. Click on the link below to subscribe so you don't miss a single episode. And don't forget to leave a review. I'll be sharing my favorites.  You can find our socials and all links to deeper dives into these topics at chaunceyzulkin.

com and on my Substack at chaunceyzulkin. substack. com.  Actual People is available wherever you get your podcasts.