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2: Cops in Pride, Dune, and Flying Taxis
Episode 2 • 8th March 2024 • Broadly Relevant • Simran Pasricha & Ryan Hamilton
00:00:00 00:28:16

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This week we chat about cops in pride, abortion rights, Dune, the politics of assimilation, Olivia Rodrigo, and flying taxis. It’s a big one, so buckle in.

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We hope you loved the pod, hosted by your fave personality hires Simran Pasricha & Ryan Hamilton. Tell a friend about us and we'll love you forever! Otherwise, we'll see you next week with a new episode.

Recorded on unceded Bunurong and Wurundjeri country by two friends who met on Kombumerri country. This always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land. Join us in ​Paying the Rent​.

Transcripts

Music:

[upbeat music]

Music:

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Ryan Hamilton:

- Hey, welcome back to Broadly Relevant.

Simran Pasricha:

I'm Simran Pasricha and this is the podcast for burnt out girlies trying to stay broadly relevant.

Ryan Hamilton:

- I'm Ryan Hamilton.

Music:

[upbeat music]

Music:

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Music:

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Simran Pasricha:

How you feeling?

Music:

[upbeat music]

Ryan Hamilton:

Pretty good. Yeah, I'm a little hungry

Simran Pasricha:

Um, that's so fair.

Simran Pasricha:

Well, hungry for our second podcast.

Ryan Hamilton:

Thanks for listening everyone, 70 downloads, a little goofy.

Simran Pasricha:

Yeah, that was absolutely so kind.

Simran Pasricha:

Yup! Thank you to my cousins for listening! Wow, we see you and we hear you!

Ryan Hamilton:

And thank you to the one listener in France.

Ryan Hamilton:

Merci beaucoup.

Music:

[upbeat music]

Simran Pasricha:

Broadly news! So what's happening in the news?

Music:

[upbeat music]

Ryan Hamilton:

Well, you know, it's a big week. Um, I, I'm going to tell you what I was most gooped by.

Ryan Hamilton:

Kamala Harris calling for ceasefire.

Simran Pasricha:

Totally.

Simran Pasricha:

‘bout damn time.

Ryan Hamilton:

Well, about damn time, but also that is wild. I'm like, you're in charge.

Simran Pasricha:

[laughing]

Ryan Hamilton:

Who are you calling to ceasefire?

Simran Pasricha:

[laughing]

Simran Pasricha:

- That is so true.

Simran Pasricha:

Pick up the phone.

Simran Pasricha:

[laughing]

Ryan Hamilton:

Like look in the mirror, you know, but I think it's really interesting the way that like,

Simran Pasricha:

- Yeah.

Ryan Hamilton:

We've seen politicians shift their rhetoric in recent days, and like weeks.

Ryan Hamilton:

Because they've seen that actually people give a shit about Palestine because free Palestine and they're using this rhetoric, but still not doing much like the way that Penny Wong started being like, oh yeah, we're like seeking to make change to develop a framework for a ceasefire and it’s like let’s just do the thing.

Simran Pasricha:

Let's just do the damn thing.

Simran Pasricha:

No, it's actually quite concerning,

Simran Pasricha:

but that's what politicians do best, right?

Simran Pasricha:

They talk a lot of talk and don't really walk any of the walk.

Simran Pasricha:

Meanwhile, we're walking every damn Sunday,

Simran Pasricha:

every damn Sunday, free Palestine marches.

Simran Pasricha:

See you there.

Ryan Hamilton:

And then also, you know, like what's happened with Albanese in the recent days

Ryan Hamilton:

Yes, the International Criminal Court of Justice or something

Simran Pasricha:

ick. No, no, I shouldn't say that!

Ryan Hamilton:

Um You know for very valid reasons the freezing of the provision of military aid to Israel And I'm just like and now he's running around being like we should probably not do that and I'm like diva you started it

Simran Pasricha:

No, Diva, you did.

Ryan Hamilton:

And now you want to say don't do that. Again, look Irony in the Eye.

Simran Pasricha:

Look irony in the eye.

Simran Pasricha:

But it also kind of proves that the work that a lot of these activists are doing and people showing up to rallies and making noise, and it is crucial.

Ryan Hamilton:

It's crucial.

Simran Pasricha:

And it works.

Simran Pasricha:

And boycott Eurovision.

Simran Pasricha:

Yes, and boycott Eurovision.

Simran Pasricha:

More on that in future episodes.

Simran Pasricha:

I'm so excited to hear all the news from you because famously I'm actually a journalist.

Simran Pasricha:

And I'm off the clock.

Simran Pasricha:

OK, this is where I truly become the content creator.

Ryan Hamilton:

Well, famously, I'm a storyteller.

Simran Pasricha:

Yes, so tell me a story.

Ryan Hamilton:

Not a trained journalist.

Ryan Hamilton:

Okay, so I wroreadte a really interesting article in The Guardian about air traffic control,

Ryan Hamilton:

right?

Ryan Hamilton:

So we all know air traffic control, the famous people in the boxes that make us not die in planes.

Simran Pasricha:

Famous.

Ryan Hamilton:

Um, they're stressed at the moment, the people.

Simran Pasricha:

- Oh.

Simran Pasricha:

[laughs]

Simran Pasricha:

- Are they okay?

Simran Pasricha:

- Should we send them like a, you know,

Simran Pasricha:

a Headspace gift card or like, they're good.

Ryan Hamilton:

Yeah, I think a headspace gift card would go a long way.

Ryan Hamilton:

Um, but so you, you've heard a lot of like tea about like flying taxis, like Uber does an ad about flying taxis every two seconds to get media attention.

Simran Pasricha:

I don't think I've heard this tea

Ryan Hamilton:

Okay, maybe I'm just like into planes but every two seconds Uber is like we're gonna we're gonna be doing flying taxis in like three seconds and

Simran Pasricha:

Um, is the equivalent of like being into planes like being like a horse girl? Do you think?

Ryan Hamilton:

They're definitely things that get you places

Ryan Hamilton:

Plane guys: the horse girls of the guy world

Simran Pasricha:

Yep. Gender. What is it? I don't know.

Ryan Hamilton:

But so, um, interestingly Melbourne is one of the cities that is

Ryan Hamilton:

Earmarked by Uber for like global testing and rollout of these flying taxis

Ryan Hamilton:

Along with Brisbane, I think which is such a random combo again not fact-checking here, But basically the air traffic controllers in Australia are really stressed because at the moment there's around 1.4 million

Ryan Hamilton:

Drone flights per year, which is like fine. They can

Simran Pasricha:

That is so wild though, even to think about that number, 1.4 million, that's a lot of drones.

Simran Pasricha:

What are they doing?

Ryan Hamilton:

It's for like videography and like um I don't know military… I don't know look I—

Simran Pasricha:

Okay.

Simran Pasricha:

I was scared that you were going to say that.

Ryan Hamilton:

skimmed um but yeah so they're really stressed because they're predicting like in the next 20 to 40 years stuff like food deliveries and product deliveries that's going to be really common over drones and so they're stressed because they're predicting like 60 million drone flights annually by like 20 something or other. Anyhoo, so they're stressed. So they have

Ryan Hamilton:

to like redo their whole like air traffic control system to like accommodate all the extra drones, because we're gonna have so many more drones in busy areas, which is also where our airports are. Basically, they're stressed and the future is drones.

Simran Pasricha:

Oh my god, I think that we need to send them actually two headspace gift cards

Simran Pasricha:

Cuz that sounds a lot like 1.4 million = one headspace gift card. 60 million? Come on

Ryan Hamilton:

Airplane crashes are bad, you know, like that's a lot of stress on their shoulders. And then

Simran Pasricha:

No, it's actually like not ideal to crash on it

Ryan Hamilton:

One final little tidbit, which isn't really news, but it's interesting. Have you heard of a heat wave? So the city of Melbourne, and the reason I know this is because while we were doing the research for this podcast, someone came out to us and told us about it and had us a flyer. But city of Melbourne has a cool little program called cool routes or roots.

Simran Pasricha:

I- You know what? I've actually experienced a heatwave.

Simran Pasricha:

I am not like the other girls.

Ryan Hamilton:

How do you pronounce it in this country? Cool routes?

Simran Pasricha:

- Routes? Routes? Routes.

Simran Pasricha:

I'm gonna say routes.

Ryan Hamilton:

Cool routes. So it's called cool routes. And it is kind of like Google Maps, but for like walking around the city, and you put in your two little destinations. And instead of showing you the fastest way to walk around the city, it'll show you the coolest way to walk around the city. So like thinking about shade and like cooler pavements. And it'll also request the time of day that you plan on doing the walk. And depending upon where the sun is,

Ryan Hamilton:

it'll recommend different like walks around the city and like different routes, because it knows like, you know, is this asphalt? Is this grass? Is this...

Ryan Hamilton:

other material, etc. Like, you know, is there shade? And I don't know, I think that's really cool.

Ryan Hamilton:

Broadly cultured!

Simran Pasricha:

- Broadly cultured.

Music:

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Ryan Hamilton:

So what's happening in the cultural zeitgeist?

Music:

[music playing]

Simran Pasricha:

- Well, you know my girl, Olivia Rodrigo,

Simran Pasricha:

I love her so, and her Guts tour just started.

Simran Pasricha:

And lowkey, incredible work.

Ryan Hamilton:

Incredible. The moon?

Simran Pasricha:

- Yeah, the moon.

Ryan Hamilton:

The moon!

Simran Pasricha:

- Pink who, honestly.

Ryan Hamilton:

Oh, I love her.

Simran Pasricha:

She's coming for pink.

Ryan Hamilton:

I love her.

Simran Pasricha:

- Who I thought was Australian for a really long time.

Simran Pasricha:

- Back to Olivia Rodrigo, yeah.

Simran Pasricha:

So she just started her Guts tour,

Simran Pasricha:

and it's doing amazingly.

Simran Pasricha:

She looks so cool.

Simran Pasricha:

She's flying around on a moon.

Simran Pasricha:

She's jumping up and down.

Simran Pasricha:

It's very punk and edgy energy.

Simran Pasricha:

Some might say it's very similar to Tori Vega from Victorious.

Simran Pasricha:

And another cool thing that Olivia is doing on her tour is that she is supporting abortion funds

Simran Pasricha:

throughout the whole tour.

Simran Pasricha:

She announced the launch of Fund for Good,

Simran Pasricha:

which is an initiative that directs a share of all ticket proceeds from North American stops of the tour to the National Network of Abortion Funds.

Simran Pasricha:

And basically it's trying to eliminate barriers to abortion access, covering costs such as procedures,

Simran Pasricha:

travel, childcare, and lost wages for those in need.

Simran Pasricha:

And I think this is simply incredible of Olivia.

Simran Pasricha:

This is like such a slay.

Simran Pasricha:

And a lot of people have been.

Simran Pasricha:

From the start of her career, comparing Olivia to Taylor Swift.

Ryan Hamilton:

Which I don't get.

Simran Pasricha:

I kind of get because it's like similar ages like you know Olivia like wrote about boys.

Ryan Hamilton:

But I think like, they have, sure they have similar target audiences.

Ryan Hamilton:

I think the artistry is radically different

Simran Pasricha:

It's valid.

Simran Pasricha:

But it's interesting because I feel like if Olivia Rodrigo, such a young artist, because she only has two albums, can do this, can take this stand, and it's not the first time that she's mentioned abortion funds.

Simran Pasricha:

Why can't the bigger artists do it?

Simran Pasricha:

Why can't Taylor say anything?

Simran Pasricha:

Nobody's saying anything about free Palestine.

Ryan Hamilton:

- No, it's so fucked.

Simran Pasricha:

It's quite...

Simran Pasricha:

It's so jarring, I don't understand.

Ryan Hamilton:

Yeah, I don't know.

Simran Pasricha:

I just don't know.

Ryan Hamilton:

- Have you watched Taylor Swift's documentary,

Ryan Hamilton:

"Miss Americana"?

Ryan Hamilton:

- Do you remember that scene where she's talking about the midterm, like the 2018 midterms?

Simran Pasricha:

Yes, yes.

Ryan Hamilton:

Yeah, and she's talking about how like,

Ryan Hamilton:

oh, like, you know, it's finally, I'm in a place where like,

Ryan Hamilton:

I've never spoken out about this stuff before,

Ryan Hamilton:

and I need to now.

Ryan Hamilton:

And she's like, kind of like taking this step into like,

Ryan Hamilton:

considering herself as like a political artist.

Ryan Hamilton:

And obviously those midterms did not go the way that she wanted them to go.

Simran Pasricha:

Yeah, it was really cool seeing her do that, and then I just never saw her do anything like that again.

Ryan Hamilton:

- Didn't she just like come out the other day and say like,

Ryan Hamilton:

vote, but didn't specify for who?

Simran Pasricha:

Yeah, that seems to be a theme among celebrities.

Ryan Hamilton:

- Yeah, and I'm like, look, electoral engagement is a massive problem in the US, less so here.

Ryan Hamilton:

Um, but like, and all, obviously I think Taylor saying go vote…

Ryan Hamilton:

You are going to push people a certain way because of just where she stands in the cultural zeitgeist, but it's like, no, let's be explicit.

Simran Pasricha:

I'd like to point out that you said Zeitgeist, that's the first Zeitgeist alert for the podcast, very exciting.

Ryan Hamilton:

Second.

Simran Pasricha:

Second Zeitgeist alert for the podcast.

Ryan Hamilton:

- I think it's also really exciting, though,

Ryan Hamilton:

'cause with Olivia Rodrigo,

Ryan Hamilton:

like she comes from this new generation of artists,

Ryan Hamilton:

and I feel like younger people are more political?

Simran Pasricha:

Yeah, yeah, not gonna fact-check that [laughing]

Ryan Hamilton:

And like, that's quite exciting,

Ryan Hamilton:

seeing Olivia be really explicitly political.

Simran Pasricha:

Yeah, absolutely, like taking like the political vibes from the plebs, the peasants, you know,

Simran Pasricha:

the people and then bringing it up to celebrities.

Ryan Hamilton:

And especially for it to be like an issue that is as contested as abortion

Simran Pasricha:

Yeah, no love that for Olivia. I'm excited to see what she

Simran Pasricha:

Decides to do for other legs of her tour, you know, like the international sees like see if she continues that so stay tuned We'll be telling you all about it

Ryan Hamilton:

And on the topic of abortion as well, how cool that France enshrined the legal right to abortion in the French constitution. Yeah. Once again, Merci beaucoup.

Simran Pasricha:

That was such a slay such a slay.

Simran Pasricha:

Mercy bucco baby

Music:

[upbeat music]

Music:

[upbeat music]

Ryan Hamilton:

So Dune 2 came out the other day. It's a movie. Zendaya, Timothy Chalamet.

Ryan Hamilton:

This is me rehashing discourse from the first movie, but let's do it because I think it ties into some of the things happening in the zeitgeist. Dune is such a messy book

Ryan Hamilton:

from a cultural appropriation perspective, and I'll be the one to talk about it.

Ryan Hamilton:

[laughter]

Simran Pasricha:

Okay, okay, white man slay! You go off, you ally.

Ryan Hamilton:

So Dune is a book from the olden times before the internet written by Frank Herbert, who is was, he's dead now, a white American. Um, and he wrote it, sci-fi about the far future,

Ryan Hamilton:

but he really drew from Islam as like a key, like cultural influence. Um, and a lot of like Arabic influences and North African, and middle eastern influences are central to the text.

Ryan Hamilton:

So this is a quote from Harris A. Durrani's article in the Washington Post.

Ryan Hamilton:

Herbert's editor had initially asked him to tone down the Muslim flavor of his book.

Ryan Hamilton:

The latest adaptation, directed by Denis Villeneuve, does just that.

Ryan Hamilton:

So for example, Frank Herbert's book talks about these jihads that these characters are going on.

Ryan Hamilton:

And Villeneuve's adaption cuts that as a word entirely and calls them holy wars.

Ryan Hamilton:

But the way that Herbert used

Ryan Hamilton:

Jihad was as a positive description of anti-colonial resistance, and this is a quote that I'm stealing again from Durrani, a positive description of anti-colonial resistance, but it also is used to describe in the text the colonial violence of the imperial families in the work.

Ryan Hamilton:

And so the novel disrupts conventional understandings of the word Jihad in the West by applying it to all these different fights.

Ryan Hamilton:

And so if popular audiences see Jihad as terrorism, then the imperialists too in Herbert's world,

Ryan Hamilton:

the colonizers are also terrorists, right?

Ryan Hamilton:

Which is interesting.

Ryan Hamilton:

Villeneuve cuts it.

Simran Pasricha:

Come on Villeneuve!

Ryan Hamilton:

And Herbert, obviously a messy guy, like he's a white guy using Arabic influences and Islamic influences to tell a story which maybe it's not his to tell, but he's doing something interesting and it's, you know, impacted the course of sci-fi, whatever.

Ryan Hamilton:

Villeneuve's adaption takes all that messiness that allowed us to try and see a different

Ryan Hamilton:

world and just flattens it in like an effort to not be offensive and does something a little messier in a derogatory way, I think.

Ryan Hamilton:

Like for example, screenwriter John Spates who wrote the Dune adaptation claims that the book's influences are exotic costumery, which doesn't work today.

Ryan Hamilton:

When also in his words, Islam is a part of our world.

Ryan Hamilton:

This flies in the face of Herbert's explicit aim to counter what he saw as a bias, not to study Islam, not to recognise how much it has contributed to our culture

Simran Pasricha:

Well, I was just going to say that that's like incredibly disappointing,

Simran Pasricha:

especially in the time that we are in now.

Simran Pasricha:

And there's like so much rampant Islamophobia and not to hold, I guess,

Simran Pasricha:

not to hold, um, actors or people who are to participate in projects to,

Simran Pasricha:

I guess, a higher standard, or at least I think that they have some sort of duty of care, no one's talking about it.

Ryan Hamilton:

Mm-hmm

Ryan Hamilton:

Yep, no

Ryan Hamilton:

No

Simran Pasricha:

And that's really, really disheartening to see.

Simran Pasricha:

In fact, I think I saw Anya.

Ryan Hamilton:

This is the…

Simran Pasricha:

This is the Queen's Gambit.

Ryan Hamilton:

[laughing]

Simran Pasricha:

Yea and they showed up to the premiere in what looked liked a modern take on a Hijab. So it was like a fashion statement but again nobody is mentioning anything about like Islamic…

Ryan Hamilton:

No. And there were no actors of Middle Eastern or North African.

Simran Pasricha:

That's insane to me.

Ryan Hamilton:

Yeah. And it's like, they're treating this as like this sci-fi imagined world.

Ryan Hamilton:

And starting from a blank slate, Frank Herbert says of his original text,

Ryan Hamilton:

something of the here and now has been carried to that far away place in time.

Ryan Hamilton:

Right. And sci-fi and storytelling isn't about, you know, like unnecessarily

Ryan Hamilton:

figuring out what the future is like.

Ryan Hamilton:

It's not what's interesting.

Ryan Hamilton:

Storytelling is about a way of understanding our current world.

Ryan Hamilton:

And so for him to use those influences is he's trying to tell us something and explore the Western world's relationship with the Middle East and North Africa and Islam. And there's a lot to unpack there.

Ryan Hamilton:

And so in removing that, in divorcing that, in trying to make it a more politically palatable and clean adaptation, Villeneuve is turning it from this, like, really interesting.

Ryan Hamilton:

Exercise in, like, intercultural communication into this.

Ryan Hamilton:

Like almost synthetic and performative attempt at imagining what the world will look like in 20,000 years.

Ryan Hamilton:

And I don't care what the world looks like in 20,000 years, because I think June offers something to understand about what our world looks like today.

Simran Pasricha:

Yeah, absolutely. And I think when you're watching these movies, you know, like Dune, even, you know, the latest Hunger Games

Simran Pasricha:

Avatar, like you're seeing all of these themes come up that are like very uncomfortable because you're relating it to the world that you are presently living in and so

Simran Pasricha:

It's kind of like if somebody else like is not in on a joke, you know And it's like you why aren't you getting the thing that like I'm seeing right now Why are you avoiding the reality that is happening right now?

Ryan Hamilton:

- It's like this piece of art doesn't exist in a vacuum.

Ryan Hamilton:

Why are we pretending that it does?

Simran Pasricha:

- Absolutely.

Ryan Hamilton:

Interesting that you mentioned Avatar,

Ryan Hamilton:

because Avatar also a movie that is really messy

Ryan Hamilton:

in a bad way about the way that it sort of like interacts with culture and like our current world, right?

Ryan Hamilton:

Because James Cameron, he did it, right?

Simran Pasricha:

- Yeah, sure, not gonna fact check that, yeah.

Ryan Hamilton:

Yeah, I don't know white male directors.

Ryan Hamilton:

Telling the story of an indigenous people on this world, Pandora, right?

Ryan Hamilton:

But then the way that they created that world is this pastiche of indigenous cultures.

Simran Pasricha:

Can I just say pastiche? Incredible word. Yeah.

Ryan Hamilton:

So James Horner, who's dead now,

Ryan Hamilton:

did the music to Avatar, right?

Ryan Hamilton:

And obviously when you're like,

Ryan Hamilton:

how am I gonna do the music for this sci-fi world that doesn't exist, that's a great question.

Ryan Hamilton:

So he turned to the work of ethnomusicologist,

Ryan Hamilton:

Wanda Bryant.

Ryan Hamilton:

Ethnomusicology is the study of like music and culture.

Ryan Hamilton:

It's like linked to anthropology,

Ryan Hamilton:

but a little bit more musical.

Ryan Hamilton:

So it does have problematic origins.

Ryan Hamilton:

We're not getting into it today.

Ryan Hamilton:

He worked with Wanda Bryant to essentially source all these sort of like different noises and sounds.

Ryan Hamilton:

And Wanda Bryant wrote about it in this really fascinating sort of like rundown of her experience of doing applied ethnomusicology,

Ryan Hamilton:

'cause normally it's just like an academic practice,

Ryan Hamilton:

which like, you know, sits in university and is boring.

Ryan Hamilton:

But she says, "Horner asked me to find unusual musical sounds."

Ryan Hamilton:

That, quote, "No one has heard before."

Ryan Hamilton:

By which he really meant sounds not readily recognizable by the average American moviegoer as belonging to a specific culture, time period, or geographical location.

Ryan Hamilton:

And like, that is a really messy ideal.

Ryan Hamilton:

Because he's trying to create this thing that's completely new,

Ryan Hamilton:

but it's actually just new to the white gaze.

Simran Pasricha:

We cater everything to the white gaze!

Ryan Hamilton:

We do, and that's disappointing.

Ryan Hamilton:

because, you know, with Dune, they're erasing the influences and trying to create this other synthetic world and then with Avatar they’re like trying to imagine this completely synthetic world but all they’re doing is blending and losing the meaning of our world.

Ryan Hamilton:

I don’t know. Sci Fi disappoints me.

Simran Pasricha:

Yeah, and it's really sad because it could be something so incredible, like, it's such an imaginative world.

Simran Pasricha:

Get it together. Imagine something.

Simran Pasricha:

I'm like, listening to you speak about this, and it's great that you've analyzed this and are as enraged as I am.

Simran Pasricha:

But I think I'm also kind of sad at the way that I'm personally reacting to this, because I'm just like, yeah, obviously, you know, like, this is like, obviously what has happened, like, it's obviously what is happening.

Simran Pasricha:

It's very, I just feel like disappointed because it’s become the norm for white people to love a coloniser story and I’m so grateful for you bringing this up because I guess that’s what allyship is about.

Ryan Hamilton:

[laughing]

Simran Pasricha:

Why am I crying? What's going on?

Ryan Hamilton:

- Are you?

Simran Pasricha:

I'm not crying. I already did that today.

Ryan Hamilton:

- Okay, so like, we've been talking about sci-fi,

Ryan Hamilton:

that's really messy in the way that it like,

Ryan Hamilton:

talks about other cultures and the cultural other.

Ryan Hamilton:

I don't know why I had to repeat that and say it like that.

Simran Pasricha:

- Totally. (laughing)

Ryan Hamilton:

But another person, another figure,

Ryan Hamilton:

who's very important at the moment,

Ryan Hamilton:

who I think also challenges notions of like culture and the other

Ryan Hamilton:

who does it in a really interesting and polarizing way is Nikki Haley or Nikki Haley? Who is she?

Simran Pasricha:

Nicki! My girl Nicki! If only she knew, honestly, if only anyone knew. Her name was actually - so she is a Republican presidential candidate and she's the only candidate left challenging former president Donald Trump. Yeah, she's the only one left. I'm not gonna fact check that, but that's what I got from one article that we'll link down below. And so she was

Simran Pasricha:

actually born as Nimarata Nikki Randhawa. So she's Punjabi Sikh and famously I am Punjabi and my mother is Sikh and my dad is Hindu so I fall somewhere in the middle. Don't talk to me about it. So yeah, her family emigrated from India in the 1960s and her name is now Nicki because that's a really common Punjabi nickname, actually, so people are kind of hating on her.

Ryan Hamilton:

You should run for the Republican ballot.

Simran Pasricha:

They're like hating on her for taking the name Nimarata, like making it to Nikki, but I get it.

Simran Pasricha:

She later took on her husband's last name as her own, and she was raised Sikh but has publicly talked about converting to Christianity because she said that the language barrier was basically what ultimately led her to that decision.

Ryan Hamilton:

Wait as in like she's considering converting to Christianity or she has?

Simran Pasricha:

No, she's Christian.

Simran Pasricha:

Work God.

Simran Pasricha:

So she says at some point you have to understand the words.

Simran Pasricha:

Because Christianity spoke to me and it wasn't political is what she said to the New York Times in 2012.

Simran Pasricha:

And again, that's a very common experience for the Punjabi diaspora.

Simran Pasricha:

Like I have a lot of, you know, family friends who have also converted to Christianity because they didn't learn the language or found it hard and, you know, all the scripture in Sikhism is in Punjabi, it's in Gurmukhi.

Simran Pasricha:

So that's like a, it's a, I get it.

Simran Pasricha:

I understand.

Simran Pasricha:

It is quite sad.

Simran Pasricha:

Because I think when you're coming to a new country you're trying to assimilate so badly that you try to deny a lot of your culture and your origin and that includes your mother tongue because it can also mess up with your accent and that's something that I've dealt with, you know?

Ryan Hamilton:

True true true true true accents.

Simran Pasricha:

Accents.

Simran Pasricha:

The point where she lost me was her politics but also the fact that she listed her race as white on her voter register.

Simran Pasricha:

So I'm pretty sure that's an Asian section girlies, sorry to my Indian girlies, but like South Asian, you are Asian, we are Asian, yeah no, it's actually crazy like she says she's like said that she's like proudly from an immigrant family but she aligns herself with white narratives though like she loves, she loves closing down the borders and wants

Simran Pasricha:

to defund sanctuary cities it just like doesn't make any sense.

Simran Pasricha:

But I think it really contributes to this like lack of authentic representation which seems to be the theme for everything apparently sci-fi and real life.

Ryan Hamilton:

Yeah, well, and it's like, you know, we get someone who shares the same identity as us and then we're like, damn, we did it.

Ryan Hamilton:

And then they do fucked up things.

Simran Pasricha:

Yeah, sure

Ryan Hamilton:

Like can we acknowledge Sam Smith for a second?

Ryan Hamilton:

Sam Smith loves a cop, posted a photo of them with the NYPD at New York pride being like,

Ryan Hamilton:

I want a cop boyfriend. And I'm like, you need to stop and then did two or three tour dates

Ryan Hamilton:

in Israel before October 7th, but still cancelable, cancelable. Cancel Sam Smith.

Simran Pasricha:

It's funny, can I cancel you right now?

Simran Pasricha:

I do remember a time when you hooked up with a cop, can I bring that up?

Ryan Hamilton:

No but that was like, that was the anthropology, that was like research

Simran Pasricha:

It was research, for this moment.

Ryan Hamilton:

It was artistic.

Simran Pasricha:

Yeah absolutely.

Simran Pasricha:

- Three years ago, it was research

Simran Pasricha:

for this moment, and I'm so proud of you for doing that.

Ryan Hamilton:

and let's talk about cops in pride

Simran Pasricha:

- Okay! (laughing)

Ryan Hamilton:

I have not researched this topic at all but like

Simran Pasricha:

- Okay, no, neither.

Simran Pasricha:

But I was on Triple J Hack, and I mentioned it.

Simran Pasricha:

[laughing]

Ryan Hamilton:

but like how fucked like I have no time for cops in pride

Simran Pasricha:

- None. - None, none.

Ryan Hamilton:

And like the whole fucking drama with mardi gras where they were like no you can't come okay you can't come but not uniform… I’m like

Ryan Hamilton:

but they're not queer they're gay

Ryan Hamilton:

but queerness I think is as the the work of the late academic Jose Esteban Munoz talks about queerness is an ideal like a dream for a better future to be queer is to try and enact and bring a better future to the now right? To be gay is to assimilate into the hegemonic fucking hetero patriarchal world.

Ryan Hamilton:

Queer people don't want gay marriage.

Ryan Hamilton:

We want fucking trans rights and fucking better future for people who don't live normative lives.

Ryan Hamilton:

And gay people and gay cops just want to assimilate.

Simran Pasricha:

Whoa that's real tea. Assimilation really gets us all doesn't it

Ryan Hamilton:

Did any of that make sense?

Ryan Hamilton:

Fuck assimilation.

Ryan Hamilton:

Let's be weird, you know?

Simran Pasricha:

no let's get crazy let's get wild

Ryan Hamilton:

That's what Hannah Montana said in 2009 in the Hannah Montana, the movie.

Simran Pasricha:

yeah no because it all does come back to hannah montana

Ryan Hamilton:

Let's get crazy.

Ryan Hamilton:

I don't know my point but cops in pride? Fucking disappointing! Sam Smith? Fucking disappointing. The fight for queer liberation ending at gay marriage? Fucking disappointing.

Simran Pasricha:

Boo Boo Nikki Haley? fucking disappointing.

Simran Pasricha:

Yeah Dune - I

Ryan Hamilton:

June 2?

Ryan Hamilton:

I haven't heard of it.

Simran Pasricha:

Haven't watched it yet. So I can't I can't say if it's that yeah No, and I will be seeing it but like potentially like legally, you know, that's yeah, and we'll like torrent it

Simran Pasricha:

Yeah, exactly. Yeah fuck Dune 2

Ryan Hamilton:

*laughing* But fuck Dune 2

Music:

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Music:

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Simran Pasricha:

How's your love life

Ryan Hamilton:

Look I went to Perth Fringe and that was really fun Uh, and then I came back to Melbourne and now I'm too busy for romance.

Ryan Hamilton:

Look and I can't wait for your wedding… also my Roman Empire

Simran Pasricha:

Yeah, it will be the greatest day of your life

Simran Pasricha:

Yeah There's no perspective person

Ryan Hamilton:

No, well there was that guy who liked you on hinge how'd he go?

Simran Pasricha:

But I've planned the wedding and I'm very excited about it

Simran Pasricha:

Oh, yeah, I got scared and I still don't know what to reply to him But I think he's my husband because he's 6’2” Brown and lives in Brunswick. So very exciting times

Music:

[upbeat music]

Ryan Hamilton:

And that's all we have time for

Simran Pasricha:

Thank you so much for listening. I hope that you liked her second pot up

Music:

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Music:

[upbeat music]

Ryan Hamilton:

We'll see you next week

Simran Pasricha:

Yeah, bye cuties

Music:

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Music:

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Music:

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Music:

[air whooshing]

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