#280 – From Kendrick Lamar’s layered messaging at the Super Bowl to Beast Games: A Creative Journey
Welcome to another exciting episode of the Spun Today podcast, where creativity knows no bounds. I'm your host, Tony Ortiz, and in today's episode, we're diving into the artistic brilliance of Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl halftime performance. We'll explore how Kendrick stayed true to his unique storytelling approach, weaving a narrative of America, oppression, and redemption during one of the biggest stages in the world. We'll also delve into the layered symbolism and thought-provoking artistry that has sparked intense conversation and admiration.
But that's not all! I’ll be highlighting some standout commercials from the Super Bowl and shedding light on the new reality competition, Beast Games, by YouTube's sensation Mr. Beast, which offers one of the largest cash prizes in television history. Plus, get ready for a mind-bending scientific breakthrough in quantum teleportation that could reshape our understanding of computing as we know it.
So whether it's writing, creativity, entertainment, or cutting-edge science, join us for this thrilling journey as we discuss, dissect, and indulge in the unlimited scope of artistic expression. And don't forget, your support helps fuel the passion behind this podcast. Now, let's dive into Episode 280 of the Spun Today podcast—stay tuned for an episode that promises to inspire and enlighten!
The Spun Today Podcast is a Podcast that is anchored in Writing, but unlimited in scope. Give it a whirl.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/spuntoday
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spuntoday/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@spuntoday
Website: http://www.spuntoday.com/home
Newsletter: http://www.spuntoday.com/subscribe
Links referenced in this episode:
Kendrick Lamar Teases STORYTELLING in Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show (Full Interview) https://youtu.be/ZoM6bpr2GH4?si=meHfwpYPxUz-VDAU
Watch Beast Games: https://www.amazon.com/Beast-Games-Season-1/dp/B0CZ7QX7X1
Every Game In Beast Games Explained: https://www.looper.com/1750674/beast-games-every-game-explained/
Follow MrBeast: Instagram - https://bit.ly/3Qob9dx
MrBeast YouTube - https://bit.ly/3D9YaZU
Beast Philanthropy - https://bit.ly/3D6HJxt
Beast Games - https://amzn.to/3EJJ26a
Teleportation’ breakthrough: https://www.cio.com/article/3828608/new-breakthrough-on-the-road-to-quantum-supercomputers.html
Distributed quantum computing across an optical network link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08404-x
Get your Podcast Started Today! https://signup.libsyn.com/?promo_code=SPUN
(Use Promo code SPUN and get up to 2-months of free service!)
Check out all the Spun Today Merch, and other ways to help support this show! https://www.spuntoday.com/support
Check out my Books
Make Way for You – Tips for getting out of your own way
Melted Cold – A Collection of Short Stories
http://www.spuntoday.com/books/ (e-Book, Paperback & Hardcover are now available).
Fill out my Spun Today Questionnaire if you’re passionate about your craft. I’ll share your insight and motivation on the Podcast: http://www.spuntoday.com/questionnaire/
Shop on Amazon using this link, to support the Podcast: http://www.amazon.com//ref=as_sl_pc_tf_lc?&tag=sputod0c-20&camp=216797&creative=446321&linkCode=ur1&adid=104DDN7SG8A2HXW52TFB&&ref-refURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.spuntoday.com%2Fcontact%2F
Shop on iTunes using this link, to support the Podcast: https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewTop?genreId=38&id=27820&popId=42&uo=10
Shop at the Spun Today store for Mugs, T-Shirts and more: https://viralstyle.com/store/spuntoday/tonyortiz
Background Music: Autumn 2011 - Loxbeats & Melody - Roa
Outro Background Music: https://www.bensound.com
Spun Today Logo by: https://www.naveendhanalak.com/
Sound effects are credited to: http://www.freesfx.co.uk
Listen on: ApplePodcasts | Spotify | Pocket Casts | YouTube | Website
transcript
Tony Ortiz [00:00:00]:
I appreciate from an artistic perspective how he stayed true to himself. You know, he's the quintessential artists artist. He felt he had something to say and he had an opportunity to do it on one of the biggest stages ever, which is the super bowl halftime show. And he didn't want to take that moment and be something that he's not and create, you know, this grandiose production. Maybe some folks were expecting just based on the history of what we've seen with super bowl halftime shows, but instead he wanted to tell a story, a story of America from his perspective, A story of oppression, a story of redemption. And sprinkled throughout a non stop relentless F you to Drake. And he stuck to his guns and it did. So what's up folks? What's going on? Welcome to the Spun Today podcast, the only podcast that is anchored in writing but unlimited in scope.
Tony Ortiz [00:01:17]:
I'm your host Tony Ortiz and I appreciate you listening. This is episode 280, the very first episode after the very first hiatus, the first hiatus ever of the Spawn Today podcast where I took off for the prior episode release date and also didn't re release an older episode. Kind of left you guys hanging, but hopefully I wasn't missed much. Definitely welcome back. I definitely missed you folks. And in this brand spanking new episode of the pod, I am going to speak about Kendrick Lamar's super bowl halftime performance as well as a few of my favorite commercial takeaways from the Super Bowl. I'm gonna tell you guys a bit about Beast Games, which is the brand new reality competition series by none other than Mr. Beast.
Tony Ortiz [00:02:07]:
And I'm gonna tell you guys a bit about a mind bending scientific breakthrough in quantum teleportation. My brain hurts just thinking about that. I'm going to try to be thinking about that. Stick around for all that good stuff. But first, before we get into the episode, I wanted to tell you guys about a couple of different ways you can help support this podcast if you so choose. First and foremost, super excited to tell you guys about some brand new redesigned merch that I have available. Recently partnered up with Fourth Wall to set up my brand new shop which you guys can check out by going to spontane.com and clicking on the shop link up in the header menu and it'll take you to my fourth Wall shop page. And here you're gonna find a brand new redesigned spontaneous coffee mug in a bunch of different colors.
Tony Ortiz [00:03:05]:
Super excited about the official spontane notebook that also comes in a bunch of different colors. It's very similar to like a moleskin notebook. For my fellow writers out there. We have embroidered hoodies, very high quality, good stuff, and T shirts and tank tops for you guys to check out. Support the pod Again, go to spun today.com and click on the Shop link up in the header menu and hit me up and let me know what you guys think. Also, if you'd like to support the Spun Today podcast, here is another way you can do just that and then we'll jump right into the episode. Another way you can help support the.
Spun Today Support Promotion [00:03:43]:
Spun Today podcast and also upgrade that stale wardrobe of yours is by going to spuntaday.com support and clicking on the banner for Stitch Fix. Once you do, you'll enjoy a $25 discount to your first purchase. And the way Stitch Fix works is pretty cool. I use it and have never been disappointed. You'll set up a profile, you'll put in all the sizes for your clothes as well as all the different brands and types of clothes that you like to wear. It's really simple and intuitive to set up. They'll show you pictures and pretty much give you a thumbs up or thumbs down option on if you would wear something or not. And you get to select all the brands that you already are used to wearing.
Spun Today Support Promotion [00:04:22]:
With this information, there are thousands of passionate trend setting stylists will curate a Stitch Fix box for you. They'll send you five items that you.
Tony Ortiz [00:04:32]:
Get to preview before they mail it.
Spun Today Support Promotion [00:04:33]:
To you and you'll get to select based on the image if you like it or not. If not, they replace it with something else and if so, they'll mail it.
Tony Ortiz [00:04:40]:
To you absolutely for free.
Spun Today Support Promotion [00:04:41]:
You can try everything on and you have a few days to send everything back or keep the stuff that you want to keep. Then you can use that $25 credit that I mentioned towards your purchase of those items. Again to freshen up your wardrobe and also support the Sponsor Day podcast, go to sponsor Day.com support and click on my affiliate link banner for Stitch Fix and enjoy your $25 credit.
Tony Ortiz [00:05:07]:
Kendrick Lamar's Super bowl halftime performance set the Internet ablaze with folks on both sides of either loving it or hating it. And they say that creatively and artistically you're not living up to your potential if you are not dividing the room because you're either being too commercial or one sided or just putting out trash. But when you're able to express yourself artistically and give folks something to talk about as Kendrick clearly did, then you're doing something right. So from that perspective, let's give Kendrick Lamar definitely a round of applause there. First off, I want to shout out the interview, the pre super bowl performance interview that Kendrick did with Ebro, which was cool to see because Kendrick just, you know, normally doesn't do interviews. They're few and far between. But it also helped set the stage and expectations for folks anticipating what his performance is going to be like. You know, Kendrick coming off of musically his biggest year ever, he had a lot more eyes on him than than usual.
Tony Ortiz [00:06:19]:
And during that interview he spoke a lot about storytelling and how he crafts his music similar to how a writer would put together the, the theme and the story of a novel. He layers it layers his music in a similar way. And he said that for the super bowl halftime show it was going to be no different. He wanted to tell a story and he definitely delivered on that. I appreciate from an artistic perspective how he stayed true to himself. You know, he's the quintessential artists artist. He felt he had something to say and he had an opportunity to do it on one of the biggest stages ever, which is the super bowl halftime show. And he didn't want to take that moment and be something that he's not and create, you know, this grandiose production that maybe some folks were expecting just based on the history of what we've seen with super bowl halftime shows.
Tony Ortiz [00:07:16]:
But instead he wanted to tell a story. A story of America from his perspective. A story of oppression, a story of redemption. And sprinkled throughout a non stop, relentless F you to Drake. And he stuck to his guns and it did so. Speaking of storytelling and symbolism, starting off with Samuel L. Jackson playing the role of Uncle Sam, America's Uncle Sam. And representing throughout his performance how America attempts to dictate how black and brown people should act and behave.
Tony Ortiz [00:07:52]:
He brought with him on stage all black performers throughout the beautifully choreographed show. And everyone was dressed in either red, white or blue, symbolizing the. A few different things because again, Kendrick's artistic expression is, you know, chock full of Easter eggs and very thoughtful and deliberate. A lot of double entendres, triples the way the red, white and blue symbolizes. You can see it from the viewpoint of the gangs in LA where he's from red and blue bloods and Crips and the white representing the neutrals. Also representing, if you want to look at it through a political lens, which ties into the, you know, Samuel L. Jackson Uncle Sam vantage point of red and blue Republicans and Democrats into a much lesser extent, the. The white could represent the more you know, fringe, other parties sprinkled throughout the American political system.
Tony Ortiz [00:08:50]:
And then the obvious red, white and blue representation of the American flag and being depicted as, or by rather all the black performers is symbolic of the American flag and America itself being built off the backs of black slaves. And Kendrick would stand in the center of, when they did that American flag formation in the center of it, showing a clear divide through the middle, through the center of the. Of the flag, which again represents the political or gang related or societal divisions that we've become accustomed to. And Kendrick being in the, in the middle is symbolic of him being the unifier or attempting to try to unify, to mend. Which gave me kind of Bob Marley vibes. When Bob Marley famously had, after being shot, had that concert in Jamaica where there was like a lot of political violence happening between two rival parties and he brought the heads of both of those parties on stage and like joined their hands together. It reminded me of that type of moment. Now, the whole thing also had a video game aesthetic to it, had like a video game motif.
Tony Ortiz [00:10:06]:
The stage itself was designed in the shape of a video game controller, which begs the question, what game is being played? Does it tie into the fact that we're all watching a football game? Is he speaking to the rap game and he's the one controlling it? Is it the American game, a game of the American system playing the minorities within the system, or vice versa? Are the minorities standing up to and bucking the system? Are they able to. And the obvious, again sprinkled throughout. Just looking at, through the lens of the rap game itself, him playing and controlling and beating out Drake within their recent rap beef. Now, Kendrick Lamar's work is always known, how I mentioned before, as having a bunch of layers to it, very deliberate thought out layers that his fans love to dissect and go through and maybe even draw conclusions that aren't really there, but they make them there. You know, as they say with, with stories, for example, one or any type of art. But just speaking from the perspective of a writing perspective, when you put something out there into the world, it's no longer yours. It's. There's a collaboration going on between the writer who created something and the person who is taking it in and making their own connections based on their biases and life experiences and how they're interfacing with that piece of art that was put out there.
Tony Ortiz [00:11:40]:
So in that sense, a lot of his fans, you know, make connections to things that, you know, maybe weren't even his intent. But are there consciously or subconsciously. And all that type of stuff is like super fun for me to get into a little bit in shows. For example, like the podcast, like the Dissect podcast is great for this type of thing. Rap genius breaks down lyrics specific to the super bowl performance itself. Jessica Clemens of New Rockstars has a great breakdown. Knox Hill and many others also have really cool breakdowns where I drew upon for a few of these things that resonated with me. So first and foremost, the he was wearing this leather jacket that said Gloria on it and Gloria is what he calls his pen.
Tony Ortiz [00:12:27]:
Just like a shout out to his weapon of choice, which is reinforcing his writing. Writing as a weapon. He had this lowercase, a chain chain on which I didn't make in real time, like the connection to during the performance, which in hindsight is like how could I not? But that chain has a double meaning, which folks argue that it doesn't, but how could it not? First and foremost, it is part of a logo for PG Lang. PG Lang is an acronym for Program Language, which is an American independent, multidisciplinary creative communications company headquartered in Los Angeles, founded by Kendrick Lamar and Dave Free. That's their company. The lowercase A is part of the logo of PJ PG language. Granted, it is also the musical notation of an A minor, which is arguably one of the most popular lines of the most popular song of the year, Not Like Us. And I'm sure it was not lost on Kendrick Lamar that this chain, which he has never worn before in public at least, would come across in both ways.
Tony Ortiz [00:13:49]:
Another cool thing that happens during his performance is that Serena Williams comes out and starts Crip walking and she is also part of his song Not Like Us, the now infamous Drake. This because Drake and Serena dated a few years back and had a bit of a falling out. He's said negative things about her and or her current husband. And in Kendrick's song Not Like Us, he says something to the effect of you better not talk on Serena. Serena, who is also famously from from la from Compton as Kendrick Lamar is. And then so he has all these like foreshadowing of, you know, you know, throughout his performance of playing Not Like Us. And then the biggest tease before actually getting to it is when he says that he wants to play their favorite song, meaning, you know, the crowd's favorite song, but they asked to be careful because, you know, they like to sue, meaning Drake and the lawsuit that he has currently going on. And he transitions into the Luther song from the GX album, which he has with Sza, which is like a cool change of pace and a dope performance by her.
Tony Ortiz [00:15:01]:
And there was a lot of conversation leading up to the super bowl performance of is he gonna play this song? Is he not gonna play it? Should he play it? Should he not? You know, how are you gonna play a song during your super bowl that's essentially a diss song. Calling someone a pedophile. And also, you know, you shouldn't give that person so, you know, so. So much light, so much bandwidth, so on and so forth. And regardless of where you fit in that conversation, I love how unapologetically he segues into it. Speaking to how you can't fake influence, which to me is also a subliminal dig at Drake, highlighting the difference between being popular and being actually influential. And then just drops into the song with the entire crowd singing along. Especially when he goes quiet and allows the crowd to fill in the.
Tony Ortiz [00:15:58]:
And it's probably a minor, which was great. And another really dope moment within that is when Mustard comes out, his producer during the Mustard. And you just see, like, them too. And it. It's a cool, like, you know, like two boys together that have the, you know, biggest hit song of the year in the biggest show of the year in the middle of the super bowl. Just them two. And like, him giving Mustard his shine on such a big stage was really, really cool to see and two more little Easter eggs to get into. Is that according to Jessica Clemens of the New Rockstars, the.
Tony Ortiz [00:16:43]:
The way that the. The buttons light up in the controller like before the performance actually begins. If you see like, the controller buttons start lighting up and like blinking in and out. That that is actually a cheat code to a video game of Jurassic Park Lost World. To be able to start off the game with 59 lives. And the tie in here is that this is the 59th Super Bowl. Coincidence? Probably not. And if true, that's just bonkers how much thought and layers Kendrick puts into.
Tony Ortiz [00:17:16]:
Into his work. Then the last. More of the conspiracy theory side of things that I'll point to in terms of Easter eggs within. Within this performance, which is the cool thing about Kendrick Lamar stuff, right? Because even, you know, weeks and months and years from now, people are still going to be breaking down his. His. This performance along with his other music, as they still do from like, you know, previous albums and music videos and like, finding cool, new nuanced things, which is just a testament to. To his artistry. But according to the Jumpers podcast, they speak about the placement of the X of the controller on the actual football field itself.
Tony Ortiz [00:17:58]:
Because taking a step back, there's an artist by the name of XXXTentacion who was killed. And he had a back and forth, like, smaller beef with Drake back in the day. Something to do, I believe, with like a sampling or like a style that Triple X was saying, you know, like Drake off him or didn't give him credit for something along those lines. And Das Young tweeted once, if I die, it was Champagne Poppy who did it, which is Drake's like name on like IG or Twitter or whatever. And then he winds up dying for real. But you know, his, he. I never really followed his, his music much, but I know he had a very cult life following. And his fans like took that and ran with it and there was all this speculation, did Drake really have them killed or not? So on and so forth.
Tony Ortiz [00:18:48]:
Which I'm not saying any of that is true or not true. I have absolutely no idea. I would, if I was speculating, I would think not being that, you know, such like a, a public thing or such a hyped theory that, you know, authorities would have looked into it and, you know, if there were some validity behind it, Drake probably would have been arrested or, or something like that. But regardless of the validity of it, the fact that if true, what the Jumpers podcast, what guys point out, just adds to the whole diabolical nature of Kendrick Lamar with the Drake beef. So they said the X represents, you know, 10, the number 10 in Roman numerals. And the X of the controller stage was on the 30 yard line. So if 10 is for X, an X on the 30 yard line would be XXX high, obviously triple extentacion. And the dancers, if you notice throughout the entire performance had this two tone hairstyle, which is how XXXION always rocked his hair.
Tony Ortiz [00:20:04]:
Like one color to the left, one color to the right. And Kendrick just playing with that idea. If that again, intentional, which again go, you know, ties back to my. One of my first points, which is, you know, sometimes fans reach and make connections that weren't intended to be there, but are there. But if they were intentional, then how sick and thoughtful is that? And then Kendrick just wraps it up with the. The lights in the crowd in the stands saying game over, signifying again with multiple different meanings depending on which way you want to look at that. The game over between the rap battle between him and Drake, like, I clearly won, game's over, or the game is over between the system and. And oppressing the minorities, that game is over.
Tony Ortiz [00:20:51]:
You know, we're rising up the system, but that was definitely a dope performance, in my opinion. So shout out once again to Kendrick Lamar for a great Super Bowl. True to his artistic self performance. And just a quick aside on a few commercials that I enjoyed throughout the Super Bowl. You know, the super bowl is known for these very expensive commercial spots that a lot of companies debut commercials for. The first one, which I really enjoyed was the Cancer We're Gonna Knock youk Out commercial. You know, I had. My.
Tony Ortiz [00:21:25]:
My mom had breast cancer. My wife had a very aggressive breast cancer, which I did a podcast with her on last year. So I enjoyed seeing that type of commercial and that type of, like, dedication and drive and just, like, empowering statement. I think that's definitely important to see and to strive for. It was a cool alien Doritos commercial with, like, this UFO that was. Was trying to beam up the bag of Doritos from a guy in his room, and he's, like, fighting, fighting with the beam to keep the Doritos bag. There was a funny commercial with George Costanza from Seinfeld where he's playing, like, all the characters in a restaurant. And it's a mayonnaise commercial.
Tony Ortiz [00:22:11]:
And two more that I jotted down that I really liked was there was a commercial for Instacart, the delivery service, where it had, like, all the mascots from, like, all the different grocery items like Kool Aid and the Green Giant, then just a bunch of different, like, mascots of all these products. And you're like, what the hell is this commercial for? And it's. And they're all, like, rushing to somewhere, and it's like, all of them coming together to being delivered by Instacart. That was a dope commercial. And then last but certainly not least, commercial about wings with Matthew McConaughey in it. And you're thinking it's like a. A chicken wings commercial the entire time, but it's actually an Uber Eats commercial. And why I liked it most is that it has a cameo in it by my guy, Sean Evans from Hot Ones, which is a great YouTube interview show.
Tony Ortiz [00:23:07]:
He's an amazing interviewer, Sean Evans. So if you guys don't watch Hot Ones, you should. And I would recommend watching, like, some celebrity or musician or comedian or someone that you like, and then watching their Hot Ones interview with Sean Evans so you can get an idea of what a great interviewer he is. And that, folks, was my little recap and review of the super bowl shout out to the Eagles, who won the Super Bowl. Fly Eagles fly until my jets come back and win it all next year. Probably not, but yeah. Let me know what you guys thought of Kendrick's performance. What commercials did you guys like? And let's keep that convo going.
Tony Ortiz [00:23:48]:
Mr. Beast, who is the largest YouTuber on the planet, makes tons of really elaborate, perfectly manicured YouTube videos with large cash prizes just off the top of my head randomly. And I'm going to be conflating videos probably, but you know, X number of people stand within the circle. The last person to leave gets $100,000. Or you know, pull over and buy this house for sale for $1 and it's an actual house and they're in there and literally sign over the deed for a dollar. I gravitate a lot more towards the philanthropic arm which does things like that. I've mentioned them featured here on the podcast in the past, like a hundred water wells in villages throughout Africa or cataract surgery for a thousand people that couldn't afford it. Prosthetic legs, so on and so forth.
Tony Ortiz [00:24:47]:
Mr. Beast actually made the spun today goats doing goat shit list recently if you want to check that out. And fairly recently created Beast Games. Beast Games is a 2024 reality competition television series created by Jimmy Donaldson, aka Mr. Beast, Tyler Conklin, Sean Klitzner and Mac Hopkins. Hosted by Mr. Beast himself. Beast Games follows 1, 000 contestants which is the largest cast for a reality show as they compete for a five million dollar prize, which spoiler alert, eventually got bumped up to a $10 million prize which was incidentally the largest single cash prize in reality television history.
Tony Ortiz [00:25:34]:
It was partially inspired by the Netflix show Squid Game which by the way he did a real life version of squid game costing $456,000. Like recreated a set and played out like whatever happens in Squid Game in real life minus like the killing part. And honestly I'm usually not into like reality tv, you know, like game show type of things, but I am a supporter of Mr. Beast. I like his stuff and more so like what he seems to like stand for and, and back up with his actions. Like he has this like self righteousness to him that, that I gravitate towards. So I decided to, to give this show a shot when he was promoting it and it was so good. There's 10 episodes available on Amazon prime and he actually was recently on with Stephen from the Diary of CEO, which is a great episode and I'll link to it in the episode notes for you guys to check out and said that he lost like tens of Millions of dollars on the first season.
Tony Ortiz [00:26:36]:
But the goal was to be able to make the first season as big as possible, to pave the way for like future seasons. But the show itself broke so many records, like I mentioned before, the largest cash prize ever, the most contestants ever. I think it was like it broke like 50 different Guinness World Records, most cameras ever, so on and so forth. And I'm just going to break down just to give you guys an idea of a few of the different competitions and what to expect with when you watch the show. So it starts off with a thousand people on a thousand platforms in like rows of, I don't even know how many, but probably like 20 rows of 50 or something like that. Whatever equals to a thousand. Can't do math right now. And each platform has its own camera.
Tony Ortiz [00:27:30]:
You know, people are speaking into it and you get to know some of their like personalities. And the first challenge is that one person per row has to eliminate themselves, meaning take themselves out of the competition. And if they do so, if they sacrifice themselves, their entire row is saved and gets to go on to the next round. So each of these people signed up for a chance to go at this five million dollar prize. So obviously they don't want to eliminate themselves. But the final three rows that don't have someone sacrifice themselves, the entire rows get eliminated all in one shot. Then after that round, there's another round where he starts bribing people. And he says, all right, now the rows become columns.
Tony Ortiz [00:28:15]:
So going instead of front, front to back or top to bottom, going left to right. Now that's your, that's your row, that's your column. And people are going to be given the opportunity to take a bribe. And then if they take the bribe, they get, they take the, they keep the money for themselves, but their entire row gets eliminated. So it's not a sacrifice, it's like the other way around. And everybody's, you know, like coercing each other not to take the bribe, you know, and first it's a ten thousand dollar bribe. Then it goes up to twenty thousand and fifty thousand and eighty and a hundred thousand. And it just keeps going up and up and up.
Tony Ortiz [00:28:50]:
And you just see a whole bunch of people that were like steadfast at first, like start to crack and break and be like, oh, I'm taking the 30, I'm taking this to that. And just eliminating their entire row. Then there's more like game focused challenges. So they all go to this like tower and they have to, these balls fall from the sky and they have to catch it without letting it touch the ground. They touch the ground. If it, you know, slips and touch the ground, their entire team is eliminated. Like, like that type of thing. They have trivia style games just with like random questions.
Tony Ortiz [00:29:23]:
And in each of these games and challenges, you know, people get eliminated, right? There is a sick challenge where they make all the contestants that are left select a leader to represent their group. And there's four different leaders elected. And, you know, the people have to like, make a case for themselves. You know, I'll be the leader. But they don't know what they're gonna be up against, what, you know, what they're gonna lead, what the challenge is gonna be. So four people go up to the podium and then they are presented with a bribe and Mr. Beast tells them, you guys get a guaranteed spot into the top. You know, x contestants for going up against getting the $5 million.
Tony Ortiz [00:30:05]:
If you take this bribe, you get to keep the money, you get a guaranteed spot, and you eliminate your entire team. Like, that type of thing. And that prize literally went up to $1 million. So it was telling four people, take a million dollars right now and eliminate your entire team. And mind you, these are four leaders that were selected by the people to represent them, but they didn't know why. So now they're like, oh, then there's like races, like potato sack races. There's. There was an interesting challenge where groups of three were put in to these isolated cubes and only two people could come out to move forward.
Tony Ortiz [00:30:44]:
And that third person had to agree to pretty much sacrifice themselves so they can come up with who that person is that's going to sacrifice themselves any which way that they wanted. So either flipping coins, you know, asking for a deck of cards and, you know, playing a game, or just like convincing each other. And then ultimately, like the top, I want to say like 400 or 300 people wind up going to Beast island where they all have, like, housing and like bunk up together. And the rest of the games happen there. One of the games is a game of hide and seek with a group of Navy SEALs. So they're like, the contestants are taken to this private island off of Beast games off of, off of East Island. And given the option, and I think I'm conflating a couple things here, but all part of the show, given the option to either take a guaranteed spot in the top 50, like the final 50 that will compete for the $5 million, or stay on this private island for a chance to compete for the private island which is worth $1.8 million and only one person to win it. And if they win it, they could also still continue to compete for the 5 million.
Tony Ortiz [00:32:01]:
But if they lose, they're out of everything. So then you see the, you know, people taking like the guaranteed spot in the top 50 and they go to like an all expenses paid luxury vacation while the other ones compete in this island. And one of those competitions there was the hide and go seek with the Navy Seals. That was a dope one. That's one that I feel I would have definitely taken, you know, like my top 10 odds, you know, 1 out of 10 odds or 12, whatever it was that wound up staying on the island to go for the, the, the island. 1.8 million island. That was a pretty sick one. They had to do this like relay race with like pulling as a group, pulling a monster truck 500ft, like across the finish line before the other, other team.
Tony Ortiz [00:32:50]:
There's like a ton of games of chance, tons of bribes, like, sprinkled throughout the whole thing. And there's like strategy and manipulation that takes place amongst the, the contestants. They have like that, like their version of the psychological trolley car problem, which is essentially, you know, a train is coming on one track, it's going to kill three people, but on the other track, if you flip it, it'll only kill one person. But you have to, you know, press the button to, to flip it. Like that type of scenario, there's games of negotiation where they have to negotiate amongst themselves to like vote for each other or vote each other out. It was so engaging. Each and every episode ends on the super cliffhanger. You know, true to like Mr.
Tony Ortiz [00:33:34]:
Beast form, you know, he, he applies all that, like razor sharp editing and zooming in and zooming out and angles of camera angles that he popularized, you know, with his YouTube videos. When they get up to the five million dollar prize, it's six people, if I'm not mistaken. Five or six people. And right before he gives them the option of any one of them could flip a coin and if they call the coin correctly, he's gonna double it to 10 million. That's why I went from 5 million to 10 million. And if they call it incorrectly, then that person is out and the prize remains 5 mil. So a person makes it to the final five or six, one of them actually decided to flip the coin and called it correctly. So the prize money goes up, went up to 10 million for everyone to continue to compete against or compete for.
Tony Ortiz [00:34:26]:
It was pretty sick. And in the end, the the what was pretty cool. And I don't know how much of it has to do with like the screen time that the contestants wound up getting because obviously if you keep making it round, round to round to round, you're by default, you're on screen more often than others that get eliminated. Right. But I don't know how much has to do with how much screen time they were having or how their like, personalities came through on the show or how much that had to do with editing rather. But like the two people that I wanted to see at the end were the people that were at the end, which was Tawana and Jeff. And I would have been happy with either one of them, like winning. Like they had these like altruistic ideas of what to do with the money.
Tony Ortiz [00:35:17]:
Tawana wanted to invest in homeless shelters for, for, for kids because she grew up homeless. And Jeff wants to dedicate the money to a rare disease that his son, one of his sons has, which is like a seven year old, but he has because of, I forget what it's called, but a condition where his brain, his son's brain develops at a much slower rate and has the brain of, from a development perspective of like a one or two year old. And that's what he was like doing the games for. You know, they give all those like touching like backstories and stuff like that to get you like really invested in, in like the characters of the show. And ultimately he's the one that won, which was pretty cool to see. But yeah, it was a dope series that I recommend. It's called Beast Games available on Amazon Prime. I'm definitely looking forward to how they tap and how.
Tony Ortiz [00:36:16]:
Not even how they top, but just what they do. With a second season of Beast Games, it'd be very, very interesting to see if they keep it at that same clip, that same bar of all these records that they blew out of the water, basically. Beast Games streaming now on Amazon Prime. Quantum Teleportation. So I'm going to preface this by saying I know absolutely zero of what I'm going to regurgitate to you guys. I know nothing about how this works. I just find it fascinating and interesting, like something's going on that folks way smarter than me will be able to interpret and digest and understand. And the folks involved obviously do, but just interesting enough that I just wanted to share and put it out there because to me, honestly, I can't delineate the difference between this and like Bluetooth, you know, like, so it has to do with quantum entangled Particles, which are particles that are entangled, meaning that what happens to one affects the other.
Tony Ortiz [00:37:21]:
Regardless of how far apart they are. They could be on these two particles could be entangled in this quantum realm. One could be in Dr. And the other one could be in Japan. But you do something to one and it affects the other. They're entangled. They're like connected somehow. And in.
Tony Ortiz [00:37:37]:
In a milestone that. And I'm quoting from an article here, which I'll link to in the episode notes, in a milestone that brings quantum computing tangibly closer to large scale practical use. Because quantum computing is something that's going to just like exponentially grow the computing power of, you know, current modern computers that we have and use now. In a milestone that brings quantum computing tangibly closer to large scale practical use, scientists at Oxford University's Department of Physics have demonstrated the first instance of distributed quantum computing. Using a photonic network interface, they successfully linked two separate quantum processors to form a single fully connected quantum computer, paving the way to tackling computational challenges previously out of reach. The results have been published in Nature, which is a scientific journal which I'll link to in the episode notes. And that's what they're calling quantum teleportation. So these two quantum computers, separate locations, fully connected with each other and working together through this process.
Tony Ortiz [00:38:47]:
Now, scientific applications of this once and if you know, scalable and successful. You're talking things, according to an article that I read, like hacking becoming impossible because things are just so encrypted and you can sign, you can sync scientific experiments around the world, long distance space communication. This is like some sick next level. I don't understand it, but believe it's some intense next level type of thing going on here. Let me know what you guys think. I just found it interesting, wanted to share. Quantum teleportate. You mix that in with AI and the developments going on there and we are headed towards a very strange and different world.
Tony Ortiz [00:39:33]:
Buckle up boys and girls. And that was episode 280 of the Sponsored podcast. Thank each and every one of you for taking the time to listen. I really do appreciate it. Please check out the new Spun Today store. Mentioned it in the intro. I recently partnered up with 4 4th wall. Got some new and improved merch for you guys to check out.
Tony Ortiz [00:39:54]:
Redesigned Spun Today mug with the Spun Today logo on it and with the catchphrase start taking steps in the general direction of your dreams on the other side. And it comes in a bunch of different colors, like a dozen different colors for you guys to choose from as some dope new embroidered very high quality hoodies and some redesigned T shirts and tank tops. And of course the Spontane notebook. My favorite thing. Check that out. Go to spontane.com click on the shop menu item up on top@spontane.com and it'll take you to my fourth wall. Page spontane.com and click on Shop. Thanks again for taking the time to listen and here are a few other ways you can help support the show if you so choose.
Tony Ortiz [00:40:36]:
I'll check you guys out next time. Peace. What's up folks?
Spun Today Support Promotion [00:40:42]:
Tony here. I hope you're enjoying the Spun Today podcast as much as I enjoy producing it for you. Here are a few ways you can.
Tony Ortiz [00:40:49]:
Help support the show.
Spun Today Support Promotion [00:40:51]:
You can support the Spun Today podcast financially by going to spuntoday.com support. There you will find a couple different ways that you can do just that, some of which will actually not even cost you a dime, such as using my Amazon affiliate link. When you go to spunterday.com support, you'll see my affiliate link to Amazon. Click on it and it will take you to Amazon's website where you can do your shopping like normal. This will not cost you anything extra, but Amazon will pay me for driving traffic to their website. If you'd like to support the podcast more directly, you can do so by becoming a patron@spuntoday.com support. You'll also find my Patreon link. This is where creators such as myself can be paid directly by patrons like you.
Spun Today Support Promotion [00:41:37]:
You can either make a one time donation or schedule recurring donations if you so choose. There are also different tiers of support and depending on which you decide to go with, you'll also receive some perks in return such as early access to content, free digital copies of my books, free bookmarks, etc. That is again by supporting via my Patreon link available@spuntery.com support similar to Patreon at that same location. You'll also find my Ko Fi link as well as my Buy me a coffee link. They work very similar to Patreon and are different ways you can help support the show financially. And last but certainly not least, you have the good old fashioned paypal donation button. Any which way that you choose to support is greatly appreciated. It all helps me do more of what I love, which is writing and podcasting.
Spun Today Support Promotion [00:42:24]:
Again, go to spun today.com support. You can also support the Spun Today podcast by rating and reviewing the show wherever it is that you're listening to this episode.
Tony Ortiz [00:42:36]:
I'd really appreciate it because it really does help.
Spun Today Support Promotion [00:42:38]:
Also, follow me on all socials Spun Today on X formerly known as Twitter, Spun Today on Instagram and punt today on YouTube where you'll not only find the full length episodes of the podcast, but also chopped up clips and additional content. And of course you can follow the Facebook page@facebook.com spun today. Another way you can help support the Spun Today podcast and also upgrade that stale wardrobe of yours is by going to spuntoday.com support and clicking on the banner for Stitch Fix. Once you do, you'll enjoy a $25 discount to your first purchase. And the way Stitch Fix works is pretty cool. I use it and I've never been disappointed. You'll set up a profile, you'll put in all the sizes for your clothes as well as all the different brands and types of clothes that you like to wear. It's really simple and intuitive to set up.
Spun Today Support Promotion [00:43:33]:
They'll show you pictures and pretty much give you a thumbs up or thumbs down option on if you would wear something or not. And you get to select all the brands that you already are used to wearing. With this information there are thousands of passionate trend setting stylists will curate a.
Tony Ortiz [00:43:50]:
Stitch Fix box for you.
Spun Today Support Promotion [00:43:52]:
They'll send you five items that you get to preview before they mail it to you and you'll get to select based on the image if you like it or not. If not, they'll replace it with something else and if so, they'll mail it.
Tony Ortiz [00:44:01]:
To you absolutely for free.
Spun Today Support Promotion [00:44:03]:
You can try everything on and you have a few days to send everything back or keep the stuff that you want to keep. Then you can use that $25 credit that I mentioned towards your purchase of those items again. To freshen up your wardrobe and also support the Sponsor Day podcast, go to sponsorday.com support and click on my affiliate link banner for Stitch Fix and enjoy your $25 credit.
Tony Ortiz [00:44:27]:
Do you want to start your own podcast? Have a great show idea that you want to get out into the masses but don't know quite how to get it from your head out into the world? Well, here's how. Use the podcast host Libsyn. That's who I use to bring the Sponsor Day podcast to you. And now you can use them the same way. Using the promo code Spun Spun, you can open up your Libsyn account today and get two months of free podcast hosting. Here's how it works. Once you record your show, you upload it to your Libsyn account where you can fill in your episode notes upload your podcast art and schedule when you want your episodes to release. Once you do that, Lip Libsyn will take care of the rest.
Tony Ortiz [00:45:11]:
They'll distribute your show to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and all the other podcasters that you choose instantaneously and seamlessly. Again, go to Libsyn.com and use the promo code SPUN S P U N to get two months free. Or use the affiliate link that's in the episode notes. Again, that's libsyn.com promo code spun. Take that great podcast idea from out of your head and put it out into the world. And as always, folks, substitute the mysticism with hard work and start taking steps in the general direction of your dreams. Thanks for listening. I love you, Aiden.
Tony Ortiz [00:46:05]:
I love you, Daddy. I love you, Grayson. I love you Daddy.