Modern WisdomDating, Cheetos, Liquor, Biden, Bernie & Fitness | Michael Malice | Modern Wisdom Podcast 140
CHAPTERS
- 0:00 – 0:52
Biden backlash fantasies, Hillary trilogy joke & ‘The Rock’ as future candidate
The conversation cold-opens with Michael Malice riffing on Democratic primary chaos, imagining ‘angry old man’ Biden getting the nomination and the party pivoting to Hillary Clinton. They spin it into a pop-culture gag about needing a trilogy—wanting to see Hillary lose a third time—and briefly entertain Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson as a possible future candidate.
- •Malice’s ‘dream scenario’ for Democratic nomination turmoil
- •Hillary as the ‘mummy’ returning for a third defeat
- •Speculation about The Rock running in 2024
- •Tone set: political cynicism + dark humor
- 0:52 – 3:17
Remote-recording banter, pajamas, and a grim Newcastle true-crime detour
Chris welcomes Malice back and they joke about recording over Skype and Malice being in pajamas. Malice then ambushes Chris with a harrowing Newcastle fact—the Mary Bell child-murder case—before shifting to discussion of the Geordie accent and its unintelligibility to outsiders.
- •Skype vs studio etiquette and casual wardrobe humor
- •Mary Bell case as Malice’s ‘Newcastle fact’
- •Chris’s reaction to the sudden dark story
- •Geordie accent described as nearly a different language
- 3:17 – 5:14
2020 memes, body-shaming limits, and Bloomberg as ‘benevolent dystopia’ manager
They pivot to internet culture—what counts as a good meme in 2020—and quickly land on Michael Bloomberg jokes. Malice rejects easy body-shaming as lazy critique and instead argues Bloomberg’s real danger is technocratic ‘for your own good’ governance and social engineering.
- •Debating meme quality (Bloomberg box meme as example)
- •Malice’s stance: body-shaming is weak criticism
- •Bloomberg’s mayoral legacy in NYC and top-down engineering
- •‘When people in government have ideas, that’s dangerous’
- 5:14 – 6:46
WallStreetBets: leveraged chaos for internet points
Chris introduces WallStreetBets and the culture of absurdly risky trades made for clout. They laugh at the spectacle while acknowledging how disturbing it is that people gamble life savings for online validation.
- •What WallStreetBets is and why it’s entertaining
- •Examples: remortgaging homes, extreme options bets
- •The ‘Dankest Wall Street Bet Trades’ recap culture
- •Risk, addiction, and attention-seeking dynamics
- 6:46 – 8:53
North Korea fades from headlines, while China inches toward ‘Songbun’ style control
Malice explains why it bothers him that attention has moved from North Korea’s population-level suffering to other geopolitical stories. He describes North Korea’s hereditary ‘Songbun’ caste-like classification system and warns that China’s social credit ambitions echo similar control mechanisms—though Hong Kong offers a small hope.
- •Malice’s goal: shift focus from dictator to enslaved population
- •Personal observations from visiting North Korea and knowing guides
- •Songbun explained: hostile/wavering/loyal classes shape life outcomes
- •China social credit as a North-Korea-like trajectory; Hong Kong as hope
- 8:53 – 12:21
Data surveillance in practice: insurance, GPS inference, and uncomfortable correlations
Chris shares examples of how companies infer private life details from data—like insurers using phone GPS patterns to guess relationship status and adjust risk models. Malice argues most behavior is quantifiable, but both note the creepiness of these inferences becoming operationalized and effectively public-facing.
- •GPS sleep-location patterns used to infer relationships and ‘credit risk’
- •Form-filling speed used as a pricing/underwriting signal
- •AI isn’t ‘evil’—it models correlations from historical data
- •The unsettling reality: you can’t hide behavioral data trails
- 12:21 – 18:49
From niche porn stats to fitness-status dating: what ‘attractiveness’ changes socially
A quick, comedic detour into the most popular porn category in India leads into a longer discussion on dating dynamics. Malice questions whether being a public-facing ‘hunk’ makes dating easier; Chris argues it selects for a narrow pool and can make finding a serious partner harder, while they explore hypergamy, intimidation effects, and how ‘outliers’ are perceived.
- •India porn category trivia as a springboard into taboo cultural talk
- •Dating apps: lots of matches can still mean poor fit
- •‘Easy to get laid, hard to get a girlfriend’ dynamic
- •Hypergamy, intimidation, and assumptions about attractive people’s personality
- 18:49 – 21:10
Flamin’ Hot Cheetos origin story & the ‘American supermarket’ spectacle
Chris recounts the rags-to-executive story of Richard Montañez, credited with creating Flamin’ Hot Cheetos after being a Frito-Lay janitor. They broaden into a playful comparison of US vs UK snack variety, including Malice’s observation that American kids’ cereal mascots look ‘coked up.’
- •Richard Montañez story: janitor → idea → PepsiCo VP role
- •Market insight: spice and targeting the Mexican market
- •US vs UK snack culture (Walkers flavors vs US abundance)
- •Cereal mascots’ exaggerated energy as a cultural tell
- 21:10 – 22:48
Baijiu: the world’s top spirit, and Malice’s ‘Arduous March’ of bizarre liquors
They discuss how Baijiu dominates global spirits by volume and Malice describes its harsh taste from personal experience. Malice recounts his fan-funded ‘Arduous March’ challenge sampling dozens of strange liquors, calling Moutai/Baijiu the worst—lingering, metallic, and cleanser-like.
- •Baijiu as highest-volume spirit globally vs vodka comparison
- •Malice’s ‘Arduous March’ tasting challenge with 30–40 bottles
- •Flavor descriptions: soy-sauce/metallic/chemical; taste that lingers
- •How cultural drinking practices might blunt taste over time
- 22:48 – 25:26
Drunk shopping economics and the brutal honesty of ‘booty-call tier lists’
Chris shares stats claiming drunk shopping is a massive industry, prompting Malice to explain he avoids drinking because it makes him mean in person. The topic turns into a darkly funny ‘life hack’ story about a friend’s WhatsApp broadcast lists segmented by time/preference—likened to descending circles of hell.
- •Drunk shopping spend stats and common platforms (Amazon)
- •Malice on alcohol: increases cruelty; guilt after funny nastiness
- •The ‘3am/4am/5am’ WhatsApp broadcast list system
- •Humor framing: Dante’s Inferno as modern dating logistics
- 25:26 – 27:58
Emojis as legal evidence, personal emoji ‘tells,’ and the helicopter meme’s darker edge
They explore how emoji strings are appearing in court and how ambiguous interpretation can be. Malice lists his go-to emojis for tone-signaling on Twitter, including the nail polish and kiss emojis, then explains the notorious helicopter emoji’s Pinochet reference—and why real-world politics made it less funny.
- •Courts/lawyers struggling to interpret emoji meaning reliably
- •Emoji-filled messages debated as contractual intent
- •Malice’s most-used emojis as shorthand for tone and snark
- •Helicopter meme explained; context shifts when authoritarianism feels real
- 27:58 – 33:53
Fast fashion’s low quality ripple effects, Malice’s raw denim obsession, and random science tangents
Chris shares an odd economic consequence: cheap ‘fast fashion’ textiles are so flimsy they’re hurting the industrial wiping-rag recycling market. Malice contrasts this with his love of long-worn raw denim and disdain for pre-distressed clothes; the segment then meanders through nightlife-fame annoyances, a quick discussion of gay ‘top/bottom’ roles, and fungi being closer to humans than plants.
- •Fast fashion textiles too weak for reuse as industrial rags
- •Malice’s raw denim collecting and ‘earned’ wear/fades philosophy
- •Fame spillover: being recognized while working nightclub doors
- •Science tangent: fungi respiration and evolutionary relatedness to humans
- 33:53 – 37:43
Spite funding: fans buying Malice bizarre collectibles (and why it works)
Malice explains ‘spite funding’—people donating so he can buy frivolous items to irritate his critics—and shows off examples. He details unusual pen materials (fordite, tusks, DMZ wood), an Andy Kaufman signed photo, and later a historic ‘Mind your business’ penny, emphasizing the escalating challenge of finding ever-weirder purchases.
- •Definition and origin of ‘spite funding’ as a trolling/donation engine
- •Examples: fordite pen, walrus/warthog tusk items, DMZ wood pen
- •Andy Kaufman memorabilia as a personal hero artifact
- •1787 ‘Mind your business’ penny and the appeal of symbolic objects
- 37:43 – 40:26
UK politics curios (Nigel Farage), protest culture, and why people get ‘triggered’ by clownish theatrics
They riff on the decline of the name ‘Nigel’ and Malice’s admiration for Nigel Farage’s theatrical savagery in the EU Parliament. The discussion broadens to how quickly UK political attention cycles compared to the US, and how protest rituals (bells, public shaming) signal excess time and misallocated energy.
- •‘No babies named Nigel’ and Malice’s Farage anecdotes
- •Farage vs British humor: why the UK may not find it as funny as outsiders do
- •US vs UK political attention span and media obsession cycles
- •Protest-as-performance and the psychology of outrage
- 40:26 – 46:47
2020 election crystal ball: Bernie vs the DNC, Biden’s decline, and Trump’s advantage
With Iowa underway, Malice predicts escalating warfare between Bernie’s base and the Democratic establishment and doubts the party will allow Sanders to become nominee. He contrasts matchups—Trump vs Biden as brutal and sad due to Biden’s perceived decline, versus Trump vs Bernie as unprecedented anti-establishment collision that could shift power toward media/social platforms.
- •Iowa caucus context and signs of open establishment vs Bernie conflict
- •Media/party ‘machinations’ and rule-changing fears to block Sanders
- •Trump vs Biden framing: senility, gaffes, and ‘angry old man’ moments
- •Trump vs Bernie framing: anti-establishment clash; Hillary’s attacks as fuel
- 46:47 – 59:33
Cutting for abs: diet brain, motivation, macros, and practical refeed strategy (plus closing tangents)
Malice asks Chris for advice on staying motivated during a cut and coping with strength loss. Chris explains the subjectivity of aesthetic progress, the mental strain of calorie deficits (‘diet brain’), and suggests process focus plus refeed days; they review Malice’s macros and weight before ending with brief pop-culture/comics talk and wrap-up plugs.
- •Aesthetics vs performance: subjective mirror vs objective numbers
- •Diet brain: hunger-driven negativity and obsession with the next meal
- •Refeed days to support training performance and psychological adherence
- •Macro breakdown discussion (protein/carbs/fat) and practical adjustments
