0:01

Hello everyone, this is Michael Moore.

0:15

You're

0:18

listening to Rumble with Michael Moore. And

0:22

thank you for joining me here for this

0:24

podcast. It's a lot going

0:26

on still as there is every week.

0:29

I, myself, I've been on

0:31

strike since the

0:33

1st of May. I'm a loyal

0:35

and dues-paying

0:36

member of the Writers Guild of

0:38

America.

0:40

It's the writers' union primarily

0:42

for TV and movies.

0:46

Obviously, I write my films

0:48

and my TV work. But

0:53

I don't think the Writers Guild covers podcasts.

0:56

If they don't, they should. Anybody

0:58

who does any kind of work should be

1:00

represented by a union because we

1:02

all need an advocate for what

1:05

we do. It's not just about

1:07

what we make. It's about working conditions.

1:09

It's about how other people

1:12

are treated in the work that we do.

1:14

It's about taking care of ourselves, having

1:17

great health care. The unions

1:19

I belong to, which are the Writers Guild,

1:21

the Directors Guild, the Screen Actors Guild,

1:24

they all have incredible health care plans.

1:27

That was the way it was when I was growing up. I mean,

1:30

my father worked on the assembly line at General

1:32

Motors.

1:34

We had great health care. I mean, there

1:36

was never like a co-pay or

1:38

a deductible. Those are all terms

1:41

and ideas that came along later. If

1:43

we had to go to the doctor, we went to the doctor. If we had to

1:45

go to the emergency room, it was all paid for.

1:47

That was it. And not just that,

1:50

all of our dental care was paid for

1:52

because the union negotiated the

1:54

contract with the automakers. So we, the

1:57

children of the factory workers,

1:59

had this incredible.

1:59

healthcare, dental care,

2:02

eyeglasses were free. It got

2:04

to a point actually where even if like if you needed

2:07

a lawyer, like a civil lawyer,

2:09

you know, for anything, it just could be just

2:11

maybe you wanted to write up a will or whatever.

2:14

The union paid for that. My

2:17

dad had four weeks paid vacation.

2:20

And then there was usually more than that because

2:22

they'd have to shut the factories down during what was

2:24

called a model changeover every

2:26

year, you know, they had a new model. So they

2:28

had to retool the factory. And

2:31

so he got more time off for that. And of course

2:34

the entire week there between Christmas and

2:36

New Year's

2:37

all the holidays,

2:40

it was a good way to grow up. Let me just say

2:42

that. And our dads and our moms,

2:44

our grandma, my grandmother worked at General

2:46

Motors. My uncle

2:49

was in the great Flint sit down strike

2:51

of 1936, 37 that essentially founded the UAW.

2:56

That was the first contract that the

2:58

union got with a major industrial

3:00

corporation, any union. I mean,

3:03

it would just, it just didn't exist back then. And

3:05

so the Ruth or brothers decided

3:07

to pull a surprise sit down

3:09

strike in Flint, Michigan. They

3:12

did it on the day before New Year's Eve and

3:14

they took over the factories and they kicked

3:16

all the administration out of the

3:19

building and locked the doors.

3:21

And it was a standoff

3:22

for 44 days

3:25

in the dead of winter.

3:26

And eventually General Motors gave in

3:28

the

3:29

workers one. And

3:32

those of us who were the children of

3:35

these workers

3:37

went on to have a

3:39

much easier life than they would have beforehand.

3:42

It's funny. I was just in

3:44

the paper, you know, there's, I don't know what you read every

3:46

day, but I read this one. It's

3:48

a little like on this day in history. And

3:51

it was on this day. I'm recording this right now.

3:53

It was on this day that the

3:56

law passed Roosevelt signed it 1938 that

3:58

a.

3:59

established for the first time a minimum wage

4:03

and the minimum wage

4:05

was 25 cents an hour.

4:11

The same law also

4:13

ended child labor. It

4:15

said the work week could not be more than 48 hours. And

4:18

if it was, you had to pay more money.

4:20

These were all these incredible things that

4:23

the union did for the workers

4:26

and they got Roosevelt and others go

4:28

along with it. And in

4:30

the middle class was created essentially. It

4:33

wasn't a middle class before this time. It

4:36

was the wealthy

4:37

and then everybody else. And

4:40

so I've always been grateful for that and grateful

4:43

to be a union member now. And

4:46

this week I'm going to post a written subject

4:48

from a person I follow,

4:50

Matt Stoller. He

4:53

and the people that he quotes, they

4:55

give an incredible explanation

4:58

as to why we, the writers are

5:01

in strike right now. And I

5:03

know this is very annoying for a lot of you because

5:05

you've been missing your shows. Stephen

5:07

Colbert and Seth Meyers,

5:09

the late night shows are all shut down. Most

5:13

movies are shut down. So there's

5:15

going to be a gap where there's not going to be as many

5:17

movies available for the theaters

5:20

or for the streamers.

5:23

And of course, nobody's,

5:25

I think nobody's really started

5:27

on the fall shows yet.

5:29

So there's going to be a period where there's

5:32

going to be a lot of reruns or reality shows

5:34

or, but we probably should all be outside having

5:37

fun anyway. So, but

5:39

I'm going to talk to you a little bit about that and just kind

5:41

of tell you how I've been spending the

5:43

strike personally, as I'm not writing,

5:45

you know, my next film or TV series

5:48

right now. And I'm not going to get

5:50

into that too much because I don't really

5:52

want to talk about it yet. Anyways, I

5:54

have found in the past that it's not a good idea for

5:56

me to telegraph to certain people.

5:59

what I'm up to just

6:02

because I always want to make sure I can get it done before

6:04

they disappear me. No, no, I'm not. That's

6:06

not going to happen. But anyway, so

6:09

before we get into this and talk to you about how

6:11

I've been, you know, killing time here, which

6:13

I think you might enjoy. I just want to

6:15

thank our underwriter for

6:18

this episode today. And that underwriter

6:21

is Better Help.

6:24

As you know, when the people we love need

6:27

our help, it's a no brainer, right? No

6:29

matter how busy we are or what we have going

6:31

on in our own lives, we find the time to

6:34

give and to help. What's

6:36

easy to forget though, is how important it is

6:38

to also make the time to take care of yourself,

6:41

to keep yourself healthy and strong. Talking

6:43

to a therapist can help you find that

6:45

balance. If you're interested in giving

6:47

therapy a try, why not check out

6:50

Better Help? It's entirely online.

6:52

You can fit it into your own schedule from the

6:54

comfort

6:54

of your home. You just fill out a brief questionnaire

6:57

and they will match you with a licensed therapist.

7:00

If it's not a great fit, you can switch therapists

7:02

at any time for no additional charge.

7:05

You can find more balance with

7:08

Better Help. Visit betterhelp.com

7:10

slash rumble today to get 10%

7:13

off your first month. That's

7:15

better help. That's H E L

7:17

P betterhelp.com

7:20

slash rumble. R U M B

7:22

L E. And thank you, Better Help for

7:24

supporting this podcast and for supporting

7:27

my voice. Much appreciated. So

7:33

now

7:34

what Mike

7:36

has done on his strike-cation,

7:39

the strike-cation. Well,

7:43

first of all, I'm getting a

7:46

lot of an extended spring cleaning done

7:48

on my place. So

7:50

that's been good to just kind of get rid of clutter

7:52

and all of that. Catching up on a lot of

7:55

reading, you know, my pile of books that I never seem to get to

7:57

the bottom of. that

8:00

I want to read, so I've been doing that.

8:03

I've been working out and getting

8:05

healthy and so it's

8:07

been good for that. But also I

8:10

think what I've done the

8:12

most is caught up on a lot of TV

8:16

that I've missed either this past year or

8:19

past few years. So I've

8:21

started to binge on various

8:24

TV shows and

8:26

some of them are really good. And

8:29

I don't know, maybe some

8:31

of you are expecting me to talk today about the rebellion

8:33

to overthrow Putin this past

8:35

weekend or any of a number of things

8:38

we should be talking about here. It's the one-year

8:40

anniversary this weekend of the

8:42

Supreme Court getting rid of Roe v. Wade. I'll

8:45

be talking about these things here in the

8:47

coming weeks. But I just thought today was

8:50

so hot out having

8:52

a little fan or air conditioning on wasn't

8:55

a bad idea. And so

8:57

for the past, actually for the past, well

9:00

for the past month

9:01

I've been watching some

9:03

shows and I'd like to share that with you. And I'd

9:05

like to encourage you to check out some of these things that

9:08

I've been watching because I think you might like them

9:10

too. And some of them are things you would not expect

9:13

me to be watching. There certainly some

9:15

of them are things that you probably wouldn't think

9:17

of watching yourselves. What

9:19

I'm in the middle of right now is something that

9:21

started back in 2020. I

9:23

heard about it at the time

9:25

Mindy Kaling, the incredible

9:28

comedy writer, producer, actor

9:30

that I think a lot of us we first saw her

9:32

on The Office and has done so

9:35

many funny and great things since. So

9:37

she created and executive

9:39

produces this show called Never Have

9:42

I Ever. Now

9:44

the main character, the teenager,

9:47

is played by a brand new actor.

9:50

It's her first

9:51

real job as an actor,

9:53

Maitre Ramakrishnan.

9:56

She's Canadian, amazing, great

9:59

news.

13:44

but

14:03

not political in the sense where, please, I don't

14:05

want to watch politics. Not

14:07

that. And that thriller as in some

14:09

kind of hyped up

14:11

nonsense. Really

14:14

smart TV shows.

14:17

And I'll just

14:20

go through them with you. Maybe

14:23

you've already seen some of them. The one that's I think the most

14:26

recent is The Diplomat.

14:28

This is also on Netflix. It just

14:31

came out a, I don't know, a month or two ago. It

14:34

stars Keri Russell. She's appointed by

14:37

the president to be the new ambassador

14:40

to the United Kingdom. And

14:44

that isn't really what this is so much

14:46

as, what it's really about.

14:49

And in the

14:52

sort of situation that this character

14:54

finds herself in

14:57

and just a lot of

14:59

shit goes down. And

15:02

she's also got her husband with her who is

15:06

very supportive of her being the ambassador,

15:08

the American ambassador

15:10

to the United Kingdom. But

15:13

also

15:14

you kind of see he wants the job too, or he

15:16

wants some job. I mean, I've

15:18

watched all the first, you know, whatever

15:21

it is now, 10 episodes of

15:23

the first season. But

15:26

it is fantastic. It is smart.

15:29

It's the writers

15:32

are great. And of course,

15:34

Keri Russell. Man, what

15:37

an incredible actor. Just

15:41

on fire. Just, it's, you

15:45

said, first of all, you

15:48

don't even, 10 minutes into it, you're

15:50

not thinking this is Keri Russell. You're

15:53

not watching Full of City Friends. This

15:55

is really a well-written,

15:58

well-acted,

15:59

well-directed. intense

16:04

political

16:06

drama

16:07

that's also a thriller. The

16:09

diplomat. Another

16:12

one, this is also from this

16:14

year, The Night Agent. The

16:16

Night Agent stars Gabriel Basso

16:20

and Lucy Ambucannon, two wonderful

16:22

actors. It's set

16:25

in the basement of the White House,

16:28

where kind of low level FBI agent

16:31

that mans the phone

16:33

in the basement of the White House overnight.

16:39

And one night, a very

16:41

strange and urgent call comes

16:44

into this hotline phone. And

16:47

that's all I really need to tell you. They

16:50

take it from there. And again,

16:52

as you watch, I know, I actually

16:54

don't like binge. I like to watch these

16:57

one at a time, once a week, I'd

16:59

like there to be some distance. I like it.

17:01

I like to sit with it, especially the good ones.

17:04

I might want to go back and watch it a second time.

17:06

But when they've

17:08

got them all up, you cannot not

17:10

watch the next episode

17:12

of this. The

17:15

Night Agent, and

17:18

basically set with characters that work inside

17:21

the White House. And

17:25

it's, it's very powerful. Another

17:29

one, though, this is from 2018. Again,

17:31

I missed it back when it was out. The

17:34

BBC produced it with,

17:37

I believe, with Netflix. It's

17:39

called Bodyguard, not the bodyguard,

17:43

Bodyguard.

17:44

And Bodyguard, it's a,

17:47

it's essentially a British show. So

17:49

already, you know, their better shows

17:52

are

17:53

classics, right? So this one,

17:56

the stars, Richard Madden, as

17:58

he works. lox ah

18:00

for the a security detail that

18:03

protects government officials

18:05

and so he's been assigned

18:08

to the home secretary

18:10

ah which is like one of the top cabinet

18:12

positions underneath the prime

18:14

minister

18:16

ah the home secretary in his his

18:18

job is to guard her essentially and make

18:20

sure she safe and

18:23

on in nothing is

18:26

one it seems to be and

18:29

including with him so

18:31

you're right away you know we're

18:33

in for a ride her

18:35

and this and on this

18:38

actor

18:39

on richard madden is the actor

18:41

he may remember him from

18:43

game of thrones he played the

18:45

oldest stark brother or

18:47

robb stark and

18:49

are it's just it's it's

18:51

intercourse center in set entirely

18:53

in london on

18:55

and it's it's intense

18:59

ah it's another thriller yet

19:02

doubt that the first scene in the first episode

19:05

begins he's just riding the

19:07

train back to london

19:09

of he had take our kids for the weekend

19:12

bringing bring in the kids back to the

19:14

mother and he opens up the

19:16

restroom door to the restroom on the train

19:19

and there is a woman in the restroom

19:21

she has got a a bomb attached

19:24

to her body

19:25

and on her thumb is

19:27

hovering above the trigger to set

19:29

the bar mom she's there in a blob the train

19:32

and they take their time with

19:34

that seen my friends are but you that seen it

19:36

must go for fifteen twenty minutes

19:39

i love it how when the brits take their time

19:41

with the stuff

19:43

and such the b b c they don't have to

19:45

worry about cutting the commercials so

19:49

anyways bodyguard son netflix

19:52

another great political

19:54

thriller ah

19:56

that that you don't know what's gonna happen in

19:58

the next twenty minutes

21:59

Slow Horses, it's on Apple TV.

22:04

And okay, so those are my like political

22:06

mystery thriller type

22:09

shows. Then

22:11

there's some comedy in addition

22:13

to Never Have I Ever

22:16

and the ones I was watching before

22:18

now that they no longer Ted

22:21

Lassel's gone, Mrs. Maisel's

22:23

gone, shrinking

22:28

with Harrison Ford and Jason Siegel. That's

22:31

coming back. These

22:35

are not on right now, but Apple

22:37

does have a new one called Platonic with

22:39

Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne,

22:42

two greats. And they

22:45

play platonic friends. They're probably

22:48

around 40 years old. They've

22:51

been friends since college. They've

22:53

never had a romantic relationship. And

22:57

so far it's worked out.

23:00

Though they have a lot of trouble with each other. It's

23:04

very funny. I mean, it's Seth Rogen and

23:07

Rose Byrne

23:08

is hilarious. And

23:12

it's on Apple.

23:15

And so if you're missing Ted

23:17

Lassel or shrinking or any

23:19

of their other comedies, they've got a great one here

23:21

in Platonic.

23:24

Another, I think,

23:27

well, it's funny and it's

23:29

not funny, but

23:32

it's called The Bear.

23:34

It's about this diner in Chicago

23:36

and this guy,

23:40

the main actor, it's played

23:42

by Jeremy Allen White. He

23:45

comes back home to Chicago after being a kind

23:48

of successful chef in New York City

23:51

to save his brother's diner. His

23:54

brother has died. And so

23:56

he's trying to put it back together with

23:58

a,

25:59

It's like, it's crazy, it's

26:03

very funny, and then it gets

26:05

dark, and then you don't

26:08

know where this is going, and

26:12

isn't that why you love a

26:14

good book

26:15

or a good movie or a good show? Because you

26:18

don't know what's gonna happen 10 minutes from now,

26:20

because when you do, then you're

26:22

bored, right? So

26:25

this is a really smart,

26:28

fair, fast-moving,

26:32

dangerous show. It's called Beef,

26:36

like the meat, beef, except it has nothing to

26:38

do with

26:40

the meat. That's also

26:42

on Netflix, and that's just been

26:44

on here this year

26:46

in 2023. Fleishman

26:48

is in Trouble, that's on FX

26:50

and Hulu. That was on

26:53

last year, I guess they're doing another season of it

26:55

shortly, starring Jesse Eisenberg

26:57

and Claire Danes. There, what more do

26:59

I need to say? There

27:02

are a couple that's breaking up, getting

27:04

divorced, and I don't

27:06

wanna tell

27:07

you anything

27:10

else about it, other

27:13

than to just watch it. It's set in New York

27:15

City, and Fleishman

27:19

is Jesse Eisenberg, and

27:22

again,

27:23

things don't go according to plan,

27:26

and it just

27:29

leaves you hanging, and I love that feeling.

27:33

Fleishman is in Trouble. I

27:36

think those are the main ones I really wanted

27:38

to, listen, there's others I haven't

27:40

talked about, and I will

27:42

on future episodes. I

27:46

had a Tom Hanks weekend a

27:48

few weekends ago, I had not seen Elvis. This

27:51

is an amazing film, and see now I was nominated

27:54

for Best Picture last year, but

27:57

really, as great

27:58

as.

29:59

of these films, a

30:02

high recommendation. So

30:04

that's what I wanted to share with

30:06

you today. This is what I've been doing

30:09

during

30:10

the writer's strike,

30:12

just

30:14

catching up on all this great writing

30:17

and grateful that my

30:19

sisters and brothers in this union put

30:21

out such incredible work.

30:24

If you haven't had a chance to catch these

30:26

shows, I encourage

30:28

you to do so. Strike

30:32

will be settled and there

30:35

will be more of this from so

30:37

many,

30:38

so many good writers out there. I

30:41

can't wait to see their work here later

30:44

this year and next year. I

30:46

can't wait for myself to get

30:48

back to work because I've got, I think

30:50

some, some pretty

30:52

good stuff you're going to like, uh,

30:55

over the next year here. So, um,

30:57

that's it, uh, for my podcast today.

30:59

Thank you. All of you. Thank you for

31:02

listening. I'd love to hear your comments. Uh,

31:04

you can send them to me here, right here

31:06

on the sub stack, uh, comment section. Uh, or

31:09

if you just want to drop me an email at Mike

31:12

at Michael Moore.com. Um,

31:15

I read

31:15

all my mail.

31:16

I don't have time to respond. I'm sorry

31:18

about that. Otherwise I wouldn't do

31:21

anything. Well, I know what you're saying.

31:23

You know, you could just binge

31:26

a little less TV and write

31:28

me back, Mike. Yeah,

31:30

I know. I know. You're right. Okay.

31:34

Maybe I'll write a few people back this week. All

31:36

right.

31:37

Anyways. Thanks everybody. My thanks,

31:40

uh, to my executive producer and

31:42

editor here, Angela Vargos,

31:46

and, uh, to everybody else who

31:48

participates in helping me, uh, with

31:50

this and everything I do

31:52

eternally grateful. And, uh,

31:54

we'll talk to you next week. Take care. Look

31:56

for my sub stack, uh, later this week

31:59

about the.

31:59

the reasons behind the strike and

32:02

what it really means about the

32:05

dangerous situation that Hollywood is in. It

32:07

is

32:10

worth reading if you care about the movies

32:12

and you care about great TV. That's

32:15

it my friends. This

32:16

is Michael Moore and this is Rumble. Thank

32:30

you.