Travis and Emma are not fans of white culture.

0:13 I'm Travis. I'm Emma. And this is Bestie Approved. What's the last song you listened to? Mine was Make Damn Sure by Taking Back Sunday. Nice. Mine was Too Close by Josh Fawaz. And he dropped a whole new album. And I feel like his like that entire thing is going to be my last song for the next six weeks. Oh, I love it. It's so good. We have a lot on the list today. Yeah. Where do we want to start? Hot dog boys. Hot dog boys. We have like an angel and a devil hot dog guy on Indianapolis's shoulders. Yes. You can start with the angel. So there is a guy, his name on TikTok, I think it is like only Franks or something.

1:05 And he like, he starts every video off and he's like. Hi, welcome to my O .F. Only Frank's that is. And I think it is the cutest goddamn thing I've ever heard in my life. He's so cute. He's so cute. He's so pure. Yeah. He runs around to all of these. I didn't know hot dogs were like so prevalent in Indy. There are a lot of them now that you like go through his profile. Yeah. I didn't realize it either. But he runs around. He tries hot dogs everywhere. He rates them. It is the. cutest and sweetest goddamn thing, and I think it's, like, a beacon of light and hope that we really need right now. No, yeah. Like, his videos genuinely spark joy for me.

1:47 And it's more than hot dogs. It's so funny, because when I clicked on the link that you sent, I'd seen him before, but I've never seen him review a hot dog. I've seen him do, like, the Kilroy's breadsticks of the month. Like, they have the Arroz Camboyo breadstick bag. I feel like I do remember this. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Yeah. But never hot dogs. But I love that for him. And I hope he starts making money off of TikTok. I do, too. I told him we were going to shout him out this week because I followed him. And I was like, hey, is it okay if I... Only Franks. Yes. Only Franks. And he was like, yeah, let me know. And I'm like, I'm excited to watch. And I was like, goddammit, I love you so much. Of course he replied and was encouraging, like, naturally. Yes. So if you're in New Zealand or Belgium or something, please tap into Only Franks anyway. Yes. Thank you. Please. Tell me about your devil of a hot dog guy. Oh, yeah. The devil.

2:41 I never thought I'd be saying this, but Joey Chestnut. Brother boy got arrested. He lives up here in Westfield and he got arrested for slapping someone in a bar. Because apparently they recognized him and he was just super drunk. And unfortunately, I feel like I can empathize. Who the fuck is this? I just Googled Joey Chestnut. I've never seen him a day in my life. Travis somehow has never heard of the Nathan's hot dog eating contest, which to me is insane because it's like the Super Bowl for. Even white or white people. And you know, I don't I don't enjoy white culture. I can't watch the hot dog eating contest.

3:23 Let's start there because I hate people chewing. Yes. No, I'm so sorry. Like that sounds like my personal disgusting stuff. Like they dip it in water to get it done. It's it's actually disgusting. And they eat like dozens of hot dogs. It's gross. Anyways, yeah, he slapped someone, which is crazy because it's like a local celebrity, which we don't have many of. Shout out Joey Chestnut, I guess. He is an icon, but I just thought that was so funny. That seems like a liberal use of the word, but I'm kidding. No, I mean, for this part of the country, that's an icon. But, okay, so, like, somebody went up to him in a bar, and they said, oh, my God, you're Joey Chestnut.

4:11 But he just slapped the shit out of him. Like, how did that interaction go? I so I just read about it briefly. But from what I gathered, everyone's super wasted. That is the predetermining factor you need to understand. I guess the guy comes up to him. He probably said something stupid. If I had to guess like. About him eating hot dogs. Oh, okay. And if you've seen Joey Chestnut, recently at least, ripped. He's like jacked now. He's like... Okay. God bless. God bless Joey Chestnut. I hope he's doing well in prison. When you look up Nathan's contest winners, the recommended search is why is Joey Chestnut on probation?

4:59 Jesus Christ. I love that so much. It's no hate at all. I just thought it was silly. Next on the list, we have James Charles, who... I somehow missed this whole thing. Are you serious? I will say, I do think his PR team tried to cover it up very, very, very quickly. So, like, if you didn't see it immediately... I haven't... heard anything about james charles since it came out that he was going after underage boys so let me just tell you they're back on that one they love bringing that up and like i mean to be fair that if that's something that happens that is something that should continue to be brought up until he's off the internet until he's off of the face of the earth um yeah i mean i'm gonna be honest i've never really understood the appeal of james charles of like I sort of do only because I was very in the 2016 makeup tutorial space.

5:59 I was like very into that because I was a freshman in college. He was a makeup. I didn't realize he was a tutorial person. When the term was like makeup guru, he was like one of those. I thought he just had a makeup. So he was like a Jeffree Star guy. Yes, exactly that. Yeah. Just like a few years later and like younger. And then he came out with like the rainbow palette. and all of that stuff and so people followed him and then he just started getting really annoying and that's why I stopped like ever seeing anything from him and then it all came out that he was like going after underage boys and I was like okay I hope I never see your face again and I really haven't I I I saw like the messages and stuff. That's the thing. Like they showed the DMs and it sounded like him, to be honest. He admitted it. I thought so. He's publicly admitted it. He's like, apologize, quote unquote. And like, I'm not interested in your fucking apology.

6:57 I'm so sorry, but. You have to apologize. Like you have to admit that there was wrongdoing there. But that doesn't mean I have to forgive you. In his most recent iteration of lighting his life on fire, he so Amber Vargas is a spirit or was a Spirit Airlines employee before they filed bankruptcy in the middle of the night and like literally shut down operations and canceled thousands of flights across the country. What? That is crazy. Like, I've never seen anything like that. Well, so the whole long and short of it is Jet Fuel became. prohibitively expensive because they were already like on the brink of filing bankruptcy anyway. And when Donald Trump went and did the whole song and dance with Iran.

7:43 The Strait of Hormuz got shut down. Prices of jet fuel skyrocketed. And they simply did not have enough operating capital to go on another day. Oh, my God. I mean, it was bad. So they were like, we're done right now. Yes. Everyone go home. I mean, you realize people showed up. So there was some talk about them maybe filing bankruptcy. And then people showed up to the airport. And they were like, your flights are canceled. And there were no people there to talk to about it. a night like i cannot imagine anything can you imagine like you're just taking your family on vacation or even more casual than that you're just like going somewhere for work or whatever can you imagine and then you just get there and they're like oh well that airline doesn't exist anymore like i know i'm such an elitist piece of shit when it comes to airlines like i only fly delta i'm so sorry that i'm like this person that everyone hates but like It's not about, like, it's not about anything other than, like, I just, I genuinely like Delta. I like a Delta SkyMile. I cannot imagine the hell of, like, showing up, not having anyone to talk to.

8:47 Then you have to call some, like, phone number, because I guess there was a phone number set up to deal with this. Can you fucking imagine? Like, let's just say the 10 ,000 people that were supposed to fly that day, they're all calling the same number at the same time. Yeah. Also, who do they have running that phone? I don't know. Demons? I don't know. Volunteer? They're broke asses. Oh my God. So that all went straight to hell. I feel genuinely bad for everyone involved in this, but like I feel worse for the employees because they had something like 10 ,000 employees that they all laid off. Yeah. Missing a flight is inconvenient, but your job just disappearing is devastating for some people, especially like, yes, but specifically for Amber Vargas, who was an operations agent, um, at, in, uh, Boston Logan Airport. For context, I want everyone to understand, I googled this, this role makes roughly $17 to $25 an hour, so it stands to reason that when her job stopped existing, she panicked. Of course.

9:53 She starts a GoFundMe, and she sends, I can argue both sides of this thing of sending sending a GoFundMe to influencers to like celebrities to whoever and like just like throwing everything at the wall and seeing what you can get like I can I can make the argument of like yeah it's it's it's a little distasteful but like you're fucking desperate like I don't is it distasteful to post your hauls of designer handbags That's the other side of it I can argue where I'm just like, oh, you have a closet full of designer clothes. If you don't want people to know you have money, don't post about having money. Right.

10:35 Like, that's what it boils down to for me. And for me, I'm just like, if there's any good that someone can do, I think. do it and if you don't want to do good then just don't say don't say anything you don't have to say anything james charles can't not say anything but like doesn't he have to be ignoring thousands of dms every day this is the other thing that i i that's the first thing i thought to myself because i get so he opens up the dm and i'm going to clip in the audio from from james charles's original response to this because i i need people that like actually hear how just fucking demonic he sounds I'm not so bad I just got a DM on here from a girl that said good morning James I know you'll probably never see this but if you could just take one minute to read it would really mean a lot to me I'm really struggling right now because Spirit Airlines just filed for bankruptcy and I have lost my job here's a GoFundMe link any donations help I'm sure they do sweetheart I'm sure they do you know what else would help you Getting another job. Yeah, try that. Because in the time that it took you to copy and paste the same fuck ass message to myself, who you don't follow, by the way, and probably a hundred other influencers and celebrities, you could have applied for a hundred other jobs, but you didn't because you're a lazy piece of shit and you're entitled. And you think that influencers and celebrities should fund your life for you.

12:01 Why? Why would I ever help you? You're not a fan. You don't even follow me. You've never supported me. This is your first time DMing. And you think that I'm going to... Send you money because you lost your job? Oh my god, welcome to the real world, sweetheart. People lose their jobs every fucking day and you're white, pretty, and able -bodied. You're in a much better position than a lot of other people out here who are trying clearly much harder to make a better life for themselves. Why would I fucking help you? Aside from that, 17 ,000 people lost their jobs at Spear Airlines. Why do you think you need to go fund me? I can at least, like, 1 % respect the mentality of closed mouth, don't get fed, doesn't hurt to try. But honestly, it does hurt to try because now you pissed me off, okay? I'm not the one. Go find fucking Mr. Reese. This is literally his entire shtick. He starts out with, like, I got this DM, and he says, I could have ignored it, I could have just said no, but it pissed me off. And, like, he starts on this whole thing about, like, um... You know what you could have done in the time that you were, like, copying and pasting this message to influencers like me who you don't even follow? And I was like, oh, fuck you. That's why he's mad. We just got into it. That's why he's mad, because she doesn't follow him. But I want to go two things.

13:14 One, he calls her a lazy piece of shit. And I was like, this girl's desperate. And you're blowing her up. She would not survive two. hours at her job. 20 minutes. What are you talking about? Lazy pieces. You sit in front of a tripod that is set up for you and then do horrible, awful, no good makeup and get mugged by celebrities who you are supposed to be teaching constantly. Right. What are you talking about? Right. Right. But then. The other the other thing that I keep coming back to is you and I have a public facing TikTok, Instagram threads, whatever for the podcast.

13:59 When you have a public facing profile, there are like three categories of messages. Yeah. Like people that you are connected with, people that like the algorithm thinks you might know and things that are like you have no connection to this person. They don't follow you. and it just goes into a folder that like you don't ever see. Yeah. James Charles had to go in and like, he was looking for something like this. Like, and that's, I imagine like he's probably one of these people that's obsessed with like himself. He's an narcissist, whatever. He's up at two or three o 'clock in the morning. And that's like, that's what he's doing is scrolling through his messages and see like, what are people saying to me? That's, that's the answer. He wants, he knows that there are people in there gassing him up and he wants to read it. Yes. And do you know what? Fine. Sure. Who cares? But for you to go after this woman who was just trying to protect her livelihood. Like, God bless, whatever.

14:58 I don't care. Like, that's neither here nor there. Like, if I'm having a day, like, I don't want to read our reviews on Apple Podcasts. Like, that's where we're at. But. This girl, and also for context, I went and found the original GoFundMe. The dollar amount has since gone up because I think this has gone so public. So she's like, I'm going to help other people. But the original amount that was on the GoFundMe, $1 ,100. Probably just trying to make rent. She was trying to cover her fucking rent for the month. Like, that's what it was. Or, like, buy a girl. Like, I don't care what she was doing with it. Like, I mean, in Boston, $1 ,100 for rent feels super low. So, like, I'm just like. Maybe she was just trying to have electricity. Maybe. I don't care what it was. It doesn't even matter. I don't care if she was just like, damn, I lost my job. I need to go. to Miami for a weekend, bitch. Yeah, you should. You're not going on Spirit. She wasn't forcing anyone to pay her either, by the way.

15:52 Flikes are probably $1 ,100 on Delta right now, for God's sakes, also. I bet they would give a Spirit airline firee a little discount if they sobbed enough. I would hope so. Yikes. But it's so horrific. And then, so he goes on, he makes this whole thing about she's a lazy piece of shit. The internet. Drags him to hell. And thank God. And so the other thing to understand is like in content creation, your your capital is how many followers you have. James Charles had 44 million followers. He lost five million followers over the course of a weekend. And good. God, it feels good. Set a record for becoming the most unfollowed person on TikTok in history.

16:41 Wow. Proud of him for that. Um, and then he comes on and does the whole song and dance of trying to make an apology where he's out. He's on his porch. He's crying. He's doing the thing and he's making it about him, which like, he's like, this is the first place where I feel like I can truly be myself. And I'm like, first of all, shut the fuck up. No, it's not. You've never been anyone by yourself and you really show who the fuck you are. I don't want to hear that. When has anyone ever held you back, girl? Right. And I want you to be whoever you are. I want you to run around. You can't treat people like shit, though, and, like, make it about being yourself. Yeah, and you don't get to fake oppression and be like, whoa. Oh, Christ. Right, like, I've been oppressed. Girl, we've seen pictures of you when you were 12, living your best life.

17:27 Like, what are you actually talking about? And, like, if that is your real struggle, I don't want to take that away from you. No. But there's no way that's your argument. It reminds me of like a bad boyfriend who's who's who's talking about like, oh, I can't just I can't just say what's on my mind. Yes. Oh, my God. I can't just say what I can't have my feelings. This isn't a safe space for me. God damn it. It annoys the fuck out of me. But then Amber Vargas, the original poster of the GoFundMe. responded with a post to his apology. She said, I heard the apology.

18:12 I just don't accept it. Period. And all I have to say is, good for fucking her. She could have been the bigger person. She could have not. I want you to take him straight the fuck to hell. Exactly. And Augie agrees. And also, the other thing too, because I brought him up a minute ago, I hate agreeing with Jeffree Star about anything. But Jeffree Star came out and he was like, I'll clip it in here too, but he said something to the effect of, well, you know, he probably would have helped this girl if she was a 16 -year -old boy messaging him. And I said... If that Spirit Airlines employee was 16 and innocent, James would have sent that cash out. Next subject.

18:54 You know what? Broken clocks are right twice a day, I guess. Yeah. It's like, so would you, Jeffrey, but okay. Fair. Fair. But... Also, speaking of underage people, that was a bad segue. Have you seen the thing about Dr. Oz, who's apparently in charge of the CDC now, I guess? I don't know. Dr. Oz says that one third of Americans are underbabied. I did see that. Tell me your thoughts. What the fuck does that mean? Secondly, did Dr. Oz ever get his M .D.? Because last I checked, he was a Ph .D. No, no, no, that's Dr. Phil. No, no.

19:36 When Dr. Oz had a show, wasn't he a PhD, not an MD? And it was a whole thing. No, no, that was Dr. Phil. No, Dr. Oz. Dr. Phil's like a psychologist. Of course, he's not an MD, but. But no, Dr. Oz, like because Heather Dubrow is very, very or was very good friends. I don't know if they're still super close, but because he. Is he like a real life? Worked a lot with Terry Dubrow. I think he's a real doctor. Oh. Hang on. A real MD. Yeah, Dr. Maldonado is a real licensed and credentialed physician. He trained as a cardiothoracic surgeon. He's a heart surgeon. He's a heart surgeon. A cardiothoracic. I don't know what the fuck that means. Maybe that's what it is. I don't remember. I was a child. Maybe it's that he was a heart surgeon and he just kept going on TV and calling everyone fat. I think you're right about this. This is the. Yes, yes, yes. Because he was in the realm of Dr. Atkins because they they did something together. You're I think I remember what you're talking about. But it was like 20 years ago. So he's also one of these people who and I this is where I struggle. We're like, I do think there is space for holistic natural medicine. I also think if the solution is a pill, a vaccine, whatever the case may be, that is the solution. And that is science of science to back it. I don't want like there is no all black or all white situation. There is room for gray area here. He is obsessed with like promoting natural medicine and like holistic.

21:08 The people are all over that. And that's why he's in charge of whatever department in the government he's part of now. I don't care about that. But he gets on. I think it was a press conference where Donald Trump is literally falling asleep in his chair. I saw that, too. Never seen anything like it. I'm like, you're talking about sleepy fucking Joe. Like, let's start there. Not even really trying to hide it. No. Just fully grandpa's resting his eyes. I got to rest my eyes. I heard everything you said. My papaw does the same thing, by the way. But he, Dr. Oz says one third of Americans are under baby. And he also predicted that. there is going to be an upcoming wave of Trump babies. Jesus Christ.

21:56 Okay, so a couple things here. Void up your windows. I want your thoughts about this. Let's get the baseline there. Let's start there. I think you're treating a symptom of the issue. People aren't having babies because people can't afford it. That's that's one reason people are also having babies because we live in a society where if you do not have a two income household, it's almost impossible to get by. And then that leaves the problem of where do the children go? That's another part. And I think getting on TV and saying we're under baby, there's about to be a wave of Trump babies is really. A creative way to sweep that under the rug for the 50 ,000th time.

22:53 It's that. And then it's also the third data point that I kept coming up when I was reading about this is as women become more educated, there is less emphasis on you have to you have to be a mother. That has to be your entire thing. And I have been very honest about my thoughts about. I, if you want to be a mom, I want you to be a mom and I want you to, I want you to do whatever you want. If you want to, like, I want everyone to be exactly who they want to be. I don't like this idea that you have to be a mother and your only value is in being a mother. And like. Zero percent. Yeah. I say this like, and I know my cousin Megan listens and like, she is such, she's a stay at home mom. She's got. So am I. Yeah. Right. You are too. And she's got six or seven kids. And I don't remember.

23:36 I'm sorry, Megan. Don't hate me. But. She loves. Jack just did the six, seven thing. Anyway. She loves being a mother and she's a good mom and that's what she wants to be. And that's beautiful and that's a good purpose to have in life. Exactly. Her sister Autumn doesn't have kids and I don't hear Megan pushing like, oh, you need to be a mom, you need to have kids. She doesn't do that to Autumn. So. No one should do that to anyone. There's no issue with anyone being a mother, obviously. And, like, there's also the idea that, like, studies have, like, I mean, and this is a math problem. This isn't, like, a phenomenal thing. To get a society to continue, like, existing, you have, it's 2 .3 something is the number of kids that have to be born every generation to keep a society in existence. Yeah. So, that's fine. But I want to come back to this, this thing about like how prohibitively expensive it is to have kids in some cases and how there's no support for like, I mean, they're cutting snap benefits. They're cutting like every. for low -income people. So it's like, we're going to push the whole pro -life narrative. We're going to force you to carry the child to term, and then it's your fucking problem. Yeah. And I'm just like, you can't have it both ways. I'm so sorry. I pulled data from the U .S. Census Bureau, and in 2024, there were 84 ,000, or 84 ,969 ,539

25:11 households that met the definition of... a family household so either a married couple a single mother or a single father like with their with everyone living there of those households 33 million 674 652 of those were they included at least one child under the age of 18. so that's like roughly 39 of those households so the long and short of it is it the the the math breaks down to roughly 2 .17 children per household in the united states And then I went a little bit further. Twelve point nine percent of those families are with the children under the age of 18 are living below the federal poverty line, which is an insanely like the poverty line. I don't know what the number is now, but like the it's like, well, it's like twelve thousand dollars or something like it's insane. Yeah. A year.

26:06 Yes. And then. That's up from 11 .3 % in 2014 of those households. So like, I wonder if there's potentially maybe a connection between being poor and not wanting to have more children. But yeah, that's the long and short of it is I wonder if there's a connection between being poor or not. I mean, honestly, not having. two income household and not wanting to have 94 kids. Like, I wonder. And even if you are like. moderately wealthy, or even super wealthy, to be honest, and you just decide not to have kids because they are expensive, I think that's fine. I don't think it's a selfish thing for you to say, no, I want to spend my money on me and living my life. I think that that is totally okay, girl.

27:02 A concept. There are enough people out there with 8, 9, 10 kids to counteract everyone that chooses to have zero. You know what I mean? Like the population of humanity is not in danger. And even if it is, we'll be dead before it's gone. So I don't care. I like, I know that's such like a weird take to have, but like this whole notion that you specifically are responsible for keeping a population going is asinine. And I thought there were places like Eastern Asia that were way overpopulated. When did we stop caring about that? Because I feel like we heard about that so much, like, I don't know, seven, eight years ago. That was a talking point where I think they've moved away from it because I'm probably for this very reason, because people in the United States, people in Western Europe are I'm sorry. Yeah. Western Europe are having less and less kids. Yeah. And. So they didn't want to talk as much about how the world's already overpopulated? I don't know. Or maybe how they're ahead of us. I don't know. It's asinine, though.

28:14 That's the long and short of it. Yeah. Well, Dr. Oz being in the White House is asinine, to be honest. The entire administration. It's a circus. Everything that comes out of it is just... So, you know how sometimes we're an AI podcast. My TikTok is an AI for you page. God, my Twitter is literally AI bots talking to each other. Yes, yes. And I can see it. I can tell that it's two AI chatbots talking to each other. The new trend that I keep seeing, though, is people saying they're hiring. AI chiefs of staff. And I'm like, oh, my God, you're using Claude Code. Please stop. You're unwell. Like, you are unwell. Okay.

29:08 I can actually see both sides of the argument. You know where I stand on AI. I do. I think it's demented. Do I think it's incredible that we are living through an era where we have... created such a thing that can design like a like an electronic personal assistant that you coach into doing for you what you needed to do like that's not lost on me that that's an amazing feat however Brittany you don't need it to organize your Pilates work to respond to your emails to do all of it for you like I know remember the beginning of this podcast a little over a year ago now when i said we're all just gonna lose the ability to think yes that is where i'm at with it now we're also talking about memory issues because you're expecting ai to remember everything you've ever told it and if it doesn't you will just not remember it and like no so here's the thing about like these ai tools so the other thing that like keeps popping up on my tiktok is it's it's vibe coding is what it is it's like you you give you give the prompt an idea and it spits out the front end ui of an app yeah i think like okay if you I can argue both sides of that. I think, number one, it's a security disaster.

30:39 That's problem number one. Number two, if you're putting it out there and you're... There's a guy on TikTok that was like, my friends send me these apps and they're all pieces of shit. I don't want to fucking look at your... You probably have loads of friends who have sent you a text, yo, check this thing out I just built in Claude. It's so sick. And then you have to click this fucking link and it is the worst piece of shit you've ever seen. It sucks more than an art project you made in fourth grade. And you have to... Oh, so cool, man. Every time. Yo, yo, yo, yo, yo. Check this out. Check this out. I put all my Spotify playlists are available on this website. And you could search it by artist. But I don't want to. And it looks like garbage. Yeah, but I made it. What are you, my son? I don't give a... You made it? Terrible. Whatever. You still have to put work in. I'm actually very close to this world. Yes, you are. Because Kenny doesn't...

31:32 Kenny didn't go to school for coding, but he wanted to create a website. He started vibe coding. But when I tell you it's not, he sat down, wrote a few prompts and left it. It's like four hours a day for like three months straight. Still, even though he's not the one coding. you still have to like and now you have to babysit it basically yeah and now the website is actually cool but here's the thing i'm looking at it and i'm not like i you know i love kenny yeah this looks like every ai coded website they all look exactly the same to me and here's the thing i won't take away from like coding is not easy like you i i sent you the screenshot of like what the python script i ran to like do something for the podcast and I attempted to teach myself how to do it.

32:23 And there was one thing that kept going wrong. So I took it into Claude and I said, can you help me like figure, can you debug this for me? And it was like, oh yeah, you like didn't indent something the right way. And like, it comes down to some of those kinds of things. I think Claude is an incredible use case for something like that. I would rather die than like tell Claude, chat, GPT, Jim, and I don't care what it is, what you want to do. And just let it spit it out for you because like then it's like that takes away from the journey of getting there. Like, do you feel ownership of that? Are you proud of that? Like, I feel like you would feel what's the word? It's like, so you cheated. No, like when you actually complete something and you feel, yeah, we're going to miss out on that completely. Because if you work towards something that like pay off. of, like you said, self -actualization at the end just like doesn't exist if you're believing in a robot to spit it out for you.

33:22 Right. The other thing, too, is like people have become so it's like it's a self -awareness thing that we've gotten to where like we we know. that everyone's writing emails with like AI, whatever. There's a new browser plugin that adds typos into your AI generated emails to make them look real. And I'm like, we've lost the plot entirely. It's so over. That is so, that actually just like hurt my brain to hear. And like, and I, it's come to a point where like, it's not just something that's out there that's like available for adoption. It's something that like we're, on a societal level like titans of industry are like pushing it on people like and Sam Altman like I'll give him this like he's not one of these people that says you must must must use AI in every facet of everyday life I think he's been pretty good about that the um anthropic the the people that own Claude they put out like I think it's a public service thing where they're like trying to offset some of the negative that's come out of it where they'll say like hey If you ever actually have a question about something that you, like, aren't 100 % sure Claude's giving you the right answer, we want you to go talk to a person you trust. Like, it's not making the... I feel like, honestly, the people behind the AI companies have had a much cooler head and a more realistic expectation than the people who are actually using it. Because, like, to

34:53 someone, like... Like, I think about my uncle Roy a lot that died when I was like 16. He loved technology like the quad chat. That would have been like magic in his mind where like it would have been his new best friend. And but back to this notion of like pushing it on people. So, oh, yeah, I don't like how that's all of a sudden become a thing. You like the fact that you have to turn. google ai off but not on that and and just like the subtle hints i'm just constantly being run through ai and i'm like well you know instagram like the search bar's meta ai now like which that's either here or there like i can take or leave that but you've got people speaking at commencement speeches of graduations at college where you have people who ostensibly, like, I have to assume the vast majority of people put in the work when it comes to a four -year degree.

35:54 I'm sure that, like, we're, what, 2026? So, realistically, for people that graduated their undergrad this year, some iteration of AI was available to them the entire time. I'm sure that some portion of the people in that... in that graduating class used ai to get through every bit of it but i have to assume that the vast majority of people put in the work and and there are some people like i mean for you like you for the most part who are just staunchly against it and i think that's a very very valid point you've people getting out there saying ai is the wave of the future like whatever and these people and i'm so glad it's happening they're literally getting booed off the fucking stage and i i'm just like You were these people put in work for four years and you're like, well, I was going to take your entry level fucking job. Fuck you. Like, why are you here? I just. It's one thing for you to sit at home and play with your AI and do your silly little thing and whatever. It's another thing for you to step outside of that home and then go tell people who believe in the power of human knowledge and learning that AI is the wave of the future. Like, you're sick. Yes. You're sick. And if you want to use it for your business, that's amazing. You cannot be a person who is respected. who is someone who people listen to and force that on people. That is not okay. I'll

37:24 die on that hill. But on the other side of this, Steve Wozniak, one of the Steves that founded Apple, spoke at a college graduation. Where was it? I don't remember. But his speech gave me a little bit of hope. I'll clip his little part of that speech in here. You all have AI. You all have AI. actual intelligence. My entire life in the technical world, I've been following people that were trying to figure out how to make a brain, software, hardware, synapse chips. And I was at a company where the engineers figured out how to make a brain. Takes nine months. Is that actually like, I think that that was something that like we have lost. in a way that's like, oh, we can give it to Claude, we can give it to Gemini, we can do whatever. And, like, technology is so incredible, but I'm like, you have to still value the human side of it. I looked at him crazy because he wiggled all the way down in his seat and he laughed at me. But, yeah, like, that's...

38:38 It's... We're losing the plot so... And like the voices like Steve Wozniak are becoming fewer and fewer. I don't know. I don't know. And I just, I knew. I knew. You were right. The minute ChatGPT became readily available for anyone who wanted it for free. I was like, this is bad news bears. People will take convenience every time. It's like, it's probably like an evolutionary thing. On some level it probably is. Because is it easier? to go to chat gpt and be like tell me what to make for dinner send this email for me do this do that do that do this yeah probably is it though like then just like because it takes away the decision making piece of it okay maybe maybe yeah you can keep your brain in autopilot all day never have to think about anything ever you're gonna get dementia exactly my point I've been saying this forever. You hold on to zero thoughts. You're not exercising your brain. I bet we see a serious uptick and I'm, I'm like not even joking at all. I'm not a doctor. Obviously I'm not studying this enough. Like a serious, like the, the, what was it between 1972 and 1998?

39:58 Like it wasn't a super long time. The attention span dropped from like, it's cut in half. Like it's insane. what we've already seen happen like on a cognitive level on a societal level because like it's so readily available and i think people don't care and i'm one of those people i don't really care what is done with my data like oh i don't care about girl whatever but I don't think that people understand how it works. I don't think they understand the ramifications of what they're doing to themselves or to the environment or to society as a whole. I feel like people have just started using it without considering the downsides ever. It's like the classic, just because we could, does that mean we should? Yeah, I agree. On a lighter note, what the fuck is Meghan Trainor doing? Oh, my God. Oh, Zen pic? I don't know. She's been skinny for a while, actually. Then, like, like... Or, like, just pull the table, like, a little bit over, because it's, like, not picking up as much anymore. The thinness isn't what I'm talking about. Actually, she's been skinny for a while.

41:10 I just made that up. Well, she does have a Zen pic face. She 100 % has a Zen pic face. But... The the bigger question that I have is like, so she put out this new album and it's. Yeah, I will say I will give her there is the one song that was all over TikTok. Shimmer, I think it's called that. I actually really do like that song. I'll give her that. But it's it doesn't like if you put Shimmer next to like all about that bass next to lips are moving next to. Like any of her like. old music it it is almost unrecognizable to that she is like all in all just um like not even a stone's throw away from where she started i don't know no but i've seen a lot of speculation online where like they're like her music team like went into some ai model and said Give me every popular term on Instagram and TikTok right now. And they just that's what the titles of songs became. And the other thing, too, is the the visuals, the dances. It all seems like she's telling people what she wants the trend to be like. This is what I want the TikTok dance to be to this song. And I think that's we've gotten away from like letting people discover things and enjoy them. It's like it's all become such like a. a business model for lack of a better term but the backlash from her fans has gotten

42:45 so bad that she had to cancel like something insane like all but four of the stops on her North American tour like something insane like that and I was like there's real money that is being lost there like and I'm talking on like on the production level on the like the local level where like do you know what Taylor Swift came to Indianapolis like it was one of the best things that has ever happened to the economy for this city. Look at Bad Bunny in Puerto Rico. Single -handedly it turned their economy around. Right. I mean, he's the reason, like, why, like, electricity is coming back to certain parts of that region now. Yeah. Because, like, they haven't had, like, in some parts, they haven't had electricity since Hurricane Zerma. I don't remember which one. Since the hurricane that, like, decimated Puerto Rico. I'm just like I think he personally helped with that too but yeah yes he did but the the it's like we're moving away from like people enjoying things and it's like now we're going to tell you what to enjoy which is neither here nor there but like people are going to react the way they are do you know who I feel like is the opposite of that right now and a real breath of fresh air miss Zara Larson oh my god yes her Kesha um who's the uh The one where they're just like, I'm just going to do what I like doing.

44:05 If you like it, I want you to like it. Yeah. If it tops off, I'll be happy. But if not, I'm also an artist. It is just very much like that. I believe that's who they are as people. Like Zara Larson is still posting funny TikToks. I agree. I think you're probably 100 % right about that. But I do feel that a lot from certain artists where they're like. Okay, here's the TikTok dance for my latest song. Right. Let me show it to you so you can make me viral. No, but I agree with you about that. It's like, oh, the make me viral thing, because it's like, I don't know.

44:46 Like, it's... Come by your own right. Yeah. Come out with something super fun and cool, and people will like it, and you'll go viral the old -fashioned way. And I think Meghan Trainor is... She's genuinely talented. Like, I remember seeing her live in, like, 2014. I mean, she was new, new. And, like, I was like, oh, she can sing. Oh, yeah. She has a genuinely really good voice. Yeah. And from what I've heard, is otherwise very musically talented. And I've heard she's a wonderful person, like, just in life. And, like. Married to the kid from Spy Kids. Yes. So cute. Right. I think all of that has really kind of. left the chat.

45:26 I haven't heard her just sing acapella and be cute for years. She used to make those TikToks with Junie from Spy Kids and I'm like, I like that. I didn't really care about Meghan Trainor. I don't care about who she is as a person. That's cool. Live your life, whatever. But the backlash got super bad. Part of the problem is I think she's never... like really been disliked and so she can't yeah because i never really like was in love with her above his people were but it's like if you didn't like megan trainer it's not like you needed to go out and hate on her because she's like whatever right okay it's like i don't like taylor switch but i don't need to go hate her either sure well i'm gonna cut that because the internet's gonna cut after you but i'll say it loud and proud Ever since the era of our song and Teardrops on My Guitar, I haven't liked anything. I'm sorry. I liked, what was the song where she was like, the old Taylor's dead or whatever. I liked that song a lot. That's why I stopped liking her. I was like, why are you being weird? Oh, I like the weird. But there's room for debate there. Yeah, but it's not a big deal. I can say she was talented when it was Teardrops on My Guitar. She was very, very talented.

46:48 So what's happened with Meghan Trainor, though, is like it's like people are like my hands off. I'm done. And I don't think she knows how to handle that. So she's not really saying anything publicly. But her little friend, Chris Olsen, is. And that's another one. I'm just not interested in his opinion about anything. I'm so sorry. If you want me to be really real about that. I do. I do. I have not cared or really heard a single word really come out of his mouth since he got divorced. I liked him and his little husband together on TikTok. I liked the husband. I didn't. Exactly. I never liked Chris. Exactly. I didn't realize that until post -divorce that I didn't really like him. I liked his relationship with his husband. Sure. The husband, I will tell you, has taken the high road in a way that I don't know a lot of people could because he said there are a lot of things I could say about it. I'm not going to say it publicly because I'm just not going to do that. He's been incredible about it. I've seen that too. I would be on this podcast airing all of his dirty laundry. I'm just like, she's so insufferable. And I'm like, you, sir, are on the internet being yourself. You can't handle any negative criticism whatsoever. And I think this is like a product of like a generational thing where like we've gotten so far away from like the way our parents were raised and the way like our my granny and papal were raised where it's like they had them and they had a rough childhood. So it's like they wanted to give us everything that we didn't have. And it's like. The Gen Z and then, like, Gen Alva, like, cannot handle negativity because they just, they don't know. They don't know what it looks like.

48:19 Well, they take any type of criticism as negativity. Yes. But that's not always what it is, you know. Some people are genuinely trying to help you be better. Right. So, I don't know. But, in Chris Olsen's case, I don't want him to get better. I just want him to shut the fuck up. I just, if I never see his face again, it'll be too soon. I know. But. There's that. We're going to complain, and then Reality Roundup's going to be cut in because it might sound a little different. But I want to complain. I want you to complain. I want to hear what you have to complain about. So this very morning that we are recording this, let us set the scene. I wake up. It's 6 .15.

49:00 That's fine. That's a reasonable time to me. I wake up not because the baby is awake, but because Kenny is freaking out. So I get up. I'm covered in sweat. I don't know. I looked it up. It's a hormonal thing, I guess. Oh. Fine. I'll sweat. Sure. Let's just keep it pushing. Turns out Kenny's freaked out because the dog has pooped all... over the house beautiful i'm so happy and so stinky i'm so happy and so okay i help him clean that up naturally that wakes the baby up of course sure let's get our day started fine So I get the baby fed. He's chilling. I'm preparing the living room for me to take the rug out so I can just put it in the washing machine. Thank you, Ruggable. I would love a sponsorship, Ruggable.

50:06 Okay. And so I finally crack open some caffeine. I'm trying the new lime Red Bull, the, like, summer flavor they just came out with. Disgusting. Red Bull. Disgusting. How could you? I swear to God, you could like I got into my head. I could not have told you it was coming here, but I'm happy we got here. Please go ahead. Disgusting. It was honestly, I was truly shocked. It might taste good if you have alcohol. That's the only thing I can think of. So I was like, you know what? After the morning I've had. I deserve it.

50:48 I'll order a coffee. Okay. But I know we shouldn't support Starbucks, and to be honest, I'm kind of bored of Starbucks, and so we try a new place. Disgusting. It is $25 of the nastiest latte I've ever tried. It's like, I don't like cold brew. I think it has a weird sour taste to me. Yes, it's very bitter or acidic, yeah. They used cold brew for a latte without my consent. What the fuck? And so I just moved on with my day. Whatever, whatever, whatever. We are washing the rug. We're getting the baby to sleep. It's great. We go for a walk. We come back. We're recording this podcast and the baby poops all over himself in his chair and his clothes and his changing table.

51:44 So that's my day. That is what I'm complaining about. I will give you. I can tell. So we did our daily FaceTime. You were on a walk with Jack in August. And I could tell on that FaceTime. I was like. She is not interested in hearing about any of my bullshit right now. Oh, that's not true. I was fucked. You were in a bad fucking mood. I'm the same way. If I get really hungry, I am a fucking nightmare to be around. You weren't a nightmare. I could tell you were just like, I don't have it in me right now to expend my conversational skills. That's okay. I think I know exactly what was triggering that face for me, and it wasn't you. It was... A certain tapping on my arm every three seconds. You were overstimulated.

52:34 Yeah. Anyways, yeah. I hate that you had a bad day, and I pray to God that when I go to get my hair cut, I take all of the negativity out of this house with me. If you do, I hope they cut it right off your head. Rebuke it. I want to complain about Xfinity being on their bullshit. Tell me. I get an email this morning that says, And I'll read it to you. You'll see a data. I'm sorry. You'll see Internet data overage fees on your next bill. You use more than the 1 .2 terabytes of data included in your Internet plan for May 2026. You can continue to use your Internet service, but you are now being charged a $10 plus tax fee for each 50 gigabyte block of additional data this month. Monthly overage fees will not exceed $100 and your data will reset on the first day of each month. Number one, I didn't know that there is a limit to how much internet I could use. I never once thought about that. Number two, take a wild guess on how much my Xfinity bill is each month. God, I think I'm going to throw up. $310 .35 a month. To be fair, I have internet and TV on the same plan. $310 a month.

53:48 Yikes. And you want to tell me you're potentially going to charge me an extra $100 even though you are In my county, the only internet that's available that you can get because you've created a monopoly in Shelby County. Fuck you and the horse you rode on. I think that's exactly why they're okay with their HR being, no, their HR, their PR being so bad because they know that like people are stuck with them all over the place. And I'm just like, like, and they, they have a lot because like Shelby County has had on several occasions. One company tried to come in and bring in fiber optic internet. And Xfinity has shut that down. The people in the planning commission will not even entertain at this point because Xfinity has such a chokehold on accounting.

54:39 It's so annoying. Take it to the Supreme Court. There's a monopoly here. I have to imagine that there's probably... It has to break some kind of antitrust law. It has to. Like, but, I don't, like, I think they have, like, different regions of the country where they're allowed to, like, do this. Like, I feel like I remember something about this. But, like, I'm just like, I pay $310 a month for internet and TV. Fuck you. You're just getting an extra $100 wherever you can scrape it together. Jesus. You are one of the most valuable companies in existence. Like, Xfinity is owned by Comcast, which is owned by their parent company.

55:20 Their parent company is NBC Universal. Yeah. They're fine. You're not hurting for money. No. Like... Yeah. But that's where we're at today. Which, by the way, is so crazy. Like, you have to go in... I've always thought this with, like, any kind of parent company situation. The fact that you have to pay Xfinity and Peacock is, like... So that's the other weird thing, too, is, like, there's so many licensing things with these things. Yeah. Like, I... I have to assume it all stems back to where they were all their own individual companies. Before they were under the umbrella, yeah. Right. Because NBC didn't used to be the same as Universal, did they? No, NBC acquired Universal after they were sold off by Warner Brothers. Time Warner is, I think, who sold off Universal. And they did a lot with that. Peacock has been specifically NBCUniversal since its inception, so I don't understand why I have to pay for both. Because I will and I do. Yeah, that's probably why. Because you will.

56:30 Because they know I'm going to watch The Real Housewives. And it's not just you. It's everyone. Because they will do it. Because they'll shake everyone down for $13 a month if they can. But that's where we're at today. We'll be back for Reality Roundup.