Latest / The SEANC View / Freeze Era Over: State Health Premiums, Hospital Pay, and the Push for Transparency

Transcript

Freeze Era Over: State Health Premiums, Hospital Pay, and the Push for Transparency · The SEANC View

0:00
Hello and welcome to another edition of the Scenic View podcast.
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I'm your host, Jonathan Owens, Communications Director at Scenic,
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along with Sammy Klein, Artis Watkins, Executive Director, and Suzanne Beasley.
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Let's have a great show. We are thankful that you have joined us,
0:17
the only podcast for state employees and retirees. Let's have a great show.
0:31
I thought we needed a tagline, so I think that's a good one.
0:34
Well, I think it's a good one.
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You know what? Nobody is going to talk about state employee and retiree issues
0:41
as in-depth as this organization because that's the only reason we're here.
0:46
That's in our name. Yeah.
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The only reason we're here is our members and their rights, and unfortunately,
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we can't just count on the powers that be to just do the right thing just because.
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That's silly, so we know we have to get this information out there.
0:59
Well, it's cold outside.
1:02
Yes, it is. This is probably our first real cold snap of the year, right?
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I think it was like 32 when I got in the car. Yeah, my car was all frozen.
1:11
Yeah, and there's talk of possible winter weather on Friday.
1:15
What do you think? You think that'll happen? I don't think it'll happen here.
1:18
Probably the western part of the state. Yeah.
1:21
You think we'll see the brine trucks from DOT out a little? They're always going
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to be out. Yeah. And they're really important.
1:27
I went out west last month and thankful they were out.
1:30
Kind of a surprise when you headed out that way. Oh, yeah, you did get,
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you ran into some snow. Was it in Boone or?
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No, this was just past Asheville.
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Oh, okay. There was some kind of mix-up, and some of the brine didn't go down
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on 40, so they had some issues off of 40.
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But it shows just how critical it is, the work these folks are doing.
1:51
Speaking of that, actually, before we jump into the show, last week we did talk
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about the DOT and Highway Patrol workers who received the award from the governor
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for their work in the Helene. Right.
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And this week, DOT has been putting out videos with each of those people,
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and it's very cool to watch. That's awesome.
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So where do you go to their DOT? It's on their Facebook and I've been trying to share some.
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I'll share some more on our page too, but they have like in-depth interviews
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of what happened and everything with the workers.
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So definitely check that. I mean, I think as human beings, we probably all want
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to help people, but I think that just goes to the point that state employees
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have a heart of service and immediately went into action.
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And with upcoming possible weather, thank you, DOT.
2:35
Yes. And purposely mentioned the cold to bring a segue to our first topic,
2:40
which is the state health plan and this report in the News and Observer this
2:46
week that the freeze era is over for state health plan premiums,
2:51
according to state treasurer Brad Briner. That's as cold as ice.
2:58
That's a problematic headline, John. Yeah, it is. So basically,
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the story says that Briner's philosophy is a shift from Bill Falwell's stance
3:09
of holding premium steady for years to...
3:12
And he said that basically we'll possibly raise them every time it's needed.
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We can argue how we should. How would we know if it's needed?
3:20
We have no transparency in what we're paying health care systems.
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And we can get really in-depth on that in a minute.
3:25
Yeah. But here's the other thing that we don't talk about. Let's say the health
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plan decides we're going to only do this when state employees get a raise.
3:33
And then we'll raise their premiums up and take a little bit of that raise.
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But only when they get a raise.
3:38
You're kind of comparing them to the private sector in that case.
3:41
Except you don't pay state employees the way you do the private sector.
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They're at least 14% on average below what that job classification would be
3:51
paid in the private sector.
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We've said it a million times. You don't come to work for the state to get rich and you know it.
3:57
But what you do know is your benefits will be pretty stable and solid.
4:01
And you won't make as much money as you would elsewhere, but you usually have
4:05
a more predictable life.
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This is a departure from that. So it's treating state employees more like the
4:11
private sector if you were to do that, but not paying them like the private sector.
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So you can't pick and choose where you treat state employees like the private
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sector. That's a big thing.
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Just this year, for example, since their premiums have gone up, we don't have a budget.
4:25
Right. There's no pay raise.
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Premiums have gone up. So they're in the hole. Whereas the private sector and
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the public sector even in local government,
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raises were given this year on average that were meaningful raises.
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So state government is right there by itself in terms of how badly it's treating
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its employees right now.
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And it's a unique situation. Like it's different than just an employer who goes
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out and purchases a plan for their employees and expects a huge increase in
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that premium every year because No, it's just the state's premium,
5:02
you know, I mean, it should be used as a benefit to entice people to come to
5:07
state employment, right?
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And a thing a lot of people don't understand, too, is the state health plan
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is self-funded, you know, so you don't actually have an insurance policy with
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Aetna at the moment as the third-party administrator.
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But the state funds its own state health plan. We just use the network that
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Aetna has and Aetna processes the claims.
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And I think there's people don't understand that. Yeah, I guess what I'm trying
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to say is just because Aetna probably has to raise its premium,
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it shouldn't have any bearing on the state health plan. It's an entirely separate situation.
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And a big part of this is to avoid having to ask the legislature for more funding.
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So this is, again, why job number one for the state auditor in looking at where
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we're overpaying as a state, where public funds are not being used efficiently.
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I know that Auditor Bullock is very serious about that work.
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I know that Treasurer Briner is very serious about getting these health care
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costs down. They need to get together on this.
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And the law needs to be changed to allow Auditor Bullock and Treasurer Briner
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to come forward and tell us exactly what we're paying these providers.
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Because it's not fair just every time money is needed just to go to the employees.
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It's the only way it's ever been done. Yeah.
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You know, and you'll hear, well, no, no, no, we've gotten some concessions from
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the provider. If you get a concession from somebody you're paying.
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Four or five hundred percent more of Medicare reimbursement than it takes to make a profit.
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And they're like, OK, well, we'll take a little of that off or a whole lot of
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that off. They're still making way more money than it takes to make a profit.
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So, you know, if I charge you a thousand dollars for a loaf of bread and I'm
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willing to knock it down to ninety dollars for that loaf of bread,
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have I given that big a concession?
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Still a big profit there. I think that the big quote, the big takeaway from
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this story for state employees was Thomas Friedman,
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the executive administrator of the state health plan, said that he would anticipate
7:05
benefit changes in 2027 and along with that premium changes.
7:11
So I guess that would mean premium increases in 2027.
7:15
Well, I mean, because, again, we still don't have transparency.
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We still don't know what we're paying folks. So we can't insist on adjusting
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it where we're wildly overpaying folks.
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I love what they're doing at the health plan with Lantern, that program where
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they can direct people to qualified
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surgeons who are willing to do the surgeries for enough of a profit,
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but not, you know, price gouging anybody.
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I love that program, but that by itself is going to take time and it won't do
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it by itself. We still have to have the transparency.
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And again, if Auditor Bullock wants to do something big and meaningful, this is it.
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We are one-tenth as the state health plan of the commercial health insurance in this state.
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We're number one most costly state in the nation for health care.
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If you want to do something to help every single North Carolinian,
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get some transparency around this health plan, which would drive those costs
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down because people would be outed for overcharging so badly.
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And where does it end? Like, health care is just consuming the economy and people's
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lives and people's finances. I mean, where it's ended is in health care,
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rather. It's the number one cause of bankruptcy in this state.
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That's where it's ending for North Carolinians.
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And honestly, I am, you can tell I'm hopping mad right now because it's kind
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of extremely fresh atrium that just announced all these C-suite raises for their
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muckety-mucks this year that were just outrageous. for like 40% raises.
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Their CEO's raise was just announced. And Atrium Healthcare CEO is getting a 50% raise.
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It's a nonprofit hospital.
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All right. And so let's talk.
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Nonprofit hospital owned by a system called Advocate Health.
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At least 20... It's in the name, Advocate. Yeah, Advocate Health.
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And by the way, all of this is according to Ann Kemsky.
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Ann Kemsky, We know her well, and she's a wonderful person, but she's a nationally
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respected health care advisor, and she reported that Atrium's giving its CEO
9:24
a 50% raise so that he will make $25.8 million.
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Goodness. $25.8 million. And again, Advocate Health owns Atrium.
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They're paying at least 20 other employees in their system over $1 million in salary for 2024.
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So, you know, 21 people making over a million.
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They're of Charlotte-based companies, according to Ann Kemsky.
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Only the Bank of America CEO was paid more than the Atrium CEO, a nonprofit hospital.
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Now, Atrium CEO...
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Even edged out the HCA healthcare CEO, HCA runs Mission in Asheville.
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And HCA is a for-profit hospital system. Big difference.
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They're for-profit, Atrium's nonprofit.
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And Atrium's nonprofit CEO edged out the for-profit HCA CEO by 2 million.
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Make it make sense. He only gets 23.8 million as a for-profit CEO,
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but 25.8 million to Atrium. Look, this is exactly why we're sitting where we're
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sitting. And they're not alone.
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Ann gave more information on her LinkedIn page where she is a wealth.
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If you want to follow anybody interesting on LinkedIn, y'all,
10:43
Ann Kemski, K-E-M-P-S-K-I.
10:46
So this CEO made $25 million and he didn't hit any home runs or he didn't catch
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any touchdowns. Yeah, yeah. How can you? Well, yeah, they did.
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They did make a home run in terms of money they brought in.
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But this isn't because some sort of amazing.
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I'm not sure that this is a lot about business strategy or acumen.
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If you don't have to say what you're charging.
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Exactly. And you've got people willing to just pay it.
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And, you know, an aside in this whole health care debate that we started to
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have two weeks ago and then it's just been drowned out by other stuff now.
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But I hope that we can get back to talking about health care because it is killing our country.
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I digress there a little bit. But it's OK. Appropriate.
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But everyone's premiums are about to go up, too, because of the.
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Well, we got to pay for all this stuff, John.
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Yeah. But they made, Atrium made $1.4 billion in the first nine months of 2025.
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That was 18% more than the same period last year.
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And by the way, when these nonprofit hospitals want to come and get these bonds approved,
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Mm-hmm. Yeah. Where they can finance building more and more and more.
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They can finance that at no tax on that.
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Yeah. And when people were starting to, like, very smart people that I respect,
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like, in the Twitter sphere, or, you know, they always, first off,
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blame the insurance companies, which probably do have a lot of blame to take.
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But no one ever mentions the reason that your insurance premiums are going up
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is because the cost of the hospitals are so much.
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Yeah, the hospitals try to fly like under the radar.
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Yeah. You know, get everybody mad at the insurance. They both need to get it right.
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Now, part of Aetna, my understanding, when Aetna took over the contract as third-party
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administrator, I remember at those health plan board meetings, Suzanne,
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hearing things about how Aetna had committed to trying to bring a lot of this
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overpayment stuff down that Treasurer Falwell had been so concerned about.
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And I'm not sure where we are with all that, but it's a good time to get an update from them.
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But before we move any further, I wanted to make sure it's clear we're not just picking on Atrium.
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They just happen to be the one that's the most outrageous in terms of pay for
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their CEO and their top muckety-mucks.
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But Avant's CEO earned $8.2 million in 2024. Where's that?
13:15
So and then UNC Health's CEO was $2.36 million. So that's about probably like
13:21
a relief pitcher or a utility player still in the major leagues.
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But yeah, I mean, even ECU Health CEO took home.
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$1.7 million. Yeah, I mean. And you can't begrudge someone for being at the
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top of their profession and making money.
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But $25 million is a lot. Yeah, $25 million. At some point it just gets gross.
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Yeah. It is gross. Especially when. They're a nonprofit system.
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It's just not sad. So, yeah, Thomas did say that the premium increase will likely
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be smaller next year, which is probably not much of a consolation.
13:58
Well, here's my public records request right now. I don't know if you can do
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it this way, but I want to know what we're paying.
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All these people on this chart you were just reading from, what are we paying
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these hospital systems out of the state health plan? We have to know.
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Well, the state health plan board of trustees meets on Friday.
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My understanding is there won't be any votes on anything, but there will be
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the actuaries on hand for discussion.
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You know, they do allow public comment moment. Yeah.
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So we may glean some new information on Friday.
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Not to throw them under the bus, but isn't their role to advocate and to manage
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the state health plan to the best of their ability? Yes.
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And why do they not? If you asked each of them what their role is,
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they might answer differently. Differently.
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Over the years, I've heard different board members express their role,
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and it has been not the same. Yeah.
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A lot of them see their role very much as just we're supposed to spend the state's
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money as wisely as possible.
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And that's why it was so important to us when the state health plan was reconstituted.
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Their board was reconstituted, and Senator Apodaca led that charge.
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And he was good enough to really sit and listen and say, yeah,
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I think you do need some regular people.
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People who work and use the state health plan need to be on that board.
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How can you make decisions about the welfare of 700,000 people if you haven't walked in their shoes?
15:27
I always like to say that, you know, somebody who makes $100,000 a year is going
15:33
to consume health care differently than someone making, you know, $40,000 a year.
15:38
And even if that's how they see their role, to be fiduciaries of the state's
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money, don't they have a responsibility to know what we're paying these hospitals
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and to advocate for that to be public? So that's certainly...
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I mean, that's part of being. That's what we're trying to advocate to them to
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do. I guess I'm just asking, why do they not come out more forcefully?
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Some of them do sometimes.
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I know Dr. Willis, when he was on there, he was a huge advocate for.
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And as a doctor, he had a special reason to be because he would point out the obvious.
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Guess who's not cleaning up in this health system? Doctors and nurses and PAs
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and people who you go see who care for you.
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Yeah. Your actual provider. Right. When you're sitting in that room getting
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a checkup, that person is not the one who's cleaning up.
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The person who takes apart your heart or takes apart your brain for the most
16:29
complex surgeries, they're not the ones making $25 million a year. Exactly.
16:34
It's troubling. Well, that's healthcare moment for the episode.
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Until we are not happy. Yeah, it's such a huge part of everyone's life.
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It is just the biggest smack in the face to talk about a 50% raise for a nonprofit CEO of healthcare.
16:49
We don't know what we're paying them. And yet state employees and retirees get
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a big goose egg this year.
16:55
And a premium increase. And a premium increase. And they're told,
17:00
yeah, you're probably going to have to pay even more next year.
17:02
Ridiculous. Absolutely not. Freeze era is over.
17:06
So it's like a 49% increase and like a probably 10% decrease for state of oil. That's probably.
17:14
Well, it's a net loss. Yeah. I'll tell you what's not going to happen in this era of...
17:19
Freeze era over. Yeah. It's a frozen era. We're not going to let it go.
17:23
Get it? Frozen? Oh, let it go. Hey. All right, Elsa.
17:29
Speaking of Treasurer Brider, this week it was reported that the retirement
17:32
gains have been up to $14 billion.
17:35
In the pension system. In the pension system. Yeah, he's kicking butt.
17:38
But the story was, you know, also presented the other side.
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But what's happening to that money, retirees are not getting COLAs or increases.
17:47
I mean, that's been the story You know, it's been frustrating to hear Hey,
17:52
yeah, the reason people weren't getting colas here lately was Dale Falwell was
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putting too much money in cash So we weren't earning enough Well,
17:59
when Treasurer Cal was there and Treasurer Moore before her They were very much
18:04
more aggressive with investments,
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Opposite style from Falwell And we weren't getting colas Still,
18:09
same situation Retirees don't see colas because nobody cares about retirees
18:13
It's not because of how the fund's doing,
18:15
Yeah, the pension system is up 11% this year, according to this story from CBS 17.
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Treasurer Briner credits a strong market and his investment team's decisions
18:26
to buy when stock prices plummeted in April after the tariff announcement.
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He said it is ambiguously good news that we've made $14 billion,
18:37
yes, but that's not quite as direct a correlation to retirees getting a raise as people think.
18:42
Never is, is it? No. It never is. But if we lose money, oh, my goodness.
18:47
Yeah, a whole different thing. But I mean, $14 billion, that's huge.
18:52
And we want him to do well. We want Tracer O'Brien to do well.
18:54
We definitely want that to happen.
18:56
But that $14 billion is not going to be used specifically for COLA increases for retirees.
19:03
Part of that is because of the E-CRISP, which is the Employer Contribution Rate
19:08
Stabilization Policy. That's a mouthful.
19:10
So we call it the e-crisp, but that caps how much the employer,
19:15
the state, has to fund the state health plan.
19:18
So the state health plan, it's kind of a hamstring for them because they're
19:23
not going to be able to go to the legislature and ask for more funding.
19:26
Well, I mean, they can, but that's why the policy was put in place.
19:29
It increases a little bit every year. This is how much the state's going to
19:33
put in. So that means the rest of it's going to roll down. Well, wait a minute.
19:36
So the E-CRISP is definitely for people inside baseball that go to these. It is.
19:43
But it's important. I'm glad you brought it up. For people who go to those Board
19:46
of Trustees meetings, it's often talked about. And it has to be.
19:51
The employer contribution the state puts in towards people's retirement is significant money.
19:56
It is. And it's had to be really big money for years now because the state was
20:01
derelict in its duty for many years prior to that.
20:04
So, instead of steady investing on the behalf of the employer,
20:09
the state's done this wild swing one way and then the other,
20:13
whereas the employees have consistently forever put in 6% of their paycheck.
20:19
To their retirement system. Now, once again, there's no transparency in this system.
20:25
So when we invest the investment manager's fees, we have no right to know them.
20:31
The problem that's even bigger than it is in the health plan with this is that
20:36
the employees have their direct, very own money involved in the process. That's right.
20:41
Six percent out of their check every month. So it's not just a benefit.
20:44
It's a benefit they're chipping into out of their paycheck. And when you come
20:47
to work for the state, That automatically happens.
20:49
You don't get a choice whether that 6% is going to come out of your check or not.
20:54
It comes out and it goes into the pension system, which hopefully is going to
20:58
be a benefit to you when you retire. Not many people have a pension fund.
21:02
But we've been over this. If you went and bought an investment,
21:04
what would you get? Right.
21:06
If you bought one on the market, you would get the prospectus.
21:09
You would get all the documents you need to know what you're paying.
21:12
You would be required to get that.
21:15
But you give 6% of your paycheck involuntarily, and you get no information.
21:20
The story has a quote from Jerry Pinkard, who is a retiree from Mecklenburg County.
21:26
He retired in 2010, and he estimates that his buying power has decreased by
21:32
35% since then because of lack of colas.
21:36
Oh, well, I mean, they haven't had a true cola since 2017, and that was,
21:41
I think that was still 2%, but I mean.
21:43
Yeah. So the lack of investment in our retirees also has an impact on the local
21:48
economy because 347,000 people receive monthly payments from the retirement
21:55
system, according to this story,
21:57
which is $750 million. Yeah.
22:00
Yeah. Well, I mean, it's just like state employees not getting a pay raise.
22:03
It's going to affect local economy.
22:05
They're not spending money in their community. They're certainly not spending
22:08
money outside of their community.
22:10
Which is the reason giving a COLA to retirees is financially good fiscal policy
22:17
for the state because that dollar is going to turn around and come back.
22:21
That's right. Because they're going to spend it.
22:24
You know, we've talked a million times, state retirees are not people squirreling
22:27
away money in the Caymans, which, by the way, there's a lot of hospital money
22:31
in the Caymans in the 90s, but that's a whole other thing.
22:34
But they're not squirreling away money in the Caymans. They're spending it here.
22:37
They spend the money they get. They really don't get to save it, unfortunately.
22:42
And when they spend that money, every time it touches a vendor or merchant in
22:47
the state, you have more taxes on every one of those transactions.
22:50
So it comes back. That money comes back.
22:55
Well, other news this week, the election filing period has started for 2026, right? Yeah.
23:02
Doesn't seem like that's kind of early, and it only lasts through December 19th,
23:06
right? Right, the filing period.
23:08
17 days. It just seems like it's very short and it's very early.
23:12
Walkie-tiny. No, because they've got to get to campaigning and they'll have
23:16
those primaries in the spring. That's true. Yeah. Okay.
23:19
Chris Cooper on Twitter put together a really, really good thread.
23:23
But 883 people filed statewide on the first day, on December 1st.
23:29
There's one primary so far in the North Carolina Senate, and that's between
23:34
Senator Berger and Sam Page, who is the sheriff in Rockingham County.
23:39
So that'll be an interesting one. That's the only primary? So far.
23:42
Okay. In the Senate. There are five primaries in the General Assembly.
23:47
One of them that will be interesting to watch is the rematch of Representative
23:52
Rodney Pierce and former Representative Michael Ray.
23:55
He only lost by 34 votes in the last election, so he's coming back to try again.
24:01
So Representative Ray was a good friend to Scenic, and Representative Pierce
24:07
has been outspoken for state employees, so this should be an interesting race to watch.
24:12
So yeah, we're fixing to get wound up good here. I think the main event is obviously
24:17
the Senate race, the U.S. Senate race.
24:19
Yeah. And if you're a Scenic member, check in with your area impact chair.
24:24
You can find that information on the Scenic website, www.scenic.org,
24:28
if you'd like to get involved with impact and the interview process.
24:32
Or if you want to run, let us know. If you want to run. Yeah.
24:35
We need some members to run. That would be super exciting. Yeah.
24:39
When's the last time we had a member run? Well, I mean, Linda Coleman ran for
24:44
a 10-to-go. Well, we've had members since then run. Okay.
24:47
Yeah. We had a member running in a primary in Wake County last election. Okay.
24:52
So we need more of you to step up and run for, maybe we can get Wendell Powell to run for president.
25:00
I think it'd be good to have Junior Hewlin, our MPAC chair, come on the podcast
25:05
soon and talk about MPAC.
25:07
That's CNIC's political action committee.
25:09
Generally, I think MPAC is one of the more fascinating things we have.
25:13
Number one, because people see the impact endorsements in a given year and think
25:19
somebody that was clearly just throwing darts at a dartboard did this because it's pretty evenly,
25:25
it's nonpartisan, so it's all over the map. Yeah.
25:29
And most groups have a track record you can kind of follow. They trend a certain way.
25:34
But impact endorsements really are all over the map because our folks in their
25:40
local areas have oftentimes some really tight relationships with their representatives or senators.
25:46
And you made a good point at our board meeting a couple weeks back.
25:49
I thought it was an interesting way of looking at our PAC because money is not
25:55
that we don't have money, but money is not our strong point as a PAC.
26:01
Since Citizens United was decided by the Supreme Court, gosh,
26:05
years ago, nobody's going to have money in the way that you need to have money
26:10
unless you're, you know, some mega corporation or something like that.
26:15
The kind of money it takes to play now. You got to have Elon money to play now. Yeah, a ton of money.
26:20
But our strong point is we have boots on the ground. Yeah.
26:24
People in every one of those communities, we've got them. Are they people who
26:28
are plugged in and care? Got that, too.
26:30
So, yeah, I think it'd be good for Junior to come in and talk about.
26:33
Me, too, because he's got some new ideas and initiatives that he's going to
26:36
put in place after the holiday.
26:39
So it'd be cool to hear about that. And like we said, the state employee and retiree vote matters.
26:44
About 90 percent of our, 95 percent of our members are registered to vote.
26:49
And then you got to assume when you see that kind of voter registration,
26:54
you got to assume the households probably registered and aware.
26:59
Those are households that are aware, that talk to people at church,
27:02
that talk to people at the Walmart, that care.
27:05
State employees and retirees vote.
27:08
They vote. Yeah.
27:09
So I guess that's all the topics we have. Let's go on to our Gen Z moment of the week.
27:15
What's going on in Gen Z world? Well, the biggest thing going on in Gen Z world
27:19
is Spotify Wrapped came out today.
27:22
That's almost every Gen Z's favorite thing is to look at their Spotify Wrapped
27:26
and see who their top artists were.
27:28
I think no one's surprised by the fact that this year mine was Big Time Rush.
27:32
I was in their top 0.09% of listeners.
27:36
If you are listening Big Time Rush, she's obsessed. I literally have never heard
27:41
of this band before. I know.
27:44
What is this? It was originally. Did they have a hit?
27:47
They were originally a Nickelodeon show in 2009. And that's how the band formed.
27:53
They formed by forming on the TV show.
27:56
I remember that now. Yeah.
27:58
Vaguely. That show ran for four seasons.
28:02
And then afterwards, of course, they split up and were like,
28:05
hey, we did a TV show together.
28:07
Okay. And then about 2019, they decided, hey, let's start making music together again.
28:12
What's it, like a boy band or something? Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah.
28:15
It was like one of the original boy bands with the Jonas Brothers and stuff.
28:20
Oh, that's not original stuff.
28:22
No, no, no, no. One of the original Gen Z boy bands that we grew up with. Yeah.
28:30
I guess you could say your parents were teenagers when we had the first.
28:34
Actually, not even that. Even the Beatles were. Or 50s. There were more bands in the 50s.
28:39
Or the Motown group. My mama button is activated here because when Garrett was
28:42
Sammy's age, I would listen to his music because I want to know what he was listening to.
28:47
So now every time Sammy says, you know, random group to me, I have to go look it up and listen.
28:53
This is my favorite part of Gen Z moment when we all, like, all the old people
28:56
start attacking the Gen Z. That's not when boy bands started.
28:59
But yeah, I was in their top 0.09% of listeners. We've already discussed that you might be a groupie.
29:06
Oh, yeah. I mean, I'm going. Well, what about Taylor? How could you not be?
29:10
She's number two. She's number two on my top. I went to a big time rush concert
29:14
this year. I'm going to another one next year.
29:16
So whenever I go to a concert of someone, I kind of fall into a pit of let me
29:20
just re-listen to their music over and over and over again.
29:24
That was a lot of listening over and over and over again. Yeah.
29:27
13,000 minutes this year. Oh, my gosh. I don't know if I'd said that out loud.
29:34
Although i have noticed i've probably read that many minutes of health care
29:38
news oh yeah that's actually and that's pretty loser compared yeah i've definitely,
29:44
and i mean that many fantasy football there you go yeah we've all yeah i also
29:49
spend a lot of time in the car so that's that's what i do when i'm in the car
29:53
and whenever it comes to like podcasts and stuff i listen to very morbid podcasts
29:58
my favorite podcast is the podcast it's called morbid. Oh, yeah. I like that one. Yeah.
30:04
That I listened to 11,000 minutes this year and was in their top 21 percent of listener.
30:09
No, thanks. I have to drive at night a lot. I wouldn't want to pull over.
30:14
That was a big thing for me listening on the way to The Office.
30:20
In the mornings, I'm not a morning person. I don't want loud music blasting
30:24
in my ears. So I would listen to that podcast every morning driving to the office.
30:28
A heck of a way to start your day, Sammy. Yeah. Yeah.
30:32
You spent nine full days listening to this band.
30:36
According to my math. I mean, according to Spotify's math, too,
30:39
it was on there. It said that I listened to them for nine straight days. And I was like, cool.
30:43
Sheesh. I'll take it. So I use Apple Music instead of Spotify.
30:47
Well, I have Spotify, too.
30:48
I don't ask me why. Spotify, I don't use it. But, yeah, they don't do that.
30:52
You better tag them this week on the podcast.
30:54
Yeah, we need to tag them. Yeah. How many of you guys listening to this podcast
30:58
were scenic in your top Spotify podcast?
31:01
Because they'll also tell you your top Spotify. I don't have podcast.
31:04
And I do listen to it on Spotify.
31:06
I listen to it on Apple Music.
31:10
So that's disappointing that I can't join in the fun.
31:14
Who would be your top artist this week? Artists?
31:17
Or this year. This year, I guess. This year. I don't know what mine...
31:22
I've been listening to a lot of Rage Against the Machine lately.
31:25
And it even tells you how many times, like, if you go to your Spotify Wrapped
31:31
and you go to your top songs, it tells you how many times you listen to those
31:35
songs during the year. I listened... My number one song was Worldwide.
31:40
And if you are a big-time Rush fan, you know that that's the song where they
31:43
will pull girls on stage. and that's their worldwide girl for each show.
31:48
I listened to that song 74 times this year.
31:52
It's very Justin Bieber. Have you... Yeah, it's kind of like One Less Lonely
31:55
Girl except it's worldwide.
31:57
So what are the chances that you get pulled on this stage? And are you going
32:01
to have video of it when it happens?
32:03
If it happens, I will have video of it. I won't be taking the video.
32:07
I'll have my best friend who's coming with me to Wisconsin to take the video.
32:10
We'll splice that into the podcast. But I, it's a dream to be a worldwide girl.
32:15
I would love to be a worldwide girl.
32:17
Of course. Would love to. We already think you're a worldwide girl, Sammy.
32:23
I mean, considering I'm traveling. Don't aspire to be anything that ends in
32:25
the word girl. True. True. You know, I'm thinking. Well, I'm probably going
32:30
to get. A white-nrophic girl.
32:31
I'm probably going to get their sweatshirt. Back in our day.
32:34
Their merch sweatshirt that says worldwide girl on it. Oh, my goodness.
32:39
However the original worldwide girl is still caitlin tarver love her as well
32:43
i wish she was in my spotify top five so i tried i think it's fun i think it's
32:48
youthful and vibrant and i hope y'all have a blast and big time rush i know
32:52
y'all might be listening one of y'all and so,
32:55
y'all find sammy and put her on stage we're definitely tagging them this week
32:59
maybe we can get the what are they called big time rush heads no we're called
33:03
rushers invited to come on the podcast anytime. Anytime. I bet they'll take us.
33:08
They're in Europe right now. They're on their European League of the Tour.
33:12
Super excited. This is like the most they've ever been talked about on a podcast.
33:17
Well, y'all just learned something about Gen Z today.
33:21
We love our Spotify wrapped. Everyone gets very excited about it.
33:24
Yeah, it does. It does get a lot of attention when it happens every year.
33:27
Well, we also don't know what day it comes out.
33:29
It comes out late November, early December. It's just whenever you happen to
33:34
go to your Spotify and see it.
33:36
You think they don't include December because it would all just be like Christmas songs?
33:41
Possibly. Yeah, it's cute. But I think it's also... Oh, Mariah Carey.
33:45
I don't even have Spotify. I listen, like at the gym.
33:49
I'll listen to my music on Pandora with the ads. I go to the gym. I won't pay.
33:54
And it's mainly a class of 89 country. I go to the gym with friends.
33:58
So we end up talking while we're in the gym.
34:01
So I listen to Spotify on my runs.
34:03
All right. So that's Gen Z moment. Although we did not talk about Sabrina Carpenter
34:08
getting in a fight with the Trump administration.
34:10
She's also in my top five. So my question of the week this week.
34:15
John's work ain't weird.
34:22
Question of the week pertains to a major announcement that was made this week.
34:27
Very heartbreaking. Yes. K&W cafeteria is closing down.
34:32
It was immediately, right? It shut down. Yeah. They didn't play.
34:37
People still got their Thanksgiving dinners, and then they shut down.
34:41
What if they got that coconut pie?
34:43
I mean, coconut. Oh, man. That chocolate cream pie.
34:46
The egg custard. The roast beef. That's good. First off, before we ask the question,
34:51
what were your thoughts on K&W?
34:53
Were you fans of K&W? Heck yeah. Yeah, I was too. Which one did you go to?
34:58
Cameron Village. Cameron Village was close.
35:01
No, that was it. My granddad had cancer back in the day, and I had to take him
35:06
every Wednesday for a radiation treatment. And we would always go to K&W at
35:10
Cameron Village for lunch after that. He loved their chicken.
35:14
Chicken and dumplings is what they called it. We call it chicken pastry.
35:17
Chicken and dumplings. It was a good after church place too.
35:19
Yeah, it was. So that's our question of the week then. I'm sorry,
35:22
I should have said that first.
35:24
What's your fondest memory of K&W and or your favorite food item?
35:28
I think that we used to go all the time.
35:31
Like there actually was a restaurant in Four Seasons Mall in Greensboro called
35:36
Piccadilly Cafeteria, which was the same concept, right? Yeah.
35:40
So we went to that one. We weren't like, I think K&W bought Piccadilly or something like that.
35:46
But anyway, there's the same thing, right? And then in Chapel Hill,
35:50
when my dad came to visit, when I was in school there, we'd always go to the
35:53
one at University's Mall.
35:55
And that was like the only restaurant there, you know.
35:59
So we went there. There's one in Rocky Mount we used to go to whenever we went
36:04
to baseball games with my son.
36:05
It was hard to go wrong at a camp. Yeah, you couldn't. Plenty of variety.
36:09
Yeah. It was good. Seven-layer salad was probably my favorite. Oh, man, yeah. Yeah.
36:14
What about you, Artis? You're the one who brought this topic up.
36:17
You probably have some opinions. I'm so devastated, honestly.
36:19
I remember the Cameron Village K&W before that was there.
36:22
Ballantines. There was a cafeteria called Ballantines there. And that was so good.
36:27
And everybody was heartbroken when that closed. Then we all got addicted to K&W.
36:32
And, you know, again, for me, it was an after church kind of place.
36:37
What's the problem here? Like, why are these places disappearing?
36:40
I guess people are just ordering out now or just because they're definitely
36:44
not making food at home, right?
36:46
Like, what is a takeout? I think Ginthi could probably elaborate on it.
36:50
Yeah, explain why you're not going to K&W. That's just not your... I'm going to be honest.
36:54
I think I've only ever been to K&W like one time when I was in sixth grade.
36:59
But that's also because I didn't grow up in North Carolina. I know it's a very
37:02
popular North Carolina thing, but I didn't grow up in North Carolina until I was in like sixth grade.
37:07
I lived in Tennessee. Our thing was steak and shake thing.
37:10
I was like... Was there a cafeteria though that was popular? Yeah.
37:13
Not that I remember, really, no. That's interesting. Because I know in Texas
37:17
there was one, probably still is, called Luby's.
37:19
Yeah. And that was such a big deal there. It's weird.
37:23
Our big kind of like home-style restaurants were Cracker Barrel.
37:27
We were big Cracker Barrel people.
37:29
So that was more of our like after church kind of thing.
37:33
So that makes sense, except that Cracker Barrel was always, like if you were
37:37
a student, it was pricey.
37:38
Back when we were students, you could go to K&W and it was affordable.
37:43
What ended up happening is like everything else, K&W became fairly expensive
37:47
to go through and get your little meal from.
37:50
And it was like, whoa, I remember thinking things have really jumped.
37:54
And maybe that was why. That could be. But I will say with the Gen Z perspective
37:58
of like the cooking and stuff, Gen Zs are actually getting a lot more into being in the kitchen.
38:04
They love sourdough bread. They love that home style, like, I can do it myself
38:11
stuff instead of having to go.
38:13
And I honestly believe, though, that y'all have to be. Well,
38:16
it's too expensive to order takeout.
38:18
It's too expensive to be going to restaurants.
38:22
I think that our worlds are about to collide here, Sammy, because do you know who Ann Michael May is?
38:29
She's Drake May's wife, the football player. Patriots. The quarterback of the
38:34
Patriots and former Carolina quarterback.
38:37
And she's, like, super famous now on TikTok for her baking. Okay.
38:41
So you need to check her out. Deal. But she's, like, known as the Queen of New
38:45
England now because he's doing so good.
38:47
And they're, like, anyway. He's awesome. He's awesome. So...
38:50
Check her out. She makes sourdough bread and all kinds of baked goods.
38:54
But that's become a big thing. People like sourdough bread and make,
38:58
I think another thing is Gen Z's.
39:01
They've gotten really into wellness and knowing exactly what's going into their
39:06
food. So they make a lot of their own.
39:08
Yeah, that wasn't K&W's thing. They love their homesteady kind of meals. Yeah.
39:15
Stuff like that. Yeah. It's all awful. So K&W was headquartered in Winston-Salem,
39:20
and they served the community for over 88 years, and we will be sad to see them
39:25
go. That's the end of an era.
39:28
Representative Setzer, if you're listening, I'm sure you are.
39:31
I don't know where he's going to go for dinner now. We will cherish the baked
39:35
fish and the Salisbury steak, and let's see what other sides.
39:39
The roast beef. The mac and cheese there was awesome. Oh, yeah. The rolls were awesome.
39:43
The rolls were awesome, and the pies were good. All the desserts.
39:49
Not a bit. Fried chicken was good. Okay.
39:54
Let's go to Canada. Oh, we can't. Never mind. We need to go to a cardiologist where we need to test.
39:58
Maybe we should have thought of this before they closed down.
40:02
It's our fault. Well, have a great week. Please stay warm, and we'll see you next week.