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Capítulo 107: Inside Cheeotgate · Locatora Radio [A Radiophonic Novela]

0:01
Speaker 1: LoVa Radio Radio Radio Commi's a myth and bullshit a
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Speaker 1: Welcome back to season five of Local Radio Rosas. Listen
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Speaker 1: hope you've ben been enjoying our last few We spoke
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Speaker 1: with Prisca, the founder of Latina Rebels, about the Satanic Church,
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1:11
Speaker 1: We hope you liked our conjuring episode with Albert Arco.
1:16
Speaker 1: This is a little bit of a different episode. We
1:19
Speaker 1: are going to be diving into some hot goss that
1:24
Speaker 1: kind of set the internet on fire last month. We
1:27
Speaker 1: have an inside source who's going to bring a little
1:30
Speaker 1: bit of depth to that story. But we're going to
1:32
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4:00
Speaker 1: So to get into the gartnet of today's episode, we
4:04
Speaker 1: are going to revisit the hot Cheeto scandal of so
4:11
Speaker 1: Last month, a young white tech reporter by the name
4:15
Speaker 1: of Sam Dean published an article with the Los Angeles
4:20
Speaker 1: Times alleging that one Richard Montagnez in fact lied about
4:27
Speaker 1: his decades long public facing claim to have been the
4:31
Speaker 1: originator of the chip that we now know and love,
4:36
Speaker 1: the flaming hot Cheeto. This article caused a lot of conversation.
4:43
Speaker 1: I might have shared a tweet or two based on
4:46
Speaker 1: what I read in this piece, and I think Viosa
4:53
Speaker 1: was kind of one of the first ones that really
4:56
Speaker 1: planted doubt into my heart about the validity of this story,
5:00
Speaker 1: because I think you texted to me and I quote
5:04
Speaker 1: in all caps like Richard invented hot Cheetos. I don't care,
5:08
Speaker 1: like I don't care. I don't care, like I don't
5:10
Speaker 1: care what they say Richard invented hot Cheetos. What were
5:14
Speaker 1: your reactions when you first read this piece of supposed journalism. Well,
5:20
Speaker 1: I remember I was having my morning though it was Sunday,
5:24
Speaker 1: I was scrolling on Twitter, and all of a sudden,
5:27
Speaker 1: I see Twitter. No one intended up in flames quite literally. Um,
5:34
Speaker 1: because this writer, journalists allegedly states that Richard mcclanez didn't
5:40
Speaker 1: create hot Cheetos, And like, I mean to me, obviously,
5:45
Speaker 1: I'm from l A. I think like his story is
5:48
Speaker 1: like a known story, right, because it's like literally what
5:51
Speaker 1: the Republicans, what the bootstrappers like love to like claim? Right,
5:58
Speaker 1: It's like they're they're pride. What is that saying. It's
6:00
Speaker 1: like their claim to fame, right, It's like the rags
6:03
Speaker 1: to riches. It's a bootstrap. He was a janitor and
6:06
Speaker 1: he worked his way up and created a product for
6:09
Speaker 1: a giant corporation. Is a very successful man. He's a
6:13
Speaker 1: motivational speaker. He goes like on the speaking circuit, like,
6:17
Speaker 1: and he has a book coming out and he also
6:20
Speaker 1: has a major feature film, And so I just thought
6:24
Speaker 1: it was highly suspicious that this doubt was being placed
6:29
Speaker 1: now all of a sudden, when he is about to
6:31
Speaker 1: launch a book or about to release the book, and
6:34
Speaker 1: also his film that is being produced by Evan Longoria, right,
6:38
Speaker 1: and it's like going to probably be like an all
6:40
Speaker 1: star Latin X cast. And so I just thought it
6:42
Speaker 1: was highly suspicious. And I was like extremely disappointed that
6:46
Speaker 1: there were a lot of people that I follow that
6:48
Speaker 1: our mutuals on Twitter that were quick to believe it.
6:51
Speaker 1: There were no questions. I'm like, did you even finish
6:54
Speaker 1: reading the article? Like? I thought that there were so
6:58
Speaker 1: many red flags So while reading it, one that he
7:00
Speaker 1: was never quoted, and to that he's been saying this
7:05
Speaker 1: story for decades and now people are doubting it, and
7:10
Speaker 1: so I thought that that was ridiculous. It's like, where's
7:14
Speaker 1: the loyalty? Um? And but you had like something similar,
7:19
Speaker 1: But you saw different types of people reacting to the story, right, Mola,
7:23
Speaker 1: So tell me a little bit about that. Yeah, there was,
7:27
Speaker 1: you know there when we get into this in our
7:29
Speaker 1: interview with a woman named Rachel Reyes, whose identity will
7:34
Speaker 1: be revealed at the appropriate time, you just have to
7:37
Speaker 1: You're just gonna have to listen to the whole episode
7:39
Speaker 1: to find out who's Rachel and how she fits into
7:42
Speaker 1: this whole scenario. But when I first saw the article,
7:48
Speaker 1: I saw it being tweeted out by Elie Times journalists
7:51
Speaker 1: because I follow a lot of journalists at the Early Times.
7:53
Speaker 1: I like the Eli Times. I'm a subscriber, I support
7:58
Speaker 1: I read the articles. You know, the USA and I
8:01
Speaker 1: are lums of the l A Times. You may or
8:03
Speaker 1: may not have seen our feature on the front page
8:06
Speaker 1: of the calendar section. Kim Control's photo was smaller than ours.
8:10
Speaker 1: I would just like to point that out. Um, So
8:13
Speaker 1: you know, we have love for The Times. It's our
8:15
Speaker 1: local paper, so we read it, we're here for it.
8:18
Speaker 1: And so I see these reporters, um really celebrating the
8:23
Speaker 1: piece and saying, you know, this is an extraordinary piece
8:26
Speaker 1: of investigative journalism. A lot of white women journalists and
8:31
Speaker 1: like media types quote tweeting and just really happy about
8:38
Speaker 1: this sort of like downfall of Richard Montagnes and using
8:42
Speaker 1: really strong language like calling him a liar and a
8:45
Speaker 1: fraud and all these things, you know. And it just
8:49
Speaker 1: made me hesitate to jump on the train, because if
8:53
Speaker 1: there is like a train, a runaway train on fire,
8:58
Speaker 1: and it's mostly women and Chicanos on it, I don't
9:02
Speaker 1: want to be on that train, Like bat is a
9:04
Speaker 1: dangerous train leading to nowhere. I will wave good luck
9:08
Speaker 1: you guys, you know what I mean. But I had
9:11
Speaker 1: to take a day to read it, to think about
9:14
Speaker 1: it and kind of see how other people were responding.
9:17
Speaker 1: And so one of those people who responded reached out
9:20
Speaker 1: via d M a young woman named Rachel, because she
9:23
Speaker 1: has a little bit of an inside scoop into the
9:26
Speaker 1: journalists who wrote it and maybe some of the motivations
9:30
Speaker 1: behind pursuing a piece like this at a time like this,
9:33
Speaker 1: in the way that it was pursued and the way
9:36
Speaker 1: that it was written. We don't want to make up
9:38
Speaker 1: your minds for you. Go read the l A. Times piece.
9:40
Speaker 1: It was published in May. Sam Dean is the author.
9:44
Speaker 1: N PR put out a Planet Money episode the exact
9:48
Speaker 1: same week, a couple of days before, with an interview
9:53
Speaker 1: with Richard Montanez speaking, you know, for himself about credit
9:57
Speaker 1: on his own behalf to a major news out let, Mirror.
10:01
Speaker 1: Days before the Times feature comes out. There have been
10:05
Speaker 1: since the initial reports, um updates and statements from PepsiCo,
10:10
Speaker 1: from Freedo, Lay and PR put out more statements, The
10:13
Speaker 1: l A Times put out more statements. You know, There's
10:15
Speaker 1: been podcast episodes, so there's plenty of you to go out.
10:18
Speaker 1: There's plenty of content for you to go out and
10:20
Speaker 1: read to help inform your thinking. Um. So yeah, just
10:26
Speaker 1: putting that out there. Yeah, I think, you know, before
10:29
Speaker 1: we get into our interview, I do want to add
10:31
Speaker 1: some some takes that I did see on Twitter floating
10:34
Speaker 1: around from other journalists or just readers of the paper,
10:38
Speaker 1: was this is what l A Times spent their resources
10:42
Speaker 1: on when they're active. There's an active gang in the
10:46
Speaker 1: Shariff's Department of l A County. Right. Latino staff writers
10:51
Speaker 1: are not paid the same way that they're white counterparts are.
10:55
Speaker 1: There's so many different things that can be addressed within
10:59
Speaker 1: the l A Times. And so that was one take
11:01
Speaker 1: that I saw, and I think that that's a valid
11:03
Speaker 1: concern and a valid thought to have. Um, that this
11:07
Speaker 1: is what a major publication is spending their time and
11:09
Speaker 1: resources on to discredit a you know, very like powerful
11:15
Speaker 1: rags to riches story, um from a Latino in our
11:19
Speaker 1: community that has been doing this work for decades now. Um,
11:23
Speaker 1: and didn't actually reach out to him. I don't know.
11:26
Speaker 1: I'm I'm I don't really call myself a journalist. I
11:29
Speaker 1: am a writer, but I do think that that's journalist
11:31
Speaker 1: journalism one O one, one oh one and if and
11:35
Speaker 1: again following along on Twitter, right. Um. It's interesting too
11:39
Speaker 1: because many of the l A Times journalists are also
11:41
Speaker 1: very active on Twitter, so they share just a lot
11:43
Speaker 1: of their their thoughts in the behind the scenes, which
11:46
Speaker 1: I love and I think it's great and I like
11:47
Speaker 1: to know who's writing at the paper and like I
11:49
Speaker 1: think it's cool and like I sweep you know. Um.
11:52
Speaker 1: But a little bit of what it also did with
11:55
Speaker 1: this situation was kind of reveal some of like kind
11:59
Speaker 1: of confer that there were reasons for us to feel
12:02
Speaker 1: weird about the piece, right. There was inconsistencies in the
12:06
Speaker 1: way that our l A Times journalists were tweeting about
12:09
Speaker 1: this investigation and the making of this piece. We'll talk
12:12
Speaker 1: a little bit more about that in our interview with Rachel.
12:16
Speaker 1: But um, it's something that you can look at yourself
12:18
Speaker 1: to write, especially if you like follow like the writer
12:22
Speaker 1: Sam Dean and uh the other journalists who seemed to
12:25
Speaker 1: have a major part in this whole thing, although he
12:27
Speaker 1: didn't write the thingano Um, they each sort of we're
12:32
Speaker 1: talking about how this was like a year long investigative piece,
12:37
Speaker 1: but then once there was some pushback, never mind, actually
12:40
Speaker 1: it only took like a month. Actually it only really
12:43
Speaker 1: took three weeks. Um, you know, just kind of weird
12:47
Speaker 1: stuff that I would just kind of expect better of
12:50
Speaker 1: the paper of Record, you know what I mean, I
12:53
Speaker 1: expected to be a little more air tight, and there
12:56
Speaker 1: seems to be holes. So without further do, we're gonna
13:00
Speaker 1: welcome our guests. We hope you like this interview. Let
13:03
Speaker 1: us know what you think before we bring her on.
13:07
Speaker 1: I do want to add, never did I think that
13:10
Speaker 1: local would ever do hot cheeto content. Okay, we have
13:14
Speaker 1: been like some of the some of the first to
13:16
Speaker 1: be like no more hot Cheeto concert. Y'all Latin X
13:19
Speaker 1: folks on more than hot Cheetos, and we get that,
13:21
Speaker 1: but that is not what this episode is about. It's
13:23
Speaker 1: about archive, it's about oral history, it's about storytelling. It's
13:27
Speaker 1: about our community. It's about entrepreneurship. It's all of the
13:30
Speaker 1: above and more of it and ship hey look on
14:21
Speaker 1: more is We have a quick announcement about our I
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Speaker 1: Fund Women campaign. As you may have heard, we're raising
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Speaker 1: Women dot Com, Forward Slash Project, Forward Slash Look Dash Productions.
14:54
Speaker 1: All right, look on more is. We have a very
14:56
Speaker 1: very spicy interview for you today. This has been several
15:02
Speaker 1: weeks in the making, but it's never too late to
15:05
Speaker 1: talk escandal. So we want to welcome to the podcast Rachel. Yes, Rachel,
15:11
Speaker 1: say hello to our listeners. Hello, thank you so much
15:15
Speaker 1: for having me. Yes. We slid into Rachel's d M
15:18
Speaker 1: s um shortly after the l A Times expose about
15:25
Speaker 1: the alleged hot Cheetos fraud aired. Right after that happened,
15:31
Speaker 1: Rachel actually slid into my d M s um and
15:35
Speaker 1: shared some very very interesting tidbits, and we wanted to
15:40
Speaker 1: invite her on the show to really kind of round
15:42
Speaker 1: out the conversation. And Rachel also wrote a very fascinating
15:46
Speaker 1: piece on Knock l A in response to the l
15:49
Speaker 1: A Times expose. So, Rachel, can you please introduce yourself
15:52
Speaker 1: and kind of tell us a little bit about your
15:54
Speaker 1: relationship to this story. I am a community and worker
15:58
Speaker 1: organizer here in l A. Born and raised in the valley,
16:02
Speaker 1: loved this city, um, and so I do a lot
16:06
Speaker 1: of organizing all over the place. UM. But I work
16:08
Speaker 1: for a nonprofit at the moment and I'm focusing on
16:11
Speaker 1: worker organizing. UM. But in my spare time, I do
16:16
Speaker 1: organizing at a local level, a little bit of electoral work, UM.
16:20
Speaker 1: Some agitational work as well on the side of local politicians.
16:25
Speaker 1: So my hands in a lot of pots. UM. But
16:28
Speaker 1: I was, you know, lucky enough to go to Hawaii
16:31
Speaker 1: last month to see one of my close, close friends
16:34
Speaker 1: from college get married. And while I was there, I
16:41
Speaker 1: was sent an article from the l A Times about
16:44
Speaker 1: how cheetos and they're supposed origins and who actually invented them.
16:50
Speaker 1: And on the day that I left is actually when
16:53
Speaker 1: the story was published. So when I landed back in
16:55
Speaker 1: l A that night, I was checking my phone as
16:58
Speaker 1: I was waiting to get picked up um at Elie exit,
17:01
Speaker 1: and I saw your tweet actually Mama, about the hot
17:06
Speaker 1: cheeto scandal. And I was like, oh, wait, this is
17:08
Speaker 1: someone that I actually cared to pay attention to you,
17:10
Speaker 1: So let me go to her page and let me see.
17:12
Speaker 1: So I actually read your tweets and I was like, oh,
17:16
Speaker 1: this story is saying that you know, Richard Montonis didn't
17:21
Speaker 1: invent hot cheetos. And then it occurred to me that
17:23
Speaker 1: everyone I had, like five people sent me this article
17:26
Speaker 1: and I hadn't clicked it. Um. It was actually written
17:29
Speaker 1: by my ex boyfriend. So then it all kind of
17:32
Speaker 1: started to click. Like, oh, okay, so folks are sending
17:36
Speaker 1: me this article, I thought because it was about hot Cheetos.
17:38
Speaker 1: I love hot chios, big fan. Like, I don't know
17:41
Speaker 1: if you can see. I did watch but read figures
17:45
Speaker 1: I had today, so I was like, oh my god,
17:50
Speaker 1: Oh my god, that like this makes so much sense.
17:54
Speaker 1: And then I was like, oh no, So that's when
17:57
Speaker 1: I dan to like, Okay, I don't know who wants
18:00
Speaker 1: to tell, but I didd this man. He knows I
18:04
Speaker 1: love hot Cheetos, and now we have this bizarre expose.
18:09
Speaker 1: One of my friends, Liam reached out to me. He
18:13
Speaker 1: is um an editor at not l A. He was like, hey,
18:15
Speaker 1: do you want to write a response because you know
18:18
Speaker 1: you have a very personal connection being that you love
18:20
Speaker 1: hot Cheetos, you know you're from l A, and you
18:23
Speaker 1: also like know this writer personally. UM, And I was like, yeah, sure,
18:28
Speaker 1: I don't want to drag this man. I have no
18:30
Speaker 1: interest in that. But my feelings over the course of
18:34
Speaker 1: a week really evolved from like this was a personal
18:37
Speaker 1: attack to this also feels like an attack on our
18:40
Speaker 1: city and our people and like Latin next people in
18:44
Speaker 1: general and working class people. Um. And it just felt
18:48
Speaker 1: very weird and out of his lane as a white
18:50
Speaker 1: man who writes about tech. UM. So I felt like
18:53
Speaker 1: I needed to respond because someone needed to UM, and
18:59
Speaker 1: I felt like it was appropriate to to do. So
19:04
Speaker 1: what would you say? What if the response has been
19:06
Speaker 1: to your knock l a article, Because I can see
19:10
Speaker 1: the Internet at large, you know, responding in all kinds
19:14
Speaker 1: of different ways, right, UM, I can see folks having
19:18
Speaker 1: an AHA moment because of your article, and it's connecting
19:22
Speaker 1: dots for people. That's how I felt, um in hearing
19:26
Speaker 1: from you and understanding the context in the background. But
19:29
Speaker 1: I can totally see you know how the internet is,
19:31
Speaker 1: you know how people are. I could totally see people
19:34
Speaker 1: trying to poke holes and and you're trying to make
19:36
Speaker 1: this about yourself or your embellishing or whatever. How what
19:40
Speaker 1: what have the response has been? Like? I So I
19:44
Speaker 1: will say that I am private across social media because
19:49
Speaker 1: I just am at the moment um and I haven't
19:53
Speaker 1: seen any negative responses because I also have that filter
19:56
Speaker 1: on Twitter that's like, don't really high replies from people
19:59
Speaker 1: I don't follow up. Um. So I'm sure there have
20:02
Speaker 1: been negative responses, they just have not been brought to
20:04
Speaker 1: my attention. Um. But when that article was published and
20:09
Speaker 1: the next few days, I was getting a lot of
20:11
Speaker 1: d m s and a lot of loves, like by
20:12
Speaker 1: a text just telling me that folks really liked the article. UM.
20:17
Speaker 1: And my biggest concern, um, as you alluded to, was that,
20:21
Speaker 1: you know, we live in a missasonist society, that people
20:24
Speaker 1: were going to call me bitter or whatever. And I
20:29
Speaker 1: was very keen on that as well, Like I didn't
20:32
Speaker 1: want to come off that way. But at the end
20:34
Speaker 1: of the day, I felt so deeply troubled by the
20:39
Speaker 1: article that I needed to respond to it. Um. So
20:43
Speaker 1: I wanted to write it in a way that, yeah,
20:45
Speaker 1: connected the dots a little bit more. Um because at
20:48
Speaker 1: the end of the day, like, yeah, I didn't want
20:50
Speaker 1: to talk shit, but at the same time, like I
20:54
Speaker 1: couldn't help, you know, very carry Bradschel, I couldn't help,
20:56
Speaker 1: but wonder is this about me? Um? So I did,
21:00
Speaker 1: how you know, and I wanted to stay in the article.
21:03
Speaker 1: We dated, we had a personal relationship like that is
21:05
Speaker 1: how I know this person. Um. But beyond that, it
21:10
Speaker 1: grew to be. Um, it's just it's bigger than that,
21:16
Speaker 1: you know. And I I'm not sure if I would
21:18
Speaker 1: have responded this way if it was any other you know,
21:20
Speaker 1: run of the mill white l A Times reporter. Um.
21:24
Speaker 1: I would like to think so, because I still love
21:26
Speaker 1: hot Cheetos deeply and they're a big part of like
21:28
Speaker 1: who I am as a person. Um, So I might have,
21:31
Speaker 1: but I definitely felt an impetus. And if people think
21:34
Speaker 1: I'm bitter or whatever making him about myself, that's fine. Um,
21:38
Speaker 1: that's your opinion, your entitle to it. This is my opinion.
21:41
Speaker 1: That's why it was written as an opinion piece. So um,
21:46
Speaker 1: freedom of speech, yes, right, we love that. I'll have it.
21:53
Speaker 1: We have it or exercising it. Question. So when you
21:57
Speaker 1: first read the l A Times article all the way through,
22:00
Speaker 1: were there was there anything in particular that really jumped
22:03
Speaker 1: out at you or that really caught your attention? What
22:07
Speaker 1: was your initial experience reading the article? It really jumped
22:12
Speaker 1: out to me that no one in this article had
22:14
Speaker 1: any clue who returned Moltenus was and like had not
22:17
Speaker 1: worked with him. They were peppered all over the states. Um,
22:21
Speaker 1: and that was baffling to me. I think there was
22:24
Speaker 1: like one person quoted that did I've forgotten all this
22:29
Speaker 1: information because I have a million other things to care about.
22:31
Speaker 1: But there was like one person in particular who had
22:34
Speaker 1: met him um, and everyone else quoted was like just
22:40
Speaker 1: had no idea who he was, which seemed odd to
22:43
Speaker 1: me because this is not a new claim. He didn't
22:46
Speaker 1: come out this year saying that he invented hot cheetos UM.
22:51
Speaker 1: And it's definitely a story that I remember from when
22:54
Speaker 1: I was like a teenager, so this is like, this
22:57
Speaker 1: is like common knowledge. Um. So I found that troubling.
23:00
Speaker 1: And also it felt like it was a really shoppy article.
23:05
Speaker 1: Dam is a good writer. I've read some of his
23:08
Speaker 1: stuff and enjoyed his other articles, but this was very
23:11
Speaker 1: like what am I reading? Like. It was very all
23:15
Speaker 1: over the place. The timeline was kind of funky, and
23:17
Speaker 1: every two paragraphs there was like a subheader and it
23:20
Speaker 1: was like, Okay, we're introducing something different, and I was like,
23:22
Speaker 1: why is it read this way? Um? So that was
23:26
Speaker 1: kind of funky, UM, just weird editing UM. And I
23:30
Speaker 1: mean also it just struck me that this is not
23:32
Speaker 1: his fat at all at all, not even a little
23:38
Speaker 1: bit like not at all. So Sam Dan, not your
23:43
Speaker 1: best work, not your lane. I love. I love the
23:49
Speaker 1: editorial critique, like I really appreciate, down to the to
23:53
Speaker 1: the misplaced subheadings, like I was a high school newspapers. Oh,
24:00
Speaker 1: I look for these things. I think about these things. So, yes,
24:05
Speaker 1: he didn't, like you mentioned, he didn't quote the journalists,
24:07
Speaker 1: didn't quote anyone that actually knew him. And what I
24:11
Speaker 1: find really fascinating is, like you said, this story has
24:14
Speaker 1: like circulated for over a decade, right, and this isn't
24:19
Speaker 1: something that we know that Friedo lay Now. PepsiCo is
24:23
Speaker 1: like a giant corporation and the amount of times they
24:28
Speaker 1: probably have sent season to cease and assist letters, and
24:31
Speaker 1: like they're gonna let this man claim that he created
24:35
Speaker 1: hot Cheetos when he actually didn't just doesn't make any
24:37
Speaker 1: sense to me, because we know how these corporations work.
24:42
Speaker 1: We've gotten no, we've never got a season to this letter,
24:44
Speaker 1: but we have gotten like don't be using our copyroom
24:47
Speaker 1: of music letters, you know, we've gotten one. And so
24:51
Speaker 1: all that to say, like it's really baffling that this,
24:55
Speaker 1: like how did this piece of writing even get green light? Like?
24:59
Speaker 1: How did get green light? I don't understand. The other
25:03
Speaker 1: question I have is about in the l A Times
25:07
Speaker 1: article and in different articles since then, the seeming to
25:12
Speaker 1: me to me in my reading of the l A
25:15
Speaker 1: Times article and subsequent articles, this lady who keeps getting
25:19
Speaker 1: quoted seems to me to be like the whistleblower in
25:22
Speaker 1: this situation. Um, it reads like she was living her
25:28
Speaker 1: life out and about and she happened to come upon
25:32
Speaker 1: a story about Richard Montonia is like in variety or somewhere,
25:36
Speaker 1: and she was just aghast and baffled, And how could
25:39
Speaker 1: this guy just be running around town like spinning these
25:41
Speaker 1: tall tales. I found this very fascinating, Like, first of all,
25:44
Speaker 1: who is this lady? Where I was like looking for
25:47
Speaker 1: her on the internet. I couldn't find anything about her.
25:49
Speaker 1: I found no trace of her green Field, Greenfeld. And
25:52
Speaker 1: then her name is spelled differently in different articles and
25:55
Speaker 1: some articles her name is Greenfeld, and other articles her
25:59
Speaker 1: name is green feet Old. And I was looking her
26:01
Speaker 1: up and I couldn't find her anywhere. Um, And that
26:05
Speaker 1: doesn't mean she doesn't exist, but I'm like, who is
26:08
Speaker 1: this rando And why do we trust her all of
26:11
Speaker 1: a sudden, above all and above the public record, you know?
26:15
Speaker 1: And where has she been? And if she's really so
26:17
Speaker 1: connected to hot Cheetos, then she would be connected to
26:20
Speaker 1: the people who eat hot Cheetos and the marketing and
26:23
Speaker 1: the lore and the forever twenty one line. And like
26:26
Speaker 1: the Richard Montagnez like story, it doesn't like you're saying,
26:30
Speaker 1: it doesn't add up, It doesn't make sense, um, And
26:34
Speaker 1: I want to know who this who is this woman?
26:37
Speaker 1: Who is this mystery lady? And when I was listening
26:41
Speaker 1: to the Goosavo Ariano l a Times podcast in which
26:45
Speaker 1: he interviewed Sam Dean, it was fascinating as well because
26:49
Speaker 1: it sounded like Sam Dean said, oh, we got the
26:53
Speaker 1: story and through a tip line. And so I'm like,
26:55
Speaker 1: this Greenfeld lady literally call them? Did they? Did she
26:59
Speaker 1: email the like? Is it her? Like? Literally her? And
27:03
Speaker 1: and so that's one of my major questions to like
27:06
Speaker 1: it revealed this source, like I don't show her what
27:11
Speaker 1: I don't understand and why is the credibility like her
27:15
Speaker 1: credibility intact? And like over Richard Montagnez, you know, what
27:20
Speaker 1: I mean, m hm, And isn't I think her name
27:22
Speaker 1: is like Lynn, right, it's like Lynn Lynn Greenfield Linden.
27:31
Speaker 1: I felt that fascinating as well, because I was like, Okay,
27:35
Speaker 1: you mean to tell me that someone I'm assuming she's
27:38
Speaker 1: a white woman. I don't know, a white woman fresh
27:41
Speaker 1: out of college gets a job at freed La and
27:45
Speaker 1: invents hot Cheetos, Like you want me to believe that
27:48
Speaker 1: that is the story? Um, that should be the movie. Then,
27:53
Speaker 1: that a white woman was so connected to these cultures
27:56
Speaker 1: that she like probably never interacted with UM, but was
28:00
Speaker 1: able to create a billion dollar product and we never
28:04
Speaker 1: learned about that. That feels very girl Boss to me.
28:08
Speaker 1: And that seems like something that would have came up
28:10
Speaker 1: in that whole girl Boss you know moment that we
28:14
Speaker 1: had a few years ago. UM. And I also feel
28:17
Speaker 1: like if I had invented something and the second I
28:20
Speaker 1: heard someone else claiming it, especially a man, I would
28:24
Speaker 1: have been standing alarms. And yeah, you're right. I think
28:26
Speaker 1: the account is that she was like she's retired, She's
28:30
Speaker 1: like browsing the internet in two thousand eighteen on her
28:34
Speaker 1: desktop and like finds out that this is the tale
28:39
Speaker 1: being told and then freaks out and like you know,
28:41
Speaker 1: does a whole investigation thing. Um, I don't believe it
28:45
Speaker 1: at all. I just I don't believe it at all, um.
28:49
Speaker 1: And I feel like PepsiCo would have come down very
28:52
Speaker 1: hard if someone was claiming that story. And I that's
28:57
Speaker 1: that's what felt racist to me, UM, was that we
28:59
Speaker 1: had a white writer believing who I'm assuming is a
29:03
Speaker 1: white woman. I don't know if she could not be white. So, like,
29:05
Speaker 1: you know, show your slight, right right, I was looking
29:09
Speaker 1: her up to try and find out is Lee Lynn?
29:12
Speaker 1: And that is her name, Lynn Greenfeld again sometimes spelled
29:16
Speaker 1: green Field, So I don't know month has spelled his
29:20
Speaker 1: name the same way all over the place. I'm casting
29:23
Speaker 1: doubt now based on the misspellings alone, there's alleged woman Lynn. Yeah,
29:29
Speaker 1: Like I don't want to just assume that she's white.
29:32
Speaker 1: Although given the time period, given that she was a
29:35
Speaker 1: junior employee with a freshly minted m b A. The
29:38
Speaker 1: things that you're talking about the reasons why Richard's origin
29:42
Speaker 1: story is so incredible and fascinating because he was in
29:45
Speaker 1: a predominantly white environment and industry, right, what I just yeah, exactly,
29:54
Speaker 1: she and it's definitely like you're choosing to believe someone
30:00
Speaker 1: with an m b A, someone who's coming out of
30:03
Speaker 1: the wood works very recently, over someone who has told
30:07
Speaker 1: this story for a decade at least now, um, at
30:11
Speaker 1: a very interesting time before his book drops, before a
30:14
Speaker 1: movie comes out about him. Um, the timing is also
30:20
Speaker 1: very like strange. So yeah, I wonder who you know
30:23
Speaker 1: dropped that tip in the tip line. And also it's
30:26
Speaker 1: confusing to me did this take a year to write?
30:29
Speaker 1: For three weeks to write? That was also something that
30:31
Speaker 1: like was being contested on Twitter, So you know, I
30:35
Speaker 1: don't know if you have insight. Yeah, that's true. Um,
30:38
Speaker 1: you know, a bunch of the l A. Times journalists
30:41
Speaker 1: are very active on Twitter, like a lot of them.
30:44
Speaker 1: They love to tweet, and we love to follow and
30:46
Speaker 1: read their tweets and even engage with them. Right and
30:49
Speaker 1: as unaffiliated indie young bitches with Twitter accounts, it's it's
30:55
Speaker 1: just interesting, right, So what Samdy and his friend Gustavo
31:02
Speaker 1: Ariano at the Times we're tweeting about. And I feel
31:05
Speaker 1: like those were the predominant sort of voices here really
31:08
Speaker 1: like talking about the story. Obviously, casam Rode Gustavo seemed
31:12
Speaker 1: to have like had a conversation with Sam about the
31:15
Speaker 1: story before I got written. Um Per their own tweets
31:18
Speaker 1: and their own um The Times podcast interview right and
31:23
Speaker 1: like you're you're saying. At the beginning, they were talking
31:27
Speaker 1: about how this was a year long investigative report, and
31:31
Speaker 1: I first felt some hesitation about really believing the story
31:36
Speaker 1: because I just saw so many white ladies really excited
31:41
Speaker 1: and using like in their quote tweets, like the words lie, liar, fraud,
31:47
Speaker 1: like very strong language, very happy about it, about the fall,
31:52
Speaker 1: the alleged fall, the supposed fall of Richard Montagne's and
31:56
Speaker 1: so right away, when too many white ladies are too
31:58
Speaker 1: excited about it, I I'm like, we need to take
32:03
Speaker 1: a minute here and really do our research and find
32:06
Speaker 1: out what's going on, because I don't buy this. So
32:10
Speaker 1: once people started asking questions and started sort of raising
32:13
Speaker 1: alarms and pushing back, you know, and PR had done
32:17
Speaker 1: reporting on their Planet Money podcast where Richard Monteniez went
32:21
Speaker 1: on the show and spoke directly, and they addressed some
32:24
Speaker 1: of the questions of of intellectual property and ownership and
32:30
Speaker 1: credit in that interview, and how dubious and sort of
32:33
Speaker 1: difficult it has been for him to establish his credit right,
32:38
Speaker 1: And there was this weird back and forth with NPR
32:41
Speaker 1: and the l A Times and like competing reporting and
32:44
Speaker 1: PepsiCo coming out with conflicting statements over the course of
32:47
Speaker 1: two weeks. And so now you have the situation where
32:51
Speaker 1: allegedly they say that the report took a year to report,
32:55
Speaker 1: then allegedly it only took three weeks. Then allegedly, well,
32:58
Speaker 1: it doesn't actually take that long term report on something
33:00
Speaker 1: like this. Then allegedly like Richard refused to come on
33:04
Speaker 1: and talk to us an interview with this, but he
33:06
Speaker 1: was on Planet Money that same week, you know what
33:08
Speaker 1: I mean, Like, it's not adding up the conflicting reports
33:11
Speaker 1: from PepsiCo. Between these two major news outlets, they have
33:14
Speaker 1: way less credibility at this point than Richard Montagnez. And
33:18
Speaker 1: Richard has been telling the exact same story for decades,
33:21
Speaker 1: like very consistent, extremely consistent, and I've seen little consistency
33:28
Speaker 1: from two of our most important news outlets, not only
33:32
Speaker 1: locally but in the country. So it's been a wild ride.
33:36
Speaker 1: It's been fascinating, And I thank you for taking the
33:39
Speaker 1: time to share your story because I really do think
33:42
Speaker 1: that it adds dimension to this whole thing. Yeah, thank
33:46
Speaker 1: you so much. And I also just think for me,
33:50
Speaker 1: I want to point out to that, like it highlights
33:52
Speaker 1: that we don't value oral storytelling, which is how a
33:57
Speaker 1: lot of folks keep record of their own personal history
34:00
Speaker 1: and community history. Um. And I think that that's something
34:03
Speaker 1: that like I didn't see talked about enough, but I
34:05
Speaker 1: think is really important to note that, like oral storytelling
34:09
Speaker 1: is really important and it is just as valid as
34:13
Speaker 1: like having receipts for everything. And this lady didn't have receipts,
34:18
Speaker 1: but you're choosing to believe her over the man that
34:21
Speaker 1: also didn't have receipts but has been telling the same
34:23
Speaker 1: story consistently, as you said, So I think like, if
34:26
Speaker 1: we're choosing to not believe him, we also shouldn't believe
34:29
Speaker 1: her either, because it seems that no one has receipts,
34:32
Speaker 1: which is troubling. Yeah, and in and in a situation
34:35
Speaker 1: like this, what counts as a receipt, what is a receipt,
34:39
Speaker 1: what qualifies as a receipt and as proof? And I
34:43
Speaker 1: fear too that there's a little bit of like moving
34:45
Speaker 1: the the benchmarks and the goal posts here. You know,
34:49
Speaker 1: whatever evidence Richard has shown over the course of the
34:53
Speaker 1: you know, his career, has have we now decided or
34:57
Speaker 1: has the l A times decided that well, that's not
34:59
Speaker 1: an evidence, that's not enough of a receipt. We want
35:02
Speaker 1: a different kind of evidence now, maybe a kind of
35:04
Speaker 1: evidence that has never actually existed, right, Like you know,
35:10
Speaker 1: like what what do they want? Like what do they
35:12
Speaker 1: want to see you to decide what's real and what's not.
35:16
Speaker 1: And that's also problematic because they have the power, they
35:19
Speaker 1: have the backing of the institution. Yeah, that's like what's
35:23
Speaker 1: part of the gate keeping, right, is that they're deciding
35:26
Speaker 1: what is a source? Right? Who is the source? Who
35:30
Speaker 1: is the right kind of source? Um? And who is
35:32
Speaker 1: a credible source? Right? Um? And so yeah, absolutely, I agree, um.
35:38
Speaker 1: Not only valuing storytelling and oral history, but also like
35:44
Speaker 1: remembering like how why it's so important that we do
35:47
Speaker 1: archive our work and we also archive like our family history,
35:50
Speaker 1: our community history, the community work that folks are doing,
35:55
Speaker 1: because they'll come and say, you didn't do anything right,
35:59
Speaker 1: You didn't actually do ship it, none of it, you
36:01
Speaker 1: didn't create any of it, right, And so the documentation
36:04
Speaker 1: is also important. Having our own receipts and whatever that
36:07
Speaker 1: looks like for for our people, right, what do those
36:10
Speaker 1: receipts look like for us? Yeah? I agree. I mean
36:14
Speaker 1: we see it happening in our own city. Like if
36:16
Speaker 1: you look at Highland Park, there are murals that have
36:18
Speaker 1: literally been whitewashed, and gil Cydio, the city council person there,
36:22
Speaker 1: has let had happened. Um, and those murals count as
36:25
Speaker 1: our history and now they're just gone and we can't
36:28
Speaker 1: get them back. Um. So I think it's like there's
36:31
Speaker 1: levels to this, obviously, and so it's really important that
36:34
Speaker 1: we are connecting these these dots. Yeah, I gil gil Cydio.
36:40
Speaker 1: Another another Chicano acting up, Another Chicano acting up in
36:48
Speaker 1: the city of Los Angeles. What are we gonna What
36:50
Speaker 1: are we gonna do? If you guys, what are we
36:52
Speaker 1: gonna do with you? Elder Chicano is just running them
36:55
Speaker 1: back all over the place. We always got to clean
36:57
Speaker 1: up your messes, you guys, you guys see, you guys
37:00
Speaker 1: see we're not even related to these ones and still
37:03
Speaker 1: causing stress in our lives. How how do they do it?
37:06
Speaker 1: How do they manage? It's a talent. It's still alright.
37:11
Speaker 1: Rachel well, thank you so much for joining us and
37:14
Speaker 1: for giving us some much needed depth and nuance to
37:18
Speaker 1: this hot Cheeto conversation. Never did I think that we
37:21
Speaker 1: would be talking about hot cheetos on look at that
37:23
Speaker 1: our radio. But here we are, and in a very
37:26
Speaker 1: important way. And so thank you so much for providing
37:30
Speaker 1: this context, this story, your perspective. Work and folks, keep
37:35
Speaker 1: up with you. And do you have any final thoughts
37:38
Speaker 1: you want to share with us? Final thoughts? I hope
37:42
Speaker 1: I never have to think about how she was again,
37:44
Speaker 1: to be honest, because I like they were a snack
37:47
Speaker 1: food to me. They were a comfort food to me.
37:50
Speaker 1: Um And now here I am. I pre ordered Richard's book.
37:54
Speaker 1: I'm going to see the movie. Those last two things
37:57
Speaker 1: I was probably not going to do before you this
38:00
Speaker 1: article came out. Um So, I love. I love being
38:03
Speaker 1: able to talk about it now. This is just like
38:05
Speaker 1: one funny tale in my life as far my first
38:08
Speaker 1: thirty years. Um So, this is great. Thank you for
38:12
Speaker 1: asking me to be on here to talk about this.
38:14
Speaker 1: And yeah, if folks want to follow me for hot
38:17
Speaker 1: Chio's content, or just if you want to know anything
38:20
Speaker 1: about your rights in l A, if you're a worker,
38:23
Speaker 1: talk to me. That's what I do. UM. You can
38:26
Speaker 1: follow me on Twitter, That's where I'm most active at
38:29
Speaker 1: Rachel r A C h E L Underscore rayas r
38:33
Speaker 1: E y E S. I'm on there all the time.
38:36
Speaker 1: DM me. We can talk about your rights if you
38:38
Speaker 1: have questions, or we can talk about chios, or now
38:41
Speaker 1: that everything is open, we can go have some wine.
38:43
Speaker 1: You know, I would love I would love to take
38:46
Speaker 1: both you out for a drink. So I'm open. Let's
38:49
Speaker 1: make it happen. This is a very good cocktail our story,
38:53
Speaker 1: so like definitely added to your repertoire of like things
38:56
Speaker 1: to throw into the mix, like will say yes we
39:02
Speaker 1: love a glass of wine. We're gonna have to take
39:05
Speaker 1: you up on that offer. Rachel Us, thank you once
39:07
Speaker 1: again for stopping by Look at Landia and talking on radio.
39:11
Speaker 1: This has been another episode. Thank you all for tuning in.
39:15
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