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The United Healthcare CEO Assassination and Aftermath · Millennial Mental Health Channel

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Speaker 1: Insurance companies need to understand that they have pushed the
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Speaker 1: American people too far, and the American people are starting
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Speaker 1: to push back, and I think the insurance companies should
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Speaker 1: fear the American people. This is Millennial Mental Health Channel.
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Speaker 1: I'm doctor Justin Romano, a child adolescent psychiatry fellow.
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Speaker 2: And I'm Medikoio, a licensed clinical therapist. Our podcast is
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Speaker 2: here because we wanted to start a much need to
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Speaker 2: conversation about mental health.
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Speaker 1: Our goal is to teach you as much as we
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Speaker 1: can by sharing our own experiences and interviewing experts in
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Speaker 1: the mental health field. We will discuss topics like mood disorders,
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Speaker 1: psychotic disorders, substance use, personality disorders, and many more.
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Speaker 2: Millennial Mental Health Channel buy Millennials for everyone. We hope
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Speaker 2: you enjoyed today's episode.
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Speaker 1: MMHC is a production of Speaker from iHeartMedia, I Heart
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Speaker 1: mir Eddie. Do you own any firearms?
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Speaker 2: You know? I don't And I don't know why I'm
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Speaker 2: like leaning so far into this. My good friends that
1:02
Speaker 2: I used to live with they do and they have
1:06
Speaker 2: and like when I was with them for three years,
1:08
Speaker 2: shout out Carson and mel there was like firearms in
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Speaker 2: the house, you know that that kind of thing, and
1:12
Speaker 2: so like that's the closest I think I've ever been
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Speaker 2: to living in a home with firearms. Other than that,
1:17
Speaker 2: that's that's it. What about you?
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Speaker 1: You know, I don't own any, but I love shooting guns.
1:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is pretty fun, Carson. Yeah. Yeah.
1:27
Speaker 1: Growing up, I was like obsessed with BB guns and
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Speaker 1: NERF guns and I loved it. And my parents were
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Speaker 1: Californians and they were not into guns. And then now
1:37
Speaker 1: that I'm older, I'm like, man, I would like to
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Speaker 1: have a gun maybe one day, but I just don't
1:41
Speaker 1: think it's quite worth the risk.
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Speaker 2: I guess, like especially if like you even for me right,
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Speaker 2: Like I don't know, like there's just something about it that,
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Speaker 2: like if it was just me, like being in Carson
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Speaker 2: Mel's house, like I felt totally fine because I knew,
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Speaker 2: like Carson knew what he was doing and like you'd
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Speaker 2: keep it safe. But for me on my own, I'm like,
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Speaker 2: what the fuck, man, this is gonna like like the
2:01
Speaker 2: super irrational, like, oh, it's just gonna go off by itself,
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Speaker 2: even if there's no bullets in it or it is.
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Speaker 2: It's one of those things where if you don't like
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Speaker 2: grow up with it or have like extensive training. I
2:11
Speaker 2: think there's always that idea on the back of your
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Speaker 2: mind of like I don't know how safe I can be.
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Speaker 2: It's just weird.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, statistically, you're more likely to get hurt
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Speaker 1: by your own gun than actually protect yourself with your
2:22
Speaker 1: own gun.
2:23
Speaker 2: Well, see, there you go. There's that's why I have
2:25
Speaker 2: that thought. I didn't even realize.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, and Wyoming's got a bunch of concealed carry laws
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Speaker 1: where you can have a gun and carry it without
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Speaker 1: any sort of permit or anything like that. And so
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Speaker 1: I've had friends like as soon as that law pass,
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Speaker 1: they're like, hell, yeah, I'm getting a gun. I'm just like,
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Speaker 1: I don't know.
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Speaker 2: The person that walks around like Windco or Walmart with
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Speaker 2: like doing the little French tuck action where like you
2:50
Speaker 2: can see the I'm like, really, man, like what, I
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Speaker 2: don't care if you got it, but why well you
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Speaker 2: gotta show it to Speaking of which, actually I think
3:02
Speaker 2: I can say this. Everybody knows what's happening tomorrow at work.
3:07
Speaker 2: Some students are doing a walkout actually in protest of
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Speaker 2: right now, there's no board policy at our school district
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Speaker 2: that says there's no firearm fire arms allowed on campus,
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Speaker 2: and our students have talked about this over a couple
3:22
Speaker 2: of years of like this is we need to fix this.
3:24
Speaker 2: And I think I might butcher this a little bit,
3:26
Speaker 2: but I think really it's come down to the state
3:28
Speaker 2: saying the school districts have to make their own policies
3:31
Speaker 2: of like basically being a gun free campus. I don't
3:36
Speaker 2: know if that includes the school resource officer, but I've
3:38
Speaker 2: heard of. I think like when it comes to student staff,
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Speaker 2: people that work there, you're not allowed to. But I
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Speaker 2: think the concern is what about people that are visiting
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Speaker 2: the school, like parents, parents of students that are playing
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Speaker 2: against our school, like just things like that that it's
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Speaker 2: not explicitly stated. I think that's the big concern. So
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Speaker 2: that's actually happening tomorrow, which I think is pretty cool.
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Speaker 2: And I think it's cool that they've organized, they've been
4:01
Speaker 2: they've been at the board meetings, they've been doing the
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Speaker 2: social media stuff, so good for them. But I figure
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Speaker 2: you bring up the topic of guns for a reason,
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Speaker 2: we're not just so.
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Speaker 1: Eddie and I had a whole episode prepared, We've got
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Speaker 1: the whole script going, and then all of a sudden,
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Speaker 1: everything happened with this United Healthcare CEO being murdered assassinated
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Speaker 1: in New York, and we thought, you know what, let's
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Speaker 1: talk about that, let's follow the trend here, let's kind
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Speaker 1: of just discuss it, help us process it, help you
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Speaker 1: process it, because what a weird time, what a weird
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Speaker 1: reaction to all of this. So that's why we wanted
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Speaker 1: to start off with a light question about young gun ownership.
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Speaker 1: And actually just saw something that the gun that was
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Speaker 1: used in that murder was a three D printed gun.
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Speaker 1: I don't know if that's one hundred percent true, but
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Speaker 1: it's what they were thinking, at least the investigators on
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Speaker 1: the case. So so much to pack here, Eddie, explain
5:03
Speaker 1: what happened to people if they have been living under
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Speaker 1: a rock for the past week.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, So, from my understanding, the CEO of United Healthcare,
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Speaker 2: whose name has already slipped my mind, he was basically
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Speaker 2: in New York for I think what was a shareholders
5:18
Speaker 2: meeting or basically to talk about how much money they
5:21
Speaker 2: have brought in. And if you're anyone who lives in
5:24
Speaker 2: the United States has been impacted by the United States
5:27
Speaker 2: healthcare system that we have or lack thereof. You know
5:32
Speaker 2: that it comes in different pieces. There's like Medicare, Medicaid,
5:36
Speaker 2: there's private insurance, there's you know, pay as you goost
5:39
Speaker 2: type stuff. But recently it's really felt like there's been
5:42
Speaker 2: a lot of negative attention and a lot of negative
5:47
Speaker 2: stuff done by private insurances. I would say for me,
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Speaker 2: you know, in the therapist space on Reddit and in
5:53
Speaker 2: my therapist circles, I see a lot of conversations about like, Wow,
5:56
Speaker 2: we're really getting paid shit for the work that we do.
5:59
Speaker 2: I know, Kevy's about it up with just like how
6:01
Speaker 2: much her clinic is making per eye exam, you know,
6:04
Speaker 2: depending on what insurance they're taking, and it's really not
6:07
Speaker 2: a lot for the really specialized service that they provide.
6:10
Speaker 2: And I think that goes across the board. Insurance is
6:13
Speaker 2: just one of those things where people really the words
6:15
Speaker 2: insurance and scam seem to go together a lot and
6:18
Speaker 2: a lot of people really feel that way. So in
6:21
Speaker 2: a time where all of that is going, I think
6:23
Speaker 2: either what the same day or the day after Blue
6:26
Speaker 2: Cross Blue Shield actually announced that they were going to
6:28
Speaker 2: start to limit the amount of hours or time that
6:32
Speaker 2: they will cover anesthesia during the surgery really poor timing,
6:36
Speaker 2: and they have since reversed that decision. But basically, it's
6:41
Speaker 2: a weird time. It feels like it's always a weird
6:44
Speaker 2: time in our country. But basically, insurance is one of
6:46
Speaker 2: those things where a lot of people feel like it's
6:49
Speaker 2: it's shit and it's a scam, and it's really not
6:52
Speaker 2: what am I paying for? What is it covering? You
6:54
Speaker 2: see all the time again on Reddit, people will post
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Speaker 2: this is my bill for an ambulance right that I
7:00
Speaker 2: took and it was like seven minutes, and this is
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Speaker 2: how much they were gonna charge me, or this is
7:05
Speaker 2: how much my pregnancy was gonna cost. But because of
7:08
Speaker 2: my insurance, I only had to pay three hundred dollars,
7:11
Speaker 2: But without insurance, it was going to be seventy six
7:13
Speaker 2: thousand dollars to include the room, the meds they use,
7:16
Speaker 2: all this stuff. So it's just like you just never
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Speaker 2: know with our healthcare system, like what's fair, what's not fair.
7:23
Speaker 2: It's just one of those things that it's a pretty
7:25
Speaker 2: it's a pretty touchy subject. So all that being said, yeah,
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Speaker 2: I believe the health United Healthcare was in New York,
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Speaker 2: their shareholders or their top dogs basically ready to talk
7:35
Speaker 2: about their earnings and talk about look at all the
7:37
Speaker 2: money we've made in the early morning hours. The CEO,
7:40
Speaker 2: did you find out his name?
7:42
Speaker 1: Brian Thompson?
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Speaker 2: Brian Thompson leaves his hotel I believe it was a Hilton.
7:47
Speaker 2: That doesn't really matter, but we'll throw it in there.
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Speaker 2: Leaves his hotel room and is shot dead I believe
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Speaker 2: two to three times, and then the shooter walks up
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Speaker 2: to him I believe, shoots him again at least a
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Speaker 2: couple more times, and then flees the scene on a
8:00
Speaker 2: city bike. I think that was positioned. This was a
8:03
Speaker 2: thought out thing. This was not an accident, This was
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Speaker 2: not a This was planned. It was premeditated, as they
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Speaker 2: would say. So yeah, that that kind of like rock
8:13
Speaker 2: social media. But here's the interesting piece. A lot of people,
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Speaker 2: and I was telling justin this before we started, this
8:20
Speaker 2: might be the most united I've seen, not to no
8:23
Speaker 2: pun intended with United Healthcare, but this might be the
8:26
Speaker 2: most on the same page I've seen people in a
8:29
Speaker 2: long time. Especially given the recent election and just how
8:33
Speaker 2: politics have been in this country, a lot of people
8:36
Speaker 2: seem to be on the same page. And not that
8:37
Speaker 2: we're not saying we agree or disagree, but a lot
8:40
Speaker 2: of people basically seem to be on the same page
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Speaker 2: of like, fuck that guy, good thing that he died,
8:45
Speaker 2: and it's weird, it's it's weird, it's interesting, it's it's
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Speaker 2: all of the words of like, wow, I've never seen
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Speaker 2: so many people so on the same page of someone
8:55
Speaker 2: getting murdered, and a lot of like that's I don't know,
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Speaker 2: it's kind of icky if you think about it. It's
9:01
Speaker 2: an interesting thing that's been going on.
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Speaker 1: We always want to say that we are not pro
9:06
Speaker 1: violence here at MMHC. And he was a father, He
9:09
Speaker 1: had two kids, he had a wife, and they are
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Speaker 1: now without their father, and that's a tragedy in and
9:15
Speaker 1: of itself. But it's been so surprising to see the
9:19
Speaker 1: reaction from people. The social media comments, I think one
9:24
Speaker 1: of the most popular ones being like thoughts and copeys,
9:29
Speaker 1: thoughts and prior offs for him and his family. People
9:33
Speaker 1: making fun of the fact that he Brian Thompson, was
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Speaker 1: in charge of a major corporation that was essentially screwing
9:41
Speaker 1: over the entire American country or the entire American people,
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Speaker 1: and so people are making jokes about it. People feel
9:50
Speaker 1: like they're okay it's justified in their killing. I find
9:54
Speaker 1: it interesting that only a couple of months ago there
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Speaker 1: was the Trump assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, and after
10:03
Speaker 1: that it seemed like everyone was coming out like left right.
10:07
Speaker 1: Everyone was like, this is a terrible thing. There should
10:10
Speaker 1: be no political violence, We should not try and assassinate
10:14
Speaker 1: our leaders. But then the CEO of major corporation gets
10:18
Speaker 1: straight up murdered in the street and people are for it.
10:23
Speaker 1: And I think that just goes to show you how
10:25
Speaker 1: sick the American people are of corporate greed and how
10:30
Speaker 1: they have been abused and used by these people. I
10:33
Speaker 1: do want to give a couple of statistics that United
10:37
Speaker 1: Healthcare has the highest claim denial rate among insurance companies,
10:41
Speaker 1: rejecting thirty two percent of submitted claims compared to the
10:45
Speaker 1: industry average of sixteen percent. So they double the rate
10:50
Speaker 1: of rejecting people's care. The United Healthcare their profits in
10:54
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three were two hundred and eighty one billion
10:58
Speaker 1: with a B dollars damn. So I know personally, I
11:04
Speaker 1: have had to fight with United Healthcare and their doctors
11:09
Speaker 1: trying to get my patients the care that me as
11:12
Speaker 1: the patient's doctor thinks is appropriate, and most of the
11:16
Speaker 1: time they just do whatever the hell they want. So
11:19
Speaker 1: in a way, in my mind, I'm thinking, yes, this
11:22
Speaker 1: is a tragedy. A man was killed, a family goes
11:24
Speaker 1: without their father, this type of violence is not a
11:27
Speaker 1: good thing for society. But on the other hand, I'm
11:30
Speaker 1: thinking to myself, insurance companies need to understand that they
11:35
Speaker 1: have pushed the American people too far, and the American
11:39
Speaker 1: people are starting to push back, and I think the
11:42
Speaker 1: insurance companies should fear the American people.
11:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think if I remember correctly, I feel like
11:49
Speaker 2: it's been at least a couple of years where United
11:52
Speaker 2: Healthcare has kind of been getting shitted on, like they're
11:55
Speaker 2: kind of known as like, oh shit, you have United,
11:57
Speaker 2: Like that's not good. That's been your experience too, But
12:01
Speaker 2: I feel like that's been a pretty common topic that's
12:04
Speaker 2: been brought up, like United Healthcare just does not reimburse well,
12:07
Speaker 2: they do not take care of people. I think the
12:09
Speaker 2: idea of prior authorization is totally fucked to really think about, like,
12:15
Speaker 2: you have to have people on your side, hopefully building
12:18
Speaker 2: a good case for your patients and your clients to
12:22
Speaker 2: basically get the care that they deserve. And I've heard
12:24
Speaker 2: it time and time again, people getting like we've had kids,
12:28
Speaker 2: We've had clients, we have had patients go to another
12:31
Speaker 2: level of care and then basically be told by their
12:34
Speaker 2: insurance company like, Okay, that was enough, You're good to go.
12:37
Speaker 2: I've had kids. When I was in the eating disorder
12:39
Speaker 2: program working as a therapist, I had kids all the
12:42
Speaker 2: time where the family would come in and be like, yeah,
12:44
Speaker 2: insurance isn't covering anymore, today's the last day. We had
12:47
Speaker 2: weeks ready to go with treatment, but they said because
12:49
Speaker 2: of this and this, today's the last day. And who's
12:52
Speaker 2: making those decisions. It wasn't therapists on the other side,
12:54
Speaker 2: It wasn't psychiatrist, it wasn't mds, it wasn't any type
12:57
Speaker 2: of healthcare professional. It was whatever, a utilization management person.
13:02
Speaker 2: I think that's the title, right, And so it's like, yeah,
13:06
Speaker 2: I think to your point, we're not here to say
13:08
Speaker 2: violence is a good thing. We're not here to say
13:10
Speaker 2: that man deserved to die. I think it's just an example,
13:13
Speaker 2: like people are really fed up, and you said people
13:16
Speaker 2: are sick of these corporations and greed. You know, it
13:20
Speaker 2: is an insurance company. People are sick also, and they're
13:23
Speaker 2: dealing with a lot of shit, and to be told that,
13:26
Speaker 2: you know, their coverage is not going to cover this
13:29
Speaker 2: procedure or this treatment or this medication. It's really disheartening
13:33
Speaker 2: on people. And I think when people are backed into
13:35
Speaker 2: a corner, they do things like this unfortunately, And again
13:38
Speaker 2: it's not saying that it's the right thing. And a
13:41
Speaker 2: quick Google search I was looking at. I don't know
13:43
Speaker 2: if we're going to say his name or if we've
13:45
Speaker 2: even mentioned it, but the United Healthcare shooter, he apparently
13:51
Speaker 2: had a history of like some pretty severe back pain,
13:54
Speaker 2: and he detailed that like leading up, you know, over
13:56
Speaker 2: the last four or five years. So I don't know
13:58
Speaker 2: if it was it a thing like and I think
14:00
Speaker 2: Justin mentioned before the show, he seems to come from
14:02
Speaker 2: a pretty wealthy background. So it's like it almost doesn't
14:05
Speaker 2: make sense of like, you're someone who comes from means
14:08
Speaker 2: and then you take this action potentially because you weren't
14:12
Speaker 2: getting the treatment that you needed because of someone like
14:15
Speaker 2: the healthcare coverage or the insurance company. But it was like,
14:19
Speaker 2: was this really the kind of person you would expect
14:21
Speaker 2: to do something like that?
14:23
Speaker 1: I don't know, No, not me when I heard that
14:27
Speaker 1: his family, they're millionaires. He went to a private school,
14:32
Speaker 1: he went to an Ivy league college. He was valedictorian,
14:36
Speaker 1: he was athletic, he was smart, he was charismatic, or
14:40
Speaker 1: is all of those things, I should say, And it's
14:43
Speaker 1: not quite the type of person that you would picture
14:47
Speaker 1: would do something like that. And time will tell if
14:50
Speaker 1: there's any sort of mental health element in what's going
14:55
Speaker 1: on in his mind. It does sound like in the past,
14:59
Speaker 1: and everyone's just kind of piece together clues from social
15:01
Speaker 1: media things that in his life. It sounds like in
15:04
Speaker 1: the past he did have a book club, and for
15:08
Speaker 1: that book club he got to decide what the books were.
15:11
Speaker 1: And instead of like doing you know, like Dune or
15:14
Speaker 1: you know, some sort of like popular book, he jumped
15:16
Speaker 1: straight into like the biography of the Unibomber, like he
15:20
Speaker 1: really in the and he idolized the Unibomber, who was
15:25
Speaker 1: someone who wanted to see the United States burn, like
15:28
Speaker 1: he wanted to bring down big, powerful structures. So it
15:32
Speaker 1: sounds like maybe he got into some ideology and got
15:36
Speaker 1: in deep on the internet, and before you know it,
15:38
Speaker 1: he was sucked into doing something that seemed like it
15:41
Speaker 1: didn't fit his character, it didn't seem to fit his demographics.
15:46
Speaker 2: I think one interesting thing that's come out of all
15:48
Speaker 2: of this, too, is how you know you brought up
15:49
Speaker 2: the attempted a sense as an assassination attempt on president
15:53
Speaker 2: like Donald Trump, and a lot of people have been
15:55
Speaker 2: saying on social media like, oh, it's been months since
15:57
Speaker 2: that's happened, and I feel like we know nothing about
16:00
Speaker 2: the shooter, and then this happened, you know, a week
16:02
Speaker 2: ago whatever, and it feels like we know everything about
16:04
Speaker 2: this guy's life. And I almost wonder if how much
16:07
Speaker 2: of that is like a recency bias, because I feel
16:10
Speaker 2: like when things did start to come out, we did
16:11
Speaker 2: kind of learn things. And maybe ultimately what it was
16:15
Speaker 2: with the attempted the shooter for Donald Trump, they just
16:19
Speaker 2: didn't really have much of a remarkable life. They seem
16:22
Speaker 2: to still be pretty young, There wasn't a whole lot
16:24
Speaker 2: going on, and really maybe what the difference was is
16:26
Speaker 2: the shooter here with the United Healthcare CEO, he has
16:30
Speaker 2: had more of like things going on and has more
16:32
Speaker 2: things to report. So I just it's just interesting how
16:35
Speaker 2: much just the dynamics of people when things like this
16:39
Speaker 2: happened like big, and especially with social media, how quickly
16:43
Speaker 2: we're connected to things, how quickly we know about things.
16:45
Speaker 2: I had one eye open when I woke up on Instagram.
16:48
Speaker 2: I'm trying to like I should have been waking up,
16:50
Speaker 2: but of course I'm scrolling my phone when I wake
16:52
Speaker 2: up to see the news, and like it didn't fully
16:54
Speaker 2: register with me what just happened? And is that, you know,
16:58
Speaker 2: maybe a product of like kind of world we live
17:01
Speaker 2: in now? Or was I still sleepy? I don't know.
17:03
Speaker 2: But then then all the stuff started to come of,
17:06
Speaker 2: like oh, he was leaving his hotel room, he was
17:08
Speaker 2: going here. He just got killed in cold blood right
17:11
Speaker 2: in front of the hotel. You know. It's yeah, the
17:14
Speaker 2: person definitely had it planned out because they had a
17:16
Speaker 2: bike credit to go and they biked off. There was
17:18
Speaker 2: this whole thing that I mean, again, just to really
17:21
Speaker 2: speak to the how much this is like the interactions
17:26
Speaker 2: between people. One of the subreddits on Reddit that I've
17:29
Speaker 2: gone to a few times is about backpacks and like
17:34
Speaker 2: travel backpacks, and there's a couple. There's one called backpacks,
17:37
Speaker 2: there's one called one bag, there's one called many Baggers,
17:40
Speaker 2: where people just like really like backpacks and like for
17:42
Speaker 2: different things, and they were talking about it because the
17:47
Speaker 2: backpack that it seemed to have potentially had the shooter
17:51
Speaker 2: was one that's like kind of an expensive and like
17:53
Speaker 2: nice travel backpack. So even that and then I think
17:56
Speaker 2: even Reddit got ended up in a few like articles
17:59
Speaker 2: about it. It's just so interesting, like how many different
18:03
Speaker 2: groups of people all got kind of roped into one thing.
18:07
Speaker 1: One of the main reasons why this shooter has captivated
18:12
Speaker 1: America and everyone is so focused on it is because
18:15
Speaker 1: he was kind of attractive, Like it's like the Ted
18:19
Speaker 1: Bundy effect.
18:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, as soon.
18:21
Speaker 1: As those initial pictures came out of him in that smile,
18:25
Speaker 1: it was like people were curious, people were interested. Do
18:29
Speaker 1: you think of someone doing something like this as someone
18:31
Speaker 1: who's destitute, on at the end of their rope, down
18:35
Speaker 1: on their luck, But he was smiling. The day of
18:38
Speaker 1: the assassination, he went to Starbucks. You know, he was
18:42
Speaker 1: caught at a McDonald's. So he was just kind of
18:45
Speaker 1: living his life, doing his own thing. And you know,
18:48
Speaker 1: out of curiosity, I asked my wife. I was like,
18:51
Speaker 1: do you think he's an attractive guy? And she's like, yeah,
18:54
Speaker 1: he's just kind of like an average Italian looking guy,
18:57
Speaker 1: and I'm like, hey, that's me.
18:59
Speaker 2: I'm an average shit to look but he's.
19:09
Speaker 1: Got definitely got a very Italian name, Luigi Mangioni. That
19:15
Speaker 1: definitely speaks to our age of social media, and even
19:19
Speaker 1: way before social media, like I mentioned Ted Bundy, if
19:22
Speaker 1: someone is attractive, people want to give them more attention.
19:26
Speaker 1: It makes for a more interesting story, and I think
19:29
Speaker 1: that's one of the big reasons too why there are
19:32
Speaker 1: a lot more people on his side.
19:42
Speaker 2: You know. I don't know if you remember this, but
19:44
Speaker 2: there was actually a like meme kind of back in
19:46
Speaker 2: the day called like the attractive Felon or there was
19:49
Speaker 2: this like light skin, mixed race, biracial guy who is
19:54
Speaker 2: like conventionally to a lot of people attractive, and people
19:57
Speaker 2: were like, oh, he didn't do it, like make jokes
20:00
Speaker 2: like he's free whatever, but he might've actually done something
20:03
Speaker 2: really fucked up. But because of his looks, a lot
20:07
Speaker 2: of people were quick to joke about like, oh, you know,
20:10
Speaker 2: whatever he did is fine, you know this, and that
20:13
Speaker 2: he might have ended up actually getting some modeling opportunities
20:15
Speaker 2: after because of it. But yeah, yeah, I think you
20:19
Speaker 2: bring up a good point. I think if we think
20:21
Speaker 2: back to our episode two that we made a while back,
20:24
Speaker 2: just about like the psychology of humor, thinking about how
20:27
Speaker 2: people are really quick to make jokes even in the
20:31
Speaker 2: most fucked up of circumstances. I've been on TikTok to
20:34
Speaker 2: last week there's some pretty funny shit, like people are posting.
20:38
Speaker 2: I mean there's people posting they got pictures of mister Luigi.
20:42
Speaker 2: I think one of the pictures of him, like in
20:44
Speaker 2: a jail sell or whatever that they posted recently. He's
20:47
Speaker 2: like in a jumpsuit. People have taken that picture, cut
20:51
Speaker 2: him out of it, and then have posted pictures of
20:53
Speaker 2: themselves like at the mall or at the store and
20:56
Speaker 2: just being like, oh yeah, me and my boy Luigi,
20:58
Speaker 2: you know, last week six at this time, you know,
21:02
Speaker 2: trying to like, you know, it's it's so interesting the
21:06
Speaker 2: collective like he didn't do it. He's free, you know,
21:09
Speaker 2: like free my guy kind of thing. And I think,
21:14
Speaker 2: to your boy, his attractiveness probably helps with that.
21:17
Speaker 1: And there have been studies on this too, where people
21:20
Speaker 1: who are attractive are perceived as more knowledgeable, are perceived
21:24
Speaker 1: as more trustworthy, they have more instant credibility just because
21:29
Speaker 1: they're attractive. That's why you know a lot of times
21:33
Speaker 1: in especially like the medical equipment sales business, you always
21:37
Speaker 1: see attractive young women in those physicians because they're trying
21:42
Speaker 1: to appeal to male doctors and it's instant credibility. So
21:48
Speaker 1: he's captured the hearts and minds of America, for better
21:53
Speaker 1: or for worse. And it's going to be curious to
21:56
Speaker 1: see how this unfolds. I know he had a three
21:58
Speaker 1: page manifesto on him, and so it'll be interesting to
22:03
Speaker 1: try and unpack his journey down this rabbit hole and
22:06
Speaker 1: what led him to this.
22:07
Speaker 2: Now we got here, yeah, I think. I don't know
22:10
Speaker 2: if you heard. I just looked up an article and
22:12
Speaker 2: I was trying to find exactly the words, but it
22:15
Speaker 2: sounds like they were able to find three nine millimeter
22:17
Speaker 2: shellcasings at the crime scene, and apparently there are the
22:20
Speaker 2: words delayed, deny, and depose written across those bullets. And
22:25
Speaker 2: actually in this article I'm looking at from CNN. Police
22:28
Speaker 2: have been looking into whether the words, which title a
22:31
Speaker 2: twenty ten book critiquing the insurance industry, may have pointed
22:36
Speaker 2: to a motive in the killing of Brian.
22:38
Speaker 1: Thompson, which that is the strategy of a lot of
22:44
Speaker 1: insurance companies to try and make as much money as
22:46
Speaker 1: possible delay things, deny claims to pose try and stop
22:51
Speaker 1: themselves from having to pay for other people's healthcare. And yeah,
22:56
Speaker 1: it sounds like they may have pissed off the wrong guy.
23:00
Speaker 1: You know that. We talked a little bit about Luigi
23:02
Speaker 1: and his back pain. It sounds like maybe he's had
23:04
Speaker 1: some surgeries in the past, but he also comes from
23:07
Speaker 1: means and should maybe have been able to pay for
23:10
Speaker 1: these things. So even if he did have a claim denied,
23:14
Speaker 1: it doesn't seem like he would be the type of
23:15
Speaker 1: person that would be impacted by that too much. But
23:18
Speaker 1: you never know. It's yeah, we need more time and information,
23:23
Speaker 1: and boy, I would love to be the forensic psychiatrist
23:27
Speaker 1: or psychologist doing the analysis on him and see what's
23:30
Speaker 1: going on in that mind of his.
23:32
Speaker 2: I even wondered, I don't know if I've read anything
23:34
Speaker 2: that has said that he even had United Healthcare huh
23:38
Speaker 2: as insurance. Has anyone confirmed that?
23:41
Speaker 1: I don't know. That's a great thing.
23:42
Speaker 2: Let's see that's and that's the thing. I mean, maybe
23:45
Speaker 2: he was in a spot where I don't know, I
23:47
Speaker 2: don't know if we've ever done an episode on this.
23:49
Speaker 2: But I know there is an issue with like chronic
23:53
Speaker 2: pain and how much that really takes a toll on people.
23:56
Speaker 2: So you can imagine someone who's dealt with and back
23:58
Speaker 2: pain is like off from what I've heard from the people,
24:02
Speaker 2: and just like in the media, like if you go
24:05
Speaker 2: years and years and years with you know, debilitating back pain,
24:08
Speaker 2: like your mental health can take a turn for the
24:10
Speaker 2: worst and then you start to think certain things and
24:12
Speaker 2: then those things start to think it seemed like great
24:14
Speaker 2: ideas because you're having those and it just it just
24:17
Speaker 2: can spiral. So I just wonder how much maybe that
24:20
Speaker 2: played a piece into it. Just yeah, I don't even
24:23
Speaker 2: know if he had. Maybe maybe it was for the CEO,
24:26
Speaker 2: wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe he got to
24:28
Speaker 2: a point where he was ready to do something and
24:30
Speaker 2: then with some quick research you found you know, United
24:33
Speaker 2: Healthcare was in the air. I don't know, there's I
24:35
Speaker 2: think there is a lot of unanswered questions. But really
24:39
Speaker 2: just to think about the how does a person get
24:42
Speaker 2: to that point, how does a society get to the
24:44
Speaker 2: point where they're on the side of the shooter. I
24:47
Speaker 2: just yeah, it's interesting stuff.
24:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's kind of wild. And question for you, do
24:54
Speaker 1: you think this is going to change anything? Like is
24:56
Speaker 1: it really going to change anything in our society?
25:00
Speaker 2: I mean we mentioned it earlier. Blue Cross Blue Shields
25:04
Speaker 2: said all right, fuck you and your anesthesia. You get
25:07
Speaker 2: four hours. Anything past that we're not covering, and then
25:10
Speaker 2: right after I said, never mind, just kidding, right. I
25:14
Speaker 2: think people have made jokes about it. I don't know
25:16
Speaker 2: if it's true or not. Maybe I can do a
25:17
Speaker 2: quick Google search while I well, I talk a little bit.
25:20
Speaker 2: But someone was making a joke that, you know, CEOs
25:25
Speaker 2: and places are going to start to bring stuff back
25:27
Speaker 2: or like start to like cater to people, And yeah,
25:29
Speaker 2: it looks like McDonald's is bringing back the snack wrap
25:33
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty five, you know, And it's like, was
25:35
Speaker 2: that going to happen before? I don't know it. I
25:38
Speaker 2: think for a while, and if we really try to
25:41
Speaker 2: just like openly process this. We look at twenty twenty
25:45
Speaker 2: and the shit show that was with how it was
25:47
Speaker 2: handled and where we ended up. We look at how
25:51
Speaker 2: prices of things and you know, interest rates and stuff
25:55
Speaker 2: like that kind of we're in the favor of the consumer.
25:58
Speaker 2: Then we started to see like we've started to see
26:00
Speaker 2: how much prices feel like they're no longer in favor
26:03
Speaker 2: of the consumer. And then you know, people are like,
26:07
Speaker 2: you know, well we have to adjust for inflation, we
26:09
Speaker 2: have to just for this, and then like analysis coming
26:12
Speaker 2: out of like, well, this is actually past inflation. This
26:15
Speaker 2: is extra and even like hearing and I can't list
26:19
Speaker 2: the source right off the top of my head, but
26:21
Speaker 2: even hearing from some companies that yeah, some of the
26:24
Speaker 2: prices were just increased just to make extra money. So
26:27
Speaker 2: I think if you really think about it, CEOs, I
26:31
Speaker 2: think have really been getting shitted on recently, you know,
26:34
Speaker 2: and you hear how much people are making every year.
26:37
Speaker 2: You hear how much. I mean, Starbucks just got a
26:39
Speaker 2: new CEO, right, and one of the things that they
26:41
Speaker 2: announced and that's been all over the news is how
26:43
Speaker 2: much this person is getting paid every year and how
26:45
Speaker 2: they live in la but they can just take a
26:48
Speaker 2: private jet to work whenever they need to to Seattle,
26:51
Speaker 2: and just these these things were like, these people are
26:54
Speaker 2: not like the common folk. And I think a lot
26:56
Speaker 2: more people are feeling more relatable to the rest of
26:59
Speaker 2: the common folk, and they kind of feel like they
27:03
Speaker 2: can what they can bond over something like this.
27:07
Speaker 1: And if you look at the history of unions and
27:10
Speaker 1: the history of wealth inequality, we haven't had wealth inequality
27:14
Speaker 1: this bad since I think the nineteen like the nineteen
27:18
Speaker 1: hundreds or early nineteen hundreds, or even nineteenth century, late
27:21
Speaker 1: eighteen hundreds. It's getting worse and worse, and corporations are
27:25
Speaker 1: getting so big, strong and powerful that they're the ones
27:29
Speaker 1: that are influencing legislation. They're the ones paying the politicians,
27:33
Speaker 1: they are the ones getting the laws passed to benefit them.
27:37
Speaker 1: And so the rich are more rich than ever, and
27:40
Speaker 1: the CEOs and the multi billionaires are at the top
27:43
Speaker 1: of that. And I don't think it's going to get
27:46
Speaker 1: much better in the short future because I think I
27:51
Speaker 1: just saw I think it was a Daily Show clip
27:55
Speaker 1: or something like that, where it's said that Trump's cabinet
27:59
Speaker 1: is worth like a collective like eleven billion dollars, Like
28:03
Speaker 1: he has more billionaires and multimillionaires in his cabin than
28:08
Speaker 1: by far than anyone else in history. And what do
28:12
Speaker 1: you think they are going to do. Do you think
28:14
Speaker 1: they're going to be advocating for the little guy out there?
28:17
Speaker 1: You know, the mom and pop businesses. They are only
28:20
Speaker 1: going to make wealth inequality worse, and that's speculation. Maybe
28:25
Speaker 1: they could be good. I don't know, but it just
28:27
Speaker 1: seems like people only promote their own interests, and we're
28:30
Speaker 1: putting people in power who could potentially make all of
28:34
Speaker 1: this stuff a lot worse, which brings me to my
28:37
Speaker 1: point of if you're disgruntled with this system, don't go
28:42
Speaker 1: out and murder someone. Vote Vote for people who actually
28:45
Speaker 1: take this stuff seriously. Vote for people who actually want equality,
28:49
Speaker 1: healthcare equality, people who advocate for maybe a single payer insurance,
28:55
Speaker 1: a government funded insurance to try and get people more
28:58
Speaker 1: options so that medical and insurance issues don't bankrupt so
29:04
Speaker 1: many people in this country anymore.
29:07
Speaker 2: Man, I have no clear thoughts other than that's perfect
29:11
Speaker 2: way to put it. That's absolutely get out and vote, yeah, seriously.
29:16
Speaker 2: I will say this is one funny thing I saw.
29:18
Speaker 2: I saw TikTok that this girl was like, if RFK
29:21
Speaker 2: bands Dr Pepper, then I'm gonna make January sixth look
29:24
Speaker 2: like a baby shower. Yikes.
29:31
Speaker 1: We can start the whole episode talking about RFKA Junior.
29:34
Speaker 1: But I do like to use anti processed foods.
29:37
Speaker 2: That's fair, But I swear to God if died. Doctor
29:39
Speaker 2: Pepper is gone. We're gonna have some just kidding.
29:44
Speaker 3: No one come to my house for that, please, Okay,
29:49
Speaker 3: but yeah, it's you know, when Justin brought it up,
29:52
Speaker 3: brought up the idea of just kind of let's just
29:55
Speaker 3: talk about what's happened.
29:56
Speaker 2: You know, we we talked popular culture on the show.
29:58
Speaker 2: We talk we talk all things mental health, which I
30:00
Speaker 2: think is coolest, fucking a lot of fun, and you
30:02
Speaker 2: all listen. And we had our Spotify rap recently come out.
30:04
Speaker 2: I haven't even told you about it. Oh yeah, yeah,
30:07
Speaker 2: so I totally forgot. You know, we have listeners, which
30:10
Speaker 2: is a lot of fun. We you know, grew fourteen
30:12
Speaker 2: percent on Spotify. I think we were for like four
30:15
Speaker 2: hundred and eighty people, were a top twenty five show,
30:18
Speaker 2: for another like two hundred, we were a top like ten,
30:21
Speaker 2: and then for like forty something people, we were number
30:23
Speaker 2: one as a podcast. So just we talk about popular culture,
30:28
Speaker 2: We talk about all things, but this is one that like,
30:30
Speaker 2: this is real fresh and we have like zero notes
30:33
Speaker 2: on it. But I think I think it is something
30:35
Speaker 2: that relates to society and our mental health and our
30:39
Speaker 2: well being and the sociology of collectivists and collective thoughts
30:45
Speaker 2: on a singular topic. Well, I think another thing I
30:48
Speaker 2: saw too, and I don't know much more about it
30:50
Speaker 2: to really add But people are like, what's going to
30:52
Speaker 2: happen with a jury in something like this? Like what
30:56
Speaker 2: can you do? Like can you find anybody that's not biased?
30:59
Speaker 2: Can you find people? I don't know. It's a really
31:03
Speaker 2: it's gonna be a problem, is my guess. It's gonna
31:06
Speaker 2: be a real big problem. So I don't know. I
31:09
Speaker 2: don't know if this is enough to get CEOs or
31:13
Speaker 2: people in charge to be like, ah shit, maybe I
31:15
Speaker 2: got to calm down a little bit. I don't know,
31:17
Speaker 2: but it's it's definitely a pretty significant thing that's happened
31:23
Speaker 2: real fast and made a pretty what it feels like
31:25
Speaker 2: a really big impact in our history and could potentially
31:28
Speaker 2: have a big impact on our overall country's history.
31:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, agreed, it's a big moment in time. It'll be
31:36
Speaker 1: interesting to see how we move forward. And I know
31:39
Speaker 1: you brought up Spotify wrapped. Please share this podcast. Board
31:43
Speaker 1: of mouth is a big reason why we've gotten bigger
31:46
Speaker 1: and grown. If you don't mind, subscribe to the show.
31:50
Speaker 1: Give us a five star rating. If you liked it,
31:53
Speaker 1: if we brought something to the table that you enjoyed,
31:55
Speaker 1: it really helps us grow. I feel like we need
31:57
Speaker 1: to start saying that more often, like hey for the algorithm,
32:00
Speaker 1: them smash that one button, because that's us. It's very authentic.
32:06
Speaker 2: Right now. If I can share some numbers with you,
32:09
Speaker 2: because this is how much we appreciate you. We have
32:12
Speaker 2: eleven thousand listeners on Spotify, and then we have two
32:15
Speaker 2: thousand followers on Spotify, which I think is super fucking cool.
32:20
Speaker 2: Still our humble beginning. So I guess maybe we're turning
32:24
Speaker 2: the end of this episode into a reflection and a
32:26
Speaker 2: thank you, especially as we head into the new year.
32:29
Speaker 2: But yeah, thanks everyone.
32:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, my friend play us out.
32:34
Speaker 2: Let's wrap it. Thank you all for listening. We hope
32:36
Speaker 2: you appreciate it, our ramblings and our thoughts. It's an
32:40
Speaker 2: interesting thing that we might have to revisit at some point,
32:43
Speaker 2: whether it's twenty twenty five or the nearest future. But
32:46
Speaker 2: you know the deal. On Spotify, Apple Podcasts, wherever you
32:49
Speaker 2: get your podcasts, feel free to like, subscribe, share, leave
32:52
Speaker 2: a comment, leave us a five star review, whatever it is.
32:55
Speaker 2: Follow us on Instagram. TikTok. We don't really use the Twitter.
32:58
Speaker 2: Fuck that place YouTube at Millennial MHCN. Check out our
33:02
Speaker 2: website www dot millennialmhc dot com. Thank you all, Happy
33:08
Speaker 2: rest of twenty twenty four, Happy New Year. We'll see
33:10
Speaker 2: you once we get back. We're gonna take a few
33:12
Speaker 2: weeks off, but we'll be back right when twenty twenty
33:14
Speaker 2: five hits. We appreciate you all and remember take care
33:18
Speaker 2: of all mentors.