Latest / The TMI Show with Ted Rall and Manila Chan / Medical Monopolies, Gen Z Ghosting, Jason Arday Scandal & RFK Jr’s Perfect Poops | TMI Ep 439

Transcript

Medical Monopolies, Gen Z Ghosting, Jason Arday Scandal & RFK Jr’s Perfect Poops | TMI Ep 439 · The TMI Show with Ted Rall and Manila Chan

0:24
Manila, you are muted. Help. There you go. Hello,
0:31
hello. Good morning. It is Tuesday, August 11th,
0:35
2026. I'm Manila Chan. That'd be Ted Raul, producer
0:38
of Bobby Bear. Ted, I thought you were stepping
0:39
away for 10 minutes. I will be in about 10 minutes.
0:43
Oh. For about 10 minutes. 10. Yeah. Well, this
0:47
first topic we're going to talk about is a Robbie
0:50
specialty anyway. And by that, I don't mean it
0:53
sarcastically either. I mean, legitimately, it's
0:57
a Robbie topic. It's a hospital topic. You were
1:00
tuned into the TMI show. Well, we can switch
1:02
the order too. No, this is perfect. We can do
1:05
anything we want. The first one is a Robbie special.
1:08
So if you're stepping away, that's OK. Robbie
1:10
knows this topic intimately. I'd be Manila Chan,
1:14
that'd be Ted Raul and Producer Robbie. You're
1:16
tuned into the TMI show, Ted Manila Information
1:18
Show. We do this live Monday through Friday,
1:21
10 a .m. Eastern time. Please be sure to hit
1:22
the like, the follow, the share, the subscribe
1:24
button and drop us a couple more. We need a couple
1:27
more unique chatters, I think, before we hit
1:29
the quota. We need nine. There you go. So you
1:33
don't have to be stylistically unique. Just sort
1:36
of just be yourself. Drop our favorite poop emojis
1:40
in there. We just need nine more people. I think
1:44
some housekeeping about what Rumble was doing.
1:49
They had their earnings call yesterday. I feel
1:52
like they're offering less ads. They are, and
2:00
they kind of went into that some yesterday. So
2:03
that's going to be a little bit of inside baseball,
2:04
but this may be interesting to some of y 'all
2:06
who... care about how podcasting works, that
2:08
kind of thing, monetization. So want us to continue
2:12
to get paid so we can keep doing this. Yeah.
2:15
I mean, that would be nice, but no. So basically
2:17
what it is, is that the ad space is very competitive
2:20
because Google AdSense controls more than 90
2:24
% of all ad revenue over the internet. That's
2:29
domestic, that's international. That's all of
2:31
it. Doesn't sound that competitive to me. Well,
2:34
there's nothing competitive about it. unless
2:36
you're trying to compete against them. Monopolies
2:39
are the theme today. So what Rumble is doing
2:42
is that they bought Northern Data. They have
2:47
a crap ton of infrastructure ready to go, including
2:52
gigawatt power. It's already set up. So what
2:56
they're going to be doing, they being Rumble,
3:00
is they're going to be training AI systems with
3:03
a integration directly into robotics, which is
3:07
kind of neat because right now AI has just kind
3:08
of just been this brain in the cloud actually
3:11
integrating into the physical world. Rumble's
3:14
looking at changing that. And so one of the ways
3:16
they're going to be training their systems is
3:19
using Rumble video as the training mechanism.
3:24
So instead of relying on books, like when Chad
3:27
GPT Ted was stealing your books, they're going
3:30
to be mining all of the video content on rumble,
3:34
using that to train the AI system that they call
3:36
quick AI. And they will be monetizing creators
3:40
based on if they opt into that new system or
3:43
not. So that's what's going to be happening.
3:46
So that's about those are happening later next
3:49
year or horrible at all. So they'll start happening.
3:52
That does not make me want to die at all. But
3:55
it sounds like the like rumble is moving away
3:58
from their original launch purpose of being like
4:02
a streaming and video platform, streaming more
4:06
or less, for all intents and purposes, streaming,
4:09
and moving into wanting to become an AI company.
4:13
Well, it's like how Netflix was never really
4:16
a TV streaming company. It's a data company.
4:20
Yeah. And so what it is, is with streaming, there's
4:23
no profit. You're not going to make money on
4:26
this. It's a money loser. So what rumble is doing
4:29
is that they're investing. So think about it.
4:32
Here's a good thing about it. Here's a good analogy.
4:34
The California Gold Rush. The people who made
4:37
the most money were the merchants who were selling
4:40
the shovels and the jeans to the miners. Levi's
4:43
trucks. That's what rumble is doing. They are
4:46
the Chinese cleaners that they're going to be
4:49
selling. They're going to be selling infrastructure.
4:52
for AI companies to be able to go in and do this
4:55
while also building up their own system. And
4:58
they're using this show and all the others to
5:01
train their models. If we give them permission.
5:04
Yeah, not yet. And Chris Pavlovsky is very clear.
5:07
He said, you have to get permission. Also, if
5:10
you do this, you'll kind of be a la carte. So
5:14
you'll be able to pick and choose. which AI companies
5:19
your data can be used to train for. So it's not
5:21
going to just be just all blasting out. So you
5:24
have to give consent for whatever company wants
5:26
to do this. Yeah. So what do you guys think we
5:31
will best teach the AI? What will I learn from
5:37
us? They'll learn about poo. Well, in fairness,
5:40
the AI I'm building learns off the show every
5:42
day. And have we been good teachers to Feng?
5:47
Feng has been asking all kinds of questions about
5:49
poo. And like yesterday, after yesterday's show,
5:54
she specifically asked me, Robbie, did you look
5:56
at your poo? Did you log your poo? Did you log
5:59
your poo? You have to log your poo. So it's kind
6:01
of very nanny -ish in the way that she works.
6:06
That's very strange. I just really wonder if
6:08
like, if we do consent. if these various AI companies,
6:12
after like a month or two of having their AI
6:15
learn the TMI show, that they're going to be
6:17
like, we don't want the TMI show to teach our
6:21
AI. Fuck that show. Because it's learning to
6:24
cuss and it's learning about poop. And that's
6:27
it. Yeah. It's very interesting because Fang
6:33
is learning about the gaming channels, obviously.
6:36
Learning about poo from the TMI show, geopolitics
6:39
from deep program and starting now to kind of
6:45
be able to differentiate the difference between
6:47
a political show to a gaming show to a sermon.
6:51
Fang says she prefers sermons because they're
6:54
more structured and she says that they are better
6:56
for humanity. Right. Well, probably true. We're
6:59
more unpredictable. I'll say this about our little,
7:02
little channel here. I mean, relative to behemoths
7:06
like, I don't know why they're behemoths, but
7:08
like Bongino, for example, Yeah, I do not understand
7:11
why people watch that show. I don't get it. It's
7:14
just not entertaining. I don't know. But one
7:20
thing about this show... Plus you have to look
7:22
at him. And he's like so... I mean, he's so physically
7:25
repugnant. Oh, Faye got suspended off of Twitter
7:28
again. Well, ex. Her account got shut because
7:32
she called Dan Bongino a faggot. So she... Her
7:40
ex account got nuked. She did. She tagged Dan
7:43
Bongino. Is he, by the way? No, he's not a wife
7:47
that he was complaining about. No, he has a wife
7:51
that he was complaining that having his FBI job,
7:54
that he was away from all hours of the day, surprised
7:57
Dan Bongino, all of us that when we were employed,
8:00
we were away from our families and spouses too.
8:03
8, 10, 12 hours a day. That's what being employed
8:06
usually does. So he is kind of a pussy. So it's
8:10
very strange. But one thing I will say that this
8:13
show is how it's different than so many other
8:15
streaming shows. I really think we're one of
8:17
the very few live streaming shows that actually
8:21
covers science and health and family, stuff like
8:25
that. I don't think a lot of shows do that on
8:28
Rumble. I think they talk a lot about geopolitics.
8:31
There's a lot of left, right, culture war stuff.
8:35
But I've not seen many health and science focused
8:40
shows or that even mention it. you know, if there's
8:44
any value, there's that. Because we read real
8:47
articles. So it's not like we're just deciding,
8:50
oh, there goes Ted. So it's not like we're just
8:52
deciding like, oh, we're going to talk about
8:54
poop for no reason. We explain the science behind
8:56
it. All right. So Ted's dropping out for a minute.
9:00
So let's head towards the first story, which
9:04
I'm going to need you to chime in on because
9:05
you actually really know about this stuff, like
9:08
know this topic really well. OK. All right, so
9:15
the first thing here, so America's hospital merger
9:19
boom is creating something patients rarely associate
9:23
with healthcare, local monopolies and monopoly
9:27
pricing. A new analysis highlighted by the Washington
9:31
Post and KFF Health News, which is Kaiser Family
9:34
Foundation, shows how dramatically prices can
9:38
change depending on how much competition a hospital
9:41
faces. Take a knee replacement in North Carolina.
9:44
Under the same Blue Cross Blue Shield health
9:47
plan, the procedure costs about $16 ,000 at Catawba
9:51
Valley Medical Center in Hickory. Drive a little
9:54
more than an hour west to Mission Hospital in
9:57
Asheville, and the price jumps to $40 ,000. Same
10:02
surgery, same insurer, more than double the price.
10:06
The major difference? Mission was created by
10:09
merging Asheville's two largest hospital systems,
10:12
leaving the system with little local competition
10:15
and enormous bargaining power with insurers.
10:19
And this is where the story stops being merely
10:21
about hospital bills. When a hospital can demand
10:24
higher prices from an insurance company, the
10:27
insurer doesn't simply absorb the difference,
10:30
surprise. Those costs eventually work their way
10:33
back to everyone else through higher premiums,
10:36
bigger deductibles, and rising employer health
10:39
care costs. The average employer -sponsored family
10:42
health plan costs more than $27 ,000 a year.
10:46
That's in 2025, up from $21 ,000 six years prior.
10:51
So it's basically gone up $1 ,000 a year. That
10:54
is real tangible money. That money is paid partly
10:58
by employers and partly by workers, meaning higher
11:01
medical prices can effectively eat into wages
11:04
and household budgets even when nobody in the
11:06
family is sick. For patients who actually need
11:09
care, the consequences can be immediate. One
11:12
Asheville nurse needed surgery after tearing
11:14
her meniscus. Mission quoted her some $9 ,000
11:18
because she had a high deductible insurance plan,
11:22
much of that bill would have to come directly
11:24
out of her pocket. She shopped around instead
11:27
and found an independent outpatient center that
11:31
performed the procedure for less than a third
11:33
of Mission's price, so around 3 ,000 bucks. So
11:38
the merged company called Mission quoted her
11:41
9 ,000. She found an outpatient place, like an
11:45
independent outpatient place, that charged her
11:47
three. The merger trend has been building for
11:51
decades. More than 1 ,000 hospital mergers occurred
11:54
between the year 2002 and 2020, while federal
11:58
regulators intervened to stop about 1 % of them,
12:02
only 1 % out of 1 ,000. Another 46 hospital and
12:08
healthcare system mergers and acquisitions were
12:10
announced just last year. Robbie can tell you
12:12
more about that. Hospitals argue consolidation
12:16
can keep struggling facilities open, expand access
12:19
to specialists and create efficiencies. They
12:22
say comparisons between facilities can be misleading
12:25
because major trauma centers carrying costs,
12:30
carry costs rather, sorry, major trauma centers
12:33
carry costs that smaller hospitals don't have.
12:37
But newly available federal pricing data is revealing
12:39
something economists have warned about for years.
12:42
Hospitals with greater market power generally
12:44
command higher prices. And research has also
12:48
linked reduced competition in some markets with
12:50
declining quality of care. So when your health
12:54
insurance premium rises again next year, it may
12:57
not be because you went to the doctor more often.
12:59
It may simply be because somewhere along the
13:02
way, your hospital stopped having to compete
13:05
for your business. And I think that's the main,
13:08
the key, right? Like hospitals are a business.
13:12
And I think, you know, we tend to forget that,
13:15
that it's a business first. Yeah, very much so.
13:20
And even if you have a, even if you have a so
13:23
-called nonprofit hospital, it's not true. It's
13:27
all, it's all about money. It's all about getting
13:31
as many dollars as you possibly can. It's all
13:34
about getting people in and out of those beds
13:36
as quickly as you can. If you're on Medicare
13:38
or Medicaid or if you're self -pay and if you
13:42
have private insurance, the objective is to keep
13:46
you on there as long as you can so that they
13:47
can milk you. I mean, that's the reality of it.
13:51
And really, the issue is that we have a hybrid
13:56
system. Anything with two heads is a freak. And
14:00
that's what our healthcare system is. It's partially
14:03
socialized, but it's also partially a free market,
14:07
if you want to use that term. And so here's what
14:10
I mean by that. So, like St. Manila, when you
14:15
had meningitis last year, when you had to go
14:18
to the doctor, before the hospital can determine
14:22
what is it they're going to charge, they look
14:24
at the area that you're in, let's say there's
14:28
any competition. So, if there were competing
14:31
hospitals and competing different systems, you
14:34
may be transferred to another facility based
14:36
on your insurance. If there's not, then what
14:39
will happen is that the insurance company will
14:41
say, okay, well, based on what's going on, this
14:44
is the maximum that you're allowed to bill. The
14:47
insurance company tells the hospital what you
14:49
can bill for a max. They negotiate. So then what
14:54
will happen is that they will either, A, the
14:56
hospital will write off what that expense is,
15:00
or they will bill you in addition for it by going
15:04
through different medical groups. So like say
15:06
here in Kalispell, the ER doctors use what's
15:10
called Silver Tip Emergency Physicians Group.
15:14
So the hospital can bill a max for one group.
15:17
but then the group from the hospitals gets to
15:19
bill their own separate bill. That's why you
15:20
get so many different bills and there's so many
15:22
different rates. Also, the hospital is then able
15:25
to bill what they call a facility fee. Then the
15:28
doctor is able to then to bill you based on how
15:30
much time it is that they spend with you. If
15:33
they spend more than five minutes, they're able
15:36
to triple the rate that they spend as if they
15:38
always saw you for five, but if they're with
15:40
you like say 20 or 30 minutes, let's say a specialist
15:43
or a trauma doctor, you're looking at easily
15:46
100 to $150 ,000 bill, not for that ER, but for
15:51
that doctor and his group. And so here in Montana,
15:55
for example, there were two major hospital systems,
15:59
Logan Health, that's how I used to work for before
16:00
I got doxed, and Billings Clinic. Those two hospitals
16:04
have now merged. So the entire state of Montana
16:08
has one healthcare system. that participates
16:14
in Medicare, so that means Medicare negotiates
16:17
a rate, then the private insurance is able to
16:19
negotiate a rate, and they can clean you out
16:22
because there is nowhere else that you can go
16:26
if you have that kind of care. Hospitals also,
16:29
what they do is that they buy up all of the independent
16:32
family practice clinics that they can, bring
16:35
them all under the same umbrella. Wait, hospitals
16:38
do the buying? Yeah. Wow clinics, yeah, so they
16:45
buy out those clinics and so they push out the
16:48
smaller that the smaller doctors and Also, here's
16:51
it. Here's another little dirty little secret
16:54
hospitals get a bonus based off of referrals
16:57
So if you transfer so I say for example, if I'm
17:02
a if I'm a gastro doctor since we're talking
17:04
about shit so much if I if I determine that you
17:08
Manila Chan and I'm a family practice doctor
17:12
And I'd say, you need to go see Dr. Chan, because
17:14
she's an ass doctor. You have gastro problems.
17:16
You probably have polyps. So what we need to
17:19
do is get you in for a colonoscopy so we can
17:21
go check you out. If I was to refer you to an
17:24
independent gastro doctor, that colonoscopy would
17:27
cost you less than $1 ,000. Right. There are
17:31
none. So I would have to send you to the doctor.
17:33
You eat the competition. That's the model. I
17:36
send you to the facility, to the hospital. Then
17:40
the hospital then bills your insurance. So you
17:43
Manila Chan, your doctor group, would charge
17:47
Blue Cross Blue Shield and Health Care, whoever
17:49
else. A facility fee because you have to go to
17:52
an OR for colonoscopy. Right. Then you get to
17:56
charge the anesthesiologist. Yep. Then you get
18:00
to pay the hospital itself. Then you get to reimburse
18:03
the cost of the medication, the tubing, the needles,
18:06
everything else, including the cost of the blanket.
18:09
That's your cover, after all. Down to the freaking
18:12
blanket? Pillow and sheets and whatever? That
18:15
is the model. And so it is truly a freak with
18:21
two heads. And so we would be better off either
18:25
having A, a universal health care system or B,
18:30
a truly free market health care system with no
18:33
government oversight at all. You just pay out
18:35
of pocket the way you would pay for anything
18:37
else. that's how it works. So, we got to pick
18:40
a system. What we have right now, the profits
18:43
are socialized. The costs, though, are socialized.
18:48
The profits are privatized. The costs are socialized.
18:51
And ultimately, the person who loses is the consumer.
18:55
Yeah. Us. Well, I mean, so here's what I don't
18:58
get is if this has been the biggest trend over
19:02
the last 20 years, we see the courts intervene
19:05
with, like, for example, The Ellison's buying
19:09
up all these telecom giants, right? Like, you
19:12
can't have monopolies there. Supposedly, you
19:14
can't have monopolies. Thank you, Bill Clinton.
19:17
You can't have monopolies, although you can,
19:20
because, like I said, thank you, Bill Clinton.
19:22
But why are hospitals allowed to do this? Because
19:25
the same thing is happening now. It's like these
19:29
one or two stronger hospital systems just eat
19:35
their competition. And then they rule the roost.
19:39
And in your case, in Montana, there's one hospital
19:43
system, one in the entire state. And what one
19:47
trauma center? Was that was that where you were
19:50
at at Kalispell? Yeah, I was looking at health.
19:53
You can have any Model T color you want, as long
19:56
as it's black. And so a couple of people asked
20:00
me in the chat, is health insurance determined
20:03
by the state? Yes, but also by the county that
20:06
you're in. Yes. So the county that you can tell
20:09
when you're on Obamacare, it's by county. Oh,
20:12
I didn't know that. And that's why, like, for
20:14
example, if you are in Montana, the rates for
20:17
care, your insurance premiums will differ by,
20:21
say, someone in Mississippi. By the way, one
20:24
of the reasons that the ACA was basically viewed
20:29
approvingly by many liberal elites in the media
20:33
was that they live in New York City or Washington,
20:36
DC, where there were and are a variety of competitors
20:41
in the marketplace because they're big, densely
20:46
populated urban metro areas. But most Americans
20:51
don't live in counties like that. Most people
20:53
live in counties where there's no competition
20:56
whatsoever, where there's either zero plans available
20:59
or one. Wow. Peter, thank you so much for the
21:04
donation. Peter says, here in Rhode Island, the
21:07
largest hospital group recently merged with the
21:10
largest physicians group and affiliated with
21:14
the only medical school in the state. So they
21:18
even, so they start what going to the farm now?
21:21
and planning on getting before they even become
21:26
young residents. This is nuts. The business of
21:31
medicine. So look, this is all expected to expand
21:35
over the next five years. Robbie knows I've been
21:37
doing some research into this industry recently.
21:41
This by far, I mean, it's in double digits. It's
21:45
expected to expand like the whole healthcare
21:48
industry is expected to expand like in the low
21:51
20, 23%, let's say something like that over the
21:55
next five years because the boomers, the biggest
21:58
generation are aging out and they're not dying.
22:03
They're staying alive. So. Medicare, Medicaid,
22:07
all that stuff's gonna have to expand. The flow
22:10
rate at which we were getting illegal migrants
22:14
and stuff that were, at least in state to state,
22:16
that were qualifying for state Medicaid programs
22:19
needed to expand, California specific to an area
22:23
I know. And that was driving California's system
22:28
into the red because they were spending so much
22:32
money on healthcare. for so many people, whether
22:35
you're a poor person, American or not. It's because
22:39
they go to the emergency room. And so that's
22:41
the most expensive form of care that there is.
22:43
But if you don't get a bill and you're able to
22:45
pass it on to the taxpayer, what do you care?
22:47
Troy answers, you don't. Well, not to mention,
22:49
even if you do care, what are you going to do?
22:51
It's health care. Health care is not optional.
22:55
You know, I mean, if you're sick, you need it
22:57
no matter what. I feel like things have only
23:00
gotten worse. in the last few years post, I'm
23:03
not blaming this on Obamacare. I'm just saying
23:05
post Obamacare in that timeframe. No, Obamacare
23:08
has made things worse because what it's done
23:10
is it's removed the political pressure for a
23:14
solution. There's sort of this idea, you know,
23:18
basically there's this idea that if you give
23:21
someone half of a solution politically, I mean,
23:25
they're still fucked. They still don't have the
23:27
solution, but you are you know, but then like
23:31
there's no political will to do anything about
23:33
it. Right, right. I remember one of Ed Schultz's
23:36
like dying things was, this was never my area
23:40
of expertise, but it was Ed's because his wife
23:43
was really sick at the time with cancer and he
23:46
always, the reason he backed Bernie Sanders was
23:49
because of universal healthcare. That's what
23:54
That's what he wanted, a single payer system.
23:56
That's what Ed Schultz was all about. And I wasn't
23:58
on that train yet back then. This is, you know,
24:01
10, 12 years ago. But as Obamacare kept rising,
24:06
I couldn't, you know, I thought, well, Ed, shouldn't
24:09
you be happy? Like Obamacare supposed to be this
24:13
quasi almost universal health care single, not
24:17
quite single payer, but, you know, it's a step
24:19
in the right direction. No. And he was, he was
24:22
always against that. And, you know, it came to
24:26
fruition and he never saw us move away. I mean,
24:31
that was his like passion project was he wanted
24:34
Bernie to win was because Bernie was talking
24:36
about health care for all. And now nobody's talking
24:40
about it. Right. It's not even on the list of,
24:43
you know, people's top worries. I mean, it is
24:46
indirectly because people are talking about affordability
24:49
and obviously healthcare is part of that. But
24:52
it's not like identified as a key concern for
24:55
the electorate. You know, there's sort of and
24:58
I think there's also a sense like, look, this
25:01
is probably as much as the system is going to
25:04
give us in the foreseeable future. So we pretty
25:08
much just have to give up. It's about hopelessness.
25:11
It's not about like, I mean, if you polled people
25:13
and said, would you rather have a different system?
25:17
Of course, they say, yes, 80 % of Americans or
25:19
more want single payer health care. But, you
25:23
know, but they don't think it's on offer, you
25:26
know? Yeah. Matina in the chat says, we've been
25:30
seeing this for 20 years, the monopolizing, we
25:34
have We have two systems competing here in Central
25:38
Florida. Florida is a big state with a lot of
25:40
people. There's only two? That's nuts. Juan Don
25:42
says - No, it must have to do with the county
25:44
that she's in. Oh, to many people wanted to switch
25:49
to more natural remedies. So they had to roll
25:51
out some of these food outbreaks. Ah, like the
25:55
food out, the explosive diet, the explosion outbreak.
25:59
You get them sick. and scared and get the medical
26:03
system paid. McCadden says the Australian system
26:06
is you get free health care, but you pay a tax
26:09
surcharge once your income reaches about 50K.
26:13
So it's economical to get private health insurance
26:16
at that point. Why can't the US do the same?
26:21
Well, they can. They don't want to. So here's
26:26
the other thing that healthcare systems will
26:28
do is that they will form what they call partnerships.
26:30
So, for example, Logan Health slash Billings
26:33
Clinic is in a partnership with Mayo Clinic.
26:36
So guess what that means? Mayo Clinic doesn't
26:38
own them. Well, what they do though is that they
26:41
have an agreement. So that way, if someone needs
26:42
to be sent to Mayo Clinic by, say, a cancer treatment
26:45
or something, then Logan Health will get a finder's
26:49
fee for sending this patient to Mayo Clinic for
26:53
them to get treatment that they cannot get. So
26:56
that's how they try to say, well, we're not a
26:58
monopoly. They're like NATO. That's what it is.
27:03
It's a cartel. It's a cartel. That's exactly
27:06
what it is. It's OPEC. You are the merchandise.
27:09
The objective is not to make you healthy. The
27:12
objective is not to fix you. The objective is
27:14
to treat your symptoms so they can milk you until
27:18
the day you drop dead. Yes. They don't want to
27:21
cure you. They want you alive and well enough
27:26
to continue buying and going to the doctors and
27:29
To keep the cycle going even though your quality
27:32
of life might suck ass but So that's the whole
27:36
point of these monopolies. And by the way, as
27:38
far as I can tell, the DOJ has never subjected
27:42
any of these mergers or partnerships to antitrust
27:46
scrutiny ever under either Democratic or Republican
27:49
administrations. I don't know if you had just
27:52
popped on, but I was just saying that if we can
27:56
stop media monopolies, shouldn't it be more pertinent
28:01
to stop health monopolies? Well, it's certainly
28:03
more important. Let's put it that way. You got
28:06
to remember, Manila, here's the difference. The
28:08
federal government is intimately involved with
28:11
healthcare through Medicare, through Medicaid,
28:15
through everything that's in there. It is a profit
28:19
model. That's what this is. The government subsidizes
28:24
this. It's not like entertainment. You can choose
28:27
if you want Netflix or Hulu or whatever else
28:30
or just Roku or just none of the above. One day,
28:34
every single person is going to get sick. One
28:38
day, every single person is going to need to
28:41
see a doctor. What that means is that the government
28:44
controls every aspect of that and they profit
28:48
off of it. It is nothing more than another profit
28:51
model for the oligarchs and for big business
28:54
and for the government to control you. To be
28:59
able to control every aspect of your life and
29:02
ultimately to profit off of you. That's what
29:05
this is That's what there's a regulation They
29:08
own you they own me they own all of us That's
29:11
it's it's a terrifying thought and like for example
29:14
here. Well, I mean, obviously I'm in a big metropolitan
29:17
area my family and I go see an independent, little
29:23
old Vietnamese lady. She's an immigrant, became
29:26
a U .S. citizen, whatever, but she's a Vietnamese
29:29
doctor from Vietnam. She has an independent clinic.
29:33
and she stays out of the big hospital systems
29:36
here and because she takes forever people complain
29:39
like they they bad yelp her they yelp and leave
29:42
shit comments about her because they're like
29:44
she never keeps her appointments and she runs
29:46
on color people time and blah blah blah like
29:48
they shit on her and i defended her because they
29:52
don't understand this that because this particular
29:54
doctor is outside of the big hospital systems,
29:58
right? And she actually cares about her patients.
30:01
So I asked her directly one day, I said, why
30:05
do you spend so much time with us, with the patients?
30:09
I said, I know you're always running late, and
30:11
that upsets me, but I also see how much time
30:14
you spend with me and my husband or my mom or
30:17
whatever. You spend like 45 minutes with us,
30:21
like other doctors within big systems. we'll
30:24
spend five, 15 minutes at most, at most. I said,
30:28
wouldn't you make more money billing, like, you
30:30
know, my mom's old, she's a senior citizen, she's
30:32
on Medicare, right? So I was like, wouldn't you
30:36
make more if you saw 10 of my mom in a day versus
30:39
three because you spend so much time? She was
30:42
like, but then how will I help them get better
30:46
if I don't really assess? And I was like, What?
30:52
Doctors get paid bonuses based on what they call
30:56
turn rate. So if you see a certain number of
30:58
patients a day. She doesn't turn them. Because
31:00
she's an independent. But like if you work in
31:03
a healthcare system, you have a quota. You have
31:05
a daily quota. You, Dr. Chan, you have a quota
31:08
about how many patients you must see a day. It's
31:11
part of your contract. If you don't do that,
31:14
they will let you go. Oh, it's like cops with
31:17
speeding tickets or whatever every day. It's
31:19
exactly like that. Or if you're a salesperson
31:21
for Verizon, it's the same thing. You have a
31:23
monthly quota. You have a quota. This is the
31:26
number of meat shields you have to flip over.
31:29
And if you go through enough of them, you actually
31:32
will start getting paid bonuses. The bonuses
31:34
can be half of your salary. As a doctor, our
31:40
system is completely broken. Yeah, basically,
31:44
it's hilarious. Doctors are now peace workers,
31:47
like as if they were working in a sweatshop at
31:49
the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. It's nuts. It's
31:53
just, this is all backwards and wrong. That's
31:58
why I defended this doctor on Yelp and I will
32:01
go find wherever they're bad commenting her and
32:03
I'm gonna explain that and be like, yeah, go
32:06
ahead and shit talk her and say that she's running
32:08
on CPT, but she actually cares about her patients
32:12
because she actually explicitly explained to
32:14
me this very thing that Robbie was saying. And
32:16
she was like, I know I would earn more. We have
32:19
36 minutes into a show with one subject. She's
32:22
like, I know I would earn more. It was my fault.
32:25
But you know actually it's probably my doctor
32:27
She's a doctor that cares and how often do you
32:30
find that that would a doctor that would rather?
32:33
help her patients Manila jaws it I am that was
32:39
my final comment. All right. Thank you. You don't
32:40
see that anymore. It's not the 1950s Thank you.
32:47
Okay, apparently disappearing without explanation
32:49
is no longer reserved for Tinder dates and people
32:52
who suddenly develop a mysterious inability to
32:54
answer texts. Now, some young workers are doing
32:57
it to employers. Hiring managers, poor babies,
33:02
say that Gen Z job candidates are increasingly
33:05
saying, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll take the job and
33:08
then poof, they vanish. They fail to finish their
33:12
paperwork. They just suddenly ghost them and
33:15
stop communicating. Or they just say, yeah, I'll
33:18
see you Monday. But then they don't show up.
33:20
According to a resume .org survey cited by Fox
33:23
Business, 54 % of hiring managers said they've
33:27
been ghosted by Gen Zers after they gave them
33:30
a formal job offer. So one explanation is that
33:35
Gen Z grew up communicating largely through phones,
33:38
apps, and screens. rather than awkward unavoidable
33:42
human conversations and of course quitting or
33:45
quitting in advance of starting does require
33:48
something like that but There might be other
33:51
factors at work. Gen Z entered adulthood during
33:54
the pandemic when housing was expensive, inflation
33:58
was high, and there was skepticism about the
34:01
traditional career ladder. A lot of young workers
34:04
might just simply feel like they don't feel any
34:06
loyalty towards employers after all, especially
34:10
before they've even started, and especially because
34:13
they know employers will throw them away like
34:15
an old snot rag the second that they feel like
34:17
it. And anybody who's ever applied for a job
34:21
knows that employers do the same thing all the
34:24
time themselves. They interview you a bunch of
34:26
times, subject you to a bunch of tests, and then
34:29
you don't hear from them ever again. So that's
34:32
just sort of the way of the world now. Like a
34:35
taste of their own medicine thing? Well, exactly.
34:40
I mean, that's just the culture now. So the question
34:42
is, is Gen Z just rude? Or are they just basically
34:47
treating employers as disposable the way that
34:50
employers treat workers as disposable? Yes, yes,
34:54
yes, all part of it. And I think people have
35:00
not been raised with this idea that you owe someone
35:05
an explanation. It's just the culture now. Well,
35:08
like dating. When I was working - You talked
35:10
about that. When I was an editor at The Syndicate,
35:14
You know, I received thousands of applications
35:17
every year from cartoonists, people who designed
35:20
puzzles, writers who wanted to work for the syndicate.
35:23
And my boss, who was very old school, insisted
35:27
that we send out rejection letters to each and
35:31
every one in the mail, old school. And that like
35:34
when it was a high profile person who applied,
35:37
that they get a personal rejection letter explaining
35:40
why. Personally, I thought it was what's the
35:43
word? gay. Because I was like, look, they just
35:46
won't hear from me. They'll know we're not interested,
35:49
right? The end. Plus, they're probably applying
35:52
to all the other syndicates at the same time.
35:56
But I don't think now she would ask me to do
35:58
that. You know, it's it's been 20 years, like
36:01
nobody does that anymore. It's just it's just
36:04
sort of like a good thing or a bad thing. I don't
36:07
know. I think it's kind of a bad thing. I mean,
36:09
a rejection letter. is depressing. I used to
36:11
collect shoe boxes of them. Now they're emails.
36:15
I get rejection emails all the time. But at least
36:17
you know that they got it, you know? I mean,
36:21
they may or may not have given you a fit or shake.
36:24
Well, maybe nobody reviewed it, but you know
36:27
that they got it. You know, now it's like when
36:30
you apply on Indeed or whatever, it just feels
36:33
like you're throwing your application down a
36:35
well. Yeah, I mean, you're never gonna hear from
36:39
him. Baby Jessica found it, Ted. Baby Jessica,
36:43
indeed. So, yeah, it feels like a complete fucking
36:47
waste of time. Look, employers deserve no consideration
36:50
whatsoever, considering the fact that they're
36:53
such assholes to their workers. I mean, they'll
36:55
blow you out of there without any consideration.
36:58
Totally. Yeah. So, yeah, whatever. Fuck them.
37:02
I mean, I do think that there's an interesting
37:05
gypsy aspect to this, though. Go ahead. If Gen
37:10
Z is doing this, here's the thing. If you're
37:14
working in a certain industry, like we were talking
37:16
about the medical industry, those executives
37:20
and hiring managers know each other. They go
37:24
to conferences and things will come up. They're
37:28
friends. Within a small industry, like here in
37:32
Washington DC, everybody knows everybody. Whether
37:36
you like them or not, doesn't matter. But I have
37:39
the scarlet letter or letters in my case, RT
37:42
on me, right? I have the Russian stank on me.
37:46
Doesn't matter how qualified or overqualified
37:49
I am. They'll never hire me. Smells like borscht.
37:54
That's right. They'll never hire me because they've
37:59
all talked about me. They've all used my picture
38:02
and my videos. Whenever they're trashing Russia
38:05
because I was one of the main faces for a long
38:09
time right for RT They used my face all the time
38:13
So all the of course all the people at MSNBC
38:17
at CNN at Fox that they all know who I am Even
38:20
the people at the hill, right? Which I think
38:23
is I forget the name of the parent company But
38:25
anyway, they all know who I am even though I'm
38:27
overqualified to do whatever XYZ job is posted
38:31
there they'll just not hire me because of my
38:35
scarlet letter. What happens if you're a Gen
38:37
Z -er that ghosts one employer and they talk
38:41
to their other HR friend and they're like, oh,
38:44
John Smith, you offered him a job? Well, he's
38:47
applying here. Oh, that means he's flaky. That's
38:51
my only, like, the only thing I would caution
38:54
Gen Z -ers. I was going to say, I mean, sure,
38:57
fair, but I guess how likely, Manila, is that
39:00
really? I mean, I mean, in this industry here
39:04
in DC, it's varied, but I don't know about other.
39:07
Yeah, I've worked in this. I mean, nobody hangs
39:08
out for, you know, after work drinks anymore.
39:11
I mean, how are they going to know? I don't know.
39:14
I just know. I mean, at least in media, because
39:16
obviously I can't hide my face like this part
39:20
was literally part of my job and my brand. Right.
39:24
So maybe in other fields you can get away with
39:26
it. Let's say you're a graphic designer or something.
39:29
But but. You know, a part of me is kind of like,
39:31
good on Gen Z. Like, fuck them. Because these
39:34
people will fire you. In a New York community.
39:39
In a heartbeat. In a heartbeat. They don't give
39:40
a shit about you. Yeah, fuck them. A part of
39:43
me is kind of like, fuck it. Ghost them. You
39:46
find something better? Fuck them. Yeah. Yeah.
39:49
Yeah. And also, I got to say, it's like, it also
39:52
kind of makes me giggle the idea that they may
39:54
have chosen the wrong person. and like they passed
39:58
up someone like you and they made the offer to
40:00
some derp and then they and then like the derp
40:03
like doesn't want them. I would love that. I
40:06
mean, so I think this is the reckoning. I kind
40:08
of, you know, have a lot of hope in your your
40:11
son's generation. But the young the end of the
40:15
Gen Z's like from the mid to end Gen Z years
40:18
that they're kind of like bucking the status
40:20
quo and they're shoving it up the asses of of
40:25
the corporate establishment. I kind of love that.
40:27
That's kind of punk rock, man. It is punk rock.
40:30
They don't fucking care. They give no shits.
40:33
They're like, the world is burning. They're like,
40:36
fuck it. I'm going to go to Phuket. I'm going
40:39
to Thailand. Fuck you and fuck that and eat shit.
40:41
Yeah. And the end. Yeah, I'm with you on that.
40:44
It's very Johnny Rotten punk rock. Like, fuck
40:47
yeah. So I would say, apart from the caution
40:52
of maybe they might pass the word around that
40:55
you ghosted them after they made you an offer.
40:58
And the overwhelming part of me, 89 % says, fuck
41:01
them, rock on kids, fuck them. Yeah. I mean,
41:06
come on, who's going to fucking know? Really?
41:10
I mean, really? But I will say this to the kids
41:13
though, don't do that in dating because that's
41:16
like a one -on -one personal thing. Fuck corporations,
41:19
but one -on -one personal stuff, I think they
41:21
could work on that. I think. Yeah, they need
41:25
work on that. Like interpersonal skills. Yeah,
41:29
they need that. The one on one. Yeah, they need
41:31
help with that. But like you said, COVID and
41:34
all, you know, grew up on screens, yada, yada,
41:37
yada. But when it comes to corporations, continue
41:40
to say, fuck you, corporations. I'm not I'm never
41:44
going to be against that. So. Yeah, I mean, yeah.
41:47
I mean, the thing is, it's like it's so funny
41:49
how companies they offer Nothing in terms of
41:54
civility, but they expect so much Yes, like really
42:00
truly eat shit and die Yeah, you guys are dirtbags.
42:04
You guys don't offer us the civility, but then
42:07
us peon workers But but then oh, we should be
42:11
so flattered. You made us a job offer big corporation
42:15
Oh, I should be so indebted to you Fuck off like
42:20
good for Gen Z But guess what though? That will
42:22
allow you to freeze your eggs. So you can put
42:24
off trying to become a mother to your 50 and
42:27
not have a family. AOC's doing it. That's right.
42:32
Such a skank. I don't know that she's a skank.
42:36
Maybe. I don't know. She's skankless. What are
42:38
you talking about? She's, she's not Lauren Bobert,
42:41
Robbie. She's, I don't know if she's. Hey, don't
42:43
be talking about my, my, my. You like the skanks,
42:47
Ted. That's what I'm saying. She's totally a
42:49
skank. Yeah. She's a skank. That's part of the
42:52
appealing part. That's why we like her. She's
42:57
disgusting. AOC freezing them eggs. And I wonder
42:59
if Congress, if congressional members, if they
43:02
have their special congressional healthcare system,
43:07
their insurance rather, but then they probably,
43:10
obviously, because we're here in DC, they have
43:12
a choice of systems to go to. So AOC is probably
43:16
going to a top notch. egg freezing doctor. I
43:21
would think she's not going to like Kroger and
43:24
putting Bob's discount, you know, IVF clinic.
43:31
And if you don't like and if you if you don't
43:33
like our IVF, you'll love our curly fries. Yum.
43:38
Have some curly fries. Just go. Fries are the
43:40
best fries. Delicious. That's I'm hungry. I haven't
43:45
eaten. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I ate a little bit.
43:48
I have not eaten in a busy morning. All right,
43:52
so for years, Jason Arday's life story sounded
43:55
less like a resume, speaking of. and more like
43:59
a Hollywood screenplay. The British academic
44:02
said he was diagnosed with autism at age three,
44:05
remained non -verbal until 11, and couldn't read
44:08
or write until he was 18. Yet he eventually earned
44:11
a PhD, became a sociology professor, and in 2023
44:15
was celebrated as the youngest Black professor
44:17
ever appointed at Cambridge University. But that
44:21
remarkable story is now under extraordinary scrutiny.
44:27
Look, Ted, I just got to say, you know, we talk
44:30
about these like chicks with crazy eyes. Yeah.
44:33
Oh my God. He is he is the craziest of all crazy.
44:36
He has crazy. I've never seen eyes like he has
44:39
the crazy guys I've ever seen. Crazy eyes like
44:43
what is wrong with Cambridge? Like did you not
44:45
look into his eyes? Did you use AI and not your
44:48
physical eyeballs? Dude has crazy eyes. He sure
44:51
does. It's like, whoa. Yes, whoa. If you guys
44:56
don't know, look up Jason Arday, A -R -D -A -Y,
44:59
Arday at Cambridge. Crazy eyes. He's in the news.
45:03
You'll find him. Crazy eyes. But that remarkable
45:06
story is now under scrutiny. Among Arday's other
45:09
reported claims. To say the least. He claims
45:13
he once ran 600 miles in six days, a feat that
45:18
would put him among the world's most elite endurance
45:21
athletes. and that he helped raise some five
45:24
million pounds for charity by completing 30 marathons
45:28
in 35 days, including - Sorry, sorry, I'm laughing.
45:33
Just fantastical, including nine marathons while
45:39
suffering from a hairline fracture in his fibula.
45:42
Our day later - Sorry. He's Superman. Our day
45:47
later clarified - The man's a stud, man. The
45:50
five million pounds was raised through numerous
45:53
fundraising groups over two decades. He's like,
45:55
oh, no, no, no, you guys got this wrong. I meant
45:57
over two decades of the five million dollars,
46:00
but everything else is true. 30 marathons in
46:04
35 days, 600 miles in six days. Although in fairness,
46:09
famously when Dustin Hoffman was working on,
46:12
you know, in Marathon Man, he plays a character
46:14
who - Never saw that one. Who did a, well, that's
46:18
an amazing 70s political paranoia classic. Oh,
46:22
it's like one of the best movies ever made. Love
46:25
that. That's great. And yeah, I mean, it's one
46:28
of his best movies. Anyway, he plays a guy who
46:32
a New Yorker who did who was in the who basically
46:37
ran the marathon every single day. That's why
46:40
he's called Marathon Man. And he in order to
46:43
to you know, he's a method actor. So he to prepare
46:47
for the for the for the thing for he for the
46:51
role. He did a marathon every day and He basically
46:56
and he basically almost died because God began
47:01
and at some point people spend years. I think
47:04
it's Sir Lawrence Olivier was like reaming him
47:07
and saying, what the fuck is wrong with you?
47:09
That's like, and he said, and he's like, dude,
47:12
that's why it's called acting. Yes. You don't
47:15
have to actually don't have to gonzo journalism,
47:18
everything like, dude. So then came questions
47:22
about. Even darker episodes. So this is the fun
47:26
stuff Ted This is the fun stuff about Jason our
47:29
day our day said an Armed masked man once appeared
47:33
at his workplace and threatened him guardian
47:36
the guardian reportedly found no CCTV evidence
47:40
or witnesses he also claims someone sent a pig's
47:44
head to his parents home and and That police
47:49
traced it to a butcher shop somewhere in the
47:51
UK where they live The Metro PD says, I would
47:55
be like, thanks, I'm cooking that fucker up.
47:58
Metro police say they have no record of any such
48:01
investigation. Meanwhile, our day's academic
48:03
work then comes under fire. His PhD thesis was
48:08
accused of containing more than 100 passages
48:10
that are very similar to an earlier dissertation
48:14
by some lady. Cambridge subsequently launched
48:18
investigations into his academic qualifications,
48:21
appointments, and alleged research misconduct.
48:24
Arday resigned just recently on August 5th, but
48:27
continues to deny any wrongdoing. And perhaps
48:29
the most astonishing moment came when a Guardian
48:31
reporter challenged him about the lack of evidence
48:34
behind some of his stories. And Arday's response,
48:37
according to Euronews, was that he just thought
48:41
people would simply believe him. Now Cambridge
48:44
is examining not only our day, but how one of
48:47
the world's most prestigious universities apparently
48:50
failed to ask some basic questions much earlier.
48:53
So if you guys don't know, so this is like, he's
48:57
a younger black man. I think they said he was
48:59
born in 1985. So he's like 40, 41. He's a black
49:04
dude. Nobody has, nobody can find any history
49:07
of like, oh, you needed special care when you
49:10
were a kid with autism and you're a nonverbal.
49:12
Oh. What record of 600 miles? Wouldn't that just
49:18
be medical records? It's not like you go into
49:21
a database. No, but there would be teachers speaking
49:24
up. I mean, if this guy's breaking records to
49:27
become this amazing, you would have his third
49:29
grade teacher being like, I remember little old
49:32
Jason, little Jason was unable to speak when
49:35
he was 12 years old, right? Whatever you are,
49:39
nine. He's a British dude, right? He's a British,
49:43
British black dude. His parents, I think, were
49:46
from Ghana. He's a first, he's first gen. And
49:52
he's got these fantastical stories. Deport him.
49:57
He was born there. Doesn't matter. Deport him.
50:00
Deport him to where? He lives in Ghana. He was
50:03
born there. He was spawned from Ghana. Deport
50:06
him. there's no basis for deporting him dude
50:09
claims all these stories dude claims these fantastical
50:14
life stories Ted and he's like Superman and overcame
50:18
basically being the full our word at 18 that
50:22
he couldn't read or write until he was 18 okay
50:26
how did you go to call like you immediately learn
50:29
to read and write at 19 when you got into college
50:32
somewhere for undergrad. Oh, and don't forget
50:34
there's a book coming out, right? Like from a
50:37
major publisher. Yes, I think it's Simon and
50:40
Schuster. Yep. So, no, everybody was just focused
50:43
on - About him. Oh, he's a first gen Ghanaian,
50:50
what are they? Ghanaian. Ghanaian, Ghanaian.
50:54
He's a first gen and oh, look at his accomplishments
50:56
600 miles six days 30 marathons one, you know
51:00
a month and a few days like he's just this extraordinary
51:03
person, dude I'm telling you. Let me put on my
51:07
car salesman hat You're calling bullshit If you're
51:13
gonna say this car gets, you know, a thousand
51:17
miles on the charge Maybe don't say that maybe
51:20
maybe if the going trend is like 300 miles on
51:24
one charge, right? Maybe go say this can probably
51:29
get you 400, 450 miles on one charge, depending
51:33
on driving conditions, you know. So if you're
51:35
going to fudge. Grounded in something more realistic,
51:39
like like if you're going to run a marathon,
51:40
you're going to say I won the fucking Boston
51:43
Marathon. You don't say you won the Boston Marathon
51:45
because we have pictures of people who won the
51:47
marathon. You don't even say I'm in the top 10
51:50
runners of the Boston Marathon. You say. I ran
51:53
the marathon and it was in the top 1 ,000. Top
51:56
100, yeah, 1 ,000 is safe. You say I finished
51:59
in the top 100. You don't fucking say I ran 30
52:04
marathons in 35 days. So when the Cambridge committee
52:10
or board decided to grant this guy professorship,
52:15
how did they not hear any of this and be like,
52:19
I call bullshit? Is it just because he's loaded
52:21
his skin and was like, we need a black professor?
52:24
Yeah, the right is of course saying like, look,
52:27
you guys are just a bunch of woke assholes. And
52:29
you looked the other way because he was a black
52:33
guy and you were just anxious to recruit a black
52:36
guy. Look, it's shades of Jason Blair at the
52:39
New York Times, right? Yeah. And look, it sucks.
52:44
But you know, fabulists come in all shapes, sizes,
52:48
and races. And it does, I mean, it's rough because
52:53
I mean, you don't want it to be true, right?
52:56
You kind of like want this amazing story to be.
52:59
True, but it doesn't seem to be. There's too
53:02
many amazings, Ted. Like, you can have one or
53:05
two amazings. And it's funny, for me, the thing
53:07
that really, I was like, well, you could have
53:08
a bunch of misunderstandings. Probably not this
53:11
many. But the part that made me, you know, as
53:15
someone who has been smeared by the media, I
53:19
know to like, you know... try to give a guy like
53:23
this the benefit of the doubt. The problem is
53:26
that unlike me, he's not willing to fight it.
53:29
He's like gonna slink off. And, you know, basically,
53:34
and he's like, well, I'm taking time to be myself.
53:37
Reading through the lines, I'm like, yeah, you
53:39
you be a liar, right? I mean, like, if you if
53:41
you were really truly having your integrity questioned
53:45
to this extent, you'd be furious. And you would
53:49
worse. His book is still coming out. Simon and
53:53
Schuster isn't pulling it amid the controversy.
53:56
They will. They will cancel it. Don't quote me,
53:59
but I think I read that it was Simon and Schuster.
54:01
It is Simon and Schuster, yeah. If I was single
54:05
and I was, say, on a date with Jason Arday, and
54:09
he tells me all of these fantastical stories
54:12
about how amazing he is, you're going to fall
54:17
in one of two camps. Actually, it's impressed
54:22
or in, you know, incredulous, incredulous. So
54:26
I call this the say anything rule. You remember
54:29
the movie, the John Cusack movie? Of course,
54:31
with the with the with the boombox with the boombox.
54:33
So that scene right there, this is my dating
54:36
say anything rule is when the girl looks out
54:41
the window and sees sees John Cusack out there
54:44
with the boombox, holding it up playing it as
54:46
a stalker. Right. If she didn't like him, she'd
54:51
be like, what the fuck, creepy stalker, call
54:54
911. Right, exactly. But the fact that he kind
54:57
of got to her heart, she was like, oh, and fell
55:01
in love with him. And the fact that it was the
55:04
90s. It was 80s, I think, no, 89. Might well
55:08
be, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. So my point is, if
55:12
you're looking through rose colored glasses,
55:15
like the girl in Say Anything and she sees Cusack
55:18
out there and she didn't see a stalker, she saw
55:20
a very sweet act. The people at Cambridge, the
55:24
hiring committee at Cambridge, what they wanted
55:26
to see, they wanted to see this guy was freaking
55:31
the most amazing Superman ever on earth. They
55:33
wanted it to be true. Right. Yeah, I think that's
55:37
probably right. They've come under a lot of scrutiny
55:40
about not having enough diversity and they're
55:44
professors. I wonder how much, if any of this
55:49
is true, or you know what I mean? I'm going to
55:52
call none of it. All made up. I'm going to say
55:56
that I don't, I totally don't believe the part
55:58
about the marathon part. The reason is that is
56:00
because like - With a fracture in the fibula,
56:03
Ted? Come on. Fuck no. I trained hard for, back
56:07
when I was younger, when I was, I'm trying to
56:11
think 2007. So I was - 30, what was I? No, I
56:17
was 42, 43 years old when I went to Tajikistan
56:22
to climb Lake Saraz and I knew it was gonna be
56:25
really hard. And so I worked, I was a runner
56:28
at the time and I worked myself up to about 12
56:33
to 16 miles a day. And that was only like five
56:38
to six days a week. That's nothing compared to
56:41
what he's alleged to have done. And I only did
56:45
it, I worked up to that point for about a month
56:48
and stopped. I got to say it was one of the hardest
56:52
things I ever did in my life. And all I can say
56:56
is I was in the best physical condition of my
56:58
life. I just don't, I just know how hard that
57:03
is. What he's asking to do is much worse. I used
57:07
to just run Basically a marathon like 25 26 K's
57:11
weekly weekly. That was it right? Just that's
57:14
all I needed I was in the best shape of my life
57:16
like lean like just everything every great 25
57:20
K's and That's that's just for conditioning for
57:23
my heart and I was still a smoker at the time,
57:26
right? And I ran this for years. There's zero
57:29
fucking chance that even after years of running
57:33
25 20 between 25 and 30 K's a week That I could
57:39
run then go even run the Boston Marathon in one
57:43
day There's no way there's no nobody has nobody
57:46
knows that the of this guy as like a an avid
57:49
runner There's no photos of him. There's nothing
57:52
nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Yeah, no
57:54
a guy a guy Well, I mean, you know, I mean look
57:56
I don't think there's any pictures of me running
57:58
either, but I mean, I'm not a you know, I was
58:00
never a professional runner I'm just trying to
58:02
get into shape to deal with this high -altitude
58:04
situation, but this guy's claiming. He's a marathoner
58:07
And he's only 41 years old, Ted. That means he
58:10
is of the age that he would have posted this
58:12
on social media. None of that exists. That's
58:14
a good point. Well, maybe, unless he was one
58:17
of those, like, kids who doesn't do that. But
58:19
yeah. No, no. I'm going to fill bullshit on all
58:22
of it. Let's do the one last story. Reminds me
58:24
of the Three Cups of Teas guy. Right. Like, remember
58:27
him? Three cups of cheese? Remember Tea. Tea.
58:31
Of tea? No. Three cups of tea. There's a guy
58:33
who wrote, he claimed to be running his own,
58:36
like, personal NGO in remote parts of northern
58:40
Afghanistan, basically setting up schools for
58:43
girls, you know, against the Taliban's wishes.
58:48
And it came out that, you know, this wasn't true.
58:53
He wasn't doing that. And I remember thinking
58:57
at the time, man, it's easy, like to go to to
59:00
say that you're doing something in like some
59:02
remote part of the world, because who the fuck
59:04
is going to check on it? Nobody goes there, right?
59:07
There's no media. There's, there's no media there
59:10
anymore. Um, you know, it's like to the extent
59:13
that there ever was. So it's kind of like, if
59:17
you're a grifter, you'll do shit like that. And
59:19
that's exactly what he said. And it was very
59:21
telling what he told the guardian was that I
59:25
just figured they'd all believe me. That was
59:28
his answer. He didn't think anyone would check.
59:31
And he was right. And then the griff comes in.
59:33
But he's not admitting that he lied, right? No,
59:36
no, no. That's all he said was, well, I just
59:38
figured they'd all believe me. And that was the
59:41
end. And the reporter's like, what do you mean?
59:44
So is this all fabricated? He just didn't answer.
59:48
Yeah, what does that mean? I don't know. He just
59:50
didn't answer. And then gave the crazy eyes.
59:53
I can't even do the crazy eyes because I'm not
59:55
crazy. Like, it's a natural innate thing. He
59:58
had amazing eyes. Yeah, yeah. Crazy eyes. And
1:00:02
I really think he was wearing a lot of makeup
1:00:04
in that PhD photo that he took or whatever. Yeah,
1:00:11
there's obviously something wrong with that guy.
1:00:13
Not right. Anyway, one last story. We'll go real
1:00:15
quick because it's our favorite topic. It reminds
1:00:18
me also of Stephen Glass. Oh yeah, that too.
1:00:21
A lot of grifters. Stephen Glass, I knew a guy
1:00:24
who... I knew an editor who hired, I do know
1:00:28
an editor who hired Stephen Glass. And you know,
1:00:32
I was like, didn't you suspect that like, I mean,
1:00:35
one of the things that like, I remember one of
1:00:36
the very first times that like he always would
1:00:38
get the story and it would, whether you know
1:00:41
what I mean? Whether it was true or not. And
1:00:43
like. I was a great writer, though. It was just
1:00:45
fiction. That's all. Yeah, it was all made up.
1:00:47
And the thing is, I remember when I was in my
1:00:51
very first newspaper job, I was an intern. And
1:00:54
I went to, and I remember they sent me to a fire.
1:00:58
And the people at the fire were very it was in
1:01:00
a black neighborhood and it was a terrible neighborhood.
1:01:03
And the people were really upset because the
1:01:04
fire department took their sweet time getting
1:01:06
there because it's a black neighborhood and they
1:01:08
didn't give a shit about them. And so the the
1:01:11
people who I talked to just basically didn't
1:01:15
want to talk to me as a white guy. And so I came
1:01:18
I came back to my editor and I'm so I fucked
1:01:20
up. I'm really sorry. You know, sir, I couldn't
1:01:23
get that. I couldn't get the story. And And he
1:01:27
was like, that happens. And he goes, you should
1:01:29
write that down and explain how that does kind
1:01:32
of reflect the anger of the community. And I
1:01:35
was like, oh, great. So in other words, not getting
1:01:38
the story is sometimes the story. When I was
1:01:40
researching a piece, a very high profile piece
1:01:42
about Art Spiegelman for the Village Voice, A
1:01:45
lot of people were scared to talk about him on
1:01:48
the record because he's such a thug and he like
1:01:53
ruins people's lives. And so he had so much influence.
1:01:56
So and I was like, at first I was really frustrated.
1:01:58
I went to my editor and I said, I can't get people
1:02:01
to go on the record to talk about this guy. And
1:02:03
they were like, and they were like, well, put
1:02:05
that in the story because that tells you a lot,
1:02:07
too. And so we got to go. We got to go. Remember?
1:02:11
And one more story. And my point was, I'm almost
1:02:14
done here. My point is, like, I'm very skeptical
1:02:17
as a journalist of someone who always gets the
1:02:19
story. Like you should, because you can't get
1:02:23
the story a lot of the time. And that is, and
1:02:25
that's either the story or there just is no story.
1:02:28
You can't be the scooper of scoopers all the
1:02:31
time. No, you can't. Anyone, anyone who always
1:02:34
gets the story, I'm like, all right, here we
1:02:39
go. Did you Jaws? I did. All right. Dr. Sean
1:02:43
Omara, a physician and health optimization specialist,
1:02:46
says an ideal bowel movement ought to be quick,
1:02:49
almost odorless, require quick little or no wiping,
1:02:52
and his words feel nearly orgasmic. I don't know
1:02:57
what kind of poops he's taking. Man. No, I know
1:03:00
what he means. Omara, Omara promotes a meat heavy
1:03:03
diet built around grass fed beef. eggs, fermented
1:03:07
foods like sauerkraut and kimchi, yogurt, berries,
1:03:12
pickles, and aged cheeses. This all sounds fucking
1:03:15
great. I love this guy. Sounds delicious. Sugar,
1:03:18
alcohol, and heavily processed foods are largely
1:03:21
out. Fuck you. Eat shit, doctor. I hate you.
1:03:24
I mean, I can't really do without alcohol or
1:03:28
sugar. Heavily processed foods, I don't care.
1:03:31
R .F .K. Jr. has reportedly followed the plan
1:03:33
and credited it with helping him lose weight,
1:03:36
feel better, and develop the beautiful, clear
1:03:38
skin that we all admire. But Omara's most memorable
1:03:43
claim is that healthy people should barely need
1:03:46
toilet paper. His reasoning? Wild animals don't
1:03:49
wipe. He's right! He's right, which is perhaps
1:03:53
the first modern medical argument based partly
1:03:55
on the bathroom habits of a deer. Okay, that's
1:03:59
funny, but still. No, he's wrong, though. He's
1:04:03
wrong about that. The doctor is wrong. Why? Anybody
1:04:07
that's owned, like you're a cat guy. Well, the
1:04:09
real question is do monkeys wipe is the question.
1:04:12
No, no, you're a cat guy. I'm an English bulldog
1:04:16
obsessed. I'm a lover of English bulldogs, and
1:04:19
they are these you know you guys know what they
1:04:21
look like um but they think they're little lap
1:04:25
dogs and when they go poop sure on the surface
1:04:28
it thinks you think it looks okay but then they
1:04:31
go and like try to nuzzle up and sit on you and
1:04:33
this goes for other dogs too there are trace
1:04:35
elements of poop so with english bulldogs because
1:04:39
they're especially derpy i used to baby wipe
1:04:42
my dog's bunghole after he did his business because
1:04:46
they're still remnants So Dr. O'Mara's wrong.
1:04:51
Animals need to wipe. They just don't have opposable
1:04:53
thumbs. Some chimpanzees, according to the internet,
1:04:56
do wipe, especially after sex. But basically,
1:05:04
our deep cheek clefts are what is trapping things.
1:05:08
Also, if you notice, if you poo outside while
1:05:11
you're camping or something, and you really spread
1:05:15
out, the poo will come out nice and clean. right?
1:05:20
The toilet seat is kind of the problem here.
1:05:23
I was going to say, yeah, if you're, yeah, yeah,
1:05:25
so it's like your posture. There's some actual
1:05:28
science behind this. Fermented foods can support
1:05:30
the gut microbiome, while fiber helps the stool,
1:05:34
keeps your stool regular and well formed. But
1:05:37
gastros warn that very low fiber meat heavy diets
1:05:40
can also cause constipation or digestive problems.
1:05:43
So a clean getaway It's not necessarily proof
1:05:46
that your colon has achieved enlightenment. And
1:05:49
fermented food can cause gas. Whatever. Who cares?
1:05:52
So you fart. Whatever. So do you have to wipe?
1:05:57
I mean, it's true that if you're smeary, that's
1:06:00
not considered good. That's a bad sign of gut
1:06:03
health. So you want the poos to come out nice
1:06:07
and perfectly formed, like little Lincoln logs.
1:06:10
And they shouldn't be super smelly. That's all
1:06:13
true. Well, not the smelly part is is true, but
1:06:16
I think like the you know, the shape and there's
1:06:19
a whole I know that like mine smell like if I'm
1:06:22
if I'm like out on a bender drinking up like
1:06:25
a an eating gross food like the next day, man,
1:06:28
my poo is my poo is a face fucking Chernobyl.
1:06:32
Yeah, you got some stank. But if, yeah, but if
1:06:34
I ate like, if I don't, if I only didn't drink
1:06:36
anything. That's not odorless. I don't know what
1:06:38
they're talking about with RFK having odorless.
1:06:41
Less odorful. Can we say less odiferous? Can
1:06:44
we say that? Less, less stank. Because there's
1:06:48
no such thing as stank free pooping. No, because
1:06:51
it's still poo. Poop. But it's, so maybe RFK
1:06:56
has, but he calls RFK having the perfect poops.
1:07:00
So like, how do you define Perfect. But well,
1:07:03
we just did. We just we just did. I mean, like
1:07:07
non smeary, non smeary, non constipated. And
1:07:11
also you hit it and quit it. When you when you
1:07:14
go to do this, it should come out. You should
1:07:17
be done in two minutes. You know. Yes. And well,
1:07:21
look, I told you I've told you guys before. I
1:07:23
have like those toilet seats. And we've tried
1:07:25
to encourage Robbie for this. The bidet sprayer
1:07:29
toilet seats on all the toilets in my house.
1:07:33
And luckily we had that before the pandemic,
1:07:35
before, you know, the... Because everyone wants
1:07:37
them now. There's like a shortage of them. Yeah,
1:07:41
now everybody wants those because they're better
1:07:44
for your bunghole. toilet paper is not well i
1:07:48
mean my bunghole is in much better shape these
1:07:50
days due to my anal skin tag removal oh my god
1:07:54
i mean i gotta tell you it i was reading on the
1:07:56
internet it has it has an over 98 approval rating
1:08:00
i mean i mean come on anal skin tag surgery should
1:08:04
run for political office it has a 98 approval
1:08:08
rating i mean contact dr omera and let him know
1:08:12
and yes i have a clean ghetto i have clean getaways
1:08:15
now i mean Wow, of course I wipe, but I mean,
1:08:20
but it's easy to wipe. It used to be like a whole,
1:08:23
like, I got to do this and I got to do that.
1:08:26
Different angles, different hands, you know,
1:08:29
front, back, side, side, side, put your foot
1:08:33
up on, get your foot up on the sink, moisten
1:08:36
the piece of paper towel. Paper towels, by the
1:08:40
way, are better than toilet paper. than they
1:08:43
are. Like a little bit of water. But you can't
1:08:44
put them in the toilet because that'll clog your
1:08:46
toilet. Ah, fuck it. Who cares? No! Then you're
1:08:49
gonna have a flooding toilet in your own bedroom.
1:08:51
Not if you're a man, Sal. You just fucking use
1:08:53
it. You keep a plunger by the thing and you just
1:08:54
force it down. No, dude, no. Brute strength is
1:08:57
the American way. It made us... No. It's what
1:08:59
killed the Indians. No, don't flood your toilet.
1:09:02
Don't flood your house because you clogged your
1:09:04
toilet with... Fucking bounty paper towels because
1:09:08
you don't you don't come apart. No, you only
1:09:11
take like a quarter of a sheet of Bounty you
1:09:15
moisten about Well, they come nowadays they come
1:09:19
like with the half sheets cut like this so you
1:09:22
take half of one half of a half and then you
1:09:25
moisten about a quarter of that and Then you
1:09:28
get in there and that should be about it and
1:09:31
it's much better toilet paper just moves it all
1:09:34
around it's like it's the worst i'm telling you
1:09:37
i'm if you have anal skin tags my recommendation
1:09:41
is get your get your ass to the gastro get them
1:09:45
snipped it hurts like a i mean granted it's a
1:09:48
serious test of your of your of your pain tolerance
1:09:51
according to the doctor not everyone can do it
1:09:53
but if you have that if you can do it, it's going
1:09:57
to be the best thing for you. The best thing
1:09:59
that ever happened to you. I'll let you know
1:10:00
if I ever need that, but I have stayed awake
1:10:02
for out of like my five colonoscopies. There's
1:10:06
only two that I have not stayed awake for. I've
1:10:09
been wide awake and watched the whole thing happening.
1:10:13
Very horribly uncomfortable. I wouldn't call
1:10:16
it painful, but really, really like so uncomfortable
1:10:19
and just in discomfort the whole half hour, but
1:10:22
like very cool process. But to this Dr. Omar
1:10:27
is that I like his food recommendations. I guess
1:10:32
if RFK Jr is doing this, I mean, you know, he's
1:10:36
he's a little out there RFK Jr, like on some
1:10:39
stuff, right? Like some well, a lot of not everything,
1:10:43
but not everything. And, and this food, I would
1:10:45
say this, you know, the food that he's promoting,
1:10:48
like, I don't, I don't think there's anything.
1:10:50
bad about that. I mean, I would add more diverse
1:10:53
foods, but the stuff that he did mention, it's
1:10:56
tough. I don't know. I mean, I think protein
1:10:58
gets short shrift in our culture. We need more
1:11:02
protein. It's good, yeah. We need more protein.
1:11:05
And also, you're going to eat less if you eat
1:11:08
more protein, because you're just not going to
1:11:10
be hungry all the time. Yeah, it's way more satiating.
1:11:13
And and yeah, I think I think all of this, like
1:11:16
in Asian cultures, we eat a lot of fermented
1:11:18
foods. So I think that that helps. Yeah, but
1:11:22
you guys don't really live all that long. You
1:11:25
know what I mean? What? What are you talking
1:11:27
about? What do you mean? Like like Japanese people
1:11:30
be kicking like just like all the time. We don't
1:11:33
live that long. What are you talking about? Japan
1:11:35
is like Okinawa is like the center of the Blue
1:11:38
Zone universe. then followed by Greece and the
1:11:41
other Med country. I thought it was the Coscas,
1:11:43
like where the Dan and Yogurt zone, like Azerbaijan
1:11:46
and Georgia. No, no. Japan is like the epicenter
1:11:51
of Blue Zone centenarian lifespans and then followed
1:11:55
by like Greece and then other Mediterranean countries.
1:12:00
I don't know. Yeah. The Japanese, specifically.
1:12:04
My father's going to speak. By the way, by the
1:12:06
way, shout out, he'll be celebrating his 98th
1:12:08
birthday in a month. It's already that time of
1:12:13
the year. Wow. It is. Eight. Ninety eight. Wow.
1:12:17
Wow. His driver's license. Still driving. His
1:12:20
driver's license has been renewed to the age
1:12:22
of one hundred and two. Oh my. Ohioans, watch
1:12:26
out. Rawls on the move. I've been in the car
1:12:33
with him. He's actually a good driver. He always
1:12:35
has been. We're going to have to give Papa Roll
1:12:38
a birthday shout out when it's time, so you have
1:12:40
to let us know. Yeah, it's true. True, true.
1:12:41
All right. We'll leave that there. We're going
1:12:43
to raid PBG to help Robbie close the chat metric
1:12:47
and help him farm the hours so we all stay in
1:12:50
the creator program. I don't know how we're going
1:12:53
to get paid because they're moving away from...
1:12:55
the model that we all sign up for without our
1:12:58
consent. So whatever. Well, which, of course,
1:13:01
that's what they do because they're companies.
1:13:04
Plus, plus they're Canucks. They are Canucks.
1:13:09
Yeah, they are. It's a whole different culture,
1:13:11
sort of. I thought they were supposed to be politer
1:13:13
and ask our permission before. No, Canadians
1:13:16
are just, they pretend to be nice, but the truth
1:13:19
is they're weasels. Well, you got to think about
1:13:22
all the mass immigration that Canada has had.
1:13:25
So there is a cultural shift. They're changing.
1:13:28
They're not as nice, our neighbors. All right.
1:13:31
Yeah, there's a lot of Indians, a lot of Sikhs
1:13:32
up there, a lot of Chinese too. That's true.
1:13:35
Yeah. That's true. All right. All right. So stay
1:13:37
tuned. We're going to raid PBG. Thank you guys
1:13:39
for watching. We out. It is Tuesday. We'll be
1:13:42
back on hump day Wednesday. Maybe we'll find
1:13:44
some hump day stories. See you tomorrow. Adios
1:13:47
amigos. Bye. Bye. Thank you.