Latest / Wicked Radio with Bill Adams / Wicked Radio 12-31: That's A Wrap - The Most Interesting Stories Of 2025 (According To Me!)

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Wicked Radio 12-31: That's A Wrap - The Most Interesting Stories Of 2025 (According To Me!) · Wicked Radio with Bill Adams

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: I don't know if we've ever had a year like
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty five in our lifetimes. I really don't. I mean,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: it had a little bit of everything. And for every
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: one of these stories, for this complete year, the first
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: complete year of this podcast, I was sitting right here
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: in this barstool talking about these stories with you every
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: single morning and then the replay unless I was on
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: the road somewhere and then you know that we were
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: doing the show from somewhere else. But almost every one
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: of them we talked about. And I gotta tell you,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: it was an amazing year because as controversial as it seems,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: and as you know, divisive as everything seems, it's I
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: have to have one big takeaway at twenty twenty five,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: and in my opinion, because all I can give you
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: is my opinion, I think it's all good, all of it.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: What do you mean. There were horrific stories in twenty
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: twenty five. There always are, but all of this stuff
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: seemed to come out of the surface and seemed to
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: come to light. And there was a lot of light
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: that happened this year despite all the controversy. Because the
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: news or information business is all about scared you and
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: you know, keeping you, keeping you into one particular narrative,
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: and making sure that you don't ask questions. All that's
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: different now, all of it's different, and it's great. So
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: I thought for today, on the very last day. I
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: can't believe we're saying that at twenty twenty five. What
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: we would do with the podcast is to take a
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: look back at twenty twenty five and talk about the
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: most interesting stories of the year according to me, because again,
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: all I can give you is my perspective, but you
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: may agree. Who knows before we get it too that
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: and start way back in January. Thanks for finding the
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: live stream Wicked Radio live stream Monday through Friday, eight
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: am Eastern Time, put your notifications on on x and
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: on YouTube and on Facebook, and then it lives on
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: as a replay and then the audio podcast. And just
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: one quick note, I would just want to thank you
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: for this year because I didn't know I was going
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: to go. This was the first complete year of Wicked Radio,
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: and I gotta tell you, and I don't say this
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: to impress you. I say it because I want to
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: thank you. It grew by leaps and bounds, so apparently
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: you guys are looking for something different not just somebody
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: spouting opinions. I definitely do that, or not somebody telling
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: you what to think. I just try to ask questions
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: and get your look beyond the news. Don't just take
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: the news and all this information thrown at us. Do
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: something about it, and that's how you win. Let's get
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: right to it. Let's start way back in January of
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty five. First of all, I cannot believe. I
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: can't believe it's close to a year the President Trump's
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: been in office for the second time. But it all
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: started with this most interesting story to me of twenty
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: twenty five. Number one. Well they're not like ranked or anything,
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: but in order the inauguration for the second time around.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: You might forget about this. I forgot about this as well.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: If you go back and to grab this clip, I
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: had to look at a lot of the speech from
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: the inaugural, the inauguration in January of twenty five. It
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: was a really good speech. It struck me at the time,
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: and then it reminded me again this morning. Trump's come
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: a long way with his public broad get you know,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: the actual speech, not when he's going off the cuff.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: But this is all it all started.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: Today's ceremony, however, has very special meaning because today we
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: are not merely transferring power from one administration to another,
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: or from one party to another, but we are transferring
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: power from Washington, d c.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: And giving it back to you, the people. Have they
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: accomplished that yet? Is it there? Maybe? Maybe? I think
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: we all agreed at the time this is going to
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: take years, maybe decades, I don't know, to accomplish, to
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: actually do exactly that. Take it out of the hands
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: of the bureaucrats, take it out of the hands of
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: the politicians and give it to the people. But you
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: have to say it first. To get it done, you
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: have to announce that that's the intention, and that has
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: been I have to say that has been the theme.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: Maybe if you're not a fan of Trump, you have
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: to admit, of all the policy decisions for the entire
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: year so far, that's been the theme so far, as
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: to give more power to the people. Big part of
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: that was Elon mus getting involved. Let's go back to
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: and this start right back. I thought it was later on,
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: but in my review I had to go back, Wow,
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: this started immediately. Do you remember the Tesla takedown, The
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: actual announcement there was a hashtag, there was a movement,
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: there were posters, there was this you know, obviously funded
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: by somebody. There was this obvious movement to not only
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: the idiots to key Teslas. And then they you know,
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: completely forgot that Tesla's have camera systems and most of
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: those people got arrested. Not those idiots, I mean, in
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: a larger sense, the fire bombing of Tesla dealerships. Let's
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: not forget that actually happened, and the actual organized quote
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: unquote Tesla takedown to go after Tesla dealerships, Tesla owners
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: and obviously Elon Musk himself. Never forget this how organized
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: this was. They were so brazen at the time. This
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: quickly ended when the FBI started knocking on their doors,
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: but there was an organized effort to do this. You
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: had all kinds of these malcontents going on podcasts and interviews,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: and May instream news was talking about it, Tesla takedown,
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: you know, pretending it was a new story, but directly
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: promoting it. Here's a little example of this. I remember
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: playing this at the time.
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: Maybe we could start off with a little bit of
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: can you just actually tell us what Tesla takedown is?
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, not takedown Tesla.
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: It's Tesla takedown, Tesla takedown. Yeah, there's a website called
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: Tesla takedown dot com, which is a website you can
• 5:21
  Speaker 4: go to get some background on the campaign. And it
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: essentially isn't a map where anybody in the world can
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: put an action up for targeting Tesla.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: And so I've been a map GEO target Tesla dealerships,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: owners people. Why because Elon Musk dared, dared to support
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: President Trump because he's not, that was the best way
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: to go for the country. Because as much as Elon
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: Musk is done, who the hell can deny that he
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: loves this country. The Tesla takedown it was way deeper, guys.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: It was way deeper than you know, vandalizing individual Tesla's
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: here and there, you know, somebody coming out of a
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: gym and you know, spray painting a Tesla or there
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: was an organized effort to go after it. What did
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: it result in? Exactly that vandalism, violence, Tesla dealerships, threats
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: on Elon's life there by the way, that lady, God,
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure I got a knock on her door
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: from the FBI shortly after that, all because he dared
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: to get involved in all the people who loved Elon before,
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: but he dares support President Trump, and he dares by
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: Twitter and turned it into x and support freedom of speech.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: That's how they went after him and organize the Tesla takedown.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: How did that work out? By the way, now look
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: at it a year later, how did they work out?
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: Tesla stock is through the roof. Elon's doing just fine.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: And by the way, this quickly moved into DOGE Number
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: three most important and interesting story to me, the DOGE
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: Development Department of Government Efficiency. Now you may think that
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: it's gone away, it really has. Yes, they didn't get
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: the support of the rhino, the whimpy rhino Republicans in Congress.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: No they didn't. But this work did so much good
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: in so many different ways. This was a recent interview
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: of Elon talking about DOJ and still going on.
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: By the way, Dose is still happening. But it turns
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: out when you stop fraudulent and wasteful payments, the forces
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: don't you know, confess to this, They actually start yelling.
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: Also so nonsense that you're stuffing essential payments to needy people.
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: Now, the work DOGE did obviously found billions of dollars
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: in wasteful spending. He put together all of his team
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: of nerds, remember big Balls, remember that kid and all
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: the other ones, and they all got to work, and
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: they got right away and they found all the codes,
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: they found the fixed social security numbers, they found all
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: the wasteful spending. Very importantly, what they did was they
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: discovered and truly proved the scam of NGOs, non government
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: organizations where they would be set up and they all
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: have some beautiful name like Foundation for Feeding the Children,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: and it never actually really is that, they never really
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: do anything, which you're seeing with the Somali scams these days,
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: and they have that. But it was interesting because they
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: because they're NGOs, they were funded by taxpayer money, and
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: in many cases there were politicians that had either family
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: members or they themselves are part of these NGOs and
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: were skimming off the top. They found that did Dose
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: go as far as it could have gone? No, And
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: that caused that rift, remember that rift between Trump and Elon,
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: and they were all mad at each other and all
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: that other stuff. But what he said there was really important.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: The work of Dose still goes on. I'd say something
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: even more important. I look at this from like a
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: society perspective. I try to look at things from three
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: thousand feet. It opened the eyes of regular people like
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: you and me to government waste and spending and corruption,
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: which we've all known about in the bureaucracy and the
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: red tape and all this other crap. But it opened
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: our eyes to exactly number one, how bad it is.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: That was the bad part. Number two, that something can
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: actually be done about it, and it gave a lot
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: of hope to a lot of people. The work of
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: dose Elon said it right there. It doesn't stop, but
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: it only continues if you have the support of the
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: American people. So the next time this big movement comes
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: up or is ongoing or whatever, it's going to get
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: a lot of support because they proved in a relatively
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: small way that it can work massive, massive development. It
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: opened all of our eyes and it was shocking and
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: it was painful at first. We said that at the time.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: I remember saying to you, guys, are reaching out to
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: a lot of you who messaged me directly almost a
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: year ago. Now this is like, this is just how
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: can we This country can't exist like this? And I
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: remember saying, hold on, wait, stop time out for a second.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: Yes it's bad and yes it's painful. What twenty twenty
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: five was all about was ripping off the band aid
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: to realize how corrupt things are the good side of
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: this was you realize what can be done about it.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of hope telling you. There's a lot
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: of good stuff in twenty twenty five. A lot of
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: bad stuff too. Next most interesting, according to me, story
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: of twenty five was the Palisades fire fires. This happened
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: in the Geez early twenty five. To me, the most
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: fascinating part interesting doesn't mean good, was the re was
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: the after effect of this and people staying on the story.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: It's happened a lot, remember like, for example, remember the
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: Maui fire in HAWAIII, which is just absolutely tragic, just
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: so destructive, So many people lost their lives, their homes,
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: their livelihoods, and then it got wiped off the front
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: pages so fast. That wasn't the case with the La fires,
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: the Malibu and Palisades fires, not so much. You still
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: see a lot of stories about it. Is it top headline? No,
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: But people have stayed on this. Maybe that's because it's
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: La Maybe because a lot of prominent people in the
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: number two media market are there. Maybe that's why, but
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: I think there's something else. I think again, we talked
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: about ripping off the band aid in twenty five and
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: realizing how corrupt things are. It was an eye opener
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: for everybody outside of California and most of us who
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: realized how bad the corruption is in that state. This fire,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: which many experts now have come out and said, was
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: completely preventable if you cleared the underbrush, if you actually
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: filled the reservoirs, if you actually staffed the fire departments,
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: if you actually were on scene for this, if you
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: actually had the fire hydrants ready to go. It was
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: complete and total corruption in mismanagement. But again, they followed
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: this story all the way through and it hasn't gone
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: away to hold them accountable. Will it work, I don't know,
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: but it's a start to stop this kind of corruption.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: This guy's name is Steve Hilton. This was from just
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: earlier in the month. This was from like I think
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: it was December eighth. I think he's running from mayor
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: of la Probably not going to win because he's going
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: after the powers that be. Maybe California is going to
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: be lost to Democrats forever corrupt ones. But this is
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: what he says, and this is what I mean by
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: this story continuing. You talked about this so called redevelopment.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: Not many houses have been rebuilt in that area. How
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: many one? And it's a show house. Here's him doing
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: a little expose on.
• 11:59
  Speaker 5: It, the Pacific Palisades. And I just want to show
• 12:03
  Speaker 5: you something that is the absolute symbol of the disgusting
• 12:09
  Speaker 5: uselessness and gas lighting and lies of Karen Bass and
• 12:16
  Speaker 5: Gavin you Some. Remember Gaven you Some promised a Marshall
• 12:20
  Speaker 5: plan to rebuild La Karen Bass said she'd got rid
• 12:23
  Speaker 5: of all the barriers to permits and whatever, and then
• 12:28
  Speaker 5: the other day she touted the first house that was
• 12:31
  Speaker 5: rebuilt as an example of how fantastic things are going,
• 12:35
  Speaker 5: eleven months after the fize.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: Right here it is. He shows one house and apparently
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: he goes up to say it's like a show house,
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: it's like a model home example, just to get that
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: thing thrown up so they can say they're doing something
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: that's been revealed more. The entire country now is aware
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: of the kind of corruption that Los Angelinos in California's
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: have been complaining about for years.
• 12:57
  Speaker 6: Now.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: The whole country is aware of it and again that
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: story he has not gone away. And it also exposed
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: a lot of nonprofit fraud, which is very important a
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: lot of these fire benefits. There's a story nobody can
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: find the money reportedly, do you remember the big concert,
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: the fire aid concert, A bunch of big bands involved
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: with that. Nobody got money from that. That was a
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: complete and total scam, even the band, even the people
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: involved who just wanted to help out, the acts involved,
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: the performers involved, and people who called in the one
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: eight hundred number or texted money or whatever, a wired money,
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: whatever it is, they just wanted to help. No, not
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: so much. These horrific events like this, like what happened
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: with the Palisades and Malibu fire. These kinds of things
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: are so eye opening when people care enough about it,
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: and apparently nobody's letting that one going good for them.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: Next most interesting story to me was the new Pope.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: I uh, I was fascinated by this, And maybe because
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: I was brought up Catholic, I don't know, maybe so
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: you know, I'm kind of like a recovering Catholic. There's
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: a lot about the church that I've always disagreed with,
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: going back to when I was a kid. That was
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: a big family fight of mine. But I was fascinated
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: because Pope Leo is an American pope, so I had
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: high hopes. I thought, this guy's gotta have some American sensibilities, right,
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: he's kind of like, probably understand where we're coming from
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: in America. He's probably going to understand the American, the
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: uniquely American independent perspective and bring that to the world.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: Not so much, No, it was almost right away he
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: criticized us having a border, even though this is a
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: guy that lives behind Vatican walls that's neither here nor there.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: But whatever. This was the amazing part to me. And
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: I don't know if this is just because maybe Catholics
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: can relate to this more, but we're so used to
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: Pope's speaking in Italian or Latin or another language or
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: whatever it was. I gotta tell you, guys, it freaked
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: me out when I heard his first address and he
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: was speaking in English. I don't know why it was
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: so weird to me, but here you go.
• 14:45
  Speaker 7: This was it, your brothers and sisters. In the scripture
• 14:49
  Speaker 7: passage we have listened to, Saint Paul reminds us that
• 14:54
  Speaker 7: God is able to accomplish far more than we can
• 14:58
  Speaker 7: ever ask or imagine.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: I don't know. That's still weird to me. Great great
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: to hear his pope speaking English, but you know, crystal
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: clear English because he was brought up in Chicago. But wow,
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: that was weird. Uh Is he gonna turn out to
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: be a great pope? I don't know who the heck knows.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: I just like I said, it was almost immediate he
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: started criticizing American immigration policies. You know what, No, that's that, Padre.
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: That's not your purpose. Don't do that. Don't criticize our politics,
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: and don't criticize us for wanting to have a border. Okay,
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: that's all I ask. Let's jump to entertainment for a second.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: I thought this was fascinating. You're probably gonna disagree. I
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: think this is important. You're gonna say, snow white Rachel Zegler,
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: why is she on the list in the review of
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty five? Hold on, Hold on again. All I
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: can give you what I thought was interesting to me,
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: But I thought it was fascinating because this was a pushback,
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: a real one, a pushback to the giant entertainment industry
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: at Disney, specifically, remember the Snow White movie, and what
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: a terrible fail that was. I mean, just a first
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: of all, it was like what year and a half,
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: two years delayed, it was rewritten, it was this and that,
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: it was what? And it was a bomb, I mean,
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: one of the worst box office bombs of all time,
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: even on streaming. Nobody streamed it or liked it. And
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: Disney's response was, what you remember this? Well, you know,
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: we're re engineering things. We're gonna go back to original animation.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: People are tired of the same regurgitated stories. We need
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: new stories, we need that. That's why people didn't like
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: snow White. No, the reason why was you had possibly
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: the most unlikable star of all time starring in this movie,
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: and you had her who it would non stop, would
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: not stop doing interviews, insulting the fans, insulting the country,
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: jumping off on her political opinions and all this other crap.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: It turned off the audience so badly. That was the
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: reason why this movie bombed number one. Besides I didn't
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: see it, Besides the fact that people who did see
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: it said it was actually kind of crappy. You can
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: look at your star for this, Disney, and no other reason.
• 17:03
  Speaker 8: Times when it feels a bit impossible, doesn't it to
• 17:07
  Speaker 8: exist in a world where it feels like we can't
• 17:10
  Speaker 8: be louder than a whisper without it making headlines. There's
• 17:13
  Speaker 8: something beautiful and terrifying about how much the world seems
• 17:17
  Speaker 8: to care about our opinions while simultaneously telling us to
• 17:21
  Speaker 8: stick to our arts, our creativity.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: Nobody really cares about your opinions, Toots. That's the whole
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: problem there. And it was I don't know what it was.
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: This was amazing to me because you remember the lead
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: up of this movie. It was all hyped and then
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: and then they knew it was going to be a bomb,
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: so they had to over advertise it. So it was
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: like all you heard of in spring of twenty five
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: was this movie coming out. And she still was going
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: on making stupid comments in the media, like nobody at
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: Disney could like say, hey, you know, calm down a
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: little bit till we get this movie done. Massive bomb.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: But again, my takeaway, the reason why I put it
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: on my list a huge pushback from the consumer to
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: the entertainment industry and Disney. And look at the results.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: Since there are still celebrities, they are still celebrities saying
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: stupid things, trying to influence it, trying to talk politics
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: from their stage, even though a lot of them are
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: some of the dumbest people you'll ever hear of. But
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: it's less. It's less of that, and will it stay forever.
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: Probably not. They won't learn their lesson, but it calmed
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: them down for a little bit. It's kind of like
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: last year, or I guess it was a couple of
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: years ago now, the whole bud Light thing where the
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: beverage industry anneiser Busch and Ian Bev kind of realized
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: a massive mistake they made. This was the entertainment version
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: of that. This was the audience saying, you know what,
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: we don't like you, we support your company, or we don't.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: That was a lesson learned for Disney. That's why I
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: put it on my list. I thought it was fascinating.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe you don't want to hear about it.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: This was fascinating too. Come on, don't try to pretend
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: you don't remember the Coldplay kiss scandal. Come on, remember this.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: I forgot this was in Jillette Stadium in Foxborough. I
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: forgot that's where it was. You remember it was a
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: big It was a big Coldplay concert, I think the
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: two nights it was sold out. And then they do
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: the kiss cam. They go into the skybox seats and
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: then you had this CEO and one of his coworkers
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: having a kiss. But it was it was discovered on
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: the big screen. Remember this lasted for like two weeks,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: the controversy and then the non apology, then the apology.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: Here it was.
• 19:17
  Speaker 7: All right, come on ething, Oh what.
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: Either an affan or that was shot. Unfortunate for them.
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: I don't mean to laugh at them whatever, that's somebody's
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: personal decisions. To me, it was the after effect with
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: that was fascinating. First of all, it was a lesson
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: for all of us that you know what you are
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: on camera potentially anywhere at any time, and anybody can
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: find you. I mean, that's it was just lesson learned.
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: They certainly learned that. They didn't think they were gonna
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: be on the kiss cam. And he lost his corporate
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: CEO job. She did too. There was a divorce involved,
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: all that other stuff. That's their personal lives, right, But
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: what's the takeaway from all that. The most amazing thing
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: to me was the incoming CEO of that guy's company.
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: Now he lost his job, but the incoming guy was amazing.
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: He came up with a statement at the time when
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: he got hired the interim guy, he was now the CEO.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: He said, yes, it's true, it's unfortunate that this controversy
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: has come to our company, but I'm gonna use this
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: as an opportunity to talk about all the great things
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: we do as a company. I remember at the time saying,
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: that's amazing. That's how you use the media. That's how
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: you use something that's a controversy. It turned into a win.
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: So that was actually a big story. I know, not
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: the most important story of the world, but it was
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: big that dominated the headlines for a good solid week
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: and a half. Two weeks we also had this This
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: is more serious, and this actually did matter, the cease fire,
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: or at least the attempt between Israel and Hamas, but
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: most importantly getting the hostages home. President Trump after it
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: happened was speaking about it, and this is what he said.
• 20:46
  Speaker 9: This is not only the end of a war. This
• 20:50
  Speaker 9: is the end of the age of terror and death
• 20:52
  Speaker 9: and the beginning of the age of faith and hope,
• 20:57
  Speaker 9: end of God. It's the start of a grand concord
• 21:01
  Speaker 9: and lasting harmony for Israel and all the nations of
• 21:06
  Speaker 9: what will soon be a truly magnificent region.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: I believe that. So I don't know what's going to
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: happen in that region. I don't think any of us do.
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: Who the heck knows? I mean, this is you're talking
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: about an area of the world that's been warring for
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: since the dawn of recorded history. I would, I guess
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: you would actually say, is it what perfect?
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: No?
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: What were all the hostages returned on time? No, there's
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: still war breaking out, Yes, of course, but you have
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: to start somewhere, you really truly do. And honestly, I
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: think the heartwarming thing for me was not like I'm
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: rooting for any political party, you know that, like I'm
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: biased on any particular side. I just root for the
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: American people. But I saw a lot of people, even
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: people that truly online you know, well known, notable people,
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: but also people in I happen to know, you know,
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: in real life, that despise President Trump, were willing to
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: give him credit for this in the work that they
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: actually did, I mean, truly, the administration it was undeniable
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: to even get to that point and it taught me
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: that even though you've got people who are so spun
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: up about certain politics and policies, there's still that element
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: where people can reach across and say, yeah, you know what,
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: I don't like the guy. I'd never vote for him.
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: But that was pretty cool. That was good progress. And
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: I heard that a lot from a lot of different people,
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: Like I said, both in real life and online. It
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: was nice to see. Shortly after that was I think
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: the most It was probably, in many different ways, the
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: most horrific story that I've ever seen in my life.
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: I mean, you've got nine to eleven. You've got other tragic, horrible,
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: horrible things that have happened in this country, and I
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: don't want to compare put them on the same level
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: or whatever. I'm just talking about as far as witnessing
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: something in real time as disgusting as it was. And
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: that was the assassination, the murder of Charlie Kirkyah. Again,
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: these are not saying that the best stories or most
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: important whatever, the most interesting to me, because the after
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: effect of Charlie Kirk getting assassinated and God, was that awful.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm talking about. I mean, there couldn't
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: have been a camera closer to that happening. I mean,
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: that was true. I said it at the time. I
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: still believe. But that was the most That was the
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: most horrific thing I've ever seen on a screen, not
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: in real life. That was the most was that still
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: gives me shivers. That was so utterly horrifying. We know
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: he died, we know the after effect, the after effect
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: from that, though. I think I truly believe. This is
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: why I put it on the list. I think they're
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: far reaching, and I think they're gonna last a long,
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: long time. Talk about his work, you know what I mean.
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: You know, this guy went to college campuses and tried
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: to open up a conversation. For that, he was murdered.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: Let's call it for what it is. For that, he
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: was called every possible name in the book because he
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: pushed back against the narrative and dared to have his
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: own opinion. You know, you know that, and there's still
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: people saying that. But this also happened. Don't forget about
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: this with the Charlie Kirk story, and this gets underplayed,
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: and it really shouldn't because this is the most important
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: part of it all. There were so many people after that,
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: so many people another case where online I saw this,
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: but also in my own personal life and in real life,
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: I saw it. I witnessed it. I saw it heard
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: from these people where they heard all these names being
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: thrown at Charlie Kirk and thank god, and it was
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: so heartwarming to see people actually go do their own
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: research and look back and they say, and so many
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: examples of this where they went back and they said,
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: I've been everybody's telling me that this guy was a
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: racist and a homophobe and a transphobe, and he was
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: horrible and a Nazi and a fascist and all this.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: I don't see it. I don't see I wasn't too
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: aware of them before. But I'm reading back and I
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: looked at a bunch of other speeches and I read
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: some quotes from the book, and I don't see it. Guys,
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: I cannot You're probably the same way. I cannot tell
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: you how many times I actually heard that, and it
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: was so heartwarm. There's always something good out of something
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: absolutely horrific every single time. It's just like a law
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: of the universe. The good that came out of that,
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: if anything, was people doing their own research and pushing
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: back against a false narrative that was amazing to see,
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: as horrific as it was. But then he also had
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: scumbags out there who were being as loud as they
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: possibly could to disparage the guy right, call him every
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: name of the book. We all saw it. We all
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: saw the video of these cretans, these creatures celebrating his murder.
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: We all saw it. And then we also saw this.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: But again, from bad news, there's always good news, remember
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: the whole Jimmy Kimmel's story. Oh and after he said this,
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: he cried, I'm sorry, I'm getting canceled. And but again
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: the good news was he was pushed back. But this
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: is what got him in trouble.
• 25:33
  Speaker 6: We hit some new lows over the weekend with the
• 25:35
  Speaker 6: Magga Gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered
• 25:39
  Speaker 6: Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and
• 25:42
  Speaker 6: do everything they can to score political points from it.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: I score political points. Goes on his monologue and brings
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: that up and says it was quote unquote one of them,
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: and they're trying to score political points, that this was
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: his take on it. Well, oh all know what happened
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: The pushback on that. And the great part is the
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: pushback actually happened. The pushback happened from the audience. They
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: contacted affiliates, one of the big affiliate companies, took him
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: off the air. We know what happened there for a
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: little while. He's back now, I get it, but he
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: had to apologize, had to calm down a little bit again.
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: Kind of like that Disney story we were talking about
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: with snow White. This was an entertainment and information giant
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: with ABC and their affiliates strongly getting the words, strongly
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: feeling the pushback. The pushback is still a thing. This
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: is why I always say, it's like, you know, don't
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: just take the news, do something about it. You tend
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: to think as just one person in the world, in
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: the country, it doesn't matter. Oh it does because if
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: enough people push back, like with the Jimmy Kimmel thing,
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: it does have an effect. Is he still an ass
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: Is he still a knucklehead? Is he still going on
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: a foreign TV outlet like he did over Christmas and
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: disparage America? Yeah? Absolutely, But there is the story he
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: had to go on a foreign TV outlet to do that.
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: He's been kind of like pushed back, they got the word,
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: they got pushed down a little bit, and they got
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: stood up for that, and it was great to see. Again.
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: A lot of horrific stories come great things, but it
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: takes action. That's what you have to do. Speaking of action,
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: this is in my top ten and the most recent story.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: I call it the Somali scam. I was just talking
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: about this yesterday and the day before because it just
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: happened this week. Nick Surely YouTuber now over I think
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: I checked. This is like one hundred and thirty million
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: impressions for his video going to Somali daycare centers and
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: exposing the fraud and the scam. And look what this
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: has led to. Look at the investigations. Look at the
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: FBI now is fully investigating and revealing that they are doing.
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: The federal funds have been taken away from these scam
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: centers in Minnesota. Now you've got investigations and the long
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: arm of the law looking at other cities like Columbus
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: and cities in Michigan and in Boston and New York.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: This is what matters. What's the great news about this?
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: This kid shouldn't call them that this action journalist Nick
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: Shuly twenty three years old, who has a YouTube channel
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: now now a million followers, and this thing again got
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: a one hundred and thirty million plus impressions. This kid changed
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: the way things are covered forever. It's been leading to this,
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: but it truly is accurate what Elon said. We are
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: the media now because of people like Nick Shirley. Remember
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: this one quality leering center. I'm meant to say quality
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: learning center open. They said they spelt learning wrong. Don't
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: open up? How do you have ice here?
• 28:30
  Speaker 8: Man?
• 28:31
  Speaker 9: I'm literally a YouTuber, don't help.
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: That's my favorite part of the forty three first all
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: in one little clip. Yeah, he pointed the learning center
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: is just spelled leering, and then you had this lunatic
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: with a cell phone saying ice is here, don't open up?
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: Didn't that just didn't that just say it all? I mean,
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: he exposed the fraud where there's no kids and they
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: can't even spell learning center, and then you had a
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: lunatic willing to support the fraud. There you go, But
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: the takeaway is all that got a and had massive,
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: massive effects. To wrap up twenty twenty five, well, those
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: are my interesting stories according to me stories at twenty
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: twenty five. You may disagree. I don't know, but all
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: I can give you is my opinion. But the main
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: takeaway is this, they throw all this information at it.
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: We've never We've never had more information thrown at us,
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: which means you got to ask more questions. It doesn't
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: mean we're better informed, but it means you don't have
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: to just take all of this news and all this
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: information and get freaked out. No matter where it comes from,
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: online or legacy media. What you got to do is
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: take its advantage of it, do something about it, and
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: that's how you win. My other takeaway is thank you
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: so much for this year. I didn't know really the
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: first full year of the podcast and the live stream
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: how it was going to go. But honestly, I'm just
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: being objective. It's grown by leaps and bounds. So I
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: appreciate you as you guys who are here with me
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: in the live stream every day or just following along
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: on clips on TikTok or YouTube, or you watch the
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: replay wherever it is on x or F, Facebook or
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: YouTube or the audio podcast. It's great being with you
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: every day, so we'll keep it going. I'm gonna add
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: to this too with more in depth interviews. That's the
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: next phase of this now that we're established for a
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: first full year. Thank you so much for being here.
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: I hope twenty twenty six is the best year of
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: your life. And you know what, let's just say it's
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: gonna be it's gonna be great. Let's make it a wicked,
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: awesome one. Thanks for being with me. I'll talk to
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: you so I'll probably talk to you in the new year.