Speaker 1: From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
Speaker 1: riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
Speaker 1: learn this stuff they don't want you to know. A
Speaker 1: production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
Speaker 2: my name is Noah.
Speaker 3: They called me Ben. We are joined as always with
Speaker 3: our super producer Dylan the Tennessee pal Fagan. Most importantly,
Speaker 3: you are you. You are here. That makes this the
Speaker 3: stuff they don't want you to know. It is the
Speaker 3: top of the week if you are hearing this the
Speaker 3: evening it publishes. Let us welcome you to November eighteenth,
Speaker 3: and good luck on the upcoming Thanksgiving celebration fellow Americans.
Speaker 2: By fellow Americans, you will eave turkey until you fall asleep.
Speaker 4: I don't like turkey though, Dad, President, Dad, We'll take
Speaker 4: your trip to fans straight.
Speaker 3: You know what I mean?
Speaker 5: Man?
Speaker 4: Speaking of that, you know, the whole trip to fan
Speaker 4: thing has, you know, largely been debunked in terms of
Speaker 4: what makes you sleepy. I actually went a cooking video
Speaker 4: recently where an internet chef named chef Jack pointed out
Speaker 4: that it's likely people eating raw flour in their gravy
Speaker 4: because it has not been cooked long enough. People to
Speaker 4: sprinkle it in and don't give it time, and that
Speaker 4: just turns into glue in your gut and makes you sleepy.
Speaker 3: So consider this our holiday PSA for both gravy and
Speaker 3: any sort of roue you choose. Please cook correctly, follow
Speaker 3: the directions, and stay safe, especially around your crazy uncles.
Speaker 3: We're gonna leave that there. We got so much to
Speaker 3: get to one thing we're talking about. I think we're
Speaker 3: all excited off air about this. Forty three monkeys staged
Speaker 3: a jail break of sorts. It's gonna call it a coup.
Speaker 3: I don't think that's accurate. You got you nailed it then,
Speaker 3: thanks man. They escape from a South Carolina research facility.
Speaker 3: By this point you have heard about this multiple times.
Speaker 3: Some but not all, of the monkeys have been apprehended
Speaker 3: as we record this evening.
Speaker 4: Well, I think it's that kind of a continuation of
Speaker 4: this whole like animals revolting against the humans kind of storyline,
Speaker 4: like with the whales and all of that stuff attacking
Speaker 4: you know, fishing boats, because I mean, these are animals
Speaker 4: that are used for experimentation for like you know, cosmetics
Speaker 4: testing and things like that. I don't know exactly what
Speaker 4: they did at this very evilly named lab.
Speaker 5: What was the name of the lab?
Speaker 3: Oh, Alpha Genesis, thank you.
Speaker 4: It just sounds like a cartoon evil corporation.
Speaker 3: But I don't know.
Speaker 5: Man.
Speaker 4: Hopefully the ones that got away are on their way
Speaker 4: to a better life.
Speaker 2: Well, it's so in my mind, it's a weird gray
Speaker 2: area because Alpha Genesis, at least according to their website,
Speaker 2: they are the providers of primates for testing. So really,
Speaker 2: at that facility, perhaps they're just raising these primates as
Speaker 2: like happy little primates and then they get shipped off to,
Speaker 2: you know, wherever they're going. I think they do offer
Speaker 2: some services for testing though at their facilities.
Speaker 3: Yeah, my understanding is a lot of that is health testing, right,
Speaker 3: So it's not the invasive surgical procedures nor vaccine development specifically,
Speaker 3: but Alpha Genesis, folks, somebody there accidentally left the door
Speaker 3: to an enclosure unsecured, and so out of the group
Speaker 3: of fifty monkeys macaus seven stay behind, forty three bolted out.
Speaker 3: They haven't apprehended. This is not a Planet of the
Speaker 3: Apes or outbreak situation just yet, but in case that
Speaker 3: turns out to happen, because a few are still on
Speaker 3: the loose. Now we're going to give you strange news
Speaker 3: while the humans are still running the figurative roost. Oh,
Speaker 3: we're going to talk about Chile. We're going to get
Speaker 3: into some zoonotic conversations. We'll have a bunch of updates
Speaker 3: on the way before we do any of that. You guys,
Speaker 3: did you did you hear Russia's recent statement?
Speaker 5: I don't think so.
Speaker 3: I can't wait to hear it. We're going to open cold,
Speaker 3: and we have returned fellow conspiracy realists in the US
Speaker 3: and abroad. As you may have heard, it was a
Speaker 3: bit of a hectic recent couple of weeks. Is a
Speaker 3: there is a new president elect or wait, as Ell
Speaker 3: would say, don't call it a comeback. All signs indicate
Speaker 3: that former President Donald Trump will again assume the office
Speaker 3: of POTUS President of the United States here in this country.
Speaker 3: And a lot of people are happy, a lot of
Speaker 3: people are angry, a lot of people are concerned. America
Speaker 3: has ever been a divisive place. I'll tell you what.
Speaker 3: We talk a lot about this off air, and we
Speaker 3: know politics can be said. We're not coming to you
Speaker 3: to tell you our opinions of this stuff. We are
Speaker 3: coming to tell you Russia state opinions of this stuff. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I don't know if you guys heard, but recently presidential
Speaker 3: some stuff's been getting weird geopolitically since the election. Presidential
Speaker 3: aid for the Russian government Nikolai Patrushev recently had a
Speaker 3: statement in Russian run media outfit called Commerceant where he
Speaker 3: gave the following quotation in part of his statements regarding
Speaker 3: the new regime change in the United States. And I'd
Speaker 3: like to share this. There's a short one and get
Speaker 3: you guys reactions from the jump. Our buddy, Nikola said quote.
Speaker 3: To achieve success in the election, Donald Trump relied on
Speaker 3: certain forces to which he has corresponding obligations. As a
Speaker 3: responsible person, he will be obliged to fulfill them.
Speaker 4: He'd be a shame of something happened to that nice
Speaker 4: presidency of yours.
Speaker 5: That is sinister. But are your friends?
Speaker 4: I mean, gosh, you know, it just sounds like something
Speaker 4: a gangster might say in terms of like it's time
Speaker 4: to you know, I may call upon you to do
Speaker 4: a favor.
Speaker 2: What do you think it could possibly be in regards
Speaker 2: to like, when it comes to doing things for them,
Speaker 2: do you think, do you think Ukraine is involved in
Speaker 2: some way.
Speaker 4: Also way to throw the guy under the bus. You know,
Speaker 4: Nikola doesn't. It's not very covert. It's an odd thing
Speaker 4: to say so publicly if there was some shenanigans going
Speaker 4: on behind the scenes.
Speaker 3: And to answer that first question regarding what could have
Speaker 3: been done, what is the quid pro quo that issue? Right?
Speaker 3: Is it asymmetrical disinformation operations? That's clear, that's proven, that's
Speaker 3: a definite. Is the implication then, because definitely an implication
Speaker 3: here is the implication that the Russian government, uh, somehow
Speaker 3: I'll put its thumb on the election, right, that seems
Speaker 3: to be the case, and we do know both China
Speaker 3: and Russia have been very active with disinformation in not
Speaker 3: just this recent election, but multiple elections. The second part
Speaker 3: of it, the other side of the equation, the obligations.
Speaker 3: What is it that you are expected to do, notably
Speaker 3: Ukraine probably sanctions. Lifting sanctions would be another big one.
Speaker 3: We know. This happened around the same time that a
Speaker 3: rumor spread about Russian state television releasing nude photos of
Speaker 3: the former am returning first lady.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean it's very strong army.
Speaker 4: And again it doesn't appear to be the most tactful
Speaker 4: way of like, it seems like a putting someone on
Speaker 4: blast kind of situation.
Speaker 3: You know, yeah, it seems like running the operation there
Speaker 3: in So in early November, just earlier this month, as
Speaker 3: we record, a lot of people on social media, one
Speaker 3: platform or another went nuts and they claimed that Russian
Speaker 3: State TV was showing nude photos of Meladia Trump shortly
Speaker 3: after Western media announced Donald Trump as the president elect.
Speaker 3: And it turns out that is absolutely true. Those videos
Speaker 3: were released. It was I think we could call it
Speaker 3: primetime TV and local Russia time. It was six thirty PM.
Speaker 3: That's pretty much evening news time. It feels like this
Speaker 3: happens in concert. It feels like they're coupled again with
Speaker 3: statements about how they're keeping an eye on undersea cables.
Speaker 3: This doesn't look good. This is not a political point
Speaker 3: on a domestic front a. This has the makings of
Speaker 3: a geopolitical conspiracy. It feels very much like a threat.
Speaker 3: And you guys, it reminds me about the old discussion
Speaker 3: of the Steele dossier, which is infamously mentioned and then
Speaker 3: buried by US news apparatus.
Speaker 5: It's meant to be full of what compraman kind of material.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, yes, and we were also fed differing information
Speaker 2: on that, as the American public right, we were told
Speaker 2: it was real and then it wasn't real.
Speaker 3: But it is.
Speaker 2: But it's not just speaking of disinformation. It does call
Speaker 2: into question, like that statement that was made at the
Speaker 2: top right about that official saying something like that. It
Speaker 2: just makes you feel it personally. It makes me feel
Speaker 2: like I'm being toyed with or played with absolutely.
Speaker 3: Nikolai Patrushev, Yeah, it's true that there is there's a
Speaker 3: lot of fog of war here because you can see
Speaker 3: for the Steele dossier for anybody who kind of has
Speaker 3: it on the you know, like the tip of your
Speaker 3: tongue in the front of your mind. It was a
Speaker 3: research report that emerged during the twenty sixteen presidential election,
Speaker 3: and it was compiled by a guy named Christopher Steele,
Speaker 3: who's a pretty legit counterintelligence specialist. It's not super long.
Speaker 3: It's thirty five pages, which is pretty short, and it
Speaker 3: has these allegations of smoky backroom cooperation between the Russian
Speaker 3: state cough cough Putin cough cough and Donald Trump or
Speaker 3: his nascent administration at some point, and the implication to
Speaker 3: your point about compromatinal, it's heavily alluded to that Russian
Speaker 3: intelligence has some sort of evidence of perhaps financial crime,
Speaker 3: perhaps misbehavior in terms of classified documents, or perhaps straight
Speaker 3: up documentation of sex crime or some other violent crime.
Speaker 3: Nothing really came of this, and to Matt's earlier point,
Speaker 3: it was somewhat dismissed by the Western media. And there's
Speaker 3: always a ton of stuf happening, but more and more
Speaker 3: people on any side of the aisle here in the
Speaker 3: States are increasingly concerned that the president elect may indeed
Speaker 3: be either a Russian asset or be somehow controlled. And
Speaker 3: you never, no matter who you vote for, you never
Speaker 3: want the potus. You never want the runner of the
Speaker 3: world's most dangerous military to be beholden to a foreign power.
Speaker 2: That football guy, you want that football guy to be
Speaker 2: only on your team, speaking of the nuclear football.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And these types of accusations have been flying around
Speaker 4: for years, you know, during the first term, the first
Speaker 4: Trump administration and in between. So this is just kind
Speaker 4: of you know, it make it easy for people to
Speaker 4: feel a little more strongly and this is.
Speaker 2: Definitely happening with regards to those specific photos that were
Speaker 2: released of Milania do you because those are from her
Speaker 2: modeling career, which she's talked about openly, like they're known
Speaker 2: to exist, right, do you think it is signaling, hey,
Speaker 2: we aren't afraid to show your spouse nude And also
Speaker 2: think about the other stuff we've captured of her, like
Speaker 2: over time, maybe as part of this type of thing.
Speaker 3: Right the shot across about theory, It's possible. You can
Speaker 3: read an excellent article on Snopes that summarizes a lot
Speaker 3: of this. Milania Trump is a model. It is also
Speaker 3: or was a model. It is also quite possible that
Speaker 3: the state run media just decided to go with this
Speaker 3: on their own, just the way a tabloid in the
Speaker 3: UK publishes the page five girl or whatever.
Speaker 4: Given like Trump's kind of position as this sort of
Speaker 4: strong man figure who won't be f't with. Does this
Speaker 4: not feel like it warrants a response? And if the
Speaker 4: one doesn't come, doesn't that make this even more plausible that.
Speaker 3: They I mean, maybe that's a good question, because we
Speaker 3: have to realize that the US government gets all kinds
Speaker 3: of wack do statements hoard it constantly again, no matter
Speaker 3: who was in office. Spoiler, the leader of North Korea
Speaker 3: is not going to like it, and we'll probably have
Speaker 3: some smack to talk on the global court. But we
Speaker 3: know also speaking of evidence, that there is not at
Speaker 3: this point any solid proof for confirmation that Donald Trump
Speaker 3: himself or his members of his campaign had colluded in
Speaker 3: or knew anything about disinformation efforts asymmetrical warfare on behalf
Speaker 3: of the Russian state up to and including those fake
Speaker 3: bomb threats that we spoke about previously. Polling places right
Speaker 3: right right, and with this, what we can say is
Speaker 3: that Patrushev's message is kind of lightning out of the blue,
Speaker 3: and it's not the way that a lot of these
Speaker 3: folks talk to each other in the public square, because
Speaker 3: it feels very much like saying, hey, man, polonium can
Speaker 3: turn up in all kinds of places.
Speaker 4: Does this guy, I'm sorry if I missed this, but
Speaker 4: did he? Does he occupy a position that's very close
Speaker 4: to Putin? Is this sort of a lone wolf? For
Speaker 4: this is a legitimate.
Speaker 3: Spokesperson, is again a presidential aid to Vladimir Putin, uh
Speaker 3: and long time in his career. So if you are listening,
Speaker 3: Nikola I, we would love to give you a spot
Speaker 3: to explain, you know, to expound, if you will upload
Speaker 3: your your statements, tell us what these obligations are. Tell
Speaker 3: tell us what constitutes responsible reciprocity for you. And then also,
Speaker 3: you know, tell us your favorite way to launder money.
Speaker 3: That's that's the segue here. I think we've got a
Speaker 3: little bit of time left. We talk about money laundering
Speaker 3: so much, so often. Email us your favorite examples conspiracy.
Speaker 3: iHeartRadio dot com guys money launder for one of our
Speaker 3: favorite cartels recently got in trouble because he tried to
Speaker 3: launder the wrong money. Did you guys hear about this? Yeah.
Speaker 3: A guy named Daniel Sean Zilke, whose street name in
Speaker 3: the game is the Englishman like, was the running the
Speaker 3: show for a huge money laundrying conspiracy on the behalf
Speaker 3: of a consortium of cartels, and he had a unfortunate
Speaker 3: run in with the DEA. In twenty fifteen, he was
Speaker 3: contacted by someone who needed to wash some money and
Speaker 3: they had a great relationship for a while. This person said, look,
Speaker 3: I need hundreds of millions of US dollars moved to Mexico.
Speaker 3: I'm going to use a bank account of a charity
Speaker 3: in Dallas that's how we will wash this stuff up.
Speaker 3: And then our buddy the Englishman got too greedy and
Speaker 3: he tried to steal his vigorous right to embezzle these funds.
Speaker 3: Who was supposed to launder responsibly. Uh And it turned
Speaker 3: out that he, uh, he laundered undercover tea money.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 2: Do you guys think it was through TD Bank I.
Speaker 3: Brought to you.
Speaker 5: I thought they up.
Speaker 3: Now, I'm sure. I'm sure that'll stick. Shout out to HSBC,
Speaker 3: uh one of our favorite examples there. So just a note,
Speaker 3: no judgment, but to any money launderers. Remember criminal cartels
Speaker 3: do not have an HR department. They do not have
Speaker 3: an arbitration clause. Be very careful. Yeah. Yeah. They don't
Speaker 3: put you on a pit plan. They put you on
Speaker 3: an actual pit on a pop plan.
Speaker 2: What is that employee improvement or something like that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, personal improvement plan.
Speaker 4: Sorry, I thought you said pitt and that was very
Speaker 4: even more appropriate because you know, not.
Speaker 3: A pit plan but plan. I got you totally.
Speaker 5: I think both work.
Speaker 3: Is one point yeah, one pull it point all right,
Speaker 3: we'll keep it all right. Very last thing before we
Speaker 3: move on to the next act of our Strange News segment.
Speaker 3: We have talked in the past about collapsing birth rates.
Speaker 3: We have talked about the four B movement honestly pretty
Speaker 3: well in advance of it going global. The four B movement,
Speaker 3: How would we explain.
Speaker 4: That it's essentially women refusing to engage with men, right
Speaker 4: even their husbands in sexual congress.
Speaker 2: Well, well, yeah, one of the more than that. One
Speaker 2: of the tennis is not to be in a romantic relationship,
Speaker 2: not to get married, not to have kids, and not
Speaker 2: to have intercourse or other sexual relations with men.
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, it gained prominence in twenty nineteen, at least
Speaker 3: on the Internet. The four B part comes from the
Speaker 3: Korean language. No sex with men, no giving birth, no
Speaker 3: dating men, no marriage with men. And it's a result
Speaker 3: of the intense misogyny that a lot of people experience
Speaker 3: in that part of the world, which coincides with collapsing
Speaker 3: birth rates in that part of the world. Japan is
Speaker 3: often the most well known example of collapsing birth rates,
Speaker 3: and every plan that the Japanese government has made to
Speaker 3: quote unquote combat or address this problem has just seemed
Speaker 3: like a terrible idea. I think. No, it was China
Speaker 3: where people were calling women to see if they were pregnant.
Speaker 3: A Japanese politician recently said, hey, guys, I know how
Speaker 3: to boost the birth rate. If you're a woman and
Speaker 3: you're over thirty, we're removing your uterus.
Speaker 2: Eh oh, okay, so quickly have those kids before we
Speaker 2: take your ability to do it.
Speaker 3: Naoki Yokota, who was a leader of the the leader
Speaker 3: of the Conservative Party of Japan, said, okay, here's how
Speaker 3: we could do this. The banning marriage after a certain age.
Speaker 3: So if you're a woman, you're over twenty five, you
Speaker 3: can't get married. He said. If that doesn't work, you
Speaker 3: know by the time you hit thirty, well we'll take
Speaker 3: out the uterus.
Speaker 4: Uh. That's like forced sterilization, that's.
Speaker 3: Exactly Yeah, it's also forced mutilation.
Speaker 4: And dude, pitch, that's still a pitch, thankfully, still a pitch, thankfully,
Speaker 4: But bringing that up because yeah, it's a conspiracy against women,
Speaker 4: but it also, first off, in addition to be cartoonish
Speaker 4: and evil like bubblegum model after chewing tobacco.
Speaker 3: It seems like there's no way this would work or
Speaker 3: how so expensive too, wouldn't it? I mean, well, Japan
Speaker 3: does have better healthcare than.
Speaker 4: They true, but still it just seems like logistic, logistically
Speaker 4: a nightmare.
Speaker 3: Agreed, Agreed, and incredibly worrying that this could even be
Speaker 3: brought up, Yeah, as a brainstorm or a blue sky pitch.
Speaker 3: Very handmade's tail in some ways, like what's the thing
Speaker 3: that went around we were talking about a little offline,
Speaker 3: that horrible comment that went viral from a real misogynistic
Speaker 3: bully your body my choice, nick ways, I want.
Speaker 4: To say, I see it's one of those things too,
Speaker 4: where you know, you have a comedian or a pundit
Speaker 4: or whatever who says some inflammatory and then writes it
Speaker 4: off as I was just joking. But when you see
Speaker 4: it appearing on signs that people are holding up you know,
Speaker 4: protesting and abortion clinics or whatever, that it's the rubber
Speaker 4: has met the road in a very different way.
Speaker 3: And he totally did the move that all bulliesing cowards do,
Speaker 3: which is when he had consequences for his statements, he said, Oh,
Speaker 3: I'm just joking. When are you getting so proclept about Oh,
Speaker 3: I'm just kidding. What do you know about comedy? And
Speaker 3: then get this and we'll end it here. He got
Speaker 3: docksed by women in the United States. We're rightly mad
Speaker 3: at him, and he ran and hid at his mom's.
Speaker 5: House, glad she was there for him.
Speaker 3: H looks like it looks like looks like for you
Speaker 3: guy who talks to much trash about women, he sure
Speaker 3: needed a woman's help with that. We're gonna pause for
Speaker 3: a word from our sponsors. We'll wait to see if
Speaker 3: Nikolai hits us up. We'll give you updates on that
Speaker 3: towards the end, but then we'll be right back with
Speaker 3: more strange news.
Speaker 5: And we have returned with some more strange news.
Speaker 4: Guys, Are you both stoked as I am about the
Speaker 4: new Wicked movie?
Speaker 2: Arianna's in it, right, sure is.
Speaker 3: I think it's weird that they made Ariana Grande. I
Speaker 3: think it's weird that they made it too films well.
Speaker 5: I heard today for the first time that the musical
Speaker 5: is in.
Speaker 4: Two acts, so they decided to maximize the receipts. I guess,
Speaker 4: you know, the way they did with a Hobbit, a
Speaker 4: short children's book. I know it always screams of greed
Speaker 4: when whenever Hollywood studios do something like that, I mean
Speaker 4: the musical. You know, musicals are certainly longer than features oftentimes,
Speaker 4: but I can't imagine it being more than three hours,
Speaker 4: and they probably could have condensed that into one movie.
Speaker 5: Easy, but two is better than one in terms of you.
Speaker 4: Know, grosses as they call them. But quick story on this, guys.
Speaker 4: Of course, when you have a big blockbuster like this,
Speaker 4: a big temp pole as they call it, coming, you
Speaker 4: end up with lots of merchandising opportunities, including dolls, figurines,
Speaker 4: collectibles call them what you will, which have been making
Speaker 4: the rounds and you know your big box store of
Speaker 4: choice from Mattel. They released some wicked dolls. I guess
Speaker 4: they're calling them wicked fashion dolls.
Speaker 3: Wicked dolls.
Speaker 4: Yeah, brats they should do, But where's the where's the
Speaker 4: brats dolls? Wicked brats dolls, especially with it being have
Speaker 4: been just recently a brat summer. But Rachel treslemen or
Speaker 4: trailsmen rather Over at the the NPR has this incredible
Speaker 4: story of a big old marketing snafu that Mattel was
Speaker 4: responsible for. An absolute egg on faced the situation that
Speaker 4: someone's head is going to roll for a wicked mistake,
Speaker 4: Mattel apologizes for printing a porn site on its doll packaging.
Speaker 3: Well, hold on before we get angry which site specifically.
Speaker 4: I mean, if you were a if you're coming of
Speaker 4: age in the late nineties, as I was, you may
Speaker 4: well have come of Hage Seth's gross sounding and heard
Speaker 4: of a little company called Wicked Pictures from at the time,
Speaker 4: probably responsible for some of the biggest names in pornography
Speaker 4: in terms of like names that maybe crossed over, you know,
Speaker 4: like Jenna Jamison for example, Wicked Pictures Stars.
Speaker 5: You know, you might have actually.
Speaker 4: Heard of some of them, because they were a big
Speaker 4: deal back in the nineties and two thousands, but apparently
Speaker 4: they've kind of fallen by the wayside, especially as like
Speaker 4: people are no longer paying big bucks for pornography DVDs
Speaker 4: and and site subscriptions because everything's ripped and just put
Speaker 4: on places like porn Hub or Red Tube or whatever.
Speaker 3: Was it Wicked like VHS days, It was as.
Speaker 4: Early as that for sure, and then you know, I
Speaker 4: think it was also early days of DVDs. But the
Speaker 4: funny thing too about Wicked Pictures she may or may
Speaker 4: not know, is I was trying to find some of
Speaker 4: the names because they're always funny. But they were responsible
Speaker 4: in the old school fashion of pornography for doing these
Speaker 4: kind of like like spoofs of big Hollywood movies, you know,
Speaker 4: like one that will always stick with me just from
Speaker 4: like a sketch I think for back of the Days,
Speaker 4: Like instead of pulp fiction, it's pulp friction, you know,
Speaker 4: things like parodies, porn parodies. One hundred percent. That is
Speaker 4: one of Wicked's stocks in the trade. And because of
Speaker 4: the amount of time they've been around. Ben to your point,
Speaker 4: as early as the VHS days, pre Internet days, they
Speaker 4: got that Wicked dot com on lock y'all, and some
Speaker 4: hapless copywriter f Motsel didn't add the very key movie
Speaker 4: add on to their URL they printed on these packages.
Speaker 4: So they all went out with Wicked dot com on
Speaker 4: the backs of these children's figures. And apparently, according to
Speaker 4: the New York Posts, Wicked dot com has experienced a
Speaker 4: rise in its traffic and unseen for twelve years, a
Speaker 4: twelve year high after Mattell mistakenly friends at URL on
Speaker 4: Wicked doll boxes.
Speaker 3: Now, congratulations to everyone.
Speaker 5: Yeah, all concerns except for the heads that are most
Speaker 5: certainly are or have already rolled over at Mattel in
Speaker 5: their copywriting department.
Speaker 3: And secondly, to answer your earlier question, I think the
Speaker 3: best portmanteau for collectible and merchandising would be merchibles. And
Speaker 3: if you are a collector, I imagine you are buying
Speaker 3: up as many of these Wicked dolls with that misprint
Speaker 3: as you can, because those will depend on how the
Speaker 3: film does. Those are going to be pretty choice.
Speaker 5: Already, are my friend.
Speaker 4: They are going on eBay misprinted versions because they were
Speaker 4: quickly recalled, not just apologize for which Mattel definitely did,
Speaker 4: but they were pulled from shelves, so you are seeing
Speaker 4: already these these much more collectible collector's items known for
Speaker 4: hundreds of dollars on the internet. A statement from Mittel
Speaker 4: said Mattel was made aware of a misprint on the
Speaker 4: packaging of the Mattel Wicked collection dolls, primarily sold in
Speaker 4: the US, intended to direct consumers to the official Wicked
Speaker 4: moovie dot com landing page. We deeply regret this unfortunate
Speaker 4: error and are taking immediate action to remedy. It confirms
Speaker 4: that the listed website is not appropriate for children and
Speaker 4: lasting for me, Lest you worry, the sent kids directly
Speaker 4: to a pornographic image. The landing page is again in
Speaker 4: classic old school oji porn website tradition does ask you
Speaker 4: to confirm your date of birth and so good, and
Speaker 4: promise that you're eighteen or older.
Speaker 3: So step, no harm.
Speaker 5: No foul.
Speaker 4: Surely no kid caught a glimpse of something they shouldn't
Speaker 4: have seen. But I don't know, man, Matt, I know
Speaker 4: you've got thoughts about this one.
Speaker 3: Oh.
Speaker 2: I just want to point out this is the company
Speaker 2: that Stormy Daniels was a major part of time, which
Speaker 2: is interesting just to connect things back up in this episode.
Speaker 2: And also it's weird to me that they did so
Speaker 2: many parody movies, like you were talking about, many of
Speaker 2: them direct ripoffs of Disney IP like Cinderella.
Speaker 5: Did you find, Matt, did you find some of the names?
Speaker 2: Well? Yeah, one of them was snow White triple X
Speaker 2: an axle bron parody or Cinderella triple X an axle
Speaker 2: bron parody and.
Speaker 5: A burst of creativity. As Ben would say, they could
Speaker 5: do better.
Speaker 2: Come on, dude, Well they also had Batman versus Superman,
Speaker 2: a triple.
Speaker 3: X p I don't think this was I don't think
Speaker 3: this was wicked, but I loved I loved the puns.
Speaker 3: It's a wonderful life. Cool.
Speaker 2: The other one glorious.
Speaker 5: They right themselves.
Speaker 3: You know, a Tale of Twos could have just gone
Speaker 3: with glorious Holes. I think it's much more interesting than Look,
Speaker 3: we know production can get crazy, and you're it's stressful
Speaker 3: to make any kind of entertainment. I want to give
Speaker 3: accolades to people who make the good porn pun titles
Speaker 3: instead of just adding triple X at the end. You
Speaker 3: know what I mean?
Speaker 5: You know, the Olden Days, return to the Glory whole days.
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, everybody.
Speaker 3: You can kind of hear the plot as well, Romancing
Speaker 3: the Bone, the.
Speaker 2: Operation, Desert Stormy, thank you, yes.
Speaker 5: For thank you.
Speaker 4: Gosh, you guys are on fire with these, and I
Speaker 4: know some of these are real, and I think some
Speaker 4: of these you might be.
Speaker 5: Making up, but they're all equally fantastic.
Speaker 4: So yeah, I mean, you know, to the point I
Speaker 4: was making earlier, definitely, heads.
Speaker 5: Are going to roll.
Speaker 4: It's unclear who was responsible directly for this, but we
Speaker 4: do have multiple eBay sellers listing these toys for as
Speaker 4: much as five hundred dollars, some advertising them as rare
Speaker 4: URL error misprints in the culture, the small you know,
Speaker 4: the niche kind of culture collectibles and you know, any
Speaker 4: kind of misprint.
Speaker 3: Is a big deal.
Speaker 4: Is a big get, especially one as embarrassing is this
Speaker 4: for a company as storied and legacy as Mattel.
Speaker 5: You know, I mean they invented Barbie for Christ's sake.
Speaker 4: Mm hmm.
Speaker 3: I wonder how wicked the adult entertainment company is going
Speaker 3: to handle that in court. But we'll have to Well,
Speaker 3: they've done nothing wrong, No they haven't, they haven't. If anything,
Speaker 3: they should just write a nice thank you note.
Speaker 4: I know exactly, and just just to just to confirm
Speaker 4: on then there's a New York Post article that has
Speaker 4: some nice screenshots and it's funny too, Like obviously people
Speaker 4: saw this web address on the packaging in very small
Speaker 4: print of a toy and followed up with it.
Speaker 5: I just it is.
Speaker 4: If anything, it's a it's a it's a win for
Speaker 4: marketing because they know that people are going to going
Speaker 4: to those websites.
Speaker 3: Speak about the attrition rate too, you know, even like
Speaker 3: on a box of cereal where it says, hey, if
Speaker 3: you want this special deal, you can write to this place. Right,
Speaker 3: the modern people do it. Yeah, Lord of the strings,
Speaker 3: thank you, thank you.
Speaker 5: So let's put a pin in that one.
Speaker 4: I guess because I would be interested to see if
Speaker 4: there's any further fallout, you know, if Gosh forbid, this
Speaker 4: did lead to actionable you know, or witnessed moments of
Speaker 4: children viewing pornographic material young you know what I mean?
Speaker 4: That's I hope not, but that is an absolutely I
Speaker 4: wonder if there's a class action lawsuit potential.
Speaker 3: Yeah, possible, You're not You're not wrong there and only
Speaker 3: could that's always in the cards.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 3: We Also, I guess we should take a moment and say,
Speaker 3: without knowing the details, this does seem like an honest mistake.
Speaker 3: It doesn't seem like someone working in the vast panopoly
Speaker 3: of marketing and merchables for this set the Revenge a
Speaker 3: Ron Jeremy or anything like that.
Speaker 5: Surely we own Wicked dot com? Right, have you heard
Speaker 5: of Wicked?
Speaker 3: Come on, and now they're legally boned.
Speaker 2: Oh boy. All of that makes me think of the cover,
Speaker 2: the original cover of The Little Mermaid.
Speaker 4: Remember that with the with the with the sexual device
Speaker 4: featured the penises. It was it was like a dildo
Speaker 4: kind of like, I mean, that's what And also we've
Speaker 4: talked about the little hidden dubbed moment and Aladdin. Good
Speaker 4: teenagers take off their clothes. I think they fixed it.
Speaker 4: But boy oh boy, when I was young, we played
Speaker 4: that part back over and over again and it was
Speaker 4: definitely there.
Speaker 5: And that's not a Mendela effects.
Speaker 3: Yeah, surprise cartoonist can sometimes be weird and horny.
Speaker 5: Well that that, But that does beg the question like
Speaker 5: was this a simple mistake.
Speaker 4: Or was this a disgruntle copywriter who pushed something through
Speaker 4: to make this, to make an embarrassing thing.
Speaker 3: I feel like mistake.
Speaker 4: I think so too, because again, surely we own Wicked
Speaker 4: dot com.
Speaker 3: You know, no offense to anybody in the crowd, but
Speaker 3: you have to have a certain level of enthusiasm or
Speaker 3: a certain age upon you to even be aware of
Speaker 3: Wicked the adult entertainment site.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean yeah, like Empire, it is something that
Speaker 4: I was aware of because I just of a certain age.
Speaker 5: It was inescapable. There was a time.
Speaker 4: Where it was like the only game in town that
Speaker 4: was like bordering on mainstream, you know what I mean,
Speaker 4: Like it really was.
Speaker 3: Like to that. Jamison made appearances in talk shops, main Strub,
Speaker 3: mainstream stuff, main Shrub. Also drill Bill.
Speaker 4: I'm just gonna keep doing I want you to I'm
Speaker 4: so grateful to you guys.
Speaker 5: As I was coming up, I was dropping, I was
Speaker 5: shooting blanks.
Speaker 2: No, and that one does Bill have the drill or
Speaker 2: is bill drill bill being drilled?
Speaker 3: That's an excellent question because you see, it's a two
Speaker 3: part cinematic experience. There's one one that's a drill bill.
Speaker 3: After dark they did, there was a third kild bill.
Speaker 4: They gotta they gotta follow the rules, has gotta follow
Speaker 4: suit of the actual thing that they're.
Speaker 3: Par I'm sure there's some guide San Fernando Valley who
Speaker 3: was just up to his gills on his favorite vice
Speaker 3: of choice and say no for the artistic integrity we
Speaker 3: can only have doo. I hate you guys. I'm calling
Speaker 3: Quintin now.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well you know Quintin is a bit of a
Speaker 4: foot that she guy.
Speaker 5: Maybe he was involved.
Speaker 3: I was gonna say, unrelated to anything. I just learned.
Speaker 3: There is apparently a site called wiki feet, So thank you, Slash.
Speaker 3: I'm still angry at you. To our pals Jack and
Speaker 3: Miles over at Daily Zeitgeist, who taught me that wiki
Speaker 3: feet is a thing just like it sounds like at
Speaker 3: Miles in particular is mad that Jesus Christ does not
Speaker 3: have a Wiki feet entry.
Speaker 4: I don't think we have any actual photos of Jesus
Speaker 4: Christ's feet. We just have very graphic descriptions being washed,
Speaker 4: end of him washing others feet.
Speaker 5: The Bible full of the original feet picks. Jeez, guys,
Speaker 5: I didn't expect us to go.
Speaker 4: Quite as long on this little nugget of a topic,
Speaker 4: but it really did kind of encompassed more than I expected,
Speaker 4: So thank you for that. But I will just mention
Speaker 4: something that I think might be worth a larger exploration.
Speaker 4: We've certainly talked about the Church of Satan founded by
Speaker 4: Anton Lavy, and it's sort of I believe been correct
Speaker 4: me if I'm wrong, evolution into the Temple of Satan,
Speaker 4: or are they completely unconnected? I could have sworn there
Speaker 4: was a connection. Either way, they are related in terms
Speaker 4: of their belief structure, the Temple of Satan being an
Speaker 4: organization that where members use imagery of the devil and
Speaker 4: of you know, Satanic rituals, black magic rituals, candles and
Speaker 4: you know, sacrificial knives, wearing robes and pentagrams and all
Speaker 4: of that kind of stuff as a way to express
Speaker 4: a very very strong sense of personal freedom. A very
Speaker 4: strong sense of what is it do what thou wiltst
Speaker 4: maybe the whole of the law, you know, Shelby, Yeah,
Speaker 4: that is an original Anton LaVey kind of sentiment. And again,
Speaker 4: forgive me if I'm getting the evolution of the Temple
Speaker 4: of Satan incorrect, but they very much share that.
Speaker 5: Same mentality, and in Chile apparently, and this is.
Speaker 4: I guess the most interesting hook, because we've certainly talked
Speaker 4: about the Temple of Satan and the Church of Satan before.
Speaker 4: They get a lot of bad rap, the idea of
Speaker 4: Satanic panic stuff, that they're devil worshippers, they're doing black magic,
Speaker 4: but all of that stuff is just for show and
Speaker 4: kind of for a pomp and circumstance to create a
Speaker 4: maybe I've always thought of it as sort of like
Speaker 4: a protest religion or a protest kind of ideology against
Speaker 4: organized religion.
Speaker 3: And to the question I believe you were asking there
Speaker 3: at the top of this, the Church of Satan is
Speaker 3: separate from the Temple of Satan or the Satanic Temple,
Speaker 3: I sue.
Speaker 4: But either way you could argue that it is a
Speaker 4: splinter of that ideology that Anton Leavey established, you know,
Speaker 4: back in the early days of the Church of Satan,
Speaker 4: which I believe was the had to have been the sixties, right,
Speaker 4: nineteen sixty six. B there you go, hey, sixty six six.
Speaker 4: But the thing that interested me about this whole idea
Speaker 4: of the Satanic Temple taking also, by the way, Satanic Temple,
Speaker 4: if I'm not mistaken, has been making headlines in the past,
Speaker 4: you know, decade or so here in the States, from
Speaker 4: doing some very public acts of protests, like I think
Speaker 4: they built a Baha Met sculpture like near a school
Speaker 4: or something. There was a big to do made of
Speaker 4: this Bahamet sculpture they built on public property. I believe
Speaker 4: that was funded by the Temple, the Satanic Temple. And
Speaker 4: there was some other you know, kind of pr moves
Speaker 4: that they did that caused almost this resurgent panic against
Speaker 4: you know, Satanism or whatever here in the United States.
Speaker 4: In Chile, however, eighteen million citizens eighteen million people identify
Speaker 4: as Catholic, and in this country, the Satanic Temple is
Speaker 4: now getting so much interest, so many people jumping ship
Speaker 4: from Catholicism and other religions, that they are asking the
Speaker 4: government to recognize them as a legally religious organization. Association
Speaker 4: with all of the appropriate you know, tax benefits and
Speaker 4: such that go along with that. There's a really great
Speaker 4: piece in the ap by Nayara Botschki, and I'll just
Speaker 4: read a quick moment from this and then we can
Speaker 4: move on. Scholars, she says, believe and residents consulted by
Speaker 4: the Associated Pressed note that Chile, where a long lasting
Speaker 4: tradition of Catholicism has played a leading role in public discussions,
Speaker 4: is experiencing a crisis of faith following revelations of multiple
Speaker 4: sexual abuse scandals.
Speaker 5: Within the Catholic Church over the years. Win for Satan there,
Speaker 5: you know, match point.
Speaker 4: It is interesting though, considering what we also talked about,
Speaker 4: how the Catholic Church has come out with this anime,
Speaker 4: you know, mascot that's meant to appeal to like gent alphas.
Speaker 5: And and of course it was going to happen.
Speaker 3: Guys.
Speaker 5: I don't know if you heard about this, but.
Speaker 4: A lot of horrible AI imagery of that anime character
Speaker 4: have flooded the Internet of its participating in sex ax
Speaker 4: or her participating acts, really really gross stuff, but all
Speaker 4: pointing to the fact that the Catholic Churches may be
Speaker 4: starting to get a little desperate to recruit new you know, devotees.
Speaker 5: So what do you guys think about that?
Speaker 2: I just want to point people to the Satanic Temple
Speaker 2: dot com, where they have a quote Kid's Quick Reference
Speaker 2: guide that compares the Satanic Temple in the Church of
Speaker 2: Satan helpful, healthful resource and in the Chat I am reading,
Speaker 2: we are still going. Just everybody knows in the chat
Speaker 2: we're going hard on, hard on.
Speaker 3: Please can we save them for the end?
Speaker 2: Yes, we will. They're just like they're very distracting and
Speaker 2: good thank you.
Speaker 3: Uh yeah. Having been to Chile, everything you say is correct.
Speaker 3: It is predominantly Christian country. We are proponents on this
Speaker 3: show of the ideology of the Church of Satan, especially
Speaker 3: because it's non theistic in its pursuit, and I think
Speaker 3: you summed it up very well. Excited to see what develops,
Speaker 3: especially again, the thing we always have to put here
Speaker 3: is these folks are not saying they worship Satan. It
Speaker 3: is a purposely polemical, provocative hook to get you involved
Speaker 3: with their earlier philosophy. So yeah, looking forward to see
Speaker 3: what develops there.
Speaker 5: One hundred percent.
Speaker 4: With that, let's take a quick break here a word
Speaker 4: from our sponsor and then returning with one more segment
Speaker 4: of our weekly Strange News episode.
Speaker 2: And we've returned. Guys, Hey, remember that drug we talked about.
Speaker 2: I think it was September last year. Phenylephrine?
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, but that I do with the pH.
Speaker 2: Right, yes, two phs. Oh love word that has two
Speaker 2: pH sections PhD though correct. Correct. It is often referred
Speaker 2: to as PE on packaging for cold medicines that you
Speaker 2: may find in whatever story you go to to buy
Speaker 2: cold medicine. Well, guys, back then, the reason why we
Speaker 2: talked about is because the Food and Drug Administration finally
Speaker 2: agreed with almost two decades of research that showed that
Speaker 2: this thing, this drug, phenylephrine or frin, is not effective
Speaker 2: as a nasal decongestant, which is its primary purpose.
Speaker 5: That's I remember now.
Speaker 3: Oh yes, and you can, for the record, for all
Speaker 3: our friends with the FDA, you can advertise loose, vague
Speaker 3: claims for any kind of nutritional supplement that doesn't have
Speaker 3: to go through FDA testing. But Matt, I believe in
Speaker 3: this case, the problem was that PE was being advertised
Speaker 3: with some sort of measurable medical efficacy that simply wasn't there.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, fully, this isn't over the counter coffin cold
Speaker 2: medicine or additive for coffin cold medicines. That was supposedly
Speaker 2: a powerful nasal decongestant, and it was put in place
Speaker 2: early on to replace some of the other dangerous nas
Speaker 2: decongestants that we're being used to createthm, phetamines and other things.
Speaker 5: That the big draw. That was the draw.
Speaker 4: So what are some popular brand names of this bunk
Speaker 4: placebo effect drug that we might all recognize.
Speaker 2: Think of any cough medicine that you've ever purchased in
Speaker 2: your life. Thailand All, Fera, flu, sudafed, Robitussin, Nike will.
Speaker 3: Advil, the good ones, all the good ones.
Speaker 2: Basically all the ones that you can go reach down
Speaker 2: on a shelf and pick up the actual bottle and
Speaker 2: take it to check out. Those are the ones that
Speaker 2: have this.
Speaker 4: And that's not to say that the active ingredients and
Speaker 4: thilan all won't make you feel better on other fronts,
Speaker 4: but they certainly aren't decongesting your nasal passages.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because that's not the only ingredient. That's a great point,
Speaker 3: I think correct.
Speaker 2: But you can get versions of almost all of those
Speaker 2: that are titled like thailan al DM or SUDA fed
Speaker 2: DM or some other thing where it's got a different
Speaker 2: substance in there that functions for that nasal decongestent thing.
Speaker 2: But in this case, the pe stuff doesn't do anything.
Speaker 2: And we're giving you this update because they just announced
Speaker 2: the FDA that is that they are going to seek
Speaker 2: to pull this thing, fenyl efrin, off the market. And
Speaker 2: they did that finally because they concluded that the and
Speaker 2: this is really important, guys, the oral version of penol
Speaker 2: efron is ineffective. The oral They concluded that there are
Speaker 2: other versions of this, other ways to get the medicine
Speaker 2: into your body, which are at much higher concentrations that
Speaker 2: can function as a nasal decongestant, but taking them in
Speaker 2: those ways could potentially be more dangerous and would require
Speaker 2: something like you know, a doctor's note, right, a.
Speaker 3: Servation supervision of something.
Speaker 5: Yes, is it a matter of bioavailability? You hear that
Speaker 5: term thrown around a lot.
Speaker 4: I do wonder like it just doesn't absorb through that method,
Speaker 4: through the oral method, But if you shoot it directly
Speaker 4: into like a muscle or whatever, maybe that works better.
Speaker 2: I'll give you a direct quote from CBS News. Alexander
Speaker 2: Tin wrote this on November seventh, twenty twenty four. If
Speaker 2: you want to look it up, it is titled FDA
Speaker 2: to pull common but ineffective cold medicine from the market.
Speaker 2: Here's the quote. The latest data shows that only a
Speaker 2: tiny fraction of phenyl effrine is absorbed into the body
Speaker 2: when digested from a pill or syrup containing the substance.
Speaker 2: This is different from other formulations like the inhaled nasal
Speaker 2: spray version of the drug, where larger percentages can make
Speaker 2: it into the blood stream. This continues just a little bit. Guys,
Speaker 2: less than one percent of the drug is absorbed into
Speaker 2: the bloodstream after being swallowed, they estimated.
Speaker 4: So it's not to say, yeah, okay, so it's a
Speaker 4: drug itself, isn't bunk, but it's just a method of delivery, right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, just take three hundred percent more.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there you Goike, And for that they say, far
Speaker 2: higher doses like you're suggesting ben could be needed to
Speaker 2: achieve a clinically meaningful outcome, which would raise significant questions
Speaker 2: about safety.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and the other stuff that's packaged in those pills
Speaker 4: that are being sold, you might, you know, have to
Speaker 4: take a fistful of them to even get any and
Speaker 4: That's the thing though, right, what if someone was like, oh,
Speaker 4: it's not working, I'll just take more. Tell now it's
Speaker 4: working a little bit. But now they've overdosed on Thailand. Yeah,
Speaker 4: overdose toxic levels of a set of benefit.
Speaker 2: Which is not good for you. By the way, we've
Speaker 2: learned about a lot of that stuff. The regular drugs
Speaker 2: just don't take too much of them.
Speaker 4: Can you guys picture that like the bolt like game
Speaker 4: of telephone with Big Pharma, where this was decided to
Speaker 4: be a good idea.
Speaker 2: I mean truly they Big Pharma, I would say, does
Speaker 2: not think this is a good idea. Neither does the
Speaker 2: Consumer Healthcare Products Association. They said they are disappointed in
Speaker 2: the FDA's proposal. Oh no, because they say, quote, PE
Speaker 2: should remain an available option for consumers, because Americans deserve
Speaker 2: the option to choose the safe and effective over the
Speaker 2: counter medicines they prefer and rely on.
Speaker 3: That's so lame, that's like say, that's like saying back
Speaker 3: in the sixteen hundreds. Look, consumers should be able to
Speaker 3: dunk someone in water. If they're a witch, that's their choice.
Speaker 2: If they think it's a witch, then they've got to
Speaker 2: be able to dunk them in the water. That's their
Speaker 2: chore we.
Speaker 3: To say big government. So yeah, it's I mean, clearly
Speaker 3: there's a financial incentive at this point. I think that's
Speaker 3: the primary conspiracy, right. The good news for anybody wondering
Speaker 3: is that the individuals who are making the most profit
Speaker 3: off of this, in the pharmaceutical industry, if you're worried
Speaker 3: about them, let us asquatch your concerns. They're gonna be fine.
Speaker 3: They're not going to go in trouble. Nothing bad is
Speaker 3: going to happen to them. They might lose a little
Speaker 3: bit of revenue.
Speaker 2: Well yeah, and well, and FDA eight has that in mind.
Speaker 2: They know, hey, we're taking money out of the pockets
Speaker 2: of big pharma left and right here with this move.
Speaker 2: So what they've done is they've given everyone until May
Speaker 2: seventh of next year, of twenty twenty five to weigh
Speaker 2: in on the pole. That's the public us we get
Speaker 2: to weigh in on this proposal. After that comment period,
Speaker 2: if the FDA decides to revoke this oral fenel efforns
Speaker 2: status as a quote generally recognized as safe and effective
Speaker 2: drug over the counter drug makers, all of the ones
Speaker 2: we listed earlier would be forced to stop using the ingredient.
Speaker 2: But this window is designed so that they can reformulate
Speaker 2: their drugs, come up with something new, some fancy, something exciting,
Speaker 2: something that may also be just as ineffective.
Speaker 3: Yeah, kissing cousin right, an analog drag of pe, some
Speaker 3: kind of synthetic, synthetic version that's just different enough to
Speaker 3: not fall bold into the same regulation. Also, I'm just
Speaker 3: gonna say it. Far be it for me to sound
Speaker 3: paranoid or conspiratorial, but in my experience, you guys, typically
Speaker 3: when those public statement windows occur, typically a non insignificant
Speaker 3: portion of the public making comments tend to be in
Speaker 3: one way or another. They're hired by someone who is
Speaker 3: hired by the larger company to pretend to care about
Speaker 3: a thing.
Speaker 2: The money moves, it really does, you know what?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 2: How else the money moves, Guys, How is that, Matt, Well,
Speaker 2: it moves from your pockets into a delivery driver's hand.
Speaker 2: This is a very common thing. We got super used
Speaker 2: to it about halfway through twenty twenty. Well, there's another
Speaker 2: story in Strange News today that goes directly into your
Speaker 2: delivery fees and the stuff that you pay for that stuff,
Speaker 2: or at least you used to here we go. You
Speaker 2: remember a thing called grub hub, guys, Yes, sure, chubhub
Speaker 2: some people call it. Does anybody still use that? I
Speaker 2: haven't used Grubhub. I went with one of the other ones,
Speaker 2: suber E.
Speaker 3: It's I think it's regionally in community dependent, so your
Speaker 3: mileage may vary often in suburban areas or outside of
Speaker 3: inner city areas where you know, we live in a
Speaker 3: metro area. A lot of people end up using grub
Speaker 3: hub just because it's more consistent and available. So it's
Speaker 3: sort of like, you know, if you don't usually drink soda,
Speaker 3: you go to a restaurant, they'll have pepsi or coke,
Speaker 3: and you'll just sort of go with whatever they have.
Speaker 2: Oh, for sure. The only the only reason I use
Speaker 2: the one that I use for like a delivery, a
Speaker 2: food delivery app, is because somebody else was using it
Speaker 2: one time and I went, oh, I guess i'll get
Speaker 2: that one too, So you got it.
Speaker 3: Now it's normalized during the sandbox exactly.
Speaker 5: Well.
Speaker 2: Grubhub, you guys, was a huge deal during the pandemic,
Speaker 2: so huge, and it was valued so high along with
Speaker 2: all of those other food delivery apps that were not
Speaker 2: new but all of a sudden, everybody was using them
Speaker 2: pracsionally every day or every other day. It was intense. Well,
Speaker 2: they were purchased by a Netherlands based food delivery company
Speaker 2: called just Eat Takeaway for seven point three billion dollars
Speaker 2: US dollars.
Speaker 3: Sorry, I got really larry day that they're yes, okay.
Speaker 2: Seven point three billion US dollars in June of twenty twenty.
Speaker 2: So at the height of pandemic times, this company just
Speaker 2: E Takeaway swooped in and they actually beat out a
Speaker 2: couple other people who were vying to buy grub Hub,
Speaker 2: and they got it. Man, they got that thing, and
Speaker 2: they were like, dude, We're going to take over the
Speaker 2: US markets with this thing. It's going to be gangbusters
Speaker 2: because this is our new normal. Everybody does this all
Speaker 2: the time now. The pandemic world is forever.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and US labor laws are trash, so it's not
Speaker 3: like we have to respect the people working for us.
Speaker 5: But here's the same.
Speaker 4: I mean, people do use these apps like gangbusters, you know.
Speaker 4: I just it would seem that maybe they.
Speaker 5: Bet on the wrong horse.
Speaker 4: Like I'd love to hear some market share data because
Speaker 4: I know people definitely tons of people still you know,
Speaker 4: whether it's holdover from pandemics still used free delivery services.
Speaker 2: Oh for sure, and I still use it every once
Speaker 2: in a while. But it is a it is functioning
Speaker 2: at a very different level than it was when that
Speaker 2: company when grub Hub was purchased for seven point three billion,
Speaker 2: because four years later they just have announced that Just
Speaker 2: Eat Takeaway is selling grub Hub to another thing that
Speaker 2: we've already talked about on the show before, called Wonder
Speaker 2: for six hundred and fifty million.
Speaker 3: Hey on, now that's those of us who are not
Speaker 3: you know, number surgeons or whatever. That seems like they're
Speaker 3: selling it for a little bit less than they bought
Speaker 3: it for.
Speaker 2: A little bit less. It's a loss of about six
Speaker 2: and a half billion dollars with a.
Speaker 3: B US dollars.
Speaker 5: Is this at least a tax right off for these
Speaker 5: poor SAPs?
Speaker 2: Well better be. According to Just Eat Takeaway, they are
Speaker 2: it's gonna help them grow as a company by selling this,
Speaker 2: they're gonna have cash on hand, about six hundred and
Speaker 2: fifty million dollars worth of cash because they're going through problems. Guys, wonder,
Speaker 2: do you recall what that is when we talked about it.
Speaker 3: No, I want to say food related, cause you know
Speaker 3: they bought they bought a food kit service at some point, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, like that. But mostly what Wonder is is
Speaker 2: one of those kitchens that produces a ton of different
Speaker 2: food out of one kitchen that is all branded with
Speaker 2: different Oh yeah, yes, so so like they I think
Speaker 2: they the quote is twenty eight fast casual restaurants mostly
Speaker 2: around New York City and New Jersey and it's a
Speaker 2: they call it a wide range of global cuisines. Right,
Speaker 2: so this company is now going to have its own
Speaker 2: delivery service basically, which if you can just imagine in
Speaker 2: the minds of the people that own Wonder, they just
Speaker 2: dropped six hundred fifty million dollars for their own, like
Speaker 2: I guess catered delivery service thing that they'll also still
Speaker 2: use for other stores, but then they can make theirs
Speaker 2: like top of the line.
Speaker 3: Check out our episode on ghost kitchens as well. That
Speaker 3: was a fun one, I think for all of us.
Speaker 3: And look, their model is not necessarily bad, but they're
Speaker 3: definitely going to leverage that advantage to get there. You know,
Speaker 3: their one kitchen that appears to be eight kitchens a
Speaker 3: little bit higher on the search page, A little bit
Speaker 3: closer to what feels reasonable. I'm I'm not mad at it.
Speaker 3: I'm not mad at it.
Speaker 5: Well, you got a wonder too.
Speaker 4: I wonder the bets that were being placed on ghost
Speaker 4: kitchens during the pandemic have probably not yielded the dividends
Speaker 4: that folks were hoping for because it kind of became
Speaker 4: like almost you know, people were like newer to spot them,
Speaker 4: and they were like getting wise to it because they
Speaker 4: were typically not the best of quality.
Speaker 2: Speaking of quality, past quality, past qualities.
Speaker 5: What was it called?
Speaker 2: Was that the one the pizza?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 2: Sorry, I don't know why my brain did.
Speaker 3: There's great memory.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so, guys. One of the major reasons is something
Speaker 2: you touched on just with a comment been earlier. One
Speaker 2: of the major reasons just Eats was trying to get
Speaker 2: rid of their US food delivery stuff is because of
Speaker 2: those new regulations that have come out about how much
Speaker 2: a food delivery service can charge as a fee. Just
Speaker 2: so we're not talking about the cost of the food.
Speaker 2: We're not talking about the whatever tip you leave the driver,
Speaker 2: the fee that grub hub or door dash or whoever
Speaker 2: can charge just for using their service. New York and
Speaker 2: Jersey and a bunch of other places have capped how
Speaker 2: much you can actually charge a customer.
Speaker 3: Right because it went wild with surge pricing, and you
Speaker 3: can even see it now even if you're in kind
Speaker 3: of a stable financial environment. Go to a restaurant's website
Speaker 3: at your local restaurant that you were about to order
Speaker 3: delivery from, and notice that every item is several dollars
Speaker 3: lower than if you ordered it through Uber Eats or
Speaker 3: grub Hub or door Dash or whatever comes next after that.
Speaker 2: Wow, this is weird stuff, guys. The last thing on
Speaker 2: Wonder because it does feel like this is a pretty
Speaker 2: big power move. And if Wonder is going to expand
Speaker 2: the way I imagine, you know, the owners of it
Speaker 2: wanted to expand, it does feel like one of those
Speaker 2: new things that will exist sometime when my son is
Speaker 2: a little bit older where he's like, uh, well, I
Speaker 2: guess we're gonna order from Wonder tonight, and everybody gets
Speaker 2: what they want from one of the fifty nine stores
Speaker 2: that they have in them at that time or whatever.
Speaker 3: It's the same driver. Yeah, so there might be utility
Speaker 3: to the consumer. That's a really good, great point.
Speaker 2: Well, last thing here, guys, the owners of or at
Speaker 2: least the part owners of Wonder is. It's this thing
Speaker 2: called VCP Ventures. It's co founded by two guys. The
Speaker 2: first one his name is Mark Lore. He is the
Speaker 2: quote Lebron James of e commerce? Oh oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 2: He's the guy who owns Wonder, or at least is
Speaker 2: behind Wonder, and he's behind the Grubha acquisition. The other
Speaker 2: guy that owns VCP Ventures alongside him is a guy
Speaker 2: named Alex Rodriguez. Do you does that sound familiar to y'all?
Speaker 2: Alexez baseball player, baseball, a rod baby, Yeah, yeah, the
Speaker 2: dude from the Yankees. So the little the Lebron James
Speaker 2: of e commerce and a Rod own this thing that
Speaker 2: will eventually be where all of us eat all the time.
Speaker 3: Correct forward to it, and we're looking forward to it.
Speaker 3: What could go wrong with monopolization? What could go wrong
Speaker 3: with everything rising and converging in a capitalistic version of
Speaker 3: what Flannery O'Connor warned us about so long ago?
Speaker 2: Speaking of rising, I think we have a few more
Speaker 2: puns we do we do?
Speaker 3: Uh, let's see r pal Dylan says, every bang, everywhere,
Speaker 3: all at once, to which I reply, what creams may come?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 2: No no, no, no, no, no no no.
Speaker 3: Ocean's eleven art inches.
Speaker 4: Yeses, guys, I think we maybe we've crossed the Oh,
Speaker 4: I've just Edward Penis hands.
Speaker 5: You pointed out, that's a real one.
Speaker 3: That's a real one.
Speaker 5: I've heard of that.
Speaker 4: I don't think it was a Wicked Pictures production though, no,
Speaker 4: apparely we're we're.
Speaker 5: One blue over the cuckoo's nest.
Speaker 3: Oh, I said, one blue over the cuckoo's breast.
Speaker 5: Oh, even better. But it's you know, for for fans
Speaker 5: of classic cinema.
Speaker 3: And then there's one flew over the cuckold's nest would
Speaker 3: be the next logical derivation. Send us your favorite ones, folks.
Speaker 3: We try to be easy to find on email, via
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Speaker 5: It's not a movie.
Speaker 3: No, okay, all right? The Gang Bank.
Speaker 2: Dylan had open Humper.
Speaker 3: That was great goodwill humping, right if we didn't get
Speaker 3: to that one, And of course Gang Banks of New
Speaker 3: York and phill Bill send us your favorite suggestions. If
Speaker 3: we can't wait to hear from you, We're out here
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