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Speaker 1: From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is

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Speaker 1: riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or

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Speaker 1: learn the stuff they don't want you to know. A

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Speaker 1: production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Hello, and welcome back to the show. My name is Noah.

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Speaker 3: Our brother Matthew is on Adventures today but will be

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Speaker 3: returning soon.

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Speaker 2: They call me Ben.

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Speaker 3: We're joined with our guest super producer Max the Free

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Speaker 3: Trade williams chu Chu. Most importantly, you argue you are here.

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Speaker 3: That makes this the stuff they don't want you to know.

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Speaker 3: So everyone, first off, thank you for tuning in, whether

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Speaker 3: on Netflix or on an available podcast platform of your choice.

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Speaker 3: Thank you very much for joining us, and folks, fellow

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Speaker 3: conspiracy realist friends and neighbors. Please make sure you grab

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Speaker 3: a snack for this one. I know sometimes I'll warn

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Speaker 3: people not to eat when they're hearing a specific episode,

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Speaker 3: but this is what you're gonna want to Noch to well.

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Speaker 2: Ben, as you say in the outline here, you do

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Speaker 2: have to eat.

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Speaker 3: Yes, yes, we are quote you don't know checkers don't

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Speaker 3: necessarily have to eat. Checkers from there two thousand and

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Speaker 3: one ad campaign you Gotta Eat. We've talked about it

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Speaker 3: in previous episodes on multiple shows. It's just a brilliant,

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Speaker 3: very honest pitch.

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Speaker 4: It's the good quote Checkers barrier to entry, you know,

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Speaker 4: for sustenance.

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Speaker 2: Well, yeah, you gotta eat, it's sure. Are you a snacker?

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Speaker 2: I am a snacker?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, Yeah, I'm a snacker too. I actually have these

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Speaker 4: little bens in my pantry labeled snacks, and I just

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Speaker 4: try to rotate out fun stuff. A big fan of

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Speaker 4: the like meat sticks and granola bars and rice crispy

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Speaker 4: treats are fine, the kids like those.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. My snacking habits are partially due to my regular

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Speaker 3: sleeping habits. And I also, as you know, Noel, I

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Speaker 3: travel pretty often, so I end up when you when

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Speaker 3: you travel often, you end up aggregating little snacks. Right.

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Speaker 3: You always got this little, what fun size bag of

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Speaker 3: peanuts or almonds and you put them in your backpack. Yeah.

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Speaker 3: Also shout out to good friend of the show, Diana Brown,

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Speaker 3: who years ago comedy writing partner of mine. Years ago,

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Speaker 3: she asked me, how can something be called fun size

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Speaker 3: if there's less of it? This was her objecting to

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Speaker 3: small Halloween candies.

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Speaker 4: And then the question becomes is that what's the opposite

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Speaker 4: of fun size trauma size.

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Speaker 2: And is it large sure or is it smaller? I

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Speaker 2: don't know. These are very important questions to keep us

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Speaker 2: up at night.

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Speaker 3: And we have a series of very important questions coming

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Speaker 3: to us live tonight while we record on Friday, March thirteenth.

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Speaker 3: That's right, Friday the thirteenth. We got the ads coming,

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Speaker 3: We've got the IDEs on the way in about forty

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Speaker 3: eight hours as we record.

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Speaker 4: Now, double whammy of portentiousness, not pretentiousness. I think I

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Speaker 4: got it right the first.

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Speaker 2: You got it.

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Speaker 3: You nailed it, man, So tonight, going back to that

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Speaker 3: series of questions, we are exploring a series of conspiracies

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Speaker 3: that will, by hook or by crook, for cook, impact

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Speaker 3: you directly. It does not matter how you vote, It

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Speaker 3: does not matter what religion you hold, who your parents are,

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Speaker 3: how you personally identify yourself. If you are a human being,

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Speaker 3: at any point in civilization, you have to eat on

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Speaker 3: a semi regular basis or you will die. And I know, right,

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Speaker 3: it's a bummer. It's a great unifier. Though it's true.

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Speaker 2: It's true.

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Speaker 4: I mean death is the ultimate great unifier. I think

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Speaker 4: it's the one thing that none of us know anything

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Speaker 4: about but that we will all one day experience.

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Speaker 3: Right at least for a brief moment. We're still waiting

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Speaker 3: as we record now. We're still waiting on a conversation

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Speaker 3: we had about the spiritualism movement over on our sister

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Speaker 3: show of Ridiculous History. If you are dead and you

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Speaker 3: are hearing this now, tell us about the afterlife.

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Speaker 4: Drop us a review on your podcast platform of choice,

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Speaker 4: the Afterlife.

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Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, give us a heavenly five stars or a

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Speaker 3: hellish five stars. As we'll see in tonight's episode, it

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Speaker 3: may be the case for a lot of people right

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Speaker 3: now that they will die due to starvation, and sooner

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Speaker 3: than you would like to think. This is the story

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Speaker 3: of the looming hunger crisis. We're going to pause for

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Speaker 3: a word from our sponsors, and then let's get into food. No,

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Speaker 3: you're relatively pro food, right.

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Speaker 4: Very pro food. You can almost call me a foodie.

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Speaker 4: But at the very least I do enjoy consuming it

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Speaker 4: for sustenance and survival. Let's take quick break here, a

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Speaker 4: word from our sponsors, and then we'll jump right in.

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Speaker 3: H moment of silence for the brethetarians in the crowd.

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Speaker 3: Here are the facts. Food is one of the biggest

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Speaker 3: businesses in all of human history.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's true.

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Speaker 4: As a general category, at the heart of culture and commerce,

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Speaker 4: eating is, you know, in addition to death, one of

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Speaker 4: the great human unifiers. It has so much potential to

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Speaker 4: define one's personality, one's connection to their ancestors, to culture,

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Speaker 4: as you said, Ben, and it's just a great way

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Speaker 4: of kind of creating community honestly.

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Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, you know, some of the best television

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Speaker 3: produced out of the United States involves folks like Anthony

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Speaker 3: Ordained traveling around in programs like No Reservations where it's

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Speaker 3: kind of a food show, but really it's an anthropological

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Speaker 3: exploration of how food unites people. So regardless of your

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Speaker 3: differences with anyone you have ever met, read about, or

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Speaker 3: heard about, there is a very high likelihood that you

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Speaker 3: could bond with those strangers over a good dish of

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Speaker 3: something tasty, especially if you're both trying it for the

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Speaker 3: first time.

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Speaker 2: Yea.

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Speaker 4: And not to mention too, it's a great way of

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Speaker 4: carrying on the traditions of your family members, your parents,

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Speaker 4: your grandparents before them, being able to kind of recreate

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Speaker 4: history by sharing a dish that was very important to you,

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Speaker 4: perhaps as a child and making it the way your

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Speaker 4: mom or your grandma used to make it.

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Speaker 3: I love that point, yeah, because it does communicate beyond generations, right,

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Speaker 3: we do have people telling a larger story in every plate.

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Speaker 3: And we also know, because humans are literally a captive

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Speaker 3: audience for food that the global food industry is a

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Speaker 3: multi trillion dollar sector. Okay, folks, That means that it

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Speaker 3: is one of the largest, most crucial businesses in the

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Speaker 3: modern world. I think about this often, Nolan Max. The

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Speaker 3: fast food market alone generates over a trillion dollars every year,

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Speaker 3: and I've got to be honest, guys, I'm kind of

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Speaker 3: off the fast food. They kind of lost their value

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Speaker 3: position for me with raising prices.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 4: I occasionally I'll get just a single cheeseburger from McDonald's

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Speaker 4: because there's one pretty close to me, or a snack wrap,

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Speaker 4: but in general I do try to avoid them as

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Speaker 4: well and cook for myself as much as possible. Access

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Speaker 4: to food is a big part of what we're talking

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Speaker 4: about today, and at multiple points it has changed throughout

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Speaker 4: the course of history. An abundance of crops grown on

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Speaker 4: fertile land can be the seat of empires. A drought,

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Speaker 4: on the other hand, as we've talked about, weather patterns

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Speaker 4: and weather events bringing down civilizations and empires can be

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Speaker 4: ruinous to citizens of that empire and the empire empires themselves.

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Speaker 3: Yes, this is true regardless of where you are, who

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Speaker 3: you are, when you are listening. The ever present threat

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Speaker 3: of starvation has haunted humanity since before the dawn of

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Speaker 3: the written word. It haunts humanity still even in twenty

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Speaker 3: twenty six. I mean, let's talk a little bit about famine.

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Speaker 3: The concept of famine, widespread starvation is a danger so

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Speaker 3: historically prevalent and terrifying that it ended up being personified

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Speaker 3: in the Bible as one of the four horsemen of

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Speaker 3: the apocalypse.

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Speaker 4: One of the great plagues, feast or famine. Indeed, famines

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Speaker 4: have occurred throughout history, and sometimes they're caused by arguably

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Speaker 4: preventable factors such as war or more acts of God

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Speaker 4: like natural disasters. Sometimes they're caused by human error, greed, malice,

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Speaker 4: poor government policies are some examples of that.

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Speaker 2: Some notable events.

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Speaker 4: I know we love to make fun of the idea

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Speaker 4: of the great bad thing, but the Great Famine in

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Speaker 4: Europe from thirteen fifteen to thirteen seventeen, the Irish potato

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Speaker 4: famine another one of the hits there, and of course

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Speaker 4: the Great Chinese Famine. Those great things got to go

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Speaker 4: through the birds from nineteen fifty nine to nineteen sixty one,

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Speaker 4: collectively resulting in millions of fatalities and immeasurable impacts on

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Speaker 4: the societies that they affected that can still be felt

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Speaker 4: into the modern day in many cases.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and I want to go back to that point, folks,

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Speaker 3: human error, malice, poor government policies. You don't necessarily need

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Speaker 3: a natural disaster and act of God to result in

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Speaker 3: widespread starvation. Soviet stalinistic policies absolutely resulted in millions of

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Speaker 3: preventable deaths, as did things like Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward.

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Speaker 3: The humans can be the problem now. Luckily, sometimes the

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Speaker 3: humans can be the solution. If you look back at

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Speaker 3: the history of starvation and food and secure and under

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Speaker 3: nourishment and famine, what you'll see is that the evolution

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Speaker 3: of technology in specific fields saved not just millions, but

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Speaker 3: billions of innocent people's lives. We're talking about breakthroughs in

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Speaker 3: agriculture and storage and processing and transportation. And I just

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Speaker 3: got a joke that I apparently wrote earlier breakthroughs in

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Speaker 3: technology in the fields of agriculture. Ben come on, man,

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Speaker 3: all right, anyway, this this wilds like you know, like yeah,

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Speaker 3: fields of grain, the fields history.

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Speaker 4: Oh boy, you know, even things that might not immediately

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Speaker 4: resonate as technology. Agricultural techniques like crop rotation for sure.

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Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, like the Three Sisters that be a famous

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Speaker 3: example here in the United States. We also have to

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Speaker 3: shout out our pal Norman Borlog, the father of the

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Speaker 3: Green Revolution, who provably saved billions of lives. To your point, no,

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Speaker 3: better farming techniques which our technology lead to better crop yields,

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Speaker 3: and then better storage technology guarantees fewer crops will spoil.

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Speaker 3: And then add to that better transportation right, better trade

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Speaker 3: networks and logistic chains. That this means that if people

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Speaker 3: are starving in one area, you, if you're a good person,

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Speaker 3: you have a better chance of getting food to them

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Speaker 3: from your area before a disaster occurs. Food insecurity has

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Speaker 3: always been a threat in certain areas of the world,

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Speaker 3: but international initiatives made huge leaps in assisting the needy

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Speaker 3: and the starving and saving them from the horrors of old.

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Speaker 4: Things like the USAID for example, Other outreach programs to

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Speaker 4: help country is experiencing food insecurity feed their citizens. It

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Speaker 4: seems kind of like a no brainer that this type

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Speaker 4: of thing is good for all.

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Speaker 3: I would think, yeah, one would think right, because one

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Speaker 3: would be a decent person thinking in that scenario. However,

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Speaker 3: this may not be the case for long. In recent decades, academics, activists, analysts, economist, politicians,

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Speaker 3: they've been raising a stark warning. The rules of the game,

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Speaker 3: the starvation game. Those rules are shifting right now as

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Speaker 3: we record, there's a little bit less than eight point

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Speaker 3: three billion human beings on the planet.

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Speaker 2: We often go to a thing.

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Speaker 3: Called world Ometer or world dometer, and if we go there,

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Speaker 3: the current population is eight billion, two hundred and eighty

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Speaker 3: one million, twenty nine thousand, and oh that last keeps ticket.

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Speaker 2: It's gotta change going up.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, And I think most folks can acknowledge, even

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Speaker 4: just from experiential data, that.

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Speaker 2: There's something going on with the climate. Storms are getting worse,

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Speaker 2: oh yeah.

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Speaker 4: Certain seasons are feeling a little different than they have

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Speaker 4: in the past. Colder winters, hotter summers, stuff like that.

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Speaker 4: And I don't think that's a political statement. It's something

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Speaker 4: that people can just go outside and feel the results

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Speaker 4: of themselves.

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Speaker 2: This idea of climate shock.

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Speaker 4: Weather patterns, temperatures, seasonal conditions that were once predictable are

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Speaker 4: now becoming much much less so, as you put up

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Speaker 4: in going a little bit haywire, and this is really

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Speaker 4: bad news for a lot of crops and hunting patterns

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Speaker 4: that really depend on this predictability.

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Speaker 2: At least you know a certain amount of it.

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Speaker 3: One and you've probably seen it in your neck of

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Speaker 3: the global woods, folks. So this is for the perhaps

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Speaker 3: the older conspiracy realist in the crowd. We would love

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Speaker 3: to hear your personal anecdotal experience with large weather changes

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Speaker 3: in your neck of the woods. Conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.

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Speaker 3: We cannot underestimate the impact of climate shock. We also

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Speaker 3: know there is a human impact. Political and economic chaos

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Speaker 3: is breaking the logistic chains of food supply and availability.

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Speaker 3: Check this out, folks. The UN's World Food Program recently

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Speaker 3: noted that three hundred and eighteen million people face not

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Speaker 3: just food insecurity, but crisis levels of hunger or full

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Speaker 3: on starvation next year. That is more than double the

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Speaker 3: number recorded just a few years ago in twenty nineteen,

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Speaker 3: and part of the reason the number is spiking globally

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Speaker 3: is due to two simultaneous famines occurring right now, one

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Speaker 3: in Gaza, one in Soudan. It is the first time

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Speaker 3: in this century that to acknowledge, real life famines have

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Speaker 3: been occurring simultaneously.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, and sadly, that's just the beginning. Experts, many numerous

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Speaker 4: experts agree that things are likely going to get worse

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Speaker 4: before they get better, and that we may be looking

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Speaker 4: at a looming global hunger crisis right there on the horizon,

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Speaker 4: and it soon might reach you directly.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's on the horizon and it may be at

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Speaker 3: your doorstep sooner than we would like to acknowledge. We'll

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Speaker 3: be back after a word from our sponsors. We're going

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Speaker 3: to dive into this. Here's where it gets crazy, okay,

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Speaker 3: Noel Max. We could say the global hunger crisis has

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Speaker 3: already been around for a while. God knows, famine is historical,

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Speaker 3: but now we can say it's escalating because we have

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Speaker 3: a lot of statistics to back it up.

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Speaker 2: That's right.

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Speaker 4: One such statistic comes from the World Health Organization in

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Speaker 4: twenty twenty four, finding that one and eleven people faced

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Speaker 4: hunger across the globe.

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Speaker 2: Back in twenty twenty three. One out of.

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Speaker 4: Five of those people lived on the African continent. All

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Speaker 4: in all, that's nearly seven hundred and thirty three million

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Speaker 4: people affected.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and this also means that the global effort to

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Speaker 3: address or even fix starvation has fallen backwards. The levels

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Speaker 3: of what we call under nourishment are now comparable to

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Speaker 3: what the world saw back in two thousand and eight

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Speaker 3: to two thousand and nine. If we fast forward to

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Speaker 3: just last year, November of twenty twenty five, we see

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Speaker 3: that the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the World

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Speaker 3: Food Program that's the FAO and the WFP for anybody who,

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Speaker 3: like us, loves acronyms, they found quote acute food insecurity

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Speaker 3: is set to worsen in sixteen countries and territories between

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Speaker 3: now November twenty twenty five and May twenty twenty six.

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Speaker 3: We are going downhill fast. And if you look at

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Speaker 3: their website you can find this excellent, disturbing infographic of

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Speaker 3: what we call early warning hunger hotspots. No, you and

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Speaker 3: I have gotten a chance to look at this, and

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Speaker 3: we see that a lot of it is in the

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Speaker 3: African continent. And could you maybe walk us through this infographic?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, We've got three color codes here, hot spots of

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Speaker 4: highest concern darker blue, hot spots of very high concern

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Speaker 4: sort of a medium blue, and then hot spots just

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Speaker 4: regular old hotspots a light blue. And to your point earlier, Ben,

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Speaker 4: the Sudan and South Sudan would be considered hot spots

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Speaker 4: of highest concern. Malli also falls under that category as well,

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Speaker 4: as I believe that's Yemen.

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Speaker 2: That's right.

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Speaker 4: Then in the hot spots a very high concern, we

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Speaker 4: see Afghanistan, Syrian Arab Republic, let's see mianmar and I

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Speaker 4: believe no, yeah, Democratic Republic of.

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Speaker 2: Congo as well.

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Speaker 4: And then the just regular old hotspots we've got Chad Kenya.

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Speaker 4: And then finally we have the re Rehinga refugees in Bangladesh,

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Speaker 4: just specifically isolated referring to displaced population there.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, this is when you look at it all in.

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Speaker 4: One place, I mean, and the hotspots are all kind

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Speaker 4: of clustered together. There's a few outliers, but mainly it's

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Speaker 4: kind of right there in the you know, a little

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Speaker 4: bit north and central part of the African continent.

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Speaker 3: Right. We also see to the point about outliers, we

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Speaker 3: see that Haiti is struggling with food insecurity, it's a

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Speaker 3: hot spot of highest concern. We also see that one

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Speaker 3: of the world's fastest growing economies, Nigeria, is a hot

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Speaker 3: spot of high concerns. So politics diatribes aside. We're seeing

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Speaker 3: libraries worth of statistics pointing to and beat me here, Max,

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Speaker 3: beat me here, Netflix pointing to bad ahead. So we

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Speaker 3: have to ask what is causing this. The boffins tell

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Speaker 3: us there are four primary factors, conflict, climate, economy, and displacement.

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Speaker 3: So maybe we go in reverse, or since we just

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Speaker 3: alluded to the concept of displacement, what is displacement, Well.

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Speaker 4: That would be folks that are forced to flee due

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Speaker 4: to war, economic instability, and ecosystems that are failing. Massive

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Speaker 4: groups of people are moving, are migrating in some places

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Speaker 4: at levels that we haven't seen since World War Two.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and to be clear, fellow conspiracy realist, these folks

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Speaker 3: being displaced, these folks migrating, they are not a foreign army.

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Speaker 3: They're not being paid to move. They're not out for

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Speaker 3: some kind of shenanigans. They're not even relocating for a

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Speaker 3: nice job offered. They're often already vulnerable, impoverished. They were

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Speaker 3: probably just making it before the weather went wild where

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Speaker 3: the bombs started dropping. The people who can escape do

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Speaker 3: their best to escape, and sometimes often it's for their

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Speaker 3: own survival, but more often than not, these folks are

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Speaker 3: escaping to guarantee the survival of their children and their

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Speaker 3: loved ones.

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Speaker 2: Right.

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Speaker 3: You know, a single guy might just sit around and

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Speaker 3: die in a monsoon plane or join the army. But

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Speaker 3: if that single guy has you know, a spouse, a partner,

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Speaker 3: three kids who depend on them, then they're going to

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Speaker 3: try to find a safe place for their children. People

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Speaker 3: are literally drowning right now, and at the same time,

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Speaker 3: people are literally dying for lack of water. There's sometimes

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Speaker 3: called climate migrants or climate refugees. We discussed this in

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Speaker 3: a previous episode this I think it was our brain

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Speaker 3: Drain episode.

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Speaker 4: Well, sure, because the origin countries lose out on their

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Speaker 4: workforce and their tax base, so they're suffering. And then

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Speaker 4: the destination countries often are not set up for this

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Speaker 4: mass influx of humans and that in terms of infrastructure, overrun,

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Speaker 4: emergency preparedness, things like that, and they are forced to

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Speaker 4: kind of go into kind of overdrive because they simply

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Speaker 4: haven't built out the infrastructure to sustain this new flux,

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Speaker 4: of a new influx rather of hungry people who often

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Speaker 4: need medical attention as well, not to mention other human

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Speaker 4: needs like employment, educational services, and things like.

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Speaker 3: That exactly, And this can create a feedback loop.

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Speaker 2: Hunger.

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Speaker 3: We're saying here is hunger can become contagious because folks

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Speaker 3: in the destination country may end up saying things are

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Speaker 3: going wrong here, so I have to find somewhere else for.

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Speaker 2: Me to move right.

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Speaker 3: And now we have a new iteration of what we

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Speaker 3: could call climate migrants or climate refugees. And a lot

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Speaker 3: of this goes back to our next cause, a second

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Speaker 3: cause of the four causes of famine, the four horsemen

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Speaker 3: of famine economy. Okay, the economy is a man made thing,

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Speaker 3: but it can have wonderful and disastrous effects on the

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Speaker 3: natural world. So sluggish global growth economic stressors we call them.

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Speaker 3: This can be linked to things like pandemic recovery, the

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Speaker 3: fallout from the ongoing war in Ukraine. This affects low

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Speaker 3: and middle income countries way more than it affects the

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Speaker 3: more high falluting countries. So when the midterm of the future,

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Speaker 3: this encourages displacement and perhaps more importantly, it leads to

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Speaker 3: cuts in social protection programs and international aid. And we've

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Speaker 3: all seen this. I imagine in times of crisis, countries

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Speaker 3: will often sort of circle their wagons, They'll draw in inward,

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Speaker 3: they'll go way from the problems the wider world. They'll

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Speaker 3: say things like America first, a little too on the nose.

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Speaker 3: But this creates another feedback loop because when you cut

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Speaker 3: those programs domestically and abroad, that worsens the economy of

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Speaker 3: the countries that used to receive that assistance, which triggers

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Speaker 3: more displacement, which triggers more economic chaos, which triggers more hunger.

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Speaker 3: How do we like, what if there is a world

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Speaker 3: where everybody has to fill out a survey and they say, hey,

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Speaker 3: the survey says, hey, you have to move in the

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Speaker 3: next six months or the next year and a half

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Speaker 3: where you're going to go to avoid starvation? That answer

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Speaker 3: gets a lot trickier every year due to our third factor,

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Speaker 3: our third horseman here, the climate.

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Speaker 2: That's right, and you know, we.

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Speaker 4: Feels like it shouldn't be aal issue again for the

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Speaker 4: aforementioned you know, just kind of observable examples of this

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Speaker 4: stuff happening. But We certainly know that it has been

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Speaker 4: weaponized in terms of political rhetoric, this idea of climate

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Speaker 4: change being a hoax of some sort perpetrated by our enemies,

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Speaker 4: various lines of thinking like that that seemed to be

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Speaker 4: pretty easily debunked. However, it does seem to be relatively

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Speaker 4: effective for some folks. So I think we can all

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Speaker 4: agree that in some way, shape or form, there's something

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Speaker 4: going on with the climate, and it ain't good by

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Speaker 4: any credible measurement. The climate is changing and it is

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Speaker 4: not changing for the better. We can also see this

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Speaker 4: over time, you know, like if we look at ancient

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Speaker 4: history and we look at things like ice ages and

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Speaker 4: various global shifts in climate. This is not the first

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Speaker 4: time something like this has happened. So while the silver

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Speaker 4: lining of something like the pandemic lockdown was something everyone

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Speaker 4: was talking about with kind of rose colored glasses, Oh,

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Speaker 4: the dolphins have returned to the canals and various things

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Speaker 4: like that, and the earth, Mother Earth is repairing herself

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Speaker 4: because no one's going outside. There was some of that,

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Speaker 4: but it doesn't take long to walk some of that

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Speaker 4: stuff back once people get back to peopling, right, it.

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Speaker 3: Was a short time out when the world was in lockdown,

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Speaker 3: and that short timeout was far from enough to set

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Speaker 3: civilization back on the right course. Like folks here as well,

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Speaker 3: it doesn't really matter how great your economy is on

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Speaker 3: paper if no one can grow food. The historical bread

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Speaker 3: baskets of human agriculture are under intense threat, and there's

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Speaker 3: often not a lot of political will to save them, honestly,

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Speaker 3: because primarily I see it as two reasons.

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Speaker 2: All right.

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Speaker 3: First off, it's hard to get political will to save

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Speaker 3: your food because it can mean a temporary loss and

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Speaker 3: profit for businesses that run most governments. And then also,

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Speaker 3: the results of a large scale conservation program are often

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Speaker 3: not immediate. These are deferred benefits, right, It takes years

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Speaker 3: or decades to see the results, and deferred benefit is

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Speaker 3: largely an alien concept to Western politicians and the public.

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Speaker 3: I mean, most Americans right now do not live on

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Speaker 3: a farm. They do depend upon the products a farm creates,

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Speaker 3: and so there's a disconnect here. But that disconnect doesn't

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Speaker 3: exist in the same way in the rest of the world.

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Speaker 3: If you go to rural areas across the planet, you

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Speaker 3: see a lot of people have to farm for survival

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Speaker 3: rather than for profit. So one bad season can mean

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Speaker 3: the end of your world as you know it.

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Speaker 4: Yeah no, no, yeah, And we don't feel that great

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Speaker 4: about it, certainly not fine.

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Speaker 2: It's one of those things too, that feels like.

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Speaker 4: In this country in any case, a product of the

438
00:29:16,760 --> 00:29:24,920
Speaker 4: commercialization of everything, you know, just like the profits over everything, think,

439
00:29:25,040 --> 00:29:29,480
Speaker 4: putting things outside of the category of human rights and necessities.

440
00:29:30,240 --> 00:29:32,720
Speaker 4: It just doesn't seem like that attitude exists here like

441
00:29:32,760 --> 00:29:34,720
Speaker 4: it does in other parts of the world. That food

442
00:29:34,800 --> 00:29:37,200
Speaker 4: is a human right, that food stability is a human right,

443
00:29:37,240 --> 00:29:40,240
Speaker 4: that healthcare is a human right, et cetera. Not to

444
00:29:40,280 --> 00:29:43,360
Speaker 4: be soap oxy at all, but it just you look

445
00:29:43,400 --> 00:29:45,840
Speaker 4: elsewhere like you're saying, and it just feels like these

446
00:29:46,320 --> 00:29:50,719
Speaker 4: systems are treated much more as necessities rather than something

447
00:29:50,760 --> 00:29:53,120
Speaker 4: that is intended to make money for the you know,

448
00:29:53,520 --> 00:29:55,120
Speaker 4: the select few.

449
00:29:55,440 --> 00:29:59,480
Speaker 3: Right the upper crust, back when people could still easily

450
00:29:59,520 --> 00:30:04,480
Speaker 3: make so you know, if you are most people on

451
00:30:04,600 --> 00:30:10,560
Speaker 3: the planet, statistically you are one bad season away from

452
00:30:10,720 --> 00:30:14,720
Speaker 3: true disaster, and you could easily find yourself due to

453
00:30:14,840 --> 00:30:18,280
Speaker 3: circumstances outside of your control and everyone else in your

454
00:30:18,280 --> 00:30:22,760
Speaker 3: community starving. This is all these three factors can all

455
00:30:22,840 --> 00:30:29,000
Speaker 3: occur without our fourth horsemen of starvation, which is conflict.

456
00:30:29,240 --> 00:30:35,360
Speaker 3: Nearly seventy percent of acutely food insecure people live in

457
00:30:35,640 --> 00:30:41,640
Speaker 3: conflict affected areas as of twenty twenty five. The wars

458
00:30:41,680 --> 00:30:47,480
Speaker 3: don't help nobody. No big population is getting well fed

459
00:30:48,120 --> 00:30:52,120
Speaker 3: off of human violence. The instability brought on by conflicts

460
00:30:52,160 --> 00:30:56,360
Speaker 3: in the Middle East, East, Central West Africa, the Caribbean,

461
00:30:57,160 --> 00:31:00,600
Speaker 3: Southern Asia, Eastern Europe, they all play a role in

462
00:31:00,640 --> 00:31:04,800
Speaker 3: the looming hunger crisis because you know, it is when

463
00:31:04,800 --> 00:31:09,040
Speaker 3: you're in a war, food production is disrupted, people are

464
00:31:09,040 --> 00:31:11,760
Speaker 3: forced from their homes, they lose their jobs, or they

465
00:31:11,760 --> 00:31:14,600
Speaker 3: can't go to work because their buildings are getting bombed.

466
00:31:14,960 --> 00:31:20,280
Speaker 3: This also means that international aid programs are not able

467
00:31:20,400 --> 00:31:24,200
Speaker 3: to reach the people who need their help, if those

468
00:31:24,240 --> 00:31:29,520
Speaker 3: programs even still exist, or you know, sometimes countries draw

469
00:31:29,640 --> 00:31:34,760
Speaker 3: inward and they cut off the aid they used to provide.

470
00:31:35,280 --> 00:31:38,440
Speaker 3: This is perhaps the biggest twist of our story here, folks.

471
00:31:38,960 --> 00:31:41,600
Speaker 3: Right now, we've up to now we've been talking about

472
00:31:41,600 --> 00:31:46,160
Speaker 3: a looming hunger crisis in the globe overall. But if

473
00:31:46,200 --> 00:31:50,680
Speaker 3: you are in the United States, the Americas, you need

474
00:31:50,720 --> 00:31:55,480
Speaker 3: to realize that this crisis is coming to your doorstep.

475
00:31:55,560 --> 00:31:58,120
Speaker 3: We're going to take a quick break for a word

476
00:31:58,120 --> 00:32:10,600
Speaker 3: from our sponsors, and we'll get to some specific flashpoints.

477
00:32:07,080 --> 00:32:07,840
Speaker 2: And we're back.

478
00:32:07,920 --> 00:32:11,360
Speaker 4: So by now, we're certainly unfamiliar with how the kinds

479
00:32:11,400 --> 00:32:13,280
Speaker 4: of factors that we've been talking about can lead to

480
00:32:13,320 --> 00:32:14,680
Speaker 4: widespread hunger.

481
00:32:15,080 --> 00:32:17,480
Speaker 2: In places often that seem very.

482
00:32:17,320 --> 00:32:21,760
Speaker 4: Far removed from our lives everyday lives here as American citizens,

483
00:32:21,760 --> 00:32:25,120
Speaker 4: places like Gaza, Sudan, the Middle East in general, but

484
00:32:25,720 --> 00:32:29,120
Speaker 4: Americans in the audience may well be surprised to learn

485
00:32:29,640 --> 00:32:32,720
Speaker 4: that a version of this hunger crisis could well be

486
00:32:33,080 --> 00:32:35,800
Speaker 4: on the way here in the States. We've certainly talked

487
00:32:35,840 --> 00:32:39,240
Speaker 4: about things like food deserts in the past, and just

488
00:32:39,400 --> 00:32:43,200
Speaker 4: lack of access for folks that maybe are on a

489
00:32:43,280 --> 00:32:48,080
Speaker 4: lower economic and a lower economic bracket living in certain

490
00:32:48,120 --> 00:32:51,320
Speaker 4: parts of the country or certain parts of states that

491
00:32:51,440 --> 00:32:56,000
Speaker 4: just don't have the same access to fresh foods that

492
00:32:56,040 --> 00:32:59,560
Speaker 4: other places might. This is only a small part of

493
00:32:59,640 --> 00:33:01,760
Speaker 4: the problem that we're talking about today.

494
00:33:01,960 --> 00:33:04,920
Speaker 3: You're right, and it may be difficult to figure out

495
00:33:04,920 --> 00:33:08,480
Speaker 3: a solution before it is too late. I'd like to

496
00:33:08,520 --> 00:33:12,120
Speaker 3: shout out an earlier episode we did called oh DOGE

497
00:33:12,400 --> 00:33:17,200
Speaker 3: the Department of Government Efficiency, which despite its name is

498
00:33:17,320 --> 00:33:23,880
Speaker 3: neither an actual government department nor that efficient in practice.

499
00:33:24,600 --> 00:33:27,000
Speaker 4: And if I, just if I may have been recently,

500
00:33:27,040 --> 00:33:29,800
Speaker 4: there have been some depositions released this isn't to do

501
00:33:29,840 --> 00:33:31,640
Speaker 4: with today's topic by some.

502
00:33:31,560 --> 00:33:35,000
Speaker 2: Of the very young men.

503
00:33:35,200 --> 00:33:38,160
Speaker 4: Like big balls, like big balls that were involved in

504
00:33:38,200 --> 00:33:40,960
Speaker 4: slashing a lot of these programs. Specifically, the clips that

505
00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:43,520
Speaker 4: I've seen have to do with DEI grants or grants

506
00:33:43,520 --> 00:33:46,840
Speaker 4: that are identified as having to do with DEI, whatever

507
00:33:46,880 --> 00:33:51,280
Speaker 4: that means in their parlance. But these, some of these

508
00:33:51,280 --> 00:33:53,760
Speaker 4: same folks are the types that we're responsible for slashing

509
00:33:53,760 --> 00:33:56,000
Speaker 4: the programs that we're talking about today. And just to

510
00:33:56,040 --> 00:33:58,520
Speaker 4: get a look at them, look them right in the

511
00:33:58,520 --> 00:34:00,160
Speaker 4: eye and see the way they respond to some of

512
00:34:00,200 --> 00:34:02,680
Speaker 4: the questions that are being posed to them, really calls

513
00:34:02,680 --> 00:34:07,440
Speaker 4: into question the kind of judgment that these young twenty

514
00:34:07,520 --> 00:34:09,399
Speaker 4: somethings are exercising.

515
00:34:10,200 --> 00:34:14,520
Speaker 3: Right. We also see a struggle defining what they mean

516
00:34:14,600 --> 00:34:18,560
Speaker 3: by DEI, and we also see a clear lack of

517
00:34:18,600 --> 00:34:22,680
Speaker 3: bona fides in many of these people. Most troubling to

518
00:34:22,760 --> 00:34:28,200
Speaker 3: me on that one, folks is the Russian connection story

519
00:34:28,239 --> 00:34:32,400
Speaker 3: for another day. Cough cough. Here let's look at why

520
00:34:32,480 --> 00:34:36,160
Speaker 3: there is going to be a looming hunger crisis right now,

521
00:34:36,960 --> 00:34:41,120
Speaker 3: fellow United Staters. Oh which side note? Did you know

522
00:34:41,239 --> 00:34:43,920
Speaker 3: that's the phrase we used to use, not Americans, We

523
00:34:44,000 --> 00:34:48,000
Speaker 3: used to call ourselves United Staters. No way, yes, wait

524
00:34:48,040 --> 00:34:52,439
Speaker 3: to I dig that because we're like stating a united thing.

525
00:34:52,640 --> 00:34:53,960
Speaker 3: I thought it was a good I thought I was.

526
00:34:54,080 --> 00:34:56,320
Speaker 2: Well, kid, I'm away with that's good branding.

527
00:34:57,239 --> 00:35:03,000
Speaker 3: So all right, fellow United Statures, my fellow Americans. The

528
00:35:03,120 --> 00:35:08,719
Speaker 3: US Department of Agriculture, for more than thirty years, they

529
00:35:08,760 --> 00:35:13,239
Speaker 3: would publish a pretty in depth report on hunger and

530
00:35:13,280 --> 00:35:19,359
Speaker 3: food insecurity in the US. Very recently they canceled this

531
00:35:19,560 --> 00:35:24,359
Speaker 3: annual report again took place once a year like clockwork

532
00:35:24,440 --> 00:35:28,879
Speaker 3: for decades. They had a press release announcing the cancelation,

533
00:35:29,160 --> 00:35:32,480
Speaker 3: and they said it is they're canceling the report on

534
00:35:32,600 --> 00:35:38,240
Speaker 3: hunger because it is politicized, It is quote subjective liberal fodder,

535
00:35:38,719 --> 00:35:41,600
Speaker 3: and it does nothing more than fearmonger.

536
00:35:41,880 --> 00:35:43,560
Speaker 4: Well, that's the argument you see about a lot of

537
00:35:43,560 --> 00:35:47,279
Speaker 4: this stuff. Climate change is one of them, right, that

538
00:35:47,280 --> 00:35:50,279
Speaker 4: it's this Chinese hoax, that it's nothing but a bunch

539
00:35:50,320 --> 00:35:52,480
Speaker 4: of smoke that's designed to freak people out.

540
00:35:53,600 --> 00:35:55,200
Speaker 2: But yeah, we see data backing that up.

541
00:35:55,239 --> 00:35:57,800
Speaker 4: And we certainly see data backing this stuff up as well,

542
00:35:58,080 --> 00:36:03,120
Speaker 4: So I think that assessment is short sighted at the

543
00:36:03,239 --> 00:36:06,520
Speaker 4: very least, intentionally misleading at the very worst.

544
00:36:07,080 --> 00:36:11,040
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's very oversized. Floorsheim shoes writing.

545
00:36:12,239 --> 00:36:13,920
Speaker 5: Have we talked about this on the podcast we did?

546
00:36:14,800 --> 00:36:18,960
Speaker 5: I saw a picture the other day. Yeah, wearing those

547
00:36:19,080 --> 00:36:22,360
Speaker 5: big shoes too much? Man, it's too much.

548
00:36:22,719 --> 00:36:22,959
Speaker 1: Yeah.

549
00:36:23,760 --> 00:36:27,480
Speaker 3: Check out our weekly Strange News segment for more on that,

550
00:36:27,680 --> 00:36:31,680
Speaker 3: available wherever you find your favorite shows. We know that

551
00:36:32,520 --> 00:36:36,880
Speaker 3: this announcement from the USDA is part of the administration's

552
00:36:37,760 --> 00:36:43,280
Speaker 3: larger move to suppress data on the impact of recent

553
00:36:43,480 --> 00:36:49,240
Speaker 3: economic policies. But hiding the data does not hide the consequences.

554
00:36:49,480 --> 00:36:49,719
Speaker 2: You know.

555
00:36:49,800 --> 00:36:51,880
Speaker 3: You can hide the status, you can hide the numbers,

556
00:36:51,920 --> 00:36:54,160
Speaker 3: but you can't hide the damage. This is where we

557
00:36:54,239 --> 00:36:58,160
Speaker 3: go to a journalist named Anne Kim writing for the

558
00:36:58,360 --> 00:36:59,640
Speaker 3: Washington Monthly.

559
00:37:00,120 --> 00:37:03,799
Speaker 4: That's right, and she says this Millions of Americans could

560
00:37:03,800 --> 00:37:06,640
Speaker 4: soon face going hungry due to ballooning costs, a weakening

561
00:37:06,680 --> 00:37:11,120
Speaker 4: labor market, and catastrophic cuts to food assistance programs. Ben,

562
00:37:12,120 --> 00:37:15,640
Speaker 4: We've been hearing a lot of talk about affordability, things

563
00:37:15,680 --> 00:37:19,440
Speaker 4: like that the cost of groceries, etc. Groceries this fancy

564
00:37:19,440 --> 00:37:22,240
Speaker 4: new word that we're all hearing for the very first time.

565
00:37:22,840 --> 00:37:24,839
Speaker 2: How much could a banana cost? Michael Right.

566
00:37:24,920 --> 00:37:27,799
Speaker 4: I mean, it's one of those things where you can

567
00:37:28,040 --> 00:37:32,960
Speaker 4: have someone tell you that prices are going down and

568
00:37:33,040 --> 00:37:37,719
Speaker 4: throw around some stats that are admittedly self serving and misleading,

569
00:37:38,000 --> 00:37:40,239
Speaker 4: but you're the one who knows how much you're paying

570
00:37:40,280 --> 00:37:45,280
Speaker 4: for stuff. I heard a caller on a radio show

571
00:37:45,400 --> 00:37:48,600
Speaker 4: a couple of weeks ago talking about how she's a

572
00:37:48,640 --> 00:37:51,960
Speaker 4: retiree on Social Security, talking about how she's having to

573
00:37:52,040 --> 00:37:56,680
Speaker 4: ration can goods and a banana because the food assistance

574
00:37:56,719 --> 00:37:59,920
Speaker 4: that she used to receive, which already was pretty meager,

575
00:38:00,480 --> 00:38:03,520
Speaker 4: has been slashed just horrifically.

576
00:38:03,640 --> 00:38:05,040
Speaker 2: And this woman was in tears.

577
00:38:05,239 --> 00:38:10,640
Speaker 4: And I feel like that is not liberal heard hunt

578
00:38:10,680 --> 00:38:12,440
Speaker 4: sleeve kind of stuff.

579
00:38:12,600 --> 00:38:15,600
Speaker 2: It is a observable.

580
00:38:15,080 --> 00:38:17,000
Speaker 4: Consequence of some of these kinds of things that we're

581
00:38:17,000 --> 00:38:19,760
Speaker 4: talking about in these programs being slashed. You'll also recall

582
00:38:19,840 --> 00:38:26,520
Speaker 4: that during the government shutdown, extending these subsidies for things

583
00:38:26,640 --> 00:38:30,239
Speaker 4: like food assistants was weaponized and used as a bargaining chip.

584
00:38:31,640 --> 00:38:32,719
Speaker 2: Yeah, and this is.

585
00:38:34,719 --> 00:38:40,279
Speaker 3: An apolitical point, even though the problem is exacerbated by

586
00:38:40,600 --> 00:38:44,440
Speaker 3: political headwinds. This is an issue that has been brewing

587
00:38:44,600 --> 00:38:49,640
Speaker 3: for some time. And Folks, there are countless anecdotes you

588
00:38:49,680 --> 00:38:53,400
Speaker 3: can read right now, people in the US who are

589
00:38:53,680 --> 00:38:58,560
Speaker 3: by no means bad people. They depend upon, They depend

590
00:38:58,640 --> 00:39:04,000
Speaker 3: upon the programs that will allow them to reach economic prosperity,

591
00:39:04,120 --> 00:39:08,360
Speaker 3: will ensure the success of their family and their children.

592
00:39:08,680 --> 00:39:11,719
Speaker 3: But these problems have been on the horizon for a

593
00:39:11,880 --> 00:39:14,840
Speaker 3: long time. And here's why I say it's a political

594
00:39:15,120 --> 00:39:20,600
Speaker 3: because well before the current US administration, hunger in America

595
00:39:20,760 --> 00:39:25,959
Speaker 3: had already been on the rise. Fellow conspiracy realists, millions

596
00:39:26,000 --> 00:39:30,719
Speaker 3: of Americans. Four years, increasing numbers of Americans have been

597
00:39:30,760 --> 00:39:35,520
Speaker 3: reporting difficulties in affording food. They've been cutting the size

598
00:39:35,560 --> 00:39:38,200
Speaker 3: of the meals they would have, they've been skipping meals

599
00:39:38,239 --> 00:39:43,360
Speaker 3: altogether so their children could eat. The federal government deems

600
00:39:43,360 --> 00:39:47,640
Speaker 3: a person food insecure if there I think the quote goes,

601
00:39:48,120 --> 00:39:52,399
Speaker 3: if their ability to acquire adequate food is limited by

602
00:39:52,440 --> 00:39:56,280
Speaker 3: a lack of money or other resources. And it turns

603
00:39:56,280 --> 00:40:01,440
Speaker 3: out a growing more than ten percent of people in

604
00:40:01,480 --> 00:40:04,399
Speaker 3: the United States are food and secure right now by

605
00:40:04,400 --> 00:40:05,799
Speaker 3: the government's own definition.

606
00:40:06,080 --> 00:40:08,919
Speaker 4: Right The USDA put out a report in twenty twenty

607
00:40:09,000 --> 00:40:13,280
Speaker 4: three before I believe further instances of this report got canceled,

608
00:40:13,520 --> 00:40:16,000
Speaker 4: finding that thirteen point five percent of US households were

609
00:40:16,000 --> 00:40:18,000
Speaker 4: indeed food and secure, and that's up from ten point

610
00:40:18,040 --> 00:40:21,279
Speaker 4: five percent back in twenty twenty. So we're talking about

611
00:40:21,280 --> 00:40:24,640
Speaker 4: more than fifty million Americans who visited food banks in

612
00:40:24,680 --> 00:40:30,520
Speaker 4: twenty twenty three, with that demand only growing. This is

613
00:40:30,560 --> 00:40:34,080
Speaker 4: a pattern that is only going to be worsened by

614
00:40:34,160 --> 00:40:38,279
Speaker 4: the kinds of program and budget slashings that we have

615
00:40:38,440 --> 00:40:42,319
Speaker 4: seen in recent times.

616
00:40:42,840 --> 00:40:46,000
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I want to take a moment here. I

617
00:40:46,040 --> 00:40:48,480
Speaker 3: think we can all agree with this. Something to soapbox

618
00:40:48,640 --> 00:40:49,920
Speaker 3: just a bit. I don't know if we have a

619
00:40:49,960 --> 00:40:52,959
Speaker 3: sound qu for that yet, but the soapbox just a bit.

620
00:40:54,440 --> 00:40:58,160
Speaker 3: And to be crystal clear, there is nothing wrong with

621
00:40:58,400 --> 00:41:04,440
Speaker 3: taking government assistance. Your government exists to serve you. That

622
00:41:04,600 --> 00:41:07,960
Speaker 3: is how a democracy is supposed to work. So these

623
00:41:08,080 --> 00:41:14,040
Speaker 3: people who are reliant upon these programs, they are innocent people.

624
00:41:14,160 --> 00:41:17,719
Speaker 3: They're not jerks, they're not villains, they're not rifters. But

625
00:41:18,760 --> 00:41:24,640
Speaker 3: if these programs fall, there will be widespread, wide, rife

626
00:41:25,000 --> 00:41:30,759
Speaker 3: consequences for the experiment, the American experiment overall. Like you

627
00:41:30,880 --> 00:41:35,080
Speaker 3: can't cut five hundred million dollars from the local food

628
00:41:35,280 --> 00:41:41,200
Speaker 3: purchase assistance Cooperative Agreement program and expect nothing to go

629
00:41:41,360 --> 00:41:42,600
Speaker 3: wrong as a result.

630
00:41:43,040 --> 00:41:46,719
Speaker 4: When I was in my early twenties and was a

631
00:41:46,760 --> 00:41:52,320
Speaker 4: young dad, my partner and I were absolutely on food assistance.

632
00:41:52,400 --> 00:41:54,520
Speaker 4: I was still kind of an intern. I was only

633
00:41:54,600 --> 00:41:57,879
Speaker 4: just out of college. I hadn't really have my career established,

634
00:41:58,239 --> 00:42:01,719
Speaker 4: and it was incredibly important to be able to do

635
00:42:01,760 --> 00:42:04,160
Speaker 4: that and to be able to rely on state funds

636
00:42:04,760 --> 00:42:09,200
Speaker 4: to provide food for our child, for our baby. And

637
00:42:09,400 --> 00:42:12,279
Speaker 4: also there were programs that allowed you to trade in

638
00:42:12,520 --> 00:42:17,239
Speaker 4: these food assistance dollars at local farmers' markets in order

639
00:42:17,320 --> 00:42:20,520
Speaker 4: to get fresh food, and that was also huge, and

640
00:42:20,600 --> 00:42:23,680
Speaker 4: I'm grateful that we had access to that, and I'm

641
00:42:23,719 --> 00:42:25,560
Speaker 4: also grateful that we got to a place where we

642
00:42:25,600 --> 00:42:29,120
Speaker 4: didn't need that anymore. But it is incredibly important for

643
00:42:29,160 --> 00:42:32,239
Speaker 4: that to be available for folks who are going through

644
00:42:32,239 --> 00:42:33,160
Speaker 4: difficult times.

645
00:42:33,480 --> 00:42:38,839
Speaker 3: One hundred percent. One of the best lyrics that I

646
00:42:38,960 --> 00:42:44,239
Speaker 3: ever remember directly referencing what a democracy should be is

647
00:42:44,280 --> 00:42:47,520
Speaker 3: the following You get by with a little help from

648
00:42:47,520 --> 00:42:51,960
Speaker 3: your friends. That's what democracy is, you know, on multiple levels.

649
00:42:51,960 --> 00:42:56,200
Speaker 3: But if you are cutting hundreds of millions of dollars

650
00:42:57,360 --> 00:43:00,880
Speaker 3: from programs like this. Are you not cutting down the

651
00:43:00,920 --> 00:43:05,160
Speaker 3: foundations that support your country, like five hundred million bucks

652
00:43:05,440 --> 00:43:10,000
Speaker 3: cut from the USDA's emergency food assistance program that is

653
00:43:10,040 --> 00:43:13,520
Speaker 3: so apolitical, the idea that people should not have to

654
00:43:13,520 --> 00:43:18,720
Speaker 3: go hungry. Don't get us started on USAID, USAID, whatever

655
00:43:18,760 --> 00:43:22,799
Speaker 3: you want to call it. Our pals over the writers

656
00:43:22,880 --> 00:43:26,160
Speaker 3: for last week tonight, they did an excellent piece on that.

657
00:43:26,200 --> 00:43:28,160
Speaker 3: We were talking with our pal Matt a little bit

658
00:43:28,200 --> 00:43:31,880
Speaker 3: off off air about this. Please check out our episode

659
00:43:31,920 --> 00:43:37,200
Speaker 3: on doge for how for a snapshot of how the

660
00:43:37,640 --> 00:43:43,440
Speaker 3: US decision to no longer fund its international assistance program

661
00:43:43,680 --> 00:43:49,120
Speaker 3: is already affecting countries around the world and possibly, i'll

662
00:43:49,160 --> 00:43:54,400
Speaker 3: say it, possibly creating new generations of terrorist whatever the

663
00:43:54,640 --> 00:43:58,600
Speaker 3: list of cuts goes on. In an ideal situation, if

664
00:43:58,680 --> 00:44:03,399
Speaker 3: everything was cool, these cuts would occur because we were

665
00:44:03,440 --> 00:44:07,640
Speaker 3: doing great as a civilization. The programs themselves are no

666
00:44:07,680 --> 00:44:11,840
Speaker 3: longer needed. Everybody is fed, everybody's employed, looking to the future.

667
00:44:11,960 --> 00:44:14,879
Speaker 3: Like you were saying, Nola, thank you for the assistance.

668
00:44:15,080 --> 00:44:18,200
Speaker 3: Now I've reached a point where I don't need it,

669
00:44:18,239 --> 00:44:21,680
Speaker 3: and I am going to go and help other people.

670
00:44:22,280 --> 00:44:26,560
Speaker 3: But this is not the case, right. Unemployment is rising. Man.

671
00:44:27,000 --> 00:44:31,960
Speaker 3: We have in our various friend groups and contact groups,

672
00:44:32,200 --> 00:44:34,920
Speaker 3: we have people who have been looking for jobs for months,

673
00:44:35,160 --> 00:44:35,479
Speaker 3: you know.

674
00:44:35,600 --> 00:44:38,400
Speaker 4: Well, and it gets it becomes really hard to stomach,

675
00:44:38,640 --> 00:44:42,319
Speaker 4: no pun intended, when you start to see how much

676
00:44:42,400 --> 00:44:48,959
Speaker 4: it costs to wage these conflicts abroad, how much money

677
00:44:49,040 --> 00:44:52,120
Speaker 4: is being spent by the military on things like lobster

678
00:44:52,680 --> 00:44:57,840
Speaker 4: and rabbi stakes and what is it fruit basket stands.

679
00:44:59,200 --> 00:45:01,799
Speaker 4: And again I understand that you got to spend your

680
00:45:01,840 --> 00:45:04,319
Speaker 4: budget so you don't get it slashed, but boil boy,

681
00:45:04,440 --> 00:45:06,920
Speaker 4: is it a bad look when people are struggling to

682
00:45:06,960 --> 00:45:09,640
Speaker 4: eat and feed their families in this country and have

683
00:45:09,640 --> 00:45:14,080
Speaker 4: food stability and you see this amount of I would

684
00:45:14,160 --> 00:45:17,640
Speaker 4: argue fraud and abuse, waste, fraud and abuse, you know,

685
00:45:17,800 --> 00:45:20,319
Speaker 4: happening in front of our very eyes, not to mention

686
00:45:20,920 --> 00:45:23,480
Speaker 4: talk about building ballrooms and things like that that I

687
00:45:23,520 --> 00:45:26,000
Speaker 4: just don't see, you know, And especially when you have

688
00:45:26,000 --> 00:45:30,320
Speaker 4: an administration that campaigned on well, we don't want to

689
00:45:30,360 --> 00:45:32,319
Speaker 4: do foreign wars. We need to fix our roads, we

690
00:45:32,360 --> 00:45:34,440
Speaker 4: need to make sure that our citizens are fed. It

691
00:45:34,520 --> 00:45:36,840
Speaker 4: just really feels like a slap in the face.

692
00:45:37,280 --> 00:45:41,839
Speaker 3: It also reminds me again of something I keep going

693
00:45:41,880 --> 00:45:45,520
Speaker 3: back to. Yeah, history doesn't repeat, but it does rhyme. History,

694
00:45:45,640 --> 00:45:50,319
Speaker 3: more importantly, I believe, is never original. We see lead ups,

695
00:45:50,360 --> 00:45:53,720
Speaker 3: We see clear economic indicators of things like a Gilded

696
00:45:53,760 --> 00:45:57,680
Speaker 3: Age or the lead up to the French Revolution. Every

697
00:45:57,800 --> 00:46:02,960
Speaker 3: dollar is spent on these extremely expensive conflicts abroad could

698
00:46:03,000 --> 00:46:09,120
Speaker 3: in theory, feed, clothe house and educate Americans. The breakdown

699
00:46:09,160 --> 00:46:12,759
Speaker 3: of this old global order also brings with it increased

700
00:46:12,840 --> 00:46:16,320
Speaker 3: danger to shipping routes, which means that in the near future,

701
00:46:16,680 --> 00:46:22,720
Speaker 3: acquiring food from imports could also become increasingly difficult. What's next,

702
00:46:22,800 --> 00:46:27,040
Speaker 3: you know? It's the grocery stores raise prices until the

703
00:46:27,120 --> 00:46:30,160
Speaker 3: products are unavailable, and now the shelves are empty. If

704
00:46:30,160 --> 00:46:33,080
Speaker 3: you've traveled different parts of the world, folks, you may

705
00:46:33,160 --> 00:46:37,000
Speaker 3: have seen those empty shelves for yourself. And I hope

706
00:46:37,000 --> 00:46:38,759
Speaker 3: that never happens to any of us.

707
00:46:38,840 --> 00:46:41,240
Speaker 2: Listening now, are we talking about the straight of horror moves?

708
00:46:41,239 --> 00:46:42,200
Speaker 2: Ben By the way.

709
00:46:42,360 --> 00:46:47,160
Speaker 3: Straight of horm moves will impact will impact fossil fuel shipping,

710
00:46:47,239 --> 00:46:50,680
Speaker 3: which will impact global trade networks, which will of course.

711
00:46:50,480 --> 00:46:54,600
Speaker 4: Because that is what fuels the vehicles that ship this

712
00:46:54,680 --> 00:46:57,879
Speaker 4: stuff and allow us to receive shipments of fresh food

713
00:46:57,920 --> 00:46:59,920
Speaker 4: to our grocery store. So it's a trickle down effect,

714
00:47:00,080 --> 00:47:03,360
Speaker 4: or it's a domino effect rather, right, yeah, and colso effect.

715
00:47:03,360 --> 00:47:08,120
Speaker 3: Manufacturing may also trigger a food crisis in the nation

716
00:47:08,280 --> 00:47:11,560
Speaker 3: of Iran, which doesn't need it because it's already amid

717
00:47:11,680 --> 00:47:17,320
Speaker 3: a water crisis before the recent conflict escalated, or I

718
00:47:17,320 --> 00:47:21,880
Speaker 3: shouldn't even say recent conflict, the ongoing conflict escalated.

719
00:47:22,000 --> 00:47:24,279
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's also got a bit of a we're on

720
00:47:24,400 --> 00:47:26,920
Speaker 4: fire problem going on.

721
00:47:27,239 --> 00:47:29,680
Speaker 2: It's wild seeing the foot is coming out of there, right,

722
00:47:29,719 --> 00:47:30,400
Speaker 2: But don't worry.

723
00:47:30,560 --> 00:47:35,640
Speaker 3: No, your boy just unilaterally removed sanctions on Russian oil,

724
00:47:37,400 --> 00:47:39,320
Speaker 3: So now I guess your vote counts.

725
00:47:39,800 --> 00:47:42,000
Speaker 4: I know, I know that we get danged sometimes for

726
00:47:42,640 --> 00:47:43,960
Speaker 4: making our political opinions known.

727
00:47:44,000 --> 00:47:45,319
Speaker 2: But sometimes this stuff is just so.

728
00:47:46,040 --> 00:47:51,040
Speaker 4: It is conspiracy writ large, there's nothing there's no other

729
00:47:51,080 --> 00:47:53,240
Speaker 4: way around it, and there's no way to talk about

730
00:47:53,320 --> 00:47:56,120
Speaker 4: the conspiracy and be a show that the dissexis kind

731
00:47:56,120 --> 00:47:57,919
Speaker 4: of stuff and not talk about what's going on right now.

732
00:47:58,200 --> 00:48:02,279
Speaker 3: And that last scenario may seem a bit alarmist. The

733
00:48:02,360 --> 00:48:06,840
Speaker 3: idea of your local grocery store, your teeters and Sons,

734
00:48:06,920 --> 00:48:14,919
Speaker 3: or your Trader Joe's, or your yeah whatever, y right,

735
00:48:15,360 --> 00:48:19,799
Speaker 3: whatever your local market is. It may right, it may

736
00:48:19,840 --> 00:48:23,920
Speaker 3: seem hyperbolic to paint a picture for you in which

737
00:48:24,080 --> 00:48:27,920
Speaker 3: those stores have nothing to sell, but that is not alarmist.

738
00:48:28,040 --> 00:48:32,319
Speaker 3: That has happened before. This is forever war doctrine. The

739
00:48:32,320 --> 00:48:36,920
Speaker 3: things that you see happening abroad can very quickly be

740
00:48:37,160 --> 00:48:41,640
Speaker 3: replicated on your doorstep. The truth is that right now

741
00:48:41,760 --> 00:48:46,240
Speaker 3: things are not looking great. These are sub ideal indicators

742
00:48:46,520 --> 00:48:49,120
Speaker 3: of a conspiracy at play, and that you know what

743
00:48:49,200 --> 00:48:52,440
Speaker 3: keeps getting me here, guys, is the most tragic part

744
00:48:52,560 --> 00:48:57,440
Speaker 3: about this whole saga is that there is enough for everyone.

745
00:48:57,920 --> 00:49:01,640
Speaker 3: We had a previous episode, in a burst of creativity,

746
00:49:02,080 --> 00:49:05,120
Speaker 3: is there enough for everyone? We did the math down

747
00:49:05,160 --> 00:49:09,440
Speaker 3: to caloric consumption, and it is true right now. We

748
00:49:09,480 --> 00:49:11,200
Speaker 3: don't know how long this will be the case, but

749
00:49:11,400 --> 00:49:15,800
Speaker 3: right now, the only thing stopping everybody on the planet

750
00:49:15,840 --> 00:49:20,480
Speaker 3: from getting full bellies and healthy nutrition is other people.

751
00:49:21,120 --> 00:49:23,000
Speaker 3: That's the only thing, you know.

752
00:49:23,040 --> 00:49:26,919
Speaker 4: And I've been struggling a little bit to figure out

753
00:49:26,960 --> 00:49:30,319
Speaker 4: how to feel a bit less helpless given some of

754
00:49:30,320 --> 00:49:31,880
Speaker 4: the things that we talk about on the show and

755
00:49:31,880 --> 00:49:33,319
Speaker 4: some of the things you'll be seeing in the news

756
00:49:33,360 --> 00:49:38,319
Speaker 4: and crisises like this looming or otherwise or already here

757
00:49:39,320 --> 00:49:43,120
Speaker 4: And to your point here in the outline, Ben, volunteering

758
00:49:43,200 --> 00:49:46,040
Speaker 4: locally at a place like a food bank. That's a

759
00:49:46,080 --> 00:49:48,080
Speaker 4: great way to have a little bit of agency and

760
00:49:48,160 --> 00:49:51,239
Speaker 4: feel like you can do something directly to impact your

761
00:49:51,280 --> 00:49:54,239
Speaker 4: community in a positive way. And that's something that I

762
00:49:54,440 --> 00:49:58,080
Speaker 4: very much am going to become involved in personally, because

763
00:49:58,160 --> 00:50:00,040
Speaker 4: I've just been really struggling, Ben, because it just it

764
00:50:00,040 --> 00:50:02,719
Speaker 4: feels like so much of the change that we might

765
00:50:02,800 --> 00:50:05,719
Speaker 4: want just feel so out of reach, and that is

766
00:50:05,760 --> 00:50:08,359
Speaker 4: one way that you can at least feel like you're

767
00:50:08,400 --> 00:50:10,920
Speaker 4: doing something that directly affects people positively.

768
00:50:11,160 --> 00:50:13,440
Speaker 3: Well said, No, I'm so glad to hear that. I

769
00:50:13,520 --> 00:50:17,799
Speaker 3: think global act local. That's always been sort of a

770
00:50:17,960 --> 00:50:21,399
Speaker 3: mission statement of mine and the folks who taught me. Yeah,

771
00:50:21,440 --> 00:50:24,200
Speaker 3: you can volunteer at a local food bank. You can

772
00:50:24,320 --> 00:50:28,520
Speaker 3: vote in every local election while you're able to. We

773
00:50:28,560 --> 00:50:32,560
Speaker 3: want to hear your thoughts on the looming hunger crisis

774
00:50:32,680 --> 00:50:38,399
Speaker 3: it is on the way. Do you participate in programs

775
00:50:38,480 --> 00:50:41,200
Speaker 3: that have been cut? Do you volunteer and if so,

776
00:50:41,400 --> 00:50:43,960
Speaker 3: what are your recommendations what are some outfits you like?

777
00:50:44,320 --> 00:50:48,040
Speaker 3: What do you think this human world can do to

778
00:50:48,160 --> 00:50:51,920
Speaker 3: stave off this growing catastrophe? Thank you, as always so

779
00:50:52,000 --> 00:50:52,960
Speaker 3: much for tuning in.

780
00:50:53,040 --> 00:50:53,360
Speaker 2: Folks.

781
00:50:53,440 --> 00:50:57,680
Speaker 3: Will be back again with more strange stuff they don't

782
00:50:57,760 --> 00:51:00,960
Speaker 3: want you to know. For now, we would love to

783
00:51:01,000 --> 00:51:03,120
Speaker 3: hear your thoughts. You can find us online, You can

784
00:51:03,160 --> 00:51:05,400
Speaker 3: call us on the phone. You can send us an email.

785
00:51:06,120 --> 00:51:08,239
Speaker 4: You can't find us all over the lines at the

786
00:51:08,239 --> 00:51:11,239
Speaker 4: handle Conspiracy Stuff or Conspiracy Stuff Show, depending on your

787
00:51:11,239 --> 00:51:14,480
Speaker 4: social media platform of choice. Or you can give us

788
00:51:14,480 --> 00:51:19,399
Speaker 4: a telephone call at one eight three three STDWYTK, leave

789
00:51:19,440 --> 00:51:22,960
Speaker 4: a message the sound of Ben's dulcet tones and give

790
00:51:23,000 --> 00:51:24,799
Speaker 4: us permission to use your voice on one of our

791
00:51:24,880 --> 00:51:26,799
Speaker 4: future listener mail episodes.

792
00:51:27,760 --> 00:51:29,840
Speaker 3: Or don't, but we'd like it if you didn't, and

793
00:51:30,400 --> 00:51:34,280
Speaker 3: if you would prefer not to sip the social meds,

794
00:51:34,400 --> 00:51:37,960
Speaker 3: or you hate being stuck on a telephone, no worries.

795
00:51:38,000 --> 00:51:41,279
Speaker 3: You can always reach us at our email address. We

796
00:51:41,480 --> 00:52:02,080
Speaker 3: are conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.

797
00:52:02,480 --> 00:52:04,560
Speaker 2: Stuff they Don't Want You to Know is a production

798
00:52:04,680 --> 00:52:05,720
Speaker 2: of iHeartRadio.

799
00:52:06,040 --> 00:52:09,600
Speaker 3: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app Apple

800
00:52:09,640 --> 00:52:12,160
Speaker 3: podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,