WEBVTT - Billy Don't Be a Hero: Fyre Fest 0:00:00.480 --> 0:00:05.239 Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio Zaren Elizabeth. 0:00:05.320 --> 0:00:05.800 How are you? 0:00:06.160 --> 0:00:07.480 I'm doing pretty well. How about you? 0:00:07.520 --> 0:00:07.800 Good? 0:00:07.960 --> 0:00:09.479 Good to see you got a lot of perk. 0:00:09.520 --> 0:00:09.960 I like it. 0:00:10.039 --> 0:00:13.440 I am. I am just a happy little camper. 0:00:13.480 --> 0:00:14.520 You been eating your vegetables? 0:00:14.600 --> 0:00:16.200 Yeah? Wow, I'm good with that. 0:00:17.000 --> 0:00:17.720 Proud so much. 0:00:19.120 --> 0:00:20.640 You know it's ridiculous. 0:00:20.960 --> 0:00:23.760 I do, and I'm so glad you asked you. Ever 0:00:23.800 --> 0:00:26.920 seen the movie The rain Maker with Burt Lancaster Katherine Heppurn. 0:00:26.960 --> 0:00:28.600 I don't believe so now it's a great movie. 0:00:28.640 --> 0:00:30.400 I recommended. I used to love it when I was 0:00:30.440 --> 0:00:32.720 a kid. My sister liked it a lot too. Found 0:00:32.760 --> 0:00:35.200 out recently was based on a real person, a real 0:00:35.360 --> 0:00:38.880 rain maker. Oh really Yeah, there's this guy, Charles Hatfield. 0:00:39.080 --> 0:00:39.600 Uh huh. 0:00:39.640 --> 0:00:42.199 And he went all around like southern California, like in 0:00:42.960 --> 0:00:47.800 La Pasadena, Lacrecenta, San Diego, and he would make rain 0:00:47.840 --> 0:00:49.400 for people. He also did it like up in like 0:00:49.560 --> 0:00:52.280 I think there's a Yukon where they needed rain for 0:00:52.320 --> 0:00:55.400 the gold mining because they needed to like slush the watery. Yeah, 0:00:55.400 --> 0:00:57.440 so he would go and make rain. He would build 0:00:57.480 --> 0:01:00.480 a tower and do this stuff. And he was charged 0:01:00.520 --> 0:01:02.120 a lot because she started out real cheap, and then 0:01:02.160 --> 0:01:03.720 he got up to like, oh, I'll give you ten 0:01:03.760 --> 0:01:06.240 thousand dollars. You know, you give me ten thousand dollars 0:01:06.240 --> 0:01:08.920 for every like you know, inch of rain that's over that. 0:01:09.600 --> 0:01:12.240 So these people in San Diego, they wanted him to 0:01:12.280 --> 0:01:14.480 help them fill up a dam because he'd fill like 0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:16.959 in Big Bear. He'd filled up there damn like you 0:01:16.959 --> 0:01:18.720 you did that. We need you have to fill up 0:01:18.760 --> 0:01:22.240 our day. So he goes down there he creates rain. 0:01:22.319 --> 0:01:24.759 He had this secret like proprietary mix that he took 0:01:24.800 --> 0:01:28.080 to his grave. Anyway, he makes the rain. But he 0:01:28.160 --> 0:01:31.440 made so much rain it flooded the town. Oh no, 0:01:31.600 --> 0:01:35.760 he ran over everything destroyed. It caused like millions of 0:01:35.800 --> 0:01:36.880 dollars of damage. 0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:39.800 And he made rain, Like how did he make it rain? 0:01:39.959 --> 0:01:43.960 He was really good at reading the clouds. He also 0:01:44.000 --> 0:01:46.640 would have release like this, like steam droplets. He was 0:01:46.680 --> 0:01:49.120 like he would basically condensed stuff and I think he 0:01:49.160 --> 0:01:50.840 put in like silver oxide, but that was what I 0:01:50.880 --> 0:01:53.480 would assume. That's how we make rain now. So basically 0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:56.400 you see the clouds so that that way the stuff 0:01:56.400 --> 0:01:59.280 can generate clouds large enough to like hold some water. 0:01:59.560 --> 0:02:01.680 And then when they moved and they run into the 0:02:01.760 --> 0:02:04.920 mountains or whatever. The change in pressure they drop the rain. 0:02:05.240 --> 0:02:08.480 But he was also really good at reading the meteorological 0:02:08.520 --> 0:02:10.840 forecast and being like, okay, so there'd be like a 0:02:10.880 --> 0:02:13.000 storm and that people couldn't because they didn't have weather 0:02:13.080 --> 0:02:15.160 like we have now. He just really knew how to 0:02:15.160 --> 0:02:17.080 read the sky and he just looked out over the 0:02:17.120 --> 0:02:20.720 Pacific and he's like, what that three days? But he 0:02:21.440 --> 0:02:24.000 flooded San Diego and then he's like, are you guys, 0:02:24.240 --> 0:02:27.360 are you guys gonna pay me or what? And it 0:02:27.440 --> 0:02:29.680 started a whole fight that lasted like two decades to 0:02:29.720 --> 0:02:33.799 be sorted out in court. No, there you go. That's ridiculous. 0:02:33.960 --> 0:02:36.000 That was absolutely ridiculous. Do you want to know what 0:02:36.040 --> 0:02:38.200 else is ridiculous? 0:02:38.840 --> 0:03:00.000 Oh? 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:05.040 This is ridiculous. Crime a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists, 0:03:05.080 --> 0:03:08.560 and cons. It's always ninety nine percent murder free and 0:03:08.639 --> 0:03:10.040 one percent ridiculous. 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:12.480 Yeah, damn right. 0:03:13.320 --> 0:03:15.280 You know that. I used to be an A's fan. 0:03:15.800 --> 0:03:17.919 You did, Yeah, until they moved, grew up. 0:03:17.880 --> 0:03:20.840 Going to games, had season tickets. We had my brother 0:03:20.960 --> 0:03:24.840 on here, a graduate of Jose Canseco baseball camp, to 0:03:24.880 --> 0:03:29.160 talk about Kinseco and the A's that one time, Yeah, 0:03:29.160 --> 0:03:30.680 but no more. 0:03:31.200 --> 0:03:32.120 Jose love for you guys. 0:03:32.200 --> 0:03:34.320 I love them, but I don't love the A's. They 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:37.960 abandoned Oakland in the worst way I get it, blowing 0:03:38.040 --> 0:03:40.119 up everything around them as they left. So they let 0:03:40.120 --> 0:03:43.960 the coliseum fall into disrepair. They jacked up ticket prices. Well, 0:03:44.840 --> 0:03:47.560 John Fisher the well, yeah, and so the A's like 0:03:47.680 --> 0:03:49.920 they had the pretty much the worst record in baseball 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:53.280 at one point, and they were like doubling tripling prices. 0:03:53.520 --> 0:03:55.760 Then they complained that no one went to games, and 0:03:55.800 --> 0:03:59.120 then they treated their minor league players like garbage totally. Well, 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:02.440 their Sacramento and then Las Vegas is problem now yeah, right. 0:04:02.320 --> 0:04:04.480 They're playing in a Sacramento minor league stadium right the 0:04:04.520 --> 0:04:05.320 river Cats plays. 0:04:05.480 --> 0:04:08.160 Uh huh. I want to go back to the minor 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:09.200 league thing for a second. 0:04:09.280 --> 0:04:09.680 Please. 0:04:09.720 --> 0:04:11.160 In twenty twenty one. 0:04:11.240 --> 0:04:11.720 Me too. 0:04:12.760 --> 0:04:16.840 Some photos went viral and they depicted the lunches served 0:04:16.839 --> 0:04:19.640 to the A's minor league teams, which were described by 0:04:19.640 --> 0:04:23.080 Alex Schultz at sf Gate as quote two floppy pieces 0:04:23.120 --> 0:04:25.920 of white bread and an unheated slice of American cheese 0:04:25.960 --> 0:04:29.440 next to the world sad as soft taco for athletes, 0:04:29.520 --> 0:04:32.520 for athletes. That was their lunch for professional athletes. Yes, 0:04:33.080 --> 0:04:35.240 how you do one thing is how you do everything. 0:04:35.279 --> 0:04:39.039 They say. The mysterious they me say, I say it. 0:04:39.360 --> 0:04:41.719 And this was true of the A's. They lacked respect 0:04:41.760 --> 0:04:45.359 for everyone. And by they, I mean John Fisher, the 0:04:45.400 --> 0:04:48.880 Trust Fund Giants fan who owns the A's. So those 0:04:48.960 --> 0:04:52.640 photos of the food instantly brought to mine another debacle, 0:04:53.279 --> 0:04:57.000 one attached to some famous folks others who became infamous. 0:04:57.200 --> 0:04:59.679 It was a music festival, or rather it was supposed 0:04:59.680 --> 0:05:04.040 to be. Okay, I'm talking about the fire Festival, and 0:05:04.080 --> 0:05:06.040 that's what I want to tell you about today. 0:05:06.240 --> 0:05:06.480 Dude. 0:05:06.480 --> 0:05:09.040 I'm like, not quite really dyslexic, but I used to 0:05:09.040 --> 0:05:10.640 always read that as fry festival. 0:05:10.960 --> 0:05:13.120 I don't know, I typed it out as fry festival, 0:05:13.160 --> 0:05:13.880 like fry boots. 0:05:13.960 --> 0:05:14.320 Totally. 0:05:14.440 --> 0:05:17.320 Yeah, No, it's the fry festival in my mind, in 0:05:17.360 --> 0:05:21.040 my heart, Yeah, it's the fry Festival. The mastermind of 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:23.480 this whole thing was a guy named Billy McFarland. 0:05:23.680 --> 0:05:26.280 Okay, I remember that, So let's learn a little about him. 0:05:26.680 --> 0:05:27.920 I don't know much about him at all. 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:30.279 He was born in New York, City in nineteen ninety one. 0:05:30.320 --> 0:05:32.040 But he grew up in like this really well off 0:05:32.080 --> 0:05:36.280 area in New Jersey. His mom was in real estate investing, 0:05:36.400 --> 0:05:39.320 and then later she was a VP at Morgan Stanley 0:05:39.120 --> 0:05:42.960 and then she joined the family business, which was McFarland Properties, 0:05:42.960 --> 0:05:46.279 and that's the dad's real estate company. And so little 0:05:46.279 --> 0:05:50.640 Billy he went to the Pingree School, which is like 0:05:50.760 --> 0:05:52.599 a you know, when he was there, it was running 0:05:52.600 --> 0:05:56.119 thirty grand a year intuition, Oh, like a K through twelve. 0:05:56.360 --> 0:05:59.200 It was like like a choke America. Yes, America's eaten. 0:05:59.440 --> 0:06:02.160 Yes, And so now it costs you around forty seven 0:06:02.200 --> 0:06:05.760 thousand dollars a year to send your kid there. They 0:06:05.800 --> 0:06:09.360 have a ninety one million dollar endowment. In other words, 0:06:09.400 --> 0:06:12.279 they're not hurting. And so a lot of famous people 0:06:12.360 --> 0:06:17.360 went there, for instance, a bunch of Olympians, famous professors, 0:06:18.120 --> 0:06:21.760 Actor Andrew McCarthy, who just looks like a posh school kid. 0:06:21.880 --> 0:06:24.520 Oh my god, he has rich kid energy that he 0:06:24.920 --> 0:06:25.760 kind of sets the bar. 0:06:26.000 --> 0:06:30.640 Yes, definitely, definitely. Former US Secretary of Homeland Security Michael 0:06:30.720 --> 0:06:31.640 Chertoff went there. 0:06:31.800 --> 0:06:32.680 Wow, I could see that. 0:06:33.080 --> 0:06:36.480 Jamie Johnson, the Johnson and Johnson air who made that 0:06:36.560 --> 0:06:37.800 documentary Born Rich. 0:06:38.320 --> 0:06:42.240 Oh right with all the friends, right, yeah, filling the 0:06:42.279 --> 0:06:43.880 beans on that he went there. 0:06:44.560 --> 0:06:46.599 Filmmaker Todd Solance. 0:06:47.720 --> 0:06:50.480 S salans whatever the happiness. 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:54.839 Yes, that, yeah, he he went there. Andrew Gruhle, who 0:06:54.880 --> 0:06:57.520 was a judge on Food Network's Food Truck Face Off 0:06:57.600 --> 0:07:00.400 and also the host of Fyis Say It to My face, 0:07:00.920 --> 0:07:04.200 and the founder of Slatfish, a seafood restaurant's a franchise. 0:07:04.320 --> 0:07:06.159 This will probably not surprise you. I've never heard of 0:07:06.160 --> 0:07:06.560 any of them. 0:07:06.600 --> 0:07:07.000 I mean neither. 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:08.279 Slapfish sounds familiar. 0:07:08.360 --> 0:07:10.360 Yeah, I don't know. The guitarist from the band Guster 0:07:10.640 --> 0:07:17.240 went there, okay, dapper retro suit wearing vintage acetate narrow 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:21.520 round glasses. A ficionado who's also a Jeopardy champion, Buzzy 0:07:21.560 --> 0:07:22.520 Cohen went there. 0:07:22.880 --> 0:07:25.360 Oh not the Buzzy, the Buzzy Cohen. 0:07:25.400 --> 0:07:28.560 They all went there. So Billy Billy went there. He 0:07:28.640 --> 0:07:31.239 had a very comfortable life. His family had a house 0:07:31.280 --> 0:07:35.200 at the shore. They went on exotic vacations, lovely house, 0:07:35.360 --> 0:07:38.640 nice cars. Like his folks, he had dreams, he had 0:07:38.680 --> 0:07:41.640 hustled good him and as he tells it, his first 0:07:41.680 --> 0:07:45.080 business scheme was when he was seven it seems he 0:07:45.120 --> 0:07:47.239 had a crush on a girl and said he would 0:07:47.240 --> 0:07:50.320 fix a broken cran of hers for a dollar. Okay, 0:07:50.520 --> 0:07:52.560 now a couple of notes on this. I feel like 0:07:52.680 --> 0:07:55.360 seven year olds are transitioning out of krans and into 0:07:55.400 --> 0:07:57.400 markers at that age. 0:07:57.880 --> 0:08:01.200 I don't have the same judgmental criteria artistic. 0:08:00.760 --> 0:08:03.920 Ones maybe moving into colored pencils, sure, but maybe that's 0:08:04.000 --> 0:08:06.840 just my recollection as an old lady. He also went 0:08:06.880 --> 0:08:08.600 to a rich kid's school so they could buy as 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:09.520 many crans as they. 0:08:09.520 --> 0:08:11.040 Maybe that was her medium of choice. 0:08:12.960 --> 0:08:15.360 Then there's this weird manipulation of a girl he has 0:08:15.400 --> 0:08:17.160 a crush on, like, give me a dollar and I'll 0:08:17.200 --> 0:08:19.920 fix your cran. Like why do I feel like maybe 0:08:19.960 --> 0:08:21.760 he broke the cran to set this up? 0:08:21.920 --> 0:08:23.640 And why is it worth a dollar to fix it? 0:08:23.760 --> 0:08:26.200 I don't know how. How is this a business plan 0:08:26.280 --> 0:08:27.800 with legs? That's my other question. 0:08:27.840 --> 0:08:29.880 I can't imagine that many customers are like, could you 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:30.560 fix my cran? 0:08:30.720 --> 0:08:33.600 Did he have like a wildly should be patented method 0:08:33.640 --> 0:08:34.480 for cran repair? 0:08:35.240 --> 0:08:35.520 Did he? 0:08:35.760 --> 0:08:38.719 I don't know. I feel like it's a valid anecdote 0:08:38.800 --> 0:08:41.720 from him because it certainly reflects on his business acumen 0:08:41.760 --> 0:08:42.559 and approach. 0:08:42.679 --> 0:08:44.200 I think you could do it with a lighter, just 0:08:44.360 --> 0:08:47.240 like Little Billy has them back together. 0:08:48.080 --> 0:08:50.880 Another early business brag of his was that he hacked 0:08:50.920 --> 0:08:53.960 his teachers like computer. He said this happened when he 0:08:54.000 --> 0:08:58.520 was seven too. He claims he cracked the school administrator's 0:08:58.520 --> 0:08:59.800 password and locked. 0:08:59.559 --> 0:09:01.360 Everyone up out of the system at seven. 0:09:01.520 --> 0:09:04.840 A couple more notes one, doing this isn't really a 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:09.080 business model unless you're then holding the system ransom. 0:09:09.320 --> 0:09:09.560 Right. 0:09:10.520 --> 0:09:13.000 That's criminal business too. So which is it? You and 0:09:13.040 --> 0:09:15.840 your peers are a bunch of paste eaters playing with 0:09:15.920 --> 0:09:18.959 Krantz or you're hacking the main frame and playing in 0:09:19.000 --> 0:09:21.240 the matrix like hacking is for grown folks. 0:09:21.240 --> 0:09:25.120 Billy, Yeah, I'm with you. I mean it does seem dubious. 0:09:25.440 --> 0:09:28.280 It does. I need to mention here a quote from 0:09:28.280 --> 0:09:32.320 one of our researchers, the amazing Jabbari Davis. He mentioned 0:09:32.320 --> 0:09:37.720 here quote apropos entirely of nothing. The DSM five defines 0:09:37.880 --> 0:09:41.920 grandiose delusions, commonly referred to as delusions of grandeur, as 0:09:41.960 --> 0:09:45.880 when an individual feels they have exceptional abilities, wealth, or fame. 0:09:46.320 --> 0:09:49.520 Individuals that display such delusions often have a false sense 0:09:49.559 --> 0:09:53.680 of superiority and can consider themselves a deity, a reincarnation 0:09:53.720 --> 0:09:56.840 of a historical figure or celebrity, and even a chosen 0:09:56.880 --> 0:09:59.520 profit in some cases. Let me tell you I died 0:09:59.520 --> 0:10:02.960 a little a I read that note spot on well played, Bari. 0:10:04.360 --> 0:10:07.160 So remember the early days of Facebook, like when it 0:10:07.200 --> 0:10:09.440 was just a little site for dopey college kids to 0:10:09.440 --> 0:10:12.160 wheeze it, when it was the Facebook? Yeah, and like, no, 0:10:12.400 --> 0:10:13.480 not anyone can join. 0:10:13.559 --> 0:10:15.559 I think you had to have like an ed in college. 0:10:15.679 --> 0:10:17.640 Yeah email I was in college at the time. 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:20.760 No, and so either way, it wasn't until two thousand 0:10:20.760 --> 0:10:23.240 and six that anyone with a valid email address could 0:10:23.280 --> 0:10:26.520 sign up. So young junior high Billy and a pal 0:10:26.640 --> 0:10:29.440 they wanted in on it. So instead of spoofing a 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:32.880 college email account hacker that he was, he and his 0:10:32.920 --> 0:10:35.880 friend developed a ripoff of the Facebook, and they called 0:10:35.920 --> 0:10:38.600 it your hot site? 0:10:39.000 --> 0:10:42.720 Is that like you are hot? No, it belongs to me. 0:10:42.880 --> 0:10:47.319 This is the hot site session. Yes, it's like TMU Facebook. 0:10:47.840 --> 0:10:49.960 So I'm guessing it was him and his friends just 0:10:50.080 --> 0:10:53.679 commenting offensively on the girls in their class. Is the 0:10:53.800 --> 0:10:57.520 entire thing, according to legend, which means the friend says this, 0:10:57.679 --> 0:11:00.400 the school found out about it and called their parents 0:11:00.720 --> 0:11:03.240 and they had to kill the site. But he says 0:11:03.240 --> 0:11:05.720 they actually sold the site instead to a guy in 0:11:05.840 --> 0:11:09.920 Canada for three grand. But a couple of notes, If 0:11:09.960 --> 0:11:12.560 it was so easy to build one of these knockoff facebooks, 0:11:12.559 --> 0:11:14.760 I'm sure the Canadian would have done it himself, one 0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:17.960 would think. And did they sell the profiles they'd collected 0:11:17.960 --> 0:11:20.760 on the sites? And was Olivia Benson aware of this? 0:11:21.440 --> 0:11:22.520 Those are my questions. 0:11:22.640 --> 0:11:25.480 Yes, I'll tell Elizabeth. 0:11:25.040 --> 0:11:28.559 Thank you. Billy also liked to brag about his childhood pranks. 0:11:28.960 --> 0:11:32.200 There's this author, Gabrielle Bluestone. She wrote a book called Hype, 0:11:32.480 --> 0:11:35.200 How Scammers, grifters and con Artists Are taking over the 0:11:35.240 --> 0:11:36.840 Internet and Why We're following. 0:11:37.240 --> 0:11:39.880 That's also a moneyed named Gabrielle Bluestone right. 0:11:40.880 --> 0:11:44.600 In it, she described some of these pranks quote, including 0:11:44.760 --> 0:11:47.800 one bought Mitzvah party where they sneaked into an adjacent 0:11:47.840 --> 0:11:51.640 office area and programmed all the computers so that photographs 0:11:51.679 --> 0:11:54.680 of women's breasts would pop up every time someone pressed X. 0:11:55.160 --> 0:11:58.760 Another time, McFarlane burned a bootleg copy of The forty 0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:02.719 year Old Virgin and labeled it as the animated film Mattagascar, 0:12:03.240 --> 0:12:06.040 so that Rubinstein's mother wouldn't find out and ground him 0:12:06.040 --> 0:12:09.720 for watching inappropriate movies. The R rated comedy, however, was 0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:13.880 positively tame compared to another one of McFarland's schemes, a 0:12:13.960 --> 0:12:16.800 business he built selling passwords to porn sites to his 0:12:16.880 --> 0:12:17.800 preteen buddies. 0:12:18.600 --> 0:12:19.080 Wow. 0:12:19.120 --> 0:12:21.520 Notice that this is a lot of his just creeper behavior. 0:12:21.640 --> 0:12:23.760 It's just like I want to see boobies. Yeah. 0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:27.080 So his peers would later describe him as like a flirt. Oh, 0:12:27.160 --> 0:12:28.920 he's so much fun, but also kind of like a 0:12:29.080 --> 0:12:33.120 used car salesman, real fast talker. Yeah, he always had 0:12:33.160 --> 0:12:34.680 a deal going, always on the move. 0:12:34.840 --> 0:12:35.080 Sure. 0:12:35.480 --> 0:12:38.840 He liked to boast that he developed and sold three 0:12:38.880 --> 0:12:41.760 businesses before he graduated from high school. Was one of 0:12:41.800 --> 0:12:45.319 the wars wars. Yeah, two businesses, three businesses, you get 0:12:45.320 --> 0:12:48.839 it. It didn't happen, but there. He is now out of 0:12:48.920 --> 0:12:52.240 high school, and then he's off to Bucknell University, a 0:12:52.280 --> 0:12:56.840 good liberal arts college in Pennsylvania. He dropped out after 0:12:56.920 --> 0:12:57.559 freshman year. 0:12:57.679 --> 0:13:00.280 No, he didn't have stick to it in this No, but. 0:13:00.200 --> 0:13:02.839 That's because he wanted to start a tech company of course, 0:13:03.840 --> 0:13:04.880 online business. 0:13:05.040 --> 0:13:07.440 I mean he already had your hot site, so right, 0:13:07.480 --> 0:13:09.920 I mean, he's like, he's pretty much paralleling zucker. 0:13:09.920 --> 0:13:13.080 He sold it, you know, to an angel investor exactly 0:13:13.720 --> 0:13:16.120 he wanted to call. He called this business Spling. 0:13:16.760 --> 0:13:18.640 Oh my god, that's ter that's worse the made up 0:13:18.720 --> 0:13:19.320 names we come up. 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:21.960 It's so a fake startup name that we would do. 0:13:22.120 --> 0:13:25.160 So okay. So in the original reporting, it's explained that 0:13:25.240 --> 0:13:28.560 users could paste a link and Spling would grab the 0:13:28.679 --> 0:13:33.000 article's title, description, thumbnail, and genre. Then users could share 0:13:33.040 --> 0:13:36.000 it with selected quote circles of friends. And it was 0:13:36.000 --> 0:13:37.920 supposed to be a more private way to share things 0:13:37.960 --> 0:13:39.720 instead of hopping on social media. 0:13:39.760 --> 0:13:41.400 Did you splaning me a link yesterday? 0:13:41.559 --> 0:13:44.120 Do you have those? Those are called group texts and emails? 0:13:44.160 --> 0:13:46.520 Yeah, it's pretty no. Yes, So this this all, this 0:13:46.600 --> 0:13:47.520 is offering little. 0:13:47.640 --> 0:13:50.320 It reminds me too of that storyline in the Office 0:13:50.320 --> 0:13:54.880 where Ryan starts an online company called wolf w U 0:13:55.160 --> 0:13:59.520 p h F dot com wool and it was supposed 0:13:59.520 --> 0:14:02.880 to be a ross portal messaging system. Uh huh, and 0:14:02.960 --> 0:14:05.600 it was. It just was idiotic as usual. So the 0:14:05.640 --> 0:14:08.360 episode aired in November of twenty ten, which is around 0:14:08.360 --> 0:14:10.600 the time that like Spling would have been percolating. 0:14:10.960 --> 0:14:11.959 Do you think he took this? 0:14:12.280 --> 0:14:15.760 I wonder it's interesting something to think about us makes 0:14:15.800 --> 0:14:19.360 it playing gets referenced to as an online ad platform 0:14:19.400 --> 0:14:20.400 in the retellings of. 0:14:20.400 --> 0:14:22.800 It all an ad platform, Yeah, because you had to 0:14:22.800 --> 0:14:23.960 look through an ad to look at the word. 0:14:24.120 --> 0:14:26.720 I guess, but like that's basically what social media is 0:14:26.760 --> 0:14:27.720 as an ad platform. 0:14:28.000 --> 0:14:29.960 Almost everything in America is That's true? 0:14:30.040 --> 0:14:34.520 I am your this show. Spling was quite the startup. 0:14:35.080 --> 0:14:37.840 He got two rounds of funding totally four hundred and 0:14:37.960 --> 0:14:41.040 twenty five thousand dollars in the third and fourth quarters 0:14:41.080 --> 0:14:43.680 of twenty eleven, and like Billy knew, like this is 0:14:43.760 --> 0:14:48.280 my ticket. And he had originally based the business in Philadelphia. 0:14:48.360 --> 0:14:51.280 You know that tech hub. No offense Philly, but he 0:14:52.040 --> 0:14:54.280 knew he had to expand, so he took the business 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:57.080 to New York City in twenty twelve. I don't know 0:14:57.120 --> 0:15:00.480 what happened to Spling, But today it's a website spell checker. 0:15:01.240 --> 0:15:03.880 Wait what so he either abandoned or sold the name? 0:15:03.960 --> 0:15:06.400 What is a website spell check I don't know. How 0:15:06.480 --> 0:15:08.200 is it different than a spell checker? Why do you 0:15:08.240 --> 0:15:09.640 need different websites? 0:15:10.200 --> 0:15:11.720 Something for everything? 0:15:11.760 --> 0:15:12.360 In the schoogle. 0:15:13.080 --> 0:15:15.440 You know, I did is it? I splang it? Or 0:15:15.520 --> 0:15:16.160 did I spling? 0:15:16.400 --> 0:15:17.040 I splung it? 0:15:17.160 --> 0:15:21.200 I splung it and I didn't find any errors. But like, 0:15:21.280 --> 0:15:24.160 no worries, dude, Billy has bigger ideas I bet he did. 0:15:24.240 --> 0:15:26.800 He does. So twenty thirteen, Billy and a partner started 0:15:26.840 --> 0:15:29.560 a company called Magnesis. 0:15:29.600 --> 0:15:30.680 How did he spell this? You know? 0:15:30.920 --> 0:15:33.640 M A G N I S E S. 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:35.080 That's simple. 0:15:36.800 --> 0:15:39.680 So it was a credit card company, of course, but 0:15:39.800 --> 0:15:43.320 not really. It was a debit card proxy. Wait what 0:15:43.600 --> 0:15:46.080 So basically, if you had a Wells Fargo card or 0:15:46.120 --> 0:15:48.280 a Bank of America, like a Wells Fargo or Bank 0:15:48.280 --> 0:15:51.360 of America checking account, you could link it to a 0:15:51.360 --> 0:15:55.520 Magnesis card and use that instead. And like, why would 0:15:55.520 --> 0:15:56.000 you do that? 0:15:56.360 --> 0:15:57.600 My debit card does well? 0:15:57.640 --> 0:16:01.360 The Magnesis card looked like an American exp rest Centurion card, 0:16:01.480 --> 0:16:02.320 the black card. 0:16:02.520 --> 0:16:03.080 Are you kidding? 0:16:03.160 --> 0:16:05.040 It was black and it was made of metal, and 0:16:05.080 --> 0:16:08.200 it came with perks, so you'd still be paying out 0:16:08.200 --> 0:16:10.560 of your checking account, but it would look like you 0:16:10.600 --> 0:16:14.120 had a black card. I look like impresses people. 0:16:14.160 --> 0:16:16.320 Yeah, hey look at me. I want you to see 0:16:16.320 --> 0:16:20.040 my car. Knock knockau metal. I know what that means, right. 0:16:20.000 --> 0:16:24.280 And the perks were stuff like Magnice's sponsored concerts, private dinners, 0:16:24.440 --> 0:16:25.320 art opening. 0:16:25.040 --> 0:16:27.120 Wait, Magnese's sponsored concerts. 0:16:27.200 --> 0:16:31.440 Yes, other special events where like cardholders could schmooze in network. 0:16:31.560 --> 0:16:34.000 So he's trying to pretend he's American Express. 0:16:34.040 --> 0:16:36.800 They were calling it the black card for elite millennials. 0:16:37.160 --> 0:16:39.680 Oh my god, that's like the broke black card, is 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:40.160 what it is. 0:16:40.240 --> 0:16:41.160 Yes, it's a joke. 0:16:41.440 --> 0:16:43.120 And how would Billy make money on this? 0:16:43.320 --> 0:16:44.160 How? Elizabeth? 0:16:44.200 --> 0:16:48.240 Good question? Elizabeth fees. Some cardholders could pay an extra 0:16:48.320 --> 0:16:51.840 ninety nine dollars a month a month for accessing the 0:16:52.200 --> 0:16:55.080 the co working facilities that they had through a feature 0:16:55.120 --> 0:16:55.960 called work pass. 0:16:56.080 --> 0:16:57.280 Oh he's putting them all together. 0:16:57.360 --> 0:17:01.360 Yeah, what special special about this particular coke. 0:17:01.960 --> 0:17:04.280 About this particular cowork That's not a good question. 0:17:04.520 --> 0:17:06.280 That's where Billy's offices were. 0:17:06.720 --> 0:17:08.280 He can come to his office. 0:17:08.600 --> 0:17:12.399 So normally he charged five hundred dollars for someone to 0:17:12.440 --> 0:17:14.160 come sit in a cubicle in his office space. 0:17:14.280 --> 0:17:14.840 Are you kidding? 0:17:14.920 --> 0:17:16.480 You could do it for nine nine a month, added 0:17:16.520 --> 0:17:19.080 another sixty five a month, and the card users could 0:17:19.119 --> 0:17:21.840 get guaranteed access to the most exclusive clubs in New 0:17:21.920 --> 0:17:25.680 York that was called the club Pass. Now I'm imagining 0:17:25.720 --> 0:17:28.479 the stuff on bit from Saturday Night Live weekends up 0:17:28.520 --> 0:17:31.080 days when thinking about those clubs, Can I recite one 0:17:31.119 --> 0:17:34.160 of them for you? I was hoping here's a classic. 0:17:34.359 --> 0:17:36.919 If you're drunk in Midtown doing cheap coke off your 0:17:36.960 --> 0:17:39.639 laundry card, I have just the place for you. New 0:17:39.720 --> 0:17:43.399 York's hottest club is Douche, inspired by true Events. This 0:17:43.520 --> 0:17:46.280 former CVS, which became a Chase Bank and then became 0:17:46.320 --> 0:17:49.800 a CVS again, has a familiar yet troubling feel, like 0:17:49.840 --> 0:17:52.399 when Larry King would play himself in a movie. This 0:17:52.440 --> 0:17:56.520 place has everything desk sets, key fobs, kale, chips, Roman, 0:17:56.640 --> 0:18:00.560 j Israel, Esquire. Plus you can play everyone's favorite party game, 0:18:00.680 --> 0:18:03.880 The Stranger. Do you know that Billy Joel's song The Stranger? Well, 0:18:03.960 --> 0:18:06.440 it's when you sit on Billy Joel's hand until it's numb, 0:18:06.760 --> 0:18:08.640 and then you rub yourself with it so you can 0:18:08.680 --> 0:18:13.280 pretend it's Bruce Springsteat's hand. Those remain like the best bits. 0:18:13.640 --> 0:18:16.040 Didn't John Mullaney write them? And he. 0:18:18.280 --> 0:18:20.280 Would know like Bill Hayter would know some of it. 0:18:20.320 --> 0:18:23.119 But then John Mullaney wrote Pepper and lines that he 0:18:23.160 --> 0:18:24.879 had not ever seen and he'd have to read it. 0:18:24.920 --> 0:18:26.359 And that's when he started doing the thing where he 0:18:26.400 --> 0:18:29.000 covers his mouth because it's like he had to hold 0:18:29.000 --> 0:18:32.720