In this week's strange news segment: In the wake of the recent US Presidential Election, Russian President Putin's aide Nikolai Patrushev releases a bizarre statement about "obligations." A misprint on merchandise for the film adaptation of Wicked takes some consumers to adult content. The US FDA announced a proposal to remove oral phenylephrine from the market, citing evidence that it doesn’t work. All this and more, plus a lot of puns.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn this stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
my name is Noah.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
They called me Ben. We are joined as always with
our super producer Dylan the Tennessee pal Fagan. Most importantly,
you are you. You are here. That makes this the
stuff they don't want you to know. It is the
top of the week if you are hearing this the
evening it publishes. Let us welcome you to November eighteenth,
and good luck on the upcoming Thanksgiving celebration fellow Americans.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
By fellow Americans, you will eave turkey until you fall asleep.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
I don't like turkey though, Dad, President, Dad, We'll take
your trip to fans straight.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 5 (01:04):
Man?
Speaker 4 (01:05):
Speaking of that, you know, the whole trip to fan
thing has, you know, largely been debunked in terms of
what makes you sleepy. I actually went a cooking video
recently where an internet chef named chef Jack pointed out
that it's likely people eating raw flour in their gravy
because it has not been cooked long enough. People to
sprinkle it in and don't give it time, and that
just turns into glue in your gut and makes you sleepy.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
So consider this our holiday PSA for both gravy and
any sort of roue you choose. Please cook correctly, follow
the directions, and stay safe, especially around your crazy uncles.
We're gonna leave that there. We got so much to
get to one thing we're talking about. I think we're
all excited off air about this. Forty three monkeys staged
(01:49):
a jail break of sorts. It's gonna call it a coup.
I don't think that's accurate. You got you nailed it then,
thanks man. They escape from a South Carolina research facility.
By this point you have heard about this multiple times.
Some but not all, of the monkeys have been apprehended
as we record this evening.
Speaker 4 (02:07):
Well, I think it's that kind of a continuation of
this whole like animals revolting against the humans kind of storyline,
like with the whales and all of that stuff attacking
you know, fishing boats, because I mean, these are animals
that are used for experimentation for like you know, cosmetics
testing and things like that. I don't know exactly what
they did at this very evilly named lab.
Speaker 5 (02:29):
What was the name of the lab?
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Oh, Alpha Genesis, thank you.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
It just sounds like a cartoon evil corporation.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
But I don't know.
Speaker 5 (02:36):
Man.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
Hopefully the ones that got away are on their way
to a better life.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Well, it's so in my mind, it's a weird gray
area because Alpha Genesis, at least according to their website,
they are the providers of primates for testing. So really,
at that facility, perhaps they're just raising these primates as
like happy little primates and then they get shipped off to,
(03:00):
you know, wherever they're going. I think they do offer
some services for testing though at their facilities.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Yeah, my understanding is a lot of that is health testing, right,
So it's not the invasive surgical procedures nor vaccine development specifically,
but Alpha Genesis, folks, somebody there accidentally left the door
to an enclosure unsecured, and so out of the group
(03:27):
of fifty monkeys macaus seven stay behind, forty three bolted out.
They haven't apprehended. This is not a Planet of the
Apes or outbreak situation just yet, but in case that
turns out to happen, because a few are still on
the loose. Now we're going to give you strange news
while the humans are still running the figurative roost. Oh,
(03:50):
we're going to talk about Chile. We're going to get
into some zoonotic conversations. We'll have a bunch of updates
on the way before we do any of that. You guys,
did you did you hear Russia's recent statement?
Speaker 5 (04:06):
I don't think so.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
I can't wait to hear it. We're going to open cold,
and we have returned fellow conspiracy realists in the US
and abroad. As you may have heard, it was a
bit of a hectic recent couple of weeks. Is a
(04:29):
there is a new president elect or wait, as Ell
would say, don't call it a comeback. All signs indicate
that former President Donald Trump will again assume the office
of POTUS President of the United States here in this country.
And a lot of people are happy, a lot of
people are angry, a lot of people are concerned. America
(04:51):
has ever been a divisive place. I'll tell you what.
We talk a lot about this off air, and we
know politics can be said. We're not coming to you
to tell you our opinions of this stuff. We are
coming to tell you Russia state opinions of this stuff. Yeah.
I don't know if you guys heard, but recently presidential
(05:13):
some stuff's been getting weird geopolitically since the election. Presidential
aid for the Russian government Nikolai Patrushev recently had a
statement in Russian run media outfit called Commerceant where he
gave the following quotation in part of his statements regarding
(05:35):
the new regime change in the United States. And I'd
like to share this. There's a short one and get
you guys reactions from the jump. Our buddy, Nikola said quote.
To achieve success in the election, Donald Trump relied on
certain forces to which he has corresponding obligations. As a
responsible person, he will be obliged to fulfill them.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
He'd be a shame of something happened to that nice
presidency of yours.
Speaker 5 (06:03):
That is sinister. But are your friends?
Speaker 4 (06:05):
I mean, gosh, you know, it just sounds like something
a gangster might say in terms of like it's time
to you know, I may call upon you to do
a favor.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
What do you think it could possibly be in regards
to like, when it comes to doing things for them,
do you think, do you think Ukraine is involved in
some way.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
Also way to throw the guy under the bus. You know,
Nikola doesn't. It's not very covert. It's an odd thing
to say so publicly if there was some shenanigans going
on behind the scenes.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
And to answer that first question regarding what could have
been done, what is the quid pro quo that issue? Right?
Is it asymmetrical disinformation operations? That's clear, that's proven, that's
a definite. Is the implication then, because definitely an implication
here is the implication that the Russian government, uh, somehow
(07:00):
I'll put its thumb on the election, right, that seems
to be the case, and we do know both China
and Russia have been very active with disinformation in not
just this recent election, but multiple elections. The second part
of it, the other side of the equation, the obligations.
(07:20):
What is it that you are expected to do, notably
Ukraine probably sanctions. Lifting sanctions would be another big one.
We know. This happened around the same time that a
rumor spread about Russian state television releasing nude photos of
the former am returning first lady.
Speaker 5 (07:40):
Yeah, I mean it's very strong army.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
And again it doesn't appear to be the most tactful
way of like, it seems like a putting someone on
blast kind of situation.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
You know, yeah, it seems like running the operation there
in So in early November, just earlier this month, as
we record, a lot of people on social media, one
platform or another went nuts and they claimed that Russian
State TV was showing nude photos of Meladia Trump shortly
after Western media announced Donald Trump as the president elect.
(08:17):
And it turns out that is absolutely true. Those videos
were released. It was I think we could call it
primetime TV and local Russia time. It was six thirty PM.
That's pretty much evening news time. It feels like this
happens in concert. It feels like they're coupled again with
(08:37):
statements about how they're keeping an eye on undersea cables.
This doesn't look good. This is not a political point
on a domestic front a. This has the makings of
a geopolitical conspiracy. It feels very much like a threat.
And you guys, it reminds me about the old discussion
(08:58):
of the Steele dossier, which is infamously mentioned and then
buried by US news apparatus.
Speaker 5 (09:05):
It's meant to be full of what compraman kind of material.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Well, yeah, yes, and we were also fed differing information
on that, as the American public right, we were told
it was real and then it wasn't real.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
But it is.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
But it's not just speaking of disinformation. It does call
into question, like that statement that was made at the
top right about that official saying something like that. It
just makes you feel it personally. It makes me feel
like I'm being toyed with or played with absolutely.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Nikolai Patrushev, Yeah, it's true that there is there's a
lot of fog of war here because you can see
for the Steele dossier for anybody who kind of has
it on the you know, like the tip of your
tongue in the front of your mind. It was a
research report that emerged during the twenty sixteen presidential election,
(09:58):
and it was compiled by a guy named Christopher Steele,
who's a pretty legit counterintelligence specialist. It's not super long.
It's thirty five pages, which is pretty short, and it
has these allegations of smoky backroom cooperation between the Russian
state cough cough Putin cough cough and Donald Trump or
(10:22):
his nascent administration at some point, and the implication to
your point about compromatinal, it's heavily alluded to that Russian
intelligence has some sort of evidence of perhaps financial crime,
perhaps misbehavior in terms of classified documents, or perhaps straight
(10:44):
up documentation of sex crime or some other violent crime.
Nothing really came of this, and to Matt's earlier point,
it was somewhat dismissed by the Western media. And there's
always a ton of stuf happening, but more and more
people on any side of the aisle here in the
(11:05):
States are increasingly concerned that the president elect may indeed
be either a Russian asset or be somehow controlled. And
you never, no matter who you vote for, you never
want the potus. You never want the runner of the
world's most dangerous military to be beholden to a foreign power.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
That football guy, you want that football guy to be
only on your team, speaking of the nuclear football.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
Yeah, And these types of accusations have been flying around
for years, you know, during the first term, the first
Trump administration and in between. So this is just kind
of you know, it make it easy for people to
feel a little more strongly and this is.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Definitely happening with regards to those specific photos that were
released of Milania do you because those are from her
modeling career, which she's talked about openly, like they're known
to exist, right, do you think it is signaling, hey,
we aren't afraid to show your spouse nude And also
(12:07):
think about the other stuff we've captured of her, like
over time, maybe as part of this type of thing.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
Right the shot across about theory, It's possible. You can
read an excellent article on Snopes that summarizes a lot
of this. Milania Trump is a model. It is also
or was a model. It is also quite possible that
the state run media just decided to go with this
on their own, just the way a tabloid in the
(12:35):
UK publishes the page five girl or whatever.
Speaker 4 (12:39):
Given like Trump's kind of position as this sort of
strong man figure who won't be f't with. Does this
not feel like it warrants a response? And if the
one doesn't come, doesn't that make this even more plausible that.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
They I mean, maybe that's a good question, because we
have to realize that the US government gets all kinds
of wack do statements hoard it constantly again, no matter
who was in office. Spoiler, the leader of North Korea
is not going to like it, and we'll probably have
some smack to talk on the global court. But we
(13:14):
know also speaking of evidence, that there is not at
this point any solid proof for confirmation that Donald Trump
himself or his members of his campaign had colluded in
or knew anything about disinformation efforts asymmetrical warfare on behalf
of the Russian state up to and including those fake
(13:38):
bomb threats that we spoke about previously. Polling places right
right right, and with this, what we can say is
that Patrushev's message is kind of lightning out of the blue,
and it's not the way that a lot of these
folks talk to each other in the public square, because
it feels very much like saying, hey, man, polonium can
(14:01):
turn up in all kinds of places.
Speaker 4 (14:03):
Does this guy, I'm sorry if I missed this, but
did he? Does he occupy a position that's very close
to Putin? Is this sort of a lone wolf? For
this is a legitimate.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Spokesperson, is again a presidential aid to Vladimir Putin, uh
and long time in his career. So if you are listening,
Nikola I, we would love to give you a spot
to explain, you know, to expound, if you will upload
your your statements, tell us what these obligations are. Tell
(14:36):
tell us what constitutes responsible reciprocity for you. And then also,
you know, tell us your favorite way to launder money.
That's that's the segue here. I think we've got a
little bit of time left. We talk about money laundering
so much, so often. Email us your favorite examples conspiracy.
(14:57):
iHeartRadio dot com guys money launder for one of our
favorite cartels recently got in trouble because he tried to
launder the wrong money. Did you guys hear about this? Yeah.
A guy named Daniel Sean Zilke, whose street name in
(15:19):
the game is the Englishman like, was the running the
show for a huge money laundrying conspiracy on the behalf
of a consortium of cartels, and he had a unfortunate
run in with the DEA. In twenty fifteen, he was
contacted by someone who needed to wash some money and
(15:42):
they had a great relationship for a while. This person said, look,
I need hundreds of millions of US dollars moved to Mexico.
I'm going to use a bank account of a charity
in Dallas that's how we will wash this stuff up.
And then our buddy the Englishman got too greedy and
he tried to steal his vigorous right to embezzle these funds.
(16:04):
Who was supposed to launder responsibly. Uh And it turned
out that he, uh, he laundered undercover tea money.
Speaker 5 (16:15):
Right.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Do you guys think it was through TD Bank I.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
Brought to you.
Speaker 5 (16:22):
I thought they up.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Now, I'm sure. I'm sure that'll stick. Shout out to HSBC,
uh one of our favorite examples there. So just a note,
no judgment, but to any money launderers. Remember criminal cartels
do not have an HR department. They do not have
an arbitration clause. Be very careful. Yeah. Yeah. They don't
(16:48):
put you on a pit plan. They put you on
an actual pit on a pop plan.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
What is that employee improvement or something like that.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
Yeah, yeah, personal improvement plan.
Speaker 4 (17:01):
Sorry, I thought you said pitt and that was very
even more appropriate because you know, not.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
A pit plan but plan. I got you totally.
Speaker 5 (17:11):
I think both work.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Is one point yeah, one pull it point all right,
we'll keep it all right. Very last thing before we
move on to the next act of our Strange News segment.
We have talked in the past about collapsing birth rates.
We have talked about the four B movement honestly pretty
well in advance of it going global. The four B movement,
How would we explain.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
That it's essentially women refusing to engage with men, right
even their husbands in sexual congress.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Well, well, yeah, one of the more than that. One
of the tennis is not to be in a romantic relationship,
not to get married, not to have kids, and not
to have intercourse or other sexual relations with men.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
Yes, yeah, it gained prominence in twenty nineteen, at least
on the Internet. The four B part comes from the
Korean language. No sex with men, no giving birth, no
dating men, no marriage with men. And it's a result
of the intense misogyny that a lot of people experience
in that part of the world, which coincides with collapsing
(18:16):
birth rates in that part of the world. Japan is
often the most well known example of collapsing birth rates,
and every plan that the Japanese government has made to
quote unquote combat or address this problem has just seemed
like a terrible idea. I think. No, it was China
(18:37):
where people were calling women to see if they were pregnant.
A Japanese politician recently said, hey, guys, I know how
to boost the birth rate. If you're a woman and
you're over thirty, we're removing your uterus.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Eh oh, okay, so quickly have those kids before we
take your ability to do it.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Naoki Yokota, who was a leader of the the leader
of the Conservative Party of Japan, said, okay, here's how
we could do this. The banning marriage after a certain age.
So if you're a woman, you're over twenty five, you
can't get married. He said. If that doesn't work, you
know by the time you hit thirty, well we'll take
out the uterus.
Speaker 4 (19:20):
Uh. That's like forced sterilization, that's.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
Exactly Yeah, it's also forced mutilation.
Speaker 4 (19:27):
And dude, pitch, that's still a pitch, thankfully, still a pitch, thankfully,
But bringing that up because yeah, it's a conspiracy against women,
but it also, first off, in addition to be cartoonish
and evil like bubblegum model after chewing tobacco.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
It seems like there's no way this would work or
how so expensive too, wouldn't it? I mean, well, Japan
does have better healthcare than.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
They true, but still it just seems like logistic, logistically
a nightmare.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
Agreed, Agreed, and incredibly worrying that this could even be
brought up, Yeah, as a brainstorm or a blue sky pitch.
Very handmade's tail in some ways, like what's the thing
that went around we were talking about a little offline,
that horrible comment that went viral from a real misogynistic
bully your body my choice, nick ways, I want.
Speaker 4 (20:25):
To say, I see it's one of those things too,
where you know, you have a comedian or a pundit
or whatever who says some inflammatory and then writes it
off as I was just joking. But when you see
it appearing on signs that people are holding up you know,
protesting and abortion clinics or whatever, that it's the rubber
has met the road in a very different way.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
And he totally did the move that all bulliesing cowards do,
which is when he had consequences for his statements, he said, Oh,
I'm just joking. When are you getting so proclept about Oh,
I'm just kidding. What do you know about comedy? And
then get this and we'll end it here. He got
docksed by women in the United States. We're rightly mad
at him, and he ran and hid at his mom's.
Speaker 5 (21:09):
House, glad she was there for him.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
H looks like it looks like looks like for you
guy who talks to much trash about women, he sure
needed a woman's help with that. We're gonna pause for
a word from our sponsors. We'll wait to see if
Nikolai hits us up. We'll give you updates on that
towards the end, but then we'll be right back with
more strange news.
Speaker 5 (21:36):
And we have returned with some more strange news.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
Guys, Are you both stoked as I am about the
new Wicked movie?
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Arianna's in it, right, sure is.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
I think it's weird that they made Ariana Grande. I
think it's weird that they made it too films well.
Speaker 5 (21:52):
I heard today for the first time that the musical
is in.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
Two acts, so they decided to maximize the receipts. I guess,
you know, the way they did with a Hobbit, a
short children's book. I know it always screams of greed
when whenever Hollywood studios do something like that, I mean
the musical. You know, musicals are certainly longer than features oftentimes,
but I can't imagine it being more than three hours,
and they probably could have condensed that into one movie.
Speaker 5 (22:14):
Easy, but two is better than one in terms of you.
Speaker 4 (22:16):
Know, grosses as they call them. But quick story on this, guys.
Of course, when you have a big blockbuster like this,
a big temp pole as they call it, coming, you
end up with lots of merchandising opportunities, including dolls, figurines,
collectibles call them what you will, which have been making
the rounds and you know your big box store of
(22:38):
choice from Mattel. They released some wicked dolls. I guess
they're calling them wicked fashion dolls.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Wicked dolls.
Speaker 4 (22:49):
Yeah, brats they should do, But where's the where's the
brats dolls? Wicked brats dolls, especially with it being have
been just recently a brat summer. But Rachel treslemen or
trailsmen rather Over at the the NPR has this incredible
story of a big old marketing snafu that Mattel was
(23:10):
responsible for. An absolute egg on faced the situation that
someone's head is going to roll for a wicked mistake,
Mattel apologizes for printing a porn site on its doll packaging.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
Well, hold on before we get angry which site specifically.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
I mean, if you were a if you're coming of
age in the late nineties, as I was, you may
well have come of Hage Seth's gross sounding and heard
of a little company called Wicked Pictures from at the time,
probably responsible for some of the biggest names in pornography
in terms of like names that maybe crossed over, you know,
(23:47):
like Jenna Jamison for example, Wicked Pictures Stars.
Speaker 5 (23:52):
You know, you might have actually.
Speaker 4 (23:53):
Heard of some of them, because they were a big
deal back in the nineties and two thousands, but apparently
they've kind of fallen by the wayside, especially as like
people are no longer paying big bucks for pornography DVDs
and and site subscriptions because everything's ripped and just put
on places like porn Hub or Red Tube or whatever.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
Was it Wicked like VHS days, It was as.
Speaker 4 (24:12):
Early as that for sure, and then you know, I
think it was also early days of DVDs. But the
funny thing too about Wicked Pictures she may or may
not know, is I was trying to find some of
the names because they're always funny. But they were responsible
in the old school fashion of pornography for doing these
kind of like like spoofs of big Hollywood movies, you know,
(24:33):
like one that will always stick with me just from
like a sketch I think for back of the Days,
Like instead of pulp fiction, it's pulp friction, you know,
things like parodies, porn parodies. One hundred percent. That is
one of Wicked's stocks in the trade. And because of
the amount of time they've been around. Ben to your point,
as early as the VHS days, pre Internet days, they
(24:53):
got that Wicked dot com on lock y'all, and some
hapless copywriter f Motsel didn't add the very key movie
add on to their URL they printed on these packages.
So they all went out with Wicked dot com on
the backs of these children's figures. And apparently, according to
(25:13):
the New York Posts, Wicked dot com has experienced a
rise in its traffic and unseen for twelve years, a
twelve year high after Mattell mistakenly friends at URL on
Wicked doll boxes.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
Now, congratulations to everyone.
Speaker 5 (25:29):
Yeah, all concerns except for the heads that are most
certainly are or have already rolled over at Mattel in
their copywriting department.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
And secondly, to answer your earlier question, I think the
best portmanteau for collectible and merchandising would be merchibles. And
if you are a collector, I imagine you are buying
up as many of these Wicked dolls with that misprint
as you can, because those will depend on how the
film does. Those are going to be pretty choice.
Speaker 5 (26:00):
Already, are my friend.
Speaker 4 (26:01):
They are going on eBay misprinted versions because they were
quickly recalled, not just apologize for which Mattel definitely did,
but they were pulled from shelves, so you are seeing
already these these much more collectible collector's items known for
hundreds of dollars on the internet. A statement from Mittel
said Mattel was made aware of a misprint on the
(26:23):
packaging of the Mattel Wicked collection dolls, primarily sold in
the US, intended to direct consumers to the official Wicked
moovie dot com landing page. We deeply regret this unfortunate
error and are taking immediate action to remedy. It confirms
that the listed website is not appropriate for children and
lasting for me, Lest you worry, the sent kids directly
(26:45):
to a pornographic image. The landing page is again in
classic old school oji porn website tradition does ask you
to confirm your date of birth and so good, and
promise that you're eighteen or older.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
So step, no harm.
Speaker 5 (27:05):
No foul.
Speaker 4 (27:06):
Surely no kid caught a glimpse of something they shouldn't
have seen. But I don't know, man, Matt, I know
you've got thoughts about this one.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
I just want to point out this is the company
that Stormy Daniels was a major part of time, which
is interesting just to connect things back up in this episode.
And also it's weird to me that they did so
many parody movies, like you were talking about, many of
them direct ripoffs of Disney IP like Cinderella.
Speaker 5 (27:34):
Did you find, Matt, did you find some of the names?
Speaker 2 (27:36):
Well? Yeah, one of them was snow White triple X
an axle bron parody or Cinderella triple X an axle
bron parody and.
Speaker 5 (27:43):
A burst of creativity. As Ben would say, they could
do better.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Come on, dude, Well they also had Batman versus Superman,
a triple.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
X p I don't think this was I don't think
this was wicked, but I loved I loved the puns.
It's a wonderful life. Cool.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
The other one glorious.
Speaker 5 (28:00):
They right themselves.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
You know, a Tale of Twos could have just gone
with glorious Holes. I think it's much more interesting than Look,
we know production can get crazy, and you're it's stressful
to make any kind of entertainment. I want to give
accolades to people who make the good porn pun titles
instead of just adding triple X at the end. You
(28:22):
know what I mean?
Speaker 5 (28:23):
You know, the Olden Days, return to the Glory whole days.
Speaker 4 (28:26):
Yes, yes, everybody.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
You can kind of hear the plot as well, Romancing
the Bone, the.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Operation, Desert Stormy, thank you, yes.
Speaker 5 (28:42):
For thank you.
Speaker 4 (28:44):
Gosh, you guys are on fire with these, and I
know some of these are real, and I think some
of these you might be.
Speaker 5 (28:48):
Making up, but they're all equally fantastic.
Speaker 4 (28:52):
So yeah, I mean, you know, to the point I
was making earlier, definitely, heads.
Speaker 5 (28:56):
Are going to roll.
Speaker 4 (28:56):
It's unclear who was responsible directly for this, but we
do have multiple eBay sellers listing these toys for as
much as five hundred dollars, some advertising them as rare
URL error misprints in the culture, the small you know,
the niche kind of culture collectibles and you know, any
kind of misprint.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
Is a big deal.
Speaker 4 (29:15):
Is a big get, especially one as embarrassing is this
for a company as storied and legacy as Mattel.
Speaker 5 (29:22):
You know, I mean they invented Barbie for Christ's sake.
Speaker 4 (29:26):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
I wonder how wicked the adult entertainment company is going
to handle that in court. But we'll have to Well,
they've done nothing wrong, No they haven't, they haven't. If anything,
they should just write a nice thank you note.
Speaker 4 (29:38):
I know exactly, and just just to just to confirm
on then there's a New York Post article that has
some nice screenshots and it's funny too, Like obviously people
saw this web address on the packaging in very small
print of a toy and followed up with it.
Speaker 5 (29:54):
I just it is.
Speaker 4 (29:55):
If anything, it's a it's a it's a win for
marketing because they know that people are going to going
to those websites.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
Speak about the attrition rate too, you know, even like
on a box of cereal where it says, hey, if
you want this special deal, you can write to this place. Right,
the modern people do it. Yeah, Lord of the strings,
thank you, thank you.
Speaker 5 (30:15):
So let's put a pin in that one.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
I guess because I would be interested to see if
there's any further fallout, you know, if Gosh forbid, this
did lead to actionable you know, or witnessed moments of
children viewing pornographic material young you know what I mean?
That's I hope not, but that is an absolutely I
wonder if there's a class action lawsuit potential.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
Yeah, possible, You're not You're not wrong there and only
could that's always in the cards.
Speaker 4 (30:43):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
We Also, I guess we should take a moment and say,
without knowing the details, this does seem like an honest mistake.
It doesn't seem like someone working in the vast panopoly
of marketing and merchables for this set the Revenge a
Ron Jeremy or anything like that.
Speaker 5 (31:01):
Surely we own Wicked dot com? Right, have you heard
of Wicked?
Speaker 3 (31:07):
Come on, and now they're legally boned.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
Oh boy. All of that makes me think of the cover,
the original cover of The Little Mermaid.
Speaker 4 (31:16):
Remember that with the with the with the sexual device
featured the penises. It was it was like a dildo
kind of like, I mean, that's what And also we've
talked about the little hidden dubbed moment and Aladdin. Good
teenagers take off their clothes. I think they fixed it.
But boy oh boy, when I was young, we played
that part back over and over again and it was
(31:37):
definitely there.
Speaker 5 (31:38):
And that's not a Mendela effects.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
Yeah, surprise cartoonist can sometimes be weird and horny.
Speaker 5 (31:42):
Well that that, But that does beg the question like
was this a simple mistake.
Speaker 4 (31:45):
Or was this a disgruntle copywriter who pushed something through
to make this, to make an embarrassing thing.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
I feel like mistake.
Speaker 4 (31:52):
I think so too, because again, surely we own Wicked
dot com.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
You know, no offense to anybody in the crowd, but
you have to have a certain level of enthusiasm or
a certain age upon you to even be aware of
Wicked the adult entertainment site.
Speaker 4 (32:08):
Yeah, I mean yeah, like Empire, it is something that
I was aware of because I just of a certain age.
Speaker 5 (32:15):
It was inescapable. There was a time.
Speaker 4 (32:17):
Where it was like the only game in town that
was like bordering on mainstream, you know what I mean,
Like it really was.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
Like to that. Jamison made appearances in talk shops, main Strub,
mainstream stuff, main Shrub. Also drill Bill.
Speaker 4 (32:33):
I'm just gonna keep doing I want you to I'm
so grateful to you guys.
Speaker 5 (32:37):
As I was coming up, I was dropping, I was
shooting blanks.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
No, and that one does Bill have the drill or
is bill drill bill being drilled?
Speaker 3 (32:44):
That's an excellent question because you see, it's a two
part cinematic experience. There's one one that's a drill bill.
After dark they did, there was a third kild bill.
Speaker 4 (33:00):
They gotta they gotta follow the rules, has gotta follow
suit of the actual thing that they're.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
Par I'm sure there's some guide San Fernando Valley who
was just up to his gills on his favorite vice
of choice and say no for the artistic integrity we
can only have doo. I hate you guys. I'm calling
Quintin now.
Speaker 4 (33:18):
Yeah, well you know Quintin is a bit of a
foot that she guy.
Speaker 5 (33:21):
Maybe he was involved.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
I was gonna say, unrelated to anything. I just learned.
There is apparently a site called wiki feet, So thank you, Slash.
I'm still angry at you. To our pals Jack and
Miles over at Daily Zeitgeist, who taught me that wiki
feet is a thing just like it sounds like at
Miles in particular is mad that Jesus Christ does not
have a Wiki feet entry.
Speaker 4 (33:43):
I don't think we have any actual photos of Jesus
Christ's feet. We just have very graphic descriptions being washed,
end of him washing others feet.
Speaker 5 (33:52):
The Bible full of the original feet picks. Jeez, guys,
I didn't expect us to go.
Speaker 4 (33:56):
Quite as long on this little nugget of a topic,
but it really did kind of encompassed more than I expected,
So thank you for that. But I will just mention
something that I think might be worth a larger exploration.
We've certainly talked about the Church of Satan founded by
Anton Lavy, and it's sort of I believe been correct
me if I'm wrong, evolution into the Temple of Satan,
(34:19):
or are they completely unconnected? I could have sworn there
was a connection. Either way, they are related in terms
of their belief structure, the Temple of Satan being an
organization that where members use imagery of the devil and
of you know, Satanic rituals, black magic rituals, candles and
you know, sacrificial knives, wearing robes and pentagrams and all
(34:41):
of that kind of stuff as a way to express
a very very strong sense of personal freedom. A very
strong sense of what is it do what thou wiltst
maybe the whole of the law, you know, Shelby, Yeah,
that is an original Anton LaVey kind of sentiment. And again,
forgive me if I'm getting the evolution of the Temple
(35:02):
of Satan incorrect, but they very much share that.
Speaker 5 (35:05):
Same mentality, and in Chile apparently, and this is.
Speaker 4 (35:08):
I guess the most interesting hook, because we've certainly talked
about the Temple of Satan and the Church of Satan before.
They get a lot of bad rap, the idea of
Satanic panic stuff, that they're devil worshippers, they're doing black magic,
but all of that stuff is just for show and
kind of for a pomp and circumstance to create a
maybe I've always thought of it as sort of like
a protest religion or a protest kind of ideology against
(35:32):
organized religion.
Speaker 3 (35:33):
And to the question I believe you were asking there
at the top of this, the Church of Satan is
separate from the Temple of Satan or the Satanic Temple,
I sue.
Speaker 4 (35:44):
But either way you could argue that it is a
splinter of that ideology that Anton Leavey established, you know,
back in the early days of the Church of Satan,
which I believe was the had to have been the sixties, right,
nineteen sixty six. B there you go, hey, sixty six six.
But the thing that interested me about this whole idea
of the Satanic Temple taking also, by the way, Satanic Temple,
(36:04):
if I'm not mistaken, has been making headlines in the past,
you know, decade or so here in the States, from
doing some very public acts of protests, like I think
they built a Baha Met sculpture like near a school
or something. There was a big to do made of
this Bahamet sculpture they built on public property. I believe
that was funded by the Temple, the Satanic Temple. And
(36:25):
there was some other you know, kind of pr moves
that they did that caused almost this resurgent panic against
you know, Satanism or whatever here in the United States.
In Chile, however, eighteen million citizens eighteen million people identify
as Catholic, and in this country, the Satanic Temple is
now getting so much interest, so many people jumping ship
(36:48):
from Catholicism and other religions, that they are asking the
government to recognize them as a legally religious organization. Association
with all of the appropriate you know, tax benefits and
such that go along with that. There's a really great
piece in the ap by Nayara Botschki, and I'll just
read a quick moment from this and then we can
(37:10):
move on. Scholars, she says, believe and residents consulted by
the Associated Pressed note that Chile, where a long lasting
tradition of Catholicism has played a leading role in public discussions,
is experiencing a crisis of faith following revelations of multiple
sexual abuse scandals.
Speaker 5 (37:25):
Within the Catholic Church over the years. Win for Satan there,
you know, match point.
Speaker 4 (37:33):
It is interesting though, considering what we also talked about,
how the Catholic Church has come out with this anime,
you know, mascot that's meant to appeal to like gent alphas.
Speaker 5 (37:44):
And and of course it was going to happen.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
Guys.
Speaker 5 (37:47):
I don't know if you heard about this, but.
Speaker 4 (37:48):
A lot of horrible AI imagery of that anime character
have flooded the Internet of its participating in sex ax
or her participating acts, really really gross stuff, but all
pointing to the fact that the Catholic Churches may be
starting to get a little desperate to recruit new you know, devotees.
Speaker 5 (38:09):
So what do you guys think about that?
Speaker 2 (38:13):
I just want to point people to the Satanic Temple
dot com, where they have a quote Kid's Quick Reference
guide that compares the Satanic Temple in the Church of
Satan helpful, healthful resource and in the Chat I am reading,
we are still going. Just everybody knows in the chat
we're going hard on, hard on.
Speaker 3 (38:32):
Please can we save them for the end?
Speaker 2 (38:35):
Yes, we will. They're just like they're very distracting and
good thank you.
Speaker 3 (38:40):
Uh yeah. Having been to Chile, everything you say is correct.
It is predominantly Christian country. We are proponents on this
show of the ideology of the Church of Satan, especially
because it's non theistic in its pursuit, and I think
you summed it up very well. Excited to see what develops,
(39:01):
especially again, the thing we always have to put here
is these folks are not saying they worship Satan. It
is a purposely polemical, provocative hook to get you involved
with their earlier philosophy. So yeah, looking forward to see
what develops there.
Speaker 5 (39:16):
One hundred percent.
Speaker 4 (39:18):
With that, let's take a quick break here a word
from our sponsor and then returning with one more segment
of our weekly Strange News episode.
Speaker 2 (39:30):
And we've returned. Guys, Hey, remember that drug we talked about.
I think it was September last year. Phenylephrine?
Speaker 3 (39:39):
Yes, yeah, but that I do with the pH.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
Right, yes, two phs. Oh love word that has two
pH sections PhD though correct. Correct. It is often referred
to as PE on packaging for cold medicines that you
may find in whatever story you go to to buy
cold medicine. Well, guys, back then, the reason why we
talked about is because the Food and Drug Administration finally
(40:04):
agreed with almost two decades of research that showed that
this thing, this drug, phenylephrine or frin, is not effective
as a nasal decongestant, which is its primary purpose.
Speaker 5 (40:18):
That's I remember now.
Speaker 3 (40:20):
Oh yes, and you can, for the record, for all
our friends with the FDA, you can advertise loose, vague
claims for any kind of nutritional supplement that doesn't have
to go through FDA testing. But Matt, I believe in
this case, the problem was that PE was being advertised
(40:40):
with some sort of measurable medical efficacy that simply wasn't there.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
Oh yeah, fully, this isn't over the counter coffin cold
medicine or additive for coffin cold medicines. That was supposedly
a powerful nasal decongestant, and it was put in place
early on to replace some of the other dangerous nas
decongestants that we're being used to createthm, phetamines and other things.
Speaker 5 (41:05):
That the big draw. That was the draw.
Speaker 4 (41:07):
So what are some popular brand names of this bunk
placebo effect drug that we might all recognize.
Speaker 2 (41:13):
Think of any cough medicine that you've ever purchased in
your life. Thailand All, Fera, flu, sudafed, Robitussin, Nike will.
Speaker 3 (41:21):
Advil, the good ones, all the good ones.
Speaker 2 (41:26):
Basically all the ones that you can go reach down
on a shelf and pick up the actual bottle and
take it to check out. Those are the ones that
have this.
Speaker 4 (41:33):
And that's not to say that the active ingredients and
thilan all won't make you feel better on other fronts,
but they certainly aren't decongesting your nasal passages.
Speaker 3 (41:42):
Yeah, because that's not the only ingredient. That's a great point,
I think correct.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
But you can get versions of almost all of those
that are titled like thailan al DM or SUDA fed
DM or some other thing where it's got a different
substance in there that functions for that nasal decongestent thing.
But in this case, the pe stuff doesn't do anything.
And we're giving you this update because they just announced
the FDA that is that they are going to seek
(42:09):
to pull this thing, fenyl efrin, off the market. And
they did that finally because they concluded that the and
this is really important, guys, the oral version of penol
efron is ineffective. The oral They concluded that there are
other versions of this, other ways to get the medicine
into your body, which are at much higher concentrations that
(42:32):
can function as a nasal decongestant, but taking them in
those ways could potentially be more dangerous and would require
something like you know, a doctor's note, right, a.
Speaker 3 (42:43):
Servation supervision of something.
Speaker 5 (42:46):
Yes, is it a matter of bioavailability? You hear that
term thrown around a lot.
Speaker 4 (42:50):
I do wonder like it just doesn't absorb through that method,
through the oral method, But if you shoot it directly
into like a muscle or whatever, maybe that works better.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
I'll give you a direct quote from CBS News. Alexander
Tin wrote this on November seventh, twenty twenty four. If
you want to look it up, it is titled FDA
to pull common but ineffective cold medicine from the market.
Here's the quote. The latest data shows that only a
tiny fraction of phenyl effrine is absorbed into the body
when digested from a pill or syrup containing the substance.
(43:19):
This is different from other formulations like the inhaled nasal
spray version of the drug, where larger percentages can make
it into the blood stream. This continues just a little bit. Guys,
less than one percent of the drug is absorbed into
the bloodstream after being swallowed, they estimated.
Speaker 4 (43:36):
So it's not to say, yeah, okay, so it's a
drug itself, isn't bunk, but it's just a method of delivery, right.
Speaker 3 (43:41):
Yeah, just take three hundred percent more.
Speaker 2 (43:44):
Yeah, there you Goike, And for that they say, far
higher doses like you're suggesting ben could be needed to
achieve a clinically meaningful outcome, which would raise significant questions
about safety.
Speaker 4 (43:56):
Yeah, and the other stuff that's packaged in those pills
that are being sold, you might, you know, have to
take a fistful of them to even get any and
That's the thing though, right, what if someone was like, oh,
it's not working, I'll just take more. Tell now it's
working a little bit. But now they've overdosed on Thailand. Yeah,
overdose toxic levels of a set of benefit.
Speaker 2 (44:14):
Which is not good for you. By the way, we've
learned about a lot of that stuff. The regular drugs
just don't take too much of them.
Speaker 4 (44:21):
Can you guys picture that like the bolt like game
of telephone with Big Pharma, where this was decided to
be a good idea.
Speaker 2 (44:29):
I mean truly they Big Pharma, I would say, does
not think this is a good idea. Neither does the
Consumer Healthcare Products Association. They said they are disappointed in
the FDA's proposal. Oh no, because they say, quote, PE
should remain an available option for consumers, because Americans deserve
(44:51):
the option to choose the safe and effective over the
counter medicines they prefer and rely on.
Speaker 3 (44:58):
That's so lame, that's like say, that's like saying back
in the sixteen hundreds. Look, consumers should be able to
dunk someone in water. If they're a witch, that's their choice.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
If they think it's a witch, then they've got to
be able to dunk them in the water. That's their
chore we.
Speaker 3 (45:15):
To say big government. So yeah, it's I mean, clearly
there's a financial incentive at this point. I think that's
the primary conspiracy, right. The good news for anybody wondering
is that the individuals who are making the most profit
off of this, in the pharmaceutical industry, if you're worried
about them, let us asquatch your concerns. They're gonna be fine.
(45:38):
They're not going to go in trouble. Nothing bad is
going to happen to them. They might lose a little
bit of revenue.
Speaker 2 (45:45):
Well yeah, and well, and FDA eight has that in mind.
They know, hey, we're taking money out of the pockets
of big pharma left and right here with this move.
So what they've done is they've given everyone until May
seventh of next year, of twenty twenty five to weigh
in on the pole. That's the public us we get
to weigh in on this proposal. After that comment period,
if the FDA decides to revoke this oral fenel efforns
(46:08):
status as a quote generally recognized as safe and effective
drug over the counter drug makers, all of the ones
we listed earlier would be forced to stop using the ingredient.
But this window is designed so that they can reformulate
their drugs, come up with something new, some fancy, something exciting,
something that may also be just as ineffective.
Speaker 3 (46:29):
Yeah, kissing cousin right, an analog drag of pe, some
kind of synthetic, synthetic version that's just different enough to
not fall bold into the same regulation. Also, I'm just
gonna say it. Far be it for me to sound
paranoid or conspiratorial, but in my experience, you guys, typically
when those public statement windows occur, typically a non insignificant
(46:54):
portion of the public making comments tend to be in
one way or another. They're hired by someone who is
hired by the larger company to pretend to care about
a thing.
Speaker 2 (47:08):
The money moves, it really does, you know what?
Speaker 3 (47:11):
You know?
Speaker 2 (47:12):
How else the money moves, Guys, How is that, Matt, Well,
it moves from your pockets into a delivery driver's hand.
This is a very common thing. We got super used
to it about halfway through twenty twenty. Well, there's another
story in Strange News today that goes directly into your
delivery fees and the stuff that you pay for that stuff,
(47:33):
or at least you used to here we go. You
remember a thing called grub hub, guys, Yes, sure, chubhub
some people call it. Does anybody still use that? I
haven't used Grubhub. I went with one of the other ones,
suber E.
Speaker 3 (47:45):
It's I think it's regionally in community dependent, so your
mileage may vary often in suburban areas or outside of
inner city areas where you know, we live in a
metro area. A lot of people end up using grub
hub just because it's more consistent and available. So it's
sort of like, you know, if you don't usually drink soda,
(48:06):
you go to a restaurant, they'll have pepsi or coke,
and you'll just sort of go with whatever they have.
Speaker 2 (48:12):
Oh, for sure. The only the only reason I use
the one that I use for like a delivery, a
food delivery app, is because somebody else was using it
one time and I went, oh, I guess i'll get
that one too, So you got it.
Speaker 3 (48:23):
Now it's normalized during the sandbox exactly.
Speaker 5 (48:26):
Well.
Speaker 2 (48:27):
Grubhub, you guys, was a huge deal during the pandemic,
so huge, and it was valued so high along with
all of those other food delivery apps that were not
new but all of a sudden, everybody was using them
pracsionally every day or every other day. It was intense. Well,
they were purchased by a Netherlands based food delivery company
(48:51):
called just Eat Takeaway for seven point three billion dollars
US dollars.
Speaker 3 (48:58):
Sorry, I got really larry day that they're yes, okay.
Speaker 2 (49:02):
Seven point three billion US dollars in June of twenty twenty.
So at the height of pandemic times, this company just
E Takeaway swooped in and they actually beat out a
couple other people who were vying to buy grub Hub,
and they got it. Man, they got that thing, and
they were like, dude, We're going to take over the
(49:23):
US markets with this thing. It's going to be gangbusters
because this is our new normal. Everybody does this all
the time now. The pandemic world is forever.
Speaker 3 (49:32):
Yeah, and US labor laws are trash, so it's not
like we have to respect the people working for us.
Speaker 5 (49:37):
But here's the same.
Speaker 4 (49:37):
I mean, people do use these apps like gangbusters, you know.
I just it would seem that maybe they.
Speaker 5 (49:43):
Bet on the wrong horse.
Speaker 4 (49:44):
Like I'd love to hear some market share data because
I know people definitely tons of people still you know,
whether it's holdover from pandemics still used free delivery services.
Speaker 2 (49:54):
Oh for sure, and I still use it every once
in a while. But it is a it is functioning
at a very different level than it was when that
company when grub Hub was purchased for seven point three billion,
because four years later they just have announced that Just
Eat Takeaway is selling grub Hub to another thing that
(50:15):
we've already talked about on the show before, called Wonder
for six hundred and fifty million.
Speaker 3 (50:21):
Hey on, now that's those of us who are not
you know, number surgeons or whatever. That seems like they're
selling it for a little bit less than they bought
it for.
Speaker 2 (50:31):
A little bit less. It's a loss of about six
and a half billion dollars with a.
Speaker 3 (50:35):
B US dollars.
Speaker 5 (50:39):
Is this at least a tax right off for these
poor SAPs?
Speaker 2 (50:42):
Well better be. According to Just Eat Takeaway, they are
it's gonna help them grow as a company by selling this,
they're gonna have cash on hand, about six hundred and
fifty million dollars worth of cash because they're going through problems. Guys, wonder,
do you recall what that is when we talked about it.
Speaker 3 (51:02):
No, I want to say food related, cause you know
they bought they bought a food kit service at some point, right.
Speaker 2 (51:10):
Yeah, yes, like that. But mostly what Wonder is is
one of those kitchens that produces a ton of different
food out of one kitchen that is all branded with
different Oh yeah, yes, so so like they I think
they the quote is twenty eight fast casual restaurants mostly
(51:31):
around New York City and New Jersey and it's a
they call it a wide range of global cuisines. Right,
so this company is now going to have its own
delivery service basically, which if you can just imagine in
the minds of the people that own Wonder, they just
dropped six hundred fifty million dollars for their own, like
(51:52):
I guess catered delivery service thing that they'll also still
use for other stores, but then they can make theirs
like top of the line.
Speaker 3 (52:00):
Check out our episode on ghost kitchens as well. That
was a fun one, I think for all of us.
And look, their model is not necessarily bad, but they're
definitely going to leverage that advantage to get there. You know,
their one kitchen that appears to be eight kitchens a
little bit higher on the search page, A little bit
closer to what feels reasonable. I'm I'm not mad at it.
(52:25):
I'm not mad at it.
Speaker 5 (52:26):
Well, you got a wonder too.
Speaker 4 (52:27):
I wonder the bets that were being placed on ghost
kitchens during the pandemic have probably not yielded the dividends
that folks were hoping for because it kind of became
like almost you know, people were like newer to spot them,
and they were like getting wise to it because they
were typically not the best of quality.
Speaker 2 (52:45):
Speaking of quality, past quality, past qualities.
Speaker 5 (52:48):
What was it called?
Speaker 2 (52:49):
Was that the one the pizza?
Speaker 3 (52:52):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (52:52):
Sorry, I don't know why my brain did.
Speaker 3 (52:54):
There's great memory.
Speaker 2 (52:55):
Yeah, so, guys. One of the major reasons is something
you touched on just with a comment been earlier. One
of the major reasons just Eats was trying to get
rid of their US food delivery stuff is because of
those new regulations that have come out about how much
a food delivery service can charge as a fee. Just
(53:15):
so we're not talking about the cost of the food.
We're not talking about the whatever tip you leave the driver,
the fee that grub hub or door dash or whoever
can charge just for using their service. New York and
Jersey and a bunch of other places have capped how
much you can actually charge a customer.
Speaker 3 (53:33):
Right because it went wild with surge pricing, and you
can even see it now even if you're in kind
of a stable financial environment. Go to a restaurant's website
at your local restaurant that you were about to order
delivery from, and notice that every item is several dollars
lower than if you ordered it through Uber Eats or
(53:54):
grub Hub or door Dash or whatever comes next after that.
Speaker 2 (53:59):
Wow, this is weird stuff, guys. The last thing on
Wonder because it does feel like this is a pretty
big power move. And if Wonder is going to expand
the way I imagine, you know, the owners of it
wanted to expand, it does feel like one of those
new things that will exist sometime when my son is
(54:19):
a little bit older where he's like, uh, well, I
guess we're gonna order from Wonder tonight, and everybody gets
what they want from one of the fifty nine stores
that they have in them at that time or whatever.
Speaker 3 (54:30):
It's the same driver. Yeah, so there might be utility
to the consumer. That's a really good, great point.
Speaker 2 (54:35):
Well, last thing here, guys, the owners of or at
least the part owners of Wonder is. It's this thing
called VCP Ventures. It's co founded by two guys. The
first one his name is Mark Lore. He is the
quote Lebron James of e commerce? Oh oh yeah, oh yeah.
He's the guy who owns Wonder, or at least is
(54:57):
behind Wonder, and he's behind the Grubha acquisition. The other
guy that owns VCP Ventures alongside him is a guy
named Alex Rodriguez. Do you does that sound familiar to y'all?
Alexez baseball player, baseball, a rod baby, Yeah, yeah, the
dude from the Yankees. So the little the Lebron James
(55:19):
of e commerce and a Rod own this thing that
will eventually be where all of us eat all the time.
Speaker 3 (55:28):
Correct forward to it, and we're looking forward to it.
What could go wrong with monopolization? What could go wrong
with everything rising and converging in a capitalistic version of
what Flannery O'Connor warned us about so long ago?
Speaker 2 (55:42):
Speaking of rising, I think we have a few more
puns we do we do?
Speaker 3 (55:49):
Uh, let's see r pal Dylan says, every bang, everywhere,
all at once, to which I reply, what creams may come?
Speaker 4 (55:56):
No?
Speaker 2 (55:56):
No no, no, no, no, no no no.
Speaker 3 (55:59):
Ocean's eleven art inches.
Speaker 4 (56:01):
Yeses, guys, I think we maybe we've crossed the Oh,
I've just Edward Penis hands.
Speaker 5 (56:07):
You pointed out, that's a real one.
Speaker 3 (56:08):
That's a real one.
Speaker 5 (56:09):
I've heard of that.
Speaker 4 (56:10):
I don't think it was a Wicked Pictures production though, no,
apparely we're we're.
Speaker 5 (56:17):
One blue over the cuckoo's nest.
Speaker 3 (56:20):
Oh, I said, one blue over the cuckoo's breast.
Speaker 5 (56:23):
Oh, even better. But it's you know, for for fans
of classic cinema.
Speaker 3 (56:28):
And then there's one flew over the cuckold's nest would
be the next logical derivation. Send us your favorite ones, folks.
We try to be easy to find on email, via
telephone and all over the internet, and.
Speaker 4 (56:39):
You can find us at the handle Conspiracy Stuff, where
we exist on the internet. As Ben mentioned, you can
find us that handle on Facebook where we have our
Facebook group, as well as on x.
Speaker 5 (56:48):
FKA, Twitter and on YouTube where we have video content
for you to enjoy.
Speaker 3 (56:52):
It's galor ish.
Speaker 4 (56:54):
You can also find us in the handle Conspiracy Stuff
show on Instagram and TikTok.
Speaker 2 (56:57):
We have a phone number. It is one eight STD WYTK.
When you call in, know that it's a voicemail system.
You've got three minutes. Give yourself a cool nickname and
say whatever you'd like do. At some point, let us
know if we can use your name and message on
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fit in a three minute voicemail, why not instead send
(57:17):
us a good old fashioned email.
Speaker 3 (57:19):
We are the entities that read every piece of correspondence
we receive. Be well aware, yet unafraid. Sometimes the void
writes back as always, write to us directly if you
would like us to create a nickname for you. Our
final comments here are, of course, stroke him on go.
Speaker 5 (57:38):
It's not a movie.
Speaker 3 (57:40):
No, okay, all right? The Gang Bank.
Speaker 2 (57:44):
Dylan had open Humper.
Speaker 3 (57:46):
That was great goodwill humping, right if we didn't get
to that one, And of course Gang Banks of New
York and phill Bill send us your favorite suggestions. If
we can't wait to hear from you, We're out here
in the dark. Conspiracy. Heartradio dot com.
Speaker 2 (58:19):
Stuff they don't want you to know is a production
of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
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learn this stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
my name is Noah.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
They called me Ben. We are joined as always with
our super producer Dylan the Tennessee pal Fagan. Most importantly,
you are you. You are here. That makes this the
stuff they don't want you to know. It is the
top of the week if you are hearing this the
evening it publishes. Let us welcome you to November eighteenth,
and good luck on the upcoming Thanksgiving celebration fellow Americans.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
By fellow Americans, you will eave turkey until you fall asleep.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
I don't like turkey though, Dad, President, Dad, We'll take
your trip to fans straight.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 5 (01:04):
Man?
Speaker 4 (01:05):
Speaking of that, you know, the whole trip to fan
thing has, you know, largely been debunked in terms of
what makes you sleepy. I actually went a cooking video
recently where an internet chef named chef Jack pointed out
that it's likely people eating raw flour in their gravy
because it has not been cooked long enough. People to
sprinkle it in and don't give it time, and that
just turns into glue in your gut and makes you sleepy.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
So consider this our holiday PSA for both gravy and
any sort of roue you choose. Please cook correctly, follow
the directions, and stay safe, especially around your crazy uncles.
We're gonna leave that there. We got so much to
get to one thing we're talking about. I think we're
all excited off air about this. Forty three monkeys staged
(01:49):
a jail break of sorts. It's gonna call it a coup.
I don't think that's accurate. You got you nailed it then,
thanks man. They escape from a South Carolina research facility.
By this point you have heard about this multiple times.
Some but not all, of the monkeys have been apprehended
as we record this evening.
Speaker 4 (02:07):
Well, I think it's that kind of a continuation of
this whole like animals revolting against the humans kind of storyline,
like with the whales and all of that stuff attacking
you know, fishing boats, because I mean, these are animals
that are used for experimentation for like you know, cosmetics
testing and things like that. I don't know exactly what
they did at this very evilly named lab.
Speaker 5 (02:29):
What was the name of the lab?
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Oh, Alpha Genesis, thank you.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
It just sounds like a cartoon evil corporation.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
But I don't know.
Speaker 5 (02:36):
Man.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
Hopefully the ones that got away are on their way
to a better life.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Well, it's so in my mind, it's a weird gray
area because Alpha Genesis, at least according to their website,
they are the providers of primates for testing. So really,
at that facility, perhaps they're just raising these primates as
like happy little primates and then they get shipped off to,
(03:00):
you know, wherever they're going. I think they do offer
some services for testing though at their facilities.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Yeah, my understanding is a lot of that is health testing, right,
So it's not the invasive surgical procedures nor vaccine development specifically,
but Alpha Genesis, folks, somebody there accidentally left the door
to an enclosure unsecured, and so out of the group
(03:27):
of fifty monkeys macaus seven stay behind, forty three bolted out.
They haven't apprehended. This is not a Planet of the
Apes or outbreak situation just yet, but in case that
turns out to happen, because a few are still on
the loose. Now we're going to give you strange news
while the humans are still running the figurative roost. Oh,
(03:50):
we're going to talk about Chile. We're going to get
into some zoonotic conversations. We'll have a bunch of updates
on the way before we do any of that. You guys,
did you did you hear Russia's recent statement?
Speaker 5 (04:06):
I don't think so.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
I can't wait to hear it. We're going to open cold,
and we have returned fellow conspiracy realists in the US
and abroad. As you may have heard, it was a
bit of a hectic recent couple of weeks. Is a
(04:29):
there is a new president elect or wait, as Ell
would say, don't call it a comeback. All signs indicate
that former President Donald Trump will again assume the office
of POTUS President of the United States here in this country.
And a lot of people are happy, a lot of
people are angry, a lot of people are concerned. America
(04:51):
has ever been a divisive place. I'll tell you what.
We talk a lot about this off air, and we
know politics can be said. We're not coming to you
to tell you our opinions of this stuff. We are
coming to tell you Russia state opinions of this stuff. Yeah.
I don't know if you guys heard, but recently presidential
(05:13):
some stuff's been getting weird geopolitically since the election. Presidential
aid for the Russian government Nikolai Patrushev recently had a
statement in Russian run media outfit called Commerceant where he
gave the following quotation in part of his statements regarding
(05:35):
the new regime change in the United States. And I'd
like to share this. There's a short one and get
you guys reactions from the jump. Our buddy, Nikola said quote.
To achieve success in the election, Donald Trump relied on
certain forces to which he has corresponding obligations. As a
responsible person, he will be obliged to fulfill them.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
He'd be a shame of something happened to that nice
presidency of yours.
Speaker 5 (06:03):
That is sinister. But are your friends?
Speaker 4 (06:05):
I mean, gosh, you know, it just sounds like something
a gangster might say in terms of like it's time
to you know, I may call upon you to do
a favor.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
What do you think it could possibly be in regards
to like, when it comes to doing things for them,
do you think, do you think Ukraine is involved in
some way.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
Also way to throw the guy under the bus. You know,
Nikola doesn't. It's not very covert. It's an odd thing
to say so publicly if there was some shenanigans going
on behind the scenes.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
And to answer that first question regarding what could have
been done, what is the quid pro quo that issue? Right?
Is it asymmetrical disinformation operations? That's clear, that's proven, that's
a definite. Is the implication then, because definitely an implication
here is the implication that the Russian government, uh, somehow
(07:00):
I'll put its thumb on the election, right, that seems
to be the case, and we do know both China
and Russia have been very active with disinformation in not
just this recent election, but multiple elections. The second part
of it, the other side of the equation, the obligations.
(07:20):
What is it that you are expected to do, notably
Ukraine probably sanctions. Lifting sanctions would be another big one.
We know. This happened around the same time that a
rumor spread about Russian state television releasing nude photos of
the former am returning first lady.
Speaker 5 (07:40):
Yeah, I mean it's very strong army.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
And again it doesn't appear to be the most tactful
way of like, it seems like a putting someone on
blast kind of situation.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
You know, yeah, it seems like running the operation there
in So in early November, just earlier this month, as
we record, a lot of people on social media, one
platform or another went nuts and they claimed that Russian
State TV was showing nude photos of Meladia Trump shortly
after Western media announced Donald Trump as the president elect.
(08:17):
And it turns out that is absolutely true. Those videos
were released. It was I think we could call it
primetime TV and local Russia time. It was six thirty PM.
That's pretty much evening news time. It feels like this
happens in concert. It feels like they're coupled again with
(08:37):
statements about how they're keeping an eye on undersea cables.
This doesn't look good. This is not a political point
on a domestic front a. This has the makings of
a geopolitical conspiracy. It feels very much like a threat.
And you guys, it reminds me about the old discussion
(08:58):
of the Steele dossier, which is infamously mentioned and then
buried by US news apparatus.
Speaker 5 (09:05):
It's meant to be full of what compraman kind of material.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Well, yeah, yes, and we were also fed differing information
on that, as the American public right, we were told
it was real and then it wasn't real.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
But it is.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
But it's not just speaking of disinformation. It does call
into question, like that statement that was made at the
top right about that official saying something like that. It
just makes you feel it personally. It makes me feel
like I'm being toyed with or played with absolutely.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Nikolai Patrushev, Yeah, it's true that there is there's a
lot of fog of war here because you can see
for the Steele dossier for anybody who kind of has
it on the you know, like the tip of your
tongue in the front of your mind. It was a
research report that emerged during the twenty sixteen presidential election,
(09:58):
and it was compiled by a guy named Christopher Steele,
who's a pretty legit counterintelligence specialist. It's not super long.
It's thirty five pages, which is pretty short, and it
has these allegations of smoky backroom cooperation between the Russian
state cough cough Putin cough cough and Donald Trump or
(10:22):
his nascent administration at some point, and the implication to
your point about compromatinal, it's heavily alluded to that Russian
intelligence has some sort of evidence of perhaps financial crime,
perhaps misbehavior in terms of classified documents, or perhaps straight
(10:44):
up documentation of sex crime or some other violent crime.
Nothing really came of this, and to Matt's earlier point,
it was somewhat dismissed by the Western media. And there's
always a ton of stuf happening, but more and more
people on any side of the aisle here in the
(11:05):
States are increasingly concerned that the president elect may indeed
be either a Russian asset or be somehow controlled. And
you never, no matter who you vote for, you never
want the potus. You never want the runner of the
world's most dangerous military to be beholden to a foreign power.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
That football guy, you want that football guy to be
only on your team, speaking of the nuclear football.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
Yeah, And these types of accusations have been flying around
for years, you know, during the first term, the first
Trump administration and in between. So this is just kind
of you know, it make it easy for people to
feel a little more strongly and this is.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Definitely happening with regards to those specific photos that were
released of Milania do you because those are from her
modeling career, which she's talked about openly, like they're known
to exist, right, do you think it is signaling, hey,
we aren't afraid to show your spouse nude And also
(12:07):
think about the other stuff we've captured of her, like
over time, maybe as part of this type of thing.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
Right the shot across about theory, It's possible. You can
read an excellent article on Snopes that summarizes a lot
of this. Milania Trump is a model. It is also
or was a model. It is also quite possible that
the state run media just decided to go with this
on their own, just the way a tabloid in the
(12:35):
UK publishes the page five girl or whatever.
Speaker 4 (12:39):
Given like Trump's kind of position as this sort of
strong man figure who won't be f't with. Does this
not feel like it warrants a response? And if the
one doesn't come, doesn't that make this even more plausible that.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
They I mean, maybe that's a good question, because we
have to realize that the US government gets all kinds
of wack do statements hoard it constantly again, no matter
who was in office. Spoiler, the leader of North Korea
is not going to like it, and we'll probably have
some smack to talk on the global court. But we
(13:14):
know also speaking of evidence, that there is not at
this point any solid proof for confirmation that Donald Trump
himself or his members of his campaign had colluded in
or knew anything about disinformation efforts asymmetrical warfare on behalf
of the Russian state up to and including those fake
(13:38):
bomb threats that we spoke about previously. Polling places right
right right, and with this, what we can say is
that Patrushev's message is kind of lightning out of the blue,
and it's not the way that a lot of these
folks talk to each other in the public square, because
it feels very much like saying, hey, man, polonium can
(14:01):
turn up in all kinds of places.
Speaker 4 (14:03):
Does this guy, I'm sorry if I missed this, but
did he? Does he occupy a position that's very close
to Putin? Is this sort of a lone wolf? For
this is a legitimate.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Spokesperson, is again a presidential aid to Vladimir Putin, uh
and long time in his career. So if you are listening,
Nikola I, we would love to give you a spot
to explain, you know, to expound, if you will upload
your your statements, tell us what these obligations are. Tell
(14:36):
tell us what constitutes responsible reciprocity for you. And then also,
you know, tell us your favorite way to launder money.
That's that's the segue here. I think we've got a
little bit of time left. We talk about money laundering
so much, so often. Email us your favorite examples conspiracy.
(14:57):
iHeartRadio dot com guys money launder for one of our
favorite cartels recently got in trouble because he tried to
launder the wrong money. Did you guys hear about this? Yeah.
A guy named Daniel Sean Zilke, whose street name in
(15:19):
the game is the Englishman like, was the running the
show for a huge money laundrying conspiracy on the behalf
of a consortium of cartels, and he had a unfortunate
run in with the DEA. In twenty fifteen, he was
contacted by someone who needed to wash some money and
(15:42):
they had a great relationship for a while. This person said, look,
I need hundreds of millions of US dollars moved to Mexico.
I'm going to use a bank account of a charity
in Dallas that's how we will wash this stuff up.
And then our buddy the Englishman got too greedy and
he tried to steal his vigorous right to embezzle these funds.
(16:04):
Who was supposed to launder responsibly. Uh And it turned
out that he, uh, he laundered undercover tea money.
Speaker 5 (16:15):
Right.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Do you guys think it was through TD Bank I.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
Brought to you.
Speaker 5 (16:22):
I thought they up.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Now, I'm sure. I'm sure that'll stick. Shout out to HSBC,
uh one of our favorite examples there. So just a note,
no judgment, but to any money launderers. Remember criminal cartels
do not have an HR department. They do not have
an arbitration clause. Be very careful. Yeah. Yeah. They don't
(16:48):
put you on a pit plan. They put you on
an actual pit on a pop plan.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
What is that employee improvement or something like that.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
Yeah, yeah, personal improvement plan.
Speaker 4 (17:01):
Sorry, I thought you said pitt and that was very
even more appropriate because you know, not.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
A pit plan but plan. I got you totally.
Speaker 5 (17:11):
I think both work.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Is one point yeah, one pull it point all right,
we'll keep it all right. Very last thing before we
move on to the next act of our Strange News segment.
We have talked in the past about collapsing birth rates.
We have talked about the four B movement honestly pretty
well in advance of it going global. The four B movement,
How would we explain.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
That it's essentially women refusing to engage with men, right
even their husbands in sexual congress.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Well, well, yeah, one of the more than that. One
of the tennis is not to be in a romantic relationship,
not to get married, not to have kids, and not
to have intercourse or other sexual relations with men.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
Yes, yeah, it gained prominence in twenty nineteen, at least
on the Internet. The four B part comes from the
Korean language. No sex with men, no giving birth, no
dating men, no marriage with men. And it's a result
of the intense misogyny that a lot of people experience
in that part of the world, which coincides with collapsing
(18:16):
birth rates in that part of the world. Japan is
often the most well known example of collapsing birth rates,
and every plan that the Japanese government has made to
quote unquote combat or address this problem has just seemed
like a terrible idea. I think. No, it was China
(18:37):
where people were calling women to see if they were pregnant.
A Japanese politician recently said, hey, guys, I know how
to boost the birth rate. If you're a woman and
you're over thirty, we're removing your uterus.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Eh oh, okay, so quickly have those kids before we
take your ability to do it.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Naoki Yokota, who was a leader of the the leader
of the Conservative Party of Japan, said, okay, here's how
we could do this. The banning marriage after a certain age.
So if you're a woman, you're over twenty five, you
can't get married. He said. If that doesn't work, you
know by the time you hit thirty, well we'll take
out the uterus.
Speaker 4 (19:20):
Uh. That's like forced sterilization, that's.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
Exactly Yeah, it's also forced mutilation.
Speaker 4 (19:27):
And dude, pitch, that's still a pitch, thankfully, still a pitch, thankfully,
But bringing that up because yeah, it's a conspiracy against women,
but it also, first off, in addition to be cartoonish
and evil like bubblegum model after chewing tobacco.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
It seems like there's no way this would work or
how so expensive too, wouldn't it? I mean, well, Japan
does have better healthcare than.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
They true, but still it just seems like logistic, logistically
a nightmare.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
Agreed, Agreed, and incredibly worrying that this could even be
brought up, Yeah, as a brainstorm or a blue sky pitch.
Very handmade's tail in some ways, like what's the thing
that went around we were talking about a little offline,
that horrible comment that went viral from a real misogynistic
bully your body my choice, nick ways, I want.
Speaker 4 (20:25):
To say, I see it's one of those things too,
where you know, you have a comedian or a pundit
or whatever who says some inflammatory and then writes it
off as I was just joking. But when you see
it appearing on signs that people are holding up you know,
protesting and abortion clinics or whatever, that it's the rubber
has met the road in a very different way.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
And he totally did the move that all bulliesing cowards do,
which is when he had consequences for his statements, he said, Oh,
I'm just joking. When are you getting so proclept about Oh,
I'm just kidding. What do you know about comedy? And
then get this and we'll end it here. He got
docksed by women in the United States. We're rightly mad
at him, and he ran and hid at his mom's.
Speaker 5 (21:09):
House, glad she was there for him.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
H looks like it looks like looks like for you
guy who talks to much trash about women, he sure
needed a woman's help with that. We're gonna pause for
a word from our sponsors. We'll wait to see if
Nikolai hits us up. We'll give you updates on that
towards the end, but then we'll be right back with
more strange news.
Speaker 5 (21:36):
And we have returned with some more strange news.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
Guys, Are you both stoked as I am about the
new Wicked movie?
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Arianna's in it, right, sure is.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
I think it's weird that they made Ariana Grande. I
think it's weird that they made it too films well.
Speaker 5 (21:52):
I heard today for the first time that the musical
is in.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
Two acts, so they decided to maximize the receipts. I guess,
you know, the way they did with a Hobbit, a
short children's book. I know it always screams of greed
when whenever Hollywood studios do something like that, I mean
the musical. You know, musicals are certainly longer than features oftentimes,
but I can't imagine it being more than three hours,
and they probably could have condensed that into one movie.
Speaker 5 (22:14):
Easy, but two is better than one in terms of you.
Speaker 4 (22:16):
Know, grosses as they call them. But quick story on this, guys.
Of course, when you have a big blockbuster like this,
a big temp pole as they call it, coming, you
end up with lots of merchandising opportunities, including dolls, figurines,
collectibles call them what you will, which have been making
the rounds and you know your big box store of
(22:38):
choice from Mattel. They released some wicked dolls. I guess
they're calling them wicked fashion dolls.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Wicked dolls.
Speaker 4 (22:49):
Yeah, brats they should do, But where's the where's the
brats dolls? Wicked brats dolls, especially with it being have
been just recently a brat summer. But Rachel treslemen or
trailsmen rather Over at the the NPR has this incredible
story of a big old marketing snafu that Mattel was
(23:10):
responsible for. An absolute egg on faced the situation that
someone's head is going to roll for a wicked mistake,
Mattel apologizes for printing a porn site on its doll packaging.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
Well, hold on before we get angry which site specifically.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
I mean, if you were a if you're coming of
age in the late nineties, as I was, you may
well have come of Hage Seth's gross sounding and heard
of a little company called Wicked Pictures from at the time,
probably responsible for some of the biggest names in pornography
in terms of like names that maybe crossed over, you know,
(23:47):
like Jenna Jamison for example, Wicked Pictures Stars.
Speaker 5 (23:52):
You know, you might have actually.
Speaker 4 (23:53):
Heard of some of them, because they were a big
deal back in the nineties and two thousands, but apparently
they've kind of fallen by the wayside, especially as like
people are no longer paying big bucks for pornography DVDs
and and site subscriptions because everything's ripped and just put
on places like porn Hub or Red Tube or whatever.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
Was it Wicked like VHS days, It was as.
Speaker 4 (24:12):
Early as that for sure, and then you know, I
think it was also early days of DVDs. But the
funny thing too about Wicked Pictures she may or may
not know, is I was trying to find some of
the names because they're always funny. But they were responsible
in the old school fashion of pornography for doing these
kind of like like spoofs of big Hollywood movies, you know,
(24:33):
like one that will always stick with me just from
like a sketch I think for back of the Days,
Like instead of pulp fiction, it's pulp friction, you know,
things like parodies, porn parodies. One hundred percent. That is
one of Wicked's stocks in the trade. And because of
the amount of time they've been around. Ben to your point,
as early as the VHS days, pre Internet days, they
(24:53):
got that Wicked dot com on lock y'all, and some
hapless copywriter f Motsel didn't add the very key movie
add on to their URL they printed on these packages.
So they all went out with Wicked dot com on
the backs of these children's figures. And apparently, according to
(25:13):
the New York Posts, Wicked dot com has experienced a
rise in its traffic and unseen for twelve years, a
twelve year high after Mattell mistakenly friends at URL on
Wicked doll boxes.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
Now, congratulations to everyone.
Speaker 5 (25:29):
Yeah, all concerns except for the heads that are most
certainly are or have already rolled over at Mattel in
their copywriting department.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
And secondly, to answer your earlier question, I think the
best portmanteau for collectible and merchandising would be merchibles. And
if you are a collector, I imagine you are buying
up as many of these Wicked dolls with that misprint
as you can, because those will depend on how the
film does. Those are going to be pretty choice.
Speaker 5 (26:00):
Already, are my friend.
Speaker 4 (26:01):
They are going on eBay misprinted versions because they were
quickly recalled, not just apologize for which Mattel definitely did,
but they were pulled from shelves, so you are seeing
already these these much more collectible collector's items known for
hundreds of dollars on the internet. A statement from Mittel
said Mattel was made aware of a misprint on the
(26:23):
packaging of the Mattel Wicked collection dolls, primarily sold in
the US, intended to direct consumers to the official Wicked
moovie dot com landing page. We deeply regret this unfortunate
error and are taking immediate action to remedy. It confirms
that the listed website is not appropriate for children and
lasting for me, Lest you worry, the sent kids directly
(26:45):
to a pornographic image. The landing page is again in
classic old school oji porn website tradition does ask you
to confirm your date of birth and so good, and
promise that you're eighteen or older.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
So step, no harm.
Speaker 5 (27:05):
No foul.
Speaker 4 (27:06):
Surely no kid caught a glimpse of something they shouldn't
have seen. But I don't know, man, Matt, I know
you've got thoughts about this one.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
I just want to point out this is the company
that Stormy Daniels was a major part of time, which
is interesting just to connect things back up in this episode.
And also it's weird to me that they did so
many parody movies, like you were talking about, many of
them direct ripoffs of Disney IP like Cinderella.
Speaker 5 (27:34):
Did you find, Matt, did you find some of the names?
Speaker 2 (27:36):
Well? Yeah, one of them was snow White triple X
an axle bron parody or Cinderella triple X an axle
bron parody and.
Speaker 5 (27:43):
A burst of creativity. As Ben would say, they could
do better.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Come on, dude, Well they also had Batman versus Superman,
a triple.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
X p I don't think this was I don't think
this was wicked, but I loved I loved the puns.
It's a wonderful life. Cool.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
The other one glorious.
Speaker 5 (28:00):
They right themselves.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
You know, a Tale of Twos could have just gone
with glorious Holes. I think it's much more interesting than Look,
we know production can get crazy, and you're it's stressful
to make any kind of entertainment. I want to give
accolades to people who make the good porn pun titles
instead of just adding triple X at the end. You
(28:22):
know what I mean?
Speaker 5 (28:23):
You know, the Olden Days, return to the Glory whole days.
Speaker 4 (28:26):
Yes, yes, everybody.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
You can kind of hear the plot as well, Romancing
the Bone, the.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Operation, Desert Stormy, thank you, yes.
Speaker 5 (28:42):
For thank you.
Speaker 4 (28:44):
Gosh, you guys are on fire with these, and I
know some of these are real, and I think some
of these you might be.
Speaker 5 (28:48):
Making up, but they're all equally fantastic.
Speaker 4 (28:52):
So yeah, I mean, you know, to the point I
was making earlier, definitely, heads.
Speaker 5 (28:56):
Are going to roll.
Speaker 4 (28:56):
It's unclear who was responsible directly for this, but we
do have multiple eBay sellers listing these toys for as
much as five hundred dollars, some advertising them as rare
URL error misprints in the culture, the small you know,
the niche kind of culture collectibles and you know, any
kind of misprint.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
Is a big deal.
Speaker 4 (29:15):
Is a big get, especially one as embarrassing is this
for a company as storied and legacy as Mattel.
Speaker 5 (29:22):
You know, I mean they invented Barbie for Christ's sake.
Speaker 4 (29:26):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
I wonder how wicked the adult entertainment company is going
to handle that in court. But we'll have to Well,
they've done nothing wrong, No they haven't, they haven't. If anything,
they should just write a nice thank you note.
Speaker 4 (29:38):
I know exactly, and just just to just to confirm
on then there's a New York Post article that has
some nice screenshots and it's funny too, Like obviously people
saw this web address on the packaging in very small
print of a toy and followed up with it.
Speaker 5 (29:54):
I just it is.
Speaker 4 (29:55):
If anything, it's a it's a it's a win for
marketing because they know that people are going to going
to those websites.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
Speak about the attrition rate too, you know, even like
on a box of cereal where it says, hey, if
you want this special deal, you can write to this place. Right,
the modern people do it. Yeah, Lord of the strings,
thank you, thank you.
Speaker 5 (30:15):
So let's put a pin in that one.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
I guess because I would be interested to see if
there's any further fallout, you know, if Gosh forbid, this
did lead to actionable you know, or witnessed moments of
children viewing pornographic material young you know what I mean?
That's I hope not, but that is an absolutely I
wonder if there's a class action lawsuit potential.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
Yeah, possible, You're not You're not wrong there and only
could that's always in the cards.
Speaker 4 (30:43):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
We Also, I guess we should take a moment and say,
without knowing the details, this does seem like an honest mistake.
It doesn't seem like someone working in the vast panopoly
of marketing and merchables for this set the Revenge a
Ron Jeremy or anything like that.
Speaker 5 (31:01):
Surely we own Wicked dot com? Right, have you heard
of Wicked?
Speaker 3 (31:07):
Come on, and now they're legally boned.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
Oh boy. All of that makes me think of the cover,
the original cover of The Little Mermaid.
Speaker 4 (31:16):
Remember that with the with the with the sexual device
featured the penises. It was it was like a dildo
kind of like, I mean, that's what And also we've
talked about the little hidden dubbed moment and Aladdin. Good
teenagers take off their clothes. I think they fixed it.
But boy oh boy, when I was young, we played
that part back over and over again and it was
(31:37):
definitely there.
Speaker 5 (31:38):
And that's not a Mendela effects.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
Yeah, surprise cartoonist can sometimes be weird and horny.
Speaker 5 (31:42):
Well that that, But that does beg the question like
was this a simple mistake.
Speaker 4 (31:45):
Or was this a disgruntle copywriter who pushed something through
to make this, to make an embarrassing thing.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
I feel like mistake.
Speaker 4 (31:52):
I think so too, because again, surely we own Wicked
dot com.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
You know, no offense to anybody in the crowd, but
you have to have a certain level of enthusiasm or
a certain age upon you to even be aware of
Wicked the adult entertainment site.
Speaker 4 (32:08):
Yeah, I mean yeah, like Empire, it is something that
I was aware of because I just of a certain age.
Speaker 5 (32:15):
It was inescapable. There was a time.
Speaker 4 (32:17):
Where it was like the only game in town that
was like bordering on mainstream, you know what I mean,
Like it really was.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
Like to that. Jamison made appearances in talk shops, main Strub,
mainstream stuff, main Shrub. Also drill Bill.
Speaker 4 (32:33):
I'm just gonna keep doing I want you to I'm
so grateful to you guys.
Speaker 5 (32:37):
As I was coming up, I was dropping, I was
shooting blanks.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
No, and that one does Bill have the drill or
is bill drill bill being drilled?
Speaker 3 (32:44):
That's an excellent question because you see, it's a two
part cinematic experience. There's one one that's a drill bill.
After dark they did, there was a third kild bill.
Speaker 4 (33:00):
They gotta they gotta follow the rules, has gotta follow
suit of the actual thing that they're.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
Par I'm sure there's some guide San Fernando Valley who
was just up to his gills on his favorite vice
of choice and say no for the artistic integrity we
can only have doo. I hate you guys. I'm calling
Quintin now.
Speaker 4 (33:18):
Yeah, well you know Quintin is a bit of a
foot that she guy.
Speaker 5 (33:21):
Maybe he was involved.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
I was gonna say, unrelated to anything. I just learned.
There is apparently a site called wiki feet, So thank you, Slash.
I'm still angry at you. To our pals Jack and
Miles over at Daily Zeitgeist, who taught me that wiki
feet is a thing just like it sounds like at
Miles in particular is mad that Jesus Christ does not
have a Wiki feet entry.
Speaker 4 (33:43):
I don't think we have any actual photos of Jesus
Christ's feet. We just have very graphic descriptions being washed,
end of him washing others feet.
Speaker 5 (33:52):
The Bible full of the original feet picks. Jeez, guys,
I didn't expect us to go.
Speaker 4 (33:56):
Quite as long on this little nugget of a topic,
but it really did kind of encompassed more than I expected,
So thank you for that. But I will just mention
something that I think might be worth a larger exploration.
We've certainly talked about the Church of Satan founded by
Anton Lavy, and it's sort of I believe been correct
me if I'm wrong, evolution into the Temple of Satan,
(34:19):
or are they completely unconnected? I could have sworn there
was a connection. Either way, they are related in terms
of their belief structure, the Temple of Satan being an
organization that where members use imagery of the devil and
of you know, Satanic rituals, black magic rituals, candles and
you know, sacrificial knives, wearing robes and pentagrams and all
(34:41):
of that kind of stuff as a way to express
a very very strong sense of personal freedom. A very
strong sense of what is it do what thou wiltst
maybe the whole of the law, you know, Shelby, Yeah,
that is an original Anton LaVey kind of sentiment. And again,
forgive me if I'm getting the evolution of the Temple
(35:02):
of Satan incorrect, but they very much share that.
Speaker 5 (35:05):
Same mentality, and in Chile apparently, and this is.
Speaker 4 (35:08):
I guess the most interesting hook, because we've certainly talked
about the Temple of Satan and the Church of Satan before.
They get a lot of bad rap, the idea of
Satanic panic stuff, that they're devil worshippers, they're doing black magic,
but all of that stuff is just for show and
kind of for a pomp and circumstance to create a
maybe I've always thought of it as sort of like
a protest religion or a protest kind of ideology against
(35:32):
organized religion.
Speaker 3 (35:33):
And to the question I believe you were asking there
at the top of this, the Church of Satan is
separate from the Temple of Satan or the Satanic Temple,
I sue.
Speaker 4 (35:44):
But either way you could argue that it is a
splinter of that ideology that Anton Leavey established, you know,
back in the early days of the Church of Satan,
which I believe was the had to have been the sixties, right,
nineteen sixty six. B there you go, hey, sixty six six.
But the thing that interested me about this whole idea
of the Satanic Temple taking also, by the way, Satanic Temple,
(36:04):
if I'm not mistaken, has been making headlines in the past,
you know, decade or so here in the States, from
doing some very public acts of protests, like I think
they built a Baha Met sculpture like near a school
or something. There was a big to do made of
this Bahamet sculpture they built on public property. I believe
that was funded by the Temple, the Satanic Temple. And
(36:25):
there was some other you know, kind of pr moves
that they did that caused almost this resurgent panic against
you know, Satanism or whatever here in the United States.
In Chile, however, eighteen million citizens eighteen million people identify
as Catholic, and in this country, the Satanic Temple is
now getting so much interest, so many people jumping ship
(36:48):
from Catholicism and other religions, that they are asking the
government to recognize them as a legally religious organization. Association
with all of the appropriate you know, tax benefits and
such that go along with that. There's a really great
piece in the ap by Nayara Botschki, and I'll just
read a quick moment from this and then we can
(37:10):
move on. Scholars, she says, believe and residents consulted by
the Associated Pressed note that Chile, where a long lasting
tradition of Catholicism has played a leading role in public discussions,
is experiencing a crisis of faith following revelations of multiple
sexual abuse scandals.
Speaker 5 (37:25):
Within the Catholic Church over the years. Win for Satan there,
you know, match point.
Speaker 4 (37:33):
It is interesting though, considering what we also talked about,
how the Catholic Church has come out with this anime,
you know, mascot that's meant to appeal to like gent alphas.
Speaker 5 (37:44):
And and of course it was going to happen.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
Guys.
Speaker 5 (37:47):
I don't know if you heard about this, but.
Speaker 4 (37:48):
A lot of horrible AI imagery of that anime character
have flooded the Internet of its participating in sex ax
or her participating acts, really really gross stuff, but all
pointing to the fact that the Catholic Churches may be
starting to get a little desperate to recruit new you know, devotees.
Speaker 5 (38:09):
So what do you guys think about that?
Speaker 2 (38:13):
I just want to point people to the Satanic Temple
dot com, where they have a quote Kid's Quick Reference
guide that compares the Satanic Temple in the Church of
Satan helpful, healthful resource and in the Chat I am reading,
we are still going. Just everybody knows in the chat
we're going hard on, hard on.
Speaker 3 (38:32):
Please can we save them for the end?
Speaker 2 (38:35):
Yes, we will. They're just like they're very distracting and
good thank you.
Speaker 3 (38:40):
Uh yeah. Having been to Chile, everything you say is correct.
It is predominantly Christian country. We are proponents on this
show of the ideology of the Church of Satan, especially
because it's non theistic in its pursuit, and I think
you summed it up very well. Excited to see what develops,
(39:01):
especially again, the thing we always have to put here
is these folks are not saying they worship Satan. It
is a purposely polemical, provocative hook to get you involved
with their earlier philosophy. So yeah, looking forward to see
what develops there.
Speaker 5 (39:16):
One hundred percent.
Speaker 4 (39:18):
With that, let's take a quick break here a word
from our sponsor and then returning with one more segment
of our weekly Strange News episode.
Speaker 2 (39:30):
And we've returned. Guys, Hey, remember that drug we talked about.
I think it was September last year. Phenylephrine?
Speaker 3 (39:39):
Yes, yeah, but that I do with the pH.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
Right, yes, two phs. Oh love word that has two
pH sections PhD though correct. Correct. It is often referred
to as PE on packaging for cold medicines that you
may find in whatever story you go to to buy
cold medicine. Well, guys, back then, the reason why we
talked about is because the Food and Drug Administration finally
(40:04):
agreed with almost two decades of research that showed that
this thing, this drug, phenylephrine or frin, is not effective
as a nasal decongestant, which is its primary purpose.
Speaker 5 (40:18):
That's I remember now.
Speaker 3 (40:20):
Oh yes, and you can, for the record, for all
our friends with the FDA, you can advertise loose, vague
claims for any kind of nutritional supplement that doesn't have
to go through FDA testing. But Matt, I believe in
this case, the problem was that PE was being advertised
(40:40):
with some sort of measurable medical efficacy that simply wasn't there.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
Oh yeah, fully, this isn't over the counter coffin cold
medicine or additive for coffin cold medicines. That was supposedly
a powerful nasal decongestant, and it was put in place
early on to replace some of the other dangerous nas
decongestants that we're being used to createthm, phetamines and other things.
Speaker 5 (41:05):
That the big draw. That was the draw.
Speaker 4 (41:07):
So what are some popular brand names of this bunk
placebo effect drug that we might all recognize.
Speaker 2 (41:13):
Think of any cough medicine that you've ever purchased in
your life. Thailand All, Fera, flu, sudafed, Robitussin, Nike will.
Speaker 3 (41:21):
Advil, the good ones, all the good ones.
Speaker 2 (41:26):
Basically all the ones that you can go reach down
on a shelf and pick up the actual bottle and
take it to check out. Those are the ones that
have this.
Speaker 4 (41:33):
And that's not to say that the active ingredients and
thilan all won't make you feel better on other fronts,
but they certainly aren't decongesting your nasal passages.
Speaker 3 (41:42):
Yeah, because that's not the only ingredient. That's a great point,
I think correct.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
But you can get versions of almost all of those
that are titled like thailan al DM or SUDA fed
DM or some other thing where it's got a different
substance in there that functions for that nasal decongestent thing.
But in this case, the pe stuff doesn't do anything.
And we're giving you this update because they just announced
the FDA that is that they are going to seek
(42:09):
to pull this thing, fenyl efrin, off the market. And
they did that finally because they concluded that the and
this is really important, guys, the oral version of penol
efron is ineffective. The oral They concluded that there are
other versions of this, other ways to get the medicine
into your body, which are at much higher concentrations that
(42:32):
can function as a nasal decongestant, but taking them in
those ways could potentially be more dangerous and would require
something like you know, a doctor's note, right, a.
Speaker 3 (42:43):
Servation supervision of something.
Speaker 5 (42:46):
Yes, is it a matter of bioavailability? You hear that
term thrown around a lot.
Speaker 4 (42:50):
I do wonder like it just doesn't absorb through that method,
through the oral method, But if you shoot it directly
into like a muscle or whatever, maybe that works better.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
I'll give you a direct quote from CBS News. Alexander
Tin wrote this on November seventh, twenty twenty four. If
you want to look it up, it is titled FDA
to pull common but ineffective cold medicine from the market.
Here's the quote. The latest data shows that only a
tiny fraction of phenyl effrine is absorbed into the body
when digested from a pill or syrup containing the substance.
(43:19):
This is different from other formulations like the inhaled nasal
spray version of the drug, where larger percentages can make
it into the blood stream. This continues just a little bit. Guys,
less than one percent of the drug is absorbed into
the bloodstream after being swallowed, they estimated.
Speaker 4 (43:36):
So it's not to say, yeah, okay, so it's a
drug itself, isn't bunk, but it's just a method of delivery, right.
Speaker 3 (43:41):
Yeah, just take three hundred percent more.
Speaker 2 (43:44):
Yeah, there you Goike, And for that they say, far
higher doses like you're suggesting ben could be needed to
achieve a clinically meaningful outcome, which would raise significant questions
about safety.
Speaker 4 (43:56):
Yeah, and the other stuff that's packaged in those pills
that are being sold, you might, you know, have to
take a fistful of them to even get any and
That's the thing though, right, what if someone was like, oh,
it's not working, I'll just take more. Tell now it's
working a little bit. But now they've overdosed on Thailand. Yeah,
overdose toxic levels of a set of benefit.
Speaker 2 (44:14):
Which is not good for you. By the way, we've
learned about a lot of that stuff. The regular drugs
just don't take too much of them.
Speaker 4 (44:21):
Can you guys picture that like the bolt like game
of telephone with Big Pharma, where this was decided to
be a good idea.
Speaker 2 (44:29):
I mean truly they Big Pharma, I would say, does
not think this is a good idea. Neither does the
Consumer Healthcare Products Association. They said they are disappointed in
the FDA's proposal. Oh no, because they say, quote, PE
should remain an available option for consumers, because Americans deserve
(44:51):
the option to choose the safe and effective over the
counter medicines they prefer and rely on.
Speaker 3 (44:58):
That's so lame, that's like say, that's like saying back
in the sixteen hundreds. Look, consumers should be able to
dunk someone in water. If they're a witch, that's their choice.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
If they think it's a witch, then they've got to
be able to dunk them in the water. That's their
chore we.
Speaker 3 (45:15):
To say big government. So yeah, it's I mean, clearly
there's a financial incentive at this point. I think that's
the primary conspiracy, right. The good news for anybody wondering
is that the individuals who are making the most profit
off of this, in the pharmaceutical industry, if you're worried
about them, let us asquatch your concerns. They're gonna be fine.
(45:38):
They're not going to go in trouble. Nothing bad is
going to happen to them. They might lose a little
bit of revenue.
Speaker 2 (45:45):
Well yeah, and well, and FDA eight has that in mind.
They know, hey, we're taking money out of the pockets
of big pharma left and right here with this move.
So what they've done is they've given everyone until May
seventh of next year, of twenty twenty five to weigh
in on the pole. That's the public us we get
to weigh in on this proposal. After that comment period,
if the FDA decides to revoke this oral fenel efforns
(46:08):
status as a quote generally recognized as safe and effective
drug over the counter drug makers, all of the ones
we listed earlier would be forced to stop using the ingredient.
But this window is designed so that they can reformulate
their drugs, come up with something new, some fancy, something exciting,
something that may also be just as ineffective.
Speaker 3 (46:29):
Yeah, kissing cousin right, an analog drag of pe, some
kind of synthetic, synthetic version that's just different enough to
not fall bold into the same regulation. Also, I'm just
gonna say it. Far be it for me to sound
paranoid or conspiratorial, but in my experience, you guys, typically
when those public statement windows occur, typically a non insignificant
(46:54):
portion of the public making comments tend to be in
one way or another. They're hired by someone who is
hired by the larger company to pretend to care about
a thing.
Speaker 2 (47:08):
The money moves, it really does, you know what?
Speaker 3 (47:11):
You know?
Speaker 2 (47:12):
How else the money moves, Guys, How is that, Matt, Well,
it moves from your pockets into a delivery driver's hand.
This is a very common thing. We got super used
to it about halfway through twenty twenty. Well, there's another
story in Strange News today that goes directly into your
delivery fees and the stuff that you pay for that stuff,
(47:33):
or at least you used to here we go. You
remember a thing called grub hub, guys, Yes, sure, chubhub
some people call it. Does anybody still use that? I
haven't used Grubhub. I went with one of the other ones,
suber E.
Speaker 3 (47:45):
It's I think it's regionally in community dependent, so your
mileage may vary often in suburban areas or outside of
inner city areas where you know, we live in a
metro area. A lot of people end up using grub
hub just because it's more consistent and available. So it's
sort of like, you know, if you don't usually drink soda,
(48:06):
you go to a restaurant, they'll have pepsi or coke,
and you'll just sort of go with whatever they have.
Speaker 2 (48:12):
Oh, for sure. The only the only reason I use
the one that I use for like a delivery, a
food delivery app, is because somebody else was using it
one time and I went, oh, I guess i'll get
that one too, So you got it.
Speaker 3 (48:23):
Now it's normalized during the sandbox exactly.
Speaker 5 (48:26):
Well.
Speaker 2 (48:27):
Grubhub, you guys, was a huge deal during the pandemic,
so huge, and it was valued so high along with
all of those other food delivery apps that were not
new but all of a sudden, everybody was using them
pracsionally every day or every other day. It was intense. Well,
they were purchased by a Netherlands based food delivery company
(48:51):
called just Eat Takeaway for seven point three billion dollars
US dollars.
Speaker 3 (48:58):
Sorry, I got really larry day that they're yes, okay.
Speaker 2 (49:02):
Seven point three billion US dollars in June of twenty twenty.
So at the height of pandemic times, this company just
E Takeaway swooped in and they actually beat out a
couple other people who were vying to buy grub Hub,
and they got it. Man, they got that thing, and
they were like, dude, We're going to take over the
(49:23):
US markets with this thing. It's going to be gangbusters
because this is our new normal. Everybody does this all
the time now. The pandemic world is forever.
Speaker 3 (49:32):
Yeah, and US labor laws are trash, so it's not
like we have to respect the people working for us.
Speaker 5 (49:37):
But here's the same.
Speaker 4 (49:37):
I mean, people do use these apps like gangbusters, you know.
I just it would seem that maybe they.
Speaker 5 (49:43):
Bet on the wrong horse.
Speaker 4 (49:44):
Like I'd love to hear some market share data because
I know people definitely tons of people still you know,
whether it's holdover from pandemics still used free delivery services.
Speaker 2 (49:54):
Oh for sure, and I still use it every once
in a while. But it is a it is functioning
at a very different level than it was when that
company when grub Hub was purchased for seven point three billion,
because four years later they just have announced that Just
Eat Takeaway is selling grub Hub to another thing that
(50:15):
we've already talked about on the show before, called Wonder
for six hundred and fifty million.
Speaker 3 (50:21):
Hey on, now that's those of us who are not
you know, number surgeons or whatever. That seems like they're
selling it for a little bit less than they bought
it for.
Speaker 2 (50:31):
A little bit less. It's a loss of about six
and a half billion dollars with a.
Speaker 3 (50:35):
B US dollars.
Speaker 5 (50:39):
Is this at least a tax right off for these
poor SAPs?
Speaker 2 (50:42):
Well better be. According to Just Eat Takeaway, they are
it's gonna help them grow as a company by selling this,
they're gonna have cash on hand, about six hundred and
fifty million dollars worth of cash because they're going through problems. Guys, wonder,
do you recall what that is when we talked about it.
Speaker 3 (51:02):
No, I want to say food related, cause you know
they bought they bought a food kit service at some point, right.
Speaker 2 (51:10):
Yeah, yes, like that. But mostly what Wonder is is
one of those kitchens that produces a ton of different
food out of one kitchen that is all branded with
different Oh yeah, yes, so so like they I think
they the quote is twenty eight fast casual restaurants mostly
(51:31):
around New York City and New Jersey and it's a
they call it a wide range of global cuisines. Right,
so this company is now going to have its own
delivery service basically, which if you can just imagine in
the minds of the people that own Wonder, they just
dropped six hundred fifty million dollars for their own, like
(51:52):
I guess catered delivery service thing that they'll also still
use for other stores, but then they can make theirs
like top of the line.
Speaker 3 (52:00):
Check out our episode on ghost kitchens as well. That
was a fun one, I think for all of us.
And look, their model is not necessarily bad, but they're
definitely going to leverage that advantage to get there. You know,
their one kitchen that appears to be eight kitchens a
little bit higher on the search page, A little bit
closer to what feels reasonable. I'm I'm not mad at it.
(52:25):
I'm not mad at it.
Speaker 5 (52:26):
Well, you got a wonder too.
Speaker 4 (52:27):
I wonder the bets that were being placed on ghost
kitchens during the pandemic have probably not yielded the dividends
that folks were hoping for because it kind of became
like almost you know, people were like newer to spot them,
and they were like getting wise to it because they
were typically not the best of quality.
Speaker 2 (52:45):
Speaking of quality, past quality, past qualities.
Speaker 5 (52:48):
What was it called?
Speaker 2 (52:49):
Was that the one the pizza?
Speaker 3 (52:52):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (52:52):
Sorry, I don't know why my brain did.
Speaker 3 (52:54):
There's great memory.
Speaker 2 (52:55):
Yeah, so, guys. One of the major reasons is something
you touched on just with a comment been earlier. One
of the major reasons just Eats was trying to get
rid of their US food delivery stuff is because of
those new regulations that have come out about how much
a food delivery service can charge as a fee. Just
(53:15):
so we're not talking about the cost of the food.
We're not talking about the whatever tip you leave the driver,
the fee that grub hub or door dash or whoever
can charge just for using their service. New York and
Jersey and a bunch of other places have capped how
much you can actually charge a customer.
Speaker 3 (53:33):
Right because it went wild with surge pricing, and you
can even see it now even if you're in kind
of a stable financial environment. Go to a restaurant's website
at your local restaurant that you were about to order
delivery from, and notice that every item is several dollars
lower than if you ordered it through Uber Eats or
(53:54):
grub Hub or door Dash or whatever comes next after that.
Speaker 2 (53:59):
Wow, this is weird stuff, guys. The last thing on
Wonder because it does feel like this is a pretty
big power move. And if Wonder is going to expand
the way I imagine, you know, the owners of it
wanted to expand, it does feel like one of those
new things that will exist sometime when my son is
(54:19):
a little bit older where he's like, uh, well, I
guess we're gonna order from Wonder tonight, and everybody gets
what they want from one of the fifty nine stores
that they have in them at that time or whatever.
Speaker 3 (54:30):
It's the same driver. Yeah, so there might be utility
to the consumer. That's a really good, great point.
Speaker 2 (54:35):
Well, last thing here, guys, the owners of or at
least the part owners of Wonder is. It's this thing
called VCP Ventures. It's co founded by two guys. The
first one his name is Mark Lore. He is the
quote Lebron James of e commerce? Oh oh yeah, oh yeah.
He's the guy who owns Wonder, or at least is
(54:57):
behind Wonder, and he's behind the Grubha acquisition. The other
guy that owns VCP Ventures alongside him is a guy
named Alex Rodriguez. Do you does that sound familiar to y'all?
Alexez baseball player, baseball, a rod baby, Yeah, yeah, the
dude from the Yankees. So the little the Lebron James
(55:19):
of e commerce and a Rod own this thing that
will eventually be where all of us eat all the time.
Speaker 3 (55:28):
Correct forward to it, and we're looking forward to it.
What could go wrong with monopolization? What could go wrong
with everything rising and converging in a capitalistic version of
what Flannery O'Connor warned us about so long ago?
Speaker 2 (55:42):
Speaking of rising, I think we have a few more
puns we do we do?
Speaker 3 (55:49):
Uh, let's see r pal Dylan says, every bang, everywhere,
all at once, to which I reply, what creams may come?
Speaker 4 (55:56):
No?
Speaker 2 (55:56):
No no, no, no, no, no no no.
Speaker 3 (55:59):
Ocean's eleven art inches.
Speaker 4 (56:01):
Yeses, guys, I think we maybe we've crossed the Oh,
I've just Edward Penis hands.
Speaker 5 (56:07):
You pointed out, that's a real one.
Speaker 3 (56:08):
That's a real one.
Speaker 5 (56:09):
I've heard of that.
Speaker 4 (56:10):
I don't think it was a Wicked Pictures production though, no,
apparely we're we're.
Speaker 5 (56:17):
One blue over the cuckoo's nest.
Speaker 3 (56:20):
Oh, I said, one blue over the cuckoo's breast.
Speaker 5 (56:23):
Oh, even better. But it's you know, for for fans
of classic cinema.
Speaker 3 (56:28):
And then there's one flew over the cuckold's nest would
be the next logical derivation. Send us your favorite ones, folks.
We try to be easy to find on email, via
telephone and all over the internet, and.
Speaker 4 (56:39):
You can find us at the handle Conspiracy Stuff, where
we exist on the internet. As Ben mentioned, you can
find us that handle on Facebook where we have our
Facebook group, as well as on x.
Speaker 5 (56:48):
FKA, Twitter and on YouTube where we have video content
for you to enjoy.
Speaker 3 (56:52):
It's galor ish.
Speaker 4 (56:54):
You can also find us in the handle Conspiracy Stuff
show on Instagram and TikTok.
Speaker 2 (56:57):
We have a phone number. It is one eight STD WYTK.
When you call in, know that it's a voicemail system.
You've got three minutes. Give yourself a cool nickname and
say whatever you'd like do. At some point, let us
know if we can use your name and message on
the air. If you've got more to say than can
fit in a three minute voicemail, why not instead send
(57:17):
us a good old fashioned email.
Speaker 3 (57:19):
We are the entities that read every piece of correspondence
we receive. Be well aware, yet unafraid. Sometimes the void
writes back as always, write to us directly if you
would like us to create a nickname for you. Our
final comments here are, of course, stroke him on go.
Speaker 5 (57:38):
It's not a movie.
Speaker 3 (57:40):
No, okay, all right? The Gang Bank.
Speaker 2 (57:44):
Dylan had open Humper.
Speaker 3 (57:46):
That was great goodwill humping, right if we didn't get
to that one, And of course Gang Banks of New
York and phill Bill send us your favorite suggestions. If
we can't wait to hear from you, We're out here
in the dark. Conspiracy. Heartradio dot com.
Speaker 2 (58:19):
Stuff they don't want you to know is a production
of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
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Stuff They Don't Want You To Know News
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Matt Frederick
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
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