In this week's strange news segment: you can officially enter your sperm in an international race! The legendary, divisive Ted Turner is dead, as is Spirit Airlines. Media freedom is trouble. The Supreme Court has again turned on the US public, gutting the Voting Rights Act and allowing for new levels of Suessian gerrymandering -- and endangering your right to actually vote. Tune in for all this and more.
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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 the stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
my name is Nola.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
They call me Ben. We're joined as always with our
super producer Dylan the Tennessee pal Faked. If you are
listening our tuning in to our Strange news program the Evening,
it publishes, Welcome to May eleventh, and fare the well,
best of luck to anybody who is racing their sperm
(00:53):
for the grand prize of one hundred thousand dollars in
San Francisco.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
Hell, yeah, you.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Guys heard about this way.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
I want to I want to make a bet. Is
it on polymarket yet? Of course it is.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
It's interesting.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
I swear one of you guys brought this up while
we talked about it.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Was the potential, the potentiality. Yeah, it's real.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
It's like a legit race, right.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Yeah, I did mention this previous Strange News segment. Uh.
This project is created by the entrepreneurs Eric Schue, Garrett
Nico Nko, Nick Small, and Shane Fan Uh Their idea
is to raise public health awareness rather than to do
(01:37):
original research. So part of the issue is to draw
attention to declining male fertility rates across the world human males,
and Shoe in particular puts it this way. It's about
making male fertilities something people actually want to talk about,
track and improve. We're taking a topic no one wants
(02:00):
to touch, and we are making it interesting, measurable, and
weirdly changing this paradigm. So it is based off real science.
You can read more in multiple media platforms of choice.
The thing is, it's one hundred thousand US dollars. You
want to put your guys in the race.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
Our guys, our boss. Yeah, don't know. I think I'm good. Gosh.
They may have slowed down a little bit at this
point in my adult life, my golden years, Ben, I
do love this concept of a four hundred micron micro
fluid track. What's that about?
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Yes, it's a.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
Very small, tiny slipping slide.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Right. They have one hundred and twenty eight seamen samples,
you guys, each representing a different country, and the DPRK,
or as the West calls it, North Korea, is included.
They have not disclosed the location that you are describing there, nol,
it's four hundred microns. It's going to be like roughly
(03:07):
zero point zero two inches, so approximately the size of
a grain of salt. The times can range from several
seconds to over forty minutes, depending on whether cells become
stuck on obstacles, So it's not quite at the school. Yeah, dude, yeah, yeah, Oh.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
Gosh, how does one experience this event it being so
incredibly micro Well, just with numbers, was watching some charts.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
I'm sure we can log in and watch remotely when
this stuff goes down this year twenty twenty six, San Francisco.
We do have to point out a similar event was
held in Los Angeles in April twenty twenty five. Two
students did something very similar, impeding for a ten thousand
(04:01):
dollars USD prize in front of hundreds of spectators. So
imagine pitching that to your friends, Hey, guys, what are
you doing this weekend? Do you want to see a race?
And they might say, yeah, I love races. Are we
talking horses or we're talking humans? And then you say,
we're kind of talking humans now.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
In that scenario, was there extraction immediately before the race
or was it this kind of situation where you get
a sample and then you deploy the sample during the race.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
That's a great question, Matt. We're talking about what we
call sperm motility, right, this is this is ideally going
to be fresh baked stuff.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
So part of the events on your efficiency department too.
They okay, so.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Goes off the race light. Oh geez, I'm glad we're
not on audio and they're off. I'm glad we're not
off video for this, but we're.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
All gesticulating wildly.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
You know. Hereous, as a guy who has been to
fertility clinics before to have their sperm tested to see
the motility and things like that and the potency and
all those things, I would just say, instead of spending
one hundred thousand dollars to race your little boys, you
can go to one of these places and phenomenal fee,
(05:31):
see what you're working with, and maybe then decide. So
I guess these guys have pre tested themselves and they're
feeling good about it. Just thatches.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Yeah. I would see the thing that.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
I k is the prize, not like the application fee.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Right right, I would say the thing I enjoy the
most about the twenty twenty six Sperm Racing World Cup
as it's being called, is that it is drawing attention
and perhaps a theatrical way to a real decline that
is occurring to humanity across the globe. So it's out
(06:08):
the box pr that's the kind of approach we're taking,
and we'd love for people to pay attention to that.
We'd love for folks in the Ivory Tower to do
their best odd improving reproduction grades. Yeah, oh nice, I forgot.
I didn't even mean that.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
With one thing, guys, that is one of the primary
reasons of these declining. It's not one of the primary reasons,
but is one of the things that, in my belief,
is a primary reason for these declines. I didn't know. Caffeine, Guys,
can be helpful in a tiny amount for motility, but
you go over just a little bit of caffeine in
(06:49):
your system and it slows them down and it makes
them less effective and a lot of these Nicotine is
another thing that can just destroy your fertility. There are
a lot of things that are super popular right now,
especially in males, and alcohol also, just these are things
that can destroy your ability to reproduce. It's crazy because
(07:11):
we do see it across the board and is a
really serious problem. And it's great that there's something like
this to just bring it up. As you said, Ben,
it is something that nobody really wants to think about
or talk about.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
I do wonder if the results like between nations will
then be compared and used as data sets.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Oh, weaponized, absolutely, hey, guys, weaponized. And also I'd add
to that microplastics. There's a cabol of powerful forces that
don't want you to think about the microplastics in every
part of your body. Yeah, right, there is what if
we're being self interested in talking about ourselves then yeah,
(07:50):
the balls, the scrots.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
Well, we are talking about male fertility here, so I
think that might play in two weast coach.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
And speaking of dudes, there is one person who is
definitely not gonna make it in full form to the
twenty twenty six sper Racing World Cup. It's a legend
country wide internationally and definitely in our town. Ted Turner,
the third the yachtsa who has passed away.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Oh what mouth of the South guy?
Speaker 4 (08:21):
I thought he was.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
I'm not gonna lie so oh.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Jeez, oh yeah yeah, he Well, at least news broke
pr was sent out by the family and by Turner
Enterprises that he passed away. It was like an hour
before we hit record.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
I feel that as we record on Wednesday, May sixth,
mister Turner was eighty seven years old. He had been
suffering from Louis body dementia. And I think a couple
of us in the audience, like I had run into
Ted Turner in the past and it was just a
(08:58):
delightful guy to me at the time, very brief conversation,
but that was many years ago, and he had kind
of retreated from public life.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
Interesting to some, divisive to some, one of the serious
kind of prototypes for the modern like maverick millionaire billionaire right.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Well, yeah, and he is responsible in a lot of ways.
First of all for the trajectory that that sent us on,
his creation of CNN out of Channel seventeen and then
on network and then to do like but that that
concept of always being on. He had made statements before
(09:41):
about the one of the major problems in the United
States and with democracy itself is that were also ill
informed that that was one of his beliefs, and so
like me. So look, he he was an entrepreneur, owned
you know, a bunch of different things. His dad had
a billboard industry that then he inherited. Then he turned
(10:01):
that into radio, into television and turned it into CNN
and as you said, been TCM and TV classic movies and.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Bison steakhouses, which in a real way popularized paper straws.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Yes, but his his thought, what if I beam the
signal to a satellite and then that satellite can send
this the Channel seventeen programming like everywhere? What if I
then did that twenty four hours a day and it
was based on news.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
Do you think he saw the the end game of
that as far back as this, you know, spark in
his brain form?
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Possibly, possibly like the guy who tamed fire in envision
nuclear bombs.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
I don't. I think he had good intentions, but also
entrepreneurial intentions, because nothing will makes you money like something
that's always on forever.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
You know, I'm mentioning bombs because you guys knew. I
had to study this stuff for a while, and he
was instrumental in stuff like the Nuclear Threat Initiative. He was,
in his time, as you said, Nola, divisive figure, but
he was also someone very concerned about the future of
(11:20):
the world. He donated billions of dollars across his career,
and it was initiatives. Right. He also owned the Atlanta Braves,
But guys in the Hawks and the recent track record
of those sports teams, both of them should not be
laid at his feet.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Hey, yeah, that was not as well. We're just thinking
about that long the way the creation of CNN has
affected where we are today, right, and how we experience
the world around us in real time. I think it's
it's worth some form of a tip of the hat,
(12:02):
but also a kind of like, dang, man, it sure
seems like that instant access thing might be one of
the biggest problems that we're facing. It's like the biggest
blessing but also the biggest problem. When in nineteen ninety one,
Time magazine called him Man of the Year and they
said it was for quote, influencing the dynamic of events
(12:25):
and turning viewers in one hundred and fifty countries into
instant witnesses of history.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
And participants later. But again that's my comparison there, Matt,
like the guy who tames fire, does he know that
it will lead to the development of nuclear weaponry?
Speaker 4 (12:44):
Likely?
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Not like it's it's likely that he was just a
businessman with a phenomenal level of acumen and prescience and
no small amount of luck or just.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
Good fortune, agreed yeat of the I don't think he
saw the full scope of what he hath wrought.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Until it began to occur. Similar to Einstein, we could
even argue a.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
Lot of big stories popping right now. So we went
a little long on this opening bit, but we've got
much more to get to after a quick word from
our sponsor, and we're back. Don't want to spill too
much podcast inc on this one, because I think everyone's
aware there's a lot of finger pointing going on right
(13:30):
now about who's to blame. But Spirit Airlines, the greyhound
of the skies, has called it quits, and along with
that has come a handful of very interesting side stories,
including I believe Ben you found a story about a
TikTok user who has already drummed up something in the
neighborhood of one hundred mil to rescue this, Yeah, this
(13:53):
now defunct budget airline, which was really the only one remaining.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
Truly one hundred and thirty two million dollars. That's the
offer that is happening now. If you want to participate,
then you can hie the tow TikTok to see Hunter Peterson,
content creator and voice actor, who is proposing a plan
to crowdfund a purchase of Spirit Airlines.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
And I'm not sure if y'all had spent too much
time flying the friendly skies on Spirit. I've only done
in a handful of myself. But boyle boy, it's a
it is a vibe. It was a vibe. I mean, like,
you know, everything is a la carte. You know, you
don't get a single piece of luggage, didn't get a
single piece of luggage included with your ticket. You're you know,
the deceptively low price that you see online is low
(14:42):
for a reason because everything else, including I believe my
my guys I enjoy on Internet today pointed out that
you even had to pay money to print out your
boarding pass. Yeah, every aspect of this, And I just
I flew relatively recently on Spirit and I hadn't done
it in years. And their terminal it felt like a
(15:02):
bus terminal. It was in this whole other part of
the airport, like down low, and the chairs looked like
a Greyhound station.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
Did you feel it was like on the way out
the same way that people felt walking into say it,
toys or rust before they got closed down.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
It did feel like a dead mall kind of, you know.
And it's excellent people watching, I mean truly, you know,
a real hodgepodge of humanity flying Spirit for various reasons,
you know, I mean, it wasn't obviously people of means
fly it as well. It's it was a good deal
for a quick cop flight to say, from LA to
Vegas or something like that, and you know, that would
(15:37):
make a whole lot of sense. Long haul flights on
Spirit probably not the best choice. But I just sinctly
remember seeing someone clearly wearing a backpack underneath their jacket,
looking like a hunchback, you know, try and they just
let them on through it. And really it was like it's.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Kind of like a Ryan Air if you guys ever
flew that in Europe. It's a low cost regional airline
or Spirit was, And I remember in Ryanair, I was thinking,
holy smokes, these folks don't even have lines. I had
to pay extra for an assigned seat. It's just go
(16:15):
time when the plane lands. It's not for everybody. But
as as you're saying, and as millions of customers said
in spirit today, this was a perfect solution if you
wanted to save some scratch and get to where you
needed to go.
Speaker 4 (16:31):
One hundred percent. And it kind of reminded me of
something that I hadn't thought about in years and never
personally participated in. But ao at Abiri from the Bear
and other awesome things was on. I want to say
Seth Myers talking about the infamous fung Wah bus line
that ran for many years between Boston and New York
(16:51):
City and notoriously broke down all the time, and you know,
it was really chaotic, and you know, fifteen to twenty
dollars ticket prices. Sometimes you'd literally break down halfway and
have to like hitchhike home or like, you know, make
other arrangements. But you know, like I guess now the
equivalent of that on the ground would be something like
the megabus, which I don't know if that even still
(17:12):
exists anymore. But in the air, we really don't have
a budget alternative anymore. Maybe Frontier would be the next
closest thing. What do you guys think? And lastly, who
is to blame because obviously the current administration is blaming
the previous administration. But obviously it took the rising gas costs,
a fuel costs, there's no question about rain margins. Is
(17:36):
exactly what I was going to say, Ben. And even
the best, most well situated financially airlines like our you know,
local heroes, Delta, they're able to pass that cost onto
the customers who are able to pay it. Something like
Spirit probably didn't have nearly as much of an opportunity
(17:56):
to do that, and they really did shudder in the night,
leaving a lot of people stranded in a lot of
places and causing some real chaotic class minute travel plan changes,
to which a lot of the other airlines I believe
have offered some promotional pricing for those folks that are
left well stranded.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
I mean, it's tough all around, guys, because Delta also
cut snacks on the short term domestic flights, so tut tut.
Speaker 4 (18:27):
But also yet, you don't get miles. You don't earn
miles for certain flights unless you book like a certain
level above just main cabin, you do not get miles.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
It's going around. I love the Saturday Night Live joke
that recently occurred this past weekend where they said Spirit
canceled service mid flight.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Oh jeez, yeah, Joe, I'm looking at Spirit Airlines in
their revenue. In twenty ten, the company had a revenue
of seven hundred and eighty one million dollars, so that's
twenty ten. In twenty twenty five, last year, they had
a revenue of three point seven two billion dollars. I
(19:14):
still don't understand how a company like Spirit Airlines that
makes that much revenue in a year has to just
die and unless it's tied to a stock or something, right,
and that stock is crashing because there's not enough there's
not enough rise in revenue for shareholders to be satisfied.
(19:37):
So then the stock just loses in price and everybody's
selling it right and getting out of the game. If
you are a company that makes three billion dollars almost
four billion dollars a year, you should be able to
continue on and you could pay everybody and you can
still operate. And you know, it's just it to me,
(19:58):
it doesn't it. It doesn't make sense.
Speaker 4 (20:01):
Yeah, And what about like government bailouts that we've seen
for too big to fail parts of the global infrastructure,
which you know you could you could consider Spirit one
of but I guess the fact that they mainly benefit
lower income folks makes them less of a priority or something.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
Well, they benefit people try to save a buck as
well as I'm not so webcs here they had okay,
so they already filed for Chapter eleven, which is kind
of bankruptcy protection in twenty twenty four, and when they
write thank you Jackbots, and when they did that, they
had lost more than two point five billion dollars.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Yes, so I'm talking about fallunt just the revenue before
you do the numbers, right before you add up losses
and everything. So if you go back to twenty twenty,
they the company had a revenue of one point eight
billion dollars, but they still somehow managed to lose overall.
When you do the net profit and loss, lose four
(21:04):
hundred and twenty nine million dollars, even though they made
that much all the way to twenty twenty four, at least,
I'm seeing here that the net profit loss was one
point two three billion dollars, and then this year that
the losses went even higher to two point eight three
billion dollars. So I again like, I'm not smart enough.
(21:25):
I don't have a business degree to understand how in hell,
you can make that much money and still lose that
much money unless it's all, you know, borrowing money, borrowing
Peter to pay Pall at some point and hoping that
you're gonna make enough money to cut even.
Speaker 4 (21:40):
Yeah, and while Chapter eleven protection for corporations often seems
like a viable option rather than for individuals, who it
would seem to ruin, that debt does ultimately come due
at a certain point. If a company is swimming in debt,
whether they file for Chapter eleven or not, it just
kind of buys them time. And it's not some sort
(22:01):
of magic fix.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
Yeah, you're right, but no, this is important for all
of our fellow conspiracy realists tuning in right now. So
I want to bring this point to you on behalf
of them, on behalf of everybody else. Something you mentioned
that we need to emphasize is that up there with agriculture,
airlines are considered kind of a matter of national integrity,
(22:27):
sovereignty and defense. So to be clear, we could say,
it's not as if all those planes suddenly disappear there,
just like when pan Am fell, they will be acquired,
they will be reused no other country. It's part of
why Boeing soldiers on right. No other country that has
(22:48):
this capability will ideally, they will never sacrifice the autonomy
of having airlines. So who do we think is going
to scoop up this guy? Is it going to be
some dude from TikTok? Is it going to be another airline?
Do we have any updates on that?
Speaker 4 (23:04):
I don't know that I have a story that specifically
referenced that. I know there's a lot of, you know,
skin in the game across the industry. I do know
about a Central Florida organization or set of organizations that
are trying to help employees of Spirit who've been displaced.
And then again there was that other story about some
other airlines that are offering discounted tickets two folks that
(23:26):
were stranded. Central Florida is I believe, the headquarters of Spirits.
So we've got a lot of folks that really are
feeling it in that part of the country.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Guys, I'm seeing a fleet of one hundred and thirty
one airbus A three twenties.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
On eBay, Papa.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
No, No, but that's what they had. And I can't
imagine a scenario where you crowdfund it in some way
where you've got a kiss, a bunch of shareholders, they
could theoretically split any revenue. If you could actually make
money with it, you would have to just price the
flights similar to that of you know, American or Delta,
(24:08):
any of these other jet blues, just price it similar
but undercut them. And we just changed it to undercutter airlines.
That's what it's called. And we just undercut everybody by
fifty dollars dollars.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
Let's do it and then make it back with the
hidden fees.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
No hidden fees, zero hidden fees in this one. It's
just like a little bit cheaper. It's just like a
little bit cheaper than the other airlines.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
That's what. If someone has a bag, what do you mean,
if someone has luggage, just bring.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
That bring that thing on, Bring that luggage on. Belove it, gal,
we're gonna we're gonna fly everybody. We're gonna it's the
first biodiesel fleet, switch out all the jet fuel for biodiesel.
Speaker 4 (24:54):
Let's go by the way, there was a bailout. I
don't think we talked about that. Maybe there was a
five hundred million dollar government bailout. But despite that, the
skyrocketing fuel costs. Truly where the final nail in the
coffin and Ben you you mentioned what's his name, Hunter Peterson?
Is that your guests, So it is mentioned a TikTok.
(25:18):
His initiative is called Let's Buy Spirit and it actually
followed a previous initiative of a fan ownership model to
purchase the Green Bay Packers football team, which I did
not realize. Interesting, So that's that It's definitely a story
to keep an eye on as we see if this
either whether they're just going to get their fleet swooped
(25:39):
up at bargain basement costs, or whether someone's going to
attempt to buy and rebrand the entire organization. Curious about that.
I'm just going to do one more really quick, because
I think it's a fascinating and relatively victimless form of protest.
The met Gala twenty twenty six just took place. It's
the first time a big tech corporation, Amazon in this case,
(26:00):
paid for the event sponsored it. It was typically historically sponsored
and paid for by fashion brands like Burberry and you
know all these luxury clothing brands of course, take place
at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It's sort of the
the it event of the season, you know, where the
rich and powerful celebrity types show up in their finest.
There's often a theme, and this year it really felt
(26:22):
like kind of a Hunger Games theme or Dystopian theme
more so than usual. I believe the theme was works
of Art, where a lot of the outfits were modeled
after famous works of art. But this year Jeff Bezos
and his wife Lauren Sanchez put up the money millions
(26:43):
of dollars I want to say ten million dollars to
sponsor the event. Also, big companies, big tech companies like
Facebook shelled out a pile for reserved tables, and an organization,
a protest organization called Everybody Hates Elon or Everyone Hates
Elon did a delightful little prank in advance of the event.
(27:07):
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, if anyone knows, has been
his massive cavernous place, impossible to see all of in
one day, and tons of little corners and nooks where
you can hide bottles full of pea, which is exactly
what they did in protest of Bezos and the widely
circulated story about Amazon workers being forced to urinate in bottles,
(27:31):
and these bottles actually well unclear. I don't know that
they've tested it, but these are little travel mouth washed
sized bottles bearing a sticker with bezos like kind of
laughing maniacally like a super villain, which she's more and
more it begins to resemble a bit of a Lex
Luthor figure and just says boycott the Bezos met Gala
(27:53):
and says, relax, it's just water and food coloring, so no,
not actual peak.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
It right there on the bottle, some of it would
hopefully be pete but also yeah, reading this, I got
in trouble a few years back on some other show
that I'm sure we're fans of, where I called out
the met Gala for occurring when there are such divisive,
terrible times for average people, like you know, like what's
(28:27):
the what's twenty twenty seven's theme going to be let
them eat cake. I don't want to sound like I'm
against people are crying, but it's like it's also like
where could that money actually go? Like how much better
would the world be if these people said we can
donate to actionable causes similar to the Bill Gates Foundation
(28:52):
or what Zuck is proposing to do, Like what what
if I don't know. I love the discording nature of it.
I love the idea that they're putting this down as
as you said, nol peaceful discordy and protest. But also
we got to be honest. Most people who are picking
up those bottles are already underpaid staff working at the gallas.
(29:16):
He's really getting targeted.
Speaker 4 (29:18):
That is a good point. Yeah, I'm not. I don't
disagree with you. Been there. I do think it's making
the news stories pop a little bit more there. And
there are also cases of multiple celebrities, big ones like
Zendeia and Meryl Streep who boycotted the event with their
(29:40):
you know, skipping of it.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
Do you guys remember last year at mar A Lago
the Great Gatsby things.
Speaker 4 (29:47):
Yeah, dude has so toned down comical man, it's like
it is dystopian. It is. It is Nero fiddling while
Rome burns type stuff. It's not a good look.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
But so it's a tough thing for me too, because
you'd also have to put things like the oscars in there.
Right in any of these you know, massively expensive shindigs.
The cost of the.
Speaker 4 (30:11):
Gift bags oscar attendees get that would pay for you know,
somebody's schooling for a year. I mean, it's insane. The
luxury items and the amount of it's it's wasteful. I
don't like it at all. Yeah, now more than ever. Anyway,
(30:32):
that's that one. I guess we're probably at time for
my segment, so let's take a break here away from
our sponsor and then come back with more strange news.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
And we've returned, so we're talking quite a bit about
this father of CNN, mister Turner. The reason why we're
bringing that up is because CNN, theoretically, at least from
the jump, was and is about journalism. It's about reporting
the news. That whole fourth estate concept that there should
(31:09):
be someone watching what those powerful folks are doing, whether
they're at mar A Lago, dancing around to the Roaring
twenties or donning dog masks I think was another story
we talked about with those folks, or you know, what
the powerful people are doing when they sponsor the met
Gala or whatever it is. There should be people watching
(31:31):
and telling all the rest of us about what's going on. Well,
there was a report that came out this year, as
it does every year, that is pretty dang disturbing It's
something that's put out by the RSF or Reporters Without Borders,
and it is called the World Press Freedom Index. It's
(31:54):
been going on for a long time. You can go
all the way back to the year two thousand and
look at some of the first stuff that was reported
there as the World Press Freedom Index. This year twenty
twenty six, according to this organization, world press freedom is
at an all time low. That's in an entire generation.
(32:17):
This is an annual index that essentially tries to measure
authoritarian pressure that is applied to media in every country
or in one hundred and eighty countries that it assesses.
This is their finding. For the first time, more than
half of all countries on the planet were placed in
(32:40):
the difficult or very serious categories for press freedom. About
a fifth of the global population was in a country
that was categorized as good in the year two thousand
and two. Now the category of good only includes one
percent of the world population, so good press freedom in
(33:03):
one percent of the entire globe, at least, according to
this one group, Reporters Without Borders. The study found that
a dramatic expansion of restrictive legal arsenals used by governments
around the world, particularly in their use of national security laws,
or you can read that as excuses that was impinging
(33:26):
on the rights of the free press. So to fully
talk about this, we have to jump to The Guardian
in an article written by Michael Savage on April thirtieth,
twenty twenty six. The title is press freedom at lowest
level in twenty five years amid growing authoritarian pressure. Guys,
as we go, we continue to go through this. We've
(33:49):
certainly noticed this trend here in the US. We've seen
it in several other countries as well, thinking particularly about Russia.
But that's only two out of the one hundred and
eighty countries. How are we right now seeing press freedom
being I was gonna say squashed here in the US.
Speaker 4 (34:10):
Well, a lot of it is this rhetoric about the
fake news media and trying to diminish trust in the media,
and you know, removing certain reporters and news organizations from
White House press briefings, various things like that, And not
to be too hyperbolic, but I can't help but think
of the way that the Nazi Party did this very
(34:31):
similar thing with the Lougan press. The lying press that's
trying to diminish trust in the media and pivot it
to the party making their line the way that they
report things. I mean, even what's his name, hegsgef who
comes from a TV news background, giving suggestions for reworked
headlines that would be more favorable to the administration.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
Guys, it's not a war, it's a new operation, so
we don't need congressional approval. Also here, my wife, she's
going to be showing up at all the meetings.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
Yeah, she's hiding out in a closet with some other dude.
That was a burn on current head of the FBI. Sorry.
In this report, guys, it points to a lot of
the things we're talking about right here, exactly what we're
talking about. Here's a quote from the Guardian article. The
current US president's repeated attacks on press and journalists were
(35:24):
described as a systematic policy which has pushed the United States,
amongst those one hundred and eighty countries, to sixty fourth
place in the Index for Press Freedom.
Speaker 4 (35:38):
Well, not to mention last against actual networks and the
whole the merger of sky Dance and Paramount. I mean,
all of that was kind of what's the word fast tracked.
As a result of one of those lawsuits, I mean,
and a lot of folks are paying rather than fighting
(36:01):
it because as we know, a lot of these media
organizations aren't doing particularly amazingly financially, so they just don't
have as deep pockets as someone like Donald Trump and
his ilk right.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
Master or someone or someone like mister Vladimir Putin, who
was described as a quote specialist in using laws designated
to combat terrorism, separatism, and extremism to restrict press freedom.
As of this month, right now, as we're recording, Russia
is at least allegedly holding forty eight journalists in prison.
(36:37):
Forty eight journalists in prison, just repeating in that there
to visualize that in your mind, forty eight people who
are supposed to report the truth who are behind bars.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
A lot of them are being held under accusations of
terrorism or accusations of operating as foreign agents, agents of
a foreign.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
Government exactly fear national security. We must defend it. And
by doing that, we have to protect the truth. We
have to protect what's being said and what's not being said.
Speaker 4 (37:08):
I mean, Patel calls that the fake news mafia, that
literally it's being cast as a criminal organization, and that
rhetoric is getting trotted out to normalize it. For when
things like that happen, I think, well, I mean, I
think that's next. It has to you know, I mean,
short of some big changes.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
Well, and that is not to say that all journalism
and all journalists are created equally, right. We know this.
We've seen this throughout our careers making this show. You
can have all kinds of different motives and you can
get paid from all kinds of different places to do
certain things in that role. We also know that, you know,
(37:48):
when you work I'm going to say certain places again,
you may have to not talk about things to keep
your job. You may have to specifically talk about things
to keep your job. You know, it's not a fully
clean business, and it is a business, and that's one
(38:08):
of the things that this report talks about. Anna Biconde,
Boca n De. This is the editorial director of the
Reporters Without Borders. Here's some quotes from Ann. How much
longer will we tolerate the suffocation of journalism, the systematic
(38:29):
obstruction of reporters, and the continued erosion of press freedom.
She goes on to say authoritarian states complicit or incompetent
political powers, predatory economic actors, and underregulated online platforms are
directly and overwhelmingly responsible for the global decline in press freedom.
Speaker 4 (38:51):
Well, and the groundwork's been set for all of this
stuff for years with the dilution of the media and
the traditional reporting by the Internet, and the fact that
there's more now than ever opportunities to undercut and second
and provide counter programming. Let's just say that isn't vetted
(39:13):
or fact checked or whatever. So it's just it's it's
like this cluster f out there, and opportunities to point
to all of these less reputable sources and say no,
that's the truth, that's our truth.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
Yeah. Well, and now that the subscription model that we
outlined in a very recent episode about the loss of ownership,
there are paywalls in front of most of the press
that exists out there, most of it, whether it's a
local paper or the LA Times or the New York
(39:46):
Times or the Washington Post, any of these places that
have journalists who continue to work and toil away attempting
to do the thing that we're extolling here as a
as a virtuous act, you've got to put money out there. Now,
do you remember, guys, in the early two thousands. In
(40:07):
the twenty tens, we all had access to all of
these websites to where you could just read what these
incredible reporters are writing about, hard hitting stuff, the Boston
Globe talking about things, and now we have to shell
out money to even access it online. And just think
about how restrictive that is for most people, for most
(40:27):
of us who are on budgets who can't afford that stuff.
Speaker 4 (40:31):
And to be fair, they're doing it out of desperation
because they ain't making no money. There's no more papers circulating.
It's like it's a tough business.
Speaker 3 (40:40):
It is.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
It is a tough business. And a lot of that
has to do with the attention spans that we've talked
about before and how snackable content is or not, and
it all I'm going back to Ted Turner here, just
imagining what CNN did to the fact that you could,
at any time after that point that CNN went live
with their twenty four hour broadcast, you could click a
(41:01):
button and get the news, right and that turning into
you can click a couple of things on a screen
now and you can access whatever you want it. I
don't know, it's very troubling. I think it's worth us
thinking about and talking about and trying to find a
new way to do this thing, journalism, because right now
(41:21):
it just doesn't seem to be working as it maybe should.
Here's the last quote from Ann. Given this context, inaction
is a form of endorsement, It's no longer enough to
just state principles. Effective measures to protect journalists are essential
and must be seen as a catalyst for change. This
(41:43):
starts with ending the criminalization of journalism, the misuse of
national security laws, and the systemic obstruction of those who investigate,
expose and name names here here, here, here, And before
we move on to the ads, guys, just one other
quick story that everybody can look up on their own
time and we can probably talk about it. I think,
(42:05):
Ben I want to say you've mentioned this before, because
the news of this thing has been around for a while.
There's just fresh news that's hitting places like Futurism. Joe Wilkins,
writing for Futurism on May fourth, created the article Zuckerberg. Yes,
that Zuckerberg trying to simulate human biology at the cellular level,
and it just goes on and on and on about
(42:28):
this really cool, potentially messed up potentially like Elysium world
that Mark Zuckerberg and his wife are attempting to create
at the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, where they're modeling human cells. Again, Ben,
you did talk about this right pretty recently. Yeah, okay,
(42:50):
but just about the things they are attempting to do
and how much money is going in to this. They
call it biohub, but it's actually a conglomerate of several
other things that they've put together and renamed.
Speaker 4 (43:04):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
It seems incredible utopian, even potentially eradicating all disease. But
good lord, there's other stuff that you can do when
you're able to model human cells in the way that
they are attempting to.
Speaker 4 (43:19):
I mean, utopia for some is a dystopia for.
Speaker 3 (43:22):
Others, right, yeah, well yeah, even the etymology of the
word utopia means an unrealistic thing. Z Yeah, Zuckerberg's a pickle.
I also want to get in front of the jokes
for everybody who's about to email us. Yes, arguably, Mark
Zuckerberg has been trying to simulate human biology on a
(43:43):
cellular level for most of his life. That We'll be
right back with more from The Chappelle Show.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
Whatever hands stuff they don't want you to.
Speaker 3 (43:56):
Know, right right, that's us, I guess, fellow conspiracy realist.
We have returned for the last act of our weekly
Strange News segment. And look, you may have heard a
lot of stories here that perhaps inspired you to make
(44:18):
your voice heard. You might be saying, hey, why can't
I vote on this idea about spirit airlines? Why can't
I vote on the importance of press freedom. Well, in
the United States, voting is again becoming a hot button
issue for anybody who is a fan of conspiracies in general.
(44:41):
You will know that the Supreme Court of the United
States is itself somewhat conspiratorial. We got nine ring Braiths.
They get voted in. Once you do not elect them,
they stay as long as they want. They can technically
be impeached, but it's very rare for that to happen.
As an ever, I believe there have been some people
(45:02):
who got in trouble. It's because you get impeached.
Speaker 4 (45:05):
Doesn't mean you're removed, right, yeah, yeah, that just.
Speaker 3 (45:10):
Right right. That means getting impeached or sensiored or something
like that is very similar to trying to break into
a building in Balder's Gate, three where the guards see
you and you have to roll for persuasion, right, and
then you can get out of the thing. That's very
much not a niche reference.
Speaker 4 (45:30):
Passing a speech check. I've been doing that a lot
in Starfield. Which is it happens often?
Speaker 3 (45:36):
Yes, yeah, shout out to the loading screens, which are
like the main part of the game there. But we
know the Supreme Court already a weird thing. It has
been repeatedly in the past accused of political favoritism, of
being corrupt in one way or another, being compromised. The
current the current iteration of Scotus is no different. One
(46:01):
of the things that has people's dander up, if they
were still able to vote, to have their dander up,
is what we call the Voting Rights Act. It's an
enormously important, boring thing from nineteen sixty five that is
meant to prohibit racial discrimination in votings. No more poll taxes,
(46:26):
no more weird test for black voters, expecting them to
know Mandarin know. This is for a long time up until,
as a matter of fact, twenty twenty six, it was
considered one of the coolest things the United States did.
It was a furtherance of the experiment arguing that all
(46:49):
people are equal. However, just past Wednesday, the Supreme Court
struck down a voting map in Louisiana. The decision was
split along ideological lines. So we got nine creepy robed people.
Three of them are aligned with what you would call
(47:10):
more like American values, and the other six are aligned
with more what we would call the desires of the
current administration. Just to be clear, right, I hope that's
a political I think it's accurate and pretty obviously.
Speaker 2 (47:26):
But either way, all of them are aligned with money.
Speaker 3 (47:32):
Yeah, yeah, shout out to shout out to Thomas in
particular on that one. So this decision is fighting against
what we would call fair voting districts. It's the idea
that Jerry Mandarin is back in style. Jerry Mandarin is
(47:53):
where you look at a district, You look at the
people who live in a certain place, You look at
their history of whom they vote for and how they vote,
and then you make the weirdest family circus style path
to create a Susian mousetrap map to get a district
(48:13):
the most power if it votes your way. So, for instance,
let's say we have a population of seventy percent Hispanic
voters or a population of seventy percent Asian American or
African American voters, and we have thirty percent more conservative
(48:34):
right wide identifying voters. The question becomes, how can we
carefully draw a map to make sure that the desires
of that thirty percent absolutely demolish and overwhelm the desires
of the other seventy percent of the people living in
this area. That is called jerrymandry. It was very successful
for quite some time. It is super un American, right.
(48:58):
It's old school trash, corrupt politics.
Speaker 4 (49:01):
Not technically illegal in certain forms, not until nineteen sixty
five with the Voting Rights Act.
Speaker 3 (49:07):
But now hey guys, it's back on the menu. How
do we jerry mander our districts? What's happening in Louisiana
is arguably a conspiracy that will reverberate across the other
states in the nation. Have we all been reading about this.
Speaker 2 (49:23):
Yes, and having conversations that you know, and end up
to everybody involved just kind of sighing and going, Jesus.
Speaker 4 (49:35):
Well, here's what And just just to what I was
saying earlier about technically not illegal, there are the racial
jerrymandering is absolutely illegal, and that's what we're talking about here.
I believe Ben, but this idea of partisan jerry mandering,
drawing maps to favor a political party is technically not
reviewable by federal courts, and that came out of a
twenty nineteen decision Rucho versus common Cause, where the court
(49:58):
held that these kinds of claims present political questions beyond
federal judicial remedies.
Speaker 3 (50:04):
Yeah, exactly, It's tricky, is what I'm saying, right right,
And we know that the so we know the court
is ideologically divided. Here is why folks, I am positing
this may be a conspiracy afoot, because it seems that
other operatives in other states beyond Louisiana were waiting for
(50:27):
the shoe to drop. Perhaps they acquired some inside information,
or maybe they were just being opportunistic, because mere hours
after the ruling that essentially guts the Voting Rights Act
of nineteen sixty five, the legislature of Florida approved a
new map that is that is cartoonishly drawn in such
(50:50):
a way as to give that state four new seats
in the Republican congressional delegation. We also know that now
that the inner bell is ringing, or the triangle, if
you prefer Dylan, whatever sound you wish. These other states
are going to use that decision to redraw their own
(51:11):
voting maps in a way that will affect the upcoming
midterm elections if they happen. Knock on wood, I don't
know it's a conspiracy, though, it's a real one.
Speaker 2 (51:26):
I'm looking at the new maps and good lord, you're
so right, Ben, Just the way District six kind of
goes right through the heart of District four and skids
all are a long District five and above three and
over two, and it's just like this weird little thing
(51:48):
that exists in the center.
Speaker 4 (51:50):
And if I'm not mistaken, the issue here that the
Supreme Court's decision is referencing is calling this this racial
gerrymandering because it's designed at least the Democrats would argue
to give better representation to black people, and then the
Republicans would argue that that's inherently racial gerrymandering, which is
(52:13):
bad and should be shot down.
Speaker 3 (52:15):
Right this immediate decision, which will be finalized, let's go
to the Scotis blog. It is called Louisiana versus Calis
cllais the loan dissenting opinion. Like the loan justice who wrote,
you guys are wrong on this is Justice Kaitanji Brown Jackson,
(52:40):
who argued that this will spawn chaos in the state
of Louisiana. The Court issued its decision back on April
twenty ninth, and they invalidated a map that the Louisiana
legislature adopted in twenty twenty four because it created two
point noel majority black voting districts after two lower courts
(53:05):
ruled that an earlier map with just one majority district
of African American voters violated Section two of the Voting
Rights Act. So the argument was that the jerry mandarine
in Louisiana, a notoriously racist state, had the jerry mandarine
(53:26):
was meant to discriminate against African American voters. Later, a
coalition of people calling themselves get this Guy's non African
American voters challenged the map. It went to the Supreme
Court and they kicked it down. In doing so, they
have argued that the Voting Rights Act, meant to prevent
(53:50):
racial discrimination, is itself an act of racial discrimination. So
it's the same court that has been fighting against things
like affirmati event or it's been right DEEI that's that's
the next best example. So I have to ask all
of us listening. I have to ask you, guys, what
(54:11):
do we think about this? What do we think about
the timing? What do we think the ultimate goal midterms?
Speaker 4 (54:19):
So you know, I mean the timing specifically would be
to disrupt the midterms because it's gonna throw these districts
into chaos for the time being. You know, it'll take
it'll take a while to sort all of this stuff out,
and in the short term, aka the midterms, it's going
to cause confusion and problems.
Speaker 2 (54:39):
That's why are you talking about this. Don't you know
that Iran war is happening. Don't you know there might
be peace, but we might also blockade still but there
might be more bombing. Guys, don't look over here, look
at it ran, look at it run everybody.
Speaker 3 (54:51):
Check out the met Galot two. You know what I mean. Also, also,
we're increasingly arriving at a point. I'm going to predict
it now. It's May six, twenty six as I say this,
We're going to arrive at a point sooner than a
lot of us would like to imagine wherein there will
be very non ironic, very spirited and well funded arguments
(55:17):
that some mechanisms of government should be assigned to AI,
should be assigned to algorithms. So how how about once
we fix the hallucinations, what if we could just have roboscotus.
Speaker 4 (55:30):
Oh man, and just a quick opportunity to just mention
a story that I left out in my segment Open
AI is really worried about their AI talking too much
about goblins and raccoons speaking of hallucinations, and let's see
what else Goblins, gremlins, Yeah, raccoons, And they recently reprogrammed
(55:50):
the five point five version of their codex or the codex,
which is the programming behind a chat GPT, to stop
saying that stuff unless it's expressly relevant to the user's query.
Speaker 2 (56:04):
Ben, what if Roboscotis shows up and is all about
culling the goblin hordes and robos Codis is like obsessed.
Speaker 4 (56:15):
Because time to bring it up? Because it is an
odd byproduct. There's no real reason that this AI has
should be talking or thinking about these things, and yet
it's apparently just an unusual little thing that has occurred,
and they're kind of joking about it, Sam Altman. There's
a lot of internal chatter about the Goblin quandary, but
they don't know where it came from.
Speaker 3 (56:37):
Right, It's a probably an easter egg with the programming.
From what I've seen, I want to go back to
the idea of roboscotis. I want to go back to
the idea of giving created algorithms, the manufactured algorithms the
keys to the kingdom right, increasingly in culture and increasingly
(56:59):
in government. This is my segue to another story. We've
got just enough time for I always like us to
end on good news with stuff like this. There are
a couple of stories won't get to, but you need
to know, folks. Speaking of the Oscars, the Academy Awards,
the humans had a big win. The Academy has officially
(57:20):
ruled that AI generated actors AI generated scripts will no
longer be eligible for the Academy Awards. So yeah, yeah, yeah,
an I Robot was in fact written by a person.
So this is getting stick was AI the movie? This
(57:43):
is getting sticky, right, because we know that we know
that there are a lot of things we predicted previously
that we're going to hit the entertainment industry with so
called artificial intelligence, right, we know a lot of a
lot of script writing is now increasingly dependent upon quote
(58:03):
unquote AI tools. We know that the holograms of Tupac
or Elvis were just the harbingers on the horizon of
things to come. Do you guys think this is a
good move, and if so, how would it be enforced?
Speaker 4 (58:20):
I would ask, and I think I'm getting this right,
if this wouldn't preclude films that maybe use AI tools
for post production, say, or for certain you know, housekeeping
type things, clean up audio.
Speaker 3 (58:39):
You know there are like age changes, like aging someone up,
or ask.
Speaker 4 (58:44):
Well, that that's a good question, because that could that
would imply a lack of artistry. I don't think that
if you used AI to age someone up and that
that should be nominated for Best Special Effects, because that
you know. But then there are versions of AI and
AI as tools that can be helpful in the human
aspect of production and creativity. So it's I don't know
(59:08):
the answer as to how you could enforce this, but
I do hope that there's an openness to like how
AI can be used as a tool rather than as
a replacement.
Speaker 3 (59:21):
Sure, but people will also the Academy's concern is that
people will also argue a thing is a tool when
that thing has entirely created something off a prompt. And
I hear you on the acting category, so let's go
directly to the Academy. They say, quote in the acting
category only rules credited in the film's legal billing and
(59:44):
demonstrably performed by humans with their consent, will be considered eligible.
In the writing categories, the rules codify that screenplays must
be human authored to be eligible. So to your end, quote,
So to your question, there is using spellcheck AI as
a tool. Arguably so in the notion of the actors,
(01:00:08):
they've got some pretty slick, well designed language demonstrably performed
by humans with their consent. So we could say, for instance,
that if we filmed every single gesture that we make
from now until the grave, and then we have the
(01:00:30):
people filmed doing that, we have them sign a contract
that says, yes, this is being used by likeness after
I'm dead, then maybe that would be performed by humans
with their consent and simply interpreted by some kind of algorithm.
Speaker 4 (01:00:47):
Your statement you read from the Academy answers my question too,
that it doesn't seem at this point that they're going
they're drilling down into the minutia of post production or
special effects. Yet not quite.
Speaker 3 (01:01:00):
It's on the way, fellow conspiracy realist, We've got so
much other stuff we will have again.
Speaker 2 (01:01:06):
Can I just say I feel so bad for Darren
Aronofsky man that dude made such incredible films. And I
think we mentioned it one time on the show before,
but his entirely AI generated TV show that he made
called On This Day seventeen seventy six, where it's like
the Revolutionary War, but it really takes you there through
(01:01:29):
fully AI generated characters and scenes and settings, and just
it's just horrifying that this thing that we call AI
is taking over even people who are as incredible as
Darren Aronofsky.
Speaker 4 (01:01:49):
And he probably fancies himself a bit of a futurist,
and he's like, I'm leading the charge, you know what
I mean, And it is a creative choice that I'm doing.
But it would seem he bet on the wrong horse,
at least in terms of the industry's acceptance of that
kind of thing, and.
Speaker 3 (01:02:02):
The public or created the wrong course.
Speaker 4 (01:02:05):
Also true, but the public is also seemingly souring to
this kind of stuff. Maybe maybe I'm a level there.
Speaker 3 (01:02:12):
It's putting their jobs at risk, right, It's it's a
tragedy of the commons. This algorithm of software is great
so long as it is convenient for me and does
not affect me. But if it starts to affect me,
now I'm mad about it. That's unfortunately the story of humans.
There are so many stories we're not going to get
to today. One about our folks stranded and a cruise
(01:02:37):
ship try not to die from the hantavirus outbreak. You
can learn more about that by going to ap news.
Dutch cruise liner that was going to Antarctica had a
just terrible situation happen. It's a pretty small boat. They
are waiting for assistance. They're trying to get to the
(01:02:59):
Canary Islands as we speak. So check out that story
if you would like more news about that. We're not
going to have time to mention too much about the
story of Chinese scientists that have been dying mysterious deaths
as well. We looked into that in previous Strange News,
and thank you to our conspiracy realist who mentioned that
on listener mail. We've got a great extreme style biding
(01:03:22):
story for you next week from a guy in Wisconsin.
Bonus points if you can find that in the meantime.
Thank you so much for tuning in to our weekly
strange news program. We would love to hear your thoughts.
So you can find us on the line, so you
can call us on the phone. You can always send
us an email.
Speaker 4 (01:03:38):
Sure can. You can find us on the lines of
the handle Conspiracy Stuff or Conspiracy Stuff Show, depending on
which social media platform you go for.
Speaker 2 (01:03:47):
Call our phone number. It's a voicemail system one eight
three three std WYTK. Give yourself a nickname and let
us know if we can use your name and message
on the air. If you want to email us, we
are the.
Speaker 3 (01:03:58):
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will send you one in return. We'll see you out
here in the dark. Conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 2 (01:04:33):
Stuff they Don't Want You to Know is a production
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From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
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Speaker 2 (00:26):
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
my name is Nola.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
They call me Ben. We're joined as always with our
super producer Dylan the Tennessee pal Faked. If you are
listening our tuning in to our Strange news program the Evening,
it publishes, Welcome to May eleventh, and fare the well,
best of luck to anybody who is racing their sperm
(00:53):
for the grand prize of one hundred thousand dollars in
San Francisco.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
Hell, yeah, you.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Guys heard about this way.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
I want to I want to make a bet. Is
it on polymarket yet? Of course it is.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
It's interesting.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
I swear one of you guys brought this up while
we talked about it.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Was the potential, the potentiality. Yeah, it's real.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
It's like a legit race, right.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Yeah, I did mention this previous Strange News segment. Uh.
This project is created by the entrepreneurs Eric Schue, Garrett
Nico Nko, Nick Small, and Shane Fan Uh Their idea
is to raise public health awareness rather than to do
(01:37):
original research. So part of the issue is to draw
attention to declining male fertility rates across the world human males,
and Shoe in particular puts it this way. It's about
making male fertilities something people actually want to talk about,
track and improve. We're taking a topic no one wants
(02:00):
to touch, and we are making it interesting, measurable, and
weirdly changing this paradigm. So it is based off real science.
You can read more in multiple media platforms of choice.
The thing is, it's one hundred thousand US dollars. You
want to put your guys in the race.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
Our guys, our boss. Yeah, don't know. I think I'm good. Gosh.
They may have slowed down a little bit at this
point in my adult life, my golden years, Ben, I
do love this concept of a four hundred micron micro
fluid track. What's that about?
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Yes, it's a.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
Very small, tiny slipping slide.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Right. They have one hundred and twenty eight seamen samples,
you guys, each representing a different country, and the DPRK,
or as the West calls it, North Korea, is included.
They have not disclosed the location that you are describing there, nol,
it's four hundred microns. It's going to be like roughly
(03:07):
zero point zero two inches, so approximately the size of
a grain of salt. The times can range from several
seconds to over forty minutes, depending on whether cells become
stuck on obstacles, So it's not quite at the school. Yeah, dude, yeah, yeah, Oh.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
Gosh, how does one experience this event it being so
incredibly micro Well, just with numbers, was watching some charts.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
I'm sure we can log in and watch remotely when
this stuff goes down this year twenty twenty six, San Francisco.
We do have to point out a similar event was
held in Los Angeles in April twenty twenty five. Two
students did something very similar, impeding for a ten thousand
(04:01):
dollars USD prize in front of hundreds of spectators. So
imagine pitching that to your friends, Hey, guys, what are
you doing this weekend? Do you want to see a race?
And they might say, yeah, I love races. Are we
talking horses or we're talking humans? And then you say,
we're kind of talking humans now.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
In that scenario, was there extraction immediately before the race
or was it this kind of situation where you get
a sample and then you deploy the sample during the race.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
That's a great question, Matt. We're talking about what we
call sperm motility, right, this is this is ideally going
to be fresh baked stuff.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
So part of the events on your efficiency department too.
They okay, so.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Goes off the race light. Oh geez, I'm glad we're
not on audio and they're off. I'm glad we're not
off video for this, but we're.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
All gesticulating wildly.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
You know. Hereous, as a guy who has been to
fertility clinics before to have their sperm tested to see
the motility and things like that and the potency and
all those things, I would just say, instead of spending
one hundred thousand dollars to race your little boys, you
can go to one of these places and phenomenal fee,
(05:31):
see what you're working with, and maybe then decide. So
I guess these guys have pre tested themselves and they're
feeling good about it. Just thatches.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Yeah. I would see the thing that.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
I k is the prize, not like the application fee.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Right right, I would say the thing I enjoy the
most about the twenty twenty six Sperm Racing World Cup
as it's being called, is that it is drawing attention
and perhaps a theatrical way to a real decline that
is occurring to humanity across the globe. So it's out
(06:08):
the box pr that's the kind of approach we're taking,
and we'd love for people to pay attention to that.
We'd love for folks in the Ivory Tower to do
their best odd improving reproduction grades. Yeah, oh nice, I forgot.
I didn't even mean that.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
With one thing, guys, that is one of the primary
reasons of these declining. It's not one of the primary reasons,
but is one of the things that, in my belief,
is a primary reason for these declines. I didn't know. Caffeine, Guys,
can be helpful in a tiny amount for motility, but
you go over just a little bit of caffeine in
(06:49):
your system and it slows them down and it makes
them less effective and a lot of these Nicotine is
another thing that can just destroy your fertility. There are
a lot of things that are super popular right now,
especially in males, and alcohol also, just these are things
that can destroy your ability to reproduce. It's crazy because
(07:11):
we do see it across the board and is a
really serious problem. And it's great that there's something like
this to just bring it up. As you said, Ben,
it is something that nobody really wants to think about
or talk about.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
I do wonder if the results like between nations will
then be compared and used as data sets.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Oh, weaponized, absolutely, hey, guys, weaponized. And also I'd add
to that microplastics. There's a cabol of powerful forces that
don't want you to think about the microplastics in every
part of your body. Yeah, right, there is what if
we're being self interested in talking about ourselves then yeah,
(07:50):
the balls, the scrots.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
Well, we are talking about male fertility here, so I
think that might play in two weast coach.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
And speaking of dudes, there is one person who is
definitely not gonna make it in full form to the
twenty twenty six sper Racing World Cup. It's a legend
country wide internationally and definitely in our town. Ted Turner,
the third the yachtsa who has passed away.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Oh what mouth of the South guy?
Speaker 4 (08:21):
I thought he was.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
I'm not gonna lie so oh.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Jeez, oh yeah yeah, he Well, at least news broke
pr was sent out by the family and by Turner
Enterprises that he passed away. It was like an hour
before we hit record.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
I feel that as we record on Wednesday, May sixth,
mister Turner was eighty seven years old. He had been
suffering from Louis body dementia. And I think a couple
of us in the audience, like I had run into
Ted Turner in the past and it was just a
(08:58):
delightful guy to me at the time, very brief conversation,
but that was many years ago, and he had kind
of retreated from public life.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
Interesting to some, divisive to some, one of the serious
kind of prototypes for the modern like maverick millionaire billionaire right.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Well, yeah, and he is responsible in a lot of ways.
First of all for the trajectory that that sent us on,
his creation of CNN out of Channel seventeen and then
on network and then to do like but that that
concept of always being on. He had made statements before
(09:41):
about the one of the major problems in the United
States and with democracy itself is that were also ill
informed that that was one of his beliefs, and so
like me. So look, he he was an entrepreneur, owned
you know, a bunch of different things. His dad had
a billboard industry that then he inherited. Then he turned
(10:01):
that into radio, into television and turned it into CNN
and as you said, been TCM and TV classic movies and.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Bison steakhouses, which in a real way popularized paper straws.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Yes, but his his thought, what if I beam the
signal to a satellite and then that satellite can send
this the Channel seventeen programming like everywhere? What if I
then did that twenty four hours a day and it
was based on news.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
Do you think he saw the the end game of
that as far back as this, you know, spark in
his brain form?
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Possibly, possibly like the guy who tamed fire in envision
nuclear bombs.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
I don't. I think he had good intentions, but also
entrepreneurial intentions, because nothing will makes you money like something
that's always on forever.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
You know, I'm mentioning bombs because you guys knew. I
had to study this stuff for a while, and he
was instrumental in stuff like the Nuclear Threat Initiative. He was,
in his time, as you said, Nola, divisive figure, but
he was also someone very concerned about the future of
(11:20):
the world. He donated billions of dollars across his career,
and it was initiatives. Right. He also owned the Atlanta Braves,
But guys in the Hawks and the recent track record
of those sports teams, both of them should not be
laid at his feet.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Hey, yeah, that was not as well. We're just thinking
about that long the way the creation of CNN has
affected where we are today, right, and how we experience
the world around us in real time. I think it's
it's worth some form of a tip of the hat,
(12:02):
but also a kind of like, dang, man, it sure
seems like that instant access thing might be one of
the biggest problems that we're facing. It's like the biggest
blessing but also the biggest problem. When in nineteen ninety one,
Time magazine called him Man of the Year and they
said it was for quote, influencing the dynamic of events
(12:25):
and turning viewers in one hundred and fifty countries into
instant witnesses of history.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
And participants later. But again that's my comparison there, Matt,
like the guy who tames fire, does he know that
it will lead to the development of nuclear weaponry?
Speaker 4 (12:44):
Likely?
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Not like it's it's likely that he was just a
businessman with a phenomenal level of acumen and prescience and
no small amount of luck or just.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
Good fortune, agreed yeat of the I don't think he
saw the full scope of what he hath wrought.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Until it began to occur. Similar to Einstein, we could
even argue a.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
Lot of big stories popping right now. So we went
a little long on this opening bit, but we've got
much more to get to after a quick word from
our sponsor, and we're back. Don't want to spill too
much podcast inc on this one, because I think everyone's
aware there's a lot of finger pointing going on right
(13:30):
now about who's to blame. But Spirit Airlines, the greyhound
of the skies, has called it quits, and along with
that has come a handful of very interesting side stories,
including I believe Ben you found a story about a
TikTok user who has already drummed up something in the
neighborhood of one hundred mil to rescue this, Yeah, this
(13:53):
now defunct budget airline, which was really the only one remaining.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
Truly one hundred and thirty two million dollars. That's the
offer that is happening now. If you want to participate,
then you can hie the tow TikTok to see Hunter Peterson,
content creator and voice actor, who is proposing a plan
to crowdfund a purchase of Spirit Airlines.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
And I'm not sure if y'all had spent too much
time flying the friendly skies on Spirit. I've only done
in a handful of myself. But boyle boy, it's a
it is a vibe. It was a vibe. I mean, like,
you know, everything is a la carte. You know, you
don't get a single piece of luggage, didn't get a
single piece of luggage included with your ticket. You're you know,
the deceptively low price that you see online is low
(14:42):
for a reason because everything else, including I believe my
my guys I enjoy on Internet today pointed out that
you even had to pay money to print out your
boarding pass. Yeah, every aspect of this, And I just
I flew relatively recently on Spirit and I hadn't done
it in years. And their terminal it felt like a
(15:02):
bus terminal. It was in this whole other part of
the airport, like down low, and the chairs looked like
a Greyhound station.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
Did you feel it was like on the way out
the same way that people felt walking into say it,
toys or rust before they got closed down.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
It did feel like a dead mall kind of, you know.
And it's excellent people watching, I mean truly, you know,
a real hodgepodge of humanity flying Spirit for various reasons,
you know, I mean, it wasn't obviously people of means
fly it as well. It's it was a good deal
for a quick cop flight to say, from LA to
Vegas or something like that, and you know, that would
(15:37):
make a whole lot of sense. Long haul flights on
Spirit probably not the best choice. But I just sinctly
remember seeing someone clearly wearing a backpack underneath their jacket,
looking like a hunchback, you know, try and they just
let them on through it. And really it was like it's.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Kind of like a Ryan Air if you guys ever
flew that in Europe. It's a low cost regional airline
or Spirit was, And I remember in Ryanair, I was thinking,
holy smokes, these folks don't even have lines. I had
to pay extra for an assigned seat. It's just go
(16:15):
time when the plane lands. It's not for everybody. But
as as you're saying, and as millions of customers said
in spirit today, this was a perfect solution if you
wanted to save some scratch and get to where you
needed to go.
Speaker 4 (16:31):
One hundred percent. And it kind of reminded me of
something that I hadn't thought about in years and never
personally participated in. But ao at Abiri from the Bear
and other awesome things was on. I want to say
Seth Myers talking about the infamous fung Wah bus line
that ran for many years between Boston and New York
(16:51):
City and notoriously broke down all the time, and you know,
it was really chaotic, and you know, fifteen to twenty
dollars ticket prices. Sometimes you'd literally break down halfway and
have to like hitchhike home or like, you know, make
other arrangements. But you know, like I guess now the
equivalent of that on the ground would be something like
the megabus, which I don't know if that even still
(17:12):
exists anymore. But in the air, we really don't have
a budget alternative anymore. Maybe Frontier would be the next
closest thing. What do you guys think? And lastly, who
is to blame because obviously the current administration is blaming
the previous administration. But obviously it took the rising gas costs,
a fuel costs, there's no question about rain margins. Is
(17:36):
exactly what I was going to say, Ben. And even
the best, most well situated financially airlines like our you know,
local heroes, Delta, they're able to pass that cost onto
the customers who are able to pay it. Something like
Spirit probably didn't have nearly as much of an opportunity
(17:56):
to do that, and they really did shudder in the night,
leaving a lot of people stranded in a lot of
places and causing some real chaotic class minute travel plan changes,
to which a lot of the other airlines I believe
have offered some promotional pricing for those folks that are
left well stranded.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
I mean, it's tough all around, guys, because Delta also
cut snacks on the short term domestic flights, so tut tut.
Speaker 4 (18:27):
But also yet, you don't get miles. You don't earn
miles for certain flights unless you book like a certain
level above just main cabin, you do not get miles.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
It's going around. I love the Saturday Night Live joke
that recently occurred this past weekend where they said Spirit
canceled service mid flight.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Oh jeez, yeah, Joe, I'm looking at Spirit Airlines in
their revenue. In twenty ten, the company had a revenue
of seven hundred and eighty one million dollars, so that's
twenty ten. In twenty twenty five, last year, they had
a revenue of three point seven two billion dollars. I
(19:14):
still don't understand how a company like Spirit Airlines that
makes that much revenue in a year has to just
die and unless it's tied to a stock or something, right,
and that stock is crashing because there's not enough there's
not enough rise in revenue for shareholders to be satisfied.
(19:37):
So then the stock just loses in price and everybody's
selling it right and getting out of the game. If
you are a company that makes three billion dollars almost
four billion dollars a year, you should be able to
continue on and you could pay everybody and you can
still operate. And you know, it's just it to me,
(19:58):
it doesn't it. It doesn't make sense.
Speaker 4 (20:01):
Yeah, And what about like government bailouts that we've seen
for too big to fail parts of the global infrastructure,
which you know you could you could consider Spirit one
of but I guess the fact that they mainly benefit
lower income folks makes them less of a priority or something.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
Well, they benefit people try to save a buck as
well as I'm not so webcs here they had okay,
so they already filed for Chapter eleven, which is kind
of bankruptcy protection in twenty twenty four, and when they
write thank you Jackbots, and when they did that, they
had lost more than two point five billion dollars.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Yes, so I'm talking about fallunt just the revenue before
you do the numbers, right before you add up losses
and everything. So if you go back to twenty twenty,
they the company had a revenue of one point eight
billion dollars, but they still somehow managed to lose overall.
When you do the net profit and loss, lose four
(21:04):
hundred and twenty nine million dollars, even though they made
that much all the way to twenty twenty four, at least,
I'm seeing here that the net profit loss was one
point two three billion dollars, and then this year that
the losses went even higher to two point eight three
billion dollars. So I again like, I'm not smart enough.
(21:25):
I don't have a business degree to understand how in hell,
you can make that much money and still lose that
much money unless it's all, you know, borrowing money, borrowing
Peter to pay Pall at some point and hoping that
you're gonna make enough money to cut even.
Speaker 4 (21:40):
Yeah, and while Chapter eleven protection for corporations often seems
like a viable option rather than for individuals, who it
would seem to ruin, that debt does ultimately come due
at a certain point. If a company is swimming in debt,
whether they file for Chapter eleven or not, it just
kind of buys them time. And it's not some sort
(22:01):
of magic fix.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
Yeah, you're right, but no, this is important for all
of our fellow conspiracy realists tuning in right now. So
I want to bring this point to you on behalf
of them, on behalf of everybody else. Something you mentioned
that we need to emphasize is that up there with agriculture,
airlines are considered kind of a matter of national integrity,
(22:27):
sovereignty and defense. So to be clear, we could say,
it's not as if all those planes suddenly disappear there,
just like when pan Am fell, they will be acquired,
they will be reused no other country. It's part of
why Boeing soldiers on right. No other country that has
(22:48):
this capability will ideally, they will never sacrifice the autonomy
of having airlines. So who do we think is going
to scoop up this guy? Is it going to be
some dude from TikTok? Is it going to be another airline?
Do we have any updates on that?
Speaker 4 (23:04):
I don't know that I have a story that specifically
referenced that. I know there's a lot of, you know,
skin in the game across the industry. I do know
about a Central Florida organization or set of organizations that
are trying to help employees of Spirit who've been displaced.
And then again there was that other story about some
other airlines that are offering discounted tickets two folks that
(23:26):
were stranded. Central Florida is I believe, the headquarters of Spirits.
So we've got a lot of folks that really are
feeling it in that part of the country.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Guys, I'm seeing a fleet of one hundred and thirty
one airbus A three twenties.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
On eBay, Papa.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
No, No, but that's what they had. And I can't
imagine a scenario where you crowdfund it in some way
where you've got a kiss, a bunch of shareholders, they
could theoretically split any revenue. If you could actually make
money with it, you would have to just price the
flights similar to that of you know, American or Delta,
(24:08):
any of these other jet blues, just price it similar
but undercut them. And we just changed it to undercutter airlines.
That's what it's called. And we just undercut everybody by
fifty dollars dollars.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
Let's do it and then make it back with the
hidden fees.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
No hidden fees, zero hidden fees in this one. It's
just like a little bit cheaper. It's just like a
little bit cheaper than the other airlines.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
That's what. If someone has a bag, what do you mean,
if someone has luggage, just bring.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
That bring that thing on, Bring that luggage on. Belove it, gal,
we're gonna we're gonna fly everybody. We're gonna it's the
first biodiesel fleet, switch out all the jet fuel for biodiesel.
Speaker 4 (24:54):
Let's go by the way, there was a bailout. I
don't think we talked about that. Maybe there was a
five hundred million dollar government bailout. But despite that, the
skyrocketing fuel costs. Truly where the final nail in the
coffin and Ben you you mentioned what's his name, Hunter Peterson?
Is that your guests, So it is mentioned a TikTok.
(25:18):
His initiative is called Let's Buy Spirit and it actually
followed a previous initiative of a fan ownership model to
purchase the Green Bay Packers football team, which I did
not realize. Interesting, So that's that It's definitely a story
to keep an eye on as we see if this
either whether they're just going to get their fleet swooped
(25:39):
up at bargain basement costs, or whether someone's going to
attempt to buy and rebrand the entire organization. Curious about that.
I'm just going to do one more really quick, because
I think it's a fascinating and relatively victimless form of protest.
The met Gala twenty twenty six just took place. It's
the first time a big tech corporation, Amazon in this case,
(26:00):
paid for the event sponsored it. It was typically historically sponsored
and paid for by fashion brands like Burberry and you
know all these luxury clothing brands of course, take place
at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It's sort of the
the it event of the season, you know, where the
rich and powerful celebrity types show up in their finest.
There's often a theme, and this year it really felt
(26:22):
like kind of a Hunger Games theme or Dystopian theme
more so than usual. I believe the theme was works
of Art, where a lot of the outfits were modeled
after famous works of art. But this year Jeff Bezos
and his wife Lauren Sanchez put up the money millions
(26:43):
of dollars I want to say ten million dollars to
sponsor the event. Also, big companies, big tech companies like
Facebook shelled out a pile for reserved tables, and an organization,
a protest organization called Everybody Hates Elon or Everyone Hates
Elon did a delightful little prank in advance of the event.
(27:07):
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, if anyone knows, has been
his massive cavernous place, impossible to see all of in
one day, and tons of little corners and nooks where
you can hide bottles full of pea, which is exactly
what they did in protest of Bezos and the widely
circulated story about Amazon workers being forced to urinate in bottles,
(27:31):
and these bottles actually well unclear. I don't know that
they've tested it, but these are little travel mouth washed
sized bottles bearing a sticker with bezos like kind of
laughing maniacally like a super villain, which she's more and
more it begins to resemble a bit of a Lex
Luthor figure and just says boycott the Bezos met Gala
(27:53):
and says, relax, it's just water and food coloring, so no,
not actual peak.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
It right there on the bottle, some of it would
hopefully be pete but also yeah, reading this, I got
in trouble a few years back on some other show
that I'm sure we're fans of, where I called out
the met Gala for occurring when there are such divisive,
terrible times for average people, like you know, like what's
(28:27):
the what's twenty twenty seven's theme going to be let
them eat cake. I don't want to sound like I'm
against people are crying, but it's like it's also like
where could that money actually go? Like how much better
would the world be if these people said we can
donate to actionable causes similar to the Bill Gates Foundation
(28:52):
or what Zuck is proposing to do, Like what what
if I don't know. I love the discording nature of it.
I love the idea that they're putting this down as
as you said, nol peaceful discordy and protest. But also
we got to be honest. Most people who are picking
up those bottles are already underpaid staff working at the gallas.
(29:16):
He's really getting targeted.
Speaker 4 (29:18):
That is a good point. Yeah, I'm not. I don't
disagree with you. Been there. I do think it's making
the news stories pop a little bit more there. And
there are also cases of multiple celebrities, big ones like
Zendeia and Meryl Streep who boycotted the event with their
(29:40):
you know, skipping of it.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
Do you guys remember last year at mar A Lago
the Great Gatsby things.
Speaker 4 (29:47):
Yeah, dude has so toned down comical man, it's like
it is dystopian. It is. It is Nero fiddling while
Rome burns type stuff. It's not a good look.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
But so it's a tough thing for me too, because
you'd also have to put things like the oscars in there.
Right in any of these you know, massively expensive shindigs.
The cost of the.
Speaker 4 (30:11):
Gift bags oscar attendees get that would pay for you know,
somebody's schooling for a year. I mean, it's insane. The
luxury items and the amount of it's it's wasteful. I
don't like it at all. Yeah, now more than ever. Anyway,
(30:32):
that's that one. I guess we're probably at time for
my segment, so let's take a break here away from
our sponsor and then come back with more strange news.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
And we've returned, so we're talking quite a bit about
this father of CNN, mister Turner. The reason why we're
bringing that up is because CNN, theoretically, at least from
the jump, was and is about journalism. It's about reporting
the news. That whole fourth estate concept that there should
(31:09):
be someone watching what those powerful folks are doing, whether
they're at mar A Lago, dancing around to the Roaring
twenties or donning dog masks I think was another story
we talked about with those folks, or you know, what
the powerful people are doing when they sponsor the met
Gala or whatever it is. There should be people watching
(31:31):
and telling all the rest of us about what's going on. Well,
there was a report that came out this year, as
it does every year, that is pretty dang disturbing It's
something that's put out by the RSF or Reporters Without Borders,
and it is called the World Press Freedom Index. It's
(31:54):
been going on for a long time. You can go
all the way back to the year two thousand and
look at some of the first stuff that was reported
there as the World Press Freedom Index. This year twenty
twenty six, according to this organization, world press freedom is
at an all time low. That's in an entire generation.
(32:17):
This is an annual index that essentially tries to measure
authoritarian pressure that is applied to media in every country
or in one hundred and eighty countries that it assesses.
This is their finding. For the first time, more than
half of all countries on the planet were placed in
(32:40):
the difficult or very serious categories for press freedom. About
a fifth of the global population was in a country
that was categorized as good in the year two thousand
and two. Now the category of good only includes one
percent of the world population, so good press freedom in
(33:03):
one percent of the entire globe, at least, according to
this one group, Reporters Without Borders. The study found that
a dramatic expansion of restrictive legal arsenals used by governments
around the world, particularly in their use of national security laws,
or you can read that as excuses that was impinging
(33:26):
on the rights of the free press. So to fully
talk about this, we have to jump to The Guardian
in an article written by Michael Savage on April thirtieth,
twenty twenty six. The title is press freedom at lowest
level in twenty five years amid growing authoritarian pressure. Guys,
as we go, we continue to go through this. We've
(33:49):
certainly noticed this trend here in the US. We've seen
it in several other countries as well, thinking particularly about Russia.
But that's only two out of the one hundred and
eighty countries. How are we right now seeing press freedom
being I was gonna say squashed here in the US.
Speaker 4 (34:10):
Well, a lot of it is this rhetoric about the
fake news media and trying to diminish trust in the media,
and you know, removing certain reporters and news organizations from
White House press briefings, various things like that, And not
to be too hyperbolic, but I can't help but think
of the way that the Nazi Party did this very
(34:31):
similar thing with the Lougan press. The lying press that's
trying to diminish trust in the media and pivot it
to the party making their line the way that they
report things. I mean, even what's his name, hegsgef who
comes from a TV news background, giving suggestions for reworked
headlines that would be more favorable to the administration.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
Guys, it's not a war, it's a new operation, so
we don't need congressional approval. Also here, my wife, she's
going to be showing up at all the meetings.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
Yeah, she's hiding out in a closet with some other dude.
That was a burn on current head of the FBI. Sorry.
In this report, guys, it points to a lot of
the things we're talking about right here, exactly what we're
talking about. Here's a quote from the Guardian article. The
current US president's repeated attacks on press and journalists were
(35:24):
described as a systematic policy which has pushed the United States,
amongst those one hundred and eighty countries, to sixty fourth
place in the Index for Press Freedom.
Speaker 4 (35:38):
Well, not to mention last against actual networks and the
whole the merger of sky Dance and Paramount. I mean,
all of that was kind of what's the word fast tracked.
As a result of one of those lawsuits, I mean,
and a lot of folks are paying rather than fighting
(36:01):
it because as we know, a lot of these media
organizations aren't doing particularly amazingly financially, so they just don't
have as deep pockets as someone like Donald Trump and
his ilk right.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
Master or someone or someone like mister Vladimir Putin, who
was described as a quote specialist in using laws designated
to combat terrorism, separatism, and extremism to restrict press freedom.
As of this month, right now, as we're recording, Russia
is at least allegedly holding forty eight journalists in prison.
(36:37):
Forty eight journalists in prison, just repeating in that there
to visualize that in your mind, forty eight people who
are supposed to report the truth who are behind bars.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
A lot of them are being held under accusations of
terrorism or accusations of operating as foreign agents, agents of
a foreign.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
Government exactly fear national security. We must defend it. And
by doing that, we have to protect the truth. We
have to protect what's being said and what's not being said.
Speaker 4 (37:08):
I mean, Patel calls that the fake news mafia, that
literally it's being cast as a criminal organization, and that
rhetoric is getting trotted out to normalize it. For when
things like that happen, I think, well, I mean, I
think that's next. It has to you know, I mean,
short of some big changes.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
Well, and that is not to say that all journalism
and all journalists are created equally, right. We know this.
We've seen this throughout our careers making this show. You
can have all kinds of different motives and you can
get paid from all kinds of different places to do
certain things in that role. We also know that, you know,
(37:48):
when you work I'm going to say certain places again,
you may have to not talk about things to keep
your job. You may have to specifically talk about things
to keep your job. You know, it's not a fully
clean business, and it is a business, and that's one
(38:08):
of the things that this report talks about. Anna Biconde,
Boca n De. This is the editorial director of the
Reporters Without Borders. Here's some quotes from Ann. How much
longer will we tolerate the suffocation of journalism, the systematic
(38:29):
obstruction of reporters, and the continued erosion of press freedom.
She goes on to say authoritarian states complicit or incompetent
political powers, predatory economic actors, and underregulated online platforms are
directly and overwhelmingly responsible for the global decline in press freedom.
Speaker 4 (38:51):
Well, and the groundwork's been set for all of this
stuff for years with the dilution of the media and
the traditional reporting by the Internet, and the fact that
there's more now than ever opportunities to undercut and second
and provide counter programming. Let's just say that isn't vetted
(39:13):
or fact checked or whatever. So it's just it's it's
like this cluster f out there, and opportunities to point
to all of these less reputable sources and say no,
that's the truth, that's our truth.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
Yeah. Well, and now that the subscription model that we
outlined in a very recent episode about the loss of ownership,
there are paywalls in front of most of the press
that exists out there, most of it, whether it's a
local paper or the LA Times or the New York
(39:46):
Times or the Washington Post, any of these places that
have journalists who continue to work and toil away attempting
to do the thing that we're extolling here as a
as a virtuous act, you've got to put money out there. Now,
do you remember, guys, in the early two thousands. In
(40:07):
the twenty tens, we all had access to all of
these websites to where you could just read what these
incredible reporters are writing about, hard hitting stuff, the Boston
Globe talking about things, and now we have to shell
out money to even access it online. And just think
about how restrictive that is for most people, for most
(40:27):
of us who are on budgets who can't afford that stuff.
Speaker 4 (40:31):
And to be fair, they're doing it out of desperation
because they ain't making no money. There's no more papers circulating.
It's like it's a tough business.
Speaker 3 (40:40):
It is.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
It is a tough business. And a lot of that
has to do with the attention spans that we've talked
about before and how snackable content is or not, and
it all I'm going back to Ted Turner here, just
imagining what CNN did to the fact that you could,
at any time after that point that CNN went live
with their twenty four hour broadcast, you could click a
(41:01):
button and get the news, right and that turning into
you can click a couple of things on a screen
now and you can access whatever you want it. I
don't know, it's very troubling. I think it's worth us
thinking about and talking about and trying to find a
new way to do this thing, journalism, because right now
(41:21):
it just doesn't seem to be working as it maybe should.
Here's the last quote from Ann. Given this context, inaction
is a form of endorsement, It's no longer enough to
just state principles. Effective measures to protect journalists are essential
and must be seen as a catalyst for change. This
(41:43):
starts with ending the criminalization of journalism, the misuse of
national security laws, and the systemic obstruction of those who investigate,
expose and name names here here, here, here, And before
we move on to the ads, guys, just one other
quick story that everybody can look up on their own
time and we can probably talk about it. I think,
(42:05):
Ben I want to say you've mentioned this before, because
the news of this thing has been around for a while.
There's just fresh news that's hitting places like Futurism. Joe Wilkins,
writing for Futurism on May fourth, created the article Zuckerberg. Yes,
that Zuckerberg trying to simulate human biology at the cellular level,
and it just goes on and on and on about
(42:28):
this really cool, potentially messed up potentially like Elysium world
that Mark Zuckerberg and his wife are attempting to create
at the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, where they're modeling human cells. Again, Ben,
you did talk about this right pretty recently. Yeah, okay,
(42:50):
but just about the things they are attempting to do
and how much money is going in to this. They
call it biohub, but it's actually a conglomerate of several
other things that they've put together and renamed.
Speaker 4 (43:04):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
It seems incredible utopian, even potentially eradicating all disease. But
good lord, there's other stuff that you can do when
you're able to model human cells in the way that
they are attempting to.
Speaker 4 (43:19):
I mean, utopia for some is a dystopia for.
Speaker 3 (43:22):
Others, right, yeah, well yeah, even the etymology of the
word utopia means an unrealistic thing. Z Yeah, Zuckerberg's a pickle.
I also want to get in front of the jokes
for everybody who's about to email us. Yes, arguably, Mark
Zuckerberg has been trying to simulate human biology on a
(43:43):
cellular level for most of his life. That We'll be
right back with more from The Chappelle Show.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
Whatever hands stuff they don't want you to.
Speaker 3 (43:56):
Know, right right, that's us, I guess, fellow conspiracy realist.
We have returned for the last act of our weekly
Strange News segment. And look, you may have heard a
lot of stories here that perhaps inspired you to make
(44:18):
your voice heard. You might be saying, hey, why can't
I vote on this idea about spirit airlines? Why can't
I vote on the importance of press freedom. Well, in
the United States, voting is again becoming a hot button
issue for anybody who is a fan of conspiracies in general.
(44:41):
You will know that the Supreme Court of the United
States is itself somewhat conspiratorial. We got nine ring Braiths.
They get voted in. Once you do not elect them,
they stay as long as they want. They can technically
be impeached, but it's very rare for that to happen.
As an ever, I believe there have been some people
(45:02):
who got in trouble. It's because you get impeached.
Speaker 4 (45:05):
Doesn't mean you're removed, right, yeah, yeah, that just.
Speaker 3 (45:10):
Right right. That means getting impeached or sensiored or something
like that is very similar to trying to break into
a building in Balder's Gate, three where the guards see
you and you have to roll for persuasion, right, and
then you can get out of the thing. That's very
much not a niche reference.
Speaker 4 (45:30):
Passing a speech check. I've been doing that a lot
in Starfield. Which is it happens often?
Speaker 3 (45:36):
Yes, yeah, shout out to the loading screens, which are
like the main part of the game there. But we
know the Supreme Court already a weird thing. It has
been repeatedly in the past accused of political favoritism, of
being corrupt in one way or another, being compromised. The
current the current iteration of Scotus is no different. One
(46:01):
of the things that has people's dander up, if they
were still able to vote, to have their dander up,
is what we call the Voting Rights Act. It's an
enormously important, boring thing from nineteen sixty five that is
meant to prohibit racial discrimination in votings. No more poll taxes,
(46:26):
no more weird test for black voters, expecting them to
know Mandarin know. This is for a long time up until,
as a matter of fact, twenty twenty six, it was
considered one of the coolest things the United States did.
It was a furtherance of the experiment arguing that all
(46:49):
people are equal. However, just past Wednesday, the Supreme Court
struck down a voting map in Louisiana. The decision was
split along ideological lines. So we got nine creepy robed people.
Three of them are aligned with what you would call
(47:10):
more like American values, and the other six are aligned
with more what we would call the desires of the
current administration. Just to be clear, right, I hope that's
a political I think it's accurate and pretty obviously.
Speaker 2 (47:26):
But either way, all of them are aligned with money.
Speaker 3 (47:32):
Yeah, yeah, shout out to shout out to Thomas in
particular on that one. So this decision is fighting against
what we would call fair voting districts. It's the idea
that Jerry Mandarin is back in style. Jerry Mandarin is
(47:53):
where you look at a district, You look at the
people who live in a certain place, You look at
their history of whom they vote for and how they vote,
and then you make the weirdest family circus style path
to create a Susian mousetrap map to get a district
(48:13):
the most power if it votes your way. So, for instance,
let's say we have a population of seventy percent Hispanic
voters or a population of seventy percent Asian American or
African American voters, and we have thirty percent more conservative
(48:34):
right wide identifying voters. The question becomes, how can we
carefully draw a map to make sure that the desires
of that thirty percent absolutely demolish and overwhelm the desires
of the other seventy percent of the people living in
this area. That is called jerrymandry. It was very successful
for quite some time. It is super un American, right.
(48:58):
It's old school trash, corrupt politics.
Speaker 4 (49:01):
Not technically illegal in certain forms, not until nineteen sixty
five with the Voting Rights Act.
Speaker 3 (49:07):
But now hey guys, it's back on the menu. How
do we jerry mander our districts? What's happening in Louisiana
is arguably a conspiracy that will reverberate across the other
states in the nation. Have we all been reading about this.
Speaker 2 (49:23):
Yes, and having conversations that you know, and end up
to everybody involved just kind of sighing and going, Jesus.
Speaker 4 (49:35):
Well, here's what And just just to what I was
saying earlier about technically not illegal, there are the racial
jerrymandering is absolutely illegal, and that's what we're talking about here.
I believe Ben, but this idea of partisan jerry mandering,
drawing maps to favor a political party is technically not
reviewable by federal courts, and that came out of a
twenty nineteen decision Rucho versus common Cause, where the court
(49:58):
held that these kinds of claims present political questions beyond
federal judicial remedies.
Speaker 3 (50:04):
Yeah, exactly, It's tricky, is what I'm saying, right right,
And we know that the so we know the court
is ideologically divided. Here is why folks, I am positing
this may be a conspiracy afoot, because it seems that
other operatives in other states beyond Louisiana were waiting for
(50:27):
the shoe to drop. Perhaps they acquired some inside information,
or maybe they were just being opportunistic, because mere hours
after the ruling that essentially guts the Voting Rights Act
of nineteen sixty five, the legislature of Florida approved a
new map that is that is cartoonishly drawn in such
(50:50):
a way as to give that state four new seats
in the Republican congressional delegation. We also know that now
that the inner bell is ringing, or the triangle, if
you prefer Dylan, whatever sound you wish. These other states
are going to use that decision to redraw their own
(51:11):
voting maps in a way that will affect the upcoming
midterm elections if they happen. Knock on wood, I don't
know it's a conspiracy, though, it's a real one.
Speaker 2 (51:26):
I'm looking at the new maps and good lord, you're
so right, Ben, Just the way District six kind of
goes right through the heart of District four and skids
all are a long District five and above three and
over two, and it's just like this weird little thing
(51:48):
that exists in the center.
Speaker 4 (51:50):
And if I'm not mistaken, the issue here that the
Supreme Court's decision is referencing is calling this this racial
gerrymandering because it's designed at least the Democrats would argue
to give better representation to black people, and then the
Republicans would argue that that's inherently racial gerrymandering, which is
(52:13):
bad and should be shot down.
Speaker 3 (52:15):
Right this immediate decision, which will be finalized, let's go
to the Scotis blog. It is called Louisiana versus Calis
cllais the loan dissenting opinion. Like the loan justice who wrote,
you guys are wrong on this is Justice Kaitanji Brown Jackson,
(52:40):
who argued that this will spawn chaos in the state
of Louisiana. The Court issued its decision back on April
twenty ninth, and they invalidated a map that the Louisiana
legislature adopted in twenty twenty four because it created two
point noel majority black voting districts after two lower courts
(53:05):
ruled that an earlier map with just one majority district
of African American voters violated Section two of the Voting
Rights Act. So the argument was that the jerry mandarine
in Louisiana, a notoriously racist state, had the jerry mandarine
(53:26):
was meant to discriminate against African American voters. Later, a
coalition of people calling themselves get this Guy's non African
American voters challenged the map. It went to the Supreme
Court and they kicked it down. In doing so, they
have argued that the Voting Rights Act, meant to prevent
(53:50):
racial discrimination, is itself an act of racial discrimination. So
it's the same court that has been fighting against things
like affirmati event or it's been right DEEI that's that's
the next best example. So I have to ask all
of us listening. I have to ask you, guys, what
(54:11):
do we think about this? What do we think about
the timing? What do we think the ultimate goal midterms?
Speaker 4 (54:19):
So you know, I mean the timing specifically would be
to disrupt the midterms because it's gonna throw these districts
into chaos for the time being. You know, it'll take
it'll take a while to sort all of this stuff out,
and in the short term, aka the midterms, it's going
to cause confusion and problems.
Speaker 2 (54:39):
That's why are you talking about this. Don't you know
that Iran war is happening. Don't you know there might
be peace, but we might also blockade still but there
might be more bombing. Guys, don't look over here, look
at it ran, look at it run everybody.
Speaker 3 (54:51):
Check out the met Galot two. You know what I mean. Also, also,
we're increasingly arriving at a point. I'm going to predict
it now. It's May six, twenty six as I say this,
We're going to arrive at a point sooner than a
lot of us would like to imagine wherein there will
be very non ironic, very spirited and well funded arguments
(55:17):
that some mechanisms of government should be assigned to AI,
should be assigned to algorithms. So how how about once
we fix the hallucinations, what if we could just have roboscotus.
Speaker 4 (55:30):
Oh man, and just a quick opportunity to just mention
a story that I left out in my segment Open
AI is really worried about their AI talking too much
about goblins and raccoons speaking of hallucinations, and let's see
what else Goblins, gremlins, Yeah, raccoons, And they recently reprogrammed
(55:50):
the five point five version of their codex or the codex,
which is the programming behind a chat GPT, to stop
saying that stuff unless it's expressly relevant to the user's query.
Speaker 2 (56:04):
Ben, what if Roboscotis shows up and is all about
culling the goblin hordes and robos Codis is like obsessed.
Speaker 4 (56:15):
Because time to bring it up? Because it is an
odd byproduct. There's no real reason that this AI has
should be talking or thinking about these things, and yet
it's apparently just an unusual little thing that has occurred,
and they're kind of joking about it, Sam Altman. There's
a lot of internal chatter about the Goblin quandary, but
they don't know where it came from.
Speaker 3 (56:37):
Right, It's a probably an easter egg with the programming.
From what I've seen, I want to go back to
the idea of roboscotis. I want to go back to
the idea of giving created algorithms, the manufactured algorithms the
keys to the kingdom right, increasingly in culture and increasingly
(56:59):
in government. This is my segue to another story. We've
got just enough time for I always like us to
end on good news with stuff like this. There are
a couple of stories won't get to, but you need
to know, folks. Speaking of the Oscars, the Academy Awards,
the humans had a big win. The Academy has officially
(57:20):
ruled that AI generated actors AI generated scripts will no
longer be eligible for the Academy Awards. So yeah, yeah, yeah,
an I Robot was in fact written by a person.
So this is getting stick was AI the movie? This
(57:43):
is getting sticky, right, because we know that we know
that there are a lot of things we predicted previously
that we're going to hit the entertainment industry with so
called artificial intelligence, right, we know a lot of a
lot of script writing is now increasingly dependent upon quote
(58:03):
unquote AI tools. We know that the holograms of Tupac
or Elvis were just the harbingers on the horizon of
things to come. Do you guys think this is a
good move, and if so, how would it be enforced?
Speaker 4 (58:20):
I would ask, and I think I'm getting this right,
if this wouldn't preclude films that maybe use AI tools
for post production, say, or for certain you know, housekeeping
type things, clean up audio.
Speaker 3 (58:39):
You know there are like age changes, like aging someone up,
or ask.
Speaker 4 (58:44):
Well, that that's a good question, because that could that
would imply a lack of artistry. I don't think that
if you used AI to age someone up and that
that should be nominated for Best Special Effects, because that
you know. But then there are versions of AI and
AI as tools that can be helpful in the human
aspect of production and creativity. So it's I don't know
(59:08):
the answer as to how you could enforce this, but
I do hope that there's an openness to like how
AI can be used as a tool rather than as
a replacement.
Speaker 3 (59:21):
Sure, but people will also the Academy's concern is that
people will also argue a thing is a tool when
that thing has entirely created something off a prompt. And
I hear you on the acting category, so let's go
directly to the Academy. They say, quote in the acting
category only rules credited in the film's legal billing and
(59:44):
demonstrably performed by humans with their consent, will be considered eligible.
In the writing categories, the rules codify that screenplays must
be human authored to be eligible. So to your end, quote,
So to your question, there is using spellcheck AI as
a tool. Arguably so in the notion of the actors,
(01:00:08):
they've got some pretty slick, well designed language demonstrably performed
by humans with their consent. So we could say, for instance,
that if we filmed every single gesture that we make
from now until the grave, and then we have the
(01:00:30):
people filmed doing that, we have them sign a contract
that says, yes, this is being used by likeness after
I'm dead, then maybe that would be performed by humans
with their consent and simply interpreted by some kind of algorithm.
Speaker 4 (01:00:47):
Your statement you read from the Academy answers my question too,
that it doesn't seem at this point that they're going
they're drilling down into the minutia of post production or
special effects. Yet not quite.
Speaker 3 (01:01:00):
It's on the way, fellow conspiracy realist, We've got so
much other stuff we will have again.
Speaker 2 (01:01:06):
Can I just say I feel so bad for Darren
Aronofsky man that dude made such incredible films. And I
think we mentioned it one time on the show before,
but his entirely AI generated TV show that he made
called On This Day seventeen seventy six, where it's like
the Revolutionary War, but it really takes you there through
(01:01:29):
fully AI generated characters and scenes and settings, and just
it's just horrifying that this thing that we call AI
is taking over even people who are as incredible as
Darren Aronofsky.
Speaker 4 (01:01:49):
And he probably fancies himself a bit of a futurist,
and he's like, I'm leading the charge, you know what
I mean, And it is a creative choice that I'm doing.
But it would seem he bet on the wrong horse,
at least in terms of the industry's acceptance of that
kind of thing, and.
Speaker 3 (01:02:02):
The public or created the wrong course.
Speaker 4 (01:02:05):
Also true, but the public is also seemingly souring to
this kind of stuff. Maybe maybe I'm a level there.
Speaker 3 (01:02:12):
It's putting their jobs at risk, right, It's it's a
tragedy of the commons. This algorithm of software is great
so long as it is convenient for me and does
not affect me. But if it starts to affect me,
now I'm mad about it. That's unfortunately the story of humans.
There are so many stories we're not going to get
to today. One about our folks stranded and a cruise
(01:02:37):
ship try not to die from the hantavirus outbreak. You
can learn more about that by going to ap news.
Dutch cruise liner that was going to Antarctica had a
just terrible situation happen. It's a pretty small boat. They
are waiting for assistance. They're trying to get to the
(01:02:59):
Canary Islands as we speak. So check out that story
if you would like more news about that. We're not
going to have time to mention too much about the
story of Chinese scientists that have been dying mysterious deaths
as well. We looked into that in previous Strange News,
and thank you to our conspiracy realist who mentioned that
on listener mail. We've got a great extreme style biding
(01:03:22):
story for you next week from a guy in Wisconsin.
Bonus points if you can find that in the meantime.
Thank you so much for tuning in to our weekly
strange news program. We would love to hear your thoughts.
So you can find us on the line, so you
can call us on the phone. You can always send
us an email.
Speaker 4 (01:03:38):
Sure can. You can find us on the lines of
the handle Conspiracy Stuff or Conspiracy Stuff Show, depending on
which social media platform you go for.
Speaker 2 (01:03:47):
Call our phone number. It's a voicemail system one eight
three three std WYTK. Give yourself a nickname and let
us know if we can use your name and message
on the air. If you want to email us, we
are the.
Speaker 3 (01:03:58):
Entities the red each piece of respondence we receive. Be
well aware, yet unafraid. Sometimes the void writes back, quid
pro quoe clebri. Send us a random fact and we
will send you one in return. We'll see you out
here in the dark. Conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 2 (01:04:33):
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