Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's a Tuesday. It's the middle of July.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Quite literally, it's the fifteenth, fifteenth of a thirty one
day month. We're very happy to be talking to you,
speaking with you. There are different things on our minds today,
and if there was one thing that I think we
all should probably care about, it has something to do
with the food that we eat. And that's kind of
the conversation I found myself in. I saw this come
across the news desk about this yo Crunch Yo Crunch,
(00:24):
and it's a yogurt product that they put like candy into.
It's not something I've actually ever eaten, but it's something
that if I was a kid, i'd absolutely love to have.
It's like a blizzard, you know, like with the mcflurry,
where the M and m's or Oreos or Snickers are
in the yogurt as you eat them. It's just like
a pretty special treat. But apparently it also could be
(00:46):
carrying plastic, so there has been a recall on that.
I was told by somebody on tray sent me an
email and said you should put in grock recall frequency
in the United States, and I said that, and it's like,
give me the recall frequency of food in the United States.
And here's what it said, and it's a long list,
(01:07):
and there's a lot of stuff here. This is crazy.
Food recall frequency in the United States has been increasing
in recent years. Based on available data from the FDA
and the USDA, here's a concise overview. Between twenty twenty
and twenty twenty three, the number of food recalls issued
by the FDA in USDA grew from four point fifty
four to five forty seven, a rise of twenty percent
or more. In twenty twenty one, there were two hundred
(01:28):
and eighty one recalls. The number of recalled units surged dramatically,
with FDA regulated recalls increasing from fifty two point one
million units in twenty twenty one to four hundred and
sixteen point nine million units in twenty twenty two, a
seven hundred percent jump. In the first quarter of twenty
twenty four alone, the FDA reported one hundred and thirty
four recalls with thirty point seven million units effected, marking
(01:51):
a three hundred and ninety five percent increase from the
previous quarter. First of all, let's just stop there for
a second. Why is this not bigger news when this happens, Like,
what do you do you read in the old newspaper
or see it on your phone on social media about
food recalls unless it's like some real big popular product
or something, and like a major chain. This is saying
like millions of units of products from different like hundreds
(02:14):
of different recalls in a year, And I just feel like,
I know, I don't hear about this stuff.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Am I crazy? Well? Yeah, usually it kind of has
to make its way through the social square before you
hear about some of the major ones. Yeah, so it
sounds like there's a whole lot more that you don't
even know.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
And I guess the stores, right are kind of like
the line of defense, right as soon as there's a recall,
they're the ones that are supposed to grab it off
the shelves and like get rid of it.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
And I've definitely worked plenty of my life in grocery stores.
It was my kind of my college and high school job.
So you would hear about them if they would happen.
You know, all this got recalls, so you got to take.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
It and you just like go out out to this
shit wherever it is on the shelf and just like
take it all off.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
I want to say it probably maybe happened gosh once
or twice, but yeah, so I don't know. Yeah, what's
going on?
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Which oversees about seventy eight percent of the US food supply,
which everything except meat, poultry, and processed egg products, which
the US Department of Agriculture does. The US or the
FDA reported on nine eight food and cosmetic recalls, and
just fiscal year twenty twenty four, USDA recalls are fewer,
with foreign material contamination being the top cause in recent years.
(03:20):
So the agricultural products. Riddle me this, The USDA's agricultural
products are not getting recalled.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
You want to know why. Because it's real products.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
It's meat, it's poultry, it's eggs, it's stuff where we
know where it comes from. There's not going to be
a lot of recall and a lot of that stuff
unless there's something really crazy happening calls for the recalls.
Leading reasons for food recalls include undeclared allergens nearly forty
percent of recalls from twenty twenty to twenty twenty four,
with sesame becoming a major allergen after its inclusion in
(03:49):
labeling requirements to twenty twenty three. So just like they
don't have they didn't declare the right allergens. Then people
were potentially could buy this product and not know what's
in it, and then they could trigger an allergic reaction.
That's so dangerous. I mean if I had a kid
that was allergic, I mean, I how do you? How
do you function? You literally would have to just read
every single ingredient or just have it on very strict
(04:10):
diets so you can avoid a dangerous allergic reaction.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Well you do, Yeah, absolutely, thankfully. Some of the major
allergies out there, you can find them commonly on the
on all ingredients lists. You'll see at the bottom it'll
say contains milk, or contains peanuts, nuts, or you know,
contains soy things like that. So.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Bacterial contamination about twenty one percent of recalls, primarily due
to pathogens like Listeria, monocytogenes and salmonella. I feel like
we've heard a lot about salmonilla last couple of years.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
That's no good.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
And then foreign objects, which this particular yo crunch situation
is a foreign object problem. Approximately eleven point six percent
of recalls are foreign objects such as plastic or metal
fragments in the food that's so nuts context in perception,
While recalls appear to be rise, experts note that improve
detection technologies like whole genome sequencing and increased regulatory scrutiny
(05:07):
like the Food Safety Modernization Act have enhanced the ability
to identify and trace contamination, leading to more reported recalls.
This doesn't necessarily mean food is less safe, but reflects
better surveillance and communication. But it still account as a
recall right in theory, So this kind of goes back
to the whole thing is just like, hey, we're catching
a lot more criminals than we did before. A lot
(05:28):
of people will say that's not good. That means there's
more criminals. But at the same time, it's like, well,
it's not about how many criminals there are, it's how
much crime there is. Is there less crime? So yes,
is there more recalls or are there more recalls in food?
The answer seems to be yes, there are more recalls
in food. But the cause and effect of that isn't
(05:48):
that there are a bunch of people eating on healthy
foods or things that have contamination or foreign objects. It's
the recall helps prevent people from having bad reactions or
getting sick.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
From eating the food.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
And that's why it's a big deal when people do
get sick while eating a food product that doesn't get
recalled until after people have consumed it. Does that make sense?
We have more ways to flag things, is things that
like products that need to be recalled because of one
reason or another, but it doesn't actually get to the
people before it happens. Does that make sense? Am I
(06:21):
explaining that accurately or appropriately?
Speaker 1 (06:24):
I think? I think I am.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
If you're out there and you're confused, sorry, Then state
impact California, as the largest food producer, accounts for sixteen
percent of recalls and is affected by thirty eight point
five percent of them, and that's followed by other high
population states like New York and Texas. And then for
real time updates, it gives you a website Foodsafety dot gov,
and then there's a FDA's Recalled database also, So there
(06:49):
you go. Didn't know that you were talking about this
about the what was it red dye? Well, Carl says,
one of the natural red dyes that people have or
you see in your food is actually made up of
ground up beetles. I'm not sure that's any better than
you know, eating something made from petroleum. I just try
(07:10):
to avoid red dyed food. Food dyes are in so
many things that you wouldn't think of. Pre made pie
do contains yellow dye. Chocolate ice cream often has blue dye.
It's crazy, and why you know, you're just like thinking about,
like do we need that? This is the one thing?
Like I drink those zvias. You know, you see me
with those knes of zvia coming in. Yeah, you know
if I poured that thing out, it would be clear,
every single one of them because there is no dye
(07:32):
in it. It has five ingredients and like coloration is
not one of them. So you go and you look
like I got the mountain dew right here. I'm sipping
on this delicious beverage, one of the nectars of all time,
one of the great nectars of all time.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Full of petroleum.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
I bet well it's got something greenish yellow in it,
because why does it look like this?
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Well? I could, I mean, I could pontificate on why.
When you're at the grocery store and let's say you're
in the frozen section, you look at ice cream and
you want some mint chocolate chip ice cream. Yeah, and
you see two tubs in front of you. Oh yeah,
one is this tub of just that light green mint
with the little bits of the brown chocolate in the tub,
(08:13):
and the next to it, same product, it's just more
kind of like an off white color. Which one you
grab it probably the one that makes you think of mint.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Yeah, And that's I think the reason why we got
so attached to it is because we did a bunch
of science experiments and figured that we can make food
look however we want it to, right like we oh gosh,
we can make it look however we want.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
There's a lot of sociology programming into how we maximize
people's experience in stores. Why do they play the music
they play in stores? It's called musak and it's all
been studied and researched. There's a reason why they don't
play certain songs in grocery stores, Sandman that are too
up tempo, because it's been proven that the slower the tempo,
(08:56):
the more relaxed the sound. It. It's all of the
sociology to get people to stay longer. I've heard the
same about casinos. Why on the floor of the casino
is the floor and the ceiling in other places really
busy it's first off, you go into a casino, usually
you'll have very high rooms, right, Like, they're not like
(09:17):
the ceiling's not low, Like, it's very high, so you
just feel more relaxed in there. But from what I've
been explained to me, the reason why there's a lot
of busyness where you're looking around, whether it's just busy
patterns on the carpet or whether there's lots of flashing lights,
what it's programmed to make you do is to keep
not having a place where you can fix your eyes,
(09:37):
so that you're always kind of looking around so that
you're finding your next thing you want to do. And
also there's just lots of noises and lots of lights
going off, so it just seems like this exciting environment.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Yeah, your senses are kind of over boiling in an
environment like that. It's kind of the opposite of when
you're in a Yeah, it's interesting that you mentioned that,
you know, like the grocery store thing, and also just
kind of the flow over all the like a right, yeah,
like there's a strategy to where certain things are located,
and then what they put in those coolers right next
to the checkout line.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Why do you have to walk all the way to
the back of the store to find the milk and eggs.
A lot of people, that's all they're there for the staples.
Why do you have to walk past everything else to
go to the staples? Why do you have to walk
past all the chocolate and the sweet cakes, and the
popcorn and the can chips, all the things you don't need,
because that's the stuff they hope you put in your
basket on your way out.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Yeah, it's quite interesting. I'm interested in the psychology of
this for a lot of different reasons. But I think
we just need to normalize the fact that not everything
has to look really good for it to be very good.
And that's the thing about the zvia, right, Like, my
mountain zvia isn't quite the same as mountain dew is.
There's no real sugar in the zvia, and it's kind
(10:47):
of like a knockoff version of what mountain dew is
supposed to taste like. And the zvia it doesn't have
any coloration to it, and it doesn't have any bad
ingredients in it. The whole point is that it's like
it's it's good for a vegan and it's good for
you know anybody who's trying to minimize how much you
know they have there, So I don't know.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
It is artificial sweetener made from it all plant. Okay,
it's stevie. It's a and that drink.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
It's stevia, which is kind of like a sugar knock off,
but it's still a natural ingredient. But yeah, it's not
real sugar instead of sugar. It's a sugar substitute. Catvi
from Like, I mean, where do you go? Sorry, where
do you grow stevia?
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Where do you grows diva? Uh?
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Stevia Apparently you can grow it, but it's native to
the Mediterranean. It prefers warm temperatures and minimal frosts for
year round growth zones, and it needs plenty of sunlight
but can tolerate partial shade and especially in hot and
dry climates, which it needs.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
But it's sweet, and it then there's no like calories
to it. Is that the thing.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Exactly, But it's also not going to taste as good
as a sugar does. So you just have to understand that,
you know, like, if you're using stevia as a substitute
for sugar, you're not going to be satisfied. With like
how it hits you right, like you're you're like, oh,
this doesn't taste like mountain dew when you drink a
mountain zvia. But that's kind of the point, right, it's
it's all natural ingredients. So I don't know, really, riddle
(12:12):
riddle me that. Three seventeen, We have more coming up.
Thanks for listening. News Radio eleven ten kfab.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Emery Sunger on News Radio eleven ten kfab.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Give me a forty four ounce fountain mountain Dew because
it just is the best. I'll pay my dollar nineteen
or whatever it costs to get one of these, and
I love how it tastes. But generally speaking for my caffeine,
if it's not coffee or tea, I want to have
a zva because it is there's no calories, and there's
minimal ingredients and they're all natural ingredients. Had somebody send
(12:45):
me an email and said, you know, I read somewhere
that Stevie is known to cause cancer, and this is
a thing that has gone around, and I do know
that this was something that was talked about in a
couple of studies, one study in particular and mentioned this
but in moderate quantities everything that people are saying these days,
just normal amounts. It's actually not bad at all, And
in fact, there are some studies that have proved, like
(13:08):
shown that there could be some helpful benefits to it.
So it's a fully natural thing. If you eat too
much of it, just like or drink too much of it,
I guess I suppose, just like with anything else, you
probably will have some sort of bad behavior. But yeah,
it's interesting. And you know, whether or not stevia is
(13:28):
like one hundred percent safe, and whether or not certain
places feel like stevia is or isn't linked to cancer
according to basically every like modern study that's been done
the last few years, that isn't necessarily the case. So
I do appreciate the concern though, And I'll be honest
with you. I think if you look closely enough to
(13:49):
certain products, even ones that seem natural or ones that
seem pretty you know, benign, I hate to say that term,
but I mean, they could be bad. I mean they
could really be really bad for you or have bad effects.
I mean, think about how some people react to peanuts.
I like eating peanuts. You like peanuts. You can just
grab a handful of peanuts and just like start eating peanuts.
Oh absolutely, that's a great snack, the high end protein.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Oh yeah, it's great.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Like like I'm going to run club, you know, I'll
deal just take a couple of handfuls of peanuts and
just put them down, just to make sure I have
enough fuel in me. Guess what, there are people that
they have a sniff of peanuts and they start having
an allergic reaction, right, So it's a really an individual,
personal to personal basis. I've actually seen some great results
by trying to cut you know, real soda out of
my diet for the most part, and Stevia has been
(14:34):
a good way for me to be able to do that.
But it is really really interesting. Hey, Jason, also send
this to me. He said, McDonald's French fries in the
US because French fries in all the different countries at McDonald's,
like I said, the menus not even the same. I've
gone to McDonald's in the Netherlands. I went to McDonald's
in Spain. The menu is absurd how different it is. Well,
Jason says, McDonald's French fries in the United States contain
(14:55):
nineteen ingredients, including potatoes, various oils, dex tros sodium acid, pyrophosphate,
natural beef flavor, citric acid, and dimethylice paul'sy oxane something
like that. Some of these ingredients were used to maintain color,
prevent greasiness, and enhance flavor. Now, I'm not gonna lie
(15:17):
to you. Much like the taco John's potato oleys McDonald's
French fries when freshly salted, I gotta tell you, Matt,
it's a weakness there are sometimes I'm just like I
can smell those McDonald's French fries no matter where I am,
the hundreds of times that I've had it in my life,
they always hit and they never taste bad. Like I
feel like those are just one of those foods that
I think people can just eat and eat, eat, eat, neat.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
We all got it, We all got I just turned
my mic off. That was weird. Why do do that?
Speaker 2 (15:43):
We all got them, Yeah, the olays, the salty McDonald's fries.
But nineteen ingredients does sound a bit much. And I
did eat some fries at that Spanish McDonald's and I
didn't notice a ton of difference, right, It wasn't like
a dark difference in how they taste it. Now, maybe
I'm trying not to eat McDonald's that much. I probably
(16:04):
eat McDonald's maybe three or four times this entire calendar year.
But I you know, I used to McDonald's all the time,
and I don't know that for some reason in Spain,
they're just the fries didn't taste that different, and I
know they have a lot less ingredients in them. So
maybe there's a movement with this RFK thing, but also
just making sure we the people know what is in
(16:24):
our food and if people decide to keep stuff in
the food for one reason or another, we should know
and we should have I mean, like they put warning
packets on like our warning things on certain like alcohol
or tobacco products, or you know, like visible warnings on
certain you know, food items based on like like you said,
like it says like may contain nuts or you know,
(16:47):
pineapple or whatever, you know, so people don't end up
having like this situation right where they end up eating
something or consuming something without fully knowing what kind of
risk may be involved. And with that being said, for
whatever it's worth, right, it's like, okay, so what is
(17:08):
our responsibility at that point if it's still being offered
to us I'm not saying you have to slap a
label like that on every single food item, but if
there are people or places or companies that aren't going
to comply with that, then maybe they need to, you know,
take a step backwards and think about maybe what they're
putting in our products. I'm not sure. Rick's on the
(17:31):
phone line real quick. I want to get him before
I at the bottom. Rick, what's on your mind today?
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Hey, I just want to tell you stevia does not
cause cancer.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
They were talking, they were talking about aspertain, aspertain, All right, Yeah,
is that another sugar substitute.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
That aspertains a sugar substitute.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
I think it's oh yeah, it's an artificial localorie sweetener.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Yeah, yeah, you're right, you're right, you're right. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
So yeah, I appreciate that, Rick. I know people I
think get stevia kind of in that mix of confusion,
but I know it is an actual plant. I do
appreciate you clearing this up. Thanks so much for listening
to us.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Yeah, no problem.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
And in Europe, oddly enough, aspertame is actually legal in
Europe to use as an artificial sweetener, even though it
does seem to have some level of harmful risks to
the body.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
So isn't that weird? You know?
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Now, Europe is a little bit backwards on the whole.
They a lot of countries don't like Stevia over there,
but they will let you have Aspertain, which is a
low calorie artificial sweetener. They say it's approximately two hundred
times sweeter than sugar.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Wow, that's what they put in all those diet colas, right.
What in the gum too? It's in the gum that
if you get the gum, you know, two hundred times
that's crazy. Anyway, I don't know science kids. You know,
this is why you do some chemistry four two, five, five, eight,
eleven ten. If you've got something on your mind, you'd
like I talked to us today here on news radio
eleven teen KFAB And did you watch the Home Run Derby?
(19:06):
Last night?
Speaker 2 (19:07):
I watched the Home Run Derby? Did you watch the
Homer Derby growing up? Because it's just a completely different experience. Now,
did you have good memories of seeing like some of
the big sluggers of our our childhood, you know, just
smashing bombs.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
I do, And I'm definitely one of those fellas who
I was. I played baseball as a kid. Yeah, I
played in the leagues. I played with the aluminum bat,
I played with the pitch machine, and then played a
couple of seasons when I was a little bit older,
when you know, I was going against live pitchers and
enjoyed the sport and grew up watching the Braves on
TBS Braves teams. What a pitching staff they had Glavin Yeah,
(19:45):
and Smoltz and Maddox Yeah, old Larry out there at
third base. Yeah, Chip Gilder Jones. The Mets did not
like Chipper Jones.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Let me tell you you had Brian Jordan.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
I always remember him. Yeah, remember remember the summer of
John Rocker. Oh yeah, that guy was crazy. He's still
crazy on Twitter if you find him. Yeah, the dude's
a nut job. The stories people tell about that guy
are almost like he's not a real person. He's a meme.
What a wild guy.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Yeah, And I don't know, you could kind of tell
that just watching him walk to the mound, right, Yeah,
it's great.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
But anyway, but so I did. I loved I'm a
Cardinals fan, so I was a big Mark McGuire guy.
I loved the summer of McGuire and Sosa the home
run summer when they went back and forth. Man, that
was Roger Merrit's baseball. For me, it was And I
loved the home run derby. I loved the sport. I
have to confess that when the steroids thing broke through
(20:41):
and I got older and I stopped playing the sport
myself in the summer, I've kind of fallen away from
being totally focused on the game. I check in on
the Cardinals. They're above five hundred, and I'm happy about that.
I wish there are a couple games out of the
wild Cards. So I know about the sport and I
keep tabs on it.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
You're you're not making appointment television to watch a lot
of the stuff I think. I think that I wonder
if I fall into a category that other people do
that the steroids thing kind of kind of got them
out of the regular intrigue of the sport as it's
never really gone back full board. So I haven't watched
the home run derby in years. So this is the
interesting thing, right because and this is maybe a profound
(21:19):
conversation about generations, Right, Why do certain generations feel the
way that they do, And baseball is trying to grow
with the younger generation more than is their old fans.
This is the thing NASCAR got themselves in kind of
trouble with by building a lot of different tracks in different,
more metropolitan areas in the country and then like being confused,
why when you know, time went on and the honeymoon
(21:43):
phase were off in some of those areas that all
of a sudden there was a big falloff in viewership
and a falloff in attendance at a lot of these tracks.
I think baseball is finding itself kind of in that mode.
Now more people are going to the games than ever before.
You can actually go back and watch you know, games
in the mid nineties at Yankee Stadium in different you
know aspects and like the outfields empty, people just aren't there.
(22:06):
There was a major attendance problem at Major League Baseball
games and a lot of these big stadiums for years,
and that's not a problem now people are going to
the games. The stadiums themselves have become kind of Hey,
I want to go hang out at the ballpark tonight.
But the game is not necessarily the biggest reason for
a lot of those people to be there, especially in
the middle of the summer. Now that's not to say
(22:28):
that people don't love the game, but the home run
derby is a perfect example. Do you remember if I
quizzed you and we're talking like, let's say, like two
thousand and two, the home run derby and Sammy Sosa
and Richie Sexson and a bunch of these other guys
that are you know, you know, sluggers of the time
are about to hit a bunch of home runs, and
I quizzed you about what the format was. Do you
(22:48):
remember the rules of the home run derby back then?
Remember what the rules were and how.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Well it was just whoever hit the most and they
would go round a round. Yeah, but what was around? Like,
how did it around end? It wasn't it was it
a pitch count or was it minutes? It was out.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
So if you didn't hit a home run, it was
considered an out. For every swing. If you swung and missed,
it was an out. If you hit a ball but
it was a ground ball, it was an out. If
you hit the ball but it didn't go it was
a foul ball, it was an out, and after ten
outs it was over. And that was the way it
was for a long time. When you're doing that, there's
no time on it. Right, A guy could take as
long as he wants. He could just sit there and
(23:25):
he could just hit home runs as long as he could, right,
and then he'd take a deep breath and then he'd
you know, lined back up in the box, and then
he'd you know, take a couple of pitches and then
he'd swing, and then we'd all get to admire the
balls and see if it would get out. Now, it's timed,
and they've actually messed with this and it's been timed
(23:45):
for about a decade now, but it's a three minute time.
So for three minutes, basically it's as many home runs
as you can hit. And they've also instituted a pitch count,
so essentially like you also have forty pitches to try
to burn through in thirty in three minutes. So basically,
the pitcher the beep, it's like batting practice, and he's
just like he's not stopping. He just pitched. Guy swings.
(24:06):
He doesn't even watch it. We don't even have time
to watch it. He just grabs the next one and
he pitches. You have to split screen it to see
him hit the ball, and then you have to have
another split screen to kind of follow where the ball
is going, and the covered stinks because you just can't
there's no time to take a deep breath into just
admire the baseball. Like by the time you're watching to
see if a ball is going to get out, the
(24:26):
guy's already swinging and hitting the next ball. That's just
how the format is. And they're trying to get the
TikTokers to you know, be interested. It's so fast paced,
so it's moving so fast instead of just kind of
the organic nature of just being able to watch a
guy just try to hit the ball and hit as
many home runs as possible, like when we grew up. Now,
sure maybe that had run its course by the end
(24:47):
of the late two thousands and trying to figure out
like what made sense and what didn't, But I gotta
tell you, it just didn't feel the same. And then
they throw in you know, these crazy, weird looking uniforms,
and then they throw in the like the Pat McAfee's
who like Pat McAfee was like the mc this is
a former NFL punter and he's just like an overgrown
dude bro now and you know, he's just loud, obnoxious,
(25:10):
and he's just I don't know. They want him to
be unabashedly him and he works for ESPN, who's doing
the broadcast. But it's like it's just kind of a
turn off that was it's not baseball. I think of
like John Miller and Joe Morgan doing Sunday Night Baseball.
I think of Chris Berman back back, back back doing
the home run derby. You know, we've lost all of it,
(25:32):
and it's just it's kind of sad. ESPN actually is
losing the rights to all things major League Baseball at
the end of this season, so, you know, because Major
League Baseball is not happy with the product that they've
given him. I couldn't tell you, but I was watching
that thing last night, and congrats to cal Raleigh nickname
the Big Dumper.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
How about cal So? He took it, he won. What
a season he's having. Man out of almost nowhere. Honestly,
his life has to be cresting right now as a catcher.
Is he ever gonna have a season like this again?
Speaker 2 (26:01):
He's a switch hitting catcher who's hit thirty eight home
runs at the All Star break. The only man to
hit more before the All Star Break was Barry Bonds.
The year he hit seventy three, he had thirty nine.
He's he's on a faster pace than Sosain Maguire were
in ninety eight, right, Think about that. You want to
know something else. Last night, his dad was the pitcher.
His dad was pitching to him, that's cool. And his
(26:21):
fifteen year old younger brother was the catcher, so he
had his dad, his brother, and him. Those were the
three guys out there doing the home run derby and
he ended up winning it. So, yeah, what a season.
That guy's having wild stuff. It was an interesting night,
and you know, that was cool. But other than that,
you know, I just I'm very disappointed with the way
that you know, that used to be like an appointment
(26:43):
television for me. I used to like sit down and
I really get excited about it, and I just remember
being frustrated at various points. I watched the stat cast
version simply because I wanted to. They showed the exit
velocity and launch angle, which I know enough about baseball
to basically know as soon as he hits the ball,
as soon as the guy hits the ball, and they
show the exit velocity is like one hundred and five
(27:04):
miles an hour and the launch angle's like thirty degrees.
I'm like, okay, that's gonna be a home run. That way,
I don't have to watch the ball try to leave
because there's no way. It's just happening too fast. But anyway,
three forty eight, thanks for listening. You're listening to news
radio eleven ten KFAB and Marie's Sunger.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
I need to get my picture changed.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Don't you think I've been rolling since I got here
or this since they announced that I got the job
with the short kind of slicked over, you know, kind
of haircut. I haven't looked like that since I got here.
It's been two full years. You think I think I'm
due for a new photo or do you think nobody cares?
Because I mean, Scott's got an old photo up of
him too, but he basically looks the same. His hair's
(27:44):
a little different, but you know, well not that different.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Now this is different, but I used to work it.
I used to work for a company that would market
for realtors. Okay, so we would kind of basically be
their marketing team. We'd handle their online footprint, we'd handle
their website, their blog, they would do, they would do
videos with us, okay, and you'd meet these these realtors
(28:09):
and I would get introduced to them initially by just
like seeing their the thumbnail of like you know, on
their website, you know, sure, and then I would record
the video with them as they're doing like a market
update that they wanted to keep themselves present online for
to to keep their site tracked. And there's a whole
bunch of seo stuff behind it. But you'd see him
(28:30):
and you're like, whoa, that is not a current picture.
Oh yeah, you'd get some that. Like, Man, I'm telling you,
there was this one guy. He was out in Colorado.
So I'm not talking smack about anybody around these parts,
all right, Yeah, this guy was out there in like
the Veil area and about a bunch you know, go
(28:50):
get yourself a skiing property or whatever. I'm telling you. Man,
his his all of his imaging that he used of himself,
and you know, realtors like you to know what they
look like, right, All the imaging that he would use
of himself was straight out of the seventies. The guy
had sideburns, he had a haircut that looked like it
was from the era HU and even in some of
his more full profile looks. He's even dressed and almost
(29:11):
like a seventies look. Then you'd get him on and
then you'd get him on video, do a video. He
was at least forty years older. Forty I'm telling you, man,
you updated it for forty years, nothing like the pictures.
And I'm thinking, like, this is just bad marketing. Well, yeah,
they can't be good. Somebody's going to go go with
you to meet a house and be like, who are you? Yeah,
(29:31):
I think the guy's dad showed up. Who's this guy? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (29:34):
No, yeah, And that's the thing, right, And I'm on
the radio, so you don't have to see me every
single day, But you know, I think it's important for
you to kind of have an idea what I look like.
I photos of myself on social media. I'm a pretty
unique looking person. But it's radio.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Why don't you go on rock or Chad GPT or
whatever and just say like, hey, give me a photo
of an amalgamation of a very attractive young man. You
can do that, but it just it's my a bracket
and just put that out there. Why not? Who care?
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Just well, yeah, I mean it's the problem with that
mostly is the fact that what if two people are
gonna meet you in real I'm too present in real life,
right Like you can find me at bars and restaurants
around town. I'm at ballgames. I I do stuff like
I'm hanging out downtown a lot.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
I mean, pretend like your Emory Songers assistant be like
he couldn't make it tonight. I'm just his assistant out
here to get out the good word. He's a really
good guy. I think there's sitcom episodes about something like this.
I don't I don't want to. I don't wanna.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
When you tell one type of lie, you kind of
find yourself telling other lies to kind of cover the
initial lie up or to make it seem less of
a big deal.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
You know, if I could just make myself look as
pretty and attractive as possible, I absolutely would do it.
Don't don't get me wrong. Unfortunately that's just not the
real world that I live in. But either way, my
podcast is there for the taking if you'd like to
listen to it Emery Songer on the free iHeartRadio app
or kfab dot com and we'll chat more.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
Ors.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
The four o'clock hour is on the way on news
radio eleven ten KFA BH
It's a Tuesday. It's the middle of July.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Quite literally, it's the fifteenth, fifteenth of a thirty one
day month. We're very happy to be talking to you,
speaking with you. There are different things on our minds today,
and if there was one thing that I think we
all should probably care about, it has something to do
with the food that we eat. And that's kind of
the conversation I found myself in. I saw this come
across the news desk about this yo Crunch Yo Crunch,
(00:24):
and it's a yogurt product that they put like candy into.
It's not something I've actually ever eaten, but it's something
that if I was a kid, i'd absolutely love to have.
It's like a blizzard, you know, like with the mcflurry,
where the M and m's or Oreos or Snickers are
in the yogurt as you eat them. It's just like
a pretty special treat. But apparently it also could be
(00:46):
carrying plastic, so there has been a recall on that.
I was told by somebody on tray sent me an
email and said you should put in grock recall frequency
in the United States, and I said that, and it's like,
give me the recall frequency of food in the United States.
And here's what it said, and it's a long list,
(01:07):
and there's a lot of stuff here. This is crazy.
Food recall frequency in the United States has been increasing
in recent years. Based on available data from the FDA
and the USDA, here's a concise overview. Between twenty twenty
and twenty twenty three, the number of food recalls issued
by the FDA in USDA grew from four point fifty
four to five forty seven, a rise of twenty percent
or more. In twenty twenty one, there were two hundred
(01:28):
and eighty one recalls. The number of recalled units surged dramatically,
with FDA regulated recalls increasing from fifty two point one
million units in twenty twenty one to four hundred and
sixteen point nine million units in twenty twenty two, a
seven hundred percent jump. In the first quarter of twenty
twenty four alone, the FDA reported one hundred and thirty
four recalls with thirty point seven million units effected, marking
(01:51):
a three hundred and ninety five percent increase from the
previous quarter. First of all, let's just stop there for
a second. Why is this not bigger news when this happens, Like,
what do you do you read in the old newspaper
or see it on your phone on social media about
food recalls unless it's like some real big popular product
or something, and like a major chain. This is saying
like millions of units of products from different like hundreds
(02:14):
of different recalls in a year, And I just feel like,
I know, I don't hear about this stuff.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Am I crazy? Well? Yeah, usually it kind of has
to make its way through the social square before you
hear about some of the major ones. Yeah, so it
sounds like there's a whole lot more that you don't
even know.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
And I guess the stores, right are kind of like
the line of defense, right as soon as there's a recall,
they're the ones that are supposed to grab it off
the shelves and like get rid of it.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
And I've definitely worked plenty of my life in grocery stores.
It was my kind of my college and high school job.
So you would hear about them if they would happen.
You know, all this got recalls, so you got to take.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
It and you just like go out out to this
shit wherever it is on the shelf and just like
take it all off.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
I want to say it probably maybe happened gosh once
or twice, but yeah, so I don't know. Yeah, what's
going on?
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Which oversees about seventy eight percent of the US food supply,
which everything except meat, poultry, and processed egg products, which
the US Department of Agriculture does. The US or the
FDA reported on nine eight food and cosmetic recalls, and
just fiscal year twenty twenty four, USDA recalls are fewer,
with foreign material contamination being the top cause in recent years.
(03:20):
So the agricultural products. Riddle me this, The USDA's agricultural
products are not getting recalled.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
You want to know why. Because it's real products.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
It's meat, it's poultry, it's eggs, it's stuff where we
know where it comes from. There's not going to be
a lot of recall and a lot of that stuff
unless there's something really crazy happening calls for the recalls.
Leading reasons for food recalls include undeclared allergens nearly forty
percent of recalls from twenty twenty to twenty twenty four,
with sesame becoming a major allergen after its inclusion in
(03:49):
labeling requirements to twenty twenty three. So just like they
don't have they didn't declare the right allergens. Then people
were potentially could buy this product and not know what's
in it, and then they could trigger an allergic reaction.
That's so dangerous. I mean if I had a kid
that was allergic, I mean, I how do you? How
do you function? You literally would have to just read
every single ingredient or just have it on very strict
(04:10):
diets so you can avoid a dangerous allergic reaction.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Well you do, Yeah, absolutely, thankfully. Some of the major
allergies out there, you can find them commonly on the
on all ingredients lists. You'll see at the bottom it'll
say contains milk, or contains peanuts, nuts, or you know,
contains soy things like that. So.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Bacterial contamination about twenty one percent of recalls, primarily due
to pathogens like Listeria, monocytogenes and salmonella. I feel like
we've heard a lot about salmonilla last couple of years.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
That's no good.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
And then foreign objects, which this particular yo crunch situation
is a foreign object problem. Approximately eleven point six percent
of recalls are foreign objects such as plastic or metal
fragments in the food that's so nuts context in perception,
While recalls appear to be rise, experts note that improve
detection technologies like whole genome sequencing and increased regulatory scrutiny
(05:07):
like the Food Safety Modernization Act have enhanced the ability
to identify and trace contamination, leading to more reported recalls.
This doesn't necessarily mean food is less safe, but reflects
better surveillance and communication. But it still account as a
recall right in theory, So this kind of goes back
to the whole thing is just like, hey, we're catching
a lot more criminals than we did before. A lot
(05:28):
of people will say that's not good. That means there's
more criminals. But at the same time, it's like, well,
it's not about how many criminals there are, it's how
much crime there is. Is there less crime? So yes,
is there more recalls or are there more recalls in food?
The answer seems to be yes, there are more recalls
in food. But the cause and effect of that isn't
(05:48):
that there are a bunch of people eating on healthy
foods or things that have contamination or foreign objects. It's
the recall helps prevent people from having bad reactions or
getting sick.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
From eating the food.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
And that's why it's a big deal when people do
get sick while eating a food product that doesn't get
recalled until after people have consumed it. Does that make sense?
We have more ways to flag things, is things that
like products that need to be recalled because of one
reason or another, but it doesn't actually get to the
people before it happens. Does that make sense? Am I
(06:21):
explaining that accurately or appropriately?
Speaker 1 (06:24):
I think? I think I am.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
If you're out there and you're confused, sorry, Then state
impact California, as the largest food producer, accounts for sixteen
percent of recalls and is affected by thirty eight point
five percent of them, and that's followed by other high
population states like New York and Texas. And then for
real time updates, it gives you a website Foodsafety dot gov,
and then there's a FDA's Recalled database also, So there
(06:49):
you go. Didn't know that you were talking about this
about the what was it red dye? Well, Carl says,
one of the natural red dyes that people have or
you see in your food is actually made up of
ground up beetles. I'm not sure that's any better than
you know, eating something made from petroleum. I just try
(07:10):
to avoid red dyed food. Food dyes are in so
many things that you wouldn't think of. Pre made pie
do contains yellow dye. Chocolate ice cream often has blue dye.
It's crazy, and why you know, you're just like thinking about,
like do we need that? This is the one thing?
Like I drink those zvias. You know, you see me
with those knes of zvia coming in. Yeah, you know
if I poured that thing out, it would be clear,
every single one of them because there is no dye
(07:32):
in it. It has five ingredients and like coloration is
not one of them. So you go and you look
like I got the mountain dew right here. I'm sipping
on this delicious beverage, one of the nectars of all time,
one of the great nectars of all time.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Full of petroleum.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
I bet well it's got something greenish yellow in it,
because why does it look like this?
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Well? I could, I mean, I could pontificate on why.
When you're at the grocery store and let's say you're
in the frozen section, you look at ice cream and
you want some mint chocolate chip ice cream. Yeah, and
you see two tubs in front of you. Oh yeah,
one is this tub of just that light green mint
with the little bits of the brown chocolate in the tub,
(08:13):
and the next to it, same product, it's just more
kind of like an off white color. Which one you
grab it probably the one that makes you think of mint.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Yeah, And that's I think the reason why we got
so attached to it is because we did a bunch
of science experiments and figured that we can make food
look however we want it to, right like we oh gosh,
we can make it look however we want.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
There's a lot of sociology programming into how we maximize
people's experience in stores. Why do they play the music
they play in stores? It's called musak and it's all
been studied and researched. There's a reason why they don't
play certain songs in grocery stores, Sandman that are too
up tempo, because it's been proven that the slower the tempo,
(08:56):
the more relaxed the sound. It. It's all of the
sociology to get people to stay longer. I've heard the
same about casinos. Why on the floor of the casino
is the floor and the ceiling in other places really
busy it's first off, you go into a casino, usually
you'll have very high rooms, right, Like, they're not like
(09:17):
the ceiling's not low, Like, it's very high, so you
just feel more relaxed in there. But from what I've
been explained to me, the reason why there's a lot
of busyness where you're looking around, whether it's just busy
patterns on the carpet or whether there's lots of flashing lights,
what it's programmed to make you do is to keep
not having a place where you can fix your eyes,
(09:37):
so that you're always kind of looking around so that
you're finding your next thing you want to do. And
also there's just lots of noises and lots of lights
going off, so it just seems like this exciting environment.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Yeah, your senses are kind of over boiling in an
environment like that. It's kind of the opposite of when
you're in a Yeah, it's interesting that you mentioned that,
you know, like the grocery store thing, and also just
kind of the flow over all the like a right, yeah,
like there's a strategy to where certain things are located,
and then what they put in those coolers right next
to the checkout line.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Why do you have to walk all the way to
the back of the store to find the milk and eggs.
A lot of people, that's all they're there for the staples.
Why do you have to walk past everything else to
go to the staples? Why do you have to walk
past all the chocolate and the sweet cakes, and the
popcorn and the can chips, all the things you don't need,
because that's the stuff they hope you put in your
basket on your way out.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Yeah, it's quite interesting. I'm interested in the psychology of
this for a lot of different reasons. But I think
we just need to normalize the fact that not everything
has to look really good for it to be very good.
And that's the thing about the zvia, right, Like, my
mountain zvia isn't quite the same as mountain dew is.
There's no real sugar in the zvia, and it's kind
(10:47):
of like a knockoff version of what mountain dew is
supposed to taste like. And the zvia it doesn't have
any coloration to it, and it doesn't have any bad
ingredients in it. The whole point is that it's like
it's it's good for a vegan and it's good for
you know anybody who's trying to minimize how much you
know they have there, So I don't know.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
It is artificial sweetener made from it all plant. Okay,
it's stevie. It's a and that drink.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
It's stevia, which is kind of like a sugar knock off,
but it's still a natural ingredient. But yeah, it's not
real sugar instead of sugar. It's a sugar substitute. Catvi
from Like, I mean, where do you go? Sorry, where
do you grow stevia?
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Where do you grows diva? Uh?
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Stevia Apparently you can grow it, but it's native to
the Mediterranean. It prefers warm temperatures and minimal frosts for
year round growth zones, and it needs plenty of sunlight
but can tolerate partial shade and especially in hot and
dry climates, which it needs.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
But it's sweet, and it then there's no like calories
to it. Is that the thing.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Exactly, But it's also not going to taste as good
as a sugar does. So you just have to understand that,
you know, like, if you're using stevia as a substitute
for sugar, you're not going to be satisfied. With like
how it hits you right, like you're you're like, oh,
this doesn't taste like mountain dew when you drink a
mountain zvia. But that's kind of the point, right, it's
it's all natural ingredients. So I don't know, really, riddle
(12:12):
riddle me that. Three seventeen, We have more coming up.
Thanks for listening. News Radio eleven ten kfab.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Emery Sunger on News Radio eleven ten kfab.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Give me a forty four ounce fountain mountain Dew because
it just is the best. I'll pay my dollar nineteen
or whatever it costs to get one of these, and
I love how it tastes. But generally speaking for my caffeine,
if it's not coffee or tea, I want to have
a zva because it is there's no calories, and there's
minimal ingredients and they're all natural ingredients. Had somebody send
(12:45):
me an email and said, you know, I read somewhere
that Stevie is known to cause cancer, and this is
a thing that has gone around, and I do know
that this was something that was talked about in a
couple of studies, one study in particular and mentioned this
but in moderate quantities everything that people are saying these days,
just normal amounts. It's actually not bad at all, And
in fact, there are some studies that have proved, like
(13:08):
shown that there could be some helpful benefits to it.
So it's a fully natural thing. If you eat too
much of it, just like or drink too much of it,
I guess I suppose, just like with anything else, you
probably will have some sort of bad behavior. But yeah,
it's interesting. And you know, whether or not stevia is
(13:28):
like one hundred percent safe, and whether or not certain
places feel like stevia is or isn't linked to cancer
according to basically every like modern study that's been done
the last few years, that isn't necessarily the case. So
I do appreciate the concern though, And I'll be honest
with you. I think if you look closely enough to
(13:49):
certain products, even ones that seem natural or ones that
seem pretty you know, benign, I hate to say that term,
but I mean, they could be bad. I mean they
could really be really bad for you or have bad effects.
I mean, think about how some people react to peanuts.
I like eating peanuts. You like peanuts. You can just
grab a handful of peanuts and just like start eating peanuts.
Oh absolutely, that's a great snack, the high end protein.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Oh yeah, it's great.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Like like I'm going to run club, you know, I'll
deal just take a couple of handfuls of peanuts and
just put them down, just to make sure I have
enough fuel in me. Guess what, there are people that
they have a sniff of peanuts and they start having
an allergic reaction, right, So it's a really an individual,
personal to personal basis. I've actually seen some great results
by trying to cut you know, real soda out of
my diet for the most part, and Stevia has been
(14:34):
a good way for me to be able to do that.
But it is really really interesting. Hey, Jason, also send
this to me. He said, McDonald's French fries in the
US because French fries in all the different countries at McDonald's,
like I said, the menus not even the same. I've
gone to McDonald's in the Netherlands. I went to McDonald's
in Spain. The menu is absurd how different it is. Well,
Jason says, McDonald's French fries in the United States contain
(14:55):
nineteen ingredients, including potatoes, various oils, dex tros sodium acid, pyrophosphate,
natural beef flavor, citric acid, and dimethylice paul'sy oxane something
like that. Some of these ingredients were used to maintain color,
prevent greasiness, and enhance flavor. Now, I'm not gonna lie
(15:17):
to you. Much like the taco John's potato oleys McDonald's
French fries when freshly salted, I gotta tell you, Matt,
it's a weakness there are sometimes I'm just like I
can smell those McDonald's French fries no matter where I am,
the hundreds of times that I've had it in my life,
they always hit and they never taste bad. Like I
feel like those are just one of those foods that
I think people can just eat and eat, eat, eat, neat.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
We all got it, We all got I just turned
my mic off. That was weird. Why do do that?
Speaker 2 (15:43):
We all got them, Yeah, the olays, the salty McDonald's fries.
But nineteen ingredients does sound a bit much. And I
did eat some fries at that Spanish McDonald's and I
didn't notice a ton of difference, right, It wasn't like
a dark difference in how they taste it. Now, maybe
I'm trying not to eat McDonald's that much. I probably
(16:04):
eat McDonald's maybe three or four times this entire calendar year.
But I you know, I used to McDonald's all the time,
and I don't know that for some reason in Spain,
they're just the fries didn't taste that different, and I
know they have a lot less ingredients in them. So
maybe there's a movement with this RFK thing, but also
just making sure we the people know what is in
(16:24):
our food and if people decide to keep stuff in
the food for one reason or another, we should know
and we should have I mean, like they put warning
packets on like our warning things on certain like alcohol
or tobacco products, or you know, like visible warnings on
certain you know, food items based on like like you said,
like it says like may contain nuts or you know,
(16:47):
pineapple or whatever, you know, so people don't end up
having like this situation right where they end up eating
something or consuming something without fully knowing what kind of
risk may be involved. And with that being said, for
whatever it's worth, right, it's like, okay, so what is
(17:08):
our responsibility at that point if it's still being offered
to us I'm not saying you have to slap a
label like that on every single food item, but if
there are people or places or companies that aren't going
to comply with that, then maybe they need to, you know,
take a step backwards and think about maybe what they're
putting in our products. I'm not sure. Rick's on the
(17:31):
phone line real quick. I want to get him before
I at the bottom. Rick, what's on your mind today?
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Hey, I just want to tell you stevia does not
cause cancer.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
They were talking, they were talking about aspertain, aspertain, All right, Yeah,
is that another sugar substitute.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
That aspertains a sugar substitute.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
I think it's oh yeah, it's an artificial localorie sweetener.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Yeah, yeah, you're right, you're right, you're right. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
So yeah, I appreciate that, Rick. I know people I
think get stevia kind of in that mix of confusion,
but I know it is an actual plant. I do
appreciate you clearing this up. Thanks so much for listening
to us.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Yeah, no problem.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
And in Europe, oddly enough, aspertame is actually legal in
Europe to use as an artificial sweetener, even though it
does seem to have some level of harmful risks to
the body.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
So isn't that weird? You know?
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Now, Europe is a little bit backwards on the whole.
They a lot of countries don't like Stevia over there,
but they will let you have Aspertain, which is a
low calorie artificial sweetener. They say it's approximately two hundred
times sweeter than sugar.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Wow, that's what they put in all those diet colas, right.
What in the gum too? It's in the gum that
if you get the gum, you know, two hundred times
that's crazy. Anyway, I don't know science kids. You know,
this is why you do some chemistry four two, five, five, eight,
eleven ten. If you've got something on your mind, you'd
like I talked to us today here on news radio
eleven teen KFAB And did you watch the Home Run Derby?
(19:06):
Last night?
Speaker 2 (19:07):
I watched the Home Run Derby? Did you watch the
Homer Derby growing up? Because it's just a completely different experience. Now,
did you have good memories of seeing like some of
the big sluggers of our our childhood, you know, just
smashing bombs.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
I do, And I'm definitely one of those fellas who
I was. I played baseball as a kid. Yeah, I
played in the leagues. I played with the aluminum bat,
I played with the pitch machine, and then played a
couple of seasons when I was a little bit older,
when you know, I was going against live pitchers and
enjoyed the sport and grew up watching the Braves on
TBS Braves teams. What a pitching staff they had Glavin Yeah,
(19:45):
and Smoltz and Maddox Yeah, old Larry out there at
third base. Yeah, Chip Gilder Jones. The Mets did not
like Chipper Jones.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Let me tell you you had Brian Jordan.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
I always remember him. Yeah, remember remember the summer of
John Rocker. Oh yeah, that guy was crazy. He's still
crazy on Twitter if you find him. Yeah, the dude's
a nut job. The stories people tell about that guy
are almost like he's not a real person. He's a meme.
What a wild guy.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Yeah, And I don't know, you could kind of tell
that just watching him walk to the mound, right, Yeah,
it's great.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
But anyway, but so I did. I loved I'm a
Cardinals fan, so I was a big Mark McGuire guy.
I loved the summer of McGuire and Sosa the home
run summer when they went back and forth. Man, that
was Roger Merrit's baseball. For me, it was And I
loved the home run derby. I loved the sport. I
have to confess that when the steroids thing broke through
(20:41):
and I got older and I stopped playing the sport
myself in the summer, I've kind of fallen away from
being totally focused on the game. I check in on
the Cardinals. They're above five hundred, and I'm happy about that.
I wish there are a couple games out of the
wild Cards. So I know about the sport and I
keep tabs on it.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
You're you're not making appointment television to watch a lot
of the stuff I think. I think that I wonder
if I fall into a category that other people do
that the steroids thing kind of kind of got them
out of the regular intrigue of the sport as it's
never really gone back full board. So I haven't watched
the home run derby in years. So this is the
interesting thing, right because and this is maybe a profound
(21:19):
conversation about generations, Right, Why do certain generations feel the
way that they do, And baseball is trying to grow
with the younger generation more than is their old fans.
This is the thing NASCAR got themselves in kind of
trouble with by building a lot of different tracks in different,
more metropolitan areas in the country and then like being confused,
why when you know, time went on and the honeymoon
(21:43):
phase were off in some of those areas that all
of a sudden there was a big falloff in viewership
and a falloff in attendance at a lot of these tracks.
I think baseball is finding itself kind of in that mode.
Now more people are going to the games than ever before.
You can actually go back and watch you know, games
in the mid nineties at Yankee Stadium in different you
know aspects and like the outfields empty, people just aren't there.
(22:06):
There was a major attendance problem at Major League Baseball
games and a lot of these big stadiums for years,
and that's not a problem now people are going to
the games. The stadiums themselves have become kind of Hey,
I want to go hang out at the ballpark tonight.
But the game is not necessarily the biggest reason for
a lot of those people to be there, especially in
the middle of the summer. Now that's not to say
(22:28):
that people don't love the game, but the home run
derby is a perfect example. Do you remember if I
quizzed you and we're talking like, let's say, like two
thousand and two, the home run derby and Sammy Sosa
and Richie Sexson and a bunch of these other guys
that are you know, you know, sluggers of the time
are about to hit a bunch of home runs, and
I quizzed you about what the format was. Do you
(22:48):
remember the rules of the home run derby back then?
Remember what the rules were and how.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Well it was just whoever hit the most and they
would go round a round. Yeah, but what was around? Like,
how did it around end? It wasn't it was it
a pitch count or was it minutes? It was out.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
So if you didn't hit a home run, it was
considered an out. For every swing. If you swung and missed,
it was an out. If you hit a ball but
it was a ground ball, it was an out. If
you hit the ball but it didn't go it was
a foul ball, it was an out, and after ten
outs it was over. And that was the way it
was for a long time. When you're doing that, there's
no time on it. Right, A guy could take as
long as he wants. He could just sit there and
(23:25):
he could just hit home runs as long as he could, right,
and then he'd take a deep breath and then he'd
you know, lined back up in the box, and then
he'd you know, take a couple of pitches and then
he'd swing, and then we'd all get to admire the
balls and see if it would get out. Now, it's timed,
and they've actually messed with this and it's been timed
(23:45):
for about a decade now, but it's a three minute time.
So for three minutes, basically it's as many home runs
as you can hit. And they've also instituted a pitch count,
so essentially like you also have forty pitches to try
to burn through in thirty in three minutes. So basically,
the pitcher the beep, it's like batting practice, and he's
just like he's not stopping. He just pitched. Guy swings.
(24:06):
He doesn't even watch it. We don't even have time
to watch it. He just grabs the next one and
he pitches. You have to split screen it to see
him hit the ball, and then you have to have
another split screen to kind of follow where the ball
is going, and the covered stinks because you just can't
there's no time to take a deep breath into just
admire the baseball. Like by the time you're watching to
see if a ball is going to get out, the
(24:26):
guy's already swinging and hitting the next ball. That's just
how the format is. And they're trying to get the
TikTokers to you know, be interested. It's so fast paced,
so it's moving so fast instead of just kind of
the organic nature of just being able to watch a
guy just try to hit the ball and hit as
many home runs as possible, like when we grew up. Now,
sure maybe that had run its course by the end
(24:47):
of the late two thousands and trying to figure out
like what made sense and what didn't, But I gotta
tell you, it just didn't feel the same. And then
they throw in you know, these crazy, weird looking uniforms,
and then they throw in the like the Pat McAfee's
who like Pat McAfee was like the mc this is
a former NFL punter and he's just like an overgrown
dude bro now and you know, he's just loud, obnoxious,
(25:10):
and he's just I don't know. They want him to
be unabashedly him and he works for ESPN, who's doing
the broadcast. But it's like it's just kind of a
turn off that was it's not baseball. I think of
like John Miller and Joe Morgan doing Sunday Night Baseball.
I think of Chris Berman back back, back back doing
the home run derby. You know, we've lost all of it,
(25:32):
and it's just it's kind of sad. ESPN actually is
losing the rights to all things major League Baseball at
the end of this season, so, you know, because Major
League Baseball is not happy with the product that they've
given him. I couldn't tell you, but I was watching
that thing last night, and congrats to cal Raleigh nickname
the Big Dumper.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
How about cal So? He took it, he won. What
a season he's having. Man out of almost nowhere. Honestly,
his life has to be cresting right now as a catcher.
Is he ever gonna have a season like this again?
Speaker 2 (26:01):
He's a switch hitting catcher who's hit thirty eight home
runs at the All Star break. The only man to
hit more before the All Star Break was Barry Bonds.
The year he hit seventy three, he had thirty nine.
He's he's on a faster pace than Sosain Maguire were
in ninety eight, right, Think about that. You want to
know something else. Last night, his dad was the pitcher.
His dad was pitching to him, that's cool. And his
(26:21):
fifteen year old younger brother was the catcher, so he
had his dad, his brother, and him. Those were the
three guys out there doing the home run derby and
he ended up winning it. So, yeah, what a season.
That guy's having wild stuff. It was an interesting night,
and you know, that was cool. But other than that,
you know, I just I'm very disappointed with the way
that you know, that used to be like an appointment
(26:43):
television for me. I used to like sit down and
I really get excited about it, and I just remember
being frustrated at various points. I watched the stat cast
version simply because I wanted to. They showed the exit
velocity and launch angle, which I know enough about baseball
to basically know as soon as he hits the ball,
as soon as the guy hits the ball, and they
show the exit velocity is like one hundred and five
(27:04):
miles an hour and the launch angle's like thirty degrees.
I'm like, okay, that's gonna be a home run. That way,
I don't have to watch the ball try to leave
because there's no way. It's just happening too fast. But anyway,
three forty eight, thanks for listening. You're listening to news
radio eleven ten KFAB and Marie's Sunger.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
I need to get my picture changed.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Don't you think I've been rolling since I got here
or this since they announced that I got the job
with the short kind of slicked over, you know, kind
of haircut. I haven't looked like that since I got here.
It's been two full years. You think I think I'm
due for a new photo or do you think nobody cares?
Because I mean, Scott's got an old photo up of
him too, but he basically looks the same. His hair's
(27:44):
a little different, but you know, well not that different.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Now this is different, but I used to work it.
I used to work for a company that would market
for realtors. Okay, so we would kind of basically be
their marketing team. We'd handle their online footprint, we'd handle
their website, their blog, they would do, they would do
videos with us, okay, and you'd meet these these realtors
(28:09):
and I would get introduced to them initially by just
like seeing their the thumbnail of like you know, on
their website, you know, sure, and then I would record
the video with them as they're doing like a market
update that they wanted to keep themselves present online for
to to keep their site tracked. And there's a whole
bunch of seo stuff behind it. But you'd see him
(28:30):
and you're like, whoa, that is not a current picture.
Oh yeah, you'd get some that. Like, Man, I'm telling you,
there was this one guy. He was out in Colorado.
So I'm not talking smack about anybody around these parts,
all right, Yeah, this guy was out there in like
the Veil area and about a bunch you know, go
(28:50):
get yourself a skiing property or whatever. I'm telling you. Man,
his his all of his imaging that he used of himself,
and you know, realtors like you to know what they
look like, right, All the imaging that he would use
of himself was straight out of the seventies. The guy
had sideburns, he had a haircut that looked like it
was from the era HU and even in some of
his more full profile looks. He's even dressed and almost
(29:11):
like a seventies look. Then you'd get him on and
then you'd get him on video, do a video. He
was at least forty years older. Forty I'm telling you, man,
you updated it for forty years, nothing like the pictures.
And I'm thinking, like, this is just bad marketing. Well, yeah,
they can't be good. Somebody's going to go go with
you to meet a house and be like, who are you? Yeah,
(29:31):
I think the guy's dad showed up. Who's this guy? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (29:34):
No, yeah, And that's the thing, right, And I'm on
the radio, so you don't have to see me every
single day, But you know, I think it's important for
you to kind of have an idea what I look like.
I photos of myself on social media. I'm a pretty
unique looking person. But it's radio.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Why don't you go on rock or Chad GPT or
whatever and just say like, hey, give me a photo
of an amalgamation of a very attractive young man. You
can do that, but it just it's my a bracket
and just put that out there. Why not? Who care?
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Just well, yeah, I mean it's the problem with that
mostly is the fact that what if two people are
gonna meet you in real I'm too present in real life,
right Like you can find me at bars and restaurants
around town. I'm at ballgames. I I do stuff like
I'm hanging out downtown a lot.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
I mean, pretend like your Emory Songers assistant be like
he couldn't make it tonight. I'm just his assistant out
here to get out the good word. He's a really
good guy. I think there's sitcom episodes about something like this.
I don't I don't want to. I don't wanna.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
When you tell one type of lie, you kind of
find yourself telling other lies to kind of cover the
initial lie up or to make it seem less of
a big deal.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
You know, if I could just make myself look as
pretty and attractive as possible, I absolutely would do it.
Don't don't get me wrong. Unfortunately that's just not the
real world that I live in. But either way, my
podcast is there for the taking if you'd like to
listen to it Emery Songer on the free iHeartRadio app
or kfab dot com and we'll chat more.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
Ors.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
The four o'clock hour is on the way on news
radio eleven ten KFA BH
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.