A children’s Halloween parade turns chaotic, a 67-year-old citizen ends up with broken ribs, and we’re left asking hard questions about power, timing, and proportionality. We walk through what the video shows, what officials say, and the choices that escalated a neighborhood operation into a community flashpoint. Could this arrest have happened differently—earlier, elsewhere, with less risk to bystanders? We don’t settle for outrage or spin; we analyze trade-offs and how enforcement tactics shape public trust.
Then the stakes feel smaller but the lesson is the same: signals matter. A traveler arrives for an American Airlines “flight” and discovers the first leg is actually a bus. The boarding pass had a plane icon. The gate displayed a flight number. The fine print whispered the truth. We break down how metasearch tools compress complexity, why airlines blend bus legs into hub feeds, and how to avoid the trap with simple booking hygiene: read the entire itinerary, verify equipment type, and when in doubt, book direct. Clearer UX—distinct icons, color coding, and upfront mode labels—would save thousands from surprise ground legs.
Finally, we turn the mic on ourselves and tackle the rise of filler words—um, like, so—and the viral challenge to go 30 to 60 seconds without them. Fillers aren’t villains; they buy time, signal turns, and soften tone. But overuse muddies ideas and undermines authority when it matters most. We share practical tools: slow your pace, embrace clean pauses, chunk thoughts, and replace filler clusters with purposeful transitions. Keep the identity; trim the noise. If you try the no-filler challenge, tell us your time and the word that trips you up.
Enjoyed the conversation? Follow, share with a friend who loves sharp takes on news, travel, and communication, and leave a quick rating to help others find the show. What filler word drives you most crazy?
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Episode Transcript
Hello, my dear love bunnies.
How are you today?
On a Wednesday, halfway throughthe week.
All right, what do we have foryou today from the X-Files,
mainly the New York Post?
Let's start with oh uh what it'sraining here by the way.
(00:20):
I don't know if you can hear mywind swipers there.
I turned them off because I'mparked in the parking lot.
Don't need the winch wipers onanymore.
Okay, so I don't know how I feelabout this.
My gut reaction is this iswrong.
Alright, U.S.
citizen.
Yes, U.S.
citizen, 67 years old, sufferedbroken ribs after Border Patrol
(00:44):
agents drag him out of his carin shocking video.
Well, I think some of thesepeople are getting a little too
big for their britches.
I appreciate the job they'redoing, but let's back off a
little bit, okay?
With American citizens, you needto back off a lot.
(01:04):
I don't know what has happenedhere.
Let's read the article and seeif we can figure it out.
Shocking video captured BorderPatrol agents dragging
67-year-old man from his car andpinning him to the ground in an
immigration enforcementoperation during a children's
Halloween parade in Chicago.
(01:25):
Well, well.
The man was driving home after along morning run when he turned
a corner in the city's oldIrving Park neighborhood and
discovered border patrol agentshad blocked off the road leading
to his home.
His running club DW RunningRacing Team posted in a social
(01:49):
media statement.
The man who had, I'm sorry, theman who the club identified as a
U.S.
citizen was reportedly draggedout of the car and thrown to the
ground shortly after agentsthreatened to break his window
if he didn't move his car, theclub said.
(02:09):
Now, this is all being reportedby third-party type situations.
We don't know exactly whathappened, if there was a
confrontation, if the man wasbeing belligerent.
Who knows what is happening?
But you better believe the leftmedia, the left media will use
this up.
(02:30):
Video posted by the clubcaptured the runner, who has not
been identified by name on theground, breathlessly saying,
I'll move Mike, get off me.
As agents kneeled on his backwhile cuffing him.
So I just I just don't see thesepeople dragging somebody out of
(02:51):
the car if they were beingcompliant.
If they're being compliant, whywould they drag them out of the
car?
Do you see what I'm saying here?
So onlookers scream, get offhim.
You're effing, suffocating himas the agents were filming while
they were filming the incident.
Um, let's see.
(03:12):
The man suffered six brokenribs, my goodness.
Which caused internal bleedingduring the detainment in the the
club claimed.
The arrest came as Border Patrolagents converged in the
neighborhood to conduct animmigration enforcement raid.
(03:34):
Residents claimed the officersinterrupted a children's
Halloween parade and releasedtear gas without warning.
Okay, this a little bitoverreach here, guys.
I think.
I mean, maybe they had goodreason to be there, but a
children's parade?
Could you not wait a little bit?
The arrest came as the boardOkay, good old, I got that.
(03:56):
Footage obtained by the outletshowed agents deploying the tear
gas and cuffing several people,including U.S.
citizens, outside houses adornedwith Halloween.
This is this is too far.
This is too much.
The agents had to deploy crowdcontrol measures to protect
themselves from hostile crowd.
Well, I guess so.
Agents were conducting anoperation to arrest an illegal
(04:20):
immigrant from Mexico who waspreviously been arrested for
assault.
During the operation, BorderPatrol agents were surrounded by
a group of agitators.
Federal law enforcement issuedmultiple lawful commands and
verbal warnings, all of whichwere ignored.
Two U.S.
citizens were arrested forassaulting and impeding a
(04:41):
federal office.
Is there no other way they couldhave done this to arrest this
guy?
I guess they were just after oneguy.
This seems like a bit much forone illegal guy.
Don't you think?
I mean, I wasn't there.
I'm just going by what thisreport is saying.
Uh so this is crazy.
You can go finish reading thatif you like over there on the
(05:05):
X-File because we need to moveon to some other things.
This confused traveler thoughtshe booked an American Airlines
flight, but was in for a shockat the airport.
I totally missed something.
Okay, so this is why I don'tbook, we don't book air flights
from Google or any other weird,off-the-cuff, weird things that
(05:27):
don't belong in airlinebookings.
This woman booked a flightthrough Google.
Why?
We go straight to Delta and bookour things on Delta.
Alright, so anyway, here we go.
And a lot of she's getting a lotof flack too uh for their thing.
She well, how stupid can you bewhen booking how do you not know
(05:49):
a bus from an airplane?
Well, let's go through itbecause I can see where she was
confused.
A New York woman who thought shebooked an American Airlines
flight was flabbergasted aftershe had bus rolled up instead.
She detailed this mother of alltransit mishaps in a TikTok
(06:09):
video.
Blah blah blah.
Okay, so let's move on to theactual story.
The mode of transport wasespecially confusing as there
was a flight icon on herboarding pass, she noted in the
caption.
Oh my gosh, it is really pouringdown rain.
I hope this is not ruining theaudio for you guys.
(06:31):
Alex explained in a follow-upvideo that she lives in upper,
I'm sorry, upstate New York andtypically departs from Scranton,
Pennsylvania.
So, okay, we get all that.
Uh the upstate native thennavigated security and arrived
(06:54):
at her gate.
So she's at the airport,arriving at the gate, okay,
noting that the flight boardshowed her American Airlines
flight number and an airplaneicon, and that travelers boarded
according to their groupnumbers.
It wasn't until it came time forAlex to board that she noticed
(07:17):
something was seriously awry.
She said, I look at a womannearby and I say, Do you know
how long the flight is?
And the flabbergasted travelersaid, Do you mean the bus?
That's when it dawned on herthat her plane trip was actually
a two and a half hour bus ridefrom Scranton to Philly.
(07:42):
Alex said she was especiallyconfused while American Airlines
makes it abundantly clear thatthe journey, its first leg
involves a bus.
Google Flights is a lot morecryptic about it.
They simply write bus and thesmall text under the airline
name sans any giant distinctionbetween the modes of transport.
(08:03):
Read the details, read the smallprint.
I did go back through and see ifI totally missed something, and
I didn't, she says.
It is not clear on there at all.
Well, there you go.
Hmm.
Uh, I also just want to add tothat when you are looking at a
website called Google Flights, Ithink it's pretty reasonable to
(08:23):
expect to be looking at flights,she declared.
I agree.
American Notes.
That's why you don't go throughGoogle though.
You've got to go through thedirect air flight, the airline.
That's the way okay.
You can go finish reading that.
I'm sorry about all the rain.
Nothing I can do about that.
Alright, moving on to the laststory, which I think is
fascinating.
(08:45):
And it is about uh, well, let mego over here and get it to it.
Americans are gettingself-conscious about their
valley girl voice.
So, like, here's why they can,here's what they can do about
it.
And as I say valley girl, it'snot really the valley girl
voice, it's all the filler wordsthat we use now.
Like, like, or look or wait, youknow, that those kind of things.
(09:11):
Americans are like so totallyover how we speak, but I could
actually stop using them.
That's another one, actually.
All right, filler, all right,that's another one.
Filler words have become a socommon in everyday conversation
that most of us hardly noticethem.
I notice them.
I notice some of them, not allthe time, and I know I'm guilty
(09:32):
of it too, until someone pointsthem out.
But according to a new study byPrepply, a global online
language learning platform,Americans are getting
increasingly self-consciousabout their speech habits as
Google searches for filler wordshave shot up 144% in the last
(09:53):
month.
I need to go look up fillerwords too to see if I use them a
lot.
I know that I do.
This insecurity has even turnedinto a viral online trend.
With the no filler words trend,Americans are challenging one
another to record themselvesspeaking 30 seconds to a minute
without using those dreadedwords.
(10:15):
But filler words aren't new.
All right, let's go see.
Linguists trace their popularityback to the mid-20th century
when spontaneous conversationbegan to dominate public life.
From radio broadcasts to casualoffice meetings.
Over time, these verbal crutchesspread into nearly every corner
(10:36):
of communication, fueled by popculture, social media, and
regional slang.
Yes, we get that.
We know we figured that out.
In the 1980s, California ValleyGirl dialect cemented like as
the go-to hesitation word for infor an entire generation.
Then came so.
Oh my gosh, yes.
(10:57):
Oh my lord, yes.
The word so S-O.
Oh.
Oh, that got on my nerves somuch.
All right.
There's another one.
All right.
Oh gosh, stop it, Carol.
Okay.
That's another one.
The tech era transition wordthat's now as common in
(11:18):
boardrooms as in brunchconversations.
By 2024, according to Pref LeaseNational Survey, 98% of
Americans admit to using fillerwords regularly.
Um, so and like were the topthree offenders across the
country.
California led the nation inlike usage, no surprise there,
while 34 states paused with ummost times.
(11:44):
It's okay to pause rather thanfill gaps in speech with words
like um, like, or so.
Pauses can be a powerful tool incommunication, giving listeners
time to absorb what you've justsaid.
Language expert Sylvia Johnsontold preptly.
Beyond filler words, Americansreported other common quirks.
(12:09):
Talking too fast, yes, I can'tstand the people that talk too
fast and especially too loud.
I know Stephen Miller is guiltyof this.
Some other people are guilty ofthis.
I like Stephen Miller, butsometimes it comes off I don't
know how I don't know how todescribe it.
All right, moving on.
Um, talking too fast, overapology, over apologizing, and
(12:33):
yes, swearing too much.
A quarter of respondentsadmitted to talking too much and
mumbling ranked high among themost annoying habits to hear in
others.
And these habits can sometimeswork together.
When we speak too quickly, wetend to use more filler words.
(12:54):
I think people like to talkquickly and loud because it
makes them sound authorauthoritative or an expert.
I think that's why people dothat.
By slowing down, we giveourselves more time to find the
right words or phrase and reducethe need for fillers, Johnson
said.
Still, not all quirks are bad.
(13:15):
More than 80% of people withaccents or regional dialects
said they're proud of them,preppy reported and reported,
and half of those who've livedin a new region or country said
they don't try to change the waythey speak to fit in, embracing
their linguistic identity.
The study found that Americansfeel their speech habits affect
both their careers and okay,blah, blah, blah, blah.
(13:38):
What do you think about that?
What are some of the fillerwords?
You can go finish reading that.
Uh, what are you thinking someof the filler words that people
use too much?
Do you use any filler words?
Uh do you are you uh are youaware of filler words that you
might use?
Um, let's see, I just did it.
I know I do it a lot, and Iapologize.
(14:01):
Um, but I don't know what elseto do except to practice, and
maybe that's why I've starteddoing this podcast is to
practice my speech, although Ido read a lot as well on this
podcast.
Okay.
So I don't even know how tostart the next sentence without
(14:22):
doing a filler word or anintroductory word.
Maybe that is the question ofthe day.
Tell me the filler words thatyou do not like to hear people
speak.
And give me a culprit.
Does um I know Glenn Beck.
I don't know about his fillerwords, but he does use those
long dramatic pauses.
(14:43):
I hate them.
It's okay.
I understand a little bit of apause like that, but sometimes
he'll do a long, dramatic pausethat is too long, and you think
you've lost connection, and youstart reaching for your phone
thinking, oh gosh, I've lost myconnection.
I hate that.
So that is the question of theday.
(15:04):
I just said so.
Uh I'm gonna start doing thatviral trend.
I'm gonna start recording myselfand see if I can talk without
using a filler word.
That is my episode for the day.
Thank you for listening.
I did go over time a little bit,but that's alright.
You guys have a great day.
I'm trying to get off of my uhtrying to get off of my screen
(15:28):
lock here.
Okay.
Alright.
Thanks for listening.
Have a good day.
Bye.
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