She Tried To Raise A Doll, Someone Hid A Camera, And A $3 Spin Made A Million

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Ever thought about walking away at a perfect round number? We open with a real creative crossroads: pushing to one thousand episodes versus pivoting to a short, live X Space before the morning rush. That question about platform, energy, and purpose sets the tone for a fast, honest run through stories that test our trust, our safety, and our luck.

First, we unpack a jaw-dropping hoax: a 22-year-old faked an entire pregnancy and tried to pass a reborn therapy doll off as a real newborn, complete with scans, a gender reveal, and a fabricated birth story. Beyond the headlines, we dig into the why—how loneliness, validation loops, and social media incentives can make deception feel rewarding until it collapses. We talk about reborn dolls as tools for grief and care, and where comfort can slip into performance that harms families and communities.

Then we shift to safety with a case that’s hard to shake: hidden cameras allegedly placed in port-a-potties at public events. We break down how tiny devices exploit crowded spaces, what practical signs to look for before you step inside, and how event organizers and everyday people can respond fast. It’s a frank look at the collision of cheap surveillance tech and basic privacy, and how awareness beats cynicism.

Finally, a change of pace: a local’s $3 spin on a Wheel of Fortune slot machine hits a $1M progressive. We share our own “hand pay” tales, why slots can be a better bet than table games for casual players, and how off-strip locals casinos deliver the thrill without the chaos. We close on something simple and fun—favorite shoes—because comfort and small joys still matter after the heavy stuff.

If you’re into media strategy, internet culture, true crime oddities, casino math, or just want a morning companion that tells you the truth with a wink, you’re in the right place. Hit follow, share this with a friend who needs both a reality check and a laugh, and drop a comment: should we stop at 1,000 or spin up that X Space pre-show? Your vote matters.

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Well, hello and good morning.
Happy Wednesday.
Let's see.
What kind of stories do we havefor you today?
Oh, by the way, I have 71 moreepisodes to go before I hit a
thousand episodes for thepodcast, and then I will
probably stop.
That's the plan right now, but71 days is a lot can happen

(00:20):
between now and the end of 71days.
Isn't that right?
I think it is.
So I don't know.
Right now I want to quit.
Right now, uh the plan has beento stop doing the podcast when I
hit a thousand episodes.
Alright, let's move on.
I am thinking about doingsomething else, but then I
thought about it.
I was like, why do that?
It's the same thing.
Not starting a new podcast, butperhaps starting an X space.

(00:45):
Um like uh 20 minutes, 30minutes before Pat Gray starts.
Do like a Pat Head pre-show typething, although it won't be
associated, obviously, with thePat Gray show.
It would just be my littleindependent X space uh sitting
in my car from 5:30 until I haveto go in.

(01:06):
So it would only be like a20-minute space.
I don't know if that's worth itor not.
We'll see what happens.
I don't know.
Maybe I'll just spend more timeat home instead of getting here
so early in the morning.
But then I'll have to hittraffic.
Okay, whatever.
You don't need to hear all ofthat.
My thinking out loud.
Alright, let's move on to let'ssee.

(01:27):
This woman here, this little22-year-old girl, woman, lady,
whatever you want to call it,female, she faked a pregnancy.
Young mom admits she fakedentire pregnancy, tried to pass
off silicone doll as thenewborn.
This is interesting, I think,anyway.

(01:49):
I don't know how she got awaywith it.
How do people do this?
I don't know.
That takes a lot of work, Iwould imagine.
A so-called young mom inScotland has admitted to
bizarrely faking her entirepregnancy.
And why would you want to dothis?
What kind of mental disorder doyou have where you would want to
even do this?
And even trying to pass off asilicone doll as her newborn.

(02:12):
We'll get to the silicone dollin a minute.
Kira Cousins 22 issued agroveling apology on Tuesday
after her massive hoax wasuncovered and started spreading
rapidly across the social media.
I'm so sorry, she wrote in a nowdeleted Instagram story obtained
by the Daily Record.

(02:33):
Ooh, I'll have to check out theDaily Record.
Uh, I wasn't pregnant.
There was no baby.
I made it up and kept it goingway too far.
I faked scans, I don't know howshe did that, messages, a whole
birth story, and acted like adoll was a real baby.
This lady needs some help.

(02:53):
Cousins had managed to fool herloved ones, including who she
claimed was the baby's father,into believing she was pregnant
and had given birth to a littlegirl who she named Bonnie Lee
Joyce, that is a kind of a cutename, on October 10th.
Uh Cousins sported a growingprosthetic bump to fuel the ruse

(03:15):
and held a lavish gender revealparty in the weeks before the
birth.
And she has pictures of her.
There's pictures in here of herbeing pregnant, and it is quite
uh quite believable.
Uh and she has a picture of thisdoll, and if you just glance at
it, it you know, it might bemistaken for a real baby.

(03:35):
Uh photon social media capturedcousins smiling and posing as
she cradled the bump throughoutthe so-called pregnancy.
Uh as part of the elaboratehoax, cousins also posted images
of scans and even claimed testshad detected a heart defect in
the baby.
What in the world?

(03:56):
Cousins then claimed she gavebirth alone and promptly started
showing off the newborn, whichultimately turned out to be the
reborn doll.
A reborn doll.
That is a real thing.
That's a the brand name of it.
It's called Reborn Doll, andit's used in therapy type
situations.
Uh the wild sham came crashingdown though, when her mom found

(04:18):
the doll in the bedroom lastweek.
Just prior to coming clean,cousins went as far as telling
the supposed father that theirnewborn had died.
Gosh, dog.
The story quickly spilled out onsocial media as friends and
loved ones branded her a serialliar.

(04:38):
I don't think this is the firstlady that has done this.
I think I remember a year or soago I read another story about
the same thing.
Different woman, obviously.
Some loved ones have sinceclaimed they started becoming
suspicious when no one had heardthe baby cry and that cousins
wouldn't let anyone touch thenewborn.
I guess not, it's a doll.

(05:00):
In her bizarre apology, cousinsdefended those she'd fooled into
believing the doll was actuallyreal.
She said, in everyone's defense,the doll could move.
You could change the facialfeatures, arms and legs, she
said.
You could feel the you couldfeed the doll, making it pee or
poo.
So when no one is close to thedoll, it does look real.

(05:22):
No one was looking at my babyexpecting it to be a doll.
Honey, I'm sorry, but if I amyour mother and you have a
grandbaby, I am p I'm takingthat grandbaby.
I don't know why this motherdidn't want to pick up the baby
and and love on it.
I don't know.
Reborn doll, here we go, aboutthe reborn dolls.

(05:42):
Reborn dolls, which can retailfor as much as two thousand
dollars, are hyper-realisticbaby replicas that are often
used as a form of therapy forthose struggling with
infertility, infant loss, ordementia.
The dolls have become part ofthe cosplay type trend in recent
years, in which people pass thedolls off as real children,

(06:05):
siccos, going as far asbreastfeeding them and taking
pictures with them out inpublic.
And that's the end of the story.
That's how it ends.
That's how it ends for you.
Okay, let's move on to the nextstory, I guess.
That is some crazy stuff.
Get some therapy.
I don't know why.
Would people do this?
Can you give me an explanationof why people would want to do

(06:26):
this?
This is a this is an elaboratething to do.
Wow.
Sicko.
She'll probably get a Netflix uhdocumentary, something like
that.
Who knows?
All right, next up.
Oh, this is disgusting.
Y'all be careful when you go toport-a potties.
You might be on camera.

(06:46):
An Iowa pervert allegedly hidcameras inside port-a-potties to
film dozens of people, includingchildren, during local events,
according to authorities andreports.
Tyler Pavlik, who is 32 yearsold of Des Moines, Iowa of Des
Moines, was arrested onWednesday and charged with seven
counts of sexual exploitation ofa minor to engage in an act and

(07:10):
three counts of invasion ofprivacy involving nudity for
allegedly stashing camerasinside porta potties.
Uh, wow.
Pavlik allegedly installed acamera under the under the
toilet seat.
Isn't that lovely?
To secretly coord dozens ofadults and children during two
different local events.

(07:31):
I want to know how they foundthis camera.
I guess, I mean, people were inthere.
Were they not looking around?
I want to know.
I want to talk to the person whodiscovered it.
But no, they didn't talk to theperson who discovered it.
I want to know.
I want to know.
I want to meet that person whodiscovered the camera and tell
me how they found it.
Uh one camera was one one camerawas discovered in a port-a

(07:52):
potty, John, at the Harvest andHandmade Fair at Waterworks Park
in Des Moines on October 4th,the outlet reported.
The camera had filmedunknowingly adults and children
as they entered the port-a pottyand used the toilet.
Why, why, I don't understand,people.
We live in a sick and dementedworld.

(08:14):
Do we not?
This is why I want oh my gosh, Ican't.
I wow.
I used to never read storieslike this.
Before the internet, I used togo on about my day like the
world was perfect.
Oh my gosh.
Now I'm just jaded and disgustedwith everything.

(08:36):
On Thursday, the Marshall CountySheriff's Office announced they
were also you don't need tolook, you don't need any more of
that story.
That's enough of that story.
I mean, really, at least theycaught the guy.
All right, so our last one here.
Oh my gosh, a person hit amillion dollar jackpot in Las
Vegas on a Wheel of Fortune slotmachine on a$3 bet.

(08:58):
So when we do the slot machinesin Tunica, we do the$3.
Um, and we've won, we've won acouple of hand pays, which means
they have the machine stops, youknow, it's uh over a certain
amount.
The machine stops, a light goesoff on the top, and a person has

(09:19):
to come out who works there,comes out, an employee comes
out, takes our information,gives us the tax paperwork and
stuff like that, and then paysus the cash.
But it's only over a certainamount.
I forget what the amount is,like maybe$1,200,$1,500,
something like that.
Congratulations to a local gueston hitting the incredible$1

(09:41):
million jackpot paying we'llplaying the Wheel of Fortune
Cash Link big money at SunsetStation last night.
The Sunset Station Hotel andCasino posted on Facebook.
I've never heard of the SunsetStation.
That must be off the main themain old strip the main old news
strip.
Okay, that doesn't make anysense.

(10:02):
There's two different areas inin Vegas.
There's the one where the bigfamous one, I think is the big
famous one where it has theBellagio, it has all the big
hotels on it, Caesars, all that.
Uh, but then there's a oneFremont Street, I think it's
called, where all the youngerpeople like to go.
And I want to say, back in theday when it first started, that

(10:25):
was the original Las Vegas.
Okay.
Let's let's continue on.
The casino shared the update ina celebrity celebratory post on
Saturday, sparking multiplecongratulatory comments from
fans and fellow gamblers online.
The post included an image ofthe Progressive Video slot
machine showing the grand prizeof a million.

(10:46):
Okay, blah, blah, blah.
I have played the Wheel ofFortune slot machine before.
It's kind of fun.
Alright, that's really all youneed to know.
The property caters largely tolocals seeking the game, the
same gaming excitement as thestrip without the crowds and
parking headaches.
Well, there you go.
So that's why you've never heardof it.
It's off the beaten path.

(11:07):
Well, congratulations.

And here's the thing (11:09):
when you go to Vegas, you don't play
table games because you're notgonna win.
All right, you can play slots,they're kind of fun, but don't
play table games when you go toVegas.
All right, that's my that's myadvice for you today.
All right, we need to move on tothe question of the day.
Okay, tell me what kind of shoesyou're wearing.

(11:30):
What are your go-to shoes thatyou like to wear that are
comfortable or that you wear allthe time?
What shoes are you wearing rightnow?
I used to make fun of peoplewearing New Balance.
Well, let me tell you what.
Guess what I have on my feetright now?
New Balance.
I didn't make fun of them, notreally.
But I used, you know, I didn'tlike them.
I didn't think, especially uh myhusband wears them all the time.

(11:51):
And you know, they're okay.
You know, they're all right,they're comfortable shoes.
And then I went shoe shopping uha while ago, and I saw these new
balances for women, they're socute, they're like the little
platformed ones.
I have this I'll have to put apicture out on on my ex feed.
They're cute, I like them, so Ibought a pair and I love them.

(12:11):
I wear them all the time now.
Love them.
Okay, I also like my littleConverse Chuck Taylors too, but
I'm really liking these newbalance, they make me a little
taller and they're comfy.
Alright, I gotta go.
Thanks for listening.
Bye.