November 20, 2025 • 32 mins
Cambridge Dictionary’s 2025 word of the year? Parasocial. People are now having parasocial relationships not just with celebrities, but with AI. Donate to our 15th Annual PastaThon for Caterina’s Club at www.KFIAM640.com/pastathon! No more secrets, it’s the big reveal: The Epstein Files are coming out! Wannabe homebuyers under the age of 40 are getting completely hosed, with 85 trillion in wealth in the hands of Boomers. Elon Musk holds 1% of all Gen X wealth. In 1975, the nationwide average for a home was $42,000. Mortgage rates are now so high that Gen Z and some Millennials can’t afford to buy a starter home. Boomers are holding most of the housing equity. There’s a new online dating scam that uses bitcoin ATMs in which you insert your own money to buy bitcoin. Some people have lost their life savings due to this scam.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I'm Chris Merrill, listening anytime on demand of the iHeart
Radio app Mark. I meant to bring this up to
you in the last segment, I ran out of time
because we were going through the history George Michael's public exposure.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
But you had a what is it. The word of
the year is parasocial.
Speaker 4 (00:24):
Yeah, that's right. It's the Cambridge Dictionary twenty twenty five
word of the Year. Parasocial. It's a connection that someone
feels between themselves and a famous person they don't know,
including fictional characters and AI.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Okay, first of all, when it comes to celebrities you
don't know, isn't that cult stalking?
Speaker 3 (00:40):
This kind of a legal gray area?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
There isn't there Have you run into that though, because
you've been in you've been in the public eye for
a while. And look I this. You have people that
really think, oh, I know that person, they're on the radio,
we're friends.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
And I get it too.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Look I see celebrities that I go, oh, man, I
would love to hang out with that guy. I would
love to hang out that They seem so cool. I
think we'd get along famously. Right, But they don't know me, right,
that's the big deal. Like, they don't it's a one
sided relationship.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
They don't know me.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
Yeah, people are generally cool. But once in my first
newspaper job, somebody made a fan page for me with
my face reproduced all over the page and the eyes
whiteed out, which really creeped me a Really, people are
generally cool and they understand. Harlan Ellison used to have
a story that he would tell about the guy who
played Hass on Bonanza. Yeah, like random women in real
(01:34):
life would approach the actor Dan Blocker and be like,
you get rid of that hop sing, I'll cook you
a good meal, And he's like, well, well you know, ma'am,
it's just a television show.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
You know, it's fiction. Wow, creepy. I think most people
are cool and they get it.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yeah, I think most people are. I agree with you,
But then there are a few that, you know. I'm
sure we'd get along famously, but I don't know you,
and we still have to go through the preliminary stages
of me getting to know you. You think you know me
inside out. It puts me in a bit of a disadvantage,
and that kind of scares me when you're like, so
is your wife still doing that stuff for insurance companies?
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Like whoa wait a minute, hang on now, you.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
Know, yeah, do you ever approach anybody if you see
a celebrity in town?
Speaker 3 (02:18):
I have not. I have not. I don't either never.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
I but I get I get what if I notice
a celebrity go oh that's so and so right. I
do get excited, but I don't get I don't turn
into a fanboy, except generally if it's like radio people.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Like like I.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
I'm only half joking when I say I'm a fanboy
of Tim Conway JUNR.
Speaker 5 (02:41):
Like.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
I think he's incredible and one of the most talented
people I've I've I've ever met, and I used to
listen to him driving home every night, and I was
so excited when I got a chance to meet Tim.
But of course, he's such a magnanimous guy, and you know,
he's he's he's got as much energy off the air
as he does on the air, and anybody's ever met
him knows that. So I got a little bit starstruck
when I met Tim. Not so much handle but Tim
(03:04):
definitely Nah.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
It was cool. One time I was filling in.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
I guess Gary and Shannon had the show at the time,
and I was filling in for them doing Middays. And
this was years ago, and I was prepping and and
Bill came back and he just you know, started talking,
saying hi, and I, honestly, I was a little bit nervous.
I was a little excited because you know, Bill's Bill's
a big deal, not just in LA but in the industry.
And I had listened to Bill even before I came
to California because of handle on the law, and I
(03:31):
was I was really excited to do that. And and honestly,
it sounds like I'm kissing up to him every night.
But whenever we talk with George Nori at the end
of this show, I think George is just an incredibly
talented person who who really knows how to put together
a show that just nails everything he's going after.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
So I have tremendous respect for him.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
But I'll get so starstruck with a lot of others,
a little nervous around it, but not not really starstruck.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
I came close to sending a drink to Larry Slim
when I saw him at Craigs a few years ago.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Now, that would have been great, that's really cool.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
But then I decided, you know, he's got a hundred
times the money that I have. It'll mean nothing to him.
And so I just minded my own business. I mean,
what helped is that I started my career doing tons
and tons of celebrity interviews.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
So I'm very.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
Conscious of what you could possibly say if you talk
to somebody that would have any meaning for them, or
what would just be an intrusion and they want you
to flee immediately.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
And then the other thing too is sometimes we think
that they have a sense of humor that they like.
It's funny to us, but it's not to them. Have
you ever done that? I've made that faux pap? Before
I was interviewing, I was doing mornings outside of Kansas
City and I was interviewing Paullie Shore one time. Yeah,
and Paully came on. You know how it is when
they got to do a music morning show. It's just
misery for those guys. And you've took the wheeze. Yeah,
(04:47):
And so he comes on and I go first question, Pollie.
I said, Uh, do I send the bill to you
or to somebody else? For biodome because I want my
ten dollars back, right, And like, in my mind, that was.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Really funny, yeah, an icebreaker. Yeah, And to him it
was not. It was not funny. He did not think
that was funny.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
I did that with David Carus, so you remember him
from CSI And yeah, of course, was it Hill Street
Blues or no, no, NYPD Blue one of.
Speaker 6 (05:15):
Those shows have a strange death or something.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
Oh no, no, no, no no. He's retired from acting now. But
I was interviewing him for a movie called Jade, and
I wanted to ask him he had made history, I
said at the time, for showing his pasty white ass
on TV. And he turns to me and he's like,
you think it's pasty? I thought we were going to
come to blows. So you've really got to be careful
(05:40):
about it about how you read somebody's receptivity too.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
But I think sometimes that's where that parasocial, that word
that you're talking about, kind of comes in. Where we
think we know them, and we think that we have
an idea of what the relationship between us is like,
and they don't even know us from Adam, you know.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
So I get that.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
I get it I will say I interviewed Keeper Sutherland
one time. Oh and he was a great interview that
he was doing twenty four at the time. And when
I did music radio, I did a lot of celebrity interviews.
I just don't do any anymore because you know, nobody
else come on my show.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
But he was fantastic.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
And I used to do this this bit at the
end of all of my interviews called friendly fire. So
I would just rattle off like five questions real fast.
I go, just give me the first thing that comes
to your mind, you know. So it'd be like warre
in the Middle East? Whose fault is it?
Speaker 3 (06:28):
You know?
Speaker 2 (06:28):
And they would always be like whoa you know? But
I would always ask one goofy one at the end.
And so I got to the last one, and I'm
doing this and I think I even have the music
bed still. It's one I use when whenever we do
a whip around. Yeah, I would do this, So we're
doing all right. Keep for Sutherland? Friendly fire. Last question,
(06:50):
bigger threat to America terrorists like the ones you fight
in your show twenty four or Christmas trees And if
you'll recall, yes, yes, there was a video that was
going wrong where he was just wasted and attacked a
Christmas tree. I think it was in a hotel lobby
if I'm not mistaken, and I mean it it went around,
and I mean it was kind of a it was
(07:11):
a ballsy move on my part.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
To do that. He was the best. He just started dying.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
He was like Christmas trees one hundred percent most dangerous
thing you'll ever encounter. But that was the role of
the dice though, wasn't it. Oh it definitely was. Yeah,
but he was he was great. He was great. So
that was that was an encounter. I like, I wanted
to come back to that parasocial thing, not just because
of the Cambridge Word of the Year, but because I
have a story tomorrow that I think you're gonna love.
You mentioned that it's not just knowing celebrities or fictional characters.
(07:38):
You also mentioned that it's like having a one way
relationship with AI with a yeah, right, and that's growing
more and more so I've got I have I have
a couple of stories on AI relationships tomorrow where not
only are they obviously interfering with you know, normal relationships,
but some people are really having difficulties separating truth from fiction.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
Oh God, just get to blow up, doll. It's so intolerable.
But you're in the driver's seat on this one, and
I don't want to encourage me.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Excuse you?
Speaker 4 (08:10):
Do you know?
Speaker 6 (08:11):
My only time I've ever fangirled over a celebrity that
I encountered was with fran Dresser.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Oh what was that?
Speaker 5 (08:18):
Right?
Speaker 3 (08:19):
What's not to like about the name?
Speaker 6 (08:20):
I was like, I cannot not approach this woman and
tell her how much.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
I love her shirt.
Speaker 6 (08:26):
She was beautiful and amazing and gracious and stunning.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
I love to hear that she seems nice.
Speaker 6 (08:33):
Oh she's beautiful, beautiful inside and out. She was so lovely.
She held my hand, she thought I was beautiful. We
just found for each other.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
It was, Ah, that's so cool. Now I want to
meet her. She's the best. Yeah, all right.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
I did want to give you an update because we
got the files that fizzle, the Epstein files. It looks
like they are going to come out. The President signed
that bill. That's the latest that we got that that
broke just before the show started to So what are
we gonna see? Well, you might be surprised more by
what you're not going to see. That is next time
Chris MERRILKFI AM six forty were live everywhere in the
(09:08):
iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Chris Merril KFI AM six forty more stimulating talk. Don't
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It's your generosity that makes it all happen.
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Speaker 3 (10:42):
Where's that other place? Where was the other state?
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Nevada?
Speaker 3 (10:45):
That's it?
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Yeah, Arizona, or you go California, Arizona and Vada. We're
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In fact, I think he's doing an extra hour on Friday, right, Yeah,
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Speaker 3 (11:04):
If you're one of the first two hundred.
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And fifty, you're gonna get the special gift bag from
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is in California, not in Nevada. Very good, Okay, So
(11:27):
that's what's happening.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Now that we're through that.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
It looks like the Epstein files are coming out. Everything
is coming out. We're all gonna see everything. There will
be no more secrets. There's not gonna be a question
about who was there, who wasn't there, who was on
the plane, who was on the train, who was on
the automobile, who was on the island, who was there
for sex? And who was just there for the old dervs.
There will be no questions left at all. Those files
(11:52):
are coming out and we're going to know exactly what
everything is all about.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
What's that? Oh we're not okay? All right?
Speaker 2 (12:01):
So what we don't know is what's in the file.
We don't know what's going to be withheld. We don't
know whether the public is ever going to see proof
of this big list. You know that the Epstein list
that Pam Bondi told us existed, cash Bettel said it's there.
Then they both came out and said nope, investigations closed,
didn't turn up anything. Then Prince Andrew lost his royalty
(12:22):
card because because well he shouldn't have right, because it
was there was no list, and yet somehow he's on
a list that doesn't exist, and that's what cost him
his his his royal Nope, nope, uh, all.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
Right, so what's on there? From ABC?
Speaker 7 (12:43):
The House and Senate passed the bill to release the
Epstein files with just a single no vote between the
two chambers. And the bill has been ready for President
Trump to sign for hours and he has. The President
has until December first to sign it, and he did.
And once that happens, the files must be released within
thirty days.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Oh oh hey, on what's today? Is nineteen thirty days
from now? Oh, we're gonna get to see Epstein before Christmas?
Well that's fun?
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (13:14):
What is uh? What's the what's the Hanuka calendar look
like this year? Is that gonna be like on first
day of Honkah? I don't I don't know what the
calendar looks like this year? I mean, oh yeah, December fourteenth,
until sundown on December twenty second, is Honkkah.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
So, oh, Honkah's surprise for people.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
We'll keep the pressure up, pressure for the president to sign.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
He did, and then pressure on.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
The DOJ to release the full unredacted files.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
No hiding, no game playing, no covering up.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
There's concern that the Yeah, but they are going to
be redacted. Yeah, they are one to be redacted.
Speaker 7 (13:56):
Full files won't actually be released, see the idea. Cities
of victims will be redacted. But so information that is
part of any current investigations.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Oh well, remember they closed all the investigations. Remember Pam Bondi,
the Attorney General, and Casprtel the FBI director and his
deputy director, Dan Bongino, who were all telling us throughout
the entire Biden administration about how Biden was covering up
for this pedophile, for this monster, this Jeffrey Epstein. And
(14:25):
then they actually got into the position to release the
files and they said, oh, you know what, there's nothing here.
We're closing the investigation. So Pim Bondi said, it was
on my desk, I just have to review it. And
then she said, oh, you know what, I guess it
was not my desk at all. It was gone darnedest thing. Yeah,
they declared that there was no client lists, no client list,
(14:50):
no list of traffic miners, no list of powerful associates.
They made all these claims and then they said, oh,
there's nothing here, and now there's additional pressure. So if
you'll recall, just like past week, the President said, we're
helping a new investigation into the Democrats.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
Well, how convenient.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Now there's a new investigation and anything that's being investigated
can't be released because that's part of the investigation.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
Huh, what a weird coincidence.
Speaker 7 (15:20):
There were none of those until President Trump told the
Department of Justice to investigate Democrats, something the Attorney General
had previously said there was no need for.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Which is basically what I just said, but more entertainingly,
she was asked today what changed.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Information that has come for information?
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Mostly that Congress is going to make us release this crap.
That's the information. The information is. We couldn't hide it
anymore and the issue is not going away. So because
of that information, we had to, you know, run interference.
Speaker 8 (15:54):
There's information that new information, additional information.
Speaker 5 (15:58):
Even if they do these what seemed to be partisan investigations.
That's another thing that bothers me about the announcement the
President made is he named Democrats, and so this shouldn't
be about political divides. So I hope that that was
sort of a bluff, and I hope that the DOJ
will release all the files. They do.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
Think that there has not been a shift in Trump's
desire to have this information out.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
I think that he has another way to keep it hidden.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Here.
Speaker 7 (16:24):
Wow, have already been consequences of the files release. Former
Treasury Secretary and President of Harvard Larry Summers is stepping
back from public commitments, including from the board of Open AI,
over his continued relationship with Epstein.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Rimmers has shown terrible judgment, what I mean, like historically
bad judgment. You know what, as long as he was
getting away with it, nobody was questioning anything.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
I think that's the big hangoup here.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
You had a lot of rich and powerful that thought
they were above the law, right, that they were able
to take a bite from the forbidden fruit, that they
were able to indulge in whatever powerplay they were after
with these sex trafficked individuals. And now all of a
sudden it's coming to light and we're going, Oh, that's
just poor judgment. No, it's that poor judgment that's criminal
(17:16):
sexual conduct.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
There's a big difference.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Poor judgment is when I point out a beautiful woman
to my.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
Wife, man, she's hot. Nope, that's poor judgment.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Raping children, that's that's not just poor judgment, that's that's abhorrent.
You're going to the ninth circle of hell. Kind of oopsie, Daisy.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Right. I don't want to do any more politics tonight.
I don't. I don't want to do anymore.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Instead, let's talk about how hose you are. How hosed
are you? You'll find out next. Chris Merrill, I am
six forty Oh, I've everywhere on the iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
You're listening to KFI AM sixty on demand.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
I mean, Chris Merrill, If I am six forty more
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Always love it when peop hit us up with the
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that talkback button to leave us some message.
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Let us know what you know, you know what. I
always like to know.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
What people are doing. If you're listening, Like, how are
you listening to the show. That's what I always love
to hear. I love it when you say, you know, oh,
I'm I'm in my garage and this is a great time.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
And then you guys are really on and I heard
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And I listen to all the talkbacks, every single one
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just know that I hear it.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
So what is it that? This is what I love?
How are you listening to the show? What's going on?
You make my indica so much more enjoyable. Keep doing
what you're doing, my man.
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Well that's good, all right, you know what, I take
it all back.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
That's a you know what, stoner's unit. I love you too.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Don't wish anyone's mellow man, No, you know what, I
love you too. Thank you so much. I don't care
what I think. That's fantastic because listen, you have a
lot of choices when you get high, and I just
appreciate that you made the choice to listen to KFI
tonight while you're getting stoned. That's fantastic. You know, you
(19:27):
have a lot of choices. You chose us, so thank you,
thank you for that. You're host especially if you're under forty. Yeah,
they got nothing. See, older Americans have locked into low
housing costs. They locked that in. I was I was
doing a breakdown on this. I was really diving into
the numbers, which it gets a little bit to squarely
(19:47):
when you try to start breaking them all out on
the radio.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
But here's what you should know.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Basically, you could buy a house in nineteen seventy five
for something like forty two thousand dollars. Adjusted for inflation,
that'd be about two hundred fifty thousand dollars to day.
Now that's nationwide average. You probably know people that bought
places in California forty fifty years ago and they're like, oh,
we got this little place and we paid eighty grand
(20:14):
for it. Now it's worth eight, you know, eight hundred
and fifty thousand, or we got this this place, we
got it for one fifty and now it's worth two
million or more whatever it is, right or more. So
I think that that story is pretty common. Well, well
that's super duper, but the wages haven't kept up with that.
Wages have not kept up at the cost of real estate.
(20:34):
So if you're under forty, how do you possibly get ahead?
And let's also remember that eighty five trillion dollars in
wealth is in the hands of boomers right now. So
if you're not part of that generation that is sixty plus,
(20:55):
and the older you are in that generation, the more
likely you are to have accumulated and beholding a larger
that wealth, you're really hosed. In fact, the eighty five
trillion dollars in wealth that the Boomers hold represents nearly
double the amount of money that gen X has. Gen
X has like forty five trillion dollars in wealth. And
(21:18):
they also point this out. Think of all the millions
of gen xers that there are, at the fifty million
gen xers, right, thirty thirty million, fifty million gen x
or something like that, right, Elon Musk holds one percent
of all of the wealth of gen xers as one guy.
(21:42):
One guy holds all of that. So the better for worse.
I'm not condemning the guy for doing it. I'm just
taking a look at the numbers, and that means that
of that forty five trillion dollars the gen X has,
which is barely over half of what the Boomers have,
one guy is controlling it. That means that the rest
of us, the other thirty five million of us are
(22:04):
splitting the other ninety nine percent, And of course there
are others that that that hold a much larger share
of that wealth as well. So how do you get
ahead of that? How can you possibly catch up? It
really comes down to mortgage rates. Mortgage rates are one
of the issues that the younger generations are facing right
(22:24):
now that the older generations and the older generations.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
My father loves to do this two.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
He goes, well, I remember when mortgage rates were fourteen
percent under Carter. He loves to say that fourteen percent.
You know, you should be happy that they're at six
percent or six and a half percent, whatever else is. Yeah,
they were at fourteen percent, but you'd get a house
for seventeen grand. It's not an exaggeration. My parents first
house is seventeen thousand dollars. They bought it nineteen seventy seven,
right before I was born. I was born in seventy eight,
(22:50):
about seventeen thousand dollars. That house is not going up
in Valley, but they could afford a starter home even
at a high interest rate. Now, the interest rates had
in spiked the nineteen seventy seven they got at a
decent interest, right, but they since moved up. Now, what
we're finding out is an awful lot of people are
not getting into even starter homes until they're forty. The
average age of buying your first home back in the
(23:11):
seventies was late twenties, and now the average age is
forty years old for somebody's first home. So if you're
not getting into that home, you're not storing wealth, you're
not creating equity. And if you're not creating equity, that
means that your money is going to someone else, which
means that you're not without that equity, you have nothing
to show for it when you move out of the
place that you're in. If you're renting, you have nothing
(23:32):
to show for it at the end, right, And so
the barrier to get in is higher than what it's
ever been in the past. Older home owners holding ultra
low rates as well, and some very big equity cushions.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
That's largely because they got in.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
And this doesn't even have to be a boomer sometimes
it's just sometimes people had bought right before the pandemic.
You got in at three percent, your home is doubled
in value, and the mortgage rates have shot up, right,
So now all of a sudden, you're sitting out a
ton of equity and you're sitting on a low mortgage rate. Yeah,
low mortgage excuse me. And as a result, you are
hoarding some of that wealth. Well, if you're a gen
(24:11):
zer who was in college or maybe just graduated college
in twenty twenty one, they weren't hiring, or if they
were hiring, it was remote work and.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
It was very confusing.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Two mortgage rates started going up, home values started going up.
You didn't have any savings, You couldn't possibly get into
a place. And now the barrier is higher that it's
ever been, higher than it's ever been. So if you
are under forty in America right now, your host, there's
good news. Though, if you're under forty, there's still time.
(24:41):
There's time for things to crash. Honestly, and oftentimes when
it comes to like boomers just happened to be in
at the right time when things were low. If things
if you're saving right now and things crash, that's when
you can get in and started making things work for you.
It's an old adage, buy low, sell high. Right now
(25:03):
things are high, at some point they're going to get
low again. I don't know when that's going to be.
I got my fingers crossed too, but when it is,
hopefully you've got the money to be able to jump
on that and the job security that means you can
spend some of your savings on investing rather than worrying
about losing your gig. You've seen those red and yellow
(25:24):
crypto kiosks that are tucked into the kind of between
the lotto machine and the beef jerky at the convenience store.
Now imagine one of those are draining your life savings
because somebody that you met online told you that they
loved you.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
There's a new romance scam pipeline. It's got a very
modern twist. It is next. I'm Chris Merrill. I AM
six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
So you meet somebody.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Online and they seem so genuine and you just fall
in love and isn't that wonderful? And oh no, they're
having some financial difficulties. It's it's okay, it's not your problem. No, no,
it's it's okay. Don't worry about it. Don't I'll figure
something out. Don't worry about it. Oh boy, we've heard
this scam before, I haven't we but now it's got
(26:15):
a new high tech twist.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Inside Edition was talking about it. This sweet old lady
is being scammed and she doesn't even know it. Ma'am Cat,
I'll talk to you for a second, please, I have
to think on the phone.
Speaker 8 (26:27):
A cop drives to intervene, telling her to hang up,
but she is not convinced she's being hoodwinked.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
I'm in danger. Okay, no you're not, ma'am. Who's this.
Speaker 4 (26:37):
No you're not.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
So's on the other end.
Speaker 8 (26:40):
Turns out he's a scammer, and for the last two days,
police say he's been pressuring eighty five year old fran
Base into sending him money via this ATM.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
Uh oh wait what is this ATM? He kept saying,
put the money in, put it in, put it in.
Speaker 8 (26:57):
You see that isn't your typical ATM. It's called a
bitcoin ATM, similar to this, but instead of with drawing cash,
you insert your money and buy bitcoin.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
Yeah, really easy to do. You see them all over right,
you see them. A lot of different shops have those things.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
But the FBI says.
Speaker 8 (27:16):
Scammers are taking advantage of the machines, conning seniors into
depositing their savings into bitcoin ATMs across the country. So
where does the money go? Straight to the scammers?
Speaker 6 (27:28):
It doesn't matter who you are or where you are.
If you have a nicol or a dying that they
think they can get, they'll.
Speaker 4 (27:34):
Go for it.
Speaker 8 (27:35):
Luckily, for friend, this good samaritan stepped in and called
the police.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
She said, and what did you hear that? She said
she'd sent twenty three thousand dollars already. Wow.
Speaker 8 (27:49):
In Texas, Lieutenant James Stewart stopped it just in the
nick of time.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
No, you're not going to speak to the customer anymore.
Listen to me.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
She is not clicking on anything.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
He kept saying, press I'm done, and I'm telling her,
don't press anything.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
Just step away from the machine.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Thanks to him, Yeah, thank good as it was a
cop there though, right, I mean, if that had just
been like somebody else, She's like, no, no, no, I
have to push it.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
Somebody's trying to steal my money. I have to press
this button.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Which, of course, one of the big things that scammers
do is they tell you that you're being scammed and
they pretend that they are security running interference.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
They're there to help you. I had somebody do that
to me.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
I've got I have a very small amount of money
on an old bitcoin wallet and they go.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
Wow, you know your wallet's been compromised.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
I got a phone call. Your wall that's been compromised. Now,
don't access your wallet because as soon as you access it,
they're going to be able to get into it. And
they went through this long thing about all the different
security protocols and all this other stuff.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
And the longer it went, the the more I was.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
I jumped online and I started looking up like the
manufacturer of the bitcoin wallet, and they said, we will
never call you with security concerns. And I said, why
does this say right here on the website that you'll
never call me? And they said, oh, well, we're a
third party security firm. I mean, they had all the
answers right there, bang bang bang. These places, these scammers,
they run stuff. This isn't just some some dude in
(29:11):
a basement trying to hoodwink you. They go into offices,
they have a structured system for scamming people. I mean,
you canna understand why if you've got little old ladies
sending twenty seven thousand dollars at a time.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
They got all her money back.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
That's the only reason we were able to get the
money back is because she never completed the transaction.
Speaker 8 (29:33):
But most cases don't have a happy ending. The FBI
says Bitcoin ATM crooks builket Americans out of two hundred
and forty million dollars in just the front wow first
half of twenty twenty five, including this elderly woman.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
Man, listen to your police department. We're here to help you.
She's convinced her scam caller is the real deal. They're
scamming you out of your money. Oh no, they're not,
they're not. And then they start to question the law enforcement.
Wasn't it?
Speaker 2 (30:01):
Wasn't it to Samuel Clemens has said it's easier to
fool a man than to convince a man.
Speaker 5 (30:05):
He's been fooled, sir, This is absolutely legitimately, So she
keeps fading one hundred dollars bills into the bitcoin ato.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
Oh no, no, no, don't do that.
Speaker 8 (30:16):
Finally she's realized it's a hoax, but it's too late.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
How much money have you a cent?
Speaker 8 (30:21):
It?
Speaker 5 (30:22):
Do?
Speaker 4 (30:24):
Whoa?
Speaker 2 (30:26):
And The other thing they're doing too, is they do
the old fashioned romance scam. You know, Oh, I know,
I'm in love with you and I can't wait, and
I'm gonna come see you. I'm gonna visit and when
I get there, it's gonna be perfect and we're gonna
start our lives together. And oh my gosh, I got
to the airport and I got mugged, and now I
(30:47):
can't get on the plane, and I just I just
need a little bit of money now, and then I'll
rebook the ticket and then I'm gonna come say, oh
my gosh, you now my, you know, my my sister
just got sick and I have to go back to
my sister. But I don't have enough money to fly
to my sister and to fly to you. I just
need a little bit more. And that goes on and
on and on, and once you feed that money into
(31:08):
the bitcoin, it's pretty much it's pretty much it. You know,
if this were a transaction through a bank, fraudulent transaction
through a bank, you might have some other avenues to
be able to get your money back, but when it
comes to the bitcoin, you really don't. You really don't,
which is why so many people were skeptical about bitcoin
to begin with.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
Now I happen to like bitcoin, I happen to be
an advocate for it, But I will say.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
The roots of bitcoin were basically the dark web. You
couldn't track where that money was going or where it
came from. You could only track that it was sent
from this wallet to that wallet. And there was a
there's a digital ledger, right, but it was being used
for some pretty underhanded stuff to start with, and still is.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
Still is I right?
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Imagine you are a big, big ad buyer and you
rely on very accurate numbers to figure out where you
need to spend your client's money. Now two of the
biggest players just rewrote the rule book, and all of
a sudden, you have no idea how many eyeballs are
really on your product. I'm going to pull back the
(32:14):
curtain on that next. I'm Chris merrill I AM six
forty live everywhere in the iHeartRadio
Speaker 1 (32:19):
App KFI AM six forty on demand
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I'm Chris Merrill, listening anytime on demand of the iHeart
Radio app Mark. I meant to bring this up to
you in the last segment, I ran out of time
because we were going through the history George Michael's public exposure.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
But you had a what is it. The word of
the year is parasocial.
Speaker 4 (00:24):
Yeah, that's right. It's the Cambridge Dictionary twenty twenty five
word of the Year. Parasocial. It's a connection that someone
feels between themselves and a famous person they don't know,
including fictional characters and AI.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Okay, first of all, when it comes to celebrities you
don't know, isn't that cult stalking?
Speaker 3 (00:40):
This kind of a legal gray area?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
There isn't there Have you run into that though, because
you've been in you've been in the public eye for
a while. And look I this. You have people that
really think, oh, I know that person, they're on the radio,
we're friends.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
And I get it too.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Look I see celebrities that I go, oh, man, I
would love to hang out with that guy. I would
love to hang out that They seem so cool. I
think we'd get along famously. Right, But they don't know me, right,
that's the big deal. Like, they don't it's a one
sided relationship.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
They don't know me.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
Yeah, people are generally cool. But once in my first
newspaper job, somebody made a fan page for me with
my face reproduced all over the page and the eyes
whiteed out, which really creeped me a Really, people are
generally cool and they understand. Harlan Ellison used to have
a story that he would tell about the guy who
played Hass on Bonanza. Yeah, like random women in real
(01:34):
life would approach the actor Dan Blocker and be like,
you get rid of that hop sing, I'll cook you
a good meal, And he's like, well, well you know, ma'am,
it's just a television show.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
You know, it's fiction. Wow, creepy. I think most people
are cool and they get it.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yeah, I think most people are. I agree with you,
But then there are a few that, you know. I'm
sure we'd get along famously, but I don't know you,
and we still have to go through the preliminary stages
of me getting to know you. You think you know me
inside out. It puts me in a bit of a disadvantage,
and that kind of scares me when you're like, so
is your wife still doing that stuff for insurance companies?
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Like whoa wait a minute, hang on now, you.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
Know, yeah, do you ever approach anybody if you see
a celebrity in town?
Speaker 3 (02:18):
I have not. I have not. I don't either never.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
I but I get I get what if I notice
a celebrity go oh that's so and so right. I
do get excited, but I don't get I don't turn
into a fanboy, except generally if it's like radio people.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Like like I.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
I'm only half joking when I say I'm a fanboy
of Tim Conway JUNR.
Speaker 5 (02:41):
Like.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
I think he's incredible and one of the most talented
people I've I've I've ever met, and I used to
listen to him driving home every night, and I was
so excited when I got a chance to meet Tim.
But of course, he's such a magnanimous guy, and you know,
he's he's he's got as much energy off the air
as he does on the air, and anybody's ever met
him knows that. So I got a little bit starstruck
when I met Tim. Not so much handle but Tim
(03:04):
definitely Nah.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
It was cool. One time I was filling in.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
I guess Gary and Shannon had the show at the time,
and I was filling in for them doing Middays. And
this was years ago, and I was prepping and and
Bill came back and he just you know, started talking,
saying hi, and I, honestly, I was a little bit nervous.
I was a little excited because you know, Bill's Bill's
a big deal, not just in LA but in the industry.
And I had listened to Bill even before I came
to California because of handle on the law, and I
(03:31):
was I was really excited to do that. And and honestly,
it sounds like I'm kissing up to him every night.
But whenever we talk with George Nori at the end
of this show, I think George is just an incredibly
talented person who who really knows how to put together
a show that just nails everything he's going after.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
So I have tremendous respect for him.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
But I'll get so starstruck with a lot of others,
a little nervous around it, but not not really starstruck.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
I came close to sending a drink to Larry Slim
when I saw him at Craigs a few years ago.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Now, that would have been great, that's really cool.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
But then I decided, you know, he's got a hundred
times the money that I have. It'll mean nothing to him.
And so I just minded my own business. I mean,
what helped is that I started my career doing tons
and tons of celebrity interviews.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
So I'm very.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
Conscious of what you could possibly say if you talk
to somebody that would have any meaning for them, or
what would just be an intrusion and they want you
to flee immediately.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
And then the other thing too is sometimes we think
that they have a sense of humor that they like.
It's funny to us, but it's not to them. Have
you ever done that? I've made that faux pap? Before
I was interviewing, I was doing mornings outside of Kansas
City and I was interviewing Paullie Shore one time. Yeah,
and Paully came on. You know how it is when
they got to do a music morning show. It's just
misery for those guys. And you've took the wheeze. Yeah,
(04:47):
And so he comes on and I go first question, Pollie.
I said, Uh, do I send the bill to you
or to somebody else? For biodome because I want my
ten dollars back, right, And like, in my mind, that was.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Really funny, yeah, an icebreaker. Yeah, And to him it
was not. It was not funny. He did not think
that was funny.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
I did that with David Carus, so you remember him
from CSI And yeah, of course, was it Hill Street
Blues or no, no, NYPD Blue one of.
Speaker 6 (05:15):
Those shows have a strange death or something.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
Oh no, no, no, no no. He's retired from acting now. But
I was interviewing him for a movie called Jade, and
I wanted to ask him he had made history, I
said at the time, for showing his pasty white ass
on TV. And he turns to me and he's like,
you think it's pasty? I thought we were going to
come to blows. So you've really got to be careful
(05:40):
about it about how you read somebody's receptivity too.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
But I think sometimes that's where that parasocial, that word
that you're talking about, kind of comes in. Where we
think we know them, and we think that we have
an idea of what the relationship between us is like,
and they don't even know us from Adam, you know.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
So I get that.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
I get it I will say I interviewed Keeper Sutherland
one time. Oh and he was a great interview that
he was doing twenty four at the time. And when
I did music radio, I did a lot of celebrity interviews.
I just don't do any anymore because you know, nobody
else come on my show.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
But he was fantastic.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
And I used to do this this bit at the
end of all of my interviews called friendly fire. So
I would just rattle off like five questions real fast.
I go, just give me the first thing that comes
to your mind, you know. So it'd be like warre
in the Middle East? Whose fault is it?
Speaker 3 (06:28):
You know?
Speaker 2 (06:28):
And they would always be like whoa you know? But
I would always ask one goofy one at the end.
And so I got to the last one, and I'm
doing this and I think I even have the music
bed still. It's one I use when whenever we do
a whip around. Yeah, I would do this, So we're
doing all right. Keep for Sutherland? Friendly fire. Last question,
(06:50):
bigger threat to America terrorists like the ones you fight
in your show twenty four or Christmas trees And if
you'll recall, yes, yes, there was a video that was
going wrong where he was just wasted and attacked a
Christmas tree. I think it was in a hotel lobby
if I'm not mistaken, and I mean it it went around,
and I mean it was kind of a it was
(07:11):
a ballsy move on my part.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
To do that. He was the best. He just started dying.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
He was like Christmas trees one hundred percent most dangerous
thing you'll ever encounter. But that was the role of
the dice though, wasn't it. Oh it definitely was. Yeah,
but he was he was great. He was great. So
that was that was an encounter. I like, I wanted
to come back to that parasocial thing, not just because
of the Cambridge Word of the Year, but because I
have a story tomorrow that I think you're gonna love.
You mentioned that it's not just knowing celebrities or fictional characters.
(07:38):
You also mentioned that it's like having a one way
relationship with AI with a yeah, right, and that's growing
more and more so I've got I have I have
a couple of stories on AI relationships tomorrow where not
only are they obviously interfering with you know, normal relationships,
but some people are really having difficulties separating truth from fiction.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
Oh God, just get to blow up, doll. It's so intolerable.
But you're in the driver's seat on this one, and
I don't want to encourage me.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Excuse you?
Speaker 4 (08:10):
Do you know?
Speaker 6 (08:11):
My only time I've ever fangirled over a celebrity that
I encountered was with fran Dresser.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Oh what was that?
Speaker 5 (08:18):
Right?
Speaker 3 (08:19):
What's not to like about the name?
Speaker 6 (08:20):
I was like, I cannot not approach this woman and
tell her how much.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
I love her shirt.
Speaker 6 (08:26):
She was beautiful and amazing and gracious and stunning.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
I love to hear that she seems nice.
Speaker 6 (08:33):
Oh she's beautiful, beautiful inside and out. She was so lovely.
She held my hand, she thought I was beautiful. We
just found for each other.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
It was, Ah, that's so cool. Now I want to
meet her. She's the best. Yeah, all right.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
I did want to give you an update because we
got the files that fizzle, the Epstein files. It looks
like they are going to come out. The President signed
that bill. That's the latest that we got that that
broke just before the show started to So what are
we gonna see? Well, you might be surprised more by
what you're not going to see. That is next time
Chris MERRILKFI AM six forty were live everywhere in the
(09:08):
iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Chris Merril KFI AM six forty more stimulating talk. Don't
forget fifteenth Annuel KFI Pastathon is here. Chef Brunos charity
Katarina's Club providing more than twenty five thousand meals every
week to kids and need in southern California.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
It's your generosity that makes it all happen.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Our live broadcast is giving Tuesday, that is December second,
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(09:52):
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(10:14):
to a Katerina's Club, you got.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
A coupon book.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
It's a coop and book, and nine of your donation
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Oh and uh Yambava Resort and Casino. Cast your winning
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(10:39):
Southern California, Arizona and uh, where was that?
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Where's that other place? Where was the other state?
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Nevada?
Speaker 3 (10:45):
That's it?
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Yeah, Arizona, or you go California, Arizona and Vada. We're
gonna be broadcasting live on Friday. Conway is live his show.
In fact, I think he's doing an extra hour on Friday, right, Yeah,
four to eight, Smart and Final, your Belinda on your
Beer Linda Boulevard right up ninety one.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
If you're one of the first two hundred.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
And fifty, you're gonna get the special gift bag from
Smart and Final. And then on Saturday, Neil Savedra is
taking his Foody Show on the road, broadcasting live two
to five at Wendy's in Mission Viejo, Alicia Parkway. That
is in California, not in Nevada. Very good, Okay, So
(11:27):
that's what's happening.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Now that we're through that.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
It looks like the Epstein files are coming out. Everything
is coming out. We're all gonna see everything. There will
be no more secrets. There's not gonna be a question
about who was there, who wasn't there, who was on
the plane, who was on the train, who was on
the automobile, who was on the island, who was there
for sex? And who was just there for the old dervs.
There will be no questions left at all. Those files
(11:52):
are coming out and we're going to know exactly what
everything is all about.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
What's that? Oh we're not okay? All right?
Speaker 2 (12:01):
So what we don't know is what's in the file.
We don't know what's going to be withheld. We don't
know whether the public is ever going to see proof
of this big list. You know that the Epstein list
that Pam Bondi told us existed, cash Bettel said it's there.
Then they both came out and said nope, investigations closed,
didn't turn up anything. Then Prince Andrew lost his royalty
(12:22):
card because because well he shouldn't have right, because it
was there was no list, and yet somehow he's on
a list that doesn't exist, and that's what cost him
his his his royal Nope, nope, uh, all.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
Right, so what's on there? From ABC?
Speaker 7 (12:43):
The House and Senate passed the bill to release the
Epstein files with just a single no vote between the
two chambers. And the bill has been ready for President
Trump to sign for hours and he has. The President
has until December first to sign it, and he did.
And once that happens, the files must be released within
thirty days.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Oh oh hey, on what's today? Is nineteen thirty days
from now? Oh, we're gonna get to see Epstein before Christmas?
Well that's fun?
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (13:14):
What is uh? What's the what's the Hanuka calendar look
like this year? Is that gonna be like on first
day of Honkah? I don't I don't know what the
calendar looks like this year? I mean, oh yeah, December fourteenth,
until sundown on December twenty second, is Honkkah.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
So, oh, Honkah's surprise for people.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
We'll keep the pressure up, pressure for the president to sign.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
He did, and then pressure on.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
The DOJ to release the full unredacted files.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
No hiding, no game playing, no covering up.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
There's concern that the Yeah, but they are going to
be redacted. Yeah, they are one to be redacted.
Speaker 7 (13:56):
Full files won't actually be released, see the idea. Cities
of victims will be redacted. But so information that is
part of any current investigations.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Oh well, remember they closed all the investigations. Remember Pam Bondi,
the Attorney General, and Casprtel the FBI director and his
deputy director, Dan Bongino, who were all telling us throughout
the entire Biden administration about how Biden was covering up
for this pedophile, for this monster, this Jeffrey Epstein. And
(14:25):
then they actually got into the position to release the
files and they said, oh, you know what, there's nothing here.
We're closing the investigation. So Pim Bondi said, it was
on my desk, I just have to review it. And
then she said, oh, you know what, I guess it
was not my desk at all. It was gone darnedest thing. Yeah,
they declared that there was no client lists, no client list,
(14:50):
no list of traffic miners, no list of powerful associates.
They made all these claims and then they said, oh,
there's nothing here, and now there's additional pressure. So if
you'll recall, just like past week, the President said, we're
helping a new investigation into the Democrats.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
Well, how convenient.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Now there's a new investigation and anything that's being investigated
can't be released because that's part of the investigation.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
Huh, what a weird coincidence.
Speaker 7 (15:20):
There were none of those until President Trump told the
Department of Justice to investigate Democrats, something the Attorney General
had previously said there was no need for.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Which is basically what I just said, but more entertainingly,
she was asked today what changed.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Information that has come for information?
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Mostly that Congress is going to make us release this crap.
That's the information. The information is. We couldn't hide it
anymore and the issue is not going away. So because
of that information, we had to, you know, run interference.
Speaker 8 (15:54):
There's information that new information, additional information.
Speaker 5 (15:58):
Even if they do these what seemed to be partisan investigations.
That's another thing that bothers me about the announcement the
President made is he named Democrats, and so this shouldn't
be about political divides. So I hope that that was
sort of a bluff, and I hope that the DOJ
will release all the files. They do.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
Think that there has not been a shift in Trump's
desire to have this information out.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
I think that he has another way to keep it hidden.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Here.
Speaker 7 (16:24):
Wow, have already been consequences of the files release. Former
Treasury Secretary and President of Harvard Larry Summers is stepping
back from public commitments, including from the board of Open AI,
over his continued relationship with Epstein.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Rimmers has shown terrible judgment, what I mean, like historically
bad judgment. You know what, as long as he was
getting away with it, nobody was questioning anything.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
I think that's the big hangoup here.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
You had a lot of rich and powerful that thought
they were above the law, right, that they were able
to take a bite from the forbidden fruit, that they
were able to indulge in whatever powerplay they were after
with these sex trafficked individuals. And now all of a
sudden it's coming to light and we're going, Oh, that's
just poor judgment. No, it's that poor judgment that's criminal
(17:16):
sexual conduct.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
There's a big difference.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Poor judgment is when I point out a beautiful woman
to my.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
Wife, man, she's hot. Nope, that's poor judgment.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Raping children, that's that's not just poor judgment, that's that's abhorrent.
You're going to the ninth circle of hell. Kind of oopsie, Daisy.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Right. I don't want to do any more politics tonight.
I don't. I don't want to do anymore.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Instead, let's talk about how hose you are. How hosed
are you? You'll find out next. Chris Merrill, I am
six forty Oh, I've everywhere on the iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
You're listening to KFI AM sixty on demand.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
I mean, Chris Merrill, If I am six forty more
stimulating talk listen on demand anytime in the iHeartRadio app.
Always love it when peop hit us up with the
talkbacks too. If you're on the iHeartRadio app and hit
that talkback button to leave us some message.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Let us know what you know, you know what. I
always like to know.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
What people are doing. If you're listening, Like, how are
you listening to the show. That's what I always love
to hear. I love it when you say, you know, oh,
I'm I'm in my garage and this is a great time.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
And then you guys are really on and I heard
you say this thing. I love that. I love that.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
And I listen to all the talkbacks, every single one
of them. Whether you hear it on the or not,
just know that I hear it.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
So what is it that? This is what I love?
How are you listening to the show? What's going on?
You make my indica so much more enjoyable. Keep doing
what you're doing, my man.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Well that's good, all right, you know what, I take
it all back.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
That's a you know what, stoner's unit. I love you too.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Don't wish anyone's mellow man, No, you know what, I
love you too. Thank you so much. I don't care
what I think. That's fantastic because listen, you have a
lot of choices when you get high, and I just
appreciate that you made the choice to listen to KFI
tonight while you're getting stoned. That's fantastic. You know, you
(19:27):
have a lot of choices. You chose us, so thank you,
thank you for that. You're host especially if you're under forty. Yeah,
they got nothing. See, older Americans have locked into low
housing costs. They locked that in. I was I was
doing a breakdown on this. I was really diving into
the numbers, which it gets a little bit to squarely
(19:47):
when you try to start breaking them all out on
the radio.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
But here's what you should know.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Basically, you could buy a house in nineteen seventy five
for something like forty two thousand dollars. Adjusted for inflation,
that'd be about two hundred fifty thousand dollars to day.
Now that's nationwide average. You probably know people that bought
places in California forty fifty years ago and they're like, oh,
we got this little place and we paid eighty grand
(20:14):
for it. Now it's worth eight, you know, eight hundred
and fifty thousand, or we got this this place, we
got it for one fifty and now it's worth two
million or more whatever it is, right or more. So
I think that that story is pretty common. Well, well
that's super duper, but the wages haven't kept up with that.
Wages have not kept up at the cost of real estate.
(20:34):
So if you're under forty, how do you possibly get ahead?
And let's also remember that eighty five trillion dollars in
wealth is in the hands of boomers right now. So
if you're not part of that generation that is sixty plus,
(20:55):
and the older you are in that generation, the more
likely you are to have accumulated and beholding a larger
that wealth, you're really hosed. In fact, the eighty five
trillion dollars in wealth that the Boomers hold represents nearly
double the amount of money that gen X has. Gen
X has like forty five trillion dollars in wealth. And
(21:18):
they also point this out. Think of all the millions
of gen xers that there are, at the fifty million
gen xers, right, thirty thirty million, fifty million gen x
or something like that, right, Elon Musk holds one percent
of all of the wealth of gen xers as one guy.
(21:42):
One guy holds all of that. So the better for worse.
I'm not condemning the guy for doing it. I'm just
taking a look at the numbers, and that means that
of that forty five trillion dollars the gen X has,
which is barely over half of what the Boomers have,
one guy is controlling it. That means that the rest
of us, the other thirty five million of us are
(22:04):
splitting the other ninety nine percent, And of course there
are others that that that hold a much larger share
of that wealth as well. So how do you get
ahead of that? How can you possibly catch up? It
really comes down to mortgage rates. Mortgage rates are one
of the issues that the younger generations are facing right
(22:24):
now that the older generations and the older generations.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
My father loves to do this two.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
He goes, well, I remember when mortgage rates were fourteen
percent under Carter. He loves to say that fourteen percent.
You know, you should be happy that they're at six
percent or six and a half percent, whatever else is. Yeah,
they were at fourteen percent, but you'd get a house
for seventeen grand. It's not an exaggeration. My parents first
house is seventeen thousand dollars. They bought it nineteen seventy seven,
right before I was born. I was born in seventy eight,
(22:50):
about seventeen thousand dollars. That house is not going up
in Valley, but they could afford a starter home even
at a high interest rate. Now, the interest rates had
in spiked the nineteen seventy seven they got at a
decent interest, right, but they since moved up. Now, what
we're finding out is an awful lot of people are
not getting into even starter homes until they're forty. The
average age of buying your first home back in the
(23:11):
seventies was late twenties, and now the average age is
forty years old for somebody's first home. So if you're
not getting into that home, you're not storing wealth, you're
not creating equity. And if you're not creating equity, that
means that your money is going to someone else, which
means that you're not without that equity, you have nothing
to show for it when you move out of the
place that you're in. If you're renting, you have nothing
(23:32):
to show for it at the end, right, And so
the barrier to get in is higher than what it's
ever been in the past. Older home owners holding ultra
low rates as well, and some very big equity cushions.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
That's largely because they got in.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
And this doesn't even have to be a boomer sometimes
it's just sometimes people had bought right before the pandemic.
You got in at three percent, your home is doubled
in value, and the mortgage rates have shot up, right,
So now all of a sudden, you're sitting out a
ton of equity and you're sitting on a low mortgage rate. Yeah,
low mortgage excuse me. And as a result, you are
hoarding some of that wealth. Well, if you're a gen
(24:11):
zer who was in college or maybe just graduated college
in twenty twenty one, they weren't hiring, or if they
were hiring, it was remote work and.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
It was very confusing.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Two mortgage rates started going up, home values started going up.
You didn't have any savings, You couldn't possibly get into
a place. And now the barrier is higher that it's
ever been, higher than it's ever been. So if you
are under forty in America right now, your host, there's
good news. Though, if you're under forty, there's still time.
(24:41):
There's time for things to crash. Honestly, and oftentimes when
it comes to like boomers just happened to be in
at the right time when things were low. If things
if you're saving right now and things crash, that's when
you can get in and started making things work for you.
It's an old adage, buy low, sell high. Right now
(25:03):
things are high, at some point they're going to get
low again. I don't know when that's going to be.
I got my fingers crossed too, but when it is,
hopefully you've got the money to be able to jump
on that and the job security that means you can
spend some of your savings on investing rather than worrying
about losing your gig. You've seen those red and yellow
(25:24):
crypto kiosks that are tucked into the kind of between
the lotto machine and the beef jerky at the convenience store.
Now imagine one of those are draining your life savings
because somebody that you met online told you that they
loved you.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
There's a new romance scam pipeline. It's got a very
modern twist. It is next. I'm Chris Merrill. I AM
six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
So you meet somebody.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Online and they seem so genuine and you just fall
in love and isn't that wonderful? And oh no, they're
having some financial difficulties. It's it's okay, it's not your problem. No, no,
it's it's okay. Don't worry about it. Don't I'll figure
something out. Don't worry about it. Oh boy, we've heard
this scam before, I haven't we but now it's got
(26:15):
a new high tech twist.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Inside Edition was talking about it. This sweet old lady
is being scammed and she doesn't even know it. Ma'am Cat,
I'll talk to you for a second, please, I have
to think on the phone.
Speaker 8 (26:27):
A cop drives to intervene, telling her to hang up,
but she is not convinced she's being hoodwinked.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
I'm in danger. Okay, no you're not, ma'am. Who's this.
Speaker 4 (26:37):
No you're not.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
So's on the other end.
Speaker 8 (26:40):
Turns out he's a scammer, and for the last two days,
police say he's been pressuring eighty five year old fran
Base into sending him money via this ATM.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
Uh oh wait what is this ATM? He kept saying,
put the money in, put it in, put it in.
Speaker 8 (26:57):
You see that isn't your typical ATM. It's called a
bitcoin ATM, similar to this, but instead of with drawing cash,
you insert your money and buy bitcoin.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
Yeah, really easy to do. You see them all over right,
you see them. A lot of different shops have those things.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
But the FBI says.
Speaker 8 (27:16):
Scammers are taking advantage of the machines, conning seniors into
depositing their savings into bitcoin ATMs across the country. So
where does the money go? Straight to the scammers?
Speaker 6 (27:28):
It doesn't matter who you are or where you are.
If you have a nicol or a dying that they
think they can get, they'll.
Speaker 4 (27:34):
Go for it.
Speaker 8 (27:35):
Luckily, for friend, this good samaritan stepped in and called
the police.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
She said, and what did you hear that? She said
she'd sent twenty three thousand dollars already. Wow.
Speaker 8 (27:49):
In Texas, Lieutenant James Stewart stopped it just in the
nick of time.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
No, you're not going to speak to the customer anymore.
Listen to me.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
She is not clicking on anything.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
He kept saying, press I'm done, and I'm telling her,
don't press anything.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
Just step away from the machine.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Thanks to him, Yeah, thank good as it was a
cop there though, right, I mean, if that had just
been like somebody else, She's like, no, no, no, I
have to push it.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
Somebody's trying to steal my money. I have to press
this button.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Which, of course, one of the big things that scammers
do is they tell you that you're being scammed and
they pretend that they are security running interference.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
They're there to help you. I had somebody do that
to me.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
I've got I have a very small amount of money
on an old bitcoin wallet and they go.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
Wow, you know your wallet's been compromised.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
I got a phone call. Your wall that's been compromised. Now,
don't access your wallet because as soon as you access it,
they're going to be able to get into it. And
they went through this long thing about all the different
security protocols and all this other stuff.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
And the longer it went, the the more I was.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
I jumped online and I started looking up like the
manufacturer of the bitcoin wallet, and they said, we will
never call you with security concerns. And I said, why
does this say right here on the website that you'll
never call me? And they said, oh, well, we're a
third party security firm. I mean, they had all the
answers right there, bang bang bang. These places, these scammers,
they run stuff. This isn't just some some dude in
(29:11):
a basement trying to hoodwink you. They go into offices,
they have a structured system for scamming people. I mean,
you canna understand why if you've got little old ladies
sending twenty seven thousand dollars at a time.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
They got all her money back.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
That's the only reason we were able to get the
money back is because she never completed the transaction.
Speaker 8 (29:33):
But most cases don't have a happy ending. The FBI
says Bitcoin ATM crooks builket Americans out of two hundred
and forty million dollars in just the front wow first
half of twenty twenty five, including this elderly woman.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
Man, listen to your police department. We're here to help you.
She's convinced her scam caller is the real deal. They're
scamming you out of your money. Oh no, they're not,
they're not. And then they start to question the law enforcement.
Wasn't it?
Speaker 2 (30:01):
Wasn't it to Samuel Clemens has said it's easier to
fool a man than to convince a man.
Speaker 5 (30:05):
He's been fooled, sir, This is absolutely legitimately, So she
keeps fading one hundred dollars bills into the bitcoin ato.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
Oh no, no, no, don't do that.
Speaker 8 (30:16):
Finally she's realized it's a hoax, but it's too late.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
How much money have you a cent?
Speaker 8 (30:21):
It?
Speaker 5 (30:22):
Do?
Speaker 4 (30:24):
Whoa?
Speaker 2 (30:26):
And The other thing they're doing too, is they do
the old fashioned romance scam. You know, Oh, I know,
I'm in love with you and I can't wait, and
I'm gonna come see you. I'm gonna visit and when
I get there, it's gonna be perfect and we're gonna
start our lives together. And oh my gosh, I got
to the airport and I got mugged, and now I
(30:47):
can't get on the plane, and I just I just
need a little bit of money now, and then I'll
rebook the ticket and then I'm gonna come say, oh
my gosh, you now my, you know, my my sister
just got sick and I have to go back to
my sister. But I don't have enough money to fly
to my sister and to fly to you. I just
need a little bit more. And that goes on and
on and on, and once you feed that money into
(31:08):
the bitcoin, it's pretty much it's pretty much it. You know,
if this were a transaction through a bank, fraudulent transaction
through a bank, you might have some other avenues to
be able to get your money back, but when it
comes to the bitcoin, you really don't. You really don't,
which is why so many people were skeptical about bitcoin
to begin with.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
Now I happen to like bitcoin, I happen to be
an advocate for it, But I will say.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
The roots of bitcoin were basically the dark web. You
couldn't track where that money was going or where it
came from. You could only track that it was sent
from this wallet to that wallet. And there was a
there's a digital ledger, right, but it was being used
for some pretty underhanded stuff to start with, and still is.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
Still is I right?
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Imagine you are a big, big ad buyer and you
rely on very accurate numbers to figure out where you
need to spend your client's money. Now two of the
biggest players just rewrote the rule book, and all of
a sudden, you have no idea how many eyeballs are
really on your product. I'm going to pull back the
(32:14):
curtain on that next. I'm Chris merrill I AM six
forty live everywhere in the iHeartRadio
Speaker 1 (32:19):
App KFI AM six forty on demand
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