David
Appearances
123 GO!
VIRAL FOOD HACKS || Kitchen Tips And Tricks by 123 GO!LIVE
So delicious! Ooh. A little drier than I intended. It'll still taste okay, though. I think I can fix this. Why didn't my timer go off? Gah! You did me dirty, stupid alarm clock! I've gotta think fast! I got it! I'm brilliant! Hello? I'd like to make an order, please. Thanks! Oh! So fast! Thanks so much!
123 GO!
VIRAL FOOD HACKS || Kitchen Tips And Tricks by 123 GO!LIVE
Smells way better than mine! Isn't this a beauty? On my plate, it looks like my creation! Oh! My guest! Gah!
123 GO!
VIRAL FOOD HACKS || Kitchen Tips And Tricks by 123 GO!LIVE
Is that chocolate? You know the rules! Seriously?
123 GO!
VIRAL FOOD HACKS || Kitchen Tips And Tricks by 123 GO!LIVE
You can't fool me! Empty your bag! This is so unfair! Mmm. I'm not convinced.
123 GO!
VIRAL FOOD HACKS || Kitchen Tips And Tricks by 123 GO!LIVE
Are you eating erasers? Can you do that? Ugh. I don't understand school kids. I'm glad for this fan.
123 GO!
VIRAL FOOD HACKS || Kitchen Tips And Tricks by 123 GO!LIVE
Okay, I think I'm getting it now. Ugh, stupid pencil! Who am I kidding? I don't know what I'm doing! At least my coffee's strong. Okay, focus! I actually know the answer to this one! I'm doing it! I think the answer's B. Coffee refill! Now we're talking. Mmm. I can't even see straight. I don't have time to get tired. Must keep eyes open. My work! It's soaked! What a disaster. I'm such a klutz.
123 GO!
VIRAL FOOD HACKS || Kitchen Tips And Tricks by 123 GO!LIVE
Hey! This thing didn't spill! Lily is really onto something here! Keeps it warm, too! If only she could solve this problem… I think the microwave has seen better days.
123 GO!
VIRAL FOOD HACKS || Kitchen Tips And Tricks by 123 GO!LIVE
Let me take a closer look at you.
123 GO!
VIRAL FOOD HACKS || Kitchen Tips And Tricks by 123 GO!LIVE
Hmm? Okay, you look great. The first, limbo! Go on under!
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
john is still coughing that's remarkable maybe i mean it's not a particularly good start to a show but john is indeed still coughing yeah
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
And once again, the rumor mill about watch redesigns, it once again proves to be mostly wrong.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Yeah, but only recently, like only a couple months ago, they were saying it was going to have a whole new band attachment mechanism with magnetic bands and like all these, they're going to change the size more.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Although the rumors also said that both sizes would be getting substantially bigger, and that's also not true. But both sizes did get bigger, just not substantially. Yeah, by like one millimeter. They were saying they were going to get rid of the small size. It turns out the watch rumor mill is, I think, the least reliable part of the Apple product rumor mill.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
And the pattern continued into this year as well.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
I was. No, this is like my wish list for this Apple Watch included, please bring back titanium. Now, the way they did it was not quite what I was imagining, but I will happily take it. So what they've done is they've replaced stainless steel with titanium that has a polished finish, not a brushed finish.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
So the old one had a brush finish that would form linear reflections because it was brushed in a line. This one appears to be just polished the same way that the stainless steel has been polished. So it's like a shiny chrome-like look on the outside. I actually prefer the old one, I think. I haven't seen this one in person yet. I prefer the look of the old one, I think.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
But the main advantage of titanium, as we see in the phones, is it's much lighter than stainless steel for the same type of product. So, this gets it a lot closer to the wonderful lightness of the aluminum models than it used to be. Again, I think I would prefer a more, like, you know, brushed kind of finish, but hey, I'll take this. This is good. And this is also, like...
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
They've also added a bunch of new colors as part of their new kind of metals refresh here. On the aluminum side, they added a jet black, which looks a lot like the iPhone 7 jet black, according to pictures I've seen. Again, I haven't seen any of these in person yet, so we'll see how they look in person.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
But that's interesting to have a shiny jet black in the aluminum side for the very first time, because in the past, you'd have to go to steel to get shiny black. So that should be really cool. Rose gold and silver there in the aluminum. And then the titanium, they have an interesting color set in titanium. They have gold, cool. Slate, which is basically space gray.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
They've been making space grays since the beginning of time. And they've been in many different grays, but it's basically very dark gray. Then they have natural titanium in most of the models, but then the Hermes model has a exclusive silver color. Now, I am very curious to see those two in person, because how different is natural from silver? Is natural just a little shade darker, maybe?
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Like, that's what I would expect, because I think that is the, quote, natural color of titanium, so... We'll see what that means in practice. But either way, I am very happy to see Titanium is back in the regular series Apple Watch. That is great news to me. I have already ordered one in Titanium, and I'm looking forward to getting it for many reasons.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
But that alone, just bringing back Titanium is a big deal. That being said, there was there was there were a couple of things about the display before we leave that that I thought were interesting. So, of course, as John mentioned, the wide angle viewing angle, I think that that actually will matter a lot on the watch.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
But also the display now updates once a second when it's in like the the always on sleeping mode. It used to be once a minute. So now it's once a second. So now they've actually updated a lot of the watch faces to have like a ticking seconds hand like quartz watches do, which is interesting.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
And they have a couple of designs like they showed off, but that should overall make the sleep mode like a little bit nicer. That's kind of the theme of this display update is sleep. you know, the wider angle makes it a little bit nicer. The once every second updating a little bit nicer, the slightly bigger screen, a little bit nicer, like all those things just make the watch a little bit nicer.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
And so I'm, I think this is actually a substantial update to the watch. Even the 10% thinner, that is something that you will see and feel more than you might think from just hearing the number 10%. It doesn't seem like it's that big of a deal, but you notice with that kind of stuff. Also, they all weigh less than the outgoing models. So you also will notice that.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
I believe they said aluminum is about 10% weight loss and titanium is 20% less than the steel it's replacing. So those are substantial savings. Again, like last year, and we'll get to this, but last year we were all very happy about a roughly 10% weight reduction on the iPhone. I think it was even less than that. But you notice that. And so on the watch, I think we will notice these changes.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
These will be, I think, very nice to have. And that's kind of the theme of most of the Apple Watch update, the Series 9 to 10 update at least. Most of the update seems to be a pretty nice-sized collection of...
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
reasonably minor individual things that i think will all add up to a very nice overall update to the watch um one other thing i wanted to call out because i don't i don't think you have it on your list here oh you do never mind you have a bolded later um you can now play music and podcasts directly through the speaker on the watch
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Yeah, I mean, and to be clear, like, this will destroy, like, it destroys the battery on the phone. Like, playing out the built-in speaker for sustained amounts of time is a substantial battery cost.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
So, you know, don't buy this expecting to do this on a regular basis, but it is nice that you can do it sometimes instead of having to pair AirPods to it just to hear, like, you know, if you, like, you know, are just trying to listen to a podcast as you walk around or something. So that's nice. That's a pretty substantial fix.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Um, also other things about it, like the, you know, they have a, uh, a quote larger and more efficient charging coil and that makes it the fastest charging Apple watch ever. That's also very interesting. Again, as, as people move more into using these as sleep devices that you're wearing most of the day, charging speed matters a lot. Uh, so that's also a great thing.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
I sure can. It is not patented or copyrighted or trademarked. I think the only thing that possibly could be is trademarked because I don't believe in patents and copyright doesn't apply here. But I'm not even going to trademark it because it is an idea that I think should spread and I don't need to have my name be the only name ever attached to it because here's what you do.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Um, so this all, this all sounds really good so far. I was very excited to get this update to the watch. Um,
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Even the Series 10 also gets the water depth gauge and the water temperature sensor, which were previously exclusive to the Ultra, which I think means that the Ultra, I think the only significant sensor difference that the Ultra has over the Series 10 now is the Ultra has the dual frequency GPS and Series 10 appears not to.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
oh yeah i forgot about that as far as as far as i can think i don't think there's many other gains the ultra has now besides like the more rugged physical design um but you know so so if you were getting the ultra for for a lot of reasons people would were getting the ultra before i think they can now get a series 10 and and be very happy with it yeah so before the event did you think that you were in the market for a watch at this event did you expect to be buying one
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
I wasn't sure. I mean, most of the Apple Watch updates are very minor. And if you look at the Series 9 compared to the Series 6, say, or the Series 5, it's substantially better. If you compare, very much like I was saying with the iPhone earlier, but the iPhone being largely incremental every year,
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
If you compare the Apple Watch this year, like the Series 9 compared to the Series 8 is not a significant update, like at all. If you replace my Series 9 with a Series 8, I don't know if I would ever notice the difference until I tried to double tap and realized it was even less reliable than usual. Yeah.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
But that would be a hard thing to notice, whereas if you replaced a Series 7 with a Series 10, you will notice the difference immediately and vice versa. If you replace it the other direction, you will definitely notice that difference. So they do make big changes over time. This is bigger than I expected.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Besides, the only thing that would be bigger than this would be like a major physical redesign, which I think this is a moderate physical redesign. It's not nothing. It's not everything. I'm actually glad I can still use all my bands. And, in fact, they even tweaked some of the bands.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
So, of course, you have the standard new colors for the silicone bands and new colors for all the bands that have colors. But they even have new finishes for the steel bands. So now this is a little tricky. You could be forgiven for assuming that the new standard series Milanese loop and link bracelet are now made of titanium. They're not.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Those are still made of steel, but they are made to match the titanium colors of the Series 10 watch. So they're now made in slate, gold, and I guess natural, most of them. So if you get a Series 10 watch and you want the Milanese loop or the Apple Link bracelet, both of which are great bands in different ways, you can get those now that match the titanium finishes of the Series 10, which is nice.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
And then the Ultra... didn't get a new watch at all but it did get new color a new black color finally and it has a bunch of cool new bands there as well including its own Milanese loop with that cool big latch thing I'm actually really curious to see that in person I I think that actually might be a fun band to have on the regular Series 9, but it might be a little too chunky. We'll see.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
You take your rampant consumerism that you are about to use or have already used to place orders for all these new tech products that have just come out or are about to come out, and you look at the base price of those products. So the new iPhone, say it's $999. Is that the – I don't even remember. Is it?
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Series 10, I mean. But anyway, it looks like overall, this is actually a really big update for the series. The series line of watches, it's a really big update for the bands, and it's not an update for the Ultra or the SE. But, I mean, it's a pretty good update. I will say, though, not updating the Ultra...
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Only two years into it is surprising to me because as far as I can tell, just like from looking around the world and hearing people who like Apple products, it seems like it's pretty popular. Like I see a lot of Ultras out in the world, a lot. Like on non-nerds and on people who I know are not doing ultra sports or ultra activities. They're not even living an ultra lifestyle.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
They're just people who like the way it looks or who want the battery life or whatever. The ultra is very popular, it seems. So it is kind of odd not to update it to like the new, you know, the S10 SIP and some of the new features that the Series 10 has. It is kind of weird. I wonder what the story there is.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Like, do they, is it kind of like the Mac Pro and Mac Studio where they're like, eh, we can skip a generation. We don't sell that many of these. Like, I don't know. Again, I see a lot of them out there. So who knows? I don't know what happened there. We'll see what kind of update cycle the Ultra gets, but it is odd to skip one so soon.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
So iPhone Pro 999. So what you do is you say, all right, well, I got an iPhone Pro. I got the bigger storage option. I got the AppleCare. I got a case. I got to pay sales tax. Whatever additional money you're paying out the door above that 999 base price of the actual product, say it's a couple hundred bucks, that becomes your suggested minimum donation to St.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Jude because that's like the add-on money that you are kind of just tossing on at the end there. The theory is you can probably afford something like that if you're fortunate enough to be buying this kind of gear in the first place most of the time.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Yeah. Look, I'm not going to toot my own horn unnecessarily. No, I'm definitely right about this. The big regular series watch is the watch that I think is right for you. For reference, my Series 9, one-year-old, heavy use, wear it almost every day. I worked out today for a little over an hour in workout mode. It is now almost 9 p.m., and it's still a 65% battery.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
So if that's you, if you can afford it, that is my suggested minimum donation is that incremental offset above the base price of the product or products that you are buying. If you truly can't afford it, that's cool. We understand. Donate a dollar if you can afford that. Any amount helps. But if you can afford more, we encourage it.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
And I use Always On. I'm using it all day, and I don't charge it at all during the day. So, yeah, I mean, the battery life on the big one is fine. And for whatever reason, I did wear the smaller one for a few years there in the middle, and I always thought that was bad.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
decent battery life but it wasn't amazing especially after the watch was more than a couple years old you know you would start to notice it would have trouble getting through the day if you were doing workouts that's not the case with the big one now and there's different workout modes too like if you are say you know running outside so it's using the gps and if you're especially a playing music while running you know playing music on the watch while running with gps and workout mode that's going to be probably the worst case scenario for battery life
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Even that, the big one, is fine. Like, you know, the big regular series watch, I can do an outdoor run for an hour, listening to a podcast over AirPods the entire time with the watch, maybe even using cellular during some of that time, and it will still get through that day. It is fine. Like, I will go to bed and it will not be in low power mode. So...
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
If your wrist supports it, I would strongly recommend getting the larger regular series watch for most people. Again, if you are okay with the size, fashion-wise, and I think most people can pull it off, honestly. You have to be pretty petite and also care about that kind of thing to not be able to pull off the middle-sized Apple Watch, which is what this is.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
and for most people, that's not going to be a concern. Most adults can easily pull off the big one, especially because large smartwatches are in style.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Even on people whose wrists are otherwise fairly small relative to the average adult, say, the bigger watch, even the Ultra, most people can wear whatever size they want, and no one bats an eye at how it looks or whether it, quote, fits them or not. You can wear whatever size watch you want. Fashion is all over the place on that, and big smartwatches are very much in fashion.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Oh, no. This is... Oh, my God. I loved this naming clumsiness. So here's what it is. So this is actually two different products. There's AirPods 4, and they introduced another version of AirPods 4, and they didn't announce the name until the end. And during the entire introduction of that part, they kept calling them these AirPods.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
So the introduction line was, for those looking for even more performance in this style of AirPods. And the entire rest of that section, she kept saying these AirPods, you know, these AirPods have, you know, these AirPods have this, these AirPods have that. The Apple Watch case charging compatibility in case speaker in this charging case for these AirPods.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
And then eventually they unveiled the name as AirPods 4 with active noise cancellation. which is one of those two Thunderbolt ports kind of names. So I would suggest, since the actual name is so comically clumsy, we should call them what they called them, these AirPods. So we have AirPods 4, these AirPods, and AirPods Pro and AirPods Max.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Well, so we at least know the case is different. This charging case... Mm-hmm.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Noise cancellation requires more microphones typically than just like one for receiving phone calls. So my guess is they probably have additional microphones. But I don't think we know that yet.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
I mean, the processor in them is just branded H2, like every other H2 AirPods. We don't really know... Is the H2 the CPU, or is there a difference? Is the H2 just the Bluetooth? Who knows? And then we also don't know, is there more than one kind of H2? Maybe they're binned. Maybe it's two little tiny cores, and some of them only have one core active. Who knows? They could be higher clock speed.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
In the features that are in these AirPods, these features have... More computational load to do some of those features. Things like ANC to begin with, obviously transparency mode, they have adaptive audio, they have conversation awareness. They have most of the core audio processing features of the AirPods Pro. So
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
That's going to be substantially more processing needs than the standard AirPods 4 that don't have any of those. But what gets me, the standard AirPods 4 does have voice isolation on phone calls. So that's also kind of one of those features. So... I don't know. It could be as simple as a different case and a couple of software-enabled features. Who knows?
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
But regardless, they now have, you know, most of the features available in the AirPods Pro are now available in, quote, this open-ear design.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
I mean, now that they have the pizza boxes to update them, maybe that's part of the reason why they did that, honestly.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Keep in mind, also, the sales cycle of these products is the whole year and possibly beyond. So even if they have a lot of air shipment for these first few weeks as they're pretty new coming out of the factory, at some point, that sales rate is going to...
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
you know, dip below the production rate by enough that they can start sending big batches of them by boat, and it'll be fine by the time they get here, you know? But also, one other thing on the carbon neutrality of the watch, as we went back to there anyway, I forgot to mention that one, I think, significant change this year.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
So last year, they introduced the first carbon-neutral Apple Watch configuration, but it was only like you had to get, like, I think it was just the aluminum one with just certain bands. So what they said this year was now... any Apple Watch in any finish, quote, can be carbon neutral.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
So it depends on what kind of band you pick, but it's new that any of the metals, like all the Apple Watches with any of the metal choices, can now be carbon neutral with certain band choices. I think that's great. They have expanded how many of their products can be carbon neutral.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
And they're indicating even in the store interface when you pick out things, they're telling you which choices are carbon neutral. So again, they're pushing that goal forward. I think that's a very laudable thing that they're doing that they're actually making real progress on.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
I mean, obviously, they really didn't have time to fix all of the AirPods Max's glaring shortcomings since it's only been out for four years.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
So, you know, when the AirPods Max came out, pretty much everybody said, Okay, these are pretty good in certain ways. They are a little heavy and uncomfortable as a result of that. They are very expensive, and the case they came with is stupid and garbage and very inconvenient, like that weird kind of bra-shaped case. It's a bad case in so many ways. So what they've changed is...
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
We got new colors and a USB-C port, and we've addressed none of the major flaws of this product.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
think the fear is that and this is a very founded fear based on apple's history the fear is that this is going to be it for the next four years like that they they touched it and it's like all right we touched it it's it's updated new banner and then that's it no that's not this is this is clearly a sort of like try to stem some of the pain while we work on the successor right or they just can the whole product line but i think there's going to be a successor and
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
But it was also a lot better. It still had a long way to go. But the second one was significantly updated.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Oh, my God. But the AirPods Max are a better product that's more successful than the Home. But anyway, if I was an AirPods Max fan and I was waiting for this update, I'd be pretty mad. And, John, I think you're optimistic. You can make a bet. Add it to your calendar. I don't think there's a chance in hell the AirPods Max get another update at least for two years.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
I don't think I would bet two years, but I would bet five.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Three? You want to go three? It's a little harder on me, but I think I'll go three. All right, let's do it. Three years. I'll take that bet. I'm saying not before three years from now. You're saying before three years from now that we'll get an update.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Yeah, this is awesome. For them to be leaning into hearing health and to be taking advantage of the AirPods Pro's amazing abilities here, this is a very big deal for a lot of people.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Yeah. And to be clear, like if any of you out there are hearing this and you're like, well, it probably doesn't work that well. If you've never heard transparency mode on AirPods Pro. It is way better than you think it can be. Even if you've heard transparency mode or pass-through mode on other noise-canceling headphones, trust me, so have I. Go read all the reviews.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Everyone agrees the AirPods Pro transparency mode is way better than every other pair of headphones on the market, including, yes, the brand new, you know, whatever new Sony XM series is out that year. Yes, even better than that. Even better than the AirPods Max when they were new, let alone now. The transparency pass-through mode on AirPods Pro is remarkably good. It is stunningly good.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
So they can do things like this. They can have really interesting and useful and amazing audio features for people's regular hearing that are built upon transparency mode and the amazing thing they've built there. And this is just one of the many things, you know, I've mentioned in the past how I now I'm now using AirPods Pro 2 as my hearing protection when I go to concerts because it works.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
And this is another feature they talked about is hearing protection.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Yeah, exactly. And so I actually, we'll talk about in the after show, I went to a concert this past weekend and I wore the same AirPods Pro in the same part of the audience in the same venue that I was in a year ago. And a year ago, that was the first time I tried them as hearing protection in a concert. And I gave a whole report on the show about how it worked pretty well.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
It worked better than any, quote, concert earplugs that I had available and that I had tried. Way better than all those. And it was pretty great. The only problem I had noted last fall when I went to the Phish concert was that...
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
if I would like turn my head a little bit, like side to side, sometimes they would kind of get unbalanced because like I wasn't, I was no longer like aligned perfectly with the PA speakers, like evenly on both sides. You know, like if I, if I'm like looking to the left or right, um, and it would kind of like make the sound kind of unbalanced and wacky. And it was like a little bit imperfect. Um,
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
This past weekend with the iOS 18 and whatever latest versions of AirPods firmware there are, this past weekend it was flawless. It was just perfect. There was no imbalance. There was no pumping effects. You get compressor pumping effects if you're in audio terms. None of that. It was just perfect. It sounded exact. And at one point I was like, the guitar sounds a little bit low in the mix.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
I wonder if that's the processing. And I took them out to see what it sounded like without them. And first of all, it blew my ears off. It was so loud. But I also noticed like, no, the mix is the same. Like it wasn't messing with the mix. It was just making everything evenly quieter. And all I was doing – this was not any new feature that they're about to add.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
This is the feature that's already there. It's just transparency mode with what is currently called reduced loud sounds, which I believe is on by default now. So they already, in the last year, have made massive strides before this new hearing protection version even launches. And so to have that now on by default and available in all listening modes – That's incredible.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
And all of the idea of using AirPods Pro as hearing aids, that's not only incredible for so many reasons, but also that's totally plausible as a thing that they could be very good at within the range of what they can correct for. They can't correct above a certain level of decibel needs or whatever, and that's fine. There's obviously, quote, real hearing aids for that.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
But this is going to be great for a lot of people. The only thing I would request, if they're going to lean more into this, which I love that they are, building on what John was saying earlier...
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
wearing airpods pro when you're trying to like talk to people people don't know that you can hear them and it's it's not like this is just something that people are going to figure out next year next year or in six months like we've had airpods for a while now society has not accepted the idea that you can just talk to people wearing headphones because you on the outside you can't tell whether they can hear you or not see also the vision pro weird i think like you can't tell if they can hear you or not so you kind of are hesitant to talk to people with headphones in
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
And I, as an AirPods user, will frequently – will almost always take them out when talking to people because, again, like even though my podcast is paused or whatever, they don't know that. So if they want to have AirPods Pro be able to take more of these roles – the smaller and more discreet they can become, the better.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
And this doesn't necessarily mean they have to be, you know, super tiny in your ears with the thing that loops behind you, like the way many hearing aids are designed. But even just something as simple as if they were available in something closer to skin tones rather than bright white, like even just, heck, even just give us a black version, but just like something other than bright white.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Cause that's one thing when I'm wearing them at a concert, I'm very aware that like, this is very visible, right?
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
like this like i would i would love to have those be a little more discreet skin tones would be perfect if not you know just something a little bit darker maybe um and certainly if they can investigate maybe a stickless design uh for this kind of use that would also be interesting um that obviously starts you start changing the product a little you know in pretty big ways once you do that but we know it's possible because literally everyone else does it that way
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
So there are different suggestions I would make in terms of the physical design and colors to lean into this kind of feature set.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Literally every other competitor, everything is stickless except the AirPods. I was going to say Beats isn't a competitor. It's also Apple. Well, but they let Beats explore different designs and different features and everything. But yeah, so overall, yeah, a discrete design would be great in the future, or at least different color choices.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
But overall, what an amazing feature set for the AirPods Pro 2. They were already incredible headphones. They've already replaced all of my portable headphone uses, yes, including on planes. They've replaced every other time I use headphones that's not at my desk. They're just so incredibly good. And this now expands their use even more, makes them even better. I am so happy to see this.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
I would never have guessed that Apple would do this. I would have thought that Apple would not want to get into another medical area that might require certain approvals or things. But nope, they did it. And I'm super happy they did it.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
In terms of, you know, we'll get into each of the products individually. I think overall, this event focused a lot more on software capabilities than hardware capabilities. And that's not necessarily a bad thing, but it does make for, you know, a different tone of the event compared to, I think, what a lot of people expect or hope from an iPhone slash Apple Watch, whatever launch event is.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
So on the pro phone, they expanded a little bit on this, which might be related. On the pro phone section, they said that they, quote, maximized thermal capacity with a new aluminum frame with a, quote, graphite-clad aluminum substructure that provides up to 20% improvement in sustained performance on the 16 Pro. So it sounds like at least – in both phones, they talked about thermals.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
The reality is this is the, what, 18th iPhone or something? There have been so many iPhones. It is such a mature product. The annual incremental updates are not that big anymore in terms of interesting, showy new features or hardware changes. It's not that much every year. It's incremental in the hardware market.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
And in both phones, the euphemism they used was improvement in sustained performance. But what that really means is heat dissipation. That's what that means, cooling. And so whether this base 16 has the graphite-clad aluminum substructure, we don't know that. No, it doesn't. They would have said it. Probably, yeah.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
But either way, the thermals are better in both phones, and that's good because on the 15 Pro at least, I don't know about the regular 15, but on the 15 Pro, thermals took a pretty big step back. So this is good to see.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
But, and this is like, look, Siri looks good in presentations too.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Yeah, and I think that, so the camera control, and that's literally like, they kept calling it Camera Control or The Camera Control. It seems like this is a kind of loosey-goosey name, whether it includes the or not, whether you're supposed to capitalize it. But yeah, it's The Camera Control. Anyway, it's better than these AirPods. At least it has a name.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
What we tend to see, though, is interesting stuff in kind of software capabilities, backing services, things like that. And this year, the story is obviously all about AI-based features. And Apple intelligence in particular is what Apple is trying to push. And it's not just them. Obviously, the whole industry is pushing it right now with a lot of good reason.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Anyway, so this button, I think this is great. I think this is... What's interesting is that if you look at the rest of the phone's updates, they're mostly, again, software and incremental improvements. The camera control is the update for the iPhone 16 series.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
That's true, yeah. Sorry, I jumped ahead to the Pro. But yeah, because they both have the camera control, which is great. And it looks like... So what's interesting about the camera control is that it has all these different modes. It isn't just another action button. It has much more input potential than that. So it has...
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
It has the concept of like a light press because it looks like it's kind of like a touch ID button where it has that metal ring around the end. And so it can sense when you're just touching it. They also said that it appears to use optical sensing from below to see like where your finger is on it and maybe how much contact it's making, like how hard you're pressing.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
So what you have is you have soft touch gestures. And you have a push in gesture and you also have swipe gestures. And so what they've done with this is all sorts of of fun new controls that I think will actually be somewhat intuitive. So one that we skipped over is visual intelligence, where it's like it's like the humane pin thing of like, what am I looking at? You know, what is this?
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Do something with it. And that is you just hold it down. And that actually makes sense because visual intelligence is like Siri in a way, and it's below the Siri button. And it's like, okay, you hold down the sleep-wake button for Siri, and now you hold down the button below it for visual Siri. I think that actually makes sense.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
And then, of course, the camera, click to launch, click again to capture. While you're in the camera mode, you can use the swipey gestures and the light touches to control different camera settings, zoom, stuff like that. That, I think, is going to be pretty great. We will talk about case implications in overtime today. Yeah, that's going to be rough.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
But other than that, we'll get to that in overtime. But I think this is going to be a fun new input. I don't think it's going to be like... I absolutely must have this right now because all of those functions are available in the UI on the screen. But it will be easier and better in certain ways.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
One way, for instance, that it will be better, besides the fact that you don't have to reach that button at certain angles and stuff, one angle you don't have to reach it in is if you're trying to use the back camera to take a picture of yourself. You don't have to reach your finger around and guess or try to hit the volume button where you're reaching your hand around in a weird way.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Yeah, and there's a whole bunch of context like that where the camera control, I think, will just make life a little bit nicer in a lot of different occasions. So I think it's going to be a really big deal. And again, it's on both iPhones. I think it's going to be a really big deal. The only thing that I've seen some people say, like, is this going to be the future of input for all apps?
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
not for the foreseeable future because while there is an API for it, which I think is great to have a day one API for third party camera apps to have all those same controls, that's great. Problem is that API only works if the app is in the foreground and running an AV capture session, which means only camera apps basically while the camera is open are going to be able to use it. So like,
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
There is a lot of excitement there and a lot of advancement there. But what Apple is doing here is... communicating to the world, look at us, we have AI too. And to most of us who watch Apple very closely, we know the asterisks on that. Like number one, we know that it's not really out yet. And even when it quote comes out in a month, it'll be
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
I couldn't, for instance, use it to offer, say, a speed control for Overcast. I can't. It will not work for that because I don't have an active capture session.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Also, I don't think that works in the background. But yeah, that would definitely get rejected. So Apple has restricted the use of that to only apps that are performing capture in the foreground. So I don't expect to see most apps use that for anything, really, because you kind of can't. But...
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Even if it's only ever used in camera apps, even if you only ever use it in Apple's built-in camera app, I think that's going to be really great. And again, it's not going to be massively life-changing, but it's going to be a nice quality of life improvement. So that, I think, is the feature for this year's iPhones.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Besides Apple intelligence, we'll see how that works, when it actually comes out, how good it is. But for right now, the camera control is the feature this year.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Yeah, the non-pro iPhone 16 now has 48 megapixels on the main sensor. It's not the same camera. It's not the same lenses or sensor as the pro. Is it the same as the 15 pro, though? That's what wasn't clear to me.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
no the pixels are not as big and the the lens is 26 millimeter versus 24 so it's not it is does not have the same specs as the 15 pro or the 16 pro 1x camera but anyway it's a step up from the 15 for sure yeah so yeah they're doing they they brought the pixel binning trick where you know they the 12 megapixel sensor becomes 48 if you ignore color divisions and temporarily figure stuff out like so it it it they brought over that
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
in beta and limited and only a subset of the features like we know all those asterisks we also know almost that entire story because they showed it all to us in june but the iphone event is for the entire world it's for world media it's for people who don't care about anything else all year from apple except the iphone and the iphone event It's for mainstream people to hear about this stuff.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
trick to increase resolution and the process that goes with that they also a bigger jump should be the new ultra wide now has variable focus macro capability larger aperture bigger pixels so the ultra wide has taken a significant step up for the non-pro phone and that and the new arrangement of the sensors now allows it to take spatial video and interestingly both phones now get the ability to capture spatial photos which
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
which for some reason the 15 could not do, the 15 Pro could not do spatial photos. It could only do spatial video. Now both of these can do spatial photos as well. Oh, one other thing. When we were still in the 16 section, they briefly talked about emergency SOS and all the satellite features. They talked about how they are expanding the satellite capability to more countries.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
They have just totally not mentioned SOS pricing over time. I believe, aren't we now to the point, aren't we now at the two-year mark?
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
like they're just pushing it off yeah i think i think the answer is for most of this stuff they're probably just never going to charge because as we talked about last time like if somebody's like stuck in a mountain and dies because they didn't buy their iCloud plus whatever for satellite connectivity like that's not good and apple knows that and so it seems like they're probably just never going to charge for this but they haven't had the you know the the the data or whatever to be able to commit to that yet
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
So we'll see how that goes. But anyway, yeah, Emergency SOS and Find My is expanding in its coverage area.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
I love, by the way, the way that Jaws phrased this. He said, you know, even larger screens, quote, we did this while minimizing product growth. Right. That's his euphemism for the phone. We didn't make the phones bigger. Well, rather we did. We minimized how much bigger they got. So now we've learned like, you know, over time, we occasionally pick up little Apple-isms.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
You know, every company has corporate speak and custom corporate vocabulary that drives outside people nuts when they hear it. And, you know, we hear a couple, like sometimes they'll leak out into public space. You know, we could tell that obviously around the forestall era, using the term blow away as an adjective would seem to be one of the still happening.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
That's one of those things that infected the company back then and still going. So, you know, you hear about you hear certain, you know, certain apple isms will occasionally leak out. And now we know minimizing product growth, which is not about sales of a product, which sounds like a bad thing.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
No, it's minimizing product growth, which is minimizing the amount that we make the iPhone bigger, which we've tried to fit this bigger screen in.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Well, I think we are already seeing phoneflation over the last few years. If you look at the size of the current, quote, normal-sized phone, which is, I mean, now that there's no more mini, I guess, these are the smallest phones Apple's making. The size of the, quote, small phone in Apple's lineup is probably the size of the iPhone 6 Plus, if I had to guess, right?
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
And it also serves as a, you know, even for people who pay attention to the WWDC keynote, it's kind of a reminder like, hey, remember that thing we showed you three months ago? Well, now it's about to come out. So it's kind of a way to like refresh the excitement, even for people who pay attention back then.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
I mean, somebody will do the math on that. We're getting close. It's certainly heavier and thicker. It's much heavier. Phoneflation and sizing has already been happening. This is not a new thing, and it isn't a question of whether it's happening. It's absolutely happening.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Remember how nice it was last year, one year ago, when the 15 Pro came out and it had saved some weight? And we were all talking about how nice those phones felt compared to the bricks of the previous ones. We've now lost about half that gain. Well, it's like dieting. A lot of the weight comes back. That's literally what happens.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
So in a large way, this event is not incredibly targeted at people who follow Apple regularly like us. It is really a very mainstream event, and it's made to promote the new iPhone to the world. And usually in the iPhone event, what we see largely is –
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
trying to associate the new software features of the iOS update for that year with the new hardware to get people excited about the new hardware, even though many of those things are software features that aren't necessarily exclusive to the new hardware. So overall, I see why people were a little bit meh about the announcements at this event.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Well, so they said that the A18 Pro has larger caches. So I don't know what the structure is. Like, is the cache like a separate layer?
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
I actually, to me, you know, so the event went Apple Watch, then AirPods, then phones. And I think that's also the order of how interesting they are. In descending order, though. Like, I think the Apple Watch, to me, I think had possibly the most substantial update. And then I think the AirPods were in the middle, and maybe the phone is the least substantial. But...
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
So what's interesting about this lens and everything, it sounds like the sensor and the optics are the same as the 15 Pro. No, no, the sensor is not the same. Well, with one exception, with the readout speed. So they call it a second-gen quad-pixel sensor. It sounds like the main and possibly only difference is faster readout, which has benefits, but it's the same pixel size.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
It's the same aperture. And as the 15 Pro and the 14 Pro... Same lens, it seems. And so just the sensor, the 15 Pro added the quad pixel binning thing over the 14 Pro. And now the 16 Pro is making faster readouts on that. So this is a good camera, but we're really not seeing massive year-over-year camera differences anymore the way we used to.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Yes. So that is brand new. The ultra wide has a substantial upgrade in its quality and sensor. It is not the same like, you know, giant sensor and big optics as the 1X camera. It never has been and probably never can be because of things like physics. But it is a substantial upgrade, which should be good, especially for things like spatial video capture, which uses both of those sensors.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Overall, the story here is really about Apple intelligence and software features, and the hardware is very incremental on the phone. I would say it's more than incremental on the watch, but on the phone, it's pretty incremental. So we'll get to those details, but... I am fine with how this went. I wish the phone would have been a little bit more new.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
And I actually even considered skipping the phone this year. But it should be the first time ever, honestly. So I see why people are a little disappointed by that.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Yeah, this is great. There's a few reasons why raw files are so much bigger than JPEGs or HEX, and now I guess JPEG XLs. Part of it is that it's saving a larger range of possible values compared to a JPEG, which is limited to a certain visible range or whatever. So part of it is we're storing more precision, more depth.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
But a big part of why RAWs are so big is that they are literally uncompressed. So they are, in some cases, totally uncompressed. In some cases, losslessly compressed, which is not that compressed. There's a lot of...
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
I think middle ground that, that we're exploring now as an industry in terms of like, let's compress the image perceptually the way JPEG historically has done, like, you know, perceptual image compression. So it is lossy compression, but just at a very high, you know, bit rate, so to speak. Uh, so we're not losing too much that people would actually notice, uh,
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
but still try to save more range of values and like less processed values. So that way we can do things like this. And so what seems to be the case is whatever we're doing with the photographic styles, they are storing more data like that so that you can do these things after the fact.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
And that is a great direction for photography to go because raw files are, are great for what they are really for, which is not your phone, right? and not most people using them. It's for certain professional contexts. They're great for that. But for most people, something that has lossy compression, but that can store more ranges of values is potentially very useful.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
No, but if we all had very different talents than what we actually have, it could be pretty useful to us. No, this is all... This looks great. A lot of musicians do use this for this kind of purpose. So this is... It's great. It's amazing they can do it.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
And I'm glad they're working on improving things like the microphone array and different ML processes and stuff because that can often filter down to features or benefits that everyone can use, even if they aren't songwriters or movie makers or whatever else.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Basically, yeah. Because I think they realized that everyone was using voice memos for this anyway.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
You want to talk about any orders or are we just going to plow right through?
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
I'm going to get the white one, the 256, and Tiff looked at the upgrades and was like, I don't need one.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Well, because she's already on the 15 Pro Max, so she already has the 5X camera. The other cameras didn't change enough for her to care, and...
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
I did not phrase that well. I described it to her, and she's like, eh, I don't care. Maybe she'll see mine and get envious at some point, but I think she honestly just doesn't care. Again, this is a... If you have...
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
fairly recent iPhone this is not like a a blow away update sorry like this it's again it's a nice incremental update and as John was saying like over time incremental updates do add up and it does become great but if you have if you have like a 14 or a 15 Pro and and you're looking at the 16 Pro, it's not that different.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
From the 15 Pro, it's almost not different at all, with the exception of the camera control. The 14 Pro, at least you get the USB-C and the lighter weight-ish, and two generations of improvements in certain areas. So the 14 Pro to the 16 Pro, it's a better upgrade. If you have a 15 Pro, the only reason we're doing this is because we're idiots and podcasters. We shouldn't be doing this.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
And the AirPods Max. Keep in mind also, like, you know, the next year we have those rumors of the iPhone Slim, which, you know, even if that might not be what everybody chooses, that's certainly going to be an interesting new thing to shake things up. So, like, that's something that's in the next year. And also, like... This year is the year of Apple intelligence.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
That's great, but the beginning of the year of Apple intelligence is not going to actually be there. And Apple intelligence is being gradually started over the course of a large chunk of the year.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Right exactly like I so if you're thinking like I've got to jump right now to get Apple intelligence like I would say you don't and you might want to wait until like if Apple intelligence is your main driver for upgrading you might want to wait till next year because most of this year most of those features probably won't be available.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
And even if they are, they're still going to be in a fairly beta-like status for most of the year. And most of the excitement of Apple Intelligence is going to be, first of all, if it works, it's going to develop over time. This is going to be like a multi-year ramp-up. It's not going to all come in the next few months.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
So, honestly, I think this is a nice incremental upgrade, and if you want a new phone, get it. But if you're saying, I've got to get a new phone for Apple Intelligence, like... You don't need to rush on that.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
All right. Thanks to our sponsor this week, Tailscale. Thanks to our members who support us directly. You can join us at atb.fm slash join. And this week, our overtime, which is our member-only exclusive bonus topic that we do every week for members, as mentioned, is about the iPhone 16 series case situation.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
and uh there's there's some some interesting issues there to talk about so we'll be talking about that in overtime you can join to listen to hbfm join thanks everybody and we'll talk to you next week so
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Now the show is over. They didn't even mean to begin. Cause it was accidental. Oh, it was accidental. John didn't do any research. Marco and Casey wouldn't let him. Cause it was accidental. Oh, it was accidental. And you can find the show notes at ATP.FM. And if you're into mastodon, you can follow them at C-A-S-E-Y-L-I-S-S.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
So that's K-C-L-I-S-M-A-R-C-O-A-R-M-A-N-T-M-A-R-C-O-A-R-M-A-N-T-M-A-R-C-O-A-R-M-A-N-T-M-A-R-C-O-A-R-M-A-N-T-M-A-R-C-O-A-R-M-A-N-T-M-A-R-C-O-A-R-M-A-N-T-M-A-R-C-O-A-R-M-A-N-T-M-A-R-C-O-A-R-M-A-N-T-M-A
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
As discussed in last week's After Show, where I was talking about some issues I was having with the Rivian and the even greater issues I was having getting it serviced, I mentioned that part of the reason I needed a car to go a long distance with fast charging is that I was going to a Goose concert. This is a jam band and kind of very similar to Phish in certain ways.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
It's definitely the same genre as Phish, but of course they are their own band with their own identity and their own style. But certainly the closest analog I would say is it's closest to Phish from what people would know. Anyway, so I was going to a concert upstate and hundreds of miles away, so it was a lot of driving.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
And I do want to talk about the concert, and then I'll talk about how I got there. So anyway, because this was the first time I had seen Goose in concert, I used the AirPods Pro as my earplugs, as I mentioned earlier. They did a fantastic job. Again, even better than last year. No artifacting, no imbalances whatsoever. A flawless job. I was very happy using AirPods Pro as my concert earplugs.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
I really could not tell I was wearing them most of the time. It just sounded like it was a reasonable volume. It was great. I will say Goose as a band puts on a very good show. And if you are into seeing jam band concerts, I would say definitely go see Goose if you get a chance to. It is a little bit more, I'd say a little more mainstream compatible than Phish. Yeah. Not a lot more, mind you.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
It's still a jam band. But they don't go quite as far off the deep end for quite as long as Phish tends to do. So it's a great show. First of all, just on a personal level, for a long time, I felt like Phish is my only band. And what the heck is going to happen to my enjoyment of music when that band inevitably ends at some point in the future? And I'm very heartened to see that there's more.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Goose is now in that same genre doing a great job as well. And so it's great to see there's more bands making the kind of music that I like. So anyway, great show. They had especially an amazing and quite intense light show. My favorite thing, I strongly suggest one of the reasons to go Seagoose, in addition to the very good music, they are a really visually interesting band.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
He's also a very good guitar player. He's very good in the jams. I didn't hear a single missed note the entire time. It was quite good. Next to the lead singer is this guy, Peter Ansbach. I don't know most of the names, but I know Peter Ansbach because I follow him on Instagram. He looks like a cartoon character, like a happy cartoon character.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
If you see pictures of the band, the one who looks like a happy cartoon character, that's Peter. He is, like, the nicest guy in the world, and he's always smiling. Because he seems like a genuinely, like, just smiley, happy, positive person. Like, he's a super nice guy. And so, you have, you know, the lead singer, like, you know, looking all cool.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Then you have Peter looking like a cartoon smiling character, like, playing keyboards on the side. Then, in the back, you have two drummers. One of them is the regular kind of drummer. The other one is an accessories kind of drummer. He has tambourines, shakers, and my favorite, a gong. I love a band with a gong. That's always a good thing. Then you have the bass player.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
cop from an 80s movie with like a long mullet and those big sunglasses and he stays like perfectly stoic and still and emotionless the and he's a good bass player like he's playing very well but like you have the entire rest of the band is these like characters and like right behind the bass player is the drummer he they just replaced their drummer a few months ago he's a new drummer to the band he is working his butt off and
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
So the entire time you're seeing this amazing new drummer who is just in constant motion, like he gets really physically into it. And to be a rock drummer, it's hard enough. To be a jam band drummer, you're doing that for 25 minutes straight. Like, without a break. Like, you're doing that for a long time.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
So, like, you have this drummer who is just working his butt off, like, really physical, just banging around for 25 minutes straight. And all around him is, like, rainbow lights and smoke effects and, like, all... Like, there's just...
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
chaos going on back there and in front of it is this bass player who looks like a cop just staring at you like it's just totally still as all this chaos happens behind him it is an amazing thing to see so anyway it was a very very good show strongly recommend going to see Goose and Conch if you get a chance All right. So how I got there.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
So I mentioned, you know, I my Rivian had problems with fast charging on the highway. Like I couldn't reliably fast charge without like rebooting the car and waiting and it kept throwing errors and have problems. And I believe the two of you and certainly people in the chat and listeners suggested, why don't I just rent a car for the trip?
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
And so I decided, you know what, since the Rivian was being unreliable, I thought that's a good idea. I'm going on a long trip. I'll just rent something. How bad could it be?
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
So I rented, you know, I went to our local enterprise branch. And of course, on the website, they list, they have all these like fun sedans and everything. And of course, then you get there and they have two SUVs and nothing else. It's like, Okay. I wish they would stop doing that. It's literally false advertising.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Anyway, I'm not super happy with Enterprise Rent-A-Car right now, because what they rented me with the advertisement of all these sedans they didn't have and all these other fun cars they didn't actually have, and I get there and they have two SUVs. One of them was a Jeep Wagoneer, which is A bus.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
I'm pretty sure that the bus that brought my kid to school on the beach was smaller than that vehicle. It's a very large vehicle and I didn't want to pay that kind of premium. So they offered me for the sedan rate that I actually reserved. They offered me the smaller SUV, which was a few years old Ford Escape plug-in hybrid. This was my first time using a plug-in hybrid.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Yeah, I rented the Ford Escape. Now, it was pretty old. It had like 37,000 miles, which I think is the highest I've ever seen on a rental car, not counting things like U-Hauls, which are always miserable, but just regular rental car places. So it has 36,000 miles. It's like falling apart. There's like padding is falling off of things.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
There's like different trim pieces that are just like kind of loose. It's not in good shape. It smells like a stale car. It's not a great car. But it seemed to drive fine when I drove back to my house the night before I left and was going to leave early in the morning. Okay. So I'm playing around with the plug-in hybrid part. I even charge it up in my house because I have the connector.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
I'm like, great. I charge it up and see how it goes. And I brought the family out for pizza that night. So I got a chance to drive it around town. And I decided to use only electric mode driving around town. And it was, like, decent.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
I was like, okay, it's not as good as an EV overall, but for those brief times you're driving around town before it runs out of battery, it's actually a decent option. The way I would describe it, this is not a perfect analogy, forgive me, but the way I would describe it is, like, it's almost like the way, like, a bike with training wheels is
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
gives you the idea that you are riding a bike and you're like, you're kind of, but like a bike with training wheels is really not almost anything like riding a bike. Whereas like these days, a lot of kids learn on what's called a balance bike, which is basically a bike with no pedals. Because we've kind of figured, and this is how my kid learned as well.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
We've kind of figured out that the hard part of riding a bike is not the pedals. It's the balancing. It's like figuring out how to balance with the inertia and the tipping over and the turning and things like that. And so a bike with training wheels teaches you to pedal but doesn't teach you anything about the balance.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
A balanced bike teaches you the hard part, the balancing and the turning and everything. And you can figure out the pedals afterwards when you use a regular bike. Um, so we've kind of learned that's kind of a better way to teach most kids. Uh, anyway, to me, like the, the plug in hybrid is like the training wheels bike of EVs.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Like it gives you the idea that it's, it's just like an EV most of the time, right? It's like, no. but it's better than nothing.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
We breezed over it so fast and I want to revisit it.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
I would say it's so that's you're right that like when when you are in the electric only range of a plug in hybrid, it is in the ballpark. Certainly, like you're right. It is usually the electric motors are not very strong. So you do have that problem of like it doesn't have the power of an EV. It doesn't have the torque of an EV.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
other minor things that I think make a big difference to EV drivers so for instance like you know it will usually try to mimic the same way the gas engine would drive so you have things like very strong creep like when you lift off the gas pedal and it just starts going you can turn that off in errands but I take your point oh okay the Ford Escape like it had I mean granted you know I'm used to driving electric recently so I'm not that used to it but like
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
You took your foot off the gas, and it would go five miles an hour immediately. I was like, whoa, hold on. I didn't say go. It was the fastest creep I've ever seen in a vehicle, whether it was in gas or electric mode. And also, you then have all of the complexity and size and weight of all of those systems. Yeah.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
that's true so it's again like if you if your option for your needs is either gas or plug-in hybrid go plug-in hybrid like it's definitely better than better than pure gas but don't tell yourself that like all right i'm done with the ev transition now like no like you're you have a you have a halfway point there and it's a it's a decent halfway point for a lot of people but it's not the same as a full ev and you're not getting all the benefits of an ev
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Yeah. Anyway, overall, I was actually fairly impressed with this kind of stinky Ford Escape. Like, this is not a high-end vehicle, but I was kind of impressed overall with the driving until I was driving through Brooklyn, and I was stopped at a traffic light, and the car just kind of dies.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
i'm like um that's did i do something wrong here is this well this is no different than the rivian then welcome to auto stop start well one great advantage of the ford escape plug-in hybrid i don't know if this is true of all plug-in hybrids there is no auto stop start because it just uses electric at low speeds so you don't have that effect at all and and there's not even a button to turn it on or off like you just what effect the gasoline engine will still turn itself off will it not
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Well, it will when it's not being used, but it's not like auto stop start where most cars that you stop at a traffic light and then the engine just kind of stops.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Well, and kind of, I mean, I didn't know most of that for regular hybrids, but I think the, my ideal setup, because like Casey, you're right that like around town being all electric and then just using gas on long trips is kind of the best of both worlds. Because, you know, I didn't have to think about charging at all.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Right. But, you know, TIFF has the BMW i3 with the range extender. And the way that works, which I think is the same way the Chevy Volt worked, is it is always driven by the electric motors. There is no direct connection between the gas motor and the electric motors, not even if you floor it, not even for extra power. The gas motor can never drive the wheels.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
It is only a generator to boost the range. So the way the i3 works is you're using all electric until you hit about 20% battery. then it will turn on the gas engine and just kind of keep it there. Like it will generate enough to keep it at 20% until it runs out of gas. And it only has like a one and a half gallon gas tank.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
It's like a motorcycle engine, but it's using it as a generator to just give you more range when you get to the bottom of your electric range. And that's, that's all, you know, it has like a hundred miles of range before it even gets there. So you have a decent sized battery and then you have like 80 miles worth of range extension from using a gas generator from one and a half gallons of gas.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
I think my ideal setup for like a long range road car, if you didn't go all E.V., would be just do that, but instead of having a 1.5-gallon tank, have, like, a 5-gallon tank. Then you could go 300 miles easily, 400 miles, at least. And then you could, on a long trip, you could just stop and get 5 gallons of gas and keep going for another few hundred miles like that.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
I'm sure there's good reasons why no one ever made that, but I don't know those reasons because I think that sounds amazing. And it's literally exactly what the i3 and the Chevy Volt were, just with bigger gas tanks. But I'm sure there's probably reasons. Anyway... So, this car stalls, and everything's dead. And it's like, it won't turn back on. It's throwing errors on the screen.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
And I'm like, oh, no. This is not good. I'm going to a trip for a concert that is tonight. Like, I have to make it there, but let me just, you know... Turn it off, turn it on again. Eventually, after like 15 seconds of messing with it, I finally just got it to turn on. And I was like, okay, I'm going to try to keep going. Let's hope for the best.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Well, a short time later, while driving on the West Side Highway in Manhattan, it dies again. And I slowly drift over, try to get to the shoulder. I have just enough power to get over to the right lane and block an entrance ramp.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
So now I'm dead again and I'm blocking an entrance ramp to the West Side Highway.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
This is not good. It takes me a... You know, I turn on the flashers. I'm trying to... And just... I'm like, all right, well, I know I got it going last time. After a few seconds, just try to turn it off, turn it back on again. Eventually, after maybe 30 seconds, I eventually got it going again. So, you know, everyone's honking behind me. I'm like waving. So, you know. So, I... I keep going.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Eventually, you know, I'm going upstate, taking a highway off-ramp to go – I'm sorry.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Right. And, like, I have a concert to go to that night. So I'm like, look, I can – there's Enterprises upstate. Like, if the worst case, like – I'm going to make this concert. Worst case, like maybe tomorrow on the way back, I can get a different car if I really have to, you know, by going to some local location. But like I'm not going to miss the concert. So I keep going.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
I didn't end up having to replace the car on the trip because there was just never a time where it was that urgent because I was able to get it going every time. But over the course of this trip, it stalled about 12 times like this. Oh, my word. Usually at least while it was stopped, like at a light or something. And I tried – and here, of course, I'm a nerd.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
So I'm like, I wonder if I – because you can pick – because it's a plug-in hybrid, it has all these different modes. You can have auto or you can have only use the battery mode, don't use the battery mode, and you can have make the engine run constantly to charge the battery mode.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
Yep, yep, yep. So, of course, I tried all those different modes, trying to figure out, okay, well, is it... Maybe it's misreading the battery voltage, so I'll keep the battery at a high charge level using the generate option. Maybe it's, like, you know, dying in the switchover, so I'll make it never use the battery, and that didn't work.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
I'm like, maybe I'll make it always use the battery, and then alternate between, like, always using it until it's down, then make it charge itself all the way back up. And then, like, I tried all these, because I was in this car for, like... I don't know, seven, eight, nine hours during this trip. It was a long time. So I was like, I had a lot of time to play with the different modes.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
None of them made any difference whatsoever. It just kept dying. So I did make the trip. It was fine. Eventually, I was, you know, in some pretty bad situations with this dying in the middle of busy highways and New York City and stuff. But, you know, it was...
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
I did eventually make it back with all the – including it even stalled literally the traffic light right before reentering the Enterprise location to drop it off. It stalled there.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
I told them – I expressed to them my dissatisfaction with the situation. They were apologetic.
Accidental Tech Podcast
604: Minimized Embiggening
they didn't give me a discount or anything i but i'm like look you i'm like just take this car off the road like just you have to take like you know i wasn't going to make a huge deal out of it because i don't want them to think i was making a big deal just to get like a discount or something but i'm like you got to take this car off the road like this is unsafe so anyway um the idea that renting a car might be more reliable than my broken rivian uh nope wasn't
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
Nick, these guys are low energy today, you notice that? You know what we need to do? We need to f***ing gamble. Let's do it, Nick. Let's play a f***ing hand of blackjack. Let's get these guys f***ing amped.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
Nat thought he was hilarious. Oh, because of the disparity in the looks between you and Nat is what he was sort of implying.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
It sounds like you guys are in the halls of power now, and Trump has flipped his positions on EVs, abortion, and taking away a woman's right to choose. He's flipped his position on TikTok and flipped his position on crypto. I give him a ton of credit. Four flips in a month, and he just sweeps all those votes. It's pretty smart. And for the Democrats who are listening,
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
You're losers, and you're not listening to people. So you're going to lose the election, and Biden's going to get demolished. Nobody wants to vote for somebody who they think is incognito. That's your bet right now, Jacob.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
I mean, did you see the video that came out this week where he was at some event, and it looked like a Mitch McConnell moment, right, where he was kind of frozen? He was like stuck. And so I don't want to make it like elder abuse, and I know...
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
Yeah, he's got to bow out.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
Who knows? I think it's all going to be determined by the debates.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
We need a cognitive test. But the Democrats need to just look deeply in the mirror and say, hey, you're fielding a candidate that nobody's going to vote for. That's the problem here. And there's not enough anti-Trump sentiment. And Trump's a genius at flipping his position to get huge swaths of voters. And so you're going to get demolished if you don't hot swap them.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
So lads, what do we want to do here? We want to put 10K and then give it to one of Tim's mates who's stuck or something. How do we do this? We Mr. Beast this? We give 10K to the next time you get coffee if we win? And give it to the barista or something? What should we do?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
I guarantee you a hot swap is coming. I predicted the Trump TV flip, and I predict it now.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
And if you frame it as that, Chamath, then it's even a bigger trouncing, right? Like if you put Biden, if you put Kamala against Trump, then what would the, it would be an even bigger shellacking, yeah? In your mind?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
And listen, Biden hasn't made it to the finish line of his first term. It's obvious to everybody he's in cognitive decline. You put up a candidate who's in cognitive decline, you're going to lose. even against, you know, Trump, who people really don't like. These are the two most unpopular candidates of our lifetime.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
I think that- Oh, he's got a core, but yeah, no, people, the Republicans, including yourself, were looking for a different candidate just months ago. You said Trump was not your preferred candidate and you were all in on DeSantis. So let's not pretend like he was your preferred candidate. He's the remaining candidate.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
There's some, yeah.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
In this, we are in total agreement. Yes, there is no enthusiasm to put somebody in cognitive decline in the White House. All right, listen, we gotta get to the docket. We could talk for hours about Biden, Biden, Biden, Trump, Trump, Trump, and we will. It's gonna be a continuing topic, but let's get to a very full docket here. Breaking news, last night, Tesla shareholders have backed their guy.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
Yes, there was two important votes, measures, that Tesla just had taken with their shareholders. The first was approving Elon's pay package, the $56 billion pay package that was voided by a Delaware judge. We talked about that on episode 164 back in February. And then moving Tesla's incorporation from Delaware to Texas. This is also major.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
Yes, absolutely. We want to be in a 10K sweat with you.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
Remember, we talked last week about the Texas Stock Exchange. Here's the two charts. massive overwhelming support. There were some notable people who dissented. I think Norway's Sovereign Wealth Fund and CalPERS were two of the ones who were voting against it. Tesla share price popped 6% on the news. You don't want to lose Elon at Tesla. That would be really bad.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
So your thoughts, Chamath, on this vote and maybe the move and what that represents.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
Are these real dealers or are these AI news? We had a debate.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
Saks, you have thoughts on this outcome? Is it surprising to you? Not surprising? And then I think the jurisdiction thing is bigger than maybe people are thinking because Delaware has been the standard for incorporating companies, but Elon is putting his companies in Nevada and Texas. We saw the stock exchange last week getting back to move to Texas.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
This does seem like there's something about jurisdiction in the water. What are your thoughts, Sax?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
Yeah, pick a book. Pick a book. Somebody who feels blue collar, who wants to work for us. We need somebody who's a worker. And you have over a million followers now watching this craziness.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
Freedberg, is this a John Galt moment? Is this where capitalism, socialism, and the state collide and people now start thinking, hmm, maybe we need to create a new jurisdiction, a new framework?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
What do you think of this guy, Tim?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
when i don't have to yeah very simple because he would leave uh morals and ethics matter and you want to do the right thing and you want to incentivize capitalism to operate properly and want to incentivize the people who take on the burden of running these companies and the people who voted against it i think people should just make a list of those individuals chamar and they should not do business with that because if somebody is going to double cross you
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
They've shown you who they are. These are people who double cross them. They got the benefit. And then they stabbed him in the back.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
Then you're a true scumbag.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
I'm not saying a blacklist, but I would say making a list of people who maybe you want to consider not doing business with is how I would frame it.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
And 10% being the ownership of the company that he gets. Yeah. The pay package was laughed at on CNBC by all the experts. There is no way for him to hit this stuff. If he does hit it, he's getting a fraction of the value of it. And this is why stock is such a valuable device. If employees get stock,
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
and the CEO gets stock and everybody in between and retail investors get it and endowments get it and your retirement account gets it, everybody rose in the right direction. Is it perfect? No, people can buy back their stock. They can do a little gaming on the margins, but it is the most pure system we have. Everybody has a share of the company.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
So if you're a socialist, you should actually kind of appreciate how stock works that everybody has a chance to buy it, everybody has a chance to participate. This is the model we should be using for all CEOs, they should all get a massive package. If the stock goes up into the right. It's so obvious. And this was so unfair. Let's see this flipper. I want to see their explanation.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
Yeah, put a stop for $10,000. Put a stop for $10,000.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
This woman is so smug. What is her name? Karen Frost? I don't think she's smug.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
Yeah, they're trying to catch up. They've been behind on venture.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
How does a lawyer make $5 billion? How is that possible?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
When people ask, why does Delaware have this special place that everybody decided Delaware would incorporate? It was because it was predictable. Lawyers felt this was the most predictable jurisdiction that would be the most shareholder-friendly, most shareholder-thoughtful, whatever word you want to use. They would defend the shareholders, and here we are.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
It's becoming a trend. We're having very big discussions about this in the startup community of where to domicile your company, and more to come on this one. Okay, let's keep moving. Apple had a huge announcement this week, Apple has entered the chat, they announced Apple intelligence, get it AI. And they have included a chat GPT integration from open AI.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
This was really, I think, impressive in many ways because people thought Apple was far behind. It was a banger of a demo. A lot of un-Apple-like future-looking demos. So none of these demos that we're going to show are coming to your phone this week. They were really, I think, playing catch-up with Microsoft, and it worked. Stock is up 10%. They added about 300 billion in market cap.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
Now the top three market cap companies are all driven specifically by the perception that AI is going to be the next technological wave. Microsoft, Apple, and Nvidia all cruising around about $3.2 trillion. And this top three keeps flipping back and forth. Apple had past Microsoft and Market Cap. Here's the features. I'll just give you a quick overview of what we're seeing.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
It's added Grammarly-like features. Great product, Grammarly. I'm not an investor, but they added the ability to proof, get grammar help. AI will transcribe and summarize phone calls with permission, obviously double opt-in. It will prioritize notifications and iMessage and email that are super important. You can do smart replies.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
A company where an investor in Superhuman already does this kind of stuff. And they're bringing AI to Siri. And this is going to be the big win in my mind. You're going to be able to say things like you want to order something in DoorDash or Uber Eats or Instacart. And the AI Siri will be able to dip down into apps.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
They're building a whole app AI interface, much like the Rabbit device CEO talked about doing. And I think this means that Apple is going to win the AI consumer. There is a deal with ChatGPT that I'll get your feedback on, gentlemen, in a moment. According to sources, Apple is not paying OpenAI. It's a non-exclusive deal. ChatGPT can be swapped out.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
Apple is also talking to Google about a similar deal. Obviously, it doesn't take a genius to predict that Apple is going to auction off the LLM integration, I think, to the highest bidder. They did that with the search deal. Google pays Apple $20 billion to be the default search engine. That's about 5% of Apple's annual revenue, if you didn't know. And it's all profit, right?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
So this is a huge profit moment. I'm going to pause there for a second before I get into more of this and just get your general reaction, Chamath.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
Freebird, your thoughts on the vision here, at least? And to Chamath's point, Apple used to release dope stuff. fully baked, ready to go. And now we are increasingly see them talking about what's coming next year or at some point. Do you think Apple's going to win the consumer? Do you think Apple's falling behind? Should they have built their own LLM by this point?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
It's clear sacks that right now, to enable these features, you're going to have to have a pretty solid device They announced here at the keynote at WWDC that you need to have an M1 chip or better, iPhone 15 or better. So, and having all this local data is a huge advantage for Apple. They've got your messages, your phone, your calendar, your photos.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
your app behavior, the data inside of your wallet, all of this gives them a huge, huge advantage. So I guess the question is, do you think this renews the Apple franchise and people start upgrading their phones again to get all these new features, David Sachs?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
might have to there's i cannot believe we've just blackjacked that is unbelievable well tim have a good day all right tim you are a legend everybody follow tim on instagram let's get him to 10 million let's get i mean you have a future in broadcasting you are going to make millions you you went from the farmhouse oh yeah literally and here we go now you're going to be running a casino
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
It turns out Apple has addressed this head on. They hear the concerns and much like when you share a photo or you share your location, it's going to ask you over and over again, do you want to let this app do this? So they're aware that this is an issue. They brought up privacy every single time, but people don't trust open AI and they do trust Apple. So this is strange bedfellows to be sure.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
Chamath, your thoughts.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
Yeah. Well, when you're behind, you know, you behave differently than when you're ahead and you have your monopoly. Freeberg, you wanted to add anything here before we move on to the next story? Okay. In related news, OpenAI... has hit a run rate, and this is kind of stunning, of $3.4 billion. That means they've roughly doubled their monthly revenue in the past six months or so.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
These are not official numbers. OpenAI is denying them. But here's a chart that somebody put together based on all the different leaks and approximations of what OpenAI is making. The reason this makes no sense, this chart, and it shows a year, and then it shows a month, a month, a month, a month, is because there's been different leaks at different points in time.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
But just to normalize this, in 2022, for all of 2022, before... They really had a lot of customers, 28 million, and now on a $3.4 billion run rate. Again, it's a pretty stunning number if it's true.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
And so if we were to even look at the number of people who work there, 770, if you put that at 500,000 a person, some engineers getting a couple of million, some people maybe getting less, they're probably only got a half billion dollars in salaries a year. Who knows what they're spending on the infrastructure for this?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
If you were to do evaluation on this, everybody knows they sold a bunch of shares in secondary at around 80 billion, which means they're trading at, if these numbers are true, 25 times for revenue, which is close to what Nvidia is trading at right now. Obviously, they're two very different businesses. So your thoughts on this as a SaaS company?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
Obviously, the majority of this revenue is consumption-based. Some portion of it is SaaS-based, reoccurring, like subscriptions we pay for At launch, my venture fund, we pay for 6,000 a year to have all 20, 25 people on ChatGPT as a corporate account. Maybe it's 250, 300 a year per person. So what do you think of this business, Saks, and how fast it's growing?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
Obviously, some of it's API consumption-based, not reoccurring. Some of it is reoccurring.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
I think you should have Tim's blackjack. You should have your own brand. We could build a whole brand on this. Tim.Nacki on Insta. T-I-M dot N-A-K-I.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
So you would compare this business to Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Azure. That's really the business here.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
We'll find out eventually. Chamath, your thoughts on OpenAI's surging revenue?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
Yeah. And like we said, that 15K we won. That's yours for you and the missus. Go on vacation. No, no, no, no. We said it. We said it. We want you to do something. Go with it. We're already cashed up. You take that 15K. You take the missus out. You get some first class tickets. You meet them up in Italy. And then let's go. That's it. Come to the summit.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
The average revenue per user, ARPU, per year is single digits, maybe it hits double digits, as opposed to the United States where it could be triple digits, right?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
Okay, Freeberg, you I don't know if you got to see Sonny's talk liquidity last week, but he talked about how many of the CIOs CEOs are looking for open source solutions here. 80% of them want to go open source, they don't want a proprietary model to invest in. But the best model right now is a proprietary model. So what do you think about open as revenue surge? Is it sustainable? Or are there 20?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
Better open source projects that are going to be death by 20 open source project cuts? and schmucks general feeling here that, hey, it's not ready for primetime yet. It will be but we're in the AI dial up era, to use an analogy here, hey, you can see the promise, but it kind of sucks in terms of reliability, maybe open AI is AOL.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
We could play some. Oh, we could have a whole session.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
You do have to do that stuff. Yeah, so we pulled the source.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
Yeah, you got to come to Orland Summit for sure. Yeah, get the misses. Take the 15K. Two first class tickets. Get yourself set up in a nice hotel and we will see you there. All right, everybody. Let's get to the docket. Well done. Tim.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
It's the same thing for the enterprise, Chamath. You can just sign up and for 20 bucks a month, you can have your whole organization on it.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
So we took the time to set up the corporate. It's really easy. And then anybody with your domain can sign up and let you track it. But it doesn't consolidate. That's what I'm looking for. Chamath is the ability to consolidate all the searches in one place and everybody can share their searches. But like I said, the application layer is doing right in some ways.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
Definitely makes everybody bionic. I agree.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
If there's an internal tool and an internal people are really getting dependent on this, and they use it constantly. We're on our investment team meeting, we're evaluating a company for real estate brokers, we're evaluating a company for therapists and like tools and SaaS products for those type of people.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
And when I asked them, well, how many what's the total addressable market, boom, three or four researchers and analysts on my team are doing that search, finding sources and saying there are this many therapists, this many social workers, this many real estate brokers, as many buyers, And then I'm saying, well, did you source that? And they're like, yeah, of course.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
And one of them was like, well, I asked Claude. I asked Gemini. I asked ChatGPT. I asked them all for sources. I cross-referenced them. So they have three of these things open. And so just everybody's knowledge level goes up, but you do have to check it because one out of four facts is probably wrong or cited wrong. And so it's going to be... I think one out of four is about the right number.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
Well, think about it. If somebody's salary is $100,000 and these cost $1,000 to have five of them, of course I'd pay for five.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
Consumption and metered API usage, yeah. That enterprise is really powerful.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
Anyway, this is going to make people bionic. I think all organizations will have the same number of people for the next couple of years. And then just individuals will get better and better at their jobs. And so efficiency is going to go way up. Speaking of efficiency, the market is ripping. We're going to get a little macro here in three acts. Inflation has been broken, I think it's safe to say.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
We're down at 3.X, 3.3, lower than expected. And hiring wages are surging and stocks are surging. So let's go through it here and get the besties take on the vibe session.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
Yeah, I agree. I disagree as well. Disagree with it. Let me go through the numbers and then you can all disagree. That's how that's how this works, folks. Inflation print came in at 3.3%, lower than expected. Here's your 10-year chart. Super easy to explain what's happening here. Rates were low for a long time. Inflation cruising at about 2%. And then lunatic spending during COVID.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
And we added $8 trillion to the national debt. And then Biden added a bunch. Everybody getting those STEMI checks and PPP loans. And so if you look at inflation here, we were just cruising along at 2%. Massive spike up to 9% year-over-year inflation. And now coming back down to 3.X%. And the question is, can we get to a two handle? And the rates went up faster than ever in history.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
Here's the Fred chart. You can see there in, and this goes from the 80s. You see that massive spike when they tried to break the back of inflation previously. So this is the fastest ever gone up. And here we go. The common sentiment here is that savings has been burned off and people are starting to have debt. And so now we are in act two, the lowest unemployment rate of our lifetime continues.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
If you believe those numbers, some people do, some people don't. Labor Department reported 272,000 new jobs in May, smashing, crushing the 190,000 estimate.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
uh and then act three average hourly wages up a massive four percent from last year at 35 an hour that also topped estimates so if inflation is at 3.x and hourly earnings are at 4.x maybe consumers will start feeling better about the economy eventually they obviously uh have been pretty shocked by that nine percent inflation and only four percent growth here's your chart from fred
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
of the hourly earnings of all employees. And you can feel pretty good about that. Everybody's wages keep going up. The question is, do they go up faster than inflation? Okay, so there's my framing of the situation. Freiburg, tell me what I got right. Tell me what I got wrong.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
And it is true for the federal government. just to point out here what you're saying, the goal was to, in fact, increase the interest rate to cool the economy, right? Which they got too late, but that was the goal. That was the explicit goal was to cool the economy.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
Yeah, you know what happened was somebody emailed me and they're like, hey, that's my mate that you talked about. He's a big fan of the show. It turns out, you know, this is the thing about influencers now. This is the thing about this micro-celebrity stuff. We all know each other by default, right? Yeah. So he was just slid into the DMs. There's definitely camaraderie. Yeah, that was awesome.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
Yeah, that's- I'm saying this is very hard on people. Chamath, what's your take on this? We have a slowing GDP growth. We have inflation going from nine down to three. We have wages going up 4%. How do you make sense of all this? Do you feel like... Sorry, Freebrook, are you saying we're going to have stagflation or... We have stagflation right now, definitely.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
So here is total job openings. To your point, Shamath, they're getting burned off, we peaked at 12 million. Again, if you believe the numbers are not there, they obviously have some value. And we've burned off a ton of those. So sex, what's your non political, nonpartisan take first principles of what's going on with the economy?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
That's awesome. I'm so glad he won. And, you know, he basically got smashed in his DMs, like a thousand people DMed him. Oh, you're on all in. They're bugging out to you on all in. And so, yeah, I just said, hey, would you do a hand? Would you do your live hand with us? And then I didn't I didn't I wanted to clear with you guys before I put our money on it or whatever.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
Betting markets had a 70% chance of two rate cuts before Powell spoke. Afterwards, now it's one rate cut. Dow, record high again. This past week, and NASDAQ record highs each of the last month for the last four months. So the market, putting aside individual stocks, has broken records almost every month for the last three.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
NVIDIA, Microsoft, and Apple.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
But I couldn't do that because I wanted to surprise you.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
And to remind everybody, maximum employment, stable prices, moderate long-term interest rates is the mandate for the Federal Reserve. They're supposed to be independent. Famously, Reagan pushed Volcker to get rate cuts. And there is a lot of politics involved in this. And so legacy does seem like The organizing principle here, I would agree with Chamath and Sachs, that it's legacy.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
But there's always political pressure here, as you can see. Elizabeth Warren is trying to push him to make cuts for obvious reasons.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
And then there's a letter writing like Elizabeth Warren's doing here, right? So the pressure can be there. The question is, do they bow to it? Right, sex?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
My position is I think he might have already stuck the landing. I think like the fact that we've burned off all that savings to your point, Shamath, that people are going back to work and that these businesses are doing fantastic and efficient because of AI and other gains. It feels like all the record that he, I think he's stuck the landing already.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
They're trying to go back to work, but the jobs don't exist. Yeah. I think they're going to take jobs. They just might get the job they want. And that's what I think people have to recognize is they have to take a job and they may not be the one that they want working from home.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
We'll find out. All right, everybody. This has been another amazing episode of the All In podcast.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
Okay, best wishes to Peter and his sister. Help out if you can. And you're in our thoughts and our prayers.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
been busy having some adventure, Sax. Seems like you were busy last week. Anything to report from your side of the world?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
So it's exhausting to be against Trump for eight years. Like, this has been exhausting. I think they've exhausted folks.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
What were some of the greatest hits? What did he hit on? Did he hit on low pressure from showers? Did he... Because I know he's got like some things he hits on that are relatable. Was it all like... specific crypto topics, tech topics?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
I mean, they're very good looking. Huge IQ. And I mean, look at him.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
Chamath, your thoughts before this goes on for an hour?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
Freeberg, your thoughts on all this?
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Elon gets paid, Apple's AI pop, OpenAI revenue rip, Macro debate & Inside Trump Fundraiser
No, I know. Just big picture. I want to know why Chamath didn't wear a tie.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Stylebender’s Fighting Future, Jon Jones Legacy, & Street Fighting
Thank you.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Stylebender’s Fighting Future, Jon Jones Legacy, & Street Fighting
It's out. It's out. I was about to. I was about to. You think you're a ranger?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Stylebender’s Fighting Future, Jon Jones Legacy, & Street Fighting
If she's fucking Izzy, she doesn't want you.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Stylebender’s Fighting Future, Jon Jones Legacy, & Street Fighting
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Stylebender’s Fighting Future, Jon Jones Legacy, & Street Fighting
That's his cup of tea. Exactly. Oh, wow.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Stylebender’s Fighting Future, Jon Jones Legacy, & Street Fighting
Don't let him tear us apart.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Stylebender’s Fighting Future, Jon Jones Legacy, & Street Fighting
Yeah.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Stylebender’s Fighting Future, Jon Jones Legacy, & Street Fighting
What do you mean because water?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Stylebender’s Fighting Future, Jon Jones Legacy, & Street Fighting
Yeah.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Stylebender’s Fighting Future, Jon Jones Legacy, & Street Fighting
That's great.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Stylebender’s Fighting Future, Jon Jones Legacy, & Street Fighting
Who laughed? Was that you? Was it Vala? I don't know why Vala laughed. Vala's like, how does he know?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Stylebender’s Fighting Future, Jon Jones Legacy, & Street Fighting
Yeah.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Stylebender’s Fighting Future, Jon Jones Legacy, & Street Fighting
Let's fucking go.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Stylebender’s Fighting Future, Jon Jones Legacy, & Street Fighting
He's on.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Stylebender’s Fighting Future, Jon Jones Legacy, & Street Fighting
Cat-like, right?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Stylebender’s Fighting Future, Jon Jones Legacy, & Street Fighting
But...
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Stylebender’s Fighting Future, Jon Jones Legacy, & Street Fighting
It's like conspiracy.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Stylebender’s Fighting Future, Jon Jones Legacy, & Street Fighting
I know.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Stylebender’s Fighting Future, Jon Jones Legacy, & Street Fighting
The Indian 500. Just a little dizzy. We went and we did it and it was cool. They were moving. They were moving.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Stylebender’s Fighting Future, Jon Jones Legacy, & Street Fighting
I remember that.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Stylebender’s Fighting Future, Jon Jones Legacy, & Street Fighting
They on to that.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Stylebender’s Fighting Future, Jon Jones Legacy, & Street Fighting
Who's pussy is that?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Stylebender’s Fighting Future, Jon Jones Legacy, & Street Fighting
Yeah.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Stylebender’s Fighting Future, Jon Jones Legacy, & Street Fighting
I didn't even understand washing your hands. I didn't know you were like, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Stylebender’s Fighting Future, Jon Jones Legacy, & Street Fighting
Let him know.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Stylebender’s Fighting Future, Jon Jones Legacy, & Street Fighting
The funniest Jew story. Yeah. I don't know who the boys are.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Stylebender’s Fighting Future, Jon Jones Legacy, & Street Fighting
What if I give you my daughters?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Stylebender’s Fighting Future, Jon Jones Legacy, & Street Fighting
It's called negotiating. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Jiu-jitsu. On them, on them, on them, on them.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Stylebender’s Fighting Future, Jon Jones Legacy, & Street Fighting
Either him or the Red Ranger.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Stylebender’s Fighting Future, Jon Jones Legacy, & Street Fighting
I was like, who the fuck is performing here?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Stylebender’s Fighting Future, Jon Jones Legacy, & Street Fighting
I don't mind.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Stylebender’s Fighting Future, Jon Jones Legacy, & Street Fighting
Welcome to the city, big purr.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Stylebender’s Fighting Future, Jon Jones Legacy, & Street Fighting
That's fucking... Oh, no!
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Stylebender’s Fighting Future, Jon Jones Legacy, & Street Fighting
And then he keeps on going.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Stylebender’s Fighting Future, Jon Jones Legacy, & Street Fighting
This video ended rollerblading.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Stylebender’s Fighting Future, Jon Jones Legacy, & Street Fighting
There's a billion of them.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Stylebender’s Fighting Future, Jon Jones Legacy, & Street Fighting
Ha, ha, ha.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Stylebender’s Fighting Future, Jon Jones Legacy, & Street Fighting
Yeah.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Stylebender’s Fighting Future, Jon Jones Legacy, & Street Fighting
Amen.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Stylebender’s Fighting Future, Jon Jones Legacy, & Street Fighting
That's what they call suicide doors.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
I've never seen a steel cage match.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
For real, dude. You would make a great professional wrestler. I mean that. Listen, that's the last thing I want to do.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
Well, we missed out on John Cena, though.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
and that's another thing that's probably really important but not working out would be way funnier you going up on the ropes and falling over scorpion on the ground threw a table, ruined Rey Mysterio's whole match. But they'd be like, yeah, this is perfect. This is actually way better than what we thought was going to happen.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
He got brand new Air Force Ones. He wasn't going to ruin them for that.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
I'm trying to get my views up. My bad, my bad. Shut out camp! No, my brother called me and I was like, what are you doing? He's like, oh, I'm cooking up some Sandhill Crane. And I was like, what do you mean? He's like, yeah, it's the ribeye of the sky. It's like one of the nicest cuts of meat that you can buy this side of Mississippi.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
So now he's gotten into exotic meats, and apparently you can buy it online. It's super, super rare, very expensive, and it's delicious. Is it legal? I think it's legal.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
Yeah, this feels like something personal.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
That's a banger of a show, bro.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
that that to me has been just unbelievable just incredible random people have been hitting me up like from high school i haven't talked in like 10 years no way just being like bro just put on the special crazy yeah like didn't know what to expect like but we're going through the same thing right now like i don't even know this about them like they're doing it's like popped up within like ivf community forums oh that's fire like some people send me links where they're like yo there's this form people it's like a hundred comments long just people being like this was our like he's just talking about our experience oh that's so cool so it's fire yeah yeah
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
They had to go through some shit.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
It's real.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
a word yeah oh that's just which i thought was a fire alvin but the amount of people being like yo where can i get this shout out to our mate man shout out have you gotten those messages people like yo i need that i was like all right i've been sending them links i've just been i've been i've been lining them up that's just that's an age difference for sure because everybody hitting me up is just like man i went through this it's like i wear the pants for a million
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
I think it was right around like 2015, 2016.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
All that converged.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
That's... Everyone... It was an open secret. Everyone was like, yeah, this guy's a creep. Like, Courtney Love's like, yeah, don't go to his hotel room.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
you would hope not we gotta look into it you would hope not yeah there's a lot of new stars in Hollywood yeah we should have told him that like hey you don't have to do all the DEI stuff just stop the yeah and that's fine with us yeah
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
That was kind of crazy. If Brandon does that face, that's how you know it's David.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
yeah bro look at that museum and thinking her mom's crazy constantly constantly i told you my mom took my nephew to the natural history museum she's like none of these exist literally we went and little ollie was like i saw a dinosaur at the at the museum and my mom was like what did you really see and he was like i saw a reenactment of dinosaur bones and she's like what did you really see he was like i saw a plaster mold of what they thought dinosaur bones would have looked like
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
And my mom was like, see, there you go. They've never discovered a dinosaur before prior to 1826. And everyone's like, yeah, dinosaurs aren't real, whatever. Ruins the dinner. Then my mom leans over and goes, but dragons. No way. She's like, dragons are in the Bible. Look into it. I love your mom. Our mom should go to the National History Museum.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
I swear to God.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
What's the trick? And I was like, Derek, this is an ad. And he goes, no.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
But she's going to start asking you questions soon. Which is even better. But then you're going to have to come up with answers. Nah, you just make shit up. I have no problem making shit up. Are dinosaurs real? 100% real.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
They weren't sugary enough for the box.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
Oh, just phenomenal. A way better cigarette. I never understood that. I feel like, why do you need your cigarette to do extra things?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
I gave it up for Lent. I'm glad you brought this up. Bullshit. I gave it up for the Lord.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
I threw it away. I watched him throw it away. Really? I really did watch him throw it away. Fuck, I was trying to correct him.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
Miles fished them out of the garbage. Sweet, you really gave up sugar for Lent. For Lent, come on, dude. And you only have to give up one thing? You can give up multiple. You can give up multiple things. Wow. I knew a guy that used to inflict pain. He said, I have nothing to give up, so I put a little bead in my shoe so I feel pain throughout the day.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
If your forehead's too big. But yeah, I didn't get to do Ash Wednesday. I missed out on it. We were in Austin. I would have gone.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
Okay? So I'm just following the Lord. Shout out to the Lord, bro.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
Well, I guess if you are an atheist or a secular person, you could argue that, oh, all of these religious dogmas just come out of basically the same exact thing. So you're saying that the morality is internal before religion. If God doesn't exist, which I think would be his argument, that there is no God.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
So therefore, the rules that are laid out within Judaism, Islam, Christianity are just human beings creating what they think the social structure should be.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
Well, secular people might lean on like natural law and say like there are certain things that violate what it means to be like a fruitful human. So like infringing on someone else's life or like sexual violence, stuff like that. So like we know that internally as a species that that is not good. So you could come to that conclusion outside of the DNA.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
But keep going, keep going. Or like Alex O'Connor. He'd be a good person to... Right, he's great. But he popularized this idea. I forget what philosopher came up with it, but I think it's ethical emotivism. So basically it's this idea that you can basically just say like... Something that happens, you could say, oh, boo that thing. So like murder. You're not saying like murder is right or wrong.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
You're not putting like a truth value on it. You're just saying boo murder. So like your emotional reaction to murder to something is what justifies your moral compass. And then ideally, whatever the majority feels about a specific thing then creates the social fabric for how that's enlisted into law.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
Well, within our own civil society, we're not. But then when it comes to war, that's not murder. So there are these little spaces where murder can exist. Right. It's justified self-defense. And what if it's a duel? No, then if both parties are consenting, then it's not murder.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
Yeah. And if they're both consenting to do it, assuming there's no coercion, then...
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
Yeah, it's a fire philosophical debate. Like the first day in my philosophy class in college, this is one of the questions they brought up.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
Same-sex incest. Yeah. Is that unethical?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
And you could argue on a biological basis that humans feel that it's wrong. Why? Like, through, like, pheromones. So, like, a person would be more attracted to, like, a dissimilar person than to a relative based off of, like, pheromone levels and stuff like that. Okay. So, like, for the reproductive health of a society, most people would go to diversify their genetic lineage.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
You feel like you could get some oxygen in there. It's the bend. It gets clogged right there. It's not aerodynamic. We need to hire a contractor. You've got to straighten it out. That's why they all get nose jobs.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
I think there is something innate. I do think that there's a biological natural law. And as someone that believes in God, I would like to believe that there is some type of order that God put into the universe that people can come to know without God. But then additionally, if you come to follow some type of faith background, that those things are also instilled.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
But then I also think that those things get, like, antiquated over time. Like, the Levitical laws of, like, eating pork and stuff probably existed in a specific time frame where pork was very dangerous. Right. And then as time has gone on, it's no longer as dangerous. I'm sorry, Jews and Muslims. Yeah. And Ethiopian Christians, apparently.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
There's, like, a bunch of people that don't eat pork. Wow. Which, you start to look at how many people don't eat pork.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
Yeah, maybe they're onto something. Um, but then I think like, I don't know, I think all the faiths that have persisted probably have a lot of roots of the same things that help society prosper.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
To a point. But we also live in a non-theocratic society. Yes. So like, as someone that lives in America that likes religious freedom, I also don't want to be bound by the mandates of any specific religion.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
Whether that be Islam or Christianity or Judaism. Right. Because it infringes on your personal freedom.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
It would be nice if there was a Catholic country that existed that had some type of Catholic theocratic laws that if I so chose, I could move to. But I like to live in America where people can practice freely whatever they want.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
Right. I could also argue this is, I think, a slippery slope argument. Like, it seems fallacious on its onset to say, like, the logical conclusion of XYZ philosophy is decimation of a population. Because you could say the inverse, that, you know, the logical conclusion of, like, a hyper-religious society is going to be, like, oppression of women and gay people getting murdered.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
Right, you can make the exact same argument in, yeah, just an oppressive way. So to me, it seems kind of misguided. I don't know if that was intention, but I think it's framed poorly.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
And this is from someone whose parents had seven kids. But I'm pretty sure even prior to pastoralist and agrarian societies, people were having three or four kids. Women were having their periods at 18 or 19. Oh, they had it way later, you said? Yeah, they were having it later. And so in hunter-gatherer societies, they still have them later.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
And then typically, women would breastfeed the whole time. They were admitting prolactin and estrogen so that they weren't able to get pregnant for longer periods of time.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
You know Magic Johnson? That should be the marketing for Netflix. We should do a billboard. Like an IVF thing. Just like your face. Shut up. Shut up, Mark, you piece of shit.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
Like, that's a really interesting point. And I talked to an anthropologist that said, like, it's actually potentially more beneficial for children to have more individualized time with the parent.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
So, like, having multiple kids really close together could be detrimental for the development of kids that giving them more undisputed attention for, like, four or five years is actually better for, like, the survival of the species.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
And this is in hunter-gatherer societies where people are just, like, eating off the land and living off the land.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
So I think about this question a lot. Like, what does it mean to actually be human and what is best for humans? And I think people go back and they go like, oh, like 2,000 years ago. But, like, that's still, like, a very recent development in humanity. So, like, is it potential we go 10,000 years ago? Like, Homo sapiens have been walking around the way we are for, like, what, 100,000 years? Yeah.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
So, like, 2,000 years is just a blip. So, like, have humans existed for most of the time in the way that we were 10,000 years ago, living, walking around, having sex, eating a mango? Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, is that what most of humanity has been? So then when it comes to, like, moral frameworks, like, should we be trying to go back farther than we're really looking at it?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
you know what i mean wait explain that like should we be going back to like okay what are humans really supposed to be doing okay so like oh we should have a bunch of kids because that's what people did a thousand years ago well it's like well actually that is a blip in the overall scope where for most of human history people are having three or four yeah once we started farming yeah then we start going let's have seven so you have societal explosion but also you need people to work the farm the land
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
oh wait is Adams even still of course that's the boy every other week he's getting arrested nah I saw him at Zero Bond fingering chicks the other day yo shout out Adams bro that's the boy he'd be going out I've ran into him at a fucking record room yeah is he married say what he's Batman what are you talking about like
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
We want our presidents to be married. Mayors?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
Solicitation of a contribution by a foreign national and bribery. Yep.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
Okay, Miles. And when you were in high school... Don't ask me.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
I think that's what Sager said.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
You got to fill people in for anyone who didn't listen to Patreon.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
Oh, it's like go-karts? We put the governor on that shit.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
Yes, the United States does sell F-35 Lightning II fighter jets to other countries. Don't do that to me, Mark.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
Even if they did communicate it, I feel like people wouldn't believe it.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
Imagine they put out a news headline, the Israel Times, and they're like, Israel stops terror attack in America. Everyone would be like, yeah, all right, of course you did.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
And so the second the economy gets tight, everyone's like, all right, where's the money going?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
Now it feels like it's going too far. But then you're asking Jews to defend everything ever.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
Then you're battling the emotional volatility of a populace rather than the logical coherence of the leadership.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
But then you would hope, like, okay, we're dealing with, like, the logical leaders that are going to support what's best for their people despite them not knowing what's best for them.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
For example, like... I mean, if you're China... then all of a sudden your cards open up way more. Because while you have control, a little TikTok and control, not necessarily how people feel from the messaging you tell them, but rather what you subvert into the content of the app. Okay, what about America?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
Or what America did in the Cold War with modern art or with rock music. What was the rock music thing? Just putting it into Soviet countries, basically. Putting it into the Soviet Union, sneaking in albums and sneaking in Western influence. Or then even just promoting modern art. Look at how free we are. And you're able to then win this culture war and the soft power. People are like, man,
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
man, America's pretty cool. We're not as rigid as over here. You know, they're not totalitarian, you know? And so with that, you can change the hearts of people and then get them to not fight as fervently for the country that they're technically named.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
Like Larry Davis, he's American, right? Seinfeld's American. You need an Israeli, you know?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
Hasid. Yeah. Really? Yes. I feel like, yeah. And I don't know if it's propaganda or what, but, like, you see Hasidic Jews pop up on Twitter or, like, on Instagram, and they're just killing them, just going off in the comments.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
They're good. He got assigned from the Israeli government. He's like, yeah, go look at these guys. College girls are gay. I can't get Amsterdam or something? Like, no, no, no, you go over there. How lucky is he? He could be in a bomb shelter.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
That's not what it says. That's not what it says.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
It sounds like Smegma. It's just chicken.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
It's not good because it actually tastes good. What is that?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
No, no, no. It's actually the exact opposite. You get more energy? When you're on a fast. Once you get into autophagy, you actually get more energy. Because now, if you go back to the biological times, you're trying to find animals. You know what I mean? Ah, so you're more focused. Exactly. I'm going to be a cranky bitch. I'm going to let you know that.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
You're constantly digesting food. Your brain's getting smaller. It's shrinking. Yeah.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
Yeah, you can't reason people out of a position they didn't reason into.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
not everybody is strong yeah people try to do this during like George Floyd and shit where they were like oh black people like actually technically cops kill you guys the same as other people how'd that make you feel like shit it's like you go you don't go oh those are the stats well I'll and all lives matter like come on bro you know
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
you know i'm right because it does require a lot of like uh and like empathy to be able to be like hey i feel for what black people have gone through historically and currently in america but also i feel for what cops are going through yep and it's hard to feel like oh i understand what you know ukraine's going through but i also understand what russia's going through i understand what gaza's going through i also understand what israel is going yeah do you think it would help if like a prominent jewish person came out and was like hey you guys don't understand we've been at
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
The whole way Al kept on leaning over.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
The best airline you've ever seen.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
But then the question is, what if they can't find a justification for why America needs to support Israel? Is it a necessity for the state to then create propaganda? Or do they just say, hey, unfortunately, we don't have anything?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
I was talking about physical.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
Okay.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
Oh, it's great. It's just, like, it's nice because it's sports, but you're able to, like, interact with the athletes in an honest way. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, if you go to, like, an NBA game, you can't talk all the shit you want to talk. Yeah. Whereas, like, with these guys, you can go crazy. They talk shit, too.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
Yeah, I mean, I guess that's the point is that there isn't really. Yeah. Because Americans don't know why there's all this steak.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
Mm-hmm. Yeah, when I have to pay taxes, I unsubscribe from HBO.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
I just look to see what's going on. But then HBO will send me an email and be like, you watched these shows this past year. I go, oh, that's... Give me my propaganda. That's a good point.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
HBO, that's a good point. And then HBO will set up a terror squad from Netflix to shoot up my house. I go, whoa, we got to get into it.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
I mean, that is my evil statecraft. If I was like the Machiavellian king of Israel, you prop up Hamas terror cells in America. Okay. Secretly, surreptitiously, through some other country, some type of proxy war. And then they cause domestic terrorism within the United States.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
But, like, I don't know. If I was an evil, you know, world builder, that's what I would do.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
We did. We got a mentalist at the last Mary Lou show. Okay. Oh, it was the best. Wait, really? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Tell me what happened. This guy, Josh, the foodie magician. Okay. Which also, can we just point out, a lot of people think that Jews have magic. Yeah. Which I don't think that's true. Okay. But every famous magician is Jewish. What? So you guys do have to answer for that also.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
It's just, there's a lot. Copperfield, David Blaine, this guy, the foodie magician. Houdini. Houdini, yeah. Infamously. We love magic. We love magic. You can get us some back on your side, man. So I don't think Jews have secret powers, but you guys are the closest to having secret powers. If we just look at magicians. Whoa. I'll take it. Whatever.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
But he went up on the show and, like, guessed, like, all this crazy, like, he, like, knew the restaurant that I like, my favorite restaurant, wrote it down on a thing, revealed it. Oh, that's awesome. And then had it on an Instagram post from two months ago, like, the name of the restaurant, everyone else's things. He guessed, like, some girl's, like, dog.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
And then all the black comics on the show were just fucking furious. Just watching the show, just from the back, just like, what the fuck is going on?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
Did you see this? Click it. Kanye goes on Twitter. He's like, guys, I'm playing another podcast with Joe Rogan. Here you go. And then Rogan tweets out and goes, yeah, it's not me.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
Like, some people are pointing out, like, oh, it's fake text messages and da-da-da-da. Yeah. And then, like, he put the whole thing together. There's also another.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
Maybe. I bet you he was trying to get on, and then it wasn't really lining up, and so then he put it out in the universe.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
I mean, yeah, I guess that would get me.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
Well, that's where Joe's the best.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
Is that like you tell him something new and he goes, I'd love it. I'd want to know about this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whereas Alex over here. That shit is gay.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
But you act like that's new. You match all the time anyway.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
Playing tennis every day, very white, but having a whole week for your birthday very black.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
Well, look, here's the reality.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
This is one of the quotes he said. I'm pleading with LeBron James as a father. Stop this. In regards to Bronny's play time in the NBA. Right.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
Yeah.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
And that's what I believe Stephen A is saying, where it's like, he's not ready. Yeah. And then LeBron's coming at him like, yo, as a father, stop talking about my kid.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
We just don't have commentary for hedge funds. We should. We should. We should have a Stephen A for hedge funds.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
And every week, they just go through all of them. They're like, yo, this trade, this person hired this guy. That was fucked up. They got money from this person. That'd be fire. We should just have a watchdog that just goes off on all the financial issues.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
Yeah. And this is, I feel like the second thing in the past week that I've heard LeBron saying about the media. What'd he say? Like he was talking about this thing with, uh, who was it? Uh, Anthony Edwards, I think, where he was like, or I forget, uh, Tatum, where he was like, why do you want to be the face of the league?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
So you can just get criticized all the time, get criticized every day, day in, day out, everything you do picked apart by the media. Yeah. So it feels like at this point in his career, he's like, I should be beyond this, but I'm still getting nitpicked at every single turn.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
It's Monday night raw. It's raw.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
But there's a moment where you get thrown and you're like. And then AJ comes in and you're like, all right, nice.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
And what's the most interesting take is saying that the, one of the greatest of all time is actually not the greatest.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
He's like, yo, I look at what I've done. And that probably fuels you when you're like 28. Yeah. But when you're 41, you just, and you've already done everything. You've won all the records of the lead score. Like you've done everything. And you're like, finally, this will shut them up.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
And then you're like, fuck this.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
And then I wonder if there's even a part of him that's like, I've been subjected to this my entire life. My entire personal life picked apart. I can't live in privacy.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
And I wonder if he feels like a little bit of a sense of like, yo, I'm putting my son through this terrible bullshit I put myself through. And he's a great player, but also like, we're good. Like I did this cause I'm, I came from nothing in Akron, Ohio. My kid doesn't necessarily have to do this. He really doesn't have to go through it.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
If he doesn't want to, but like now he's going to be subjected to it even more scrutinized. I was compared to Jordan and now my kid is going to be compared to me.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
And through no fault of his own, like just by becoming this virtuoso at this thing, your kids are going to want to emulate you.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
I want to be a comic just because my dad told funny stories. So imagine your dad's the greatest ever. You're like, yeah, you want to take a part in that lineage. Yeah.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
I'm telling you, it's raw out there, bro.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
It's tough.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
It's raw. That's amazing. What's up, guys? World's fastest dates ever, okay? Don't fast forward, all right? We're going to be at Mary Lou in New York City, March 25th. I'm going to be in Portland, Maine, April 27th. I'm also going to be in Bangor, Maine. on the 26th, and then a bunch of other dates that are going to be announced very shortly.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
Oh, yeah. Yeah, because they're treating him just like another player, probably. There's probably a little ego. I'm sure there's ego. But compared to the league, it's like, yeah, different level.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
I wonder if he has told him in private. Ooh. I wonder if he's like, hey, just chill with all that. Yeah. And then didn't chill. Yeah, it's possible.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
We got Atlanta, we got Charleston, we got Indianapolis, we got Portland, Oregon will be later, Buffalo, Philly, and Raleigh, all coming up that will be available on my website, themarkhagnon.com, and we'll see you guys there. Thanks so much.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
Oh, what do we got? Ukraine agrees to U.S.-led ceasefire plan if Russia accepts. So real quick, just on this.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
This is nice.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
And it's kind of a... I feel like where I sit is like a dumb position sometimes because I feel so jaded by political discourse that I just am like...
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
wait and see yeah which i've said before but like it's kind of a cop-out fence-sitting answer but at the same time i'm like is the ceasefire good yeah it's like all right it's good yeah but then all of a sudden part of ukraine gets absorbed and you're like is that good that doesn't seem good and then soviet union reorganized you're like is that like i don't you know what i mean so it's like until it actually affects me on like a personal basis or like the american society at large yeah i kind of try to reserve judgment where i'm like just wait and see and which isn't a good position necessarily from like a broadcasting standpoint you know i think if people want to know what
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
Looks good, honestly. Yeah. The other fans that were there were awesome because we were with the hardcore fans. And tell me their reactivity. What are they? Going crazy.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
And they're talking shit. They're like, oh, we're on the road to WrestleMania. Just get ready after WrestleMania. It's going to suck. Everyone's got their own directorial cuts of what should happen. Love it. There was one dude in the very front. So everyone that bought a front row seat got a commemorative chair to take home with them.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
The CIA killed JFK, sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then someone's going to be like, well, did you know there's actually a crazy guy named Lee Harvey Oswald? And everyone's going to be like, no way.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
That's what we want to know. And then even if the truth comes out, then people go, oh, we can't trust the authority of where the truth came from. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like you kind of see with like alien bubbles where people are like, oh, aliens are real. Everyone's like, no, you're crazy. And then everyone's like, no, aliens are definitely real.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
And then eventually the government's going to be like, yeah, aliens are real. And people are going to be like, this is a psyop. This is trying to make like global control. These aliens are fake. Yeah.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
it's actually underwater type shit yeah like you go from oh aliens are real they're covering it up to then oh they're obviously flouting aliens to trick us yeah so it's like i think it just shifts form just due to the subversion of authority it's like not yeah i don't know if it changes people need storytelling and they need uh a search for truth and there's always like these threads of truth that exist within all these conspiracies that people want to tie on to god damn yeah dog i just want to know the world isn't as bad as
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
And there's a guy in the very front in a wheelchair. Oh, no. And they were like, do you want your chair? And he was like, yeah.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
and they were like all right we'll take it he's like i can't i'm in a wheelchair and so now the management and msg is like take the chair he's like i i want it but i can't can you mail it to me and the guy's like no i can't mail it to you so now they're like trying to hang it on the back of his electric wheelchair it's like a whole thing he's there with his dog the dog's barking at everyone wheelchair with a dog dude that's fine yeah he was like a like a husky he was mushing he was flying
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
You never see that. The disabled Eskimo has fire. What was your favorite match?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
CM Punk's sitting in the cage as people are leaving. He was the last one to leave. I think he was just sitting there the whole time, just milking it for the next 35 minutes.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Schulz's WWE Appearance, Israel’s PR Problem, & Sam Seder’s 20 v 1
Oh, I mean, taking a suplex off the top of the cage. Nah, crazy. It was insane. Yeah. Just the way the crowd reacts. I didn't realize how hard the canvas is. It's like a hard... I thought it would be springy. Yeah, you should see how hard the floor is.
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: The Zizian Murder Spree (or Exactly How Harry Potter Fanfic Killed A Border Patrol Agent)
Aggressive on the people like Garrison.
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: The Zizian Murder Spree (or Exactly How Harry Potter Fanfic Killed A Border Patrol Agent)
Yeah.
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: The Zizian Murder Spree (or Exactly How Harry Potter Fanfic Killed A Border Patrol Agent)
There was just no way this story was going to end without somebody faking their own death.
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: The Zizian Murder Spree (or Exactly How Harry Potter Fanfic Killed A Border Patrol Agent)
What a snitch ass lawyer.
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: The Zizian Murder Spree (or Exactly How Harry Potter Fanfic Killed A Border Patrol Agent)
That's where they fucked up. Your lawyer has to ride for you.
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: The Zizian Murder Spree (or Exactly How Harry Potter Fanfic Killed A Border Patrol Agent)
But like, I would like to know how things fucking shake up.
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: The Zizian Murder Spree (or Exactly How Harry Potter Fanfic Killed A Border Patrol Agent)
That's a better suggestion, thank you David.
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: The Zizian Murder Spree (or Exactly How Harry Potter Fanfic Killed A Border Patrol Agent)
You gotta go on a run, go talk to your neighbor, go pet a goat, you know.
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: The Zizian Murder Spree (or Exactly How Harry Potter Fanfic Killed A Border Patrol Agent)
God. Wow. How do you feel at the end of this, David? Yeah, David, how are you doing? This is your first experience on our show. What's up? How's the vibe? I honestly don't know.
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: The Zizian Murder Spree (or Exactly How Harry Potter Fanfic Killed A Border Patrol Agent)
David, do you have anything you want to plug for the listeners?
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: The Zizian Murder Spree (or Exactly How Harry Potter Fanfic Killed A Border Patrol Agent)
It's different than this. And it reminded me I need to set my fantasy basketball lineup. So thank you, sir.
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: The Zizian Murder Spree (or Exactly How Harry Potter Fanfic Killed A Border Patrol Agent)
It's time.
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: The Zizian Murder Spree (or Exactly How Harry Potter Fanfic Killed A Border Patrol Agent)
A very, very small boat. Yeah. Barely a boat.
Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend
This Is My Deal Here, Wade
Maybe he has, like, good snacks in the car while you sit and wait.
Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend
This Is My Deal Here, Wade
Hey, Max. Welcome to Conan O'Brien Needs a Fan. Hey, David.
CreepCast
Best of Creep Cast 2024
And someone going, your wife looking real pretty in that truck, boy.
CreepCast
Best of Creep Cast 2024
You talk to a woman at a party and everything's okay. You call her 12 times at 2 in the morning and everyone loses their minds. Do you want to help me? Do you want to help me set up my webcam in between a vending machine? You place a security camera outside of your building and everything's fine because it's all part of the plan. It's simple.
CreepCast
Best of Creep Cast 2024
Big city boy thinking he's been coming down to this here swamp, you hear, see, and thinking he can't get by, you see. But if old Mr. Wellers sees, then, oh.
CreepCast
Best of Creep Cast 2024
When Mr. Wellers gets his universal donor blood type from Pennsylvania, see, it's a good season around here, you see.
CreepCast
Best of Creep Cast 2024
You've not said Mr. Weller's name and he's come for your blood, boy.
CreepCast
Best of Creep Cast 2024
He that sows the wind reapeth the whirlwind, boy, and you've kicked against the pricks one too many times for Mr. Weller's...
CreepCast
I Dared My Best Friend To Ruin My Life | Creep Cast
Hernandez, please tell me you've come to give me good news.
CreepCast
I Dared My Best Friend To Ruin My Life | Creep Cast
In fact, for once, I'm here to help you out. Sort of. What does that mean? Remember the night you graffitied my house? I nodded. I told you I'd consider giving you advice on how to succeed in our game. Well, the time has come. I'm giving you more than advice. See? You're no fun in jail. I've seen the evidence they have on you. You're going away for a long time.
CreepCast
I Dared My Best Friend To Ruin My Life | Creep Cast
I don't want that, so I'm granting you a second chance to keep playing.
CreepCast
I Dared My Best Friend To Ruin My Life | Creep Cast
I'm going to leave this knife with your fingerprints on in the car. You'll think you stabbed the cops and made a run for it. I'm going to remove your handcuffs and let you make a run for it. You'll have a 30-minute head start before I call in on the radio.
CreepCast
I Dared My Best Friend To Ruin My Life | Creep Cast
A change of clothes, new shoes, and a map. Nearest town is 10 miles west. Better hurry. Remember, in 30 minutes, I'm calling it in.
CreepCast
I Dared My Best Friend To Ruin My Life | Creep Cast
And if you don't do it, just play a different game, I guess.
CreepCast
I Dared My Best Friend To Ruin My Life | Creep Cast
Hashtag fuck David King. Xander, you brilliant bastard. Go get your girl. We're coming for you, David. Thousands of these. Almost all saying the same thing. How does it feel to have people rooting for you?
CreepCast
I Dared My Best Friend To Ruin My Life | Creep Cast
If you didn't- if you don't want him here, then come kill him.
CreepCast
I Dared My Best Friend To Ruin My Life | Creep Cast
So, Xander. How would you like to proceed? You're running the show here.
CreepCast
I Dared My Best Friend To Ruin My Life | Creep Cast
Send Katie forward and leave! sorry i don't have a guarantee that you won't release all the information anyway come on out here and we'll discuss my terms like hell i am david looked to his partner and his partner used his free arm to punch katie in the side she cried out
CreepCast
I Dared My Best Friend To Ruin My Life | Creep Cast
Look how you've changed. Your hair looks good. You should always dye it darker. So stoic now. Confident. Being on the run has changed you. I guess all we had to do was increase the minimum required effort was go on the run, huh?
CreepCast
I Dared My Best Friend To Ruin My Life | Creep Cast
So hostile. What's your first term? He leaves. Okay.
CreepCast
I Dared My Best Friend To Ruin My Life | Creep Cast
So, you got a gun after all. Didn't see that part in your post. Relax. I'm just making sure I can read in peace.
CreepCast
I Dared My Best Friend To Ruin My Life | Creep Cast
Now, I don't have to worry about you running off into the dark warehouse. As fun as hide-and-seek sounds, I don't have the time. You know, when I found your post, I thought I stumbled across some sort of therapy story that you were putting up. But it was so much better. You really have surprised me. You've grown and changed and tried to beat me. but you haven't changed enough.
CreepCast
I Dared My Best Friend To Ruin My Life | Creep Cast
I can see in your face and your trembling hands you are still you, Xander. You've changed your exterior, but inside you have the same motivations and weaknesses. He tighted his grip on Katie again. I know your next term is for me to let Katie go, so I'm going to skip your turn, and I know you would prefer that she remain in my custody rather than getting shot, so I suggest you put your gun down.
CreepCast
I Dared My Best Friend To Ruin My Life | Creep Cast
Good choice. Have you realized why you're here yet?
CreepCast
I Dared My Best Friend To Ruin My Life | Creep Cast
You think you're here to save Katie, but you aren't. She's been gone for a year now, and you've only built up memories of her. The Katie you knew is dead, but not even that Katie is the reason you're here right now. No. No. You gave up on a happily ever after with Katie long ago. This isn't a hero's quest to save the princess. This is a revenge assault on the dragon.
CreepCast
I Dared My Best Friend To Ruin My Life | Creep Cast
This isn't about saving her. This is about outsmarting me. Keeping Katie safe and sound is just result. So, in that sense... You and I are the same now. It's about outsmarting the other one. You outsmarted one simply living life and progressed to defending yourself.
CreepCast
I Dared My Best Friend To Ruin My Life | Creep Cast
Even if Katie isn't the true reason you're here, she's still a weakness.
CreepCast
I Dared My Best Friend To Ruin My Life | Creep Cast
Oh, it's Edgar. How nice of you to come over. I haven't seen you in weeks.
CreepCast
I Dared My Best Friend To Ruin My Life | Creep Cast
No, no, he doesn't work there anymore.
CreepCast
I Dared My Best Friend To Ruin My Life | Creep Cast
no he quit not long after you did he became a security guard somewhere he never mentioned where though i'll call him then he dropped his phone a few weeks ago and got a new one let me give you the new number she walked back inside for a minute and i waited on the porch she came back with her old flip phone and opened it do you mind My arthritis makes it hard to use this phone.
CreepCast
I Dared My Best Friend To Ruin My Life | Creep Cast
I needed to freeze my account. What's your account number?
CreepCast
I Dared My Best Friend To Ruin My Life | Creep Cast
When did you start to notice the fraudulent activity?
CreepCast
I Dared My Best Friend To Ruin My Life | Creep Cast
Okay. I filled out the report and submitted it.
CreepCast
I Dared My Best Friend To Ruin My Life | Creep Cast
You know why, jackass. Not so loud. Not so loud. We're having a nice, quiet conversation.
CreepCast
I Dared My Best Friend To Ruin My Life | Creep Cast
But, I'm not going to kill you. That's the rule. I will not kill you, Xander.
CreepCast
I Dared My Best Friend To Ruin My Life | Creep Cast
because I'm not a sick psychopath. Clearly not, but this is boring for me.
CreepCast
I Dared My Best Friend To Ruin My Life | Creep Cast
Do you understand the rules now, Xander?
CreepCast
I Dared My Best Friend To Ruin My Life | Creep Cast
Now, now. This isn't a theological discussion. You and Clark do your best to ruin my life. Do whatever you want. But if you kill me... I kill Katie. Can't kill her if you're dead. No, but my friend will. It's amazing the kind of people you can meet online.
CreepCast
I Dared My Best Friend To Ruin My Life | Creep Cast
Well, that's why he probably took out the money. Well, now that we have the cryptos, we'll do this for you, Davids.
CreepCast
I Dared My Best Friend To Ruin My Life | Creep Cast
Yeah, we're actually very smart. We're risk takers, but we do invest into Bitcoin.
CreepCast
I Dared My Best Friend To Ruin My Life | Creep Cast
That's part of the game. Can't ruin me if you can't convict me. I've been preparing for years.
CreepCast
I Dared My Best Friend To Ruin My Life | Creep Cast
How am I supposed to put in a good effort if you've been preparing for years? I'll consider giving you some advice. In the meantime, do your best and tell Clark to play along because I'll have some motivation for him too.
CreepCast
I Dared My Best Friend To Ruin My Life | Creep Cast
It's been good catching up with you, Xander.
CreepCast
I Dared My Best Friend To Ruin My Life | Creep Cast
I just drew you and Haley Welch making sweet love and sold it on the NFT market. But how could you? Some people consider this fine art. Okay.
CreepCast
I Dared My Best Friend To Ruin My Life | Creep Cast
Stop, stop. Let him go. I have something to tell you.
CreepCast
I Dared My Best Friend To Ruin My Life | Creep Cast
Some people just need minimal effort to be motivated.
CreepCast
I Dared My Best Friend To Ruin My Life | Creep Cast
The size of a tangerine for minimal effort.
CreepCast
I Dared My Best Friend To Ruin My Life | Creep Cast
Yeah, gonna go ruin my best friend's life.
CreepCast
I Dared My Best Friend To Ruin My Life | Creep Cast
Call my mom for bail. I'll be out soon.
CreepCast
I Dared My Best Friend To Ruin My Life | Creep Cast
High school was so easy because we knew our purpose and our goals were set for us.
CreepCast
If You're Armed At the Glenmont Metro, Please Shoot Me | Creep Cast
I'd put my hands up and I'd be like, Isaiah, don't do it. Don't do it, Isaiah.
CreepCast
If You're Armed At the Glenmont Metro, Please Shoot Me | Creep Cast
I would sit there. You can't, you're my angel.
CreepCast
If You're Armed At the Glenmont Metro, Please Shoot Me | Creep Cast
Stop saying that. Just kill me, Isaiah.
CreepCast
If You're Armed At the Glenmont Metro, Please Shoot Me | Creep Cast
Just put a bullet in my head.
CreepCast
If You're Armed At the Glenmont Metro, Please Shoot Me | Creep Cast
There's no time, Isaiah.
CreepCast
If You're Armed At the Glenmont Metro, Please Shoot Me | Creep Cast
It's like almost impossible for me to be talking, but I'm like, I can't end it, please.
Dateline NBC
The Watcher
Well, in March. We kind of stopped talking, and then through May, and that's when our graduation, she sent me an email saying, would you at least please come? I'm just asking, but that's what they told me. No, I understand that. No, but it's because it's never been like fluid and continuous because when I felt the pressure of the commitment, I just kind of backed off.
Dateline NBC
After the Halloween Party
She was also Karen, and not just a mom and not just a wife. She was also Karen. And I think she got to know herself. And I think she liked her, as she should.
Dateline NBC
After the Halloween Party
I could kind of see it on his face. He just looked at me and he said, Jenny... They found her. So that was a tough night.
Dateline NBC
After the Halloween Party
She just said she wasn't having a good time. And I told her, just go sit at the bar. And I said, just get you a drink. And she said, Jenny, I just don't want to be here.
Dateline NBC
After the Halloween Party
Bill Bona called my house in Lexington and asked me if I had seen Karen. He said, we seem to have misplaced her. And I thought, you misplaced her? And then it wasn't probably five minutes later, the Lexington Police Department knocked on our door and said, is Karen here? We've had word that she might be hiding at your house. And I said, no, sir.
Dateline NBC
After the Halloween Party
I don't know. I don't want to have an opinion on it anymore. I just want her to be able to rest. I want her kids to be able to rest. I want justice for her. And I don't know that that's ever going to come.
Dateline NBC
After the Halloween Party
She said, all I want is a white house and a white picket fence and to go to church. That's all I want.
Dateline NBC
Poison Twist
He slowly started dropping all of his classes, and he was pretty much staying in bed all day and drinking a lot.
Dateline NBC
Poison Twist
I was. He had expressed to me that he was suicidal a couple of times, which was very concerning.
Dateline NBC
Poison Twist
I was absolutely floored. And at that time, they had asked me flat out, do you think Adam could have killed his mother? What did you tell them? At the time, I said, no, I don't think he would.
Dateline NBC
Poison Twist
They had asked me flat out, do you think Adam could have killed his mother? You always look at the husband.
Dateline NBC
Poison Twist
I helped him build a computer in the past. He was going to school for computer science.
Dateline NBC
Poison Twist
I had asked him about it since it was in a flowery laptop sleeve and it had a picture of a Victorian background that just didn't suit Adam's character. So I asked him about it. He said it was Katie's.
Dateline NBC
Return to the Lake
Tonight on Dateline. So many people still think about them. I wish I could tell them.
Dateline NBC
Return to the Lake
I don't remember them really talking to me a whole lot after I took the polygraph and obviously passed, as they said, with flying colors.
Dateline NBC
Return to the Lake
The media. It was out of control. Circus. They were camped out at her parents' house where we were staying. They were camped out at the courthouse. They would try to follow us.
Dateline NBC
Return to the Lake
I just got up every day and did whatever somebody told me to do. If it was to go for an interview, if it was to take a polygraph.
Dateline NBC
Return to the Lake
Wow. For myself, yes. Because I wouldn't have to be dealing with what's coming up now and in the future.
Dateline NBC
Return to the Lake
I said, don't worry about it. I told her not to worry. I was trying to, like, help her pass polygraph tests. I was telling her, like, to think about a field of daisies, an autumn day in the fall, to calm her down to pass the polygraph. Because I wanted us to get past that.
Dateline NBC
Return to the Lake
I didn't put a lot of weight into it. Because to me, she had just had her children, our children ripped away from her, snatched from her. How in the world would she be able to pass the polygraph?
Dateline NBC
Return to the Lake
Susan is distraught. She's crying. The tears seem genuine. I believe David Ward's coming out of her mouth. Then, the news no one could believe.
Dateline NBC
Return to the Lake
David spoke directly to his boys. Me and Mommy believe that you guys are okay and that you will be coming home soon. We're not going to give up until we find you.
Dateline NBC
Return to the Lake
When Sheriff Wells announced it to the public. That's the way I found out.
Dateline NBC
Return to the Lake
No. My thoughts were just, what is he talking about? I didn't think it was a mistake. I didn't think it was correct. I was just like, what is he talking about? You couldn't even get your head around it.
Dateline NBC
Return to the Lake
You don't kill your children for what happened to you. I wanted an eye for an eye.
Dateline NBC
Return to the Lake
It changes everything, having to bury a child. And burying two of them, that the mother killed them, I didn't know which way to go.
Dateline NBC
Return to the Lake
She just casually, like you and I, sitting here, said, I'm sorry. And that was about as far as it went. Me? Craig, I would have been around her ankles begging her to forgive me if I had done what she did.
Dateline NBC
Return to the Lake
Yes, I did ask her, why did you do this? Why did you, why? And she said, I don't know why, but I'm sorry.
Dateline NBC
Return to the Lake
I don't know if I should even answer that. Be honest, though. I used to sit there and look at the back of her head and then look at where the bailiffs were, the officers were, and think about killing her. How quick could I get to her? Could I reach her before that officer reaches me? Or could I get to her before that person would jump in front of me before I got my hands on her? Yeah.
Dateline NBC
Return to the Lake
I remember it was around 9 o'clock and Sheriff Wells said that your children have been taken and we're at the McLeod residence. You need to get here. And when you get there, what do you find? Susan is in the living room, and when I walk in, she's just distraught. She's crying. What was she saying about what happened?
Dateline NBC
Return to the Lake
I didn't really know either way. That was the first time I'd ever been through a trial, and especially one capital murder.
Dateline NBC
Return to the Lake
At least she was going to go to prison. That took some relief off of me.
Dateline NBC
Return to the Lake
That I was at a red light and that a black man jumped in the car, made me drive, and then forced me out of the car and drove off with them and still in the car.
Dateline NBC
Return to the Lake
It was probably the, I won't say the hardest day I've ever had, but it was, it's been among the top five.
Dateline NBC
Return to the Lake
I remember Tommy Pope just asking me a lot of questions about Michael and Alex and about mine and Susan's marriage. I remember it seemed like I cried a lot.
Dateline NBC
Return to the Lake
He still is. It wasn't an accident. She didn't kill them by mistake. She took a life. She should have gave up her life for it.
Dateline NBC
Return to the Lake
She deliberately killed Michael and Alex, and they can't let her out.
Dateline NBC
Return to the Lake
You went back to the lake. And what happened? I had my car lined up on the same boat ramp. No. Because I wanted to go to the same place the same way they did. But I couldn't do it. I prayed for the strength to do it. There was a time when I was on their grave with a gun in my mouth, praying to God to give me the strength to pull that trigger.
Dateline NBC
Return to the Lake
Wow. For myself, yes. Because I wouldn't have to be dealing with what's coming up now. I mean, Craig, I... I know that they said she had a tough life growing up, and I've never tried to make light of that. But you don't kill your children for what happened to you. I wanted an eye for an eye, but the jury saw a difference.
Dateline NBC
Return to the Lake
I saw how dedicated and faithful and compassionate Tiffany was through all of it and stuck by my side. So I knew that I better make that jump before I lose it.
Dateline NBC
Return to the Lake
For me, it was a fine balance between being overprotective and not very protective at all. Not being part of their life because you're scared to love them because something happened to them.
Dateline NBC
Return to the Lake
What have you heard? What have you been made aware of? I've heard about drug abuse, had, you know, sex relations with guards, but I would just hear it and then move on.
Dateline NBC
Return to the Lake
I don't think she's even, to me, been really sorry for what she did.
Dateline NBC
Return to the Lake
What do you plan to say? I don't know for sure. They're speaking from the heart, nothing scripted. But I just want to tell that parole board that they can't let her out.
Dateline NBC
Return to the Lake
God gives us free choice. And she made free choice that night to end her life. This wasn't a tragic mistake. It wasn't something that she didn't mean to do. She purposely did. meant to end their life. I understand back in 95 that through the state's law, life in prison meant 30 years to life. But ultimately to me, that's only 15 years per child. Her own children. It's just not enough.
Dateline NBC
Return to the Lake
Just because... It's gonna give me another chance to stand up for Michael and Alex, to defend them and try to keep the sympathy off of her that she keeps trying to conjure.
Dateline NBC
Return to the Lake
I would say the top would be my faith in God. You know, I was mad at him for a long time. Me and him have had some heated discussions, but I never blamed him. But the second was not letting her win. You may have took my children, but you're not gonna make me bitter. You're not gonna make me mad at the world. You're not gonna make me take my own life. You're not gonna win.
Dateline NBC
Return to the Lake
Of course. Why? Because that's the way I was taught. I had to forgive her because it was just going to eat me up if I didn't. It was going to hold me back.
Dateline NBC
Return to the Lake
I've never really had any memories of them since they passed. I was told by, you know, psychiatrists and stuff through the years early on that that was just my self-defense system. It was protecting me from myself, but that they would come back. But, Craig, we're here 30 years later, as you said. And I still have very few memories of my electronics. And that hurts. It hurts.
Dateline NBC
Return to the Lake
You want vivid memories. Yes. Of course I want to remember them. I want to remember things I did with them.
Dateline NBC
Return to the Lake
That's all I can think it is. It's my own mind protecting me from myself because I still miss them so much that those memories would just hurt too much. And my own self knows that. And it's just saying, not yet, David. Not yet. In January 2025, David returned to John D. Long Lake.
Dateline NBC
Return to the Lake
This is the first time I've been back to this lake in about 25 years.
Dateline NBC
Return to the Lake
To the eyes it's more peaceful, but to the heart it's still sad, sadness.
Dateline NBC
Return to the Lake
I used to sit there and look at the back of her head and think about killing her. You wanted her dead. I did.
Dateline NBC
Return to the Lake
You're not going to make me bitter. You're not going to make me mad at the world. You're not going to win.
Dateline NBC
Return to the Lake
Then Michael was born, and I was head over heels. My first son. Then came little Alex. Tell me about Michael.
Dateline NBC
Return to the Lake
Michael was the more sensitive one. His feelings would get hurt easy when you scolded him. He was very protective of Alex at the daycare. Even at home, Alex was more rambunctious, more mischievous.
Dateline NBC
Return to the Lake
She always made sure they were well-dressed. Whoever was taking care of them while we were at work, she made sure they were in good hands.
Dateline NBC
Return to the Lake
I was a lousy husband. You know, there was infidelity. But there was, you know, infidelity on her part, too, after mine, but... You were both cheating on each other. Right. Yeah.
Dateline NBC
Lori Vallow Daybell: The Jailhouse Interview
A couple hours later, Alex brings back J.J. He walked in, he had J.J. on, it was asleep on him, and he carried him up to bed.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
Hi, everyone. It's Andrea Canning back with the latest episode of Dateline True Crime Weekly. Episodes drop first thing every Thursday morning, and you can also find them by searching for the Dateline True Crime Weekly feed. So give us a listen and follow the show wherever you get your podcasts. And tell your friends. Hey, good morning, everybody.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
Joining me for this week's Dateline Roundup is Dateline producer Sue Simpson. Hey, Sue. Hey. So we are off to Massachusetts with some news in the Karen Reed case, who listeners will, of course, remember as the woman accused of killing her Boston police officer boyfriend, John O'Keefe, in 2022 by drunkenly backing her car into him.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
Reid went on trial this spring, but the jury was hung and a mistrial was declared on July 1st. Both teams are gearing up for a second trial. So tell us, what is new, Sue?
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
So the prosecution is trying to keep things as they are when we go to trial a second time in January.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
In June 2023, Amber Spradlin, a 38-year-old restaurant hostess in Prestonsburg, Kentucky, was found murdered in a prominent dentist's home. For over a year, there were no arrests. Then this July, the dentist, Michael McKinney II, his son, and a family friend were arrested and charged with multiple counts of tampering with evidence.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
For our next story, we are off to Northern Virginia. We have been following closely the case of the Brazilian au pair who was charged with murder. Right.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
Last week, the big news was that the au pair, Juliana Perez Magalhães, pleaded guilty to manslaughter. And now we have some new information.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
Prosecutors say that story is not true. They say that the au pair was covering for Brendan, who they say lured Joseph Ryan, that stranger, to the home through a fetish website. And they say tried to frame this stranger for his wife's murder.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
Okay, finally, we're headed to Delphi, Indiana for the trial of Richard Allen. He is the man accused of fatally stabbing two middle school girls in 2017.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
Yeah, really big point in this case. The defense rested Wednesday morning, so we'll keep you updated as this trial comes to a close. Sue, thank you for coming back on Roundup.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
There's something that nearly all Dateline episodes have in common. Someone is lying. It could be a murderer lying to police about an alibi or a husband lying to his wife about an affair. Sometimes it could be a detective lying to a suspect to get information. So for our final story this week, we wanted to find out how can you tell if someone is lying to you, if someone is deceiving you?
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
We asked former Secret Service agent Evie Pampouras, who conducted her fair share of polygraph exams, for some tips. Hey, Evie, thanks for coming back. Thanks for having me. People lie. Sometimes they're harmless. Sometimes they're white lies. Sometimes they're big lies that can really impact your life in a negative way. How can you read people in a way to know if they're lying to you or not?
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
And the son, Michael McKinney III, was also charged with Amber's murder. Here's our NBC affiliate station WLEX.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
What type of follow-up questions would you ask?
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
So that's verbal.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
That's the big one that you hear about is that someone will look down or they won't look you in the eye if they're lying.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
Yes. All right. What I love about these tips is that you can use it in your everyday life. So thank you, Evie. Absolutely. Absolutely. That's it for this episode of Dateline True Crime Weekly. Next week, the conclusion of a trial that's riveted Minnesota. Did the man who admitted to law enforcement that he was infatuated with the Gabby Petito case murder the mother of his children?
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
All three men pleaded not guilty. Two of the men were released from jail, but the dentist's son, known as MK, has been behind bars ever since. Then, two weeks ago, there was a hearing about his unusually high bond.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
To find out more about the cases covered on the show, head to our website, dateline truecrimeweekly.com. And coming up this Friday on Dateline, almost 30 years after Eric and Lyle Menendez were sentenced to life in prison for murdering their parents amidst a surge of public attention and a DA's recommendation, could they be released?
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
Watch Keith's new two-hour mystery, The Menendez Brothers, Chance at Freedom, airing this Friday at 9, 8 central on NBC, or stream it starting Saturday on Peacock. To get ad-free listening for all our podcasts, subscribe to Dateline Premium, where you can also find exclusive bonus content, including our latest episode of After the Verdict, which drops today.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
I'll be talking with Lissa Yellowbird, who tracked down one of the men involved in the disappearance of her niece, and now crosses the country with her search dogs looking for other missing people. Thanks for listening. Dateline True Crime Weekly is produced by Frannie Kelly and Katie Ferguson. Our associate producers are Carson Cummins and Caroline Casey.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
Our senior producer is Liz Brown-Koroloff. Production and fact-checking help by Sara Kadir. Veronica Mazeka is our digital producer. Rick Kwan is our sound designer. Original music by Jesse McGinty. Bryson Barnes is head of audio production. Paul Ryan is executive producer. And Liz Cole is senior executive producer of Dateline.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
The prosecution also spoke at the hearing and revealed for the first time some of the evidence they believe proves M.K. is Amber's killer. Dateline producer Rachel White was inside the courtroom and is here to tell us what she learned and what the judge decided. Rachel, welcome back to the show. Thank you, Andrea. OK, so this is a complicated case. Let's start with a quick recap of what happened.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
What do police believe happened in that house? How did Amber end up at the dentist's house?
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
You're listening in to Dateline's morning meeting in 30 Rockefeller Center. All righty, we'll go ahead and get started. Our editorial team is catching up on breaking crime news around the country.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
You were at this hearing where the defense representing M.K. McKinney tried to get his $5 million bond lowered. That's a lot of money.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
Then what is the prosecution saying?
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
Wow. And they even though, as we mentioned, that they're not saying exactly what they have, they are indicating that their evidence strongly implicates MK.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
Yeah, it's interesting because you have father and son. Correct. So you need that extra bit of evidence to kind of put the pieces together if what the prosecution is saying is correct. So there was also some video evidence that prosecutors mentioned.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
The prosecution also pointed to MK McKinney's mental condition.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
Welcome to Dateline True Crime Weekly. I'm Andrea Canning. It's November 7th, and here's what's on our docket. In the spring of 2022, the state of Georgia accused one of the biggest names in rap music, Jeffrey Williams, or Young Thug, of running a criminal enterprise. But last week, he left jail in a Mercedes.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
We should note that the defense says these allegations come from one source.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
So it sounds like a lot happened at this hearing.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
Okay, so what did the judge decide as far as lowering MK's bond?
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
So many unanswered questions in this one. Rachel, we'll be keeping an eye on it, and we look forward to your updates going forward. Thank you. Thank you. Up next, the Atlanta trial of a well-known rapper produced viral moments and controversy. And then all of a sudden it unraveled. How did a man facing 45 years in prison walk away with time served?
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
For our next story, we're heading to an Atlanta courtroom where last week we saw the dramatic conclusion to the longest-running trial in Georgia history, at least for one of the defendants, rap superstar Young Thug. In 2022, Fulton County Prosecutor Fonny Willis accused the rapper, whose real name is Jeffrey Williams, of being a gang kingpin.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
She charged him with racketeering, said the gang had been involved in murder. And the key to her case? The musician's own songs.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
For two and a half years, Young Thug sat behind bars as his trial, which involved more than two dozen co-defendants, dragged on. Then suddenly last week, in a move that surprised everyone, he took a plea deal.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
Young Thug is free.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
Here to talk about what that freedom might look like and how Young Thug ended up here is journalist David Dennis Jr., who covers pop culture for ESPN and also lives in Atlanta. David, thanks for being here.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
If you had told me that this was scripted in a TV show, this was like two unbelievable things.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
Thanks for having me.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
Let's talk about what Young Thug was on trial for.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
If you, you know, believe the Rico case, Young Thug is sort of the head of the snake that extends throughout, you know, a large swath of criminality in Atlanta, which the DA has tied to a rise in crime in the city and has sort of put that at the feet of Young Thug and YSL. That's his record label.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
Yeah, it's the idea that he is the head of this crime syndicate, this record label YSL that has done, you know, a lot of crime and violence in the city.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
So the criminal acts the prosecution said Young Thug committed included he received stolen property, a gun, made a gang sign with his hand and photos posted on social media, rented a car that was allegedly used to commit a murder. And we're talking about 27 co-defendants. in this case, which is just unbelievable.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
In Dateline Roundup, Karen Reid is back in court. New videos are played for the jury in the Delphi murders trial. And we've got police body cam from the case of the Brazilian au pair accused of murder.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
Yeah, yeah. I mean, this is a huge case. This is a huge, sprawling case. And there are still a few people who are still on trial.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
The lyrics in his songs, Fonny Willis was pointing to guilt based on those lyrics.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
Yeah, I mean, rap on trial is a huge issue that has gone back many years. That is a dangerous, slippery slope in hip-hop. There's a lot of people who make lyrics. If you based crimes on lyrics, almost every rapper, not even just rapper, a lot of musicians themselves would go to jail to base criminality on fictional characters. It's extremely dangerous.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
This trial really has been dogged with...
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
Yeah. I mean, it's been a mess. Like, there's no other way to put it. There's been multiple judges. There's been lawyers who've been tossed. There have been viral testimonies from, you know, the guy who said he was high on the stand. The person said he didn't know when he was born and things like that. I mean, this has been as messy a court case as you can imagine.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
If it wasn't such a serious case, this would be something like out of an episode of the TV show Atlanta. This was really around the city of Atlanta, the big water cooler talk, the barbershop. I mean, my barbershop had the trial on 24-7 when I was in there.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
Do we know what exactly happened that resulted, finally, as we said, longest trial in state history, and now we have this plea deal?
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
Part of this comes out of this sort of calamitous thing that happened a couple of weeks ago, which they had a witness sort of read out an Instagram caption.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
And it had the hashtag... So two of Williams' co-defendants go by the name Quay, and the jury wasn't supposed to know that they or any of the defendants have been locked up in the months before and during the trial. That mistake possibly tainted the jury?
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
Yeah. So the defense was trying to make an argument that this was a prejudicial factor in this, that the jury found out that somebody was in jail when they're trying to keep the jury sort of out of that information. And that really led to a moment where both sides sort of saw that a plea deal may be the quickest way and maybe the best way to get out of this.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
What exactly did Jeffrey Williams plead guilty to?
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
So what he has pled guilty to was participation in a gang. He pled guilty to three drug charges, two gun charges. He also pleaded no contest to the charges of being the leader in the gang and conspiring to violate the RICO.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
Plus, have you ever wondered how detectives know when someone is lying to them? We've got tips from a former Secret Service agent about how to spot deceit.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
And so to break it down, he's not admitting that the state is correct about his record label being a gang with him at the top, but he's also not going to fight them in court any longer.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
Yeah, basically, it's kind of an impasse.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
So Young Thug put his fate in the judge's hands. Did he make a statement at all?
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
Yeah, so he made about a 10-minute speech. He did apologize. He thanked the judge being fair. Said he learned a lot in these last two and a half years that he's been locked up.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
He cracked a couple of jokes. He talked about the bailiffs and everybody getting overtime. And he said he would hope he never see the judge again.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
So the judge decided his sentence.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
What did she do? She gave him time served, which has been two and a half years, and then 15 years of probation on top of that. And if he violates that probation, there's a 20 year sentence that's sort of hanging over his head. So he gets to walk free, but it's going to be a really challenging next 15 years for him. he has a lot of restrictions on him about what he can and cannot do.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
I mean, like he can't be in Atlanta where he's from, unless there's funerals, things like that. He cannot quote unquote, promote gang activity in his music or hang around any quote unquote gang members, except for like his brother and Ghana, who's a collaborator. And he's subjected to search and seizure at any point over the next 15 years. And which to me, Uh, that feels like a hell in itself.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
But first, we're heading to a small town in Kentucky for an update on a case we talked about on the podcast over the summer. The son of a local dentist has been behind bars, charged with a grisly murder he denies committing. Now we're finally getting a look at some of the prosecution's evidence.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
Like, that's, it's not jail, but it does feel, it feels dangerous. I mean, like, what are things that you say that promotes gang activity in your music, right? And it's sort of up to somebody's, um, discretion to,
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
Is there any public outcry that he got off too easy?
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
A lot of the public outcry is about the trial itself. The fact that this trial has taken so long and it's taken a lot of resources. There's really nothing to show for it. You know, there's no belief that the streets of Atlanta are any safer.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
David Dennis Jr., thank you for your insight into this case. We appreciate it.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
Thank you.
Dateline NBC
Details emerge in a grisly Kentucky murder. Young Thug is free. And how to detect deception.
Next, we've got Dateline Roundup. The Massachusetts Supreme Court takes up the Karen Reid case. And in a D.C. suburb, a last-minute guilty plea raises the question, has the Brazilian au pair turned on her lover? Plus, can you tell if someone is deceiving you? Former Secret Service agent Evie Pampouras is back to share some tips on how to read people. Welcome back.
Dateline NBC
A murder suspect's brother under scrutiny. Breakthrough in parents' quest for answers. And should jurors question witnesses?
Never in a million years would you think that you'd see your parents' house taped off, the farm taped off by that yellow tape.
Dateline NBC
A murder suspect's brother under scrutiny. Breakthrough in parents' quest for answers. And should jurors question witnesses?
For myself, yes, because I wouldn't have to be dealing with what's coming up now and in the future.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Tech mogul's alleged killer takes the stand. Dentist's murder trial set to begin. Plus safety tips for holiday travel.
Bye-bye. Bye, everyone.
Dateline: True Crime Weekly
Tech mogul's alleged killer takes the stand. Dentist's murder trial set to begin. Plus safety tips for holiday travel.
I know that what I did was so horrible. I am a Christian and God is a big part of my life. And I know he has forgiven me. And I just ask that you show that same kind of mercy as well.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Just a Jackson Thing and Tony Reed - Breaking the Internet
Join Corey. You boys want some popsicles? David. So Tanner, what I really got to know, is the juice worth the squeeze? And Tanner. All right, it's about time to wrap this baby up. They're my favorite, like Farm for Fun. It's time to put aside the stress of the work boots, sit down, grab your favorite adult beverage, and listen to the boys from Farm for Profit. Yay, it says applause.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
Yeah, he did. As soon as the interview's over, he runs around and jumping on this stuff and jumping off that stuff.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
Big Gashy. Big Gashy. Big Gashy.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
He kind of is running it. He is the chief tractor kid.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
I know. I was waiting for Christmas in hopes that I got it.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
49 billion downloads. 49 billion networks.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
Most people are saved as that guy in this county or that guy with the 4230 or...
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
Oh, it hasn't sold yet. It hasn't sold yet, yeah. I mean, as of this show, it did so. Yeah, as of this show, it did.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
How do you know you didn't get a better rate?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
What the heck? Or you decided not to have that credit card anymore. I still have my credit card from when I was 14. I don't use it, but I'm told I'll get a negative credit score.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
I literally just got a two-year loan for my kid, but we were going to try to pay it off in one year on his truck. It'll still be positive.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
So I wonder if I'm better to just go get him a credit card.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
I need a credit monitoring service. There's got to be an app for that.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
Nathan. Binder. That's how you spell Binders.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
Depends on where the tongue weight is. So, like mine, I have a 14-foot trailer. It's short. I have to back it on. I need more weight on the front.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
But like a flatbed? It could, yeah. Deck over. If you had a deck over. Yeah. The fifth wheel. I lost a boat one time on the interstate and I had to... What? I had to... Dude, I lost like a wheel. The whole axle like was gone. And it was an auction deal. And I had to go... It was a repo deal. An auction repo deal. The guy was upset with it. So I gave him his money back. I went and got it.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
Well, the doggone wheel fell off on the way back.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
You told me you were going to go repo this boat. Yeah. And it was like a four-hour drive away. Well, then, so I'm halfway back. I put the boat on the side of the road. I'm in a construction zone. I drive home, get a deck over flatbed with a skid loader with forks, fork extensions, so I can go back and fork this stupid boat trailer and boat onto my trailer. Fork this forking boat.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
And so then I had to back on with the boat on my forks and turn around on top of the trailer and just set it down because I wasn't long enough to load the boat and the skid loader on the trailer. So I just kept it loaded on the forks.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
Got a new axle for it. Sold it to another guy in Northern Iowa. Three-hour drive there. Put her together. How much did you lose? My time. That's a lot.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
It's weird. The thing that I think is weird is I've been with some folks. Well, we've been with some folks. And they've said, well, that guy's a creeper. Why? Because he's in my DMs. Well, maybe he wanted to take you on a date. And get out of creeper status. And get out of creeper status.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
No one ever talks to me. And then they do, oh, he's a creeper. There's no winning at all.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
She Twitterpated? Twitterpated. What is that? That's even older than you guys, huh? What is that? Twitterpated from Bambi. The movie Bambi. No. I've seen Bambi. So have I. Twitterpated? I was thinking of Twitter like X. Yeah. The platform. Twitterpated. She's in love. When the skunk in Bambi talks to the deer in Bambi. That's good. Well, we got to end it. She knew it was coming. She didn't know.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
That is, I can't think of the word right now.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
It is a bunch of people that are older gentlemen that like to reminisce about old times. We always get in a discussion about what used to be there or that person used to live there or that was the old such and such place. And she got a divorce, but then remarried to such and such. And it's always just a reminisce back to the regurgitated and hopefully for a better use.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
They have a little. See, I don't show up every day on purpose because then it gets. They can talk about you? It's complacent every time. So when I show up, they're like, ooh, I wonder what he's got to say today. So then I show up and don't say anything. And then they're like, so what? And then they ask me exactly what they're looking for. And normally it's about the farmland market.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
So then I let them engage about farmland.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
For our firm. Yeah. On how. So the flyer that we talked about that I just made the other night, I want to say how to become a realtor and what are the keys to success with us. And so I wrote a nine step.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
You guys remember that? Oh Sheep Girls. Yeah.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
I follow them now. And did you see the one where she was prank checking a cow? And so she is. Yeah. She's literally like, she can't take it. It's just funny. They are funny.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
I guess I'm thinking live auctions. And because I've had a bunch of other auctioneers come to our auctions and buy and then resell the stuff at their auction. So everybody's trying to take a percent on it. And then I went to their auction the other day. So case in point, I sold a combine to a guy, local auctioneer bought it. He waited four months, put it on his auction.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
And then I watched who bought it there. And the guys from Richie Brothers showed up and they bought it on his auction. I'm like, well, heck, that ain't even the end user there. They're going to now take it down to Mississippi. They're going to resell it there. Or it'll go to Ed's Machinery in Missouri and then he'll sell it and then Florida will buy it and then they'll resell it.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
What kind of a gamble is that? And by the time we've shipped this thing 10 times and everybody took 8% in the middle, by the time the end user actually buys it, I feel like it might be jacked up 40%.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
Everybody thinks they can sell it for more. Everybody thinks that it might be worth more. You better know your game if you're going to be buying and selling. If you're swapping equipment and trading. Wow. I just don't feel like we're at that point yet. Money's made in the margins. And dealers buy as well. I don't know if it's that big. But even personal property.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
We had our Christmas party last night. We were talking with personal property folks and how many people are buying that are the people that actually want the antique. That is a lot. They're not. It's actually all the consignment stores and eBay. I sold parts last weekend for an automobile parts deal and there was order buyers there. We sold 90% of the parts to five guys.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
They take them and remarket them, keep them, put them in their stores and put them on eBay for the next year until the next auction that they have there. Whoa. Heck of a game. So the last few auctions that I've attended and assisted with have been like, wow, there's a lot of people that are just buying to resell. Yeah. When you get into the big pieces, though, like, is that? No, not as much.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
And, of course, farmland, I'm 100% opposite. It's the end user that's buying it 100% of the time. Is it, though?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
But they're not... I mean, there's a few guys, like Noah, might buy it just to flip it. There are guys buying it to flip it, you know? Well, that's what you should start doing.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
Well, I've sold a handful that way, and that's why everybody writes and or assigns, and they'll just assign it to, they'll resell it. They got their buyers in mind. They'll resell it to somebody else before they have to close.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
Ooh. That's a good point. Never went in your name. So then how do they get paid? You just take the cream off the top.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
Tax. I've never done it, so I've never had to pay that tax. You should start doing it. Well, if I had Corey's money, I'd do it.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
Are you married? Have you ever said, oh, I'm married today? No. Why do we wish people Merry Christmas? We're wishing them something that nobody knows.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
What if you said have a gay day? That used to be a thing. You can't with DEI. Yeah, now you can't.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
You can't say gay day? Nope. You can have a gay day.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
I know. My wife's like, I can't buy anything. I can't buy anything.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
Oh, yeah, you can. Yeah. We should. I can just keep my password for... That's true.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
But... No, I don't. They say you can do it for your household. What about like the studio hold? I did that once though at one of my auctions and your song started playing at my auction. Not my fault. And that can be dangerous. Not my fault.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Farmers Say the Funniest Things: Listener Comments of 2024
I'd like to upgrade to an iPhone 16. Oh. You didn't? I didn't yet. Have you? Yes, I told you. He gets it the day it comes out. I know. And I didn't yet. I need to. So you didn't buy it for yourself?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Some More Wine! Catching up with Gavin and Grayce
I think it's very good. It's an easy drinker. It is. It is. I went wine tasting on my honeymoon, and I thought everything was so dry. Was that just last year? No, 22 years ago, and I've not been a wine drinker since we went out to California and tasted good wine. I've actually been drinking more and more wine, and this is very good.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Some More Wine! Catching up with Gavin and Grayce
Is there anything to the shape of the bottle there, Duff? This one is a traditional look of a wine bottle. This one's got a whiter, fatter brim on the bottle.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Some More Wine! Catching up with Gavin and Grayce
I did on this one. So I had a guy tell me once that the deeper the hole on the bottom of the bottle, the better the wine is.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Some More Wine! Catching up with Gavin and Grayce
It's fruitier to me. It's fruitier to me.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Some More Wine! Catching up with Gavin and Grayce
It's fruitier. Yeah. And it's not dry at all. Very, very good. And it is different though. Between the 15 miles.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Some More Wine! Catching up with Gavin and Grayce
On the back, this says lambertbridge.com. Awesome. So for this one, I think you could just probably put that in on your URL browser. Corey's got to pull the other one out of his ice bucket.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
I don't want to turn this into an episode about your dad and uncle, but I am genuinely curious. They farmed. How did they get into doing what they're doing? Because everyone knows that. Yeah.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
Would you rather plant corn or plant soybeans? Oh, yeah.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
Can I do both? I can run the cab from the studio?
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
So we do a lot of succession planning episodes and things like that. Obviously, you guys are a farm, but then you also have a media business as well. Have you guys started that? Are you going to take over the reins someday? No, we have not talked about that at all.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
That's the crazy thing about media is, you know, if you're farming – You either got to take over that farm or go find a bunch more acres to start your own. Media, there's a bunch of room. You can just carve out your own little space on the side and run in parallel.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
I think it's the best I've ever felt on the morning of a Farm Progress Show.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
don't know if that was any shorter it was exactly the same it was more entertaining and i would just just say that i just wanted i listened to podcasts outside of ag and i think ag is no different than everybody else we're all humans right i want to be entertaining and be barstool-esque and espn you know like that to to ag and so i'm a very social person
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
Hydrating for today because it's the big one today.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
And I had a bunch of friends and then COVID just kind of grounded. It grounded a lot of people. And that was my social hour was with that. And then it just stuck, you know, and I still look forward to it. It's kind of my mental health away.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
July, five years? Yeah. What is that in dog years, or what is that in podcast years?
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
It was once a week, started out. Actually, they were going every other week. Then they went to once a week, and then we just could not get content out fast enough. Our list of guests and everything kept growing, so we had to go to twice a week. We could go every day, probably.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
All right. No music? No music. All right. Here we go. Today on the Farm for Fun show from the 2024 Farm Progress show here at the John Deere booth, we meet up with a first-time guest of the podcast. You may have heard his last name before. but he's looking to blaze his own trail in agriculture. He's a fifth-generation farmer from South Dakota.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
How come we didn't make the top five things to do at Farm Progress Show, your interview?
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
We get it. You can't please everyone. And when you're in this position, I mean, Tanner's brain gets so scrambled at these things because he's a scheduler by heart. And, like, yeah, it's about fried by the end of the week trying to think of all the – you should see the schedule we have. Every conversation, every bathroom break, every food intake is scheduled.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
And if we didn't have Tanner doing that, we would be screwed. Actually, this would have been dead at the start. Dave and I aren't that organized.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
And sometimes a golf cart really doesn't make you any faster in the crowds that are here. No, it's bad. You go like one mile an hour probably.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
You may have recently seen his content all over the socials. Please welcome Mr. Zach Hefty. Woo! Welcome to the show, buddy.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
It is the best thing. It is one of the most premier networking events, I mean, ever. Gosh, I can't tell you the amount of friends that we've made there. And then we got a lot. It's weird. Social media is weird, right? Like, you're my friend, but this is the first time we've ever met, right? Like, this is kind of weird. And it's just a cool place to sit down and chat in person.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
You should have seen what I had to do to get parked. I had to go through the ditch off of Highway 30 and run in here because Tanner does not do intros.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
You'll really appreciate the shop, too, because I'm pretty sure it's air-conditioned. It can hold, like, 500 people. And then he's got, like, a secret, like, hangout room with a golf simulator, a bunch of cool bourbon and all this stuff. So he's a pretty cool dude.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
you know we're a little jumpy and they're just they're just so smooth and that's because we farmer it finesse we don't run this all day and we go get in one and we think we know what we're doing and they have those sites all across america and probably the world and it's just like 160 acres out there of bare dirt and they're just spraying water all day with sprayers just putting hours on stuff yeah you know testing and they planted you know they're planting all day and
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
Anyway, welcome. Let's get a background about yourself. I think everyone knows the last name. If you're an agricultor, everyone knows the last name, but they might not have heard your first name. Yeah. So I'm Zach Hefty.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
And we got to run, not the Innovation Center, but we got to go out to the John Deere Classic and run the little excavator with the world's largest putter. Yeah. And how is that? I made it my first time.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
Does a full 360 like a driver. Actually gets air underneath the golf ball.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
So we didn't know what to expect. Tanner's a golfer. I whack the ball around a few times a summer in just like four-person bat shots. Dave does not golf.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
And we were supposed to go down to the NCBA with John Deere in our contract. That wasn't going to work, so we just pivoted to that, and we're like, that sounds cool. I've never been to a professional golf tournament before, and you're seeing these PGA guys play, and we just walk in, and it was a great experience. I would suggest anyone to go. They really run it fantastic.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
Even if you're not a golf fan, there's concerts. They really have kind of set it up for everybody.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
I really enjoyed, we got to interview one of the grounds crew. And I'm an agronomy nerd myself, graduated from Iowa State University. A lot of their grounds crew graduated. Iowa State has a fantastic turf management program. There's agronomy in everything, right? There's agronomy here at the show. I see people planted some corn over there.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
Someone had to literally come and plant corn here three weeks ago to make it look like that planter was planting. It's crazy the amount of thought that goes into it.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
Exactly. It's just a visual. But the cool thing about that tournament is John Deere, a lot of the flack that we get is John Deere doesn't... People say, why does John Deere have a golf tournament? That's stupid. they don't realize they raise money for over 500 charities or 400 charities.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
And last year they raised over $14 million, you know, like the impact that they have locally and across the country. It's, it's crazy. So that's what that tournament is all about. Yeah.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
Yep. Oh, they were just, and they had custom hats just for the, it said, what did it say? Deer Run Agronomy or something.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
I'm like, you can't. I'm like, come on. That'd be a cool hat.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
Yeah. That was one sliding a koozie under the table did not work.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
Yeah. I got a caddy hat. Yeah. And those felt special. Yeah. Okay. So we know that this takes a lot of time, this media business. It's a lot of rigmarole. I mean, it's nice because our phones, we can work from anywhere. But how do you guys manage the farm? Do you have, like, a lot of employees back there? Because I know how much it takes to be in recording every day.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
Everyone wants to go farm. They want to run the tractors. For five seconds. Really, it's three months out of the year that we're really in the tractors a lot.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
Yeah. Talk about the hefty field day. We've never been up to it. We've wanted to go. Do you have much part in that?
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
The only thing I ask why one day is because I don't come to these shows for, I mean, I like seeing the big combines and that, but I do it for this, the networking, right? So, like, I hear one day and I'm like, when do we get together with everybody, right? So, what's the game plan? Do you come in the day before?
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
Oh, man. It was special. So tell me about the story then.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
He's like, I'm going to... No, no, that was Nebraska.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
I had a half-smoked cigarette on top of my dresser, mold on the walls in the shower, and
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
And you stepped in and it was like you stepped into a pool room and it was just humid and the air condition had been running completely. It was just like woofta.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
Oh, yeah. That's probably out towards Sturgis, right? Yeah, it's right by there. Yeah, they're all kind of close together. I actually had a great aunt that lived out there in Rapid City. I forgot about that. Yeah. We're getting dripped all over.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
Yeah, wrap it too. People have honestly told us to do that. And so we built a studio last year, our own permanent spot in an old Casey's General store. But we were actually looking at a bus one time because then it could just be kind of mobile, have everything set up in there. Yeah. And it's still not taking it out of the realm of possibilities, but I don't know.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
They want us on a road show, but I don't know if we would like each other as much as if we had to – Sleep in the bus together.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
So it's your dad and your uncle that run the Hefty Brothers that everyone knows. And so you grew up with that. Did you grow up helping on the farm?
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
I do like that. We've interviewed a couple of ag aviation pilots. They're wild.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
So how do we get Farm for Profit and the Hefty team to start working together? That's what we need.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
We like Acres TV. We just haven't put anything on there yet, I guess. Yeah. Yeah, we can talk more about it.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
put stuff on other platforms we'll just say that some hires and things like that so yeah we were just that really was it was just we were physically out of i mean max capacity i guess of what we could do and it's like man that's one other thing it was an experiment how much can we do and probably got too far extended and now we're we're uh gonna make up for that yeah that's great yeah this has been a lot of fun and appreciate you doing it first thing in the morning
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
He had the word balance in there at first, and I told him to switch the word to juggle because it's not always a balance.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
I don't know if it's a blessing or a curse being close to home, like 10 miles from here. I like to go out to the trade show and go get a meal with a prospect or one of your partners and network. But now I'm expected to be home and get the kids on the bus and do that kind of thing.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
And, I mean, there's different ways of doing that, right? Like Tanner's wife is going to be at the after party getting things ready for us this afternoon. Mine's running my business all week. Yours is running your business, and mine is going to work providing health insurance and then taking care of the girls afterwards and all that. So it's like there's different ways to do it.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
I was genuinely interested in that because his dad and uncle are probably some of the first, I would call, in social media. Even though social media wasn't, I mean, they've been on TV.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
Mine's a nurse at the school, and she went from the hospital there just so she could have the same schedule as the girls. Took a major pay cut, but –
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
Right? For a long time. And I just wondered what a kid coming up, because it feels like everything now, influencers are kind of a first gen thing. And we've never been through it. We found it mid-life. So I just wanted to hear how that life was coming up.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
It's not going to be a shower, but it'll be a full outfit.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
Everyone wants to go farm. They want to run the tractors.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
Really, it's three months out of the year that we're really in the tractors a lot.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
There you go. So what do you all do now? I mean, there's a lot of things under the hefty umbrella, right? What is it you do under there?
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
So have you done anything with the Hefty Seed brand or in their Hefty Seeds and all that kind of – what else is there under? Acres TV kind of stuff? Yeah.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
Two years, Dave. Or one and a half. Okay. I got it.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
And Dave's gets a lot more comments than this one. Yesterday, walking around, Tanner and I had those shirts on. Love your shirt, love your shirt. So just start that conversation.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
And we can tell you that Dave had probably the personality that would wear something like that. Tanner and I, we were like, what are we going to do with this? What do we call those, paisleys? This is called Austin Flowers. Austin Flowers, yeah. We would not normally wear that out in public, but it was a little nerve-wracking the first couple times.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
But I'll tell you what, I think it's pretty cool now.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
I will say what we did change was these are... thick australian cotton these are like uh sunday swagger actually sunday crew uh makes them it's a golf shirt you know it's very nice if you wanted to double up the mission statement sunday swagger sunday crew is all about uh melanoma awareness yes 50 spf yeah yeah let's do our good things
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
Yeah, it's a lot. And I feel terrible like when I'm sitting staring at my phone and my dad and my brother are looking at me like, let's go, let's get this truck loaded, let you know. It's like, okay.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
He was sitting in that chair yesterday with just a Jackson thing. But he's always professional when he gets on the mic.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
Not like it's TikTok. Everyone wants to know, is he really like he is on TikTok? If you get a few keystones in him.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Zach Hefty AKA "Prince Hefty"
And it was funny to see John Deere come around to that, because at first they were like, nope, don't want anything to do with that. And then they met him, and it's like, oh, yeah, he can come up here.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Shawn Feikema - Feikema Farms
What is triticale? It's a cross between wheat and rye.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Shawn Feikema - Feikema Farms
I took a picture of the shirt. He's investing a ton of money into that.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Shawn Feikema - Feikema Farms
And what did he say? $30 million. He says, I'm personally backing it or something. Yeah.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Shawn Feikema - Feikema Farms
Any of that decision-making come from, uh, carbon as well, or CI scores or anything?
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Shawn Feikema - Feikema Farms
came from laverne minnesota ford dealership up there really herman motors just rusted out or what no it was black betty is black and chrome rocker panels dual exhaust he saw the tiktok i sent you guys last night about the crappy truck and the girls like that you know all right before we get into you what was your what was your first vehicle sean oh it was uh uh i can't remember the year
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Shawn Feikema - Feikema Farms
I had an old Danger Ranger. Danger Ranger. Yeah. Ford FN Ranger? Yeah. Ford FN Ranger. Uh-huh. Blue in color. Oh, yeah. 800 bucks. Ford from the beginning. I had a Ford from the beginning. Yep. I've been through all the brands, though.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Shawn Feikema - Feikema Farms
Well, the cattle market's been a lot better than the row crop market for you, probably.
Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - Shawn Feikema - Feikema Farms
I've had a couple clients that have said that, and they're like, well, we'd like to move our 2,000 acres to here. Can you find us 2,000 more? I'm like, well, all connecting? Yeah. Like, this is not an easy feat to do, you know? But they bought it way back when, when it was, you know, 50 bucks an acre. And so now they're ready to cash out and move somewhere else. But, yeah.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Direct to Consumer: Amy Hay - Former Engineer Driving The Future of Beef Sales
You guys know our friend Huey. Be cool. He's always got business ideas, and he was talking to me about selling direct-to-consumer the other day. He wants to start this and was asking me. We have cattle at my house as well. We don't sell direct-to-consumer. And so he was asking, what does it take to get started and whatnot? You said you rented 20 acres and you had six acres of your own.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Direct to Consumer: Amy Hay - Former Engineer Driving The Future of Beef Sales
So you had about 26 acres and you had six head that you kind of started with. To me, that doesn't add up to dollars that that's enough to feed a whole family, you know, for a living wage. How much did it like we're yet now? We're yet now like how many head if I can ask, what's it take to make a living at this if you're going to do direct to consumer?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Direct to Consumer: Amy Hay - Former Engineer Driving The Future of Beef Sales
Well, and I was leading into the next. Now you're teaching people to sell beef. So you must have some analytics of if I'm going to teach you how to sell beef, that's my next question. How do we sell beef?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Direct to Consumer: Amy Hay - Former Engineer Driving The Future of Beef Sales
You don't think so? No, not at all. Okay. We need it to elect the next president, you know?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Direct to Consumer: Amy Hay - Former Engineer Driving The Future of Beef Sales
Canada, it's Tim Hortons, isn't it? Not Starbucks?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Direct to Consumer: Amy Hay - Former Engineer Driving The Future of Beef Sales
Amy, what I'm hearing is you have a way to show customers how to market their product probably really good or an education program that does that. Do you teach them how to, say, buy cattle at the auction? No.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Direct to Consumer: Amy Hay - Former Engineer Driving The Future of Beef Sales
She didn't say enough. No, she didn't. Happy New Year. Got the brand for those that are watching online, too. I like the WK Inside H. That is cool.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Direct to Consumer: Amy Hay - Former Engineer Driving The Future of Beef Sales
My father-in-law sells direct to consumer. He started doing that. We were cow-calf for a while and he'd sell genetics and then he realized that instead of selling the bull for genetics, he'd get whatever, $3,000 a head.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Direct to Consumer: Amy Hay - Former Engineer Driving The Future of Beef Sales
He's like, well, I could cut its head off and sell it as meat and steer it and then end up feeding it out, make more money doing that and get $5,000 worth of meat out of it instead and in a shorter window. And he would start doing that.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Direct to Consumer: Amy Hay - Former Engineer Driving The Future of Beef Sales
But when he would do it, a lot of people didn't realize how much the packer cost to have them process or the processor, not the packer, but the processor to process the meat. And so some people would sell it as hanging weight. Some people would sell it as just the meat. So there's bone in or bone out weight.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Direct to Consumer: Amy Hay - Former Engineer Driving The Future of Beef Sales
And then some would sell it as carcass weight, you know, with skin, without skin, et cetera, et cetera. And so explaining that to the consumer. What he's always tried to explain to him was here's the price of what you're going to pay at the grocery store for hamburger. Here's the price of what you're going to sell for steak. I'll just split the difference.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Direct to Consumer: Amy Hay - Former Engineer Driving The Future of Beef Sales
Instead of paying $15 for a steak and $3 for hamburger, I'm going to sell it all to you at $7. You know, and he just split it all and he just split it in the middle. But I don't know if there's a right way to do it, but that was his.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Direct to Consumer: Amy Hay - Former Engineer Driving The Future of Beef Sales
Uh, he did it on yield.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Direct to Consumer: Amy Hay - Former Engineer Driving The Future of Beef Sales
Yeah, I'm from Hawaii. She's not from Hawaii. It sounds like a Canadian accent, but Hawaii is what I guessed. Canadian accent?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Direct to Consumer: Amy Hay - Former Engineer Driving The Future of Beef Sales
I am.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Direct to Consumer: Amy Hay - Former Engineer Driving The Future of Beef Sales
Good skiing in BC. Go to Whistler back home. Get to see the ocean and be on the mountains. Dual ski resort.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Direct to Consumer: Amy Hay - Former Engineer Driving The Future of Beef Sales
Yeah. I'm going to take these guys skiing. We're going to go out to the old Commodity Classic and...
Farm4Profit Podcast
Direct to Consumer: Amy Hay - Former Engineer Driving The Future of Beef Sales
She wanted a Montana cowboy, and I said, well, I'm from Montana, but I'm not necessarily a cowboy, but we can make it work.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Direct to Consumer: Amy Hay - Former Engineer Driving The Future of Beef Sales
Yeah.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Direct to Consumer: Amy Hay - Former Engineer Driving The Future of Beef Sales
How many people in the States don't have insurance that just have kids all the time? I mean, the government, I guess, takes care of them nonetheless. But I never thought about decision making to move to the States.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Direct to Consumer: Amy Hay - Former Engineer Driving The Future of Beef Sales
So, but don't, aren't your taxes in Canada, don't you guys pay like 40, 50% like income tax on your income? No. Oh, okay. I'm wrong. Okay.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Direct to Consumer: Amy Hay - Former Engineer Driving The Future of Beef Sales
And David is definitely here today.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Direct to Consumer: Amy Hay - Former Engineer Driving The Future of Beef Sales
I'm curious, like, how do two engineers say, all right, we're going to start a farm, like, let's go buy some cows. Yep. How do you know what kind of cows to buy and how do you not buy dairy steers instead of beef cattle and, and then get the land to support the cattle and like all those decisions that go with it. And do we need creep feeders and how do we do it?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Direct to Consumer: Amy Hay - Former Engineer Driving The Future of Beef Sales
Like there's a lot of learning curve there.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Cutting-Edge Ag Tech and Strong Partnership Insights
Ladies and gentlemen, farmers, ranchers, and distinguished guests, thank you for listening to the Farm for Profit podcast, where we discuss the latest ideas, methods, trends, and techniques available to help your farm achieve higher levels of farm profitability. Remember, if you aren't farming for profit, you won't be farming for long.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Cutting-Edge Ag Tech and Strong Partnership Insights
Remember, if you aren't farming for profit, you won't be farming for long.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
If I remember right, this isn't brand specific. So it isn't X, Y, Z. It's 1,300 different seed.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
Isn't it Inauguration Day tomorrow? Oh, it is, yeah.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
I saw it on Facebook. It's official this morning.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
We're picking what it is.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
I'm still back to David Letterman. I'm still back to David Letterman. Do you think Rachel Z knows who David Letterman is?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
I don't know. She didn't know who Mr. Mustache was, so. We'll ask him. Yeah, we should know who Burt Reynolds was.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
I think you've done that by listening to your customers. You just said it like we didn't know we were going to go down the biologics route, but, hey, they've requested it, and I think that's any good business. I mean, listen to Google. When did we come up with Google Maps? Everyone was asking for maps. Remember when Garmin's came out?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
It was like the number one gift for, like, dads across the world. Yeah, Garmin watch right here.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
like garments weren't a thing anymore why because google's like all right we need maps like everybody wants google maps what they do they listen to their customers and all of a sudden now it's like everybody has it on their phone google maps well you never know you listen to your customers next thing you know maybe biologics you're gonna be the next i do not miss printing off those map was map quest oh yeah printing off those maps and you're driving and you're trying to read left hand turn at 290th street and all of a sudden you're looking at 410th
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
I try to tell these guys all the time. Apple Maps just doesn't cut it.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
like oh i could beat that by 15 minutes you know and now you can't you can't you can't beat it anymore i don't know if it just if it reads and knows your driving habits or whatever it is well and it also knows the traffic it does yeah i like that you could change the name of your garmin and you could also change the voice so i change it to like a female lady and like a british gal yeah exactly
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
I love her voice. You can change the voice like, oh, hey, Shannon, how long is it going to take us to get there?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
No, I'm punching it. I did get a speeding ticket already this year, and my wife's like, really? I'm like, it's only one this year. She's like, it's January 5th. It's only one this year. Didn't you get one like right before the end of the year too? It's like two this month. In a couple weeks.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
It's about five. At about five you get a letter and I'm sitting at about three right now.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
This is analytics. I should get cheaper car insurance, not more expensive car insurance, because if I can drive that fast and be pulled over that many times and get that many tickets and never be in a car accident, it just proves I'm that much better of a driver. There is a silver lining, Dave. I like that. They're like, you're that much more prone to get in an accident?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
I'm like, no, I'm that less prone to get in an accident. I've been pulled over like 42 times and I've got like 28 tickets. So it's like, I'm just proved that I'm that much better.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
It's really tough. So I'm not the cheapest guy at what I do, And I want people to hire me not because I'm the cheapest guy. So don't undercut me because somebody else is cheaper. You get what you pay for sometimes is what I think.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
So they're buying cheaper corn, but then guaranteeing the upside too.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
Oh, really?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
Oh, big time.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
I called him the other day because I got a postcard and it says you get a discount on something. I'm like, hey, wait a minute. Did I get this discount? And he's like, yeah, you already did. I was like, okay, fair enough.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
I was calling bull crap on it. I was like, wait a minute.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
Right. I did too. You got it. Go comment, right? I was like, wait a minute, discount code on this postcard.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
What's your guys' opinion on this? This is where I was going. Farmers are just so loyal. I am all for getting the best deal and shopping around. I'm a dealer. I love to negotiate. I love to shop for the best deal. But I also love relationships. So in farming, I'm all about relationships. And I love guys that like to do business with me because they like to do business with me.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
Corey, what's your answer? Do you like the relationships more or do you like to shop for the deal?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
Really?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
Correct. So the reason my car insurance is higher... is because statistically, they think I speed a lot, that I'm gonna get in an accident more often. So they've proven that statistically, they know that they might have to pay out more to me.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
you're an insurance company in a sense that statistically somebody's done the analytics on this, that you're every insurance companies, there's big money behind this, that somebody's done the analytics that it must work or cause you don't want to pay out. You don't want to pay out. You don't want to not have it work. So somebody's done the math that we know that
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
99.9% of the time, we're not going to pay out. It's going to yield this or we're going to go out of business. So we're not in this business to go out of business. It's going to work. So you've proven this over so many acres already. Can you give us kind of a shot of what that looks like? Like how many acres has it been proven on?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
We were having this conversation last night after hours of what are setting some of the most successful people apart that in these tougher times, that's when the best of the best thrive.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
Yep. So all the more reason I need more tech because I can't tell you what my yields are because I don't have the mapping on my field yet.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
But what I'm saying is all those older farmers that just don't have the data because they're not collecting it yet. and are listening to this podcast, you need the data.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
Well, I'm even thinking like 25 bushel more or less. People ask me like, well, if I put tile in, will you get more? Well, I'm trying to even figure out like, how can I judge how much more I got? Or even on a farm, how much more will I get selling the farm? Well, I can't sell the farm twice. to tell you how much more did it get. I don't have a Delta to tell you.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
I can't sell it the same day at the same time to tell you that if I would have sold it this way versus this way, it would have brought more money. So it's hard to do any trial and make it exactly perfect.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
Corey, Dave, got a guess?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
I don't have a guess. I'll go with Tanner's guess.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
I just figured out what we're going to be for Halloween, Corey. It's a long time from now. I'm going to be a priest and make a confession booth right next to you. You're just going to be a farmer. You're going to put farmers enter here? I'm going to just be like the farmer bank and the confession booth. Your job is just to watch. Forgive me, Dave.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
I'm going to dress up like a banker.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
Sometimes feel like snake oil, yes.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
Oh, man. I don't know. I think it's biological.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
Is that just because that's what they're hearing in the background? They've tried everything else?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
It's the new. It's the new. Right.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
And are you going to –
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
section those out where it's just biological testing like we don't want to do fungicide and biological i know cory talked about this we need your dad tried to do like multiple different tests on you want good data and you couldn't you couldn't like separate out like what was the the factor that actually changed something right yeah he had too many trials going on and too many directions like i mean he might spray sideways and then have different population trials going this way different hybrid you know so too many things changing at one time you don't know what worked
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
So we just want to test. That's my question, I guess. You're just testing microbiologics.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
So what if... they all come back and they, they aren't good.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
So it's good that if they come back not good, that's good for your customers because you have good analytics. Yeah, exactly.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Trying New Farming Practices with Your Risk Mitigated - Billy Rose AcreShield Guarantee
And for those of you that are just getting a short glimpse of what Acre Shield is, go back to the previous episode and you'll get a deeper dive in. We're just giving you a short glimpse there of what it is. But go back to the previous episode. We'll put it in the show notes of where that is. But go back and take a deeper listen for a full hour of what that is. But continuing on.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Breaking Down the November WASDE Report: Andrew Kaabes - Lighthouse Commodities
So who comes up with the WASDE report? The World Agriculture Board at the USDA.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Breaking Down the November WASDE Report: Andrew Kaabes - Lighthouse Commodities
Is it a survey or is it based on data?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Breaking Down the November WASDE Report: Andrew Kaabes - Lighthouse Commodities
Oh, geez. I bet it goes back to the 60s.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Breaking Down the November WASDE Report: Andrew Kaabes - Lighthouse Commodities
Yeah, a little bit past that. I bet it's 60 years.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Breaking Down the November WASDE Report: Andrew Kaabes - Lighthouse Commodities
That's true.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Breaking Down the November WASDE Report: Andrew Kaabes - Lighthouse Commodities
So is there any little, a bit of phantom in there, like 20 million missing voters or anything like that?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Breaking Down the November WASDE Report: Andrew Kaabes - Lighthouse Commodities
I don't know. I have to look. I know there's probably more than 300.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Breaking Down the November WASDE Report: Andrew Kaabes - Lighthouse Commodities
No. I'm going to do corn on corn still, but for different reasons for silage. But not to get into politics by any means, but markets, as I said, we're talking markets today, are emotion markets. And since the election, we're a red state as it came out on the map. But every person that I've talked to has a more positive or bullish attitude since the election.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Breaking Down the November WASDE Report: Andrew Kaabes - Lighthouse Commodities
So as we see going forward, just a lot of people have an ease about them now that they feel comfortable. Well, the Dow was up.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Breaking Down the November WASDE Report: Andrew Kaabes - Lighthouse Commodities
Well, yeah. And if your reserve cut rates. Cut a half a percent.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Breaking Down the November WASDE Report: Andrew Kaabes - Lighthouse Commodities
So Andrew question for you, if every farmer I want, I know wants less government oversight and they, and the WASDE report kind of is a pseudo government agency, correct? Yeah, it's a division of the USA. It puts it out. And everybody I know puts trust in the WASDE report. Does government have influence on commodity prices?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Breaking Down the November WASDE Report: Andrew Kaabes - Lighthouse Commodities
So for some of our operators that don't use operating notes and they're fortunate enough to do cash, is there a different recommendation for them?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Breaking Down the November WASDE Report: Andrew Kaabes - Lighthouse Commodities
Correct. You know, just judging, do you keep it in your bins and hopes that the new administration markets go up? We're back to $5 and you made a, a $2 improvement or do you, or do you take it out, sell it now, put it into a Dow Jones industrial and, and make, you know, X. Yeah. Yep. Corey, I'll ask you and Andrew both on this one. Tanner, you can chime in as well.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Breaking Down the November WASDE Report: Andrew Kaabes - Lighthouse Commodities
Yeah, you can chime in as well. How did the drier corn of this season, 2024, I know when I rode with a couple guys that we were getting 11%. So there's less drying costs this year. Did that weigh into your decision for where you're going to go with markets?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Breaking Down the November WASDE Report: Andrew Kaabes - Lighthouse Commodities
Yeah. Listeners, if you are wanting more content, of course, we've all kind of been out of the studio and this is kind of back in the studio. So get prepared and buckle up because there's a lot more content coming your way. That's right.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Breaking Down the November WASDE Report: Andrew Kaabes - Lighthouse Commodities
Andrew, do you think that the WASDE report takes in for that consideration that we were awfully dry?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Breaking Down the November WASDE Report: Andrew Kaabes - Lighthouse Commodities
But remember, her yields were less than ours considerably.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Breaking Down the November WASDE Report: Andrew Kaabes - Lighthouse Commodities
And that's a big concern on that with carbon credits, that 45 Z.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Breaking Down the November WASDE Report: Andrew Kaabes - Lighthouse Commodities
Well, I think payments are still going out in 2025, but they just haven't figured out.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Breaking Down the November WASDE Report: Andrew Kaabes - Lighthouse Commodities
Tanner, you still have crop in the field. So that must just three letters. We need to get you a shirt that says B T O. It's free storage.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Breaking Down the November WASDE Report: Andrew Kaabes - Lighthouse Commodities
So, Andrew, what tools do our farmers need to be looking at right now that you could give out as a tech tip if everybody's trying to make decisions on marketing right now? So what tools you got?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Breaking Down the November WASDE Report: Andrew Kaabes - Lighthouse Commodities
within the you know not seven dollar corn then set some targets stick to them and just be disciplined about it you need to start like the secret list the farm for profit list and it's the secret list where like the best basis is and and we'll just put it on we are the tool farm for profit you are the tool you gotta subscribe dave's got the biggest tool this is the premium service it only costs you ten dollars a month how has the hedge beacon performance been this fall
Farm4Profit Podcast
Breaking Down the November WASDE Report: Andrew Kaabes - Lighthouse Commodities
Well, it's covered.
Farm4Profit Podcast
Breaking Down the November WASDE Report: Andrew Kaabes - Lighthouse Commodities
Corey, you made a comment about selling, should have sold a year ago. How many people, I just realized this the other day when I went and talked to the co-op, they said that most of the people this year had actually pre-sold at least half of their stuff. How many guys out there, I did not know this, how many guys out there are selling years in advance?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Breaking Down the November WASDE Report: Andrew Kaabes - Lighthouse Commodities
How many years in advance do most people go?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Breaking Down the November WASDE Report: Andrew Kaabes - Lighthouse Commodities
Do you think – I just thought of one more question, guys. The farm bill. So there was a prelude to the farm bill. I did not read through it, but I saw that TractorZoom was talking about what equipment prices would do if the farm bill came to fruition. Has anybody here looked at the farm bill, and what's that going to do to grain prices?
Farm4Profit Podcast
Breaking Down the November WASDE Report: Andrew Kaabes - Lighthouse Commodities
Oh, my. Oh, my.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Mic stand for an hour.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Well, it's just fake art.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
It's just life, you know, the high and the low, you know.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
And I like what Tom Brady said, and I thought he did a great job announcing. So I like his announcing. He's very, very bright. But at the end, he said – He was in 10 Super Bowls. He doesn't remember the seven that he won. And there's still Super Bowl. I don't know which one or all three that he lost. He still isn't over it. Not fears. Thinks about it.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Look, you don't have that kind of brain. You're like, pretty good. I just cry myself to sleep. No, I interrupt. Why am I interrupting now? Why won't I shut up? Why did I have coffee before he came on this show? The David Spade show.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
No, no, and I'm kidding too.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Is it possible it was $750,000? That's what I read when I went over the morning's newspapers.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Is it okay to say that maybe I'm a Buddhist monk in a previous Buddhist monk life? I don't really like or want things. I stole this jacket, as you know. This is a Gap t-shirt. I stole this jacket. I stole it. I have a $10 Casio watch. It's in the drawer.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
I am. Everything you own owns you back. Newsflash, David.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
I see it, yeah.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Your closet's the size of a Macy's department store.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
I remember the first time a guy said, hey, dog, to me.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Do they wrap it in plastic and say, we can't find, come back later. We can't get stain out. You need to have a ticket.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
You need ticket.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
What's up, dog? And that was kind of cool, too. Which brings us to Kendrick Lamar. I know it's...
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Well, wait a minute. So you were on Busboys today.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Ran here. And you got manhandled.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Oh, wow. Sick. Dana, what would you do?
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Let me just put in context.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
But they jump and they're going to hit the ground eventually. They can't fly. They can't gain altitude.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Well, you know, they're called spy birds and they're half bird, half spider.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
I don't like anything coming from the sky at me and mass spiders, ants, comedians who just did an open mic, just flying through the sky, hundreds of them.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
I was born and bred and introduced to hip hop in the 90s. I said a hip. Okay. I got three examples. I'm saying a hip hop in the 90s or rap, if you will. The first one was Sir Mix-A-Lot. I like big butts and I cannot lie.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Cut to our clip editor.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
What the freak is it?
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
That's a rat. A 20-pound rat. Oh, man. This is the most nauseous I've been on this show.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Well, what's a guinea pig? What's the thing that looks like a rat?
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
One time, my house in Encino, and there's this noise outside. I open the door, and I thought I saw a 40-pound rat. And I think it was some other thing that looks like a rat.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
If you can saddle up a rat, that's too big a rat. If you can saddle it up and ride it around a county fair.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
If a camel looks at your rat and goes, whoa, that's a big one. You might have a large rat on your hands.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
If your rat is so big that it demands you pay your rent on the first of the month, that's too big a rat.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
If you see a creature and its little paws go up and I go, I know, I'm too large for my species, that might be a big rat.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
If you play Scrabble with an entity that looks like a rat that spells out rat hole and gets offended by its own word score.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Rat hole. And it was mad at its own word score, but that's a triple score. Scrabble.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Nope. Humans are fantastic.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
That's funny. Very potent, really. I got good buzz and I cannot lie. Good rhythm, yeah. Got it. Super catchy.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
But that was Howard Stern's book, right? Coming all over to you. Didn't Howard Sperm do that? Look it up, Heather, Greg. Howard Stern book.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Howard Stern comes again. Howard Stern comes again? So David Spade comes again.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
We have to look at it.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
I'll tell you something that's very charismatic. I saw a guy do it. You know, these people who listen to music and then listen to it and tell you they like it or not.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Yeah. For the first time. This British guy. He's putting on a day in the life and he's looking over here like he's listening. I'm looking to the right. And then he would do this. He would go. You know, he's looking. You see what I'm doing? What is he looking at? Well, he's looking at something. Maybe the song countdown. He's looking like this. And then he would share it with us.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
One of your favorites, I believe, which I think also is crazy brilliant. Mama Said Knock You Out. Mama Said Knock You Out by LL Cool J. Mama Said Knock You Out.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
He would go back. And I thought, man.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
It was charismatic. Do it for me so I can see it.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Look away and then look right at the camera.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Oh, boy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. See? That's cool. About a lucky man who made the grave.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
They're playing I'm a Walrus and like, I like that song. You know, I'd never heard before.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
There are a lot of Beatle people. It's fucking easy. Listening to the Beatles for the first time.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
And then they're like, I got to say, man, these Beatles are wild.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
He wrote it. Lennon thought he could have sang it better because Lennon had that. Paul recorded it like five times. They'd already had the music.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
And then Paul, on the last time, came in and shredded his voice like he's never done before or since. So that is his.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
So it has an anthem. I mean, the lyric of Mama, my mother said knock you out.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
So that was, I know. How would you decide?
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
No. I mean, usually the songwriter sings it. And if it's a co-written song, early in the day, it's like you go, they do Day Tripper. Got a good reason. And then John will go, taking the easy way out, yeah. Not a good reason. Yeah, classic back and forth. Taking the easy way out, yeah. I forgot about Day Tripper. No, there's too many songs.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Too much genius-itis. It's a disease.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
It's the only time he's kind of... Always about Jane Asher, I think, or a girlfriend. I'm looking through you. Where have you been? It's a total chopper.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Yeah, Paul is just... If you listen to the song, it's great. It's hard to ask Paul McCartney, even now, even if he was on right now.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Madre. Mi madre. El knocko de alto. So it's sort of sweet in a way. Mama said knock you out. I'm going to knock you out. Mama said get you in a headlock.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Ask him a question that he hasn't been asked. But I do... The only reason I had podcast regret, which I've said before, is I realized when you interview anyone... Not even Paul McCartney. They cannot toot their own horn or pound their chest. But if you introduce something that's brilliant, then they can talk about it.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
We're educating today.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Is that safe?
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
People are lying flat in an arena and a bull is running over the top of them, but they're not all getting killed.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
I'll just say this. The non-regulated society is interesting. I was doing a gig in Acapulco and I was out on my veranda looking down on the beach and I see like a maybe five, six year old walking up to a guy talking, talking, talking. He buys some cigarettes, likes the cigarette. The guy gives him a boost.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
He's bareback on a stallion, a horse, five years of age, smoking a cigarette, just going down the beach. I'm like, what the? Where is the safety helmet? Well, the old days, you know, we didn't wear helmets for sure on our bikes.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
I'm going to kick you in the balls. Mom said, wrap a pizza around your face. I'm going to wrap a pizza around your face.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Did anyone witness this? Or is this a figment of your spade-a-mation?
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
You probably went five feet. Let's be honest.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
And I would go down a hill, a long, long hill, zigzag down. That's it? I wouldn't do it now. Well, look, I mean, a steep, long hill on a board with no helmet or safety.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Would you, if you tried to qualify for something of the world's world record.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
What would it be?
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Well, what did Mr. Beast, didn't he at one point just repeat someone's name for 24 hours? I don't know. Kelsey Grammer, Kelsey Grammer, Kelsey Grammer.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Kind of a genius. Could we get him on here and just have a genius?
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Yeah, we'll pair him with a Beastie Boy, you know, just because the symmetry of that. That's kind of funny, right? Yeah.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Is that how it starts? Yeah, don't call it a comeback. LL Cool J is cool.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
He was on, yeah, don't call it a comeback. I like LL Cool J. I think he also, he was on SNL as the host. And I had him in church chat in read-through. And then for whatever reason, he was perfectly good. For whatever reason, his part got cut. I wasn't sure the reason I did it.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Okay. That's it. What happened? What happened to your brother?
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
I used to do this bit and I'll just do a little bit of it. Flight of fancy.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
I just had a flight of fancy of people who've passed that are in a bunker beneath Las Vegas. And it would be Bobby and Jack Kennedy, Elvis and Hitler. And they're all in there and they fake their death and they're going to take over the world. So they're just hanging out for decades in there. Elvis, would you tell Adolf to stop staring at me? Come on, Elvis. I mean, come on, Hitler. I'm Elvis.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
You know, Bobby don't like it when you stare at him. I believe that Adolf Hitler doesn't know what he's doing. I don't know what he's saying.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
This is my pitch right back. The funny part is, I'm going to put on a dress and go to the shaft. You want to come with me, Jack? Yes, I will go with you. They're in Las Vegas in a bunker. I will stay here and teach Adolph English. Adolph, repeat after me. See. Shoust. Spot. Rope. Run. Fight. Oh, look, Bobby. Yeah. Here's that one word English in there. He just, it's just gibberish.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Oh, he can do better. Adolf. Repeat after me. See. Spot. So what do you think? I got a movie deal.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Well, because then, well, I'm rushing it. It's a 20-minute bit. Elvis is like, you know, Bobby, we've been in here, faked our death, been in here 40 years. He don't understand. Hide in our tale of English. Oh, yeah. Elvis, you're wrong. He does. Oh, watch this. A bird flew into a cave. Repeat after me, Adolph. A bird. Fart, fart. flew into a cave. Come on, Bobby. He's not speaking a word.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
I believe that Bobby is making progress. I don't think he's doing it because he's easy. He does it because he's hard.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
I will do a longer bit next time. I like it. Oh, it's shaft elevator and it goes on and on.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
I don't remember. It wasn't a big part. But then later on, he saddled up and kind of was very serious. He goes, what was wrong? What'd I do? What'd I do? What'd I do wrong? I said, Lorne said, knock you out. Lorne said, cut you out. Knock him out. Okay, two more. Just before we go to Kendrick Lamar.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
History of baseball.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
That was too fast again.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
We can do it. Try to look like a mannequin.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Not... Not too bad.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Oh, yeah. That looks like it. Okay. These are human beings with entirely too much time on their hands. What else is on TikTok? They've been at the park for 17 hours. How about we pretend we're Minicans? I love you, Charlie.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
It's just the clicks and the views. They'll do anything. Look at us.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Rook. They tell him what they're moving. And he fucking smokes him.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
One of the best players in the world.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Seems like a beautiful person. Snoop Dogg.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Bishop to... Well, his latest one was that he has a guitar and he's playing Blackbird continually over and over again. And they put a bowl on his head and a blindfold around it. And he's 10 miles away. He beat 50 guys.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Hitting the bowl. And then he has to tune the guitar. You know what happens?
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
That was uplifting.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Yeah, definitely.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Yes. Remember, Busboys.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
February 2028.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
That's it. David Spade whips it out. That's your tour.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Drop It Like It's Hot was the first one. Oh, Drop It Like It's Hot. I played A Day in the Life for my kids, and they put on... Drop it like it's hot. Drop it like it's hot. Drop it like it's hot. Snoop. But talk about crazy catchy.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
I like big butts. Drop it like it's hot. Mama said knock you out. And then the other thing I was introduced to hip hop and rap was Eminem. With a real slim gay. Please stand up. Please stand up. And so this is my introduction to how I perceive.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
No, I don't.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
I still have a pretty good amount of chest hair. No, I don't. Not really. I'm Norwegian and Irish. I mean, come on.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
He sounds like an auctioneer. I mean, I'm not... I'm saying Mama Said Knock You Out. All I got, I couldn't get a... You couldn't decipher. Now, I don't know. I like Mama Said Knock You Out.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
I just want to understand it, and I want the commenters to help me. I'm not... shedhane on it i'm just saying i don't quite get it and the early hip-hop rap was uh very very clear to me and i just trying to understand it also the whole diss song about drake i've heard drake stuff i really like it but that's uh kind of i agree that i listen if a song is about
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
I'm telling you, I fluff and fold it. I have my secrets. I have my ointments and my oils and my moisturizers. But when I am no longer on camera in life, maybe, you know, in Italy cruising around, I'm going full Letterman. This Dutch main goes downtown, trims down. This goes way out, covers all the sins. No more Adam's apple.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
I think I give Kendrick K.L. an A plus for the aesthetic, the dancing. And I did, I read an article in the New York Times. And it broke down all his visual elements. In other words, they used to call them MTV videos. And they are sort of brilliant. The visual is brilliant. It's growing on me already, the more I do it. Yeah, I mean...
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
No, he trimmed about two inches off it. So it just covers his collarbone. I don't know. But I think he looks good in it because... You know, all the stuff around here, not you, because you're kind of eternally youthful. Your new nickname is Peter Pan Spade. Christ sakes. But I think Letterman looks good. It's just an advantage men have. Women have to get facelifts. Men can grow a beard.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Yeezy.com or Yeez.com.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Well, as far as stealing focus, I put the bookends. He was there with his teeth, and I couldn't really talk. This is my new girls, and again, this is all I could do on an iPhone because I paid so much for the commercial, $8 million. So it's kind of brilliant. And then the bookend to that is Bill Murray going, hey-
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
you know, you might want to get another beer of a meantime, you know, Bill Murray, but yahoo.com. And I don't know what product that was for, unless it was for Yahoo.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Right. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. That relationship, you know, my blink is not really equal. It looks like one person in the relationship is more dominant than the other. I'll leave the listeners, the viewers to figure out which one.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
It's a click-friendly world. If you really... I just thought... Two kids in love. Two kids in love. Let's leave it at that.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
I just would like to... It's a Hallmark movie. It is. Look, I can say they're an adorable couple, and no one can say they're not. Yeah, there's nothing... You remember this song? Frankie Valli, 1983. No one knows what goes on behind closed doors.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Oh, Charlie Rich, right. I don't know where I put a bookmark guy in there.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
It's a little cryptic, isn't it? I mean, that would be good for like the serial killer. No one knows what goes on behind closed doors.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
So there, end of story, newsflash.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Hey, would you like some cocoa? Sure, babe. Do you mind putting on this see-through thong while you make the cocoa?
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
I wish I was at a Kansas City Chiefs super party. I mean, everyone's got jerseys on Mahomes. They've got beers flowing. We got this. Oh, fucking Chiefs. 34 zip.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Make a clip out of that, Patrick.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
People literally took Magic Marker. They had a Mahone's jersey on and just crossed it off. I mean, fair weather fans. Jesus.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
I know. Yellow mustard socks with little copper shoes. Exactly. Lots of buttons and little collars.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
I mean, he looks super cool. That Clark on the bench, Clark Gable Harry, a little coming down. Oh, he's a fucking stud. But then they didn't publicize it. We went over and sat next to Taylor. And he goes, hey, baby.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
After the game when they lost. And she scooched over. She actually moved over.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
I think that guy could retire from football and become another action hero.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
And actually, he's pretty funny and charismatic. He's good in commercials. Jason, he retires last year and they win the Super Bowl.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Who was that?
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Sort of. But, I mean, he would have got a ring. Missed it by 12 months.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Those Kelsey brothers, they're an ecosystem now. Eco. And his wife. I mean, it's just they're everywhere all at once.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
No, the mom has a cooking show. The entire extended family. It's really cool to see an empire built from the ground up. They're the new Kardashians.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Well, or not enough. I don't know.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
I think I told this story, but I dropped shrooms in the early eighties and went to the LA County art museum, my friends and I, and it was like a cam of just a 40 foot white canvas with one red dot in the middle. And we, we had to go out in the stairwell. We laughed so hard. I mean,
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
We're in the era that a Band-Aid, it's not a bit. It could just be a fashion choice. I remember the first dude I saw, dude, who had pants on, Levi 501s, and one pant leg was rolled up on the top of his knee. And first time I saw it, just walking around, what's up? No comment, no wound on the calf, but just one pant leg rolled up. I remember the first time I was going on the lot.
Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
SUPERFLY #55 - Mama Said Knock You Out
Well, here's our experiment. We're going to book you at a big theater. You know, you tend to sell tickets. Big theater with the mic there. Ladies and gentlemen, David Spade is going to stay backstage for an hour. Enjoy the show.
How I Invest with David Weisburd
E142: How to Generate Alpha on $350 Billion w/CIO of CalSTRS Scott Chan
You manage 350 billion or over a third of a trillion dollars, kind of a crazy number. In what way is your capital base an advantage? In what way is it a disadvantage?
How I Invest with David Weisburd
E142: How to Generate Alpha on $350 Billion w/CIO of CalSTRS Scott Chan
What else are you focused on?
How I Invest with David Weisburd
E142: How to Generate Alpha on $350 Billion w/CIO of CalSTRS Scott Chan
So you're building up your liquidity in case there's a market drawdown. Do you internally sit around, wait for this drawdown and have almost a buy order if it drops by more than 20%? How do you operationalize the strategy of waiting for a trade-off? Managing a venture capital firm is complex. Fundraising, reporting, compliance, it all adds up. But what if there was a smarter way?
How I Invest with David Weisburd
E142: How to Generate Alpha on $350 Billion w/CIO of CalSTRS Scott Chan
Juniper Square is transforming the private market's investing experience. More than 2,100 GPs trust Juniper Square's connected software and services in order to raise capital more efficiently, reduce operational risk, and deliver a world-class LP experience. Want the freedom to focus on delivering investor results?
How I Invest with David Weisburd
E142: How to Generate Alpha on $350 Billion w/CIO of CalSTRS Scott Chan
Visit junipersquare.com slash VC to get in touch with the Juniper Square team today.
How I Invest with David Weisburd
E142: How to Generate Alpha on $350 Billion w/CIO of CalSTRS Scott Chan
You're shifting your assets into things that could become liquid if you need them to. What are some of those assets? Obviously, you don't want to be in equities, so maybe it's not equities, but what are some assets that have that option for liquidity?
How I Invest with David Weisburd
E142: How to Generate Alpha on $350 Billion w/CIO of CalSTRS Scott Chan
You've been in the capital markets for more than two decades. Is it always the case that when public markets sell off, the real opportunities are in the illiquid alternative assets? Or is that an oversimplified way to look at it?
How I Invest with David Weisburd
E142: How to Generate Alpha on $350 Billion w/CIO of CalSTRS Scott Chan
But it appears that the availability of liquidity would have been helpful in both of the crises. So that's the lesson learned.
How I Invest with David Weisburd
E142: How to Generate Alpha on $350 Billion w/CIO of CalSTRS Scott Chan
You need to really have a prepared mind. You need to be ready for it, almost a visualization exercise to get the whole organization behind the strategy ahead of time.
How I Invest with David Weisburd
E142: How to Generate Alpha on $350 Billion w/CIO of CalSTRS Scott Chan
Implicit to this is CalSTRS seems to have a very flexible governance structure that you're able to move very quickly on opportunities. Talk to me about your governance.
How I Invest with David Weisburd
E142: How to Generate Alpha on $350 Billion w/CIO of CalSTRS Scott Chan
Why is it important for you to be the global partner of choice for the GPs that you work with?
How I Invest with David Weisburd
E142: How to Generate Alpha on $350 Billion w/CIO of CalSTRS Scott Chan
CalSTRS is famous for utilizing structural alpha. What is structural alpha?
How I Invest with David Weisburd
E142: How to Generate Alpha on $350 Billion w/CIO of CalSTRS Scott Chan
Speaking to people about David Swenson, this really reminds me of his style where he would both advocate for Yale, he would advocate for other LPs, and he would also advocate for the GPs. You take a step back and you say, that kind of sounds nonsensical, but really it's non-zero-sum. If CalSTRS comes in and anchors a fund or anchors a new strategy, that's massive alpha for the GP.
How I Invest with David Weisburd
E142: How to Generate Alpha on $350 Billion w/CIO of CalSTRS Scott Chan
CalSTRS is able to come in and capture some of that alpha. It truly is a win-win. It's truly a non-zero-sum arrangement.
How I Invest with David Weisburd
E142: How to Generate Alpha on $350 Billion w/CIO of CalSTRS Scott Chan
You manage 350 billion or over a third of a trillion dollars, kind of a crazy number. In what way is your capital base an advantage? In what way is it a disadvantage?
How I Invest with David Weisburd
E142: How to Generate Alpha on $350 Billion w/CIO of CalSTRS Scott Chan
When we last chatted, you mentioned that you look for supply, demand and balances in the market. How do you find markets with supply, demand and balances? Thank you for listening to join our community and to make sure you do not miss any future episodes, please click the follow button above to subscribe.
How I Invest with David Weisburd
E142: How to Generate Alpha on $350 Billion w/CIO of CalSTRS Scott Chan
What's the minimum amount of timeframe that this supply-demand imbalance needs to exist for it to be interesting for CalSTRS?
How I Invest with David Weisburd
E142: How to Generate Alpha on $350 Billion w/CIO of CalSTRS Scott Chan
Your wife has been a teacher in California for over 30 years. Does that impact how you go about investing the pensions of California teachers?
How I Invest with David Weisburd
E142: How to Generate Alpha on $350 Billion w/CIO of CalSTRS Scott Chan
And you mentioned you focus on optimizing yourself, sleep. How else do you become better as a CIO? What do you read? What do you listen to? And how do you become better as a CIO?
How I Invest with David Weisburd
E142: How to Generate Alpha on $350 Billion w/CIO of CalSTRS Scott Chan
Those supply, demand, and balances become more obvious if you talk to enough people, you start to connect the dots, right?
How I Invest with David Weisburd
E142: How to Generate Alpha on $350 Billion w/CIO of CalSTRS Scott Chan
Well, Scott, this has been a masterclass on how to invest $350 billion. What would you like our listeners to know about you, about CalSTRS, and anything else you'd like to shine a light on?
How I Invest with David Weisburd
E142: How to Generate Alpha on $350 Billion w/CIO of CalSTRS Scott Chan
Thank you, Scott. I learned a lot. And thank you for taking the time. I will fly out to Sacramento. And I have a couple of people to see there. And I would love to host you in New York as well.
How I Invest with David Weisburd
E142: How to Generate Alpha on $350 Billion w/CIO of CalSTRS Scott Chan
Great. Thank you, Scott.
How I Invest with David Weisburd
E142: How to Generate Alpha on $350 Billion w/CIO of CalSTRS Scott Chan
Thanks for listening to my conversation with Scott Chan. If you enjoyed this episode, please share with a friend. This helps us grow and also provides the best feedback when we review the episode's analytics. Thank you for your support.
How I Invest with David Weisburd
E142: How to Generate Alpha on $350 Billion w/CIO of CalSTRS Scott Chan
So you divide it into public and private parts of the market. And the implicit understanding there is that the public side of the market, there's not much alpha there. So you don't want to be spending a lot on management fees. But on the private side, there is a lot of alpha. So you want to partner with managers there.
How I Invest with David Weisburd
E142: How to Generate Alpha on $350 Billion w/CIO of CalSTRS Scott Chan
And you mentioned you want to be the global partner of choice, and there's different ways to do that, whether through JV, through anchor checks. What is CalSTRS ideal way to work with a private manager? And talk to me about the life cycle of partnering with a private manager.
How I Invest with David Weisburd
E142: How to Generate Alpha on $350 Billion w/CIO of CalSTRS Scott Chan
What does CalSTRS look for in a GP before deciding to do a joint venture?
How I Invest with David Weisburd
E142: How to Generate Alpha on $350 Billion w/CIO of CalSTRS Scott Chan
What are the benefits to the manager of partnering with CalSTRS?
How I Invest with David Weisburd
E142: How to Generate Alpha on $350 Billion w/CIO of CalSTRS Scott Chan
Scott, I've been excited to chat. Welcome to the podcast.
How I Invest with David Weisburd
E142: How to Generate Alpha on $350 Billion w/CIO of CalSTRS Scott Chan
And you're somebody that I would consider a contrarian thinker. How do you go about incorporating that contrarianism as the CIO of CalSTRS?
How I Invest with David Weisburd
E142: How to Generate Alpha on $350 Billion w/CIO of CalSTRS Scott Chan
What specific assets are you shifting towards if you're shifting away from global equities?
How I Invest with David Weisburd
E142: How to Generate Alpha on $350 Billion w/CIO of CalSTRS Scott Chan
Thank you, Scott. So how does one go about investing $350 billion?
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
I kept my eyes on Eric's back, trying to ignore how the air had cooled, how the faint breeze smelled faintly sour like rotting leaves. "'Why does it smell like that?' I asked, my voice too loud in the silence."
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
eric shrugged wildlife maybe relax man it's just a trail but it wasn't not really dagger ridge wasn't on any map i'd ever seen the stories about it were vague half-remembered tales from older kids who swore they'd seen shadows move or heard voices calling their names I hadn't believed them, at least not until now. As we climbed higher, I noticed strange marks on the trees.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
At first I thought they were scratches, maybe from a bear, but the closer I looked, the less they made sense. Long, jagged lines that crossed and spiraled, as if someone had carved them deliberately. "'You see these?' I asked, stopping to trace one with my fingers." Eric didn't even glance back. Probably some hiker messing around. Let's keep moving. We'll lose the light if we don't hurry.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
I wanted to turn around right then. Every instinct I had screamed to go back, but Eric's confidence was infectious. Always had been. He'd charge ahead, laughing at the danger. And I'd follow, too stubborn to be the one who chickened out. By the time we reached Silver Basin, the sun was low, the sky streaked with bruised purples and fiery reds.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
The basin was a wide clearing, surrounded by jagged cliffs that seemed to lean in, as if they were listening. Eric dumped his pack and stretched, grinning. This is perfect, he said. Look at that view. I dropped my pack, sitting heavily on a flat rock. The air was still, unnaturally so. I tried to focus on the beauty of the cliffs, the way the last rays of sunlight painted them gold.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
But I couldn't drop the sensation that we weren't alone. Eric, as usual, was oblivious. He grabbed his flashlight and slung his backpack over one shoulder. "'I'm gonna check out the ridge,' he said. "'Be back in ten.' "'Wait, what?' I stood up, already reaching for my own flashlight." You're just going to wander off? It's getting dark. He laughed.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
That cocky, carefree laugh that always made me feel like a little kid. Relax, Ryan. I'll be fine. Just stay here and get the fire going. I'll be back before you know it. I watched him disappear into the trees, his flashlight beam bouncing ahead of him. For a moment, I considered following, but the thought of being alone in the dark woods was worse than staying put.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
The fire took longer to start than I'd expected. My hands wouldn't stop shaking, and the dry kindling Eric had packed wasn't cooperating. By the time I had a small flame going, the sun was gone, leaving only the flickering light of the fire and the encroaching darkness beyond it. Ten minutes passed, then twenty.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
His proportions seemed stretched, his arms hanging a little too long at his sides. He was facing me, or at least I thought he was. The details were hard to make out in the dappled light, but it looked like his face was… blank. Just smooth skin, where eyes, a nose, and a mouth should have been. I froze. My mind scrambled for an explanation. Maybe he was wearing some kind of mask. A hunter, maybe.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
The fire crackled, and the shadows it cast danced on the trees, making them look alive. I glanced at my watch, the knot in my stomach tightening. Eric? I called, my voice too small, swallowed by the vast silence. Nothing. The shadows seemed to stretch longer, deeper, their edges sharp and wrong. I stood, gripping my flashlight, and turned toward the path Eric had taken.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
The darkness beyond the firelight felt alive, pulsing with a weight I couldn't explain. "'Eric!' I shouted again, louder this time. A faint sound, like a branch snapping, came from the woods. Relief surged through me. "'About time!' I muttered, stepping toward the noise. But no one answered. The firelight behind me felt impossibly far away as I stared into the woods.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
My flashlight flickered, its beam weak against the thick shadows." For a second, I thought I saw movement, a figure darting between the trees. But when I focused, it was gone. Something wasn't right. I could feel it in my chest, in the way the hair on my arms stood on end. The shadows weren't just moving. They were watching.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
I took a shaky step back toward the fire, my flashlight trembling in my grip. A whisper, faint, just barely audible. Ryan. It came from the woods, soft and drawn out like a breath. My heart slammed in my chest. "'Eric?' I whispered, my voice trembling, but deep down I already knew it wasn't him. I don't know how long I stood there staring into the trees.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
The fire crackled behind me, but it felt miles away. My grip on the flashlight was so tight my fingers ached, but I didn't dare let go. The whisper, my name soft and stretched, like it didn't belong in this world, still hung in the air. "'Eric?' I called again, though my voice was barely a croak."
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
the silence that followed felt heavier than before like the forest was tense i stepped forward flashlight shaking in my hands the weak beam cutting through the shadows the trees loomed taller now their branches twisted into shapes that didn't look natural my foot crunched on something and i froze heart pounding Slowly I looked down. It was Eric's backpack.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
It sat upright in the middle of the trail, like someone had placed it there on purpose. The straps were torn, one hanging by a thread, and dirt streaked the fabric. I crouched down, my hand trembling as I reached for it. "'Eric?' I whispered, as if he might jump out from behind a tree, laughing at the scare. But there was no sound, no movement.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
I unzipped the pack slowly, each rasp of the zipper too loud in the suffocating silence. Inside everything was untouched—a flashlight, an unopened water bottle, Eric's old compass, and a crumpled map. My stomach turned as I realized he wouldn't have left this behind unless he had no choice. Where are you? I muttered, my voice cracking. Then I heard it again. The whisper. Ryan.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
It was closer this time, deeper, as if the forest itself was saying my name. My head snapped up, and my flashlight caught something. A flicker of movement just beyond the beam. A shadow, too large to be Eric, slipping between the trees. Who's there? I shouted, my voice breaking. The forest didn't answer, but I swore I heard a faint chuckle, dry and rasping, like leaves crumbling underfoot.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
Panic bubbled in my chest, and I stumbled back, the flashlight darting wildly across the woods. The shadows seemed alive now, stretching and shifting, moving when they shouldn't. That's when I noticed the footprints. They led away from the backpack, deeper into the forest. At first, I thought they were Eric's. Deep impressions in the soft dirt.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
But as I followed them with the beam, my stomach dropped. They were wrong. Too long, too wide, and spaced too far apart. Like whatever made them wasn't human. Eric, I whispered, my throat dry. I didn't want to follow the trail. Every instinct screamed at me to turn around, to run back to the camp and wait for daylight. But if Eric was out there, if he needed help...
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
But who hunts without moving? Without blinking? Hey, I called out, my voice sounding too loud in the silence. No response. No movement. Just that blank, faceless stare. My heart hammered as I took a step back, my fingers tightening around the straps of my pack. I blinked and he was gone. Not walked away, gone. Just gone. Like he'd never been there at all.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
I swallowed hard and took a step forward. Then another. The forest seemed darker now, the trees closer together. The air was thick, heavy, like I was breathing through a wet cloth. My flashlight flickered again, the beam weakening as if the forest was sucking the life out of it.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
ahead the footprints ended abruptly in a small clearing dominated by a massive tree its trunk was gnarled and twisted its bark covered in deep spiraling grooves that glowed faintly in the dark the symbols made my skin crawl their patterns too perfect too deliberate as if they were alive
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
the earth around the base of the tree was disturbed churned up like something had been buried or dug out my stomach churned the sour smell stronger now stinging the back of my throat eric I called, my voice barely above a whisper. The tree didn't answer, but the shadows around it seemed to shift, converging toward the base. I stepped closer, my feet feeling like they weighed a ton.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
My flashlight caught something near the roots, a piece of fabric, torn and dirty. Eric's shirt. My breath hitched. The whisper came again, loud and clear, wrapping around me like cold hands. Ryan! I spun around the flashlight's beam slicing through the darkness. There was nothing, no one. But the whisper didn't stop.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
It grew louder, joined by others, overlapping voices that came from everywhere and nowhere. Ryan, Ryan, Ryan. They weren't just calling my name, they were laughing. I backed away, my heart hammering in my chest and tripped over a root. The flashlight flew out of my hand, clattering to the ground, its beam flickering wildly. I scrambled for it, my fingers brushing cold earth when I saw it.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
A figure, tall and impossibly thin, stepped out from behind the tree. Its face, or what should have been its face, was nothing but a void, a black emptiness that seemed to swallow the light. Its limbs were too long, its movements jerky, like a marionette controlled by invisible strings. I froze, unable to breathe, unable to move.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
The thing tilted its head, as if studying me, before taking a slow, deliberate step forward. My body finally obeyed. I grabbed the flashlight and bolted, tearing through the forest as the whispers turned into a deafening roar. The trees seemed to close in, their branches clawing at me, their roots grabbing at my feet.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
When I finally stumbled into the clearing where our camp had been, the fire was out. the tent was gone and scratched into the dirt glowing faintly in the moonlight were the same spiraling symbols i'd seen on the tree i fell to my knees gasping for breath the whispers fading into silence but the feeling of being watched didn't leave it would never leave
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
I don't remember much about how I got back to town. The trees seemed to stretch on forever, their shadows clinging to me like they didn't want to let go. By the time I stumbled out of the woods, my legs were shaking so badly I could barely stay upright.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
I collapsed onto the dirt road, clutching Eric's shredded backpack, the straps still frayed and damp with... something I didn't want to think about.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
when i reached town it was already morning the sunlight didn't feel warm though it felt harsh too bright like it was trying to erase the nightmare of the night before but it couldn't that cold heavy feeling followed me clinging to my skin like the forest itself had seeped into my veins The words tumbled out of me when I saw Eric's parents. He's gone, I croaked, barely able to meet their eyes.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
Something, something took him. The search party was organized faster than I expected. Maybe it was the look on my face. Maybe it was the way I couldn't stop shaking, or how I gripped Eric's backpack like a lifeline. I told them about Dagger Ridge, about the symbols, about the whispers, but no one believed me. Not really.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
I stood there, staring at the empty space between the trees where he'd been. My rational brain kicked in, offering up excuses. You're tired. Your eyes are playing tricks on you. This is what happens when you spend too much time staring at shadows. Shaking it off, I kept moving. My steps felt heavier now, the forest around me a little darker, a little quieter.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
It's just the woods, Sheriff Greer said, adjusting his hat like this was any other missing person case. Kids get lost all the time. We'll find him. But as the search teams disappeared into the forest, I saw the doubt in their eyes. They'd heard the stories too. Everyone had.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
i stayed at the edge of the woods pacing biting my nails waiting for someone to come back with good news hours passed then days they found nothing not eric not even footprints just his backpack abandoned in the middle of the trail and near Silver Basin, the massive tree with its spiraling carvings. The search dogs refused to go near it.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
One of them, a big German shepherd, yelped and bolted when its handler tugged too close. The handler turned back, pale, muttering something about the air feeling wrong. Eventually, the search was called off. We'll keep looking, the sheriff told Eric's parents. But the look in his eyes said otherwise. They all thought he was gone for good. Dead, probably. But I knew better.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
The nightmares started a week later. At first, they were just flashes. Eric's pale face, his lips moving like he was trying to tell me something. But no sound came out. Then the dreams grew worse. I was back in the forest, running through the trees, the whispers all around me. The shadows were alive, reaching for me with long, spindly fingers.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
Eric was always ahead of me, just out of reach, his figure flickering like an old TV about to lose its signal. wait i screamed but he never did when i woke up my body felt heavy my chest tight like the forest was still there pressing down on me the whispers followed me into my waking life faint at first just on the edge of hearing but over time they grew louder
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
Ryan, always my name, always the same tone, mocking, laughing like the forest itself was calling me back. I tried to ignore it. I buried myself in school, in chores, in anything that kept me out of my own head. But no matter where I went, the forest was there, lurking at the edge of my mind. Years passed. I never went back to Dagger Ridge. I didn't need to. The forest had come with me.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
Following me like a shadow I couldn't drop. The whispers were worse at night. I'd wake up drenched in sweat, my heart racing, convinced I wasn't alone in my room. Once I swear I saw a figure standing in the corner, tall, thin, its limbs too long, its face nothing but darkness.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
when i turned on the light it was gone by the time i was twenty-five i'd stopped sleeping entirely the nightmares blurred into reality and i couldn't tell where one ended and the other began that's when i knew i had to go back
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
i returned to the rockies in the dead of winter the forest was different now quieter colder more menacing the trailhead to dagger ridge was overgrown nearly hidden beneath snow and underbrush but i found it of course i did the symbols were still there carved into the bark of the trees their jagged lines glowing faintly even in daylight the air felt thicker with every step the whispers louder
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
They weren't faint anymore. They were a chorus, overlapping voices calling my name, laughing, taunting. Ryan. Ryan. At Silver Basin, I saw it again. The tree. Its bark twisted with the same spiraling patterns, its roots clawing into the earth like they were alive. And at the base, a patch of disturbed ground. The snow didn't stick there, like the earth itself was rejecting it.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
i told myself it was fine just a weird moment nothing more still when it came time to set up camp i made sure to go a little off trail far from where i'd seen him just in case by the time i pitched my tent the sun was sinking low painting the sky in hues of orange and purple
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
My flashlight flickered as I stepped closer. Eric? Eric? I whispered, my voice breaking. The whispers stopped. For a moment the silence was deafening. Then from behind the tree, a figure stepped out. It was him. Eric. Or at least it looked like him. His face was pale, his eyes wide and empty, his mouth moving silently.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
He raised one hand, pointing toward me, his movements slow and jerky, like a puppet on strings. Eric, I croaked, taking a step back. He stopped, tilting his head, his mouth twisting into something that wasn't a smile. And then, all at once, the whispers came back. They weren't voices anymore. They were screams. The shadows around the tree erupted, long and clawed, reaching for me.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
I turned and ran, the ground shifting beneath my feet, the trees closing in. The last thing I heard before I broke free of the forest was Eric's voice, faint and broken. Don't come back. To this day, I don't know what happened to him. I don't know if that thing was really Eric, or if it was something else wearing his face. But I do know this, I'm never going into the woods again.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
There's a stillness to the Idaho wilderness that feels like stepping into another world. No cars, no chatter, no deadlines, just trees, stretching endlessly in every direction, their towering forms bending slightly under the breeze. This is what I needed. An escape, a reset. I parked my car at the trailhead, threw on my pack, and tightened my boots.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
The Pacific Northwest had always called to me, its dense forests and misty mountains feeling more like home than my cramped apartment back east. This trip was supposed to be my escape, a reset after years of grinding through work and life.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
It started perfectly, the crisp mountain air, winding roads that felt endless, and the kind of solitude that lets you think clearly for the first time in months. When Rick joined me in Bend, though, things shifted. He stepped off the bus looking pale, like he hadn't slept in weeks.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
I chalked it up to the long journey or his usual complaints about too much nature, but there was something else, a jitteriness I couldn't quite place. This place is... weird, he muttered as we loaded his bag into the car. He glanced around like someone might be watching us, though the parking lot was empty, except for a rusted pickup. Yeah, weirdly beautiful, I teased, hoping to lighten his mood.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
You'll love it once we get out there. He didn't. The whole drive to the cabin, Rick barely spoke, staring out the window like the trees were pressing in on us. And honestly, the woods did feel thicker than usual, almost alive. I told myself it was just the overcast sky or the early dusk, but by the time we arrived, even I was feeling unsettled.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
The cabin wasn't much, an old structure that smelled faintly of mildew, with creaky floorboards and a sagging roof that looked like it had survived one too many storms. "'Quaint,' I said, trying to sound cheerful as I unlocked the door. "'Quaint is code for haunted,' Rick muttered, tossing his bag on the couch." He didn't mean it as a joke, though, and the look he gave me made my stomach twist.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
i ate a quick dinner a freeze-dried something or other that tasted like cardboard but filled the void in my stomach exhaustion crept in as the first stars appeared overhead and i crawled into my tent zipping it up tight the forest at night is a different beast the silence is so complete it's almost loud
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
Inside, the cabin was even smaller than the pictures made it seem. A single light bulb buzzed faintly in the living room, and the kitchen was barely more than a counter with a sink and an ancient stovetop. The windows were small, and when I peeked out, all I could see was forest, a wall of dark green stretching endlessly in every direction. We unpacked in silence.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
Rick kept checking his phone even though we both knew there wouldn't be service out here. He had this habit of pacing when he was anxious, and by the time I'd set my bag down, he was already wearing a path into the cabin's thin carpet. What's wrong? I finally asked, trying to sound casual. Nothing, he said too quickly. It's just, this place feels off, you know? Off how? I pressed. He shrugged.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
I don't know, it's like, like we're being watched or something. I rolled my eyes, but his words hit a nerve. i hadn't admitted it to myself yet but the cabin did feel strange the air inside was heavy almost stifling and the silence wasn't peaceful it was an odd energy like the woods were tense that night we sat by the fireplace eating canned soup
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
i'd planned a whole itinerary of hikes and scenic drives for the next day but rick barely acknowledged me when i laid it out he just stared at the flames his jaw tight maybe we should head back tomorrow he said suddenly what no we just got here i tried to laugh but it came out forced Come on, it's not that bad. You'll feel better after a good night's sleep. He didn't argue, which wasn't like him.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
Usually Rick was the type to dig his heels in, even over little things. But tonight, he just nodded, staring into the fire like he was afraid to look away. As we were getting ready for bed, he broke the silence again. Hey, what's that thing you mentioned earlier? The legend or whatever? I froze. You mean the forest watchers? "'Yeah, that. What's the deal with that?'
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
"'It's just a local story,' I said quickly. "'People say the woods are... protected, I guess. "'You're not supposed to disrespect the land or, you know, call attention to yourself.' "'He raised an eyebrow. "'Call attention how?' There's a name you're not supposed to say. They say if you do, they'll notice you. Rick smirked, and I knew immediately what he was about to do. Don't.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
I started, but it was too late. He said the name, loud and clear, his voice almost taunting. The room felt colder immediately, like a draft had swept through, but the windows were shut tight. Rick, I snapped, my voice sharper than I intended. That's not funny. Oh, come on, it's just a story, he said, but his smirk was gone. He glanced at the window, his shoulders stiff.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
The rest of the night passed in tense silence. I fell asleep easily enough, exhausted from the long day, but Rick stayed up. I woke once, around midnight, to the sound of him pacing again, but when I asked if he was okay he just muttered, go back to sleep. I did, but not before noticing how he kept glancing at the windows, his face pale in the dim light.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
every rustle of leaves every distant crack of a branch feels amplified i lay there listening to the rhythm of my own breathing trying to convince myself that i was safe that i was alone at some point i drifted off I don't know how long I slept, but when I woke up, the first thing I noticed was the cold. The air inside the tent was icy, brushing against my face like a breath from the outside.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
When Rick shook me awake, I thought it was time to leave for our hike. My brain was groggy, still tethered to whatever half-formed dream I'd been in. But his voice cut through the fog like a blade. "'Get up,' he hissed, his words trembling. "'We have to go.' "'What time is it?' I mumbled, reaching for my phone, but his hand grabbed mine, stopping me.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
"'No, now, Claire, get up,' he said, his voice sharp and urgent." it took me a moment to register his face in the dim glow from the bedside lamp i could see his wide eyes the way his jaw was clenched so tight it looked painful rick was tough sarcastic sometimes annoyingly skeptical but never scared yet here he was pale and shaking like he'd seen something no one should ever see
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
rick i whispered my throat dry what's going on i can't explain it not here just pack your stuff we're leaving i started to argue but something in his expression shut me up my pulse quickened and a cold knot formed in my stomach
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
He grabbed his bag from the corner, tossing clothes into it haphazardly while glancing over his shoulder like he expected someone, or something, to burst through the door at any second. I threw on a hoodie and started stuffing my things into my backpack. Is it an animal? Did you hear something outside? Rick froze mid-step, his back to me.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
Yes, he whispered, almost too softly to hear, but it wasn't normal. My heart skipped. What do you mean? Not now, he snapped, his voice cracking. Just move faster. We hurriedly packed and I followed him outside to the car. The cold hit me first, sharp and biting, though it wasn't that cold earlier. My breath clouded the air as I stuffed my bag into the trunk.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
Rick was already in the driver's seat, fidgeting with the keys, his hands shaking so badly it took him three tries to get them into the ignition. When the engine roared to life, I felt a brief surge of relief. The headlights cast a pale yellow glow over the dirt road ahead, but beyond that was only blackness, the kind of darkness you don't realize exists until you're in the middle of nowhere.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
What happened back there? I asked as we pulled onto the road. My voice sounded thin, brittle. Rick didn't answer right away. He kept his eyes locked on the road, his knuckles white against the steering wheel. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, he exhaled shakily. I was trying to fall asleep, he began, his voice low and uneven. But I kept hearing this. Sound. Like tapping.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
At first, I thought it was just the wind or something, but it kept moving. From the window to the wall, to the door. I shivered and pulled my hoodie tighter around me. Could it have been an animal? He shook his head, his gaze darting to the rearview mirror. No. It was too deliberate. And then... I heard whispers. I froze. Whispers. Whispers. Yeah, he said, his voice barely above a whisper now.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
At first they were faint, like, like wind through the trees. But they got louder, like, like they were circling the cabin. Then came the footsteps. My chest tightened. Footsteps? Rick's jaw clenched and he nodded. Heavy ones. They were outside at first, moving around the porch. Then they started climbing. I heard them on the roof, Claire.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
The car swerved slightly as his grip on the wheel tightened. I gripped the door handle, my pulse pounding in my ears. You didn't see anything? No, he admitted, but I felt it, like they were right there, watching, waiting. A chill crawled up my back, but I forced myself to stay calm. "'It was probably just animals,' I said, though the words felt hollow even as I said them. "'Raccoons or something.'
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
Rick laughed bitterly, shaking his head. "'Raccoons don't whisper, Claire. The road stretched ahead of us, winding through the endless forest. The further we drove, the darker it seemed to get, as though the trees were swallowing the light.' The hum of the engine was the only sound, but it didn't feel peaceful. It felt like we were being hunted. After about thirty minutes, Rick tensed.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
"'Do you see that?' he asked, his voice sharp. I squinted into the darkness. At first I thought it was nothing, but then I saw them, two headlights in the rearview mirror growing brighter and closer." Someone's behind us, I said, more to myself than to him. They weren't there a second ago, Rick muttered, his voice tight. I've been watching.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
That's when I realized. The door was open, not just unzipped a little, completely open. The flap hung loosely, swaying slightly in the breeze. I shot up, my heart pounding so hard it felt like it might burst through my chest. My mind raced. Did I forget to close it? Did I hear something earlier and ignore it? I fumbled for my flashlight and shone it outside.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
The car behind us gained speed, closing the gap unnervingly fast. I braced myself as Rick sped up, the tires skidding slightly on the loose gravel. The headlights loomed closer, and for a moment, I thought they were going to ram us. But just as suddenly as they'd appeared, they vanished. What the hell? I whispered, twisting around to look behind us. The road was empty. Rick didn't answer.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
His grip on the wheel was iron-clad, his knuckles pale in the dim glow of the dashboard. It's not over, he muttered under his breath. The road curved sharply ahead, and as we rounded the bend, the car's headlights illuminated something that made my blood run cold.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
A massive stag stood in the middle of the road, its antlers stretching impossibly high, its eyes reflecting the light in an unnatural way. "'Rick, stop!' I screamed. He slammed the brakes and the car skidded to a halt just feet from the animal. The stag didn't flinch. It just stood there, its dark eyes fixed on us. Its sheer size was otherworldly, like it didn't belong here or anywhere."
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
Rick and I sat frozen, too afraid to move. And then I heard it again. The whispers, soft, faint, but unmistakable, carried on the cold night air. They were back. And they were closer now. The stag didn't move. It just stood there, a dark silhouette against the faint beam of our headlights, its massive antlers like twisted branches reaching into the sky. My breath caught in my throat.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
The whispers were back, low, faint murmurs that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once. I gripped Rick's arm, my nails digging into his skin. Drive, I whispered, barely able to form the word. Rick didn't respond. His hands were glued to the steering wheel, his knuckles white, his whole body rigid. He was staring at the stag, his chest rising and falling in short, shallow breaths.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
I shook him. ''Rick, we have to go.'' The stag turned its head slightly, its eyes glinting like black mirrors. And then, it stepped aside. Not hurriedly, not startled, but deliberately, like it was allowing us to pass. Rick slammed on the gas, the car lurching forward as we sped past the animal.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
I couldn't help but glance back, and for one horrifying moment, I thought I saw it watching us, its head turned unnaturally far to follow our escape. We didn't speak for a long time after that. The road ahead was shrouded in darkness, the trees crowding closer with every mile. The whispers ebbed and flowed, sometimes so faint I thought I imagined them, other times growing louder, almost insistent.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
I kept checking the rearview mirror, half expecting those headlights to reappear. Or worse, something else. The gas gauge dipped closer to empty. I swore under my breath, my voice breaking the fragile silence. We're not going to make it to the airport if we don't find a station soon. Rick didn't respond, just pressed his foot harder on the accelerator.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
His eyes stayed fixed on the road, but I could see the tension in his jaw, the way his fingers twitched against the steering wheel. The whispers were louder now, and I realized they weren't just murmurs, they were words. I couldn't understand them, but they were there, layered and overlapping, coming from the trees, the road, the air itself. Finally, a faint glow appeared ahead.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
The beam of light cut through the dark, illuminating only the thick trees surrounding my camp. Nothing moved, no sign of anyone, or anything. I sat there for what felt like hours, flashlight clutched in one hand, knife in the other. Eventually I convinced myself it was a mistake. Maybe I'd been so tired I hadn't zipped it all the way. It had to be that, right?
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
A gas station, its flickering neon sign like a beacon in the oppressive night. relief washed over me but it was short-lived as we pulled into the lot i noticed how deserted it was no cars no noise just the hum of the old lights and the wind rustling the trees rick jumped out to pump the gas while i headed inside to grab coffee
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
the moment i stepped through the door the atmosphere hit me like a wall it was warm and still but not in a comforting way the air felt too heavy too quiet like the whole place was holding its breath the woman behind the counter didn't greet me she didn't even look up her hands shook slightly as she rearranged a display of gum her eyes darting to the windows every few seconds i moved to the coffee station fumbling with the lid as i tried to shake the unease that had settled over me
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
That's when I noticed her watching me, not openly, but from the corner of her eye. Every time I moved, her gaze shifted, her body tensing as though I might do something unpredictable. I tried to ignore it, but her discomfort was contagious, and I couldn't help but glance out the window behind me. The trees seemed closer than before, their dark silhouettes pressing against the glass.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
When I turned back, she was gone. I blinked, scanning the store, but she had disappeared into the back. My pulse quickened and I grabbed my coffee, moving to the counter. Rick entered just as I reached it, his face pale and drawn. Pay and let's go, he muttered, his voice low. He placed a pack of gum on the counter, not meeting my eyes. The woman reappeared, her movements jerky and nervous.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
She rang us up quickly, her hands trembling so badly she dropped the change. As I bent to pick it up, I saw him. A man stood near the back of the store, leaning casually against a shelf. His face was mostly hidden under the brim of a wide hat, but his eyes, his eyes were fixed on Rick. I froze. Something about him was wrong.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
He wasn't threatening exactly, but his presence felt heavy, oppressive, like he belonged to a different time, or maybe a different world. His gaze didn't waver, didn't blink, just stayed locked on Rick like he was studying him, measuring him. I stood, clutching the change in my hand. "'Rick,' I whispered. But when I turned to look at him, his face told me he'd already seen the man.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
He grabbed my arm, pulling me toward the door." as we stepped outside the whispers surged louder now almost deafening the wind had picked up whipping through the trees carrying those voices with it i felt a prickling at the back of my neck like we were being watched not just by the man in the store but by something much bigger something unseen
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
Rick shoved the gas cap back on and climbed into the driver's seat. I barely had time to shut my door before he floored it, the tires screeching as we sped out of the lot. I looked back, expecting to see the man standing in the doorway, but there was nothing. Just the gas station, shrinking into the distance, its neon sign flickering like a dying flame.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
We drove in silence for what felt like hours. The whispers faded as the first light of dawn crept over the horizon, turning the sky a muted gray. The oppressive weight that had followed us all night began to lift, but the fear lingered. Rick broke the silence first, his voice barely audible. "'Did you see him?' I nodded. "'Who was he?' Rick shook his head, gripping the wheel tighter.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
"'I don't know, but I don't think he was human.' We reached the airport just as the sun rose, its golden light washing over the landscape like a blessing. As soon as we boarded the plane, the tension finally broke, leaving us exhausted and hollow. I leaned my head against the window, staring out at the mountains below. But my thoughts were elsewhere.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
i zipped the tent back up this time triple checking it and laid down again though sleep didn't come easily outside the forest creaked and groaned and every sound felt like a footstep i didn't know it then but the worst was still ahead much much worse I couldn't shake the feeling from the night before. That open tent door haunted me.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
i didn't know what had followed us that night whether it was something ancient something angry or simply the consequences of rick's careless words but i knew one thing the forest had been watching us and it had let us leave this time I didn't plan this trip well, I'll admit that right off the bat. My idea was simple. Escape the grind, spend a weekend in nature and clear my head.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
Vermont's backwoods sounded perfect. I didn't even bother booking a hotel, just threw my gear in the trunk and hit the road. By the time I reached the trailhead, it was pushing 5pm, way later than I'd planned. The place was deserted, not a single car in sight.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
the sign at the trailhead said it was a five-hour hike to the nearest shelter five hours i figured if i hustled i'd make it by ten maybe ten-thirty i had a flashlight and plenty of adrenaline so i wasn't too worried still something about the empty parking lot made my skin prickle The first stretch of the trail wasn't bad. The air was crisp and smelled like deep woods.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
The trees loomed overhead, their branches knitting together in dense canopies. I kept a good pace, the crunch of my boots on the dirt trail echoing in the silence. Too silent now that I think about it. No birds. No rustling leaves. Just me. Two hours in, the sun started to dip below the trees, and everything turned this muted gray.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
I stopped for a quick break, leaning against a mossy boulder to catch my breath and sip some water. I heard something. A soft crunch, like a footstep. My stomach dropped. I froze, the water bottle halfway to my lips and strained to listen. Nothing. Just the quiet hum of insects and the faint rustle of leaves. Probably a deer, I told myself. Maybe a small animal.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
But when I swung my flashlight around, the beam cut through the trees like a knife, illuminating absolutely nothing. get a grip i muttered under my breath trying to laugh off the tension it was probably just my imagination i pushed off the boulder and kept moving quickening my pace as the trail grew darker by the third hour it was pitch black
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
My flashlight was my only lifeline, casting a narrow beam of light that felt painfully inadequate. The trees were thicker now, their gnarled trunks twisted and blackened in the shadows. Every few minutes I thought I heard something, a faint rustling behind me, the crack of a twig. But every time I stopped and swung the light around there was nothing. The isolation was suffocating.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
I kept telling myself it was just the woods playing tricks on me, that my mind was conjuring noises out of the silence. But the feeling that I wasn't alone wouldn't go away. It was this nagging, crawling sensation on the back of my neck, like I was being watched. Then, at the four-hour mark, I heard it again. This time, it wasn't subtle.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
A branch snapped, loud and deliberate, somewhere to my left. My heart shot into my throat as I spun around, the flashlight trembling in my hand. The beam landed on a cluster of trees, their shadows stretching and twisting like skeletal hands. Hello? My voice sounded small, ridiculous even.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
the woods didn't answer but then out of the corner of my eye i caught a flicker of movement something darting behind a tree hey i shouted more out of instinct than anything else my voice cracked and the forest swallowed it whole My pulse was hammering in my ears, drowning out everything else. I held the flashlight steady, the beam fixed on the tree where I'd seen… something. But nothing moved.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
I'd spent the morning convincing myself it was nothing, a slip of my tired mind. But deep down, the unease lingered. As I packed up camp, the forest seemed heavier somehow, like the trees themselves were leaning in, listening.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
Nothing came out. I backed away slowly, my footsteps crunching against the dirt trail. The beam of my flashlight swung wildly back and forth, but the shadows were too thick. too deep my breath came in short panicked gasps the kind you try to control but can't then it happened a scream high-pitched distorted and impossibly loud it tore through the forest like a blade echoing in every direction
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
I froze, every muscle in my body locking up. It didn't sound human. It didn't sound like any animal I'd ever heard either. It sounded wrong. I don't remember deciding to run. One second I was standing there, and the next I was sprinting, my legs burning as I tore down the trail. The flashlight bounced wildly in my hand, illuminating glimpses of roots and rocks that I barely managed to avoid.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
Behind me, I heard footsteps, heavy, deliberate, and fast. Something was following me. I didn't dare look back. The trail blurred as I ran, my lungs screaming for air. My mind raced with questions I didn't want answers to. What the hell was out there? What did it want? The footsteps stopped suddenly, but I didn't.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
I kept running, desperate to put as much distance as I could between me and whatever was in those woods. When I finally couldn't run anymore, I stumbled off the trail, collapsing behind a massive fallen tree. My chest heaved, my throat raw from sucking in cold air. I switched off the flashlight and crouched low, clutching it like a weapon. The darkness was absolute.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
My hands were shaking, my ears straining for any sound. I waited, and waited, and then I heard it again. Soft, deliberate footsteps, this time circling the tree I was hiding behind. I clenched my jaw, holding my breath. The footsteps stopped just on the other side of the trunk. Something heavy scraped against the bark.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
I closed my eyes, praying that whatever it was couldn't see me, couldn't hear the pounding of my heart. And then, silence. Nothing but the faint hum of insects. I stayed there for what felt like hours, too terrified to move. Whatever was out there was waiting, watching. I knew it wasn't over, not yet.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
i forced myself back onto the trail trying to focus on the rhythmic crunch of my boots against the dirt the sky was overcast now the sun only peeking through in small bursts casting fleeting shadows that danced unnervingly across the path
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
I don't know how long I stayed curled beneath that fallen tree, but every second felt like an eternity. My muscles ached from crouching, my breaths came shallow and uneven, and my flashlight sat dark and cold in my trembling hands. I couldn't bring myself to turn it back on. Not yet. Whatever was out there would see me first. The footsteps had stopped, but the forest wasn't quiet.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
Far off, the crickets chirped steadily, their drone oddly soothing. Closer, though, the sounds were sharper. Small snaps of twigs, the rustling of leaves. Sometimes they were near, other times farther off. Whatever it was, it hadn't left. It was circling me. I thought about running, but where would I go?
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
The trail was barely visible even with the flashlight, and I had no idea how far I'd wandered off it. And then there was that scream. The memory of it froze me in place.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
i didn't want to hear it again and i definitely didn't want to find out what had made it hours passed or maybe minutes it was impossible to tell the forest felt like it had swallowed time my mind kept jumping to the worst possibilities What if this thing was leading me somewhere? What if there were more of them? What if it didn't need to see me to know where I was?
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
Then, from the silence, came the first whisper. Low, guttural, and just barely audible. My heart stopped. I couldn't make out the words, if they were even words at all, but the sound was unmistakably human. It rose and fell like someone muttering to themselves, each syllable jagged and harsh, like it hurt to say them. The whisper came again, closer this time.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
My breath hitched, and I pressed myself tighter against the tree trunk. I couldn't see anything in the darkness, but I could feel it. Something was there, just on the other side. I fumbled for the flashlight. every instinct screaming at me not to turn it on. But I couldn't just sit there blind. My fingers found the switch, slick with sweat.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
I took a deep breath, counted to three, and flicked it on. The beam cut through the blackness, and for a split second, I wished I hadn't done it. The light landed on a figure crouched low, maybe ten feet away. Its face was obscured, hidden beneath a hood or hair, I couldn't tell, but its body was twisted at an unnatural angle, one arm bracing the ground, the other stretched toward me.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
every so often i'd catch myself glancing back over my shoulder expecting i don't know what but the trail behind me was always empty that's when i noticed it a bundle of sticks bound tightly with rope lying dead center on the trail it wasn't large maybe the size of my forearm but it was intricately tied with the sticks twisted and bent into a shape that vaguely resembled a human figure
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
The light hit its face and it recoiled, letting out a low hiss. Its movement was jerky, like a puppet pulled by invisible strings. Before I could process what I was seeing, it scrambled back into the shadows, vanishing as quickly as it had appeared. I couldn't breathe. My chest felt like it was caving in. My flashlight trembled in my hands, the beam darting back and forth, but there was nothing.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
No sign of it. Just the endless, oppressive dark. I had to move. Staying there wasn't an option anymore. Whatever that thing was, it knew where I was. Slowly I stood, my legs shaking so badly I nearly collapsed. I scanned the area one last time, then started walking, trying to keep my steps as quiet as possible.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
The fog had rolled in while I was hiding, blanketing the forest in a thick, suffocating gray. My flashlight barely cut through it. Every tree looked the same, their twisted branches reaching toward me like skeletal hands. The trail was gone. I had no idea where I was. I stumbled through the underbrush, each step crunching louder than I wanted.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
The whispers followed me, growing louder, then fading, like they were weaving in and out of the fog. Every so often, I'd hear a footstep, or the faint scrape of something dragging along the ground. I was too scared to look back. Then I found it. A clearing. At first, I thought I'd made it to the shelter, but as I got closer, my stomach dropped.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
In the center of the clearing was a ring of branches, arranged in a perfect circle. Strange symbols were etched into each one, crude and uneven, as though carved by a shaking hand. In the middle of the circle was a hole, deep, fresh, and wide enough to fit a person. I stumbled back, my flashlight catching on something else. Footprints.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
Bare, human footprints, large and staggered, leading from the hole to the tree line. My throat tightened, and I swung the light around, expecting to see those glowing eyes staring back at me. The forest was empty. For now. I turned and ran. I didn't care about the noise anymore. Branches whipped at my face. Roots snagged my boots, but I didn't stop. My only thought was to get back to the car.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
I didn't know how far I was or if I was even heading in the right direction, but I had to try. When I finally broke through the trees and saw the trailhead, relief hit me like a wave. My car was there, untouched, just as I'd left it. But as I got closer, something caught my eye, a handprint smeared across the driver's side window. It was muddy, the fingers impossibly long, and it was fresh.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
I didn't stop to think. I yanked the door open, threw myself inside, and locked it. My hands shook so badly I could barely get the keys into the ignition. When the engine roared to life, I floored it, gravel spraying beneath the tires as I sped out of there. In my rearview mirror, I saw it. A figure, standing at the edge of the forest, its head tilted, watching me.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
Its glowing eyes were the last thing I saw before the road curved, taking me away from that place. I didn't stop driving until I was halfway home. Even now, I don't know what I saw out there. I just know I'll never go back. And sometimes, late at night, I still hear those whispers.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
I stared at it, heart thudding in my chest. Someone had to have made this, and recently too. It hadn't been there the day before. I nudged it with my boot, half expecting it to crumble, but it held firm, the bindings taut. Some kind of prank, I muttered, my voice sounding hollow in the stillness. But who would be out here in the middle of nowhere pulling stunts like this? And why?
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
I kicked the bundle into the underbrush and kept moving. The air felt colder now, and the once soothing silence of the forest was starting to feel oppressive. Every snap of a twig made me flinch. Every rustle of leaves had me scanning the trees, searching for movement. I couldn't shake the feeling I was being watched. By late afternoon, the unease had grown unbearable.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
i decided to camp in an even more secluded spot that night far from the trail i found a small clearing surrounded by thick trees and set up my tent quickly my hands trembling slightly as i drove the stakes into the ground the sun was sinking fast and i didn't want to be caught fumbling in the dark as night fell i lit a small fire hoping its warmth would settle my nerves it didn't
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
The air was crisp, biting at my cheeks in a way that made me feel alive. I checked my map, folded it back into my pocket, and started down the trail. The crunch of my boots against the dirt echoed faintly through the trees, a comforting sound against the overwhelming quiet. The forest was different out here.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
Every crackle of the flame seemed to echo too loudly, and the shadows they cast seemed to shift in ways that didn't make sense. I tried to focus on my meal, but my appetite had vanished. Movement, just at the edge of the firelight. A shadow slipping between the trees. My breath caught, and I froze. My eyes locked on the spot where I'd seen it. "'Hello?' I called out, my voice shaking. Nothing.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
No response. Just the faint whisper of the wind through the branches. I grabbed my flashlight and swept it across the trees, the beam slicing through the darkness. It caught nothing but bark and leaves. Still, I couldn't shake the feeling that something, someone, was out there, watching.'
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
i doused the fire and retreated into my tent zipping it up tightly and double checking every seam the knife i'd packed for emergencies felt inadequate as i clutched it in my hand but it was better than nothing hours passed my heart refused to slow every noise outside amplified by the thin walls of the tent then i saw them two faint glowing points of light high in the branches of a tree directly ahead of me
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
eyes they didn't blink didn't move they just stared down at me unflinching i wanted to tell myself it was a reflection a trick of the light but there was no mistaking it those were eyes i gripped the knife tighter my palms slick with sweat and stayed perfectly still barely breathing minutes stretched into hours and the eyes never wavered
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
I felt trapped, like an animal caught in a snare, unable to run, unable to fight. When the first faint light of dawn began to creep into the tent, the eyes vanished as silently as they'd appeared. I didn't move until the sun was fully up, the golden light spilling over the clearing. When I finally unzipped the tent and stepped outside, I stopped cold.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
An axe made of sticks and rope was lying just in front of the tent flap. It wasn't like the figure I'd seen before. This was deliberate, precise, like a warning. I stared at it, my mind racing. Someone or something had been here while I was inside, too paralyzed with fear to notice. This wasn't a prank. This wasn't my imagination. I didn't bother eating breakfast.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
I packed up my gear as fast as I could, my hands trembling, and hit the trail again, my eyes darting to every shadow, every tree. I'd decided this trip was over. Whatever I'd come here to escape was nothing compared to what I might be running toward. The forest was suffocating me. Every step I took felt heavier, like the ground itself was trying to pull me down, keep me here.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
My pack bounced against my back as I trudged toward the trailhead, every muscle in my body aching from the tension I'd carried all night. I couldn't stop thinking about the X outside my tent. Someone had been there, close enough to touch the fabric, close enough to take me if they wanted. I kept my knife in my hand as I walked, my knuckles white around the handle.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
no sounds of distant hikers or dogs barking no signs marking every fork in the trail just raw untouched wilderness i reveled in the isolation feeling that rare freedom city life can never provide the first couple of miles were uneventful A squirrel darted across the trail, a hawk circled lazily above.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
The trail was empty, as it had been since I started this trip. No hikers, no animals, just me and the endless forest. But I knew I wasn't alone. I could feel it, like an itch just beneath the skin.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
an hour passed maybe two i wasn't sure any more time felt warped out here every shadow stretching longer than it should every sound echoing too long then i heard it the faint crunch of leaves behind me i stopped dead in my tracks the sound of my heartbeat loud in my ears slowly i turned scanning the trail there was nothing there just trees and underbrush the path winding back into the distance
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
I waited, straining to hear, to catch a glimpse of movement. Silence. I shook my head and started walking again, forcing myself to focus on the dirt path ahead. My car wasn't far. I could make it. I just had to keep moving. Then came the rocks. The first one was small, barely larger than a pebble, and it landed on the path a few feet behind me with a soft thunk.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
I spun around, my breath catching in my throat. Again, nothing. I stared into the woods, the trees twisting together like dark veins. "'Who's there?' I called out, my voice cracking." No response. I backed away slowly. My knife held out in front of me like it could actually protect me from whatever was out there. Another rock landed, closer this time. Then another. It wasn't random.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
It was deliberate, like something was hurting me, forcing me to keep moving. The path opened up slightly, giving me a sliver of hope as I caught sight of the parking lot in the distance. My car was there, a beacon of safety in the oppressive wilderness. Relief surged through me, and I broke into a run, my boots pounding against the dirt.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
I didn't care about the weight of my pack or the pain in my legs. I just had to get out. As I reached the edge of the parking lot, I stumbled to a stop. The sight of my car, my safe haven, nearly made me collapse in relief. But then I saw it. Through the driver's window, something was lying on the seat.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
I hesitated, every instinct screaming at me to turn around, to run back into the woods even if that meant certain death. But I couldn't leave. I had to see. Slowly, I approached the car, my hands shaking so badly I nearly dropped my knife. Pressed against the window was one of my shirts, ripped and shredded, with dark stains along the fabric.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
And next to it, perfectly centered on the seat, was another X made of sticks and rope. I reached for the door handle, praying it was still locked. It was. My knees almost buckled. Whatever had left that thing in my car had the keys at some point. They'd been close enough to take them, close enough to lock the door again. close enough to have been inside my tent too.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
My fingers fumbled for the key in my pocket. I unlocked the door, threw my pack into the back seat, and climbed in, slamming the door shut behind me. My chest was heaving, my breath coming in short, ragged gasps. I started the car and threw it into reverse, my eyes darting to the rearview mirror as I backed out of the lot.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
I stopped once to adjust my pack and sip some water, letting the sheer quiet of the forest seep into my bones. That's when I noticed something, off to my right, just beyond the tree line.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
i was so focused on getting out of there that i almost didn't see him standing at the edge of the lot just where the trees began was the faceless man he didn't move didn't step forward or retreat he just stood there his long arms hanging at his sides his featureless face tilted ever so slightly as if he were watching me I couldn't look away, even as the car lurched backward onto the road.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
My hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly they hurt. The man didn't chase me. He didn't make a sound. He just stood there, unmoving, as I sped away down the winding road. My heart didn't slow until I reached the outskirts of the nearest town. Even then, I kept glancing in the rearview mirror, half expecting to see him standing in the middle of the road, waiting for me.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
I don't know what he was, what he wanted, or why he let me go. All I know is that I'll never go back to those woods. I don't think I could survive another encounter. And the worst part, as I sit here now, writing this, I can't get rid of the feeling that I'm still not alone. It was Eric's idea, of course. It always was.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
One last adventure before school starts, he'd said, grinning like the woods were calling him personally. I didn't have the heart, or the guts, to say no. That's how we ended up on Dagger Ridge Trail, two backpacks full of gear, and me, dragging my feet behind him like I knew something he didn't.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
the day was perfect cloudless skies warm sun the kind of summer day that makes you think nothing bad could ever happen but the closer we got to the trailhead the quieter everything became even the cicadas which had been screaming earlier faded into silence as we stepped under the cover of trees Come on, Ryan, keep up, Eric called, already a few paces ahead.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
at first i thought it was a trick of the light the way the sun filtered through the branches can create strange illusions turning shadows into shapes that aren't really there but as i squinted i realized this wasn't a shadow it was a person a man standing perfectly still between the trees Something about him was wrong.
Just Creepy: Scary Stories
4 Scary Forest Hiking & Camping Horror Stories
His backpack swung with every step, his excitement almost tangible. I adjusted the straps on mine, wishing I hadn't packed so much, and followed. The trail started wide, an easy climb over loose gravel and roots, but it quickly narrowed, hemmed in by trees so thick their branches tangled overhead. The sunlight filtered through in broken patches, casting long, fractured shadows on the ground.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
What I did was start duplicating prescriptions. It went over so well, I started doing it more and more and more, right? All of a sudden, it was a highway patrolman was coming to my apartment at night and shining a light in my apartment window. I opened the door, dude, and they were laying on my car with AR-15s or whatever, pointing guns everywhere. You know, that's crap, man.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
There might be one out of 50 people that do it, but that's not their motivation is to help the poor. They're not giving away 50 cents at the stoplight when the guy comes up to the window and asks for 50 cents. They're not giving that guy 50 cents, not out of their own money when nobody's looking. I don't believe that there's so many good people in society.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
You have an awful good outlook on that one.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Yes, there are, Matt. There are good people in the world, no doubt. But 95% of the people who act like what you're saying, they're lying about it, is what I'm saying. Most liberals, I don't want to get into politics, but most people that are spouting that stuff are lying about it. They're just lying about the way they want to help people in prisons. No, you don't.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
You want political clout or your neighbors to... They're on the bandwagon is what I'm saying. It's ridiculous. You're wrong about that. You have a very pessimistic outlook on society. I'm pessimistic? I'm just realistic. That's the truth. That's the truth of the matter. That's just the way it is. Do you know anybody that you honestly think is a really, really, really good person?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
How many people do you know in your circle that you think are really good people? You might have surrounded yourself with good people. That's a testament to you.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Yeah. You never talk about your, that's funny. I talk about, you never talk about your sister, who your family is. And I've, I've wondered about that too. How come they didn't help you out? How come they weren't, were they there for you? What were they going to do? I mean do they love you and care about you?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
See right there. You didn't want to bother your brothers and sisters with that.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Right. Yeah. By the way, I think your writing is underrated. It's too bad that you have to be a writer in this day and age where nobody reads anything because they don't have to because they'd be reading that Boziak story, dude. That's a good one. That's a true crime. That's good. And I'm a literary, I'm a critic dude of that, of writing. I can't stand bad writers.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And the lawyers in the judge felt sorry for they were trying to help her, you know, trying to help her through the whole thing. So she can keep her job or whatever. I don't know. I bet you she's never been in the trial again since. I bet you that. But she won, you know? So she has a 1-0 record because of me.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I've read thousands and thousands of books. They were decent books, really. And especially the Bozak story. There's a part in that Bozak story, dude, that was really a masterpiece, I'll tell you. The part where you're explaining about how he slept in that room on Saturday. there's a part in this book that you wrote and I'm like, damn, that's fucking good.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
We are explaining the part about that, where the motors are running and that humming. And I'm like, Oh, that's good. That's good shit. That's a, that's a, you know, about 50 steps below Steinbeck or something like that, but not, not a hundred. Steinbeck's good, man. Haven't you ever read Steinbeck? But your writing is pretty good, and it even more blows me away that you had the will to do that.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I always wanted – I wish I could be a writer, but I just never had really the guts and never put in the time and energy that it takes. That's a fucking huge thing. How many people in federal prison get a check for $10,000 for something they did in there? That's really – that's a fucking miracle to me. I would have been too lazy to do it or too afraid I was going to fail at it.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
You know what I mean? And the books weren't going to be good or something.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I guess so. But that doesn't stop most people from not being afraid of failure.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
They're going to pass the time. They're going to get out and do just what they did. My whole attitude in jail was I'm going to use this time to the best of my whatever can benefit me. I'm doing it in any possible way, man. If I could, the only thing I could do really was exercise and get better physically and emotionally. That's because you don't have any programs in jail.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
But I started planning on what I was and wasn't going to do when I got out of jail. I'm not making that mistake again, and I'm not going to – I'll never do this again. I love my wife. We're still married, and our kids are great.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Yes. She was with me the whole time, and we went through our thing. But what happened was I quit being an idiot like that and problem solved. I mean, I love her. We've been married for how long?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Yeah, this is Kelly right there. Yeah, she's great. My heart goes out to you.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Yeah, she ain't no saint, dude. She's no saint.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I won my first trial. Can you imagine what the prosecutor felt like? The prosecutor was serious. And Todd Thompson says his name. I still remember it. I hated the guy. So I hated the whole prosecution. It feels so personal when they're prosecuting you, doesn't it? It's like they care. If they don't care, really, they don't even think about you. But no. I just want to choke them on.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
No, it was me, dude. It wasn't a lot. It was me. It was, hey, listen. It was both. It was my forgiveness and my willing to... my willingness to say how, how it was all my fault, you know, and not to hold a grudge. And it wasn't all her. It was me a little bit too. You know what I mean? And now it was funny. Once we got out of jail, listen, how long did it take? It didn't take very long.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I took that month off and then I just went right back to work, had an apartment, had a car and everything else within, within, within two months, you know, and then, and then she moved back in and our kids moved in with this. And that was a long time ago. Yeah. I know, that's funny when you say, what? I said, yeah, it's Kelly.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Listen, but it was because of mostly my drug-fueled insanity that was causing the problem. It wasn't there before. Right. Well, I have no doubt it was your fault. You're just not reasonable.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Yes. Okay. Thanks.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Oh, dude, you don't even know. You think you're bad, man. You think shit about talking and stuff like you talk, man. I could go on and on and on and on arguing about prison systems. And at least you've read. I can't believe that you read those books I mentioned. He read a bunch of Anne Rand. Well, you had all the years to do it, too.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
it was exhausting the one before the atlas shrugged one you could have took half of the book yeah it was through the trash it's too much it was way way too much now some of the books that you wrote uh what's that what was it what would you say would be another one that compares to the bosiac story i like the one about the lawyer yeah i really like the frank amadeo story but i wrote a book about a guy named marcus shrinker which is really
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
really good no i think i read that one mark is the psychopath idiot lion bastard in the airplane yes that's what i was telling you on the phone i'm like that book that idiot he gets out i love the story the best part is the way you him not him around in the story but you wrote it the way you wanted to and the idiot just goes along with it thinking that you were just That's narcissists, bro.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
That's narcissists. He was so arrogant and narcissistic. He couldn't tell that you were powerful in danger. I didn't know him right away. I didn't know him from talking to you that dude, this dude, no, you know, he's no idiot. I didn't know. I wouldn't have trusted you with it either. You know, but he did because he didn't even, he probably wouldn't have even remembered your name.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
You know what I mean? They don't care. They don't go home and think about you. They think about you 10 minutes before the case when they're looking at the paperwork. Oh, yeah, it's Picklemeyer again. I hate that. You got a red mark over my name, you know, a little highlighter with a red mark.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
He was so arrogant and, and such a low life. He didn't give you any credit, any credit at all.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Was he really good looking or something? Because I can see you getting away with that if you're really good looking or something.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
You're talking about the guy that was pretending to be a medical professional of some sort.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Really? Yeah.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
bad actors like you just yes that they would he would and that's what shrinker was that's a narcissist that's a narcissist right no doubt shrinker no doubt shrinker is a uh a narcissist but yeah so when you say narcissist i think of that guy not you i don't think of your now here's what i think that i think that you say that is narcissistic though that i've always wanted every time you say this i'm like i want to jump on the things to argue with you well uh when you say or
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I don't even know if you say this, man, but you act like this. You act like – I don't want to make you mad. I'm not – I think you diminish – purposely, intentionally diminish the damage that the crime could have done. And I don't know the extent of what your crimes could have done. But when you say stuff about, it was only a bunch of paper, man. I only signed a bunch of paper. Hey, look.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I'm sure you know that. Oh, I know it's more than that.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
But it did hurt people. It could have been someone late in retirement or something.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Or financially devastate some people maybe.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
You know, he's mean. He's mean to girls. Oh, yeah, my lawyer said that. So I said, I'm giving her a bunch of shit. She goes, yeah, well, you know, maybe you just don't like women. Maybe that's your problem. I said, what? Maybe you're an idiot, man. How about that? Maybe you're just a complete mumbling moron.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
You don't even have – I'm sure you have no idea.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
No, what I think is that the people that it affected is a chain that goes to the board and goes to the insurance company. None of who – the people you know, right? I'm just saying, right? I mean, right?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Bank of America is not a person. Bank of America is an institution. Bank of America is run by a board who lost money.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
That's why they're on the board. They're only on the board because it's their money in the bank.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Okay. Well, then the stockholders.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
You're saying that it was distributed amongst enough people that it was therefore nullified by the fact that it only did each person a little bit of damage. Not a whole lot of damage to one guy.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Did you do the calculation? Think about this. What do you think it costs Bank of America now to secure against people like you? And stuff like that. That does start adding up, bro. When you start adding up, how much you got to do to defend against guys and fraud? How much money do you think they spent on fraud prevention? You think that's relevant?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
They probably wrote new laws, Matt, because of what you did. They probably wrote laws about it because it's such a – the case – because of the damage that you're doing right now even by talking about it. Nobody argues with you on your show either. Here's what – I watch the people that – they don't want to – and I don't want to offend you either. The people usually don't.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
They're like, well, it's his show. I don't want to – and I get that. I do the same thing, but nobody's confronting you about the situation either. I haven't seen – well, Big Herc, I think, did later. Or did he do it on the show? Did he confront you at all on the show? No, the only thing he confronted me on was – He did go into a case about the ratting.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
He did have an argument for that, that your right was a complete lie, albeit it's – he – his argument about, so what you're just going to fuck together. And you said, well, they're all, we're all criminals. That's true. I get it. I take your side on, on that case.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Yeah, I love women. Absolutely. No kidding. Nobody's a bigger fan of women than me. Trust me. How do you think I got here? So anyway, that all comes and goes. But now it came with some stipulations like six months of probation. But it wasn't it's not really sophisticated probation. Like you got to go once a month. There's there's something like that. Right.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
right in his house. It must have been shocking.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
You're in this hotel room alone with this guy. You're lucky he didn't take you in the bathroom and get busy.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
It was a good one. It was a good one too. Now is his show still around? I don't even know if it's, is it still rolling? Yeah.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Yeah, that's that. What else did you do, too? That's another question I ask. What would you have done? What was your plan when you weren't planning on coming out and starting a YouTube channel and stuff, right? What was your plan?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
So I was something on the on the on the level of this podcast, something like that.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
It is amazing. It was amazing though, but it wasn't a mate. It was a, it was an extremely addictive too. I mean, I was addicted, really addicted to it real fast. So, so what happened was I, I couldn't stop taking it because I'd get so, so you get so sick, you know, a couple of days, you know, probably if you could, Xanax will make you really sick after, um,
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Well, you take what you take Netflix, a seven, five compared to your podcast. That's the difference right there. Yeah. Well, it's exactly the difference. The difference. Yeah. Well, yeah, but it's highly edited, highly – high production value. It's an extremely good show. The thing about him was that I liked him. Everybody – didn't you say most people like him?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
He's a very likable guy, and I could see why those other criminals were trusting – they trusted him. He didn't seem as fearless as they said he was, although it did seem like it when you heard about his story. He was – pretty fearless about the way he went about his crimes.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
But the, but the, what really made me not like him was the part where he stole that money from that girl and the Bible, the money that that whole story, he told it in front of Congress too. He told that story in front of the fucking Congress. He told them that story. I couldn't believe him. Like, man, you talk about humiliating yourself, right?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
In a, in a congressional hearing, he started telling them about how you ripped this one off out of a hundred bucks. I mean, I know that took a lot of guts.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
But I'm in the middle of a drug crazed lunacy. I can't hold myself. You know what I mean? I can't. I'm not going to make it six months of any kind of supervision, dude. I'm out of control. Right. I can't. I mean, I can't. I can't do anything. It's like my brain's put in a blender. It was horrible. I couldn't hardly function. I mean, I was passing out at stoplights.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
But what I'm saying is what he said I thought it was a little bit of genuine humility is what I thought when he told the story in front of Congress. I thought it was real because he didn't stand to gain anything from telling that story. That was a humiliating story that I would have left out of my life story. Just like the story I told you about the tires that I did to that lady.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I feel so bad about that. That if I ever see that woman again, I'll buy her a new set. I'd do it right now. If I found her, if she sees the show or anybody sees it, I'll buy the woman a new set of tires. You know what I mean? And it's embarrassing that I did it. And I'm embarrassed to even say I did it. But that's just to demonstrate, you know, how crazy I was. That's not the only thing I did.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
One time, you'll appreciate this crime. I'm at work one day. I'm fairly broke, right? I'm looking out the window and there's a car parking in an apartment complex. I'm like, man, that car's been there a long time. And it looks to me like it's broke down. The heads are laying right beside the car. I bet they can't wait to get that piece of shit out of there. I bet I could sell it.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Why don't I just sell it? So I sold the car. It wasn't even mine. It was across the street. I just called up a junk dealer. I said, hey, man, I got this brown Malibu sitting in front of my apartment complex driving me crazy. How much do you give me for it? It was like $350. They go, we'll give you $350. I said, well, come get it. When can you get it?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
They drove right out, picked it up, and hauled it off, and gave me the money. And that was it. So I started thinking, man, I could sell a lot of other people's cars. I got no money in this. You know what I'm saying? It's all profit. Yes, it's all profit. Here's what I thought. How am I going to get caught? What's going to happen? How's this going to play out? Well, here's what could happen.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Somebody raises a stink about their car being gone. What are they going to do? Call the cops? Call the cops. Where's your car? If they even found it, this car is only worth 200 bucks anyways. Keep in mind, I didn't sell a Maserati. I sold a beat down old brown Malibu with no wheels on it. You know what I mean?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I knew they were just the landlords just probably just happy to get rid of the car, you know? Another thing I did. You're doing him a favor. Yes, that's how I see it. See, that's true narcissism. Listen, another crime I pulled, Matt. This is a good one. One night, I'm out at the bar. This is when me and my wife were fairly recently married.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And I'm out at the bar, and we're just, dude, it was like right before the Fourth of July. It might have been the Fourth of July. We're drinking. Everybody's getting drunk, just getting loaded in this bar. It was in Baser, Kansas. And I get so loaded, I wake up in the back seat of the person's car who drove me to the bar. It's 5 o'clock in the morning, 4.30 or 5 a.m. Nobody's around.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I'm completely alone. It's the only car in the parking lot. I'm passed out in the back seat of it. So I get up, and I go, oh, my God. I look at my phone or watch or whatever, and I'm like, my wife's going to shit. I got to get home. So I get out of the car. I start looking for the keys to the car that I'm in. No keys anywhere. Nothing. I'm like, oh shit, what am I going to do?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I got to get home right now. And I'm a good, like, I don't know, 12 miles away from home. Not too far. I look across the street and there's an auto repair shop. I'm like, bingo. I run across the highway, go to the, and I know how these places operate. So I just look for the drop box. I'm like, I'll just get the keys from somebody who just dropped their car off. And I did.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I got the keys to this car. This is great. I grabbed the keys to this car and I have a whole bunch of a whole handful of keys. So I start going around, see which ones will start, which one has gas in it, which one will start. I come to this car. It was a white Chevy Corsica. Whoa, it fires right up. And it's like, dude, it's nice. Things running good. Bam.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I take off and just I haul ass home thinking my wife's going to be just furious, mad as hell. Who knows what she's going to do? The door's going to be locked, something. And, uh, So I haul ass home, and I had parked my bar at a bar that my uncle owned in this town I live in, right up the street from where I lived.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I passed out on the highway on the way to the methadone clinic one day. I mean, that's how bad it was. So you can imagine me trying to keep a job. Right. I have a bunch of credentials, so I can go get a job in the field that I'm in. I can always get a job. Yeah, but I couldn't keep I couldn't. Man, they would try to hold us together. It's so hard. Try not to go there as high as I was going to be.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And I thought, well, I'll just park this car at the police station so they know it's not stolen.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
i'll wipe it down and i'll just walk up to my car jump in my car and just drive home right so that's what i do i drop the car off at the police station wipe it all down this is the best that ain't the best part of the story i wipe it all down with armor all thinking i can't get fingerprints off armor all wipe it all down and then i uh leave it at the police station with the keys in the ignition so they can start it and the car ran finally why was it the repair shop maybe it was coming home maybe it was fixed already because it ran and drove great right
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
It was a white Chevy Corsa going with a red interior. That's how much I remember. I get in my van, drive home, and I'm like, oh, shit. Worried all about getting the house. She's just passed out cold. Doesn't even know I'm gone. Nor does she care where I'm at. She didn't care. She was passed out. Wouldn't have known for another five hours where I was.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
She wouldn't even have started looking for me for 10 hours. And so I start thinking, oh, man, I hope I don't get caught for this car. But I didn't steal it. I just borrowed it. Anyways, really, it was a legitimate. I legitimately borrowed the car. But the best part of it is this. I parked it at the police station, literally at the police station, because mainly it was convenient.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And and I I wanted to find the car. I want to steal nobody's car. And well, it took about three days for these idiots to find it. Anyways, three days, man, for the people to find that it was in the newspaper, too. And I remember I saved the article for years. I thought it was funny. But here's the best part. The license plate was really recognizable. Right.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And every day I worked every day that car, I would pass it on my way to work that exact car with that license plate. And I would pass the lady driving that car and think to myself, oh, man, she has no idea that the idiot that stole her car is passing her right now and every other day on the highway. It was a little thrill that I got out of this.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
It's a sick little thrill that I got out of laughing about that. Well, criminals do that, though. I've read about it. Criminals get this kick. They look for suspects for arson in the audience. You know what I mean? They look for those because they're there to observe. They're getting the kick out of being guilty of the crime or they're surrounded by, you know what I mean, people that don't know.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And that was one case where I felt that exact feeling. And no, I hadn't hurt this lady, nor had I cost her anything. I would have put gas in the car, honest to God, if I had the opportunity to do it. If I wasn't scared to pull up to the gas pump, I would have put gas in the car before I dropped it off. But I had to get home, you know what I mean? I was scared I was going to get busted.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
So that was the other night when I was talking to you and I said, well, I'm not really a criminal. I think I said this. Yeah, I wasn't, I wasn't out running around committing crimes. Well, for the last week I've been thinking about it. I'm like, you know what? I was a little bit more of a, of a criminal, you know, that I, that I really let myself believe.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I really was really telling myself, I'm not, you know, I'm not, I'm not like those people. I'm not a criminal. I did all kinds of, you know, Whoever lost the Malibu was out a couple hundred bucks. It wasn't harmless fun. But pretty close. I wasn't stealing anything. I didn't go out and steal for drugs. I was too scared. I mean, what was I going to do?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I guess go into Walmart, from what I hear, and just load up a cart and walk out the door. I guess you could do that. There was a guy in jail that said he did that so many times that every pawn shop within 50 miles was so full of CDs and PS4s and everything that they could. Like Boziak, in the story you were telling about Boziak, I think it was in your story, where he is saying,
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I think I might've been on a podcast where he's saying, look, you can only do that so many times. You can only, you know, you got to start going further and further out with this, you know, but boy, if there was one guy that could have got away with the crimes that I was hoping, cause didn't the book end to where he was on the run? That's how that book ended. Right. Yeah.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
But eventually they start seeing it. Right. They're like, oh, man, something ain't right. Something ain't right with this guy. You know, one day I drove. I'm not kidding. I drove all the way from my house in Eudora, Kansas. to my job in fucking Missouri without my shoes on. Forgot to put my shoes on. And I get all the way to 635. I'm like, I gotta turn around. I didn't have my fucking shoes on.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And, and man, it was shattering to find out that that wasn't the case that he didn't just run off into the sunset, you know what I mean? Yeah. Why'd you have to do that, man? I wish you just left that out of that whole story. So I can keep on believing that Boziak's out running around free. You know what I mean?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And what about, what about, or just bullshit, but what about Zach? Where's he at?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I would have mixed them together somehow, but anyway, go ahead.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I get it. It's difficult. Difficult thing to do. Yeah.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Yeah, it snowballs.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
He's not naked. He's not naked.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Yeah, well, I can understand that completely, man, because I'll tell you what. All the work that you've got to go through – to even, I mean, and listen, you gotta really be scraping the bottom of the barrel to have me on this show. I mean, compared to the other shifts, I mean, you're running out of content, bro. You know what I mean? It's gotta be hard.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Yeah, it was, to me, it was funny too. After later on, whenever it was all said and done, I started thinking how funny it was. And like, man, that is funny that I, that I, that I, that I made that shit work. You know, there was a lot more to it too. Like one time I just refused to go to court and, And the fact that I won is the best part of that.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
That's how bad it was. Okay, now that's towards the end. But so anyways, I get out of court. I get found guilty of that one crime. And then So that kicked off everything. So now they're over my shoulder watching me, you know, and I got a report and I got to pass the drug test, which I can't pass. I can't pass the drug test. There's no way. It's just impossible. I can't.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
It came out, dude, it could not have worked out any better. It's totally impossible. There's no better outcome that could have possibly came, except for, okay, maybe that, oh, I walked away and there was no punishment whatsoever. But the only punishment there ever was was a little bit of probation, by way of which I never violated it, never one time.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And the whole time I was on probation, did I ever get convicted of violations?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
uh you know i just it wasn't that hard to do a bunch of probation you know the jail time was the hardest part of it all you know and and even that was beneficial i wouldn't trade that for anything that saved my life probably honestly you know really i mean i was passing out on the highway driving to work without my shoes on i passed out the stoplight and the cops come up and i woke up now
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Drug addicts will know this. They'll know. They'll say, oh, yeah, I know. I've been there. Those drugs, what they do to you is – and you know a little bit about it. If you take them, what really is happening to you is this. You'll get in a situation where it's information overload. It will knock you out. It will knock – just like if somebody punched you and knocked you out.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Sensory overload happens real quick. So you'll get in a car, and what happens in a car? Sensory overload happens. Bam. It knocks you out. It knocks you out. And then you wake up and there's no more, nothing's moving. You start doing it again. Then you pass out. I mean, I've been pulled over numerous times, pulled out of the car and I'm never drinking.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
That's the, and all they knew to look for was drinking. And they'd pull me over, yank me out of the car, start yelling at me. I had a cop listen to this. He came to my mom's house. This cop in this town knew me so well. I was driving him nuts with my little antics, running around doing stupid shit. Well, one day I legitimately went to the goddamn gas station, legitimately got $5 worth of gas.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Now, who's going to steal $5 worth of gas? I filled my tank up. I wasn't stealing anything.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
i just and i went inside bought a pack of cigarettes everything it just did they didn't add i didn't steal anything they didn't add the five bucks to it and i didn't catch it it was like 20 bucks i don't know was the they gave they they turned the pump on and i pumped my five dollars with gas i drove down to my mom's house and i i was watching tv or something and about an hour later not even an hour later 30 minutes later fucking cops pounding on the door and i'm like what the hell
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I'm not, I was, you know, what goes through your mind? Oh my God, is there a warrant? What's going on? I'm like, there's nothing going on. I opened the door and he's like, God damn it. This is the last time I've had it with you. Here's what you're going to do.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
You're going to get in that car right now and you're going to drive up to Casey's and I'm going to follow you and you're going to pay up there. God damn it. He's going off and screaming at me about it. I said, Hey man, that okay. Look, I, look, I went in the store. I didn't have any, I don't know. I don't want to hear it. I've heard it before.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I don't want to, I don't, I don't want to talk about it in your car right now.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
i said okay dude so you know i run out i move my slippers or whatever and i jump in my car but um that's happening to me i'm it's century i'm passing out while this cop is behind me following me to the gas station and he just talked to me he doesn't think i'm drunk or anything right he just he's not thinking this but i can't deal with it it's only a couple blocks but i'm
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I mean, it would take weeks. You know, I can't I'd be dead in the gutter before I, you know, before I could pass the drug test. So I don't think that was a stipulation at the time. It was just real. You know, you had to go to work and start paying your fines. none of which I ever did. I never paid $1 of the fines. I refused to, I just didn't want to do it. I'm like, what are they going to do?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I can't, I'm trying to drive and I'm all over the road, but I get there. He's behind me. He walks me in the Casey's and they go, he's like, I got him. Get your money, you know, whatever. And, and so I, I paid him and I said, Hey man, I'm sorry. You know? And he's like, I had it. That's enough. I don't want to see you again.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And I'm telling you right now, I don't want to, I don't want to hear about you. I don't want to see you again. And, uh, the next time it's gonna be worse deal. And he got, I said, okay, okay, cool. And I'm walking back to the pump and he gets in his car, dude. I swear to God, he sits in his car and he's getting ready to close the door and But he doesn't. He can't stop.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
He's got to say something else. So he opens up the door and he goes, by the way, you're the worst goddamn fucking driver I've ever seen in my life. It's ridiculous. Get your fucking head out of your ass. He didn't know I was high. He just thought I was a bad driver. It was funny, dude. You should have been there. The cop. Oh my God.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Ranting and raving about me stealing $5 worth of gas, which I didn't even do. You know what I mean? That must've been in the time before I get kicked. I got 86 from Casey's and get this. I go to jail two years later, man, two effing years later, I went to that gas station. I'm like, they would never recognize me in a million years. There's no way I was driving.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I drive through this town all the time. I pull in there and in totally in good faith, I'm going to pump some gas and go pay for the gas. You know what I mean? I was like, I'm not thinking anything criminal at all. The reason I go to Casey's is because you can pump and then pay, right? You can pump your gas and go get your business done.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Well, I put the thing in there, and I hit the thing, and I called the lady up. I'm like, hey, can you turn the pump on? And she's like, no. And I'm like, oh, here we go again. Why? Why not? Turn the pump on. She goes, I was told never to turn the pump on for you. And I said, oh, really? I said, turn the fuck the pump on or I'm calling the cops. Turn the pump on right now. Turn the pump on.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And she turned it on. She turned it on. She turned the pump on, dude, and I went in and paid for it. I couldn't believe it. She thought I was going to call the cops on her. What can I do? She could have just told me to fucking stick it. So I never went back. I think they shut that store down. But what a lowlife to get kicked out at Casey's, man. The 86th time at Casey's.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Do they have those in Florida?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Let me tell you. Listen, they have... they go out and like you did with the, with the recruiting of the homeless people to get the IDs, that's what they do to get employees. They go out and petition to get the worst people in the world to work in their store. They have to qualify. Look, are you on welfare? Do you, do you have zero customer skills? You know what I mean? No, no.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Do you hate customers? In fact, do you, do you not want to sweep the floor? Do you, you know, and they, they, they're just the worst people crack heads and, And junkies and everything else that worked there. It's totally the opposite of – you have Quick Chips? You have Quick Chips there?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
You have a good station that everybody goes to. There's one we have around here that's the most efficient, most unbelievable. They have freaking lawyers working there. People that are, you have to have a 750 credit score to get a job there. These are professional people. Really, they do. Your credit score has to be flawless. These people are so professional and so, the floors are spotless.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Everything's perfect. Everything's being replaced. There's nothing missing ever. It's just, and it's called Quick Trip and they're all around this area. But Casey's is the opposite of that. They hire all these cities, but the thing is they got the best food. I mean, just out, the pizza's phenomenal and a bunch of other services that they have, like you could pump before you pay, shit like that.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Well, they can actually, they can send it to collections and put on your credit report, you know, but they really can't force you to pay it. Right. So anyways, I never, I didn't, you know, I'd make a little $50 payment or something. My probation officer asks, you know, so anyways, I'm on probation and I'm not living at home. And this is when it got really bad.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
So they're around and they specialize in being in small towns. So they're the only gas station other than little mom and pop shops that are in these small towns around here. Every small town had a Casey's before it had anything else. But their hiring practices are just, oh my God, dude. I went around and around with that Casey's for years and the manager knew me. And she kind of liked me.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
She knew I wasn't a bad guy. But, you know, she eventually got fed up with the tire thing. She came to my house. They were coming to my house, dude. Somebody in the kitchen knew where I lived. They were knocking on my door. I'm like, what are you doing here? It's the Casey's manager with another employee. You need to get back up there and pay for this woman's tires.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I'm like, I don't know what you're talking about. She says, hey, listen, we got you on camera. We got. And I said, really? Because I'm pretty sure. If you had me on camera, you'd be calling the cops. And the cops would be here, but they're not, and you are. So I don't think you had me on camera. And guess what else? I didn't do it. We're not buying that. And here's how they tried to get me.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Dora Police Department found out I had a felony warrant. So that's the first people that called me. The Dora Police Department guy calls me. He says, hey, Bicklemeyer. They know me. Hey, Dave, how you doing? Hey, what's going on? Johnson or whatever his name is. He says, oh, what happened with you up at Casey's? What are you talking about? I said, he goes, you know what I'm talking about?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And I said, no, I don't know what you're talking about. I heard something about what you might be talking about, but I don't know anything. He goes, why don't you come talk to me about that? I think we could straighten it out. And I said, what? What did you say? He said, yeah, can you meet me at such? And I'm like, that was the very first hint that really that there was a problem.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
This was on the way to the clinic in the morning. That cop said that to me. I'm like, what did you say? He goes, can you meet me at, why don't you just meet me up at Casey's or whatever? And I said, okay, okay. I got some errands to run, but yeah, okay. We'll talk about it. And all the way there, I'm like, man, why would that cop? Why would he want to meet me? So that's weird. That is weird.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And so I called him back. I said, Hey, listen, Do I have some warrant? What are you doing? I mean, I'm not stupid, dude. Listen, I'm not I'm not going to meet you at Casey's. I mean, we both know that I'm not coming to Casey's. You got my number. You can call me anytime you want. You know where I live. So, I mean, what's going on? I mean, he's like, well, you know, I want to talk to you.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And I said, come on, dude. What is it? He wouldn't say. Right. And neither would I don't think my probation officer ever really said that. What the charges were for what is that? Why is that a secret? I'm like, the cops don't know what the cops don't know what the charges are. The probation officer doesn't know. I mean, they know it's a felony want. And usually they won't come looking for you.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I don't know how it is in Florida, but they won't come after you religiously or they won't purposely come for you.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
unless it's a felony warrant usually now i had a speeding ticket and i'm sitting on my fucking couch minding my own business with a speeding warrant who cares and they kicked my door in they didn't have to kick very hard and they might not have kicked twice but they did kick the fucking door in and come in my house and got me over a speeding ticket i couldn't i'm like are you fucking that bored that you gotta come around and harass me over a speeding ticket well maybe it's you
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
since I'm not at my house and me and my wife are now we're separated. And, uh, I can't even remember where I was living at. I wasn't living alone. I was either with my sister or my mom. And, um, I have all these people looking over my shoulder and a bunch of stick, you know, I'm supposed to go to the ridiculous shit. They had me doing, uh, some kind of, uh, classes.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I had the whole county up in arms, dude. One thing I did was, I forgot to mention this. This is part of why John wouldn't take the case. I forgot this whole part. I threatened to... I was serious. I meant this when I said it. I called somebody in the county and said I was going to blow up the buildings. And I was fucking serious. I was like, I'll fucking come there and blow that mother.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
You know what I mean?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
That's what got it. That's what got him, I think, not to want anything to do with the case. I think it was some dude that was here or something. But another thing that happened was I was in a pharmacy in Dora. All I'm doing, dude, listen to this. I'm talking on the phone, merely talking on the phone to a reporter of all things.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
won't get into why i was talking to this reporter but it had something to do with a gun i can't even remember the word gun got brought up in this conversation and the cops came there and tried to arrest me tried to arrest me inside of the pharmacy right why yeah exactly why because I don't know.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
They, they, they, the, the pharmacy or somebody in the pharmacy must've got shook up about the, you know, I was animated like that talking on the phone, you know, another time, uh, me and my wife were arguing. I was at the swimming pool. I think I told you this. I'm at the swimming pool. Okay. Minding my own business.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I got my phone with me and it was all, I somehow, I just called my wife and my phone was still on. And she heard me say something to another woman. All I said was, Hey, you look, you're looking good or something like that. Well, she blows up and starts screaming on the right. And I start screaming back. Kind of. Not even really freaking out. The effing cops show up at the swimming pool, dude.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
All this shit's true. I swear you can look it up. They show up at the swimming pool and try to take me to jail. At the swimming pool, they had me out in the parking lot. They never handcuffed me, but almost. And if they would have, if I wouldn't have known the cop, and almost took me to jail. Over, over, over, talking to my wife. So guess what?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
They wouldn't let me leave until I tracked her down and made sure that she was safe. I'm like, what do you think I got? Are hidden in my swimming trunks or under my towel? It's like a kidnapper or something. You know what I mean? It was, it was just ridiculous. It was, it's none of it was my fault, man. I didn't do anything to deserve any of that. You know what I'm saying?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Yeah. So, so when I got out of jail, I thought, man, I better shut up. I better shut up. I don't want to know who the cops are in this town. And luckily the, like the chief of police or whatever, they all, they've all retired and grown up and they don't, you know what I mean? But when I go back to that, that jail to go to the, I went there the other day for a traffic ticket twice.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I had to, and since then, and they all know me and they're like, Hey man, what do you, this is what they say, man, you got fat. You got fat. You know, you gained a bunch of weight. You look, you know, like, yeah, well, that's what happens when you, you know, stop doing that. You know, everybody gets that's what usually happens. They said, well, you know, they were pretty cool.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
The jail was pretty respectful. But here's one thing. Why would they start? Why do they try to starve people in jail? I don't know. What benefit is that? What do you think they're doing there? By not allowing people to eat enough. What's the purpose of that? I mean, you don't know that. Saving money. We're trying to save money. You think that.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I had to take something, you know, just a little shit like that, but I couldn't keep it together long enough to do any of this stuff. So, uh, Let me see what happened next. Okay.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Now, listen, don't you think like 90 percent of the problems are in jail are related to food issues and stuff like that? You think they would. Why can't they just serve an extra? I mean, doesn't it seem like it would be beneficial to freaking feed people to get them to stop being so. I don't know.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
You don't listen to my podcast all the time and constantly do this. Listen, I work all day, so I watch all the shit you do. And I'm constantly wanting to argue with you. I'm like, I want to jump through the screen and be like, no, dude, that's not – this is – What are you talking about? You know?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I was, yeah, I would work. I would just work until I got fired. I go get another job. I'm really good at what I do. I just, I just had, I can keep it together for a few weeks. You know what I mean? And I can do stuff on the side. It's a long story, but I can make money. I, you know, I wasn't, I never was out stealing for drugs because I would be, by the time I, I just couldn't do it.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I mean, I used to sit around and plot drugstore robberies and drugstore heists. I mean, I'd sit out in front of the drugstore looking, seeing when they got there. You know, thinking about it, I just never had the guts to do it. And, and, Yeah, if I was sober, I was too sick to rob it. And if I was high, I didn't care. Why would I want to rob the drugstore? I already got a bunch of drugs.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
You know what I'm saying? So I never got around to robbing the drugstore like I planned. But here's what I did do.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I've never seen the movie. I have to watch it. They used to rob drugstores. There's one, a movie with Matt Dillon in it called Drugs for Cowboys. You see that?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
couple months of taking if you try to you can't just quit taking it you'll get so sick you know uh i could it was this is what happened it's a big roller coaster if i wasn't high i couldn't go to work i couldn't get up and go to work you know and i couldn't take care of myself so it's just a you know it i'd get so sick i couldn't get out of bed and so i'd have to go to work to get enough money to go get some more drugs you know
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
It was bad luck. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. I got real close to robbing drugstores. Believe me. So instead, what I did was start duplicating prescriptions. which went over real well. It went over so well. I started doing it more and more and more. Right. And what, and here's how that ended. This really happened. I took the, it was so simple. I'm like, dude, is the numbers on here and everything.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
All I got to do is just copy it. I mean, why can't I just go to Kinko's and make a bunch of copies?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
So I did. Right. And it went great. It was good for like a long time until finally one day I went to the pharmacy and you're always a little bit nervous. Wait for your prescription to fill, you know, and the pharmacist called me up there and she goes, Hey, listen, I know this isn't a real prescription, but I have to report it.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
So I'm going to give you 15 minutes to go as far away from here as you can go before I do anything about this. And don't ever come back in this drugstore again. I said, okay, I'll see you later. So I never did it again. You know, I never got caught. Luckily, God damn, I don't know. What's the statute of limitations? It's been long enough. It's been like six or seven years, right? Most of the time.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I should know that. Could be three to five years. Okay, so it's been longer than five. Yeah, I went to jail. It's been longer than five. So I can talk about any of these crimes. So yeah, I wasn't out stealing. I was doing stuff like that. You know what I mean? So I did that. It worked for a while. And then I had to go back to buying it or going back to the clinic or whatever.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
But, or, and then eventually I just got a crooked doctor, you know, this doctor in, in Leavenworth, this is connected to he, he gets busted. You could just go in there. I was taking people in there. It was like a pill mill. It was like that guy that, you know, and you just get whatever you want. I'd bring, take, have other people go there. You know, I had this whole thing set up.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I can get whatever I want. And then the guy gets, the guy gets busted. Now remember this for later. He gets caught.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
the doctor gets caught and uh they didn't put him in jail but they prosecuted him and took away his license and he can't so he couldn't prescribe drugs anymore but this is this is important because later on it'll come up about the lawyer um so that was not related to the to the story really but that's what happened that's how i was getting drugs Anyway, so it goes, this goes on and on.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I keep getting in trouble. Let me think about what happened next. Cause it gets real, it gets really serious. Okay. My wife, while I'm in, while I'm going through this, my wife separates from me and then, and then we start fighting over the kids, right? I have two daughters who I love and can't, I, I could not be around them. And, uh, this is, it's turned into it just, just a giant shit show.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Uh, there, so we're fighting over the kids and, and there was another case, something to do with the kid. We start having to, they have to mediate or something. I don't know. So that turned into something. And, uh, This took a couple years. Let me think about what happened next. So I went to jail for that. Then I get arrested again a couple times for calling my wife, breaking a restraining order.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I'm going to jail constantly. Every time I come to the town, they see me and pull me over and take me to jail. So this starts my jail career, and I started getting to know the people in the jail and the jailers and stuff. And so, so let's make it short. This, this went on for it. So like a couple of years later, a couple of years later, it's really bad. The drug addiction is out of control.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I can't do nothing. And, uh, I go to work one day or try to go to work one day and got fired. And then, uh, what I did was I went to my in-laws house to drop something off. And by this time that, that the, uh, uh,
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
the restraining orders are real serious they're taking them real seriously now right because i've already been i've already been caught there and they're pissed about it and they don't have nothing to do in this stupid town anyways but watch idiots like me so yeah they're excited they can't wait to arrest me you know what i mean they barged my house over a traffic ticket so but they're serious about it and i i went into my in-laws house
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And then eventually I figured out how to go to, they have what's called methadone clinics. They have them all over the country, but they have one, you know, they have a few around here and I figured that out. It was before the whole prescription or before they check on it, you know, and I was, you could go to a couple of them at a time and stuff. So it got worse. It gets worse and worse.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
uh, to see my kids or something. And I did, I wasn't scheduled and I wasn't supposed to be there. Right. But I didn't think it was any big deal. And I wanted to see my daughter. I knew my daughters were there. And I, so I walk in, there's nobody there. I'm like, Hey, what's going on? Where's everybody at? I mean, I've been in this place a million times. I never knock on the door.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I was always walked in. I mean, by this time I'd been married for like 10 or 15 years. And, um, you know, I go back home and, and this is when it really gets, gets hairy. Um,
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
all this so i'm on probation no job i just got fired i don't know what i don't know what i'm gonna do and uh i'm going to the i i still gotta go to the clinic i still gotta get drugs i gotta do something i gotta have money you know i'm getting real freaked out about it well all of a sudden uh this this cop starts uh it was a highway patrolman was was coming to my apartment at night and shining a light in my apartment window i lived in this apartment right across the street from the police station at this time in eudora kansas
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And this cop, a highway patrolman of all things, I have no idea why. And I didn't know what it was at the time. I didn't know what was going on. I really didn't have any idea. But I had a clue. This is what I thought. A day or so before I'd gone to this Casey's in my small town I lived in, and I was giving this Casey's a ration of shit.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I hated the people that worked there, and I was stole gas a couple times. I'd done some stupid shit at the store, and they weren't supposed to serve me, right? They weren't supposed to turn the pumps on when I pulled up to the thing. So I pull up to get gas one day. The lady won't turn the pumps on. I'm like, what the fuck is going on? I'm pushing the button. I'm turning the fucking pump on, right?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
She won't do it. Okay. So, oh, you, you bitch, you bitch. Okay. So I pulled my car up beside her car and slashed all four of her tires and said, yes, dude. And this, so this turns into a fucking manhunt, dude, a manhunt. The people from Casey's are hunting me down to find out where I'm at. And, and the, and they call the cops and the cops are calling me and I know what that's about. Okay.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
They ran up and he handcuffed me and picked me up and they start screaming at me, where's all the guns? Where's the guns? I'm like, what? I don't have any guns. I was born in DeSoto, Kansas. I had four sisters, lived with my mom and dad. They got a divorce when I was like, I don't know, 16, 17 years old, something like that. I was already pretty much out on my own anyways.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
So I think that that's, what's going on with this highway patrolman. It's no big deal. Whatever. If they catch me, they don't, they don't, they don't know it was me that did it. They just suspect it was me. You know what I mean? I'm not an idiot. I didn't do it with us on camera. It was really cruel thing to do. And if I knew the lady, I'd pay her back.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I really would, but I don't know who it was now. She was, she was an idiot anyways. Um, so I think it's a manhunt over some flash tires at Casey's is what I think is going on. And, and the guy's shining and I'm hiding in the fucking bathtub in my, in my apartment. And that wasn't what it was.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
So anyways, I get up the next day, I get up like the next day and I get to drive around this town, hide from the cops. They're right across the street. You know, I get up early, take off out of my and go run my errands. My main thing was I had to get to the clinic or else I was going to die. If I didn't go to the meth clinic, I was going to get so sick. And, you know, I get up and go do that.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And when I'm driving home from that, my fucking probation officer calls me. What are you doing? She never, never called me for nothing. Just running some errands? What's going on? Can you come in and see me today? No. What? Yeah, that ain't a good sign. Nobody's ever called me and asked me to come in and see him. I know what it is. But I didn't really know what it was.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Well, I get up where I'm like, I don't know how old was I? Like 40, 45 years old. I'm married. I got two kids and we're living together. Yeah, 40. I think it was 40, 41. And me and my wife get in a big fight. And I left that night. It's fuzzy. It doesn't really matter. But I left and I just I didn't really have anywhere to go. So I just got away from the situation.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I didn't really, you know, I'd been doing a bunch of stupid shit, but I didn't know.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
uh i knew it was serious at this time and i said no i said i don't know what's going on she wouldn't tell me when telling you she goes okay forget it you want more for your rest you better be in here in the next hour now i know right now i know and i'm like man i'm not what am i going to do now what am i going to do now oh man what am i going to do so no job no you know hardly had any money so right then i'm driving back uh
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I'm driving back from that phone call, and I pass the police station. I got to turn to go to my apartment right across the street from them. They're all gathered around in the fire department area. There's a whole bunch of cops, man. And they're all gathered around. I pull up and have to stop at the stop sign right next to them, dude. I could almost touch them. And they all turned around.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
There he is. Get him. Get him. And so I'm like, oh, fuck. I pull into my driveway parking. I run inside, shut the door, and I start dialing my bondsman. I'm like, Oh fuck. I got, I'm about to jump in the phone. I hit the guy on the line. Hey man, the fucking cops are there. Oh my God. They're surrounding my apartment, dude.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
You got to make sure at the jail and I get to the jail and find out what the bond is. And I thought it was just the tire thing. You know, I didn't know. Right. What was it? Okay. Listen, dude, there's, I'm in the bathroom and I had a bunch of money in my pocket. Luckily, I don't even know how I had it. It's a couple thousand dollars, I think. And, uh, I think that's how I had, where I had it.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
But anyways, I took it out of my pocket and I told the boss, I said, dude, it's in my apartment, in my fucking bathroom drawer. Just come get whatever you need and come get me out of jail. You know, I knew the guy real well. I still know him to this day. And I slammed the, and I was, I put the phone down. I heard him. They were like, they had like a megaphone. They go, come out with your hands up.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Don't make any fucking crazy moves or, you know, and I'm like, oh, my fucking really? Oh, shit. And I think I called my sister. Oh, my God. Amy, listen, the cops are surrounded by farmers. You go, well, go out there. Go, go out there. And, dude, I was scared to open the door, but I knew just within it, within a couple of seconds, they were going to throw flashbang grenades. They were all over.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I looked, I looked out the window. They were across the street. There were there was cops everywhere. The whole fucking block was lit up. And I opened the door, dude, and I'm not kidding. They were laying on my car with AR-15s or whatever, pointing guns everywhere, guns all over the place. Get on the fucking ground, man.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
So I did everything they said, and they ran up and handcuffed me and picked me up, and they start screaming at me. Where's all the guns? Where's the guns? Where's all the guns? I'm like, what? I don't have any guns. What are you talking about? What do you mean guns? So they just, they just like pull me to the side. They start and they storm in my apartment. No, there's weren't no, no, nothing.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I don't know what they, even if they'd have found something, if they could have done it, there was, but there wasn't, there was no fucking guns in my, I don't have any guns. So they stormed in, they come out and they're like, there's no guns in your house. I'm like, yeah, that's what I've been trying to tell you. There's no guns. What are you talking about? What are you?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I don't understand what's going on. What's the want for? They wouldn't tell me. They wouldn't tell me for a while. And they were like, just wait a minute until our, uh, Until our boss gets here for a second, we got to figure this out. I'm like, yeah, yeah, I'd like to know what this is all about. I mean, all my neighbors are looking out the window. You know what I mean?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Everybody in town knows about it because it's right on Main Street, you know. And finally, this chief of police who I know, who I happen to know from that, you know, getting in trouble in that town. He comes walking up to me and he's like, what's what's going on? I'm like, listen, dude, I'm not the one with the guns. I don't know. They're asking me about guns. Where's all the guns?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
They told us that you wouldn't come out alive. You wouldn't come out alive. I'm like, oh my God, what? Yeah, what are you talking about? He goes, who would say that? I'm like, dude, I don't have any fucking idea who would say something like that. I really didn't know. He goes, man, they about got you shot. I'm like, yeah, I see that. He goes, well, All right. Well, that's good.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I mean, that's that's it. But you do have some warrants. And I'm like, for what? What's the what's for? Well, you got one. This is the only one I remember now. And I try to get some some stuff from the courthouse. There was a whole bunch of charges. But one of the one I was only one I was worried about was aggravated burglary.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I thought the cops were going to show up. Now, I don't think they did that night. But the next day I'm driving around, man, I got to go home sometime. I think my drugs were at home or something. But anyways, this is how it all starts, man. This turned into a fucking shit show. I go pulling up to my house and I get out of my car and I open the door.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
That was the charge that they tried to charge me with basically for going to my in-laws house. And they said they were there. They just hid. They just went and hid it. Whatever. It was a long time ago. They were pretty mad at me too, but maybe they did go hide. I don't know. They said they were in the house when I was in there. I walked right in that living room. Hey, where's everybody else?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Looked in the refrigerator for something to drink. You know what I mean? It was ridiculous. I don't know... what the motivation was to do it. I think they just wanted me under control.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
They were, I mean, I was a loose cannon, like who does that at Casey's, you know, and, and passing out at, I mean, I just, I just wasn't, you know, wasn't all with it and they knew it and they wanted me, they just wanted something to happen. They wanted me off the street. My whole family, everybody did, you know, so they did it. So it worked, you know, so they, I go to jail.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
and you know, you have a bond hearing like the next day, right? I'm still, I'm still dude, totally confused about what's going on. No, I mean, I had an idea. I knew what it was basically about, but I didn't, I didn't know how serious it was at all. I didn't have any idea of the severity of this situation. And it took a couple of days. Finally, I go to bond court and it's a huge deal in there.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
They, there's a prosecutor in there. Your honor, uh, I'm here on special appearance. She wasn't the regular prosecutor. Basically, they tried to say this. We had to drag an extra prosecutor, a special prosecutor here for Mr. Ficklemeyer. He's out of control. This man, he's a dangerous society. By this time, I was already in segregation in jail for something. I did it in jail, so I'm in red.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I don't know if they do that there, but they put you in red in this jail so they can identify you. I know you're a problem. Yes, you're a problem. I'm in red already, and I haven't even been to Vaughn Corps yet. They're like, As you can see, Mr. McGuire is handcuffed, shackled, handed a red jumpsuit. You know, he's obviously out of his mind. He can't be controlled. He's a madman, you know?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And I'm like, oh my, what? Well, we got to get him a lawyer. So this is where it starts, man. So I think they assigned me that idiot woman again. I think is what happened. I'm like, oh my God. But this is so serious, man. Now I'm scared. No, it's a felony. There's a felony. I've never faced a felony charge before it. That's what's got me shook up.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And the fact that I'm in jail and I have no drugs, no access to drugs, and I'm about to die from withdrawal, which is a legitimate concern of mine. I was really worried about dying. I knew I could detox if I could live through it, but that's how bad it was. I'm serious. It was really, really, really bad.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
So they set the bond at like $150,000 or $250,000 over this ridiculous case where I hadn't even been to no evidentiary hearing or anything yet. The bond is just ridiculous. I'm like, I can't. Oh, Jesus Christ, man. I remember, so I leave that, I leave Boncourt, and it's setting in now. I'm like, oh, dude, I'm going to be in here for a long time.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And I told the jailer in the elevator, I said, man, listen, I'm going to be in here a long time, and I don't know if I'm going to make it. I'm going to, I mean, it's going to be bad. What can I do? And he said, okay. The guy was really cool about it, too.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
He said, listen, as soon as, let me get everybody, you know, back to the pods and everything, and I'll, you stay here, and I'll come get you, and I'll take you to the medical room. And I'm like, oh, thank God. Maybe they can help you. Yeah, they don't care either. That's the thing. They want you to suffer. That's their purpose. That's what they think. You know what I mean?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Fucking everybody, cops from all over the fucking place just come storming me like I'm Hitler or something. And I'm like, oh, fuck. Oh, my God. I can imagine myself in jail with no drugs. I'm going to die. I'll die. I got to do what I can while I can. I took out this bottle of the rest of the drugs I had and I ate it all. Everything I had. They come storming up there. I didn't even move.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
So they take me to the nurse and she goes, okay, what are you doing? And I was honest with her. I'm like, listen, lady, you've never met anybody like me. Listen to what I'm doing. This is very serious. I tell her, I lay it all out, dude. The quantities, I'm like, I have to have this and this every day or else I can't walk, really.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And she's like, yeah, well, we've heard that before, you know, and you're going to be OK. And she says, well, here's what I'm going to tell you. She gives me a styrofoam cup. Just drink a lot of water and we'll keep an eye on you for a couple of days. We'll keep you in medical for a couple of days and just drink a lot of water. I'm like, oh, God. I know it's coming.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I know these serious withdrawals. And I've been through it before on my own. So I knew it was going to be bad. And so they put me in medical. Now, mind you, I've only been in jail for two days now. So I'm not even getting sick, hardly getting sick yet. By the third or fourth day is when you start getting a little bit sick.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
But it takes about a week before it's really out of your body and you're really, really, really sick. Right. And so I'm already in segregation at this time anyway. So thank God. So that's all medical is anyways. It's a cell with nothing in it. It's no different than the cell that you were in. And they just don't want to come upstairs where you're at and come check on you.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
If you tell them you're going through a draws, they have to do shit until your blood pressure drops or something. And then they give you like a Tylenol. It's nothing. And I think they gave me a Tylenol once, once the entire time. I mean, they'll let you die in there. You could have a broken arm and they just, I mean, you wouldn't go to medical. You just suffered through it.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
You know, they just, they won't do anything about it. And I'm like, Oh Jesus, I'm going to, I'm going to die in this fucking place. And, uh, but I didn't, I, I went back, I went through the whole medical thing in the jail where they come in every, it was horrible. They come in every 15 minutes and take your blood pressure. They wake you up all night long. It's horrible.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
It's worse than being, you know, some just put me back. I'll just go all this summer through it, you know? So they put me back in a regular pod and, uh, And I'm sick and worried too now because you have to be able to defend yourself in jail to some extent. I mean, you have to be able to at least try to fight. You know what I mean? And it's a fairly violent jail. It's a maximum security jail.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I think it's as secure of a jail as it can be. You know, there's nobody. You can get out and walk around in the pod. And this pod's real loud. And, you know, so I got and I did. I got in a fight in that pod with back to segregation. So I'm stuck in there. which actually turned out to be better because I was at least alone and it was a little bit quieter, you know, and I couldn't eat, man.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
It was, I weighed, I probably weighed. In fact, last, not too long ago, I got a traffic ticket and I had to, I missed the court date and I had to go turn myself in, you know, just go through booking and pay the fine or whatever, which is what I did. Well, when I went to that jail, they all seen me and they were like, Oh my God. Oh my God. And they got all the other cops.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
They're like, check, come down here and look at Becklemeyer. And they're like, Oh, I gained like a hundred pounds. You know, I weighed like 150 pounds. And when I, when I went in that, when they first seen me in that jail, they were showing me old mug shots. Look at this. Look at him. You know, look, you can't even tell a difference. I mean, you can't even say it's the same guy.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Oh, you know, a bunch of the people from the jail, they all knew me. They're all there though. The whole, the whole crew is still in that fucking jail. And, um, So anyway, where was I? So I'm in jail. I'm sick. I'm dying in this cell. I mean, I really do think that you can die from withdrawals like that, especially from benzodiazepine withdrawals. You can actually die from it.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Now, if you're an alcoholic in jail, they'll at least treat you because they know you can die from alcoholism. So they'll do something for you. And actually, they do a lot. They give them all kinds of medication. I think they give them Valium. Imagine that. They give them Valium there. I would have killed somebody for Valium in jail. So I'm in jail and I'm realizing court dates are going by, too.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
So I'm so sick, man. I mean, I can't even I can't exaggerate how sick I was and scared to death. Never been in jail before for any length of time. Up until then, I think the most amount of time I'd spent in jail was a day or two, you know, overnight, a couple of times.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
a lot of times actually i think i got arrested like dude i got arrested like 15 times or something between you know between the very first time i got arrested and this last time just on a whole bunch of times they would anything i did man anything i did they would come arrest me for it was just ridiculous a bunch of i got arrested like six times get this for uh for i would i would be out of my yard
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I was literally in the jam of my door. I just pulled it out of my pocket. I took it all. They come storming in there, arrest me. I can remember this. I can remember getting in the cop car.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
on and off throughout this whole deal and i'd go home and and get an argument with my wife even even inside of just just a minor argument that's nothing big and boom all the cops would just show up out of nowhere i'm like man who's who's calling the cops who even knows i'm here every time i pulled up they the cops were there you know so it happened a bunch of times so i was in and out of that jail a whole bunch of times but this this last time i get stuck in there i know i'm not leaving i'm about to die from withdrawals in there it was it was so bad i uh
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I thought, you know what? I'm not leaving. I've got to get better somehow, and I've got to do everything I can to take advantage of this. At least I don't have to get up and go to work. I didn't have to go to work, and I wasn't worried about paying my bills. I could at least calm down and focus on trying to get off these drugs that I was on. That was what was steering my whole life anyways.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I couldn't get out of this rollercoaster mess.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
uh so i remember i was you know they let you out for it instead to go take a shower and they give you like a few minutes 15 minutes for the phone or whatever and i thought well i'm going to start walking them down the stairs trying to get a little bit trying to get my body back and i could barely walk up the stairs that's how sick i was barely make it up to the top tier of the jail it's only like 25 steps or something but i mean i just almost had to crawl up the stairs i couldn't do it twice the first time you know so i started doing that and uh i
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I still wasn't clear headed. It took months and months, but so all this, the whole time I'm sick and this is what's going on there. They, they got me on all these charges and, uh, they started, they assigned me that lawyer again. I think I, I had to get rid of her first. I'm like, man, I can't have this idiot on this case. It's way too serious. So I had to figure out a way to get rid of that.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And like I said, you can't just fire a lawyer, which I didn't, I didn't even know you could fire lawyers. Somebody in jail taught me that secret. Uh, I, uh, I got both this felony case going on and in jail. And now, uh, my wife is, we're separated and, and now she wants like full custody of the kids.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
and them asking me what happened between me and my wife you know what did i do what did she do whatever and they're you know they're taking me to jail and i black out that's it i can't remember anything i didn't even i don't think we made it out of the city limits and uh i black out and uh i i and you know how you i don't know if it's ever happened to you before but you have little bits uh you know you bit little bits of memory and uh i get to the jail and there's a there's a
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And I'm in jail. Okay. And, and I had to, so I had to fight that cake, fight that situation, which was more serious to me than anything else. And the lead in the, in the felony case at the same time. And, uh, it turned into a, uh, I didn't want to get convicted of this felony because of that because then I would lose – I wouldn't have any say-so over my kids and stuff. And it was serious.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
They could use it against me. And I was trying to get the child – the custody case delayed so I could try to beat this felony. And I didn't want them to settle on anything until I – had the time and chance to fight the felony cases that I had. There was more than one. There was, there was a number of them and I'm stuck in jail.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
It's really difficult to fight a case from jail where they, that, you know, you have bond, but it's not a reasonable bond. Who can, who can, who's going to get out of jail on $150,000 bond, a gangster. I'm not a gangster. You know what I mean? I don't, it was, it was too much money. I mean, I think one of the time I had it, I had a real high bond one time. It was like a, It was quite a bit.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And my sister, I got a sister, one sister I'm really close to, and she got me out, but it costs a lot of money, a lot of money. And this time nobody was getting me out. Nobody was going to, what is it? A 15 grand. Nobody was putting up 15 grand to get me out of jail.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
You know, they knew how sick I was and they, if I had not been sick and all that, they probably would have, you know, my family, they would have found a way to get me out of jail, but they, I think they thought it was maybe we just better leave him in there for a while until he gets better, you know, let him handle it himself. Let him dry out. Yeah, and that was good. It worked. It did work.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
That's where I start trying to fight this case, man. And it's a big deal to me. I didn't want to be a felon. And they're saying this, you could go to jail for four years, prison, prison for four years.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
If you get convicted of an aggravated burglary case with your criminal history, Mr. Ruckelmeyer, which included no felons, you know, no felon, you have a misdemeanor for this misdemeanor for that, you know, which if you get three misdemeanors, it does equal a felony. Right. But I hadn't done that. It had to be the same exact charge in Kansas.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Anyways, if you get three misdemeanor charges for the same thing, like,
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
uh domestic violence I think it has to be even against the same person three different times it turns into a felony well I still I didn't even have that I didn't have nothing it was it was the only felony I had and this woman is telling me that they're gonna put me in prison for four years and I'm like I was believing that I thought God that's horrible I can't go to oh my God I can't go to prison for four years and uh and she's an idiot I can't have her on my case so I got I started having to I had a finagle away to get rid of this woman
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And, uh, I had no idea how to do it. I'm like, Oh, you're stuck in jail. What are you going to do? You don't really have a say. So over who your lawyer is, you know, but I did learn from being in jail. Somebody told me, you know, why don't you just, uh, and a lot of it was delayed too. I was trying to, like I said, I was trying to delay the felony case.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
So it didn't interfere with the, with the case with my kids. You know, I didn't want, I didn't, I didn't want them to, uh, Now, if they go to court and my wife wants full custody of the kids, she's going to get it because I'm in jail. Look at this maniac. He's in jail. He can't even come see the kids. You know what I mean? So I'm losing that.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
If I don't win this felony situation, I'm going to lose that situation. So I'm paranoid about it and I'm trying to delay this, that case. Okay. It's as hard as I can. Every, every ridiculous thing I can think of to delay this child in custody case and that I had another quarter point lawyer on this one, but the problem with this guy was I liked him a lot. The guy was, he was, he was a drunk.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I'd say his name, but I don't want to get sued for like ruining the guy's law practice. He was an older guy from Leavenworth County. And he was, uh, uh, he was a nice guy. He owns a couple of liquor stores in that town. Everybody knows him, but he's drunk all the time. He was drunk at in court, you know, he would come and I could smell booze on him. Like, Oh my God, dude, I can't believe you're in.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
He's like, Oh, it's no big deal. It's just a, uh,
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
don't worry about it i'm like jesus man okay all right okay and he was taking care of it he was taking care of this i was happy with what he was doing but he couldn't he didn't want to delay it anymore or something or couldn't delay it anymore it was getting to a point where i couldn't put it off anymore so uh i thought well what can i do what can i do to get this case to like
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
there's this guard there named Auburn. I got to know later, but, uh, he's trying to book me in, but I can't, I'm so incoherent. I can't, I can't answer the guy's questions, you know, and I couldn't hardly stand up to get fingerprinted. And, uh, he was like, I remember him saying, come on, man, come on, let's just get, let's just get through this. What did you take? What did you do?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Well, I can fire my lawyer. That's what I'll do. I'll fire my lawyer. But I hate to insult this guy and be rude to him. I like him too much. But if I fire him, they'll have to give me more time to get another lawyer. But you have to have a – they have to have a reason to do that.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
They can't just – the lawyer basically has to say they can't communicate with you or they don't – or some – they have to be the ones who say they don't want to work for you anymore. But you can't – they know what you're doing. So I'm in jail, and by this time, you get to know the guards and stuff. And there was this one woman there, and she was nice.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And I didn't want to give this woman any shit, really. But in this situation, I kind of had to. So my plan was, I'm going to go to this hearing, and I'm just going to raise hell in here and cause it to be delayed. I mean I can do something to delay this case. And what I'll do is – what I was thinking was I'll just – I'll fire my lawyer real loud-like and real obnoxious-like.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And so the woman comes and gets me and shackles me up and puts me in the elevator, and I kind of know her. And I said, boy, just wait until you see what happens in court today, so-and-so. It's going to be a real show in there. I can't wait to get in there and talk to old dude in there and stuff. And she's like, but why are you, you, you keep yourself under control in there.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I don't want to, I don't want to have any problems with you in that, in that courtroom. I'm like, don't worry about it. It ain't going to be any big deal. I'm just going to, I got to get it. I got to get an extension. I just got to get one, you know? And man, I didn't know it was going to make this woman this nervous. She was nervous about what I was going to do in this courtroom.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
So instead, so comes my time, they call my case, they open the door and, She walks up. The guard stands right behind me and my lawyer. And I'm going to fire this lawyer anyways. And I was going to tell him, dude, I'm sorry. Got to get ready, man. You got to go because I got to delay this case. I didn't even get that out of my mouth. And by the way, he was drunk, too. I swear he was drunk.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
He was kind of.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
he knew what i was doing and he was kind of chuckling about it well i i got up in his ear to talk to talk to him and the and the lawyer that the guard was right behind me right in my face like sticking her face out and i'm like i go i turn and i go do you fucking mind right right in the hole and she goes oh that's enough that's enough i'm at it she picks me up out of the chair just grabs me up out of the fucking chair and starts pushing me out the door
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I'm like, oh shit. I start arguing with her right there. I'm like, what the fuck are you doing? We stopped going back and forth, bickering back and forth. And I, I kicked the door. I remember I kicked the door open so hard that I had like my hands behind my back and I, bam, I keep the door open to get out of the courtroom. So it worked. It actually worked.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
They, they had to delay this trial now, but, So they did, but I still had the same lawyer. I still had the same guy. I didn't even have time to fire the guy because this idiot officer got too shooken up about what was going on. She gets in there and starts screaming at me. I said, look, I wasn't going to do anything violent. That's not what I meant by saying I wasn't going to cause a problem.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I just meant I was going to get a little bit loud with my lawyer, not with the court or anything. What's wrong with you, woman? You know, well, that's and she's in the elevator pushing the panic button for some reason. I'm going to get some male officers down here, you know. So when they open the elevator door, man, there's eighteen hundred cops out there come storming in there. What do you do?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And I couldn't answer the, I couldn't answer no questions, nothing. So he had to hold me up during the mugshot. And this is, literally use their whole, you just took off something besides me. And I'm trying to look like in this mug shot, just pass them out. And then they, they knew something was wrong, but they didn't know what it was. Cause I couldn't answer the question. Right.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
What do you do? You know, drag me out and drag me out and throw me back in the cell. But it worked. They delayed it. OK, so now I'm back on my felony case. I have this other woman lawyer who I somehow they let me get rid of her. But that case was getting serious, and they assigned me another lawyer, this other guy.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And so I tell him the whole story about what's going on, and I'm telling him, listen, I can't go to jail. I can't get convicted of this, and here's why. I have this other case going on, right? Right. And this is – so I got this male lawyer on the felony cases. I can't remember his name. Didn't like him. He listened to my case, didn't want to fight it. You know how they are.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
They don't want to fight the case. I still don't know why they really don't want to – I don't know if it's that they don't want to make themselves look bad by losing the case or they're just not really interested in doing a whole lot for you. You know what I mean? This guy didn't care.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And so what happened in my – with the other – my other misdemeanor cases, they let me get rid of that lawyer, the drunk lawyer, and I got this other lawyer named John. His name's John, and he's on my case. And I start noticing, hey, man, this guy – This dude's for real. This guy will fight. This guy's a fighter. And I get to know him.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I get to know him a little bit from talking to him before and after court, and he'd come see me in the jail a little bit.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And I'd start begging him, hey, man, I think it would make sense if you were on these felony cases too because it would just be – I think you'd do a lot better, you know what I mean, understanding the whole – all the dynamics of this case about why I'm trying to delay that trial so I can get out of – you know what I mean? You could understand all this. And now he doesn't want to do it.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
He's wanting, no, I don't want any part of that. I just, he won't even talk about it when you talk about it. So, you know, he's on my other cases now though. So that's good. I got at least got him that far. And so I got the, I'm in jail. It's been a couple of months. I had this other lawyer and I tell him the whole story. He won't fight. So I'm like, okay.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And now I understand that you can get, you can delay the whole thing by firing lawyers. So that's my whole, that's my whole strategy. That's all I had at the time. I'm just going to keep firing lawyers and, And until I get out of jail somehow, you know what I mean? I mean, I mean, or I mean, I don't know what else I'm going to do. I can't fight it from in here. Really, you just can't do it.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
You can't fight. Not not very well. You know, you have these these lawyers that you can't even hardly work with. So the whole strategy was to get rid of these lawyers.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
No, I had to get rid of the lawyer on the misdemeanor cases. Just to stall that case is really – the whole strategy is to stall it all. Try to get out of jail. Try to really fight it because you can't fight it from there. I can't even – I couldn't – I was so sick, I couldn't use the phone. I think I heard you talking about this too one time.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
So they took, they put me in medical and medical is nothing but a cell with a bed, a plastic bed. You know, if you've ever been in jail medical, it's not, it's not medical shit. There's no like, it's not like a hospital room. There's just a plastic bed. And like a day later or so, the door opens and a bunch of cops come storming in and they're on both sides of me.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I got to jail, and I was so disoriented and so out of it, I couldn't use the phone. You have to type in your inmate number and all this. It was so complicated. I had to have somebody come help me. I mean, as ridiculous as that is, that's how I was. I couldn't think straight. It was just, Oh man, it was a cloud. It was horrible. It was miserable. So by this time, anyways, it's been a couple months.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I started getting better. I started getting better. And I'm like, well, I pretty much already lost everything anyways. I don't really have anything else to lose. I don't even know what I'm going to do when I get out of jail. I have nothing to lose now. Forget it. I'm fighting tooth and nail. I'm not giving in an inch for anything. I'm not signing anything.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
They kept telling me every lawyer I had said, listen, I think if you just plead guilty to we can they could lower the felony charge to like from aggravated burglary to burglary or something like that. We can get you out of jail. We can get you out of jail today. But you have to you're going to be a felon. I'm like, well, no, then I'm not. Why? Why would I do that? I mean, why? I'm here now.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I don't you know, I don't care now. I don't care now. I got all the time in the world. I'm not giving in. I'm not signing any plea from this fucking jail cell. I'm not doing it. That's blackmail. That is something wrong with the justice system. They got you in prison or in jail, which is hell, and they're telling you, well, you can go. You can go home anytime.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
You just got to sign this piece of paper.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
you know everybody everybody in that jail in the pod i was everybody knew my whole entire case and they they were all pissed off like oh you're an idiot you decided i'd be out of here in a minute i'm like yeah well i'm not you i'm not a i don't steal from walmart dude that's not my career that's not what i do i'm not a you know what i mean i gotta i gotta go to work and and they might do background checks or you know what i just don't want to be a felon it's i'm not guilty anyways
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And that was that, you know, so no. And I can't be a felon because then it's going to interrupt this whole child case. I don't want to lose my kids and lose the, you know, the rights to my. No way, dude. You don't. Nobody understood the complexity of this case. Nobody did. Except for John, the one guy who understands the whole freaking mess.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And he was refusing to get on my case for God only knows why. I still don't know to this day. He won't tell me why. And I think the reason is he just thought I was crazy, you know, because every time at the time when I talked to him, I was crazy. I was, you know, I was, I was just out of it.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Yes, I can't deal with him.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
He's going to be a problem. I don't like him. And he didn't like what he'd heard about me, I think was the deal. And he knew the whole case inside and out. He was friends with my other lawyers. He knew them all. You know how they, and this guy, he was connected. The guy's connected. He's, he's, he's, he's just a smooth talker. He, he, uh, He doesn't even have to really talk. He knows everybody.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Everybody likes him. He gets everything he wants. And everybody who has him in a lawyer, they leave jail. They don't stay in there. You know what I mean? He gets, he's serious about it. He doesn't want you in jail. If he's, if you're his client, he doesn't want you in jail. I'm like, I mean, I gotta have this idiot on my, I gotta have him on my, on this phone case. And I'm begging him.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
He just, he starts making up reasons why he can't do it. I don't know what his problem was. I don't know why, but I mean, It didn't seem like he didn't like me. Right now, I have this problem with this other lawyer that they got. This guy, he's just an arrogant jerk. I didn't like him. He used to be a cop. He just didn't see any reason to fight the case. He just wasn't going to do it, basically.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
He's just not going to do it. He's not going to go do any homework about it or even try. Okay, this guy's got to go. But that's difficult because he doesn't want to go, really, and he's not going to give up. He's saying it's like a personal thing of them that I was trying to fire him. Like, you're not going to fire me. I'll show you I'm the lawyer here, you know.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
So anyway, I'm still on bond, this stupid high bond. And I start trying to fire that lawyer. And the judge... Now, remember, by this time, my wife is involved. This is a small community. My wife's involved. She has a couple of her own lawyers, and they're public defenders. So I'm connected to that. I can't have the same lawyer she does, and she has a public defender.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And they, they throw me a bunch of paperwork, you know, and it's a bunch of charge. It was a bunch of charges. I can't remember what they were, but the main, the main thing was I couldn't go back home. I had to reach training order. I couldn't go back to my house. Um, I was charged with whatever the crimes were.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
How many public defenders are there? There can't be very many. So I start plotting. I think, well, there's a fire mall. Until I get to John, they have to give me this lawyer. They have to, they don't have any choice. What are they going to do? What are they going to do? Not give me a lawyer, right? So I think this is brilliant. Oh, this is a great idea. This is going to work.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Once I got that guy on my case, I'm out of here. And I just knew it. I just, I just, I could tell. I knew he wouldn't, he wouldn't be able to, he wouldn't let me sit in jail anymore. It'd been too long. So anyway, this guy, this lawyer, that was a real problem. I can't, I can't shake this idiot off my case. So the first thing I did was,
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
was I started to tell my sister knows this whole story and I'm talking to her from jail. And she is by this time sick of me being in jail. I've been in jail for a long time. And she goes way out on a limb and hires this big wig, fancy law firm. I can't remember the name of this, but it was a high dollar law. It was a big deal. I couldn't believe it. I'm like, damn.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
One day they come to the, they come to my jail, my pod and they got me and they say, Hey, somebody's here to see you. And I I'm walking down there and you can, I could see where the lawyers are and stuff and where they let you meet with them. And I've seen this woman, woman lawyer, stand in this really nice suit. She's real tall. And I'm like, who is this?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And I walk in there, and she's all real professional. Mr. Rickmeyer, I'm so-and-so from such-and-such law firm, and your family has hired me to defend you in this case. I'm like, oh, really? Nice. All right. Now let's get down to business. I don't even need a public defender anymore. I got this kick-ass lady from this law firm who's going to go out of her way and
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
You know, just like they say, if you got your own law, if you got your money to hire your own law, you'll get out of it. You know what I mean? Well, so I spent hours talking to this woman, hours plotting this case, all my ideas about how it could be, you know what I mean? And she listens to all of it. And I say, hey, do you know, by the way, do you know these people? I mean, it
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
i always think this it would be a little bit dangerous to hire somebody outside of their circle you know outside of the circle they don't like that stuff lawyers coming in from the outside think they're hot shots coming into their courtrooms and telling them what to do you know i thought that was kind of like man i don't know that might be a little bit dangerous and she says she starts telling me that oh oh the first thing she says hey let me ask you uh who's on your who's on your misdemeanor cases who's your lawyer on that i'm like john bryant she goes oh
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Okay, it was domestic violence, destruction of property, and a bunch of other misdemeanors. Really not that big of a deal, but this is the first time I've ever been in jail. And I couldn't go back to my house. I'm like, what am I supposed to do? I mean, I'm stuck here in jail. I don't know what I was wearing, a pair of tennis shoes and some jeans. My car was at home. I don't know how I got it.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Oh yeah, that's good. That'll work out. He'll, he'll fix that. I'm like, yeah, I know. I know. I tried to get him on this case, but he won't do it. Little did I know I could have just hired him. I didn't know you could hire the guy. I thought he was a public defender. I had no idea. Okay. I had no idea. I could just hire the guy.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
So this one, I talked to her for hours, plotting this case and it comes time to go to court. And, uh, and I said, I tell her, I said, listen, the first thing we're going to do is let's get this bond reduced down to a reasonable bond. It's getting out of jail. It's just, let's just try to get it. I didn't say, get me out of jail. I said, just get the bond cut in half. It's $150,000.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And I know that he's, he's the last time I was in court, he was, I asked for bond because my lawyer wouldn't do it. The man, I said, your honor, there is, I want to ask about bond. He goes, yeah. How long have you been in there anyways? And he's looking at his paper and I'm like, I've been in here for six months. He goes, wow, six months. I said, yeah. And he goes, okay, okay.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I'm going to say a bond hearing. I'm like, yes, good. This is good. He knows I've been in there a long time. He's loosening up. This guy's, you know, I'm going to get a bond reduction. They hadn't given me one, not one in this entire length of time. I've been in jail now for six months, dude.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Six months, which is a long time, which is about to surpass the amount of time that I would really have to do if I were convicted. You know what I mean? Now, they're saying you're going to do four years in prison. But the truth is, it would be a miracle if you got a year. I think a year in prison, right? That's ridiculous. First time, they're not going to send. And the guy lawyer did say that.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
He said, listen, dude, what are you so worried about? I said, I don't want to go to prison. He goes, man, you ain't going to. They're not going to put you in prison, man. Now, I said, that's not how they're acting. They're acting. They're upset. They're acting like they want me to go to prison. He goes, listen, I've been doing business in this courtroom. I know that judge.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
He's not going to put me in prison. I was like, really? I still don't want to be a felon. I don't care. I don't care if they let me out today. I'm not leaving until I'm not a felon. So anyways, he goes away, and this woman lawyer comes in, and we start strategizing. And then she asked me what to do in court. This actually happened to me. I said, okay, listen.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Just all I want to do is get a bond reduction. Please get me out of this jail. I've been here for six months. Get me out of this jail. And she looks at me straight in the face and says, I'm not, I'm not going to do that. I said, what? You're not going to do what? I'm not, I'm not going to embarrass myself by asking for bond in this case. I'm like, embarrass yourself by asking for bond.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
That's your fucking job. What are you talking about? What are you talking about now? What? You're not going to ask for, why would you do that? And so the session ends, and I go back to my cell, and I'm like, man, this is weird. Why would she not ask for bond? I mean, that's her job. She's, again, trying to get me to take a plea, and this is what she's telling me.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Now, listen, I know some of these people, and I know I can get you a really good deal. I can get you out of jail, and you won't go to prison, and all you have to do is agree to five years of probation. And I'm like, and, and, and I'm going to be a felon for the rest of my life. I mean, there's no getting rid of that. Right. Yeah. But, but listen, it's no big deal. It's just, it's five years.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I'm like, yeah, it's a big deal. It's a big deal to me. So the next day we had court and I'm like, I got to get rid of it. I got to get rid of this one. Now this is a real issue now because my sister paid a ton of money. This is no joke of a lawyer. This one, it was a big firm. It cost a lot of money. I don't know exactly how much I never get. I think it was like $10,000 or something ridiculous.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
But anyway, so eventually... I did go back home, got some stuff, got my car, and I think I went to my sister's house. I don't know where I went, but that's how it kicks off. So I go to court the first time in court, and they assign me this insane idiot public defender. It was a woman, totally incompetent. This woman, I don't think – well, first of all, I know she'd never, ever been to a trial.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Yeah. Well, the money, first of all, could have been used for my bond. My sister wasn't going to do that, but she was connected to this firm because her son had been in a bunch of trouble, and they'd beaten a bunch of the cases, right? Well, for some reason, this woman won't do it.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
We go to court the next day, and I thought, I've got to get rid of her right now before there's any more money spent on this idiot, and she's going to destroy me. She's not willing to fight him. I'm not doing it. So we go to court, and the judge says, man –
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
they actually called a special session it was like out of the blue it wasn't a scheduled court date it was like once i had her they had a special hearing like the two days after i got this lawyer or something just all of a sudden it was like after hours they called me up there with my lawyer and and the prosecutor and everything and uh they think they got a deal they this woman really thinks that she's got me talked into this deal or something i don't know
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Well, I knew I had to get rid of her. And so as soon as I walked in the courtroom, they start talking. I'm like, wait a minute. Just everything stop. There's no point in me even being in this courtroom because this woman doesn't represent me. And they're like, what? What are you talking about? What are you talking about? And I said, no way. I'm not going to – she doesn't represent me.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And I didn't have any real, you know, I drank and did a little drugs and stuff, but I didn't really do any drugs. I wasn't into any real criminal activity, you know, nothing, nothing. I'd never been to jail, nothing up until, well, one time I did the very first time I ever went to jail, I was driving home from work and I got pulled over and they said I had a suspended driver's license.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And the judge, by this time, he knows – the guy knows me. I've seen him a hundred times. He's pissed. And he actually says – okay, what, what exactly is the problem? I said, I'll tell you, I'll tell you exactly what the problem is. She, I talked to her for hours and she agreed to do something that she's now unwilling to do.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And he's like, long story short, he said, well, you can't tell your lawyer, uh, how to defend you in court. I was like, what? I didn't believe it. I didn't believe that that was the case. It is the case that you can't, right? Well, I'm like, OK, well, I don't have to. I what I can do is not pay her. I'm not going to know he's going to pay her any more money. That's she's not.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I'm not going to come in this form and have her. I can fire her. I don't care. Yes, I can. I can. I can decide. But no, she's not going to get paid anymore. She's not my lawyer. Forget it. And he goes, Mr. McElroy, I'm going to step out for 10 minutes and I'm going to let you work this out. You to work this out. And I'm going to come back in and we're going to get this all straight.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And I'm like, don't even bother. Don't even bother. I'm not, I'm not doing it. And man, they all threw up their hands. Oh, forget it, man. Whatever. You know, and she just couldn't, this woman couldn't believe it either. And I remember I get up and I go and I'm like, Oh my God, how am I going to explain this to my sister?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
My sister has no real clue what's going on, but she just dumped a boatload of money on this logger. And, um, I remember I had to, I'm like, Oh my God, I better tell her. I got to tell her before she tells her the larger tells her.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Yes. And she did. Of course I wasn't fast enough by the time I caught, I'll never forget my sister going, you fucking fired that lady. I said, yeah, but listen, listen to what she did. I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear it. You know, no, that's it. Everybody's done with me now. No, you know, they're just disgusted that, that, But the truth was, look, she really did do that.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
She wasn't going to ask for bond, nothing. And so, oh, the lawyer, before I left court, he goes, okay, all right, you want to fire her? That's right. You can. You cannot pay her, and that's what you can do. But I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'll tell you what I'm going to do is I'm going to give you back so-and-so, this lawyer. And I said, yeah. I don't think he's going to do it.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I don't think he's going to do it. He goes, yeah. I wish I had the transcripts. I tried to get him. He goes, yeah, well, we'll see about that, Mr. Bicklemeyer. We'll see about that. And I said, I guess we will. I guess we will. He goes, we'll be back here. He's not going to spank me. He gives me another month. We'll be back here in another month or whatever. So, oops, I got to get now.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I really got to get rid of this. I can't have him. And he's got to be the last one on the list.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
The drunk guy's already gone. John's on those cases. Those are the misdemeanor cases. These are the felony situations. This guy was a little bit older than me, but he was not incompetent. You could tell he could be a good lawyer if he wanted to be. I don't know why he wasn't willing to do it, but it didn't matter.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
He might have been okay, but by this time I had in my head that I had to have John on these cases because he He's the only one that understood the whole situation. And the judge knew it too. The judge knew – I think he might have even said, I know what you're trying to do. I'm not an idiot. I've been around for a long time. I can see what you're trying to do, and I'm not going to do it.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I'm going to give you so-and-so back. And I said, well, he's not going to do it. I promise you he won't take the case. Oh, we'll see about that. And so – I didn't know, but I had an idea what I was going to do about this other lawyer.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Now, how long she'd been a lawyer, I'm not sure if it was that day she was new or what. She gets to talking to me, immediately trying to get me to take a plea. I'm like, what? I didn't do that. I didn't hit my wife. I tore up some shit in my house. We were fighting and stuff, but I didn't hurt anybody. I didn't fucking hit anybody. It was no violence at all. The shit's mine.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I'm like, I think what I'll do is I'll just write him this real obnoxiously rude letter and as obnoxious and rude and, and just talk a bunch of crazy shit in a letter and send it to the guy. And I did it and it worked. It worked, man. I, so the guy gets this letter and he's so insulted by everything I said, he just decides he doesn't want to take the case. He's sick of me anyway. And, um,
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
So a month goes by, we come back. This is when it's kind of funny. We go back into court and it was a scheduled court date, but I knew the, I knew this stuff was like sat at my head. I was pretty sure he wasn't after that letter I wrote that he wouldn't represent me anymore. And I knew the judge would be pissed. I knew he was going to be madder than hell that it happened.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And I thought, well, they might be able to do something, but odds are they're just going to, they're just going to give in. It's been so long. They're going to give in to either give me John or they won't, they won't, maybe they won't have a choice, you know? And I walked in the courtroom. You know, you're all shackled up now.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I walk in the courtroom and I looked over and there was old John sitting there in the chair like this with his head between his hands like, oh, my God. He was so mad and pissed about what was going on in the situation. And I swear he was crying. I was crying about it. And I was laughing. I'm like, yes, I know it worked. Why would he be in this courtroom if this didn't work? And I sit down and I
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And the judge, he leans back and he says, Oh, Mr. Bicklemeyer, last time we were in court, uh, you told me that, that, uh, you fired your lawyer, you fired your paid lawyer and, uh, and, and I'm going to give you, I tried to give you back so-and-so and you told me I couldn't do that. You told me that he wouldn't do it. And, uh, there was nothing I could do about it. And he said, and you're right.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
There wasn't. You win, you win. And I know what you're doing. I know that you want John on this case. And, um, And yeah, my hands are tied now. You got it. I'm going to give you John. He's not. Now he's your lawyer on your on these felony charges. He goes, there's only one problem. We got a little problem. And I was like, oh, what is it? What could the problem be?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And he says, John can't do it until May. This is like, dude, it's like four or five months later. I can't remember when this was a long time. Four months later. So I think back.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Almost a year. I would have been in prison. Yes, by that time, it would have been a year. I got arrested on June 23rd or something. And by this time, yeah, if the time would have went by that he tried to set aside, I would have been in there a year. So he thought he got me on that one. The judge thought, boy, you think you're smart, but John has a problem. He can't do it until May.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And I turned around and looked at him. He's over there. And I said, that's okay. That's okay. I'll wait. And by this time, I'm feeling good. I'm getting better anymore. I really don't care. And, man, I'm not kidding. It wasn't, listen, I looked over at him, and he's mad at me for what I did anyways. And he looks up, and he goes, or call me or whatever, you know.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
So I'm laughing at him on the way out of the courtroom. And I went downstairs, and the first thing I did was call him. And he said, yeah, I know. Yeah, I'll be up there to see. I'll come up and see. Don't talk about it on the phone. I'll talk to you in the jail. I said, when can you be here? The judge said you couldn't do it. He goes, I don't know. I can do it. I can do it right now.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
What are you talking about? This is my stuff. Who gives a fuck what I break? Anyway, I'm not having it. I'm not taking a plea because I think I'm I don't know. I should have, but I thought I was just, I'm not guilty. I'm, I'm taking it to trial. And right away she gets real nervous. And she was trying to talk me out of it. I'm like, what are you talking about?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I'm like, oh, you can get on the case right now? Yes. Yeah, I can. I said, okay, cool, man. I'll see you. I don't know what they were trying to do. I think maybe they told John, hey, man, we're going to give it, but don't take it until May or something. Do some scheduling stuff. Yeah, there's no hurry. Yeah, no hurry. But it was to him. But now he's my lawyer on this case.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And for whatever reason, he really does care. He does care that I'm in jail and he's my lawyer. So he comes to see me in the jail. And dude, I thought he was on Xanax. You're talking through the glass on them fucking silly phones. I was excited this time. I knew what the call was about. They call you to come down. You got to visit. He's not even in the lawyer room where they
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
you know, where you can actually talk to your lawyer and have contact with your, if you wanted to, they usually put you in a little room. Well, he was in the glass because I think because somebody else was in that room. So I walk all the way to the end and I, there he is sitting there like this, like just, just not excited at all about this case. And he, I pick up the phone.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I'm like, Hey dude, what's going on? Hey, how's it going? I mean, he's like, yeah, all right. All right. You know, Here's what I want to do is what he says. He says, listen, I don't know what you want me to do. I don't know what you think I can do on this guy. I know the whole guy. I know everything about him. I don't know what you think I can do. He goes, but I'll do whatever you want me to do.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
You tell me what you want me to do, and I'll do it. But listen, if you go to prison, that's on you. That's your own problem. And I said, listen, I'll go to prison. I don't care. We're fighting it all the way. And by this time, I really didn't care. I was starting to feel better. And I'm like, hey, man, I got nothing to lose. I don't really care. It's only a couple years.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
What's the difference between now and a couple years from now? If something happened and I really did go to prison.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Yes, right? So he says, okay. I think he even told me it was at that time. He goes, you know who I am, and I'll do what I can. And I said, yeah, I know. I know you well. And you understand the whole dynamics of this whole thing. And he goes, all right, well, what do you want me to do then? What do you want me to do? Smartass. You know, this is the way he's acting toward me.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I said, okay, here's all I want you to do. All I want you to do, man, is ask for a bail reduction. He goes, okay, all right. I'll do it. And I said, can you get me a bail hearing? Yeah, I can get a bail hearing. I said, okay, well, listen, I tell him the whole story about the last time. I'm like, listen, man, I was in court and this is what the dude said. He goes, yeah.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
You know, he's like, I don't think he is too happy with you. You know, so I don't know. I said, man, come on, just get me the hearing. That's all I want you to do really is to try. I want somebody to fucking try, get me out of jail, you bastards. And dude, it was like two days later, man, two days later, I'm on the docket. All of a sudden, two days, two or three days later,
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And I've been in this jail for eight months thinking I'm never getting out by this time. And I didn't even care. But I get John on the case like I've been thinking the whole time. I'll be out of here. A couple of days go by and he's got me on the docket again for a hearing already. It's been only been a couple of days, maybe the next day. I mean, it was fast. Bam.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And they call you down there and you're with everybody else. And they put you in there. They put you in this little room where there's a window where you can talk to your lawyer. And remember, he's a public defender now, even at this time, you know, he's he's he's a public defender for a bunch of people in jail. And he I found out later he runs his own private practice.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I didn't know that was the case or else I would have just hired him. Now, he knows that I hired that woman, too, and he knows I fired her. And I think he knows why, too. And come to find out, well, I'll tell you later. So anyway, I go down there and I see him in the other room. And he's like, come on in. And so the guards let me in that room.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I told you I'm, you know, I thought you were my lawyer. You know, what are you talking about? And she, she even tried to say, you know, where's your wife? And my wife was in the car. It was funny. I'm like, I don't know. I'm not supposed to talk to her. I'm supposed to talk to my wife. She goes, well, if I find out you're talking to your wife, I'll have to not be your lawyer anymore.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And I said, and he goes, dude, you're not going to fucking believe this. And I go, oh, I bet I'm going to believe it. I bet that I bet I'm going to believe it. He goes, they're going to fucking let you out of here. And I said, oh, yeah, I went. He's like, today, right now. I said, no shit. What'd you do? He goes, well, here's the deal. You got it.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
He goes, they're, they're mad because they think you won't loosen up a little bit. You, that you're just going to make a big mockery out of this whole, you know, it's going to be a mess. They're just, they're just worried that you're just, it's just going to be a big problem. And I said, well, like what, like what, like I want to go to trial or whatever it was.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I mean, you know what, what's the big deal? He goes, we just got to show, you know, I mean, isn't there something, I mean, like I said, what do you want? He goes, I, Can you plead guilty to one of the misdemeanor charges? I said, okay, what misdemeanor charge? He goes, I got telephone harassment. Can you take a telephone harassment charge? I'm like, sold, man, sold. Give me the fucking paper.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
He goes, okay, all right, I'll see you when you get out.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
They just made it up because all the other misdemeanor charges, like there was some break and restraining orders. Oh, no, there was some telephone harassment on my part, calling my in-laws when I was out.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
bitching and screaming and calling people just being an idiot just being an idiot okay wasn't it charged i don't know but they made it into a charge which whatever dude i don't care and so he's i think what he did was he goes listen let's just close out all this other misdemeanor stuff plead guilty of this telephone harassment just like a no insurance ticket he said it's no big deal it's nothing i'm like oh what's the punishment no it's a misdemeanor he goes i don't even think it came with any probation
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Yeah, it did actually. It was, but it was only like six months. I'm like six months probation too. I done deal. You know, he goes, all right. And, and, uh, and he goes, what are we going to do after that? And I said, I don't know. Let's just not worry about where, and I kind of told him anyways, I'm like my little strategy. And he goes, well, Okay. He's like, whatever. It's your life.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I said, I'm willing to go to prison, do the time, whatever. I'm not giving up. I'm going to fight this all the way to the nail. He's like, yeah, I've heard that a thousand times. That's what everybody says until it comes right down to it. Then they're going to sign anything. I'm like, that's not going to happen, dude. I'm telling you right now, I'm not doing that. You're going to have to fight.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
He's like, I will. I'll do. I don't care. I'll go to trial. I like trial. I don't care. He's been a prosecutor in this town, everything. He didn't care. He wasn't scared of it at all. I think he wanted to do it. Probably to see me put in prison or something. Anyway, he gets me out of jail, man. That day, I go down there, and they're like, they dropped the bond from $150,000 to nothing. To nothing.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Zero. Sign your name here. And all they said in the trial was, the judge was like a whole new person. He says, you know, Mr. Rickmeyer, you've been in there for a long time. this is true too.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
He said, and I've been a judge for a long time and, and I know that, that I can tell, I can see drug acts when I, and I know when I see them and usually takes about five months for them to start really coming around, you know, coming around and getting their head on their shoulders or whatever. And it's been six months and I can see that,
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I'm like, what? Okay. I didn't realize that the lawyer isn't supposed to know you're guilty or something. You can't outright tell your lawyer that you're guilty. And then they can't defend you in good conscience. Let's say you committed murder. I don't think you can tell your lawyer. Yeah, I did it. No, let's just try to be. Well, I didn't know that.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
you know you seem a lot better and a lot i'm just gonna let you go i just couldn't believe it 150 000 or nothing okay out and so man they they i i'm like i can't believe it i'm like oh my god they're gonna let me go i still have the felony charges now remember and i go down and never tell people in jail you're going home either they they're idiots people are so they're so jealous and and
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I went down to the pot and I'm like, dude, I got a fucking bond. Some of the idiots are like, oh yeah, you ratted on somebody. I'm like, ratted on who? There's nobody to rat on in my case. You know what I mean? People in jail are sick, man. Digging through your I got a subpoena while I was in jail and some people in the power like, oh, look, Bill Myers needs a subpoena.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I'm like, I can't help it if I got subpoenaed in jail. I'm going to rat it. You know, what am I going to do? They split a subpoena under my door at 3 a.m. I can't do anything about that. So anyway, they're being idiots in the jail about me getting out. They're just jealous that I got out. But it was in March. It was on March the 3rd. Man, I'll never forget that.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And I'm like, I wonder what it's like outside because nobody knows I'm leaving this jail. The only person that even cared that I was in jail was my sister, my older sister, Amy. uh, she was, you know, she was putting money on my books and on my telephone, you know, and I had some money, but what happened was, if you remember, I got fired from my job right before I went to jail.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
It's like two days before that. And, uh, I told her, Hey, go, go to my job and get my last paycheck and stuff. You know, it was, it was, they owed me a couple thousand dollars or something. And, uh, and, uh, she, she went and got it. They gave it to her. They, they were concerned. They were like, is he okay? What's going on? You know, they were,
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
and uh they gave her the check and they even let her i never even signed it somehow she cashed the check i think they wrote it to her actually they wrote the check to my sister or something and uh she took the money she could have probably just endorsed your name on yeah yeah and put it put in her it was a small check yeah anyway so that's how i had money the whole time but it ran out of course because i was talking on the phone but she was putting money on her and my mom and um
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
So but nobody knows I'm getting out of jail. Nobody expects me to be getting out of jail. I didn't expect really expect it. I I knew that once John was on this case that that things would start working there, you working out, you know. And that's what I mean. I was saying about public defenders. Every time I watch your show, people are always bashing them.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I'm like, well, they're not all like that. And this guy's one of them. And he was proud of it, too. He would say, you know, I'm not like. I'll actually do. I'm not like all the other public defenders. I'm like, yeah, I know. I know. I know all these people in jail that have had you on these cases. I know who you are. That's why I wanted you on the case.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
He gets me out of jail, but they kick you out with nothing. I had some shoes, some blue jeans, and a shirt. That's it, man. A bag of
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
of you know they i gave everything away i was going to keep my jail clothes i i give all the uh everything i had i gave to the people in the pod that i liked like my celly or whatever which was a bunch of you know notebooks and you know you gather some stuff in jail after eight months and they all want it they'll fight over a bowl or a cup and uh i gave all that stuff away so i left with nothing like a little bag or something i was leaving the court leaving the jail and there was a lady leaving at the exact same time they literally let us out of jail
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
at the exact same time they didn't open the door once close it and let her out they let us out at the same time they went the door let her out and i've never seen met this woman before in my life never seen her heard of her nothing and and we're they let you out of jail and the instructions were you listen go talk now now i was i was on uh probation from the uh for the misdemeanor uh terroristic phone call or whatever whatever the case was so i had to say okay we're gonna let you out of jail but
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
you're on bond release, basically. It was a signature bond, but you're on bond release is what they call it. So it's basically super supervised probation. I had to go back every week and on Wednesday and take a drug test, a drug and alcohol test. This time I wasn't worried about it. I wasn't on drugs anymore. I wasn't, and I wasn't planning on it either. I'm like, and that's it for that. I'm done.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I feel better. You know, oh man, what a relief. I felt great. I never felt better in my life. I remember when I was leaving, I thought, how am I going to get home? How am I going to get back to my house? I'm like, I don't care. I'll walk. I don't care. I mean, it's like what? Tell 30 miles. It's not that far, 50 miles, not even 50. I could have walked home and that's what I was going to do.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I'm like, I'll just walk home. I'll just hitchhike home. I'll get back to, you know? And so I get out and they let me off this woman and she starts, she asked me, Oh wow. How long have you been in jail? I'm like, man, I was in there for eight months. Wow. That's a long time. How are you going to get home? I'm like, I don't know. She goes, well, do you need anything?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
You want some cigarettes or something? I was like, I don't. I don't. I'm not going to smoke. I'm not going to smoke. And she goes, well, do you need a ride? Like, yeah, I do. I need a ride to a phone. Can you give me a ride to the like down to the Walmart or something so I can just use the telephone? Sure. You know, and she goes, I got to go see my probation officer. Me, too.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
That's where I'm going. So we get in the probation office, and we're just talking, simply talking about our plans after, look, she's going to take me down to the dollar store at Walmart. And the head of the probation officer hears this whole thing going on. And in condition of the bonds that you don't talk to any other felons or have anything to do with anyone. Right.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
But this woman's a felon, and I'm in the probation officer with her talking to her. And she starts trying to get me re-arrested right there for talking to this lady. She's throwing a fit. This woman is throwing a fucking fit in a probation office. And I'm like, what the fuck is going on? What is going on? What are you talking about? I've been in jail for eight months. What are you talking about?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
She's like, who's your probation officer? I was like, Laura. I knew her real well. And she goes, she runs and goes and gets her and tells her the whole story. Like rats me out. He's out there talking to felons. I'm like, what? I can't do it. She has to go to the probation office too. There's nothing I can do about it. And so I'm in the middle of an argument right after I get out of jail.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I mean, here's what I thought. I thought the lawyer was there to lie through court. I mean, I thought that was their job. I had no idea. Right. So she apparently she wasn't on board with it either. But it wasn't for that reason. It was just because she she was an idiot. I'm a stone cold idiot. But I keep pushing it. I'm like, I'm not. I'm not doing it.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I was all in a good mood. I'm in the middle of this giant argument. And my sister walks in the door. I haven't even been out of jail for 45 minutes. My sister walks in the door. I'm like, hey, what's going on? Damn. And she goes, what's going on here? I said, nothing, nothing. You know, I'm just, and it was, so I'm, I'm like, hold on, let me talk to Laura. So I talked to my probation officer.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I'm like, man, listen, I told her the whole story. She goes, who cares? What's the big deal? What's the problem? And I said, I don't know. It's not my problem. It's just a woman's, your boss's problem. And so she goes, don't, don't worry about it. Just don't talk to each other. You're not supposed to talk to her. You got a ride. Just go home. I'm like, okay, see ya. You know?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And my, but my sister's mad. She thinks that I'm still, I hadn't learned anything. I hadn't learned. I haven't been in jail for eight months. I hadn't learned nothing. I'm, get out in an argument with my probation officer, you know? So, uh, she's, she's mad. Doesn't talk to me all the way home, takes me home, drops me off at my mom's house, but I'm happy. I'm like, God, Oh man, I'm out of jail.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I had all these plans. You know, when you, you got eight months to think about what you're going to do. I mean, what am I going to do when I get out of jail? And I did think, I think what I'm going to do, I think what I better do when I get out of jail is, uh, not do anything. I don't think I'm going to talk to anybody or contact anybody, or I think I'm going to
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Just get my head together, take a month or so, you know, exercise and, you know, get my shit straight, forgot what I want to do. And so I did that. I didn't tell you that last time. I waited a month, I think. I was like, I'm going to give it a month, you know, before I really do anything. I don't really care. It changes the whole way you think once you've been to jail.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
You know how it is, especially you. You're not as afraid anymore of what you were afraid of before. You know what I mean? You already lost everything. There's no way to go any further down. Who cares? I'm not – I mean, was it – In a way, it was a good experience. I learned a lot from it. The whole time in jail wasn't exactly miserable.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
It was horrible at first, but by the end, I'm laughing and playing chess. It wasn't that. I had some great times in jail. It was few and far between, but it was fun at times, especially when the par would get full of fun people. We're playing chess every day, all day long. It wasn't that bad. By the end, I wasn't sick anymore. Anyways, I get out, and
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I decided I'm not going to do anything for a month, but I still got to fight this effing case. I got to get back to court every week. And that went on for a long time. So I'm in the middle of a case, and my lawyer eventually contacts me. Hey, man, what are we going to do about this case? And I'm like, well, I think by this, the misdemeanor stuff was all done.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Well, that's all done, so I don't have to worry about that anymore. But he goes, well, what are we going to do about the felonies? What's your idea? What do you think? And I said, let's just, how much, can you give me some more time? I just need some more time. And he says, well, how much more time? It's been a long time.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
It's already been almost a year since you were in jail, but you all know how much more time I can give you. I'm like, yes, you can. You can do it. You can do anything, man. And he says, okay, I know I can get it. I know I can get a co-op extension. I'm like, man, let's just drag it out. Let's just see how long we can drag it out. I mean, it could be years. We could drag it out for years, right?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
He's like, eh, you know, not for years. But, you know, a year is plenty. But, dude – He did. He kept getting extension after extension after extension. And he's like, what's it going to matter? And I'm like, I don't know. Everybody calms down. The witnesses is the main thing. Everybody calms down. Everybody's not so mad anymore.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Why would I take a plea on something like that? It's ridiculous. Even if I got found guilty, what would be the worst thing that could happen? What, what, you know, what would happen? You could go to jail for a year. I'm like, I don't think I'm going to go to, I don't think I'm going to go to prison or jail over this. I don't think so. Right. So I pushed this and pushy and push it until they do it.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
They're not so excited about being witnesses after they see that I'm not insane anymore. You know what I mean? And they're going to want me – they're going to change their mind about pursuing this case because it really did depend on – The witnesses. The witnesses. Absolutely right. Yes. And I'm related to the witnesses, and eight months had gone by.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
They don't want to go to court and deal with this BS. You know what I mean? They just don't want to do it. And so I'm telling him this, and he's like, yeah. And I say, can you – is it ethical for you to hold him, for you to talk to him? And I think he said he could, but he didn't know if it was a good idea or something. I'm like, why don't you just fill it out?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
See what they're going to – see how they feel about this. And I don't know if he did or not, but he kept extending it. Right. Well, he just kept extending it and extending it. And, you know, months and months go by. I remember I was working. I was all back to normal working. Everything was fine. And now I'm really scared to get the felony. Now it was even worse.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I really didn't want the felony bad. And he finally calls me one day and he says, hey, man, I was I've been thinking about that case. And, you know, I listen to all the jail. I listen to all your jail calls. You know, for that piece of their evidence was on my jail phone. So let's put it that way. I was talking to somebody and. they thought they didn't need the witnesses anymore.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
They were going to use the jail calls. That was their main piece of evidence. That was that, that they had, even if the witnesses weren't there, the jail phone calls, uh, were going to get me convicted of, uh, of it. And, uh, so he was trying to find a way around that. And he calls me and he says, I think I found a way around that one. And he said, there's like 80 people on your phone.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Did you know that? And I said, well, yeah, I knew it. I've been selling my phone time for, uh, uh,
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
soups and whatever you know how you do in jail they want they want to talk on the phone and uh and you give them a soup and you give them or they give you a soup or whatever they got and you give them a few minutes they can call her wife or girlfriend or whatever so there's a bunch of people on the phone a bunch of people and he goes i don't think they're gonna i was i don't know if everybody understand you you only get like how many minutes do you get in there 300 what total yeah per month oh no there was no limit it was limited unlimited it was how much you could afford
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Oh yeah. You can talk as much as you want, but it was expensive. You know, it's like 50 cents a minute or some, some ridiculous amount of money. I think I spent a thousand dollars on the phone and only eight months. You know, like I said, I know it was like a thousand bucks. So, uh,
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
you know, it was more when you're in jail, it's more important to talk on the phone than it is to eat really, you know?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Yes. All these people using my phone. And he says, I don't think they're going to want to go through all the trouble to, to figure out who you, I think I can throw up, uh, kick up some dust about that. And he didn't say he thought he could beat the case with that. He said, I think I can get extensions based on that because if they have to go back and, uh,
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And try to figure out who's you, who's who on the phone. I know it's going to take them a long time and I know it's expensive or whatever. And I know that we can drag this out for quite a while based on that. I'm like, man, that's fantastic, dude. That's just a great idea, man. Do that. You know, he says, okay, I'll do it. And then he does it.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
and man i don't even think a month went by and he calls you back he goes oh man listen to this they're gonna they're gonna i he filed a motion about their phone calls or something he goes they're they're just done with the whole thing they just they're sick of it they're they're ready to i got you a uh uh i think i had to plead guilty to another misdemeanor charge or something maybe not though i can't remember they might have dropped it just outright dropped it but uh
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
They're like, there's a pretrial, you know, and this lady is just, I'm like, I didn't know what was wrong throughout the time. I'm like, are you that fucking stupid? Are you really that stupid? And I pushed it and pushed it until finally there was a trial. There was a jury trial. And this is a totally true story, too. And I hadn't been really talking to my wife. It was back and forth.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
They dropped all the felony stuff down to at least a misdemeanor. The only thing I know that I've been convicted of for real is the worst thing I've ever been convicted of is telephone harassment. That's the worst thing on the
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
on the things i i think they just all right dropped the whole entire thing they just said forget it and but i was still on probation for a while after that so i'm not sure uh how you know but it did he did get it dropped you know what i mean and uh so that's what i mean by not all lawyers are like that this guy would say uh he was gonna get me out of i knew i wasn't gonna go to prison once i got the guy on my case you know nobody's going to prison with him on their case
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
it didn't seem like it now he he i'm sure people have but he's beaten some major cases you know the guy's really a good guy he lives right outside of town he's got a wife and kids and his wife's a prosecutor and uh he's just worried about his reputation i think maybe because he had his own practice too you know since he has his own practice he doesn't want to he wants to look like he's winning cases i suppose that's why he did it you know but he did he worked as hard as he could and he beat them all so that's why i get so irritated about the uh
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
People saying that about, and there are other people on cases that, other people that I've heard of like that. I had another guy that was, I got a traffic ticket in this town I live in, and I didn't want to pay it. And I was mad about the ticket. And it'd been a long time. And I mean, a long time. I didn't fight this case, this stupid ticket case. I just didn't want to pay it.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
So I keep going back and I keep fighting, fighting, fighting. And this judge goes, that's it, I've had it. You're going to jail. And I was like, oh. Oh, I didn't think that was going to happen. And he, and he says, well, he couldn't sense me jokes. I didn't have a lawyer. And he's like, you know, so he had to appoint me a lawyer.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
He's like, I'm going to, what I'm going to do is I'm going to point you a lawyer and then I'm going to put you in jail. I'm like, okay, well that'll give me at least 30 days or whatever. It's like, you know, then I'll straighten it out. What I'll do is I'll just, I'll get the other lawyer, wait till the last minute and pay the fines. I'm not going to jail or a stupid traffic ticket.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
But so the, I called the lawyer on this case and he goes, He goes, he called me. He called me on the phone. And he goes, he goes, Mr. Bricklemeyer, what the hell's going on out there? And I said, what? What are you talking about? You know, he tells me his name. And he goes, he goes, what? What's going on? This judge called. He's all pissed off about. And I said, yeah, fuck him.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And he goes, he goes, yeah, fuck him. You ain't going to jail. Shit. Fuck that guy. Who does he think he is? He's going off back. You know what I mean? His name was that I could say his name. His name was Sanchez. Now, I think it was his last name. Sanchez. And I said, yeah, that's right. Fuck them. And he goes, you ain't going to jail, and you ain't paying them fines either.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
They don't have any evidence. So I go back to court with that guy, and he starts kicking up dust about this case. And I'm laughing because by this time, the judge can't put me in jail for something that he come up with. We're fighting this case. It went on for years, a traffic ticket case, man. It was like four or five traffic tickets. So it went on for a year or two, a long time.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And right in the middle of us fighting this stupid traffic ticket case, the guy died. The guy just died. Your lawyer died? Yes. My lawyer died. And I'm like, oh, my God. Now what? Now what am I going to do?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
It was on and on. Just a mess, right?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
uh he was he was a fighter too man this guy was willing to it was a sacrifice his own life man he was ready to jump in front of bolts for me dude over a traffic ticket he hated the judge he was going off about how bad he hated this judge and so but he died so he's the last he was one of the last ones you know all the other ones if the one i hired now listen to this story about that so here's what happened with that the woman okay come to find out john
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
when he found out that I hired that woman, that's when he kind of, I knew that it kind of motivated him. He, he was sort of in, I think he was offended by, by that or not offended, but like, Oh man, you should have gave me that money. I could have, you know, and he goes, and he said, and I know her really well. It was his boss.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
i know i wasn't living there i know that i wasn't living at the house but she had to be a witness she was the witness it was the only witness they had right because it was the whole thing was against her well by this time she doesn't want anything to do with the whole mess anyways right but i had pushed it all the way astral all the way up until even through the jury selection she had no idea about anything about jury selection like
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
It was his old boss from the, or I think it was either his boss or he was her boss. And, and, when he was a prosecutor and he knew her real well and did not like her and didn't like the law firm that she worked for. Sorry about that. He didn't like them for whatever reason. The law firm, when I got out of jail, I think I told you, I called him and told him what was happening.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I talked to her boss and he said, what's going on? He was interested. He was like, what's going on? What are you so upset about? What happened in that case? He listened to the whole thing. It took like two hours too. I explained it to him and he goes, he said, wow, that's, that's really something that, um, who's your lawyer? And I said, John Bryant. And he goes, he goes, oh, well, that's good.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
That's good that that happened. And I said, yeah, it's really good. It is. Isn't it? Why couldn't, why, why did your, your lawyer come in there and not do that? He's like, you know, I really don't know, but, but here's, here's what I do know. She was there to get you out of jail. And she was there to, uh, uh, not get you convicted of a felony. And I said, yeah, well, that's not what she did.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
She did not do that. And, and, and, uh, um, she certainly, she, she wouldn't even ask for bond. I told him the whole story and he goes, he said, yeah, well, if it's, if you can beat that case, if John beats that case and, and you come out of it without a felony, I'll give you your money back. I said, well, OK, it's not my money anyway. You have to give it back to my sister.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
But, yeah, that's a deal, you know, because I think he is going to beat the case for one. I just I think he can. And I certainly know this. He got me out of jail in three days. OK, and this idiot couldn't get me out of jail. We paid all that or my sister paid all that money to this woman who couldn't get me out of jail. We wouldn't even try. Wouldn't even ask for bond. He didn't believe it.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Her boss didn't believe that she did that.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
and and my sister told me that when she hired you know after i get out just start finding out the whole story and she said yeah when i when i hired when i called that law firm they said hey we got just the person for that case she used to be a prosecutor in that county she knows everybody in that county blah blah blah blah she can do anything you know and it turns out i think really what happened was that she was very connected to that county she knew john john heard work together or something
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Like I said, she was his boss or he was her boss, and I think the prosecutor – I think she talked to this lawyer and was like, no, I don't think you understand this case. He's an asshole and all this, and we're not – I don't think you should let him do this. I think she told – I think they just – I think the prosecutor talked her out of it is what I think.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I think that's – and I think they made a personal agreement. And I also think – now, I asked my sister this later. I said, did you do that? Did you – I think maybe when she hired this lawyer, she might have said something like this. Listen, here's the case. My brother's in jail, and he's facing a felony. He doesn't want to take it, but I think I just want him out of jail. Just get him out of jail.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
He's better now. He sounds better. Let's just get him out of jail. Do whatever you can. She might have said that. You know what I mean? So it's maybe not fair to come down on this woman that hard because maybe that's what – but she – My sister hired her, but she works for me. I had that argument with the woman personally.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I went to jail. It was for one night, but, and it wasn't suspended of all things. It really wasn't. They had to let me go. So nothing came of that. But years go by, I get married and I have a couple of kids and I developed a pretty significant drug problem. Like I started doing a bunch of Xanax and methadone, right? And it just turned my life into a, I mean, it was like a fucking, just a mess.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I said, she might have hired you and she might have said something or whatever she said, but the fact is you do work for me. She's not in the case. I appreciate everything she did, but she's not a part of this case. Yeah, you know, she acted like she was going to fight. She was going to take it to trial. She took notes for hours. She was going to just fight tooth and nail to beat this.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Are you kidding me? You don't know that you can, you can strike jurors. And you know, we don't want, I don't want any, I, my thing is I'm like, don't get, I don't want any male jurors. Women hate women is what I thought. I'm like, women hate women. There's, I want all women on my jury. I don't want no males on my jury. Right. She's, she's an idiot. So we get through it. We get through.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And then wouldn't ask for bail. It was the most ridiculous thing. I tried to get the court transcripts just to show you how ridiculous it was. Like the prosecutor asking for the judge to throw out the not guilty plea. I mean, who does that? Yeah. Who has the nerve to stand up there in front of a judge to say that and for my lawyer not to object and for the judge not to say how ridiculous that was?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
You know, he did say he wasn't going to go along with it, but he didn't admonish the lawyer or anything for asking for something that ridiculous, you know?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
so anyway i found out that i found out a bunch of stuff about that later about and then john i remember see i kept talking to him after this case we got we we got along real well and he liked to uh he likes to play chess and we play chess on our phones all the time and so i'm always talking to him asking him you know just talking just being friends with them and um
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
So over the years, I got to find out a bunch of stuff about this. And it was funny, right before you called me a couple days before that, he goes, man, you know what? You should write that story down about all that stupid shit you did to get me on that case. That was a pretty good move. I said, yeah, it is funny, and it's interesting, but I don't know if anybody would really care.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Two days later, he And I'm like, wow, that's weird. That's a weird coincidence that, you know, it was a pretty great tactic that worked out really well. But it really wasn't totally my idea. There were people in jail who were doing a similar thing. But what they would do was just fire their lawyer and just shoot from the hip. They didn't really have a plan. They would just continue.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
You know, there were guys in jail, man, who I'm sure you've talked about this. I remember there was this guy was in jail with his name was Turbo. He was in my cell. And you get to know him, and I said, so what are you going to do? What's your case all about? Dude, he only had like a year and a half or two backup time.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Like worst case scenario, if he fucks up as bad as he can, he's going to go do two years. That's the worst thing that can happen, right? But the best thing that can happen is he can just be on probation and just walk it down on probation. Nope. This ain't the only guy I met like this. Nope, I'm not doing that. What I do is I get out and I don't even report to the probation officer.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I'm just on the run right from the word go. And I just I'm on the run from the minute I get out of jail until they catch me again, which could be two or three years from now. And then I do another three months and I just keep doing that until my time's done. Now, numerous people were doing that. I'm like, that's ridiculous, man.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
You want to be, I cannot, I couldn't drive down the road with a suspended driver's license. I'd be so scared. You know, I don't know how you did that all that time with the, with worried about, weren't you looking over your shoulder?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
You said you went to drive in school and everything.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Yeah. Yes. I could see that, but I would still be nervous. I was now I've always wondered about your case too. What if they'd got your fingerprints? Because now they do, they can do that in a matter of minutes.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And the more it goes on, the more nervous this idiot is getting. Right. And, uh, We get through this trial. We get through that. We get to this trial. Okay. And it's a real direct trial. And this woman is 10 times more nervous than I am about this whole trial. And I still didn't get out. I'm like, man, what is wrong with this weirdo? And the prosecutor gets up. They get to speak first.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
No, but what if you got booked or something?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
You're not stealing from Walmart. Like that's your career. Like, you know what I mean?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Like I'm not. I got some serious questions about that too. And I, well, I watch your podcast and I watch a lot of them and, and I got some serious questions about, about like, uh, first of all, about the, uh, the, the thing about, um, the federal what they call trial tax, whatever that guy on his channel talks about. And you guys have said it, too. I've heard you say it.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I think even maybe that federal law that OK, listen, that that there's a they call it the trial tax. If you take a case to trial, then you won't then you'll get sentenced to the entire amount of time. And basically that the government's punishing you for not going to trial.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
That's exactly what I'm saying. And I said that to the prison consulting guy who, you know, he just went off about how that's not the case. I'm like, yes, it is. It is the case that they're giving you a break for not going to trial. They're not taxing you for going to trial. That's ridiculous. That's a lie.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And I, I went, I kept saying in his comments, I'm like, stop telling your, you want to be this Mr. Honest consulting guy. And you're up, I hope you air this part of it so he sees it, the idiot. I know you know him because you had his boss on one of your podcasts. You had his partner. I think his last name is Santos, the guy's partner. Oh, yeah. You know who I'm talking about? That's the guy.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Yes. He has a guy who they're in business together or something. And that's who I argue with that about. And he's just dug his heels in on that one. He's not giving in at all. I'm like, but you're lying, dude. You're lying about that. It's not the case at all. And it's not the case that public defenders are all bad people.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
The case is really that if you need a public defender, the odds are that you're a shitty defendant.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
who has a horrible record and you don't have any money who who doesn't have enough money to hire their own lawyer junkies and and criminals man people that steal and lie and cheat they got records and they got they got cases that are unbeatable you know what i mean now if you have an unbeatable case i don't care if you're it's not like oj simpson that's not the case that does not happen i mean that happened to him because it was a fluke but really that wasn't the
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Really, that was a political thing. It wasn't even like his lawyers did such a great job. It was just that it was in the media. It was a circus. The whole thing was a circus. But generally, that's not the case. People that need public defenders are lunatics. And they have enough evidence. What's the lawyer supposed to do? Really, their job is to get you the least amount of time they can get you.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I know they spoke first in this deal. The prosecutor gets up and he starts babbling on to the jury about this. You know, folks, is what he said. You know, folks, this isn't like CSI. There's not going to be any DNA in this case. There's not going to be any this and that in this case. This is the case of a madman at the end of his rope. This man's crazy.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
It's not really to beat the case. I don't think that's their objective, nor should it be. The case should be that they're trying to minimize your sentence. And if they're trying to give you a plea, that's what they're doing. They're trying to minimize your sentence. People talk about going to trial, but you don't really want to do that, especially even in a state case.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
They've got mountains of evidence against you, and you have it in your head that if you have an expensive lawyer, you're going to win. That's not the case. It's just not. They've got too much evidence. You're not going to win, whatever the case is. So not all the public defenders are all that bad. You hear people talk about that all the time, but they exaggerate it, I think.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I think it's grossly exaggerated about lawyers.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
That's right, John. But that's true. but keep in mind the woman want, well, I wanted trial, but she wants, she did win it. She did, she did go through with it and do it.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And then, and the other people, they weren't, they weren't trying to fight, but they weren't trying to minimize the, uh, the sentence, I guess by, you know, the one guy was saying he could get me out of jail if I just pled guilty to, it would have to be a felony, but he had a lesson. I mean, yes, granted he wasn't working that hard, but he didn't have a whole lot to work with either.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I don't, he didn't have the kinds of things to work with. I don't think that, that, That's the other guy that John did. You know what I mean? I don't think – and they certainly weren't motivated. I think John has some kind of an issue. I've asked him many times, but there's only so much he can say. I've asked him what his problem was with the judge.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I thought the judge in my case was really fair throughout the entire thing, and it took – this whole thing took years. It took two or three years to go through. And I've seen that judge 50 times. He was fair. He was not unreasonable. I didn't think in any. I've never I've never been sentenced to a day in jail. I've done almost a year of time, but I've never been sentenced.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
He never sentenced me to jail. He never, you know, I didn't think it was all about a guy. But this dude did not like the guy and he didn't want to lose in his courtroom. And I think he just I don't know. I don't know what what motivated him versus what motivated the other people, because I think they also had their own.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
They all have to do that. In fact, in order to be licensed in the state of Kansas, I think you have to do some of that. Every lawyer, no matter who they are, if they're licensed to practice in that court, they have to do X amount of time.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Yeah, they get paid.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Sure. Right. I even told John when I got out, I was so grateful. I was like, well, I could give you some money. I could do something that, you know, I could repay you somehow. But he said, nah, he wasn't going to. If he just said, hey, man, you owe me five grand, I would have said, okay, I'll work something out. I'll pay his taxes.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Now he went off and became a judge. But he had another case, dude, listen to this, where it is a case in Kansas where this guy killed this girl that I was really good friends with in high school. He killed her mom. He murdered her. In my opinion, it was first degree murder. Well, John was on this guy's case. And throughout the whole case, he can't say much about it. He can't talk.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
He can't give you any details about it. But he was acting like he was going to beat this case. I'm like, dude, there's no fucking way. I mean, I've seen some of the evidence. There's no way you're beating that case. Well, he did pretty much wind up. Listen, that guy got out of jail on time served. I'll tell you that John was his lawyer in the middle of the case.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
He's a wife beating lunatic, you know, or just he just goes off about what a horrible bastard I am, you know. And then she gets up. It's her turn to get up and fucking defend me. And she's so nervous about talking in front of the jury and the judges. She starts repeating what the guy said. I mean, like verbatim, like, you know, folks, this ain't CSI. I'm like, what the fuck is going on?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And then he got promoted to being a judge. And, but I think John had the whole case worked out before that. And then he just took, cause I asked him, I'm like, man, what happened? So, so you got promoted and now you can't be the guy's lawyer. I imagine he's upset about that. And he said, yeah, but he's got this, he's got another lawyer. We all sat down and, and,
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
figured out what we were going to do. And he did get the guy out of jail. He walked out of Leavenworth County jail, but no, listen, he, he, uh, and he walked out with time served. Imagine that on a, on a, I don't, I think it started as first degree murder. Then it went to second degree murder.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And then, uh, um, uh, John's idea, I think was to get the guy off on manslaughter and time served, uh, second degree manslaughter or something. And they did that. The guy walked, but he did four and a half or five years in Leavenworth County jail in the jail.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
where it sucks that's the worst dude listen that's horrific i i think what happened was i really think what happened was they were like dude that's enough i mean five years in jail that's like 50 in prison i would imagine i mean at least i've heard people talk about prisons everybody in jails like they couldn't wait to get to prison yeah you know everybody man was thinking have some freedom and yeah people said people were constantly man i just want to get sentenced to go to prison it was like yeah i would think you would want to stay away from prison and they were like bro are you nuts
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
They would all bitch about the fact they had to go to what's called RDU. I don't know what it stands for, but they have to go to – you must have went there too. They have to do a level of –
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Oh, that part's over by the time you get sentenced?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
You know, so it's still it gets rolling, you know, and they. Yeah, I think they only had what I think she was the only witness, I think. but I think that maybe they had some state people. I don't know. I don't know. But anyways, my wife was there and she gets up on the stand and they started asking her questions. Then she's like, I don't know. I can't really remember. I don't really know.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Yeah, speaking of that, I've heard of people talking about – and this guy that I was talking about that I'm always arguing with about the trial tax deal, the feds. He was talking about how people turn themselves in. I'm like, yeah, that is true. They turn themselves in. They're in the prison they were going to go to anyways. They know where to go. Some of them go straight to camps and whatever.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
You're thinking about what you could have done. You would have been gone. You would have been in Australia by that time.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Yeah, which brings me to a real serious question. Now, listen, I don't want to offend you, and I'm not trying to offend you at all. Trust me. And I understand you did 13 years in prison, which is fucking serious shit. And you talk all the time about how bad that was when you got sentenced. I can kind of imagine how horrible that must have been, especially with your mom being sick or whatever.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
But now let me ask you, what would have been an appropriate sentence for you, do you think? Honestly, what would have made you stop doing that? Right.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
But you got since you got since the 26 years, man, you weren't in you. You got since the 26 years and you thought you were going to do that time. You thought you were doing that time. And, you know, now for just from what happened with with your lawyer and and and what was his name again? Frank Amadeo? Yeah, Amadeo. Yeah, that guy. Anyway, you didn't know that, though, when you got sentenced.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
So I imagine when you got sentenced to that 26 years and the time that you did between there and the time that you got your sentence cut in half, you thought you were going to do that 26 years. And in that length of time, you must have decided that, hey, that's enough. I'm not doing it anymore. It's not worth it. I'm not going to risk it again.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
But had you got sentenced to 13 years right out of the gate and only done seven,
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Well, did he hit you? I don't think so. I think I just said that, you know, this stuff, this drive, listen, this goes on for quite a while. And, um, the prosecutor's getting pissed. They're getting, this guy's getting just, he's mad at her. He's pushing her and pushing her. And then I think, It comes time for my lawyer to cross-examine her. She gets up there and just starts insulting my wife.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I don't mean with – man, that's not what I'm saying. I'm asking you personally what you think was a sense that – I'm giving you the answer. Yeah, but you're telling me with enhancements and all that. I'm not – I don't – I don't mean what you think they –
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
No, I'm asking you this. What sentence would it have taken for you to have been serious enough about it to not ever do it again? That's what all they wanted you to do was to stop it, to stop doing the bank fraud stuff.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Would that have changed your mind about that?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
You'd have been thinking about that. I don't know. By the time you... Because, listen, you got so close to getting away with that shit, dude. That's the most amazing part of that whole entire story.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I know exactly what you mean. Exactly.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Listen, I know what's happening. And listen, now, here's another question I've always wondered about your story too is why didn't you have some kind of plan for going to prison? Why didn't you stash a couple million dollars in some safety deposit box where – just like Mosaic and that. What happened there?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
In the middle of the trial, I'm like, hey, that's enough. Just sit down. That's enough. She just sounded so bad. I'm like, just sit down and shut up. I said it in front of the jury. I'm like, just shut up. Please shut up. You know, and we get in a little argument and I'm like, OK, that's your honor. We got to have a break, whatever. And he's like, he excuses the jury. They get up and walk.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
You thought you were that smart that you didn't even need a second fucking plan to do it?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
The guy said he didn't feel comfortable with that. The guy said, I don't feel comfortable with this whole thing. Well, I wonder if he's ever seen your podcast and been like, I told you that was the guy.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Oh, oh, oh, yeah. You just kept... So, okay, so there's that. I've always wondered that about what you thought about the time. And then here's another thing that I have a beef with everybody on that channel. Well, not everybody on the channel, but a lot of the people on that channel. This is what really drives me nuts.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
People think for some reason that the government or the state or the federal government has some sort of responsibility to rehabilitate people. Why do they think, huh? They're not even trying. Why should they try? Try convincing a bunch of people that pay them bills. Imagine spending all that millions of dollars on prisons and people in prison saying that you owe them.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Some sort of rehabilitation. Well, it's just not the case. The government, the people in the United States don't owe people in prison any kind of rehabilitation. First of all, they were never rehabilitated to begin with. That's the problem. That's why they're in prison. Well, everybody else got habilitated, habituated to their environment. They didn't. The government doesn't owe them people.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I'm not saying it's not maybe economically a good idea to try to keep their recidivism down to a minimum. But first of all, that's ridiculous. It doesn't happen. It's not going to happen. You can't. That's so ridiculous. What kind of program are you going to put people through that's going to lower that? It's never happened.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
They've tried this throughout history in prison and with prison reform and stuff.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Well, I'm not. I don't have them.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
They're dumping the money in that. Here's why they're dumping the money in that program is because it sounds good. They don't have to have any kind of statistic that says anything. What they think is they got a bunch of liberal politicians who are going to pay for it because they believe in rehabilitation. That has nothing to do with the statistics or whether or not the statistics are real.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
They're probably not real. I would dare anybody to dig up stats that says that there's a program in prison that really reduces the amount of people that come back. I mean, I've never seen anything like that.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Well, then we're – but there's no program out there. They're saying – Who's they? People in prison who come on the show and act like society owes them some rehabilitation and that if they had it, there would be a lower recidivism – how do you say that word? What's it called? Recidivism, right. Right.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
They walk out and he's like, OK, what's the problem? Like, she's an idiot. She is a fucking idiot. I mean, you can see she can't even understand the difference between overruled and sustained. She's you're killing me here. You've got to do something. You've got to stop it. I mean, you can see this is this is just lunacy. And he won't do it.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And that the government should spend more money on rehabilitation and stuff because it, for any reason, it lowers that. Well, no, I don't think there's any program that would do that. Not a prison program. I'm not saying that people can't get better and not go. I don't want anybody going back to prison. I don't hate people that are in prison or nothing like that.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I'm just saying you can't go to prison expecting society to repair that for you.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Yes, they feel entitled to it.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I'm not saying I would or wouldn't offer. What I'm saying is they don't have a right to expect to be. I don't really know.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
OK, I agree with that. OK, that's even better because that's even better that they say that because I don't think it's true. One and two, they say that. Dang it, now you've changed my train of thought about what I was going to say about that. They want it to happen.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
They think it'd be better, and they want their prison time to be easier, for one, and they think for some reason if a program would make it less likely that you'd come back to prison. I don't think so. There could be an argument made, and I'm not making this argument. I'm just saying that people do make this argument that, no, prison should be less enjoyable and less –
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
you know it's harder to deal with in that way you wouldn't be saying things like it would have taken a 10-year sense for me to stop you might be saying dude i wouldn't risk it for six months you know what i mean that's an argument that other other side has about their their attitudes towards prisons and and and people also hate for some reason they hate the private prison system first of all i don't think anybody knows what it is i don't really even understand how that works
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And they don't either. And why would you hate the private prison? The government can't do anything right. Why would you disagree with the public or private people having something to do with the prisons? Because you think, they think, not you, I'm saying they think that it's somehow related to the amount of people that go to prison. I've heard it a million times.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
They think a private prison system is incentivizing the courses and to send people to prison for slave labor is what they think. Well, slave labor in my ass. You could never regain the amount of money it costs you to imprison somebody from their labor in prison. You're not going to get your money back. The state's not getting their money back because you made a couple shelves. It costs them.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
How much do you think it costs to put somebody in prison for a year? How much do you think that really costs? Do you have any idea? I don't. I bet you it's over $100,000 a year to keep one guy locked. It's got to be. When you're talking about paying the mortgage on the building and And the court system, the legal system, it's in millions.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Judge Sumbie, by the way, that's who this was, the guy that threw out this whole thing. He won't do it. He won't. He's like, no, it's too late. We're too deep into this. We got to keep going. But the prosecutor comes over with a note and he hands it to my lawyer. And I'm like, hey, what the fuck is that? Give me that. You know, and it says, hey, it was a deal.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Right. Okay.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Paid? What do you mean? What did you say? Paid?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
So if you take all the money that they spend, let's take the federal government.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Well, most of these people are not actually productive citizens that are paying their taxes. They're getting welfare checks and everything else. They're a burden on the entire system. Insurance. I don't mean to be put. Listen, I'm just saying this is this is the argument that's being made in order to make this our justice system what it is, how it's how it's how it's.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
You know, I'm not I'm not making this argument for myself's sake. I'm saying that this is the argument on the other side of the fence. And that's why the prison system is set up the way it is, because it's so easily chopped down. When you have people out there saying what I'm saying right here, which is that these are not people who are outpaying their taxes.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
They're a burden on society to begin with. And the best way to relieve the society of the burden that they're putting on us, the cheapest way is to put them in prison.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
because now they're only going to cost us 50. they're out here costing us hundreds of millions of dollars because even if you rip off a bank or or even though it's a just a bank well it's not really just a bank i mean they have a board of directors and they have it's a corporation that has investors and people that lose money somewhere down the line somebody even if it's an insurance company if you steal from an insurance company
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
The industry I work in, people do that all the time, and they say it's not stealing. Well, it's not really stealing because if we rip off the insurance company, they rip us off all the time. It's really just a game of cat and mouse, and it's justified that we do this.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
If you if you really wanted to figure out how much it costs to keep somebody in prison, you have to figure out how much money they spend on the entire prison system and then divided by the number of inmates that are in the prison, which is I don't think it would come out to fifty four thousand dollars. I mean, I just don't think it would be that low.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
What about what about all the money? For example, is this included in that figure? This is just what I'd say if I was in a congressional hearing. Is this included? Is that is that what we pay on for the whole entire legal system? The police force that the All the security that we have to hire to keep these people... They're costing society so much money.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
What they have to pay to defend them in court, they have to pay for that. Is that included in the amount that it costs you to put somebody in prison?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
They said, hey, right now we'll go back in the jury room and we'll give him that chance to find you guilty of a lesser charge. How about that? And I was like, OK, that's what I told him. OK, she said no or something. She's like, no, I'm not. I'm like, well, you can not go. Yes. Go tell him that, you know. So anyways, we have a break. This is an absolutely true story.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
There's an argument between
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I'm not saying that. What I'm saying is this. I'm saying that's an argument that they have. I'm not making that argument. I'm not saying that we should change it to be like that. I'm saying it's a damn good argument to be had there. It's really not. Well, that's what's keeping it the way it is. That's the that's the other force that's balancing out this force.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
You got what you're saying on one side and what I'm saying on the other. And that's really what's balancing out what's going on with it, with the legal system, because there are people who are law abiding citizens who are sick of paying for it. They don't want to pay for it. And they know.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Is it a good idea for society is what you're saying that yes, it is.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I have no idea. The United States is – no, I don't – listen, that's an argument that lots of people – you think the public schools are doing some kind of fantastic job with people?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
You think they go – what makes you think they wouldn't be educated?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
No, but if there were no public schools, there would probably be more affordable private schools. I'll say that. What I'm arguing is the libertarians' argument about this whole case, and it is – they do have a big argument about it. Have you ever heard of Anne Rand, the woman that – I've read Fountainhead. Yeah, the one before it. Well, that's what I'm saying. That is a good argument.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
That's the argument. Yeah, that's – That sums it up right there, what I'm saying. I'm not saying it. I'm saying that there are people who say that. One time in 1995, my dad came to me and said, hey, I got a friend of mine, this lady that works at the store, the grocery store.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And I go out in the hallway and there's a guy sitting in the hallway and it was just me and this stranger in the hallway. And I strike up a conversation with the guy and kind of find out it's it's it's the husband of one of the jurors. And he's like, man, what the fuck is going on? And he starts asking me about this case. And we're standing at this window, looking out the window of the courtroom.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
My uncle had this grocery store, and this lady worked there, and her husband worked at the Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary. And he said, this guy's willing to give us a private tour of that prison and And all we got to do is read this book. He said he would give us this tour, but we have to read this book about the prison. It's called The High House.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
It's about Leavenworth County and Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary. Read the book, and then next Wednesday we'll go there. But he wants us to read the book so we know who we're looking at and what's going on in this prison. So I do. I read this. I read the book. It's a famous book, too. You ought to read it. It's a fantastic book. It's all about that prison.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And I remember – I'll never forget this – We get there, and he's explaining there's this giant building. And he says, that used to be the furniture factory. They used to build furniture there. Now, I was thinking, well, that's a great idea. Why don't we have the prisoners building furniture and making license plates and everything else? And this is what he said.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Because for every piece of furniture that they build in that prison, you're taking that away from the private industry. The private people who build furniture don't want us having those people build furniture because we're putting us in a position to underbid them.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
that's unfair completely unfair to the private people who were out there building furniture honestly you know what i'm saying so it that's a that changed my whole attitude about it right then and there when he said that i remember walking around in that prison and thinking man wow i would have never i would have never dreamed that that there was an argument to be made in that direction that it was it was detrimental to society
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
in any way at all to have prisoners doing some kind of productive activity like building furniture or making license plates or whatever well there is there is detriment to it you know and uh i'm not saying that they ought to make but i heard you use this word also draconian our sensing is draconian right well and i'm not i'm not saying that you're wrong i i don't know if if the sentences if they were reduced i mean i just don't see how you could finagle the system to make it any better uh even if you did have programs i just don't know
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
don't know if those numbers are right i don't know if people in our doubt go back to prison less often but i've read enough about the prison industry and the the the and i'm sure you have too though there's been waves in this country of prison reform and and prison uh you know it'll go all one way for a while you know they used to put people on chain gangs you know and then people come along and that's ridiculous let's try to reform them and somebody will get in office some uh
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
a governor gets an office and they put in this giant reform program, kind of like in a Shawshank Redemption, sort of when he was, they were ripping off, you know, the corruption there. Well, that, that's, that's another thing, you know what I mean? So I'm just saying, I never hear that argument made on, on this channel and I'm just bringing it up. I'm not, I'm not, I don't hate criminals.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I mean, I've, you know, I, I deserved, I'm sure I deserved a little bit of prison time for it. If you, if I got caught for everything I did, I did some pretty stupid shit, and I could have very well easily went to prison too, but I would have never gone to prison and claimed that society owed me some kind of reform program.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I think they ought to do this.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Oh, about the – well, there is a theme running through it. There's a theme running through the – and I love the show. Don't get me wrong. I try to watch all of yours. I like it. I tell people about it all the time. I'm an advocate for that show. And it's all their attitudes about it. I think even Boziak was talking about that.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
But not that they're – But they all have the same argument, and it's all a – it's almost a – the argument is so – I'm like, man, come on, dude. Here's an argument that people make all the time too. Listen to this. They say – this drives me nuts. Why don't they make drugs legal, and then we can just tax them to death, and then it'll solve all the problems? like they do with alcohol.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And I go, man, listen, my wife, she's fucking crazy. She's out of her mind. She's not thinking straight, whatever. And we're looking out the window of the parking lot. She fucking stole my truck right out of the parking lot, right in front of me and this guy. I'm like,
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Why don't we do like we do with alcohol? We think the taxes on alcohol equal anywhere near the amount of money it costs society to take care of the problems that alcohol creates with domestic violence and car wrecks on the highway and stuff. They ain't recouping their costs. They could put a 50% tax on alcohol and it wouldn't. I don't think.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I don't have the numbers right in front of me, but I would guess that they're not getting their money back from the destruction. Nothing is more destructive in the world than alcohol. They're not recouping their money. You know how the police force spends 50% of their time, 90% of their time on domestic disputes caused by alcohol. I have read them stats. I have read stats like that.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Jordan Peterson is an expert, and I'm sure you know who he is. He's an expert. By the way, this is another thing, dude. You said, I'm watching that show all the time. I wish I could argue. I wish I could argue with him. Well, Andrew Tate, you compared Andrew Tate to Jordan Peterson. And it was exactly what you said.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Now you said, you said in a way what Andrew Tate's doing in his message is, is basically what Jordan Peterson is saying. That's what you said, right? It was not even fucking close. If you really listen to what Peterson says, it ain't even in the fucking neighborhood of what Tate says.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And 1% of how it overlaps. And here's the 1%. What's that?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
in one way does it overlap and this is it since you said that i couldn't believe you said it anyways because i thought you were i was like that's pretty insightful that he said that i couldn't believe it i'm like damn man he really knows well then i started and then i really started looking into it i'm like no dude that's here's here's the only thing they have in common uh men should be more uh
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
A little bit more – have a little bit more confidence. That's it. That's as far as that goes. The similarity between Tate and Peterson, yes. Tate's a pimp.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
They both talk about how there's the confidence to be a man and behave like a man and act like one.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Oh, no, I don't think Tate says anything about chivalry, bro. I don't think that's part of his fucking.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
she's took my trust all my truck got the keys and drove off in the middle of the trial she was a witness and now i'm stuck there with no right home i'm like you see what i mean when you get home tell your wife the truth about this whole case i mean she can't hear she's on the jury she doesn't know what's going on how crazy it is you know he goes oh my god well what's going to happen to you if you get found guilty and i'm like i don't know they said you know it could be up to a year in jail but
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I don't. I think I agree with most of what he says, actually, but he is not a good guy.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Oh, okay. That's fair. That's a fair argument. I get it. But, yeah. And when you said it, I thought, that's pretty good. I'm surprised he drew that conclusion. Not that I think you're stupid or anything, but I did see that coming. I thought, wow, that's pretty good.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Okay. I, I, when you said it, I knew immediately that there was a little bit of truth to it. So I, but then I started, maybe, maybe, maybe the reason I changed my attitude about it was because I looked into a little bit more about at first I thought, you know, Candace Owens is right. She, she was a advocate of his and I, I thought, wow, that's a, that's, that's pretty big deal. But, uh, uh,
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And then the whole case that he was involved in was supposed to be totally unwarranted and total bullshit is what she made it sound like. But it's not. There was some relevancy to the kidnapping situation, how he was doing it. You know what I mean? I don't know exactly what it was, but I remember watching it and feeling that it was a little bit more relevant than I had been led to believe it was.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
It's deeper than that because he was actually – hey, when they said it about you, I thought it was extremely unfair. First of all, I hated that they were saying you were taking advantage of single women. That's ridiculous. They were taking advantage of you, if anything. They were riding on your back.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
If you don't look into it – No, I did, but I did look into the Tate situation is what I'm saying because I did look into that. First of all, he's not – I don't think he's a good guy at all. His brother maybe. He's intelligent to a degree, but I don't know.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
That's the most successful thing about it is his delivery. That's the one thing he has going for him.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Like what you were saying about the guy in California that does the workout stuff. You're always talking and laughing about Wes Watson.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Yeah, right. And listen, I looked into this so hard. Well, I did your everyday YouTube, Google, whatever about him trying to find out if he really was in prison. If he wasn't, there's all these detractors out there, but they got zero evidence, dude. I've never seen one piece of paper or proof or anything that says he really wasn't in the prison system like he says he was.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Oh, that's dry snitching?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
That's bitch snitching, really.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
It just started spiraling out of control. It took a few years. Why Xanax and methadone?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I don't think they'll do that. So anyway, long story short, they come back and they find me not guilty of everything except for the lesser charge that the prosecutor offered.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
See, there's nothing to it. There's absolutely nothing there. I mean, it's me.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
That doesn't mean it's true at all. No, no, not at all. Just like another thing you said on the program. I think it was you that said that. These people that talk all this shit about sex offenders, well, when they get out, there's a sex offender list, and they don't go out chasing these people down. So that's just something they talk about in jail.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And I'll tell you what else used to make me sick about these punks in jail is you want to talk all this trash on a sex offender, but when he gets here, you don't really want to face the guy. You want everybody else to get on the guy's back so you can extort him. You ain't going to walk up to that guy and do nothing.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
You don't have the guts to walk up to him and really face the music because he might hit you. He might stab you. You don't know, but you ain't doing it. And that's just the case. You might say you're going to.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
They don't even want to go to another low. The people in jail, it was the same thing, the way they talked, all that stuff. I'm like, man, you just want – you're not going to do anything about it. Right.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
They may have. They may have. I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, that very well could have been. And it was like a miracle. I couldn't believe it. I looked at my mom like, you idiot. You owe me because you won this effing trial, you know. So I think now I think sentencing went straight from that to sentencing. Or it might have been a couple of weeks. Either way, we're back in the courtroom.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
It's like they're hiding something. It's overcompensating, and they're hiding the fact that they're a rat. That was a big deal in jail, too. Everybody calling everybody a rat. I'm like, what are you talking about? Listen, I've never been around more rats and snitches in my life than I was in jail. Those are the rats and snitches.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
okay the honest people out in the world that wouldn't rat on somebody they're not in prison man they're out making an honest living they're honest and good people they're not going to be in there like that shut up oh man it made me sick the people in there just i they're 90 of them made a career out of stealing from walmart i heard about that for eight months about all these they thought they were so cool because they had all these ways to rip off walmart i'm like what man what is wrong with you you know i mean that's just that's their career and listen i'll tell you a funny story about uh
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
one of the best jail stories. This is an actual true story. There's a guy in there. You know how people come in and they're all innocent, right? Especially at first. Now, they're going to fight their case and their wives are going to stay with them and all this stuff about their wives on the phone. They'd be screaming.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
It would kill me to hear people screaming, you better put that money on my books. Oh, my God. What an idiot. Well, they come in and they're innocent at first because they haven't been in there long. But they fall apart at the face to face any jail time. I mean, these people just I'm like, man, you'd think you'd be more used to this by now.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
You do this over and over again and you just fall to pieces when you get here. It's ridiculous, man. Grow up. But they're all innocent at first. This one guy comes in the job. I was having a good time by this time. I was playing chess every day. I was always sitting at the chess table. And this guy comes in, a little short guy. I remember the guy. He was about – dude, he was noticeably short.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Like if you've seen him, what you said was that dude's a short dude, right? That's what you thought when you seen him, okay? His name was Henry. You can look this up. It's in the Leavenworth –
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
county times with 11 word journal this is a true story his name is henry i don't remember his last name but he come he's in there for a while and finally i can see he's lonely and whatever and he wants to be a part of what's going on at our table and so i invite him over hey man what's going on and uh what are you in here for and i won't get into how it happened but this is the story he says uh okay well here's what happened i was at the liquor store one day
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
in some town around here. It was a fairly big size town. It was like Overland Park or something. He says, and at the same time I was at the liquor store, it was right next to a pharmacy and the pharmacy got robbed. And the guy that did it had on a hoodie and he was short like me. He was real short.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I got the same idiot with me. And the prosecutor literally said this. So the judge says, yeah, he was found guilty of something. It was super minor destruction of property, I think. the prosecutor stands up and he says, your honor, I know that the jury only found Mr. Booker Meyer guilty of destruction of property, but we all know we were all here during the trial. We all know that he's guilty.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And so I'm walking out of the liquor store with my case of liquor, just minding my own business, walking home and the cops pull up and bam, I get charged with aggravated burglary of a pharmacy. I'm like, wow, that's a fantastic story, Henry. I said, how tall was the suspect? Five-two? How many people in that neighborhood are five-two with a frigging orange hoodie on, right? How many people?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And he's like, I'm telling you, I didn't do it. I didn't do it. I didn't do it. I'm like, listen, man, I'm not going to say nothing to nobody. I don't care, but don't be acting like you're all innocent about it. I said, there's got to be a reason why. They didn't just pick you up off the street. There's got to be more to it. Where were you going? I was going home. Who do you live with?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
My brother, does your brother have a record? Yeah. For what? Robbing a pharmacy? Oh, robbing a pharmacy, eh? What do you know? Maybe that was part of the case. And he says, but I'm telling you, I didn't do it and I can prove it. And I said, well, how are you going to prove it? He goes, I got a receipt from when I was buying the beer. That's exactly the same time the pharmacy is getting robbed.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
It's exactly the same time. I was in the liquor store. I'm on a camera. I'm like, OK, Henry, well, let's see what they do with that. Let's see what your public defender does with this case, you know. And he's but he's confident that he's he didn't do it. He almost has me believe in this. I'm like, maybe, man, maybe, you know. But then he goes to court and he comes back.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
He starts talking about taking a plea. I'm like, bingo. He did it. Bingo. Now I know he did it. Because why would you why would you admit to taking a, you know, taking a felony plea for something that big, something you didn't do? And he said, because I got to get back home. I'm going to lose my apartment and my car and everything else.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I would just take rather take the felony than go through what I have to go through. I did. First of all, if you didn't do it, I would never say that you did, no matter what the circumstances are. He's like, man, you don't understand my girlfriend, my wife, all this, you know. OK, Henry, whatever. Well, I got out of jail in the meantime.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And I remember thinking I'm keeping an eye on that case because there was something I thought by this time there was something to this case. Maybe he does. Maybe he did seem confident about it, but he was going to take a plea to what? Well, lo and behold, they found out that he did, in fact, have a receipt from the exact time that the liquor store was getting robbed.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And they did have the wrong person. He had nothing to do with it. And he had been in prison for two months and was absolutely innocent of the crime. They had him on surveillance in a liquor store at the same time the pharmacy was getting robbed. It was him in the liquor store with the receipt. Yeah. I mean, that blew my mind. I started thinking, oh, my God, man. Maybe there are. I mean, Jesus.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
He almost pled to a case he had nothing to do with at all because of the pressure that they put on people. And that's another thing that people talk about all the time is the bond situation. And that's unfair, especially in a case like that. He had a bond he couldn't afford. I don't know how high it was, but it was above his ability to pay it. And he was willing to take a plea.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I mean, that's scary now. Had he been out, he would have never been in that particular – he would have never, ever considered taking that plea. And he didn't either. He didn't take the plea, and he sued the – in the article, if you ever got interested, you could look it up. There's an article because that's how I found out about it. And he had a GoFundMe page and all this.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
You know, he was trying to get out of this out of the state or something. But I think they even had a write up. It was in the newspaper that it was a wrongfully a wrongful arrest situation. Now, they say you can sue them or whatever. It's very difficult.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And I, and he, and he tries to get me sentenced to the same, the actual sentence. And I'm like, I'll go in my lawyer. I'm like, well, let's know what he's saying. Can't you object to this or says, I've never heard anything like that. Trying to get me sentenced for something that the jury found me innocent of, you know? And now of course the judge was like, I ain't doing that. I can't say.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
He was a legitimate suspect, I thought.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
And it took them a while to do it. And in their defense, it did take a look. You can't just do it overnight. You have to. They had to go find the receipt. Where was it in the beer box? So he had he must have had it on him when he got arrested. Right. That's because they did have it, you know.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Yeah, I know. It's a twisted. It's a twist. This is what I say to people about the justice system all the time. If you think, you know, so much that you think, you know. then tell me – think of one fucking thing that you think you could do to make it better, to make it more fair. I'm talking about something legitimate that you could do to make it more fair. You want to lower the bail?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Look at the places that try to do that. Oregon and everything else let people out with no bail. Look what that does. They put – 99% of the people that go to jail are guilty. They're guilty of something, and they're dangerous when they get out. If they get out, there are problems. You hear about people all the time being on bond and – Getting out and causing more problems happens all the time.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
You can't – the bond system I don't think could be corrected in any way. I don't think it could be any more fair than it is, except for maybe it should be more – I don't know. I don't know if that could be corrected or not. I don't really – I mean, people say that, but try drawing up a better legal system. Try it. I mean, that's –
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Just the fact that we have the presumption of innocence in this country, that's a huge deal. They don't have that everywhere. You know what I mean? The state doesn't have to prove you're guilty. You're proven you're not in most places. You know what I mean? That's a good legal system foundation at least, right? I mean, don't you agree or no?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Unless you got a better way you think you could rig it up to where you could rig up a more fair system.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
That's exactly right. And I think this is as perfect as it can get is what I'm saying, really. Within reason, it is. Here's the other thing about you and your channel that I think about all the time is you call yourself a narcissist all the time, which I don't think that's true at all. I don't know why you would say that about yourself, that you're that narcissistic. Now, you're married, right?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
You talk about your mom all the time. You'll be talking on these –
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
podcast about how much how you'll start crying at the at the simple mention of some of these things that's not narcissism dude that's the opposite of narcissism people who are narcissistic ain't gonna cry over nothing except for their own ass being in jail well you're talking about your mom you're talking about your wife you're talking about i don't think you're any more narcissistic than the than the next guy and why you would think that i don't know you i think that you were arrogant and thought that you were smarter than you than you
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
They found him not guilty. I can't sentence him. You know what I'm saying? Oh, my God. I can't believe this fucking happened.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I don't know. You probably were as smart as you think you are. But maybe, you know, your luck ran out or whatever. And maybe you are smart and everything. But I don't see why you call yourself a narcissist all the time. You say that all the time to a point where I'm like, are you trying to talk yourself into it? I mean, why would you say that? I would never say I was a narcissist in any way.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
For one, I'm not. And I love to hear myself talk as much as you do. You know what I mean? And you say that stuff about almost waiting for the guy to stop talking. Everybody does that, man.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
It's not, you know, that I don't know.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
But you think you're more more so than a normal guy?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Gauge net. I mean, it's maybe a difficult way to gauge it. I mean, how do you, how are you comparing your emotions to mine? Really? It's a difficult thing to do. I mean, I might feel the same way you do about a lot of that stuff. Like, uh, you know, you don't, it's not what you're asking is if you're a narcissist, huh?
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Yeah, that's a big that's a big deal. Listen, that is a big deal. If you really that's real. That's like Jeffrey Dahmer. That's what that really means.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
It is, though. It's in Leavenworth County, dude. It's kind of a big deal.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Well, everybody's on that spectrum is what I'm saying. I'm saying, I think you're- To a degree, but let me- Yeah, to a degree. That's exactly right. To a degree, just to say that.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
There's not people that work at... No, there's not. There's not people that work at food kitchens because out of the goodness of their heart. What they're doing is they're trying to impress their fucking neighbors. That's not true. They don't go to food kitchens to be a good person. They go to food kitchens to wave a flag of... And what you said about how... Listen, I say this all the time.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I'd wipe out every man, woman, and child on this planet with a nuclear fucking bomb if certain conditions apply. For one, for this. If anything was going to happen to one of my kids, I'd say, I'd rather murder the entire planet. I'll let them all go, bam, before I do that. I'd let them all... I don't know what keeps people from hitting the nuclear button. The only thing is, I mean...
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I say this all the time. Yeah, I'd retaliate against the world. Maybe it's a bad day in the Chiefs game or something. I might get mad enough and hit the button. You know what I mean? If my family was okay and I was okay and I was in a bunker, it might start looking a little appealing. Hey, man, I like post-apocalyptic. You know what I mean? I might just – everybody I know say, boom.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
You know what I mean? I don't know what keeps it from happening. I mean – You know, now, so is that narcissistic to say? Yeah, well, everybody's, you know, what, what is it? What is it? They're, they're, they're mainly lying. They're mainly liars.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
Dude, she was. Here's what I think happened now from my later experiences, which goes on for quite some time. So I get to know all these players in this, including her. In fact, I went to traffic court the other day. I'd seen that idiot there. I mean, oh, God, I can't stand this woman. She's still there. She still works there. I think it was the first time it was her first month on the job.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
I think a lot of people, I think those people aren't lying. I think mainly they're lying, and they're doing it for – listen, I live in a town that's crazy liberal. It's a place where there's a bunch of food kitchens and a bunch of BS like that.
Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Wrongfully Convicted in the Weirdest Trial Ever
But I'll tell you what, they're not – those people are not out there asking these people to come to their house or really doing anything but putting down on a piece of paper that they volunteer at the food kitchen. They don't care about the people there. Eating the food at the food kitchen, man, I just don't believe it.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
Yeah, we manage a lot of things in a unique way. I do feel like that's something different about us is that we've never merged our finances. I take care of the mortgage, she takes care of utilities. And we both kind of have our own separate accounts, which I do feel like might complicate the cross country move logistics.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
I'm proud that we do not Venmo or Zelle each other. I know there are some couples that do, but no, we're not at that level. But we've kind of just always had the you take care of this, I take care of that. We both in general feel that that's a fair way to do it.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
I think we're both making about the same amount. I might make maybe 10 or 20 percent more. But again, we've always done it the way that we do it. And I've not felt the need to bring up or cause a major problem. change as we prepare for what could be a cross country move.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
We're doing very well. I feel very fortunate to have the means to plan for a move like this and just feel like I have options. I feel like I should start this conversation by just acknowledging that I'm coming at this from a point of privilege, even being able to have this conversation and access funds from different accounts. And also family is available to help us out if needed.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
Thank you.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
Yeah, we live in a Western state and I grew up in a Midwestern state. So we're highly considering moving back that way to be closer to family. The state that we currently live in is just one that I've never thought would be the best to raise children.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
Growing up in the Midwest and just seeing how people interact with their neighbors, the weather and the climate is something that I also feel like is better. I live in a desert state and I want to move back to one with four seasons is nice.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
And again, just the biggest reason was just to be closer to family and a place for my children to know that this is where they're growing up and going to graduate from high school.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
I do think the cost of living in the state we're looking at is about 5% to 10% less than the state we're currently living in. To me, the biggest things with finances is hoping to get a similar salary in the new state, but also just not taking a huge hit in terms of moving costs.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
When I start to do the basic research about what it will cost to physically move a house of our size with all of our items and two small children, the numbers can be alarming. But I remind myself that millions of people have done this, but it's just something that's a little scary to start.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
I think I'm comfortable sharing that I am a high school teacher. I have spoken to a couple schools in the area we're considering moving to. I have had an interview that I'm still waiting to hear back about if that will be a possibility. My wife is... a journalist, and she has a potential job lined up that she could transfer within the same company.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
So we're both optimistic that a somewhat easy transition could happen with similar income levels, maybe adjusted for cost of living.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
The biggest one that comes to mind is just that I feel very fortunate to be well-respected at my current school. Just the other day, an administrator approached me already asking about plans for next year. I kind of had to delay and stall what I even said to that question. So I do think that my current school would notice and acknowledge my loss if I were to decide to leave.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
Yeah. And just again, just uprooting the place that I've lived for nearly 20 years to move back to the place where I grew up. But again, it's really just thinking about being close to family. I have two small children, both in elementary school. And I just think to myself, where do I want them to graduate high school?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
Correct. I was in the same school district from when I was second grade till I graduated. And I feel like that's powerful to just know that this is where I'm growing up. This is where I'm going to graduate from high school.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
The biggest one is just what should we do with our current home? We are homeowners. We've got about 10 years until the house will be paid off. The biggest question, again, is just renting versus selling. Our current mortgage is about $2,200 per month. A website like Zillow estimates that we could rent it out for $3,000.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
What are the key factors we should consider specifically related to being cross-country landlords with little to no property management experience? Well, Lisa, I'll let you take that.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
Yeah, I'm glad she mentioned that recommending a property manager. I will admit that I'm not the most handy homeowner myself. So having to deal with the middle of the night phone call 2,000 miles away, that obviously is something that would be a challenge in itself. So I was strongly considering the property management option.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
And again, Lisa, I think if we do go that route, that may be a strong consideration.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
I think that is the long term goal. Yes, we did consider possibly renting or we're fortunate to have family who would take us in for the first weeks or probably even month or two if needed. But yeah, one of my other biggest questions was just how to access funds for a down payment for a new home. I do feel fortunate that I do have a good amount of money saved across different
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
account types, a Roth IRA, taxable investments, a 403B and cryptocurrencies. But if 50 to let's just say 50,000 to 150,000 or more down payment was needed, I was just curious, what should we consider in terms of tax implications withdrawing strategies? or just selecting which of those accounts to draw from.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
I currently don't have a large liquid down payment available, but with a couple months notice, I'm just curious, Lisa, your advice for where I could access a large down payment if needed.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
I do have the nerdy spreadsheet, but no, I have not taken the next step to really see the tax implications or exactly where I want to draw this money from. I just want to minimize the tax bill from potentially tapping into these accounts that in theory are for long-term growth, but this is obviously a major life change and I know that having access to this is definitely a time to use it.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
As a teacher, the goal is to obviously finish out the school year, which for me here would be the end of May.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
i wouldn't need to for for my job i would not have a nice about two months june and july to get out there but i just think the logistics of the move are also the most daunting it's just should we hire professional movers use a service like pods or u-haul or we also consider just selling a lot of our belongings and starting fresh i did get a quote from a few of these options but i'm just curious if if anyone else has on the call has an idea for
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
Where should we start in terms of physically getting a four or five bedroom house with two small children 2,000 miles away?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
No, not gotten that far. I don't know if it comes across on the call, but feng shui is not in my vocabulary. That is not something that I think about. My wife, definitely I could see her once we find a place to live, realizing that, yeah, the couch or, yeah, a large piece of furniture just doesn't fit. So this is helpful feedback.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
I do think there's maybe an argument to sell and start fresh once we see what we need. Really just bringing the basics, I feel like would really make this a lot easier.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
I did reach out to pods. I did get a quote from them for one of their largest containers. I haven't looked into U-Hauls or professional movers yet, but I feel like the pods or the U-Haul option is going to be the least expensive. So yes, I have started that process, but again, just taking that next step is daunting.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
I hadn't considered that. That's great advice, Lisa. Thank you. Yeah, that would obviously make it way easier if we didn't have to sell anything and can maybe just charge a little bit extra giving them a fully furnished house.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
Yeah, at this point, it's really just waiting to see if the job offer I'm looking for ends up coming through from the state we're looking to move to. So that's really where we're at. The timing as a school teacher, this is where we're entering kind of the time of the year when staff starts letting administrators know whether or not they plan to return.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Cross-Country Moving Tips and What a CFPB Shutdown Could Mean for You
So I'm kind of just playing the waiting game right now to see if this works out. But I know if it does, we're going to have to be frantically planning the move. So I really appreciate this advice.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Should You Keep Your Old Home? The Financial Case for Selling vs. Renting
No, not gotten that far. I don't know if it comes across on the call, but feng shui is not in my vocabulary. That is not something that I think about. My wife, definitely I could see her once we find a place to live, realizing that, yeah, the couch or, yeah, a large piece of furniture just doesn't fit. So this is helpful feedback.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Should You Keep Your Old Home? The Financial Case for Selling vs. Renting
I do think there's maybe an argument to sell and start fresh once we see what we need. Really just bringing the basics, I feel like, would really make this a lot easier.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Should You Keep Your Old Home? The Financial Case for Selling vs. Renting
I did reach out to pods. I did get a quote from them for one of their largest containers. I haven't looked into U-Hauls or professional movers yet, but I feel like the pods or the U-Haul option is going to be the least expensive. So yes, I have started that process. But again, just taking that next step is daunting.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Should You Keep Your Old Home? The Financial Case for Selling vs. Renting
I hadn't considered that. That's great advice, Lisa. Thank you. Yeah, that would obviously make it way easier if we didn't have to sell anything and can maybe just charge a little bit extra giving them a fully furnished house.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Should You Keep Your Old Home? The Financial Case for Selling vs. Renting
Yeah, at this point, it's really just waiting to see if the job offer I'm looking for ends up coming through from the state we're looking to move to. So that's really where we're at. The timing as a school teacher, this is where we're entering kind of the time of the year when staff starts letting administrators know whether or not they plan to return.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Should You Keep Your Old Home? The Financial Case for Selling vs. Renting
So I'm kind of just playing the waiting game right now to see if this works out. But I know if it does, we're going to have to be frantically planning the move. So I really appreciate this advice.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Should You Keep Your Old Home? The Financial Case for Selling vs. Renting
Yeah, we manage a lot of things in a unique way. I do feel like that's something different about us is that we've never merged our finances. I take care of the mortgage. She takes care of utilities. And we both kind of have our own separate accounts, which I do feel like might complicate the cross-country move logistics.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Should You Keep Your Old Home? The Financial Case for Selling vs. Renting
I'm proud that we do not Venmo or Zelle each other. I know there are some couples that do, but no, we're not at that level. But we've kind of just always had the you take care of this, I take care of that. We both in general feel that that's a fair way to do it.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Should You Keep Your Old Home? The Financial Case for Selling vs. Renting
I think we're both making about the same amount. I might make maybe 10 or 20 percent more. But again, we've always done it the way that we do it. And I've not felt the need to bring up or cause a major change as we prepare for what could be a cross-country move.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Should You Keep Your Old Home? The Financial Case for Selling vs. Renting
We're doing very well. I feel very fortunate to have the means to plan for a move like this and just feel like I have options. I feel like I should start this conversation by just acknowledging that I'm coming at this from a point of privilege, even being able to have this conversation and access funds from different accounts and also family is available to help us out if needed.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Should You Keep Your Old Home? The Financial Case for Selling vs. Renting
Thank you.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Should You Keep Your Old Home? The Financial Case for Selling vs. Renting
Yeah, we live in a Western state and I grew up in a Midwestern state. So we're highly considering moving back that way to be closer to family. The state that we currently live in is just one that I've never thought would be the best to raise children.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Should You Keep Your Old Home? The Financial Case for Selling vs. Renting
Growing up in the Midwest and just seeing how people interact with their neighbors, the weather and the climate is something that I also feel like is better. I live in a desert state and I want to move back to one with four seasons is nice. And again, just the biggest reason was just to be closer to family.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Should You Keep Your Old Home? The Financial Case for Selling vs. Renting
and a place for my children to know that this is where they're growing up and going to graduate from high school.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Should You Keep Your Old Home? The Financial Case for Selling vs. Renting
I do think the cost of living in the state we're looking at is about 5% to 10% less than the state we're currently living in. To me, the biggest things with finances is hoping to get a similar salary in the new state, but also just not taking a huge hit in terms of moving costs.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Should You Keep Your Old Home? The Financial Case for Selling vs. Renting
When I start to do the basic research about what it will cost to physically move a house of our size with all of our items and two small children, the numbers can be alarming. But I remind myself that millions of people have done this, but it's just something that's a little scary to start.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Should You Keep Your Old Home? The Financial Case for Selling vs. Renting
I think I'm comfortable sharing that I am a high school teacher. I have spoken to a couple schools in the area we're considering moving to. I have had an interview that I'm still waiting to hear back about if that will be a possibility. My wife is a journalist, and she has a potential job lined up that she could transfer within the same company.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Should You Keep Your Old Home? The Financial Case for Selling vs. Renting
So we're both optimistic that a somewhat easy transition could happen with similar income levels, maybe adjusted for cost of living.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Should You Keep Your Old Home? The Financial Case for Selling vs. Renting
The biggest one that comes to mind is just that I feel very fortunate to be well-respected at my current school. Just the other day, an administrator approached me already asking about plans for next year. I kind of had to delay and stall what I even said to that question. So I do think that my current school would... notice and acknowledge my loss if I were to decide to leave.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Should You Keep Your Old Home? The Financial Case for Selling vs. Renting
Yeah. And just again, just uprooting the place that I've lived for nearly 20 years to move back to the place where I grew up. But again, it's really just thinking about being close to family. I have two small children, both in elementary school. And I just think to myself, where do I want them to graduate high school?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Should You Keep Your Old Home? The Financial Case for Selling vs. Renting
Correct. I was in the same school district from when I was second grade till I graduated. And I feel like that's powerful to just know that this is where I'm growing up. This is where I'm going to graduate from high school.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Should You Keep Your Old Home? The Financial Case for Selling vs. Renting
The biggest one is just what should we do with our current home? We are homeowners. We've got about 10 years until the house will be paid off. The biggest question, again, is just renting versus selling. Our current mortgage is about $2,200 per month. A website like Zillow estimates that we could rent it out for $3,000.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Should You Keep Your Old Home? The Financial Case for Selling vs. Renting
What are the key factors we should consider specifically related to being cross-country landlords with little to no property management experience? Well, Lisa, I'll let you take that.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Should You Keep Your Old Home? The Financial Case for Selling vs. Renting
Yeah, I'm glad she mentioned that recommending a property manager. I will admit that I'm not the most handy homeowner myself. So having to deal with the middle of the night phone call 2,000 miles away, that obviously is something that would be a challenge in itself. So I was strongly considering the property management option.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Should You Keep Your Old Home? The Financial Case for Selling vs. Renting
And again, Lisa, I think if we do go that route, that may be a strong consideration.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Should You Keep Your Old Home? The Financial Case for Selling vs. Renting
I think that is the long-term goal. Yes, we did consider possibly renting or we're fortunate to have family who would take us in for the first weeks or probably even month or two if needed. But yeah, one of my other biggest questions was just how to access funds for a down payment for a new home. I do feel fortunate that I do have a good amount of money saved across different
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Should You Keep Your Old Home? The Financial Case for Selling vs. Renting
account types, a Roth IRA, taxable investments, a 403B, and cryptocurrencies. But if 50 to, let's just say 50,000 to 150,000 or more down payment was needed, I was just curious, what should we consider in terms of tax implications, withdrawing strategies, or just selecting which of those accounts to draw from?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Should You Keep Your Old Home? The Financial Case for Selling vs. Renting
I currently don't have a large liquid down payment available, but with a couple months notice, I'm just curious, Lisa, your advice for where I could access a large down payment if needed.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Should You Keep Your Old Home? The Financial Case for Selling vs. Renting
I do have the nerdy spreadsheet, but no, I have not taken the next step to really see the tax implications or exactly where I want to draw this money from. I just want to minimize the tax bill from potentially tapping into these accounts that in theory are for long-term growth, but this is obviously a major life change and I know that having access to this is definitely a time to use it.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Should You Keep Your Old Home? The Financial Case for Selling vs. Renting
As a teacher, the goal is to obviously finish out the school year, which for me here would be the end of May. I wouldn't need to, for my job, I would have a nice about two months, June and July, to get out there. But I just think the logistics of the move are also the most daunting.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Should You Keep Your Old Home? The Financial Case for Selling vs. Renting
It's just should we hire professional movers, use a service like pods or U-Haul, or we also consider just selling a lot of our belongings and starting fresh. I did get a quote from a few of these options, but I'm just curious if anyone else on the call has an idea for where should we start in terms of physically getting a four or five bedroom house with two small children 2,000 miles away.
Ninjas Are Butterflies
121 - The Drones Have Been Here Before, Telepathy, and New Nuclear Tech
I hate spilling.
Ninjas Are Butterflies
121 - The Drones Have Been Here Before, Telepathy, and New Nuclear Tech
Oh, my gosh.
Ninjas Are Butterflies
121 - The Drones Have Been Here Before, Telepathy, and New Nuclear Tech
Who did this?
Ninjas Are Butterflies
121 - The Drones Have Been Here Before, Telepathy, and New Nuclear Tech
Who did that? It's in our little group chat. It's Anthony's baby. That's Josh. Anthony is a baby being bathed by Lionel. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Ninjas Are Butterflies
121 - The Drones Have Been Here Before, Telepathy, and New Nuclear Tech
1697.
Ninjas Are Butterflies
121 - The Drones Have Been Here Before, Telepathy, and New Nuclear Tech
Let me explain. I'm joking.
Ninjas Are Butterflies
121 - The Drones Have Been Here Before, Telepathy, and New Nuclear Tech
Was that a sympathetic gag?
Ninjas Are Butterflies
120 - Secret Societies and Schemes You've Never Heard of with Sam Tripoli
Yeah.
Opravičujemo se za vse nevšečnosti
Vroča politična jesen 🍂
Ja, sej, za mož tudi manji, če imaš. Ja, meni pedi, to se gre skupaj, to je zato. Ja, seveda. A ja, to ni. Mislim, noh tudi eno ali pa drugo. Ne, ta pedikuro si jaz predstavljam, da ti un, gram pa dano, reš, tam dol odzadi. Ja, to je, vse ti to zrihtne, zrihtne ti noge. Hvala, pa pa, da imaš lepe nohte, pa še ti. Tako, zrihtati noge in tako, pa pa še sej. Pa imaš pa dizajnerske une, eni imajo črte po strani, eni imajo. Se pravim, a veš, ne mora, a bo ti lepo zgledati, če bo vse tam zrihtno, odzad bo pa
Opravičujemo se za vse nevšečnosti
Vroča politična jesen 🍂
Ti ne bo lepo zgledal, ne? Vse moraš, ne? Tako? Za tega je pa gužva. Ker traja. Pojma ni vam, koliko časa, ampak zahar ful. Eno, če je bila gužva. Pol dva leta traja, ne?
Opravičujemo se za vse nevšečnosti
Vroča politična jesen 🍂
Ne, v glavnem, ta glava je odlično upravljena z izogibomatikom, ne? Ja, a zdaj, ne, to se bi hotel vprašati, ali smo mi zdaj že v prejšnji epizodi, ali gremo že naprej? Aja. A smo še v prejšnji epizodi? Ja, ne, ne, ne. V bistvu razlagamo v prejšnji epizodi. Tako. A, to, a, ja. Mislim, malo bo tudi, kako bi rekel, pljusknilo tudi na novo epizodo, ampak...
Opravičujemo se za vse nevšečnosti
Vroča politična jesen 🍂
Zato sem se malo zdravil. Daj, ta kvarnik je enkrat kar umestno odločen. Zdaj ga imam enkrat rupno. Ne, dajmo kar zdeliti, da smo zazdigar kvarnike. Ne, ne, ne, če ga imamo tako pljuskno. Ne moraš kar zdeliti. No, najpljusni zdelene.
Opravičujemo se za vse nevšečnosti
Vroča politična jesen 🍂
In ga je valja, da ga je že tam malo zaznal. Čustveni kot, da bi se zahalo. Matematika pa čustva ne grejo skupaj. Super ga je potrolo. Super. In ga je uspešno obesil. Medtem pa itek nasmejmo pozabiti, da Zeleni Žarek je še zmeraj hudo švigal proti njim. In celo en velik. Artur ga je prej skozi zgledu že zokal. Zdaj ga je pa spet, potem pride nazaj Artur.
Opravičujemo se za vse nevšečnosti
Vroča politična jesen 🍂
In ga je šel spet čez okno gledati, kje je ta, in se je sveda spet besno bližal, ne, Ladi, ne. In tle je čas, da naredimo pečino v Bešanjku.
Opravičujemo se za vse nevšečnosti
Vroča politična jesen 🍂
Ja, lej. Ja, no, vse pravim, pa lej. Ja, valjda. Ja, ne vem, no. Vse gre lak dole, ja, pisa. Ja, lak gre dole. Ja, boljš, kaj da sploh ne greš. Ja, to je res, ampak itak verjetno gre čez februarje, ne? Manikirki pa manikurke, imajo tudi družine, se ali bodo tudi jaz, mislim, halo.
Opravičujemo se za vse nevšečnosti
Vroča politična jesen 🍂
Z vami smo bili. Aljo, peli in zi. In, če ti ta pot, ki so šeč, graho oceniš, deliš ali podpreš. Hvala za sribe, pika si.
Opravičujemo se za vse nevšečnosti
Vroča politična jesen 🍂
Tako, pa polen januar je pa polen maj. Samo jaz mislim, da to moraš malo bolj prej refrešati. To ne gre tako na kratko. Večkrat, ko greš na manjcaj, to si tam. Govorimo tudi o nohtih. Se pravi, če namažeš nohte, gre lak dol.
Opravičujemo se za vse nevšečnosti
Vroča politična jesen 🍂
Zato moraš iti pa tudi po zim. Seveda. Seveda. Ampak moraš večkrat, kaj sanj, dvakrat. Lep ni biti lahko. Težko. Težko. Težko, zajeba. Ja, zajeba. Mislim, pa ne vem, kako ne bi lahko. V resnici. To moj otrok ugotavlja, kako smo moški v prednosti pred ženskam. A kar se tega tiče?
Opravičujemo se za vse nevšečnosti
Vroča politična jesen 🍂
Maš težave in s križami in s težavami in vse skrbi. Tako da ne vem, zakaj bi se zdaj umejel naletati, da bi mogel imeti to pri šestih. Ne, zdaj, ko to poslušalke in poslušalci poslušajo, še nimam. Mislim, nimam več. Upam. Čakaj. No, ja, to je ito. Upam, da nimam več. Zdaj lahko tudi prenesem po meni. Pesni, ki že dolgo pojavim. A si se hortopedu že naročil?
Opravičujemo se za vse nevšečnosti
Vroča politična jesen 🍂
No, sej, to je itak. No, sej, čez lužo je v polnem teku. Že polet je bilo. Tam je v polnem teku. Tudi tukaj je bilo, pri nas je bilo, Francija je bila, v Litve pa vse tako. Zdaj so že memno, so že vlado sestavili, verjetno. E pa pa očitno mi polet nimamo teh idej, od kako stranke narediti pa to. Ne, ne, bojo pa, bojo, bojo, se bo začeli dogajati. Sej pri nas bojo tudi pohmal. Bojo, ja. To bo dobro. Tako da bo, bo, bo.
Opravičujemo se za vse nevšečnosti
Vroča politična jesen 🍂
Mislim, jaz bi že vsaj tako, ko imajo, kakšen otroc te počitnice, to bi imel. A ja, tako, da si pač frej. Ja, na dva meseca pa imaš malo počitnice. Da v bistvu od 1. junija itak nič ne delaš, sicer še hodaš v službo, ampak nič več ne delaš. Ne, plačan si. Ne, kot ne bi treba prijeti. Tako, zakaj bi hodil, če itak nič ne delaš. Odroč morajo isto prijeti, v 14. morajo hoditi. To je res, ja. Filme gledajo, pa ne vem, pa jada, jada.
Opravičujemo se za vse nevšečnosti
Vroča politična jesen 🍂
Ne, ne, prav nas je jih pa kar, skor, ta zadnji teden sem imel frej, tako. A še le, ali kaj? Ja, ja. To pa, to je nekako spetniška šola. Niti ne, ampak so jih se, so kar, mislim, da. To so te ta haupta, veš, neška, novi menehetan. Še enkrat, ne, ampak. A jel to je to? Spohaj me ne posluša. Ta zhreben, ta zhreben so to. To je ono naprej, to je vodnik, ne, ta naša, ni to. Ampak so, očitno so mogoče sami neorganizirani, pa. A so pa sami pozabili. Ne, čakaj, kjeraj, ne, jača, prežiho, ne.
Opravičujemo se za vse nevšečnosti
Vroča politična jesen 🍂
Kukor vem, je Prežiho Voranc. Ne, kaj je že, no ne, una ta druga. Rihat Jakopič. To ja, Jakopič. A je? Ja, Jakopič je kaj najjače. A to samo zato, ko so jo prenovili zdaj? Ne vem, ampak ta je kaj, ta je ta haupt. Res? Ba je, ne vem. Sorbona taka, slovenska. Ja, ok, jih je veliko tudi, ker mi imamo sicer, pač tam smo zelo zdravni šole, pa jih je veliko svoje otroke kaj prepisali, tako da. A, je tam tako renome? Ja, ja, ba je. Mislim, mogoče ima pa ta slabšega, tako da daj.
Opravičujemo se za vse nevšečnosti
Vroča politična jesen 🍂
Tukaj v naših odravljah nima renomeja sploh, ampak je super šola. Mogoče pa je veliko šol v okolici in potem se lahko zmišljuješ. Če imaš veliko možnosti, potem lahko izbiraš. Čeprav načinami ne bi smel, ampak ima rata ljudi. Ene šole bolj pohvalja kot druge.
Opravičujemo se za vse nevšečnosti
Vroča politična jesen 🍂
To je pa svoboda. To je pa svoboda. Tukaj malo so kontradiktorni, ampak so pa največji. Sej se prnasisti. Ne, prnasupam, da ne bo... Ne, ne, ne, ne za puške, ampak recimo tako, veš, vsi smo kristjani, pa gor, pa dol, ampak potem, ne vem, en migrant, otrok ali pa odrasel, umre, ne vem, prek greče zmejo oziroma k...
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
It was beaming something at us, and then once when it deemed whatever it was doing, the task to be complete, then it turned off the hypnotic feeling of what it was doing. It didn't look like the beam was still even present at all when it started to move away. Again, when I said it, it kind of just turned it all off, or at least turned down the light and turned down the resonant frequency.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
To go from experiencing something that is so inescapably loud to fading out at the end of a song, it was pretty mind-blowing. All that happened in the span of maybe 20 seconds to where it was directly over us, and then it was completely out of sight in sound.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
about 20 seconds, but it didn't look like it was, it didn't like blast off or, you know, I seen the footage of UFOs where they will change direction and, you know, zip off at like unfathomable speeds. This one just seemed to kind of take its time and just move away. At that point, as crazy as it is to say, but I think we all just kind of went back to sleep. We all like made sure everyone was okay.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
It's almost frustrating that it's happening. I'm going to die. His limbs were just like, wrong.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
the guy that brought the hot cheetos into the tent slept through this whole thing. I don't know how he did, but at that point, I think he'd woken up and just be like, like, what? Like, what was happening, you guys? I heard something going on. Which is absurd. But... Yeah, I also remember there not being any sort of noise, any sort of crickets. I couldn't even hear the creek that was next to us.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
It was almost just like this thing had just sucked up all the noise out of the environment, even after it was long gone. It was just a completely dead night.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
We woke up the next day. Everything was where it was in the campgrounds. Nothing was blown away or out of the ordinary. Our cars were still there. I even noticed that the trash bag that we'd hung up had been completely untouched by any sort of wildlife when the previous night we had tied up the trash can and the raccoons had torn it to shreds.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
So it wasn't like we had done a spectacular job of tidying up, but just whatever. Yeah, nothing was disturbed at our campgrounds. It was almost like there wasn't even any wildlife around us in the first place. I was anticipating some sort of ear ringing.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
I was fortunate enough to have a childhood where my parents really valued music and live music, so they took me to concerts all the time when I was a kid. And the next day after a show, my ears would always be ringing. We didn't wear earplugs at the time, so ears would always be ringing. This, no ringing in the ears whatsoever. It was almost like it never had happened.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
My hearing was perfectly fine. It should have been affected and impacted. I've noticed tinnitus from way quieter things. And yeah, this did not cause any sort of damage to my ears. We just silently packed up just all the gear and whatnot and then we went home. We never really talked about it.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
Until like a few years later when we were all like hanging out at like a party or something like that and then we were sharing stories and whatnot and then... One of the guys brought it up and said, guys, remember we saw that UFO on the camping trip in Ojai? And I just remember a kind of a hush falling over the friend group, which was uncharacteristic because myself and my friends are pretty loud.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
And, you know, when we're telling stories together, we're pretty boisterous and laughing and whatnot and like yelling over each other. So I just remember everybody just kind of exchanging glances as if to say, Like, oh, shoot, like, you guys remember that too. It wasn't just me, you know?
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
My name's Dave. I live in the Bay Area. I just work as a software engineer up here just in the local tech hemisphere. I am actually from Southern California and grew up, I had a very normal childhood, had really no experiences in any sort of paranormal activity.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
It was a really sobering moment because I think all of us realized that what we had actually witnessed was actually reality. It was unexplainable, but it was certainly something that we had witnessed and we could no longer, you know, write it off as just a dream or something else that would be more easily explained. We never really got into the specifics of it.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
I think we were talked about, you know, the noise and the lights and whatnot. And we all concurred that we had witnessed the same things. I don't... We never really talked about it in detail, which I think we should at this point. But...
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
Yeah, we definitely agreed on the overall details of the UFO, but I do remember one detail that my friend felt like he was having this out-of-body experience, especially when looking at the lights and hearing the resonant frequency. but he just felt like his body was floating up.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
And then once when the aircraft started moving away and we were no longer like in its trance, he remembered like falling quickly back down to earth. Almost like somebody dropped him from like eight feet above and just he hit the ground. Like he said he could feel the force of his self like hitting the ground. I think it wasn't really awkward.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
I would say maybe the reason why we didn't really talk about it or address it was because I don't really think we're naturally superstitious people, or I guess we weren't at the time either. I also think it's maybe just the tendencies of teenage guys to not really talk about things, especially pretty traumatic things like that.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
This encounter definitely did traumatize a couple of the guys that were also on the trip. I personally don't have any sort of resulting trauma from it, but it was never like discussed as like, wow, it wasn't that crazy. It wasn't that cool. It was always a, yeah, that was really messed up. What was that? We don't really know what that was.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
Also, some of the guys on the trip were pretty religious at the time. I'm not personally religious. I've never really been religious at all. So witnessing that didn't really shake my belief systems, but I'd imagine that the guys who were pretty religious might have had trouble coping with it, really. I didn't tell my parents either. Had I told my parents, I don't think they would have believed me.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
They were naturally pretty rational people, I guess you could say. So I think they would have just assumed that I was like, you know, smoking too much weed or whatever or whatnot. I don't think they would have believed me at all. After that happened, I was trying to rack my head about like what that could have been besides, you know, a UFO. And I thought it could have been a helicopter.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
But I could tell that it was a couple hundred feet off the ground. And normally, you know, I live in the Bay Area in Oakland, and there's police helicopters flying around all the time, and those fly pretty high up in the air. But you can still hear the chopper blades, you know, slicing through the air. And I'd imagine that if a helicopter is flying, pretty low to the ground.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
Grew up just kind of vaguely believing in this stuff and never really thinking that it would actually come to fruition or that I would ever really experience anything like this. But that all changed when in the summer of 2013, in between my sophomore and junior year of high school, me and my group of guy friends wanted to do like a little weekend getaway camping trip to Ojai, California.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
It would be still disturbing the wind around us. And I recall just no sound coming out of the craft other than just the resonant frequency that it was emitting. There's no sort of sound that it was jet propulsion or whatever. In a weird way, I just remember how silent everything else was around us. There was no sound of coyotes howling or any sort of disturbances to the nature around us.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
It was a pretty run-down campsite, so it didn't have any really amenities. It barely had plumbing, just some outhouses. So there's no machinery around there or construction happening. There's nothing that could actually really produce... a noise like that, let alone a noise at that scale.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
And that's why I was so entranced when I first woke up to see this craft overhead, was because even in my half-asleep, half-awake stupor, I knew that what it was was not an organic thing. It wasn't of planet Earth. There's no way it could have been a helicopter. It was this complete otherworldly entity that was present in our space.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
I had just never heard any sort of noise like that ever in my lifetime up until that point. It just had the characteristics of nothing that I'd ever heard of. I'll never forget that noise. It's hard to describe, but I'll never forget that feeling of witnessing something that was just completely beyond the scope of my understanding, even now and as an adult, let alone as a 16-year-old kid.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
After that, I had a pretty, you know, continuing on my pretty normal high school experience. My parents were always big about me getting into, you know, higher education. So I went to college in the central coast of California. I got an engineering degree, graduated, met my wife there. You know, pretty run-of-the-mill experience for a young, upwardly mobile person, I guess.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
After everything, I just... proceeded to move on with my life, graduated, got a job, moved in with my girlfriend from college, and just carried on as usual. All that really changed in 2019, so about seven or eight years later, after my encounter with the UFO. I was going on a trip with some friends from college. At that point, I had graduated, and we were going on a trip to Palm Springs.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
It was the day that we were flying into Palm Springs, and my girlfriend said, hey, I'd love to do this really cool thing. It's called a sound bath. It's this meditative experience, and they have a sound bath out in Joshua Tree, so I'd really love to do that before we go meet up with everybody at the Airbnb.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
And I think I was just too fixated on, like, partying with my friends that I was just, like, didn't really think anything of it. I was just like, yeah, yeah, sure, we can go do that. I kind of was just thinking, like, this is just some kind of new-aged woo-woo bullshit. But, yeah, I'll do it, you know. My girlfriend wants to do it. Let's go. So we drive. to the outskirts of Joshua Tree.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
I remember about, it was over an hour drive from the Palm Springs airport to this place. And the place we go to is called the Integratron. So we get to this place, it's like this, it's out in the middle of the desert. There's like a few derelict gas stations, but it's really in the outskirts of the Mojave. We get to this little kind of ranch or area.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
We were working a little odd-end summer jobs, and so we were accruing like a little bit of money in allowances. So we wanted to kind of have that taste of freedom and like, oh, let's go on a trip all together. And we wanted to do a camping trip.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
And in the middle of the ranch, there's this massive building. It's like maybe 30, 40 feet tall. It's two stories. And it has this massive white dome over it. And that is what is called the Integratron. And that's where the sound bath took place. So we get into the building and we walk up the stairs into the second floor of the Integratron. So we're in the dome of the Integratron.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
And we're all oriented in a circle. We're given blankets and pillows to lie down. It's just a complete meditative experience. And you close your eyes. And then the person that's leading the sound experience has these massive quartz bowls that they are, you know, rubbing the rim with like a wand or something to generate a frequency. So I'm laying there with my eyes closed.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
And the person leading the meditation starts rubbing the rims of the quartz bowls with this wand. And I was taken aback because I immediately recognized that frequency as the same exact frequency that was generated by the UFO that I experienced all those years prior. It was unmistakable. I'll never forget that sound, and I knew right away that it was the same exact frequency.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
You know, the same exact frequency. sensation of feeling like the sound had permeated my bones and my head. I could feel it in my spine rattling all of my joints. Another interesting detail about the Integratron is that it is acoustically perfect. So it's the parabolic nature of the dome makes it so that on the edges of the walls where we were all laying down is like the frequency hotspots.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
So the frequencies generated by the quartz bowls were being amplified off of the walls. And so that definitely contributed to the overall intensity of the frequency. After a while, almost again like anesthesia, I unknowingly just kind of slipped out of consciousness.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
And so we looked at some of the local places like El Capitan Ranch on the coast, like central coast, and these kind of boutique camping experiences that are like a few hundred dollars a night. So we said, you know, screw that. We're just going to find the cheapest campsite that we can find, which was this place called Wheeler Gorge in Ojai. And it costs like $40 a night. So between...
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
I think it was the only time of my life that I've truly had an out-of-body experience where I felt like I was no longer in my physical vessel. And I remember what accentuated this was that Like kind of towards the end, it was like an hour long, this whole experience. It felt like ages. It felt like a day I was in this kind of stasis, you know, entranced by the frequencies of the quartz bowls.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
And I recall somebody else that was doing the sound bath, not part of our party, but just some other guy, had fallen asleep and then started like audibly like snoring. And the snore completely took me out of the experience. But the reason I bring this up is that when I hear that initial snore, again, it felt like my body just came crashing down to earth, like I was floating 10 feet above the air.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
And then someone just dropped me, and I just slammed back into my body, like my friend had said when he was witnessing the UFO. And the feeling of like falling back down to earth, like almost like your spirit is now being influenced by gravity. It was now back under the influence of gravity, the same kind of accelerating, this wham of just smacking into the floor.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
But again, my body had never left the floor. It was like truly transcendental. I'll never forget that feeling. But my main takeaway from that was it was the exact same frequency as the UFO.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
And also similar to the previous UFO experience was that I went into the sound bath experience equally as, you know, as non-believing, you know, kind of with an attitude of like, oh yeah, it's just a meditation, okay, whatever, it's not really going to do anything. But then I had this incredibly impactful experience. Same thing with the camping trip.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
I didn't think UFOs even existed, let alone did I think that I was going to encounter one on that trip, but then lo and behold, that's what happened. Hearing that sound again was really unnerving. I had previously thought that that sound was not possible to be created by a human. It was not an organic sound, but at the same time too, it was also somewhat comforting.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
From that point on, I knew that whatever UFO I had seen was not antagonistic. If anything, it was just, it was like a kind of a wandering, you know, vessel that was just maybe like collecting data on humans and just happened to stumble upon us. Because the sound bath was such a peaceful and positive experience overall.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
I still think about it to this day about just how much that impacted me too, but in a good way. And so having that experience was able to kind of demystify the UFO that I'd seen and demystify that experience as not one that's traumatic, but just one, it's just like another encounter that you would have with another creature that you're sharing space with, I guess.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
Like it's like encountering like a deer, you know? It was, I mean, just mind blowing, really. Especially when you're not actually like looking to piece information together and then everything fits or seems to align really well. Once again, it was very validating about this newfound perspective and belief that, you know, there is probably something out there that we don't really know about.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
A group of eight guys, we just like pulled together some money. It was about the most that we could afford at the time. These were all like my best guy friends. You know, even now, some of them were like, you know, groomsmen in my wedding. So it's my friends, Zach and Diego. Those are like my best friends. They both played football with me and they...
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
And maybe there is a higher consciousness that we as humans can aspire to. It's made me a more spiritual person, I think. Not as in a religious spirituality, but just in a spirituality that my own being and my own consciousness is part of a larger ecosystem. I am not the individual, I am a part of the collective.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
Especially at the time where I had just graduated college, I had just started working in engineering. And, you know, engineering, kind of the prevailing sentiments amongst a lot of people that, like, work in this industry is all about, you know, money and...
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
aspirational wealth and, you know, career and all these things that are kind of superfluous, really in the grand scheme of things, and don't really actually matter. And just having this experience, this truly kind of transcendental experience is... solidified my overall feeling of just, oh wow, we're like, we're all part of something so much bigger than ourselves.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
And if only we're all given the opportunity to be shown that, you know, I feel almost grateful that I was able to experience this and to be shown that.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
were, I wouldn't really call them tough, but they were certain, like I'm definitely more on the softer side, and they were the guys that kind of brought me out of my, you know, shy, sensitive shell, and really kind of be bros with me. There was Diego's brother, who's this very like stoic guy, and There was two other guys. One guy, we don't really keep in touch with him.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
His name is Daniel, but he was a devoted, like sober guy, like didn't drink whatsoever. Like this guy was dead sober the entire time. And then there was two other guys, a guy named Al and a guy named Brian. They were in our friend group at the time as well. So we set out, we load up my old Toyota truck with all of the supplies.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
We had like, I think, two racks of beer and we got like, you know, a bunch of hot dogs, you know, typical like teenage boy cuisine and whatnot. And we drove out, it was like in the summer, so it was like super, super hot in Ohio. It was like 90 to 100 degrees, super dry, barely any sun coverage at the campground, barely any people at the campground too. It was just like this...
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
you know, your typical campground, you know, supervisor guy that lives on premise. And he just came up to us and was like, hey, guys, you know, I basically called our bluff, was like, I know you guys have alcohol. I know you guys are underage. It's cool. I won't bother you. Just, like, don't burn down the forest and we'll be friends.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
So we were definitely left to our own devices, and it was just so, so remote out there. And Wheeler Gorge is about 30 minutes inland from Ojai, so it's even deeper into the mountains and even more remote. You know, one of those places where you lose service about 20 minutes away from the campsite, and it's just kind of a dead zone. So the first day we were there, you know, nothing too crazy.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
You know, we just played beer pong for like five hours or so, just hung out, you know, typical camping stuff. We all shared this one big family-sized tent that my buddy Zach had brought. So we're all kind of sardined next to each other, side by side. And because it was so hot, we also slept without the tarp on top of the tent.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
Just because there was no moisture, we wanted to be able to see the stars and the whole sky. Because it was so remote, there was no light pollution, so we were able to do that. There was tons of raccoons, though, so the raccoons were just completely shredding through our garbage the entire night, so I remember being kept up by them.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
My buddy Brian had snuck in a bag of hot Cheetos into the tent for, like, a little late-night snack, and anybody that's ever been camping knows that you don't keep any food in the tent just for that reason. So the first night, we actually got woke up by a family of raccoons breaking into our tent and undoing the zipper and, like, climbing all over us. So...
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
Yeah, it was just funny, all the commotion of that. You know how people say like, oh, raccoons have hands? They actually have like little hands. I felt one like step on my thigh and I felt like it was almost just like a shrunken human hand just pressed onto my thigh. So we woke up the next day, you know, had some breakfast, just kind of shook off the night before.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
I think we ended up going on a hike, or at least trying to. It was so hot that we couldn't actually really go up on the mountain. And I'm kind of glad that we did not because I'm sure we probably didn't have the necessary supplies. We were all kind of worn out from the festivities of the day before. So I kind of took it a little bit easier, just listened to music.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
I think at one point we actually went into town just to get more supplies, really just hung out and just chatted and goofed off like we normally did, but just camping.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
I was feeling pretty tired and just kind of over the festivities, so I just decided to take it easy and just help out making dinner and make some s'mores and whatnot and just kind of have a quieter evening in preparation of going home the next day. So we all went to bed pretty early, around like 10 or 11 or so.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
I was pretty much smack dab in the middle of the tent, just so I had a pretty clear view looking up into the sky. I recall not being obstructed by any sort of trees or even like barely even like the tent poles or whatnot. So I had a pretty clear view of everything. We learned our lesson from the previous night. We got rid of all the food out of the tent.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
We hung up our garbage bags on a nearby tree to get them out of reach for the critters and whatnot. So... around one or two in the morning, I hear more commotion. I wake up to my friend, I forget who, I think it was like my Diego's brother or something, like yelling, like, what the fuck is that? Like, what is that?
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
And my initial thought is like, Brian brought more hot Cheetos into the tent and something else, like a coyote got into the tent. So I woke up disgruntled, but when I actually became conscious, I realized, like, what was actually happening.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
My sight and hearing are, like, the first to come, and I'm, like, curled up in my sleeping bag, so I couldn't really see, but I remember hearing this really, really loud humming frequency, like... like just this noise just ringing in my head. And one thing that I recall about this was that it wasn't like a loud volume like you'd hear at like a concert or whatnot, like an artificially loud volume.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
It was like my entire body and skeleton was just resonating with this frequency. It was incredibly loud. It was so loud, it was inescapable. You couldn't plug your ears to get away from it. But it wasn't like a splitting, like overly loud concert sound. Like I'm a musician, I play live all the time. Our band, being in a metal band, we're pretty loud.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
And so, you know, we wear ear protection because otherwise it's just like that super loud splitting, you know, ear ringing volume. But this didn't really have the same characteristics. This was something that like permeated my skull. Like I'd almost hear like my teeth rattling in my head. It was just inescapable, this loud, just humming noise.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
You could try to plug your ears with your fingers and then hum. Like that. And you can hear the hum kind of rattle in your head. You really hear it inside of your head as opposed to this directional sound. sound that's coming into your ears. It's almost like this is coming from inside of your body and then spreading outwards out of your body. You just can't get away from it.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
You just can't get it out of your head. And so I kind of wipe the sleep out of my eyes and I look up and there's just this incredibly bright light just beaming down directly on top of us. so bright that it was obscuring not only its own shape, but I couldn't really see anything around me. I couldn't really see any of the trees. I could barely even see my car that was parked 20 feet away.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
Whenever you come out of an operation, You know, you get out of the anesthesia cloud and you have those, it's like this big center bright light and then like a few lights kind of scattered lining the center light. Kind of like an overhead fixture that you'd see in like a hospital. But it was just massive. And I could tell it was massive because
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
It was burning with, like, the same ferocity of, like, an overhead lamp, like, direct, like, you know, a foot over your face. But it was clear that whatever this was was maybe a couple hundred feet in the air. So just tons and tons of light, like, bright, hot, yellow light beaming down on us. Whatever it was... knew that we were there and it was still nighttime.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
And I actually, I could see like a rough circular outline, but because the light was just so bright and directed and like in our eyes, it's just really hard to tell what exactly it was. The whole time it's just hovering there, beaming down on us and, you know, just vibrating and emitting this resonant frequency. And I recall after everybody woke up, We were, it was just very silent.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
You know, we weren't screaming like when the raccoon had gotten in the tent. We were just all laying there, silently looking up at it, like transfixed at this beaming light that was pointed down at us. I didn't recall feeling this way, but one of my friends on the trip had said that he felt like, almost hypnotized by it.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
Like, he was, like, it was, like, pulling him up and, like, he was floating, though obviously nobody left the ground, but just, like, the feeling, like, his energy was being, like, pulled upwards. I could see just because of, like, the blocking out of, like, the stars and the constellations that it was... probably the length of like a school bus, I would say.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
So it was quite large, but it was a circle too. That's another kind of thing that felt like kind of incredulous was that This particular craft kind of looked like a lot of the UFOs that I'd seen, you know, in media in my childhood. But it was unmistakably circular. It did not look like it was spinning or rotating. It just looked like it was, like, this static hovering object over us.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
It didn't look like it was tilting due to, like, balancing issues, you know, like a helicopter would. It was just perfectly static floating in the air, like, weightless, basically. But it was massive. The lights seemed to take up most of, if not all, of the surface area of the underneath of the craft, which I assume what we were looking at was the underneath of the craft.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
But again, just due to the bright directional lights, I could only really make out just the general shape and the size of it. It looked to be pure black. Now, whether it was the material was black or it was, you know, refracting the light around it, like almost like cloaking. Who's to say? It looked like solid material. It didn't have any sort of shine like metal would. Almost like there's this...
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
artificial color black called Vantablack. It's the blackest black that there is. So it looked like it wasn't even really registering the light, just no reflection of the light at all. I remember feeling just like a huge knot in my chest of dread. Like not knowing what it was going to do, whether or not we were going to be okay. I remember thinking, like, are we about to be abducted?
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
Like, are we going to be, like, pulled into, like, a tractor beam or whatnot? So that's why it was really interesting when one of the other people there was saying that they felt like they were floating looking at it, like, almost, like, hypnotically. But I remember just laying there in paralyzed fear, knowing that We were at the mercy of it.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
It knew we were there and at this point could do whatever it wanted with us. We had no cell service. We couldn't call anybody. I'm not even sure we would have had time to do anything. We just were, I remember just laying there paralyzed in fear, just like looking at it silently. We just sat there all transfixed in complete silence at this thing that was floating up over us.
Otherworld
Episode 122: Hum Over Ojai
And eventually after maybe a minute of it just hovering over us, it just slowly just floated away. As it started to move away from it, it almost felt like it had turned off the hypnotic qualities of the light. It noticeably got quieter immediately as it started to move. So it was almost like
Pardon My Take
RG3 In Studio, Lions Take Down Packers, Week 14 Picks And Preview And Fyre Fest Of The Week
All right.
Pardon My Take
RG3 In Studio, Lions Take Down Packers, Week 14 Picks And Preview And Fyre Fest Of The Week
Yeah.
Pardon My Take
RG3 In Studio, Lions Take Down Packers, Week 14 Picks And Preview And Fyre Fest Of The Week
Yeah. He doesn't... He doesn't, like, touch it. He doesn't, like, touch it. Hank, you got anything you want to say?
Pardon My Take
RG3 In Studio, Lions Take Down Packers, Week 14 Picks And Preview And Fyre Fest Of The Week
Yeah.
Pardon My Take
RG3 In Studio, Lions Take Down Packers, Week 14 Picks And Preview And Fyre Fest Of The Week
11.
Pardon My Take
RG3 In Studio, Lions Take Down Packers, Week 14 Picks And Preview And Fyre Fest Of The Week
21. 21.
Pardon My Take
RG3 In Studio, Lions Take Down Packers, Week 14 Picks And Preview And Fyre Fest Of The Week
44.
Pardon My Take
RG3 In Studio, Lions Take Down Packers, Week 14 Picks And Preview And Fyre Fest Of The Week
2003.
Pardon My Take
RG3 In Studio, Lions Take Down Packers, Week 14 Picks And Preview And Fyre Fest Of The Week
95%?
Pardon My Take
RG3 In Studio, Lions Take Down Packers, Week 14 Picks And Preview And Fyre Fest Of The Week
Great pick, Memes, by the way. You love him.
Pardon My Take
RG3 In Studio, Lions Take Down Packers, Week 14 Picks And Preview And Fyre Fest Of The Week
Oh, nice.
Pardon My Take
RG3 In Studio, Lions Take Down Packers, Week 14 Picks And Preview And Fyre Fest Of The Week
What happened?
Pardon My Take
RG3 In Studio, Lions Take Down Packers, Week 14 Picks And Preview And Fyre Fest Of The Week
100%.
Pardon My Take
RG3 In Studio, Lions Take Down Packers, Week 14 Picks And Preview And Fyre Fest Of The Week
Correct.
Pivot
Elon's Empire Struggles, Trump's Crypto Summit, and IPO Slump
Thank you so much. David from Boston. I confess I'm a reasonably satisfied seven-year Tesla owner. That's all right.
Pivot
Elon's Empire Struggles, Trump's Crypto Summit, and IPO Slump
It's a decent car. Yeah. But at what point, there's no way that Musk is attending to Tesla, right?
Pivot
Elon's Empire Struggles, Trump's Crypto Summit, and IPO Slump
In a timely way as CEO. How long before the board, of which he is no longer chairman, starts to push back on him being absent? Won't happen?
Pivot
Market Meltdown, Tariff Winners and Losers, and TikTok Deadline Delayed
That's the red line. Yep.
Pivot
CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
I've listened to the last few podcasts in which both of you discussed the various nominees Trump has put forward for cabinet and other important administration positions. My question for each of you has two parts. Which positions do each of you consider the most important positions and why?
Pivot
CEO Shooting, Bitcoin Surge, and Bezos’s Trump Optimism
And second, if you were president, who would you nominate for the most important positions in your administration and why? Thanks. My name is David.
Pivot
Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
And when I look at the Trump administration, I see a massive attempt to return us to the life of dog-eat-dog, the life of nasty British and short, the life where gangsters have maximum freedom to do what they want to do. And that is the evisceration of all the values of civilization that conservatism is supposed to transmit and preserve.
Pivot
Elon's Tesla Board Drama, Microsoft and Meta Earnings, and Bezos Bends the Knee
And I think the raw lust for power that Donald Trump embodies has not only eviscerated conservatism, it's eviscerated Christianity.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. Psalm 19 To the Choir Master A Psalm of David
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 1: In the Beginning (2025)
Okay, so that, oh gosh, Genesis one and two.
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. Psalm 11 Song of Trust in God to the Choir Master of David
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 154: The Baptism of Jesus (2025)
The upright shall behold his face. Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory. Thank you so much.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Local Hour: Andrew Hawkins on De'Vandre Campbell Quitting
Grass.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Local Hour: Andrew Hawkins on De'Vandre Campbell Quitting
Can we get it right? The worst winter I ever spent was the summer I spent in San Francisco.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Local Hour: Andrew Hawkins on De'Vandre Campbell Quitting
But it wasn't the quote you said either. I know, so I don't have to respect the quote if it's not a real quote.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Local Hour: Andrew Hawkins on De'Vandre Campbell Quitting
It's a Tuesday for people to feel that in their job, but you don't manifest it, especially when you're a professional athlete in the public view. You don't manifest it by walking off the field the way he did. The image that we haven't shown... He's hurt, David. He wasn't limping. No, no, no. He is hurt. His ego is hurt, yes.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Local Hour: Andrew Hawkins on De'Vandre Campbell Quitting
It's a designer hammer. I've never heard that. It was like a specially designed hammer. Like a Louis Vuitton wrapped hammer?
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Local Hour: Andrew Hawkins on De'Vandre Campbell Quitting
For sure.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Local Hour: Andrew Hawkins on De'Vandre Campbell Quitting
That's what I would expect. Count me in on the Bahamas Bowl. What are you shaking your head about, Samson? All I'm hearing from Hawkins, and I'm happy working with him today, but all I'm hearing are things that I have such contempt for that I'm having a hard time because I'm trying. I'm trying to like you. You have a Yankee hat on. You're talking about walking out.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Local Hour: Andrew Hawkins on De'Vandre Campbell Quitting
You're talking about not telling a coach that you won't go in to catch a punt. And now you're saying that you don't want to practice the extra for a bowl game. I thought it was business first with you, David. I thought that was. The business is telling your coach that you're going to go in. That's like saying, oh, I'm not good at bunting. Don't put the bun sign on.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Local Hour: Andrew Hawkins on De'Vandre Campbell Quitting
You never do it.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Local Hour: Andrew Hawkins on De'Vandre Campbell Quitting
I can't be standing there then.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Local Hour: Andrew Hawkins on De'Vandre Campbell Quitting
Owners like comfort. It's like comfort food. They go back to people, and that's the talk of Belichick going back to some of his old assistant coaches. It's a weird thing that owners have when there's openings. They want to bring people back.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Local Hour: Andrew Hawkins on De'Vandre Campbell Quitting
Think about George Steinbrenner with Billy Martin, old reference, but you bring them back again and again, and owners have always been like that, and everybody's smart. They're starting these consulting companies. where you get paid to perform a job that anyone could do without being paid to do it.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Local Hour: Andrew Hawkins on De'Vandre Campbell Quitting
So when you're being paid to sell a team, if you want to sell a team, you raise your hand and say you're selling a team and people come to you. When you've got an opening for GM, what they're saying is we can identify kids in a way that you can't, but that's not how it works actually.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Local Hour: Andrew Hawkins on De'Vandre Campbell Quitting
Well, wait, the situation, just to be clear, is that he had started 12 of the first 13 games. He was second on the team in tackles. But then Greenlaw, who he had replaced because he had an Achilles injury, Greenlaw got healthy. He gets his starting job back. And then Campbell's back on the bench. But then Greenlaw said, oh, I got a little thing. I got a thing.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Local Hour: Andrew Hawkins on De'Vandre Campbell Quitting
And then the coach said, all right, we're going back to you. And Campbell said, you didn't want me. An hour ago, forget it. And he literally walked off. Are we really going to act like we don't understand that a little bit? A little bit of that logic. I'd release him on the spot. I would have gone to the locker room and released him on the spot.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Local Hour: Andrew Hawkins on De'Vandre Campbell Quitting
I don't care if he's on waivers and goes to a playoff team. I don't want him in that uniform again. It's a disgrace. But, David, wait a second. Let's hear Hawk out because there's a human element.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Local Hour: Andrew Hawkins on De'Vandre Campbell Quitting
If I'm extra lonely and I'm on a cold streak, that sounds like a you problem, David.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Local Hour: Andrew Hawkins on De'Vandre Campbell Quitting
I bought the over-under to 17. So I have no idea why anyone's upset at all. I did a Stugatz. The 12-6 game was a barn burner. Loved every minute of having six field goals.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Local Hour: Andrew Hawkins on De'Vandre Campbell Quitting
So I viewed that as a positive.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Local Hour: Andrew Hawkins on De'Vandre Campbell Quitting
Oh, I hate it. I think it is, again, the sneakiest way to add four preseason football games. What about the day after the Thursday game? It may have been a bad game, but now they get 10 days off.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Local Hour: Andrew Hawkins on De'Vandre Campbell Quitting
That's my kind of guy.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Local Hour: Andrew Hawkins on De'Vandre Campbell Quitting
It's San Francisco.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Local Hour: Andrew Hawkins on De'Vandre Campbell Quitting
All of a sudden, it came out of nowhere. It's the worst weather city of all the baseball cities. Seattle's worse. Plain and Candlestick Park, there's a roof. But Plain and Candlestick Park, I don't know if you ever did, but it's the worst.
The Dr. John Delony Show
Can I Be Married and Still Have Friends?
So, to give you some background, I met my wife in June of 21, got married in January of 2023, so we're almost at our two-year anniversary. And before I met my wife, I was a pretty rabid alcoholic-slash-gambling addict, and I was clean for about two years prior to meeting her. So when I met her, you know, if she would drink, I would use cannabis, no issues.
The Dr. John Delony Show
Can I Be Married and Still Have Friends?
Uh, but I started telling her more about, you know, like recovery, watching intervention, stuff like that. I like shows like that. She was like, Oh wow. Like, you know, you shouldn't be using anything.
The Dr. John Delony Show
Can I Be Married and Still Have Friends?
And I'm sitting there thinking, okay, well, when I went to rehab back in 2018, I mean, a lot of people would say, I don't know what your thoughts are, but basically they're not, if you shouldn't be doing anything at all, you should be totally sober. And I would say 9% of people I've met or healthcare professionals agree with that. I'm almost six years sober in those two issues in February.
The Dr. John Delony Show
Can I Be Married and Still Have Friends?
And now my wife saw my case quite a bit. You know, she just thinks I shouldn't be doing anything. It's like taking a big risk. And it's starting to annoy me and cause a little bit of issue. So I was kind of curious to get your feedback on that. Everything else is great. It's just this one little issue that it's kind of causing bigger issues.
The Dr. John Delony Show
Can I Be Married and Still Have Friends?
Well, I guess that's fair. She says, like, I'm not present. I guess to you it's something she has said.
The Dr. John Delony Show
Can I Be Married and Still Have Friends?
Which is fair. And I guess here in Canada, like, we do have it legalized. That's something I used, to be honest with you, a crush when I quit drinking back in 2019. They just legalized it.
The Dr. John Delony Show
Can I Be Married and Still Have Friends?
I don't know, to be honest with you, like I'm in the military here in Canada and you know, it's the only thing I can really do. I know I'm being honest with you. I'm just saying I feel like that's something that I can get my hands on that's not me having trouble with work, so I do it.
The Dr. John Delony Show
Can I Be Married and Still Have Friends?
But also, too, it's probably a bad answer, but my wife's having a few drinks on a Friday night, and I want to smoke up a bit. I really don't see the issue there because I don't mind that she drinks. That's not a factor at all. That's something that really, I guess, during the past time that I kind of feel like she's partaking and I should be able to as well, I guess, would be how I feel about that.
The Dr. John Delony Show
Can I Be Married and Still Have Friends?
That's a really good point. And the funny thing is we're both actually retiring in a couple of months, kind of forced out on medical. So we're going to have like, work won't be a thing there anymore. We're going to kind of have the ability to travel and do whatever we want and Maybe this might just be the addict in me talking, but I feel like as soon as I have that, I'm kind of out of a position.
The Dr. John Delony Show
Can I Be Married and Still Have Friends?
I know I say that, but I'm saying right now that's how it feels to me. When I have that ability, I'm not really going to have that need anymore. That's kind of the way I'm looking at it. I've got a couple more months, but then it's still obviously causing a bit of tension.
The Dr. John Delony Show
Can I Be Married and Still Have Friends?
No, no, I drank, uh, I joined at 17. So it's kind of hard to tell you. And also I've been doing the military for 18 years now. It's all I've done. Okay. It's all you know. You really get to build, build, build, you know, and you can be alcoholics in the military. No problem.
The Dr. John Delony Show
Can I Be Married and Still Have Friends?
Um, the gambling thing kind of cycled with me from, uh, when taking my first step within a year, I was in rehab, like that hit me like a, like a truck, uh, Um, so yeah. And the funny thing is about never developing the gambling addiction, I would still be drinking today, but I don't know. I never felt like I had a problem with alcohol, which is strange to say, but looking back, I'm like, cool.
The Dr. John Delony Show
Can I Be Married and Still Have Friends?
Yeah. Well, with gambling, you know, you win and lose a hundred thousand dollars a day. You realize you have a problem pretty quick. Yeah, absolutely.
The Dr. John Delony Show
Can I Be Married and Still Have Friends?
No, no, that's fair. There's probably something else I should mention. It's going to make me sound like not a great dude. But when she brings this up to me, I kind of just default and say, well, you know what? You can just leave. I know it's wrong. I know it's, you know, especially if my wife tells me she feels abandonment issues in the past and her childhood.
The Dr. John Delony Show
Can I Be Married and Still Have Friends?
And I know that's like the worst thing I can say, but I'm like, just like kind of what you're saying. If you're not going to take me for me, then. Which I know is a horrible thing to say.
The Dr. John Delony Show
Can I Be Married and Still Have Friends?
Yeah. Yeah. And I'm just, uh, it's funny cause you can come up with anything to rationalize and be like, well, at least you didn't know me when I used to drink or at least when I, you know, but you know that as well as I do, that's stupid.
The Dr. John Delony Show
Can I Be Married and Still Have Friends?
You're going back to a facility? Or do you mean just in terms of resources?
The Dr. John Delony Show
Can I Be Married and Still Have Friends?
Okay. No, that's a, that's a good point. I always do feel the need. I need to be doing something, which I know is, you know, some addiction coming in a different form, but no, no, that's, that's good advice. I do have some time left before I'll be you know, out and be able to not have those resources. So no, that's pretty, pretty clear cut advice. I don't think there's too much to agree there.
The Glenn Beck Program
Bud Light Insider Reveals What Led to Dylan Mulvaney Controversy | Guest: Anson Frericks | 2/20/25
Hi, Glenn. First of all, thank you guys, you and your team. God bless you guys for doing what you do. Thank you. You're welcome. I've been doing this since I was, well, since the 80s. I'm going to be 57. I've been in IT since My whole entire career. The adoption is going to happen whether we want it to or not. How we adopt it is up to us. I've always said it's a tool. It's like a hammer.
The Glenn Beck Program
Bud Light Insider Reveals What Led to Dylan Mulvaney Controversy | Guest: Anson Frericks | 2/20/25
You can either build something with it or bludgeon someone with it. But what we have to do is educate our families and our children on things that AI can't do. Yes, yes. So the adoption is going to be much faster than from horses to cars. I used to tell people, because I did a lot of training, people would say, well, I don't need a computer to do this.
The Glenn Beck Program
Bud Light Insider Reveals What Led to Dylan Mulvaney Controversy | Guest: Anson Frericks | 2/20/25
And I used to tell people, I'm not telling you how to do your job, I'm training you to keep your job. In other words, you've got to adapt. Und jetzt denke ich, es wäre fantastisch, wenn jemand Grock benutzt hätte, um Gott existiert zu prüfen, weil dann würde jeder gleich mit ihm folgen. Aber ich werde immer gefragt, weil ich das tue. Und ich habe Freunde und Familie und Co-Arbeiter.
The Glenn Beck Program
Bud Light Insider Reveals What Led to Dylan Mulvaney Controversy | Guest: Anson Frericks | 2/20/25
Und ich weiß, dass es manchmal sie irritiert, aber ich komme zurück zu Joshua 1,9. Ich kann das nicht fürchten. Sei stark und ehrgeizig. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Sure. Sure. We just have to be educated, aware.
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guest: Anson Frericks | 2/20/25
Hi, Glenn. First of all, thank you guys, you and your team. God bless you guys for doing what you do. Thank you. You're welcome. I've been doing this since I was, well, since the 80s. I'm going to be 57. I've been in IT since my whole entire career. The adoption is going to happen whether we want it to or not. How we adopt it is up to us. You know, I've always said it's a tool. It's like a hammer.
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guest: Anson Frericks | 2/20/25
You can either build it, build something with it or bludgeon someone with it. But what we have to do is educate our families and our children on things that AI can't do. There will be still things out there that AI can't do. You want to have a purpose? Find something that AI can't replace you. Unfortunately, I'm in IT. I'm sure it's going to replace me. I'm toward the end of my road here.
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guest: Anson Frericks | 2/20/25
But I do have children and grandchildren. My goal now is to be sure that they know what's coming. We've raised generation on iPads. So the adoption is going to be much faster than from horses to cars. I used to tell people, because I did a lot of training, people would say, I don't need a computer to do this.
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guest: Anson Frericks | 2/20/25
And I used to tell people, I'm not telling you how to do your job, I'm training you to keep your job. In other words, you've got to adapt. Und jetzt denke ich, es wäre fantastisch, wenn jemand Grock benutzt hätte, um Gott existiert zu prüfen, weil dann würde jeder sofort folgen. Aber ich werde immer gefragt, weil ich das tue. Und ich habe Freunde und Familie und Mitarbeiter.
The Glenn Beck Program
Best of the Program | Guest: Anson Frericks | 2/20/25
Und ich weiß, dass es sie manchmal irritiert, aber ich komme zurück zu Joshua 1,9. Ich kann das nicht fürchten. Sei stark und ehrgeizig. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Sure. Sure. We just have to be educated, aware.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
42: Earlswood’s mass cycle ride and Reigate’s Pub In the Park plans… and more
We'll be coming in just two weeks to start the build ahead of the event. So we've got acts such as McFly. We've got Sam Ryder. We've got Melanie See. It's a whole host of music acts. But obviously the sort of main draw is the food from top chefs across the country. Dishes from Seven Pounds. Amazing dishes, I might add. We got a taste of those in Marlow last month.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
42: Earlswood’s mass cycle ride and Reigate’s Pub In the Park plans… and more
I can promise you that they're going to be very exciting. And also, actually, this year we have some new local music acts, which we did not have last year.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
42: Earlswood’s mass cycle ride and Reigate’s Pub In the Park plans… and more
Wherever we bring Pump in the Park, we want to get the local community involved. So to have somebody that's got a ready-made roster of great talent locally and to bring them on stage with people like Mel C and Sam Ryder and sharing that space is not just incredible for them but also for us and show that we actually have the local community in our mind when we come to these amazing spaces.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
42: Earlswood’s mass cycle ride and Reigate’s Pub In the Park plans… and more
You know, it will be a huge stage in front of, you know, thousands of people that are waiting to just enjoy a great weekend in the sunshine.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
42: Earlswood’s mass cycle ride and Reigate’s Pub In the Park plans… and more
What else is going to be different? So I think the biggest thing that you'll notice is new menus. So the menus this year across the restaurants, we've got some new restaurants, we've got some updated restaurants. We've also got our chef specials. So each of our restaurants has been sort of challenged with creating
The Planet Reigate Podcast
42: Earlswood’s mass cycle ride and Reigate’s Pub In the Park plans… and more
A pub in the park special, something you won't get in their restaurants or anywhere else. They're a little bit more expensive, but they're a little bit bigger. The chefs have got creative with ingredients. Ginger wings, for instance, have got some caviar on top of their chicken wings. So, you know, they've kind of got all out. So it's very exciting for that. We've got our fire pit demo stage.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
42: Earlswood’s mass cycle ride and Reigate’s Pub In the Park plans… and more
So you'll see live fire pit cooking from some incredible people, including DJ BBQ. And he's also bringing his restaurant. So his restaurant is like none of the others because he's got a huge fire pit next to it. It's being served to you fresh from the barbecue. There's no sort of reheating or anything like that. It is off the barbecue that day. So I think that is very exciting.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
42: Earlswood’s mass cycle ride and Reigate’s Pub In the Park plans… and more
He was at Marlow and yeah, there's a huge sort of DJ set that's going alongside the cooking as well. So it's a very, very experiential sort of moment for people to kind of take part in. So I would definitely recommend sort of stopping by his area. My stomach is rumbling already. You're holding on to yours, I notice as well.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
42: Earlswood’s mass cycle ride and Reigate’s Pub In the Park plans… and more
One of the things that we really wanted to do this year was really focus in on each location. Ten shows, as you might imagine. It's quite a lot to get through in a year. And what we really wanted to do was get under the skin of these great towns that we're coming back to. So we're coming back to Marlow, Chiswick, St Albans and, of course, Reigate.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
42: Earlswood’s mass cycle ride and Reigate’s Pub In the Park plans… and more
And Reigate is relatively new for us in terms of location. So Marlow's been, you know, since the beginning, Chiswick from the second year, St Albans from the second year. And I think for us, Reigate is that perfect pub in the park town for us. It's not too big. You don't necessarily have lots and lots of huge events here.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
42: Earlswood’s mass cycle ride and Reigate’s Pub In the Park plans… and more
But actually what we want to do is kind of bring a bit of something special to the community, have great music acts. It is a stunning setting here. You know, you've got the beautiful hills in the distance. You've got great access as well. So the other thing that's challenged for quite a lot of locations is car parking. But here you've got great train access.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
42: Earlswood’s mass cycle ride and Reigate’s Pub In the Park plans… and more
You've got public transport, which means that people can come on foot and actually really enjoy themselves. Whereas some of the other locations we've gone in the past have been a challenge to get to. And I think, you know, here, I mean, you've kind of got a bit of everything. You've got a great high street. You've got this great park.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
42: Earlswood’s mass cycle ride and Reigate’s Pub In the Park plans… and more
You've got great surroundings and great villages and towns locally as well, which hopefully will all be coming to join us on the weekend.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
42: Earlswood’s mass cycle ride and Reigate’s Pub In the Park plans… and more
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, if you look at the way that our sessions run across the weekend as well, so Friday, we're Friday evening only, so you've got people that will be arriving earlier, they'll want something to snack on, they'll want, as you say, maybe a nice drink in the sunshine beforehand.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
42: Earlswood’s mass cycle ride and Reigate’s Pub In the Park plans… and more
Saturday is interesting because it's split over two sessions, so four hours in the afternoon and four hours in the evening. So we close, you know, everybody leaves and vacates the session and then they'll go into the town, they'll enjoy some food. Some people may even be coming back for the evening session for Pub in the Park, which we definitely do see.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
42: Earlswood’s mass cycle ride and Reigate’s Pub In the Park plans… and more
But actually a lot of those people will be going out looking for some drinks to carry on the party, you know, looking for something really, you know, to have a substantial meal for. And again, likewise, people are then coming for the evening session. We'll be doing exactly the same, but the other way around. And then Sunday, we've got a really long session.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
42: Earlswood’s mass cycle ride and Reigate’s Pub In the Park plans… and more
So it's one till seven and people tend to sort of come in and out on a Sunday session is what we see anyway. So they'll come in maybe for a couple of hours, one till two. explore the food, look at some of the demonstrations. They'll nip back home, you know, change of clothes and come back for the party later.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
42: Earlswood’s mass cycle ride and Reigate’s Pub In the Park plans… and more
So, yeah, you will see a lot of people sort of coming and going, to your point, from the station.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
42: Earlswood’s mass cycle ride and Reigate’s Pub In the Park plans… and more
We've had lots and lots of great support. I met with Helen from Reigate and Banster Council earlier today. She's really excited about the event. We've loved working with her and the team. Everyone's been super supportive. We've also worked with a load of local organisations this year. Your marketing team have been helping us outreach into the community.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
42: Earlswood’s mass cycle ride and Reigate’s Pub In the Park plans… and more
You might see that we've got flies in a number of shops that want to support us. And again, we've got a lot of returning visitors year on year. so obviously this is only the second year of this show, so to have so much of that support coming back means we did something OK last year, and hopefully we can prove that we can do even better this year with an even better line-up.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
42: Earlswood’s mass cycle ride and Reigate’s Pub In the Park plans… and more
Some names I haven't mentioned, actually, so we've got Gabrielle coming on the Sunday, we've got the Hoosiers, we've got Jay Rayner, who is, whilst a very well-known food critic, also has his own... He's got his own band, isn't he? Yeah, it is Jay Rayner, Sextet, Skating for Girls, McFly, MLC. The Blue Tones have just been announced as well, actually, so they're coming on the Friday evening.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
42: Earlswood’s mass cycle ride and Reigate’s Pub In the Park plans… and more
so yeah it's very exciting i mean the chef demonstrations i think as well are really not to be missed i think sometimes at our shows because it can be quite a lot to take in when you sort of walk through those gates and you know there's going to be food and you know there's going to be music and i think what's often missed is all of those extra sort of additional demonstrations learning to cook with the pros you know tom carriage will be demonstrating just all of these incredible people that will just be showing their expertise and um
The Planet Reigate Podcast
42: Earlswood’s mass cycle ride and Reigate’s Pub In the Park plans… and more
And again, the fire pit, I think it's one not to be missed because I think it's so visual to see those flames and that great food and the smells, just incredible.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
42: Earlswood’s mass cycle ride and Reigate’s Pub In the Park plans… and more
Yeah, so tickets are available, pubintheparkuk.com. You can also check out the full line up there. You can see the chefs. We haven't got the day splits yet for which chefs are coming on which day, but that will be announced very soon. Everything's on the website and hopefully we'll see you there.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
42: Earlswood’s mass cycle ride and Reigate’s Pub In the Park plans… and more
The main thing they need to do is, one, be courteous. So, you know, if you are arriving, if you are leaving, respect the area that we're in. It is incredible here. You know, look after your rubbish. Take that home, definitely. If our visitors are kind to the town, then hopefully the town will be kind to us.
The Planet Reigate Podcast
42: Earlswood’s mass cycle ride and Reigate’s Pub In the Park plans… and more
But ultimately, in order for us to come back, we just need you to come and experience it and hopefully come back next year.
The Ramsey Show
Don't Chase Money, Chase Freedom
Well, it was my mortgage, and so I used my side job, which is real estate, to pay that off. You paid off your house? Yes. In California?
The Ramsey Show
Don't Chase Money, Chase Freedom
how's that feel it feels great it feels great it's actually uh since i paid it off in december not to have a mortgage since january is just it's awesome it's just like you feel like no weight on your shoulder that's right nothing's being taken out yeah i love it very good
The Ramsey Show
Don't Chase Money, Chase Freedom
Well, what I did was I had like a PMI on my original mortgage, and so they wouldn't take it off. So I had to find another mortgage company to take the PMI off. And it was actually owed 270. So what I did was I had some money saved up from real estate. And when I refinanced, I actually wired the money to the new lender. So that dropped it from 270 to 230.
The Ramsey Show
Don't Chase Money, Chase Freedom
And they were going, well, why don't you just take money out? So that was my situation. Okay. How'd you run into all this Ramsey stuff? Years ago in church. Okay. A program. Okay. And so the snowball has always been in my mind.
The Ramsey Show
Don't Chase Money, Chase Freedom
Well, I do a couple deals a year specializing in probate, and I just really liked it. It was like a hobby, and that's really what helped me with the big chunks of change to pay it off.
The Ramsey Show
Don't Chase Money, Chase Freedom
oh okay you're selling them helping the people solve the problem yeah calling the calling family and and sharing you know what my what i can do for them and and uh that's how i did it good for you wow that's neat so good having good commissions then yeah good commissions to be able to do that and and so that's that helped me a lot plus a great income absolutely very very cool so who was your biggest cheerleader while you're doing all this
The Ramsey Show
Don't Chase Money, Chase Freedom
uh pretty much just uh it was me i'm my own well one of the reasons i'm here is i'm doing this for my kids so i can be an example oh okay very cool how old are your kiddos uh let's see uh uh 35 33 uh i got one in the navy he's 26 and then my youngest is uh 21 all right very good very good cool
The Ramsey Show
Don't Chase Money, Chase Freedom
Well, you know, the last six years, I knew that this is what I can do. I wanted to come here. I do it for my kids, but also, you know, the goal of being debt-free, and there's no other place to come except here.
The Ramsey Show
Don't Chase Money, Chase Freedom
uh you know what i'm gonna actually fix my house i i didn't do anything to it it needs flooring it needs a bunch of stuff so i sacrificed that for for getting this thing you put off the remodel that's right yeah okay okay cash flow pretty easily now yes absolutely so when someone's listening and they're in their 50s and they say i've still got a quarter million dollars owed on a house what do you tell them the secret to getting out of debt is
The Ramsey Show
Don't Chase Money, Chase Freedom
Well, I really think that if you can get a job, a side job that can really help you out and help you make those snowball payments, slowly but surely it works. The whole thing reminds me of that book, Where the Red Fern Grows, and that young man, it took him two years to save $40, and he bought two hounds. And that's how, you know, it goes quick, but It's just little steps.
The Ramsey Show
Don't Chase Money, Chase Freedom
And I would say the side job is what really saved me.
The Ramsey Show
Discipline Is the Key to Building Wealth
Thank you. I'm in $80,000 of debt after I graduate, and I heard you're the guy to get me with a game plan to get me out of debt.
The Ramsey Show
Discipline Is the Key to Building Wealth
I have. Very anxious about it. What are you going to make? $120,000 with a $10,000 signing bonus.
The Ramsey Show
Discipline Is the Key to Building Wealth
I drive an old Honda, but I already have it paid off. How old? 15. It's only like 2015, so it's not... Oh, dude.
The Ramsey Show
Discipline Is the Key to Building Wealth
Fair enough. Take the 10 and then pay off. Throw it at it.
The Ramsey Show
Discipline Is the Key to Building Wealth
exactly so that makes sense i could probably pay off all my debts in like a couple years three at most then honey you weren't listening i thought you said you had eighty thousand dollars in student loan debt yeah you got other debt what no no other debt okay you're making 120 yes let's do some fourth grade math
The Ramsey Show
Discipline Is the Key to Building Wealth
Okay, now I get what you're saying. Yeah, like super fast. How much? Because it'll be $120 or $130 pre-tax. I know, I know.
The Ramsey Show
Attack Your Debt Instead of Letting It Attack You
Well, I just, uh, lost my job. And I feel like I pay way too much in rent. I don't know really what to do.
The Ramsey Show
Attack Your Debt Instead of Letting It Attack You
Yeah, and I worked five feet away from where I slept.
The Ramsey Show
Attack Your Debt Instead of Letting It Attack You
I worked in an automotive BDC call center.
The Ramsey Show
Attack Your Debt Instead of Letting It Attack You
Just applying around. Got found on LinkedIn. They messaged me. I was applying to everything, and I found a job that was a mile up the road from my house. So the office is here. But I didn't have a car for the longest time, so they let me work from home.
The Ramsey Show
Attack Your Debt Instead of Letting It Attack You
$12,000 an hour, so about $24,000 a year.
The Ramsey Show
Attack Your Debt Instead of Letting It Attack You
Oh, yeah. I was being berated for $24,000 a year. Yeah, I mean, you can make $20 an hour at Target.
The Ramsey Show
Attack Your Debt Instead of Letting It Attack You
Yes. It's kind of a junker, but it can get me from A to B. Get you from A to Target.
The Ramsey Show
Attack Your Debt Instead of Letting It Attack You
What's your rent? $8.95 a month. Okay. You live in a low? Utilities and everything included.
The Ramsey Show
Attack Your Debt Instead of Letting It Attack You
No. Service scheduling. So whenever you needed an oil change or had a check engine light on, I was the person you talked to. So why were you getting berated? Oh, people, when it comes to their car, if it's not done now, it's a problem. Hmm.
The Ramsey Show
Attack Your Debt Instead of Letting It Attack You
I was definitely fired up when I worked. I was in a pretty nice job. I made just barely more than I made at the call center. But I was working for a giant manufacturing company. I don't know if you've heard of them, link belt grains. But what do you want to be doing, David?
The Ramsey Show
Attack Your Debt Instead of Letting It Attack You
I mean, I'd love automotive repair, but I don't know where to start. I can't save money to save my life. I'm down to basically zero dollars.
The Ramsey Show
Attack Your Debt Instead of Letting It Attack You
Another issue is I've been applying for, I mean, I knew it was a terrible job. I've been applying for about six months and Nobody seems to want to take me.
The Ramsey Show
Your Future Depends on What You Do Today
Sorry for my English and thank you for having me.
The Ramsey Show
Your Future Depends on What You Do Today
Yeah, at first I want to tell you a bit about my situation. I'm at baby step three and starting for the fourth one. And I'm asking for advice living with my mom at 30 years old in one house. I have asked to pay off the mortgage. It's about $70,000. And yeah, should I put my energy in our relationship and the house? Or should I live on my own and create my own lifestyle?
The Ramsey Show
Your Future Depends on What You Do Today
No, no. She is helping me because the cost of living outside is more than I pay at home. Okay. Gotcha. So we are helping each other. So I wanted to force her to put more money uh, payments and into mortgage. And, uh, that's, that's my goal, but I don't think it's, it's working out. And so I want to ask for advice. Uh, what should I do?
The Ramsey Show
Your Future Depends on What You Do Today
Should I stay at home and, uh, build my wealth or should I, uh, it's only her name on the deed, right.
The Ramsey Show
Your Future Depends on What You Do Today
Uh, yeah, but, uh, um the lifestyle i would say i would say so she's single and uh i want to yeah i'm paying uh a lot of the bills okay so she's dependent upon your income to a degree yeah okay
The Ramsey Show
Your Future Depends on What You Do Today
Yeah, I wanted to save money. Yeah, absolutely. I want to be because at the dead end. When anything is happening, the mortgage will be the same when I'm alone. So I have one sister, but there's some time to get together and make the house debt-free.
The Ramsey Show
Your Future Depends on What You Do Today
Yeah, for sure. She is retiring and she has her own business with some beauty and so on.
The Ramsey Show
Your Future Depends on What You Do Today
Yeah, around $6. With 62K in dollar, I have to write it down from euro to dollar.
The Ramsey Show
Your Future Depends on What You Do Today
Yeah, it's a little bit other situation because the health care is about health care and the taxes are in that 62K. So I get home 30, 39 or 40. The taxes here are a little bit higher. So, yeah, for sure.
The Ramsey Show
Your Future Depends on What You Do Today
Yes, but on the debt end, I don't have really margins to put in my sales and my retirement plans at the end. Okay.
The Ramsey Show
Your Future Depends on What You Do Today
I'm listening to the show. I'm staying out of debt, and I thought about a car, but... As long as I was thinking about it in my mind, no.
The Ramsey Show
Your Future Depends on What You Do Today
So I recreated my career in sales. So I went to, I was looking for a hotel degree. I get it. And then Corona hits and I started a sales career. So I'm improving on that. I want to go further. I'm a sales manager for energy resources for healthcare and hospitals. So yeah, I will make more money. Listen, that's always an option. I think the main thing to take away is I would not
The Ramsey Show
Your Future Depends on What You Do Today
Go ahead. I will be clear at that point. So don't worry about that.
The Ramsey Show
Your Future Depends on What You Do Today
He's going to lay it down. I'm very open minded, but thank you.
The Ramsey Show
You Need To “Happen” to Your Life Instead if It Happening to You
Ken, Jade, you guys are awesome.
The Ramsey Show
You Need To “Happen” to Your Life Instead if It Happening to You
I'm excited and I'm nervous. Oh, well, you're going to do great.
The Ramsey Show
You Need To “Happen” to Your Life Instead if It Happening to You
Thanks. My question is, I was wondering if I should save up money or go back into investing. The reason is I was feeling fatigued. I went to the doctor. They gave me an EKG, and I left the doctor with a stage four cancer diagnosis. Oh, David. So I'm on chemotherapy right now, yeah. But the Lord's going to help me through this. We're going to make it.
The Ramsey Show
You Need To “Happen” to Your Life Instead if It Happening to You
It was in December, and I've been doing chemotherapy for about a month.
The Ramsey Show
You Need To “Happen” to Your Life Instead if It Happening to You
How are you feeling? Well, you know, the first round I had some side effects. The second round was a little bit better. The third round starts this Wednesday, so just dealing with it and, you know, getting some side effects and stuff like that. But I got a good job, good insurance and stuff like that.
The Ramsey Show
You Need To “Happen” to Your Life Instead if It Happening to You
My daughter lives here and I do have family and I've got friends and got lots of support from the church and just everybody around me. I'm really blessed.
The Ramsey Show
You Need To “Happen” to Your Life Instead if It Happening to You
Well, I quit investing because I was paying things off. I believe I'm in stage four now. I only have my mortgage and my HELOC.
The Ramsey Show
You Need To “Happen” to Your Life Instead if It Happening to You
Right now I'm making $80,000, but I'm burning up sick leave right now. I'm on FMLA.
The Ramsey Show
You Need To “Happen” to Your Life Instead if It Happening to You
With the intent of probably going into disability retirement, federal retirement, which would start out at 60% of what I was making and then 40% of what I was making until I turned 62. What do you have in your emergency fund? SSDI. I've got $6,000 in my emergency fund, which is about three months. Okay. I did have eight in there, but I had a water heater go out.
The Ramsey Show
You Need To “Happen” to Your Life Instead if It Happening to You
It didn't freak me out. I just said, yeah, go ahead. That's what it's for. Let's do it. Nice.
The Ramsey Show
You Need To “Happen” to Your Life Instead if It Happening to You
Just pay stuff off, yeah. I've already maxed out my out-of-pocket for this year on the insurance. Good. So everything should be covered.
The Ramsey Show
You Need To “Happen” to Your Life Instead if It Happening to You
I do have a Roth IRA at work.
The Ramsey Show
You Need To “Happen” to Your Life Instead if It Happening to You
I was investing and then I paused it because, you know, I listen to you guys a lot and I was like, you know, I could be putting that extra $800 a month towards these bills and I'm paying stuff off. And I was at the point where I was ready to start reinvesting. And then, of course, I went to the doctor and they said, guess what?
The Ramsey Show
You Need To “Happen” to Your Life Instead if It Happening to You
That's true. I was thinking that, but I wanted to confirm it. No, thank you for calling.
The Ramsey Show
You Need To “Happen” to Your Life Instead if It Happening to You
She's keeping an eye on me and stuff, too.
The Ramsey Show
Your Future Self Deserves Better Choices Today
Okay. Well, I got onto the debt-free train a bit further down the track than most people. We are currently debt-free except our mortgage. Awesome. I'm hoping to retire in about six years. And my question is, I am currently investing 15% of my income into the 401k at work, and Sometimes during the year we'll have an extra $500, excuse me, an extra $1,000 that we can put towards something.
The Ramsey Show
Your Future Self Deserves Better Choices Today
And I was wondering, given that I'm in my 60s and I don't have the 20, 30 years or compound interest to work its full magic, should I be putting extra money towards our mortgage or should I be putting a little extra into my IRA to try to give that a little bit of a boost?
The Ramsey Show
Your Future Self Deserves Better Choices Today
I'm trying to remember. We just moved. We just downsized. I think it's about $1,100 a month. I'm paying like $2,000 a month on it.
The Ramsey Show
Your Future Self Deserves Better Choices Today
Okay, yeah, that does make sense. Yeah.
The Ramsey Show
Your Future Self Deserves Better Choices Today
Well, I'm already doing that, but yeah.
The Ramsey Show
Your Future Self Deserves Better Choices Today
Yeah, I hadn't really thought of that angle, and that actually makes a whole lot of sense. I mean, technically, I could pull money out of my 401k and pay off the house now.
The Unplanned Podcast with Matt & Abby
Love on the Spectrum: Why Abbey Romeo wants to get married
They're like their little pets. That was true. Yeah.
The Unplanned Podcast with Matt & Abby
Love on the Spectrum: Why Abbey Romeo wants to get married
Oh my gosh.
The Unplanned Podcast with Matt & Abby
Love on the Spectrum: Why Abbey Romeo wants to get married
You're saying this. The way, oh my gosh. The way you have mothered Abby so selflessly, it makes my heart feel some type of way I don't really have words for.
The Unplanned Podcast with Matt & Abby
Love on the Spectrum: Why Abbey Romeo wants to get married
It just really affects me. It's really, really... I'm crying because I'm happy. It's weird.
The Viall Files
E930 - Love On The Spectrum’s Abbey & David, Karen Read, Battle Camp Host, The Valley & Clayton Vindicated
That poor man. I have that she's accused of several felonies, which include fraudulent schemes and artifices, forgery, perjury, and tampering with physical evidence.
The Viall Files
E930 - Love On The Spectrum’s Abbey & David, Karen Read, Battle Camp Host, The Valley & Clayton Vindicated
One count of fraudulent schemes.
The Viall Files
E930 - Love On The Spectrum’s Abbey & David, Karen Read, Battle Camp Host, The Valley & Clayton Vindicated
She hasn't posted on TikTok since April 29th. April 29th was like a week ago.
The Viall Files
E930 - Love On The Spectrum’s Abbey & David, Karen Read, Battle Camp Host, The Valley & Clayton Vindicated
Yeah, those underwear.
The Viall Files
E930 - Love On The Spectrum’s Abbey & David, Karen Read, Battle Camp Host, The Valley & Clayton Vindicated
Oh, my God, though. But when he came out shirtless for the car, like the car toy racing, it was just like, come on, man. But that's what I'm saying.
The Viall Files
E930 - Love On The Spectrum’s Abbey & David, Karen Read, Battle Camp Host, The Valley & Clayton Vindicated
Can I tell you that Connor and I literally were pausing the screen going frame by frame trying to read her phone? Oh, same.
The Viall Files
E930 - Love On The Spectrum’s Abbey & David, Karen Read, Battle Camp Host, The Valley & Clayton Vindicated
Yes. See, mine, I can hit back and it clears the whole display. So I was reading the entire thing.
The Viall Files
E930 - Love On The Spectrum’s Abbey & David, Karen Read, Battle Camp Host, The Valley & Clayton Vindicated
But he's, like, not upset because of his choices. He's upset because he's forced to have to go through this program. And so he's blaming everybody else. During that video, he kept throwing digs at Brittany. And it's just like, you're not doing the work. You're just upset that you have to be here.
The Viall Files
E930 - Love On The Spectrum’s Abbey & David, Karen Read, Battle Camp Host, The Valley & Clayton Vindicated
I don't know. I'm not going to lie. Janet made me laugh multiple times during this episode. I was like, don't make me like Janet. Yeah, I'm married to you. I would have cheated on you, too. If I was married to you, I'd cheat on you, too.
The Viall Files
E930 - Love On The Spectrum’s Abbey & David, Karen Read, Battle Camp Host, The Valley & Clayton Vindicated
Getting in her face. Oh, my God.
The Viall Files
E930 - Love On The Spectrum’s Abbey & David, Karen Read, Battle Camp Host, The Valley & Clayton Vindicated
But it was it was like airing out like something that you had with another person and then like a moment that you're grateful for with, I believe. Because Brittany was like, I'm grateful for my son. And I think the rules in the beginning was like, you weren't supposed to pass it to your spouse or to like, like somebody that you're in a relationship with.
The Viall Files
E930 - Love On The Spectrum’s Abbey & David, Karen Read, Battle Camp Host, The Valley & Clayton Vindicated
Well, I mean, they're technically not together.
The Viall Files
E930 - Love On The Spectrum’s Abbey & David, Karen Read, Battle Camp Host, The Valley & Clayton Vindicated
Yeah. But it's like. Yeah.
The Viall Files
E930 - Love On The Spectrum’s Abbey & David, Karen Read, Battle Camp Host, The Valley & Clayton Vindicated
I mean, it was kind of funny, though, how Jesse was just like, if you're that happy, you don't have to keep saying how happy you are. And they cut to her in the car being like, I'm so happy.
The Viall Files
E930 - Love On The Spectrum’s Abbey & David, Karen Read, Battle Camp Host, The Valley & Clayton Vindicated
Then Michelle went on Watch What Happens Live, though. I don't know if you saw. Then she gave Andy a bottle of Aaron's honey and called Jussie crazy for his theories of, well, she went to Runyon and then he lives by Runyon and the honey company. And I was like, girl, that...
The Viall Files
E930 - Love On The Spectrum’s Abbey & David, Karen Read, Battle Camp Host, The Valley & Clayton Vindicated
That one's a little... That was crazy. Yeah, her boyfriend owns the Honey Company. And remember last episode, Jessie was like, the honey was in our cabinet. And then she would put makeup on to go to Runyon. And guess where this guy... I went on his Instagram and guess where this guy lives? By Runyon.
The Viall Files
E930 - Love On The Spectrum’s Abbey & David, Karen Read, Battle Camp Host, The Valley & Clayton Vindicated
I went to a screening of the documentary from the first trial and then yesterday I kept kind of like trying to like tap it and be like, fuck, gotta work. But like, it's intriguing. What do you think? Do you think she's innocent or guilty? I don't know. I genuinely do think that she's innocent and I think that she's being framed. But I'm like, I haven't paid attention enough to this trial go-round.
The Viall Files
E930 - Love On The Spectrum’s Abbey & David, Karen Read, Battle Camp Host, The Valley & Clayton Vindicated
David, what's your favorite thing about Abby?
The Viall Files
E930 - Love On The Spectrum’s Abbey & David, Karen Read, Battle Camp Host, The Valley & Clayton Vindicated
I'm a big Disney fan.
The Viall Files
E930 - Love On The Spectrum’s Abbey & David, Karen Read, Battle Camp Host, The Valley & Clayton Vindicated
Doop!
The Viall Files
E930 - Love On The Spectrum’s Abbey & David, Karen Read, Battle Camp Host, The Valley & Clayton Vindicated
I believe it was a mistrial. But wait, did you see the police officers the night of the incident that they were collecting evidence in red Solo cups? And then putting it in a grocery bag?
The Viall Files
E930 - Love On The Spectrum’s Abbey & David, Karen Read, Battle Camp Host, The Valley & Clayton Vindicated
What about the video where they're in the auto shop and they flipped the perspective of the videos?
The Viall Files
E930 - Love On The Spectrum’s Abbey & David, Karen Read, Battle Camp Host, The Valley & Clayton Vindicated
Nicola Peltz is allegedly fed up with how narcissistic Victoria and David Beckham are, and they verbally berate Brooklyn. The actress alleges that she doesn't like the way her husband's narcissistic parents treat him.
The Viall Files
E930 - Love On The Spectrum’s Abbey & David, Karen Read, Battle Camp Host, The Valley & Clayton Vindicated
They've reportedly made themselves available for months and months to discuss the ongoing drama, but are devastated that David and Victoria don't want their daughter in law around for the conversation.
The Viall Files
E930 - Love On The Spectrum’s Abbey & David, Karen Read, Battle Camp Host, The Valley & Clayton Vindicated
It kind of felt like they would post things, though, intentionally to kind of be like, oh, here's the headline that's coming through. And then they're like, no, we're together on a yacht. Like, no, we're together celebrating my birthday. We're best friends.
The Viall Files
E930 - Love On The Spectrum’s Abbey & David, Karen Read, Battle Camp Host, The Valley & Clayton Vindicated
They've been married for three years. For three years? For three years, and he's 26 now, so he got married at 23.
This American Life
860: Suddenly: A Mirror!
Oh, I'm glad she's safe, obviously, but I didn't have anything to do with that.
This American Life
332: The Ten Commandments
I was eight years old, and I knew just what he was talking about. He was just saying the same thing I had read in my Bible dozens of times. As an evangelical Christian, I wanted desperately to please God, so for my entire adolescence and up into my twenties, I literally tried to avoid having lustful thoughts. I was taught this was possible.
This American Life
332: The Ten Commandments
Paul says in 2 Corinthians that we take every thought captive in the name of Jesus, which means that any spiritually healthy person ought to be able to control every thought in his head. Of course, in practice, this is even harder than it sounds.
This American Life
332: The Ten Commandments
So for young evangelicals like me, there's a whole sub-industry of sex advice columns and books with titles like Every Man's Struggle or Taking Thoughts Captive. You can find them in the For Men section of any Christian bookstore. The first thing they always tell you is that sex is a beautiful gift from God.
This American Life
332: The Ten Commandments
Even though it's a gift, they don't want you to touch or even think about it because you're just going to ruin it with your filthy paws. Any physical pleasure, even pleasure you'd give yourself while alone, is completely forbidden. Then they tell you how to survive until marriage. They all run some variation on, you can't help the first glance, but you can prevent the second.
This American Life
332: The Ten Commandments
This is Josh Harris in the audio version of his book, Not Even a Hint, Guarding Your Heart Against Lust. It's full of practical tips.
This American Life
332: The Ten Commandments
Other tips. These books tell you to watch TV with a remote in your hand, so if a sexy beer commercial comes on, or when the sports camera cuts to the cheerleaders, you can immediately jump to another channel. And be honest with yourself. When you watch ESPN2, aren't you hoping to see gymnastics? And guys need daily quiet time to read the Bible and pray for strength in the fight against temptation.
This American Life
332: The Ten Commandments
I don't know why, but in my case, none of this ever worked. I wanted it to work, longed for it desperately. But every week or so, late at night, I'd give in. M happened again, I would write in my journal, as if it weren't an action, but an event. Something that could just engulf you like a flash flood or a car accident. Something so terrible it could only be referred to in code.
This American Life
332: The Ten Commandments
I was an adulterer. That's what the Bible told me. And I struggled with the guilt of that every day. After high school, I went to a huge state college in Tucson. And on warm days, I would walk across campus feeling like a monster. Because I believed that noticing a girl's body was the spiritual equivalent of something like sexual assault.
This American Life
332: The Ten Commandments
I assumed all this was the same for all of us fundamentalist kids. At every All Guys Prayer meeting I ever went to, someone was always asking for help with their thought life. But I'd never actually asked if anyone had quite the same problems I did. So I called my friend Derek, a missionaries kid who was my best friend from church back then.
This American Life
332: The Ten Commandments
Oh, yeah, that's the other thing. I mean, it seems so trivial and silly, and yet it caused actual agony. Yeah. You know, we felt depraved.
This American Life
332: The Ten Commandments
Do you ever, you know, wish you could go back? Yes. Okay.
This American Life
332: The Ten Commandments
He's right. They do crack. And for me, they cracked worse than for Derek. I couldn't buy porn. That was obviously forbidden. I didn't have a girlfriend. I couldn't even watch MTV. So the only sexual experiences I'd had were the ones that happened by accident. A woman bending over in a low-cut shirt, for instance.
This American Life
332: The Ten Commandments
And then at 22, I started finding myself walking slowly along campus or in supermarkets at a library, hoping to see another accidental glimpse of something. It took more and more of my time. My grades started to suffer. I was like a stalker, but a shy one with incredibly low standards. Then after a couple unbearable months of this, I begged my pastor for help. He suggested Sex Addicts Anonymous.
This American Life
332: The Ten Commandments
At my first meeting, we all told our stories. There was a guy who'd spent thousands of dollars on prostitutes in a single long weekend. There was a woman who'd slept with a different guy almost every night for years. There was a huge tattooed biker who was so ashamed to be there that a friend let him in blindfolded. And then there was me, a 22-year-old virgin.
This American Life
332: The Ten Commandments
When I told my story, there was an awkward silence. Even here, nobody understood my problems. A few days later, I went to a Christian counselor, expecting he'd just tell me to pray harder, look for answers in the scripture. I explained my problem, and he looked at me and frowned, and he asked if I ever did the act, the one that I found so horrible I only referred to it in code.
This American Life
332: The Ten Commandments
Trust me, he said, let yourself do it. Give yourself permission and see what happens. This was shocking, that a Christian would give me this kind of advice. that it's possible to obey too much, that you could lead yourself astray by following the Bible's rules. That very day, I took home my first Playboy magazine, and that was that.
This American Life
332: The Ten Commandments
After five minutes, I was no longer desperate to glimpse random women bending over the freezer cases at the grocery store. It felt like a miracle. It was so fast, so life-changing, that it was like converting all over again.
This American Life
856: You’ve Come to the Right Person
I don't know if you've ever went through this yourself, where you just have this slight, a niggle, you know? And you go, I don't know what the niggle is because everything's perfect.
This American Life
856: You’ve Come to the Right Person
Yeah, a slight doubt, slight confusion. It just didn't have that oomph. I'd say we were vanilla beige, but lovely.
This American Life
856: You’ve Come to the Right Person
So, I mean, you wouldn't be thinking that we were maybe flying off to France and having a romantic getaway together. There was nothing wrong, but no... Passion. Yeah, there was zero French in any of the relationship. It was a very British relationship.
This American Life
856: You’ve Come to the Right Person
I just had that holy shit moment of, this is my life you're describing right now, and I didn't realize it.
This American Life
856: You’ve Come to the Right Person
And then I had this moment where I was like, what do I do? Like, what do I do now with this information? And he's like, well, I think you know what you need to do in this situation.
This American Life
856: You’ve Come to the Right Person
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I was really taken back.
This American Life
668: The Long Fuse
Mike Friedman. Ian knew who the favorites at this race were, and this Mike Friedman wasn't one of them.
This American Life
668: The Long Fuse
Ian was worried now. If he kept the lead, blocking all the wind for Mike, he was going to get tired. Mike might burst ahead. So Ian was like, let him get in front for a bit.
This American Life
668: The Long Fuse
Now, in cycling, this type of gentleman's agreement happens all the time. Competitors will temporarily agree to a truce so they can conserve energy and stay ahead of the pack. It's a strategy. Sometimes this happens at the end, which could end up deciding who wins. Like, hey, there's two of us here at the top. I won't sprint on you if you take on the win resistance for me.
This American Life
668: The Long Fuse
First Place takes home a jersey with stars and stripes, like Captain America.
This American Life
668: The Long Fuse
Ian was not having it. He immediately told the reporter what happened. He was like, Mike cheated. He cheated.
This American Life
668: The Long Fuse
As if to say, hey man, you're doing well. If you keep it up, you might even win this thing. I said you could win, not that I'd let you win. And so, life goes on. Ian races professionally for a bit, but gets injured and becomes a journalist. Of course, he covers cycling. Mike becomes an Olympian. The whole time, they're sort of circling each other's orbits, but avoiding crossing paths.
This American Life
668: The Long Fuse
And annoyingly, everyone in the racing world really likes Mike.
This American Life
668: The Long Fuse
It's like saying you hate Mr. Rogers, right? Yeah, yeah. So as time passes, this race stays. like a thorn in Ian's side.
This American Life
668: The Long Fuse
Then one day, about 15 years later, Ian's covering a race in Colorado, near where Mike lived, He's on the tour bus hanging out.
This American Life
668: The Long Fuse
And that is Mike Friedman. That day on the bus, Mike didn't fully fess up and apologize. For Mike, it's complicated. Here's how he remembers those final moments of the race.
This American Life
668: The Long Fuse
It ate at him. He didn't race for two years. Mike didn't even tell anyone for a really long time. Fessing up that he cheated would mean that he was just that, a cheater. Not a kid who lost himself for a minute in a race.
This American Life
668: The Long Fuse
It never meant as much to anyone else as it did to him, but he couldn't let it go. He thought about it for years. After a cycling career was done, his life sort of tanked. His marriage ended, hit bottom. He was living in a camper in his friend's land when he realized he wanted to reach out to Ian, that he missed his opportunity on the bus a year back.
This American Life
668: The Long Fuse
Mike also wanted to give Ian the jersey, the Captain America one. He'd stuffed it deep in a drawer all these years. So they agreed to meet up.
This American Life
668: The Long Fuse
This event set off by a few words had just ballooned and ballooned in their heads for about 15 years. Even though in the grand scheme of things, this race didn't matter. It's not like it was the reason Mike made it or the thing that ended Ian's career. And fixing it took something that's so simple. Three words. You were right.
This American Life
198: How to Win Friends and Influence People
I thought that seeing him without his group might be unsettling, like finding a single arm on the sidewalk. But Thad was fully capable of operating independently. Watching him in action, I understood that his popularity was not an accident. Unlike a normal human, he possessed an uncanny and wholly natural ability to please people.
This American Life
198: How to Win Friends and Influence People
Much like a Whitman sampler, he seemed to offer a little bit of everything. Pass on his athletic ability and you might partake of his excellent manners, his confidence, his cultish enthusiasm. Even his parents seemed invigorated by his presence. All right then, Mr. Pope said. Now that everyone's accounted for, I'm hoping we can clear this up.
This American Life
198: How to Win Friends and Influence People
Sticks and stones aside, I suspect this all comes down to a little misunderstanding between friends. I lowered my eyes, waiting for Thad to set his father straight. Friends? With him? I expected laughter or the famous Thad snort, but instead he said nothing. And with his silence, he won me completely. A little misunderstanding, that's exactly what it was.
This American Life
198: How to Win Friends and Influence People
The immediate goal was to save my friend, and so I claimed to have essentially thrown myself in the path of Thad's fast-moving rock. What the hell was he throwing rocks for, my father asked. What the hell was he throwing them at? Mrs. Pope frowned, implying that such language was not welcome in the rumpus room. I mean, Jesus Christ, the guy's got to be a complete idiot.
This American Life
198: How to Win Friends and Influence People
Thad swore he hadn't been aiming at anything, and I backed him up, saying it was just one of those things we all did, like in Vietnam or whatever. It was just friendly fire. My father asked what the hell I knew about Vietnam. And again, Thad's mother winced, saying that boys picked up a lot of this talk by watching the news. Oh, you don't know what you're talking about, my father said.
This American Life
198: How to Win Friends and Influence People
What my wife meant, Mr. Pope said. Oh, baloney. I looked at my father then, a man in dirty shorts who drank his beer from the can rather than pouring it into his tumbler, and I thought, you don't belong here. More precisely, I decided that he was the reason I didn't belong. How was a person expected to fit in when he'd been steadily poisoned by his parents?
This American Life
198: How to Win Friends and Influence People
Bad little doses until he was ultimately so contaminated that no one would have anything to do with him. The hokey Greek phrases, the how-to lectures on mixing your own concrete, the squabble over who would pay the stupid dentist bill. Little by little, it had all seeped into my bloodstream, robbing me of my natural ability to please others.
This American Life
198: How to Win Friends and Influence People
Well, Mr. Pope said, I can see that this is going nowhere. My father laughed, saying, yeah, you got that right. It sounded like a parting sentence, but rather than standing to leave, he leaned back on the sofa and rested his beer can upon his stomach. We're all going nowhere. At this point, I was pretty sure that Thad and I were envisioning the same grim scenario.
This American Life
198: How to Win Friends and Influence People
While the rest of the world would move on, in a year's time, my filthy, bearded father would still be occupying the rumpus room sofa. Christmas would come, friends would visit, and the popes would bitterly direct them towards one of the easy chairs. Just ignore him, they'd say. He'll go home sooner or later.
This American Life
198: How to Win Friends and Influence People
In the end, they agreed to pay for half the root canal, not because they thought it was fair, but because they wanted us out of their house. Some friendships are formed by a commonality of interests and ideas. You both love judo or camping or making your own sausage. Other friendships are forged by a mutual hatred of a common enemy.
This American Life
198: How to Win Friends and Influence People
On leaving Thad's house, I decided that ours would probably be the latter. We'd start off grousing about my father, maybe going so far as to scratch up his car, and then, little by little, we'd move on to the hundreds of other things and people that got on our nerves. You hate olives? I imagined him saying. I hate them too. As it turned out, the one thing we both hated was me. Rather, I hated me.
This American Life
198: How to Win Friends and Influence People
Thad couldn't even work up the enthusiasm. The day after the meeting, I approached him in the lunchroom where he sat at his regular table, surrounded by his regular friends. Listen, I said, I am really sorry about that stuff with my dad. I'd worked up a whole long speech, complete with imitations, but by the time I hit my second sentence, he'd turned to resume his conversation with Doug Middleton.
This American Life
198: How to Win Friends and Influence People
Our perjured testimony, my father's behavior, even the rock throwing. I was so far beneath him that it hadn't even registered. Poof. The socialites of E.C. Brooks shone even brighter in junior high, but come 10th grade, things began to change.
This American Life
198: How to Win Friends and Influence People
Desegregation drove a lot of the popular people into private schools, and those who remained seemed silly and archaic, deposed royalty from a country the average citizen had ceased to care about. Early in our junior year, Thad was jumped by a group of the new black kids who yanked off his shoes and threw them in the toilet.
This American Life
198: How to Win Friends and Influence People
I knew I was supposed to be happy, but part of me felt personally assaulted. Yes, he'd been a negligent prince, yet I still believed in the monarchy. When his name was called at graduation, it was me who clapped the longest, outlasting even his parents, who politely stopped once he'd left the stage. I thought about that a lot over the coming years.
This American Life
198: How to Win Friends and Influence People
He's the poet laureate of Lichtenstein, the surgeon who cures cancer with love, the ninth grade teacher who insists that the world is big enough for everyone. When moving to another city, I'm always hoping to find him living in the apartment next door, We'll meet in the hallway and he'll stick out his hand saying, excuse me, but don't I, shouldn't I know you?
This American Life
198: How to Win Friends and Influence People
It doesn't have to happen today, but it does have to happen. I've kept a space waiting for him. And if he doesn't show up, I'll have to forgive my father.
This American Life
198: How to Win Friends and Influence People
I was in the snack bar listening to a group of sixth graders who lived in another part of town and sat discussing significant changes in their upcoming school year. According to the girl named Janet, neither Pam Dobbins nor J.J.
This American Life
198: How to Win Friends and Influence People
Jackson had been invited to the Fourth of July party hosted by the Pyle twins, who later told Kimberly Matthews that both Pam and Mike were out of the picture as far as the seventh grade was concerned. Totally, completely out, Janet said. Hoof. I didn't know any Pam Dobbins or JJ Jackson, but the reverential tone of Janet's voice sent me into a state of mild shock.
This American Life
198: How to Win Friends and Influence People
Call me naive, but it had simply never occurred to me that other schools might have their own celebrity circles. At the age of 12, I thought the group at E.C. Brooks was, if not nationally known, then at least its own private phenomenon. Why else would our lives revolve around them? I myself was not a member of my school's popular crowd.
This American Life
198: How to Win Friends and Influence People
but recall thinking that whoever they were, Janet's popular people couldn't begin to compete with ours. Then I worried that our popular crowd couldn't compare to those in Charlotte or Greensboro, not to mention the thousands of schools located in other states. What if I'd wasted my entire life comparing myself to people who didn't really matter?
This American Life
198: How to Win Friends and Influence People
Try as I might, I still can't wrap my mind around it. They banded together in the third grade. Ann Carlsworth, Christy K. Moore, Deb Bevins, Mike Hollowell, Doug Middleton, Thad Pope. This was the core base of the popular crowd, and for the next six years, my classmates and I studied their lives the way we were supposed to study math and English.
This American Life
198: How to Win Friends and Influence People
So complete was their power that I actually felt honored when one of them hit me in the mouth with a rock. He'd gotten me after school, and upon returning home, I ran into my sister's bedroom with hugging my bloody Kleenex and crying, it was sad. Lisa was a year older, but still she understood the significance. Did he say anything, she asked. Did you save the rock?
This American Life
198: How to Win Friends and Influence People
My father demanded that I retaliate, saying I ought to knock the guy on his ass. Oh, dad. Oh, baloney. Clock him on the snot locker and he'll go down like a ton of bricks. He was mistaking Thad for a bully, which was a different crowd altogether. Besides, who did my father think I was?
This American Life
198: How to Win Friends and Influence People
Boys who spent their weekends making banana nut muffins did not, as a rule, excel in the art of hand-to-hand combat. I mean, come on, Dad, Lisa said. Wake up. The following afternoon, I was taken to Dr. Pavlich for x-rays. The rock had damaged a tooth, and there was some question over who would pay for the subsequent root canal.
This American Life
198: How to Win Friends and Influence People
I figured that since they'd conceived me, given birth, and raised me as a permanent guest in their home, my parents should foot the bill. But my father thought differently. He had decided the popes should pay, and I screamed as he picked up the phone book. But you can't just call Thad's house. Why the hell not, he said. Don't they have a telephone?
This American Life
198: How to Win Friends and Influence People
Well, of course the Pope's had a telephone, probably three or four with a separate line for the children. I imagined Thad's as a state-of-the-art desk model with blinking red lights alerting him that Doug or Christy was waiting on line one. Equipment was not the issue. My father's voice simply did not belong on the Pope's telephone. It wouldn't fit with their things.
This American Life
198: How to Win Friends and Influence People
A meeting was arranged for the following evening and before leaving the house I begged my father to change his clothes. He'd been building in addition to the carport and wore a pair of khaki shorts smeared with paint and spotted here and there with bits of dried concrete. Through a hole in his tattered t-shirt, without squinting, it was possible to see his nipple.
This American Life
198: How to Win Friends and Influence People
What the hell is wrong with this, he asked. We're not staying for dinner, so what does it matter? I yelled for my mother, and in the end, he compromised by changing his shirt. From the outside, Thad's house didn't look much different than anyone else's, just a standard split level with what my father described as a totally inadequate carport.
This American Life
198: How to Win Friends and Influence People
Mr. Pope answered the door in a pair of sherbet-colored golf pants and led us downstairs into what he called the rumpus room. Oh, I said, this is nice. The room was damp and windowless and lit with hanging Tiffany lampshades. The shards of colorful glass arranged to spell the words Bush and Budweiser.
This American Life
198: How to Win Friends and Influence People
Walls were paneled and the furniture looked as though it had been hand-hewn by settlers who'd reconfigured parts of their beloved Conestoga wagon to fashion such things as easy chairs and coffee tables. He directed us towards a sofa and asked if we wanted anything to drink. Coke? A beer?
This American Life
198: How to Win Friends and Influence People
I didn't want to deplete Thad's precious cola supply, but before I could refuse, my father said, sure, we'd have one of each.
This American Life
198: How to Win Friends and Influence People
The orders were called up the stairway, and a few minutes later, Mrs. Pope entered the room, carrying cans and plastic tumblers, and as she set the drinks before us, I noticed that her son had inherited her blunt, slightly upturned nose, which looked good on him, but caused her to appear overly suspicious and judgmental. So, she said, I hear you've been to the dentist.
This American Life
198: How to Win Friends and Influence People
She was just trying to make small talk, but due to her nose, it came off sounding like an insult, as if I just had a tooth filled and was now looking for someone to pay the bill. I'll say he's been to the dentist, my father said. Someone hits you in the mouth with a rock, and I'd say the dentist's office is pretty much the first place a reasonable person would go. Mr. Pope held up his hands.
This American Life
198: How to Win Friends and Influence People
Whoa now, he said. Let's just calm things down a little. He yelled upstairs for his son, and when there was no answer, he picked up the phone, telling Thad to stop running his mouth and get his butt down to the rumpus room, ASAP. A rush of footsteps on the carpeted staircase, and then Thad sprinted in, all smiles and apologies. The minister had called. The game had been rescheduled.
This American Life
198: How to Win Friends and Influence People
Hello, sir, and you are? He looked my father in the eye and firmly shook his hand, holding it in his own for just the right amount of time. With others our age, the gesture appeared forced and sloppy, but Thad seemed born to it. While most handshakes mumbled, his clearly spoke, saying both, we'll get through this, and I'm looking forward to your vote this coming November.
This American Life
853: Groundhog Day
Hey there, it's Ira here with a quick message. The other day, two colleagues and I went into the studio and we listened to the very first pilot episode from This American Life. This is a reel-to-reel tape.
This American Life
853: Groundhog Day
So we need the interviewee to just say some words about something while we set recording levels. And so we'll ask them some kind of, you know, neutral question to describe the route they took to work that morning or what they had for breakfast. This comes from radio producer Talia Ugisteres.
This American Life
853: Groundhog Day
Groundhog Day, of course, is the 1993 Bill Murray comedy about a self-centered weatherman who gets trapped in time, repeating the same day, again and again. A day where he covers a Groundhog Day ceremony on local TV.
This American Life
853: Groundhog Day
That story from Talia Ougastetis. She's the creator of the podcast Unreality. She first produced the story for Shortcuts, a Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4. Act three, Raiders of the Lost Chard. Sometimes the repeating situation that you find yourself stuck in every day is something you do not like and you want it to end.
This American Life
853: Groundhog Day
I hadn't heard it actually since 1995. We had no idea what to expect. So let's just jump in. And it kind of blew our minds just how weird it was. There were found tapes.
This American Life
853: Groundhog Day
And I guess like Bill Murray, who is caught on repeat in that old movie, you have to strategize and figure out how to minimize the unpleasantness. David Kestenbaum has this story about that.
This American Life
853: Groundhog Day
Until, finally, at the end of the film, he unsticks himself in time and wakes up on the next day. Again, here's Parker.
This American Life
853: Groundhog Day
Barker says she's not a big birthday person, but this is a little thing she's done for herself to mark the day ever since she was 22. I first saw Groundhog Day in a film class.
This American Life
853: Groundhog Day
David Kestenbaum is our show's senior editor. Coming up, one man combats the chaos of the world on a narrow block in Brooklyn, week after week, every Tuesday and Thursday. That's in a minute. Chicago Public Radio, when our program continues. It's This American Life from Ira Glass. Today's program, Groundhog Day. Have you ever had a day that just seems to repeat again and again?
This American Life
853: Groundhog Day
It's This American Life from Ira Glass. Each week on our program, of course, we choose a theme, bring you different kinds of stories on that theme. It's This American Life from Ira Glass. Each week on our show, of course, we choose a theme, bring you different kinds of stories on that theme. It's This American Life from Ira Glass.
This American Life
853: Groundhog Day
Each week on our program, we choose a theme, bring you a variety of different kinds of stories on that theme. Today's show, Fiasco. Today on our program, 24 Hours at the Golden Apple. Today on our program, a story of race and politics in America, the story of Harold Washington.
This American Life
853: Groundhog Day
I'm Eric Glass. It's This American Life, the radio program that dares to ask the question,
This American Life
853: Groundhog Day
Today's program, The Long Fuse. I had forgotten about that one, The Long Fuse. Doing this theme this week, I have to admit, made me really think about what it feels like to do our program week after week, 853 times. This is our 853rd episode. And it does feel very different making the show for the 853rd time than it did at the very beginning. Definitely.
This American Life
853: Groundhog Day
There is a sameness to doing things again and again every week that is not entirely pleasant. But, of course, while the process of making a show is always the same, the content of the show changes so much. And there's just something about, I don't know how to put this, like creating the little dream that radio can be. I don't know, it just gets to me. When the music enters. Thank you for that.
This American Life
853: Groundhog Day
Everything you say just sounds smarter when you're saying it over music. And just making all the little parts of the show perfect, you know, or at least as obsessively perfect as you can make it. It's just so easy to get lost in that. Even on the 853rd time. Act 4, Heart of Parkness. People who own cars in certain cities really are just asking for pain.
This American Life
853: Groundhog Day
Certain cities are not set up for them and deliver regular, repeated punishment to car owners. Valerie Kipnis' hometown definitely does that on a schedule that's literally posted on signs.
This American Life
853: Groundhog Day
So she created this birthday movie night for herself to do alone. That she still does alone every year with the film Groundhog Day. That she's going to do this year for the 16th time. And maybe you think that means that she's really into the film Groundhog Day. Nope. I don't love the movie.
This American Life
853: Groundhog Day
Valerie Kipnis is the producer on our show. Act 5, it's been a hard year's night, and I've been working like a hog. So Punxsutawney Phil is not the only groundhog who gets drafted into annual Groundhog Day ceremonies around the country. There's actually a website, groundhogday.com, that lists over three dozen of these poor critters around the United States and Canada.
This American Life
853: Groundhog Day
There's French Creek Freddy in West Virginia, Woody the Woodchuck in Michigan. There's a groundhog in New York City at the Staten Island Zoo. In New York in the past, the city's mayor used to be part of the Groundhog Ceremony until 2015 after Bill de Blasio dropped a groundhog and died later that same week.
This American Life
853: Groundhog Day
Parker says there are lots of films she'd much rather be watching once a year, year after year. Like her favorite film, Point Break, the Keanu Reeves surfing film.
This American Life
853: Groundhog Day
The current mayor, Eric Adams, is a well-known rodent hater who launched a war on the city's rats, and he has never shown up in person at the ceremony. And as a man who runs the city, he could use his powers to try to shut down the Groundhog Day ceremony on Staten Island once and for all. And there's somebody out there who would like that very much. We are pleased to bring her to you now.
This American Life
853: Groundhog Day
This is a This American Life exclusive. She's a resident of New York, specifically Staten Island, more specifically the zoo.
This American Life
853: Groundhog Day
Susan Hogg Kaplowitz's letter to Mayor Adams was written and read by Bess Kalb. She writes books and other funny stuff. Her newsletter, which you can find on Substack, is The Grudge Report.
This American Life
853: Groundhog Day
Our program was produced today by Aviva de Kornfeld. The people who put together today's program include Bim Adewunmi, Jindaye Bonds, Dana Chivas, Michael Kamade, Angelo Gervasi, Khanna Jaffe-Walt, Tobin Lo, Miki Meek, Catherine Raimondo, Stone Nelson, Nadia Raymond, Ryan Rumery, Lily Sullivan, Frances Swanson, Christopher Svitala, Julie Whitaker, and Diane Wu.
This American Life
853: Groundhog Day
Our managing editor is Sara Abdurrahman. Our senior editor is David Kestenbaum. Our executive editor is Emmanuel Berry. Special thanks today to Carrie Rose Thiessen, Ethan Brooks, Eddie Wong, Lindy Wade Dlamini, Saudi Tukada, Avery Truffleman, and Ned Ryerson. This American Life is delivered to public radio stations by PRX, the public radio exchange, to become a This American Life partner.
This American Life
853: Groundhog Day
It gets you bonus episodes. It gets you ad-free listening. It gets you hundreds of Greatest Hits episodes that show up right in your podcast feed. Go to thisamericanlife.org slash lifepartners. Also very important, signing up this way also helps keep our program going. Thanks, as always, to our program's co-founder, Mr. Troy Malatia. You know, he is not a very good dance teacher.
This American Life
853: Groundhog Day
I'm Ira Glass. Back next week, there's more stories of this American life.
This American Life
853: Groundhog Day
But the thing that makes it feel comforting is the repetition. And it's a movie about how awful repetition is.
This American Life
853: Groundhog Day
But today on our program for Groundhog Day, the power of repetition, how it can be utterly devastating to do something you love dozens of times or hundreds of times. You can rob it of all feeling. You can turn it into drudgery. But repetition can also do the opposite. The more you do something, the more you can find in it and live in it.
This American Life
853: Groundhog Day
I've said these next few words hundreds of times, and I said them today, excited for what is to come this hour. From WBEZ Chicago, this is American Life. I'm Ira Glass. Stay with us. This is American Life, Act One. Will you still slug me tomorrow? Sometimes, choosing to repeat the same moment over and over again is an act of love. Aviva de Kornfeld has his true life example.
This American Life
853: Groundhog Day
I was really surprised what this pilot was like. Very avant-garde. Okay, well, let's find out what's going to happen. And I mention all this because if you sign up as a life partner, you can hear this bonus episode and many, many more that we've made. Plus you get our show without any ads. You get hundreds of favorite episodes that show up right in your podcast feed.
This American Life
853: Groundhog Day
And most of all, you help us keep our show going. If you've been thinking about joining, try it out. Go to thisamericanlife.org slash lifepartners. That link is also in the show notes. All right. Thanks. It's a little ritual that Parker invented for herself. And it's always the same, every year. Around this time of year. February 2nd, to be exact.
This American Life
853: Groundhog Day
Aviva de Kornfeld is a producer on our show. F2, I'll repeat the question. So our show today is about Groundhog Day and what repeating the same thing over and over can accomplish or reveal. And I don't want to say much about this next item before it starts, except to say that it is a common thing when radio reporters sit down to interview somebody, we have to set the record volume properly.
Your Mom's House with Christina P. and Tom Segura
Tom Has Some BAD THOUGHTS | Your Mom's House Ep. 808
I know, we've been working our asses off. You guys, get off your asses and back to work. Come on, man, we're taking a break.
Your Mom's House with Christina P. and Tom Segura
Tom Has Some BAD THOUGHTS | Your Mom's House Ep. 808
Ooh, that's a good comeback. Right away? Oh, so he forces him. That's how he gets him. Oh, wow.
Your Mom's House with Christina P. and Tom Segura
Tom Has Some BAD THOUGHTS | Your Mom's House Ep. 808
exactly and then they laugh of course yeah of course it's really fun yeah yeah these saltwater crocodiles in indonesia have apparently learned how to pretend to be drowning to lure humans in who they view as prey who they then obviously eat that's awesome right that's incredible yeah
Your Mom's House with Christina P. and Tom Segura
Tom Has Some BAD THOUGHTS | Your Mom's House Ep. 808
You guys, get off your asses and back to work.
Your Mom's House with Christina P. and Tom Segura
Tom Has Some BAD THOUGHTS | Your Mom's House Ep. 808
We're taking a break. Fuck your break. There's 15 cars here that need to be serviced. Now get back to it. Listen here, fucker. The only thing that needs servicing around here is our cocks.
Your Mom's House with Christina P. and Tom Segura
Tom Has Some BAD THOUGHTS | Your Mom's House Ep. 808
So get on your knees and beg like a bitch. What?
Your Mom's House with Christina P. and Tom Segura
Tom Has Some BAD THOUGHTS | Your Mom's House Ep. 808
Meow, meow, meow.
Your Mom's House with Christina P. and Tom Segura
Tom Has Some BAD THOUGHTS | Your Mom's House Ep. 808
What?