¶ Podcast Welcome and Introductions
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I wait, uh did you have something?
Well he just mentioned He has bunch of hours.
Go ahead.
No no Austin, this is your show, man. You notice like
That's a nice arm.
You might you might have noticed that he's not.
D did civil rights at Del Taco.
🎵 Music
Um I'm supposed to be autistic.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of the Fear and Podcast.
Yeah, we got a bear.
Very special guest. Call it everybody. Uh, to have uh he wanted to introduce you'cause he's he's like that.
No.
Uh he wanted to.
You weren't.
Exactly what you do and where you're from.
You were you're in a state of panic'cause you have no idea who Noah is.
Are you kidding me?
And I...
They are great friends.
Yeah.
Yes, that's right.
No Colwin, uh former uh senior editor.
Guy.
Former editor Juice Currents, uh worked at Vice News, has a fantastic podcast that I always recommend called Blowback. Go check their episodes out. They had a wonderful one on Cuba. Um uh season two, which, you know, has been very relevant as as of late. And uh my good friend, uh someone who's been on my stream probably a million times at this point, someone who's just
Uh kinda comes uh to Los Angeles and stays in my house. So I was like, hey, you're in my house, you're you do podcasts, you know how to yap.
Must be really nice going on his stream every once in a while. How is that?
I like the attention. Mm-hmm. But I don't like a song.
Oh.
So it's so it's like I love the attention, I love the feedback.
Oh my god.
I love getting the text like Noah, you look so good on the stream. Yeah. Who's that fucking bozo next to you? Why do you get that Ugo in there with you? It's weird.
Uh so it seems like we maybe if we D have that disposition towards him, maybe he would like us more.
Yeah, you're you're not mean enough to me that's
He does it. Did so did he make you stay here?
Did he ask me to s no, I invite myself every time exclusively. I only invite myself. I say I'm gonna be in LA this, like get the bed ready.
Yeah, I I like I'm not even gonna be here. He's gonna be at in my house.
Like
Really? I'm not even here tonight'cause I'm flying out to New York.
To literally where I live. Yeah.
Yeah, we're we're all of all of my New York friends are here right now or they're in, well, I guess braces and CPA. But um
Mm-hmm.
Which C Pack is where where are they doing CPAC?
Uh like
One of those layers of hell. Yeah. Regardless.
¶ Hasan's Cuba Trip Insights
Yeah.
Yeah, you know.
I'm going to uh to uh what Noah called the Muslim Illuminati dinner.
Oh yeah.
Would like would like Yeah, Zara.
Yeah.
All the all the Muslim celebrities
Humanity aid we call it. But it's a it's it's a great d it's a it's a it's a great event that I'm sad I'm probably not gonna be able to make it.
Yeah, I wasn't invited.
Well,
Well you're not in like You're you're you're Lebanese.
Yeah, I know.
Yeah.
No. Well
We learn something every day.
Did you
assume that when I walked in or you like, Oh, that's a white guy?
I I mean, i well you know, look, race is a tricky thing.
Well
It is judging by your white skin, yeah, I did kind of assume. A lot of people. Judging by the white skin.
A lot of people assume that, but uh what you wouldn't know is I'm white passing.
No, you're just white, dude, and you can't say you're
Someone wouldn't know your white passage.
I I say I'm white and is you know, contested by others.
Yeah, has is his son bike or white the most heated forum debate of all time locked?
Yeah, but no one has ever questioned whether you're white or not. No one's like, Yeah, that guy, I'm gonna I'm gonna do a hate crime on him.
True. I have a tremendous amount of privilege.
Yeah, I I feel like you I feel like you can hail a cab pretty easily.
Is that a math that I just...
No, you're just so funny. You you still you're like mentally stuck in like twenty sixteen era woke.
What?
Or you're just still there all the time and it's awesome.
He's still with her. I'm not with her anymore.
Yeah.
Oh, no.
You don't want a woman to lead?
I think women can lead.
Uh uh just not on their period.
she clearly she was through menopause. But that regardless, that doesn't matter that doesn't matter.
I'm stating the audience.
He's like no.
No period problems.
But a woman, even if she was having her period, then she could leave. And and I'd be I'd be pr happy with it. But the thing is is is what I've learned is, you know, I I don't care if you're a woman, I just don't want you to be Um I just don't want you to be bought and paid for by the establishment.
Oh okay. All right. Um we have a lot of stuff to cover this. Oh yes. Um prevents. One of the one of the topics that I obviously uh have to I know some people might not like it. It's a little political but not really. Uh I went to Cuba.
No one's been to Cuba, you've been to Cuba. Austin has never been to Cuba, which is why this conversation will be very interesting. So and Austin will be blocked out of it. But yeah, I just got back from Cuba. We did a humanitarian aid mission uh alongside Progressive International, Code Pink. Uh we brought in forty tons of medical aid on the island. I conducted a bunch of back to back interviews. Uh and and uh you know, it's it's it's been it's pretty devastating to see
Like a retro from Spider Man.
Well that's that's the real reason.
Yeah, no, it is it was it listen, after it was like I I thought it was gonna be an issue when like, you know, I I got a call actually from like a Cuban diplomat and he was like, listen. Like we get it. Like one gaming PC, I understand. Two gaming PCs, like look, we can kinda get it, it's his thing. But like listen, at three gaming PCs, like we're gonna have to turn off another hospital.
No, they were like d I specifically was like, well At least turn off the baby hospital'cause that uses less electricity than the adult hospital so I can use it for my
I'll be honest with you, I saw you in your Cartier glasses and your six hundred dollar shirt and the five star hotel. I was like, why didn't I go?
Oh.
It's interesting. Noah and I were talking about this. We I think kind of all went to Cuba at like three different phases even though
Yeah, no, even the even I would say I went at a different phase of the sun.
Yeah. Because I went there I think two thousand thirteen which is like kind of the, you know, uh Castro's like dead for all. Cuba's independent and then he was there what a month ago
Like two months ago and end of January. Yeah.
And then you were there. Yeah.
Peak worse uh conditions. Um yeah. And and I've talked to people that have been in the past as well. Like I dude. Remember when you were like, it's so beautiful. Like I I totally you you land and you're like, oh my God, this is like one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. It's unlike anything else I've ever experienced. Partially because like I haven't really traveled to to the Caribbean or Latin American countries at all.
Like I I've I've been to Mexico, that's it's North America, right? So um I I was was taken aback by like how sick everything is like how cool how how wonderful the people are how beautiful the island is um how beautiful the architecture is and then like right after when you start like
moving outside of the airport and you start like getting into the city and you're like, Oh, look at these cool buildings and you're like, Oh my God, they all are like emptied out. Like they're hollowed out. Like they're like bombs exploded inside of them. And you're like, how the fuck does this Like how do people live like this? How did this happen?
And that was a big part of like what I wanted to figure out because everybody's always like, Oh, it's the it's the government, it's the government's doing this and that. Uh and then uh you know, obviously uh it's it's something that I've I've read quite a bit about. the blockade, the sanctions, and you really feel it. Like when you get there, you're like
¶ US Economic Blockade on Cuba
Yeah, yeah. Um I mean it's it's crazy for me because it I don't know if you know this, but my dad lived in the world. Whoa for years and years and years.
I did not know that.
Because my my grandfather was one of the mobile gas oil Pulled everybody out. And he talks about like how crazy that was to experience like going from a Cuba that was like so vibrant and and and loving that community and those people so much to like seeing them kind of the beginning of them being chosen.
Yeah.
American imperialism.
Well, it's also been a very like uh one of the things that has been really kind of jarring, at least on the trip that I took, was, you know, they Like there's still like a semblance of of of normalcy. Like I was there when the Havana Jazz Festival was going on, which was incredible. Um
Hot.
Oh, it's incredible. I saw and like these are bands that like tour in the United States, by the way. Like it's it's since the um You know, since the Obama thaw in relations there has been more like like like communication and people go back and forth between the island and the United States and more money from rel families in the United States makes it into Cuba. Yeah. Um
And it's like you mean that you can kind of see like a plausible you have like a plausible idea of like, oh here's what like what life here could be like. Yeah. If like we didn't have this if we didn't have these psychorestrictions, if we didn't have like the idea of like a vibrant
Like being on the streets of that city and in that country is not that difficult to imagine. It's just that like you go and there's trash all over the streets, you know, there's no money for anything, the pharmacies are empty. It's a really I mean it's it is It's I there's n there's I've got to be
I wouldn't say that like in the spectrum of travel to like you know, like fucking like global like travel or expert or whatever that I'm anywhere near the ladder. But like I have seen a few different countries in the world, I've been to the West Bank, I've been to Latin America, and I'd I'd never seen anything like that. Never seen anything like it.
been to Puerto Rico? Yeah. Okay. Cause I was looking at some images and it's like Like I I I feel like there's a couple there's a couple different methods in that in this region, right? That like uh there's a covern coup a couple different levels of like American intervention. Like you have Haiti on the maximum side, right? Like where it's like completely deep.
You know, it's almost like a like a like different warlords competing for power at at certain points and then at other points you have like a corrupt puppet that America's installed. Um, and then you have Puerto Rico, which is like territorialized and their grid is also failing as well. And that's like Ca uh you you can see that like, you know, it's it's not like a capitalism versus communism, uh, you know, systemic uh issue'cause like Puerto Rico's
an American territory, right? And we've like caused tremendous hardships for uh regular Puerto Ricans. And then you see Cuba, which is like our intervention No bombs, no guns, no bullets, just economic warfare, pure economic warfare.
'cause
Um, you know, there's there's materials on the island. Uh they they had a robust uh industry for uh for sugar and very quickly after the Cuban Revolution, America was like, We're not buying. Um and and it didn't stop there obviously. Like there they have so much what Really frustrated me aside from like the immediate hardships that I saw, you know, people having uh Uh people experience hardships with the getting food. Everything is so expensive and their wages are so marginal. So
¶ American Disregard for Global Issues
But it was the potential. Like we have robbed uh this this 10 million person Caribbean island of like so much potential, whether it be arts, whether it be in the field of sports, where they're still like thriving in spite of those odds, right? Um bio, uh biomedical research.
Um,
But like I I just wish we could live in a world where we could see exact What they would be able to accomplish if we just weren't constant
Restricting.
Well, it's so amazing that you highlighted this, um, because a lot of people don't fucking know what's going on. In fact I got some messages from people being like I had no idea. What was going on in Cuba? American understanding. Americans are completely oblivious to what's happening. Yeah. On a huge scale.
I think it's it's a weird I will I will never uh bet against American obliviousness or ignorance of what happens outside America's borders. Uh, you know, it's it's just like it's it's our way of life. We don't know what goes on elsewhere. I do think though, I I have a little bit uh I have a little bit of sympathy for us American cattle though. Because there's a lot of like it's like part of what Cuba's problem is right now is that it's competing in the news cycle, so to speak. Again.
I don't know, like World War III. Yeah. Like it's this bizarre it's it's we have we're at a historical inflection point with Cuba. There's never been anything like this or whatever. And it's like if you turn on the news.
Quite reasonably, there's a lot of other stuff that's taken precedent for like an American viewer. Right. And so which makes this kind of work, this drawing this kind of attention that much more important. Right. But it's it's such a fucking Like I did it feel one of the challenges that I felt like I've had in the last few months, last year, has been trying to get people to pay attention to it uh because of how crazed everything is.
I mean, I mean you got you got Cuba, you got Iran, you got trans people in women's sports. I mean, it's just there's so many things.
Three issues of equal
And wait.
Right.
Right. Yeah.
Yeah.
Well you know, it's I'm really glad that the Olympic committee hasn't done seem to do shit about the fact that like they're gonna the Olympics are getting hosted in a country that like, you know, will deport anybody for looking at a nice officer funny. But you know what they've made sure?
Oh yeah.
The sanctity of women's sports is protected.
So all people that place fifth and sixth place can finally maybe get first.
Make a blame.
I have uh trees.
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¶ Cuban Gifts and Travel Hardships
I was gonna ask you if you did you stop at this did you stop at the su did they have a souvenir shop?
They did. Um, I I got the the craziest airport markup of all time. Like I've never experienced anything like it, but
You got us matching glasses.
Well I got yeah yeah yeah. Everyone got well no you get nothing because you were already there.
And I actually I had bought some of these same things that I think.
Son.
Uh, uh this is uh this is a baseball.
Did you play stick ball like I asked you to?
No, I didn't bro, I because I literally first of all I landed and I was just gaming on my gaming. Right.
He was landing and we just landed and played lead.
Here, uh this is a baseball, a Cuba baseball from Cuba for you.
Is this me?
And then this is a Cuban cigar. For awesome.
No, I think that's for you, man.
You shouldn't have. Dude, that was one thing I did when I when I went to Cuba is I brought like thirty baseballs with me.
Oh fun.
And everywhere I went, I would like to
Bro was on a scouting mission. This is for the future.
I was like, I'm taking you to the Dominican Republic. And we're gonna put you in the MLB. I was doing a blind side. Yeah, I was on I was on my Sandra Bullock. a kid.
Yeah, it's like the it's like the butterfly effect where you're like, You never know
Well now like that gives me an idea. Like I would love to see like a Kenny Powers going to Cuba like scouting mission. Yeah.
And then, you know, now you have like some some Incredible baseball players that Will Neff has has brought about brought to the rest of the world as a gift. No one knows. They don't even know. Will doesn't know either. They're like, One day there was this white man. He came off to me in the streets, I'm a little child.
Wow, he said, take this baseball.
Ha ha.
And he garnished my wages for the rest of my life. Well son this means a lot to me, thank you. I'm gonna cherish it.
Yeah. I got yeah, I got you a a smoking cigar.
I can't smoke them but I love a cigar. Do you know well, you know the rumor about Cuban cigars is that they're rolled on the
Yeah, that is some I've heard.
I've never heard that?
Oh yeah, I've heard that.
No.
I you know, as somebody who like like I admittedly didn't enjoy a cigar unf at all until like I tr until I went to Cuba and had a good one.
You really had me in that first half.
No, it was no no until I no because it was like I had like you know I had cigars and I never it never like clicked for me as the what you know like oh like I'd be in the mood for this. Uh but then somebody gave me a cohiba and I was like oh
Yeah.
Yeah.
I can't smoke in general.
Honestly, I didn't do shit
Cuban cigar?
No, I didn't do anything.
If you're gonna get cancelled for exorbitance, at least have a fun
No, it's crazy. Like I I straight up I didn't even fucking eat food. Like I had I had food twice.
And tiny espresso.
Yeah, I had that one tiny cofacito and everyone made a big deal about that, which is so crazy'cause like that was just at my friend's house. I was literally at um that was at my friend's house and and they made me like a Cuban coffee. That's it. And everyone was talking about it like this was so extravagant, which is crazy.
I'm gonna when I went to Cuba I purposefully I was really on my fucking dictator shit. Like I I had
Yeah.
I was tossing baseballs to change.
Remember these.
Do you think that would...
Remember my face.
I would have enjoyed it.
No, you would have you would have killed yourself. What? Dude, dude, dude, dude, dude, dude, dude. First of all, like
I love uh oh shit it broke.
I'm always playing it like this.
Oh my god, that does that.
God damn it.
H Hassan? What do you mean?
Gives it to you and immediately rags and you're gonna.
I broke the gift that I brought to you from A a fairly restricted tr not often traveled to place but for Americans.
I I think I'll I think this would be fine. What does that even mean? I don't know. It's not a chain anymore. It's just gonna be
Yeah, just put it in your mouth.
No choke on it.
Wouldn't have liked it.
You would have hated it. March and I talked about this actually. Um, thank God Austin they didn't come. And I honestly I think Will would have wouldn't have enjoyed it either, to be fair, because like it is
I think I would have just kinda split off.
¶ Cuba's Ingenuity Amidst Scarcity
And it would have made me sad to go from what I
First of all.
Like there's just blackouts all the time. Yeah. The the uh telecommunications system fails all the time. Like you have like we got Cubacell, right? Which is
Yeah, you get like East Sims.
We got the Easons and stuff, but it's just like doesn't work, right? And and it doesn't work throughout uh mass parts of the day. So like there's no communication. Like it makes logistics very difficult.
Like if you wanna go like I wan actually have a Hazan's story is like the one I'm about to tell, but when I went in January, I was like, All right, I'm gonna go meet I was going to meet our friend Marta, you know, this uh an older woman who lives in Havana who we interviewed for our show years ago.
And was gonna get to finally meet her in person and I was like, All right, I'm gonna go to your house at like six thirty seven. Like I'll I'll be there then And it's I assume, you know, in the middle of the day I'd had pretty good luck so far getting a cat. Let me tell you, at a certain hour of the day, that is not the ease with which you are able to get around. And it's not like you can call anything. It's you know, you can like it's the the you know, you have to I mean it's
You have to if you wanna like r make sure that you've arrived to the airport, for example, like you've gotta make arrangements with like whoever last gave you a thing and like try and plan ahead. There's no it's it I mean, it it's very It's desperate. I spent th I spent like forty five minutes looking for a ride and I ended up getting like um like a guy on like a bu a moped.
I think you know, I think if I would have had the expectations of that going in.
No no, it's unlike anything you've ever experienced.
One of the most burnt images of for me in Cuba was we took a ride with a guy and it was the craziest shit I've ever seen. He had a a nineteen I don't know.
Oh like a fifty Chevrolet.
Exactly. One of the craziest old cars. But like right before he started driving, he was like, Hold on. And he had like a thermos of water that he held out the window while we were driving with a line to the radiator so he could so he could keep it like They ca they keep those cars.
Yeah, they do so they have the old those old cars and then the other car that you see, um, we this g the guy who gave me and Brennan a lift to the airport and who uh we had run it we met in a van on the street. He had um he was from Holland and he or he had been living in Holland for many years and he came back to Cuba to take care of his mom and like his big passion project it seemed while he was back in Cuba and probably how he and how he brought some income was he had an old Soviet lot.
Like a like a you know an old carve in the Soviet Union. Yeah. And it look it was awesome. Like, you know, you you it the it's like very stiff and I felt like if I got in an accident I would have been like bisected. But it was legitimately like it's it's the the like they they have such ingenuity in the cars they restore'cause the parts are replaceable or they can find one you know, because these were so mass produced and also because they're like seven years old.
And they have no other option too. None. So they have to find a way
There are a lot of like that that was surprising to me. Like, there's a lot of modern vehicles in Cuba as well. Like, it's not I thought it was like
Enough for the whole population.
Of course. And um There's there's no there's no like there's very limited gas on the island. Yeah. So at at this point it's been three months. No oil tankers have actually entered Cuba with the exception of like This is how fucked up the American government is. The American government has allowed oil transfers to take place for private businesses. So there's private businesses on the island, like some of the hotels.
There's like four, I believe. Right. That the American government allows Americans to stay in. Any other hotel you stay in inside of Cuba, and there's you know thousands of hotels in Cuba. Yeah, yeah. You're like f they say you're aiding and abetting a foreign sponsor of terror. So you can go to prison for ten years. And uh the only yeah, the one of the four hotels that we stayed in.
Um that was the big uh thing. Like everyone was like, these hotels have uh these hotels have power when the hospitals don't. It's like, yeah, who do you think made that happen? Do you think the Cuban government's like, oh, we love we we love making sure that our babies are dying? Win win.
People from abroad come to Cuba. They bring dollars, they bring euro, they bring They bring foreign exchange and foreign currency that like needs to circulate in Cuba so that the like where like how the exchange makes it in can then be used to buy the other things from abroad that people need. So there is also like
Like obvious like you you know, you can l like when you go there, this becomes very visible, but I could see it from s from the outside. People like, Oh my god, you're going stay in a luxury hotel while people starve and it's like There's a reason the power is on there. And there's a reason that they try to keep these businesses going'cause it's like one of the only functioning sectors of the economy, you know, barely at this point.
Yeah, and and like the the Cubans themselves, like, uh whether they're uh a fan of the government or not, it doesn't really matter. They they they are very excited at the prospect of like tourists coming in because it's like literally the only time where they can make like uh a a tremendous amount of money yeah um for themselves and then like
Even if Cubans you talk to on the street don't love the gu don't love the government and there's plenty who don't, like they and they'll tell you, like the the thing that is so jarring, at least to me, is the extent to which and I had this act I I did have this thought when I was there, like
All of them are saying like come back, please come, you know, please like spend your money here. Like please just be present in some form. Because it also feels like for for a lot of the people who live in that country, they feel like the world has left them by.
They feel like the you know, like they've bit that's part of you know, like they have insanely high emigration rates so that people can go abroad and work to send money back home, et cetera. And it and for many people, you know, it's a very um like it it weighs on them, like as as as human beings. Yeah. Yeah.
¶ US Policy and McDonald's Symbolism
Well, it's a very philanthropic thing you did and I'm glad it was met with such ubiquitous praise.
Yeah, no.
Well I mean I I don't really give a shit about I don't really give a shit about people being like you're such a nice guy or whatever. Fu uh fuck that. Uh my my goal was to address uh some of the major problems that people are experiencing and then, you know, talk about who's actually responsible for it, right? Because it's like designed in this invisible way where it is designed to invoke this kind of response from the population where they're like
Well what the fuck is going on here? Like the government is so incompetent. I don't have food in my if you know, I if I if I'm not able to purchase food, yeah, eventually I'm gonna blame the government for it. And it's like it's super insidious. bureaucratic sanctions terror that they've that they've brought about this is
Well, Trump needs a win, so ultimately I think uh, you know, in a few months they'll throw McDonald's in there. Victory and
Yeah.
I mean I don't I I I mean we've talked about this on the stream a bunch, but in general I I do believe that like the the biggest thing going for the Cubans is that like yeah, exactly that. Like Trump probably ramped up this Cuba shit just like he did in Venezuela because The last year he's been taking such a beating in the public and it was like
We're gonna put a McDonald's in there, it's gonna be great.
There is actually a great movie. It's on Netflix called The Wasp Network and there's like a Cuban defector scene and it's Wagner Mora. He washes a shore at Guantanamo Bay and they take him inside and they're like, Oh, what do you what you know, like they're they're you know, like they're welcoming him'cause Refugee, et cetera. And so they bring him a McDonald's and he's like, I always wanted McDonald's. Like we dre or like we dream like it was and and he's you know it's
They do have a McDonald's. Which is crazy.
Really? Oh you oh yeah.
Wow, there's no symbol more
Oh.
We are the facts.
Well no, do you remember when
We are the fattest imperialists.
OG twenty OG twenty ten's Dil Digital Content Memory, Benny Johnson's photo essay about uh Fort Hood. He this was like a it was a Buzzfeed story from years and years ago, and he did like a photo essay that was like Did you know they have fast food on American military bases? And it was like, he's like, they got Taco Bell, they got chilies. Yeah. Like, isn't that nuts? Oh my god.
Yeah, look.
It's it's it's still got the OG like it's still got the OG uh roof and everything.
I think it's uh
No, those okay that's not the OG route. Yeah, that's a photo from the nineties for sure.
No, no, I'm saying like...
Are they still driving those cars around there?
Dog, the nineties is OG now.
Yeah.
Wait, it's open right now.
'Cause the McDonald's now doesn't have that uh any longer. That's like the nineties McDonald's, so that's why I'm calling it the OG, because we are OG. Um that that's uh I mean we literally ship, we drop ship Burger King trucks to uh forward operating base.
in the nineteen forties we would like leaflet Japan and Germany and you know be like you know like like welcome democracy like reject your overlords and now we're just dropping happy meals. Yeah.
Go home G.I.
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Thank you.
Hungry now. Now
Thank you.
What about now?
When
Whenever it hits you, wherever you are.
Grab an O Henry bar?
Satisfy your hunger.
Yeah.
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🎵 Music
The chocolatey coating. Swing by a gas station.
Hungry oh Henry. AHHHHH
Oh man, Will, I cannot wait to go see the Rolling Stones. The Rolling Stones?
KAMIYA!
It's one of my favorite bands. Right. And I've been looking on Seat Geek. Oh. You have the app on your face. That's right. I'd I love Seat Geek. Because it's really hard going through and looking for your favorite seat. Thank God with SeatGeek, all the seats are rated one through ten. So you know what you're getting and you know if you're getting a good deal or not. Right. Right. Right. So when you buy buy your one seat, you know that you suck. Well. What up?
Oh, okay. No, no, I meant on one through ten. Oh. A seat with a Van Raven. You know that you're gonna be sitting behind a post or something.
Ha ha ha.
Oh I hate it. Somebody to go with me. I'll go. Yeah, but you know what? There's a tremendous amount of things that you can find on SeatGeek. I was looking, I saw Demi Lovato, the Backstreet Boys, Chris Stapleton, Morgan Wallin, Alex Warren. The new year means new artists are on tour, folks. Yeah, new artists like the rules. To make it even better, you can use code FEARTEN for ten percent off your SeatGeek tickets. That's ten percent off tickets with promo code FEARTEN. That's FEARTEN.
¶ Cynicism and Consumer Activism
Well good
Yeah, w we're we're not gonna we're not gonna spend too much time on the you know, more time on the Cuba thing.
I mean he didn't know.
He did a wonderful thing.
I know.
I don't know. I know, but I I d I didn't bring aid. I went I went for the cloud. No, I went for the cloud.
No, I think you learned for the match.
What I you know what I think it is though? You know like aside from like the um the interest in the American government and like whoever is more sympathetic to American government's interest in the media to be like to disparage this thing, to like change the conversation away from like
the the you know on the ground conditions to like look at these guys they're doing like a uh almost like a safari like a poverty safari, whatever, uh to belittle it. I think that the reason why there was so much like anger Is because a lot of people have just gotten used to not doing things. So when they see someone doing anything, they go, Oh, that's weird. And then they feel a little odd about it. Like they they feel like they
There's like a sense of feeling immoral about like someone else that's just like, you know, doing something. So they immediately assume there's gotta be some sort of cynical purpose for this. There's ulterior mo uh ulterior purpose. And I'm just gonna disparage him so I can feel better about myself and my lack of doing things. And I think
Yeah.
There's that dude. There is that.
¶ Austin's 'Stick It To The Man'
It's a I th I you know, Porque no lows dose. Like I it's you know, I
The the hatred also comes from that.
Yeah.
I think it's a good thing.
Definitely not from a Palestine commercial.
Did you speak any Spanish while you're over there?
Uh no. I do not I am I don't speak any
Whatsoever. Well, I do. So
Well you yeah, you would have been great. Um anyway, let's talk about something that Austin wants to talk about.
Well I have a great story for all of you.
I this this ties back to something that we talk about pretty much every episode.
No, there's there's a plane there's definitely was a plane crash, but I think something else.
I was I was gonna bring up airports. This is your story.
No, I had a specific story.
Okay, well regardless, airport travel is is uh almost come to a complete halt at this point, partially because of the price of uh jet fuel uh increasing.
It's like it's like perfect storm, jet fuel and the T S A sh
And and the TSA is under the Department of Homeland Security. Yeah, look at that. And uh and there's this like gridlock in Congress as there always is about like the funding vehicles for the DHS. Uh they don't wanna fund I Um they want to fund TSA but they don't want to fund I so the Republicans have just been holding out on it.
Maybe we can just have ICE do T S A. Well that's what they
Oh, what a brilliant idea.
What a great idea. Uh we're good we're sending the agents. I mean they
The the finest we've got. Yeah.
And the images have been insane. Because these are like the only people that are getting salaries at this point that haven't been fired from their federal company.
Also, this is the only time I've been seeing all these photos of ice people and they don't all have masks on. I don't know why they're not masked in this situation. Yeah. But it means that we saw that school shooter uh looking as uh Ice Agents we saw those guys.
Yeah, seeing like seeing like twenty year old like ICE agents that aren't fat yet was was uh a shocking.
That is true. It's like in my it I should when I see that, I should actually in the future. Thank you. I should in the future be like thinking like, all right.
And show us my own.
But I gotta imagine you with like a stomach, you know, the size of the Gulf of Mexico.
Yeah, I uh so as as you all know, I I I travel every single week. Uh uh this is your drip coffee. That's your cappuccino. I I handed it to you. This is your I I got you. That's
This is vanilla oat.
That's me.
Uh huh. Is that the cappuccino?
Uh no, I don't remember.
Oh, okay.
Great.
Delicious.
¶ Airport Travel and TSA Challenges
As you know, I travel every week. I fly on a plane every week. And uh I have been noticing a huge rise in airfare. I mean, it's suffocating. It is absolutely suffocating. I I Obviously, you know, I have to do it'cause I don't live here and I have to fly as a means of transportation.
And you could. You could live here, you button.
Where do you live? I live in Portland, Oregon. Oh wow. And so anyway I fly I've been noticing the rise of air air pr uh prices And the increase in uh wait times at security. But one thing I I will say is that what's interesting is it is very much on an airport to airport basis. This is not being uh airports are being affected disproportionately. Um you know, like Atlanta's seeing a lot of uh call out.
J FK, LaGuardia are bad. Newark, however, for those listening, Newark has been solid. Mm.
In Portland. The Portland airport. Yesterday I had an incident where I couldn't find parking. I was driving around for twenty five minutes trying to find parking. I had to send Christian in with bags um because I couldn't find a parking spot because the entire parking garage was filled to the brim with spring breakers.
But
Security lines empty. But regardless, yeah, the DHS won't fund ICE, right? Or they won't they don't want to fund ICE, which is great. We don't want to fund ICE.
It's like a the Republicans are kinda this is it's for the first time in a long time Chuck Schumer's doing what he should be doing, where it's like they know that essentially everybody's blaming the Republicans for this. And so there's some Republicans who are trying to negotiate like a TSA only funding package.
He's just eat he's eating my fucking bagel.
No would you like to be able to do that?
Actually. How'd you know? I'm Jewish. I love baby.
Bagel and cream tree. I mean this is the worst.
In LA, no.
You're Jewish?
Buddy, you don't even know the half-
Oh
I think that's wonderful.
No he was he was uh
Did you hear the publication that he was at?
Yeah, you were not even listening to what I was explaining.
Publication where you're an editor.
Uh it's uh called uh The Jewish.
I don't know.
I was like, I'm not sure.
This is the only time he's allowed to say it'cause I'm you know king anti semite.
I don't know. I don't know. Maybe you were. If I was an editor at Super Gay Mac. And I was a stray man, you'd be like, what the fuck insight are you gonna do? I mean, I don't know. I always think that like you could be just because you're not gay though, you'd be a great coach. You'd be a great gay kid.
Yeah, but that's different. Like coaches like like like there are plenty there are plenty of coaches that we see on football sidelines who are like you never played football uh you know.
It's like Affinity magazine or something, like a like a black lifestyle magazine.
I gotta coach the Jewish community.
Uh
I didn't want to assume your
All right, so today we're gonna pr we're gonna we're gonna practice taking it easy. Not getting upset when we're cutting line.
Yeah.
Well it's like it's like a it's like a better version of the Shabbos. Once upon a time, Jews needed somebody on Shabbos.
The shop is going.
I don't know to turn out the lights and you know, light the oven, whatever. Now we need it's it's more like a life coach situation. It's like we need you to learn how to like count to ten, you know, not blow up that village, uh, you know, not yell at Hassan on on the internet.
That's not working. Nobody they ha that hasn't stopped.
Well he hasn't started yet. We gotta get Will on it.
Yeah.
You gotta get him certified.
¶ Political Privileges and Insider Trading
Hi, I'm Will Knapp.
The well back to airports. The other the they the Republicans want to pass the thing. They're like they're eating themselves alive for it. Uh I think that the big Tell though, like the sign that this will not go on for eternity is that Delta this week so airlines have specific congressional help desks. Yeah. And Delta said uh we because of this uh thing we have to We we have to shut down our our specific uh special Congress helpline.
Get ready. Get ready. There's gonna be some chuds from Fly Over Country who are gonna have learned some hard lessons.
It's gonna pass so.
Why the fuck don't do they need a help desk? I can c I call and I get on the line immediately.
You understand that the uh the American politician is one of the most pampered animals on the planet.
In addition in addition, actually, but you know, we should we should we know this about people in Congress. They're all very smart. Yeah. And they're very uh patient and conscientious people who absolutely when presented with a line or a service situation, don't immediately say, I deserve special treatment. Yeah. If there's anything we know about people in American politics, it's not that they demand Favors for themselves every turn.
In a not so subtle way, I guess it's like invisible to the average person, but they do kind of live like. The way we perceive like a, you know, a corrupt Latin American dictatorship to exist where they got like platinum healthcare and they deny regular citizens that that amenity, right? They they get to travel like this.
They can hire whom literally they ever they want. Also Congress immune to FOIA. You know, they they're you know, which is a not you know like I mean we've seen uh how effective some well look, I'll also say this. Uh you know, who's to say there's a causation, but also when you get into Congress, you magically get really good at trading.
Yeah
Yeah, it's it's uh remarkable really. They just they're they're they're trading all the time. Speaking of trades. You know who the greatest trader is, obviously. Well no no. Nancy Nancy Pelosi's got nothing off.
That's true.
That is well we
Oh insider.
I love the like now how when there's like something horrible that's happened in the world, I'll I'll get a rush of like positive feeling because I'll learn from the news that somebody out there was able to make some money on this horrible thing that happened.
This is one of the craziest ones'cause like Obviously the war in Iran is unfolding in ways that the American government could not have perceived would be so poor like i it it's been it's not been going well.
No.
Let's just say that, to say the least, okay? The street of hormones that is responsible for twenty percent of all energy uh uh flowing through it is is shut off by the Iranian government. And There are there's a lot of instability in the markets. However
In all of this instability and this crisis there's someone out there making a lot of money. The other day R 15 minutes prior to Donald Trump's announcement that the Strait of Hormuz had been opened and that like uh they were gonna mediate and you know, their their talks were gonna begin, signaling that de-escalation is is imminent. Someone put in five hundred and thirty-eight million dollars in in uh in oil futures uh uh and made we don't know how much money they made.
But
Just one guy, 15 minutes prior to that announcement from Donald Trump, became like, you know, a couple billion dollars wealthier.
Obviously that's insider trading, but how do you prove it?
That's exactly right. No, I mean it is no I mean it is true In insider trading is also like feeling insider trading is also one of these crimes that like You know, like Steve Cohen, the guy who owns the Mets, he got got for it in the like years ago. Yeah. But on the whole, it is like like what's the difference between insider trading or just being really good at your job and having, you know, an idea of what's coming down the pike? Well
Let me tell you guys a little thing called the SEC.
Yeah.
A federal regulatory agency that has a bunch of lawyers and a bunch of investigators, like you know, really smart guys who who look at not only these unusual trades, which this would be
What I'm saying is if Vegas can figure out when you're playing advantage and blackjack, you can figure out when people are fucking bad.
Oh they can and and
They can and they choose not to.
Hold on.
What about what about like what if I'm using an encrypted messaging service or something and I'm Am I doing insider training? Awesome.
DJ, are you like a billion dollars richer after this past week's event? What's going on? We just find out he was in the room randomly.
He pulls out one of those old school brick phones, burn everything, burn the hardware. Look, I'm not saying I would inside trade, but I don't know how you'd get caught.
Absolutely.
Absolutely would do it.
Also it's always the people who are it's always it's it's like the what I love is that when you do read'cause you know, they happen. Like the insider trading uh prosecutions and stuff that do happen, it is like the it like when you read the blow by blow and then an indictment or something, it's awesome. It's always like
Uh so this guy was told by his like cousin who works for a company about something happen and then he told all of his friends and they all opened fifty thousand dollar positions at the
I get told, well, something's gonna happen. What am I supposed to do? Just sit on it? Well, and not.
It's illegal.
Do inside trade. How do they prove that that wasn't my intuition? Make sure that your language is ambiguous. Make sure what's your you say something like what's your level of Oh okay. That's what I say to them? I don't intend inside trade. How should I phrase it in an email? No, I would never inside trade, but money seems to be made really.
What actually I would make sure to do is like not just on on like ChatGBT or Claude, but on like all of them, ask these questions. Right. Like repeatedly.
Yes, yes. How do I get rid of a body?
And make you know, maybe even like in your Gmail like type it out in drafts and don't send it, but like let it the draft save so you can refer to it later.
Yeah. Noah's being a bad friend, right?
Yeah.
I'm being a good friend. I'm giving you I'm actually this is harm re this is harm reduction.
¶ Sponsor Segment: AG1
I I make plenty of money and I don't need any more. That's why I look at these people and I say, look, you have billions. No, no, like I I I am um
No.
Lebanese. Satisfied. No, I'm not Bye. Man, yeah, oh yeah It is springtime. That it is. Which means more movement trips, eating out. Means you gotta stay more consistent with your health. That's right. And you have a a a man friend who is famously fruit and vegetable phobic. That's right. So how's he getting all the things he needs in his diet? Great question, Will. Yeah. He uses what I like to call and what they like to call and what she like to call. A
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Yeah.
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¶ Corporate Greed and Airline Innovations
I'm a I'm a I'm a millionaire.
You're a millionaire.
And I don't understand how these people they have so much money. What else I have lived such a great life. I do everything I'm supposed wanna do. Right. There's nothing that I can't do. And these people have billions. What the fuck more could you want? Why can't you just, you know, spread the wealth around a little bit?
Mother's love.
You know, I guess. I don't know. Anyway, speaking of uh speaking of immense wealth um corporations, right? And a specific corporation uh I uh go to quite frequently. Um it's a it's a fast food restaurant, I won't say it 'cause I want to protect the workers. Um but I just wanted to uh share a story. Well I'll get to it. I want to share a story um that my message to the working class is starting to resonate.
The message has always been um to do what you can and fight every transaction, fight against exploitative uh consumer practices, et cetera, et cetera. I went to a
Wait, can I clarify something for Noah?'Cause like you're using some some Words that that don't actually align with what you're doing. He thinks that the most revolutionary act
Not the most, but uh lovely.
Yeah.
Yes. So he is like he's Mr. He's Mr. Calling the Manager. Well. And and he thinks that like when he's call every time he calls the manager over some sort of dispute, like um, I don't know, he didn't have uh the the the swamp
Have you ever had an undercooked steak? like these aren't problems but these are a problem.
Um if he doesn't have like the the proper origami swan towel perfectly positioned on the corner of his bed, that's a lot.
Well that's that's he's exaggerating. He's exaggerating.
You have made
Congratulating. He's exaggerating. He's exaggerating and he participates in what I like to call a shame culture. Well, we're gonna let you tell the story and then we'll judge. We have a shame culture around pe uh consumers advocating for themselves. And it is it is perpetuated by the capitalist
All right, Lena Khan, what did you do?
Okay, so I went to this fast food place. It was a it was a Mexican place, uh Mexican restaurant, uh fast food where they they dish up um got it food for you, like burritos and Could be anything. So I go go to this place and I and I I'm I'm getting a a a burrito bowl for myself, I'm getting a burrito bowl for Christian, I'm getting a a burrito for my friend, I'm paying for everybody. And I get there and I'm starting uh to to make uh my food and the guy goes.
Austin Show. Right. And I went, how are you? Good to see you. He's like, I'm such a fan of Firan. You know what I'm going to do? I'm giving you my employee discount. Nice. I said, 50% off? That's crazy. I told him, I said, you know what? You don't have to do that. This is like$70 worth of food. You don't have to give me 50% off. He said, no, you know what, Austin? Wait, hold on. What? Two brutables,$70?
I think you said a three.
Three.
Oh, you got Chip Squad.
I'm assuming
That's unbelievable.
That's how much it is.
God damn.
So he goes to me, he says, Austin, I'm I'm gonna give you this fifty percent discount. Sure. I said, You know why?'Cause you taught me to stick it to the man. Nice. So I just wanna say that I my message to the working class has always been Stick it to the man.
Yeah.
Every corner find a moment where you can stick it to the man and cut into corporate problem. And that's what this guy did. And he said every time. Through that line, I'm giving you fifty percent off. I mean that's big. So w I j I just wanna know, you know, Hassana, is there anything that you're doing on a day to day basis that would have that sort of impact?
You know, um marginal stuff, obviously, like uh boosting uh unionization effort. Uh you know, working with uh
Kids.
Yeah, working with labor unions in general, um, offering them broad awareness and also support, fundraising for them, things like that.
But see
Which are utterly irrelevant.
Have you gotten dizzy?
I have gotten zero burrito balls discount.
There you go.
I do genuinely have a theory that if you're not going to be able to
Which is how you calculate how much impact you're having.
Every if if if consumers if everybody was like
We could all get the employee discount.
No, forget about the employee discount. But if everybody was like me and they advocated for themselves in a respectful way, I'll never inc inconvenience anybody that's working. If you advocate for yourself, I think slowly but surely we'd chip away at those corporate profits. The only thing corporations respond to is a drop in profit. Well and a drop in revenue.
that and like really annoying emails. Yes. Uh which is what I has been typically been my method.
Right.
Yes.
But United Airlines uh I think is notorious and and I've started to in United Airlines actually just there's news they just dropped a new product, uh
Oh I saw that the whole road.
Yeah, they they have a new they have a new airline.
Did you see this? Yeah, yeah.
Oh yeah, yeah, we need to run.
This is so cool. I I I confess they kinda I'm glad I'm a United customer when I saw this.
Airlines uh introduced a new product, um I don't know what they're calling it. Uh just call it like a new couch product or something.
Relax relax, relax.
Row. Yeah. A new relax row where you can uh turn three economy seats into a bed.
Airlines is a new option for travelers who want to get more comfortable when they fly. Starting in 2027, passengers on certain flights can purchase a row of economy seats. And that row will transform into a lounge after takeoff. It's called the United Relax Row. Small children, maybe couples as well. The row includes a custom fitted mattress pad, larger blankets, and extra pillows. Pricing will be released at a later date.
Yeah, so here's the deal. Here's the deal. This is this is what this is what happened. This is how this came to be. All right?
Oh you were in the
Room. No, but I know what the room sounded like. United got together and by the way, this has been done before already with another airline. I think it was an Air New Zealand already did this. Oh Air New Zealand's been doing this for years.
Um
They got in the room and they were in the middle.
Such a plain office, it's crazy.
They said, Hey, we have these transatlantic, trans pacific flights that fly.
Why?
Sometimes twenty percent empty. So the back of the plane has th rows of seats empty. Why don't we find a way to up you know fill these seats or make more revenue on these seats? Why don't we sell some of these rows? They're gonna be empty anyway. Why don't we just upchart them?
Also the traveling with kids thing. I mean that's why they're like in the marketing they're like showing like like hey kids, do you see kids?'Cause you have to buy seats for them anyway. Right. And uh it no it's uh
Now the the thing with United Airlines is they may be making product improvements with with this particular product. They've also made a product with their business class product, but until
Till
they start to treat their employees better and address that, their product will always be shit. I flew United recently to China. We flew to Beijing. From the
Mm-hmm.
We walked to the airport, got to the front of the airport, the service was atrocious from top to bottom. And I will tell you, that's not the that's not the people that work their fault. They are working for a company that does not trust.
Treat them well.
And the way that they the because they're not treated well, sometimes the customers face the the the brunt of that. And that is a reflection of how the company is treating them. So United.
¶ TSA Interactions and Airport Flow
Until you treat and pay your employees well, your product will always fall short.
He's a Delta booster, by the way, just so you know.
As he has a dog and as a lifelong United member, my dad is a is a premier one K member.
I'm a diamond medallion with Delta.
Uh but the like the so I've mostly just learned United my life. I had the I will say I wasn't so much about United so much as I had this experience uh like Not this past weekend, weekend before. I was in my Chicago for my sister's wedding and there's you know, crazy weather, you know, a bunch of airport bullshit and I had to stay over for a day and
I you know, the TSA stuff was starting to get hairy. The whole thing was nuts. And so I was in O'Hare for, you know, probably like a total of like I don't know, like twelve, fourteen hours over a course of two days, maybe even more. And I was like blown away at how good all the airport staff was, including airline staff, security people, whatever. It was one of those situations where it was like, I I kept thinking if I had this job.
I would be the worst person. I would be such an asshole. I'd be so grouchy. I'd be so, you know, I'd be I'd be I'd would not want to be pleasant. to the thousands of like really because like obviously people who are traveling are often like really aggro and annoying. Oh I was sure I was like I I give a lot of credit. I think airport I think the quality of airport worker these days is very high.
They're all Hasanabi heads. TSA has the highest density of of fans that I've ever encountered in any other sector. March and I talk about this all the time. Really? Anytime I pass through, it's like, oh my God, what are you doing here? Um we it's when I was going to Cuba from the uh Florida airport from uh Miami Dade. Um I brought obviously wads of cash, as you're supposed to do. I had like uh I think like four grand in my hand in a plastic bag and it was in small bills.
And it looked very suspicious. Okay.
Yeah. It looked like a mission accomplished statue.
It looked like I was Trafficking drugs or something. I walk up, I have it in my hand when I go through the, you know, crazy b x ray machine thingy.
Put it in your hand?
Yeah, because the guy told me, like, oh yeah, you can hold your cash in your hand. I was like, all right, fine. So I walk through it. The guy goes, Oh my god, Hassan. Uh like a big fan, right? And then he sees my hand and goes, What the fuck is
What is that?
Why do you have so much cash? I was like, Well, I'm going to Cuba and you know they tell you to like bring cash. Don't worry, it's under like the the you know legal limit. And but it didn't look like it was under the legal limit'cause it's it's small bills.
Like putting it to my ear and going, Hello?
No, so it was so fat. And he was like, Well, I have to he's like, I'm sorry, I have to look at this. And I was like, sure, that's fine. And he and he looks at it, he sees there's like small bills. And I think in his mind he was like, Do I call this in? Well, it's a son. And he just let me through.
I mean I well now I have an idea of I just want to go to the airport so I can money spread at T S A
Yeah, just
Yeah. Like I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
Yeah, I flexed on my fans like that. That's gonna be the next New York Post headline.
Ha ha ha.
Caviar communist with San Piker flexes on poor TSA worker who hasn't been paid in months.
I do think there is like uh the TSA thing though, it kind of does make sense where it's like, all right, well if you're at if you work at an airport, that airport has to be near a population center, so that removes like all the cletuses in the country. And then it's like also if you go through a TSA line, you look at the comp like the Like the gender and racial and age composition of who works for TSA and it's like, yeah, that's a lot of potential Hasanata.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, there are a tremendous amount. I I've I've met some of them I like met some Austin showers say agents, except for the one whose job it is to scream, take your shoes off, no hoodies, no coat. Some of that's a choice. I think I don't know if they have to do that. I think there's some people that that uh it it reminds me of like a prison camp, just listening to that.
Your clothes will f your luggage will follow you.
Yeah, I know, I know.
Yeah, there is a very like uh you know, a feeling of of uh being cattle when you're in that when you're in that process.
Well especially now that they've done they've figured out all the new airport terminals that they like you know, when they when they debut where they open like a LaGuardia or
Whatever.
um or Newark, they you they've now figured out how it's like, oh, you just make the route like the halls and the lines really winding and big so people are constantly moving so that that way they're not getting mad. Yeah. Like that's like the way it's I mean, right now it's not how it's working because of the fucking the But those but like you go and it's like they're m they they they've set it up so you're supposed to go like zig zig zig zigzag. They
The lines were getting so bad that I saw a video of them doing live entertainment. No. Yes. Swear to God. If you're if you are like a
If you like busk on the streets and play music, like actually playing for people in TSA lines is probably like a good bet.
Yeah, it's what it's what it's what they're doing. No, the lines aren't that bad there. Nobody wants to go to Portland. Nobody wants we don't wanna have a tourist destination. No, you're our guest. Let's open it up to you. Do you have anything spicy you want to talk about? I I have some other topics if you just wanna
No, I'm just wrong.
¶ Sora AI's Costly Failure
I wanted to I wanted to ride I wanted I wanted to bring something up that I haven't mentioned before. Oh sure, I'll go for it myself. I wait, uh did you have something?
Well he just mentioned. He has bunch of hobbies.
Well go ahead.
No no Austin, this is your show, man.
No, actually we'll why don't you That's a nice armor. Did civil rights at Del Taco.
If you notice like the show is anchored around Austin's immediate needs and we are it constantly in a state of panic. That's why I was like, uh, Cuba, maybe we can talk about that briefly. And then I had to
Then Austin's like
You had a pressing topic. No, there wasn't anything pressing. I was just gonna bring up something that I've been thinking about. But it's not even a c it's not even a topic. Please jump in. It was gonna be about clavicular and I didn't want to wanna talk about that.
Oh that's
We're gonna.
No, let's skip that for now.
Wait, what happened? Did he did he did he did he did he do it? I just I just don't think he's in that great a shape. Okay.
He's doing the topic.
Ladies and gentlemen, we had some good news this week. What's that?
Uh
It's doors despite the billion dollar investment and IP investment from Disney which I is so baffling because if of all the potential foils to AI, if you had told me that. The one that would finally kill the AI machine was they just can't make money on it. It's so fucking awesome, dude. It's so awesome.
Well they also had like they figured out that there's not like there's obviously like There's just no world in which somebody's gonna sit down and be like, Well, you know what like I really need to spend, like pay like a gazillion dollars for? Like I need to have the ability to generate like Mickey Mouse hitting golf yeah hitting like you know like hitting an using a nine iron. Yeah. Like like that's what I like uh hanging out on the street or
Uh I don't know, like going with Homer Simpson to Mars. Right. Like all of that kind of uh level of uh Really advanced creativity. Yeah. It just turns out there's not as much of an audience for it. Or at least OpenAI can't spend the commit the resources. Dude.
My my favorite quote of all time, what you made with Sora.
That's awesome.
Sorry, that is amazing.
That was the epitheth on their gravestone for Sword.
Bro, that's sorry, that is I did not see that. That is amazing.
It's the exact opposite.
It's like that's it's like that is like I can't think of have mattered less like in human history. Like the other than like uh yeah, so um your censored video of Minnie Mouse is um It was important.
It's like Lockheed Martin shuddering its operations and being like So many lives were saved.
Every time I saw one of those fucking videos, I just scrolled past'cause none of them were entertaining. Although I did get duped by a few, which was the Which was the which was the deer jumping on the trampoline. Well I I I got like No no I got fucked up with the deer jumping on the trampoline. I was like, Oh my god, that's crazy and then I started sending it to all my friends. And then I realized it wasn't real when I kept scrolling and then there was an elephant jumping on a trampoline.
And then he had to send a follow message to his friends like, ha, isn't it crazy that a computer can do this? LOL.
Yeah.
Shit backtracking. Yeah, there was only one AI video that ever really did it for me, and it was grandma's going to the chiropractor where like the chiropractor would like snap them in half. I I I couldn't help but be like
No, no. For me it's Boulder. The when we had uh Fat Lady Glassbridge Boulder. Yes.
That was awesome. That was an awesome song.
No, you don't remember this? Like a week long like thing where it's like this genre video or the the guy jumping in the infinity pool and then it breaks and like they
Oh right.
Like'cause you using AI to just like take this thing that like you you you think for like a half second. Oh
Yeah.
And I don't know why this was just like so popping because there was Million versions. Yeah. Everyone is just like perishing.
What I also liked was the uh Disney learned about open AI shuttering Sora like after it was announced. Yeah. Like they'd been'cause they had like this billion dollar partnership and they were working on it. And I think it was Reuters had a story yesterday that was saying, Uh yeah, they were actually working on this um
Pretty much right up until it was afterward it was announced and like everybody was taken by surprise. Which suggests by the way that like open AI they had to close it'cause they just don't have the money to keep shoveling into
So what what I have heard is that the it came down to the equation that they the highest model that they could factor was charging someone three hundred dollars a month Right. Like that was their idea of their platinum. And their average computing burn on Sora, like regular Sora users, was upwards of 3,000.
So typically you're
Like per person.
They were great things.
You're supposed this is actually good business. To make money. Yes. To make money you gotta spend money. We all agree on that. To make money, you gotta spend money. So if you're spending twenty five hundred dollars a month per user, per user.
User?
Think about think about how much money you are spending to make money.
Takes a lot of money.
They're not.
Lady Drop.
It's crazy'cause like, yeah, their their revenue model is non existent because The there's this, there's two different factors here, right? Like they have to get a lot of aura and hype moments, right? Because the entire business revolves around getting unlimited fundraisers, like going to Microsoft.
Going to all these other tech companies and being like, this is the future, give us seven billion dollars. And at first they were like, okay, fine, let's do it. And but in order to keep that momentum going, they had to deliver like a consumer-facing product.
And that's the reason why they're doing a lot of this generative AI shit. Ultimately the goal here is to to obviously train it as much as possible on as many users as possible, but you could open source it in that situation and that would probably be more reliable. But they they wanted as many users as possible and users don't give a shit about like
using uh uh uh rerouting their their you know telecommunications to a chat GPT assistant, right? Because the average person doesn't have that. That's B2B. Um so they were like, all right, we'll just This you know, generative AI bullshit. Problem is, it's horrible for the environment. And not only is it horrible for the environment, it's in a
Same
expensive. So then the fundraising the the reason why they started this was for fundraising purposes, right?
Alright.
But then the fundraising took a uh took a necessity on its own because they had to keep Spending, you know, billions of dollars just for people to use the product.
But and now they're all it's also like They all have to comp they're all competing. Yeah. And like there can only be like the math works out so that like only a couple of these things can survive as business.
My my two thoughts. That really really Yeah.
Who were like
Hollywood shaking in its boots. I made this version of Dragon Ball Z IRL for 30 bucks. And it's like, no, no, you made a two minute trailer that looked like shit that was so expensive that you bankrupt a company with a billion dollar Disney investment within the year. A, that's the first one. Second thing that I cannot stop thinking. Is what Disney characters did Disney license as the sacrificial lambs to Sora? When they were going through their IP list, which ones do you think Disney was like?
I'll give him a try. We'll give'em chip and dale and they can fuck those squirrels every which way but look.
Yeah.
Because we don't give a shit about him anymore. Like which qu which characters do
you th they they went their they like ran the numbers on like all right who's the least who's like the toy story character that everybody cares about the least and it's like all right it's the slinky dog
Put him out back.
¶ AI's Illusions and Misinformation
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or old yellering you.
Is it AI videos of Slinky Dog with Cavicular Mog?
My favorite version of that was uh this was another like trend on Twitter. It's always Twitter, by the way. It's always like the the profile of a guy who really loves Sora and gender of AI is also like He's into cryptocurrency schemes and he's he's caught the bag numerous uh he's kept he's held the bag on numerous occasions, okay, constantly getting scammed. And he thinks he's gonna fuck fuck other Never been able to do that.
Yeah, so that guy will then place himself in a movie set, in a fictional movie set.
Oh Z.
Yeah, the one where he's like he's going around and taking selfies.
I know.
Everyone on set.
Yeah.
It's like what goes on in your mind when you are posting this? Like do you think your friends from back home are gonna look at it and be like, wow, what a cool guy. He's next to Batista and Tom Cruise.
This is like how much America like American celebrity culture has fallen. Cause like we used to be a country where there were people all you know and there still exist where it's like
They go, they collect autographs, they're obsessed with celebrities or whatever, but like they're obsessed with like a version of, you know, reality. Yeah. Like they don't, it's like imagine it's like, all right, well, now we've made a technology so you don't actually have to like carry out your obsession or or exist in the real world. You can just like Hit rewind on this video of you posing with Robert Downey Jr.
Thank you, Josh.
For like fucking you know, like for eternity.
I don't understand who that's for in general.
You described it. It's for like the guy who's, you know, like been holding the bag like five days.
Yeah, but like I wanna know what's the thought process where like does he think he's going to fool people into thinking that he actually went on this set, this Hollywood set where celebrities keep materializing out of nowhere and it's like always It's so funny'cause the set changes immediately as soon as the frame changes, and it's like it's so obviously not a real video.
There's gonna be I I believe that like a lot of this stuff, right, is like there's th there's a bunch of it that has this uncanny valley stuff where it's like, all right, well this is like too weird or unseem you know, like when we saw like this why does that guy have seven fingers? Why does that woman's mouth like go vertical? Whatever.
Um
But then there's this other kind of category where it's like the photorealistic stuff. Yeah. And that people what he's describing, like what impulse does somebody have to to do this or whatever. And I genuinely think that there is part of the way that this AI stuff has been marketed. Is that people believe that they are doing, if not something virtuous, something cutting edge. Yeah. And it's very reminds me a lot actually of like the early iPhone days.
And how like Apple made people feel like if you bought an iPhone and you dicked around on it, like you were in Tron, bro. Yeah. Like you were, you know, and and and you know, granted, that was the beginning of like a legit paradigm shift and how people like Ch use technology or whatever. Whereas this stuff, it's like you're just you're just fucking with roots.
That's real tech.
When your Geiger counter is how well you can get Will Smith to eat pasta.
That's exactly what I dude that was the I mean that what like you j
For the longest time they're like, Look at how improved it is.
Like a free.
He actually twirls his fork in the bus.
And now we're yeah, in like twenty years they're gonna be like, look, like Will Smith is like eating pasta and we've never seen him eat pasta this way. Like Will Smith has been dead for five years, you know, like
Yeah, well I mean that and also uh the state of Israel's uh using it to to make it seem like Benjamin Ninyahu's still alive.
And on that note, oh if you ever see see Slinky Dogs.
Benjamin Dungeon.
I I will say I've never had more people ask me like a question like that, like an AI verification thing, like, yo, is Benjamin Idyahoo that? Yeah.
Well,
We're getting crazier by the moment.
We will speculate all of that and much more.
¶ Podcast Outro and Final Thoughts
한글자막 by 한효정
Behind the paywall. Thank you so much. Noah, thank you so much for joining us. Is there anything you'd like to shout out?
Uh blowback podcast, that's what I make, it's what I do. If you liked this podcast you will love Go listen to that.
Yeah.
All right, we'll see you guys on the Patreon. Thank you.
Patreon.com slash fear and thank you.
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And he's like yelling from afar, he's like, You you better stop You better stop doing it. And I went real jersey on him for a second. Because like I was like I was walking I was walking to my gate and I heard him yelling from afar, like, you better stop doing what you're doing. So I just turned around and said, What are you gonna do about it?
Yeah.
I was like, what are you gonna do about it? And he came off to me. He was like, what are you gonna fucking do? Stop me. I was like stop me. Come on. I'm right here. I was like stop me. What are you gonna fucking do about it? I didn't even put my bags down. I was holding it on purpose. I was like, come on, swing at me if you want, pussy. Anyway Or he Yeah, he was. And then he backed away. And then he backed away again.
So I was like, ah, yeah, that's what I thought. And then I walked kept walking to my gate. And then as soon as I kept walking, he tried to get another clip to be like he's running away. You know what I mean? Like he was trying to film something that would look favorable to him. Right? So from afar he was like, Yeah, you love a moss. Yeah, keep walking, pussy. And I turned around, I was like, suck my fucking
Dick.
Yeah, that's the journey.
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