You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from KFI AM six.
Forty Right now. I was getting my steps in before I came back to the mic. I was walking up and down the hall, going to get some water, making sure I get my steps in. It's something I swear by. I average more than ten thousand steps per day, but this week particularly, I'm trying to average twenty thousand steps per day at least for the week, see if I can work it into my schedule. And it's not necessarily the number of steps, it's just being intentional with being active.
Working in radio, you find yourself sitting a lot. Doesn't matter if you're a personality behind the mic. You could be an engineer, you could be a producer. There's a hell of a lot of city and the next thing you know, you've lost three or four hours of your day and haven't moved. I have sworn by my pixel Watch, that pixel Watch one, and now I have pixel Watch two, which combines with Fitbit, and I've used Fitbit for the
better part of seven or eight years. And I've always known in the back of my mind that my data was subject to being either sold or stolen through a breach. I've never deluded myself into thinking that just because I did not consent to have my data being stolen or sold, that it either or both wouldn't happen. But more and more we're being forced to deal with that possibility, distinct possibility, and it makes you wonder should you not use a
wearable wearable technology. I'm talking about smart watches, smart rings, fitness trackers, body monitors, or even like you have those heart monitors like the cardiomobiles, or you put your fingers on it to give you a hospital grade, professional grade EKG. It uploads to an app. All that kind of stuff is very personal, but also that stuff is very valuable and there are other companies which would love to have it.
And that's just if it's sold or stolen. What about the idea, and it's possible that that your own personal data, your own health data, might be used against you in the assessment of insurance life insurance or a medical insurance. No, legally they're not supposed to do that, but if someone has your data, it could happen. And more and more real discussions are being had about the susceptibility of the devices and also the feasibility or I would say the
wisdom of having that data out there now. For me, I've that horse has left the barn about eight years ago. So much of my data is out there's somewhere in some place. I try not to think about it. I can't even worry about it. It's something that I've talked about before with Marshall Collier, our regular tech contributor. Is something I think about, but not to the point of paralyzing me. Because everywhere we turn we are asked to
give away some form of our data. We are asked to sign in on a website through usually our email account, through our Google account, or our iCloud account or something we're signing in, and then those third party apps have access to all of your other apps as well. It's kind of scary when you think about it, but it's the reality. And I love technology, I really do. I'm always looking for the latest item, and to be honest
with you, I'll probably buy another smartwatch. Smartwatch why because for me, the health benefits and the reminders of being active and be able to track my resting heart rate and oxygen levels, that to me is more valuable than the concern of what some idiot out there may do to breach a fitbit or some other location where my dad is held is. I try not to live in fear, and I try not to be paralyzed by what could happen.
I don't know about other people, but I'm still going to use the technology, but I think we should do it eyes wide open. Mark, You're looking at me as if like you would never use a fitbit now.
All it would do is record that I am about to have a heart attack or a stroke while I'm reading the news before work every day.
Are you one of the people who would like, Hey, I would rather not know because it would paralyze me.
I don't want to be all self conscious about that, if you can relate to that at all, because I think my walking around level of anxiety and anger is probably pretty strong and I don't need to be remind it constantly.
I don't mind that because as I get older, I need to stay abreast to certain things. I'm not trying to be completely blind. But like, for example, I mentioned resting heart rate, I monitor that constantly because it gives me a sense of how active I've been. I know if I keep my resting heart rate in the mid
to low sixties. I'm doing pretty well, and it will rise if I should happen to get sick or if I'm not eating as well, and you know, my heart is working harder, like if I had a night out drinking, my resting heart rate is going to rise. Oh is that what that does?
And we have a blood pressure cuff at home, it's just gathering dust. I just can't be constantly worried about that stuff.
Now that I agree with you monitoring my blood pressure and it's something I've had to do, But when I put on the cuff, it actually worries me more because I got to be to the point where I was obsessed with that information and then it started bothering me and raising my blood pressure because I got to be psychotic with it. Yeah. What is that?
The old quantum physics observational problem where the active observation affects the thing you're observing, which, in this case is your heart about to explode?
Yeah? Yeah, Now, when I was checking my blood pressure, it wasn't data that I was uploading, so it's not something that I was worried about getting out there. There are apps I could log the information on my fitbit, but I never did. So that's another side of the coin, or you know, another side of the die. Something to consider. There's the internal response where you respond to all this data you have, and for me, I try not to get too deep into it, worrying about my resting heart
rate or worrying about my blood pressure. But I am cognizant of how I'm eating, I am cognizant of how often that I'm moving, how many steps that I'm getting in in a day. And although there are other concerns about what happens to my data, I'm not going to let that power paralyze me because it's more important for me to stay on this course in a general health sense than worry about this data being misused. Because I always start from the standpoint of, oh, it's already out there.
You know it used to be had to worry about your social Security number. Oh, trust me, it's out there because you've given it to your healthcare provider, you've given it to your job, you've given it to your phone company, you've given it to just about every place where you have utility. Your social Security number is out there. That data has been breached in one of those companies, So it's not something that I'm going to lose sleepover any given night.
I get that the whole bandwidth thing and how you should only spend time worrying about things that you can affect or help. But at the same time, I think when we stop being angry and outraged about things that are wrong, that's when we're dead or our heart explodes or that.
Pick your poison. It's Later with mo Kelly caf I Am six forty Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
You're listening to Later with mo Kelly on demand from KFI AM six forty JPM NAPA.
Can't I mo Kelly Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. And it's weird. If you follow as much news as I do, and you get into the granular discussions of the economy and what the economic outlook is, it's it's weird when you have two similarly positioned companies have wildly different views of what the economic picture looks like. And I'm not making a point other than it's strange. It's
really strange. Here's Target. Target has forecasts as of today that sales during the final quarter of this year will be flat, and Target lowered its forecasts. Target also reported a sluggish sales increase of just zero point three percent this past quarter, and to it, shairs of Target plunged twenty two percent today, Target's worst trading day in more than two years. Economists say that Target is a bell weather for consumer spending habits and the retail sector as
a whole. Let's say that that's true, then why is it? I see an article on Walmart released just about the exact same time, saying that the exact opposite is true. Walmart has told its workers that it plans to win the holiday season, and ahead of the peak shopping period, Walmart retailers have said that they're well positioned and broad based string across its product rage. In my mind, Walmart and Target are similar, going after many of the same customers.
In fact, despite all of Target's woes, which Target is blaming on the economy, Walmart says that it's US sales increased five percent in the third quarter, surpassing their own analysts estimates. In fact, they expect to do very well during the holiday season. So if you have Walmart and Target, and Walmart is the largest retailer in the world, let's
be clear, the largest retailer in the world. Excuse me, the nation's largest retailer, and you have Target, who may not be the nation's largest retailer, but going after basically the same customers and Targets saying it's bad out there and we're going to have a bad holiday season, and that means most tailors are going to have a bad holiday season. But then Walmart says the exact opposite. So
who are you supposed to believe? Us sales for the holiday shopping season are expected to increase from two point five to three point five percent. That's according to the National Retail Federation, And if you know your history, that's consistent with where the economy was in terms of holiday shopping in twenty nineteen. That was the first, I would say, six months after the pandemic started in and around the
excuse me, a couple months before the pandemic started. And Walmart also forecasts a three to four percent sales growth for the current quarter. Gives quote an indication of how we're thinking about the holiday period. Close quote. Sales at Walmart's US e commerce business jumped twenty two last quarter, the nation's largest retailer. So I struggle to understand if the economy's so bad in the way that Target is positioning it. How is it the nation's largest retailer is
doing gangbuster business both in person and online. That's not me saying it, that's Walmart saying it. And Walmart is saying we're going to do even better this holiday season. And Walmart's e commerce business now represents eighteen percent of its global business overall, it's going to be a banner year or holiday season for Walmart. And Walmart is clearly saying the economy is looking good for us, We're doing
just fine, and we expect a great holiday season. But Target is trying to say, well, we're not doing as well, and we're a bell weather for what other similarly targeted stores no pun intended, are going to do this holiday season. I don't know what to make of it. I'm more inclined to believe Walmart.
Well, we're seeing lots of reports that people are planning to buy major stuff before the end of the year. How because the reason given from the economists that I've been following is that they're all terrified of what's going to happen when President elect Trump's tariffs going to effect. And so I've got an article right here from Forbes, with Walmart's CFO saying that his tariffs are probably going
to cause Walmart price hikes. I've gotten And if you think, if you think Forbes is some lib commie pinko outlet, I've gotten news for you.
Don't tell me Wall Street Journal.
We've got Morgan Stanley, Oh yes, yeah, saying the US economy will collapse by twenty twenty six because of the tariffs. So it's definitely causing a lot of people, regardless of where you are on the political spectrum, to be nervous, kind of arrange from a little nervous to filling their pants.
My takeaway is that if you're worried about what the tariffs will do, then you're probably in a place where you believe that the economy is not as bad as people would have you believe, and it can get a hell of a lot worse.
Well, the economy's been booming by every metric this year, so it could only get worse from where we're at right now.
But the point is most people don't view the economy through actual indicators. They view it personally. They view it in a personal feeling sense. In other words, they feel like, well, I pay more for gas, I pay more for eggs, I pay more for milk. And that's not necessarily true, but that's what many people will say, and they look at the economy through the lens of what they feel personally.
That's correct. It's more about vibes. And if you look at someone who actually knows anything about economics, if you look at the leading indicators, if you look at housing, if you look at the stock market, if you look at GD all of those things are moving in a positive direction. The rate of inflation coming down. That's just
the fact. It's not about anyone's feelings. So what the takeaway for me in these competing articles is you're hearing from retailers after the election talking about that Forbes article, talking about the Morgan Stanley article. They did not want to say that before the election. If they said it before the election, I believe they felt that they would
have been punished for saying it before the election. Now the election's over, there saying oh, yeah, the tariffs are probably going to cause a problem for not only us as retailers, but for consumers as well as we pass along that tax to consumers.
There are a lot of factors going on at once here. For one thing, I think a lot of the people who didn't want to report on the possible effects, the disastrous effects of tariffs, they're also the same people who are looking forward to massive tax cuts.
Yeah they are, Yeah they are. That's why everything comes with a price, you know.
I know.
There's no free gas, grass or ass man free.
And people will find out in their own way and in their own time the difference between an actual tax cut and also between that and tax liability. Just because less money is taken out of your check, it doesn't mean that your overall liability has been decreased. For some reason, people still haven't learned that since twenty seventeen, and they think because they have more take on money that they won't have to pay more at the end of the year.
It's almost like changing the amount of your deductions. You can you can play with it and give yourself a tax cut if you want to, but ultimately that bill still comes due at the end of the calendar year.
It might seem like free stuff, but it always costs. But I thought people were against free nevermind.
KFI AM six forty we're live everywhere in the iHeartRadio app.
You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from KFI AM six forty.
And if you've been paying attention to I will say the trends of streaming and cable, it seems that cable might be on the way out with content providers. And I say, maybe, I think this is maybe the first
you to drop of many. But when I read today that Comcast is planning this massive cable spin off, Cable specifically is getting rid of USA Network, is getting rid of MSNBC's getting rid of more from the NBC family, and it says to me that this might be the first example of content providers moving beyond cable, which is a limited delivery system. As I said, Comcast is going to get rid of MSNBC, CNBC, Universal, Kids, USA, E Oxygen, and Sci Fi Channel. And I'm surprised they didn't get
rid of Sci Fi Channel. A long time ago. I thought it was a great idea, and then I started watching some of the Sci Fi Channel and it just a lot of that content was just garbage. Just it wasn't even B level. It was like D minus level. A lot of it's pretty cheap, but it was really bad. Don't forget they did have battle stergole Active. No, they did. They had far Escape, they had some other things which were for decent, but their original programming was really, really bad.
They were taking stuff that was barely above you know, theater projects coming out of college. It was really bad. I can understand that Oxygen never turned into the channel that I think comcasts thought it would. That's Oprah Winfrey's channel E. Maybe E has just run its course. E doesn't have the type of cache ad now that it used to. I'm sorry to hear about USA Network because I used to like a lot of USA Network shows.
They had suits, they had white collar, They've had a number of psych They've had a number of shows over the years. But you know, maybe they're just a little long in the tooth. And also, you have streaming now you don't need to have a cable channel, and people have to pay for those cable channels, and people are leaving and have been leaving cable in droves. In just in case you didn't know, when you get a cable system, you're often subsidizing a lot of these channels that you
never watch. Like if you get a cable subscription, you're paying a lot of money for the ESPN cluster of channels, a lot of them you don't even watch. But that's a part of the expense of getting a cable subscription. You're paying for all those channels, watching them or not, as opposed to streaming, where you're more just getting the stuff that you actually want a la carte, as opposed to the stuff that you really have no designs on watching.
That's part of the reason why Disney has been flirting with selling off ESPN and other cable channels for quite some time. They're not as lucrative as they once used to be, and cable is a dying content divider provider. Now we can say that streaming hasn't been the panacea that we thought it was going to be. We can say that streaming hasn't been what we hoped to be
as far as the true alternative to cable. Remember we got into streaming, he said, oh my goodness, I can get this channel, I can get this streaming platform and it'll be just what I wanted to watch. And at the time it was more economical than cable. But now you look at you get your Netflix, and you get your Disney Plus and get your Paramount Plus and Max. You put them all together, and it's getting right next to what cable or satellite was what we were paying monthly.
And this is going to continue to evolve. But you can see once again there's another nail in the coffin of cable and the new Comcast last NBC will consist of its broadcast operations, NBC News, NBC Sports, Peacock, and the company's theme parks. And if you think about streaming Comcast, probably I don't know this, but I think it's a
reasonable back. Comcast does not want to have to pay all the licensing and all the residuals to keep these cable channels and their intellectual property available for you and me. Peacock has never been doing as well I think, as NBC would have hoped, but they still have to pay the licensing on all these shows that I had mentioned and others that I didn't mention to keep them on
the platform. Have you ever wondered why shows will go away from Netflix or some other streaming platform because they don't want to keep paying for them, so they would rather bring in fresher content. Now, how to be Mark manages to make money? I'm not sure.
Well, I suspect that they have a lot of older cult things that aren't in massively high demand that they don't have to pay a huge licensing fee for.
I guess, I guess, But when I turn on too B it's like there's not a lot for me. I think it's great because it is free. I just don't know as a business model, even with ads, how that works.
They so far have just about enough ads that you're not going to want to bail on them.
But you notice that they're there. Oh, you notice that they're there. And as much as I've started liking Paramount Plus, I started watching Landman, The Billy, Bob Thornton Show, Taylor Sheridan Show. It is great. Bob Thornton is hilarious on a show which is not meant to be so funny. It is outright, laugh out loud funny. And the reason I bring that up because Paramount Plus had been struggling, but now they have some really hot content and turning
it around. Peacock never had that type of heat behind it and doesn't have the type of content which are bringing in new subscribers. I'd be willing to see what Paramount has Plus has been doing in recent months. They had to have been growing in subscribers because between Linus That and Tulsa King and this new show, Landman and other stuff on Paramount Plus, they're on a pretty good run.
They've got Star Trek too, so yes, you do Star Trek, Strange, New World, Matt Locke.
They have all the CBS shows as well. Kathy Bates. I've seen a couple of episodes. It's not It's not what I thought it was going to be. I thought it was supposed to be some updated Mattlock, which it is not. Really, it is an attorney who's an attorney to own right, who happens to be named Mattlock and uses the idea of the Mattlock TV show to further launch herself. It's it's almost it's it's what's the word. It's like an inside joke almost, it's aware of it
sounds pretty metaware. Yeah, it's meta. That's a good way to describe it. So it's not the classic reboot that people would think like, this is the Matlock that we thought of the nineteen sixties or the nineteen eighties. No, it's completely different. I'm not sold.
Also, everybody kind of felt like Andy Griffith was their Grandpa, you know.
No, no, absolutely, And I had to get past that, and I said, Okay, they're not trying to sell this to me as if it's Andy Griffith, the same character. It's not. It's Cracker. It's just aware of the Andy Griffiths show, and they're using that as a comparison point and a backstory for Kathy Bates's character.
I think Paramount Plus also has the modern classic Beavis and butt Head.
I've never liked that show. Oh cornhole, bunghole. I saw it. It just was never funny to me. And I'll tell you why. Because there were too many people at my high school who they were exactly like and I didn't like them. So I buy, you know association. I didn't like Beafs and but fair enough because my mom didn't like the office because she's like, they are too on the nose of the people that I work with, right right. I thought it was hilarious and She's like, no, these
I've worked with literally every one of those people. So and I think maybe that was part of the appeal for some people. Beavs and butthead, especially for gen X, we had a lot of folks who were beaves and butthead who were pretty dumb and socially unaware, but you know they're blissfully ignorant. The show just was funny to me. The animation wasn't all that cool. It is just it just seemed cheap in every way. Sorry, if you happen to be connected to the show. I wasn't a fan.
I'm not connected to it, but I think it's hilarious and they could have picked those kids right out of my high school.
Yeah, okay, that's what I mean. But for me, it didn't have the same type of allure. I think you reach sort.
Of a Pavlovian point where you catch on to the zen of how brilliant it is, and until that switch is flipped, it's just annoying brilliant.
That's a.
That's a that's a I know. I stand on podcast. I stand by it. Watch some of the newer episodes. They've got the old ones that were on MTV, and they've got two seasons of the newer episodes.
Trust me on this. Interest slaps though, Oh it does it does? Does that slap? Yeah, it does, it does. And maybe because Beavis and butt Heeads.
Seemed a whole lot like Wayne's world. I didn't like Wayne either. Well, they could be distant inbred cousins. There were a lot of similarities. There were a lot of similarities. I think there were even some inside jokes or crossovers with the T shirts were enough to look it up. But I didn't care for either of them for the same reason because I went to high school with them.
And you know, they weren't cool then they're not cool now. Well.
I think my overall point was that, unlike say Peacock, which I think got a boost from the Olympics, Paramount Plus has a lot of stuff that people want to watch, old and new. I mean, yes, for God's sake, they've got old mission in the whole seven seasons of Mission Impossible, which is crack to me.
I'm in love with Paramount Plus, and I didn't think I would be because I only started watching it because of Tulsa King, and then from there you find out, oh you got this, oh you got that. Oh it it's like Taylor Sheridan. Oh this is also Taylor Sheridan's show. So it looked they got my money because they were like a hater from the beginning. I was. I was that's crazy, I was, and I thought, and I stopped. I had canceled this description after the first season of
Tulsa King. It's like, I'm not watching anything else. I tried watching like Star Trek, Lower Decks or something. I think that was Paramount Plus, and I couldn't get into. It's like, well, there's nothing for me to watch. And then my wife, unbeknownst to me, behind my back, like she was cheating on me, decided to get Paramount Plus because she was watching something else on the network. I don't know what it was. And Tulsa's King second season came,
and then I started finding another stuff. I said, well, we're keeping this. We can't get rid of this.
You're listening to Later with mo Kelly on demand from KFI AM six forty.
It's Later with mo Kelly Live everywhere now iHeartRadio app and Mark Robert. I have a special treat for you right now. Do you remember earlier in the show we were talking about universal basic income? In fact, I do. Okay, we're talking about universal basic income and we had a very special listener. I said that I've made mention of Star Trek and how Star Trek did not have any money. You said, credits, remember that absolutely? Okay. Well, joining us
on the show right now is Brannon Braga. He's a writer, director of Star Trek, The Orville and is nigh and he would like to correct you. Mark branded you there.
I'm there, my guys.
Hey, you hit me on Instagram during the show and I thought I.
Was listening in my car on the way home.
I think that is fantastic. Very quickly, can you run down your IMDb credits for folks?
Oh, I did Star Trek for fifteen years, Star Trek Voyagers, Star Trek Next Generation, Star Trek Enterprise, wrote a couple of movies. That's what I'm mostly known for. But I recently did The Orrville, which is a Star Trek knockoff. I did two seasons of Cosmos Science. Oh, you just showing off now, I'm a big fan of your show, guys. Well, I appreciate that I listened every night.
That is high praise. Now, what is it that Mark got wrong about Star Trek? If this is on, Mark got wrong, Okay, go ahead.
The only reason I'm correcting him is because he's a self proclaimed fan and they don't have credits in the future, the Star Trek Future. There's no money at all. As a matter of fact, what.
Does Kirk yell to alternate universe Spock in mirror mirror? What does he yell at him?
What?
Well, here's the thing, I'm not not an Original series guy. Come on, my tenure started on Next Generation, so you got me.
There, but you got to know this stuff, he offers him credits challenge.
Oh okay, okay, Well, for a couple hundred years pass between the original series and Next Generation, so maybe that's what happened.
I think the judges needed to declare this a draw.
I agree.
I was letting you Star Trek nerds fight it out because I was under the impression mark that there was no money in the future, and I thought that was mentioned in the Star Trek movies. I think it was.
Star Trek Trek for free Contact.
First Contact. Yes, first Contact. They made mentioned of they're not being any money. As one of the evils they've.
Got the card to Alfree. Woodard says there is no money in the future, and she says, you mean you don't get paid, and he explains that it's just not something that's valued anymore. People look to better themselves.
I think by the time that came along the whole universe of Star Trek had been ironed out, whereas in nineteen sixty six to sixty nine they were making stuff up as they went along.
That's a great point. Actually, okay, that's a great point.
So can we say you're both right or you're both wrong.
I think we're both right.
I am happy to be tied with Brandon Broda. This is really cool.
I love live radio and Brandon. We have to go to a break, but please, I want to put you on hold. Can you put me make sure that Stefan gets your info so we can stay in touch and have you on to have a more formal Star Trek conversation and talk about it.
Absolutely.
Oh you got to come in here. Absolutely? Yeah, have you come in studient? That'd be great.
Oh I would love to, man, I would love to.
Well, we'll have to make that happen then, okay, all right, have a great evening.
Thanks guys.
And before we let you go for this hour, you got to let you know that the fourteenth annual Cafi Pastathon is here. Chef Bruno's charity, Caterina's Club, provides more than twenty five thousand meals every single week to kids in need here in Southern California. Your generosity makes it all happen. There are three ways to help if you didn't know. You can donate right now at cafiam six forty dot com, forward slash Pastathon, and you can shop at any Smart and Final store and donate any amount
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