Thirsty Topics podcast
A weekly podcast dedicated to trending topics on social media, pop culture and entertainment. Lawrence and Meryl have healthy discussions with multiple perspectives.
Thirsty Topics podcast
From Dire Wolves to Rich Women in Space: A Cultural Critique for 4/17/25
Ever wondered what Gayle King and Katy Perry saw at the edge of space? Lawrence and Meryl tackle Blue Origin's headline-making all-female flight with refreshing skepticism. Beyond the celebrity excitement and "space tourism" narrative lies a fascinating conversation about what these private space ventures might really represent—and what information might be filtered before reaching the public.
When scientists announced they'd "resurrected" the dire wolf, media outlets rushed to proclaim a Jurassic Park moment. We peel back the sensationalism to reveal what actually happened: a genetically modified wolf rather than a true de-extinction. This opens a thoughtful exploration of biotech ethics—where do we draw the line between medical miracles like organ regeneration and potentially dangerous genetic experiments? As Lawrence points out, "Who's kind of watching over their back to see what they're doing?"
From bizarre headlines to cultural critique, we cover it all: teenage moviegoers destroying theaters during Minecraft screenings, a funeral mishap where mourners fell into a suspiciously large grave, and a hit-and-run suspect's creative but failed attempt to evade police by stripping to his underwear and watering someone's lawn. Each story becomes a springboard for deeper conversations about cultural norms, privilege, and how we process tragedy with humor.
Perhaps most eye-opening is our discussion of Chinese manufacturers who've gone viral exposing the true production costs behind luxury goods. Those $1,000+ designer items? Many cost just $20 to produce. This revelation challenges our entire concept of status symbols and brand value in ways that might permanently change consumer behavior.
Join us for an hour that balances humor with substance as we question mainstream narratives and examine what these stories reveal about our changing world. Follow us and share your thoughts—especially if you've tried ordering directly from those Chinese manufacturers!
Hello, and thank you for listening to Thirsty Topics podcast! I'm Lawrence Elrod, and every week Meryl Klemow and I dive deep into the stories that matter, the conversations that shape our world."
Please help support our show by following us and telling others about our show. New podcasts weekly.
Hello everyone, welcome to this week's episode of Thirsty Topics. I'm Lawrence Elrod and I'm Meryl Clemo. Hello, meryl, how are you doing today?
Speaker 2:I'm so good, I just door dashed myself Chinese food for lunch.
Speaker 1:Oh, there you go.
Speaker 2:It's a power move. I just want everyone to know that.
Speaker 1:Nice, nice.
Speaker 2:I'm really good, I'm happy to be here.
Speaker 1:Yes, I am too. I know we have a lot to talk about today.
Speaker 2:We have a lot to talk about today. Yeah, and I just I'm sure more will be developed by the time this comes out, but I know you and I were saying it was breaking news where there was a mass shooting at Florida State University and I see now they just have the suspect in custody and right now, of course, this will probably change, but we know that one. I think one person might have been killed and five people were wounded.
Speaker 1:Wow, definitely have prayers go out to that family and all the families affected. So it's just a shame that we're still dealing with this problem of mass shootings, you know.
Speaker 2:I know, yep, and it's like it feels like for a while nothing will happen, for a few months. Then all of a sudden a bunch will pop up, yeah, so I'm hoping this is controlled as soon as it's possible and there's no other ones.
Speaker 1:I agree. I agree, purr is out to them. So, merle, I'm going to let you go first.
Speaker 2:Oh good, oh my gosh. This one alone we could take up our whole recording. It's the thing that everyone's been talking about for at least this week and last week Blue Origin's all-female flight which launched to the edge of space with I'm not really calling them astronauts, but they are space goers Gail King, katy Perry, lauren Sanchez, I'm, you know. So, basically, I think everyone knows at this point that Blue Origin completed its latest space flight on this past Monday with a historic all-female crew. The mission NS-31 was the 11th human flight for Jeff Bezos' space tourism company and the 31st overall. It included six women. We know, you know, obviously, about who has been on board at this place. The ride no, no, I shouldn't say the ride the flight maybe just lasted over 10 minutes. Then it went past the Kerman line, 62 miles above earth, and so they experienced a few minutes of weightlessness and then they returned to earth. There's so many thoughts on this. First, I want to hear your thoughts, like a normal person.
Speaker 1:I mean, you know what? It's kind of cool. I mean, I think me I would love to maybe travel to Mars or something like that, after they've sent other people there first. I don't want to be the test to go there.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:But I mean, I think it's actually pretty cool because, whether we like it or not, we're part of a bigger universe and who knows what we're going to come across, you know, when we start venturing further and further into space Though it is kind of hysterical that you know, you got a bunch of rich, rich women that you know goes up in space, stays there 11 minutes to come on back. I think I could probably figure out better things to do with that money. But hey, take your zone. I don't know. What do you think, meryl?
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, I have so many layers. Okay, well, one of my first things I mean, at my heart I'm always a conspiracy theorist, as we talked about. So there's a little part of me that is even like still questioning did they go exactly where we thought they went? Or you know what I mean. There's always like and and I don't think it's nuts to just ask what you're, to question what you're being told all the time because, like, as we've seen, there's a way to go off the deep end and, you know, go way too much conspiracy, but I think it's healthy to just question the news and question what we see at face value.
Speaker 2:So you know, there's a little part of me that, on my corner of the internet, has been a lot of like they opened the door in a way that would have never been able to open, or you know, like if you turn the logo upside down, it looks like a certain something, and so there's a the little conspiracy part of me, like I'm not sure that we've been told the like 100 story about what went on, but like the other normal, like I'm buying it.
Speaker 2:Part of me, um, I don't feel upset that they're like rich and going into space. I I just more kind of want to know like I would have loved to know more about what they saw and the experience, rather than katie perry just saying like it's all about love and like and like you know what I mean. I feel like hopefully we'll learn more in the future. But I felt like it was very um, no pun intended, it just seemed very surface level of like what we learned and saw, instead of just it seemed to be more about like girly pops, like going into space, than it did more about the actual experience and stuff. So I think I would be be wanting more of a play-by-play of what they actually saw, rather than just Katy Perry singing.
Speaker 1:You know what, I understand what you're saying and I definitely agree, because here's the reality. The question is okay, not whether they went up and looked around, but what happens if they see anything. Because if you notice, even when we sent the little craft or whatever, the little robot or whatever you want to call it that went to mars, you know they're probably careful not to ever make it live, reason being, if they see something, they might not necessarily want us to see it at that time.
Speaker 2:Exactly. They're going to be like oh my God, oh my God, and it's like a movie, it's just going to go gray, or something.
Speaker 1:So the question probably is is that if you came across something, would you share it with the people? That's probably the real question.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because for a long time, you know people talked about, you know this one video that came out and we talked about on one of our shows. That shows this this unidentified object that was being chased by two fighters yeah and they didn't know what it was.
Speaker 1:For a long time a lot of you know people were saying that you know it's fake. The government didn't even acknowledge it. Then all of a sudden it got declassified and then we found out oh this, that was a real tape, that was a real object we don't know that was flattened through.
Speaker 2:So I think that's really the big question yeah, and to be honest, it's my own ignorance, but I was I didn't really know how far. Like I truly thought they were going to like land on space, which I thought was so weird. Like I thought they were going to go full buzz Aldridge and like like go on space and, you know, be in the costume and the suit and everything like that, and I thought they were going to be there for a while, which is why, like I think, last week when we spoke, I was so worried because I'm like I don't see this ending well for, like Gail and Katy Perry, I didn't really know it was more just going past the certain, pretty much. Like someone equated it to Going to a state line and Touching your hand across and then being there, which is still amazing. It's still like they were off the earth. That's still a really cool thing. But I pictured it more like they're Landing on another planet or the moon or something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's pretty cool. Like I said, I think there's a bigger play at hand. So, even though these trips, you know, right past the outer space limits and back, it's pretty cool, but I think there's a deeper, deeper thing that's going on that we're probably not aware of.
Speaker 2:I know and I don't know if it's satire or not I was driving so I couldn't look it up, but I think I heard the next one is planned and tom cruise is on it, but I don't know if that's real or if that's just like some person's version of it, so maybe we'll start to see this more and more. Um, as a woman, like I'm very, very pro, I love women so much, I love, like I believe in women, women, but it doesn't really like inspire me as because to me, like I already thought, women could easily go in space and like there are a lot of awesome women astronauts like this doesn't really move my needle, but if there's like little kids or little girls and that does make them more interested, I think that's going to be cool.
Speaker 2:Um, I also bet a lot of people's halloween costumes will be this this year, you know so, oh, definitely definitely I was just worried about gail. Honestly, I I saw this not going well, but I'm really happy that it just like it did.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, you know, I think it hit gail a little bit harder than she thought because, um, gail and one other of the women kissed the ground when they got off, which yeah yeah, exactly which I could imagine and like, yeah it.
Speaker 2:Just the whole thing behind it was odd. It doesn't help right now as well that I think katie perry's kind of on the decline of like what people think about her in the world, so it it almost made it a little bit worse that she was there. You know, like, to me that's fine, that's awesome that she went, but like people are kind of already ragging and dogging on her so like her doing this kind of didn't really help. But um, yeah, it's weird but cool. And I still don't know if it happened or not because, like I said, I'm a proud conspiracy girl.
Speaker 1:So I hear you, I hear you well, let me know how it goes.
Speaker 2:I hear you going up there next right. My, I think my zoom would work better in space, and it does at my house a lot of times. Next time we're having Wi-Fi issues, I'll just ask Bezos to help me.
Speaker 1:Talk about interesting. Yeah, everyone knows about this little small movie that's out called Minecraft, uh-huh. So, unless you're on a different planet, you've heard of what Minecraft?
Speaker 1:is yeah, yes. So, um, this is really crazy that this is happening, but, um, obviously, for the first weekend opening they made over a hundred million dollars in sales. They did actually actually really well. But, on the bad part, kids really showed their ass in those movie theaters by throwing the popcorn around, throwing soda, jumping around, just acting crazy, screaming, and there were some theaters where they literally and I mean literally ripped the seats off the floor.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:I don't understand what the hell that was about, but yeah, so now, as a result of all of this, a lot of theaters are changing the rules where, if you're going to see minecraft, you need to have an adult and not, you know, one adult with 20 kids either.
Speaker 2:You know right, right, right, yeah, have an appropriate for every six or something, yeah, you know right, something more manageable.
Speaker 1:That makes sense. And you know, the other thing too is they actually went crazy, I guess, when they was at the point where there's a scene in the movie where they're in a ring and this chicken jumps on top of this animal and they call him Chicken, chicken jockey, and that's when they literally go berserk again. They're going berserk over this fictional item. But I was really stunned at how crazy and just ignorant I think a lot of these kids were. I mean, it's okay to get excited and all that, but you know, I don't want to be in the theater and have popcorn thrown on me, I don't want soda thrown on me, I don't want people ripping the thing apart, jumping and screaming. I mean, what do you think? You think I'm being too hard on them?
Speaker 2:No, well, it's so funny because I fear that as a child this would have been me and my friends. But I'm like I feel like we did just about this when I went to hebrew school and we were like I always got detention and everything but throwing the popcorn and just generally being unruly. I could see that ripping apart the seats and like actually defacing the movie theater. That's just bad, like that's crazy. That kids don't know the consequences of that. Like that's bad. You like I think anytime you have a movie theater full of kids, it's going to get silly and a little probably people are going to be misbehaving. But I think the actual destruction of seats in the theater itself is pretty shocking and shows, you know, these are a lot of kids that grew up during COVID and probably don't know how to handle themselves a lot in public and many of them are ADHD and you know all that stuff, and so not all of them. Not excuses for bad behavior, but just like I think, the climate more now, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's true. I mean, I think that there's some common sense in there.
Speaker 2:You know doggone well, ripping a seat apart is not acceptable and you know he's being the adult that has to go now. Chaperone and, like you're, one of three adults in the theater, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:And here's the other crazy thing too what if some theaters if they keep doing this decide to detain these kids and press charges? Yeah Well, obviously the kids can't afford to pay for that damage.
Speaker 2:So guess who's on the hook for that damage? Their parents, exactly. I saw a clip of Jack Black at the movie theater. He showed up in real life and he was telling the kids, like behave, don't do that. And everyone's like, ah, I mean, I think it's a lot of things. I think it is like kids being spoiled and not know how to. But I really wonder how many of these children know how to have had practice like sitting in a movie theater by themselves or sitting in a public space, because, like I said, they've at least had two or three years off from COVID and besides school they might not have a lot of whatever. Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1:That like have a lot of whatever. So yeah, that's true, that's actually a very valid point, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, which I mean they absolutely should still get the best, the biggest consequences, and it's like crazy, but I think it's just a different breed now, yeah, that's true, that's true.
Speaker 1:So for all the parents out there that's either watching or listening, go with your children to go see Minecraft.
Speaker 2:And besides, short of ripping the seats off, is it wrong that I feel like if I was in the theater as an adult, I would probably be throwing popcorn too. I would probably clean up after myself, but I probably would be badly behaved. You know what?
Speaker 1:Most people would probably just shove off, like the popcorn thing, but I think the soda yeah a little bit too far that's disgusting and I do think you should be like forced to clean it up as well.
Speaker 2:If you're, if you're a part of that like growing up, we would never do that, because when you think of the fact that, like they're not developed enough yet to know that there's a person that has to clean this up and spend their time, that it's like maybe you weren't grown enough to go to the movies by yourself, or you know, then you're just a little baby and you can't go see these things yeah, and I think I think in some ways it can kind of hurt sales a little bit, not overall, but maybe for the theater, because you know there may be some parents that go, you know what.
Speaker 1:No, you're not going to see that movie. We'll wait till the stream, you know. And here's the other thing. There's adults that like cartoons. I like cartoons too, you know. Oh yeah, and would I go see it in the movie theater knowing this? Absolutely not. I will just wait until it comes up yeah something else to watch it. So really it hurts the theaters again, because again that means that there's going to be a lot of people that won't come to the theater to watch it.
Speaker 2:Exactly, I think my parents had to take me out of 101 Dalmatians because, even though my dad has a mustache, I was always, when I was younger I was so afraid of mustaches and a commercial came on before the movie and Tom Selleck was in it and I guess I was like screaming and uncontrollable, and so my parents had to. They paid the money, they went to 101 Dalmatians and then they had to like carry me out crying and ever since then I like I've never seen the movie. So I think I was old I was old enough to know better, but my mom always laughs and she was like you had to be carried out because of Tom Selleck.
Speaker 1:If I decide to grow my beard, I shouldn't grow my mustache, then That'd be scary.
Speaker 2:It's the 80s. Look where it's just the mustache, which is so funny because my dad has that. It's very calming and nice. There's something about Tom Selleck that just drove me over the edge you know the crazy thing, I'm probably dating myself a little bit.
Speaker 1:A mustache like that makes a person look like a porn star.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, like Burt Reynolds, it's very 80s for sure. Exactly but out here in LA when they do the mustache November, they do Movember, but it's all the hipster guys that wear it. I don't like it at all. It's very like weak sauce.
Speaker 1:Not your thing, huh.
Speaker 2:No, not my thing, nope, not at all. I'll still go crying, but yeah, that's interesting. Well, I thought this one was pretty cool. There's a you know, of course there's a few different points of this article about why I wanted to bring it up.
Speaker 2:Um, we may have seen in the news a few weeks ago they were saying that they brought back the once extinct dire wolf, and this resulted in a media frenzy saying, oh my gosh, we could bring back this extinct, you know, animal like. What does this mean for woolly mammoths? And are we able to get dinosaurs back? You know, it's definitely like a Jurassic Park type moment. But now there's been a little bit more of like a response to that from the scientific community saying like wait, wait, wait, before you go too crazy with this, it's actually more of like a genetically modified wolf than it is the actual, like OG dire wolf. And so just a few details.
Speaker 2:Scientists retrieved DNA from an approximately 13,000 year old dire wolf tooth and from the inner ear bones of a 70,000 year old dire wolf skull, which is like so crazy and just amazing that they can extract DNA and they can like sequence, the you know, the genomes and everything, and then they're able to make like a wolf again.
Speaker 2:So they took, then they took three cells from a gray wolf with the DNA you know they share DNA and then they made it together and then they pretty much like inserted it in about eight surrogate dogs and it it's so funny it netted three apparently healthy wolf pups, two males and a female. So a lot of the scientific people are saying like we have to be clear the fact that we're not bringing this animal back. We're creating kind of new GMO, you know whatever super wolves. And right now a lot of biotech companies are going around and falsely claiming like, okay, if we could, what we could do for humans or, you know, for all these things, and so I don't know. I just thought it was a really good conversation about, I mean number one, biotech companies being honest about stuff and number two, like journalists questioning companies on it instead of just running with like the most attention grabbing headlines I agree.
Speaker 1:I mean, I guess I'm split on this one. On the one hand, it is great technology. There's a lot of things positively that can be done with it, like, for example, let's say for example, you can, you know, grow new organs. Okay, can we imagine what that would do for people on the organ yeah.
Speaker 1:You know. Or let's say, for example, people are paralyzed where maybe it's a vertebrae in their spine or something like that. Well, if we can regenerate and regrow something like that, that would be huge medically. So I could see it, on that portion, being an absolute game changer for mankind.
Speaker 1:Where I think it gets a little dangerous is if we decide to bring back things we probably shouldn't. Yeah, for example, let's say, someone who's a big Jurassic Park fan goes hey, let's try to bring back a dinosaur to see what happens. And you know, it's kind of like this unknown, you don't know what you're playing with or what. If someone goes, hey, you know what, let's see if we can, you know, regenerate a human, and the crazy thing about it is, you know, from a medical standpoint and a scientific standpoint, we may not be far from that right now. We know when does those ethical lines come in? Who's kind of watching over their back to see what they're doing? Because even though they showed us this gray wolf, this wolf here, but the dire wolf, I'm sorry, who knows what else they're playing with that we don't know about?
Speaker 2:I mean, like you said, if we could do it with, imagine if you're able to use a skull or a bone or something. What if you take Prince? You know you find Prince or Marilyn Monroe or something and all of a sudden you infuse it with another baby and now you have a half with like another baby and now you have like a half Prince baby, or just very weird. So yeah, I can just imagine. Or like the Egyptian mummies or you know, like with a way, way like cavemen, if you kind of sequence that with like a human today, with the evolution, I really I bet there's some crazy stuff that they're doing and not letting out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're doing and not letting out. Yeah, I mean, like I said, I think we just have to be careful of the ethical lines, but I think if done correctly and done right, it would be a game changer. Now, the only thing that I see is a major block, and I could be in the minority on this. I could see prescription companies have a big problem with that kind of technology.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Because, let's face it, and most people, most people say that companies like that, pharmaceutical companies, make way more money on you being sick than you being cured.
Speaker 2:You could see the sequence for this disease being in and you could just delete that shift. That I mean, I think it's going to start coming that way with coding and just asking AI to take certain things out.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, you ever see those commercials and they have the nice music going on, they have the people walking through the park dancing and stuff. Side effects include this, this, this and you know, possible death and you're like whoa, whoa, whoa wait a minute.
Speaker 2:What did you just say? Yeah, and the depression ones. It's like you may feel way worse depression and anxiety and schizophrenia.
Speaker 1:And you can listen to that like well, isn't that the reason? I'm taking this to prevent.
Speaker 2:Exactly, yeah, but I also think too, as like media people and entertainment people, we know too, I mean our whole thing is like sometimes looking at headlines and then trying to decipher what the actual story is. But I think we're at an all time kind of low of like journalists doing their real job and like just thinking before you put stuff out, instead of trying to fight for people's attentions. Cause you know, I think our attention is so split in so many different ways as humans that now they're trying to get more and more like of our interest by just certain headlines. So saying that like a gray wolf is now or a dire wolf is now back is going to be way better than like saying like biotech company working on, you know, combining dna, I don't know. I just feel like as humans, whereas like readers were kind of getting smarter to decipher headlines now.
Speaker 1:And I think, and I think you have a great point and I think part of that point is also where you get your information.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, because you know, if you have an organization, regardless of who people watch and who people listen to, if what they say can be fact checked and be fact checked to make sure that they're being honest with you, that's a good publication for you to listen to or watch. If they're kind of like going with stuff, that, ok, this sounds like a five year old kid made this up because, believe it or not, you have to listen and go. Okay, does this make common sense? And what's there to back this up? Because you know, in a lot of you know I hate using the word mainstream media there are times where they make mistakes and they correct themselves. Yeah, and I'm okay with that, because, guess what? As human beings, we make mistakes, exactly, you know. Where I have a problem is is when you watch something or you listen to something, you go. You know that that's it's not true. Oh yeah, and they still just run with it anyway.
Speaker 2:Definitely oh, I think we saw that so much with like the blake lively and justin baldoni stuff when, like the certain headlines were coming out, but then people were feeling so much a different way where, like you know, and it went for both people, like I think both blake and justin suffered from it and benefited from it.
Speaker 2:But it was like a lot of the times there was this whole like movement kind of in favor of justin baldoni, and then the headlines were clearly being spun in like blake's favor and it's like no, no, this is not what the people are saying. This is is why I love TikTok so much. It's still a frontier for now of actual people giving their opinions. I like it better hearing from the masses rather than just a paper.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree, I definitely agree. We'll see what other new animals that they start with.
Speaker 2:I was just going to say for Christmas are you going to get a dire wolf?
Speaker 1:I don't know. I think my current dog may not like that.
Speaker 2:Aww, that's so cute. I would totally. If there was like a woolly mammoth or like an old school like pterodactyl, I would completely, I would buy it.
Speaker 1:There you go. Your house would be the safest house in the whole neighborhood.
Speaker 2:Exactly, I could be so cute, I'd walk in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, talk about something that's not so cute. Have you heard about this story, meryl, where there was this family that was burying their loved one? It was at their funeral and typically the pallbearers. This happened in Philadelphia and you know the pallbearers would take the casket out of the hearse and they would walk it over to the burial site, lay it on the straps so the the casket could be lowered. Well, in this scenario, they were walking, they laid the casket on the straps and the whole thing gave way. Everyone fell in there.
Speaker 1:In fact, the deceased person's son was knocked unconscious with his head in the mud, pinned in under the casket.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:And it was actually amazing to watch. First I thought it was a joke because it was just so out there, but it was real and it was a sad thing. I mean, I guess I got a few comments on it. First of all, when it broke, why the hell was the hole so damn big?
Speaker 2:It was gigantic.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you got a chance to see. It was gigantic, yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean literally, it was like I don't know if you got a chance to see.
Speaker 2:It was gigantic. Yeah, yeah, yeah I mean literally it was like a pool size basically.
Speaker 1:Exactly. You know, that's the first thing, and then the other thing you know, people are kind of cruel when it comes to the comments, you know. So I was checking out some of the comments and some people were like, well, he was bringing everybody with him. I was like, wow, really.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, I feel like it does seem like something that would happen on like the TV show Arrested Development or you know some type of like Curb your Enthusiasm. How did they do you know how they got the casket off of the son Like?
Speaker 1:they had to, you know, first get themselves out and then obviously work on trying to get that casket out. I'm assuming probably the gravediggers probably helped out with their equipment.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Because when you think about the casket, the casket is not light, because I've been a pallbearer before, and when you have the weight of the person and the casket, that thing is very, very heavy. I mean it's incredibly heavy.
Speaker 1:Really so to have that thing fall on you. It's incredibly heavy, Really. So to have that thing fall on you, it's amazing. There wasn't a lot more injuries. To be honest with you, it was shocking. It wasn't that many, but I don't know. I mean, I know the family was saying that they need to have some kind of justice done. Oh God, yeah. To me AKK, that means, you know yeah to me aka that means you know, aka means lawsuits. But how do you calculate that you know what I mean?
Speaker 2:yeah, exactly, I feel like, even just for the show of it, they at least should probably get the funeral expenses or the you know, the casket expenses taken care of. Like I don't know if they need like a 70 000 like emotional lawsuit at some point. We just have to be like. This is sad and kind of funny, but also sad, and I'm sorry this happened to you, but it's also like I don't know why you would need like $300,000. But I think I feel like the medical bills should be paid for the person that went unconscious, and then the casket and the actual funeral costs. But I don't know much beyond that if it's really needed.
Speaker 2:Um, and I do think it's one of those things that's like so sad, but it also is ridiculous and like, when it's time, maybe people can laugh at it, you know, but I think it's it's still. I can't even imagine that. But I also feel like sometimes doing these crazy funerals, I feel like a lot of that happens where I've heard too of people like in the Jewish culture I don't know if it's done everywhere too, but you'll like dig dirt and like put it on the person. I don't know if that's standard everywhere and I've heard of a lot of people that are like grieving so hard that basically you like by accident, shovel yourself into the and it's like I'm sorry but you just have to laugh. Sometimes when that happens it's sad, but it's like the only way we can get through it is realizing that's ridiculous.
Speaker 1:So, um yeah, that that is true, that is true. But, boy, there was a, there was a whole lot.
Speaker 2:I mean, there are people talking about yeah, he's up in heaven this laughing his ass off, and yeah, yeah, I mean the person getting knocked unconscious is obviously like that's ridiculously terrible, and then that's so sad that they can't be present for their loved one's funeral that day. You know, I mean that person is going to wake up and basically like have missed, like saying goodbye to their dad, but, um, still still sad, but a little bit silly, and this is why the internet is so funny but cruel at the same time oh yeah, now the other thing too.
Speaker 1:Someone said, yeah, one of the pallbearers pissed them off.
Speaker 2:I was like, wow, really maybe and and we never know maybe that person is just like screw you, guys.
Speaker 1:You know, but yeah, that was incredible to see.
Speaker 2:That makes me wonder next time I'm a pallbearer like you're checking where you're going exactly, but I do feel like it's like a comedy movie trope of basically people like falling in on in the cat, you know on the casket, or after each other. So um, but yeah, I don't know who would be responsible for that. I guess it's the cemetery itself or like yeah, yeah, I would say so.
Speaker 1:But I have to admit with one of the comments, which is true why was that hole so doggone big? I mean, it was like for all of them to fall in, it was gigantic. Why was that hole so big to begin with? Oh my gosh, I mean, did they get drunk and just figure, hey, let's see who falls in, let's have a little fun today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that has to hurt too, like falling in on a casket. That probably hurts a lot. Mm-hmm, woo, I feel like I would laugh. I don't know, I'm too serious. If that was me and I was falling in there, even if it was my loved one, it's like that is so crazy and painful that you have to at some point see the ridiculousness in it. Otherwise that's beyond. Tragically, you can't compare it otherwise. It's that's like beyond tragically.
Speaker 1:You know you can't compare it, that's true, that's true, that's true, at least it you know, for some people. Probably lighten up the moment a little bit right exactly.
Speaker 2:That's why I just want to become like a tree that grows somewhere or something. Um well, this is kind of different, but uh, I wanted to say I might skip the next one oh, no, okay I'm gonna go with the next one.
Speaker 2:Um, so we talked a lot about jeff bezos, you know already, and his girlfriend launching up into space. But, uh, his ex-wife, mackenzie sc Scott, has given away 19 billion since divorce from him six years ago. A new report found that she transformed philanthropy after her divorce from the Amazon founder. It's that she's given to, you know, many different types of philanthropy, a lot of business, a lot of nonprofits, which I forget. That when we first kind of were introduced to Bezos, he was still married to her right.
Speaker 2:I think, for the most part that I remember the divorce which happened. It became official in 2019. It resulted in approximately a $36 billion settlement $36 billion and then since then, this Scottott, who's 54 years old, has transformed philosophy, philanthropy, with donations to universities, um, and just a lot of recipients. So I think that's ridiculously cool. Could you imagine getting a divorce and then your half of that is 36 billion dollars?
Speaker 1:like that's a hell of a settlement.
Speaker 2:Let me tell you I know and then I actually love it. Two years after her divorce she remarried um a man named dan, a former seattle-based science teacher. They got divorced after. But that's so funny, like getting 36 billion dollars and then getting married to like a science teacher, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that is. I mean, I'm quite sure that science teacher had to sign a prenup.
Speaker 2:But let's face it yeah.
Speaker 1:They probably walked away a multimillionaire.
Speaker 2:Exactly. I think I remember, like last year, let's see, she said she made headlines when she announced she was giving away 640 million to over 300 nonprofit groups, and then so these basically applied and then they were chosen, you know, by hand by her, and so I don't know. I was going to ask, like what would be the first nonprofit or group that you would give money to, if you, if you like, got rich tomorrow or got the money tomorrow?
Speaker 1:You know what I would probably probably give to. There's a place here in Illinois it's called the Cradle for Adoption and there's a program called the Gayle Sayers Program. So what they do they specialize in adoption of African-American babies and I would probably do that, you know donate there and then probably also to the children's. I think it's called Ann Lawrence Children's Hospital now, because you know, when my son was a child there was a situation where they really really took care of my son.
Speaker 1:So I would definitely give to them. So those are personal to me that I would give.
Speaker 2:I love that. What was the first one called?
Speaker 1:It's called the Cradle. It's an adoption service and they have different programs within it, one called the Gale Sayers Program, oh my, gosh, that's so cool.
Speaker 2:Well, what if I'm like I would give it to the hairdressers of America? No, I would give it to like the hairdressers of America. No, I would probably. You know my answer used to be more, way more animal based. Like I would definitely. That would definitely be part of my portfolio is giving a lot to like smaller adoption ranches and smaller, you know, horse things and stuff um. But I feel like now I would love to like take one city at a time and kind of be like okay, how much do we need to make to like make San Francisco a little bit safer and better? And you know that includes like. I would almost like use my billions to focus on like one city at a time and then, little by little, being like OK, now the city is like cleaner or it has better transportation. You know stuff like that.
Speaker 1:Oh, that would be great.
Speaker 2:That would affect a lot of people's lives, because I always think about that, where it's like like LA is kind of falling apart so much, but you know that there's so many rich people here that like I mean it's not impossible. It's pretty tough, but if you could work with the city just to try to like make things better, and maybe that means opening up houses for homeless people or, you know, like finding a place for everyone, and that would be cool.
Speaker 1:That definitely would be cool. Well, talk about cool. Michelle Obama is trending right now, and she's trending because she went on a popular podcast and addressed the rumors about her and her husband, aka Barack Obama, getting a divorce. So, in essence, what she said was a lot of people were talking about how she didn't go to Carter's funeral, she didn't go to the inauguration of President Trump. It must be getting a divorce. All this is going on and basically what she said was it's kind of interesting that a woman can't just make up her mind what she will and won't do, and the first thing out of their mouths is we're getting a divorce.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I'm actually, on the one hand, glad she did address it. I'm actually, on the one hand, glad she did address it, but I think, on the other hand, it's said that she had to address it I know well, okay, so I was.
Speaker 2:I was one of the ones that I remember I was like I think they are gonna get a divorce, not because not absolutely women could have the right to like not go or go to things I'm a girlfriend and I like barely go to things. That you know, whatever. But to me it was because, like they were saying that there was lots of people that had like real life intel that he was already seeing someone else, like he was seeing some reporter or something, and so like her not being there totally wasn't a thing for me at all. It was more of the rumblings of of like people who supposedly knew people that were like he's actively hooking up with someone else.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's true, but the crazy thing is and I actually applaud them is that they really don't let that noise bother them. Exactly, and I applaud them for that.
Speaker 2:Exactly and honestly, I like them so much that even if they are silently not together, or if they're very much together, like whatever they are like, they're fine and making the world better. I think so in a good way, like I don't need to know their status, to listen to them or to like them or anything.
Speaker 1:I hear you. So kudos to the Obamas for not letting the crazy world get in the middle of their marriage.
Speaker 2:We like them. Well, someone that was in trouble recently not really in trouble, just being made fun of, but Jake Gyllenhaal, who is, you know, talk about going into space and billionaires and all this and that there was a an architectural digest story about his dressing room for a fellow, and there was over a hundred thousand items in the dressing room, including a nineteen thousand dollar chess set, and so people were just calling it pretentious. Um, you know a lot of this. People said, calm down, these are just like decorative nods to his character, you know, and so they were saying that some of this was helping the atmosphere of him, like getting into character. Um, but some people are like, let's see, do you really need to have?
Speaker 2:He had a rug, like a very expensive rug. He had a flowers lamp that was like in stainless steel. You know, are all these very hand selected things? I think the chest. That was what sent people over the edge and I don't know. To me it's like we already know he's fine. This was a handmade chess set. I think these people have this kind of stuff in their houses, so it's not a big deal to me if they're going to put them in their dressing room. I'm not offended. Yes, it is a little bit pretentious, but like that's just what it is, I'm not upset about it. What do you think?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, you know, I know it's a big story, people talking about it, but this stuff happens all the time. A-listers have these really I wouldn't say crazy, but very different interesting requests in their dressing rooms and stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So you know some of them you go wow really. But you know what, if they can bring millions of people to watch that show, which obviously supports all the sponsors and the production crew and everything like that, you know, it's not a bad thing, though it is kind of funny. Some of the stuff that you hear, though, it's really good.
Speaker 2:The chess set was a little surprising, but okay, but it's like you think of you know he's doing this movie or this play and you think of just people bringing him like a handmade set from Italy or you know you have all these kind of outsourced things. It makes sense that things were that much. Um, I used to when I like way, way before, when I worked in the music industry, after the concerts, if the artist had like really expensive bottles of wine and they didn't take them home, then I would get to take them home and so you'd have. You know, these bands would drink like 500 to 600 bottles of wine and like maybe it's pretentious that they do that, but then, like, to me I don't really I don't know, you just get to be at that level that they are and that jake gyllenhaal's at and he's like, yeah, that's the career that he's kind of made, or whatever for himself is that he can have that.
Speaker 1:So yeah, that's true. It's almost like back in the day where people used to throw these big parties and they'll take crystal and just pour it on the ground just to show exactly and, the funny thing, I've never had it personally, but I've had. I've known people who drank it before. It's like you know, that's actually not the best tasting champagne you can drink. I said really it's really the name, because people are like it's really not that good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's not that good. And it's also too, if you think about like. I think they said there was $18,000 chairs and a $22,000 coffee table, which is like it's fine for that dressing room, but it's kind of like, in a way, we know he's not using it that much. But this is a lot of the hotel suites that they'll get. They'll get these big presidential suites where they'll have $36,000 flowers and everything and it's just not being used.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's true. If you can get it, go ahead and get it while you can, you know.
Speaker 2:I feel like it's only a matter of time before he and the chess set Go up to space together.
Speaker 1:I hear you Talk about space. This is a crazy story here. You may have heard of it Because this happened on an LA freeway.
Speaker 2:Oh.
Speaker 1:On an LA freeway there was a hit and run and the alleged suspect was, you know, running from the police, you know driving away. And I guess what he did? He got out, he stripped down to his underwear.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:And was watering someone's lawn. You know, to make it look like, hey, he was outside watering his lawn. I do not condone this, but I have to give him kudos. That's a hell of an idea. I mean to even think about that. I have to give him credit where credit's due. And then the story gets even weirder is that Julianne Lauren and people who doesn't recognize the name. She's married to rock star Weezer's Scott Shiner, so she allegedly, I guess, came out with a gun and the police told her to drop her weapon and they ended up shooting her because she wouldn't drop it. This is all during this thing. I'm like this has got to be one of the craziest chases I've ever done. Did you hear about this?
Speaker 2:yes, I very much did. I have some people that know her too.
Speaker 2:Um, wow really which is yeah, which is funny, that like also when I feel like to me, when california people make fun of florida, this is where I stand up for florida and I'm like say this sentence back to yourself, and we're just as bad. A lot of times, you know what I mean Like like a man stripping down to his underwear and the wife of a Weezer person. Like all of this stuff is like so ridiculously LA. I mean I believe that I think that's a very funny thing that he could think of to do. That's very like Dennis the Menace type of Bart Simpson situation, you know. But I mean, every day there's like a chase on the highway.
Speaker 2:But it is funny because, like you'll get into these things where I just had a friend that had a car accident and then it ended up being like the wife of a very well-known actor who like came to the scene and so it's just like you never know. So of course, like it ending with like a Weezer bass player's wife, but I think I mean she should have dropped the gun when police told her to. That's. That's crazy. I don't know how you could not do that, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean the thing. The thing is, I'm amazed she's still alive. You put a weapon at a gun, you know, nine times out of 10, you're not going to survive that.
Speaker 2:I know, and like we've talked about before, sadly a lot of people Don't feel the comfort they wouldn't be able to do that, or they don't have the privilege to be able to Not do that or whatever.
Speaker 1:So yeah, all of that is crazy. I mean, I tip my hat off to you, meryl, you're being very nice about it. I'm going to be blunt. I could not do that. Really, think about it If I were to even hold a gun in front of an officer and even look like I wanted to do something.
Speaker 2:Exactly Yep.
Speaker 1:I'm probably going to the funeral home.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's just the reality.
Speaker 1:I know and you know she got away with not only holding a weapon but pointing that weapon at them and live to talk about it.
Speaker 2:I know and I don't understand why, when this like unless she was thinking that he was, they were part Of this, or like I don't know what on earth Was happening, but it's just Such a cluster of like, all of that and like what are the chances that that guy ends up on that Lawn too?
Speaker 1:I mean, you know, like I said, you know, I know we got to move on, but I got to tell you if you saw the video, I mean he was just as calm, just watering.
Speaker 2:Yeah, at this point he deserves to like get less jail time or something. That's kind of funny, like sometimes when people come up with things like that, I'm like they kind of deserve to be like let go a little bit to deserve to be let go a little bit.
Speaker 1:There you go. Well, kudos to him, not for what he did, but kudos for ingenuous idealistic. I'm trying to be fancy with the words here. Yeah, creativity, exactly he was creative.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and imagine too, if you're the lead singer of Weezer, you have nothing to do with this. And now, of course, weezer's in the headlines just about this and it makes it look like she's like part of the band, you know. I mean, I know she's married to someone, but it's like to see Weezer in the headlines with this. I'm sure, like the lead singer, is probably like what is going on, you know.
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 2:Or like yeah, but it's funny, we see chases all the time or like every day. I feel like there's a helicopter circling or there's some like car going down the wrong road. It really is like an outlaw country here. It's crazy. But also the idea would be so foreign that someone would just be out on their lawn like nicely watering plants that might give them away. True, true, let's see. I can't believe this is my last one already. Whoa, that went by fast. My last one. Well, we talked a lot about Jake Gyllenhaal and his like $18,000 chairs and there might be a way that now he can order them through China directly for $20, because I am obsessed with this. So basically it's a tariff war.
Speaker 2:Chinese manufacturers go viral on TikTok for exposing luxury item costs. I think this has been so funny. This past week, chinese manufacturers have gone online and basically showed how cheap it really is to make luxury goods such as Birkenstocks and Lululemons, and now they're trying to give people the links just to purchase directly. So you can bypass the markups and you can obviously minimize the tariffs by ordering directly from the factories. So these videos have pulled in millions of views. They show everything from bulk packing lines to breakdown of unit costs and just explaining why things are marked up so much. People are saying, like you can buy everything from a Birkin bag to Lululemon tights, and then you can even order a whole year's worth of Tide pots for like $1.
Speaker 2:So someone's like screw this, I'm getting, I'm getting laundry for a year, you know. And so, um, I don't know, I didn't order anything because, knowing this weird like Trump situation, I would just be worried that, like the people that ordered somehow would get in trouble or you know, I can see it backfiring. So until I know that it was like safe to do so and there wasn't going to be any repercussions, I just thought I'll sit this one out until we'll find out, just because I can see in this day and age some weird thing where it's like, oh, if you did this, you actually broke this law and now you're in trouble, you know the scary thing about what you said If this was 20 years ago, I'd be like merle stop, stop, yeah, and now it's like you know, honestly, like I can see a scenario where they're like now we're like kicking everyone out of the country that bought these typos and I'm just like I'm like I'm not going to jail over, like my one dollar lulu lemon pants, um.
Speaker 2:But I thought the manufacturers are so funny and this is why I like pray that tiktok doesn't go away, because just the direct maybe that's also what they're scared of us having TikTok too is seeing like just how much we're being marked up for these items and you know the scary thing about it, meryl.
Speaker 1:Again, I love seeing the comments and you know a lot of people in the comments were not surprised, you know, because a lot of people don't know there's a lot of cars that are quote-unquote, built here, which really are assembled here and all the parts and stuff come from other countries. So I can see that happening. But the thing that really stood out to me was there were some people on there saying has anyone noticed that the big designers are really quiet right now? They're not.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know they're not saying anything and like I don't know this may be like a little bit preachy or something, but to me it's it's not about like getting the dollar lululemons, it's just about like not needing them in general, like I don't really care if these brands, if, like, a birkin bag is three dollars, because, like we don't need it, it's just a bag. You know what I mean. So, like, from the beginning, it's just if you love it, of course, like if you love the way it looks, and everything by all means. But like what this should show us is that the idea of luxury items is like not what it is.
Speaker 2:You know, it's a pretend idea basically. So, like I don't know, everyone kind of scrambling to buy these lululemons and everything, you're kind of missing the point, because the whole point is that it's like made up and not really needed, you know, unless you're going to resell them. But I still think that that's kind of shady too.
Speaker 1:You know, a lot of people are going to resell them I mean, even if I, if I did want to, I mean honestly, if tracy wanted one and were able to get one, I would buy it for her, because I love my wife and I yeah, of course but inside I'll be kicking and screaming and cursing.
Speaker 1:You know, paying 38 000 for a bag. But to know this, now it's like. Now, on the one hand, they don't have to worry about tariffs because if they're only making it for 20, 20, 40 bucks, you know, hey, what? What do they care about it? Going up 100, 200, it's no big deal they can still come around, but it just kind of shows you how you know people fall in love with a brand more than the actual item it really highlights that big time or or like what it means.
Speaker 2:Like I think about that all the time too. Like I kind of I drive like not a very nice car now and I've, and like it's probably the least nice car I've had, and there's there's still like a part of me that's like, oh, I want to drive a really nice car so I could like show people that I'm doing well out in the world. You know, like, whether we like it or not, there is some like unspoken things just about the world and I wish everyone could be so secure including myself that it's like who cares if you're driving around like a beater car, but it does signify status things in our mind. I wish we were completely not glued to those, but sometimes we are.
Speaker 1:That's true. Wow, this has been a great hour. Oh my goodness.
Speaker 2:Me too, if anyone's interested. I think one of those sites is called DH gate. That's one side I'm hearing. But, like I said, I'm not going anywhere near it yet and also just because I don't need those items, like yeah, I'm not like you know, I don't like need a Birkin bag or not even need. It's just not even like exciting to me. Um, I want to hear if anyone has successfully ordered.
Speaker 1:I would love to hear people's stories. You know what?
Speaker 2:please go on our website because we would love to know this exactly because I mean, even like it would be crazy awesome if, like new balance shoes or if nikes are like a dollar or 60, then you know that's true, that is so true.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, if you follow us, or make sure you follow us, let us know, because we would love to talk about this yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I want to hear like soon I'll be ordering a car like off of amazon for four dollars or something talk about things coming up.
Speaker 1:What do you have coming up, meryl?
Speaker 2:I have a very exciting show May 2nd in. There's a place that's a little bit south of LA called Doheny Beach. It's kind of by. It's called Dana Point. It's by maybe Orange County or Laguna Beach. People may know that that is Friday May 2nd. I'll be with a lot of really cool people Friday May 2nd, dana Point.
Speaker 1:Perfect. This has been a very, very fun week. A lot of stuff going on. Just so everyone knows, our list of topics was way longer than this, that's how crazy this week has been.
Speaker 2:We could have had like 10 more at each, given like a minute of each one.
Speaker 1:Easily easily, but that's okay. We're going to have a lot more to talk about next week. I want to thank everyone for watching us and listening to us. If you're on our podcast, remember to tell everyone about us. Make sure that you continue to support us and also us. If you're on our podcast, remember to tell everyone about us. Make sure that you continue to support us and also support Merrill. We appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:I'm Lawrence Elrod. I'm Merrill Clemo. Thanks again for watching. Everyone have a great day.
Speaker 2:Bye.
