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
Baby Oil and Bankruptcy: This Week's Most Shocking Headlines for 5/12/25
Lawrence and Meryl dive into a range of headline-grabbing stories from Weight Watchers filing bankruptcy to the controversial Qatar gift of a luxury airplane to former President Trump.
• Weight Watchers declares bankruptcy with over $1 billion in debt, likely due to competition from weight loss drugs and meal prep services
• Newark Airport experiences its third system outage in two weeks with air traffic controllers warning people not to fly there
• A Cincinnati father kills a police officer in retaliation after his son was killed by police, despite the officer having no connection to his son's death
• Clayton Echard's false paternity case involves a woman facing seven felony counts for forging ultrasounds and lying under oath
• Qatar offers a $400 million luxury airplane to Donald Trump, raising constitutional questions about accepting foreign gifts
• Lucy Guo becomes world's youngest self-made woman billionaire at age 30 through her AI company
• Researchers discover people living within a mile of golf courses have 126% higher risk of Parkinson's disease
• Sean "Diddy" Combs' trial begins with testimony from an off-duty police officer who refused a bribe to stay silent
• Fox News guest Cameron Kinsey faints on-air, drawing criticism of her co-host's seemingly callous reaction
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."
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Hello everyone, welcome to this week's episode of Thirsty Topics. I'm Lawrence Elrod.
Speaker 2:And I am Meryl Clemo.
Speaker 1:Hey, meryl, how's it going?
Speaker 2:Hey, it's so good. I'm so happy to be here.
Speaker 1:Yes, Hopefully everyone can tell that we've got some new software that we're playing around with, so we're kind of working out the bugs, but I think you're going to like it once it's done.
Speaker 2:We're so high-tech. I actually feel like I'm in your favorite TV show, Star Trek there you go, that's the one you like right.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. I love Star Trek.
Speaker 2:Okay, good, I feel like I'm in the control booth here or something. It's cool.
Speaker 1:Hey, nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:Now we're going to start off with an interesting subject here.
Speaker 2:I'm quite sure everyone has heard of Weight Watchers.
Speaker 1:Weight Watchers is filing for bankruptcy. No, looks like the reason they're filing is because they have over a billion and I say billion with a B dollars worth of debt that they need to write off.
Speaker 2:So what do you think, meryl? How do you feel about this? It's so funny that at the same time as Red Lobster going away, that Weight Watchers is too. I think we know this, I think I've told you this before too, but a few months ago, sadly, a few teenagers yelled at me, screamed at me to go on Weight Watchers when I was walking. But I remember feeling so actually blessed because I was like they're actually recommending like the most wholesome weight loss treatment. So now to hear that that's going out of business is kind of sad. I mean, I think with Ozempic and with just like a lot of other things, I can see why they are losing money, especially with just a lot of social media and like other ways that people are losing weight. Now.
Speaker 1:Do you think that a lot has to do with you know the new things going on right now, where there's all these different type of clubs that are popping up all over the place. And then, of course, not to mention you know you have the weight loss drugs like the Ozempic, wagovi and other drugs like that. Do you think that kind of helped push Weight Watchers a little bit?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I feel like some of their methods. I think they have tried to catch up with the times. You know Like they really have tried with apps and everything, but I just think it's too saturated and it's probably too expensive too. I feel like now their typical person that would use it might be not even able to like afford it, or they may be going to Osepik instead.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's true, I mean. The thing is is that you know, weight Watchers have been around a long time? I remember when Oprah Winfrey was on the board and was a big promoter of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it's kind of sad to see it gone, but I think you're right. As far as you know, with all these different things, that's competing with it. And then also, not to mention, there's a lot of these home prep meals, where you can literally plan out your meals for the whole week and they literally just send you meals either day by day or a week's worth at a time.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Ultimate lazy men's way to lose weight. No, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 2:And the way that Weight Watchers I don't know if they still were on, I don't know if it's Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig, but one of them is on like the point system where it's like okay, you can have mac and cheese, but mac and cheese, but that's 13 points, and now you have four points left, which is like a piece of a donut. I feel like a there's apps that do that for people now and b that's just. We've learned that that's not really like the best way of eating. So I think more people are like okay, why don't I just have grapes and like a piece of chicken instead and call it a day?
Speaker 1:you know yeah, that's true. I mean, um, I don't think that weight watchers would never be back the way it was. I think this is one of those things that we're probably going to see go away, just like the Blockbuster, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, that's so sad. Maybe Flava Flav can save it too, the way that he saved Red Lobster.
Speaker 1:Hey, you know what you never know.
Speaker 2:What did we learn? Oh, remember last, last week I think, we learned that jack in the box was closing a few. So maybe at the same time jack in the box is closing weight watchers is also it's like a balance scale.
Speaker 1:That's true. That's true. So one more icon that's going away exactly.
Speaker 2:well, I will miss not doing it, I'll miss continuing to not be on weight watchers. So, um well, I thought this is interesting. Every week, it seems like we have a new airplane or airline industry story, and this one is no different. Recently, newark Airport has been in the news, one of the really big airports, especially that's the one that a lot of us fly into when we're going to the East Coast, and about a week ago, one of the air traffic controllers was caught saying like, don't fly in here. You know, don't fly into Newark.
Speaker 2:And now the airport suffered its third system outage in less than two weeks, which impacted hundreds of flights, and so the FAA said that it happened after a backup air traffic control system momentarily failed, and that is freaking scary, even having like seconds of not, you know, being in control with any of the the people. Um, as of late sunday night, there was more than 250 delays and at least 80 cancellations impacting domestic and international flights. Um, a lot of people on tiktok that I saw their Mother's Day plans were ruined because of this. You know, they weren't able to get home for Mother's Day. And people are assuring everyone that it is indeed safe, but, like when air traffic controllers are coming on the air and saying like I wouldn't fly into Newark if I were you. It's just very scary.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's true. Now, that's true. One of the things that I heard about that too, which is really troubling, is that I want to say and I could be wrong with the number, but I want to say, about 40% of the air traffic controllers there just walked off the job, took a leave, oh my gosh. And then, plus, they got the issue of you know, the equipment that needs to be updated.
Speaker 1:Yeah the issue of you know the equipment that needs to be updated. Yeah, well, there's been issues where and this is kind of scary that they said this out loud but for like 60 to 90 seconds of no visibility whatsoever for planes coming in yes, I heard that too and how could that happen? Oh yeah, and the thing is is that 60, 60 to 90 seconds may not Sound like a lot, but when you have multiple planes trying to land, that's like a lifetime. That could be a tragedy.
Speaker 2:You would think that if this happened, or the fact that it did happen, you would think they're like we're doing one week where I'm sorry, we're just like not. We're canceling every flight. We're not going to have one airplane go until we're sure this is never going to happen again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean I don't know how they're going to fix this, but you know you got the issue of one. They were another one of those industries where they were already short staffed to begin with. Yeah, where they were already short-staffed to begin with, yeah, so obviously they're trying to fill that in, but from start to finish, you know, to get an air traffic controller in place takes a couple you know, from what I heard at least two to three years. It's not going to happen overnight.
Speaker 2:I know, yeah, this is weird, and Newark is definitely like there's so many people coming and going. That's definitely one that goes to Europe a lot. That's one that is just you have people from all over the world flying in and out at any given time. So it's like, yeah, it's crazy.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, I mean luckily it's happened, I guess, when there's been light air traffic. But what happens when, god forbid, it's a holiday, yeah, and you know how much traffic comes in there, and all of a sudden they lose contact visually and audio for 60 to 90 seconds as planes are landing and taking off? No, it's not. That would be catastrophic.
Speaker 2:Yes, I don't want to be on Helen Keller Airlines, please, god, no, I don't want to do that. So, yeah, it's definitely. I still feel like flying is safe overall, like I really really do, and if you still think about, even with this crazy news happening, like how many planes are coming and going out of every airport, but it's still a little nuts.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's true, that's true. So, like I said, if people got to fly in and out of there, just you know, hold on tight, just be a good person.
Speaker 2:There you go.
Speaker 1:And hey for youngsters out there trying to find something to do with their life. Hey, air traffic controller, think about it.
Speaker 2:That was weird Okay. I was just demonstrating how the FAA, how we're landing planes now Excellent demonstration.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much Thank you.
Speaker 2:My hands are up. It's like in a cooking show where I'm like hands up.
Speaker 1:Well, moving on to the next one, and the next one not so pleasant story, a father from Cincinnati Ohio his name is Rodney Hinton Jr killed a cop after his son was killed the day before by cops.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh. So the back story on this is that the police were chasing his son, allegedly it was in the middle of a carjacking, and his son got out and pointed a gun at cops and cops returned fire to to take him out. They may have used tasers and it didn't work. I'm not really sure because, again, I was trying to find out as much as I can. But aside from that, what the father did, that's not the way to handle it. Yeah, because what he did is he went and I guess he saw a cop directing traffic. They had something going on where law enforcement was directing traffic, which is something normal for big events, and he took his car and ran over and killed the guy and that's just like I mean.
Speaker 2:I wonder if he'll plead insanity in the case or something, because that just seems so quick and impulsive that now his life is going to be spent in jail.
Speaker 1:Oh, definitely. And you know, the crazy thing about a mural is they show him in court. You know his first court and as he's walking out, he's literally looking at every officer doing this.
Speaker 2:You know like proud of what he did.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, I mean literally every single officer. You looked him in the face. Some officers wouldn't look at him. He just you know like a smile on his face.
Speaker 2:Wow, and he killed one officer and yeah, that's just like I mean, if you just took a minute, it is tragic and he definitely like has a right to feel absolutely like crazed, you know, if that did happen to his son, you know, whatever like he has the right to have that.
Speaker 1:But I felt like just thinking that, short sightedly, you could have made a bigger impact over time if you didn't react so quickly oh, I agree, and I think the other thing to keep in mind too is it's always bad when someone loses, there's no question about it. But if and I say if because, again, I still look into everything if he did get out of his vehicle and pointed a gun at officers, you had to have known what was going to happen. I know that shouldn't be a surprise, I mean, I know it's a horrible thing to say, but you point a gun at an officer and you're a person of color it's not going to end well I know Period it's not going to end well.
Speaker 2:I feel like I mean luckily I do not, I've never had to have that feeling before, but I could imagine like I also just think you're blinded in that moment by just rage and grief and it's like you know. I think there has to be some type of not that what he did was right, but I could definitely understand. I feel like if someone was to like hurt one of my loved ones, I could see a scenario where you just don't think rationally for like a week and you know something may happen. Terrible that you're just like I can't, I'm not even myself right now. I'm just so upset and so like running on pure anger and disbelief.
Speaker 1:And you know, the other thing that makes this sad is that the officer that he killed had nothing to do with the incident that happened.
Speaker 2:Really? Oh, oh my gosh, I thought it was that officer.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, well then that is like, basically, he just killed the first officer, oh, okay.
Speaker 2:Well, that is like I mean not that it would have been okay to kill, but that at least is like somewhat fathomable. This is completely like that's not right at all.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it's sad all the way around it. And you know what, as a father, I feel for him because, regardless of what your child did, that's still your child.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Well, imagine, like that police person has a family too, and imagine you're just he's going to work, like that police person has a family too, and imagine you're just he's going to work like and he has nothing to do with this, and that's like then I, I feel like even the most under the most anger and grief, you should still know not to just like kill a random. Like if a doctor had someone die that I would just go kill like a random doctor.
Speaker 1:you know, like that's kind of weird yeah, so, like I said there, there's sadness all the way around, but just a horrible, horrible.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's very sad.
Speaker 1:And you know, to be honest with you, I mean maybe the father is going to do an insanity plea or whatever, but the way he's doing it right now is not good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that anchors me because that changes everything for me, that that incurs me because, like that changes everything for me. If it was that exact cop not that I'm saying I like it's warranted, but I could at least understand that. You know, I understand that this is completely like not acceptable at all of any sort of thing, even insanity. It's like you just don't go randomly kill like a random, random cop exactly, exactly.
Speaker 1:But yeah, this is crazy.
Speaker 2:So I just hope that a lot of youngsters that's seen this story understand that there's better ways to do things and you know there are consequences to your action do you know if the original police officer that shot his son I imagine he's probably like off the force for now or, like you know, he's not he's probably in, whatever the detention for police officers is you know what, not sure I know in chicago, whenever an officer uh is involved in a shooting, uh, they're put on death's duty for a minimum of 30 days with pay.
Speaker 1:That's just right procedure in chicago, so I'm not really sure it's actually a good question, yeah and and if?
Speaker 2:if there's allegedly a carjacking going on and someone's pointing a gun at you, like if it is self-defense, who knows? It sounds like a very tricky situation.
Speaker 1:Exactly, exactly, but I'm quite sure there's going to be a lot of information that comes out about this.
Speaker 2:Very sad. Okay Well, something that's nuts. Okay, well, something that's nuts. I don't know if you've been following at all this story with Clayton Eckerd, the Bachelor, and like his supposed baby mama, who's actually not a baby mama.
Speaker 1:Is this the first thing that you've heard?
Speaker 2:of this, oh my gosh. Okay, then I'll have to. The lore of it is too long to go on. It would take up like eight podcast episodes for us Basically, and I, if anyone is interested in this, I implore you to go like listen to different stories about it, because I've listened to several one hour podcasts alone on this crazy, crazy story.
Speaker 2:Um, basically, the like very short version of it is uh, clayton eckert is a former bachelor and very long story short. Is he like hooked up with a woman and then the woman said that she was having his baby and then it wasn't. It's not, and and she's, like you know, allegedly crazy, but I'm putting allegedly in very uh air quotes. And it turns out she's done this before with other men and like pretended, like you know she goes to doctor's visits, she has pretend ultrasounds, like I think there may have been a condom that she like did something with. You know, it is all the makings of a lifetime story. It's really crazy and this guy, clayton, like, has just been living this nightmare. Well, now the woman whose name is Laura Michelle Owens, is facing a seven count indictment after providing a false testimony related to a paternity scheme.
Speaker 2:This has been going on for years too, because I remember like learning about this pretty much like May, I think, 2023. And so the attorney's office found that she altered an ultrasound image, fabricated a pregnancy video and lied multiple times under oath. And yeah, she like like forgery, you know, tampering with physical evidence, everything that you could just imagine. And so this clayton guy has just been dragged through the coals, is just like non-stop with him. So he went to his video and said, or to social media, and just said, like I'm so happy to finally have justice. It's a nightmare, um, and there's been like I have to say, this is one account where facebook and reddit have really helped, because the people of reddit have like gone through details and found instances where she's lying. It's a lot of internet sleuths at home that has been on his side and really supporting him, even financially, because, like this has been very expensive for him to hire lawyers and have this continue, and so I think there's been a lot of donations for him and everything.
Speaker 1:Wow, you know it's crazy when I see women do this it's absolutely, because basically what you're doing is you're using children as bait or as a pawn.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I think it's a sick way to get around, because especially when a guy finds out that he got someone pregnant and he's trying to do the right thing and then to find out that he was ganged, that kind of hits you in the people's heart.
Speaker 2:I think this woman has real problems. She seems like she has deep issues and you know who knows like, who knows at what point, if she believes that she was pregnant with his baby, or if she was like in it from the start, or you know. You don't know how trouble this person is.
Speaker 1:Do you think it's um, do you think it's something that's maybe like maybe dealing with mental health? Yeah, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I think she has like multiple screws loose.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it seems like she's very troubled and like I think it's a mixture of like probably a little bit of evil mixed with, just like deep mental issues. And so it says she was charged with seven felonies, which is crazy. So like forgery, perjury, tampering with physical evidence, fraudulent schemes. It's just like this person is bad news. So, yeah, wow, and this is all what he did admit to is he? They did hook up, like I think they caught, she dm'd him or something and she was kind of a fan, and then one night he invited her over and like they did hook up. And so I feel like this is also a case of like be careful who you have casual relationships with and you know, especially if you're someone in the public, because if you just answer people's DMs and then they come over like you don't know what you're inviting into your life.
Speaker 1:That is so true and you know what? Unfortunately, especially if you're a well-known person, you know you may want to do a little quick background check on that person. You know I hate to say that, but you know you really do these days. You know. But I feel sorry for people in the limelight because you know, when you're single and you're trying to date people, you meet people, whatever. It's always in the back of your head it's like, okay, is this person really into me?
Speaker 2:Exactly. Or do they just want something? Or are they going to be normal for like three months and then all of a sudden just pull the rug out?
Speaker 1:That is true. That is true. That is true. Now you know, on a side note here, bill Belichick is actually going to be interviewed on Good Morning America on Friday, so it'll be interesting to see if he's going to be there by himself, with Michael Strahan.
Speaker 2:I know I think I saw a news article that she's not allowed on the court or something like that, or not allowed on the field. Her and that woman should team up, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's gonna be a fun interview, exactly.
Speaker 2:The other thing I'm just gonna add to, especially with a woman like this, is that in Clayton's situation is that I feel like you never know, also when you're in the public eye, who thinks you have more money than you actually do and who's trying to get a payday out of it. And maybe she thought, okay, he'll pay for this story to either go away or, if he thinks he has a baby, he'll be giving me $5,000 a month to keep quiet. It's just nuts.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's true and you really hit on a good point, and I think Whoopi Goldberg said it one time on the View Truly only about it was either 1% or 3% of all the actors and actresses.
Speaker 2:Really making money, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Everybody doesn't make the money Right, especially if they're on the Bachelor, like four seasons ago.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, they're on the.
Speaker 1:Bachelor, like four seasons ago. Yeah, so, yeah. So, just because you see them on TV don't mean that they're making the money. Yeah, so, speaking of TV, this is interesting. Did you hear about the gift that our president is going to be getting?
Speaker 2:If it's money, I think I heard There'll be a tariff on it.
Speaker 1:Well, not money, but President Trump has been offered, as a gift from the country of Qatar, a $400 million luxury airplane.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, I would be scared if I was him of, like what's on the airplane or what and I guess it's a very luxurious airplane Wow, you know, got two levels and everything.
Speaker 1:But there's a whole lot of questions that spark up, like one isn't this against the Constitution? As far as taking gifts from another country? I mean, I've heard that even from you know, from multiple sources, that government agents, our government employees, can't even take anything over $20, and even the optics of this you know well. We're going to give you this $400 million airplane. We don't want anything in return, right?
Speaker 2:And of course. I mean all the advertising already, like I've seen the story and I feel like already just the name recognition and just him repeating it over and over and you know, if he's given something that he seems is like gold, and you know, fabulous, he's going to mention it all the time.
Speaker 1:It's going to be the best airline in the world and the biggest plane that's ever been. Yeah, I, I just, and I could be wrong. I find it hard to believe that they're just giving it to him out the good yeah, oh no, it's definitely I could and I could be.
Speaker 1:I could be 100 wrong, okay. But you know, the other thing too is what a lot of people don't understand is like the Beast, which is the limo for the president. You know, they bought a new car for the president when President Obama took place. They call it the Beast, okay. Well, once it came from the factory, they literally ripped it down to pieces and rebuilt the vehicle, for a number of reasons. One, make sure there's no devices in there, no tracking device, stuff like that. And then obviously, there's a lot of technology and security things that are put in those vehicles that are top secret.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that you know. They don't want to know about that, they don't want to know about.
Speaker 1:So I would imagine they would have to do this for this big jet if somehow, whatever, they got past the laws and was able to take it, which would shock me but shouldn't be with all everything that's going on, but I would imagine it would probably take years to tear it apart. Yeah, I would too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and from a security standpoint, then also just from like a um, like a nosiness standpoint too. You know, even if something's not like classified, you don't know who's like what smart engineer is like. Oh, I can see where he's going all the time, or you know something like that that's true, that's true.
Speaker 1:And then you know also, it's the optics too, because you know other countries, if this is allowed, they're going to be like, oh okay, so this is how we yeah listen to us. Let's give them a nice expensive gift, and there's a whole lot that can go wrong when it's like influencers, but you can tell they're like that's why I use pampers.
Speaker 2:I'm like, no, you don't use pampers. I'm like, no, you don't use pampers for your baby.
Speaker 1:That is so true. That is so true. But I would just like to see if it's even allowed under the Constitution. It's not based on the Constitution, but there's been so much craziness happening in politics over the last few years. It'll be interesting to see if this works or not.
Speaker 2:But in the meantime meantime also could you imagine like I feel, like flying would be so cool if you have like an upstairs and a downstairs or like I would, I would forget to be so nervous on planes the way I am if, like I, was able to be like okay I'm gonna go upstairs just like watch tv for a little bit oh, that's true, that's true, that's true.
Speaker 2:Ah, I can only dream, I know, I know.
Speaker 2:Well, that fits in perfectly, because someone that will be taking this private chat everywhere, I think is the world's youngest self-made woman billionaire, which used to be Miss Taylor Swift herself, and now it's Lucy Guo, the 30-year-old founder of Scale AI, who is now the youngest self-made woman billionaire, according to Forbes.
Speaker 2:Scale AI obviously has been like a really big one of the kind of main names, along with like ChatGPT and you know that kind of stuff. She founded the San Francisco-based artificial intelligence company in 2016 when she was 21 years old. So if you think about what you were doing at 21, this person was founding the next big AI company, alongside a 19-year-old, alexander Wang, who's also been in the news a lot. Wang was CEO while Lucy ran the operations and product design teams. Both made Forbes 30 under 30 list in 2018, and then they had a little bit of a disagreement on how to run the company and Lucy started Scale AI and now is a billionaire self-made billionaire, that is. I mean, if you're like the parents of either one of those kids, like what are you? That's just amazing.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. I applaud her.
Speaker 2:Big time.
Speaker 1:That's what you call getting work done, partying late.
Speaker 2:I bet she's partying now too. Now her parties are almost like just be smart. She's one of the only six self-made women billionaires on the planet who are under the age of 40. Out of those six extraordinary women are two artists Swift, who has $1.6 billion net worth, and Rihanna, 37, who has a $1.4 billion net worth.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's awesome and you know what A lot of young girls will look up and go hey, I could be very successful, ultra successful one day yeah, representation is so important. I applaud her.
Speaker 2:I definitely applaud her maybe because Beyonce is over 40? Right, because isn't Beyonce a billionaire too, I would imagine, I believe over 40, right Because isn't?
Speaker 1:Beyonce, a millionaire too, I would imagine. I believe either she is or she's very close to it.
Speaker 2:That would be weird if she is or she's not and Rihanna is, but I don't know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm assuming. I think they are. I think her and Jay-Z are?
Speaker 2:I would be very surprised.
Speaker 1:But I think it may be the age cutoff though, Because that article was under 40, right 40 and under right. Okay, so it may be the age cutoff.
Speaker 2:I feel like with those people that's so cool just to be able to live off just even the interest of what's in your savings of your bank. You know what I mean. Even the interest of what's in your savings of your bank, you know what I mean. Where it's like you're like the interest of how much money you make, even a month, is like gets just more and more to the point where it's so crazy.
Speaker 1:Absolutely absolutely.
Speaker 2:Exactly, they started out by doing a show just like this, I know.
Speaker 1:That is true, talk about something amazing. You remember, a few weeks ago, we talked about the demonic sea lions that were eating the damaged or possessed algae and was going like nuts.
Speaker 2:Yep, and they were scaring the surfers and just like acting a fool and stuff. Yep.
Speaker 1:Now, welcome the demonic no, and basically it's the same scenario. Um, they're affected with the same type of disease. So you know, uh, wildlife enthusiasts and zoos and stuff like that, they they're, you know, coming to the aid to try and help this epidemic. But I'm actually wondering are we looking at a bigger problem? Because, if you think about it, first it was the sea lions, now it's the pelicans. You know, if there's another animal, you've got to wonder is there a bigger problem that we're not facing?
Speaker 2:Definitely especially if it's like the fish and the oysters that we're eating and the shrimp that we're eating and you know, like now explains why we're demonic but like but, uh, yeah, that's. That's really scary and weird and I feel like you know, the seals I can understand and sea lions we. Sometimes we can see them act irritable or angry, but like pelicans almost. If you have a bunch of angry pelicans on a beach, that's scary if they start like going after people and, you know, beaking them, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:And you know, pelicans are crazy because they try and eat everything, Anything they put in their mouth, they try and eat.
Speaker 2:Have you ever seen one? I saw one eat a whole rat.
Speaker 1:Wow, really.
Speaker 2:Yep, I was inith park in los angeles and I was just like laying out on my towel reading and I'm like what a beautiful, nice summer day. And then I look up and there's a pelican in it. And it took a rat, a live rat, a whole live rat, and just went like look, and I could see the rat, like the silhouette, going down as the whole mouth and the whole everything, and I, I like on the spot, lost my appetite. I like I got up and left, I stopped reading my book, I left the whole park that's a hell of a scene.
Speaker 1:It was really shocking and disgusting.
Speaker 2:I really got grossed out because just thinking like ew, it's in their bodies to like just eat it.
Speaker 1:Live like that too bad, you didn't catch it on video. You can put that on social media. Exactly, I know.
Speaker 2:Maybe I'll go back and just capture that and that could be like my personal algorithm. I just like post just every day a pelican eating something weird.
Speaker 1:It probably won't be the craziest thing you'll see on social media.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but if we have demonic I mean that was a pelican, that wasn't demonic if we have a crazy version of that, I don't even want to know. It's going to be taking little kids and just swallowing them whole yeah, so let's hope we don't have any more demonic animals yeah, I know well, oh my gosh, this is so funny.
Speaker 2:I feel like today all of your stories are going well with mine.
Speaker 2:Hopefully, I think some of mine are more uplifting, but not this one.
Speaker 2:Well, this one could actually be good in the long term, because researchers found that those living within a mile of golf courses have 126% higher risk of developing Parkinson's disease than those who live more than six miles away, according to a new study published by the Journal of American Medical Association. You know, remember I don't know if you know this, but like they found that you know Lou Gehrig's disease for a while, they correlated it that maybe, like it had something also to do with people that played on base baseball and you know baseball fields and maybe it was like sprayed with roundup or because they were coming, a lot of baseball players were getting it, so they thought maybe that had something to do with it. And, um, this is obviously big in the disease world of, like the neuro, uh, degenerative diseases which, like, impact so many people. Because maybe it could be the pesticides that is used on the golf courses and hopefully, maybe that could, like you know, inform them and they would stop using that yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1:It kind of makes you wonder, but you know the thing is, is that with Parkinsoninson's disease and certain other diseases, it's amazing. In this day and age we still don't truly understand I know these. There's a lot of speculation but um, it's just amazing, with all the medical research and everything else that we have here, that we can't come up with cures for some of this stuff but I have a feeling that there's multiple reasons why, and this is probably one of them.
Speaker 2:Like I don't think it's all golf courses, I bet it's like our food, the toxins in the air. You know this, that the other thing, the heavy metals that all around us like, and this is probably one of many different reasons, things um, but yeah, it's scary.
Speaker 1:Now, did they? Did they do research to see people on a golf course versus, let's say, in a park or anything?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, it said like uh it just said like golf courses were found to be like sprayed the most with more like uniform type pesticides, like you know, instead of just like different kind of like individual, independent ones. It's just higher rates of like pesticides that are more on the commercial end of things and they just said, yeah, it's pretty weird. It said drinking water from the municipal wells near golf courses also maybe like put people in a vulnerable spot. Do you live near a golf course?
Speaker 1:I have one near me. When I say near me, it's probably like about maybe five or seven minutes away. It's not right across the street or anything. But you know the one thing I know with me I'm weird when it comes to water. I really don't even like drinking water in a restaurant most of the time Because you don't know where it's coming from.
Speaker 1:But you know, if it's a nicer restaurant I'll go ahead and drink the water there. But most of the time, even in my house, we drink bottled water all the time. Spring water, oh yeah, I love spring water.
Speaker 2:It's so funny too. I went out to dinner and I have two friends that have lived in LA for such a long time and they both ordered tap water and I was like that's so weird. I'm like maybe there's something in them. They've just given up or something, but I'm like you guys have been in LA the longest and LA is known to not. You don't want to drink the tap water here, so it's just weird. Yeah yeah, like I said, I prefer bottled water.
Speaker 2:Because, I don't know, there's a lot of stuff that's contaminated. Oh yeah, just like the contaminants and all the people's medications and just yeah, yeah, that's true, that's true.
Speaker 1:But hopefully this helps Actually but oh, I was going to say, being that they did identify this on the golf course, maybe they'll find out exactly. Is it the pesticides, is it this, is it that? So I think that will help them possibly, just possibly come up with some, some better treatments and maybe a possible solution.
Speaker 2:I always think about that, where it's like all the research that has to go in of like, okay, say, someone gets diagnosed with parkinson's, then they have to ask them, like, do you live near a golf course? Are you eating pineapples? Are you you know? It's all you almost have to know like everything about the person to just be like, okay, here's a hundred people. Are there like anything in common because I always think about that with people with like food poisoning and stuff too, where it's like, okay, it's linked to like romaine lettuce, but then how do they know if, like you know that you, there's so much that is needs to be done in terms of researching and like I, that's wonderful. I feel like those people that do that don't get enough credit, that are like spending their whole life's work trying to make correlations and like get to the bottom of things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree, I agree. Like I said, I think that I think it's a good thing that they identified this, because I think it's going to help out with coming up with more root causes and, you know, better treatment.
Speaker 2:And at a certain point we just know that likeup spray is not good and most pesticides aren't good, so I feel like, as a blanket whole, we could agree that we don't need. I think someone will be really, really rich if they come up with a way to do this naturally, which I'm sure they already have, but it's not affordable.
Speaker 1:That's true Organic golf courses.
Speaker 2:Soon we're going to see free-range organic, organic golf courses. Soon we're going to see free range, organic, clean golf courses there you go.
Speaker 1:Well, talking about getting to the bottom of things, pete Diddy, here let's go.
Speaker 2:I did. I did too much baby oil.
Speaker 1:Well, today was the first day of I did. I did Too much baby oil. Well, today was the first day of Sean Diddy Combs' trial, so obviously they had the opening arguments and the first witness which is going to be there tomorrow is going to be his ex-girlfriend, the one that is In the video, the famous video in the hotel where he punches and drags her back in the room, and it's going to be an incredible scene, I think, Because today I guess it came out that one of the witnesses was an off-duty police officer that works security and she said that basically, she was offered a big wad of cash not to say anything about the incident.
Speaker 2:Oh my god.
Speaker 1:It's going to be crazy stuff coming out and she turned it down. She's like no, I don't want the money Really. But yeah, I mean, that's new, I did not even know about that.
Speaker 2:I mean people like I feel like we're just at the tip of the iceberg now of hearing about witnesses that are disappearing and people on the jury that don't want to be part of it anymore. Like I think it's going to run deep in terms of who doesn't want to be on this case or speak up, oh, in terms of who doesn't want to be on this case or speak up.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, and you know, I think it's going to boil down to how strong the evidence is. He was offered a plea agreement that he turned down. He decided to go to court. But we're going to learn a lot more About these little freak offs Than we ever wanted to know before.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have a feeling the people on the jury and just involved are going to need a lot of protection, like, and just you know, probably a lot of anonymity and just like I don't know. It just seems like there's probably more people than we know that might be on the Diddy side of things, that are just like threatening and just you know you don't want to mess with them.
Speaker 1:That's true. That's true. How long do you think this trial will take?
Speaker 2:I think it's going to end one day before the new Blake Lively trial. However long that could be six months. No, I think it will be maybe like almost, maybe like ten months. I feel like I feel like it will be really long, like less than a year, because, if I had to guess, I feel like things are going to come up that like are going to take up, like this is now on pause for three weeks, or now the jury is deliberating for, like you know, 20 days or something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know they showed his children coming in and then his mother came in as well and I guess once they got into the graphic details, the his daughters, I guess got up and left. They didn't want to be there for that. Yeah I don't blame them, but um, the one thing I'm interested to see is um what other names are brought up? Yeah, there's a lot of famous people that went to those parties.
Speaker 2:I know, but don't you feel like between this and the Epstein case, we've been waiting for years for just like release the names of just these parties and I feel like a lot of these has been like, especially with the Epstein list?
Speaker 1:a lot of the names like have been released and it just seems like as a public I don't know if we don't care or like we're just so apathetic now, like it's like oh, ok, whatever, yeah, and you know the one thing too just because a person was at a Diddy party don't mean they participated in the freak offs, but it could be a bad look depending on who they are. Yeah, yeah, you know. In other words, if you know you're a minister oh my gosh. Or other people, and again, not saying you did anything wrong.
Speaker 2:You participated?
Speaker 1:in anything but for the optics, that may not be a good look.
Speaker 2:Exactly If you're part of a royal family, if you're an ex-president, if you're a CEO of a company like yeah, if you're a CEO of a company like yeah so it's going to be interesting, because I know there's some real powerhouse witnesses supposedly.
Speaker 1:Now, what that means, we don't know. It could be just regular people that work with them.
Speaker 2:It could be stars, we don't know what if it's JLo would never do it. Yeah, I said, jlo would never go against him. Yeah, no, j-lo would never do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, huh, I said J-Lo would never go against him. Yeah, something tells me J-Lo is probably glad that they broke up a long time ago.
Speaker 2:Exactly, exactly. J-lo probably just wants like nothing to do with it. Like I would imagine she doesn't want to be like dragged into a mess.
Speaker 1:Yeah, dragged into a mess. Yeah, I mean it's, it's sad because you know, diddy was really close to being a billionaire himself. Yeah, and I don't know. It just seems like and again, not all people, but it seems like sometimes, when people get the money and fame that they've been working for all their life, they think they're untouchable.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And you'll be amazed at how many people kind of forget that you're a human being too. People are human around you and you're not God.
Speaker 2:Definitely I've always heard that too where it's just like money won't change you per se, but it just amplifies who you already are Exactly. I honestly feel like if people like you and I had it, I don't think we'd be like wildly different people that are now doing like freak off parties and stuff. I feel like we would just do what we're already doing, but like in a bigger scale, and I think I think sometimes just like yeah, it just kind of amplifies who you are, you're.
Speaker 1:you're like almost your shadow sides, you know, oh yeah and you, you know, steve Harvey said something that hit it right on the nail and he said one thing you got to understand money doesn't change anybody. People think it does, it doesn't.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So, in other words, if you're a real nice person to begin with, you come into a lot of money. You're going to be a much nicer person. Exactly, you may suck with a lot more money doing other things, where, on the other hand, if you're an asshole and you get money, you're going to become a bigger a-hole. Exactly, you're just going to amplify who you are, so it doesn't change you. It actually to me, lets you be who you really are.
Speaker 2:Exactly and give to more people. But I'm sure at some point it almost seems like Diddy wasn't just seeking money. He was seeking the flashiness, the lifestyle, the power, the ego, you know.
Speaker 1:I think he hit it on the head, I think it was more, because he already had money, he already had power. I think it was the control thing. Yeah, he wanted to feel in control of everything and everyone around him.
Speaker 2:Yes, and a lot of these people I'm not saying he does, but a lot of people have like a god complex, you know where, like they think they're, they want to be like the god of things and just like the almighty one, and so yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1:So yeah, that's going to be interesting. I know we're going to have more to say once, uh, once we start seeing more witnesses, I know I really hope it gets juicy.
Speaker 2:I just feel like the past couple scandals like this there hasn't been. It's like there's a little splash but then we just kind of all quickly forget. So I hope it's as good as it's promised.
Speaker 1:Well, when you're talking about over a thousand bottles of baby oil, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think it's probably going to get juicy Totally.
Speaker 2:Okay, good, well, this was crazy. I don't know if you saw this. Uh, fox news guest cameron kinsey recently fainted on air, which was like very scary um, during a may 8th appearance on fox news at night. So basically she was like just talking and all of a sudden you could see her kind of get like very slurry and blurry and then she just goes down and falls to the floor and just you know, um, she said that the shocking health scare was likely the result of severe dehydration, which is like you know, a lot of times when we hear that it's like, okay, it's very rare that someone just like faints out of nowhere for dehydration because you would think you'd be like I'm so, I'm so thirsty, I just need water, I don't know. A lot of times I feel like that goes hand in hand with other stuff, like whether it's medication or you know, there's some other things going on. Hopefully there's not like a huge health issue.
Speaker 2:But what I wanted to talk about I don't know if you saw the clip, but pretty much her co-host is getting a lot of flack because he came on. Host Jonathan Hunt came on and told viewers that we're just going to get some help here for Cameron, but like she fell out of her chair and a lot of people are saying that he didn't even someone said he was giving like clean up on aisle 5 energy, where he was just like someone else handle this. There's been like a jar of spaghetti that has fallen on the floor and, honestly truly, when I watched it for the first time, I was like yelling at the tv, being like help her. You know, like you're not a robot, like get on the, get on the ground. Like you know, the people on the air will understand for a second if a major emergency happened.
Speaker 2:But I understand too that like none of us have been in this, we don't know. You don't know how you would react until it happens to you. And I think he was just trying to maintain like professionalism, but it doesn't look good for him because he like froze and kind of stumbled a lot and then it's like your co-host is literally on the floor, like maybe those eight or nine seconds could have saved her life, you know. And so I just feel like I don't want to judge, but I feel like if I was her and I watch that back, like I honestly think I'd be mad at that guy and I would, probably not forever, but I would just tell him hey, that's really, you reacted kind of weirdly. You didn't even care that I was on the floor.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I did see the clip of it. It is a little bit surprising that he didn't do anything.
Speaker 2:He just acts.
Speaker 1:so callous the crazy thing about it your natural instinct when you see someone fall, especially if it's someone you know. Yeah, that's just a natural response it's very weird.
Speaker 2:It was like and I totally understand if he was just like we're gonna deal with this right now. You know, thank you for your uh patience and then like go. You know, it's okay to be rattled, but like he just seemed to have like a weird like uh, like vacant energy about him. But I also understand he was probably in shock as well and you know, like he was like okay, we're gonna find some help and help her, but it's like she actively may be like not breathing right now or like need you? I don't know.
Speaker 1:So it's now the only other thing that could be, and we don't know this, but maybe he was told because you know a lot of people don't realize those reporters have you know stuff. You know a little thing exactly, exactly I've been told by a producer leave her alone.
Speaker 2:We got people running to the set, totally you know I think I think multiple things can be true, where I bet there was stuff that we don't even see behind the scenes happening, and I bet he does care, and I think it was odd like the way that he reacted. You know, I just not that there shouldn't be like one set of expectations of what happens when your co-host faints on air, but to me it was like not a very human response and like, Because once she started, you know like real slow moving.
Speaker 1:Yeah, producers probably behind the scenes say get somebody out there exactly, exactly, yeah, yeah, totally so.
Speaker 2:Like of course. Of course he's just human and he's probably in his mind, half of his brain is thinking what's happening and he's trying to get words out, but tiktok is not very happy with him, so he's gonna get canceled. But but I mean like of course, like we're just human and I know a lot of things too, like I've seen car accidents before where it's like you take a few seconds to even call 911 or something you know, just because you're still processing things.
Speaker 1:Um, but honestly, the worst thing is when something happens, no one calls the police, everybody's just, you know, putting oh yeah, that that happens a lot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like group mind definitely. You know like, yeah, totally, and they've done like lots of studies on that too. And yeah, I just think I honestly think if I was her and I was watching that back, I would be like I almost like wouldn't trust the person as much anymore.
Speaker 1:You know because in your mind you know, depending on how know how close they are, she may even ask and say hey, um, why did you do nothing when I failed?
Speaker 2:yeah, honestly, I'd be like hello, like like I'm like, okay, that's good to know that I lose consciousness and you're just like stumbling, like I, I still think, yes, you're on air and you're a reporter, but you're a human first and you're a friend first, hopefully, to this person and like, show a little bit of you know, just human emotions, it's okay.
Speaker 1:That is true. That is true. So well, the good thing is she is better, because I know she did. She spoke to someone and said that. What did she say? She was dehydrated, she had eaten or whatever.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she had severe dehydration, which I understand, especially if you're traveling nonstop and whatever. Yeah, she had severe dehydration, which I understand, especially if you're traveling non-stop, and especially if you drink or didn't eat that morning or had lots of coffee. I understand how that could happen and all the lights are on you and it's a big thing, but yeah, that is true. That's why she needs to drink water, but not if she's six miles or less from a golf course.
Speaker 1:Very true, very true. We stay hydrated here. I got my water.
Speaker 2:Yep, I got my water too. You've been hearing me extra hydrate this time.
Speaker 1:Talk about interesting things coming up. Meryl, what do you have coming up?
Speaker 2:Ooh, oh my gosh. I can't believe we're already at the end now. I will be in lovely Santa Barbara later on this week and I have some really fun shows. I'm June 8th. I will be in Glendale, california, at a really cool place called the Glendale Room, one of my favorite local venues, and, um, there's a theme it's called. It's so funny. It's a group called Stuffed Cabbage and it's like a. Every month they have a different theme of a comedy show, like it will be money or careers or whatever. So I'll let everyone know once I know my theme.
Speaker 1:But it'll be fun, nice, nice. Well, we definitely had a lot of fun today. We did, and I definitely want to thank everyone for being patient with us trying out this new software for the show.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you. I think my software only crashed three times. Thank out this new software for the show. Yeah, thank you. I think my software only crashed three times, thank you.
Speaker 1:Well, everyone again, thank you for supporting us. We really appreciate you guys watching us. Please make sure you tell everyone about the show and also make sure that you tell everyone about Merle and what she has coming up and support her as well.
Speaker 2:So sweet, thank you.
Speaker 1:Well, everyone, enjoy the rest of your day. I am Lawrence Elrod, and.
Speaker 2:I'm Meryl Clemo Bye.
