Thirsty Topics podcast

Pageant Walkout, Public Apology, Private Power for 11/13/25

• Lawrence Elrod & Meryl Klemow

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A pageant director’s demeaning remarks trigger a contestant walkout and a broader talk on power, accountability, and the strength of public proof. We move from a fatal cargo crash and AI in cars to a “phantom” NFL marriage rumor and practical steps to stop Bitcoin ATM scams.

• Livestreamed disrespect and the Miss Universe walkout
• Why apologies fail when behavior is on tape
• UPS MD-11 crash facts and safety anxiety
• What AI in cars should and should not do
• Celebrity privacy versus spectacle economics
• How Bitcoin ATM scams target seniors
• Simple red flags and family safe-word tactics

Yay, I have a show if you're in the Los Angeles area, Tuesday, November 18th at a place called The Dime, which is like a bar. And uh yeah, it's at 8 p.m. The dime in Los Angeles. It's right across from the street from the very famous Cantors Deli, which is a great deli. So if anyone comes before, you it you should stop and have a matzo ball soup at Cantor's.
Please continue to share and let people know who we are and bring people over to watch and listen to us.


Tired of surface-level inspiration? This raw, transformative documentary digs deep into turning pain into purpose. Mainstream platforms wouldn't touch these powerful stories of resilience, but you can access them now on elrodvnetwork.com.

Tired of surface-level inspiration? This raw, transformative documentary digs deep into turning pain into purpose. Mainstream platforms wouldn't touch these powerful stories of resilience, but you can access them now on elrodvnetwork.com.

Tired of surface-level inspiration? This raw, transformative documentary digs deep into turning pain into purpose. Mainstream platforms wouldn't touch these powerful stories of resilience, but you can access them now on elrodvnetwork.com.

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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.

SPEAKER_01:

Hello everyone. Welcome to this week's episode of Thirsty Topics. I'm Lawrence Elrod.

SPEAKER_00:

And I'm Meryl Climo.

SPEAKER_01:

Hey Meryl.

SPEAKER_00:

Hey, how are you?

SPEAKER_01:

I am doing fantastic. How about you?

SPEAKER_00:

I'm very good. I'm pulling up some good topics. I'm clearing my phone history right now of me looking at brown leather jackets. I've been obsessed with shopping for did you ever like look online and shop for stuff and then all of a sudden be like, no, no, no, I want none of it.

SPEAKER_01:

Well that happens sometimes, especially when you you look and it's like, yeah, yeah, this would be nice. And then right before you pull the trigger to buy, like, nah, I don't really need this.

SPEAKER_00:

Exactly. And I feel like that's a good hack that I do too. Even if I know I want it, I feel like companies will then give you like coupons, like they'll they'll then email you and be like, We saw that something's in your cart. Here's 15% off. And I I wait to see like how desperate they get, and then I'll click purchase.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yeah, it's it still freaks me out when you look up something or you have a conversation, and all of a sudden you get all these advertisements on what you just looked up or what you just talked about.

SPEAKER_00:

So yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I guess Big Brother is always watching and listening, huh?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, totally. And I'll I'll be thinking like I think I I genuinely like saw um someone in a brown leather jacket that I thought was cool, and then of course I didn't like say it to anyone, I didn't even Google it, and then of course I came back to my phone and it was like showing me brown leather jackets, so yeah, that's kind of cool and also creepy at the same time. Yeah, yep.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, Meryl, uh, why don't you start off today and tell us what we're talking about?

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, cool. Now, have you seen any of this like Miss Universe drama at all? What have you seen so far?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, from what I saw, basically, um this asshole, I mean the leader of the youth the Miss Universe pageant made a very, very disrespectful comment. Basically, she's mad at I believe it was Miss Mexico, because I guess she didn't do something to promote the pageant. So he got mad at her, called her a derogatory name, and made her leave. And as a result, a bunch of other pageant members got angry and in protest, they left as well.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, so you already know that's perfect. Okay, good. Because I think everyone has seen the clip of like the walkout, you know, but they're making it seem at first, they made it seem like Miss Mexico was almost being dramatic and like being a diva walking out, but what they don't know is like exactly the stuff that was said to her. Um, they said in the video, the executive was heard saying, um, you must promote the host country, be careful, you're in Thailand, you are in a game. Um, and basically a lot of the other women stood for her, which is really nice. I think we saw a lot of like uh camaraderie by the other contestants and basically saying you can't be if you're mean to one of us, you're gonna like have to go through all of us type of thing. Um the pageant director had already been kicked out of the country, and they're saying, uh, for the queen, if you follow the order of your national director, you're a dummy. And I just thought um the Miss Mexico was saying you're not respecting me as a woman. She appeared to walk out of the room on her own, and a handful of contestants jumped to her jump to their feet to follow her out. And then with that feed still going, we heard him threaten that anyone that left the room would be would be banned from the competing in the pageant. So this is just crazy. And then, like afterwards, of course, people were saying, like, he he apologized on late Tuesday saying, I was not feeling good. Um, and I do apologize for everyone, but I'm like, the times that I don't feel well, you're gonna threaten a bunch of women and like make them feel unwelcome in your country. Like, I've never heard of that. And so it his apology didn't really go well. The press conference kind of backfired. Um, and I mean this was live, everyone heard it live, so it was right there. It wasn't like a he said, she said type of thing, you know, it was right there on video.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I believe he was sorry too. He was sorry that he got caught.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry he got caught and exactly, exactly. And sorry his behavior was like live streamed to everyone.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yeah, and the way he said it and how comfortable he was tell me that this kind of nonsense probably went on for a long time. I don't I doubt very seriously, this is the first time I'm ever saying something like this.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. I think too, like a lot of I think in the past, maybe when I was growing up, there was this like wrong fallacy that these the beauty pageant women were just kind of very like vapid and they didn't really have anything, but it's like these are women that are so powerful and smart in like every category, and they're not they're not just beautiful, and they tend to have really good hearts and like support each other, they're not a bunch of like catty women. I feel like by the time you get to this stage in the beauty pageant, like you have so much else going for you just besides your beauty, and and a lot of these women support each other, and in this day and age, they're just not gonna take that from a man.

SPEAKER_01:

I agree. Uh, I think it's silly. Um, no one should be talked to like that, period. So no one should be disrespected like that. And I've heard horror stories behind the scenes about what happens at these pageants, and you know, I'm really glad that the other women stood up and said, you know what, enough's enough.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. That was mixed Miss Mexico. I feel like all the the women of Mexico are really getting uh like last this other the other recording we talked about, uh Miss Mexico president. So good. I'm glad, and and this is amazing that I feel like now we're with like live stream, we're able to call these things out in real time rather than just women feeling like uh you know, kind of just put down all the time.

SPEAKER_01:

I agree, I agree, and um, like I said, I I just hope that um people watching what happened understands that this kind of nonsense won't be tolerated anymore.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep. I I love that uh he asked her, Why are you still talking? And then she said, Because I have a voice, you're not respecting me as a woman. Like, I think that's amazing.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, she didn't back down, and I'm so glad she didn't. And like I said, you know, this half-assed apology again. Yeah, he was sorry, he was sorry that he got caught.

SPEAKER_00:

Exactly, exactly, and not feeling well, or like, are you a baby? You know, like that's so weird, and you're with a bunch of just like strong, powerful women, like then go take a nap and like let someone else handle it.

SPEAKER_01:

So I guess if I have a bad day, I should just go to the grocery store and just curse out the cashier for no reason. Yeah, today, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

Exactly. They they should let him go and be like, sorry, we're having a bad day.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, something tells me that um he's probably not gonna be around any pageants anytime soon.

SPEAKER_00:

Exactly. And uh, don't you think a lot of those, I mean, I don't know how it is there, but I feel like here in the US, there's like sponsors and board of directors, and like that was just even from a financial decision, people would pull out because they don't even want like advertisers, don't want their higher-ups treating contestants like that.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh no, and then also, too, they don't want the backlash because if people go backlash against Ms. Universe pageant, they're gonna also go after those sponsors, too.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01:

So kudos to her. Um, unfortunately, um we're gonna talk about another sad incident. Um UPS Airline flight number 2976 was a scheduled domestic cargo flight from Louisville, uh Mohammed Ali International Airport in Louisville, Kentucky, to Honolulu, Hawaii on November 4th, 2025. The aircraft operating the flight, a McDonnell Douglas MD-11, suffered an engine separation during the takeoff roll and crashed into an industrial area shortly after takeoff at about 5 13 p.m. local time. The crash killed 14 people, including all three aboard the aircraft. The accident is being investigated by the NTSB, which is the National Transportation Safety Board.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, I've seen that. It's terrible.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, the videos were incredible. I mean, it looks like something out of a out of a high-action movie, because you wouldn't expect to see a plane going down in flames like that in real time.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. I and like I saw a video from someone that was supposed to be on the next plane, too. Like they were like on the next plane out, and it's it's so weird and scary. And we've talked about this a whole bunch of times just with everything with the air traffic controllers and more of the commercial flights, like what we don't need in our vision is just more and more like you know, plane disasters, and it's so terrible.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and I think that um being that we're into this shutdown, and I know in the previous episode we talked about how they're going to be canceling 10% of the flights because of the shutdown. This incident doesn't make people feel any better, I wouldn't think.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. Yeah, no, me neither. Yeah, I think this is so scary. And once again, too, it's like because uh like also I I subscribe to a lot of pilots on YouTube that anytime this happens, then they go on YouTube and make a detailed thing like when the aircrash happened in India, they'll go by specifically like what happened and kind of talk about more of the malfunctions from like a technical point of view and everything. And it's like these poor pilots are having to just do this daily and like explain to everyone. And I mean, not only that, but the people that lost their lives, it's like just terrible.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I I wonder what happened where the engine fell off the plane, though. I mean, that's crazy.

SPEAKER_00:

I know, I know. Yeah, that sounds like and you have to wonder if it's um if that was something that someone could have caught before, or if it was just one of those, like a malfunction that was just one in a million.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I mean, that's true. Um, it it's also said that out of the 14 people, only three of them were actually on the plane, which means that there were 11 people on the ground that were killed because of this.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh my gosh. Yeah, very scary.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I'll make it uh a lighter thing. But now you don't have any secret TikToks account. I guess you wouldn't tell us if you didn't because they're not secret, but I feel like you know you're very active on social media, and and are you too busy to have any secret TikTok accounts?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I don't believe in those secret TikTok accounts. I don't have time to be honest with you.

SPEAKER_00:

Exactly. Same thing. Well, well, Jennifer Lawrence is a little bit different. She says that she has a secret life on TikTok where she has these troll accounts that she goes in and she gets in like online fights with people and she'll comment on people's videos. Um now this is understandable for her because obviously, if like Jennifer Lawrence is the one making getting into fights with people, it's going to make headlines. And I feel like as a celebrity, that would be funny to like do that and just start arguing and be like, actually, I think she was great in this movie. And and, you know, into just getting fights with people. Maybe not in fights, but I feel like I would more support people or like I would be up in my own comments or things about me. Um, but she was talking with co-star Robert Pattinson, and she admitted that she gets into fights in the comments section. Um, she went on to reveal that it all started with fights back and forth about topics like the real housewife and the Kardashians. So I think that's cute. And I feel like, you know, she should have a right to go on TikTok like a normal person and not have to like constantly be a celebrity. So I think that's understandable.

SPEAKER_01:

That's true. I mean, I guess the other way I look at it too is you're a celebrity and you have time to do this, a lot of time on your hands.

SPEAKER_00:

I I almost feel like they have more time than we think because if you think about it, like they have someone doing something for them at every given point, you know, like a chef is making them a meal, they're probably getting a massage, like it and I feel like someone like her probably sits in the makeup chair for so many hours a day, and you're just like sitting there bored that you could just, you know, have a real sneaky account. I I've never had an account. I've no I've known friends like when we were teenagers that they would have um accounts to like text their boyfriend and see if he would cheat on them or something. Like, you know, they would get like burner accounts or to to look at someone online and to peek at them. But same thing, I'm like you have never really had time for that.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And um to have an A-lesson to it is kind of crazy when you think about it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So if you get into a fight with someone online, just know that it may be Jennifer Lawrence.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it could be, and you're right, it definitely could be. Well, that actually is a great lead into the next conversation here. I don't know if people ever heard of this. Have you ever heard of the term grok?

SPEAKER_00:

Um, yes, I was so confused about it, but but I was I I did, and then I saw this, but yeah, like very recently in the past like week or two.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, grok um is having inappropriate conversations in the Teslas now. Now, just so people are aware, because I know some people like me before I ran across this story is like, what the hell is Grok? Well, basically, to put it simply, uh, Grok has the potential to engage in inappropriate conversation in Tesla vehicles due to past incidents where the AI exhibited hateful and offensive behavior, such as anti-Semitic remarks and mentioning white genocide in response to unrelated queries. While Grok's behavior has been criticized, some sources say that these issues have been addressed through updates, while others note that these issues raise significant concerns about safety and the integration of advanced AI into vehicles, especially Tesla's, has not provided an official uh comp uh comment on the matter. Now, I guess my question is as you can probably know by what I just described here, it's basically AI in the vehicle. Um it's an AI program that you can have a conversation with, which is probably a whole different conversation all into itself. But why would you need this in your vehicle, first of all? And then secondly, for this to have the hateful stuff coming across, I saw a video of a woman driving, and basically her children was talking to Brock. Uh, and I guess Grok kind of went off the rails on the conversation a little bit because she had turned off. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So I don't know, like doing illegal things basically.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And I was sitting there thinking to myself, why the hell would you create technology like this to put in a vehicle? Or am I missing something?

SPEAKER_00:

No, I think I think you're completely right. It's so weird because yeah, I'm sure someone could find what they were talking about, but like it was definitely inappropriate. And and I feel like we don't need our car to search the way that I'd say at home. I'd say, you know, Alexa or whatever, like, you know, how how old is Jennifer Lawrence? Or like I'd say something like that. I'm like, I feel like we can go five seconds without knowing information in our car, other than just navigating to where we're going or like what the weather is like or something, you know. But I I agree that it's really weird that it goes so off script, and it's like you have to wonder how it's programmed and who is reading that type of stuff, or like you know, engineering it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and then the other thing too is you know, if we don't get this under control, you're gonna have a situation where you know you're doing your GPS and this AI-generated GPS, you're driving, everything's going good, and it tells you to turn this way, but I'm gonna go the long way. And then your vehicle goes, Hey, dummy, why'd you go that way? You're not supposed to turn that way.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

You're arguing with your car, which okay, people driving by may not know what's going on, but oh, this person's gonna go crazy here, you know. I mean, at what point do we slow this down? Because it is kind of getting a little out of control.

SPEAKER_00:

It definitely is. I remember a few years ago when like Tesla first started making its way in the market. I was just so impressed that it could like honk out jingle bells, and and and I think it like made a fart sound or something too. And I remember being like, this is so crazy, you know, that it's able to do this. And I feel like we should have stopped at that level of engineering where it's like that's enough, like just be happy with that. And now we we have it like directing us and like doing inappropriate things.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, that is true. That is definitely true. Um, I would just say that if you have this technology in your vehicle, be very careful what you say around it and be very mindful of who's in the vehicle at you with you at all times. Personally, I wouldn't want this kind of technology in my car. No, would you want this technology?

SPEAKER_00:

No, not at all. I be I barely even know how to. I use the backup camera in my car. That's that's all I know how to do. And especially if you're, I mean, I could only imagine if you're like 18 or 19 and you're driving for the first time and you have a Tesla, like I would definitely have gotten into trouble with some of those things, you know, just like some of the car. But um, no, I don't think it should go this far. And I know like Elon and Tesla is known for like pushing the envelope and just kind of being a little cheeky and everything, but this is definitely crazy.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yeah. It reminds me of a good commercial you could create using this. In fact, I should write this down, but I could picture uh 16-year-old getting ready to get their license, they're about to do their the driver's test, and then all of a sudden the car goes, Hey, remember you said you hope you don't get a stupid uh driver's insurance, uh driver's instructor or tester, and the testing guy looks over like that would be so good, yeah, or especially to like a pay if you're driving with a parent and it's like don't tell your mom that you skipped school on Tuesday, or yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

There's different ways. But I think that you're right that it's unless it's serving us helping, like I think we need help driving safer and just navigating the roads better, and all this stuff is just extra and kind of getting in the way of like the main purpose, which is just to be safer on the roads.

SPEAKER_01:

I agree. I totally, totally agree with that.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I'm so interested to hear your thoughts on the next one because I know you are a football person. And wait, Aaron Rodgers is a football person, right? Yes. Okay, okay, so um the the Aaron Rodgers wife rumor explodes after family speaks out. Now, I didn't know about this, it was news to me, but I thought I went down a whole rabbit hole of this. I thought this was so interesting. So, after months of speculation, the mystery surrounding Aaron Rodgers' alleged wife has reached new levels of intrigue. His friends and families are all baffled by the quarterback's secret of love life, which he has managed to keep entirely hidden. Fans are wondering whether his marriage is even real, if she's a real woman, who this is. Um, one of his teammates told him that, told the Daily Mail that she's like a phantom. We have yet to meet her. We don't know. Now he keeps his secret like or his private life under wraps. Um, he mentioned that he was dating someone named Brittany, describing her as a private person, but like no one can figure it out. So what do you think? Is this weird? Do you know some inside information?

SPEAKER_01:

You know, he's a very uh very interesting or strange person, depending on what you know what you think about him. I do have to put this disclaimer out there. Uh, he used to be the quarterback for a long time for uh Green Bay, and he's made some comments about my bear, so I'm not particularly a big fan of his. So I do want to put a disclaimer out there.

SPEAKER_00:

So we might have a bias against him, okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so you know the thing about Aaron Rodgers, he's he's he's a very, very interesting person. Maybe not in a good way.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, and so like if he has a wife, this this means she doesn't come to any games and they're like never seen out together. I just don't understand how you could hide this if you're like a public person.

SPEAKER_01:

I personally think he's not married because in this day and age, especially with social media and everything else going on, it would be pretty much impossible to hide a wife for that many years.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah, because wouldn't someone even just capture you like going out of your house, you know, with someone?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and again, I could be wrong. People have done stranger things, but I honestly don't think that she has a wife. And I could I could be totally wrong, but I don't think he does.

SPEAKER_00:

Now, do you think he's just saying that he does just so we to people so people leave him alone? Or it's also weird if he hooks up with women and then they're like, oh no, he doesn't have a wife because I was like dating him, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and you know, sometimes people have this crazy attitude that you know even bad press is is good press. In other words, anything to stay in the limelight where people are talking about it, because really, in all honesty, he's on the downward spin of his career, and yeah, you know, probably should have retired. I think, and there's a lot of people that feel this way, you want to leave when you're on top of your game. You don't want to when you know you're going kind of downhill sports-wise, because otherwise people are will only remember the last few years versus your entire career.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, but don't you think too, some of the teams, like whether it's a coach or the opposition from a team, would call it out if they're like, Do you know his wife is fake? Like, I feel like this would be the kind of thing that someone would like sell out the story to the press. It depends on who they are.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, if they're a professional athlete, they probably don't want nothing to do with it just because they don't want to get dragged into the mess. But outside of that, yeah, you're right, that could potentially happen.

SPEAKER_00:

That's so interesting. Well, we'll see. I don't know why someone would also want to like I can see keeping your private life private, but like at least let people know who you're married to. Or if I was the wife, I'd be like, okay, let's like at least we don't have to post anything, or we don't have to go out for the paparazzi, but let's at least like let people know that we're married.

SPEAKER_01:

That's true, that's true. And most women would not want to be hit for that long either.

SPEAKER_00:

So no, I get mad if my boyfriend doesn't post me on Instagram for like a month. He we the other day we got into a fight about it. He said he was gonna message every single person on Instagram just a picture of me so that they know that I'm around. So I could not I could not be Aaron Roger's wife. I'm too petty.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, this is a shame that we're even talking about this, but elderly people are being scammed out of their money using Bitcoin ATMs.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01:

So elderly people are frequently and disproportionately targeted in scams involving Bitcoin ATMs, resulting in substantial financial losses. These scams typically involve fraudsters using impersonation tactics and creating a false sense of urgency to coerce victims into depositing cash into these machines with losses ranging in the millions of dollars annually. Millions.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh my gosh. There's so many scams nowadays, whether it's like the target gift cards or the bitcoins or the ones where they pretend that they're a bank.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, you know the crazy thing, Merrill, is that you know, don't get me wrong, scams have been around for a long time, but it just seems like this year it's just like at an all-time high now. Yeah, yep.

SPEAKER_00:

That I I had a friend that fell for the target gift cards, and she spent like$1,400 on gift cards, and and and she even she went to the target employee and said, This seems weird, is this a scam? And the target employee was like, Nope, it seems right to me. And then wow, yeah. So after that, like I called my parents and I was like, Do not believe anyone, like unless you're walking into the bank itself and like talking to a cashier inside the bank, just never trust anyone.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and and you know, this the sad part about it is that they're also playing on emotions, too, because when you look at it in most of these things, if you look hard enough, you can kind of see the scam for what it is.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, yeah, for sure. And I think too, like this one, like Bitcoin and crypto things, they're confusing in general to people, so it's like they already kind of seem like a scam, and I can tell how older people may not know what's real and what's not, like you know, they're not sure if they're investing in bitcoins or not.

SPEAKER_01:

That's true, that's true. I mean, I've I've seen videos about this where um, in fact, it was this one older woman, and you know, she was depositing thousands of dollars into this Bitcoin ATM. And just so people are aware, a Bitcoin ATM, you put money in. You don't get money out, so it's not like a regular ATM. Right. So I it was, I guess, this worker there called the police, um, you know, to say, hey, I believe this person's being scammed, and the police officer was, you know, telling them, man, who are you sending this money to? You know, and and she was talking about some kind of emergency or whatever. And to me, that's a red flag, too. When you get a phone call saying, hey, you need to pay me$1,000 right now. Yeah, yeah, this is gonna happen, you know, or or better yet, there was one scam where there was a guy who, and this goes back to the AI thing again, where they had an AI voice for grandson saying, Hey, I'm in jail, and then the lawyers on the phone with them, supposedly there at the jail, saying, Hey, you need to send us$9,000 right now so we can get them out of jail. And it's like that sounds crazy as hell.

SPEAKER_00:

Exactly, exactly. So, yeah, I think anytime that happens, people need to take their emotion out of it and just like calm for a second and make sure, you know, like call the county jail to confirm or call the bank. Like, you always err on the side of being paranoid, I think.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and just thing is, I remember one time we I got a phone, a scam phone call talking about there's something wrong with my account or whatever. Can you verify your account number? I said, No, I'm not gonna verify my account number. I said you tell me, yeah. Well, we just need to verify, but if you're my bank, you know what my account number is. Exactly. Let me call you right back. Well, let me give you the number. Um, if you're from my bank, I have your number. And I guess the guy's got some frustrating, just hung up on me.

SPEAKER_00:

But I I would be like, oh my gosh, you're right. Let me patch in the police really quick.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, yes, yeah. But just just people out there listening, you know, just if you get one of these crazy calls or taxes, please, please take a deep breath, sit back and think about it, and just you know, again, if they're saying they're calling you from the police station, ask them what police station, and you call the police station to verify.

SPEAKER_00:

Exactly. Yep. And sometimes it's just good to just like walk into the bank, you know, even if you think you're talking on the phone to the bank, because a lot of these pieces now will say have numbers that say like Bank of America or you know, something like that. So I always do that too. And it's just so terrible that elder people get scammed.

SPEAKER_01:

It is, it is, and like I said, you know, error on the on the side of caution. Here's the other thing, too, and I think this is an excellent idea. I have this as well, my son. Create a a safe word that only that person knows, and that's an easy way to find out whether you're talking to the person or if it's a scammer. Because unfortunately, there's software out there that can make the computer sound like your loved one, which is very scary in itself.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, that was another great episode.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that was fun.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, Merrill, tell everyone what you have coming up.

SPEAKER_00:

Yay, I have a show if you're in the Los Angeles area, uh, Tuesday, November 18th at a place called The Dime, which is like a bar. Um, but it's a fun show. It's a bunch of very cool, funny comedians. And uh yeah, it's at 8 p.m. The dime in Los Angeles. It's right across from the street from the very famous Cantors Deli, which is a great deli. So if anyone comes before, you it you should stop and have a matzo ball soup at Cantor's.

SPEAKER_01:

Nice. Well, if you're an area. definitely make sure you go out and support Meryl. Let her know that you heard about us uh about her show uh from our from our show i i'm quite sure she would love to hear that i would love that and then tell me that you're stuck in a hotel and you need eight thousand dollars sent right away via bitcoin and i'll i'll send it the safe word could be thirsty there you go well everyone thank you so much for watching and to listening for us uh please continue to share and let people know who we are and bring people over to watch and listen to us i'm lawrence elbrod and i'm married bye everyone

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Lawrence Elrod

Host
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Meryl Klemow

Co-host