When Fan Behavior Crosses The Line And What It Costs for 12/30/25

A quiet holiday catch-up takes a sharp turn into the chaos reshaping pop culture, money, and safety. We start with the viral moment that yanked Billie Eilish toward a crowd and ask what it means for live music: tighter security, fewer intimate moments, and a growing gap between artists and fans. From flying bracelets to full-on grabs, we unpack why parasocial bonds go off the rails and how venues can protect connection without killing the magic.

Then we follow the money. Remember those flashy TikToks bragging about a “Klarna glitch”? We break down how buy-now-pay-later fraud actually works, why it’s not a loophole but a crime, and how to use installments responsibly for real needs without torching your credit. Our legal lap continues with two headline makers: a dismissed copyright suit against Mariah Carey’s holiday juggernaut and a new claim tied to Jada Pinkett Smith and alleged threats. We explain how music similarity is judged in court, when NDAs make sense, and why reading contracts beats reacting to headlines.

There’s good news in healthcare: more physicians are leaving the insurance churn for direct primary care. Smaller panels, longer visits, text access, and predictable monthly fees can restore trust and time on both sides of the exam room. We map who DPC serves best, why pairing it with a high-deductible plan matters, and how to evaluate a clinic before you switch. Finally, we climb into the cockpit to decode that jaw-dropping pilot pay stub. Senior captains can earn big, but with it comes relentless training, irregular schedules, and responsibility for hundreds of lives. If airlines rake in fees, channeling revenue toward safety and skilled crews is a win for everyone on board.

Stick around to the end for a left-turn invitation: Meryl is doing stand-up at a strip club and you’re invited. If you enjoyed the ride, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review—what topic should we tackle next?

Come see Meryl’s next comedy show: “My next show is January 7th at the Plan B Gentlemen’s Club in Los Angeles—come hang!”

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.

Chapters

• 0:00 Holiday Catch‑Up And Sports Talk
• 3:49 Billie Eilish Fan Incident And Safety
• 9:17 Celebrity Security, Boundaries, And Fan Culture
• 13:32 The “Klarna Glitch” Scam Explainer
• 19:56 Jada, Will, And Lawsuits Over Threats
• 24:12 Music Lawsuits And Mariah Carey Ruling
• 28:05 Why Doctors Shift To Direct Primary Care
• 33:05 Pilot Pay, Airline Costs, And Safety

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 1:12

Hello everyone. Welcome to this week's episode of Thirsty Topics. I'm Lauren Selrod. And I'm Meryl Klima. Hey Meryl, how are you?

SPEAKER_00: 1:22

Hey, hey, hey, good. Happy holidays still. I'm never ready to let go of any holidays.

SPEAKER_01: 1:28

I hear you. I hear you. How was your holiday?

SPEAKER_00: 1:31

It was awesome. You know, I feel like my new hack for all trips and holidays is just to get out of town. And then you're kind of excused from doing anything. So it's like, oh, sorry, I would love to, but we'll be out of town. So we went to Zion, Utah, which if anyone hasn't been yet, it's a beautiful national park and um just had a very nice, gorgeous time. And I'm also like, if anyone at any level of hiker is okay there. I'm definitely like a flat surface kind of girl, and I still had a great time. How about you?

SPEAKER_01: 2:02

It was really nice. We stayed at home. My mother-in-law came over for the holidays. She's actually still here now. And uh watched a big game on on uh Sunday with the Bears and 49ers. We came up a little short, but that's okay. It was still a good game.

SPEAKER_00: 2:17

Next time. Now does this affect any like huge Super Bowl thing or anything?

SPEAKER_01: 2:23

No, I mean that they're they've already clinched uh the division, they're in the playoffs. Um, if they had won, they could possibly be the first seed uh going into the playoffs, but they still have a chance of of uh securing a second seed in there, but that's okay. You know, most people did not expect the Bears to even get this far in their first year uh under a new head coach.

SPEAKER_00: 2:45

So good. Well, I'm glad.

SPEAKER_01: 2:50

Talk about glad. I'm quite sure this person wasn't very fond of this. Um let's see here. Billy Eilish was violently grabbed by a fan. I'm actually surprised we're even still talking about this kind of stuff. But uh yes, Billie Eilish was violently grabbed and pulled by a fan at her Miami concert on October October 9th, 2025, during her hit me hard and soft tour, with video showing someone yanking her arm towards the crowd before security intervening, leading to the fans' ejection from the venue. I don't know, Mero. This to me is like getting really out of hand. What do you think?

SPEAKER_00: 3:42

I think so too. I think I I remember this happening in October, but I I think it's like still more relevant more than ever because it like, I mean, she used to be someone that would go into the crowd and hug her people. Like, I think of um a lot of the newer, bigger artists, Billy definitely was known for like going right in there and having one-on-one contact with people. And I think because of the way that people have acted, now people like her, Ariana, you know, Taylor, all these people are like having to distance themselves way more because they get hit in the head. Like I know there's also videos of people throwing things at Billy, whether it's like a bracelet or a um, you know, like a can or something that would actually really hurt. And even if it doesn't, it's still like just very jarring. And I just think it's so annoying that one or a couple deranged fans can ruin things for just normal people that wanna like, you know, I think it's okay if your favorite artist walks by you and you want to like touch them on the shoulder or like, you know, if they're asking for it, if they're kind of walking through, like that's totally cool. Of course, you want to like touch the biggest star and kind of just have that feeling, but to grab someone or hurt them is just crazy.

SPEAKER_01: 4:50

Oh, yeah. And you know, the sad part is it makes it bad for all the fans because you know, there's a point where artists are gonna be like, you know what? I'm not gonna walk past them, or I'm gonna surround myself with security where you can't even touch me. Um because if anyone saw the video, she was yanked into that crowd with the fan, which means that could have been very dangerous for her.

SPEAKER_00: 5:13

Oh, yeah, absolutely. But then did you see the one girl who's going viral who like turned around and just beat down the person that had grabbed her? There was one fan that like saw that immediately, and she she was better than Billy Security. She turned around and went like and like just went right after the person and started hitting them. So, I mean, it's really scary, and all it all it takes is like someone with a knife or someone with a weapon, and then you know, I could I could see why these stars don't want to go in the middle of the crowd anymore.

SPEAKER_01: 5:42

But you know, it also raises a concern as far as I mean, I hate to say this, but what kind of security do you have for them to be able to do? I mean, obviously, there's certain situations you can't prevent, but for her to be yanked and pulled in there, I mean, it took a few seconds, obviously, for them to get it back, but there's a lot of damage that could have been done. And you know, even if you think about what happened to Ariana Grandi when she was walking and the fan came up to her, and it's like this is starting to become a real dangerous trend now.

SPEAKER_00: 6:14

I know for real. I wonder if like when the Beatles and Elvis played, if like girls were throwing their shoes at them or if this has been a thing forever in concerts. I don't really, I mean, I remember there's videos of like people running up to Michael Jackson and him just holding on to them, you know. And I think because of some of the ways that the huge stars have reacted, it makes people feel like it's okay or that their favorite stars will just deal with it. Like, you know, Justin Bieber has had fans rush up and he's just kind of dealt with it before. But it's like even if they are nice to the fans in that moment, no one wants that. I guarantee you, they're getting offstage and like freaked out, you know.

SPEAKER_01: 6:53

No, no one wants their personal space to be invaded like that. And you know, again, when this person approaches you or grabs you, you really don't know what their intentions are.

SPEAKER_00: 7:03

Yeah, no, exactly. And it's just it is such a tragedy because I feel like Billy was someone that wanted to meet fans. I I'd even be freaked out if I was like them. Like, I don't think I eat brownies that someone gave me or like letters that people sent. I think you start to do have a moment where you become paranoid, and um, I don't blame anyone for that.

SPEAKER_01: 7:23

That's true. I just hope that um they start getting uh getting a better handle on security because um I hate to see things go go even worse, and I think the writing's on the wall until something is done.

SPEAKER_00: 7:37

Yeah. Now, have you ever thrown anything at a concert?

SPEAKER_01: 7:41

Absolutely not. No, I guess my philosophy is and and think about it like this: concerts are not cheap anymore, they're very expensive, even for the nosely seats. So I'm not going to spend money to throw something at someone to get kicked out. I'm not going to grab anyone. I mean, to me, that's just silliness. Even when I was younger, Meryl, I never wanted to do those crazy things. I this is a new time. This is something totally new.

SPEAKER_00: 8:11

Exactly. Yeah. When I was like 13, I did get kicked out of a concert because a friend that I was with, we were seeing this band called Lit, like a band that was really popular in the 90s called Lit L I T. And one of them had a really, really, really long beard that was like in a brain, and one of my friends like gave tugged his beard. Like, not not even a heart at all. And we were we were like 12-year-old or 13-year-old girls. It was like it was more like ridiculous than it was hurtful or invasive. And then immediately they're like, You gotta go. So then I think I had to call my parents and they had to come get us. And we still talk about that. We're now this now this friend is like a respected teacher and a member of society, and it's like she got kicked out of a concert for tugging a rockster's beard.

SPEAKER_01: 8:54

Oh, I'm quite sure her her her uh students would get a real kick out of that story.

SPEAKER_00: 8:58

Yeah, oh, totally, because she's very like buttoned up and proper and stuff, and so I'm like, if you only knew what we did when we were teenagers, but I thought that's crazy. Um, well, mine, I'm I was so excited to share this with you because I think this is so silly. So there's you know, they call it like the great Klarna glitch of 2025, pretty much. And this was all I was seeing right before Christmas, where people were were doing things where, you know, like Klarna, obviously, if people don't know, it's one of those kind of pay and installment type of things, like a firm or like a layaway type of situation where you know you can pay for something in four payments. Um, you can open up an account and then be approved for a certain amount. And a lot of times the approval rate is like really high where you can get up to like$5,000 approved, and then you can make a purchase with the idea that you're gonna make payments. And then whether or not you do those is kind of the next thing. But basically, there's a security-related glitch that uh people could sign up either using like other people's social security numbers, um, scammers could use stolen identity, and then they can max out those accounts on expensive items like phones, computers, and then disappear without paying. So they could either say, look, I I heard one situation where you could like open up an account and say and run up the bill, and then be like, actually, someone else did that. That wasn't me. I was targeted, and then they'll resolve it, but then you still get to keep like what you sold. So people were buying these like a thousand dollar laptops, reselling them for even more, and then shutting down the account, and then in theory, like having all this, you know, cash and everything. So I was seeing people stupidly on TikTok saying that they're doing it. Like there's videos of people videoing themselves like on the way to Best Buy. It's a scam. And so I even saw someone said, Have fun in three months when your credit is like a three, and someone wrote back, I don't care about my credit, I'm going to Aruba. So, of course, if anyone's listening, this is not like a glitch where you get to get away with stuff. It's kind of like remember a few months ago where people were getting thousands of dollars in their bank account, and then they were everyone was going crazy. But of course, like if you get caught, it's identity fraud and you could be in really big trouble. So, unfortunately, it's one of those like too good to be true situations.

SPEAKER_01: 11:20

Oh, yeah. And here's the thing, too. They think they're getting away with something um by going on TikTok, and I still don't understand why people commit crimes and put it on social media. Exactly. That's not being cute, that's called evidence.

SPEAKER_00: 11:38

And of course, they were filming them like four or four at a time and just walking up, buying a computer, they were like filming the grip of cash that they had too.

SPEAKER_01: 11:47

Nice. Well, hey, might as well make it easy for law enforcement, right?

SPEAKER_00: 11:53

Exactly. Yeah, why I don't understand why that. And if anything, it's like if you're gonna participate in the glitch, like buy one thing, keep it quiet, you know.

SPEAKER_01: 12:03

Or better yet, shut your mouth. You don't have to share with these exactly.

SPEAKER_00: 12:08

Exactly. And I do like I think those pain installment things are good when obviously if you have something that you can't afford, like if you have to buy an emergency plane ticket and you really don't have the money like right there then and there, or like I think we did that for something. Oh, our bed. We we like needed a new bed right away, and we just didn't didn't slash couldn't have like the money for all everything all at once. So it's like, okay, you can do that and then like pay some interest free or very low interest. Like in that in those situations, I think card is good, but I think a lot of times people use it almost like a free line of just unlimited cash, which it's not.

SPEAKER_01: 12:45

Yeah, it really kind of is an upgraded version of layaway. To me, there's nothing wrong with layaway, layaway won't get you in trouble because one, you don't get your item until you pay for it. So you're not gonna overextend yourself because you have to make payments every month or every week, wherever the terms are. And again, you don't have to worry about trying to, and also it protects the store too, because you know you can't scam them because you don't have the item yet.

SPEAKER_00: 13:11

Exactly. And a lot of times these things are good if you are like diligent with it because they actually could actually build your credit. So um it's good, but yeah, another thing is authority said not only is this like identity fraud, but that they can also be cited for federal liar fraud. So now we're talking about federal prison, which is not which is not not worth selling one laptop.

SPEAKER_01: 13:37

That is true, that is so so true. So excuse me. Have at it. Let me know how that prison sentence is gonna be.

SPEAKER_00: 13:52

And some of these videos are just so funny of people walking in line like tough people, like four of them walking to a story. It's really like out of a movie, it's ridiculous.

SPEAKER_01: 14:02

Very, very ridiculous. Well, this next story may or may not be ridiculous, depending on where you're at. But Jada Pinkett Smith is being sued by Will Smith's friend. So the story goes that um Elal Salam, a self-protained best friend of Will Smith, is suing Jada Pinkett Smith for three million dollars, claiming she physically threatened him in 2021. So on December 1st, Selim filed a complaint recounting how Jada confronted him while he was attending a private birthday celebration for Smith in the Regency Calabas Commons on September 25th, 2021. So Celim's filing alleges that Jada approached him in the lobby, accompanied by approximately seven members of her entourage, and became verbally aggressive, threatening that if Celine continued telling her husband's business, her personal, I'm sorry, her personal business, he would end up missing or catch a bullet. Celim will also allege that Jada demanded he sign a non-disclosure agreement or else.

SPEAKER_00: 15:22

Wow. These two like never stop just intertwining. They talk about entanglement, they're entangled with each other in many different ways.

SPEAKER_01: 15:31

Yes, yes. I mean, this is wrong on so many levels. For one, when you're a celebrity, when you make a threat, even if it's just off the cuff, you just you know, just saying something, those things will cost you money.

unknown: 15:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 15:52

I don't know. What do you think, Merle?

SPEAKER_00: 15:54

I think so too. And I wouldn't underestimate the lengths that celebrities would go to to like defend their name. These people have like really high-profile lawyers ready. So yeah, I think I think that's true. And I think we don't know how far someone will go to kind of either clear their name or just make a point and bring it into like the legal court.

SPEAKER_01: 17:10

Oh, exactly. And then I don't know if this is true or not, but if it is, I think she's crazy to force someone to sign a non-disclosure agreement. You know, I'd just go tell her go file and set. I'm not signing anything, go away.

SPEAKER_00: 17:23

Exactly. Exactly. I always wonder how like tough those really are, because if you do break it, it's like half the time I feel like celebrities probably won't care. And then the other times like this, it's like, you know, you do get some legal repercussions.

SPEAKER_01: 17:37

Oh, yeah. And you know, thing is with any contract, don't sign anything without having a lawyer look it over, especially when you're dealing with a high-powered person, like a celebrity, because you want to know what's in there. And to be honest with you, there are very few reasons, in my opinion, why you should ever sign an NDA with anyone. And to protect someone from something that you said or did is not one of them.

SPEAKER_00: 18:04

Exactly. I've signed a few NDAs um when I like stopped working with people for um like and I think it was and I totally did it happily, and but I think it was just because almost like like I was working with them podcasting or whatever, and I like knew how much money they were making, and I knew all their downloads, and so I could see on their end where they're trying to protect themselves. Like, I think if it's an employee employer situation, I could see that because like if someone knows all the numbers of things, I could see them not wanting to like have someone pipe it all over town, you know. But but even then, like I read it and I agreed with it, I wouldn't just sign it without reading it.

SPEAKER_01: 18:42

Oh, yeah, and then also too, you know, the example you give was a very specific reason. It wasn't just because, right, right.

SPEAKER_00: 18:50

It wasn't like, hey, you're around, it was like you're an employee of us. So yeah, I think if you're like someone's personal assistant or someone's if I had like an employee and that they knew all the secret stuff, I'd probably have them sign one too. But but yeah, definitely this one's crazy. It's so funny how like Will and Jada just they've been in the news more for their own stuff than they have for like actual acting in the past couple years.

SPEAKER_01: 19:13

Yeah, that's true. Um, I mean, some people feel that you know, any any coverage is great coverage. I don't think that's necessarily true, but you know, but you know, again, it goes back to you've got to think about what you have to say. People are gonna do and say stupid stuff, and just because you don't like what a person's saying doesn't give you the right to threaten, especially if you're a celebrity.

SPEAKER_00: 19:39

Exactly. A hundred percent. Well, this is another one. I thought this was so funny. Another lawsuit, all the frivolous lawsuits in this time of year. Um, are you familiar with the Christmas song we all hear way too much? All I want for Christmas is you by Mariah Carey.

SPEAKER_01: 19:56

Whether you like it or not, you heard it. No, I'm just kidding, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 20:00

You've heard it, yeah. It's a this year. I don't think I've I wasn't overloaded with it. Maybe because I didn't go to a lot of malls or I don't listen to radio. But anyway, we all know the song All I Want for Christmas is You by good old Mariah Carey. Um, basically, this was just good news for her that uh she was uh awarded$92,000 after a judge dismissed the lawsuit. There's a federal judge dismissed a copyright lawsuit that claimed her famous holiday song copied another song with the same title. Um, it was filed in November 2023 by country singer Andy Stone and co-writer Troy Powers, who alleged that Mariah's track was too similar to their 1988 song, also called All I Want for Christmas in You. Is you sorry they had up to$20 million in damages, which I'm like, even if this is copied, did this really cost you 20 million in damages? Um the court ordered Mariah to pay about 92,000 in legal fees, and then it was you know overthrown, kind of with the idea that the term was like it's it was substantially similar, but that's just kind of how art is a lot of times. You know, like there's a lot of songs that pretty much copy each other, and like that it wasn't a direct, it was more like influenced by it than it being like a direct copy.

SPEAKER_01: 21:21

And that's true. And and you know, the thing is with especially when you talk about music, um it's really tricky because you can have stuff that sounds very similar to something, and you had no intentions of trying to copy it or anything like that. So besides trying to figure out if it's similar, you also have to figure out, or at least the courts have to figure out was the intent malicious, or is this one of those things that they just happen to come up with a similar type product?

SPEAKER_00: 21:50

Exactly. I mean, the fact that the title is the same as a little Cray Cray to me. And it probably is. It probably is. Like for I mean, that does suck. That it probably is like maybe not stolen, but it probably is taking. Um but and I think that happens all a lot of times where it's either sampled directly without permission or it's like taken and stolen. But I don't know. I hate to say like that's just showbiz, which is really annoying. But I've heard that happen a lot of times, even with TV show ideas, that people will go in with pitches and the executives will be like, okay, thank you for the idea. No, thank you. And then the next thing they see is like their idea taken on TV. So it kind of sucks. And I guess like they those people do have the right to sue if they feel like they've been completely copied. But as you said, like people will take beats or rhythms um and just like add over to it over time.

SPEAKER_01: 22:41

That is so so so true. That's why I think artists, when they're creating their music, they really need to do some uh some searching just to make sure that uh you know nothing's out there similar, so you don't end up in this kind of a legal mess.

SPEAKER_00: 22:56

Exactly. Yeah, and always like I think what if you're in music, I don't know what the site would be. Like I know for if you're writing something, you can get something like registered with the writer's guild and show that you you know it's your idea. So I think it's always good to legally cover your tracks.

SPEAKER_01: 23:15

Well, my last topic is actually a pretty interesting one, especially going into the new year. More doctors are choosing direct primary care. So, more doctors are choosing direct primary care, which is also known as DPC, due to its focus on better patient care, reduced burnout, and financial benefits, allowing them to ditch insurance hassles for a monthly patient fee, leading to smaller panels, longer visits, direct access via text phone, and more personal medicine with significant growth seen in recent years. Now, basically, um the internet is saying that uh doctors are switching because there's freedom from insurance, smaller patient panels, improved access and quality, and higher satisfaction. So the way it works is it's a monthly fee. So pay patients pay a flat monthly or annual membership, for example, uh$75 to$100$150 a month for primary care services. So there's no insurance billing. The practice doesn't bill insurance for services, eliminating claims and deductibles. Insurance is still needed because patients still need insurance for health sharing plan for emergencies, specialists, or hospitalizations, often pairing DPC with high deductible plan for savings. I don't know what you think about this place.

SPEAKER_00: 24:49

I mean, I I think health insurance is such a like everyone I know is not happy with their own situation, you know, whether that's they get free health care, they get they have to pay for health care. It's such a crazy just situation that I think if you find the right scenario where you feel like you have more time with your doctor and you're covered for like you know, huge catastrophic things, I think it works that works. I think everyone has personal needs. Like some people take a lot of medications and have to go to the doctor a lot. Other people just want to go if you've been like hit by a car or you know, something erupts in your body. So I think if that scenario works for people and doctors, I think that's great. And like, you know, anything I I just can't believe the cost of like monthly insurance for especially families.

SPEAKER_01: 25:38

Well, yeah. I mean, for a family these days, um, depending on you know whether it's provided by your employer, you get in on your own, um who it's with. I mean, on it can average anywhere from$500 to a thousand dollars. That's going to a rent amount. Yeah, that's insane. So, I mean, I think it's a great option for not having anything at all. Um, because right now, and I'm surprised there isn't much talk about this, but you know, with the Affordable Care Act, um that topic is gonna be a hot topic because you know, people's premiums are planned to skyrocket on that. You know, basically, you know, millions and millions of people. So um there's some people that's gonna have to make some hard choices, and maybe this is not the best solution, but it's better than not having anything at all.

SPEAKER_00: 26:36

Absolutely, absolutely, and feeling like it's important that people feel like they do have insurance, and or like not insurance, but at least like medical care. You know, I think that should never stop someone from seeing if something is wrong or if they feel something like going to a professional.

SPEAKER_01: 26:54

I agree, I agree, but I will tip my hat that um at least they're thinking about uh thinking outside the box on this one.

SPEAKER_00: 27:02

Exactly. When I used to live in San Diego, people would just go down to Mexico for their treatments. I I've heard of that a lot of times where people would like, I mean, especially for dental stuff, maybe let a little bit less for like health emergencies, just because it can be, you know, you can't really like drive down to Mexico when you're having a health emergency, but people would like not get dental insurance and get all their dentistry done in Mexico and all that stuff.

SPEAKER_01: 27:26

Wow. I don't know if I'd go that far, but I understand it though.

SPEAKER_00: 27:31

I know, yep. Well, my last one is um, you know, that we talk a lot about flying and just safety and the the craziness of the aviation industry, and uh this made the news for a different, actually, some good news depending on you know what you're feeling about it. But a pilot from American Airlines shared a screenshot of their salary and people's jaws were on the floor. So um there was a pay sub that was shared on Twitter, and this was a uh supposedly a Miami-based American Airlines captain, and their yearly salary was a uh$458,000. Now, part of the reason they do this is because I didn't know this, but uh a lot of times pilots will get paid by the hour or even the minute, which I didn't know pilots got paid by the minute. So it's like I wonder why pilots don't go so slow. Like if I got paid by the minute, I'd be I'd be going like two miles an hour. Um, and so their high hourly wage is usually$360, and people were sharing their different pay things, and people were like, you know, amazed by that. Now I am in full favor to me, like I think pilots should I think pilots are like really, really important. And like to me, they're like superhero people where they're not like as crucial as like emergency doctors, but I feel like their job is so important and so like um just like they have the the life of so many people in their hands that like I would I don't know this I would rather pilots get paid higher than like sports stars or music stars or like actors or actresses. Like I think they're way really important.

SPEAKER_01: 29:13

Absolutely. I mean, um you know, I kind of thought I never knew personally, but I kind of thought they were somewhere you know between three to five hundred thousand, depending on the experience. Um for like decades. So, you know, I understand that, especially if you're fine for a major commercialized. I'm a little surprised that he would post his salary. I know that far, but you know, teach his own, I guess.

SPEAKER_00: 29:40

Yeah, that's one of those jobs that like I absolutely think it's more I I'm like as long as it's not hurting people, like I think pay as pilots as much as we can. And I think it should also be like you get paid the more training you have, because I just think it's so important for pilots to be up to date with like as to be as trained as you possibly could and to be like to continue learning. So I think there should be like bonuses if you, you know, even if you've been flying for a while, you should always be like getting more educated on planes and just helping the the industry in general. And the amount of stuff that pilots have to deal with, like beyond just flying the plane, is so crazy, whether it's like people skills or weather or emergency, you know, medical emergencies and all that kind of stuff, that I just think like they should be paid as much as we can possibly pay people.

SPEAKER_01: 30:29

Yeah, I mean unfortunately, we still have these near misses going on right now, all the radicals. Oh, I know. Yeah, I can understand why they get paid a lot because that's very stressful.

SPEAKER_00: 30:42

Exactly. And my last thought with this too is for how much airlines overcharge for bags, extra leg room, like uh if anyone's gonna make more and kind of be like more bloated in the industry, let that be like the people that are doing all the hard work and the you know, of course, there's lots of people doing the hard work and all the mechanics and the airline attendance and the mechanics, everyone's doing everyone's working hard, but like the airlines make so much money and just overcharge all of us so much that if some of our fees going to them, that makes me happy.

SPEAKER_01: 31:12

Well, yeah, I mean, I'm surprised they don't charge you for breathing on the airplane because they literally nickel and dime the taste. And if you want someone to sit next to you, they charge you extra for that as well. They literally nickel and dime. So oh, totally. I I I hope that um, you know, besides the pilots, obviously. And you make a great point. I hope that the other uh the other employees that make that airline run, they're also being paid at least a fair wage, you know.

SPEAKER_00: 31:43

Exactly. And as someone that's like a very nervous flyer, but I still also just have to slash want to travel a lot. I always like look at the pilots when I walk in just to try to see them, and then I see that they're like nice looking men and women or whoever, and I'm like, hello, you know, like that they are especially like after a flight. I'm always so so so grateful to the pilots, and I just think that's like such a crazy job and such a like a responsibility.

SPEAKER_01: 32:08

Well, I mean, as long as you got a great pilot where you know they walk by and it's like, hey, how's it going? I hope we do okay. I don't know if I want to be able to do it.

SPEAKER_00: 32:16

Yeah, well, pilots are like such bad asses to me. It just I don't know, and like how calm they always stay. It's just maybe because it's so far from my personality and just everything that it's it's like it's so amazing to me. I just really view them as like superhuman. I feel that way about surgeons too, like really detailed like brain surgeons and everything. It's just I'm like they're a different type of human than I am.

SPEAKER_01: 32:41

I hear you. I hear you. Well, I tell you, this was a lot of fun today.

SPEAKER_00: 32:48

Yeah, so much fun.

SPEAKER_01: 32:50

Well, Merle, talk about fun. What do you have coming up?

SPEAKER_00: 32:55

Okay, well, I know I've been mentioning this all this December, but um, the opposite of an airline plot pilot is that I'm performing comedy at a strip club. So everyone has I won't be getting paid$500,000 a year. But um, my next show is January 7th at Gentle at the Plan B Gentleman's Club in Los Angeles. So I would love if anyone comes out and has fun. And you could also, you don't have to be stripped on, you know, it's you don't have to like have a CD experience, you can just sit and watch the comedy.

SPEAKER_01: 33:27

It sounds like a lot of fun, so there won't be any lap dances where you do comedy then.

SPEAKER_00: 33:32

No, there won't be lap dances, and a bunch of my like mom friends are coming, so it could be G to R rated, whatever your experience is.

SPEAKER_01: 33:42

Well, in the area, definitely come out and enjoy this incredible experience. Well, so much for for uh supporting us, for being there for us. Um Lauren Sellright. I'm Merrill Climo. Take care, everyone. Bye.