The Latest On The TikTok Ban, The UnitedHealthcare CEO Shooter & Jay Z's 99 Problems

Summary

American Fever Dream – Episode Summary

Release Date: December 10, 2024
Host: Bea Speard
Co-host: Sammy Sage
Presented by: Betches Media

---

1. The TikTok Ban Debate

Timestamp: 16:31 – 19:38

Bea and Sammy delve into the ongoing discussions surrounding the potential ban of TikTok in the United States. Bea expresses skepticism about the feasibility of the ban, stating, "they will break this app or they will make it not fun before they ever ban it." She anticipates that the Biden administration might grant a 90-day extension, delaying any immediate shutdown of the platform.

Sammy adds, "I just don't see anyone... leaving this money and this tool on the table in the United States," highlighting the immense value and resistance against the ban. Bea shares insights from her conversation with TikTok's legal and lobbyist teams, emphasizing the challenges ByteDance would face in selling TikTok’s U.S. operations.

Notable Quote:

• Bea Speard [17:40]: "AI is not going to save us, it's going to hurt us."

2. The Decline of Traditional Media

Timestamp: 07:25 – 10:46

The hosts discuss the alarming trend of layoffs across major and niche media outlets, including the LA Times, Washington Post, CNN, Eater, and Thrillist. Bea laments the loss of local media's nuanced coverage, especially for small businesses and restaurants, stating, "the attack on local media, and it's becoming so common now that people aren't getting up in arms."

Sammy questions the necessity of platforms like Eater and Thrillist in the age of TikTok and Yelp, to which Bea passionately defends the unique value of centralized, in-depth journalism that print and regional outlets provide.

Notable Quote:

• Bea Speard [09:49]: "We have a magazine here called City Magazine... like the little the Rag magazine that's at like the coffee shop and it's free and it talks about like what events are happening in your town."

3. AI's Role in Journalism

Timestamp: 10:46 – 12:28

Bea critiques the LA Times' implementation of an AI-powered bias meter, expressing concerns over its efficacy. She shares her negative experience during her tenure at the LA Times under new ownership, emphasizing a decline in journalistic integrity and the shift towards opinion-driven content aligned with the owner’s views.

Notable Quote:

• Bea Speard [12:05]: "I want to see in the newspaper only the things that reflect his opinion as the owner. And that has never been more clear."

4. Hunter Biden and Jay Z Allegations

Timestamp: 26:11 – 42:35

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to discussing recent allegations against Hunter Biden and Jay Z. Bea recounts a New York Times article detailing Hunter Biden's tumultuous relationship and struggles with addiction, illustrating the personal challenges within political families. The conversation shifts to the serious accusations against Jay Z and Diddy, involving allegations of sexual misconduct with a minor.

Sammy and Bea analyze the legal implications, media coverage, and public reactions to these allegations. They debate the power dynamics, consent issues, and the potential impact on the celebrities' careers and personal lives. Bea reflects on the importance of holding influential figures accountable, while Sammy ponders the societal implications of such high-profile scandals.

Notable Quotes:

• Sammy Sage [32:30]: "They are peers emotionally. But what I think is, like, she has a bright future."
• Bea Speard [32:48]: "She was 24. He was 47."

5. The UnitedHealthcare CEO Shooter Incident

Timestamp: 42:35 – 47:09

Bea and Sammy address the shocking incident involving the UnitedHealthcare CEO being shot in broad daylight in New York City. They discuss the bizarre online reactions, including memes, lookalike contests, and the glorification of the shooter on platforms like TikTok. The hosts express concern over the public's fascination with the shooter, labeling it as the onset of a "class war."

Bea shares her views on the possible motivations behind the shooter's actions, suggesting it might be a statement against the health insurance industry. They also explore theories about the shooter's intentions and the potential consequences for corporate executives.

Notable Quotes:

• Bea Speard [43:36]: "Friends, don't, don't do that. But I feel the class war has begun."
• Sammy Sage [46:05]: "Perhaps what it has really marked a turn to is people are willing to entertain extrajudicial means of justice."

6. Future Plans and Audience Engagement

Timestamp: 24:23 – 54:07

Looking ahead, Bea and Sammy discuss their plans to engage more directly with their audience through potential pop-up shows and interactive events in various cities, starting with New York. They encourage listeners to submit stories, particularly those involving scandalous or unbelievable experiences, for future episodes.

Moreover, they tease upcoming content focused on legal preparedness for changes in marriage laws and military policies affecting transgender individuals. The hosts emphasize the importance of empowerment and staying informed without succumbing to despair amidst the chaotic political landscape.

Notable Quote:

• Bea Speard [53:50]: "We're gonna read them on the Christmas Eve episode for our oh, not so Holy Nights series."

7. Closing Thoughts

Timestamp: 54:35 – 55:00

In their closing remarks, Bea and Sammy reflect on the whirlwind of topics covered, reaffirm their commitment to providing insightful and humorous perspectives on politics and pop culture, and express gratitude to their listeners. They invite continued engagement through social media and email, emphasizing the community aspect of the podcast.

---

Notable Quotes Overview:

• Bea Speard [17:40]: "AI is not going to save us, it's going to hurt us."
• Bea Speard [09:49]: "We have a magazine here called City Magazine... like the little the Rag magazine that's at like the coffee shop and it's free and it talks about like what events are happening in your town."
• Bea Speard [12:05]: "I want to see in the newspaper only the things that reflect his opinion as the owner. And that has never been more clear."
• Sammy Sage [32:30]: "They are peers emotionally. But what I think is, like, she has a bright future."
• Bea Speard [32:48]: "She was 24. He was 47."
• Bea Speard [43:36]: "Friends, don't, don't do that. But I feel the class war has begun."
• Sammy Sage [46:05]: "Perhaps what it has really marked a turn to is people are willing to entertain extrajudicial means of justice."
• Bea Speard [53:50]: "We're gonna read them on the Christmas Eve episode for our oh, not so Holy Nights series."

---

This episode of American Fever Dream navigates through a maze of pressing contemporary issues, blending political analysis with pop culture commentary. Bea Speard and Sammy Sage provide a balanced mix of critical insights and relatable humor, making complex topics accessible and engaging for their audience. Whether discussing the potential demise of TikTok, the erosion of traditional media, or the tumultuous lives of high-profile celebrities, the hosts maintain a tone that is both informative and entertaining, embodying the podcast’s mission to alleviate collective malaise through perspective and humor.

Transcript

[Shopify Representative]

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[Bea Speard]

Well, the last piece of this New York Times article, which I read so many times because I loved it. The party's over. As the couple stay at the Chateau Marmont neared its end, Ms. Keston Head Start started to understand just how deeply Mr. Biden's addiction ruled his life. When she went to sleep, he would retreat to the bathroom where he would set up a laptop and a crack pipe in a chair and stay up all night making phone calls. If no one answered, he would find cam girls on the Internet to keep him company. Like just tragic. Rise and shine, fever dreamers. Look alive, my friends. I'm Bea Speard.

[Sammy Sage]

And I'm Sammy Sage.

[Bea Speard]

And this is American Fever Dream, presented by Betches News, where we explore the.

[Sammy Sage]

Absurdities and oddities of our uniquely American experience. Hola BME guys.

[Bea Speard]

What's happening? Feliz Navidad. Hello.

[Sammy Sage]

Feliz Navidad. Almost it is. We're already a third of the way through December. I can't believe that this year's about to be over. We are about to start Project 2025.

[Bea Speard]

I am sick. I keep telling my team, like, oh, yeah, well, in December, they're like, Babe, it's December 10th.

[Sammy Sage]

It's almost over.

[Bea Speard]

It's like time stopped for me at the election day and I, like, I refuse to move on. Like, it's like how 2019 was five years ago now or 2020 was five years ago. I'm like, no, can't.

[Sammy Sage]

That's how the 90s were. Only 10 years ago.

[Bea Speard]

Yeah, it's wild.

[Sammy Sage]

Well, here's the thing. Like, December ends, like, in five days, basically.

[Bea Speard]

Yeah. Because I give my team off. I give them off for the last two weeks. In the first week of January, there's no under the dust team. They all get to go rest. Cause they work so hard. So you'll just see me doing my thing out here. So I really have, like, no time left with them.

[Sammy Sage]

It's circle back season. Circle back season when December ends. Okay. Speaking of, speaking of the eoy, you went to Kamala's Christmas party yesterday, and we are going to the White House, Hanukkah and Christmas parties in T minus one week.

[Bea Speard]

Yeah. My wife is not a facade. She's real. She came with me yesterday to Kamala Harris's, as I found out, holiday party. It wasn't the influencer holiday party. I was invited to the real press holiday party. So it was like, Joy Reid and like, cool people. I was.

[Sammy Sage]

Did you meet anyone interesting?

[Bea Speard]

No, because I'm too nervous to talk to anybody. So I just stand with Natalie and like, panic the whole time.

[Sammy Sage]

Bridget was there.

[Bea Speard]

I saw Bridget. Yeah, I spoke to Bridget. That was it. So. And she also was surprised. She's like, why are we here? I was like, cause we're press, apparently. She was so sweet. I met her boyfriend. Oh, my God, what a doll baby. What a cute couple they are. So. So that was exciting. But there was like, a tour of the vice president's house that you can go on. I have pictures on my Instagram if you wanna see what her Christmas trees looks like. Yes, she does have multiple. And then next week, me and Sammy are going to Hanukkah together one night and then Christmas the next night to revive our. Every woman that I am seen with, people think is my wife. Lor. I go to dinner with my sister and they're like, aren't you a cute couple? And Jen will embarrass the shit outta me every time. Cause I'll be like, she's my Sister. And she'll be like, why? You don't have to lie anymore. People accept gays now. Like, she gives me the hardest time. She. She thinks it's so funny.

[Sammy Sage]

Well, I'll be your second wife.

[Bea Speard]

Yeah, there we go. That's your wife, if you will.

[Sammy Sage]

Last year, ABHI was a huge asset at the.

[Bea Speard]

Oh yeah.

[Sammy Sage]

At the VP's Hanukkah party. He is good at making friends.

[Bea Speard]

He's the best.

[Sammy Sage]

And he was. It was helpful for me. So, you know, you're just gonna have to talk to people, I guess.

[Bea Speard]

Well, we'll. These are the influencer parties, so I think we'll know a lot of people. I'm also like, just personally, I hold like, a lot more reverence for the vice president than I do for Joe Biden right now. So I always get very nervous and more excited when we're gonna see her than. Yeah, she looked great. She was 27 to 30 minutes late to give her speech because I guess Joe had her on the phone. She came out and she was like, the president had me on the phone. I'm so sorry that I'm late. And I was like, probably talking about the fall of Syria's regime, but, like, probably something important. But we'll wait for you. She looked fantastic. She spoke about patriotism and like, making sure that children know the truth. And then she was a little bit spooky and she was kind of like, she's like, you are the press. You must be brave. No matter what comes out, especially anything to do with state level interference in our elections, you must be brave and tell the truth. And I was like, what?

[Sammy Sage]

Wait, she. Did she really say that?

[Bea Speard]

She was just kind of like, you know, talking about how misinformation and disinformation are really, really bad in the world right now, not just for us. And that when you, as the press encounter it, you have a responsibility, no matter the potential repercussion, to report the truth. And I thought that was really. I was like, okay, girl.

[Sammy Sage]

Yeah, that's a, A nice warning. Helpful.

[Bea Speard]

Depending on.

[Sammy Sage]

I was mad at all.

[Bea Speard]

I was mad at all the trad media in the room because, like, I. I don't know, I'm like mad that they don't know how to storytell in a way anymore because it's like everything's become so systemic for that. It's like they tell us what happened, but they don't like, really dig into what that means in some cases. And I'm sick of like, the punditry. So I was sort of, like, aggravated with some of the people in the room. Because, like, for example, okay, I don't know if this will be on the video, but I have this salute to service hoodie I got from the bills. And, like, you know, I care about my military family. Trump says he's going to medically discharge 15,000 trans people from the military active day one. So then they start getting into, like, well, should he. Well, what about, well, is it more expensive to have trans people? As opposed to being like, hey, we did this one time when we medically discharged all of the gay men because they could get aids, like, which was so sick. And we fixed that. Why are we making the same mistakes again? So I was kind of aggravated with the people in the room. I didn't make a lot of friends.

[Sammy Sage]

I get it. I understand being aggravated with trad media.

[Bea Speard]

It was hot in there, too.

[Sammy Sage]

I'm sure. It's like. In that. It's like an intense greenhouse thing.

[Bea Speard]

Hotel. Yeah, it was like a greenhouse. The media was literally cooked.

[Sammy Sage]

Well, it's tough to be in the media right now, not just as a journalist, because they can try to report what they want, but what about the owners? This actually brings us to something we were gonna talk about later, which is that people are getting laid off all across the business.

[Bea Speard]

It's everywhere. It's, you know, you see it from the LA Times and the Washington Post. You see it from, like, CNN and Buz, MTV News shutting down and clearing their archives on one aperture. We're also seeing it in niche markets. Almost all of Eater and Thrillist were sort of quietly laid off this past week. 80%. And these are the markets that really make or break local restaurants. They talk about those small stories that are so important. Again, it's like the attack on local media, and it's becoming so common now that people aren't getting up in arms. And then, you know, the Guild is like, we won't stand for this. And I'm like, guild, what's going on, girl? Like, Writers Guild of the East. What's happening?

[Sammy Sage]

My question is, do you need Eater and Thrillist when you have TikTok and Reels and YouTube, which can show you what restaurants are good, or Reddit or Yelp, where you can kind of get that information that I think you do?

[Bea Speard]

Because this was. This is.

[Sammy Sage]

I'm not asking, like, I'm not. I'm not. I'm not asking because, like, I think that those should exist. But the point about, oh, there's no one to write about or cover these things. It's, you can have them covered. It's just not in this like, centralized business.

[Bea Speard]

Here's, here's the thing about Eater, because it being one thing that I love more than anything when it comes to periodicals, if we will, is we have a magazine here called City Magazine. I'm sure you maybe have one in your town. It's like the little the Rag magazine that's at like the coffee shop and it's free and it talks about like what events are happening in your town. Maybe a little special on somebody in your hometown that did something cool. And that's what Eater was for these regional districts. So like, sure, you can watch a bunch of TikToks or read the New York Times review on what the best restaurants in Charleston, South Carolina are, but Eater Charleston was sort of something that you could like hold, you could take with you. It served as both a way to show you the town, but also take that with you as a memory. The pictures were great. The time they take with the owners of the restaurants and the shops is greater. They're talking about history a lot more. I think it is important to have those spaces because the way that we as millennials maybe get our news, we're a little bit more agile. But people who are Gen X and older, they are still relying on those sort of like pamphlets at the hotel desk or whatever. And I don't want to see that go away. Also, I just love print magazines.

[Sammy Sage]

So I'm with you. Like, I agree with you. But the thing is that if there is a demand for that, it will come.

[Bea Speard]

Yeah, that's.

[Sammy Sage]

And it's not that there aren't places for that to happen. I understand like the pride in something local. I think we're talking about a bigger issue which is that anything that's not supremely profitable gets shut down. And the idea of having something because there's also scripts. Scripps also laid off a majority of its workforce, which is a very reputable publication. And then the LA Times announced that they're going to start using an AI powered bias meter to determine the bias of their sources. And if you want to look at how well AI does as a guaranteed, as a guaranteed mechanism, you can look at the AI that UnitedHealthcare implemented, which started wrongly denying 90% of its claims.

[Bea Speard]

AI is not going to save us, it's going to hurt us. The LA Times, some of the dust bunnies or the older listeners will remember. I did a six month stint at the LA Times. It was not cute. I have talked many times about my experience there. And Patrick had just bought the newspaper. So this was like the early days of Patrick kind of coming in. This is a person who wants immediate gratification, who has absolutely, in my opinion, no respect for the art of journalism or the chain of command. Again, the idea that your D.C. bureau chief maybe knows a little bit more about what's going on in D.C. than you do, and the necessary way to get those reporters to cover those things. Kimbriel Kelly was the D.C. bureau chief. Multiple Pulitzer Prize award winning journalists like LA Times had the best investigative reporters, an incredible D.C. bureau. They were on the cutting edge of being first on TikTok and in digital news and Meme News. And he just was like, cut it. I'm sick of it all. I want to see. He wants to read, like, his own propaganda. He wants to see in the newspaper only the things that reflect his opinion as the owner. And that has never been more clear than the fact that now he's making the opinion writers from the LA Times send them his articles to approve, to make sure they align with the opinion of the LA Times. And it's like, this is crazy. This is crazy.

[Sammy Sage]

You know who pioneered this? Jared Kushner.

[Bea Speard]

Yeah.

[Sammy Sage]

And I am not okay with the LA Times potentially backing away from important journalism such as, what did Tom Girardi do? And did Erica Jane know? And the whole thing just gives me. Did you ever see. The whole thing just gives me the vibes of. Did you ever see Citizen Kane?

[Bea Speard]

No.

[Sammy Sage]

Oh, you must. Well, for the listeners, I think it would be fun to run a newspaper that's. He just. I guess it's kind of based off William Randolph Hearst loosely.

[Bea Speard]

Oh, okay.

[Sammy Sage]

And he is just this very wealthy guy who decides he wants to run a newspaper, and he uses it to his advantage. And that's just one thing he does. But you have to watch the movie. I think I really enjoy it. I mean, it's a classic.

[Bea Speard]

I know. It's like. Well, I. Oh, is that from there? I had never seen the Godfather until, like, two years ago.

[Sammy Sage]

This is different.

[Bea Speard]

Yeah, but I mean, like, in terms of, like, classic movies, I had never seen it. I've never seen a Star War.

[Sammy Sage]

I've never seen a Star War either.

[Bea Speard]

I've never seen a Star War.

[Sammy Sage]

That's fine. I don't want to see a Star War. But I actually. I had a film class in high school, and that's when I watched Citizen Kane and they used it. Yeah, it's wonderful. It's long.

[Bea Speard]

It's long. Well, we're coming off, which is sort of a unusual twist for us. I don't know if you've noticed, in lieu of like all of the good reporting and fun tiktoks and even reels that there used to be, now it's getting replaced with like an awful lot of Christian nationalist stuff. Like, almost every third reel for me is like some sort of like, Christian thing or some sort of MAGA thing. And I'm like, okay, so I'm gonna maybe take like, when I say I'm taking time off the Internet as much as I can. And we've been just like watching movies from the 80s and 90s and stuff because I need to, like, reset my entertainment expectations to something that's actually entertaining and not something that just like enrages and scares me all the time. The way that social media has lately, right?

[Sammy Sage]

Not just what's there.

[Bea Speard]

It's not just news. Like, you need to take time to just watch, like, movies or like, stupid stuff. Like, it shouldn't always be that all content is reality TV and breaking news.

[Sammy Sage]

Correct?

[Bea Speard]

Okay, I'll try to make our lives on this platform.

[Sammy Sage]

I'll try to make that my New Year's resolution or something easier than other things.

[Dr. Naomi Bernstein]

Hello, oversharing Listeners, it's Dr. Naomi Bernstein with some exciting news. Starting January 13th. Our Oversharing Calm the Fuck down subscription is getting even better. Subscribers will get oversharing episodes a day early, plus additional exclusive bonus content on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of each month. Here's what's new. One bonus episode with even more emails and advice, and another where we follow up with past email writers who could be you. While we won't be releasing new Meditations in the new year, don't worry, all of our past meditations will stay available on the feed for you to enjoy anytime. Plus, we'll have a new Meditations playlist for our Spotify listeners. To sign up now, head to subscribe.basches.com and select Oversharing Calm the Fuck Down. We're so excited about creating this new bonus content, talking to more of you, hearing your stories, sharing some of our own, and reminding us all to calm the fuck down.

[Nissan Representative]

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[Bea Speard]

Speaking of TikTok, I've always said that they will break this app or they will make it not fun before they ever ban it. And I do believe that they'll continue this game of kick can down the road. I think Biden will give that 90 day extension and TikTok's not going to be lights off on January 19th. I say today on December 10th, but who knows. And the thing about the TikTok ban is people are like, well he just has to sell it. He should sell it to Elon. And I'm like one no, no. Selling it requires three years of them rewriting the code. Because this we're not TikTok isn't like one cookie that they're selling you. They're selling you just the 2% slice of cookie that represents the United States market. ByteDance would still operate and own all of the content that has come before and that exists in all the other countries. So for the United States to buy tikt, they're only buying their piece, which means that they have to rewrite all the code to this point and it would take like three years. TikTok told me to do that.

[Sammy Sage]

Well, wouldn't all of that sort of depend on the deal that was struck? And isn't there always a price for everything?

[Bea Speard]

There is. And it's 10 billion for just the.

[Sammy Sage]

American okay, that's less than 2% of Elon's wealth. My feeling has always been this has nothing to do with right or wrong. And it's not about red or blue, it's about green. And no one is going to leave this money and this tool on the table in the United States. I just don't see anyone. I don't see that being the way things go, what's allowed, how the rules work. And by rules I mean no rules work. It's too much money and too much power for someone to love on the table.

[Bea Speard]

Totally. I talked to TikTok's legal and lobbyist team. And they were like, look, kid, just keep doing what you do, you know.

[Sammy Sage]

Like, that's why you're saying that's the point.

[Bea Speard]

And so that's why I said in my TikTok, and people are like, it made me feel better. I'm like, and I don't want to make you feel better in a complacent way, but, like, if this is a terminal diagnosis for TikTok, thank you. I've had a fucking incredible four years. This has been one of the most amazing times in American history for community and for. For people getting a chance that would have never gotten a chance before. Thank you for these four years. Thank you for this time. And also, if it is a terminal diagnosis, I want to spend every single day watching the sunset with you and enjoying life and not worrying about when they're going to pull the plug.

[Sammy Sage]

I also. This is sort of a rule that I've made for myself in life, is that when you are anticipating something that could happen that's very bad, just don't think about it. Because if you don't have control over it, don't think about it because you are just living it over and over and over again until it happens, which might not happen. So you are actually just making your own present much worse by worrying about it. It's okay. I'm not saying be delusional. You keep it, you know, in the back of your head that this is probably. That this is a potential thing. So you're not going to, like, forget about it. But just don't keep harping on that because it is a waste of your mental and emotional energy. It's going to affect your content. If you are a tiktoker.

[Bea Speard]

That's right.

[Sammy Sage]

Or you're working on the Internet because you're just going to be feeling like you're hedging what you want to do. Just keep going with what you're doing. Enjoy your TikTok and don't worry about something before it's going to happen. That's something I've learned how to do thanks in part to SSRIs, probably. And just kidding, for legal reasons, because I am not on medication.

[Bea Speard]

No, I don't want to go to the farm. I'm not going to rlk Junior's SSRI farm. Absolutely not. Although how much fun would it be if all our friends there. I mean, maybe that's the spot to be.

[Sammy Sage]

I don't do anything forced out of here.

[Bea Speard]

No, we're done. No, I. That's that's the way I feel about it, and I think it is our trauma too. You can't live death every single day.

[Sammy Sage]

Right. And Donald Trump said when he was asked if tariffs are going to make things more expensive for American families by Kristen Welker, he said, quote, I can't guarantee anything. I can't guarantee tomorrow, so live with that energy. The incoming president can't guarantee tomorrow.

[Bea Speard]

I know.

[Sammy Sage]

And don't worry about whether TikTok will be banned.

[Bea Speard]

Yeah, there is a little bit of good news in the journalism world, and that is because of the fall of Assad and the Syrian regime of the last 12 years. 12 years ago, Assad captured and imprisoned an American journalist known as Austin Tice. I had the chance to meet his parents a couple times. They are a lesson in resilience, kindness, and hope in a way that, like, you ever meet somebody and you're like, wow, I didn't even know the human experience could be that expansive. That's what it's like meeting his parents. And Joe Biden said that we know that Austin Tice is alive in Syria and there's a very good chance that we get him back. And so I'm really hopeful for journalism that we get Austin Tice back. And that's my happy thought about journalism right now.

[Sammy Sage]

Wow. I'm curious.

[Bea Speard]

Very big deal.

[Sammy Sage]

What is his experience is like, they've.

[Bea Speard]

Been able to talk to him, I guess, a couple times through a lawyer, but I mean, it's like being. Might even be worse than Russian prison, but he's had a very horrible last 12 years experience. I don't wanna think about what that's like. But he's endured and survived. At least they tell us he's alive right now. And I'm so hopeful that they get Austin Tice home. I think that'd be such a great thing for Biden's legacy to have brought home so many Americans from these impossible situations. So I'll be glad to see that come through if it does. Yeah, that's something we can prepare for and look forward to and be hopeful about. But, you know, and over. Over the next couple weeks, we're gonna prepare you for things that are coming from the Trump administration that you can do something about. Like what are the nine documents you need to recreate a legal marriage when Obergefell gets overturned? We'll have that for you. What can trans people do if they get medically discharged from the military unfairly? We'll have that for you in the new year, because right now we're in circling back and preparing and gathering those documents for you. But don't worry about a TikTok ban.

[Sammy Sage]

And the news is moving at a breakneck speed.

[Bea Speard]

It's crazy. I mean, some of the trad media seems like they're getting kind of wise to what's going on and jumping ship as Well. I mean, CNN. Allison Cameron has been at CNN for 10 years. Last night she quit. She's been super critical of Trump. Yeah. And she was like, effective immediately. I'm no longer at cnn, now cnn. Scott Jennings is super Republican from cnn. CNN is leaning super right wing. And she came out last night and was like, today's my last day at cnn. I've been so grateful for the opportunities I've had. But like, I'm out.

[Sammy Sage]

So Allison Camerata actually first announced on Instagram and then said it on air that this would be her last, her last day. Do we know if she's doing this to go independent? It's possible that her contract was up for renewal. She couldn't come up. They didn't. Maybe, maybe they were cutting budgets also.

[Bea Speard]

She's a youngish.

[Sammy Sage]

She's a youngish woman who is probably someone who could do like a Jessica Yellen easily and come, you know, like build their own brand. She has the skills to be a reporter. And you know, like we were just saying, like, she doesn't need something like an eater or a cnn now that she has a name and she can break stories as an independent.

[Bea Speard]

It's like Rachel Maddow, right. She was on MSNBC five nights a week and now she's just on Monday nights. Everybody watches on Monday. And she's got all those podcasts and books and everything she does independently. You gotta own your own shit in this economy. Like, it's kind of how it is. Speaking of owning our own media, here we are, Sammy, and we're gonna change up maybe what we do a little bit because we were thinking of maybe doing like a little roadshow. We've talked about it a couple times. If you want us to come to your town and do like a little in person, pop up like a bookshop. Like, not a crazy thing. We're not planning like a, like a true crime podcast multi stop tour. We just want to like come hang out.

[Sammy Sage]

Yeah, I mean, we would start in New York, naturally start in New York, you know, and I mean, I think we want to do something fun, something a little audience interactive. Yeah, maybe. Maybe like a.

[Bea Speard]

Well, my dream, my dream is to have like a variety show, but I'm. We'll work towards that. But in the meanwhile, I want to.

[Sammy Sage]

Have like a podcast party show what Betches put on. I don't know if you saw Real Housewives of Salt Lake City when there was this incredible finale and Heather Gay did this like meek screenshots. Yeah, I don't remember what. I don't. I can't even believe I don't remember it. I can't recite it off the bat right now, but we then put on a live reading of that, of that finale scene and we cast like creators and people from Bravo as the people. So, like, it was basically just like a table read that went right. Like we can do something that I think springs out of what happens and we should be on the lookout for what it is. Look, if you want us to perform Wicked, we can, we can do that. I know Wicked's very popular. I could get hoisted up. I'm willing to risk it.

[Bea Speard]

I personally would pay to watch Sammy defy gravity.

[Sammy Sage]

My voice is too bad. So I'm glad.

[Bea Speard]

Obviously I'm the Glinda. I'm the Glinda in this situation. It'd be great. We'll lip sync anyway. We have a very talented audience. If you're a person who does this kind of stuff or you've got an idea, write us an email americanfeverdreamches.com and let us know.

[Sammy Sage]

Write us an email anyway about anything you want to talk about. We have an episode coming out around the holidays where we did a mailbag, but we want to kind of do the more. The problem is we run out of time. Even when we put an email to read into the outline that is our greatest vice.

[Bea Speard]

Speaking of vice and reality tv, that is just too absurd to believe. Hunter Biden's ex girlfriend had a New York Times feature which is truly the ultimate New York story. She met him while giving him a lap dance at a cabaret club in New York, very high end cabaret club, and just fell endlessly in love with Mr. Biden. The more they called him Mr. Bide. I was like, is this like, like a Sex and the City kind of slant? Like it. It was so crazy. This story in New York Times. No, that's how they're alone. First of all, the boy is like, oh God, leave him alone.

[Sammy Sage]

Honestly, I think what this was was actually more of like a redemption story for his girlfriend. Her name's Zoe Keston and she. What makes this such a New York story is that she ran with this crowd with like Julia Fox and these really edgy sex forward people. Who are part of the scene, quote, unquote. She went to Horace Mann. She was starting her own line of clothing called Weed Slut. And she had obviously put forth the money to have this line manufactured. And she did it with him. And like, there's something kind of fucked up and glamorous about the story. Like, she would go. She would stay at like different hotels with him and he was like, partying. And these details were really very dark. And it's very dark when you think about the age gap. She was 24 when this happened. So just with the underdeveloped prefrontal cortex, this does seem like something a 24 year old would do. Once you're post college and you're like, what the fuck? And you're still not. Your judgment's still not great.

[Bea Speard]

But you're like in New York, though, if you've been young in New York City, right? Like, when I think about when I was young and in New York City, 22, 23, 24, we were rolling with like, Stephanie Germanotta, who wasn't Lady Gaga. Lady Gaga. All these cool people that you're hanging out with who haven't quite made it yet. And so, like, to talk about that time is like, well, it was before the big time. But if you're young in New York City and you're out at the clubs and you're having fun and you're doing whatever the city provides you, truly a movie of like, a lot of danger, a lot of drugs, a lot of like, people who will eventually go on to be like maybe a politician or a pop star or something interesting. And this is just sort of like her time was meeting Mr. Biden. My time was hanging with Ashley, Alex Earle's stepmom, before she was Alex Earl's stepmom, when she was Eliot Spitzer's mistress. And we thought that was like the hottest, coolest shit ever. Everything's stupid and silly. When you're in your 20s in New York City, nothing's dangerous. Even though as an adult, you look back and you're like, wow.

[Sammy Sage]

Especially if you are running with that sort of what today I think would be like the Dime Square crowd would be what it is now. And she was so young. He also was not a. He wasn't relevant. Like, no one cared about Hunter Biden. No one. Joe Biden was not in office. He was just like the ex vice president's son, which is interesting. And he's a good.

[Bea Speard]

It's like me hanging. It's like me hanging with Meghan McCain right. Like, it didn't matter. Early 2000s, this was the crowd that was coming up. You would go to a Saturday night of after party, which was the things that I used to host at the restaurant. Right. And then you'd have like Meghan McCain drinking Bud Lights because her dad distributed Bud Light at that time. You'd have like, Zac Efron doing crazy stuff. Adele was just coming up. Stephanie Germanotta wasn't Lady Gaga yet. And this was New York City at the time. Jessica Simpson was super hot at the time. She spilled stuff on her shirt. I remember we gave her one of the waitresses shirt, like off her body that said real girls eat meat. TMZ picks that shit up. Now everybody wants the T shirt from my restaurant. Like, New York is crazy and so much fun. And if you've ever been young in a New York City, then you've seen it. The Perez Hilton of it. All right.

[Sammy Sage]

Yeah. So I think she was. The way she describes him was like. He seems so. Like, the only way I can describe it as impish. He seems like a child who is like an eternal child.

[Bea Speard]

He's feral.

[Sammy Sage]

Feral, but also in a way that's like, naive because he clearly has had. Not really experienced consequences for this behavior in a. In a real way. His trauma obviously comes from being in a car accident where he saw his mother and.

[Bea Speard]

And his sister die.

[Sammy Sage]

Yeah, sister die. It's. And it's a real. And he lost his. His brother. It's just a really. It's clear that this person had dealt with a lot. And even as he was like, fucking over this girl, it was very clearly due to his addiction and not due to his intent to. To hurt her.

[Bea Speard]

We've all got sex from a man, though, where he was like, they would go out, they'd have a blast. And this is all in the New York Times article. They'd be. I mean, whirlwind New York City night. And then he wouldn't call her, and then he would text her and be like, I'm a bad guy. You gotta stay away from me. It was like, P.B. herman. I'm a loner, Dottie, a rebel. Like, that's how I'm reading Hunter Biden's texts in like a Pee Wee Herman voice.

[Sammy Sage]

It's actually really sad. And this woman only became. Only became known because she happened to co. It. Her relationship with him, which lasted about 11 months, happened to coincide with the period of time that Republicans essentially used to exploit him and to blow up his life. And never too. The only Reason. But what I thought was so funny was there was a quote from her where she was like. In a weird way, I felt validated because people would now believe that we spend this time together. It's like, yes, everyone knows the feeling of that guy who wants to deny something that there was a thing. And she's like, yup, it was all here. See, it was real.

[Bea Speard]

And here on the floor of Congress is me giving Hunter Biden a blowjob. Because it was real. Yeah. You know what I mean? I mean. Cause those are the pictures. She's the girl from the laptop. She's the girl from all his party pictures on this laptop.

[Sammy Sage]

But during the same period of time, that's when he fathered his newest child. It's a lot.

[Bea Speard]

She says her brand is debauchery and camp. I was young and you know what?

[Sammy Sage]

I love that girl.

[Bea Speard]

I love that girl. I don't blame her at all.

[Sammy Sage]

Not at all. This works for her. Totally. She has a bright and beautiful future ahead.

[Bea Speard]

Yeah. She was 24. He was 47.

[Sammy Sage]

Oh, Jesus Christ.

[Bea Speard]

Yeah, but she also treated her like a peer.

[Sammy Sage]

That's because he's a young boy at heart.

[Bea Speard]

He's Arrested Development.

[Sammy Sage]

He's younger than her at heart. They are peers emotionally. But what I think is, like, she has a bright future. Because the way this is portrayed, it all makes sense that this would have happened this way. And I know she'll land on her feet.

[Bea Speard]

Well, the last piece of this New York Times article, which I read so many times. Cause I loved it. The party's over. As the couple's stay at the Chateau Marmont neared its end, Ms. Keston had started to understand just how deeply Mr. Biden's addiction ruled his life. When she went to sleep, he would retreat to the bathroom, where he would set up a laptop and a crack pipe in a chair and stay up all night making phone calls. If no one answered, he would find cam girls on the Internet to keep him company. Like, just tragic. Like a movie.

[Sammy Sage]

That was the most salient part of the Chateau Marmont. Could you be more cliche? At least go to the bungalows of Beverly Hills.

[Bea Speard]

Please, please, please. I know. So, yeah, you should read it. It's an interesting article. It spans the nation. From Providence to the Chateau Marmont. Like, it's also speaking of Chateau Marmont, though, not to get off topic, but just to give her her flowers. Lindsay Lohan is looking so amazing these days.

[Sammy Sage]

Talk about a glow up.

[Bea Speard]

She's.

[Sammy Sage]

She is.

[Bea Speard]

I'm so happy for her.

[Sammy Sage]

Look, my Friend and I have been calling that there since 2020. That we were on the verge of a lohanaissance.

[Bea Speard]

Yes.

[Sammy Sage]

That she is going to be making her way back up. She will win an Oscar.

[Bea Speard]

I hope so. She's been, mark my words, Netflix style Hallmark movies that she's way too talented for, but she seems to really be enjoying. And I think they're giving her confidence. And I'm just so glad for them. We watch them. I'm so glad for Lindsay.

[Sammy Sage]

Yeah.

[Bea Speard]

For the girls of our age. Like the Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan. Like all them, I'm always rooting for them.

[Sammy Sage]

Same always rooting for Lindsay especially, you know, as a fellow Long island girl. She exactly like she had to go through these things and now she's working the Hallmark circuit. She's working her way back up. She had to prove that she could work because that, remember that was a problem that. And now she's. Oh, she's showing up to work, she's doing her jobs, she's pulling viewers to these movies because I'm gonna watch it. I watched that horrible one. They're very good. The rich kid in the slopes. I loved it.

[Bea Speard]

Yes. I loved him. Yeah. It brings me joy to see the millennial girlies getting better. And I was at that thing in Missouri and talked to Chapel Roan's parents. Her parents also said that the millennial pop girlies are very protective of her. And I thought that was really nice too.

[Sammy Sage]

The millennials are perfect. We are the perfect generation. Everyone should aspire to be just like us.

[Bea Speard]

Yeah. The big sisters of the world. Speaking of millennials though, and things that we can never have anything nice another one of.

[Sammy Sage]

Except ourselves.

[Bea Speard]

Except ourselves. Well, because it's not the millennial that does it wrong. It's like the people who influenced us. So it's always like Gen X. People that we looked up to or that provided the music for us or whatever that end up being like gross.

[Sammy Sage]

It is us who have been wronged.

[Bea Speard]

And we have been wronged have the.

[Sammy Sage]

Great burden of learning from others mistakes.

[Bea Speard]

Yes.

[Sammy Sage]

And that's why we are so amazing.

[Bea Speard]

Yes. And such people pleasers. So you know, we know that Diddy is still in jail, which is something that confounds me to this day because normally people with this kind of money can figure out a way to get out and they're like, uh, never. But it seems like maybe Diddy has rolled on Jay Z now because over the weekend it came out that Jay Z is facing allegations now of Saing a 13 year old with Diddy after the MTV Music Awards.

[Sammy Sage]

You know, this isn't TikTok. You can say the real word.

[Bea Speard]

I know, but I'm so TikTok coded.

[Sammy Sage]

Well, he was accused of legally of raping a girl when she was 13 years old in 2000, the year 2000, with Diddy. And that there was another female celebrity watching who was part of it.

[Bea Speard]

Who is that other female celebrity? Because this comes up in Diddy's stuff quite a bit.

[Sammy Sage]

I have two guesses. Email us your guesses.

[Bea Speard]

Obviously, email us your guesses. Because they constantly say that there was this other woman involved. And just like there always is some woman involved. Like Jeffrey Epstein had, Ghislaine Maxwell, like all these different people always have some woman who's involved, who's horrible. So they said there was another woman involved.

[Sammy Sage]

You know what that speaks to that? These men know that they need a woman around in order to soften the situation, make it seem safe, which is so sad. Make it seem safe. Because how else would they get into that situation? Because here's what. Here's the story. The. She's known as Jane Doe. In the lawsuit, she said this happened after she was driven to a vm, An MTV VMA after party. This lawsuit had initially been filed in October against Diddy in the Southern District of New York. And as one of the lawsuits filed against him. But what happened now is that it was refiled just to include Jay Z and by name, by that accusation. So it described the same situation. It now just names Jay Z. And immediately he issued a statement through his lawyer claiming that this traces back to a blackmail attempt from this lawyer, Tony Busby, who had made these accusations and that it's extortion to get him to settle for a lot of money and that he is fighting this. I don't know. I think it takes a lot of courage to put your name, put his name on something. And I can't imagine that they would file a lawsuit just on someone's word at this point, especially against Jay Z. They didn't have some sort of corroborating evidence.

[Bea Speard]

The fact that it was originally just against Diddy and now they've added Jay Z to me is like, maybe Diddy's rolling on people in there. And he's like, if I'm going down, you're all going down. Because they'd have to have something really solid to risk the original filing to add this name to it. Like, they already had Diddy in jail if they weren't so certain. I mean, this is all we won't know till it goes to court. But Jay is like, well, then make it criminal. Make it a criminal. The reason why she could do civil and not criminal is the statute of limitations, I believe is up on this. But there was some sort of like, loophole that said you could do a civil penalty against somebody due to this adult victims of gender violence thing in New York. So he can't actually, I believe, be charged for the alleged rape criminally, but he can be charged civilly. Sort of like how E. Jean Carroll was able to get Donald Trump on a civil trial because the statute of limitations had been up.

[Sammy Sage]

Right. But Jay Z is using those, you know, lack of knowledge about those technicalities. I don't know. I think it's. They're going to fight to and nail to make sure.

[Bea Speard]

She was gripped by him too, though the first time she met him, we now know is she was 16 years old and he was 31.

[Sammy Sage]

Right. That's what we have to talk about is that it is on record that in reality she. He was aware of her when she was as young as 15.

[Bea Speard]

Yep.

[Sammy Sage]

Met at as young as 16 and.

[Bea Speard]

Started dating like the day she turned 18 type shit.

[Sammy Sage]

Yeah, that's what they say. I mean, he had said in 2007 that he met her 10 years ago, at which point she would have been 6 or 17 under 18 is the point. And you're saying, you know, you said you can't imagine why Diddy wasn't allowed out of jail. I completely understand why he wasn't. He is a massive flight risk. He has information on so many people and he has shown in the past that when he was given more leeway that he would try to tamper with the witnesses. So if I'm the judge, this is someone who has, you know, spent all of his goodwill and he's staying in prison. This person was running a really high level criminal enterprise to this day for decades.

[Bea Speard]

I'm glad he's in jail. I'm just, you know, pleasantly shocked that somebody with money is actually facing consequences this time, especially this kind of influence over the industry or whatever. But like, I don't know, it's come home to roost. It has. I think we're seeing more and more of this sort of accountability for things that we never thought would be accountable and people are having strong reactions. I don't think there's many people out there defending Jay right now. Certainly people aren't defending Diddy.

[Sammy Sage]

I'm very eager to see what happens with Beyonce or how she moves because the other Piece of this is not just, oh, he groomed her or whatever for success. She has said in the past that he was the only adult or first adult man that she'd ever been with. She might have to kind of be going through, I imagine her own reckoning with this relationship and the ways, you know, that he wronged her. You know, she raised his man, she raised his kids. That's so wild because she both did and definitely didn't. And you have to wonder like if you're Beyonce, do you have a therapist you can trust? Do you have someone, anyone you can trust when your husband is this powerful, who can you go to for help with processing this if you are wanting to seek that?

[Bea Speard]

Well, and her parents obviously allowed it. Right? I mean, I never heard like there was any sort of resistance from the family to her being with Jay. And she got this big career and everything. And I remember her 13 carriages, I know, early 2000s, her being at the SNL after parties again and whatnot. And she always had this sort of like quiet maturity about her as a person because you knew that, you know how like child stars are so managed, like they have to grow up so fast that they don't act their age, they still are their age, but they're sort of taken into this adult world in a way that it seems normal even when it's not. And it's like, I don't know, you know, that's. It's gonna be interesting to see what happens there. And it's terrible story either way.

[Sammy Sage]

Right? It's really terrible that people are forced to be developmentally so much older than they possibly can be. As we're Talking about this 24 year old woman, young adult who was with Hunter Biden and we're saying, oh, that makes sense that that would happen around that time socially and emotionally.

[Bea Speard]

Especially early teens. Yeah.

[Sammy Sage]

19, when you don't. You look around and it seems normal.

[Bea Speard]

You don't have anything in common with a 31 year old man. When you're 19 years old, you just straight up don't. Your life experiences are completely different. The places you can access are different. You can't even go to the club to see his show. You know what I mean? Like 1931 is a big spread. I understand that. Like they're like, well, 51 and 30 isn't a big spread. It's like, no, no, no. But we're in a different place in our life there. That's. I could see that. That, sure, that's fine. But when you're talking about Just establishing yourself as a young person not fully developed and a 31 year old. Very successful already, man. The power dynamic is going to be off. You just can't deny that. Now some other people who are facing accountability and the media doesn't know what to deal with this either. The UnitedHealthcare CEO shot in broad daylight in New York City in front of the hotel that I often stay at and will no longer be staying at. And the reaction from people is not, oh, my gosh, this father of two. It is. I've seen people get tattoos of the bullets that say defend, deny, depose.

[Sammy Sage]

Wow.

[Bea Speard]

Tattoos of it. There's T shirts being sold on TikTok with the bullets that say that on it. CNN was shocked that when they posted about it, there were 60,000 likes on the video. Like happy emojis on the video. Has the class war begun?

[Sammy Sage]

The demand for his jacket that he was wearing has skyrocketed online. That is like a Kate Middleton situation.

[Bea Speard]

First of all, they keep showing different pictures of what I think are different men. Like, the jacket is different, the face is different, the nose is different. I'm not sure that all the. I think this is just what men in a mask look like. Like, just the eyebrows and the eyes, like, that's what dudes look like. And on TikTok, there's been a bunch of men who are like, doing this, and they're like, it's not me. I'm not even good at riding a bicycle. Please, if you see me out, don't. You know.

[Sammy Sage]

But there was a lookalike contest.

[Bea Speard]

There was a lookalike contest. I thought it was a joke. Like, 50, 60 dudes showed up and there was a winner to who looks like the shooter. The NYPD started with a $10,000. If you tip them off, you get $10,000. They're now up to $60,000. Hey, UHC. You did 30 billion in profits. What are you doing to try and catch the killer and avenge your guy? Nothing. They don't care about you. Take your vacation days and do the bare minimum at your job. They don't care about you.

[Sammy Sage]

They're busy raising security for all their other executives and taking down their games from the websites.

[Bea Speard]

It's just so crazy. But the shooter stuff is a fever dream, which is why we're bringing it up crazy. What did they call him, Sammy?

[Sammy Sage]

A folk hero? The adjuster? The claims adjuster?

[Bea Speard]

The panty dropper.

[Sammy Sage]

Oh, I called people. They know. They don't call him the panty dropper. I've seen him referred to as a panty dropper. I can't believe that.

[Bea Speard]

I know he's thinking Menendez brother, those boys aren't gonna have any. I mean, I just think this is.

[Sammy Sage]

The most astonishing story, the most fascinating psycho spiritual thing that is happening here. Because the fact that people are so willing to put their names on breaking these taboos around death really says something. It's not just, oh, like the insurance system is fucked up. It is cheering on this man's death.

[Bea Speard]

And, and hoping for more. People are hoping online for more and posting the names of other CEOs and stuff, which you should not do that because it is illegal. Friends, don't, don't do that. But I feel the class war has begun.

[Sammy Sage]

Perhaps what it has really marked a turn to is people are willing to entertain extrajudicial means of justice. And if I'm an executive at a company like a health insurance business, I'm really taking a hard look at what is happening here and what the risks are. My sense is that they're just like gonna wait till Trump is in office and close themselves off more. But the fact that they are, they're in the business of death and life. And my sense is that this is a performance artist. I think this person is like a joker esque figure. That was kind of my first instinct when I heard of it because just what are the chances that he's also.

[Bea Speard]

Doing too much, right. He's doing so many things that are.

[Sammy Sage]

The monopoly money.

[Bea Speard]

Very bullish. Yeah. Very professionally thought out.

[Sammy Sage]

Do you think he's professional or do you think it's just.

[Bea Speard]

I don't think he's a professional assassin necessarily.

[Sammy Sage]

I don't either.

[Bea Speard]

You're right with the performance artist piece of it that this is a, you know, there was this thing where like people were self amaliating right to protest and it wasn't getting this kind of attention. People have been protesting, marching, doing all this stuff and now this guy is like gonna do the way he's done. This I think is so interesting and continues. It's like we're in Summer of Sam type thing where we have this, it's the joker like this, this return of like the 1980s serial killer thing. Well, he's not a serial killer, but the police are treating it like a movie again. Like it's. Oh, and then we found the monopoly money in the Tommy Hilfiger jacket. And what does that mean? And you know, look, there's a difference.

[Sammy Sage]

Between what the police are saying and what is being reported. Because. And I Think that that's kind of confusing for people because the police have a strategy of releasing information, whether that means leaking it or that means announcing it. Based on what I imagine is how they're calculating somewhere between not turning this guy into a hero, not turning him into a martyr, and actually trying to get the public to help catch him.

[Bea Speard]

Reporters, the public ain't helping. The public are like, he was with me.

[Sammy Sage]

Somebody. Oh, terrible. He was in my apartment, right? The. I think. But I think there are people who might. But they. They have to be careful about what they let out. But that doesn't mean reporters aren't going to try to report something or Mayor Adams isn't going to fucking say something.

[Bea Speard]

That.

[Sammy Sage]

Who knows? But it's very much. This is someone who wanted to start a conversation about the health insurance industry. He, I believe, sounds like somebody who, in his mind, calculated, like, in. He's, like, murderous Banksy. He calculated that this man has killed more people, blah, blah, blah. And maybe I can save X more people if we make this a conversation by getting this. You know, it feels very much to me like a Marxist calculation that he was making and that he is someone who would. Who has probably already considered the consequences of ending up in prison for the rest of his life, and I would even bet that he will. He has intentions to turn this, if there is a trial into a circus. And that if he does end up in prison, okay, he probably sees it as like, I'll get my expenses paid for the rest of my life.

[Bea Speard]

Right? Yeah.

[Sammy Sage]

Which is another point I bet he wants to make.

[Bea Speard]

Well, here's the thing. This is not gonna be an inside job. There's some conspiracy theories out there saying that Brian Thompson was supposed to testify to the DOJ and he was gonna lose all his money. His wife had already left him, and he is actually the mastermind behind all this. No, no, ma'am. I do not believe that Brian Thompson has orchestrated his own, like, circusy murder. Like, there's no way. It also tries to take away the sort of, like, power from whatever's going on here.

[Sammy Sage]

It also suggests that, like, he couldn't find his way out of a problem, which I believe he knows he could. And if it were, like, united trying to hurt him, like, they could find their way out of an investigation. But I actually literally just got a text as we're talking about this. Somebody says that he seems to have walked into a McDonald's. And I actually think at this point that his clues that he's leaving are trying to make a point too. He walks into a Starbucks first. He's now intentionally gonna get a McDonald's. He leaves a plastic water bottle somewhere. I think he's trying to make points.

[Bea Speard]

The Monopoly money.

[Sammy Sage]

The Monopoly money.

[Bea Speard]

The Tommy Hilton jacket. Yeah.

[Sammy Sage]

I think he's trying to make points about society for his fanboys to pick up.

[Bea Speard]

Now you also earlier said that are all these companies just gonna wait until Donald Trump gets into office. He's got the richest cabinet in the history of America. It's like all billionaire crazy people. I don't know. Don Jr. Over the weekend said he believes that his father will face a third assassination attempt. Which I think is like a crazy ass thing to say. Like, why would you put that into the world? They're such like incendiaries like these ones. They like constantly throwing gasoline on fires and trying to draw attention to theirselves.

[Sammy Sage]

But no one is ever trying to lower the temperature around here.

[Bea Speard]

No. And no one should try to assassinate Trump again. Okay? Like, two times was enough for one lifetime. Don't do that. That's only gonna make a martyr out of him. Like, that's not. We don't want that at all. Never threaten to assassinate an elected official. Okay, guys, it's not funny and it could get you in a lot of trouble. And it's a bad idea. Well, I mean, and now also, this is, we record on Monday, so when you listen to this, on Tuesday, maybe something will have come out more. But I guess allegedly they think they got the guy in Altoona, Pennsylvania. They're questioning some guy in Altoona, Pennsylvania right now about this, which is just about the most random ass thing I could have ever thought to say to you about this guy. I don't know, man. I'll be sad if somebody ends up taking the fall for, you know, vigilante Batman out here.

[Sammy Sage]

We'll see. Maybe someone wants to fall for him.

[Bea Speard]

Maybe he wants to be falling. You know, maybe that's like part of the conversation he has. Yeah. I'll tell you, his commissary is going to be full though. Those books are going to be lit. He's going to be getting Santa Claus level fan mail in that prison.

[Sammy Sage]

That's exactly what I'm saying. Like, I think he has already calculated this in the decision to do it, that he's like, okay, if I go.

[Bea Speard]

To prison, high profile prison, federal prison. Yeah.

[Sammy Sage]

This is a person, I think, who wants to exploit these systems to make a point.

[Bea Speard]

Yep. He will have three hots and a cot and insurance when he's in prison. So I guess that's better than a lot of us have. Three hots and a cot is something my mom used to say.

[Sammy Sage]

I don't even know what that means.

[Bea Speard]

Three hot meals and a place to sleep.

[Sammy Sage]

Okay, three hots.

[Bea Speard]

Again, the lore of my family. We know people in prison. Not all people in prison are bad people. A lot of them are really good people. Oh, God. Like me.

[Sammy Sage]

Maybe he wants to also make a point about the mass incarceration system. My guess, I don't know.

[Bea Speard]

Anyway, he's. He's very interesting and we'll learn more about him.

[Sammy Sage]

But this episode has been a fever dream.

[Bea Speard]

It sure has. We've been all over the map.

[Sammy Sage]

It really. There's a lot happening. And we will see you next week.

[Bea Speard]

We got a bunch of cool stuff coming out for the rest of the year for you guys. We appreciate you being with us. Of course. Please send us your letters. Please tell us where we should go if we were to do a little pop up show, come visit you in your city. Maybe Sami will bring some books. We love the book. Tell us.

[Sammy Sage]

Tell us who you think the possibilities for women who could have been involved in the Jay Z. Diddy thing.

[Bea Speard]

Yes.

[Sammy Sage]

Put that in there.

[Bea Speard]

So, you know, your guess is there. Who was the. Who was the woman who was helping them. And please send us your New York City young slut stories. Okay. We're gonna read them on the Christmas Eve episode for our oh, not so Holy Nights series.

[Sammy Sage]

Not so Virgin Marys.

[Bea Speard]

Not so Virgin Marys. Take us to midnight mass. Tell us about all the weird stuff that happened that's just so unbelievable you can be anonymous. I think it'll be a fun, kind of like scandalous way to end the year. And me and Samuel, we'll throw in some stories of our own anonymously and you can. You can see if you can guess which one is Sami. And my. It's more likely that it wasn't Sammy or I that was dating the older weird guy. But we definitely have friends that like. We got caught up in their stories a lot.

[Sammy Sage]

Drop your sins, Betches. This is the night.

[Bea Speard]

Drop your sins.

[Sammy Sage]

I could maybe tell the story of how I got my Harry Potter scar.

[Bea Speard]

Oh, yes. We're bringing back the lore.

[Sammy Sage]

It's really not that interesting.

[Bea Speard]

We're bringing back the lore. Yeah. I'll tell you about how every time I got drunk in New York City, I took the train home to Connecticut because I was scared and I would make my dad come pick me up and. Anyway, until next time, I'm beesbeer. I'm Sammy Sage and this is American Fever Dream.

[Sammy Sage]

Good night. American Fever Dream is produced and edited by Samantha Gatzick Social Media by Candace Maniga and Bridget Schwartz. Be sure to follow us on Instagram and TikTok etchesnews and follow me SammySage, Sammy and V at under the Desk News. And of course, send us your emails to americanfeverdreamches.com betches.