The Global Scam Call Network (ft. T-Bob) | April 23, 2026

Summary

Macrodosing Episode Summary: "The Global Scam Call Network" (ft. T-Bob)

Date: April 23, 2026
Hosts: Big Cat, Big T, T-Bob, Mad Dog, McKenzie
Special Guest: T-Bob
Main Theme:
An immersive and humorous breakdown of global scam call networks—how they operate, why they're thriving, and the cultural and technological forces behind them. The crew weaves in topical digressions (NFL Draft, drug policy, and more), all with their trademark mix of sharp insight and comedic banter.

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1. Introduction and Episode Overview

• The group starts with a lively studio reunion, joking about Barstool drama, the NFL Draft, and their favorite clothing and food sponsors.
• Main focus: a deep dive into global scam call centers, especially those targeting Americans, and broader reflections on scams, technology, and human gullibility.

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2. Key Discussion Points & Insights

Rumors, Gossip, and NFL Draft (04:01–13:17)

• Rumors vs. Truth: Deliberates what counts as gossip versus rumor, and whether spreading true but salacious information is still "rumor-mongering."
  • “If somebody is discussing it with somebody else... just because they’re trying to take somebody else down, that’s kind of where it becomes like rumor mongering.” – Big Cat (06:13)
• NFL Draft Drama: Brief tangent to the draft’s rumor mill, likening GM smoke screens to "Schrodinger’s draft" (08:57).
  • Discussion on top talent, quarterback scarcity, and the globalization of player pools.
  • “The NFL GMs are such messy bitches... they love to just talk behind people’s backs…” – Big Cat (08:13)

The Globalization of Sports Talent (13:17–18:34)

• Emergence of international super-athletes: Global scouting pushes physical limits—mentions prospects from Africa, ties to stories like Shohei Ohtani’s journey, MLB’s international recruiting, and past abuses in that system.
• Notable historical cases: GM bans, under-the-table deals, and exploitation of foreign prospects.

Larry Fitzgerald and the Intersection of Sports, Finance, and Politics (19:36–24:54)

• Larry Fitzgerald spotted supporting Federal Reserve nominee—sparks discussion on player post-career trajectories and the blurred lines between money, influence, and public service.
• “I’ve said for the last 10 years, Larry Fitzgerald will be a senator. I have zero doubt.” – Big Cat (21:56)

Airline Industry & Spirit Airlines Nationalization (31:00–34:31)

• News break: Potential Spirit Airlines rescue package ($500M), leading to a roast of discount airline economics and the “illusion” of cheap flights.
• Humorous takes on Spirit Airlines’ unique audience and people-watching opportunities at their gates (“the happiest people... landing in Las Vegas”).

Smoking, Drug Policy, and Societal Overreach (36:08–50:49)

• England bans cigarette sales to anyone born after 2008—a multidimensional debate on prohibition, personal freedom, and public health.
  • “It feels like prohibition. We all learned that lesson… human beings love vice.” – Big T (36:54)
• Personal stories about social relationships with tobacco, with T-Bob and Big Cat clarifying the difference between occasional and habitual smokers.
• Transition into U.S. drug policy; Trump’s (rumored) plan to reclassify marijuana and the politics of psychedelic therapies.
  • “This is good development if he actually does it [reschedule marijuana].” – Big Cat (47:07)
• Inflation as a universal frustration—how it trumps (pun not intended) other political concerns in voters’ minds.

Scam Call Networks: Deep Dive (79:08–105:31 | 1:19:08–1:45:31)

Realities of Modern Scam Calls

• All hosts share experiences with scam calls and texts, highlighting tactics:
  • Area code spoofing (matching user’s area code for plausibility)
  • “Local” callback scams (the “Wangiri”/One Ring scam) (95:45–96:48)
• Scam targets: elderly and vulnerable—never the fabled “rich Americans.”
  • “It’s a volume shooting game... the people that get wrangled in are always the most susceptible.” – Big T (81:37)

Text Message Scams & Data Exploitation

• Surge in scam texts, particularly fake DMV and tollway messages timed to trip up people with recent address/state changes.

Info Security & Phishing

• Big Cat and others describe nearly falling for sophisticated phishing (including Apple Store, X.com/Twitter, and toll scams).
  • “Some of my info was repeated back to me—then he started asking for more. That’s where you draw the line.” – Big Cat (87:12)
• AI voice cloning is the looming, darker evolution—leads to family “safe word” policies (88:03–88:16).
  • “There’s so much tape of me talking... she [my mom] could get a phone call that sounds just like me.” – Big Cat (88:03)
• Discussion of online identity protection services and the staggering extent of data brokers selling personal data (83:39–84:10).

Scam-Baiters & Vigilantes

• Highlights "KitBoga" and other "scam-baiters" who waste scammers’ time and expose call centers (90:07–91:30).
  • “They’re looking at their own webcam and it’s a feed from their office... What the f?”* – Big T (90:31)
• Praise for anti-scam activism and calls for public investment: “We need to fund more of those people... I want those guys to be the richest people on Earth.” – Big Cat (91:30–91:44)

Larger Infrastructure of Scam Networks

• Walkthrough of large international operations, including a recently shut-down gold/crypto scam in India that involved real on-the-ground mules in U.S. cities.
  • Losses: 660+ victims, $48.7M total, single largest—a Marylander lost $1.7M in gold (100:35–100:52).
• Explains why so many scams originate from Asia: population, limited economic opportunities, and enforcement challenges (101:43–102:03).
• Recent multinational crackdowns by the US, UK, China, India, and more; SpaceX disables Starlink devices used by scammers.

Why Scams Persist

• “Volume shooter” model—99.5% failure still pays.
• Newer scams: “AI MAGA influencer” from India—sophisticated grifting targeting both political and prurient interests (97:08–98:34).
• Discussion of regulatory responses, the difficulty of crossing borders for enforcement, and the urgent need for technological countermeasures.

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3. Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

“If you’re willing to just get on a plane with the clothes on your back and that’s it, Spirit can definitely be worth the price... but if you want water, or to use the restroom? Good luck.”
— Big Cat (33:05)

“I told my mom that there’s so much tape of me talking... at some point she could get a phone call from someone that sounded like me. We got to have a safe word.”
— Big Cat (88:03)

“I always go back to that old quote about precedent: No man considers a course safe for himself which has proven profitable to others.”
— Big T (102:18)

“We need to fund more of those [scam-baiting] people. I want those guys to be the richest people on Earth.”
— Big Cat (91:44)

“It’s a volume shooting game... the people that get wrangled in are always the most susceptible.”
— Big T (81:37)

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4. Timestamps for Key Segments

• Rumors, Gossip, NFL Draft: 04:01–13:17
• Globalization of Sports Talent: 13:17–18:34
• Spirit Airlines/Discount Airlines & Economics: 31:00–34:31
• England's Cigarette Ban/Drug Policy: 36:08–50:49
• Scam Call Discussion Begins: 79:08 (1:19:08)
• Modern Scam Call Tactics & Defenses: 79:41–89:09
• Scam-Baiters, Vigilantes KitBoga: 90:07–91:30
• Anatomy of Big Scam Rings & Crackdowns: 100:52–104:27
• Discussion on Scam Effectiveness and Old vs. New Tactics: 104:06–105:11

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5. Tone and Style

• Language: Down-to-earth, irreverent, and conversational, mixing legitimate expertise with tongue-in-cheek banter.
• Atmosphere: Fast-paced, rapidly pivoting between global analysis and personal anecdotes, always with a comedic undertone.

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6. Final Takeaways

The Macrodosing crew delivers a whirlwind tour of the Global Scam Call Network—its social cost, the high-tech arms race between criminals and defenders, the economics driving both sides, and the heavy human toll. Mixed in are relatable stories of near-misses, the evolving nature of scams (from phishing emails to AI-driven social engineering), and passionate calls for smarter, better-funded defense systems.

Bottom line:
Scams are getting more sophisticated, harder to trace, and more damaging—especially for society’s most vulnerable. The solution lies in awareness, education, and resourcing modern scam-fighters (whether government, private sector, or internet vigilantes).

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For Listeners New and Old

If you missed the episode, this recap should leave you both wary of your next unknown caller—and grateful at least some people are outsmarting the scammers.

Transcript

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[Big Cat]

What counts as a rumor is bigger than even just this show.

[T Bob]

So can I say. I think we should say we are not talking about the rumors, but we will talk about people talking about the rumors. So we can't be implicated in this. Right, but we're. We are just talking about the discussion about the rumors.

[Big Cat]

Yes. And so if you're listening out there and you have no idea what we're talking about, God bless you, but congrats on being employed. Welcome back to Macro Dosing. It is Thursday. It's April 23rd today, and we're back in the studio. Myself, Big T, Mad Dog, McKenzie, and T Bob. We got the three T's, the big T's, the all three of them. The T musketeers. Yeah, there you go. And we're gonna get into some online phone scamming in a little bit, but we're gonna. We got a lot to talk about today. A lot going on in the world. Today's episode's brought to you by our great friends over at Quints. Saw Quint's billboard in Chicago the other day. Drove past one. It's no giant credit card billboard.

[Big T]

I missed the giant credit card billboard. We had a. We had a hell of a summer together, man.

[Big Cat]

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[Big T]

the, the, the, the, the rumor or the truth? I am not spreading truth. A rumor.

[Big Cat]

Okay.

[Big T]

This is something I've been trying to conceptualize.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, that's, that's actually a good way. And we're kind of alluding to the barstool Spring Break house, which, I'll be honest, as a 40. As a 41 year old man, I, I can't find myself getting like, drawn into the ins and outs of these storylines. But I do think that the conversation of what counts as a rumor is bigger than even just this show.

[T Bob]

So can I say. I think we should say we are not talking about the rumors, but we will talk about people talking about the rumors so we can't be implicated in this. Right, but we're, we are just talking about the discussion about the rumors.

[Big Cat]

Yes. And, and so if you're listening out there and you have no idea what we're talking about, God bless you.

[T Bob]

But congrats on being employed.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, let's just, let's just say that, that there's drama that goes on inside a company and people are accused of things or rumors that get started which may or may not be true rumors, but you probably know somebody in your life that has spread a rumor about you. Or maybe you've heard a rumor about somebody else that you're close with and you jump to that person's defense to defend them against rumor that may or may not be true. But then it opens up the bigger question of if somebody is out there spreading rumors about someone else and those rumors are true, does that count as spreading rumors?

[Big T]

I. My instinct says that is still rumor mongering. Like I've never tied, I've never tied rumor in with truth or fiction.

[T Bob]

So truth is not a defense for you.

[Big T]

Well, I'm just saying that like if something is salacious but true and you're going around telling people about it, you are kind of doing the same thing as somebody who's spreading something. Salacious but untrue. Maybe not.

[T Bob]

Oh, I disagree.

[Big T]

Maybe not as bad. But like you're still, it's still going around because you want to goss a little bit because you want.

[T Bob]

That is true.

[Big Cat]

I think it's gossip. I think gossip and rumors.

[T Bob]

Yeah.

[Big T]

Oh, okay. That's fair. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Big Cat]

Actually, maybe I, maybe I'm wrong about that. Maybe if you're, if you're gossiping truth about somebody, it could be looked at and spreading. If you're doing it maliciously, I think that's where, where most people would have a problem with it. Even if it's true, if somebody is discussing it with somebody else not because they're trying to improve something or make something better, but just because they're trying to take somebody else down, then I see that that's kind of where it becomes like rumor mongering to me.

[Big T]

Yeah. I mean that's weaponized.

[Big Cat]

Weaponized.

[Big T]

That has intent.

[Big Cat]

Weaponized gossip.

[Big T]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. We love gossip though, Just, just as a human beings.

[Big T]

We do.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. As a person, you can say that you don't love gossip, but everybody kind of loves gossip.

[Big T]

It's hard too, because I'm trying again because I don't want to be involved in any of this. And, and, and I, I know what it's like when you're kind of caught in what feels like everybody's talking about you, but you don't like know. And, and you always have this temptation like, oh, I gotta, I gotta talk to you. I gotta try to clear the. I gotta try to say what the end. It's like, you know what, Functionally, actually it doesn't matter. All you need to do is just kind of focus on your life and control you. Control. I Guess. I guess where I'm going with that is like, I've been trying very actively hard to avoid my most base instincts, that curiosity that wants to dive in and wants to be like, hey, so what are they actually talking about here? And so I've been, I've been trying to stay disciplined and stay off the beat here. But, but I was thinking, to your point, I was thinking a lot about the. Conceptually, what is a rumor? And does. Does truth or not matter? So t. You think if I'm, if I'm spreading truth, I'm just talking facts?

[T Bob]

I agree that you're still gossiping, okay. And that. That's not something that, like, you should necessarily be doing, but I do think it's different if it's true or not.

[Big Cat]

Let's, let's cut all the bullshit here and just say what we're all talking about. Are the Cardinals going to take love with the third pickers? Is a smokescreen.

[Big T]

It would be crazy.

[Big Cat]

The rumors are just absolutely crazy.

[T Bob]

That's right. Happy draft.

[Big Cat]

This time of year, the smoke screens. It's lying season. Just say what you think. The NFL GMs are such messy bitches. They just, they love to just talk behind people's back, get stuff out in the press, get people talking about their, Their. Their peers and their, Their opponents, and it's, it's hard to know and separate truth from. From lies this time of year. It's lying season.

[Big T]

Well, so is that, Is that actually where a rumor exists? Does rumor have to be in a quantum state where you don't know if it's true or not? Because if you know something's true, well, then you're, you're factually like you're, You're. You're. You're accomplishing a goal by talking about it. Know that something's not true. You know it's not true and you're talking about it. Well, then that's malicious in its own way. So maybe.

[T Bob]

So it has to be a Schrodinger situation.

[Big T]

Yes, it has to. It has to.

[Big Cat]

Schrodinger's draft. Yeah.

[Big T]

And that's what the gms are taking advantage of here.

[Big Cat]

Yes.

[Big T]

They, they, they seed the story with, with quantum tales that, that nobody knows what to make heads or tails of. And then only they know the truth at the very end.

[Big Cat]

What are the biggest rumors going around about this draft? It's like this draft kind of stinks.

[T Bob]

I haven't seen. I forgot it was tomorrow slash today.

[Big Cat]

I've heard people say that about this draft, and maybe it's because the Commanders have a top 10 pick. So I'm a little bit more interested. I feel like there are a ton of really good players in this draft. I don't know. You know, I've heard Todd McShay say that it's not the most talented draft that you're looking at next year and you're thinking that's going to be the year. But, but I look at the top like 10 guys and I, I see a lot of really, really good players.

[T Bob]

The top 10 guys in any draft are going to be. I think it's the quarterbacks.

[Big T]

Yeah, you're right.

[Big Cat]

There's like one quarterback that is consensus first round pick and then another guy that is maybe not a top 32 guy in the draft but will be taken in the first round because he's a quarterback.

[Big T]

Yeah, it's, it's. I think there's a few different elements of play. Every, Everything. First up to Yalls point, everything starts with the quarterback.

[Big Cat]

Right?

[Big T]

Like, actually Brandon had a pretty good line on this morning show where he just, you know, distilled it down to you could pick any team in the first round and say, oh, they need help at receiver, at rushing the passer and protecting the passer. Well, it's like, yeah, everybody needs that. Why? Because everything ties into quarterback. Everything goes. It's just the nature of football. So you only have one quarterback. So that disincentivizes trades because no one's trying to fight up to get one of the guys that they feel like they, they. Yeah, they have to have. And then I think the other thing is arguably the two best players in the draft could very special talents to your point, like Jeremiah Love and Caleb Downs are at positions that are equivalent to one another in terms of how they're valued. Like safety is the running back of defense. Yes, it can put you over the top, it can be very impactful, but people are not going to place it high on their priority chart.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, I, I personally I would love either one of those players.

[Big T]

Yeah, it'd be incredible.

[Big Cat]

I think they're both awesome. I think there's a lot of good pass rushers, a lot of good defensive players in this draft. So like a great tight end in this draft too. In Sadiq, I would say like an otherworldly, talented, like freak athlete.

[Big T]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

In Sadiq. And then you've got some like three, maybe even four really, really good wide receivers too. So I like, I don't.

[Big T]

And there's some really good old linemen. Dude, I mean, you got The Utah boys, a huge, huge draft for Pacific Islander offensive lineman. I don't want to say Polynesian because I don't know if anybody's like Polynesian Simone, but, but people love kind of Pacific island descent. There's old boy for Penn State who's like number one or two on Bruce Feldman's freak list every single year. Both the Utah guys, they're, they're, they're fantastic.

[Big Cat]

There's. There's a couple guys from Africa that are like relatively new to the game, really, that have put up numbers in, in their pro days that we haven't seen before. Like, there's this one dude, I forget, I forget the guy's name, but he is the top. I think he's number one in terms of the overall athletic profile of anybody that's been in the draft, like the Ras since like. Yeah. So the guy's name, your Bernard. Uar. I'm not sure how you pronounce it. Uar. Last name Bernard. He's a tackle from Nigeria and on the raw athleticism scale, he scored a 9.9 out of 10.

[Big T]

Good.

[Big Cat]

So that would rank him 23rd out of 2270 defensive tackles going back all the way to 1987.

[Big T]

Wait a second. Does that say 6? How was it say 6, 8. Does he 6, 8?

[Big Cat]

You know, he's 6, 4 and a half.

[Big T]

Okay, 6, 4 and a half. 308, 31 reps on the bench.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. His 40 time is 4.63. He's got 6% body fat and 10 foot 10 inch broad jump. Now I think that if he's really 6% body fat, I'm gonna say that's. He doesn't have enough body fat. He should have more body fat than that.

[Big T]

He's. I mean, he wants play. Oh, line. He's got to give him a little fatter. But that is, that's the. I was talking about why the Shohei story is so cool and why what he did on Jackie Rob today was so cool is because now that we're drawing from more global talent pools, we are really pushing the limits of what DNA can accomplish. Like, like, like, because we, we are now drawing like, like that guy would have been buried to time at any point in football up until right now. And then who knows, if you do globalize even more in two generations and the freaks that'll be coming from all over the world and just pushing the limits of what the human body is capable of. That's insane.

[Big Cat]

Especially once, once guys like this start to get opportunities and if they make A lot of money then in the countries that they come from, that's going to be seen as a career path.

[Big T]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

And then kids are going to like hone in and start working hard as, as youngsters knowing that you can make a shitload of money in America if you just like get your measurables up and then yeah, it will be like a global competition. It'd be like who has the biggest freaks.

[Big T]

Yeah. And, and, and, and again that's how like Showy Tani's born 100 years ago. He's not playing pro baseball. We never hear about him. And now he's the best baseball player we've ever seen in, in our entire lives. I mean look at the Dominican Republic, right. Don't guys get signed at like 12 and 13 years old down there to be like on, on MLB teams and getting their systems?

[Big Cat]

Yep.

[Big T]

So yeah, it creates an incentivization.

[Big Cat]

I was, I, I was reading up about that a few months ago about how like the, the, the breaking of the dam of Caribbean countries, South American countries when it comes to, to Major League baseball players and the explosive growth that they've had in Major League Baseball over the last like 30, 40 years. Yeah, I didn't realize this. There were, There are some GMs that got in a lot of trouble because of how they were treating the, the kids that were coming up out of these countries that they would enter into like off the, off the book agreements with some of these kids being like, hey, we will agree to help you lie about your age if you, if you sign a contract with me and I get like a little bit of kickback from the, the first deal that we give you as it's like actual Major League baseball. General managers were doing that shit.

[T Bob]

The Braves gm, John Capillella, he got banned for life.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Big T]

Really?

[Big Cat]

Was he getting kickbacks?

[T Bob]

So Capoella was kicked out of the sport in the fall of 2017 after is determined he had grossly violated rules related to the signings of international players. He later got reinstated. But he was like, he was this, he was like a wonderkind kind of guy. He became the GM when he was like 40 and he had his whole life. He was like, I want to be a Major League Baseball gm. Like he went to school for that. And he was, he was the GM when the Braves were really bad. And so he would do these Twitter like fans loved him because he would go on Twitter and answer questions and be like, here's, you know what I think about this? He would give like really good insight And. And it turned out he was doing a bunch of stuff with international violations.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[T Bob]

Signing guys before they could be signed and all sorts of stuff. So he got banned for life, but it was lifted later. But nobody.

[Big T]

I remember. So you. You ever listen to David Sampson from the Lerd universe? He's the former Marlins president, and, like, now he's just, like, very open about everything that. That goes on. And I. I don't know if people had gone through with this or not, but he did relay conversations they were having about, like, with these young pitching prospects out of these countries, like, forcing them to have, like, preemptive Tommy John surgery.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Big T]

And stuff like that. To just, like, go ahead and. And. Because you can kind of. Because you have the upper hand and you can kind of manipulate to like, make them like, hey, look, you want to deal, we want to give you. But you got, like, got to do this.

[Big Cat]

Yep.

[Big T]

And then. And then we'll give you the deal.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, it's. It was a. A big issue. Like, I. Big T. I hadn't heard about the guy from the Braves. There was a guy from the Nationals that also got in trouble for that. But it was like a. It was a massive problem in baseball for a long time, and it just went, like, completely under the radar because you could. If you were in a position where you could, you know, develop a pipeline and, like, it was beneficial for both sides to lie about things. It was like, yeah, that's. That's going to be a natural side effect. But, yeah, big or T, Bob, to your point, just, like, globalizing the sport and having, like, the biggest possible talent pool, all trying to make it to the NFL. You're going to see more and more of these absolute freak show athletes.

[Big T]

And. And, And. And all it takes is for one to do great, and then other teams will take a shot on a guy who's, like, really raw as well.

[T Bob]

Right.

[Big T]

Like, I always go back to. And. And it's funny conversation, too, about, like, the. The Peyton Manning first season where you throw all the picks. Okay. Every quarterback comes afterwards, they throw a bunch of picks. Well, don't worry. Peyton did. It's like Daniel Hunter. Daniel Hunter, the great pastor for the Texans. He only had four sacks in three years at lsu, but he was like a physical monster. And then. So now it's like, okay, like, well, you see Keldrick Falk out there from Auburn, and he didn't do anything in college, but he's only 20, and he's an absolute physical. I mean, he scores off the charts today. I Think we should take him here

[T Bob]

in the first round.

[Big T]

We can make him right. I mean, Josh Allen's had this tail with him as well, so I hope that guy does really well, though. And it incentivize. Starts to incentivize more of that. Okay, guys, it's grit week. This is the part of the football calendar where nobody's watching, but everything gets built. Early mornings, pads back on, conditioning, film reps. Spring training. In football is all about putting in the work when nobody's cheering yet. And honestly, that's the same mindset behind the Chevy Silverado. This is a truck that is the definition of grit. Long days, dirty work, and showing up day after day, no matter the conditions. Strong, dependable, and built for the grind. Because grit isn't about being flashy. It's about being ready when it's time to go. Check out the current offers and build your [e-mail]. that's Silverado. All grit, no quit. And you can build your [e-mail] today.

[Big Cat]

A complete hard pivot here. But there was. There was something that went down in. In the. The crossroads of politics and sports yesterday that I wanted to get your guys feedback on because I have no idea what's going on with this one. There was a man that had a confirmation hearing to be nominated to the Federal Reserve. Okay. And it was a man by the name of Kevin Warsh. So he was in D.C. the other day. He was getting grilled by Congress. He was Donald Trump's pick to be the new chair of the Federal Reserve. And so he had a confirmation hearing.

[T Bob]

Were you here, were you not here when we interviewed? I apologize. What was the guy's name that we interviewed who talked a lot about Kevin Warship.

[Big T]

Oh. Oh, were you here? Zach. Zach. Yes. The absolute best.

[T Bob]

Yeah, it was a great interview. I think you were gone.

[Big T]

Brain is overflowing with information. What's.

[Big Cat]

It was Super Bowl.

[Big T]

God. What's his. What's his Instagram?

[T Bob]

Yeah, but he usually. Jack Lodge, something like that. Loft.

[Big T]

Zachary Loft.

[T Bob]

Yeah, you should go listen to that. Pft.

[Big Cat]

Because he.

[T Bob]

He knows all about this guy.

[Big Cat]

Okay, so what? I don't know anything. I don't know the first thing about this guy. But I do know that sitting behind him at the confirmation hearing on TV was Larry Fitzgerald. For some reason, I didn't. Look at this picture. Look at this picture. Larry Fitzgerald's just kind of there, like showing support to his. His boy. I assume it's his boy. They. They shook hands, had a friendly moment before. Before the testimony. I don't know what Larry Fitzgerald's up to. He's always seemed like a, Larry's always seemed like a smart guy that kind of like moves in silence a little bit, which I kind of respect about the guy. I feel like he's, he's a calculated, intelligent person that, yeah, but he's up to something. And I got to find out what Larry Fitzgerald is up to.

[Big T]

So quick Twitter search and looking at comments on somebody asking this very question has a screenshot says from a Google search, yes. Retired NFL superstar Larry Fitzgerald has a significant background in finance, investing and business education. Following 17 season career, he enrolled at Harvard Business school, interned at J.P. morgan during his playing days, and co founded Trenches Capital with a portfolio spanning over 160 startups. So he swims in these waters. I guess.

[Big Cat]

I guess so. I, I, I've said, I think for the last 10 years, Larry Fitzgerald will be a senator. I have no doubt, zero doubt he is going to run for Senate. I'm even going to skip past Congress. I feel like he's going to just jump right into a Senate race and he'll probably get elected.

[Big T]

But did he go down, do you think, do you think the finance route will lead to the Senate, or has he gone down the route of the oligarch? Is he going to be a PE guy, big fun guy.

[Big Cat]

He might make his money and then after he gets like $3 billion, be like, you know what? I'm going to dedicate myself to public service.

[Big T]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

And then kind of do that.

[Big T]

And by dedicating myself to public service, you mean dedicate myself to getting an office and enacting laws that allow me to keep more of my $3 billion.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. And also, like, help your boys.

[Big T]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Help your boys out bit. So who knows? But he's a, he's a smart, calculating guy. I don't know. It, it was just a very funny visual to see Larry Fitzgerald sitting at. Like, if you were to ask me, where in the world would he be?

[Big T]

So I vaguely remember a few months ago the Federal Reserve chair coming out with a video and talking about how Trump was like, yeah, basically out to get him and was trying to have him arrested. And so, so he's out now?

[Big Cat]

No, I think he's still in, but. And he has the ability to, like, walk away on his own terms.

[Big T]

Okay.

[Big Cat]

I forget exactly how the, the Fed nomination replacement process works, but I think he's got a Runway where he can pretty much stay on as long as he wants. If he doesn't want to give up his spot. And then I think after he leaves, I. It. I forget the. The details. Obviously, I'm not like, a expert when it comes to this stuff, but when you step down, you can then transition to being a board member of the Fed if you want to. And so he's some. Something to do with, like, the power that he has. Even if he were to step down, he would still have, like, a lot of power when it came to, like, who his successor might be, still be in the mix. This guy holds a lot of the cards. Powell holds a lot of the cards, even over.

[Big T]

But. But I thought he was getting sworn in.

[Big Cat]

This is a confirmation hearing. Yeah. For this person. But I just know that unless something new has happened, Powell held a lot of cards because otherwise, Trump's wanted him gone for, like, the last three years, even when he wasn't present. So, like, when he came back, Trump would. Would have just been like, okay, this guy's fired if he wanted to.

[Big T]

But yeah, it's gonna do that crazy feeling to have the. The eye of the Donald Trump machine stare in your direction.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, but, I mean, he's got. He's got a lot of eyes now. He's got a lot of eyes going in a lot of different directions. That's true. Like, there's a few people that. That are under that same watch. So you just keep hoping that he stays distracted with somebody else. I think. I would think that like a dog

[Big T]

with too many tennis balls.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Like once every, you know, couple months when there's, like, an inflation report that comes out, you know, that that's going to be the day that. That Donald's gonna be looking at your. Your job. But then, you know, in between that, he's got. He's got a lot of. Lot of other irons and a lot of other fires.

[T Bob]

I have another pivot of something that needs to be taken care of, like, right now.

[Big Cat]

Okay, let's take care of it.

[T Bob]

Chili's is in the office making their new chicken sandwiches right now. Like, they're cooking them here.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[T Bob]

And it smells like delicious chilies. What are we going to do about that?

[Big Cat]

It does smell really good. Smell great.

[T Bob]

I mean, should I. Should I go scout and see?

[Big Cat]

You can go. Yeah.

[T Bob]

See what the deal is.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, we take. We take 10.

[T Bob]

I don't.

[Big Cat]

You can go scout.

[T Bob]

Y'.

[Big T]

All.

[T Bob]

Y' all keep talking.

[Big T]

Check your reconnaissance mission.

[T Bob]

What's up?

[Big T]

Do reconnaissance.

[Big Cat]

I'm trying to be healthy. If I can turn over a new leaf, just. Is it fried chicken?

[Big T]

That's what I say. I'm hoping it is.

[Big Cat]

I believe it is.

[Big T]

It better be fried chicken. Like. Like, there's no way you're hyping up the launch of a grilled chicken sandwich. Grilled chicken sandwiches are fine.

[Big Cat]

Right, right. But you're not. Yeah.

[Big T]

I'll also say this. I got a peek of the menu

[Big Cat]

that they had when I was coming

[Big T]

in here, and there are chicken crispers and, I believe, mozzarella sticks.

[Big Cat]

Oh, God.

[Big T]

I did see just giant bags of queso being dumped into aluminum containers as well.

[Big Cat]

I feel like that meme of, I believe it's Jesus who's, like, praying and, like, looking upward for strength while there's that. That harlot next to him hiking your skirt up.

[Big T]

And Chili's is the harlot. Oh, you think that's Jesus? I've always thought that was just a. I always thought that was just a monster monk.

[Big Cat]

Oh, you thought it was a doctor?

[Big T]

I just thought it was a random.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, Just a random pious man.

[Big T]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. A monk being tempted in his stone Castle after eight hours or 14 hours of writing manuscripts.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. I would. I would absolutely love some chills. I'm trying to get healthy, though. I'm trying to. I'm walking more. I'm trying to get my steps above 10,000 every day.

[Big T]

Did you walk here today?

[Big Cat]

So, okay.

[Big T]

It's kind of a time thing at a certain point.

[Big Cat]

It is. Last week, I said I was developing. I was trying to start a new habit, walk into work on Wednesdays, right? Wednesdays, it take me about, like, 50 minutes to an hour to walk here if the weather's nice. Unfortunately, last Wednesday morning, it was very rainy. There was a big storm, so I couldn't do it. And then I was going to this morning also, but then I got to go play golf later on, so I have to drive to the golf course, so I couldn't. Well, but you're gonna get your steps

[Big T]

in at the course. You're gonna carry your back.

[Big Cat]

I am. Well, I. I'm gonna. I'm gonna be outdoors.

[Big T]

Yeah. Okay. You'll be walking from the cart to the. To the shop.

[Big Cat]

It's not. It's not exactly a. A close walk from the practice screen to the first take, so I'll have to do that one. But, yeah, I had every intention of walking to work, but I. I feel like walking is a very. It's a sneaky way of getting in shape and losing weight.

[Big T]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

People always think, like, run. Go for a run. That's fine. That's good. But the. The Heart rate zones that you're in when you're doing like strenuous cardio. Not always the best for fat burning.

[Big T]

Very painful as well.

[Big Cat]

Very painful.

[Big T]

Like it just hurts it walking doesn't. I. That's something that I really miss. Pre morning show when I was here was because I wasn't strict in my time in the morning. Like I could take the train in and then the walk from the OTC to here was about 40 minutes and so I was catching like a solid.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Big T]

45 minute walks. I want to pay for an Uber. So I was catching like a solid 40, 45 minute walk every day to start the day and felt great.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, walking is a very underrated part of a healthy lifestyle. I'm trying to get back into the walking game.

[Big T]

Big T. What's the. What's.

[T Bob]

They were still setting it up. They weren't going to let me take one.

[Big T]

Well, let me. Give me. Paint me a picture what it looked like.

[T Bob]

Oh, it's amazing out. They got everything. They have the chicken sandwiches. They have mozzarella sticks. They have chicken crispers. They have chips. They have everything. And they were. They wouldn't let me take anything. They were setting it up.

[Big T]

I told my wife that I loved her for the first time in front of a Chili's back in high school.

[T Bob]

It's beautiful.

[Big T]

Yeah, we were.

[Big Cat]

We were.

[Big T]

We were kind of doing a will they, won't they thing. She had just gone to a country concert without me.

[T Bob]

What concert? I don't know.

[Big T]

Some country fest back in Georgia. And we were going through it and then out of nowhere, I. I finally just told you that I loved her.

[T Bob]

Where was the Chili's? I may have been there.

[Big T]

Duluth north, probably. Yeah. Yeah, probably Duluth area. Maybe like Norcross area. Might have been the one by school.

[Big Cat]

Exactly.

[Big T]

Remember the Chili's. Yeah, she did.

[Big Cat]

Okay, nice.

[Big T]

She did. She did.

[Big Cat]

And then.

[Big T]

And that was when we like we. We stopped all the hemming and hawing and really got on with the relationship. So nothing like a little spinach artichoke dip to.

[Big Cat]

It's where romance.

[Big T]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. To really. To really open up the heart.

[Big Cat]

That's nice. I like that.

[T Bob]

I think I have. When you said Norcross, is it like. I think I. I have been to this Chili's in. This is more Peachtree Corners, I think.

[Big Cat]

Is it romantic? Is it is a.

[T Bob]

It's a. That's a good area. It's a good Chili's. Okay. Yeah.

[Big T]

We used to love. Yeah. I don't know. Chili's was always that Was like our date spot.

[Big Cat]

A lot of towns have two Chili's. They got the good one, they got the bad one. I think that's important, actually. I think that that's the, the sign of a healthy chain restaurant is if you can have two different franchise locations in the same town or same city and then one that's like that people get excited to go to.

[T Bob]

I think in the south, that's Sonic.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, there's.

[T Bob]

There's always a good and bad song.

[Big T]

I mean, bro, you know, I don't know about good and bad, but, you know, there's, there's a Waffle House every hundred yards, seemingly in Atlanta.

[T Bob]

But, but all Waffle Waffle High are.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[T Bob]

More or less the same.

[Big T]

No, I, I agree with that. That's what I'm saying. I think it factors into the good bad thing. But it always shocked me at the, the demand. But I mean, I love Walva, so I guess I shouldn't take shock. But like, I remember literally by my school, they were, they were not 200 yards between these two waffle houses and they both were there my entire life.

[T Bob]

Have you seen Kennesaw State's baseball field?

[Big T]

No.

[T Bob]

There's a Waffle House in right field. Like it's. You could hit a home run into

[Big T]

the Waffle House, man. Getting a bacon Texas cheesesteak double plate, smothered, covered with vanilla Coke and a waffle on the side while watching the boys hit.

[Big Cat]

I love that. Sounds amazing. In sports, winning takes more than talent. It takes strength, reliability, and the drive to go the distance. Sound familiar? That's the same DNA you'll find in a Chevy Silverado. As capable and dependable as a winning team. Chevy Silverado shows up, it gets the job done. It won't flinch when the pressure's on. It doesn't take plays off when it comes to trucks. Chevy Silverado is football guy approved. To learn more About Silverado, visit chevy.com we got some slight breaking news here. Spirit Airlines looks like it might be taken over by the federal government.

[T Bob]

Yeah, well, I saw they were maybe just going to shut down.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, they were going to shut down. They were in danger of, of like, I don't know, how do you say closing their doors when it comes to an airline? They're in danger of being grounded permanently.

[Big T]

Yeah, I was a you and now.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. And then, and then Trump stepped in and they're looking to issue a rescue package to Spirit airlines. Up to $500 million for Spirit. They're still negotiating the terms of it right now, but they Say that it's an advanced talks right now for. For nationalization of Spirit Airlines.

[Big T]

I learned something interesting. I wish I could remember her name. There's this nerdy girl who did theme park reviews, but they were just, like, incredibly good critiques, essentially, and very intelligent everything. And she was comparing, I think, a cruise or something to how Spirit prices. And I didn't realize that Spirit's not really cheaper than other airlines. It's just that they charge by the amenity. Yeah.

[T Bob]

If you want a seat, that's an extra 19. Yeah. You want to bring a bag, that's an extra 30.

[Big T]

Yeah. Like, they break it down very granularly, and they make you ask the question of. Okay, what can I sacrifice?

[T Bob]

Yes.

[Big T]

In order to make this flight work.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[T Bob]

And then you're flying on a worse airline for more or less the same amount of money.

[Big T]

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So kind of the myth of spirit was a bit broken to me when. When that door was open to my brain.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. But if you. If you're willing to just get on a plane with the clothes on your back and that's it, then, yeah, it can be definitely worth the price. But, yeah, if you want water, if you want to use a restroom, I don't.

[T Bob]

I don't think it's ever worth the price. I wouldn't fly on Spirit for free if.

[Big Cat]

What if you're doing a day trip? What if you're like, I. I would

[T Bob]

not fly on Spirit for free.

[Big Cat]

For free.

[T Bob]

There's an amount of money you could potentially pay me to do it, but I would not do it for free.

[Big Cat]

That's an interesting business model. The airline that pays you the.

[Big T]

The Spirit terminals at, like, a destination city are always fantastic to people watch. Like, the amount of. In New Orleans, the amount of bachelor and bachelorette parties. Just young people, obviously, in college, no money whatsoever, just pouring out of there with a backpack and just ready to get hammered. It put me in a good mood seeing them because they were generally always, like, super excited to party. Me be there.

[Big Cat]

The Spirit, you'll. You'll never see, like, a happier group of people than the Spirit flight that lands at Las Vegas. You'll never see. Yeah. Group of people in your life then gathering around the gate for a Spirit flight leaving from Las Vegas.

[Big T]

Yeah.

[T Bob]

That's got to be brutal.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[T Bob]

Like, 80% of the. The fight videos you see on airplanes are on Spirit.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[T Bob]

A lot of. Maybe Frontier, a lot of them, but

[Big Cat]

that's the safest place to get into a fight is at the airport. No one's no one's gonna have a weapon. You've already gone through security.

[T Bob]

Well, we went over that recently.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, that's true.

[Big T]

What happened?

[T Bob]

The TSA did a, like, an inside job of trying to sneak weapons through to see how efficient they were, and, like, 70% of them got through.

[Big T]

So that is something that I think they got away from it. But the New Orleans airport, which, by the way, when they redid that, that's actually one of the best things I've ever seen done in my life in terms of, like, wow, this is a massive improvement. It's awesome now, but at the very beginning, they had a display case with all the weapons they were snatching up, and all I found myself was I was like, wow. I'm very disconcerted about the amount of weapons that people are sneaking on.

[T Bob]

Knoxville has pictures of them as you wait in the line. We recovered this nine millimeter.

[Big T]

I didn't like that at all. I think that's one of those ignorance is bliss situations.

[T Bob]

I think most of them are probably people who forgot they were in there, I would imagine. Now, I'm sure there are people with nefarious intent, but, like.

[Big Cat]

Right.

[T Bob]

You just forget that you have a knife in there. You think your gun is in your checked luggage, but it's in that one.

[Big T]

Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, I'm sure there's explanatory factors.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, the Knoxville one is. It's special. It really is.

[Big T]

Yeah.

[T Bob]

You've been there.

[Big Cat]

Yes.

[T Bob]

Yeah. You snake through the line, and it's like, here's a gun we got. Here's these six knives.

[Big Cat]

They're all from the last two months, too. It's not like they're. They're showing pictures from, like, five years ago. It's like, yeah, this one was yesterday.

[Big T]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Somebody brought a revolver through T. Bob, I want to get your expanded thoughts on somebody. I saw you tweet about this yesterday. I talked a little bit about it on pmt, too. Big news coming out of England.

[Big T]

Yeah, big news.

[Big Cat]

The nanny state, the country that's famous for Mary Poppins has turned into a true nanny state. Now, you're not allowed to buy cigarettes there if you were born after 2008.

[Big T]

Absolutely. Ever for the same for your entire lifetime. Ban.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Big T]

On. On purchasing cigarettes. If. And. And I guess you could still smoke him based on that language, but they're gonna make it hard by. Yeah, I don't. I don't.

[T Bob]

Well, not. Not eventually.

[Big T]

Yeah, not eventually.

[T Bob]

They'll go away.

[Big Cat]

So now you can either. In England, they will throw you in jail if you buy a cigarette or if you make a Facebook post referring to a cigarette online. This feels a different term.

[T Bob]

This feels like way longer for the, the Facebook post.

[Big T]

I was going to say this feels like red meat to all the people that want to yell about governmental overreach in England and whatnot. But like, this, this feels like overreach. I don't know, it kind of feels unenforceable. It just also feels, it feels like prohibition. Yeah. Which like we all learn the lesson, but that's what I'm saying. But like I, I just assume that we held these truths to be self evident. Like, that shit's not going to work. No, that's us human beings love.

[T Bob]

We notably, we used to be them. And then we said we don't like this.

[Big T]

Okay, okay. So we learned that they haven't had their prohibition moment yet.

[Big Cat]

Those truths are not self evident to them.

[Big T]

Oh, yeah, that was the point. You're right. Like that, that's why, that's why. Okay, that makes sense then. No, I, look, I just.

[Big Cat]

That most men are created equal was the next line.

[Big T]

And, and I don't think that, like, I, I don't want, I don't want to encourage anybody to smoke cigarettes. I think you can't have a healthy relationship with them. Like, I'm someone who deeply loves tobacco in all forms and I do enjoy cigarettes. I don't allow myself them daily. I probably have about one cigarette a week. Yeah. Yeah. I love it.

[T Bob]

I didn't know that.

[Big T]

Oh, dude, if you're like Friday night long, great day with the fam, Everybody's in bed now. You get you a whiskey, burn a heater. It's. It's one of the all time good feelings.

[T Bob]

What does a cigarette do for you?

[Big T]

Get a little tobacco rush, Nicotine rush.

[T Bob]

Is it, is it like, like, what does it feel like?

[Big T]

Get a little tobacco buzz. You ever taking a dip?

[T Bob]

No.

[Big Cat]

Like a little bit lightheaded, but energized.

[Big T]

Yeah.

[T Bob]

Okay. Like excited, but so the opposite of alcohol.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, but they, sometimes they work in concert with each other.

[Big T]

No, I mean, that's, that's, I mean, that's peanut butter and jelly.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Big T]

Now that's, that's my problem is that because I love tobacco so much, I can get on a drinking binge where then if I'm like staying up late talking to the homies outside and we're just shooting the. I'll drink four bottles of wine and smoke a pack of cigarettes and just ruin my life for 48 hours.

[Big Cat]

But back to back to back.

[Big T]

Oh, but it feels so good. It feels so good in the moment.

[Big Cat]

It does. It does. And I, I'm not, I'm not a smoker. I, I, I do smoke from time to time, if it's indoors or if it's out of state. Those are my, My two policies.

[T Bob]

Yeah.

[Big T]

Indoor smoking, you have to, you have

[T Bob]

to take advantage of.

[Big Cat]

And it's fun. It's, It's a, It's a little treat for myself.

[T Bob]

I think if you smoke at certain times, you're a smoker.

[Big Cat]

I disagree. No, no, they. See, that's. That sounds like somebody that's not a smoker, right?

[Big T]

Yeah, but that's.

[T Bob]

You said you weren't a smoker, correct? Yeah, but now there's a differentiation between.

[Big T]

See, I kind of feel like I'm not a smoker.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, you're not. Yeah, but Big T is not. He doesn't understand the difference between being a smoker.

[T Bob]

There certainly is a difference in someone who smokes a pack of cigarettes a day and what y' all are describing.

[Big T]

Yeah, but.

[T Bob]

So where do you draw the line?

[Big Cat]

I guess I'm not, I'm not addicted to cigarettes. I don't feel the need to ever have.

[T Bob]

You have to need them.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Yeah. I am fully in control of when I have a cigarette. Like, if I want to smoke a cigarette because I'm at a casino in Las Vegas, and God damn it, it smells really good in there, then I can have a cigarette. I can shoot. I can have 10 cigarettes that night if I want to, and the next morning I'll wake up and I will not have the need to smoke another cigarette until the next time I'm back there.

[T Bob]

I actually think you just perfectly unknowingly described what a smoker is. What if you think cigarettes smell good,

[Big Cat]

you're a smoker in the right environment. They do.

[T Bob]

I think if you think cigarettes smell

[Big Cat]

good, you're a smoker in the right environment. The cigarette smells delicious.

[T Bob]

See, I don't agree. I don't think they've ever.

[Big Cat]

No, it's a context thing, Big T. It's a, It's a complete context thing.

[T Bob]

Like, there's no context in which I would enjoy the smell of.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, you're not a smoker.

[T Bob]

Precisely. You're nailing it.

[Big T]

Yeah, you got to, you got to have. Yeah, you, you got to have a little affinity for the feeling and taste to appreciate the smoke. But, yeah, I mean, again, it's, it's fantastic. So I, I, look, I just, I, I thought it was an Onion headline. Like I saw it on Poly Market. Yeah, it's Twitter. And I was like, this can't be real. And then sure enough I go to BBC. Yeah, I, I don't know how it's. Well, I guess I do know how to. But like economically, how did this pass? Because this feels like a huge. Well, not only I, I don't know how Parliament works. I'm surprised there's not lobbies that could have fought this off. Like, because we know how powerful tobacco lobby can be here. But beyond that, like they don't. Is this not bad for like gas stations over there and stuff? Right.

[Big Cat]

They don't grow it so they, they import it. So the people that would be most affected would be. Yeah, like the convenience store owners or whatever they call it the Tesco. Yeah. If you go down to the petrol station though, those people that run those places, they would probably sell fewer and fewer. But for a long time they've had by far the most graphic warnings on their packs of cigarettes over there. Like if you want to buy a pack of cigarettes in England, they will sell it to you and it will have like a biopsy of a cancer riddled lung. So you have to look at when you buy it.

[Big T]

I have found that that is everywhere but the U.S. yeah, because it's in Mexico. When I went on my honeymoon, I bought some in New Zealand, I bought some in Greece a few years later. And every other country has the most horrific visual images of what smoking does to you to try to disincentivize because

[Big Cat]

it does, it does, it fucks you up. I mean, a few different things can be true at the same time. If you are a habitual smoker, a lifetime smoker, it can absolutely destroy your body in some grotesque, awful ways, heartbreaking ways. It's super unhealthy if you are a lifetime smoker. But also if people get into smoking knowing the risk, like, is that their decision to make as a, as an adult?

[Big T]

It should be your decision to make.

[Big Cat]

Now some people, you can make the argument back in the day that the tobacco companies lied about how addictive their product was, in fact saying it wasn't addictive at all, even though they knew that it was. And so you could say, hey, they tricked people into getting addicted to their product, which then ended up killing them. That's up now. I think everybody understands that nicotine is addictive and it's something that if you start doing, you might not be able to stop that easily. So now it's like you're making more of an informed decision. But like we should, we should have the right to do stupid to our body as long as it doesn't affect anybody else.

[Big T]

Yeah, I, I, I, I, I think that how was it? Okay, what was it gonna say? How's it gonna frame this? I think that one of the reasons why, because like when we were being raised it was hardcore anti cigarette. Right. But it's because for so many generations we had been actively lied to and marketed to have like this is actually healthy for you, like this is good, like you actually need this. So yeah, we had to course correct. But, but we almost went a bit too far. And now as an adult I've realized,

[T Bob]

okay, I think you actually can have

[Big T]

a relatively healthy relationship with smoking.

[Big Cat]

I think some people can for sure. I, I know that I can, but it's like gambling sounds like you can't.

[Big T]

Like I can dabble in gambling. Like I do and, but I don't feel, but, but some people just have, but like I don't feel the urge to like gamble 247 or anything. Yeah, but if you are someone who does, then you got to be more wary then you got to try to watch yourself a little bit.

[Big Cat]

Right. If you know that you have the type of personality that can get addicted to that sort of thing, then yeah, keep an eye on it. But yeah, it's, I understand that also from like a public health standpoint, you will save a lot of money on not having to deal with all the associated diseases that go along with it.

[Big T]

Oh, that's an interesting incident that I hadn't considered.

[Big Cat]

Right. So that's what it, it's, I don't think that it's the place of the government to like tell you what you can and can't do if you're, if you're an adult, as long as it doesn't affect anybody else. And yeah, sure, sometimes cigarette smoke, like secondhand smoke is not good for people that are around it. But also like as a public health big picture thing with the society, if you have a population that is dealing with lung cancer, emphysema, all this other stuff, asthma rates being really high and you get rid of all those different diseases, then you have a lot more money saved in like your health care coffers and you're not giving, you know, treatment to millions of people that are afflicted with, with smoking related diseases. So I, I understand that. But then I saw some people online being like, that's actually pretty up because now the country's going to have to spend more money on their Senior citizens because they're going to have more people living.

[Big T]

People are going to live, living to be older.

[Big Cat]

So now you're going to have a lot of 90 and 100 year olds walking around sucking up all the health care instead of killing them off when they're 70.

[Big T]

I'm probably not the best. Well, I mean, I guess not. Maybe not. I'm just, I think I'm also biased in this conversation because I'm someone who is very open to the idea that all drugs should be legalized and you should treat it more from a treatment perspective versus a punishment perspective. I, I know that I used to be like real into this idea years and years ago and I think Portugal had some like, fascinating results where once they legalized all drugs, like incarcerations went out, like overdoses went down, like addiction went down. And it actually had a lot of positive. I, I know some of those Scandinavian countries. If you're like addicted to heroin, can you go in and get like methadone injections or something?

[Big Cat]

Method methadone treatment, do that here? Not every, I don't think every place is.

[T Bob]

I don't know what methadone is, but we have like, we talk. We famously talked about this on the show one time. Like injection sites.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, but methadone is like a treatment to help you get off narcotics.

[Big T]

I guess I'm just, I guess, I guess I'm just a, a kind of believer in educate me on the effects and the risks and then let me make my, my own decision. But thoughts and prayers. I'll burn one down for all the 17 year olds over there in the UK.

[T Bob]

There's other drug news today that's broken in the last hour or so.

[Big Cat]

More drug news. No.

[T Bob]

Trump is expected to reclassify marijuana as soon as today.

[Big Cat]

Okay. As what?

[Big T]

As awesome as not a drug.

[T Bob]

I think I saw schedule three.

[Big Cat]

Okay, that's great. That's great. I've wanted this for a long time. I think I, I said when he was running for reelection, like he should just say like I'm gonna declat, I'm gonna declassify cannabis from like away from being schedule one and like put together healthcare plan. He would absolutely clean Joe Biden's clock in the, in the election. This is good development if he actually does it.

[Big T]

So a bigger number means it's less penalized. Like schedule one versus two versus three. Okay, so can we get a number? Is there another example? Oh, what are you saying?

[Big Cat]

Schedule one? That what, that's what marijuana was. That means that you can't even do medical studies with it.

[Big T]

Okay.

[Big Cat]

You can't even, like, under the strictest supervision. You can't experiment with it. You can't do anything, which is ridiculous, that marijuana was ever there.

[T Bob]

Schedule 3 drugs or substances with a moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence with accepted medical uses. Common examples include anabolic steroids, testosterone, ketamine, and products with low doses of codeine. What are the. I hear y' all talk about ketamine a lot. Yeah, I've never heard. What are the. The benefits of ketamine.

[Big Cat]

So ketamine, I guess, historically has been, like, a. It's been looked at as a party drug, which is why it's been illegal for a long time. But there's a lot of therapeutic uses for it. So, like, they use it to treat ptsd, some addictions, and just to do talk therapy sometimes to get people to open up, explore, like, things in their past or deep inside their psyche that have been troubling them. And there have been, like, a lot of promising studies that come out about ketamine recently. But it also has the potential to, like, you know, if you abuse it and use it as a party drug, it can mess you up for a long time. So there's that, and then there's ibigain, which I believe Trump just. That's the thing that he signed with Joe Rogan in the Oval Office the other day, which is a treatment. It's. I. I don't want to, like, say it's the wrong. I believe it's a psychedelic, and it's used to treat PTSD and also help people recover from addiction to things like, oh, yeah, so you can take a dose of it. And people have reported that, like, if you have two doses or have treatment twice, that, you have a much, much higher likelihood of being able to quit things like heroin than you would if you just went cold turkey.

[Big T]

Damn. I. I know that. I was gonna say just, like, the Academy stuff. I know that there's been a lot of positive studies in terms of psychedelics treating. Treating PTSD and. And those same things. And as someone who is, like, a fan of psychedelics, I believe that, or I guess I don't want to pay with such a broad brush. I enjoy mushrooms quite a bit. Not. Not often. You know, maybe once, twice a year. And I could see how that could be the case, because I think you really can use it in a very mentally healthy way.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, you definitely can. I think. I. It's also very funny to see, like, Trump doing this stuff that is enormously popular that people want. And I think it's also a little bit transparent that he's doing it because his, his, like, favorability ratings are so far underwater right now that he's trying to get, he's trying to get people back on his side. But it goes to show you that, like, any president could have done this. It just took one guy that needed to be loved.

[Big T]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

That's like, okay, I'll give you what you want if you guys will start to like me again. Like, we've wanted this and it's a good thing that he's doing it, but we've. I, the vast majority of America has wanted this for, for decades. Like going back to when I was in high school.

[Big T]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

It was like, why, why do we have all these people in prison for, for marijuana? It's ridiculous.

[Big T]

It's, it's. Yeah, I, I mean, there's a million things to, that you could be upset with the, the President about and, and, you know, very number of things, I guess, depending on what you align with politically. But, like, the thing that remains the eternal truth in the most common man feeling is just inflation. I mean, it's like, it's the same thing that when, when Joe Biden's time was up and the new election was coming up. Like, even I, who am not a fan at all of Trump, politically already, the inflation was pissing me off so much that I even, I was of the mindset, you know what? Like, fuck it. Like, I don't care. Just make it better. Just make it better. If you say, like, you say you can't, okay, it's, this is not working. Just make it fucking better. Well, it just like, it just sucks, man. I, I don't know. It just, it just, it's you, you feel it everywhere you go, everything you do, everything you pay for. And obviously gas prices recently have, have exacerbated it and made it feel even worse, but it's just, I don't know, it's the worst. I, I guess you read about, like, hyperinflation and things like that growing up.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Big T]

It's a hell of a thing to get to be an adult, providing for a family and, and, and, and live through it. Very fun.

[Big Cat]

It's like every month is, it's worse.

[Big T]

Yeah. Yeah. And, and, and where's the hope that the toothpaste could ever get put back in the tube?

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Big T]

Like, where's it now? Now, now gas is different because gas can be very malleable in terms like the prices can drop if something favorable happens. But like, when's the last time you saw your favorite burrito go back down a dollar?

[Big Cat]

Never.

[Big T]

Never.

[Big Cat]

It's.

[Big T]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Once you. That's so true that, like, at any sort of, like, consumer facing store or restaurant, the prices aren't going down.

[Big T]

No.

[T Bob]

Once it's proven that you're paying Covid, everything was jacked up because they were. Oh, the supply chain.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, it's.

[T Bob]

We. We can't get anything. And then once Covid was over. Although it's still not over. Still in a pandemic.

[Big T]

It's called long Covid.

[T Bob]

T. Look it, I have. I mean, they. They have no incentive to ever bring prices back down, so they just didn't.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, I had a doctor's appointment the other day. I got prescribed a medicine, and the guy was like, you know what?

[Big T]

It's.

[Big Cat]

We've got some supply chain issues due to Covid. I realized that that was six years ago.

[T Bob]

You're kidding.

[Big Cat]

But, yeah. No, he goes, I realized that was six years ago. But they're still telling us that they have a much harder time getting the drug now, so you might have to go around to a couple different pharmacies and see who has this in stock. I was like, okay, it wasn't even like a drug that is, like, commonly. It wasn't. Because you always hear about, like, the Adderall and, like, the benzo shortages. It wasn't. It was like a common antibiotic. And he was like, yeah, we don't, you know, the supply chain.

[T Bob]

Wouldn't that be their job to call the pharmacies and see who has it so they could send it to that pharmacy? And then you would go, it's just a crapshoot.

[Big Cat]

So he's like, I've had good luck with this pharmacy. And so I hit up the pharmacy. I was like, hey, do you guys have this? And they're like, oh, you're actually in luck. We did just get a new shipment in. Yeah, but in the past, it's like, yeah, it's. It's hit or miss, and it's because of COVID Six years. We can get Jerry on to talk about that. Coven is. It's a great excuse. Like, oh, hotels. Hotels will never be the same after Covid. Like, a lot of places, they don't have. They don't have room service anymore because of COVID Really? Yeah.

[T Bob]

Oh, that's.

[Big T]

It was. It became. It's. It's.

[Big Cat]

It reminds me, if you wanted to make a change to your business, you can make whatever change you wanted and just blame it on Covid.

[Big T]

It's. It's the old. I don't know who said it, but it's the old political quote. Never let a good tragedy go to waste. Yeah, it's. It's not that you caused it or wanted it, but you can accomplish something with it. And, yeah, cost cutting was. Was. Was huge, I think. Was it. Oh, I forgot it was something about the. It was. It was kind of along the same lines of the hotels cutting out. Oh. One of my favorite things is, like, seeing the vestiges of COVID nestled in the little nooks and crannies of the business. Like the doggy. The doggy babysitting place I, like, bring my dog to whenever I leave town for a few days. Their voicemail is still. Please practice social distancing. Wear your mask. And it's all. It's kind of a fun little nostalgic throwback.

[T Bob]

It was the perfect excuse to not do something.

[Big T]

Oh, yeah.

[T Bob]

Oh, sorry. My girlfriend has Covid, so, like, I've probably. I. I just probably shouldn't go, like. And. And I even used that for a while.

[Big T]

Oh, yeah.

[T Bob]

But now, I mean, you look like it, and you just got to be like, I'm not going.

[Big T]

So when we had. When we had our first kid, that wasn't Covid. So it was great. You know, a ton of people come in. All your family, friends. Everybody's coming in through the doors and can be, like, a little overwhelming. And second kid was April 2020, and it was incredible. Not a single soul in there. Just got to completely relax in the hospital for, like, three days, hang out with the new kid. Nobody bugging you, no overwhelming family. It would have been bummer if it was the first. You know, whatever. But, yeah, it was. That was actually a nice little benefit.

[Big Cat]

That is nice. I think it was last year. Two years ago. Two years ago, I was sick when I was out in Lake Tahoe, and I got back, and I was, like, coughing a lot. So I finally tested after I got back, and I had Covid, and I had some friends that were coming to visit that next weekend, and so I hit him up. I'm like, hey, just so you know, I just tested. I feel like I'm getting better, but I still very much have Covid. So I tested positive, and they're like, yeah, we don't care.

[Big T]

That ain't getting you out.

[Big Cat]

And they just. They just came to Chicago, and we had a great weekend together. Together. And it's like, yeah, okay. We've all been. We've all been like, immunized in the words of Aaron Rogers. So. And we're all young and relatively healthy, so we'll just take our chance. We're not gonna let Covid run our lives.

[Big T]

Right. God, the. The. The wiping down of groceries was the worst when. When the. When it was kind of at its highest. I just remember sitting in my garage and wiping down individual bananas. Like, what?

[T Bob]

With what?

[Big T]

What? Like Clorox, right?

[T Bob]

You were putting chemicals on bananas.

[Big T]

Oh, look, I don't know, dude. You know, I don't eat the outside. Yeah, you don't eat the people.

[T Bob]

I mean, I'm sure it's got a.

[Big T]

I was fighting Kobe.

[T Bob]

There has to be something.

[Big T]

I was. I was the first line of defense to keep it out the house. Oh, man.

[Big Cat]

The people that were, like, buying pallets of hand sanitizer and then try to flip those on Amazon.

[Big T]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

According all the ppe, I feel like.

[Big T]

Yeah, thankfully, all those people lost. Yeah. Nobody. Nobody. That. That scheme did not work out for. For anyone.

[Big Cat]

And I. I'm not. I'm not a Kovid was fake person either, because we did have, like. Like, millions of people that died. And if you were older, if you were sick, you had, like, preconditions, and it was really, really bad, and a lot of, like, very sad stuff happened. But. But, like, right now, for us, it's like we are actually uniquely positioned in a very, very dangerous spot where if a real pandemic came that was, like. That was equally as deadly amongst the entire population as it was for people above the age of 70. We'd be. We would be.

[Big T]

Nobody would be. Yeah, we would be.

[Big Cat]

So we'd be like, well, it's basically the flu. No matter what they told us. You could have. You could have every doctor go on the news at the same time and say, hey, guys, you're gonna die if you get this and be like, tell me how to live my life.

[Big T]

It is. It is crazy how many people died, but it's. But it was just such a. It's. It's the portion of the population that we tend to think about the. The least. Right. And so it maybe didn't resonate. And then you can be like, oh, it was all fake.

[T Bob]

But, like, you think that's what would happen?

[Big Cat]

What?

[T Bob]

That people would. Would be dismissive?

[Big Cat]

Oh, yeah.

[Big T]

I think people. I don't agree with you at all. Governmental overreach, by and large. Every.

[T Bob]

I think. I think Covid proved the exact opposite.

[Big Cat]

If they did the same thing. If they. If they said, we need to shut down businesses because I think there would

[T Bob]

certainly be a portion of the people, but they'd be the same ones who were saying that the first time.

[Big Cat]

I think it'd be much bigger part

[Big T]

of the p. I think. I think it might be bigger as well. Just because a lot like, okay, like someone like me, like, I was very much like, okay. And my grandpa died. He was one of the people that he died from. COVID Like it. It was it. But like even me, I was very like, okay, whatever. The. The science is saying like, or whatever, like the accepted best practices. Okay, I got to wear gloves, masks, whatever. I'll just do what. Whatever everybody's saying. But then I didn't get my second round of vaccination, you know. And then like Ivan is like, I don't know, dude. This is all a little overwrought in many ways. And so, yeah, I could see maybe being a bit more hesitant to react as compliantly as I did the. The first time around.

[T Bob]

I mean, in what sense would you even. Like we lived somewhere where you didn't really have a choice to be compliant or not.

[Big Cat]

You.

[T Bob]

You could I guess if you just chose to sit in your house all day every day and never leave, but that you didn't have a ton of options.

[Big T]

Were you all showing like vax papers and stuff?

[T Bob]

Oh, you. If you wanted to go anywhere, you had to have a vaccine card and you had to. To go to work. You had to have it kind of

[Big T]

fun to live to such a time. Feels like out of like a movie.

[Big Cat]

It does feel like we. We did live through a. A like a. A moment.

[Big T]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

In history that kids are gonna be reading about in textbooks. Yeah.

[Big T]

It's rare that you can recognize that you're living through one of those. Those, those moments that will be written. Yeah.

[Big Cat]

The moments in New York where you look around at night and nobody would be out on the streets and it felt like you were in a zombie movie. That was. That was kind of wild.

[T Bob]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

There were some. Some crazy times. I hope we don't go back to this, but yeah, Big T. I do think that people would.

[T Bob]

I think way more people. I think there would be more. I don't think it would be as many as you think it is.

[Big Cat]

I think you see some of the. The blue haired freaks that get the outliers. Well, I'm passed along and you're like, that's what most of the country is. I think no more people would be like very resistant to any sort of information coming from. Especially like social media has changed a lot since 2020. To the point where there is. I, I think that there's more disinformation out there than there's ever been and so easy to like, go viral, especially if you have a certain point of view. I think that there would be. It would be a lot more catastrophic this time. I think that people just wouldn't listen.

[T Bob]

I think there would be more people the. Of the way you're describing, but it would not be as many as you think it is. And also, like, if you live somewhere like New York or here or wherever, like, like, what choice do you really, really have? They can just.

[Big T]

It'd be, It'd be interesting. I guess it depends on who's dying as well. Right. Because if it's a, like, it sounds kind of funny, but if it's a lot of kids, obviously that's going to incentivize action. If it's like people who are seemingly healthy, otherwise at the prime their age. But then what if like only like 5% of people are dying or like 3%, which is still going to be a massive number. I don't know. It'd be, it's. It'd be very. I. Yeah. I hope we don't ever have to. To see how that would, how that would play out.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Big T]

I think the biggest. You were talking about misinformation. Pft. I think the biggest misread I've ever had in my entire life was when I was like, fresh out of college and I was in sports, political radio. And I remember going to The World War II Museum. Great museum. Awesome museum.

[Big Cat]

I need to go there. The one in New Orleans.

[Big T]

Oh, it's unbelievable. Dude.

[Big Cat]

Dude.

[Big T]

I mean, it's the national World War II museum now. It's the top 10 museum in the entire world. It's. You can spend days in there, but, you know, they have all the old propaganda posters. Yeah. And videos and everything. And I remember thinking to myself, wow, what a. What a quaint time. You know, like they, they were so manipulatable. They only had their single source of information and, and, and you could easily control what the masses thought. And I was like, not today. Today we live in the age of the Internet and we have all of human knowledge at our hands, and that makes us impervious to be manipulated. I could not have been more wrong.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Big T]

The opposite could not be more true. Where. Where, where the, the. The more information that we have, the ability to manipulate algorithm has completely shattered the entire concept of how do I know if something's true or not?

[Big Cat]

I think if you have a single source. It. It's easy to manipulate. I also think that if you have like everybody that has been deputized as being like a source of information and a source of truth, that's equally as bad in a much different way where it's like that has. You're just going to splinter everybody.

[Big T]

So it's actually, it's, it's.

[T Bob]

Yeah.

[Big T]

You see a lot of stuff like this. It's. It's another classic bell curve.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Big T]

Type of, type of, type of situation.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Having a healthy skepticism of most things is. Is a good thing. But then having like a thousand different armchair experts that all look at themselves as being like a. A trusted source of information, also. Also very bad. Big T. I'm looking at the sheet that you sent over. You did mention the Joe Buck news.

[T Bob]

ESPN Jeopardy.

[Big Cat]

Our good friend Joe Buck has now been named as the host of ESPN Jeopardy. Much to Darren Ravel's chagrin.

[T Bob]

Yeah. He wanted it to be the Phase Clan.

[Big Cat]

He wanted to be Phase Rug or Dude Perfect.

[T Bob]

Dude Perfect does sports.

[Big Cat]

Bob Does Sports or ishow Speed. Either one of those guys I think would have been, I mean, a better choice for Jeopardy. Than Joe Buck. Shout out Bobby Berger. I do like Bob Does Sports.

[Big T]

But, but like two Rebel. Okay. Like two revels Point. Now, I don't think ESPN Jeopardy. Is for the crowds necessary that he's talking about.

[Big Cat]

Right.

[Big T]

But to Revell's point, all of those guys would do way higher numbers with the younger audience than would that is Joe Buck.

[T Bob]

I disagree.

[Big T]

No, that's crazy, dude. If I show Speed does ESPN Jeopardy. He brings with him a mountain of. Of young human beings who are coming with him.

[T Bob]

No, he brings a lot of people who watch him do whatever he does on the Internet.

[Big T]

Yeah.

[T Bob]

He does not bring people to linear television to watch Jeopardy.

[Big T]

I think that. So you think that Joe Buck would do better ratings. I don't know who the phase guy is, but you think Joe Buck would do better ratings than Dude Perfect.

[T Bob]

Yeah. For the type of person that's wanting.

[Big T]

You know what I was gonna say? I. I agree with you. Yes. Because of the who the base audience is like those kids aren't watching tv.

[T Bob]

Right.

[Big T]

But if you were going to look at digital and linear views and put them together. I do actually think Ravel's probably right. I think it's dumb. I don't think you should because it doesn't make sense with what the show

[T Bob]

audience is not clamoring to watch sports Jeopardy.

[Big Cat]

I agree with that.

[T Bob]

Now, even if wherever it is but let alone being on linear tv.

[Big Cat]

I believe this is on Hulu and Disney plus so I don't know that it's going to be okay. It might be aired on, on the linear networks, but I, I'm just seeing Coming soon on Disney and, and Hulu. But yeah, I agree that I don't think that Speed's audience is gonna want to watch him do like a sports trivia show. I think and the people who do

[T Bob]

want to watch that don't want to watch him.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, Jeopardy. Is like its own thing. I don't think kids are going to watch Jeopardy. No matter who you put in charge of. But it would be very funny to see, to see. Dude, perfect. Try to host Jeff.

[Big T]

I mean that, that's now then again you probably change it. It's not even Jeopardy at that point. Right. Because you got to like got throw make this shot.

[Big Cat]

Throw gun through a hula hoop. Yeah.

[T Bob]

I am very interested in watching this show. I would not watch it if it was hosted by one of those people.

[Big T]

No, neither would I. Neither would I. Absolutely. I just, I just, but again, I mean it's a pointless, it's a, it's a pointless point by Revel anyway because like you're saying like ESPN Jeopardy. Is for older people who love Joe Buck. Anyway, in its inception I would like

[Big Cat]

it, I would like to see Brandon Walker on the show. I know I, I got tagged in a few times because I'm friends with Joe Buck. He's on part of my take a lot and I do love trivia. I'll be the first to say I, I, I'll do the Rudy. And if I get, if I'm lucky enough to be picked for this show, I'm putting my jersey down on Joe Buck's forehead. I'm saying, Mr. Buck, Brandon Walker's here. Okay. Number one form. Excuse me. Former number one college football personality on the Internet. Former part of my take. College football expert of the year and three times second place points per game achiever in the dozen trivia contest. Brandon Walker, he's your man. If you want an electric sports trivia player to go on your show and give you ratings, it's Brandon Walker. Respectfully.

[Big T]

It really is like they need it. Brandon freaks me out in how, how good he is at that. I, I hope that, I hope that he gets the opportunity.

[Big Cat]

I would like to see it too.

[Big T]

That'd be a big bummer.

[T Bob]

What do you think the odds are that they put anyone from barstool sports on that show?

[Big Cat]

I think they're gonna Want to.

[T Bob]

You think?

[Big Cat]

Yeah, yeah, for sure. I, I think we got to bring

[Big T]

in the phase clan audience. We're kind of like the phase. You know, we're like an older phase clan.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. We're phase adjacent.

[T Bob]

There's, there's a lot of history there, though.

[Big Cat]

There's history. But that new president, Jimmy Pitaro, he wasn't there for BVT and he wants like a young audience maybe. I, the, the bigger.

[T Bob]

I would love it.

[Big Cat]

The bigger question I think would be if Dave would allow Brandon to do it. I think ESPN would immediately. They would have zero problem having Brandon Walker on, on their sports Jeopardy. Program.

[T Bob]

He's allowed other talent to go on ESPN programming.

[Big Cat]

Name one.

[T Bob]

You.

[Big Cat]

I know. It's just test as a test.

[T Bob]

Compton and Lawan.

[Big Cat]

He wasn't, he wasn't super thrilled that I went on game day as I recall, but you win. Yeah, I didn't, I didn't check in with him. I was, I just said okay.

[T Bob]

You have to, though.

[Big Cat]

You have to. Yeah, I had. That's a once in a lifetime opportunity. And it's not like he was mad about it. I think he just got tagged a million times in the morning and he saw my face on ESPN and he was like, I, I did not know that he was going to do this.

[Big T]

God.

[Big Cat]

Interesting.

[Big T]

People who are more locked in on the barstool beefs love to tattle.

[Big Cat]

Tattletales.

[Big T]

Yeah, I, I've made it almost weekly tradition to accidentally praise one of Dave's enemies on purpose. No, I know. I have no idea. I referenced like a great Mina Kimes article that I read a few weeks back that blew up my face. I think I said something positive about awful announcing one time or something that.

[T Bob]

Why would you do that? They hate you too.

[Big T]

Yeah, I know, but I like read something good there. I don't know. Dude. Oh, God. Who was the other one? It was me. It was like I, there was a third arch enemy that I accidentally stumbled into recently as well. I mean, I don't know.

[Big Cat]

To be fair, it's, it's a full time job keeping a list of Dave's various enemies. He's. He's got a few of them out there. That's because that's how he operates. He moves like that. So. Yeah, you, it's, it would.

[T Bob]

If you ever read anything on Business Insider, keep it to yourself.

[Big T]

I know that one. I know business insiders. A no go.

[Big Cat]

It would be a full time job to stay like completely up to speed on, on all the people that he's Got beef with. Who else does he have beef with right now?

[T Bob]

I mean, a lot of. A lot of them are old. Like the. All the dead spin people. They're kind of out of the picture.

[Big T]

Those champagne bottles have been popped.

[Big Cat]

The various vice presidents of the NFL from like 2015. That pash guy, he didn't like that pash guy. Bob Kravitz would be another old one.

[T Bob]

Who is that?

[Big Cat]

Yeah, he was a columnist for, I think the indie star. I hope he's still with us. Not. Because I don't. I don't know how to finish that sentence.

[Big T]

You just don't want him dead.

[Big Cat]

I don't want him.

[Big T]

Yeah. I think that's. That's, that's, you know. Full stop.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, full stop. I don't like it when people die. I think Bob Kravitz might be with. Yeah, he's still with us. Yeah. Yeah, sure.

[Big T]

Much to Dave Chagrant. But yeah. Anyone. That's Bob Kravitz still alive.

[Big Cat]

Even like tangential. Involved with Deflategate. Yeah.

[Big T]

If you. If you. If you ever wrote a single.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Big T]

Big piece on it.

[Big Cat]

Or if you're like a Ravens fan from one of those games when. When Harbaugh complained about the Patriots using illegal formations that were too tricky. Yeah. He's got. It's a long list, but yeah. Big T. I think that. Or T. Bob, I think that you're. You're not intentionally stepping in it. You're just. As a man that discusses the. The sports ecosphere, you're liable to step on some of those rakes.

[Big T]

Yeah. And like, I'm someone who really loves, like traditional sports journalism and everything. Right. Like, I think I referenced a great piece in the Athletic the day the Athletic release. Like the Gruden hit piece. Not realizing either.

[Big Cat]

So.

[Big T]

I don't know. But still fun.

[Big Cat]

I'm looking at some draft preview stuff right now. For some reason, Bill Clinton is hanging out with Jerry Jones at the Dallas Cowboys facility right now. Don't know what's going on there. Helping with draft prep.

[T Bob]

That's just a couple of guys being dudes.

[Big T]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Correct. Bill's. If you want my advice for how to prepare for the draft, I go study overseas at Oxford. You feel me, Jerry? I want to go to Vietnam.

[Big T]

Hell, I am.

[T Bob]

To Arkansas. Guys.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[T Bob]

Probably good friends.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Power broke. Oh. I'm sure that there have been some. There have been some smoke filled rooms that those two.

[Big T]

I was going to say are we. Is actually one of the more shocking elements of the Epstein files. The fact that Jaron never Got his way to the island, right. Has he ever been implicated in anything?

[Big Cat]

Jerry is coming out smelling like roses.

[Big T]

That's crazy. He seems like he would have been a prime target to find himself partying on the island. And again, and I think the vast majority of people go to the island, whatever, were doing shitty stuff stuff, but not like the most flatly illegal. Horrible. But like, yeah, I guess I'm just shocked that Jerry never found himself because that, that's been the craziest part to me about all of it is just the, the revealing of kind of the nature of the billionaire class and how tight in they all are together and how they all work together and whatnot. Shout out Jerry, though.

[Big Cat]

And then after, after Bill Clinton walked out, Stephen Jones addressed the media and said, oh, by the way, we're not going to be doing a long term contract with George Pickens this off season. So he's going to play the entire season on the franchise tag. All right, see you guys later. So, like, great, great job.

[Big T]

This is. Good job.

[Big Cat]

Still got it, man. Still got it. He's got the, he's got the shitty news he's got to drop. People are gonna be mad at him. And he's like, I know just, I know just the distraction I'm gonna have. I'm gonna have Bill Clinton's frail ass walk in here and, and charm the pants off everybody in the room. And then as he leaves, we'll just toss and oh, yeah, by the way, we're not going to do that contract.

[Big T]

Whatever happened to the Clinton Epstein stuff? Did he testify in front of Congress? Did I miss that?

[T Bob]

They did that, that closed door thing.

[Big Cat]

Deposition. Him and, and Hillary went. Went closed door. Well, they wanted to go public testimony, but they got talked and they had to do the, the closed door one and nothing's gonna happen.

[Big T]

We didn't get any headlines. They did nothing explosive.

[Big Cat]

Not really. Clinton just said like, I didn't hang out with him doing anything nefarious and stopped hanging out with him once he got into all the problems that he had with the, the sex charges.

[Big T]

Yeah, okay. See the same line that everybody did. Yeah.

[Big Cat]

And then there were a couple pictures that he looked at where it. You could see him mentally taking a trip down memory lane as they showed the binders and the, the old pictures of him and Jefferson and he's like, oh, those are some good times. And then Hillary just kind of went in there and she was just like, you guys for inviting me to this thing. I had nothing to do with it. If anything, like my husband Even though he says he's, he's always told me that he had nothing to do with it. But this is his problem. This is his mess to clean up. Why are you talking to me about it? So no, nothing, nothing came out of that. I don't think that they're. I don't know. I, I'm just very pessimistic about anybody ever facing any accountability from it.

[Big T]

Overall it's unreal. Two people, maybe three people arrested in total in the U.S. there's a third guy I thought that also killed himself.

[Big Cat]

The guy over in France.

[Big T]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Big Cat]

It was in the modeling business. Yeah. That was, that was tough. Okay. Before we get back to macro dosing, it's brought to you by one bone. Quick question. If you're a bigger guy, how many times have you bought a shirt that technically fits but doesn't actually fit real? We got some bigger guys in this room right now.

[T Bob]

I, I messed up. I didn't know the one bone ad was today I would have worn. I am wearing, I'm wearing the underwear. Pft. Look at this.

[Big Cat]

Yep.

[T Bob]

This feel this I'm gonna touch.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[T Bob]

Stuff Great. I had him send me more because I loved it so much. They sent me a new shipment. So now I've got, I think I have eight. So I have one for every day of the week.

[Big Cat]

That's good. That's good. Underwear. We need to bring back the guest Big T's underwear.

[Big T]

Yeah.

[T Bob]

Wow.

[Big Cat]

People like. But Aryan was really good at just like looking at guests.

[T Bob]

The color of my underwear.

[Big Cat]

He would know, he would know the drawers.

[Big T]

Does that come from his resume of as, as a coxman like I, I, I don't feel like I would have very good insight into the undergarments that people are wearing.

[Big Cat]

I think you can just look at what kind of mood big T is in.

[T Bob]

Just a good guesser. Is that shirt ob?

[Big T]

No. So it's not. No. And that's why it's a bit ill fitting. So like you know, full disclosure, they one bone as sponsor Big boys club like sponsors a couple of stuff that I'm on. But it really as a big guy it really is nice to have clothes that are specifically designed perfect. The amount of confidence you get, you're not tugging at your tummy all the time tugging the shirt off.

[T Bob]

Like this summer I've got. They've got the great collared shirts like beach stuff like yacht shirts.

[Big T]

Yeah.

[T Bob]

I got some of those. My whole honeymoon in Hawaii. I've got my whole wardrobe picked out. It's from them Yeah, I agree.

[Big T]

I'm, I'm actually putting together a massive One Bone shimming. But yeah, if you see me on love, normally I'm wearing one Bone.

[Big Cat]

It's, it's a great product. And I will say that they, they sent me some, they had me at a size negative one.

[T Bob]

Yeah, they have, if you're skinny, they have stuff for you too. You're just like a zero or a negative one.

[Big Cat]

Yep. So they got something for everybody. But they got, they got a lot of stuff for the big boys too. Tees, hoodies, long sleeves, everyday staples that actually make you look put together without trying too hard. If you're tired of rolling the dice on a fit, stop guessing. Go to one bone.com that's o n e b o n e dot com and upgrade to a fit that's actually built for you. Use code BARSTOOL, 20% off. See the difference firsthand after one where you will understand why standard fits don't make the cut. A universally beloved company around the Barstool Sports office.

[T Bob]

Great people, great people.

[Big T]

We got a lot of big, big, big fat guys.

[Big Cat]

We got a lot of big boys.

[Big T]

Canadians, are they? Yeah. Yeah, to a man.

[Big Cat]

We got, yeah, a lot of big boys at this company. And finally, shirts for, for big fellas.

[T Bob]

Shout out Jake from One Bone. He's my guy.

[Big Cat]

This episode's also brought to you by Stella Blue Coffee. It's more than great coffee. It's coffee with a purpose. That's why we started We Brew to Rescue a nationwide campaign using proceeds from our new Ready to drink cans to fund a thousand pet adoptions this year. Every can that you crack open helps reveal or helps a real pet find a real home. Simple as that. 100 Colombian coffee. The 11 ounce cans deliver smooth drinkable energy with a boost of protein. I had one right here in the Espresso Sweet Cream. Just drank that. They also have the Espresso Cafe Mocha built for mornings, long days and everything between. Drink Stella Blue. Fuel your day. Help save a pet's Life. It is the 23rd of April today. That means that Friday would be no Saturday would be the 25th, which would be Blake's birthday. My own rescue dog. So go out there, rescue dogs. Each can that you drink brings one dog closer to a forever home. Grab yours now at Stella Blue Coffee.com, amazon and select retailers nationwide. Let's talk a little bit about scams, about telephone scams. T Bob, do you find yourself getting a lot of calls from strange area codes?

[Big T]

Oh, yeah. Well, it's always it's so I, it's always an area code. It's always an Atlanta area code. I've had the same number since high school. Yeah, so my number has AIDS at this point. It's like my Gmail account. It's just, yeah, it's a disaster.

[Big Cat]

It's been around the block.

[Big T]

It is so beyond that things. But yeah, I, I, I don't answer any 678 area code. Any 770. Every now and then I'll get hit with a 225 from whatever Baton Rouge Trail I've left some 31 8. So yeah, I basically don't, yeah, I don't answer any call that I don't have.

[T Bob]

What area code do you have?

[Big T]

678.

[T Bob]

Because you know 404, they're, they're not giving them out anymore.

[Big T]

Oh damn, I could have sold it.

[T Bob]

So if you have a 404 that's a big deal.

[Big T]

No, but I got, I got a 678. But yeah, no, I don't. Our dad is so compromised. I don't answer the phone.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, it's smart, it's smart. I, I generally don't either. And it's gotten pretty good at detecting like whether or not it's coming from a fraudulent place or not. But for a while they had some sort of, I don't know what the technology was, but they could like make the incoming call look very similar to your own number.

[T Bob]

Right.

[Big Cat]

So then you would think that there's somebody from Northern Virginia that's, that's calling me. Yeah, with the, the Atlanta one. But I feel like recently the phone companies have gotten better. What they do is they, they look at companies or they look at phone numbers that have been traced to making like a lot of really short duration phone calls. And then they flag those as being scammers and they try to shut them down or at least flag them as being like when it pops up on your phone, potential scam. I would love to interview somebody that like sets up a fraud call center in India and just see what a piece of shit you have to be to like make this your business.

[Big T]

I mean the worst part about this kind of stuff to me is we're younger and so our defenses are a bit more up. The thing about these scammer, these scammers are, it's a, it's a volume shooting game where they're going to cast a very wide net. And unfortunately the people that get wrangled in are always the most susceptible. Yeah, the old people, uneducated people if it's a money scam, maybe people who are in kind of dire financial straits. And so the idea of like something that can solve all their problems is, is very tempting. And so, yeah, that's where it becomes really morally reprehensible. It's not like a Robin Hood situation where you're like, stealing from the rich. Generally, scams work on the people that are most vulnerable.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, you're stealing from a poor and then given to the poor because generally the people that are working in the call centers are, they're, they don't have a lot of options for how they can earn money.

[Big T]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

And so then their business just becomes trying to defraud people. And I'm sure that they're told that the people that you're going to speak with in, in the United States are like rich, wealthy people that you can take their money, they'll be fine. But in reality, it's like you're just going to scam, like, mostly elderly, poor people that, that can't lose any money.

[T Bob]

Have y' all noticed they've been trying text a lot more now? I get a lot more texts than calls.

[Big Cat]

I got one this morning. What was it? The DMV that.

[Big T]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Big Cat]

Formal notification from the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles, per our internal auditing. Blah, blah, blah, my traffic violation that I'm gonna have my motor vehicle registration revoked. I haven't had a car in five years.

[T Bob]

Is your don't. Well, if you don't have a car, it's fine. Is your license Illinois or Ohio?

[Big Cat]

Illinois.

[T Bob]

Oh, see, because I was getting them from Illinois and I was like, well, I hadn't even changed my license over yet, so I know that's not true.

[Big Cat]

I mean, I have an Ohio area code, though, so I'm sure it's like,

[T Bob]

to be clear, my license is now in Illinois, but it wasn't before. I waited way too long.

[Big T]

I gotta switch mine over right now. I, I'll tell you one thing too.

[T Bob]

If you, if you get pulled over, don't tell them that you've lived here a while.

[Big T]

No, no, no, I know, I know that. No, I, I, I bought though. I bought a house recently when I moved here. And I'm not exaggerating when I say probably got a hundred calls a day for like two to three months afterwards from, I, I don't know, loan people, like, I don't know, like, whatever, like financial year that data got put out there. And then it's just that it's insane. And that's not even scamming but it's kind of in the same vein of just like your data being sold and used as a part of, like, a mass marketing or mass business endeavor.

[Big Cat]

I recently signed up for some sort of identity protection thing online, and it was like I had to pay actual money for it. And they went through all these online data services that monitor, like, whose information is being sold, where. Show me how many times my information had been sold in the past, like, two years. Genuinely shocking how many times, like, how many companies there are out there that just pass your info around. So they went and they closed all that down. I've been getting, like, no spam calls recently after that. I'm sure it'll pick up again.

[Big T]

So you think it was maybe actually worth it?

[Big Cat]

I. In my case, it was definitely worth it. Yeah, I was getting a lot of them, and it definitely took a. A big step back. I am getting the text. A lot of, like, tollway texts. Like, I. I don't.

[Big T]

With me. Because at first when I moved here, I was up the tolls and, like,

[T Bob]

I almost fell for.

[Big T]

They know those, dude.

[Big Cat]

They know. They know that. Yeah, people fuck up tools, they send

[T Bob]

them in the mail. I. I went to the. The UT Kentucky basketball game a couple months ago. We blew a huge lead. I had to drive six hours home. The next day was terrible. And then the next week, I got a bill in the mail from the state of Kentucky for some toll road. And I had to pay them $13 after. It was just a nice extra kick in the balls. I was really upset.

[Big T]

13. What a specific. What a specific amount?

[T Bob]

It was something like that. I didn't want to pay it, but whatever.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, I get. I get a ton of them. And they're talking about, like, different tools that I might owe, different registration notices. And now they've. They've just started to send, like, a bunch of. Each one has a JPEG that comes along with it, like a little picture thumbnail. It's like, that's how you know it's official because it's got, like, the logo for the. The one bridge that's nearby that you might drive over occasionally. But, yeah, some people fall for him. Hank fell for it.

[T Bob]

Really?

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Yeah, a couple months ago.

[T Bob]

For how much? I mean, I guess if they got his number, like, he had to change.

[Big Cat]

I don't know that he paid them any money. He might have paid him a small amount of money, but it was mostly the fact that he, like, clicked on their link and then tried to log into something. Tried to log in. Now They've got, like, a bunch of information from them. I. It's like every. Every couple days, I've been getting emails as well from. From X.com, the everything app, saying that they flagged some of the content that I put up and my account will be shut down if I don't, like, file an appeal. But it's. It's all, like, fake. It's a.

[Big T]

They just want your X.com login.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Which is, I think, how certain guys that work at this company have recently gotten hacked. Probably. Probably clicking on one of those links.

[Big T]

I got, I got, I got. That happened to me very early on many, many years ago. I got one of those messages, like, from, you know, somebody I knew on Twitter, being like, oh, my God, did you see this picture of you? And that was before. That was before. That was like a known kind of fishing scheme. It was my first time ever seeing it, and I thought I was like, oh. And sure enough, try to log in, got my account hacked.

[Big Cat]

I. It's. It's kind of crazy how, how good they're able to spoof certain things. I got a call a couple years ago from. It showed up on my phone as being, like, from the Apple Store. And so I answered and they're like, yeah, somebody's in here and they've got your. Your card information. They're trying to buy, like, two iPhones. I was like, no, that's not me. And then this guy tells me about, like, all the details behind, like, what this person's trying to buy, what they're trying to pull off. He. He even says, like, some of my information back to me. And then he's like, I need to cancel this. Can I get, like, ask for my email and then, like, ask for date of birth. I was like, you should have all this information. If you've got my phone number, you should have all this information.

[Big T]

Yeah, that's. That's where they kind of tell on themselves as they start making you do things and asking questions that would be. That. That. That no legal company could would like, could or would ask. Ask you for.

[Big Cat]

And this guy had none of the red flags that you would like. He had zero accent. He sounded like a personable American. And so it was, like, very easy to fall for it. And I think it's going to get worse because now you've got a lot of people that are doing, like, voice cloning.

[Big T]

So, yeah, the. The. The latest Voidzilla video I still haven't watched yet from coffee. And I know it's. It's all about, like, deep fake AI schemes and whatnot.

[Big Cat]

That.

[Big T]

Because, I mean, that's, that's the, It's. Oh, I, I don't know. It's going to get harder and harder to parse.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Big T]

These schemes are going to get more and more advanced with, with the new technologies available to them.

[Big Cat]

I told my mom that there's. There's so much tape of me talking out there on the Internet, and it's not hard to find that at some point she, like, the technology is there where she could get a phone call from somebody that sounded like me.

[Big T]

You have to have a safe word.

[Big Cat]

So we got a safe word.

[Big T]

Oh, you have one.

[Big Cat]

It's a word that never said on the air.

[T Bob]

Well, see, that's what's going to get really bad is when they start using AI.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Big T]

And I mean, it's starting now.

[T Bob]

If they're getting Grandma's now.

[Big Cat]

Right. I can only imagine Grandma's getting a call and. Yeah. Yeah. Poor little Connor is in prison.

[T Bob]

That was a big. My great grandma got a call that my uncle was in jail.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[T Bob]

And she, I, I believe she called him and was like, you're not in jail. Right. And he was like, yeah. So she didn't do anything. But yeah, she was very concerned that

[Big Cat]

those are our rules. Our rules are if, if you get a call from me and I'm asking you for anything, call me back. And then also say, like, whatever. Whatever password we have, and then. And then we'll move forward from that point. But, yeah, I mean, old people, they get confused. And, and if you're making them, like, emotional about the, like, safety of one of their kids. Yeah. They'll be like, sure, I'll give you. I'll give you $10,000. No problem. Let's get you out of jail.

[Big T]

God, we are beyond the looking glass in so many different ways.

[Big Cat]

You know what I would love to see? I would love to see billions with a B of dollars dedicated to, like, actively shutting these places down. Like, protecting your citizens. That's what. How about. How about a war on scams? How about that? How about, like, let's protect the homeland. Everybody deals with this. We get calls. Our phones are great tools. We can use them for a bunch of different positive things. But they're also the biggest liability that we have.

[Big T]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

And everybody has one. How about we protect everybody? How about we go, we. We arrest and shut down. I don't care if they're overseas and Myanmar. I don't care if we're talking about, like a call center in Sri Lanka. I don't care if it's coming from this hemisphere because we're starting to see more of them. Like, more of. The call center is based out of the Caribbean, Antigua and the British Virgin Islands. Like, let's. Let's shut some of these places down.

[Big T]

Do. Now who. I wish you could remember his name. Have you all ever come across. I'm sure you have in your Internet travels. The. The guy with the aviator sunglasses who scams the scammers.

[T Bob]

Yes.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. Those guys are awesome.

[T Bob]

I don't know his name. Is he the. Do not redeem it. That's one of my favorite videos of all time.

[Big T]

I don't know. I just know I've seen ones where, like, he's like, hacked the call center and then made.

[T Bob]

And he tells them where they are.

[Big T]

Yes.

[T Bob]

And.

[Big T]

And they're like, looking at their own webcam and it's a feed from their office, and they're like, what the.

[T Bob]

I believe it's the same guy. There's a video. He's pretending to be a grandma.

[Big T]

Yeah.

[T Bob]

He has some voice changes, and he's bought. He's bought these gift cards and the.

[Big Cat]

The.

[T Bob]

The guy on the line is like, okay, now just give me the number. And he goes, okay, well, I'll just redeem it right here. And the guy's screaming, do not redeem it.

[Big T]

He makes him go crazy running him around.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, those. God bless those people. I've seen a lot of them for. For the old Nigerian prince emails too. Yep. Are you too young for those big t. I've.

[T Bob]

I've. I've heard the trope.

[Big T]

The original fishing scheme.

[Big Cat]

It was.

[T Bob]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

They were called in. In Nigeria. I think they're called, like, 409s. That might be the police code for, like, international scam or something. But there. There were people that would be scam baiters that would go online and. And bait these people to waste their time and resources trying to scam them, knowing that each second that they spent. Yeah.

[Big T]

Kit Boga. That's his name. Okay.

[Big Cat]

That's the guy.

[Big T]

Kid Boga. Yeah. Shout out Kid Boga.

[Big Cat]

God bless the. The scam baiters out there. We need to. We need to fund more of those people. That. We need to start an army of those people. I do think that if we dedicated a shitload of funding to it, that's something that will actually make everybody's lives better.

[T Bob]

Do you remember Al Farouk Aminu? He played basketball player. Yeah.

[Big T]

Yeah.

[T Bob]

So my uncle played with his brother at Georgia Tech, and they. This was 2007, 2008. And they, their family was like Nigerian royalty. And so that was, I don't know if that was peak Nigerian king emails, but it was around that time and they actually were, their family was like royalty in Nigeria. And so that was a big, a big thing.

[Big T]

It's bad for the Al Farukaminu brand.

[Big Cat]

Those emails would be so funny because it'd be like some person you didn't know died in a car accident in, in like west Kenya and they didn't have a next of kin, but we tracked you down and we want to send it to the United States. Is that okay? And then people would be like, oh my God, this is my, this is my life. Finally. Finally. I, I've been hoping for something like this. We finally got a break, guys. And then, yeah, it was the most obvious scam, but people fell for it.

[Big T]

If it's too good to be true, you have to fight against yourself and probably recognize that it is indeed too good to be true.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, but what if it was real, though?

[Big T]

I know, I know, dude. I know.

[Big Cat]

I actually think D. Bob, the funniest possible thing is like if I. So if I ever take a trip to Africa, if I go on safari over there, I'm gonna write something in my will that's like, if I die, I actually want my attorney to like contact a random person in the United States and only through email and, and leave my fortune to that one person. You just gotta believe because I feel like we're losing trust in this world. Sometimes an email can be a good thing.

[Big T]

You should, you could, you could, you could commit to it publicly. And then it becomes a bit like you're, you're Willy Wonka.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Big T]

And you're seeding a golden ticket out there. And everybody's gonna be desperately.

[Big Cat]

No, no, it would actually be terrible

[Big T]

because, because everybody would hop on and do scams based on you. Yeah.

[Big Cat]

And also everybody would see emails that would come through and be like, oh, maybe this one's real. Because I know the PFT said he's going to, he's going to hook it up when he does, but that'd be very funny to just like, okay, I'm going to have my attorney contact like a farmer in, in western Kansas and I want that person to, to obtain my entire estate if I die in a roller over crash in Mauritania.

[Big T]

Well, I mean, first you should put that money into. What is it? Stretch coin. Right.

[Big Cat]

Stretch coin.

[Big T]

Guaranteed 11% returns.

[Big Cat]

That's true.

[Big T]

Yeah. Basically just a bank that gives you 11% return returns. Let's go.

[Big Cat]

It's a bank that gives you 11 returns.

[Big T]

Big T. Doesn't that sound great?

[Big Cat]

It does.

[Big T]

You actually want that?

[Big Cat]

It's not a bank. It's a, it's an only catch. They pay you 11 dividends, but they can stop the dividends at any time. And all the money that you gave them that their money. It's their money now, so they're just

[Big T]

buying bitcoin with it.

[T Bob]

Got it. Okay.

[Big Cat]

It's a new scam.

[Big T]

It's a new scam. It's a new hot scam on the street.

[T Bob]

But I could just get a free 11%.

[Big Cat]

You could, yeah.

[T Bob]

And then that's it.

[Big Cat]

11%. Pretty here. Yeah.

[T Bob]

Can I pull it all out whenever I want?

[Big Cat]

No, no, no.

[Big T]

The money's theirs once you give it to them.

[T Bob]

So that's how they get you.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, take, yeah, but I mean they,

[Big T]

they, they, they, they market it like you can pull the money out whenever you want and. Sure, I suppose if you, the early ones. The early one, yeah. If you were early to pull out before or like when things are going good or if you don't have too much in there, you maybe could. But yeah, you know, I, I, you know, I, I, I lost on a, a local bitcoin scam, or not bitcoin, but a local crypto scam back in Baton Rouge where I, I even kind of knew was kind of scammy. But I thought I was in on the tip of the pyramid enough where I could be one of the winners. But unfortunately I was wrong.

[Big Cat]

That's the dream.

[Big T]

And I was, I was, no, I was just the rug pull.

[Big Cat]

That's the dream.

[Big T]

I was the mark.

[Big Cat]

There's, there's another scheme out there called One Geary, the One Geary scheme. It originates from Japan and it means one ring and cut. So what it is, you go out, if you want to start a Wangiri scheme, you get what would be the equivalent of a 1, 900 number, a pay to call number. Right. I don't know what that would be in, in Japan, what the exact numbers would be, but let's just say in the United States it's a number that somebody would have to pay you to call you on. So you just have a robo dialer that calls a bunch of different phone numbers. And it rings one time and then it hangs up either after, right after the person picks up or it'll just cut off after one ring, showing up as a missed call. And then when that person calls back, then they initiate Like a premium call to call that 1, 900 number back or whatever the equivalent is. And then they pick up on the other end and they then try to just keep you on the phone as long as possible because every minute that you're on the phone they get another like $2. It's a really good scam.

[Big T]

It's a good scam.

[Big Cat]

And that's the one that they started to use the, the caller ID spoofing to make the calls look like they were local coming in just so that when you call them back you're actually dialing.

[Big T]

Did you see the man in India who created the fake AI female MAGA influencer?

[Big Cat]

I did say that. Yeah. Yeah, I'm, I'm okay with that.

[Big T]

I mean, yeah, look, I, I think that it's so. I, I tweeted like, I quote, tweeted like, wow, this is like genius. It's very funny. And of course I got hit with like a bunch of like, oh, lib tar to whatever. But, but I'm more meeting, I'm more mean. It's genius to just take advantage of the political grift economy regardless of what direction you're coming from.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, I, I would say it's g. If you were able to do that and combine it with like horny people too. Like if somebody's paying obviously, which absolutely they did.

[Big T]

They were paying the majority of their money from Fansley.

[Big Cat]

Right. They were paying that, that fake person money because they wanted to see them naked.

[Big T]

They wanted bikini pics.

[Big Cat]

They wanted.

[Big T]

Because he was doing, he was sending bikini pics of this AI maga fake 20 year old influencer dental student.

[Big Cat]

My mindset is that if you, if you pay for pornography, you probably deserve to get scammed.

[Big T]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

At some point. Like, yeah, that's fair. That's on. You know that like you're, you're playing a dangerous, you're playing Russian roulette with where this money's going to a certain extent. At the same time I do think that like OnlyFans is probably a, it's more ethical version because at least all the money is going to the women.

[Big T]

Yeah. They're in control of their business.

[Big Cat]

Right. They've got a lot of business that they're looking after. But if you're paying money for that sort of thing, you're just openly accepting at some point you're going to get got.

[Big T]

You're swimming in, you know, you're swimming in shark infested waters.

[Big Cat]

Yes.

[Big T]

It just is what it is.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. So.

[Big T]

But maybe it feels great.

[Big Cat]

I love Salt water, it is, it's, it's exhilarating. And if you know that there's sharks around, maybe it's even more titillating.

[Big T]

Acceptable risk. As long as you know the dangers when you, when you get in the water.

[Big Cat]

So the FBI says that there have been 660 victims across the United States that have reported losses connected to an intern. A single international fraud scheme that was uncovered this year that lost $48.7 million. There's a new center that got shut down in 2000, February 2026. And it was a call center that was in India and they were actually able to stop that one. It had been going on since 2022. So of these 660 victims, one person lost $1.7 million in gold. A person in Montgomery County, Maryland. So this is how this one worked. Caller in India would pose as a tech support worker or sometimes a federal agent. They would call someone up and convince them that their bank account got hacked. And the only way to get their money back because they were able, fortunately, to recover some of this money, you have to first change it into cryptocurrency and then we can get you your money back. You can either change it into crypto, you can change it into a wire transfer of cash, or you can change it into gold, and then sure enough, we'll get all your money back for you. And so then they would convince victims to go convert all their cash to gold, and then they would send a courier to pick it up and then that gold would then go to New York City to the diamond district where it would get converted back to funds and then transferred overseas back to India, which is like a, it's a very complicated scheme that they were running where you have to have like people boots on the ground in the United States.

[Big T]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

Not just behind a, not just behind a monitor, but yeah, they were able to shut it down thankfully. So. Shout out. Shout out cash. Cash's FBI shut that down after 48.7 million was lost to that one overseas.

[Big T]

I mean crypto and I know like you said they did with gold as well, but the entire crypto infrastructure, it's just a criminal and scammer paradise.

[Big Cat]

Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

[Big T]

It's so easy to wash the money. It's, it's all untraceable. Yeah, it's like prediction markets as well. Like all these places are just uber fertile grounds for, for you're trying to

[Big Cat]

get, it's all people that are just trying to get in the first line. If you get in the first line, then you can make some money and everything after that you're going to get hosed on it. There was another crackdown that happened with Chinese and Thai government that shut down a massive scam back in 2025 and that was involving Asian crime syndicates that were expanding into South Asia, Africa.

[T Bob]

Why are these so prevalent in Asia? That's counting India as part of Asia.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, the subcontinent. I, I think that's a, that's a good question. I think that if it, if they were based in the United States, we would shut it. It would be much easier to track.

[T Bob]

I guess it's just ton of people and they need jobs.

[Big T]

People. Yeah. Lack of opportunity probably too as well. Comes into play for sure.

[Big Cat]

Yeah. And you have some people that have a lot of money that can set up these call centers. They know that people will do whatever it takes to try to work for them and try to get money. It's very little overhead. You just get people in a room dialing the entire time.

[Big T]

Nobody, no man considers a course space for himself which has proven profitable to others. I don't know if that's. That, that's. That's an old quote about precedent that has always just really been drilled into my head as like an eternal truth.

[Big Cat]

But they. Governments are starting to crack down more. So China, India, South Korea have all been starting to. To fight back. The US and the UK put sanctions on a Cambodian company that was running a crypto scam. And then they formed a task force. SpaceX has gotten in. They disabled 2500 Starlink devices that power a lot of the online fraud operations in Myanmar. And then South Korea has also been looking into some of the Cambodian call centers. And a court in the Philippines convicted the former mayor of a small town for trafficking people to a compound that officials have linked to scams and organized crime. So it. There is some enforcement. I think we have to fund this more. We got to put more money into it. And we have to because I love seeing these scam centers get shut down. I think we need to, we need to fund more of these scam fighters. Like. What's this guy's name?

[T Bob]

Say it again. T. Bob.

[Big T]

Oh, Kitbota.

[Big Cat]

Yeah, we need to fund more of those guys.

[Big T]

You know what we could do? We could funnel some of our funds into some double agents and maybe build these call centers up a little bit, get them a little more effective. Then they'll be easier to shut down

[Big Cat]

because they'll scam more people out of larger amounts of money.

[Big T]

Yeah.

[Big Cat]

And make bigger waves in the news. Exactly. I kind of like.

[Big T]

And then we'll get more funding to fight them.

[Big Cat]

But also. Yeah, we should get, we should run our marketing based on that too. Be like, look how effective we're. We're being. Or we need more because we, we need to be more effective.

[T Bob]

What I was going to say, what I was going to say about the text earlier though is I feel like the texts are less effective. Like we're never going to get got by a scam. Right.

[Big Cat]

Never say never.

[T Bob]

Okay, but one of these A couple times.

[Big T]

But I would hope not.

[T Bob]

Really.

[Big T]

Well, like I said, I did the Twitter thing, the crypto thing.

[T Bob]

Yeah. But that's not. I think those are slightly different.

[Big T]

The DMV text have like freaked me out for a second where I'm like,

[T Bob]

huh, okay, if the DMV text got you, then maybe you will. I don't know. But those seem much more obviously faked. I'm putting myself as a 76 year old man. Right. Yeah, those seem more obviously fake to me than a guy calling and saying, hey, we've got such and such. Can you just confirm your, your card number so that we can get this all sorted out? Whatever. But maybe they're working on it.

[Big T]

But again, I think it's, it's the classic. It's just their volume shooter.

[Big Cat]

Yeah.

[Big T]

And it's like they, they need, they can miss 99.5 of the time.

[T Bob]

Yep.

[Big T]

And they can fund themselves in the 0.5. And when you have so many human beings, somebody's gonna up.

[Big Cat]

Yep. It's a fact. All right, well, that was scammers. That was, that was Macrodosing Fund. The anti scammers fund, the guys that scammed the scammers. I want, I want those guys to be the richest people on earth. Good for them. All right, we will see you guys next week. Until then, love you guys.

[T Bob]

Goodbye.

[Big T]

Later.