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Pablo Torre
Welcome to Pablo Torre Finds out. I am Pablo Torre, and today we're going to find out what this sound is.
Michael Cruz Kane
Soccer doesn't make anyone wet
Pablo Torre
right after this ad.
Jack Myers
What makes a leader worth following?
Tim Spengler
What should you really care about in your job? As technology is changing so quickly, is
Jack Myers
it just gonna be about machines talking to other machines? I mean, should you quit your job and start something on your own, what would that take?
Tim Spengler
What does success and risk look like when we're all at the starting?
Jack Myers
These are the questions we answer each week on Lead Human with Jack Myers and Tim Spengler.
Tim Spengler
Join us each week and subscribe at your favorite podcast platform and YouTube.
Jack Myers
We'll tell stories, we'll hear from some of the best, and we'll try to figure this out together.
Michael Cruz Kane
Okay, Caller one wins courtside seats to tonight's game. What? I won floor seats. You did? I've been calling for 13 months. Wait, Chris.
Pablo Torre
Yes.
Michael Cruz Kane
I finally did it. What are you gonna wear? Men's Wearhouse.
Sam Reich
They' today's looks for any occasion.
Michael Cruz Kane
And I need to look like a celebrity. Don't want to stick out. Exactly. They've got Chill Flex by Kenneth Cole, Joseph Abboud, and a tailor at every
Pablo Torre
store for the perfect fit.
Michael Cruz Kane
Congrats. You can stop calling now. Not a chance. Hit any look for every occasion at Men's Wearhouse. Love the way you look.
Pablo Torre
I just heard something that completely shocked me, which is that 45% of girls and 32% of boys feel overwhelming stress from just being on social media. And together, 25% of both feel worse about their own lives. Researchers found teens who spend more than five hours a day on their phones are at double the risk for suicidal thoughts. Bottom line, teens and phones don't mix. And with a daughter and myself, I am constantly worried about when she reaches an age where we'll have to have the phone talk. But here's the good news. There is a solution. A company called Gab, which has solved the problem by doing something that no one else is doing. Their approach is tech in steps. Tech in Steps works by providing safer phones and watches for kids with no social media. Tailored to every age. Offering the right device at the right time. From GPS tracking enabled watches for younger kids to phones with parent enabled apps for tweens and teens. Each device allows kids to more safely grow their independence. You don't have to give your kid a device that was made for an adult. Get them Gab, which keeps them socially connected without social media. And right now, you can use our code to get 60% off a kid's phone. That will make parenting easier and give you more peace of mind. That's why I am recommending Gab. Visit gab.comptfo and use code PTFO for an exclusive offer. That's Gab Gabb.
Michael Cruz Kane
The Pulitzer's gonna get taken away. Oh, God, they're gonna listen to this. Audio quality.
Hayden
This is.
Pablo Torre
I'm realizing what a nightmare it is to follow up winning a Pulitzer Prize with this episode.
Sam Reich
Yeah, this is a. You've made a huge mistake. You've made a huge mistake.
Michael Cruz Kane
It's tough. Yeah, it's real tough.
Pablo Torre
Sam Reich, thank you for being here. I have been looking forward to meeting you, only to cast you aside for a second and talk about myself.
Michael Cruz Kane
Good.
Sam Reich
Wonderful.
Michael Cruz Kane
Thank God. I loathe being this hair of attention.
Pablo Torre
So we're gonna get back to doing share and tell with Michael Cruz, Cain, and our new friend Sam Reich, the CEO of Dropout, which is this truly amazing comedy company that I want you guys to know about. That'll be all happening in just a second here, but something I feel obligated to formally tell you, you being the listeners and viewers who stick with us here three times a week, is that on Sunday at 12:04pm Eastern, I got a call from our licensing partners at the Athletic and the New York Times Company, and they told me something unforgettable.
Michael Cruz Kane
We're actually awarding you the first ever anti Pulitzer.
Sam Reich
Yeah, that's exactly. That's exactly right.
Pablo Torre
That felt more logical than what actually happened, which is that the staff of Pablo Torre finds out, it turns out had won the Pulitzer Prize. And look, if you're wondering if this is the most surreal thing that has ever happened in my life personally, the answer is yes.
Michael Cruz Kane
Congratulations. I mean, what a startling achievement have you, like, you had to do this at some point. I'm guessing you had to go through your own stuff and go, what here do I feel like might be worthy of a Pulitzer?
Sam Reich
Also, I would say I've been on, if I had to guess, 7,000 episodes of this program, and not one of them is remotely close to Pulitzer worthy.
Michael Cruz Kane
You do not know that you weren't submitted, do you, Michael?
Sam Reich
I guess I don't know for a fact. Maybe one, maybe the 12th episode investigating Bill Belichick's girlfriend could have been the one, but I'm not sure.
Pablo Torre
And so, smash cut to Monday afternoon when I find myself as an independent journalist here at Meadowlark Media, whose show joined the Athletic Podcast network last September atop this iconic red staircase in the middle of The New York Times building. And if you were a true journalism nerd like me, you may have seen this scene before in photos or movies. It's this annual gathering of all of these reporters and editors and dignitaries arrayed across multiple floors of this enormous open floor plan newsroom, the largest newsroom in America to hear speeches from the winners of this genuinely overwhelming award. There was the unbelievable investigation that the Times reported into the Trump administration's self enrichment. There was their astonishing news photography in Gaza, these trenchant columns about authoritarianism, and also a multi part series about circumventing the NBA salary cap involving a company called Aspiration.
Unknown Guest (possibly a Meadowlark Media or Times representative)
It is a surreal honor to address the Galactic Senate. I'm going to Outer Rim planet in your network and I'm thrilled to be invited to celebrate and day full of recognition that is mindful. I knew you guys were good, but today is really one of those days where it feels a little lucid. Part of this is frankly because I'm from New York City, born and raised here, first generation American parents from the Philippines. I grew up reading subscribing to the Times and I've seen documentaries in which you guys do this thing
Michael Cruz Kane
and it's
Unknown Guest (possibly a Meadowlark Media or Times representative)
even better when you get to do this thing as a party.
Pablo Torre
But just one quick bit of context here apparently is that it is very rare I have been told for sports journalism to win a Pulitzer prize. And our category audio reporting, which is of course not a sports category. It had never before been won by a talk show as a genre either. Certainly not one that has also taste tested the greatest strains of athlete branded weed.
Unknown Guest (possibly a Meadowlark Media or Times representative)
But if you talk to the folks who may call it weird show but it is, some of them are here today. Chris Spinello, Matt Sullivan, Daniel Kakadia, my friend Dan Levitt park down in Miami who founded Meadow Art Media, they'll tell you that this painfully sincere appreciation of
Pablo Torre
journalism began at conception as it were.
Unknown Guest (possibly a Meadowlark Media or Times representative)
What we wanted to do from the very beginning was found the value of
Pablo Torre
reporting in a sea of not.
Unknown Guest (possibly a Meadowlark Media or Times representative)
And the value of our foremost obligation being the principle of public interest is the thing that I I find as a key element of our kindred spirit here. One of the things that I find in the course of making the show is that sincere veneration of journalism principles can coexist with experimentation around journalism's form. And I don't think I've figured out everything far, far from it, just ask the mba. But in reducing this theories about the clippers and the carbon credits company and the NDA, we thought a lot about how Reporting is presented and communicated and designed for new audiences. And it turns out these audiences may not realize at first blush that they actually share the same principles of many of the people in this room today. The principle reporting of fear or favor. And maybe they have actually believed in that all along. And that has helped in part because the way we do our show, we bring friends, expert witnesses like David Sanchez and Mina Haslan, who open manila folders and read financial statements and synthesize the testimony of corporate whistleblowers. And it has been incredibly energizing to learn that it's believed that reporting can be both fun and important. An audience of sports fans might actually agree. So sports helps, obviously, as a genre. I continue to think of sports as the cheese we melt on the broccoli of any number of non sports topics. But I also think of it as the industry where richest people on earth are increasingly desperate to buy in, only to realize on account of these pesky regulations and journalists that they simply cannot buy the thing that they want the most.
Pablo Torre
And at this point in the speech I will now observe, listening back in retrospect, I had basically unilaterally started podcasting.
Unknown Guest (possibly a Meadowlark Media or Times representative)
So I'll just end here by saying thank you to everybody that supported a show like this makes any amount of sense, frankly. And I'll say thank you to the folks who make Hubble Torre finds out what it is, which is to say a show that is a lot more than the guy whose name gets to begin it. We make this thing three times a week. And so Walter AB, Romo, Maxwell Carvey, Brian Cortez, Juan Melinda Patrick, Kim Dehuman, Rob McCray, Claire Taylor, Andy Gersick, Bailey, Harlan, Andrew Northern, Chris Bo. Down the list, the secret of Pablo Torre finds out, in case it's not obvious now, that a whole bunch of people that we need to make it good. And as that kid who grew up here, his parents admittedly continued to wonder if it's too late for me to go to medical school, may or may not be watching me reveal something to them right now. I think what I found out is that I found a career and a team to be proud of. So thank you so much.
Pablo Torre
And so right now, dear listener, is around where you might be wondering what many have been asking in the days since our staff won this thing during an ongoing NBA investigation. Incidentally, what about Mark Cuban? And so I will now just quickly read from an email I received from our old debate partner, the foremost representative of Team Ballmer, the billionaire former maverick zoner who sent this on Tuesday at 1:09pm Eastern. The subject line, congrats, space, exclamation point, quote, I want a fake Pulitzer for my contributions. Smiling face, emoticon. Well done. End quote. And yeah, look, I, I gotta admit, despite it all, I miss that guy. And all of this now returns us to our new special guest today, another character in the world of independent media as we take a tour of a couple of very different sorts of workplaces. How should we explain who Sam is? Michael Cruz Kane.
Sam Reich
I guess I would say that he runs Dropout. That'd be the first thing that I would say. Sam runs dropout, which is like kind of the coolest thing going, I guess, in the world. I think it might be the coolest thing happening.
Pablo Torre
That is the slogan which feels, which feels bold, but it does resonate a little self aggrandizing.
Sam Reich
I think there are like maybe two companies that are not bad. I'm going to say Dropout and, and maybe UNICEF would be the other one, but I don't even know. I don't know if that's right. I don't know if UNICEF is problematic or not. There's gotta be something wrong with it. I just don't know. I don't know what it is.
Pablo Torre
We're here to find out.
Michael Cruz Kane
That's.
Pablo Torre
What is Sam hiding?
Sam Reich
We're here to confront Sam with a bunch of emails.
Michael Cruz Kane
We found there's actually oil under my home and we're drilling right now.
Sam Reich
Yeah, that's the thing. All the money is used for fracking.
Michael Cruz Kane
Not anymore. I got that Kickstarter money now.
Pablo Torre
Sam is currently, for those not watching on YouTube, Sam is burying a million dollars in Kickstarter money that raised in the last two hours with a new board game.
Sam Reich
The board game, by the way, if I'm not mistaken, Sam is called Fracken apostrophe. Is that right?
Pablo Torre
It is. It is.
Sam Reich
It's a game to teach your kids the, the virtues of fracking.
Michael Cruz Kane
It's called I drink your milkshake.
Pablo Torre
When I monitor dropout from afar, I marvel at not just the financial success and the Kickstarter money and all this stuff, but you have clearly accessed a demographic that was starving for the thing that you uniquely are offering.
Sam Reich
It's an eye opening thing for me to be like, oh, someone I know can just win a Pulitzer. That's crazy. A guy I know can make a million dollars on Kickstarter for a board game.
Michael Cruz Kane
What?
Sam Reich
What? It's wild. It's exciting that this is the world that we live in a little. This is. There are Only like a few good things.
Unknown Guest (possibly a Meadowlark Media or Times representative)
There's.
Sam Reich
So these are two of them.
Pablo Torre
There's so many bad things. There are so many bad things, Sam. I wonder what it feels like to be the proprietor of a good thing.
Michael Cruz Kane
The bar is pretty low for good thing. There are no shareholders because we're not a public company. There's no private equity because we basically turned over from college humor into dropout in such a way that it was just handing over of a bank account. And because there isn't, that means that the only greedy person here who's going to this up is me. And if I'm not a sociopath, we will tend to be be a pretty good company.
Pablo Torre
Sam feels like not only a good playdate, but like a genuinely decent person who is, if nothing else, incentivized to be decent. And yet the story that I want to know if Sam knows about is this J.P. morgan story.
Michael Cruz Kane
I think I might have read a headline, but I would love to. I'd love a little dive.
Sam Reich
Put on your trunks, my guy. We're going. We're going for a dive.
Pablo Torre
We're going to the New York Post.com
Sam Reich
everyone's favorite website because the Daily. Oh, I have it bookmarked.
Michael Cruz Kane
No problem.
Unknown Guest (possibly a Meadowlark Media or Times representative)
The. The.
Pablo Torre
The New York Post.com is where we journalistically will turn in the episode that once again follows the winning of a Pulitzer Prize.
Sam Reich
Kind of a meandering conversation ending in a little bit of newsdive.
Pablo Torre
Yeah. Quote, bombshell. Sex harassment suit against a woman whose name I'll leave out because feels like she shouldn't be named in public.
Sam Reich
Yes.
Pablo Torre
Should be a relevant character against. Fill in the blank. Female employee's name. JP Morgan branded. Complete fabrication. As John Doe is unmasked. Now, you're familiar with the story, Michael?
Sam Reich
I am quite familiar.
Pablo Torre
From your recollection, what was this story, these fabrications? Allegedly, this sex harassment suit about.
Sam Reich
So sort of the first thing that broke about this was not that it was fabricated, but that there was this massive, very detailed, expansive sexual harassment case filed against a woman at J.P. morgan by a man who was her subordinate. And it was very detailed. Right. Like specific things she would say to him. Act. She forced him to perform drugs.
Pablo Torre
Do you want to read some of the quotes?
Sam Reich
Do I want to read some of the quotes? Not.
Michael Cruz Kane
Not.
Sam Reich
Not especially.
Michael Cruz Kane
You could read some. I think we'd all be better protected if they came out of the mouth. The mouth of a Pulitzer.
Sam Reich
These are all fake. These are fake quotes again. So none of this was ever said by a person until Pablo says it Right now.
Pablo Torre
Well, to be clear, the Daily Mail had obtained a copy of this lawsuit. The Daily Mail's article has since disappeared, but it's made its way out to the Internet. And the sort of like archaeological dig of what was a story about leads me to this woman in question allegedly telling this guy who seems to have, spoiler alert, made all of this up. Quote, I bet your little Asian fish head wife doesn't have these cannons.
Sam Reich
I think that was the sentence that immediately made me go, is this real? Because I don't think I've. I just can't. Canons doesn't seem like a way that a person.
Pablo Torre
That's where. That's the first word.
Sam Reich
Right away I hear someone referring to her own bosom as cannons, and I'm skeptical.
Michael Cruz Kane
Feels like. Like something that. Like a third tier madman character.
Sam Reich
Yes, absolutely. Might have said a day player on Mad Men says the thing about the cannons and then he gets fired.
Pablo Torre
It also feels a bit 1960s to call someone a slur that I didn't know which is fish head.
Sam Reich
Is fish head an Asian slur?
Pablo Torre
That's what the Internet is concluding.
Sam Reich
Because I also never as a. As a half Asian person, I have never in my life heard someone called a fish head.
Pablo Torre
Right, right, right, right.
Sam Reich
Why fish head? I'm trying to think of things that are unique to the head of a fish. They have eyes on opposite sides of their head.
Pablo Torre
Right.
Sam Reich
That's the other. That's the only fact I know about fish. They eat. Do we eat fish heads?
Pablo Torre
Maybe I do.
Sam Reich
I mean, my mom will up a fish head for sure.
Pablo Torre
My mom eat the eyes out of a fish head.
Sam Reich
Really?
Michael Cruz Kane
Are we now trying to justify a slur? You're already on the wrong side of the slur.
Sam Reich
Okay, see, this is why you should run your company that you run, and I should be doing whatever I do. Immediately, I'm like, there's got to be something to.
Michael Cruz Kane
About this slur. What is the con, the truth that would lead us to establish this slur?
Sam Reich
Yes, exactly. Okay, I see what I've done is wrong. I understand. Sam's right.
Pablo Torre
The journalism of was. Does any of this smell weird?
Sam Reich
Yeah.
Pablo Torre
Fish head aside, it continues in which the woman in question is allegedly propositioning the original litigant for oral sex in the office, on one occasion asking allegedly, and let's presume again, falsely quote, birthday BJ for the brown boy. My little brown boy.
Sam Reich
Okay, that. That also doesn't sound. Didn't sound real to me when I read it. And I should say it's still Possible it's all real. So is Sam, but I really don't think so.
Pablo Torre
Is any of this ringing a bell?
Sam Reich
Sam, have you ever heard the phrase birthday BJ for the brown boy before?
Michael Cruz Kane
I'd never heard that phrase before. That was. That was a first for me.
Sam Reich
As we get further into the story, which I knew we were going to get into, I'm finding it a kind of a combination of quite funny and a little uncomfortable.
Michael Cruz Kane
Well, the discomfort is like if this is real.
Sam Reich
Yeah.
Michael Cruz Kane
Are we wrong to poke fun at it?
Sam Reich
Yes.
Michael Cruz Kane
Right.
Pablo Torre
So this is where I will encourage further headline readings from the New York Post. Beyond the whole thing being a fabrication according to JP Morgan, and beyond the fact that the litigant seems to have withdrawn the lawsuit but then refiled a different, weirder version of it. Here's another headline. X JP Morgan banker. And I think we can say his name because he's now a main character in this. And that seems fair, journalistically.
Sam Reich
Fine by me. We can always bleep it out.
Pablo Torre
Great.
Sam Reich
We won't. It's not we. I have nothing to do with it. Someone might bleep it out, someone might not.
Pablo Torre
X JP Morgan banker Shirayu Rana files wild new claims against exec including lurid threesome invitation days after going viral with fabricated sex slave allegations. That was 5:30pm on May 4, and this is a very live story.
Sam Reich
For the record, it's a kind of bravery maybe to accuse someone of something that everyone thinks is totally false and then go, I'm not backing off this, actually. Instead I'm going to actually make this more insane. I can make this way worse. It was already bad for me, but watch. I can make this way worse.
Pablo Torre
The other headline, 3.11pm on May 4, ex JP Morgan banker Shirayu Rana pretended his dad was dead to get bereavement leave. But he's alive and spoke to the Post this weekend.
Sam Reich
And that's incredible.
Michael Cruz Kane
That's fantastic because. Because everybody knows you don't pick a dad. You gotta go more distant in terms of relative.
Sam Reich
Absolutely. You gotta go with someone that can never be found. You gotta go, Sam. You gotta go. Cousin. 100% my cousin.
Michael Cruz Kane
Yeah.
Pablo Torre
But I would say to the dad,
Sam Reich
cousin, who I'm close to, I'm emotionally close but physically distant. So I have to go to where he is. He's in a hospital in Minneapolis or something and I got to be there for a month for my cousin.
Pablo Torre
I think he might have chosen his dad because the dad's quote to the Post when they reached him alive Was quote, I don't anything about it. He didn't talk with us or anything. He's my son. He's a good guy.
Sam Reich
I mean, that's very sweet. I'm a fan of dad.
Michael Cruz Kane
That's nice. I like the dad.
Sam Reich
I have no problem with trying to bilk JP Morgan out of every dollar you possibly can, but I do think the means are a little messed up in this particular case.
Pablo Torre
He wants to collect nearly three months of paid leave and apparently use the time off this, according to the New York Post, to prepare the bombshell lawsuit against the woman in question and his employer.
Michael Cruz Kane
It sounds like he might have thrown too much spaghetti at the wall at once, you know?
Sam Reich
Yeah, no edit. He needed someone to be in there being like, I don't think we should do. Let's not do fish head. Let's just do the brown boy. Bj Actually.
Michael Cruz Kane
Yeah.
Pablo Torre
Should we do the whole dialogue where she, according to him, asks, oh, did you play basketball in college? I love basketball players. They get me so wet.
Sam Reich
No, we should not do that. Actually, I think we can.
Michael Cruz Kane
We can pass. Too late.
Sam Reich
We can pass on that.
Michael Cruz Kane
Another case of men needing to learn to write for women.
Sam Reich
Yes. So true. Wow, what a good point. Even if she was this person, it doesn't sound like how she would talk. I wouldn't believe that in the script. I'd be like, well, that's. It's a. It's. That's. That's you. We'll.
Michael Cruz Kane
We'll improvise something there. We'll have the actress improvise something.
Pablo Torre
You're saying that it's implausible that she would wake him up in the middle of the night naked and beg him while having got lit a cigarette and begging him to join them in this threesome that he is now claiming.
Sam Reich
It feels like AI wrote a complaint. If you had AI be like, come up with a fantastical complaint about sexual harassment. This company I just worked at, and it's gotta be this woman. I think AI would come up with something similar to this.
Pablo Torre
If you don't my brains out tonight, I'm going to sabotage your promotion.
Sam Reich
Well, pretty. Pretty candid.
Michael Cruz Kane
Yeah, allegedly. Allegedly. A little on the nose, we might say. If we were reviewing the script, we might say try to like bury it a little more in some text.
Sam Reich
Maybe a little show don't tell on the. On the sexual harassment, if you. If you can.
Michael Cruz Kane
Yeah.
Sam Reich
Also, I think a part of the story that is fun is that in investigating this, everyone at JP Morgan, they couldn't find a single person to say one bad thing about this woman. And everything that they investigated turned up nothing. And the guy would not participate in the investigation at all. So it's only JP Morgan investigating, the New York Post investigating and the guy not participating anyway. And she's like a sommelier who spends her free time helping neighborhood kids. You know what I mean? Like, he couldn't have picked a worse target for this.
Pablo Torre
It's even made worse because of course we're a sports journalism oriented show. And so we looked up. Did he play basketball in college?
Sam Reich
Yeah.
Pablo Torre
The answer is no. He went to Rutgers University, did not play basketball. He did play soccer though.
Michael Cruz Kane
Unfortunately. He just knew well enough that soccer doesn't make anyone wet.
Sam Reich
Even he was like, the soccer. I had soccer in there. But it just doesn't make sense.
Michael Cruz Kane
That's what the AI replaced it.
Pablo Torre
The biggest bummer is that he was actually an athlete and was like, I'm going to make up a basketball.
Sam Reich
He played college soccer.
Pablo Torre
He played college soccer for Rutgers and
Sam Reich
got to be a really good soccer player.
Pablo Torre
He was a D1 soccer player. He did not score a goal. According to our analysis of his statistics. We had a couple assists here and there. You know, that's.
Sam Reich
I mean he's on the field.
Pablo Torre
He was on the field.
Sam Reich
No, wait, I'm seeing freshman, sophomore, junior. Did he not play senior year? Interesting. Wonder what that's about.
Pablo Torre
It does end there.
Michael Cruz Kane
I do think if this man proves to be how the evidence is leaning that he might actually be 5:11.
Sam Reich
Yeah, for sure. That that 6o is really a little strange credulity.
Pablo Torre
Yeah.
Michael Cruz Kane
Or. Or less. Or 5 or 5 10.
Pablo Torre
You mean the guy who said that this person told him, I own you, I will make you pay. You really think management wants some brown boy Indian leading originations like what a interesting fantasy of.
Sam Reich
Of racism and harassment. People were probably racist to him at some point growing up. That feels only natural.
Pablo Torre
I'd like to grant him the possibility that at some point he did experience something.
Sam Reich
He was the victim of some racism for sure.
Pablo Torre
I do think he suffers from not having a friend to run this by.
Michael Cruz Kane
I. Could you give these. These fake sexual harassment texts a quick punch up for me?
Sam Reich
I could for sure punch this up. I could.
Michael Cruz Kane
Should.
Sam Reich
Should, should hit me up.
Michael Cruz Kane
I don't doubt that you could.
Sam Reich
I'm a polymath when it comes to punch ups. Any kind of punch up you need, I can do it. I for sure would not have said cannons, I can tell you that much.
Pablo Torre
What would you have gone with?
Sam Reich
Oh, wow, that's a really good question. For that, you're gonna have to pay me. Venmo Anyone watching this? If you venmo me $10, I will give you access to my thesaurus that only has one entry and it is boobs.
Pablo Torre
So lately I've been more intentional about what I wear day to day. I've been leaning into pieces that feel easy and comfortable and still put together. And in my effort to make getting dressed simpler, Quince has been my go to. The fabrics feel elevated, the fits are clean. Everything just works without needing to overthink it. Quince has all the wardrobe staples for spring, like 100% European linen shorts and shirts from $34. These are lightweight, breathable and comfortable, but still look put together. Plus clean 100% Pima cotton tees with a softness that has to be felt. Everything, by the way, is priced 50 to 80% less than what you'd find at similar brands. And Quint works directly with ethical factories and cuts out the middlemen. So you are getting premium materials without the markup. For instance, I got myself a cashmere cardigan and it instantly became one of my go to things to wear. And you all know how much I love a cardigan. Obviously this one is lightweight, it's comfortable, it honestly feels like something that should cost way more than it actually does. So refresh your everyday with luxury you will actually use. Head to Quince.com Pablo for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada as well, that is Q-U-I-N C E.com Pablo for free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com Pablo
Hayden
howdy, howdy ho, and welcome to Fantasy Fan Fellas. I'm Hayden, producer of the Fantasy Fangirls podcast and your resident lover of all Sanderson.
Michael Cruz Kane
And I'm Stephen, your bookish Internet goofball. But you can call me the Smash Daddy.
Hayden
And we are currently deep diving Brandon Sanderson's fantasy epic Mistborn. But here's the catch. Steven here has not read Mistborn before.
Michael Cruz Kane
That's right.
Unknown Guest (possibly a Meadowlark Media or Times representative)
Hey hey.
Michael Cruz Kane
So each week you'll get my unfiltered raw reactions to every single chapter.
Hayden
And along the way we'll do character deep dives, magic explainers, and Steven will even try to guess what's next.
Pablo Torre
Spoiler alert.
Hayden
He'll be wrong.
Michael Cruz Kane
News flash. I'm never wrong. Episodes come out every Wednesday and you can find Fantasy fanfellas wherever you get your podcasts.
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Pablo Torre
The question of how to punch something up and how to enhance something. Okay, can we turn to the founder of the Enhanced Games, a guy named Aaron d', Souza, who is explaining to Joe Rogan what his ambitions are for this competition.
Michael Cruz Kane
We're building the Apollo mission for the 21st century. You know, what did the Apollo mission do? It showed us that we were so much more capable as a human species.
Unknown Guest (possibly a Meadowlark Media or Times representative)
Right?
Michael Cruz Kane
We hit a new threshold going to the moon, using science and technology to overcome our limits. This is exactly what the Enhanced Games is about.
Sam Reich
What does it actually mean? What we're talking about is an Olympic Games where the athletes are souped up in some way. Is that right?
Michael Cruz Kane
This is a Olympic style competition, basically, where it's like they're permitted to use drugs, but they don't have to use drugs.
Pablo Torre
Doctors in Abu Dhabi.
Sam Reich
That shouldn't be the beginning of most
Pablo Torre
sentences would compose an individualized concoction.
Sam Reich
It's getting worse. It's only getting worse.
Pablo Torre
Of enhancement drugs, selecting from testosterone, anabolic steroids, growth factors like HGH and EPO hormone and metabolic modulators and stimulants like Adderall.
Sam Reich
So it's like a. It's a super serum. It's an actual super serum.
Pablo Torre
I think the idea here is that there is a range of things that cannot happen in America legally, but they will create their version of a super soldier experiment and then everyone's going to compete. It's the Olympics. On steroids. That's the idea.
Sam Reich
Literally.
Pablo Torre
And it's funded by.
Michael Cruz Kane
And figuratively.
Sam Reich
Yeah. Have you got. Have you guys ever taken steroids? Either of you?
Pablo Torre
Have you?
Sam Reich
I have taken steroids a bunch because I have. For eczema. For eczema. Hang on. Relax.
Michael Cruz Kane
Okay. I was about to say for asthma, I. I take an oral steroid.
Sam Reich
You take like an albuterol inhaler or you take a. You take a pill?
Michael Cruz Kane
No, I take an inhaler and.
Sam Reich
Okay, so for me, when I'm on the steroids for. I want to emphasize that I have eczema because I know that people find that really attractive.
Michael Cruz Kane
Sure.
Sam Reich
I feel invincible when I'm on the steroids. I feel like. And I'm on. I'm on. Not nearly on as much as these guys are going to be on for me.
Michael Cruz Kane
You know, taking a steroid is. Is. Is more subtle, where I can breathe a little easier and I. My voice sounds a little bit less raspy, and I can lift a house with my neck.
Sam Reich
Yeah. So you know what I'm talking about. How often do you take the inhaler? Every day.
Michael Cruz Kane
Every day?
Sam Reich
Oh, hell yeah. So you're kind of. You're. You're in the Enhanced Games every day. That's. You live in the Enhanced.
Michael Cruz Kane
I'm jacked all the time.
Sam Reich
Your testicles are this little baby. They're so small, but your muscles are enormous. Ripped. Ripped to hell.
Pablo Torre
Yeah. You win a million dollars if you win the Enhanced Games.
Sam Reich
You also win a rare disease. You're gonna get something that no one's ever heard of. Doctors in Abu Dhabi are making some kind of a juice for you. You're gonna get. They're gonna die from something that hasn't been invented.
Pablo Torre
How dare you. How dare you suggest that a pool of capital generated by Donald TRUMP Jr's 1789 capital.
Sam Reich
Oh, great.
Pablo Torre
Peter Steel, Balaji Srinivasan, the Winklevoss twins, and Saudi Prince Khaled bin Alawid bin Talal Al Saud would possibly endanger any of their athletes.
Sam Reich
It couldn't sound more nefarious.
Michael Cruz Kane
It's wild. It's wild. When you look at, like, certain Olympic sports, like, they're already not particularly humane. Like, the Olympics uses people up already. If you look at powerlifting as a category, you're like, these people maybe shouldn't be like that in the way that hugs shouldn't. You know what I mean?
Sam Reich
Yes.
Michael Cruz Kane
And here we're talking about, like, let's. Let's really ruin them, though. Like, let's. Let's give them the, you know, lifespan of a. Of a inbred beagle, allegedly.
Sam Reich
It's also, like, you couldn't have assembled a more evil group of people to do this. It really is like, Lex Luthor, Hitler's sister. It's every bad person you can possibly imagine. Gina Hitler. It's every bad person you can imagine. They all got together and they thought of this idea. You can pretty well bet that idea is going to be bad.
Pablo Torre
You get a million dollars to break a world record. $250,000 to win a race. You get paid appearance opportunities. There's a base salary in the mid to high six figures. And it's 12 weeks of workouts and supervised PEDs at a five star Emirati resort.
Sam Reich
Okay, never mind. I'm going to do it. I'll do this. This sounds fine. I'll do it. Six base. Base is six figures. I'll do it. I'll do it.
Michael Cruz Kane
If someone gives you $10, yeah, you
Sam Reich
got to get me. I'm working on punch downs for this woman over at JP Morgan, but as long as I can do it in between, I'm willing to, whatever it is, fight a fight a boat or whatever I have to do at the Enhanced Games.
Michael Cruz Kane
Yeah, you have to fight a cruise ship.
Pablo Torre
Then the competition brings you to Las Vegas on May 24, where this is according, by the way, there's reporting at gq, at Vanity Fair and wait, all
Michael Cruz Kane
of these enhancements are happening out of the country where it's legal to do them and then we're bringing them to Las Vegas.
Pablo Torre
That's exactly right.
Sam Reich
This is, it's the beginning of a Batman movie is what it is. They, you do this and then they all run wild in Las Vegas and then Batman and like a second tier DC character have to round them all up.
Michael Cruz Kane
It is very Ra's Al Ghul to
Sam Reich
your point for sure.
Pablo Torre
I'm trying to think of like which Batman villain RFK Jr is, but he is sort of a character in this entire movement. Yeah, I mean this is the peptides movement. This is the idea that by the time spectators go to the Enhanced Games in Vegas at the end of the month, 12 of the 19 experimental peptides the Games might offer for sale will be on their way to being reclassified according to of course, the larger health.
Sam Reich
Is that true? Like, so 19 things that are not legal here, 12 of them will be made legal by the current.
Pablo Torre
According to affairs reporting, that is, that is the consequence of these experimental treatments that are being tested and pioneered now with the approval of the US Government potentially. Is that yes, you can actually buy these peptides. Wow.
Michael Cruz Kane
And you go to these games and you buy their custom peptide in order to participate in their event. So it's rather like working retail at the Gap where it's like I, I have to buy these clothes to sell the clothes here.
Sam Reich
That's exactly right.
Pablo Torre
It's kind of more like what if a clothing company were to sponsor an Olympic Games with the goal of finally getting to sell to other customers that are not competing in the Games in the audience. Clothes that have been previously banned by the government.
Sam Reich
Previously previously illegal clothes.
Michael Cruz Kane
Wow.
Sam Reich
Yeah. Like this. Wow. The Pepsi is made from meth or something. And we couldn't sell it before, but now we can.
Pablo Torre
That's right. But you get to do it at a five star Emirati resort. So.
Sam Reich
So I'm in. I'm absolutely in. I, I, I don't know if you guys have ever been to the uae, but I have. And when they say five star, they're not kidding about it. It's real. It's really not. It's gonna be really nice. I flew first class on Etihad a few times and it's better than anything that's ever happened in my regular life. And it's not remotely close. Wow. It's the best. You order the food whenever you want it. Whenever you want it. You can have the same thing again. I'll have it again. And it's good.
Pablo Torre
You ordered double dinner.
Sam Reich
I have had double dinner. I've done on, in first class on Etihad. I've gone, I'll take, Give me all this and they will, they'll give you all of it. Give me two of the desserts. They'll do it. Whatever. Someone makes your bed for you and give you pajamas that you'll go change into so you can get in your bed and eat your third or fourth dinner however many you want.
Pablo Torre
How did this turn into a sponsored ad for Etihad Airlines?
Sam Reich
I don't know. Etihad. I have, it's been a while. Get me on, get me on there. Drink the weird juice that makes me strong. I'm, I'm fine with it.
Pablo Torre
I know we're all laughing as a bunch of independent media operators, but one thing that I should clarify about the enhanced games is that they will be live streamed internationally on YouTube. Sam. And behind the scenes coverage of the athletes prep area will be featured on a new platform called Zoop, called Zoop.
Michael Cruz Kane
Okay, see, if I was, if I was injecting athletes with experimental drugs and putting them anywhere, the first thing I would do as a producer of content is say don't make it live because we don't know what's going to happen. And the second thing that I would do is I would say don't show me behind scenes footage because I don't want to know what's going on back there.
Sam Reich
I also really like the idea Zoop sounds like what the juice is called. Like, you just, you drink, you drink the Zoop and then you're, we'll put you on you then you'll be what I was. What I was really hoping Pablo was going to say was that it will be live streamed and this is an opportunity for us to all work together on Dropout. I'm pitching that right now. If you do it, you got to send me 10 bucks.
Michael Cruz Kane
Such an easy ass.
Pablo Torre
You're wondering if Brennan Lee Mulligan will collaborate with Zoop, which is by the way, the platform co founded by the guy who started OnlyFans.
Sam Reich
Well, I don't know anything about that
Michael Cruz Kane
guy, but I Zoop Original stories.
Sam Reich
Yeah, only on Zoop is a. That's a phrase that people are going to say. That's a real. That's a real phrase.
Michael Cruz Kane
Yeah, you can only watch it on Zoom. And also the people who have injected themselves with Zoop are going to say only on Zoo. I am right now only on Zoom.
Sam Reich
For breakfast, lunch and dinner, I'm only on Zoop. Meanwhile, I'm flying first class on Etihad, eating 15 breakfasts, five lunches and four dinners.
Pablo Torre
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Jack Myers
What makes a leader worth following?
Tim Spengler
What should you really care about in your job as technology is changing so quickly?
Jack Myers
Is it just me about machines talking to other machines? I mean, should you quit your job and start something on your own? What would that take?
Tim Spengler
What does success and risk look like when we're all at the starting gate together?
Jack Myers
These are the questions we answer each week on Lead Human with Jack Myers and Tim Spengler.
Tim Spengler
Join us each week and subscribe at your favorite podcast platform and YouTube.
Jack Myers
We'll tell stories, we'll hear from some of the best, and we'll try to figure this out together.
Pablo Torre
So I feel like we've sufficiently discovered, we found out today is that this Pulitzer is not. It's not staying. Not staying.
Sam Reich
No, that's not true. You deserve it. You do a lot of hard hitting stuff besides this and we're all very proud of you for it.
Pablo Torre
I don't know about that.
Michael Cruz Kane
Yeah, I've, I've had a lot of fun here today and if I feel like my contribution is any indication, you should not have that thing. But I'm, I'm willing to imagine that this show is more than just me and Michael.
Sam Reich
It's not. We're doing this again every. We're doing this again every week. Every week since you got the Pulitzer. You can just kind of phone it in. Like, what's left after this. What else could. What else could you win? Isn't that the most you can win? You can't win a Nobel Prize for podcasting yet.
Michael Cruz Kane
Peabody. If you have a Pulitzer and a Peabody, you can really check out.
Sam Reich
Do you have it? You don't have a Peabody, right?
Pablo Torre
You know, you know, whether I have
Sam Reich
one or not, he does not I have one. He doesn't have one. Do you have one, Sam? You probably have one. No, I thought dropout could have a Peabody.
Pablo Torre
I don't know the hell are you talking?
Sam Reich
No, I know I'd love just the
Michael Cruz Kane
only one in my ears. 10 bucks.
Sam Reich
Yeah, you can have mine for 10. I'll do it for I'll do it for nine. I'll do it for nine because I like you. O yeah, that's a discount punching down. What was I going to say about the Peabody? I forget I have one, but I don't remember anything else besides that.
Pablo Torre
I think we got the gist. Okay, This has been Pablo Torre finds out a Meadowlark Media production and I'll talk to you next time.
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Pablo Torre
Acast powers the world's best podcasts. Here's a show that we recommend.
Unknown Guest (possibly a Meadowlark Media or Times representative)
Recommend?
Jameela Jamil
What if you laughed all through your commute? Or if you heard the funniest story while at the gym? Well, now you can. I'm Jameela Jamil, and guests on my new podcast, Wrong Turns share their most mortifying and hilarious disaster stories. I'm talking people like May Martin, Bob the Drag Queen, Katherine Ryan, Jake Johnson, Margaret Cho, Simon Pegg, Penn Badgley, and so many more. So listen wherever you get your podcast. Wrong Turns where dignity Goes to die.
Jack Myers
ACAST helps creators launch, grow and monetize their podcasts everywhere.
Pablo Torre
Acast. Com.
Episode: Share & Anti-Pulitzer & Tell with Michael Cruz Kayne and Sam Reich
Date: May 7, 2026
Host: Pablo Torre
Guests: Michael Cruz Kayne & Sam Reich (CEO of Dropout)
In this witty, freewheeling episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out, Pablo is joined by Emmy-nominated comedian Michael Cruz Kayne and Sam Reich, CEO of the comedy network Dropout. The episode revels in the bizarre aftermath of "Pablo Torre Finds Out" winning a Pulitzer Prize, with Pablo and friends humorously unpacking the unlikely honor. They also embark on their signature "Share & Tell," dissecting trending media stories (including wild workplace scandals and the outlandish Enhanced Games), and reflecting on what it means to operate independent, "good" companies in a confounding media landscape.
Timestamps: 02:55 – 11:05
Timestamps: 12:27 – 14:51
Timestamps: 15:07 – 26:41
Timestamps: 29:26 – 39:19
Timestamps: 42:06 – 43:22
| Segment | Start | End | |-------------------------------------------|------------|------------| | Pulitzer Win & Speech Reflections | 02:55 | 11:05 | | What Makes a "Good Company"? Dropout | 12:27 | 14:51 | | JP Morgan Lawsuit Breakdown | 15:07 | 26:41 | | Enhanced Games Deep Dive | 29:26 | 39:19 | | Podcasting After the Pulitzer (Outro) | 42:06 | 43:22 |
The episode embodies a fast-paced, satirical, and self-aware style, blending real media critique with sharp jokes and quick-witted banter. Pablo masterfully bounces between earnestness about journalism and irreverence about the industry, while his guests amplify the comic, self-deprecating mood.
This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in the awkward glory of media awards, the entrepreneurial struggles (and absurdities) of independent creative ventures, and the surreal stories driving contemporary sports and workplace news–all delivered with biting humor and a refusal to take themselves too seriously.