Share & Catfish & Tell with Kevin Clark, Katie Nolan & Pablo

Summary

Podcast Summary: Pablo Torre Finds Out

Episode: Share & Catfish & Tell with Kevin Clark, Katie Nolan & Pablo
Date: April 26, 2024
Host: Pablo Torre
Guests: Kevin Clark, Katie Nolan
Series: Le Batard & Friends

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Overview

This episode of "Pablo Torre Finds Out" dives into internet culture and media consumption, blending humor, personal anecdotes, and thoughtful analysis. Pablo, Kevin, and Katie explore the rise of catfishing, the meaning of online relationships (with a focus on MTV’s “Catfish”), the loneliness of digital life, the bizarre realities of AI-generated influencers, and how streaming services are changing our viewing habits—effectively reinventing cable. Along the way, they share memorable stories about celebrity encounters and muse about the impact of technology on their lives and society at large.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Catfishing: Origins, Impact, and Internet Loneliness

Timestamp: 05:49 – 16:34

• Catfishing’s Introduction to Pop Culture

  • Discussion begins with the term’s origin via MTV’s “Catfish” and the Manti Te'o scandal.
  • Katie Nolan describes “Catfish” as perfect “background TV” due to its formulaic, easy-to-pick-up-anywhere structure.
       — “It hits all the beats of the formula. So at any point you can like, pay attention for two minutes and be like, ‘Oh, that’s where we’re at in the story.’ ... It does not distract you too much. It’s very good background television.”
    (Katie Nolan, 07:10)

• Origin Story Breakdown

  • Pablo recounts the confusing fish metaphor that birthed the term “catfish” and how it essentially means someone who keeps you “guessing and fresh.”
  • Kevin and Katie react with confusion and humor, “I'm sorry, that doesn't make any sense.” (Kevin, 08:44)

• Catfishing in Practice

  • The group listens to a classic “Catfish” confrontation scene, breaking down the bizarre social dynamics and motivations behind catfishing, oscillating between embarrassment, manipulation, and attempts at moral instruction.

• Loneliness and Catfishing—A Societal Comment

  • A University of New Hampshire study is cited: ~70% of surveyed adults have fallen victim, in some fashion, to a catfishing scam. The hosts note Americans’ increasing loneliness as a factor.
  • Katie: “People are very vulnerable to being preyed upon, their emotions and like, being told that they’re loved and wanted. They’re so hungry for that that they look past what seems to us on the outside like very obvious indicators of a scam.” (15:58)

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2. The Rise of AI-Generated Influencers & Digital Desires

Timestamp: 18:08 – 22:27

• AI Bots as Companions (and Fakes)

  • Discussion shifts to AI-created, “perfect” female personas on Instagram—such as Aitana, the Spanish AI model with 310K followers.
  • Katie questions if men engaging with these bots actually care about reality:
       — “When it comes to ‘look at these boobs,’ I don’t think men feel like they need to know the woman’s real in order to have the boobies make them feel a certain type of way.” (Katie, 19:39)
  • Pablo describes how Aitana's DMs are full of real men (including celebrities) trying to connect without realizing she isn’t human.

• Money, Scams, and ‘Relationship’ Dynamics

  • Chat features cost money. The crew laughs at how scams are evolving:
       — "You should chat with her and say, how about those playoffs, huh?" (Katie, 21:47)

• Blurring Line Between Scammer and Willing Victim

  • Kevin wonders whether some people, even if aware, might prefer fabricated digital relationships, highlighting a paradox of choice and the nature of validation online.

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3. The Undertaker, Kids, and the Lost Art of Bratty Encounters

Timestamp: 22:46 – 32:44

• Wild Celebrity Kid Story

  • Kevin Clark shares a viral story: The Undertaker recounts a seven-year-old fan named Bjorn threatening to "shoot [him] in the face" and calling him a Democrat.
  • The absurdity of the interaction is dissected:
    • “I’m having an argument with a seven year old about shooting him in the face, which I probably shouldn’t be talking about… but it was all in good fun.” (Undertaker, 26:59)
  • Humor around changing norms of “bad kids”—now more likely to be found talking trash on video games than causing mischief outside.

• Personal Childhood Encounters with Celebrities

  • Pablo shares an encounter with the Yankees’ chaplain and getting a personally misspelled Derek Jeter autograph—“disappointing because his manager also shares my last name.” (Pablo, 30:14)
  • Katie and Kevin also swap stories about awkward, formative fan moments, rooted in nostalgia and social awkwardness.

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4. The Streaming Wars: Subscriptions, Cable Nostalgia, and the Return to Physical Media

Timestamp: 33:01 – 41:37

• Changing Behavior: Subscribe, Watch, Cancel, Repeat

  • Katie summarizes a NYT article describing the new norm of “cycling through subscriptions”—echoing her own streaming patterns.
       — “Americans, new TV habits: Subscribe, watch, cancel, repeat." (Katie, 33:05)
  • The trio discusses how streaming is slowly morphing back into cable, with bundled channels and packaged networks.

• Fatigue, Channel Surfing, and Repetition

  • Katie: “I want somebody to pick what I’m gonna watch, and then I have to choose from my options, instead of being like, you can watch everything available to you. What would you like to watch?” (35:47)
  • Kevin waxes nostalgic about watching “20 minutes of Saving Private Ryan in the middle,” emphasizing the communal, fragmented experience cable afforded.

• Sports, Media Bundles, and the Collapse of Old Models

  • Pablo and Kevin note that sports channels—especially regional baseball networks—are propped up by cable; the disruption of this model has uncertain consequences, especially for baseball fans.

• Physical Media is Back (Sort Of)

  • Kevin admits to buying his first DVD in 20 years due to streaming frustrations:
       — “I swear to God I’m not—I bought my first DVD in 20 years today…Bring back 2001.” (Kevin, 38:46)

• Media Ownership, Access, and The Looming Apocalypse

  • Discussion turns to how streaming has made us “apocalypse preppers,” driven to hoard physical copies of things as private equity erases online archives and access to good content grows less secure.

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5. The Business of Canceling and Tech Resistance

Timestamp: 42:17 – 44:44

• Canceling Subscriptions is the New Gym Membership Trap

  • Pablo describes how complex unsubscribe processes (like with the Wall Street Journal) are designed to retain customers, mirroring the gym industry.
  • Katie: “This article made me go like, they're going to—now go, well, if you...Canceling is actually really difficult.” (43:13)

• AOL’s Enduring Subscribers

  • 1.5 million people still pay for AOL’s services. The crew jokes, “If you are buying identity theft software from AOL, it is likely too late.” (Kevin, 44:07)

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Notable Quotes & Moments

On Loneliness & Scams

• “I think people are very lonely right now. I think people are isolated, more so than we think. I think the pandemic made that worse. And so I think that people are very vulnerable to being preyed upon.”
  — Katie Nolan, 15:58

On AI Girlfriends

• “When it comes to...look at these boobs, I don’t think men feel like they need to know the woman’s real in order to have the boobies make them feel a certain type of way.”
  — Katie Nolan, 19:39

On Escaping Streaming Fatigue

• “I’m tired of every six months being like: where is this streaming? And if not, paying $2 to buy it. I’m just gonna buy a $12 DVD. Physical media, cable—bring back 2001.”
  — Kevin Clark, 38:46

On the Nature of Modern Content

• “The people that are in charge of giving us the content don’t touch the content. Have nothing to do with the making of it and are not in any way incentivized to make good content. And that scares the out of me.”
  — Katie Nolan, 41:37

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Recurring Humor & Tone

• Quips about needing someone else (or an algorithm) to pick what to watch.
• Mocking of archaic technologies: “1.5 million people still paying AOL?!”
• Self-deprecating stories, especially about childhood.
• Running jokes about Kevin being on his phone, buying DVDs, and preferring “History Vault” documentaries.
• Many playful references to “boobies” and the accidental creation of OnlyPans (“OnlyFans—but for tanks”).

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Conclusion: What Did We Find Out?

Timestamp: 44:44 – end

• “We learned that seven-year-olds are now trash-talking indoors over Warzone.” (Kevin, 44:50)
• That loneliness and media fragmentation are driving old behaviors in new digital ways.
• That physical media may be making a comeback out of existential necessity.
• That, as ever, the technology meant to improve our lives often just reinvents old problems in new packaging.

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Segment Timestamps

• Catfishing, MTV, and Loneliness – 05:49–16:34
• AI Influencers, Digital Relationships – 18:08–22:27
• Undertaker’s Kid Story & Childhood Anecdotes – 22:46–32:44
• Streaming, Cable Nostalgia, Physical Media – 33:01–41:37
• The Business of Canceling / Subscription Traps – 42:17–44:44
• Show Wrap / Takeaways – 44:44–End

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For listeners short on time:
This episode delivers laughs, sharp cultural observations, and a well-rounded exploration of how digital life is at once novel and familiar—with plenty of memorable moments for both “Catfish” fans and cable TV nostalgics.

Memorable moment: “Only fans—but for tanks; OnlyPans, blurred out.” (Pablo, 48:17)

Transcript

[A]

Welcome to Pablo Torre Finds Out. I am Pablo Torre, and today we're gonna find out what this sound is.

[B]

Do these feel like relationships? These feel like people that are interacting? Or is it just like.

[A]

Look at these boobies right after this ad.

[B]

You're listening to Giraffe Kings.

[A]

Hello.

[C]

Hey, pal.

[B]

Seconds. I've had these on. Two seconds.

[A]

Oh, wow. What's up? What we got on there?

[B]

How.

[A]

What do we got on there? No, it's brown.

[B]

How does everybody keep their sneakers so clean all the time?

[A]

What animal do you think did that?

[B]

There's no way. It's on the front of my.

[A]

Oh, I. I had. I had. Oh, I. I thought it was.

[B]

What the. I thought I have to eat this donut. Why do you guys look like you've been doing a podcast without me already?

[C]

He started the audio already. The.

[B]

Not that late. You were late.

[A]

I was late. Kevin is early.

[B]

Yeah, well, that's Kevin. That's Kevin's kind of thing.

[C]

Professionalism.

[B]

Dorkiness.

[C]

It's one word for it.

[A]

You're gonna want to not rub it into our rug if it is poop.

[C]

Should we do a podcast?

[B]

I don't think. I don't really feel like it today, if I can be honest. What were you doing that made you late?

[A]

I was talking to a class over Zoom.

[C]

Where?

[A]

Does it really matter?

[B]

It matters.

[C]

I talked to a Harvard thing last week.

[B]

Okay, guys, what is it? They barely let me talk at Hofstra. The Harvard of Long Island.

[A]

That's right. It was at Harvard.

[B]

It was at Harvard.

[A]

Virtually.

[B]

You talk to students at Harvard.

[A]

I mean, I. I just want to know how Kevin was already, you know, ready to one up me were smart enough for this.

[C]

There's something called the sports analytics thing or something.

[A]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I've spoken to them before.

[B]

That's mit.

[C]

Aren't you guys talking about m. No, no, no. I surprised, too, Sloan.

[A]

It's somehow less cool than the MIT one, and in that way, maybe more cool.

[B]

Where do you currently stand on Daryl?

[A]

Mory refused to come on this show.

[B]

He did.

[A]

I asked him and he passed.

[B]

He doesn't pass on anything.

[C]

Respect you say Respectfully. I passed.

[A]

Let me see. Let me quote. Let me quote Daryl's. I think it was even worse than that. Oh, here. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Here we go. Okay, Daryl. This is in January. January 18th. Daryl. Hope you're good, amigo. I hate that. I. I didn't mean that out loud. This is way too behind the curtain on how I book things.

[B]

That's amigo.

[A]

You people deserve an amigo less than Daryl.

[B]

You have to read all of it.

[A]

Oh, God.

[B]

Don't censor it, Daryl.

[A]

Exclamation point. Yeah, great. Hope you're good. Comma, amigo, period. I hate myself. I really hate that I just read that.

[B]

Me too.

[A]

Would love for you to come on my show. What would be the best dates for you?

[C]

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

[B]

You're backing him into a corner.

[C]

So in the first text.

[B]

Yeah, you're like, sales tactic.

[C]

Send me dates.

[B]

That's the sales tactic. You're supposed to go, is it better for you on a Monday or Wednesday? You offer them something so they don't feel like the third option of no thanks is available to them. But Daryl Mory is well trained in the art of no thanks.

[C]

This is. This is Wolf of Wall Street. You're selling penny stocks here.

[A]

But here's the thing. I followed up. I followed up beating my chest. He didn't respond quickly. He didn't know. I. After I said, what would be the best dates for you? Question mark. I said, happy to work around your schedule.

[C]

Yeah, I bet you hear the three days.

[A]

Yeah, happy to work on schedule.

[B]

This is your king.

[A]

I didn't really have a specific timeline. I just wanted to have him on the show to talk about. It was mid season, obviously.

[B]

Yeah. No, you were chill. You were super chill.

[A]

Seven hours later.

[C]

O Hours later.

[A]

Seven hours later. Oh, cool.

[B]

Oh, cool.

[C]

No. Oh, cool. Oh, no.

[B]

Cool. Cool.

[A]

Oh, cool.

[B]

Sick.

[C]

Sick.

[A]

Thank you for thinking of me.

[C]

Oh, no. Wow. Oh, Jesus.

[A]

This is one unbroken sentence, no punctuation.

[C]

Oh, God damn it.

[A]

Let me coordinate with our pr.

[C]

So, first of all, he's already sending you back to pr.

[B]

He basically said, don't contact me. Contact my people.

[C]

That's exactly what he said.

[B]

How dare you come straight to me.

[C]

Oh, cool.

[A]

I can't find the Sixers thing.

[C]

They deleted it.

[A]

But I think I furiously deleted it because they said something along the lines of, we're gonna pass on this one. This one? Really?

[B]

This one.

[A]

I remember that when there's a.

[C]

When there's a condescending PR email, I just. This one is fly into a rage.

[B]

This one is internal language, I think. Yeah, I don't think that this one was supposed to make it out of the house.

[A]

It's an attempt to soften a blow and an. Reality sharpens. Yeah, Sharpens the.

[C]

I'm deeply unhappy with how things are going right now.

[B]

I actually kind of don't want to do this podcast anymore, and I have on my Shoe.

[C]

You do have on your shoe.

[A]

You do.

[B]

Doug, I just got these. It's crazy what I splash in it.

[A]

That is, if you can just zoom in. I don't know if you can. If we can get exclusive.

[B]

I don't know if I get them at the right angle.

[A]

It's clearly Katie.

[B]

No, it isn't. It's splashed up. It's not clearly. How is it. It would smell. I have a really powerful nose. It would smell and you can use it. Does that smell like anything?

[A]

Smell that. Ah. Kevin's gonna do it. Do it for the good of the show. It's not.

[B]

I can't believe. I can't believe. I wanted to find out if you need a funny.

[C]

If you had dog on your show.

[B]

Are you getting up to smell?

[A]

Yeah. Yeah. Actually, this is.

[B]

It's not.

[A]

That might be.

[B]

No, it's not.

[A]

Kevin Clark is back on. Sharon, tell Magisterial the mustache that Kevin Clark brought to us.

[C]

Thank you.

[A]

I wanted to start, though, with a story actually related to what it's like when you show up in person looking a little different from how you expected. There's this article in the New York Times that is titled the TV show that Predicted America's Lonely, Disorienting Digital Future. It's about the MTV reality series Catfish Shout Out. And I guess most of America actually encountered catfish as a term during. If you guys remember this, of course, the Manti Teo scandal. Because if we remember this.

[C]

If we remember this, what?

[A]

Jax Warbrick, the athletic director of Notre Dame, had a press conference in which he talked about what happened to Mantay Teo and his, of course, fake girlfriend. And he said this.

[C]

I would refer all of you, if you're not already familiar with it, with both the documentary called Catfish, the MTV show, which is a derivative of that document documentary, and the sort of associated things you'll find online and otherwise about catfish or catfishing.

[B]

Yes, associated things you'll find online and otherwise. That's a sentence that means absolutely nothing.

[C]

I think he's suggesting that we get catfished in order to.

[B]

Right. He's like, maybe you should talk to a lady who's too hot to talk to you.

[A]

So that was 2013. And Katie, I did not realize this. Katie has, I think, watched more catfish than anybody else on the planet.

[B]

Here's the thing. If you are of this current, like, young generation, you probably know MTV as the channel that plays that Rob Deer Deck show. What's that? Ridiculousness All Day or Catfish All Day? And so when there's no when it's not baseball season and I'm sitting at home jobless. Not jobless, but jobless. And I need something to watch on, like, the background of tv. I usually will just put on catfish because it's just. It's one of those shows that has a formula, and it hits all the beats of the formula. So at any point you can like. Like, pay attention for two minutes and be like, oh, that's where we're at in the story. And then you can get right back to what you're doing. It does not distract you too much. It's very good background television.

[A]

The basic premise of the term catfish is also kind of interest. Interesting insofar as the documentary, the Way it got Coined, is about some quote that someone said in the doc. It's a very, like, complicated and stupid metaphor, but basically. Let me find it. It's. It's about fish. Right. So he tells a story about how. He tells a story about how cod.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Were shipped by boat in vats from Alaska to China, but the fish would arrive mushy and tasteless. Right, right. And so eventually these fish people added catfish to the vats alongside the cod because they would, like, nip at them and basically keep them stimulated. And so the quote in the doc is, there are these people who are catfish in life. They keep you guessing, they keep you thinking, they keep you fresh. So that's just the origin of a term that is now universally known as this thing.

[C]

I'm sorry, that doesn't make any sense.

[A]

Exactly.

[B]

I know. I thought they were going to say they put the cod inside the catfish.

[C]

Or that they pretended that the catfish were the cod.

[A]

None of that.

[B]

No. So none of that.

[A]

None of that.

[B]

Did you see that documentary?

[A]

Yes, in theaters.

[B]

I did, too, because the marketing for it was really good. I remember it was like time collapses upon itself in my brain. But it wasn't that far after Blair Witch in the sense that it gave.

[C]

I beg your pardon?

[B]

It was after, but it wasn't that far after.

[C]

When did the duck come out?

[A]

Blair Witch came out. 99.

[B]

99.

[A]

Catfish was 2005. 2010.

[B]

Oh, so it was further. Okay. See, time collapses on itself. My brain. I said that.

[C]

I will say the filmmakers of Blair Witch are former Orlando. It's possible. I was an early adopter there.

[B]

God, I always forget that you're from there, and then you immediately remind me.

[C]

Yeah. We would never want to build an identity around a hometown.

[B]

It marketed itself. Yeah.

[C]

You would never do that.

[B]

I did it, and I'm proud of It. Yours is nothing to be proud of.

[C]

I'm extremely proud.

[A]

Kitty walked in here with a bag of Dunkin Donuts.

[C]

Whatever the record.

[B]

Anyway.

[A]

So it might have ended there if not for the entrepreneurialism, I suppose, of Nev Shulman who got this co host. I guess it was Max at the time. Yes, that guy Max. But has since had a rotating series.

[B]

Of co. Max was like, we've. This has run its course. And Eve was like, no, it has not.

[A]

Nevaeh is like, this elevator is still unsafe.

[B]

Someone needs to let the people know.

[A]

But I. I suppose that the thing about this show is that it did sort of presage to the article's premise a lot about what it would be like to interact with people on the Internet. Just like constantly being lied to and then discovering upon actually physically encountering them, how they are not what they promised themselves to be. And there's a clip from Catfish. There are so many great episodes.

[B]

So many.

[A]

I think people get the gist of what happens in it. This is the clip that I think of.

[C]

Come here. We're gonna talk.

[A]

Yeah, we ain't really. We ain't got.

[C]

We don't talk. Are you kidding me? You could still be my chocolate kiss, too. You don't forget about that, baby.

[B]

Come on.

[C]

And so do you know this? Are you Jess? Yeah, I'm Jess. You're Jess?

[B]

I'm Jess.

[A]

Yeah, man. What?

[C]

Man.

[B]

Come on.

[C]

The guy's got a family and he's talking to me. He thinks he's talking to some broad. But he did think he was talking to a girl. Exactly right.

[B]

Navon Crutches, You're a good actress.

[C]

Sure, I like that.

[A]

Yeah, why not?

[B]

Sure I like that.

[A]

What's your name, by the way? You skipped that.

[C]

My name's Justin.

[A]

I'm gonna take a take a stab at this.

[B]

Sure.

[A]

You're gay.

[C]

Obviously, I'm not gay.

[A]

Well, not so obvious.

[B]

I mean, obviously I'm not gay.

[A]

Are pretending to be a girl online and having a romantic relationship with a guy.

[C]

So I give it to you. You got me there. Right?

[A]

Okay.

[C]

Maybe.

[A]

Maybe what it was to begin with.

[B]

You never thought of it that way.

[C]

It was a joke, this fake profile just playing around with people, whatnot. I didn't think anything too much of it until, you know, honestly, I started seeing guys like him who are already in a relationship. So I was like, you know what? I kind of have this power to use it for something, use it for good. What I had with him was a little bit personal. And obviously you guys Got a taste of that. What my message is to tell people, look, you can't just around on relationships that you're in.

[A]

You felt like it was your job to sort of teach him a lesson, is that I just want to make sure I understand.

[C]

Yes.

[A]

You guys were having some sexual.

[C]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[B]

I want to kiss a real man. Same girl.

[C]

Jesus Christ.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Couple things here.

[B]

Let's hear them.

[C]

I've never seen this show. I. Obviously you've never.

[B]

No, not an episode.

[C]

Not in an episode. The only reason I know that guy is from the meme, really. And I don't know if the crutches. That was like a temporary thing or was always on crutches.

[B]

But I mean, mentally, they're all the time.

[C]

I do like, the sort of, like, the detective work. The. I'm gonna take a stab at this, and then it's the most obvious you've ever heard in your entire life. I thought that was amazing. I'm gonna be like, you become addicted to the show.

[B]

That's good. They try to schedule a meetup between the two, and then the big reveal is at the end when they. They are waiting, usually in a park. Sometimes they go to a person's house and they, like, confront them, and there's like the. They go right to commercial as the door is about to open or as the car is pulling up and you're about to find out, is it really them? In all the episodes I've watched, I think it's been really them three times that I've seen. Most times, you get somebody that is socially awkward who has clearly, either insecurity issues, like, they are uncomfortable with the way that they look, or they're, like, weirdly, like, manipulative and antisocial in that way. Like, I've seen girls like that guy.

[A]

That we saw before, and there's a.

[B]

Girl who gets confronted and she can't stop laughing. It's very uncomfortable for the viewer where she's like, I do it cause it's fun. And you're like, oh, it's brutal to watch. So what is this article saying that it predicts? Yeah.

[A]

So basically, presages.

[B]

Sorry was the word you used, Harvard.

[A]

I think presages really does tell the story here. But there was a study.

[B]

What's so important?

[C]

I was texting Cortez. I want phone photos for Instagram.

[A]

Great.

[B]

Great.

[A]

The study.

[C]

Honesty is the best policy. What are we gonna do? Lie there and be like, I'm responding. Yeah, I'm being catfished, as we say.

[A]

Get my good stuff. Beautiful girl walking inside of this mustache. The study that they cited here speaks to the way that this is not just limited. God damn it, Cortez.

[B]

Are you serious?

[C]

Actively. I didn't know he was gonna make it.

[A]

That is going ne.

[C]

That obvious. And now he's God standing here. I apologize on behalf of Cortez.

[A]

Well, this unfortunately embodies the study that I was going to cite, because the study is about how everybody has fallen victim to a scam like this, or at least to a degree that is stunning. So there's this one study, University of New Hampshire. 1100 adults were surveyed. About 70% described themselves as a victim of a catfishing scam.

[B]

What? What?

[A]

70%?

[B]

70%.

[A]

And so, look, the degree to which one says, hey, I got catfished. I assume there are degrees of this. Right. But clearly, this is a thing that people. Yeah. Have.

[C]

Have.

[A]

Exactly.

[C]

So I think there's. So you. You mentioned the degrees. There's so many. We all get DMS now that are just like, hey, I got one yesterday that said, hi, are you a boxer? And I'm sure I don't. Where is this going? Yeah, and so I think we all get so that. I don't know.

[A]

What did you say?

[C]

What did I say? I've been. That swears texting.

[B]

Yeah, no, but, like, that's why I needed the pictures.

[C]

Yeah, I think there is, but I think there is an element of, like, if you get that, are you being catfished, you just don't respond and move on with your life. But then there are people who have emotional, like, weeks long, or they get their money stolen.

[A]

It's also just the forerunner of how we're all presenting ourselves online. But it doesn't sound like either of you guys have actually been victimized by catfish.

[C]

No, I have friends in real life, so I don't need to do weird experiences.

[B]

Very painful way. Because I was gonna say, I think that it comes down to, like, I think we're very lonely right now. I think people are isolated, more so than we think. I think the pandemic made that worse. And so I think that people are very vulnerable to being preyed upon, their emotions and, like, being told that they're loved and wanted. They're so hungry for that that they look past what seems to us on the outside like very obvious indicators of a scam. They're like, no, no, no. It. But they're. It's different for me, but it's not. But it's. I don't blame them for that, for falling for it.

[C]

I Think. And I've read a little bit about, like, people are okay being lied to in some situations. Like before the Internet, there was a wave of. Of guys who, like, pretended to be famous people and just. Just were not. Like, I remember in Orlando, famously, uh, someone pretended to be former Orlando Magic forward Jeff Turner for years and was just like, that's. That's really proud. I think Roethlisberger did that as well. I think Rothsberger had a. Had like a. Had like a guy who, like, in Ohio was like, I'm Ben Roethlisberger, Everybody in like, 2004. And people were like, oh, yeah, okay.

[A]

In the four. Remember fake Klay Thompson?

[C]

Yeah. But this. That wasn't a scam. That was just to get attention. I think some people were like, what were the scam?

[B]

What were they scamming?

[C]

No, they're like scamming women or like, hey, let me live with you.

[B]

That was the real Ben, honestly. But that's just my.

[C]

I'm looking this. This up.

[A]

Fig. Ben Ro. Yeah.

[C]

All right. A man claimed to be Ben rothberger and Brian St. Pierre.

[B]

Do they look alike?

[C]

I don't know. Brian Jackson dated two women by pretending to be both of these folks. Was charged with harassment for continuing to talk to both women. Jackson often talked of his teammates and offered to autograph footballs for neighborhood kids. So what I'm saying is, I mean, neighborhood kids are coming up to fake Brian St. Pierre or fake Brown Ronsberg and be like, here you go. Please autograph a ball. Like, some people just like being lied to. I. What I will ask is that what is the difference between. There's. There's some scamming involved here. But, like, I do believe at some point, if not already, people are, like, probably going to be into the idea of, like, dating AI The.

[A]

So that's. Yeah, let's go to the present tense, which is I am constantly look my.

[C]

Is it better to be scammed? Like, and you're talking to a real person or you're just doing the. The her thing and you're talking to a bot.

[A]

If only what I've seen from AI generated typically, I guess in my algorithm. Women in my for you page. If only they were as complicated.

[C]

I beg your pardon was.

[A]

I was a humble bragging men in.

[B]

My for you page. I don't get anybody in my. I get in my replies. I get a lot of bio, sure. But I'm not getting a lot of, like, men made in a factory trying to seduce me.

[C]

Yeah, my. My for you page is people mad About Columbia University right now, all different.

[B]

Mine is always like public fights that I don't want to watch.

[A]

Yeah, I do get a lot of cafeteria fights.

[B]

Yeah, I get a lot of like, Check out this, Karen. You're like, what should I.

[A]

But wait, are you guys unfamiliar then with the whole notion that there are like wildly popular pages full of AI generated women who are clearly AI. Oh my God.

[B]

What are you clicking on?

[A]

Pablo, look, they're very, very popular pages. And it's unclear to me, to Kevin's point, whether people are all being fooled by this or whether they're just into it and might even prefer it. Prefer the idea of being sold a fiction that is, I guess, giving them what they want, which is entirely specific to. Yeah, a. A surface level sort of relationship.

[B]

Do these feel like relationships? These feel like people that are interacting. Or is it just like, look at these boobies.

[A]

All right, let me.

[B]

Because when it comes to. Look at these boobs, I don't think men feel like they need to know the woman's real in order to have the boobies make them feel a certain type of way.

[A]

Okay, so here's one. Okay, so meet aitana.

[C]

Oh, first AI model.

[B]

I mean, she's beautiful.

[C]

She's earning €10,000amonth. Month.

[B]

She never has to shave her armpits. They just come like that. Look at those boobies.

[C]

She's 25.

[A]

Yep.

[C]

I'm glad they specified.

[A]

I mean, Aitana, 25, a pink haired woman from Barcelona, receives weekly private messages from celebrities asking her out.

[B]

Sorry, celebrity name and shame. What do you mean I would be afraid to DM an AI bot just because I'd be afraid it was like a. Some sort of like a government thing to. Then they could like expo. We're gonna publish Aana's dms and you're like, no, no, no. Who's trusting a robot to keep their weird, kinky secrets?

[A]

The creator says this quote, one day a well known Latin American actor texted to ask her out. This actor, about 5 million followers. And some of our team watched his TV series when they were kids. Oh, he had no idea a tana didn't exist.

[B]

Wow. What does Aitana's bio say? I'm not real.

[C]

I'm not real.

[B]

And the men just don't check because they see those tops, they see those tater tots.

[C]

He's on it. This is how he ends up with the for you page. He's on Aitana's Instagram right now.

[B]

Send her a DM.

[A]

Aitana Lopez310,000 followers Virtual Soul. Virtual Soul. Digital creator is her occupation. Barcelona's digital muse.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

What does that mean?

[C]

Powered by.

[A]

Powered by AI gamer.

[C]

It says she's a gamer at heart. At heart. And fitness lover.

[A]

And a fitness lover. And there are some boobies just to be very.

[B]

Are they naked boobies, Pablo? No, they're clothed, but they go out past her friend.

[C]

So why the guys are sending dms, right?

[B]

Because they want to see them. Do you think she does it? Do you think she gets down in the dms? Do you think she sends.

[C]

Well, we didn't have to ask the.

[A]

You can chat with her now.

[B]

You should chat with her and say, how about those playoffs, huh?

[A]

Yeah. 50 discount if I put in this promo code.

[B]

Oh, it costs money.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Oh yeah.

[B]

To send her a message on telegram.

[C]

This is a scam.

[B]

Why do so many people do it?

[C]

You should stop seeing this one.

[A]

Should I click on the link that says sensitive content?

[B]

No. Continue.

[C]

You're on Metal arc Wi Fi.

[B]

Are you in?

[A]

And I'm in.

[B]

Are you in a private browser?

[A]

Oh, this is like.

[C]

This is like a Patreon.

[A]

This is like an only fans.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Or what I've told is an only fans.

[B]

Yeah. Good, Pablo, good.

[A]

Has the behavior of an only fans.

[B]

Sure.

[A]

It's all blurred out.

[B]

Oh, well. So pay the 999.

[A]

I'm going to follow for free. I'm gonna stop signing up for this. I am.

[B]

He's like, I'm gonna take this personal. I'm gonna make this research. I'm gonna finish research at my house.

[A]

Go on incognito mode real quick.

[C]

I'm gonna read the headline and then I'm gonna go into the story. So here's the headline. And I don't. I would love for it all to be a slow reveal, but the headline is just so good. I sent it to Pablo on Friday or Saturday night like nine. Immediately I saw it and I said, this is what I want to talk about. This is what I want to do with my life. The headline is. And it's from fightful.com the Undertaker colon. A seven year old named Bjorn threatened to shoot me in the face and called me a Democrat. Now there's a couple things here. Number one is that I feel like. And maybe, maybe this is just me not seeing it. I feel like there's a lack of just total head kids anymore. Because when I like, you'd always see like seven year olds, you know, in like 1999 and they were just absolute.

[B]

You don't play video games online.

[C]

I don't what's going on there a lot. Oh, they're indoors now. That's the thing.

[B]

Yeah, they used to be a park.

[A]

Yeah. Like Dennis the Menace stuff.

[C]

Yeah, yeah. There's no more Dennis the Menace. Now is in a house saying racist stuff on chat.

[B]

Yes, yes, yes. No. Well, Katie speaks. They go, oh, it's a girl. Oh, show me your booby. Like, you know, they don't say boobies, but I do a lot in this podcast.

[C]

Let's get into the story here. It's a five minute story. Cortez was upset that it's so long we can't just play the entire video.

[A]

Yeah, it is tempting, though.

[C]

It is an unbelievable story. So one of someone on the WWE security team tells. Is it WrestleMania a couple weeks ago, tells Undertaker who. Who and. And more power to him, refers to himself as the Undertaker many times. This story. Mark. I believe it's Mark Calloway. I believe it's Mark.

[A]

Mark William Calloway, age 59.

[C]

59 year old. So what?

[B]

An Undertaker secure.

[C]

One of the security detail guys is a former Navy seal. His son is a huge fan. Now his son is named Bjorn. As, as we discussed. And the, the, the former Navy SEAL does not want the Undertaker to call him because he just wants to be professional about it.

[D]

You know, I told the guy, I said, hey, I said, I hear your son's, you know, a fan. I said, would you like for me to call him? And he was like, oh, no, no, don't worry, you know, he was just totally, you know, being professional, you know. And I was like, no, it's okay. I said, you know, I know, you know, I know. Larry, Larry sent me a text and he was like, man, he goes, nice. It's, you know, he's still trying to get out. I said, just let me FaceTime him real quick. And you know, and he goes, Well, I can't FaceTime him. And I'm like, okay. And he says, but if you would call him, that would be awesome. And I was like, yeah.

[C]

The dad says, you can't FaceTime him. Okay, Red flag. So he gets on the phone and says, bjorn, this is the Undertaker. And he says, hey, Undertaker, how are you? Undertaker starts to mess with him and says, sounds like you're getting in trouble at home.

[D]

So I start messing with him like I do everybody, right? I said, bjorn, it sounds like to me, you're, you're, you're, you're getting in some kind of trouble at home, aren't you? He goes, no, I'm not getting in any trouble. I said, no, I'm pretty sure it sounds like you're in, you're up to something. I don't know what it is, but I can tell you're, you're doing something you shouldn't be doing. He goes, I'm not, I'm not doing anything I'm not supposed to be doing. You're doing something you're not supposed to be doing. I was like, no, this kid, this seven year old kid goes, hey, I'll shoot you right in the face. I felt lost it, right? I said, what, you're going to shoot me? And now his dad is like, is mortified, right? He is just like, oh my gosh. I put him on the phone, now he's threatened the undertaker. So anyway, so I thought, you're not going to shoot me in the face. I'm going to shoot you in the face, right? So now I'm having an argument with a seven year old about shooting him in the face, which I probably shouldn't be talking about this, but it was all in good fun. Yeah, yeah, you had to be, you had to be there to be there for the moment. So anyway, so we're going back and forth right now and then all of a sudden out of nowhere he goes, well, you're a Democrat. Like I'm a Democrat. What, where did that come from? What does that mean to you?

[C]

There's a couple things here I would. There's. There's bricking the conversation, which you would do. Like, like he got so excited that he misread this. Bjorn got so excited he misread the situation, ended up threatening to shoot the.

[B]

Named after a Viking, by the way, in the face.

[A]

I feel like Bjorn was like, this guy comes back from the dead. So let's see what's up.

[B]

I feel like Bjorn was being accused of some wrongdoing.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Bjorn, being 7, definitely has done something wrong within the past week. This dude is with his D dad and so he's like, I have to, I have to back this guy down or he's gonna tell my dad about the bad stuff I did. Because when you tell a seven year old, you know what they've been up to, the first thing they think is like, I have been up to some stuff.

[C]

It's like the who. Who was the comedian that had just as an experiment, had everybody send their significant other a text that just said, I haven't been completely honest with you.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And then just saw what the person would respond, what their significant other would respond with. Yeah, that's basically what Taker did to Bjorn. Yes.

[B]

I was afraid when I was first watching the video that the little kid was going to be like, yeah, I took some money from my mom. Like he was going to admit the thing he did.

[C]

I mean, something's far worse.

[A]

A guilty conscience is what you detect.

[C]

He's a violent seven year old.

[B]

Yeah. I didn't know he was going to shoot.

[C]

Politically violent.

[B]

And also, you know, if you shoot the Undertaker in the face, he's just going to come back. He's not going to do it.

[C]

Maybe that's the problem is he didn't. You can't stand the consequences.

[B]

You can't be a fan of the Undertaker and not know that shooting him in the face isn't going to get you anywhere.

[A]

The Undertaker in 2020 donated $7,000 to Donald Trump.

[B]

I mean, 7,000. What's the point?

[C]

I mean, that's the max. That's the federal maximum for. For a. In character wrestler.

[B]

Oh, okay.

[C]

Taker, llc.

[A]

But the question, the, the. Beyond the specifics of the Undertaker arguing with a seven year old about who should be shot in the face or not, it does raise the question of like, when you were kids, were there people that you were so excited to meet that you had, you know, this memory that. Yeah. Continues to persist. I was an altar server. The priest. This is not where this is going.

[B]

Okay, spoiler alert.

[A]

This ends without indicting the Catholic Church. Sure, sure. The priest was the team chaplain of the New York Yankees.

[B]

Huh?

[A]

And so what a thrill for me, native New Yorker, giant Yankee fan, to be an ultra server. And our parish priest is the team chaplain of the New York Yankees.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

And I say, Father McMahon, I would love. I would love an autograph from my favorite New York Yankee, Derek Jeter.

[B]

Unique. Interesting pick.

[C]

Good one.

[A]

And weeks later, I get a signed like. I think it was like. What was it? It was like, oh, it was a team program. And it says on the program I still have this. It says whatever. Best wishes to Pablo Torre from Derek Jeter. And the disappointment is that he misspelled my last name. He spelled it T O R E. Excuse me?

[C]

G O, R E. Pablo Tor. Yeah.

[A]

Which was disappointing to me because his manager, I was gonna say, what do you mean? Joe Torre. And he, he bricked the interaction. Yeah, Derek Jeter bricked the autograph. All right, So I, and I resent him.

[C]

Okay. Why was he putting last names on?

[A]

I don't know.

[B]

Just say Pablo. Best wishes to a child as well.

[C]

Best wishes to Pablo.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Hey, Pablo.

[B]

Hey, Pablo. Thanks for watching, buddy.

[C]

Thanks for watching. Go Yanks.

[B]

Hey, amigo.

[C]

Go Yanks. Palace. Did he break the interaction more or less in you with Daryl Morey?

[B]

Oh, boy.

[A]

Neither of us emerged looking great.

[B]

I don't remember how old I was. I did meet Nadia Comanich, who was the first gymnast to get a perfect 10. And I just remembered telling her I liked her, and she put her arm around me and she look, as a little kid, I had a tragic haircut. I had a little boy haircut.

[C]

Can we get a photo of this?

[B]

No. And so I feel like at any point in any interaction with any adult, I got immediate sympathy because I think they knew that, like, what, this poor kid doesn't want this haircut. Their mom is making them do this. There's no way. They're the most popular kid among their friends. So they always gave me the, like, oh. Like, they. I always got that energy as a child because I think they were like, what a precocious young lady who looks like a news anchor.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

And so that's basically the.

[A]

I had that.

[C]

Being a fat kid.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Like, I was always that. Yeah, we can. With Stephanie McMahon. We can do a Stephanie McMahon photo which will tie into the era of WWE. I watch also a photo of Vince McMahon. Cannot put that photo up anymore. But I'm alarmingly fat in both photos. But I was always the kid who, like, I'd get, like, you know, as a big hockey fan, I'm. They flipped the puck, too, because I looked so fat and childish. I'm currently a fan of the New York Rangers. I was a fan of the Orlando Solar Bears when I was a kid.

[B]

Orlando Solar Bears. That's not a real, like, polar bears.

[C]

No, I just said solar bears, but for the sun. I'm not drawing the connection.

[B]

Yeah. All right.

[C]

And so I was a big fan of the solar Bears growing up. I love that.

[B]

But you were saying as a hockey fan.

[A]

Oh.

[C]

And so I'd always be the guy where they were like, oh, yeah, we're gonna. We're gonna give the puck or the stick to this kid because he's fat and he's not having a good go of it. You can tell. And so I'd always clean up that one.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

You're so cute. Wait, wait, wait. Let me see it again.

[C]

Who's not flipping a puck to that kid?

[A]

The fact that you're also wearing, like, a big polo shirt.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

It's like this little gentleman's working. He's working at an office.

[C]

The big polo is Back.

[B]

The polo bears.

[C]

The solar bears.

[B]

Yeah, the big polo bears.

[A]

All right, Katie.

[B]

All right.

[A]

What'd you got?

[B]

Mine's depressing because it's kind of about our lives.

[C]

Oh, no.

[B]

It's an article in the New York Times. Ever heard of it? By John Coblin. Rhymes with Goblin, I'm assuming. I'm guessing it's Coblin. Damn it. I really wanted it to rhyme with Goblin.

[A]

Goblin.

[B]

Why Goblin? Well, because. What's a goblin?

[A]

Goblins play what's a ghoul to a Goblin?

[B]

That's right. Americans, new TV habits. Subscribe, watch, cancel, repeat. So basically, they're talking about how something like 40% of these streaming services user base is now subscribing when there's a show they want to watch and then canceling when there isn't something that they want to watch at that. So they'll be like, we want to watch. One of the examples they use is a guy who. Him and his wife want to watch Poker Face on Peacock. So they subscribe and they tell each other, like, look, if we're not watching this after a couple weeks, we're going to cancel Peacock. We do not need. We have every streaming service known to man. It's silly to have another one. So that's apparently the younger generations that's like the default almost for their behavior with these apps. Because a lot of those generations, as we know, and we've been told they're not buying cable, they're signing up for all these different streaming services. And because it's so easy to cancel these streaming services, people will just cancel them when they don't need them and then resubscribe when there's a show that they want to watch.

[A]

And cancel Culture. This is a story about cancel Culture.

[B]

Exactly what Cancel Culture is. So these streaming services are now having to try to. They can't ignore this anymore because it's not just like a niche thing happening. It's like a huge section of their user base. So they're trying to find ways to combat this. And one of the ways. Oh, no, as we all saw coming, is that they're like, reinventing the idea of cable. So they want to package with other streaming companies so that if you. You're less likely to do this if. When you up for, let's say, Hulu, you're also getting ESPN plus and whatever, the Disney plus, those people are less likely to cancel because they're getting access to more things. A lot of companies are thinking about doing that and also offering channels where you can just Go. And at any time, it's like, I know Peacock does this.

[C]

Amazon does it with mgm.

[B]

There's like, they're going to start doing it. Here's the thing that I've always said, because I still have my cap, my cord, I did not cut it because for me, it was just like, well, sports will always be on the tv. He'll never have to be like, where do I find this? It's gotta be on tv. I know that probably won't be the case soonish. And sometimes, especially during the pandemic, I reached a point where I was like, I don't want to have to pick every time I sit down what I'm gonna watch. I want to be able to just go, catfish. Go to some channel that has already been chosen. Catfish is probably a bad example, because whoever's programming MTV is really just picking those. One of those two shows.

[C]

Easy Job, Easy job.

[B]

I want somebody to pick what I'm gonna watch, and then I have to choose from my options. Instead of being like, you can watch everything available to you. What would you like to watch?

[C]

Well, there's also. The reason channels are valuable is because watching 20 minutes of something and then that's it. You're just like, oh, I'm just gonna watch 20 minutes. All right. It's a commercial. I'm out. Like, that's a hugely valuable experience that we've lost. Zoomers will Never understand. Watching 20 minutes of saving Private Ryan in the middle, kind of forgetting what goes before and after it and then moving on.

[A]

Yes. Look, something that comes up every time I begin to complain or get asked about questions or complain or get asked about. Like, why is the industry going this way? It's like, well, because they killed cable television.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Or because they almost killed cable television to the point where some of us still have it, but the rest of us are left trying to cop. You are both on your phones right now.

[B]

I'm doing it because this is my article, and I need to make sure I don't miss any of the important points in it. I don't know why Kevin's been doing it the entire episode.

[C]

I'm doing it because, A, I'm working today. B, I have a short. I have a short attention span.

[A]

The. The. The short attention span, though, is entirely why it feels like people are presuming cable needs to go away. And then everyone's realizing because the business that replaced cable is not nearly as good as cable. Oh, we got to bring cable back. And it's. I mean, I don't Know if people outside of sports media specifically acutely understand this in the way that I think it's very obvious people who do work inside of it, but like espn, as John Skipper likes to say on the Sporting Class, the show I do with them here at Metal Dark Media, ESPN was the greatest business model in the history of media.

[C]

Even though espn, you're talking about it and you are correct on that. I actually don't think they're the biggest beneficiaries. Biggest beneficiaries are like the weird baseball, like $9 a month team owned channels like the yes network, like whatever. There's like 25 of them now. And basically baseball is completely propped up by cable television by these local things. That's why like the collapse of Bali over like last year was such a big deal and why I'm actually pretty nervous about baseball's future is it literally the. So much of it relies on the ability to bilk San Diegans out of $7 a month. And so like ESPN I think will survive much better than those channels, but it's still the same thing, which is non sports fans paying for the, for the enjoyment of sports fans.

[A]

And what people are realizing to the point of the story is that it's now so expensive that they are cycling through subscriptions like they're flipping through channels.

[C]

Right.

[A]

And the promise of of course streaming was that when you're in an a la carte system in which you choose to pay for what you want to eat as opposed to paying for a bunch of stuff that you never watch, you're gonna pay less and it's gonna be easier. And none of those things have really come true. It's the way that technology is constantly disrupting things only to then sell you a worse version of the thing they disrupted. Yeah, it's like, oh, we're back to cable television. Cool.

[C]

I swear to God I'm not. I bought my first DVD in 20 years today.

[B]

I didn't know they were still doing those.

[C]

It's a Blu Ray.

[B]

That's sick.

[C]

Well, it's the Assassination of Jesse James by the cow. Robert Ford. An amazing movie that I just wanted to watch very badly last night. And I've had this urge many times and it was like 12 bucks to buy on Amazon. No place was having it stream, but it streams all the time. But it's one of those that comes off and then comes back on and comes off and comes back on and.

[A]

So how did you play this? How do you plan on playing this?

[C]

I have an Xbox.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. That's what those are.

[C]

I don't get on the chats to find out about the racist 7 year olds. Yeah, but I do. I do.

[B]

They say, hi, you're using an Xbox.

[A]

In the oldest possible way.

[C]

I also like play FIFA. Anyway, so I literally. It's the same thing where I was just like, I'm tired of every six months being like, where is the streaming? And if not paying $2 to buy it, I'm just gonna buy a $12 DVD. I am, I am doing exactly what this is where it's physical media, cable. Bring back 2001.

[A]

Well, it's kind of like a parallel to how vinyl also has made a comeback.

[C]

Yes.

[A]

In recent decades relative to the arc of it. It's because people have been so frustrated by Napster and the domino effects of, of streaming music that they're like, we people have become and I think understandably like apocalypse preppers, where it's like, I don't trust this to exist and survive. And so I need my own collection of physical things to put into my. My pyramid to be buried with so I have access to it for as long as I.

[B]

Well, it's also. Sorry, you go.

[C]

I was gonna say it's also true of digital media and writing where a lot of people save everything they've ever written because they have no faith that a private equity company, SI Vault is just gone.

[A]

Truly is like, is is unreadable.

[C]

Unreadable. Well, it's some articles by Pablo Torre that never been readable, but now like literally physically good.

[A]

Now they're actually undermining.

[B]

It's also that it. If you take out the capitalism of it all and you were just to look at the like, okay, back then we used to have to watch things when they were on tv. We had no way of recording it or controlling when we could watch what we wanted to watch. And then we've evolved to a place where you can watch anything you want at any time. Taking the money out of it. That sounds like progress. But then you remember that the people who were making money off the old model want to make even more money off the new model. And they make it to a point where now I can't. We don't own anything. You have to pay for the ability to access any of the things you want to watch. You can never just like go watch them. And they've gotten to the point where they're getting rid of somebody. Best Buy just recently was like, we're done with physical media. We're not selling it anymore. And I Would bet if this keeps going, we would get our next generation of like, PlayStations or Xboxes. Won't even have that slot in them the way that laptops no longer have unless you specifically ask for it. A CD drive. Like, they're. They're phasing out physical media and causing you to have to pay. David Zaslav. That's how you guys say that's a.

[A]

Courtside at Madison Square Garden.

[B]

He just. He got a race. He got a race. And he canceled shows that were made or movies that were made and did not run them because it helped. It was more beneficial for them on the tax side. And he got a race days. He made 49.7 million compared with 39.3 million the year before. Like, media is going like less has. Has been made, and that guy's making more than he made the year before. And that should not be the way that it works. The people that are in charge of giving us the content. Don't touch the content. Have nothing to do with the making of it and are not in any way incentivized to make good content. And that scares the out of me.

[A]

That seems fine.

[B]

That scares the out of me.

[A]

The cancellation part of this is also interesting to me because Cancellation. Look. So Kevin's wife works for the Wall Street Journal. I subscribe to the Wall Street Journal. Part of the reason I subscribe is because I once tried to cancel the Wall Street Journal and it was too difficult.

[B]

Yeah. It's like a gym.

[C]

We send some goons to your house.

[A]

Well, what they make you do. And I think this is a smart thing, truly. And it's worth paying for in all honesty. Of course, it's that I'm defending Rupert Murdoch and the Lawyer Journal. They're a good product.

[B]

He needs the money.

[C]

I need the money.

[A]

Kevin. Kevin. Teddy needs the money.

[C]

Teddy needs the money.

[A]

But the reality is, what they make you do is jump through hoops. You have to call a number.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

You can't just click on a link. You have to call a yes. So it's like canceling cable. And none of that should be a coincidence, given the conversation we just had. The point is make it difficult for you to get rid of something because.

[B]

That'S what they're going to do.

[A]

You're so desperate.

[B]

That's. This article made me go like, they're going to. They're going to now go, well, if you. Same way. Netflix. Oh, you can only use this in one household and you have to name your. Now they're going to be like, Canceling is actually really difficult.

[C]

I need to look this up. There's a huge, there's a huge percentage of AOL's revenue that comes from people just never canceling. That's like gyms, like not 2004 and being like, I don't know, I don't know what's going on.

[A]

1.5 million people still paying a monthly subscription to AOL. I should point out. 1.5 million people as of 2021. And what they get in exchange for their subscription service fee is technical support and identity theft software.

[B]

Oh God, they love to sell old people on identity theft software. They're like, listen, people out here want to be you don't let them be. They say dark web and identity theft. Old people are like, take my money.

[C]

Brian St. Pierre needs some of that. But the artists, the one thing, artists.

[A]

Need some of that.

[C]

The one thing is that if you are buying identity software, identity theft software from aol, it is likely too late. Yeah, it is likely that you've, you've been stolen many times.

[A]

Yep. Yeah. I want to reserve like the domain name of like an Erica online, like one letter off and just sell people fake identity theft software.

[C]

That sounds illegal.

[A]

All right. What did we find out today, guys?

[B]

Oh God, so much.

[A]

We learned. We learned what here today?

[B]

We learned.

[C]

I, I, I, I'm surprised. I didn't anticipate that the had 7 year olds were all indoors playing video call, playing warzone.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's why you got to keep your kid off that for a while.

[C]

I want my kid to be a huge baseball fan because when I was watching a lot of baseball I was pretty big dork. Because you can't if you're watching baseball. It's like 162 and is a lot. And you're like reading, you know, you're reading Bill James and stuff, you know.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And then you just never really get the baseball.

[B]

Little kids are all right. Did you see that clip the other day of a kid, the tape, we don't have it. Of the kid trying to get to his seat and the lady's got her legs up and she, he like, oh yeah. Asks her to move and she won't move her feet. 11 year olds, you're 80, they're alive. He like yells at her in a really, he like owns her in a kind of respectful way. Was it Bjorn way? It was Bjorn. And he said, I'm gonna shoot you in the face. And she said I'm a Republican. And then they hugged. It's weird. Baseball kids are all right. Baseball's good for kids.

[C]

How about gamer kids? Not as good.

[B]

No, I mean they can be if their parents would just like, I don't know, be in the same room as them when they game and go, hey, maybe we don't say that word. What did I learn today? I learned that there are people who've never seen the show Catfish.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I didn't know that you guys still existed.

[C]

I was watching baseball.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

I told you.

[B]

That's fair. That is fair.

[C]

I was watching 2000.

[B]

Did you see the report the other.

[C]

Day closing out games for the White Sox?

[B]

Did you see the report the other day that there's. That a lot of streaming services are trying to come up with second screen content, which used to mean stuff that was happening on your phone while you were watching tv. Now it means stuff that happens on TV while you're on your phone. So they found that people were like too. They didn't want things that had too deep of a plot or that needed too much of your attention because they were mostly scrolling their phone. But they want something to play in the background. Which is what I explained Catfish was for me. But these places are now trying to program that.

[C]

The reason I watch a lot of History Channel documentaries is that I am just not paying attention at all. Kind of like me on this show today where I'm just on the phone and the. The. That was a joke. I am paying attention to this show. I know you think I'm on my.

[A]

Phone the whole time, but I'm debatable.

[B]

You literally have been on your phone this entire show.

[C]

That's not true. People can watch this. Tally up how many times, how, how often I was on my phone.

[B]

Please turn at the bottom of the screen. Every time.

[C]

I was scrolling, I was buying DVDs.

[A]

What I found out today is that Kevin Clark, despite being on his phone this entire episode, has the oldest possible interests. Yeah, truly.

[B]

I think we knew that.

[A]

You just was about to. I cut him off accidentally now before he could explain why he's into the.

[C]

History Channel with the docs. Because the History Channel, like the actual channel on cable.

[B]

You're a pre Republican. You're like. You're in the early stages.

[C]

You gotta subscribe to the History Vault on Amazon Prime.

[B]

That's where you get the good stuff.

[C]

That's where you get the goods.

[B]

That's where you learn about wars.

[C]

Yep, wars and presidents.

[A]

They keep the best wars behind. They pay all the best wars.

[C]

They really do.

[A]

Yeah, only fans. But for tanks, only pans blurred out. Only now. Now only pans.

[C]

Only pans.

[A]

There it is.

[C]

Wow.

[B]

We got there. Check your phone.

[A]

But as for all the people who help make this show what it is a paywall worthy product that we give you for free. Pablo Tor Fights out is produced by Michael Antonucci, Ryan Cortez, Sam Dwig, Juan Galindo, Patrick Kim Nen Rachel Miller Howard, Ethan Shrier, Carl Scott, Matt Sullivan, Chris To Manello and Juliet Warren. Our studio engineering by RG Systems Our post production by NGW Post Our theme song as always by John Bravo. We will talk to you on Tuesday.