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Welcome to Pablo Torre finds out. Presented by Ebay Live, I am Pablo Torre and today we're gonna find out what this sound is.
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Break down, would you please?
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And if you listen to our show on Apple podcasts, you can now watch video there as well. Just update to the latest iOS. Head over to our show page to start watching. But for right now, just a quick word from our sponsors.
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This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game, Shifting a little money here, a little there and hoping it all works out well? With the name your price tool from Progressive, you can be a better budgeter and potentially lower your insurance bill too. You tell Progressive what you want to pay for car insurance and they'll help you find options within your budget. Try it today@progressive.com Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates Price and coverage match limited by state law. Not available in all states. ACAST powers the world's best podcasts.
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Here's a show that we recommend.
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Chicago 2011. A cop is murdered.
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Police and prosecutors swear they have the trigger man.
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He swears he didn't do it.
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How far will each side go to prove they're right? Like it's just one bombshell after another.
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You know, you're like, what?
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What?
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The story of a PlayStation, a brain
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eating amoeba, and the relentless pursuit of justice. Off duty.
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Out now. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. ACAST helps creators launch, grow and monetize their podcasts everywhere.
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Acast.com so before we jump into today's episode, a quick shout out to our sponsor, ebay Live. Ebay Live is where real time excitement meets rare, exclusive, hard to find cards, collectibles, sneakers, watches and so much more. You can bid in live auctions, catch exclusive drops, buy directly from trusted sellers while it is all happening live and it feels fun and interactive like a show, not just shopping with great hosts, creators and streamers. So download the ebay app and tap the ebay live button to tune in today.
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I was like, all right, I'll see how it goes over. Like a fart in a submarine.
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Pablo, Billy. I asked Billy if he knows what he's doing and he said he did not know what we were doing today. Did you want to tell him what we were doing or you want to make it a surprise?
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Yeah, I don't really want to tell him. Okay. I want Billy to feel like how so many of his subjects feel when they sit down across from him when he does documentaries about them. So you may have noticed that we here at Pablo Torre finds out like to tackle big topics and big characters. Two of the three Emmys that we were just nominated for last week, in fact, were for our investigations into Aspiration and the Clippers and Riley Gaines and her role in this administration. But as much as I enjoy tackling subjects that the yes Men in sports will not touch, I also remain obsessed with little topics and little characters. Which brings us to one very specific guest star on a seminal television sitcom that has been lodged inside of my brain for more than 35 years now. And if you, like me, grew up watching Night Court on NBC, you may remember this tiny lil guest star as well.
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I don't mean to bother you, but
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would you mind signing my autograph book? Roz, make yourself useful. Get this chrome domed freak of nature away from me. All right, that's it.
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Send for the littlest lawyer to meet
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the big bad bailiff.
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You are the meanest, most arrogant, obnoxious little brat I have ever met in my life. You only want me around because nobody else can stand you.
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Well, let me tell you something. I can't stand you either. And you can take your little blackmail tape and do whatever you want with it. I have had enough. You can't talk to Billy like that. Not like that. Oh, shut up, you overpaid parrot. And you.
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You don't care about Billy at all. In this episode, in case you're wondering, a child star named Billy shows up one day to shoot a television show in the same Manhattan criminal court where Night Court takes place. But the more important thing to know here is that Billy is a tyrannical.
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All you care about is keeping them happy long enough to do your stupid
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TV show and go, for all of
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you, you're an army of yes men.
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Fairly recently, however, after more than three decades of hating this specific character, a cautionary tale for precocious children everywhere, I found out something shocking. I found out that the actor who played that child was someone whom I've known, it turns out, for years, which meant that we could call Billy up.
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I mean, you crushed it.
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An obnoxious child actor named Billy. It was really typecast.
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It's rare to see a method child actor.
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That was the most fun because that was a show that I watched as a kid, and you could do anything you wanted on that show, but be mean to Bull. That's when the audience would immediately, you know, bull the bailiff. They would immediately turn. Turn on you.
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And so, yes, I just got to take a moment to recognize that after a truly and disturbingly extensive career as A child star. Get back to later. Billy Corbin went on to direct some of the most entertaining documentaries ever, many of which are devoted to muckraking and accountability journalism in his hometown of Miami and at his alma mater, the University of Miami. Meaning that Billy Corbin is a bit of a kindred spirit to ptfo, and also that he, too, has continued to inspire various audiences to turn on him in real life. But I first met Billy Corbin when he was interviewing me for a 30 for 30 documentary titled Broke Back in 2012. And many years before that, he had also sat down with the other allegedly unlikable friend of ptfo, who's with us here today, Metal ARC founder and former Miami Herald columnist Dan LeBatard. What was it like to interview Dan?
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Real easy. It actually was real easy because Dan, I think, was the last interview on both the you and the you, Part one. And so we knew exactly what we needed. And so it was just like a hit list of facts and stats and sound bites that we needed. So it was actually a pretty streamlined operation, as I recall.
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That's my experience with you as well, from 2012, was that you do Broke, which was, of course, the first thing I ever was involved with at ESPN when I first got hired there. And you were making this documentary that was rooted in the reporting I'd done for Sports Illustrated. And then at the very end of your process, it's like, let's get that guy in. And I sit down and I basically get to spackle over all of the exposition that I think you guys were missing. And I'm so glad I did it. But you just described what you used me for.
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He's not. He's not glad he did it. He's not proud of that one. I've heard him say before that I loved it, and it's pornography. It's the easiest thing in the world to watch.
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How dare you. Because now I'm. I'm resembling the pornographic content. Because that story. I mean, that doc, Billy, the Impact of Broke, how and why Athletes Go Broke, was wildly popular and made waves in sports. Like, everyone started talking to me about that because, in part, you know, elevated the whole thing that apparently you're deeply not proud of.
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No, Dan's not wrong. Your Sports Illustrated article is really what inspired the documentary Broke. And of course, like, right away, the NFL PA had pushed back on you and your. And your shock horror stats and everything.
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My first run in with the NFL pa Yeah, More than God, a decade ago.
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I remember the story, and I remember a detail above all others. I'm not even sure if Pablo remembers this detail. Former Twins out outfielder Tory Hunter invested in floating furniture in the event of a flood. It seemed like a good idea to me. It really did. Especially with climate change. I feel like it's a better idea today. He wasn't wrong. He was just early.
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So, yes, that's why I met Pablo. I think when I met him, I was like, we're. We're waiting on your dad to come so we can interview him because he was, like, fresh from his bar mitzvah. He was like, look how young he is now. I feel like Dan and I are aging and you're, like, getting younger somehow.
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But, oh, no, give him time working for me. I'll make it. I'll make it age faster. I'll make all of it happen faster.
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The soul dies before the Asian skin does, unfortunately. Foreign. So for people who don't know Billy Corbin, I mean, you're one of the great sports documentarians of our era. What a sad era it's become. We can get to that.
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Why just sports, though? Why would I say he's one of the great documentarians, period?
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I wouldn't put the sports qualified drugs and sports.
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Yeah.
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And the best cocaine documentarian there is.
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That is first line of the obituary. The greatest cocaine chronicler of our time, Billy Corbin, who never did. Anyway, I'm immediately finding out that Billy Corbin has never done cocaine. The stolen valor. The stolen valor of the work you've done.
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Oh, this guy. Dare you. No, no, wait a minute. No. Stolen valor is. This guy has culturally appropriated every Miami thing that there is. Just the entire city of Miami.
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Corruption, all of the Hispanic.
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All of it.
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My. My regat tone career.
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All of it.
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Just now more than ever, people want songs about petrol and gasoline. So it's really taking off.
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Gasolina.
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So cocaine Cowboys, the franchise, that's Billy, as well as the U, and the sequel to the U, The U, Part 2, screwball broke aforementioned Square Grouper, which is about weed. Bales of weed, not cocaine. And then 537 votes. These are just some of the things on your list. But we'll get to like the documentary stuff. I want to establish your origin story because there was a world in which Billy Corbin is child actor and does get addicted to cocaine, incidentally, it's statistically seemingly very difficult to not do that because child actor is almost like this, this concept. Did you enjoy that?
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Oh, I loved it. Yeah. Because in Miami in the 80s, there was a ton of really cool happening in the world of television and Movies and commercials. And so I. We had a friend from the neighborhood who. I saw her on a. Riding a bicycle in a Sears commercial. And I thought that was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. I think I was 6 years old and I said, I want to do that. So that's what that became. My, like, after school activity was going out on auditions, and I just wound up doing a national commercial for cereal or sandwich meats or toys or department stores.
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He dreams of what, though? Because when he mentions the cocaine addiction of a child actor, I think immediately of Drew Barrymore being in rehab at 13.
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It was funny. My mom refused to participate in this hobby of mine because she read, like, Shirley Temple's autobiography. And specifically, I remember Drew Barrymore. I could picture the paperback, like, on our coffee table. And she's like, this is a terrible business. At 8, they're drinking coffee. At 9, they're smoking pot. By 10, they're doing cocaine. And she was totally against it for a while until I booked a movie called Parenthood with Steve Martin and Mary Steenberge and Joaquin Phoenix. And I mean, everybody was in that movie. Diane Weiss was nominated for an Oscar. I think Rick Moranis was in it, which was cool for me, Keanu Reeves, and we had to go to Orlando. So then my mom, my dad had to work. It wasn't just like an after school thing. It was an overnight thing. So my mom had to go to Orlando with me. And that's how she became. She would hate this term, my stage mom. And that's what kept me, like, on the straight, but with dreams.
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Of what, though? What were you trying to become?
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There wasn't a career path. I started to become very successful at it, but it still didn't. It was really on Parenthood, I think, watching Ron Howard. His whole family was on set. They all had cameos. His daughter had a cameo. His wife had a cameo. His dad, his brother, who's in all of his movies. I watched him on Andy Griffith, and I watched him on Happy Days. And so. And then I watched him control this whole giant Universal Pictures operation. And I was like, oh, that's the goal. Like, when you grow up and you grow out of acting, you become the director and the producer. So that. That probably was the moment I thought, oh, if there's a trajectory or potential of this year, that would be it.
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It's very funny to imagine that that's your trajectory, your imagined dream trajectory. Because when I've been grinding the game film of your career, and again, like, reliving how Great. The you and the you part two were. And we'll get to the sports stuff in a second. I am realizing you go from villainous little kid lil lawyer on Night Court to a scene in the city of Miami in which your trajectory seems like it brought you back kind of to the same place.
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Frequent City hall critic, filmmaker Billy Corbin came to the meeting to speak in favor of firing the city attorney, Victoria Mendez, who was accused in a lawsuit of real estate fraud. The city is drowning in a sea of scandals. The reason why people like you get to bully me every day and I don't lose sleep over you, is because you are a vile little man. Are you a vile little man or not? I wear that badge proudly.
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I mean, you're basically the same exact character, decades apart.
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Or. She certainly sounds like the same character as Roz, the bailiff on Night Court. You are the meanest, most arrogant, obnoxious
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little brat I have ever met in my life.
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Oh, my God. That's. I don't. I didn't remember my answer to that question. I was waiting with bated breath. I was like, are you a violet man?
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Pablo, he has done so much of this in protection, in vigorous protection of nobility and decency in Miami. It's the thing I admire most about him, as wonderful of a filmmaker as he is, the fact that he'll stand outside of City hall and wait for the mayor to park in his spot. So the mayor just knows that he's always watching. He loses a lot of these fights, but he's always willing to fight them.
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You don't fight the fights you can win. You fight the fights that are worth fighting.
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Well, one of the concepts that I do think brings you guys together here is what does it mean to be likable? And what does it mean to love something so much that you become regarded as an enemy of it? That is something I see in both of your careers, in both of your trajectories. And I do think starting with a conversation about the you is interesting. Not just because it's the sports stuff, but, like, Billy, we're living in this era in which the documentary is authorized. That's the kind that people want. Give us your ip.
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Yeah. There's no such thing as a documentary anymore. Yeah, that's not. It's a thing, but it's not a documentary.
C
You can call it trading access for the dilution of truth.
B
Sure, I think that's accurate.
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Well. And look, there are ways to do it in which you can make an entertaining product. But as always, on this show we're kind of obsessed with vocabulary. Like what gets to be a documentary? What should that even mean as a definition? And for those who don't remember the making of the U, which involves, of course, the University of Miami, their players,
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the Miami squad made noise the moment it reached Phoenix. Somebody came up to me and said,
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hey, the players just got off the plane. They all had fatigues on.
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Oh, my goodness, did that start a blow.
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All week long, the players kept comparing this game to war. This game is going to be a war and we're going to be ready for it.
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Could you explain what permission you got before you made what was at the time the highest rated, 30 for 30, the highest rated documentary that ESPN had.
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We approached them not for permission to make the documentary or any authorization, but there were a couple people at the time that were still employed by the university who we wanted to interview because it was about the team from decades prior. And we wanted to get some footage in the Orange bowl, which they did allow us to do. And then a weird thing happened. We were in the office of the sports information director. Yeah. Which, you know, just sort of internal propagandist. And who really had. Since so much of sports, local sports journalism, when you're a beat reporter covering a team, is access journalism. He really had the run of the town and the local media. But he said this to us, you know, if I were you, I would rethink doing this whole project. And I remember Alfred and I look at each other going like, well, that. That ship sailed. You know, we. We went to espn, we pitched this project. We, we have it like we're doing this project. It's really just a question of who we're going to get to interview and whether your perspective will be a part of it or not.
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But.
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And I realized in talking to other sports reporters that this was his line. When they were interested in doing a particular story and they would approach this guy, he would give them that, you know, if I were you, I'd reconsider maybe doing this. This story. And they were not just saying no, but they were proactively pushing back. When I went to Arizona to interview Dennis Erickson, he said to me after the interview, he's like, well, that went. I thought that went pretty well. I don't know what the university's so upset about. And I was like, what do you mean? He's like, yeah, you know, um. U m called him, okay? They have no control over him anymore. He hasn't worked for them for decades. They called him and said, hey, if you get a call from these guys making a documentary for espn, don't do the interview. Now, to the credit of these former players and former employees, they didn't listen to the administration when they went there, you know, when they worked there. So they didn't listen this time. But it was weird having your own university working so hard against you. Then when it came out, that actually drove a lot of interest in it because no one wants to see the authorized documentary. They want to see the documentary, um, doesn't want you to see.
A
Right. And telling the story that people don't want you to tell, that's my kink. Right? That's like, the thing I'm into. And Dan, a fellow alum, you have your own experience with this university. And I want to use the University of Miami as kind of a stand in for, like, what it's like to actually cover an institution that's going to get mad at you because the best story available is not the one that they even recognize.
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Billy did a love letter, and it's the James Baldwin line of America. Love it enough to criticize it. I love that school. I love my relationship with that program. That school is responsible for almost everything that I became in my career. I'm talking about all the teachings up to and including the University of Miami football team of the late 80s and early 90s taught me about race relations and a different side of Miami that isn't where I grew up. And so, yeah, I've. I've got a ton of stories, like Billy would, I imagine, that are complicated love letters that include, at one point, because I was writing articles that ended up with Sports Illustrated, Sports Illustrated called for the death of the program. I got a beer bottle thrown across a bar that hit me in the chin. And one of my friends who was like a week from graduating from medical school, had a kit of stuff and just stitched me up in the parking lot. I didn't even go to the hospital, like 2 o' clock in the morning because people really mad at me about the stuff that was happening. That was another thing I learned, like the insanity of fandom I had broken across my chin because I was learning one thing that I thought was important and real and the truth. And people viewed it obviously as a betrayal of the. Of the program because they imagined me, I guess, in a cheerleader skirt. Sorry to do that to everybody.
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That was a. That. That is a beer bottle across our eyes.
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You did porn earlier. You did. We had you in porn earlier. This is. This is a lower rating the graphic
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nature of Dan's journalism. Billy. For people who don't remember what Dan was dredging up, what warranted beer bottles being thrown by maniacs.
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Dan was very well sourced, being conveniently located on the campus. I don't know if it was about the bounties.
C
It is about the bounties. For the people who don't know the story, Luther Campbell, the head of 2 Live Crew, who took his lyrics to the Supreme Court and won a freedom of speec, was before Snoop Dogg was on the USC sideline. He was somebody who was a fixture in Miami associated with this program, helping the kids in a number of different ways. And the stories around this program were all crazy, wonderful terrain. But while Luther Campbell. Hold on, I'm gonna get there.
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Get.
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Let me just get to the punchline, guys.
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We're tempted to yada yada over. Yeah. The founder of 2 Live Crew. It's just like, no, we gotta. We gotta blame this. Luther Campbell, president of Luke Records and
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member of the group 2 Live Crew.
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How did it come about that you're
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party to a case before the Supreme Court? I really don't know.
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And what happened is they heard Pretty Woman on there and called up Acre Frozen Incorporated, and then they started to sue him. Can you play a little bit of
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both the original version and then I'll see your version.
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Let's do Roy first. Let's do Roy first.
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You want to hear Roy first? Let's do Roy.
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No one could look as good as you.
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Now you want to hear the other one?
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You want to hear yours?
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You want to hear our version?
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Okay, ladies and gentlemen, coming in from stage right. Yeah, I think ours better too.
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Big hairy woman. You need to shake that stuff.
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Big hairy woman.
C
That's him. But it keeps getting better. So the founder of 2Live Crew is putting out bounties on the Notre Dame quarterback Tony Rice and Tim Brown, the Heisman trophy candidate. Bounties that are collected from former UM players who are in the NFL. If you hurt these guys, you can collect the bounty. And the bounty was being held by the team priest.
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Father Leo, the team priest was holding the bounty.
C
Like, how?
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Well, who could you trust with all that cash? Dan, who.
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Who can get mad at me reporting that? That's wonderfully rich detail that anybody would want.
B
So Dan got a bottle to the face.
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Cost of business.
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Worth it. Worth it foreign. If you think ebay is just a marketplace, you are missing a whole side of it. Ebay live is where real time excitement meets rare, exclusive, hard to find cards. Collectibles sneakers, watches, and so much more. You can bid in live auctions, catch exclusive drops and buy directly from trusted sellers while it is all happening live and it feels like a show, not just shopping with great hosts, creators and streamers. Stream, shop and score by downloading the ebay app and tapping the Ebay Live button right under the search bar when my daughter was born, my perspective on life changed in an instant. My mind suddenly wasn't just thinking about what was for dinner tomorrow. I was thinking years ahead about how if something were to happen to me, there are real consequences like mortgage payments and tuition and everyday bills that that don't just disappear. Part of loving my family meant thinking about their future, even in the uncomfortable ways. While life insurance is not a fun topic, it is one you need to think about. And that's why I am so glad I found out about Ethos. Ethos makes getting life insurance fast and easy and 100% online. You can get a quote in seconds, apply in minutes and get same day coverage. There's no medical exam. You just answer a few simple health questions. It is so simple that you really have no excuse to not check it out and know that you are going with the trusted Pros. As of March 2025, Business Insider named Ethos the number one no medical exam instant life insurance provider. You can get up to $3 million in coverage with some policies as low as $30 a month. It's a no brainer. So protect your family with life insurance from Ethos. Now by going to ethos.comptfo in as little as 10 minutes, you can get your free quote and up to $3 million in coverage@ethos.comptfo that's ethos.comptfo ethos.comptfo application times and rates may vary.
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Recently we asked some people about sharing their New York Times accounts. I'm Neerush from Madison, Wisconsin.
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I would like to share my subscription
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with my family members.
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I should be able to share recipes
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from nyt, cooking wirecutter articles or athletic articles. We are a family of four.
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I would like them to have access to the subscription too.
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Thank you Neeraj.
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We heard you introducing the New York Times Family Subscription. One subscription, up to four separate logins for anyone in your life. Find out more@nytimes.com family foreign.
A
So when you encounter pushback, I feel like in this industry there are two responses. One is I don't want to get a bottle thrown at me again. I don't want to be threatened with litigation. I don't Want these institutions to marshal all of their assorted forces against me, and therefore, I'm not going to do this. And then there are you guys. Why?
B
Nobody wants to be sued. Nobody wants to be threatened. Nobody wants to have a bottle thrown at them. Nobody wants someone to not take your call when you're calling to talk to them or reach them. At the same time, if those things aren't happening, I'm not sure I'm doing anything right. Because that would mean that I am pulling punches. That would mean that I'm not telling the truth or being candid. I don't want to hurt people's feelings or their careers per se. But what I find more often than not is that you get blamed, the messenger gets blamed, rather than the person who's perpetuating some kind of wrongdoing. And it just strikes me innately that that is just what you're supposed to do with power or with a platform.
C
That's the noble part of it, right. In my particular case. And it's a little bit selfish. I'm just chasing interesting what's interesting, and not necessarily to me, what's interesting to others. He does this as well. And I'm also interested by injustices, and I'd like to rectify injustices. But the starting point is a curiosity on what are the stories that I can tell. The name of his company is Rock and Tour. It's storytelling. And what are the stories that I can tell to move people in a way that's entertaining and interesting and perhaps ultimately also has the added benefit of passing his activism.
B
My first documentary, Raw Deal, A Question of Consent, which nobody has seen, but made us the youngest filmmakers in the history of the Sundance Film Festival at the time, the only ones from South Florida at that time. This was in 2001, and it was about the alleged sexual assault of an exotic dancer at a fraternity house at the University of Florida. And we moved up there to make this documentary on a leave of absence from the University of Miami. And this is a. People ask me, like, when did you get political? Or when he was like, political, like we've always been political. Everything is politics and everything we've ever done is politics. And in this first doc, there was a state attorney of Alachua county by the name of Rod Smith. He later became a state senator. And he would not give me an interview about this case. It was a very high profile, controversial case. And he wouldn't give me an interview. And I felt a little self righteous about it. Age 21. I felt like, well, this Guy is a public servant. He has an obligation to engage the press and engage the public and explain some of the more complicated decisions in high profile cases in particular. And he would. So we sat outside his office, and one day he walked outside and I walked up to him with a camera, with a microphone. Mr. Smith, we have a few questions about the Delta Chi case.
A
You commented on a lot of closed cases.
B
Why can't you comment on this closed case, sir?
A
Why this one more than anything?
B
Mr. Man, why can't we get a written declination for an interview from your office?
A
Mr. Man? Mr. Man, why can't.
B
Can we get a written declaration from your office? And so I just walked behind him, talking to the back of his head, asking him questions, one after the other after the other. But that was day one for me. That was project. Project One for me was. Was just try to, you know, punch up, speak truth to power and get answers from people who I think we're entitled to answers from.
C
My first indoctrination into all of this was covering for $15, an article, City Council meetings about sewage and knowing that that's not what I wanted to do, but that crawling through the sewage, not unlike Shawshank, would finally get me to some of the places that were beyond my dreams. Because I wasn't imagining any of this. I wasn't doing it to be political, to be activist, to be any of that stuff. And obviously I gravitated over to the playpen and the nonsense.
B
I think I should make this confession in case it's not clear, and I don't know that I've ever said it out loud before, but in that moment on Raw Deal, walking around, call it chasing or demanding answers from that state attorney, I liked it. There was an adrenaline kick out of that for me, punching up. And it just, it. It felt right and it felt good. And maybe that's why I haven't done cocaine, is that I found a different high.
A
I guess your cocaine was talking about cocaine
B
and, and demanding answers from people who. We deserve answers from, who refuse to give them. So. So when people call and don't take my call, is there a kind of a little bit of a thrill that, like, oh, they're, they're scared of me. Maybe, maybe I. Maybe that's something that I now enjoy a bit.
A
I'm glad we started with the whole, like, you know, the cocaine and the popcorn stuff, because I think the whole mission statement, though, is to show that you could do accountability journalism. But it's also fun, right? Like, you don't want to feel like you're being guilted. You want, like, oh, my God, I'm. I'm enjoying this in ways that I didn't really anticipate. And sports, to me, Dan, that. That was like, you know, Trojan horses may be too conniving a metaphor, but that's always the power of sports to me. And that's why all these things seem to unite.
C
I don't know if Billy still has the most viewed documentary in the history of Hulu, but chasing down Falwell's kid to reveal that he enjoyed Pool Boy Cucking.
A
You got to tell this story. You got.
C
I mean, I just did, didn't I? Didn't I just tell it?
B
But then now you've got an episode title, Pablo Pool Boy Cucking.
A
As a pool attendant, I would get hit on. But if I would have known that accepting this woman's invitation to go back
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to her hotel room would have led
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to a scandal involving the president of
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the largest Christian university in the world
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and the president of the United States, I would have walked away and just
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enjoyed my private life.
A
I want to use the character of Giancarlo Granda and the Jerry Falwell Jr. Story as a way in, because on some level, it's like, oh, yeah, of course. It's a Miami hotel pool boy who becomes the character in the cucking of the. I mean, please explain Jerry Falwell Jr. To people who don't know.
C
I feel like you've done it with simply the word cuck. I feel like that's done it. You can use more words. Billy can use more words when only one will suffice. But.
A
But we're talking about in Jerry Falwell Jr. Not merely the son of any priest, as priests are recurring now in this episode as well, but one of the number one religious figures in America who continues to be this shadow over, like, the whole movement around conservatism. Let me say a word to you who are struggling with debt right now. A bad attitude about money got you in debt. Whenever I'm counseling a couple who's having financial difficulties, I'll say, give me your budget now. What's your income? How much you're spending? Where are you putting it? And if I don't see tithes and offerings at the top, I'll say, there's your problem right there. You're robbing from God. We can't afford right now, Pastor. No, no, you can't afford not to. If you need a miracle, you better put the miracle working God in your budget.
B
So we made this documentary called God Forbid, the sex scandal that brought down a dynasty which I wanted to call Cuckold Cowboys. But they, but Hulu wouldn't, wouldn't let me. And Disney was like, no, we don't think so. But the story was breaking literally under our feet. Our office is on South Beach. A lot of this has story has to do with a piece of property on, on Alton Road, like blocks from our office with an Italian restaurant and liquor store downstairs and a youth hostel upstairs. That was a real estate investment that Jerry Falwell Jr. Who and his wife, Becky Falwell. These are the president and first lady of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, the largest evangelical Christian college, I think in the world. Started by of course, Jerry Falwell Sr. Who was an evangelical pastor, one of the first of, of the televangelists and a major mover and shaker in the, the movement to bring Christian nationalism into the political fold. And, and the 50 year project really to overturn Roe v. Wade. That was sort of the macro of it. The micro of it is that he liked to watch his wife get shtupped by a pool boy from the Fontainebleau Hotel while he sat in the, you know, in the cuck chair in the corner. This I realized at the time. You know, every accusation is a confession. We've learned that on social media and we've learned that in the modern political age. And I realized like the word cuck really became like this sort of conservative insult on social media. That's the first time I remember being aware of it. And I had to Google it the first time I think, like, well, how does, how do you know what, what it is? You know, maybe you're much more familiar with this kink, to borrow a term, than I am. And it turns out every accusation is a confession. Here's this like, conservative leader and he is in fact, if you believe Giancarlo Grande story. And he had quite a lot of corroboration. An actual real life, honest to goodness
A
cuck Dan is so clearly numb to how insane Miami is. Like, if the theory of all of this larger metal arc project is surprise, America is Miami. Now, why is Miami this way? Why is it always the thing that draws all of these exaggerated cartoon characters that are corrupt and scandalous and absurd.
C
Billy would be better at answering this question because he's been great at answering this question for a long time when he says that Miami is 20 years ahead of the rest of America, that today's Miami you'll see soon enough. 20 years from now in America. But when I was growing up in this town in the pages of the Miami Herald with some of the best columnists that there were, the reason that they loved writing about this city is because you'd go to page 5D of the local section and there's a story in Homestead of a neighborhood crime watch meeting being interrupted while the sheriff is talking because a giant bale of marijuana is falling out of the sky into the pool because a coast Guard plane is chasing somebody who's dumping drugs. We're not a normal place. He and I have not grown up in a normal place. When I go all over the United States, there's nothing quite like this place. It's awful and it's wonderful. It's just rich with absurdities. Look, all of Florida is a bunch of spring break towns. Ours passes as an international city just because it's covered in drug money. And it's the only reason that Miami gets to be gateway to Latin America. It's drug money and a bunch of different cultures in what is just an otherwise spring break type town. Not unlike Daytona, not unlike any of these other places, except that this is where the money and the drugs came through.
B
They say the great thing about Miami is it's so close to the United States. I would argue that the great thing about Miami is it's so close to the planet earth. And the fascinating thing about Miami is not only is it a target rich environment, it's also the Miami of today is the America of tomorrow, as Dan was saying. And if you want to know what challenges we'll face or calamities will befall us as a nation in the years or decades to come, you look at what's happening in the state of Florida, or more specifically, South Florida. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy to see if you could save when you bundle your home and auto policies. Try it@progressive.com Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states.
A
Say hello to Samantha.
B
Hi there.
A
Samantha built a SaaS platform that helps
B
small businesses manage their workflow.
A
But she needed a smarter way to reach decision makers.
B
That's where ACAST came in. They helped me produce a professional audio ad which played to business owners and ops leads using their audience attributes targeting tools.
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Suddenly, my platform was showing up in
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C
The work he does for free to tackle people who should be doing a better job. Needs to be supported. It needs to be supported. Even if there's a cost. It needs to be supported. Especially because there's a cost, because fewer people will do it when there's a cost.
A
I have watched so much of Billy's work and I've watched so much of his Hollywood oeuvre. And of course I'm referring to the seminal NBC television movie called Archie to Riverdale and Baxian. Come on.
B
How are you? Say hello to your Uncle Archie. He's not my uncle.
C
Oh, that's okay.
B
Just call me Archie. Super dumb name.
C
Yeah, maybe, but it's not half as dumb as Jughead Jr. You call me
B
that again and something really bad'll happen.
C
I do not know if it's the writing that's worse or the acting.
A
Somehow they got the Archie comics IP and they were like, we need. We need Archie and we need Jughead. But wait for it. Jughead has a son who sucks.
B
They're going to their 15 year high school reunion. It's like nobody wants to see Archie in those characters like that. Talk about a squandered IP opportunity there. Totally. It's so, so bad.
C
I did not think that we would start with broke and then you'd find something that he was more embarrassed.
B
It gets even worse in that movie than that, that clip. I mean, it's pure culture vulturing in that, in that, in that movie. But it reminded me, oh no. Oh no, you're not gonna show that clip.
C
I mean, you think he's got everything on. You think? You think what? What clip do you think?
B
Never mind.
A
Wait a minute. You. You didn't realize that Jughead Jr. Loves rap? No.
B
Ho.
A
Sugar, ah, honey, honey, you are my candy girl and you got me sugar,
B
ah, honey, honey, you are my candy girl and you got me rocking you. Break it down with me when I kiss you girl.
A
Never knew how sweet a kiss could be. Then you laid your ever loving stuff on me.
B
Break it down for me, fella.
A
I'm going to make your life so sweet.
B
Rocking, moving, shaking stuff.
A
I'm on the rock, your world complete, Moving, say what?
B
Pour a little sugar on it.
A
Sugar, you are my candy girl and
B
you got me rocking you. Break it down.
A
Hold it.
B
Sugar a honey honey, you are my candy girl and you Got me rocking you Break it down, come on. And you got me and you got me and you got me Break it down, won't you please?
A
Now, was that.
B
It was teamwork, dad. Yo, give me five, my man. You a fish. Oh, you were styling, too, my man. Oh, did you see that move I busted? I was grooving, wasn't I grooving?
C
I can't be seen with Billy anymore.
A
I mean, Luther Campbell should have put a bounty on you for what you did.
B
It would be better if I had been abused, that at least I'd have an excuse. I just like. I. Dan. That was like that Dan's face. It was like one of those. It was like one of those Two Girls One cup reaction videos.
A
It really. It was Billy. Billy.
B
I want to hear you explain that, Pablo, because I know you don't let us drop any pop culture references without explaining it to your audience.
C
What?
A
Two Girls One cup is what you just heard. There was Jughead and Jughead junior Rapping to great applause. And when I tell you that it's worse than the video of two girls eating out of a cup, I am not journalistically exaggerating. Thank you for joining us. This has been Pablo Torre Finds Out, a Meadowlark Media production and I'll talk to you next time.
B
This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible financial geniuses, monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds. Because Progressive offers discounts for paying in full, owning a home, and more. Plus, you can count on their great customer service to help you when you need it. So your dollar goes a long way. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance, Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states or situations. ACAST powers the world's best podcasts.
A
Here's a show that we recommend. Hey guys.
B
Welcome to Giggly Squad, A place where
A
we make fun of everything, but most importantly ourselves. I'm Paige Desorbo.
B
I'm Hannah Burner.
A
Welcome to the squad.
B
Giggly Squad started on Summer House when we were giggling during an inappropriate time. But of course, we can't be managed. So we decided to start this podcast to continue giggling. We will make fun of pop culture news. We're watching fashion trends pep talks where we give advice, mental health moments and games and guests. Listen to Giggly Squad on ACAST or wherever you get your podcasts. ACAST helps creators launch, grow and monetize their podcasts everywhere.
A
Acast.com.
Pablo Torre Finds Out (The Athletic)
Date: March 31, 2026
Host: Pablo Torre
Guests: Billy Corbin (filmmaker, former child actor), Dan Le Batard (journalist, Meadowlark Media founder)
This episode dives into the life and career of Billy Corbin: from his days as a precocious child actor (most infamously, the "meanest, most arrogant, obnoxious little brat" guest-starring on Night Court) to his acclaimed work as a documentarian chronicling Miami’s wildest scandals and America’s shifting culture. Alongside Dan Le Batard, Torre traces Corbin’s relentless drive for muckraking, accountability journalism, and the odd joys of making enemies with institutions one loves—all with the irreverent, self-deprecating humor typical of the trio.
“Fairly recently, after more than three decades of hating this specific character...I found out something shocking. I found out that the actor who played that child was someone whom I've known, it turns out, for years.” (05:00, Pablo Torre)
“That probably was the moment I thought, oh, if there's a trajectory or potential...that would be it.” (13:01, Billy Corbin)
“They say the great thing about Miami is it's so close to the United States. I would argue that the great thing about Miami is it's so close to the planet earth.” (37:47, Billy Corbin) “We're not a normal place. He and I have not grown up in a normal place...there's nothing quite like this place. It's awful and it's wonderful.” (36:21, Dan Le Batard)
“There's no such thing as a documentary anymore. Yeah, that's not...it's a thing, but it's not a documentary.” (15:59, Billy Corbin) “You can call it trading access for the dilution of truth.” (16:05, Dan Le Batard)
“If those things [threats, lawsuits] aren’t happening, I’m not sure I’m doing anything right.” (26:57, Billy Corbin) “You don’t fight the fights you can win. You fight the fights that are worth fighting.” (15:25, Billy Corbin)
“I got a beer bottle thrown across a bar that hit me in the chin...That was another thing I learned, like the insanity of fandom.” (19:33)
“The whole mission statement, though, is to show that you could do accountability journalism. But it's also fun, right?” (31:21, Pablo Torre)
“Miami of today is the America of tomorrow...look at what's happening in the state of Florida, or more specifically, South Florida.” (37:47, Billy Corbin)
“I mean, Luther Campbell should have put a bounty on you for what you did.” (42:43, Pablo Torre) “Dan’s face—it was like one of those Two Girls One Cup reaction videos.” (42:47, Billy Corbin)
Casual, irreverent, and good-humored, the conversation veers from nostalgia to moral philosophy to the absurd, always circling back to a love of storytelling and a compulsion to “punch up.” The episode is marked by a mutual affection for Miami’s richness as subject matter, a joy in uncovering truth, and a willingness to lampoon themselves as much as any target.
This episode is a meta-narrative about loving a place (and profession) enough to challenge it, even when it leads to literal and figurative battle scars. Torre, Corbin, and Le Batard offer a playful, insightful look into why Miami’s stories matter to America, how journalism can be both adversarial and deeply affectionate—and why the fight for truth can sometimes be the most rewarding kind of fun.