Theater of the Aaron Rodgers Absurd: Share & Tell w/ Wyatt Cenac, Domonique Foxworth & Pablo

Summary

Pablo Torre Finds Out — "Theater of the Aaron Rodgers Absurd: Share & Tell"

Date: March 15, 2024
Host: Pablo Torre
Guests: Wyatt Cenac, Domonique Foxworth, Ryan Cortez

---

Overview

This episode dives into the strange saga of NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers, recent conspiracy theories, and his surprising potential candidacy as RFK Jr.'s vice-presidential running mate. The conversation explores the boundary between curiosity and conspiracy, the deeper societal factors that fuel such thinking, and what it means for public discourse when prominent athletes walk the line between influence and irresponsibility. It’s a blend of humor, exasperation, and critical analysis that pulls apart the theater of the absurd surrounding Rodgers and, by proxy, American culture today.

---

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Name Games, Humor, and Identity

(00:26–04:19)

• The episode opens with playful banter about naming conventions and letting children choose their own names, inspired by Olympic skier Peekaboo Street.
• The hosts joke about what they’d name themselves, with Pablo suggesting "Wolverine," sparking laughter about the absurdity and impracticality.
  • Quote:

    "I would have named myself like Wolverine Bernard is on Dore iii."
    — Pablo Torre (01:42)

• This portion sets a light, humorous tone and establishes camaraderie.

2. Crows, Intelligence, and Human Projections

(05:28–13:32)

• Discussion shifts to bird intelligence, particularly crows and their misunderstood capabilities.
• Pablo introduces his theory ("the con of mammals") that humans are biased toward their own kind, underestimating other animals, especially birds.
• They reference scientific research showing crows can use tools, plan, and solve complex puzzles, challenging the "bird brain" stereotype.
• Memorable Moment:
  • Playful commentary on humans’ desire to make other beings pick up their trash leads to a reflection on humanity’s “slave addiction.”
    • Quote:

      "Pick up your own trash. ... Why can't we just teach our to use a trash can? But no, we’re like, we gotta find a slave to do that. ... We can’t shake this slave addiction we got."
      — Ryan Cortez (10:28)

• The discussion is both lighthearted and deeply reflective, blending animal facts with social critique.

3. Shifting to Aaron Rodgers & the "Absurd Theater"

(14:48–17:44)

• The conversation transitions to the week's big story: Aaron Rodgers as a major vice-presidential candidate for RFK Jr.
• They react to CNN’s reporting that Rodgers had peddled Sandy Hook truther conspiracies to journalist Pamela Brown and share Rodgers’ subsequent public denial.
  • Quote:

    "He says, 'As I am on the record saying in the past, what happened in Sandy Hook was an absolute tragedy. I am not and have never been of the opinion that the events did not take place.' ..."
    — Pablo Torre reading Rodgers (16:26)

• The group questions Rodgers’ sincerity, parsing his language for legal ambiguity (the "immunized loophole").
  • Quote:

    "It sounds like based on what he told Pamela Brown, he says a thing happened—he just thinks the thing was some conspiracy."
    — Ryan Cortez (17:03)

4. The Challenge of Responding Seriously (or Not)

(17:44–24:56)

• Dominique Foxworth expresses exasperation and embarrassment over having to discuss Rodgers as a real political figure, likening it to the rise of Trump in 2016.
• Reflection on the difficulty of engaging with topics that blur satire and reality—how public figures like Rodgers force the media and public to take them seriously by sheer audacity.
• Discussion of the tension between sports as an escape and a platform for addressing real societal issues.
  • Dominique on sports as a bridge:

    "We actually get an opportunity to talk to people who are outside of our...bubbles through sports." (20:36)

• Difficulty in crafting a “message” about Rodgers: is he dangerous, or should attention be withheld from conspiracists?

5. Dissecting Rodgers' Descent into Conspiratorial Thinking

(25:03–34:01)

• Pablo describes Rodgers as having become a "one man Overton Window," constantly redefining what’s considered beyond the pale in public discourse.
  • Quote:

    "He is kind of like this one man, like Overton Window, right? This guy who is a line at which I guess we have to figure out, are we just gonna let this guy just say stuff and not take it seriously anymore?"
    — Pablo Torre (25:03)

• The panel listens to clips from Aaron Rodgers' podcast appearances (espousing the Tartarian empire and other historical conspiracies).
  • Wyatt Cenac observes:

    “To me, what’s interesting about seeing Aaron Rodgers over the years is that he very much seems like he falls into the camp of conspiracy theorists." (32:47)

• They parse Rodgers’ skepticism: when does healthy questioning cross into destructive paranoia?

6. Platform, Power, and the Line of Responsibility

(34:01–40:29)

• Reflection on how Rodgers, once a beloved figure, alienated his audience—not by being "too truthful," but by veering into "that we cannot possibly even begin to defend" (Pablo).
• Pablo and guests consider whether guarding against such influence is now their responsibility as journalists and public figures.
  • Pablo:

    "Do we have to be the people who are the guardrails? Is it incumbent upon us in sports to be like, we've been covering this guy forever. He's now trying to be Vice President..."

• Ryan points out the failures of accountability when athletes only do softball podcasts with fans rather than facing hard questions.

7. Deeper Roots: Racism, Social Structures, and American Ills

(44:17–46:52)

• Dominique bluntly connects systemic societal dysfunctions—including education and conspiracism—back to American racism as a foundational problem:
  • Quote:

    "It's because we're racist. Our schools are [messed] up because we're racist. Our social safety net is [messed] up cuz we're racist."
    — Dominique Foxworth (44:17)

• The hosts riff on a football analogy: society as a team failing because it won’t recognize mutual interest or address systemic disadvantage on the "offensive line."

8. Closing: Questions Without Answers and the AI Twist

(48:16–49:34)

• Pablo shares the (unverified) news that AI-detection software flagged Rodgers' official statement as possibly written by artificial intelligence—highlighting layers of absurdity.
  • Quote:

    "Someone ran Aaron Rodgers's statement ... through AI detection software and it was detected as written by AI."
    — Pablo Torre (48:16)

• The group acknowledges the fatigue and confusion that comes with trying to parse truth from theater in the modern media landscape.
  • Quote (finale):

    "I don’t know anymore. And I’m tired of try. I’m finally tired of trying to find out."
    — Pablo Torre (49:34)

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "Pick up your own trash...We can’t shake this slave addiction we got." — Ryan Cortez (10:28)
• "He is kind of like this one man, like Overton Window..." — Pablo Torre (25:03)
• "Curiosity and questioning are good. But conspiracy is danger." — Paraphrase of group sentiment
• "Racism is bad for all of us... the systemic issues that our country faces are a result of race." — Dominique Foxworth (44:17–45:20)
• "We don’t recognize that we’re on the same team." — Dominique (46:33)
• "Someone ran Aaron Rodgers's statement ... through AI detection software and it was detected as written by AI." — Pablo Torre (48:16)
• "I don’t know anymore. And I’m tired of try. I’m finally tired of trying to find out." — Pablo Torre (49:34)

---

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:26 – Name games and the power of naming oneself
• 05:28 – Crows, avian intelligence, and human projections
• 10:28 – The “slave addiction” of delegating labor (riff on crows)
• 14:48 – Shifting to Aaron Rodgers and media coverage
• 16:26 – Reading Rodgers’ statement on Sandy Hook
• 25:03 – Rodgers as an "Overton Window" in public discourse
• 32:47 – Wyatt Cenac on the difference between curiosity and conspiracy
• 44:17 – Dominique on racism as the root of systemic American problems
• 48:16 – The AI-detection twist on Rodgers’ statement
• 49:34 – Pablo’s sign-off, expressing exhaustion with the state of truth

---

Summary Tone

The tone is playful, candid, occasionally exasperated, but earnest—a hallmark of Pablo’s exploratory style. There is plenty of humor and teasing, but a persistent seriousness as the group grapples with issues on the boundary of sports, influence, and American social decay. The episode manages to be both entertaining and sobering, leaving listeners both amused and provoked.

---

For anyone who missed the episode, this summary captures both the lighthearted spirit and heavy questions at its core: Where is the line between curiosity and dangerous conspiracy, and what responsibility do influential figures—and those who report on them—bear in holding that line?

Transcript

[Pablo Torre]

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

[Ryan Cortez]

Is murder.

[Pablo Torre]

Right after this ad. You're listening to Giraffe K.

[Ryan Cortez]

I got an Olympic comedy album called Peekaboo Street Jokes.

[Pablo Torre]

Peekaboo sounds like it's a syllable away from problematic.

[Dominique]

Didn't she name herself? That's the thing, right?

[Ryan Cortez]

Is that right?

[Dominique]

I thought that's how she got the name. Is that. Whatever. Yeah, I'll just let Pablo look it up before I say something offensive.

[Pablo Torre]

Peekaboo Street. Her parents decided to let Peekaboo choose her own name when she was old enough. So for the first two years of her life, she was quote baby girl, end quote. Or little girl.

[Dominique]

Oh, there's another great Olympic bit in that.

[Ryan Cortez]

Yeah. Oh, yeah. No, this is. Yeah.

[Dominique]

I mean, I would go the easy route. She's white, right?

[Pablo Torre]

You were. You were wondering if a child who got the power to name themselves was white?

[Ryan Cortez]

Oh, my.

[Dominique]

My whole.

[Ryan Cortez]

And who became a skier.

[Dominique]

My. My whole bit, if I did Olympic stand up, would be about black people name like this and white people name like this.

[Pablo Torre]

Letting someone name their name themselves is of. I cannot relate to that power.

[Dominique]

Well, let's do it right now. What if you could name yourself? What would you name yourself?

[Pablo Torre]

I would have named myself like. Like Wolverine. Wolverine. Bernard is on Dore iii.

[Dominique]

Okay? So you have to take all scenarios into account. Like, you would be fine introducing yourself as Wolverine.

[Pablo Torre]

That's right, Bubble. Deep cut X Men jokes all the time.

[Dominique]

I got it.

[Pablo Torre]

What would you name yourself?

[Ryan Cortez]

I don't know.

[Dominique]

I like my name.

[Ryan Cortez]

There was a guy, I remember. I remember a story years ago about a guy in, I believe in New York who named his kids Ghostface and Raekwon. Who? And he was a white guy, obviously.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah, yeah, that tracks.

[Ryan Cortez]

This kid's gonna be fine because he's.

[Dominique]

Got a trust fund Ghost Face Killer. Or is this Ghostface? Or do you give him the killer?

[Ryan Cortez]

That's a good question.

[Dominique]

You gotta go full in. You can't go Ghostface Richard Johnson. You gotta go Ghostface Killer Johnson.

[Pablo Torre]

Inspector Charles Johnson.

[Ryan Cortez]

Deck. Deck.

[Dominique]

Why? What's your name?

[Ryan Cortez]

I don't know. I. I feel like. Like you. I like my name.

[Dominique]

Yeah, And Wolverine would be terrible.

[Pablo Torre]

I like my name too, by the way. Like, I don't like being boxed into this.

[Dominique]

You're the only. You're the only junior, and clearly I'm not a junior. What are you, the third?

[Pablo Torre]

I'm a third.

[Dominique]

There you go. So clearly disrespect. To your family.

[Ryan Cortez]

I'm a junior.

[Dominique]

Oh, word.

[Ryan Cortez]

Yeah. Maybe that's also why I feel a certain. Yeah. Connection to it. But.

[Pablo Torre]

But why am I. We're here ashamed for choosing to be Wolverine.

[Ryan Cortez]

We're here on Wolverine. Torre finds out. Welcome to wtfo.

[Dominique]

It would make the show a little bit better.

[Pablo Torre]

That's a way we're going to have Newt Photoshop that.

[Dominique]

Oh, gosh, I just don't get it. Like, I guess you're going for the joke. The joke?

[Pablo Torre]

The joke.

[Ryan Cortez]

What?

[Pablo Torre]

It's not a joke if you gave a kid the power to name themselves?

[Dominique]

No, I didn't say Pablo. Pretend that you are two years old and name yourself. I said Pablo. What would your name be?

[Pablo Torre]

And you said, I would choose Wolverine.

[Ryan Cortez]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Now then.

[Dominique]

All right, now what would you choose? Wolverine.

[Ryan Cortez]

Logan.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah, Logan.

[Ryan Cortez]

Wolverine's alter ego.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah, I'm into more serious adult versions of Wolverine now.

[Dominique]

Guys, the best part is you have not fully shaved your facial hair.

[Pablo Torre]

That's right.

[Ryan Cortez]

You got a little Wolverine pattern.

[Pablo Torre]

You know what? That is the nicest thing Dominique's ever said to me.

[Ryan Cortez]

And you're wearing. And you're wearing a yellow shirt, which is kind of like Wolverine. Like, you just need a little.

[Pablo Torre]

Wait, do you guys hear that?

[Dominique]

No, I don't.

[Pablo Torre]

You hear that sound?

[Ryan Cortez]

No. Snicked.

[Pablo Torre]

That.

[Dominique]

What?

[Ryan Cortez]

Wait, is that. Is that going to be the sound? But the. The way you did it, they sounded. Your. Your claws sounded so. Just meek and just snicked. Do you mind if I cut you?

[Dominique]

Snicked.

[Ryan Cortez]

I'm going to stab you. Stab it. Stab it. Stab time.

[Dominique]

Snicked. That was the worst.

[Ryan Cortez]

It was like worse. It was like. You remember the old Flash Gordon movie where it was like Flash. Ah, that's. That's what you just did. Snict is.

[Pablo Torre]

I didn't feel. I didn't feel. I got you good about that one.

[Dominique]

Shing as Shing. Yeah, I think I'd rather be a Shing than a Snick.

[Pablo Torre]

How dare you?

[Dominique]

I mean, I would be.

[Pablo Torre]

I mean, felt racist. I'm not sure how I felt it.

[Dominique]

I could tell that's where you were going with that.

[Pablo Torre]

Wyatt, you want to talk about crows?

[Ryan Cortez]

Sure. Yeah. I. I should bring a computer in next time.

[Pablo Torre]

Do you want me to introduce the crows?

[Dominique]

Ravens are crows. I play for the ravens.

[Ryan Cortez]

That's right. Yeah.

[Dominique]

And I'm from Baltimore. Very smart birds.

[Ryan Cortez]

Also, somebody told me that blue jays are crows too. Are they? That's what I was told, yeah. Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

I want to talk about my conspiracy. That I believe in. That's not rooted in systemic racism.

[Dominique]

Are you going say birds or cameras.

[Pablo Torre]

Considering it going to put that off to the side, maybe. I'm talking about.

[Dominique]

Isn't that a thing, though?

[Pablo Torre]

Yes.

[Ryan Cortez]

Okay.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know people have never seen, like, a dead. They've never seen, like a dead seagull. And it's like where they go ocean.

[Ryan Cortez]

But also, are they, like, are. They're saying they're cameras for spy organizations.

[Pablo Torre]

I have to. It's payroll.

[Dominique]

I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I said it's down the wrong way.

[Ryan Cortez]

Well, no, because that also, though, makes me think about. There was this. There was this weird thing that. This is going to sound conspiratorial.

[Pablo Torre]

White is grinning way too much for this to be anything but a tremendous, tremendously dangerous tangent.

[Ryan Cortez]

There was a thing, and you can look it up. It was a real thing that the US government did where they tried putting microphones in cats so that they, like, sewed microphones into cats so that they could spy on. On people. On, like, you know, I believe it was like, Russian, like, on some Russians. This was obviously years and years ago. It has like a name like Operation Danger Kitty or something.

[Pablo Torre]

Incorrect. Project Acoustic Kitty.

[Ryan Cortez]

There it is. Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

1962, the office of Technological Service came up with a plan. They would implant a microphone in a tiny transmitter into a cat's ear canal and train it to follow audio cues towards a target. I feel like the guy on Joe Rogan who's Googling stuff, reading it. Um, so I should say that this actually links into my conspiracy that I had, which is the con of mammals, which is that we care all this about all these mammals because we are mammals, too, and we see their pain and we believe them to be smarter than us and meanwhile, not smarter. Well, sorry, the mammals are smarter than everyone else. I mean, we are the mammals, and so we are smarter than everybody else.

[Ryan Cortez]

But that's because we call ourselves mammals. They may not see us as mammals.

[Pablo Torre]

They don't identify as mammals.

[Ryan Cortez]

Yeah, they don't. They're like. We're saying we're of you. And they're like, how the hell. You are not the thing.

[Pablo Torre]

The animal that I feel the most for, though, in this theory that I have, is of course, the bird.

[Ryan Cortez]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

Because there's a. There's an insult. That is very common. Bird brain. And so this article in the New Yorker, which is titled, I Want to get this Right, the Magic of Bird Brains. Subtitle Subhead Crows are smart. Enough to pick up trash. Why won't they? And turns out that so many people. Throughout time, scientists dismissed the interior lives of birds because avian brains, bird brains are smaller, and so they seem to be idiots, but it turns out that they're actually just dense with neurons. This is an actual, like, scientific revelation to bird researchers even. And so these birds got used to to in a program by these organizations to see if they could train crows. Corvids is their. Is their family, which includes crows, jays, magpies, to pick up trash because they could do stuff like this.

[Narrator/Guest Expert]

Actually, everyone knows crows are smart. They recognize faces they can make and use tools. But how smart and how do they learn? That's where one of Aesop's fables comes in. It's the one about a thirsty crow that dropped stones in a pitcher in order to raise the water level so it was high enough to get a drink. Seems unlikely, but in fact, experiments have shown that New Caledonian crows, once they're trained to pick up and drop stones, which is not something they do a lot in the wild, can figure out this problem pretty quickly. They use the stones to raise the water level to get a piece of floating food.

[Pablo Torre]

Are you guys impressed by that?

[Ryan Cortez]

I am impressed.

[Pablo Torre]

Dominique's not impressed by the bird.

[Dominique]

Oh, no. I. I mean, I've seen this before. I've seen them. I haven't seen that specific video, but I've seen them do this, and I've seen them, like, break down more complicated puzzles than that. But, yeah, it is incredibly impressive.

[Pablo Torre]

So let me point this out then. Coming off of that video is that crows can, it turns out, read each other's intentions. They can plan for the future. They can solve puzzles using abstract reasoning. All of which is to say they trained him to do stuff like pick up trash. And they said, you. No. And they're like, the one animal that has cohabited with us basically, in our spaces, lived in our spaces, and maintained their independence. And that is this mark of their genius. So, pros.

[Ryan Cortez]

Yeah. Why the do we want slaves so badly? Like, we can't. We just can't shake slavery.

[Dominique]

Pick up your own trash.

[Ryan Cortez]

Pick up your own trash. Why can't we just teach our to use a trash can? But no, we're like, we gotta find a slave to do that. And they don't want us using people anymore. How about crows? And when the crows don't do it. Okay, well, why don't we. I don't know. Let's find, like, a kitty cat. Let's see if we can get cats to do it. We just need slaves. Get a robot, whatever. We just. Oh, my God. We can't shake. We can't. We can't shake this slave addiction we got.

[Pablo Torre]

I was gonna say, like, you guys are going way too far with this crow racism bit. And then I was thinking of, like, what was the actual program called when America was Racist?

[Ryan Cortez]

Jim Crow.

[Dominique]

Well done, Pablo. Even a blind crow finds a rock.

[Ryan Cortez]

Every now and then.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah, birds. Underrated. Underrated.

[Dominique]

I mean, there's some pretty dumb ones too. Like the Shoe Bill, a very scary looking bird, which apparently is not that bright. So, like, we're talking about us mammals and us humans as a group. And I'm sure there are some humans that we've talked about and some we haven't that all of us would like. No, I'm not like him. So I think that birds are probably separate. Also, the Shoe Bill. Crazy. They be, like, eating like mammals and stuff. Like large. Very scary. I'm sure you'll put up a picture.

[Pablo Torre]

Yes. Shoe Bill is like a fake. It looks like a dinosaur at, like a puppet. What do you call Puppet studio?

[Ryan Cortez]

Oh, sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Puppet workshop.

[Pablo Torre]

Workshop.

[Ryan Cortez]

Yeah. How does the Shoe Bill stack up against the cassowary?

[Dominique]

They great kickers.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah, great kickers that, like velociraptor. Like talon.

[Ryan Cortez]

Velociraptor talons. They got a bone mohawk.

[Pablo Torre]

They do have a bone mohawk.

[Ryan Cortez]

Yeah, they got a bone mohawk. And there's some great video online of cassowaries. Just like somebody trying to, like, put a broom into a cassowary pen and the cassowary just rips it to shreds.

[Dominique]

This guy uses a thick shield to.

[Ryan Cortez]

Protect himself during an attack.

[Pablo Torre]

So more like running at you and kicking you and jumping at you with those.

[Ryan Cortez]

With those feet.

[Pablo Torre]

And like a velociraptor. They're gonna shred you.

[Dominique]

It looks mangled.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah, that's what. That's better the rake than you, pretty much. That's what we reckon.

[Ryan Cortez]

There's a cassowary. Everyone run away from the cassowary, right?

[Pablo Torre]

The deadliest bird on. On the planet is the cassowary.

[Ryan Cortez]

Watch.

[Dominique]

Watching Pablo try to figure out how to spell cassowary and then try to figure out how to. How to find a cassowary without writing. He put bonehead bird. He put all types of nonsense. Just write it, man. Give it a shot. Google a. Guess it.

[Pablo Torre]

I was briefly looking up the Wikipedia summary for a movie called Bone Tomahawk starring Kurt Russell.

[Ryan Cortez]

Oh, when was that made?

[Pablo Torre]

2015.

[Ryan Cortez]

Oh, wow. I thought that was gonna be like, 1970s for sure.

[Pablo Torre]

No, no, it grossed over 480, 000 in theater sales.

[Ryan Cortez]

Oh, okay.

[Dominique]

That was in, like, our theaters. Where was that? I don't never heard of that. No, I thought it was gonna go straight to streaming or something.

[Ryan Cortez]

Yeah, maybe they only put it in theaters to try to get it, like, Oscar contention.

[Dominique]

Maybe.

[Ryan Cortez]

So that's why.

[Dominique]

But then how did it gross 400?

[Ryan Cortez]

It was just one weekend in a couple art house theaters.

[Dominique]

Maybe it wasn't meant for us. Maybe they marketed it to some other.

[Pablo Torre]

Democrat Gazette, called the film racist, calling it, quote, the equivalent of having as villains a sect of orthodox Jews.

[Dominique]

What?

[Pablo Torre]

Oh, gosh.

[Ryan Cortez]

Are crows the only birds that as a group are called a murder? I think so.

[Pablo Torre]

I believe so.

[Ryan Cortez]

Which. That's him. That's impressive.

[Pablo Torre]

Gotta say, feels a little racist.

[Ryan Cortez]

Yeah. Unless they chose it. Unless it was like, hey, crows, what do you want to be called?

[Pablo Torre]

They reclaimed it. Yeah.

[Ryan Cortez]

And they were like, we want to be called a murder. Sorry, a murder.

[Dominique]

There we go.

[Ryan Cortez]

We're a murder. A crows. It's murder.

[Pablo Torre]

So Dominique is already exasperated by the Aaron Rodgers topic that I wanted to bring in, which I do understand.

[Ryan Cortez]

Yeah.

[Dominique]

I mean, yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

So I. I agree, by the way. I agree that that's a reasonable response to this. It's funny how this played out, because before all of this stuff happened this week, which, by the way, I guess we should say that this happened this week.

[Pamela Brown]

In 2013, when CNN's Pamela Brown was covering the Kentucky Derby, she was introduced to Rogers. Hearing that she was a journalist at cnn, Rogers began attacking the news media for, quote, covering up important stories. Rogers then brought up the Sandy Hook shooting and said the news media was intentionally ignoring that the shooting wasn't real, that it was a government inside job. I remind you, the shooting, of course, was very real, very tragic. 20 children and 6 adults were murdered that day. When Pamela Brown asked Aaron Rodgers for evidence of what he was talking about, Rogers then began sharing various theories that have been disproven numerous times by evidence. Rogers falsely claimed to Pamela Brown that there were men in black in the woods by the school, and he asked if she thought that was odd. Brown says that she found the entire encounter disturbing.

[Pablo Torre]

And then, like minutes before we sat down here, Aaron Rodgers tweeted out his first comments after everybody, of course, started talking about this, because, by the way, I guess I'm backing into a lead here, which is that Aaron Rodgers is one of the two top contenders to be RFK jr's Vice President.

[Ryan Cortez]

Sure.

[Pablo Torre]

He says this quote, as I am on the record saying in the past what happened in Sandy Hook was an absolute tragedy. I am not and have never been of the opinion that the events did not take place. Again, I hope that we learn from this and other tragedies to identify the signs that will allow us to prevent unnecessary loss of life. My thoughts and prayers continue to remain with the families affected along with the entire Sandy Hook community. Heart emoji, hashtag thing. So that happened after I wanted to do a thing about Aaron Rodgers. But your first reaction, I guess to Aaron Rodgers now saying clarifying. Actually no, no, no. Have never believed the thing that now CNN has accused me of saying to their reporters.

[Ryan Cortez]

I I want you to read it again because it's. It sounds like based on what he told Pamela Brown, he says a thing happened. He just thinks the thing was some conspiracy.

[Pablo Torre]

Oh you see an immunized.

[Ryan Cortez]

This legal. Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

So this is what he says. It's a good point. I am not and have never been of the opinion that the events did not take place. And then he hopes that we learn from this and other tragedies to prevent unnecessary loss of life, etc. Etc. So an absolute tragedy, the events did not take place is not a thing he believes. And so look, we're just doing the thing again. Dominique. Which I guess is why Dominique was exasperated when he sat down and I was like, I think I have Aaron Rodgers takes.

[Dominique]

I don't like talking about any of this stuff. I know we need to. I think the interesting thing for me was when he first we first found out he was going to potentially be the running mate of RFK is that we all joked about it.

[Pablo Torre]

Yes.

[Ryan Cortez]

Yeah.

[Dominique]

And it was like we joked one other time about a candidate and I ain't turned out so great. And so I guess it just wasn't. And I guess this feels a little bit more far fetched or whatever. Or does it? I don't know. It's just an uncomfortable place to be in. And also just generally which is kind of embarrassed that he. And this is before we even get to the Sandy Hook stuff.

[Pablo Torre]

Exactly.

[Dominique]

It's just like what are we doing?

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah. New York Times reports this and it's immediately like, oh, we're doing this now.

[Ryan Cortez]

Right.

[Pablo Torre]

We're doing the thing where Aaron Rodgers is in our discourse in a way that dares us to take him seriously. And so the serious part, incidentally is when people begin to do exactly that and they're like now officially, you know, reporting stuff the political presses in ways that reveal that, actually, Aaron Rodgers's whole persecution complex with the sports media is actually nothing compared to what would happen, actually, if he was a real candidate being vetted by all sorts of political campaigns.

[Ryan Cortez]

Right? Yeah, he's definitely in a world where he's insulated because he has a perceived value. And in a weird way, probably getting injured was the best thing to happen for him because it only gave another year for that value to kind of increase because people were like, yeah, maybe he's gonna come back and save the Jets. And it's just for a guy who probably loves attention more than he loves winning championships, he is getting it. And that's what it seems like. It seems like, yeah, this is a guy who constantly wants attention. And there's no. There's no world in which a. If RFK were a candidate that were taken seriously and then RFK were to win, there's no way that Aaron Rodgers would be content having to be a politician and having to. And not just having to be a politician, Having. Be a vice president.

[Pablo Torre]

Like, that's basically the Nathaniel Hackett of politicians.

[Ryan Cortez]

I was. I was gonna say it's backing up Brett Favre. It's. It's. You know, it's. It's that thing of, like, oh, yeah, no, this is a person who wants the spotlight at every turn. And I. And for anyone who's in his life when he retires, I hope, you know, get him interested in golf. I.

[Dominique]

Rarely. So, like, I. I get excited, I think, or when we get an opportunity in sports to take on some real things. And it's happened more and more recently, and I kind of feel like, yeah, this, like, the other stuff is fun, but we actually get an opportunity to talk to people who are outside of our. Whatever bubbles we live in through sports, because there are lots of people from all different political spectrums who are willing to listen to me, who would not turn on or read the same things that I read. And I think that's what I was trying to investigate, my exasperation because, like, oh, I mean, it's not really affecting me. Why does this stress me out so much? And then it hit me that, like, I should be excited because this is my opportunity. But I think more than anything, it's just reinforcing that. I don't know how much progress if Eddie has been made. I don't know where we are going. I don't. And I also don't know what to do because through all the. Like, through. I don't know what to do or say. Because through Covid and whatever racial. A reckoning or whatever we called it that period.

[Pablo Torre]

Love a reckoning.

[Dominique]

Oh, man, it was one of the happiest stretches of my life. White people was listening, including phone calls. Oh, I was getting random phone calls, apologizing, like, hey, you know, all this racism, my bad dog. That's all I wanted. And then, like, through the campaign of Donald Trump and through his presidency, like, we're all finding ways to do whatever part we can. And it. And you, like, convince yourself that you're actually, like, taking some risk and making some progress. And then we get out of it and it's like, hey, you know what? Is anything that much better? Is it anything that much worse? And that's what I think I was confronted with, was like, now how do I handle this? In a way, because I made mistakes through those stretches. I, like, I have regrets on things that I said and things that I.

[Pablo Torre]

Did, but hard in on Aaron Rodgers, as lots of us did. And then you sort of modulated being.

[Dominique]

Like, okay, yeah, because, I mean, I. I like that don't get you anywhere. And so that's. I think that's what was stressing me out is like, how do I handle this? Because it's absurd and, like, making fun of it is fine, but, like, what do you actually say about it, if it's real?

[Ryan Cortez]

I don't know, but maybe. Is it. Do you think on some level it's the absurdity of it? Because when I think about what you're talking about as having this platform to be able to maybe engage in different conversations with people who are sports fans and getting them to kind of open their mind and be empathetic to a different perspective. When you say that, I think about people like, you know, when Greg Popovich and Steve Kerr and Doc Rivers were during, you know, 2020, talking about, you know, police violence. I. I think about when Carl Anthony Towns was talking about how Covid impacted him. And those are real things that feel like pegs that you can talk about where you can say, okay to any Covid deniers. Here is a basketball player that you potentially root for, and he just lost his mother. And that, to me, feels like it's much easier to peg a story around that than the absurdity that Aaron Rodgers often exists in, whether it is he may be the vice president, the vice presidential candidate for a third party candidate, or his claims on Covid or his Joe Rogan appearances. They're all in the theater of the absurd.

[Dominique]

Yeah, but I think so around Covid, stuff like the Message is simple. Get vaccinated or stay home. The tough thing about this is like, what am I. What is the message that, that celebrities shouldn't be politicians like. Or Aaron Rogers shouldn't be taken seriously. And I think that's what I was having a hard time with is like, I don't want to say he shouldn't be taken seriously because we thought that it once upon a time, he should be taken seriously. But I also know that if I say, you know what? Don't vote for Aaron Rodgers, like, that's not the right thing to. To do either. That's not going to be proper.

[Ryan Cortez]

So you're endorsing, you're endorsing Aaron Rodgers.

[Pablo Torre]

We Photoshop that image.

[Dominique]

Oh, my gosh, you know how to get me to never come on this show again.

[Pablo Torre]

But can I, can I say that the reason I was interested in Aaron Rodgers and the reason why I was interested in him before even the Sandy Hook stuff, which he says or is trying to make us think he does not believe now at least, is because he is kind of like this one man, like Overton Window, right? This guy who is a line at which I guess we have to figure out, are we just gonna let this guy just say stuff and not take it seriously seriously anymore? It's this line where it's like, oh, what is the line beyond which we need to say with like some amount of seriousness, this is up and you shouldn't be taken seriously.

[Ryan Cortez]

Well, that's where even with his statement, his statement doesn't actually respond to CNN's claims. His statement doesn't respond to those conversations. He's just saying, I never said that. And it feels like, okay, well then somebody needs to hold his feet to the fire and say, why would this person say that the interaction they had with you at the Kentucky Derby was different than like, he's actually even not.

[Pablo Torre]

Saying, I didn't say that. He is saying, as I'm on the record saying in the past, what happened in Sandy Hook was an absolute tragedy. I am not. Have never been of the opinion that the events did not take place.

[Ryan Cortez]

Yeah.

[Pablo Torre]

And then he goes on to say that it's.

[Ryan Cortez]

I just had a lot of juleps at the, at the Derby and got loose.

[Pablo Torre]

But. But I think the question of Aaron Rodgers, it gets to like, do we find him interesting enough to wonder how he got this way? And so what is funny to me about this, beyond the fact that RFK Jr. Turns out in, I guess, leaking his two top vice presidential candidates are Jesse Ventura and Aaron Rodgers that he's really, really cornering the, you know, Democrats, former democrats who believe in 911 conspiracy market. Right? Beyond that, it's Aaron Rodgers went on this three hour paywalled podcast that I had Ryan Cortez listen to.

[Ryan Cortez]

I am sorry Ryan, because I got.

[Pablo Torre]

I got a text from something legally.

[Ryan Cortez]

Ryan, you should call a lawyer unless you just became red pilled.

[Pablo Torre]

Cortez will eat garbage when it comes to television and love it. And this was like something he actually pushed back on and I made him do it.

[Ryan Cortez]

And that is, that is exhibit A. This, that little clip of audio clip that Cortez that is exhibit A in your lawsuit.

[Pablo Torre]

It was three hours long and he sent me a long embittered summary of what he found out. But I want to play one of the clips because it proves that a. This guy Eddie Bravo is a real person. I thought this might be a like a, literally like a satire of like an Aaron Rodgers podcast episode that doesn't exist. But it turns out it exists. And Rogers said stuff like this Tartaria.

[Eddie Bravo]

Is interesting to me because I just don't. I have a natural skepticism paired with a true curiosity about, about history. I, I studied history in college. I, when I was nine years old I studied Egypt and, and, and that's why I'm so fascinated by Graham Hancock and Randall Carlson and their theories about Egypt. I love their podcast with Joe and, and, and why does that history matter? Because there's we. There's been probably thousands and thousands and thousands and tens and hundreds of thousands maybe years of extremely advanced civilizations. Why does that change things? Because everything that they've told us could be a lie.

[Pablo Torre]

And so Eddie Bravo is like a QAnon adjacent guy. It seems the theory they're talking about is the Tartarian empire, which is billed according to Bloomberg as the QAnon of architecture. And it also proceeds if we have that video of Roger saying his origin story about like how he started questioning things. It gets back to RFK Jr. If we have that clip.

[Eddie Bravo]

My thing on politics is I've always thought it's a sham because the majority of them are all juiced in and the rule and it's run by the big banks, the big pharma, the lobbyist, the big everything, right. That doesn't give a deep down about the American people. All they care about is profits, power and control.

[Ryan Cortez]

Right.

[Eddie Bravo]

So my antidote to that is RFK Jr. Because I think although he has the pedigree of family being in politics, the last real president was the first president I studied which was jfk. And that's what got me into questioning things because I did a sophomore project on jfk Life and Death.

[Ryan Cortez]

For a guy who doesn't believe in vaccines, it's weird that he would call RFK the antidote.

[Pablo Torre]

But I, I, I play all of this to point out that there are some things where it's like, hey, Aaron Rodgers, you're not a problem if what you believe is the pharmaceutical industry is a problem. Cool. I agree, it is. There are many, many issues with Big Pharma. If your whole take here is that, like, we should do more psychedelic drugs. Also. Also a board. Cool. Let's talk about that. If he's even like, anti mainstream media, like, okay, I'll hear you out on that. If it's a JFK conspiracy thing, I'm like, not scandalized by this. But the question is, where is the line? And I feel like the line is somewhere around the QAnon of architecture and Sandy Hook truther ism. And he's clearly on the other side of a line that just feels like we should say the issue with you as a candidate is that you believe some that's just actually deranged.

[Dominique]

How the human mind works is still a mystery to a lot of us in many ways. Or I mean, to all of us in many ways. Not me, except for Wyatt, however. And correct me if I'm wrong, it feels to me like I'm going to use this sports car analogy is it feels like Aaron has a sports car, like, in his head as far as, like, horsepower is concerned. But he's a drunk driver. It's just like, it just feels like because.

[Pablo Torre]

And you should not be trusted.

[Ryan Cortez]

Right.

[Pablo Torre]

And to drive us, to drive this.

[Dominique]

Country or just himself, you know? So, like, I don't, I'm hesitant to say that he's smart. And smart such a, like, loaded word because it like, oversimplifies intelligence. Like, you're either smart or you're not. You can be intelligent a bunch of different ways. But for the sake of this conversation, it's clear to me that he has some, some like, above average level of like, brain power. But where he chooses to focus it and what he does with it is the concerning part. The other question that comes up to me is you talk about the line. I don't know where the draw line is. We all recognize that some Sandy Hook truth or ism or whatever they're calling that is across the line. But the, the kindest thing I can say about Aaron Rodgers is like, people like him with that impulse Are, like, necessary. Because I know we all understand this. We are being lied to about something.

[Pablo Torre]

Sure.

[Dominique]

And somebody like the journalistic instinct to, like, be skeptical all the time and question everything is something that we need to have in society.

[Pablo Torre]

Yes. My. Again, like, the whole, like, we gotta find out stuff is, yes, I am. I embody this.

[Ryan Cortez]

Sure. But I feel like there's a. There's a line that needs to be drawn between curiosity and conspiracy theorist. And to me, what's interesting about seeing Aaron Rodgers over the years is that he very much seems like he falls into the camp of conspiracy theorists. And there are a lot. And there is maybe something to unpack about the psychology of conspiracy theorists, because whether they're Kieran, whether they're QAnon, whether they're Hoteps, there is this large population that seems to just be growing of conspiracy theorists. And what is it in that particular makeup of a person that is driving them that way? Are there things that Aaron Rodgers has in common, psychologically speaking, to a lot of these other people? And maybe that's something we should be looking at and focusing on, because the danger is, especially when these people have voices and platforms, they then just popularize not just their way of thinking, but the anxiety, narcissism, and other things that drive that thinking.

[Pablo Torre]

You know, I was wondering about, like, how Aaron Rodgers in his psychology was going to respond to this. I now am persuaded that he's going to go with the immunized loophole, careful rhetoric. I think Wyatt's right now that I keep on looking at this statement about this Sandy Hook stuff. But I think when it comes to how he got to be this way psychologically, you know, I think he's going to describe at some point he'll do the thing he always does. He'll complain about being canceled, how he has opinions that are too brave and all that stuff. I can see that happening. It might be happening as we speak right now. But the funny thing about his persecution complex is that Aaron Rodgers has actually been a fascinating experiment because he used to be beloved. All the people who are his critics now who tend to be loud about it, he was their guy. He was a friend of Dan LeBatard's show. He was in Mina Kimes home because he wanted to, which is weird, especially now to think about in retrospect, that he wanted to visit her as she was profiling him at espn. He was somebody that I admired because it seemed like his brain power was being used to be interesting and thoughtful while also being one of the greatest quarterbacks. Of all time. And the question then for him is, okay, why did he then feel like everybody turned on him? And I think. Or why is it? The question might be, why does he feel like he lost that audience? And he would say, I think because of the woke mind virus. Because he said some things that cut too close to the truth. And these people are sheep and they're not. They're not awoken and all that stuff. And in reality, I think the answer is, you started trafficking. And that we cannot possibly even begin to defend. And he never seems to consider that that is actually the answer. He's always looking outward at people don't get what I am putting down, and therefore it's them and not me.

[Dominique]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel pretty sure that there was. I think there was something that happened at. Before game in Green Bay where Aaron, like, admonished the Packer fans for booing Muslim person.

[Pablo Torre]

I believe it was the attacks in Paris. Yeah. That happened in 2015.

[Ryan Cortez]

Yeah.

[Dominique]

Go ahead, explain it.

[Pablo Torre]

Okay, so religious extremists killed at least 129 people in Paris. And a fan at a game appeared to shout, quote, muslims suck. During a moment of silence. And Rogers said after the game that, you know, that he was very disappointed with whoever the fan was who made a comment that I thought was really inappropriate during the moment of silence. It's that kind of prejudicial ideology that I think puts us in the position that we're in today as a world that was Rogers.

[Dominique]

I don't sound like.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah.

[Dominique]

And I think not knowing exactly what pushed him to the point where he is now. I think part of what happens in life is there are guardrails that you bump into or like, you kind of. If you're like, you're born with, like, you're like a raw material, as you tumble down this hill, things will, like, bump and knock and erode you into a point where you're smooth, able to operate within society. There's something to be said for being an exceptional person in some realm. Because while Aaron Rodgers, I'm sure, has had many challenges overcome as an athlete, a lot of the social experiences and a lot of the. The demands that are placed upon you as a growing young adult to an adult will have you conform to some degree. And if you're a great quarterback, there's nothing there. There's hard, hardly anything. And you're in Green Bay all the time. There's hardly anything that, like, forces you into that spot. Which I think Aaron would argue is why he is on to the trut. But I would argue what you did with that freedom is, like, dangerous. And that's the scary part. And that's why I don't know what to say about any of this.

[Pablo Torre]

It feels irresponsible for him to use his platform in a way that does not display critical thinking when his influence is meaningful, let alone actually resulting in political power. And so I guess why, what I, what I am struggling with too, as I listen to Dominica on that is simply, I don't want to be a scold. I wanted to do the thing about, can we get Eddie Bravo and like that podcast, play some clips and laugh. And now I'm like, grappling with, do we have to be the people who are the guardrails? Is it incumbent upon us in sports to be like, we've been covering this guy forever. He's not trying to be an actual vice President of the United States. He's daring us to take him seriously. And if that happens, what happens?

[Ryan Cortez]

Well, but it also feels like if we've lost the ability to actually hold people accountable to the words and they have to then respond to them, not in a tweet, but to sit across from reporters and have to answer these questions and have to be presented with facts and truth, whether it's Sandy Hook or even, I'm assuming the Egypt stuff he's talking about is like the Egypt alien, which even that stuff, there is a thing there that is rooted in some deep racism that is Africans couldn't have built all that aliens did. And so if you, if you want to have these conversations, you can't just go on Joe Rogan or Pat McPhee, and I call him McPhee because I assume Aaron asked him to move both the A's into his first name so they could be more alike. But you can't just go on shows where people are just going to kind of let you blow by and say whatever the hell you want.

[Dominique]

But he can. That's the thing.

[Ryan Cortez]

But that's what I'm saying.

[Dominique]

He can. And that's the point that I'm making.

[Ryan Cortez]

Is like, well, and that's what feels like. That's what's so problematic and where it feels like we're not going to find a solution to it. If we can con, if we continue to exist in this economy where anybody can have a podcast, anybody can kind of say what they want without any checks and balances.

[Pablo Torre]

And this is where Aaron Rodgers is somewhere out there, and people like him in his coalition are saying you guys are doing the same thing you're accusing me of doing. You guys agree with each other. You're talking, you're laughing together.

[Ryan Cortez]

Hahaha.

[Pablo Torre]

It's the same exact thing.

[Ryan Cortez]

And Aaron, you are welcome to come on this show and we'll put it behind a paywall if you like. And we can have the conversation if you're, if you're listening. Yeah, we can have that conversation.

[Pablo Torre]

Ryan Cortez is walking out the door. That's why it says that sentence.

[Dominique]

You know what I think that I just landed on me that is really annoying for or really confusing for me is I'm talking about this as if there is another side, whereas this does not. There is no other side. Because that's what I'm thinking is like, all right, if I accept that I am not going to convince people who are in this camp, I accept I'm not going to convince them, and I accept that they come with this new world that we are in, then I'm sitting here thinking, all right, this is a good conversation that we're having. This is not something that I would have thought of by myself. But now since I'm talking to people, it tells me that what I really need to do is work aggressively on the opposite end of what he is putting out there.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah, we have to debate a Sandy Hook truther, Dominique. That's how we get to be fair and balance.

[Dominique]

I mean, even if you're not talking about directly at that specific area, I just think that this group of people who are talking about this because they don't, they don't fall perfectly into like right or left. They're in a different place.

[Pablo Torre]

The whole RFK Party, we're the conspiracist party. We're Democrats who believe that there's bull on all sides.

[Dominique]

And so if my belief is that it's our responsibility to make sure that we are taking as much advantage of this new world, then I should be propagating something as extreme as him. But on the other side, and I'm like, what the hell is that? It doesn't exist. So I'm supposed to say America is so honest and so good. America never lies to its people. No, the, the Egyptians built all that by themselves with their hands. And you know what? The Egyptians built this building that we're standing in right now. They traveled in time and did it like, what is the opposite of a conspiracy theorist? It sucks. You can't fight against that.

[Ryan Cortez]

But it also, it's funny because as you're saying that I'm reminded that I spent a lot of time working on a show, a television show, where the host would go and say, let's bring Jim Cramer on, and I'm going to debate Jim Cramer, or I'm going to go on Bill O'Reilly's show and I'm gonna debate Bill O'Reilly. And the reality is nothing changed. It wasn't actually helpful to the conversation at all. All it is is clickbait. And it then spawned other people saying, oh yeah, let's, let's do some confrontation for views. And that's all it. That's all it really is. And to, and so to your point, it's not about, okay, yeah, I will counter with this. It feels like, sadly, the counter is structural. It is, it is. Weirdly, it's the harder work of like, de.

[Pablo Torre]

Radicalizing conspiracy theorists.

[Ryan Cortez]

Well, it's the harder work of like, we need to make a society that.

[Dominique]

Doesn'T reward that stuff.

[Ryan Cortez]

A society that doesn't reward that stuff. But also we need to re. Engage people with access to education that makes them critical theory, critical thinkers and not conspiratorial thinkers. That like a lot of this is, you know, I hate to go back and be, you know, the person who's like, well, the problem is our schools are up. But on some level, our schools are up. Our social, our social safety net is fucked up now.

[Pablo Torre]

We're good at the Internet, Wyatt. The Internet's our school now.

[Dominique]

I mean, and I know, yeah, but.

[Ryan Cortez]

If those things were stronger, then. I'm not saying it, I'm not saying it eliminates. I'm not any of that stuff.

[Dominique]

I'm not disagreeing with you. I am just going to point out the fact that it's because we're racist. Like, that's. Our schools are up because we're racist.

[Ryan Cortez]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dominique]

Like our, our social safety net is up cuz we're racist.

[Ryan Cortez]

Yeah.

[Dominique]

Like all of these things were born as a result of white people not wanting black people to have that they didn't have or have anything close to what they have. That's why schools are up. That's why our communities are segregated, because we are racist. And it's, I mean, it's a point. It's not a novel point. It's a point that's been made before. But racism is bad for all of us. And until we understand that the found the fundamental, like, principles of this country are based on racism and that's why the white grandma can't get surgery is because we can't have health care because we're racist. Like, that's.

[Pablo Torre]

Like, this is.

[Dominique]

It's all.

[Ryan Cortez]

This is a great.

[Dominique]

Aaron, get on that.

[Ryan Cortez]

There's a great plug for my podcast that didn't wind up going, oh, everything's racist. Yeah.

[Dominique]

So to be clear, and I think that maybe not everyone is as critical a thinker and critical a listener. So I will take my time and be clear that I am not saying that every white person I walk into today is like some radical, extreme racist. I don't know y'.

[Ryan Cortez]

All.

[Dominique]

I don't know everyone. But I do believe that the systemic issues that our country faces that impact us all is a result of race. I don't know how we got here from talking about Aaron Rodgers being conspiracy theorist, but that is. It's not a conspiracy. It's real.

[Ryan Cortez]

Like, also, as a person, what you're. What you're talking about is also to sort of bring it back to sports. It's teamwork, and it's the idea that, well, the white guy might have gotten knocked down or might feel like he's getting knocked down, but if the offensive line, if they don't have the tools they need, if they don't have the resources they need, then, yeah, you're going to get. Keep getting knocked down, because they're getting knocked down, too, because they have less.

[Dominique]

Than your ass and they don't recognize that we're all on the same team. But I want to modernize your analogy. I mean, a lot of quarterbacks black now, so.

[Ryan Cortez]

Well, I was just thinking about Aaron Rodgers as.

[Dominique]

No, it's a perfect analogy. I think that we. We don't recognize that we're on the same team and we're saying. So, like, if. To confer this analogy, which could be useful, I'm. I'm using this again at some point, and I may or may not credit you, but we got there together, did we not? It's kind of like slavery, man. You did the work. I'm going to take it.

[Ryan Cortez]

So who's.

[Pablo Torre]

Who's. Who's Torod Taylor in this metaphor? The point that I. America is the Jets.

[Dominique]

The point I got, I'm going to make is that assuming that if black people represent the offensive line and we're like, hey, these D tackles are whooping I ass, why don't you give us some help? And the quarterback is the white person, he's back there getting sacked, like, I can't help you. I'm getting sacked all the goddamn time. It's like, listen, bro, you know what would help us all is if we took care of this offensive line, then we would no longer get our asses kicked and you would no longer be getting sacked. But we don't view it that way. We view ourselves in many ways as on opposite teams. And I'm not. I. I find myself in that position all the time where I'm looking around like motherfuckers. They don't give enough about us. They don't care. They don't want to do anything. But the fact of the matter is all of this stuff is connected. And I think that is probably the most appealing part about conspiracy theorists is they see that there are some connections. They just connecting the wrong dots. They don't have the numbers on the connect the dot game. They just like these numbers. 1, 12, 14, 66, boom, bam, bam. Exactly.

[Pablo Torre]

Wait, so here's a. An update to the Aaron Rodgers story. Oh, so and I. We'll have to fact check this because we're doing this live, Rogan style. But someone ran Aaron Rodgers's statement that we started this episode with through an AI detection software and it was detected as written by AI.

[Dominique]

It's like a ridiculous 2024 experience.

[Pablo Torre]

I got all this together. Yeah, I gotta check this right now. AI detection.

[Dominique]

Yeah, I think somebody just made that up.

[Ryan Cortez]

I would love, I would love if there was some flag football game that was let AI call the plays for one team and just see like AI versus Rex Ryan.

[Pablo Torre]

I hate that this is a thing that I'm like, oh God, I hope this is real. But also, is this all like a meta third level prank?

[Ryan Cortez]

I mean, the truth of the matter is he's what in Costa Rica. He's not really. Whether it was. Whether it was AI or whether it was his agent. Isn't it really the same thing?

[Pablo Torre]

It was detected as written by AI by this, this website called Undetectable AI. Jeez.

[Dominique]

Because we trust that website.

[Ryan Cortez]

It's.

[Pablo Torre]

Man, I feel like that's. That's kind of the perfect ending. I don't know anymore. And I'm tired of try. I'm finally tired of trying to find out. But I can only imagine how tired I would be if I didn't have the following people because Pablo Torre Finds out is produced by Michael Antonucci Ryan Cortez Sam Daywig Juan Galindo Patrick Kim Neely Loman Rachel Miller Howard Ethan Schreier Carl Scott Matt Sullivan Chris Tominello and Juliet Warren Our studio engineering by RD Systems a post production by NDW Post Our theme song by John Bravo I'm gonna turn off my computer and go to bed. I'll see you on.

[Ryan Cortez]

The.