RE-RUN: Building Brands, Buying Domains, Beating the Odds with Jeremy Padawer

Summary

The Fame Game with Heidi & Spencer

Episode: Building Brands, Buying Domains, Beating the Odds with Jeremy Padawer

Date: May 7, 2026
Guest: Jeremy Padawer (renowned toy exec, entrepreneur, collector)
Hosts: Heidi Montag, Spencer Pratt, Studio71

Episode Overview

This re-run episode delves into the rollercoaster journey of Jeremy Padawer, a toy industry mogul and legendary domain collector, as he joins Heidi and Spencer in a raw, candid discussion. The trio shares personal stories of loss and resilience after both families lost their homes in the devastating Palisades fire. From entrepreneurship insights, domain hustling, and toy business lessons, to community rebuilding strategies and biting commentary on local leadership, the episode is both inspiring and irreverent—packed with Speidi’s signature banter and practical advice on turning setbacks into comeback stories.

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Key Discussion Points

1. Jeremy Padawer’s Backstory: Domains, Toys & Hustle

• Jeremy built his early career buying premium domains, selling act.com for $500k after holding out for the right offer despite financial need.
  • Jeremy: “They offered me 300,000. I laughed… They came with $500,000. I said, deal.” (00:50)
• He moved from domain hustler to one of the world’s renowned toy executives, now part of Berkshire Hathaway’s portfolio.
  • Toys worked on: Squishmallows, Pokemon, Fortnite, Roblox, Hello Kitty. (02:17)
• Padawer was an early and passionate collector, going from coins, cards, stamps, and even writing over 1,000 letters to celebrities as a child, many of which he recovered after the fire (38:17-39:00).

2. The Palisades Fire—Personal Loss, Community Grief, Systemic Failures

• Both Heidi, Spencer, and Jeremy lost homes and treasured collections (art, memorabilia, irreplaceable family memories).
• Deep sense of betrayal at how the disaster was handled and unresolved anger at city officials' incompetence.
  • Jeremy: “Memorabilia…are lifelong…in my mind, there would one day be like a heritage auctions or a Sotheby’s auction…and I’d get to walk away as a hero…That’s a lost opportunity. It really sucks.” (05:51)
  • Insurance partially compensated financial loss but not irreplaceable sentimental value.
• The disaster was viewed as “an unnatural disaster”—the result of gross negligence more than inevitable climate catastrophe.
  • Jeremy: “The wind got an assist and gross negligence and ineptitude got the goal.” (07:22)
• Utter lack of timely emergency response; many residents didn’t grasp the seriousness due to silence from authorities (10:17-11:42).
  • Heidi: “I didn’t hear one siren…and really smarter people than me also didn’t take a lot of things because no one has ever seen a disaster like that…so it definitely makes me be less hard on myself.” (12:10-12:53)

3. Rebuilding and Advocacy: Policy Frustrations, Vision for Recovery

• Jeremy is actively involved in mass tort lawsuits to help neighbors recover every dollar lost due to official negligence.
• Discussion of practical taxation changes to support rebuilding:
  • Sales tax holiday on construction materials
  • Waivers or delays on transfer and property taxes until occupancy
  • Calls for more policing, transparency on local tax spending, and a substantive community mayor.
  • Jeremy: “There’s no way in a million years that the city should be collecting $2 billion in sales tax [from rebuilding]. That’s pure shit. Unbelievable.” (25:11)
  • Jeremy on Mayoral leadership: “We need a mayor in the Palisades. Not someone who’s just a face. Someone who’s substantive, like you guys are.” (27:20)
• The need for unified community voice and technological infrastructure (e.g., a Palisades App) for coordination. (28:44)

4. The Emotional Impact—Memory, Material Loss, Moving Forward

• Loss of collectibles is imbued with emotional memories—no insurance can replace connection to trips, milestones, and the physical objects that survived with the family.
• Community as “Phoenixes”: resilience, return, and rebirth as a new emblem for the Palisades. (22:46)
  • Jeremy: “We are the Palisades Phoenix.” (22:47)
• Jeremy predicts 50-60% of residents will rebuild, and in seven years, the Palisades will be “the best place on planet Earth,” provided community and tax support are forthcoming (32:50-34:02).

5. Toy Industry, Collecting, and Entrepreneurial Wisdom

• Advice on collectibles: Invest in brands/products with proven longevity (10+ years on the market). E.g., why he trusts Pokémon but is cautious about trending toys like Labubu (36:44-37:58).
  • Jeremy: “Any collectible system, I like to see it be around a little while before I put substantial money in it.” (36:44)
• Background into Jeremy’s journey: from Mattel exec, through business ownership, to Berkshire Hathaway acquisition; emphasizes finding work that matters and marrying creative/emotional intelligence with business smarts (38:09-41:08).
  • Jeremy on intelligence: “Intelligence comes in a lot of different ways. I don’t think our world truly respects the creative intelligence that we have, the emotional intelligence that we have. It really takes a marriage of all of these things.” (41:04)

6. Leadership and Civic Accountability: Naming Names

• Bitingly critical of City leadership (esp. Mayor Karen Bass), pointing out failures both before and after the fire, highlighting the issue of erased communications and previous patterns of neglect and poor appointments. (43:48-48:41)
  • Jeremy on Deputy Mayor scandal: “Brian Williams decided to call a bomb threat into City Hall…Brian was then raided by the FBI, and Brian admitted to calling in the bomb threat. That was roughly two months prior to the fire…her team had to be in shambles.” (44:14-46:30)
  • Jeremy: “She also hired Brian Williams as her deputy mayor of public safety. Like, her track record is spectacular.” (48:36)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On refusing early offers for act.com domain (00:50):
  • Jeremy: “They offered me 300,000. I laughed, even though I was broke and needed that money.”
• On loss of collectibles (05:51):
  • Jeremy: “There isn’t the level of loss for me because I did have insurance...but I lost like 99% of the stuff that I owned. It hurts because memorabilia and those types of things are lifelong.”
• On incompetence and disaster response (07:22):
  • Jeremy: “The wind got an assist and gross negligence and ineptitude got the goal…any point towards climate change...is simply excuses for what actually occurred.”
• On what tangible community rebuilding change should look like (25:11):
  • Jeremy: “There’s no way in a million years that the city should be collecting $2 billion in sales tax. That’s pure shit. Unbelievable.”
• On Palisades' Symbolism (22:47):
  • Jeremy: “We are the Palisades Phoenix.”
• On future optimism (34:02):
  • Jeremy: “Seven years from now, [the Palisades] will be the best place on planet Earth…you’ll have nothing but incredible homes and people and vibrance.”
• On leadership failings (44:14):
  • Jeremy: “Brian Williams was the deputy mayor of public safety…called in a bomb threat…The level of negligence, like anybody that runs a business...her team had to be in shambles.”

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Relevant Timestamps

• Jeremy’s domain/entrepreneur backstory: 00:50 – 02:17
• Shared experience of the Palisades fire: 05:10 – 13:24
• Reflections on loss, collectibles, insurance: 05:51 – 12:10
• Community rebuilding vision/tax reform: 24:30 – 29:30
• On resilience and Palisades’ future: 32:50 – 34:02
• Detailed critique of city/leadership failure: 43:48 – 48:41
• Toy collecting advice/industry insight: 36:44 – 40:36
• Padawer on life and intelligence: 41:04
• Personal: meeting his wife and family: 42:03 – 43:14

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Tone and Style

Candid, sarcastic, and heartfelt, the episode is thick with Speidi’s unfiltered commentary and Jeremy’s thoughtful, narrative-driven anecdotes. Despite recounting extreme personal and community loss, the conversation is laced with humor, optimism, and irreverence—anchored in a collective drive to move forward and do better.

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For Listeners Who Missed the Episode

If you want an intimate, deeply personal reflection on the realities of celebrity, community, and recovery after disaster—with smart entrepreneurial lessons, fierce critiques of city leadership, and a healthy dose of toy industry wisdom—this is the essential “Fame Game” episode. Whether you're rebuilding after loss, seeking business inspiration, or just craving candid LA tea, there’s hope, humor, and honesty throughout.

Transcript

[Heidi Montag]

Summer adventures are better with Minky Couture. From road trips to ball games, beach nights to backyard movies, Minky has you covered. Don't miss the Everywhere blanket. Water resistant, ultra soft and made for life.

[Jeremy Padauer]

On the go.

[Heidi Montag]

Wherever summer takes you, bring comfort along. Minky couture.com the original best blanket ever.

[Sam]

Please tell me you didn't get plastic surgery to promote the album.

[Heidi Montag]

Oh, no, that's all good. Hi. Welcome to the Fame Game. I am Heidi Montag, and I'm sitting here with my husband, Spencer Pratt. And we are here with Jeremy Padauer, which is our guest today. So excited. Welcome to the Fame Game.

[Jeremy Padauer]

Thank you so much. It's great to see you guys.

[Heidi Montag]

Thank you. You as well.

[Sam]

Should I do my best attempt at your bio? This is my new little skit I'm doing. And then you can adjust, of course. So at the age of 23 years old, Jeremy got into buying domains. Lots of ones. But one day he got a phone call from this company I forgot the name of, but this company wanted a website domain that he owned. It was act.com. they said it was theirs. He said, oh, no, it's mine. And they offered him 300,000. He laughed. He said, ha. Even though he was broke and needed that money, he waited for the next call. They came with $500,000. He said, deal. He went and bought himself a nice VW bug and did not like it. And from here on to this day, he continues to buy domains. But that is not what has turned into his incredible fun career. He is one of the world's most renowned toy makers. Yes.

[Heidi Montag]

Get your popcorn.

[Sam]

What are we talking about? She's been in the toxic dirt too long today.

[Heidi Montag]

Entertainment. I'm entertained by your bio.

[Sam]

We got the Squishies.

[Jeremy Padauer]

Squishmallows.

[Sam]

Squishmallows.

[Jeremy Padauer]

Squishmallows.

[Heidi Montag]

Who loves those?

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Jeremy Padauer]

We will back up the Squishmallows.

[Heidi Montag]

Amazing. They're like pillows.

[Jeremy Padauer]

Yes. They're pillow like.

[Heidi Montag]

Yeah.

[Sam]

Square. Squishmallows. Okay, that's all I remember. So what other toys?

[Jeremy Padauer]

Pokemon, hello Kitty, Fortnite, Roblox, etc.

[Heidi Montag]

Okay, all of the toys.

[Jeremy Padauer]

All the toys.

[Heidi Montag]

All the best.

[Sam]

But how we became friends is being Palisades locals together that also had their houses burned down. And one of those domains that he happened to buy how many years ago?

[Jeremy Padauer]

About 20 years ago.

[Sam]

20. 20 years ago, he bought PacificPalisades.com.

[Jeremy Padauer]

i did.

[Sam]

Which is unbelievable. We should make some merch with that.

[Jeremy Padauer]

We should. We should. I have some others, too. I'll Tell you about.

[Sam]

Oh, secret. So he started writing. What's your background in writing? Is that just your passion and art? Because it's. They're very good.

[Heidi Montag]

He's a smart guy.

[Sam]

Yeah. He's writing like serious blogs or essays or journal entries. But they were like speaking to me as if I was the ghost rider for them. And if anybody questioned what 100 mile per hour winds in the Palisades look like, it's this. This was what it was at 5:30 when I'm watching the fires come down. This is what it looked like and sounded like. So you keep your little lies to yourself. It's not all to Dina.

[Heidi Montag]

Jeremy, I like your shirt.

[Jeremy Padauer]

Thank you. Thank you. No, I'm a big fan of Spencer and his political potential ambitions.

[Heidi Montag]

Yes.

[Jeremy Padauer]

Yeah.

[Sam]

So do you think I should make mayor shirts or you think I should just stick to the governor merch? Listen, you were advising.

[Jeremy Padauer]

If I were advising you, I would say wait and see what Crusoe does. That's what I would advise you. And then I would say do the opposite and so we can stack the deck. That's what I'd like to do.

[Sam]

So we may have a new shirt coming into the merch store. Speaking of the merch store, did you have a chance to read the New York Times profile about me yet?

[Jeremy Padauer]

Oh, I know that it was so flattering. Do not read it.

[Sam]

There's a great piece that somebody else wrote about the piece, but in it they reference that I am only fighting for our community to sell these shirts. Pretty much they imply that I am an opportunist, that am profiting off of the fire. Just to be clear, I think I sold maybe, I don't think more than 200 shirts. And I only made these shirts to buy plane tickets to go fight for my community in D.C. it did not cover the hotel, the uber black. Yes, I did take an suv. So just so everyone's clear, there's not a big profit margin in the they're like $45 shirt when Newsom is selling like $75 Pelosi shirts.

[Heidi Montag]

Yeah, they did have that. And they sell things for other things. So yes, they have a lot of their own merch banners.

[Sam]

Don't read it, but if you did, they referenced shirt you're wearing. Trolling it like it's why I'm here.

[Jeremy Padauer]

I try to do a lot more writing than reading nowadays, to be honest with you. Yeah, a couple posts a week on pacificpalisades.com so you know the other thing

[Sam]

that connected me the most because I Feel like when your house burns down, everybody has different things that they're, like, upset about. And every dollar, pretty much I ever made, I bought museum grade collectible crystals that all went up in value that I always imagined when we go to the museum one day when I was dead, there would be the Pratt family. You know, they do all the collections. They have them at the Natural History Museum. And seeing that you actually had a larger collection of, you know, we can call it art, we can call it memorabilia. How would you describe your now in heaven collection?

[Jeremy Padauer]

Oh, man. Well, listen, I'm 52 years old. I've collected my entire life, okay? And so I had. I've been a Pokemon partner for 20 years. I had one of the largest Pokemon collections in the world. And when I say that, I mean most valuable. Also had sports memorabilia and all kinds of other memorabilia. Now, I have to tell you, okay, there isn't the level of loss for me because I did have insurance, okay? And I try to tell people, get your art collectibles and jewelry separately insured. I lost probably a third in value, but I lost like 99% of the stuff that I owned. So it's a kick. It's a real kick. It hurts. It hurts because memorabilia and those types of things are lifelong, just like you. In my mind, there would one day be like a heritage auctions or a Sotheby's auction, and I'd be sitting there with my kids, who would be in their 40s at the time, and I'd be an old man. And then there would be a result of that auction, and I'd get to walk away as a hero to the next generation of people in my family. I have no desire to be known by the entire world, but I wanted my family to be very proud of me. And that's a lost opportunity. It really sucks, honestly, that they took that opportunity away through gross negligence, ineptitude, and all the other words that I'd like to say have some legal consequence for them, I hope.

[Sam]

Oh, so you don't think the palace is burned down because of the climate?

[Jeremy Padauer]

No, it was very much an unnatural disaster. Okay. Like, yes, in the world of sports, the wind got an assist and gross negligence and ineptitude got the goal. So the goal, the person who gets the goal gets the glory or they get all the shame. And in this case, honestly, just any point towards our climate, any point towards climate change, any point towards natural disasters are simply excuses for what actually occurred. What actually occurred was multiple huge points of failure. Plus, the wind got an assist because it wouldn't necessarily have happened on a zero wind day. But yeah, we're sitting out here right now. My hair is blowing a little bit. This is very similar to the wind level that we experienced when we left the Palisades at 3pm to the sound of no sirens, to no vehicles that were operational going down the street, to nobody telling us which way to go. There was absolutely no help. There was zero process, procedure, nothing. And therefore, I. For my. One of my big life's objectives right now is to make sure that people who did lose gets every single dollar back that they lost through these mass tort lawsuits. So, yeah, I'm fully engaged now. I have a different mission than having some big auction. And I can relate to you, man, because that crystal auction, like in my head right now, or having a crystal, I love that. I would love nothing more for you to have that. And I'm sorry that they took that from.

[Sam]

Yeah, and it's just like when you said even though you had insurance on your things, those. Those memorabilia, even if I had insurance on all the crystals that we had, every crystal hiding I bought was like a talisman of a trip. Or we had to like, really go back to the store. Are we going to spend this or is this worth it? And looking at it and, you know, we go to these crystal places and you. You, like, connect with it and, you know, whether you believe in this stuff or anywhere, just like you're drawn to something. So everywhere I would go around the house, it's like another type of memory that was just taken from us that I could really just be like, oh, I remember that moment where Heidi and I grabbed that and what that fellow. We brought it home. And, you know, so that also is with memorabilia. Yeah, you got the money back, but I don't know how many of those things you can go. Just go, rebuy. I'm sure the collectors that are sitting on what you had aren't like, oh, yeah, here, let me give you my Pokemon Zar card. What's it called?

[Jeremy Padauer]

Charizard. By the way, Zar card's pretty damn close. You get a point for that.

[Sam]

You had those.

[Jeremy Padauer]

I definitely. I had the first, entire first edition PSA 10. All perfectly graded set of Pokemon cards. There's only 12 in the world.

[Heidi Montag]

Wow.

[Jeremy Padauer]

That grade. Now there's 11.

[Sam]

Were you not home? Like, you just. You're like everybody else. You thought, we're all coming back.

[Jeremy Padauer]

Yeah, I thought we're all coming back. I grabbed a stack of LeBron rookie cards I had on my Desk. I had some old pro wrestling high end graded cards. I'm a big pro wrestling fan. I used to work with the WWE for years. It's a whole nother story but toys and yeah, so I grabbed the stuff that was in my purview. We left at three, like I said. So like I was telling you earlier, so we left a little bit later and I still, I took it seriously and that I felt like, you know, anytime that there's an emergency, you need to leave. But I only took it as seriously as what I could see. Okay. When you don't see emergency response around you, you don't take things as seriously. It's like, so if I had had even one group driving by the house saying, take valuables, run da da da da, I would have gone out of my way to grab a few things. Now, one thing that you look a lot of what you say really resonates with me because we've similar brains in terms of the collector brain and the auctions and stuff like that. But like the idea that you'd come back and even the crystals that you had would be literally evaporated, like that is crazy. Like no one would ever imagine that. You probably haven't found them. Right. They're gone. Gone. We had some crystals and those crystals turned into soup, I guess because there's nothing crystal like around that house anymore,

[Heidi Montag]

which I thought would still be there. We had a two ton crystal, £3,000 in the corner or £2,000.

[Sam]

Yeah, I wish it was tons. Maybe it's over here.

[Heidi Montag]

All right. You know, anyways, it's really big and eat some. And we definitely thought half of it would be there. It's supposedly the tail that it came out of a volcano in Peru. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Sure. None of that's true.

[Sam]

It didn't come out any longer. It was a good bitch.

[Heidi Montag]

Definitely not. But yeah, that makes me feel better because I feel so complacent and sometimes I just beat myself up over not taking more. And then I think I didn't hear one siren. And really smarter people than me also didn't take a lot of things because no one has ever seen a disaster like that in the middle of Los Angeles in one of the richest cities in the entire world where there are water resources nearby and there's fire department down the street, so. And continuing to watch anyways, it definitely makes me be less hard on myself and thankful I got anything at all because yeah, we all thought we were coming back to something.

[Jeremy Padauer]

Absolutely.

[Sam]

Yeah. My mom, her memorabilia was Collecting every photo and anything of her children of our entire lives. And she just left and went to the park on Ocean Avenue and was like, oh, just wait till we're going back into the town. Took nothing. So it's. I don't know anybody except for, you know, who did pack up. He must have had a. Had a text from Newsom or something. But you know who did pack up their entire house? Who plays who's the Hannibal Lecter? What's that guy's name?

[Jeremy Padauer]

Oh, Anthony Hopkins.

[Sam]

He had three. My parents lived across the room. Like three or four U Hauls show up and loaded up both of his whole houses completely.

[Jeremy Padauer]

Well, that sort of foresight was lacking on me.

[Heidi Montag]

Yeah. As well. But he also has a team, so the team's job is to secure him. And they're well paid and they probably, yeah, had a plan. So if I had a team, security,

[Sam]

water tenders, you know, my dogs didn't

[Jeremy Padauer]

give me any good suggestions.

[Heidi Montag]

Cat neither.

[Sam]

Our last guest, Robert, I didn't even realize he couldn't even get stuff because he was worried his dogs were going to die from the smoke. So that's another thing that I'm glad you left with the dog, you know.

[Heidi Montag]

Yeah, yeah. And the kids. How about the children? Yeah.

[Sam]

Thank you for giving me.

[Ike Barinholtz]

Hey, I'm Ike Barinholtz. On my new show, Funny you Ask, Trivia starts the conversation and then things immediately, immediately go off the rails. I ask a question, my guests think they know the answer. Sometimes they do. More often they do not. And then the conversation takes a turn. One trivia question turns into stories about career highs, painful bombs, and behind the scenes moments that probably should have remained private. You'll hear confidence, misplaced confidence, bold guesses, wrong answers, quick laughs, and the slow realization that maybe this was a bad

[Jeremy Padauer]

idea to say out loud.

[Ike Barinholtz]

If you like smart comedy, sharp conversations, and trivia that exists purely to melt people's brains, this is funny. You ask with me, Ike Barinholtolz. Follow Funny youy Ask with Ike Barinholtz on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

[Bob the Drag Queen]

Hey, everybody. My name is Bob the Drag Queen. And I'm Monet X Change. And we are the host of Sibling Rivalry. This is the podcast where two best friends gab to smack and have a lot of fun with our black queer selves. Yeah, for sure. You know, we are family, so we talk about everything, honey, from why we don't like hugs to Black Lives Matter to interracial dating, to other things. Right, Bob?

[Jeremy Padauer]

Yes.

[Bob the Drag Queen]

And it gets messy. And we are not afraid to be wrong. So please join us over here at Civic Bribery, Available anywhere you get your podcast you can listen as and subscribe for free.

[Jeremy Padauer]

For free, honey.

[Dan and Phil]

Hi. We are Dan and Phil, and Hard Launch is our male podcast. We call it Male Podcast. About the power of living your truth. We're better than that, honestly. Well, it's mostly us accidentally spilling scandalous info about our past dating lives.

[Jeremy Padauer]

True.

[Dan and Phil]

And getting into inappropriately domestic arguments about it. After 16 years on YouTube, we decided to hard launch our relationship, and now we are emboldened to overshare with you. So you might have seen us on Grindr this week. My ex texted me what he did. I have a confession. I completely thought you catfished me when we first met.

[Bob the Drag Queen]

What?

[Dan and Phil]

Join us every Monday on Hard Launch with Dan and Phil. Hard Mondays. Start your week hard. Sorry.

[Jeremy Padauer]

I'll tell you the thing about this entire unnatural disaster that gets to me the worst is it happened in the middle of the day. If this had happened at 4am with the level or the lack of response that we had, we would have had thousands of people perish. I mean, the greatest gift that we had, the greatest blessing that we had in this situation was merely timing. And I would like to say that maybe that's due to something bigger than us, okay? Because maybe if this was gonna happen, it could have happened at any time. Maybe that was the gift. Maybe that's the gift that we got. Like, almost all the animals survived. Almost all the people survived. Now, obviously, I don't want to undermine the fact that there is loss. There are people that passed, There are pets that passed. But with this level of city reaction or lack of response, this would have been one of the greatest disasters of human. Human life in the history of America if this had happened 12 hours earlier.

[Heidi Montag]

We say that all the time.

[Sam]

So I was up in the middle of the night, and it's one of the weirdest things that I've ever had happen in my life. Our son had pneumonia. So I was up. We were doing shifts, and I was up at, I want to say, like, two or three in the morning. And I'm sitting. It would have been right here, but above, and I'm looking out. And that was way windier that night before. I should check the weather stations and look and see how right I am, because that night was so windy. And I got this hit, like, out of body, spiritual God, whatever you want to say. And it said in my head, oh, my God, if a fire started right now, everyone would Die. Yeah, because that's what it looked like out at that in the middle of the night. It's like, oh. And then hours later, the fire starts at 10:20 in the morning. But on a different note, do you think we could collab on a Palisades fire toy set and we could do like Janice Quinones, like make her as like a toy, but like have her standing in a dry reservoir. And then we do like Karen Bass toy, but she's in Africa, like on a phone. And then we do newsome, like planting dead rush. Like this is like a drop.

[Jeremy Padauer]

It sounds to me we need the clearance. We need to. We need to stay in the T shirt business together.

[Sam]

I was like, no, I mean, I

[Heidi Montag]

feel like I got a toy picture.

[Sam]

I feel like I can sell a lot of those, you know?

[Heidi Montag]

You know you could do a hummingbird.

[Jeremy Padauer]

Yeah. Oh, yeah. By the way. Hummingbird Squishmallows. Come on, we can sell.

[Sam]

Okay, coming soon. But I'm still going to work on the Palisade fire toy set.

[Jeremy Padauer]

Yes. The ineptitude.

[Sam]

It would be a.

[Heidi Montag]

You can make the whole little park.

[Sam]

No. Yeah, I mean, I have a vision.

[Heidi Montag]

Okay.

[Sam]

I'll get an artist to draw it up for you.

[Jeremy Padauer]

Can I tell you something? I would, I would. Your vision has been great. I would never second guess it. So maybe I need to give this some more thought.

[Sam]

Yeah. I just feel like the community, everybody would want to buy.

[Jeremy Padauer]

Yeah.

[Sam]

Like troll dolls. But like the trolls are these people that burned our downtown.

[Jeremy Padauer]

Yes, that's right.

[Sam]

I'm telling you, they would sell. Sell out.

[Heidi Montag]

You could do a new.

[Sam]

As long as they're a good price point, you know?

[Jeremy Padauer]

Yeah, it's.

[Sam]

It could even say, like, not no money going to fire aid on the back of them.

[Jeremy Padauer]

Yes. Yes. No money going to fire aid.

[Heidi Montag]

So where are you now? How is your family? How is everything?

[Jeremy Padauer]

We've moved a couple times.

[Heidi Montag]

Okay.

[Jeremy Padauer]

We're. I would say that we are where we're going to end up being.

[Heidi Montag]

Okay.

[Jeremy Padauer]

For the next roughly two and a

[Heidi Montag]

half years in the state.

[Jeremy Padauer]

What's that?

[Heidi Montag]

Are you in the state?

[Jeremy Padauer]

We're in the state. We're in Santa Monica. We're local and I'm very appreciative of all of that.

[Sam]

If you wanted to, you could open up 50 stores on the promenade.

[Jeremy Padauer]

Oh, yeah.

[Sam]

Because it's completely empty. So if. Yeah, but the rent is 40,000 for each empty space.

[Jeremy Padauer]

Yeah. The pop up. The pop up opportunity there is intense.

[Heidi Montag]

One could be the squishmallows. One could be the Palisades, right?

[Sam]

No, we did the Palisades. Try our toy population. No, we need to do it in a burned out lot.

[Heidi Montag]

How are your kids doing? How's your.

[Jeremy Padauer]

Yeah, they're good. My older one just started college so she's in Nashville at Vandy. And my younger one's 16. And interestingly enough, she's very resourceful. You know, we at the very. Like, I was wondering where my younger daughter was and I was like, where is she? We couldn't figure out where the heck she was during this fire. And she decided as soon as she got a note on her phone that said, you know, emergency, she went to see a movie with her friend. So somehow her and her friend decided, great opportunity to go see movies. So they went to like Century City and watched a movie.

[Heidi Montag]

Oh my gosh.

[Jeremy Padauer]

They were watching like, I don't even remember, like, what's the one with the rock? That's The Disney movie Moana 2. Moana 2.

[Heidi Montag]

Oh my God. She skipped school.

[Jeremy Padauer]

Well, I think that they were back. I think they weren't back.

[Heidi Montag]

You're right.

[Jeremy Padauer]

They got back because she go to Pali. She did.

[Sam]

Oh yeah, they started.

[Heidi Montag]

They weren't in school.

[Sam]

People say that those streets, imagine if 2000 plus kids or parents were trying to get the p high kids.

[Heidi Montag]

And before that, remember all the Pali fights that were in town that were happening. So it's like fights could have been breaking out. That could have been so much crazy.

[Sam]

I don't know if they would have picked the fire day to have any street fights. I don't know.

[Heidi Montag]

They were like taking over the town. That was crazy.

[Sam]

I don't miss that.

[Jeremy Padauer]

We, we in the most misfortune. We also lucked out in timing. That's just a fact. And by the way, as I sit here, I just saw two deer running across.

[Sam]

Deer up there?

[Jeremy Padauer]

Yes.

[Heidi Montag]

Those are my favorite ones.

[Jeremy Padauer]

I saw two deer. They're living it up, running across. And you know what makes me happy about that? That's life. It's life. We're talking about life. I just saw life right here.

[Sam]

Is it at that top of the hill right there?

[Jeremy Padauer]

The top of the hill over there.

[Heidi Montag]

When we moved here and I was pregnant, I would see them every day up there, like very often.

[Jeremy Padauer]

But you know what? They survived. They did it. And I think that that's going to be the nature of the Palisades. You know, the Palisades were dolphins. And I've always thought of dolphins as life. But honestly, after this fire, I really think that we should start thinking about what our new emblem is and what really reflects who we are now.

[Sam]

Phoenix.

[Jeremy Padauer]

We're a Phoenix.

[Heidi Montag]

Okay, good. Phoenix.

[Jeremy Padauer]

We are the Palisades Phoenix. And also, bro, I'm gonna just go

[Sam]

spray paint it over the dolphin. Catch a quick little. They don't care. In la, you can spray paint anything you want.

[Jeremy Padauer]

Yeah, you're right.

[Sam]

I get TikTok in. Karen Bass said it's art. Yeah, yeah. Pali Phoenixes.

[Heidi Montag]

Are you guys going to rebuild? Are you going to rebuild?

[Jeremy Padauer]

We're going to rebuild.

[Heidi Montag]

You are? We are amazing.

[Jeremy Padauer]

We're going to rebuild.

[Sam]

Insurance reassurance.

[Jeremy Padauer]

And again, I say that. So let me tell you what inspired me. What inspired me were stories like the ones I heard from you. Okay. About not just yourself, but neighbors and other people and just the fact that I know that life is so variable. We started our company about 13, 14 years ago. Right. And the first seven or eight years were really, really tough. If something had happened any of those years, I don't know what position we would have been in as a family. It would have been horrendous. And so just noting how close in proximity and time it would have been for us and noting how many people were underinsured or underrepresented by California unfair plan or hit over the head by insurance companies that didn't stick up for what they were doing. I feel motivated. And because we were given the gift of having a good insurance company, because we were given the gift of timing, you know, I'm motivated to help my neighbors. I want to be part of the solution. I want them to get every dollar back. This mass tort lawsuit that's happening right now, I want them to get every single dollar back. And that is greatly motivating for me.

[Heidi Montag]

So what do you do? Yeah. Okay.

[Sam]

We're in that suit.

[Heidi Montag]

So what can people do? What can the community do besides the lawsuit? Like, how do we rebuild?

[Jeremy Padauer]

I mean, I think, number one, we need a collective voice. Okay. And honestly, whether that's coming from you or whether that's coming, because we've all come together and agreed that here are the five or six most important points that we have as a community, and we should be asking for things right now. Like, I'll tell you a few things that I think would help us build back faster. Okay. Number one, we should have a sales tax holiday on building materials and anything that has to do with the build, okay? You've got 10% sales tax that are going to be paid on $20 billion in construction materials. So the city's going to have a windfall of $2 billion. Does that sound fair? It's not fair. It's complete BS. In fact, I would use worse words. But I don't know where this is going to be disproportionate.

[Sam]

We don't have any advertisers.

[Jeremy Padauer]

You can use that, any words you want. That would be shit. Okay? That would be pure shit. Unbelievable. There's no way in a million years that the city should be collecting $2 billion in sales tax. That's part one. Part two, transfer taxes on the sales of homes in the Palisades that go to this measure, ula, which was basically a homeless transfer tax, which I understand comes from the greatest of intentions. But when the entire city burns down and you're going to allocate the number of homes times the dollars that are going to go towards this tax, it's disproportionate to what the tax ever meant. And then finally, property tax. You should not be paying property tax on this burnt out piece of land until you have a certificate of occupancy. So if you put those three taxes together, it's a lot of money saved. It's a lot more faith that the community members would have in our community. It would get us back to our homes faster. And by the way, the lot values would rise very, very quickly. So, like, yes, they should be doing these things for us. They should have a police department that they are coming in. And frankly speaking, I know the place for it. The library. All right, we have a library. We should have the library, but make it 15% smaller and put a five person or five unit police department there. We needed it. We needed it before the fire. There's just, there's things that we can do as a community if we have a collective voice with a decent plan that we can get more. And one last note, as a community, I think the Palisades pays between 400 and 600 million dollars a year in taxes. Now, we don't know that number because even though we pay it, they don't disclose it to us. They also don't disclose what percentage we get back. Like we could be getting back 10%. We might be getting 8% back for our community. That is not okay. We need to be able to get more back, especially now when so many people have been harmed. So, yes, I think there's a fair number of things that they could do to make our community stronger, to make us build back better. And as a group of humans, where we are taken probably more seriously. We need a mayor by the way, I will say this one last note. I'm a one last note type of person. We need a mayor in the Palisades. Not an honorary mare. Not someone who's going to be there. Like, I'm going to show up and be a face. Because I'm known. Okay. Someone who's substantive, like you guys are substantive. Okay. You're also known. That's a very rare combination. I feel like I'm substantive. I've thought about this stuff a lot. Put a mayor in who actually has FaceTime every single week with the powers that be and can help vocalize these things on behalf of our citizens. Because we don't have that. We have an honorary mayor. We have this ridiculous amount of taxes. We don't even know how much we get back into our community. We have no police department, and we have nothing. No vision that's allowing us to build back faster. In fact, I've probably vocalized more vision than our mayor has even provided after burning us down. So, yeah, I'm pretty pissed.

[Sam]

Wouldn't we have to become like, an actual city to have a mayor, though? Isn't that like a whole nother to, like, becoming corporate?

[Jeremy Padauer]

Yeah, I don't.

[Heidi Montag]

But we have the website.

[Sam]

We do have facilityclothes.com.

[Jeremy Padauer]

yeah.

[Sam]

We have Pacific one is published, guys.

[Jeremy Padauer]

I feel like a pirate, by the way. That's why I love domain names. In the 90s, you were a pirate.

[Sam]

You were.

[Jeremy Padauer]

You could do anything. You had so much power because you were like. But anyways, that's a whole other point. Having Pacificpalisdates.com is a good start.

[Heidi Montag]

Yes.

[Jeremy Padauer]

But it's not good enough because they'll

[Sam]

never release us because we're their biggest.

[Jeremy Padauer]

We are their piggy bank.

[Sam]

Yeah. It's like the mafia. They're taxing us the most.

[Jeremy Padauer]

That's right.

[Sam]

So the three other things I feel like are way more possible. That should be. And that's the thing where I don't understand, like, somebody needs to figure out, like, an app for the Palisades that everybody logs on with their driver's license. So. Because right now, I'm in, like, 30 different WhatsApp chats. I get DMs, I get text messages. Like, the community needs an app where everyone that's a resident logs in and can, you know, not just be on next door. This and that. Everything's so fragmented. I feel like there needs to be, like, a real place where everyone's getting updated information that's real and it's vetted and lawyers are Noting it and, you know, because that's the other thing, I feel like everyone's all over the place.

[Jeremy Padauer]

Yeah, I agree. So I agree.

[Heidi Montag]

What do you think, realistically, the future of the Palisades looks like? Do you think realistically, it's going to be bought up by China and sold and have all these huge apartment complexes is. Do you think it's the end of the Palisades as we know it to not be rebuilt? What do you realistically see? You seem like very smart person.

[Jeremy Padauer]

Thank you very much.

[Heidi Montag]

What was the word he said? Yeah, astute.

[Sam]

Nerd or door?

[Jeremy Padauer]

Nerd or door.

[Heidi Montag]

No, what was it?

[Jeremy Padauer]

Oh, substantive.

[Heidi Montag]

You seem very substantive. So do you know, I just look like Barbie, that's all.

[Jeremy Padauer]

Yeah. No, honestly. Well, after being in the toy business for 25 years, it's amazing to find out how much substance that someone who says that that's who they are actually has. No, you guys have probably meant more for our community than anyone else, certainly any of our leaders. And so for that, a heartfelt thanks for what you're doing. I mean, the fact that we're sitting here right now. Where's everybody else? Like, I don't understand. There have been so many critically important people with a loud voice who were harmed. Where are they? Did they really not say anything because they had insurance? Like, shouldn't they more than anyone be the ones to pick up this demon dust that we're sitting on right now? Like, where are they? Why are you guys having to carry this for everybody? Yeah. So that really aggravates me. So where will we be? Here's where I think we're going to be. Okay. And I actually have a fairly optimistic view for the long term. Despite the absolute disastrous management, disastrous vision, I actually believe that this community is so strong, there are a few indicators of that. The first indicator is that a fire burned down 70% of our community. And so far to date, I believe less than 10, 10% of the lots have been put up for sale. Maybe it's even 5%. It's been nine months. Do you know how much fortitude it takes not to sell a lot after you lose almost everything you have, but the value you may still have is in the lot. It takes a lot of fortitude. Yes, these lots are depressed in value right now. That won't be the case forever, but it takes a ton of fortitude. So I see that. I see a very strong community, a very capable group of people who could really, really, really come back. I believe we'll get 50 or 60% of the people who lost their lots back. Okay, that means that of the 10,000 people that were here, I'm sorry, the 10,000 homes, roughly, and 7,000 that burnt down, 3,500 will come back. Okay? That means 35% of the Palisades will turn over. Ultimately, when 35% of something turns over, it doesn't necessarily mean that the entire culture changes that much. It'll change a little bit, but it won't be a drastic sea change. They'll just be new neighbors. Okay? The objective and the goal is to get the number of people that come back from 50% to 70%. We should be trying to get as many humans back as possible. We want you back. We want everybody back. If it could be 100%, that means we did our job, okay? But that's not life. There's so many reasons why people have to leave. Change of health, change of circumstance. Kids grow up. I mean, there's people naturally leave for so many reasons. Why you have for sale signs in the best neighborhoods in the world. They have to go. You know, their health changes. Like, there's reasons for people to go. But for the people that want to stay, they should be able to stay, and that should be the objective. And that's the reason why we need some of these tax benefits. That's the reason why we need some of these really loud people to be louder to help us. Three years from now, 25% of the lots that burned down will be built back. Five years from now, it'll be 50%. Seven years from now will be 75%. Okay? By the time you get to about five years, the schools, the churches, you know, synagogues, the libraries, all of those things will be back. They'll be fully going, and it will feel like the place that you lost. Okay. Four years and three months from now, seven years from now, it'll be the best place on planet Earth. As far as I'm concerned, you'll have nothing but incredible homes and people and vibrance and, you know, and I know that you guys are going to hold on, and I'm just telling you, you know, I don't know what the future looks like. You guys could only determine your own future. But if you did stay here, I think that you'll have a great outcome.

[Heidi Montag]

Hmm. I feel like you should be an author of audiobooks as well. You really captured me there in that story.

[Sam]

I'm in painting that tree. Okay.

[Heidi Montag]

Very substantial.

[Sam]

Well, to end on some positive toy things.

[Heidi Montag]

That was positive.

[Jeremy Padauer]

Yeah, I know.

[Heidi Montag]

We gotta wait but first, first to point one, I thought that was done deal. I thought that the sales tax break for rebuilding was already a given. I thought that they said that. That they were promising that to people who were rebuilding. No, in the beginning. In the beginning, that was a blog

[Sam]

post from a long time ago.

[Jeremy Padauer]

It was something. It was something that. Listen, I have some time to think. Okay. And that's somewhat dangerous, but it's also a good thing, I guess. And so I'm just thinking, like, what would bring people back? And it's always about math. It's either how you make someone feel or what you do to their pocketbook. Right? And right now, people are not going to feel better until they see a lot of change and they see things going. And it has been a very slow roll. I know it's been very slow. You know, in fact, Florida, they have all of these catastrophes. They have hurricanes, and they have all kinds of things that happen. And I recall there was a. And I don't remember which city it was, but one city in Florida that was affected and, like 30% was back after 18 months. And people thought it was horrific that only 30% were back after 18 months. We accept it. As if it's like you feel positive when I'm saying a 3, 5, and 7 plan. People in Florida would have pitchforks and chase me down your hillside. And the deer would be running away from both of us if I said something like that. So we're a very patient group of people here. I'll just say that we're a very patient group of people here.

[Heidi Montag]

Can I hire you to consult for us or work with us? Oh, my gosh, that would be great.

[Sam]

Well, after we do the palace.

[Heidi Montag]

Great brain twist.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Jeremy Padauer]

Yeah. For free. For free. There's no hiring. It's all free for me.

[Sam]

What do you think of Demon Hunters?

[Jeremy Padauer]

Cool.

[Sam]

Did you watch it?

[Jeremy Padauer]

Yeah.

[Heidi Montag]

Yeah, I would like it. But my son would be so scared because I'm all about demon hunting and I love all that.

[Sam]

Were those toys first or no?

[Jeremy Padauer]

So the toys will come out in 26.

[Sam]

Are you making those?

[Jeremy Padauer]

I cannot confirm or deny.

[Heidi Montag]

Oh, my gosh. It's really good. I saw the preview. It was good.

[Sam]

Yeah, we got the Demon Hunter plug.

[Jeremy Padauer]

Golden Cue it.

[Heidi Montag]

All right, Gunner, start watching.

[Sam]

We don't care about. You have nightmares. We're gonna collect them.

[Heidi Montag]

What about those. What are those things called? The little Trolls. What's up with that? Why are they so popular in a day?

[Jeremy Padauer]

Yes.

[Sam]

You know him?

[Jeremy Padauer]

I don't know. No, but I will Say this, listen, here's the thing. Any collectible system, I like to see it be around for a little while before I put substantial money into it. So like Pokemon is a 30 year old business and there's a lot of like longevity. And you can really measure longevity over time and see the value of different things over time. Labubu is awesome. And I'm not one to say anything negative about Loboo, but I will say anything that you allow yourself to put your money into as an investment should be something that you can track and trace over time. So Labubu right now is amazing. I have some, actually, I bought some for my daughters. They love them, they put them on their accessories. But I'm not going to put anybody's college fund in anything that I can't see evolve over about a 10 year period.

[Sam]

Oh, are they expensive already now?

[Jeremy Padauer]

Some. Some have really gone up value. Yes, some have really gone up in value. And I. And I hope it sticks. For the record, I hope Labubu turns out to be a forever very successful business. I don't want anybody to fail. That's that. That. But yes, that's my tunnel work on that.

[Heidi Montag]

I'm working on that. You know, I'm also working on not wanting people to fail and horrible thing, you know, I'm praying about that. What about Beanie Babies?

[Jeremy Padauer]

Yeah, Beanie Babies.

[Heidi Montag]

Did you see that turnout? What was your first toy that really captured you? That was like, I am gonna go into the toy industry.

[Jeremy Padauer]

Oh, my gosh, what a great question. I mean, Heidi, that is the MVP question of the day. Thank you. So for me, I've always been a collector. I mean, from day one. My brother's 13 years older than me, okay. So he used to take me to flea markets and garage sales. And like, I was so enthusiastic about watching this older person enjoying and loving what he was doing with memorabilia and antiques. So I fell in love with it entirely. So I started with coins and I was buying stamps and then cards and memorabilia and autographs. In fact, when I was a teenager. This is a little ocd, I realize this, but I wrote over a thousand letters to the most known people in the world. Okay, please don't freak out yet.

[Sam]

For real 1000.

[Jeremy Padauer]

For real 1000. I got 150 back from mother Teresa, from Jimmy Stewart, from like some of the most remarkable people. I'll show you the books. That's actually one of the things I took when I left the fire. Oh, my gosh. I took that. I have all of those books. Okay. But what Got me into the toy industry. Outside of just having a love and deep love and passion for collectibles, I could not imagine being, like, the Dinty Moore Beef stew brand manager. Okay. I couldn't imagine counting the number of corn nuggets on the front of a can and saying, okay, we need six instead of five. It just. I couldn't live that life. In fact, I have no issue with anybody who sells cans of soup. I just. I couldn't do it. So I had to do something I felt passionate about. And I got recruited by Mattel out of business school, and that turned out to be, like, one of the greatest things ever for me. And, you know, having been a collector my whole life and having the domain name background, it was kind of fascinating for them at the time. And so 25 years ago, yeah, I got into the toy business from that, and then, you know, it was maybe 12 years as an executive, and then like the last 13 years as a business owner. And. And ultimately, in 2022, we sold our company to Berkshire Hathaway. So, my.

[Sam]

Did you meet Warren Buffett?

[Jeremy Padauer]

Oh, yeah, Several times. Absolutely. Every year. So a guy named Judd Zabursky, who's the CEO of our combined company, and myself and Laura and Judd K. And a bunch of us, we see David, Matt. We all see him every single year. We see him at the Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders meeting, and it's crazy. It's amazing. He's everything you could ever imagine and more.

[Heidi Montag]

Wow. What business school did you go to?

[Jeremy Padauer]

I went to Vanderbilt for business school.

[Heidi Montag]

Well, I almost saw you there. You know, I contemplated that school, and I thought, tis dis. I'd rather count the cans.

[Sam]

Count the cans at the store.

[Jeremy Padauer]

You wanted to count the corn on the cans.

[Sam]

Oh, my God. Oh, no.

[Jeremy Padauer]

Well, let me tell you something. I will say that intelligence is measured in a lot of different ways.

[Heidi Montag]

Okay, tell me

[Sam]

which way.

[Jeremy Padauer]

Humor is one. Okay. The ability to create something from nothing. The ability to be resilient and sit amongst something and turn it into something that's good for other people. There's so many ways that. And I think, yeah, so I went to some cool schools and paid for them. I didn't have money, so I did do things like buy and sell domain names with student loans so that I could pay for that stuff. But intelligence comes in a lot of different ways. And I don't think our world truly respects the creative intelligence that we have, the emotional intelligence that we have. And if you only focus on people that are, like, higher iq, you end up with disaster after disaster after disaster. It really takes a marriage of all of these things. You've got to have someone who stands in front of people and speaks. You've got to have someone who's in the background, who creates it. You've got to have all of these people working together. And that's true intelligence.

[Heidi Montag]

I think one of my last questions. Where did you meet your wife?

[Jeremy Padauer]

Oh, yeah. So we were in Memphis. In fact, both of us were from Memphis, Tennessee. And I was back in town for Thanksgiving, and we had a group of people that got together, and I met her and I saw her, and she was the most beautiful human being I'd ever seen in my life. And she told me that she was dating somebody else. So I immediately started dating somebody else because I was like, I'm not going to be that guy. Not like I could. Look at me. Okay? Especially 25 years ago, I had a chance of being somewhere north of 6, but right now, I'm holding right in the middle. And so I waited. I dated somebody else. I called her 15 months later and I said, I don't know. I just got out of a relationship, and she's like, yeah, no, I'm not dating anybody. And, yeah. So for 25 years, we've been together and married for 22, and it's been. Honestly, there's nothing better I could have done with my life other than that. And that's another thing I love about you guys. I see a true partnership here, and I just. I know that you guys are capable of incredible things together.

[Heidi Montag]

Thank you.

[Sam]

Aren't you glad we podcast today?

[Heidi Montag]

Yeah, this is my favorite podcast we've ever done.

[Sam]

On that note.

[Jeremy Padauer]

That's right.

[Sam]

Well, before we end, are any more blog posts we should knock out on the podcast? I feel like we hit tax, we hit negligence, we hit lawsuit.

[Heidi Montag]

Are you going to back Spencer for governor? I think you need to be on the team. We definitely need the brain trusted.

[Sam]

As long as he doesn't call in any bomb threats. You know, this deputy mayor called in a bomb briefly.

[Heidi Montag]

Heard something.

[Jeremy Padauer]

No, I think. Here's the thing. That story got no coverage. Okay? And the thing, and it blows my mind that a story like that doesn't get coverage when a fire occurred a few months later. So in October of 2024, this is going to sound like, not real. Like, I know what I'm gonna like, people are gonna hear this and they're gonna have to go to Google and fact check it, and then they'll find like, yes, it's a Popcorn eating moment.

[Sam]

Shit always happens.

[Jeremy Padauer]

Yes, exactly. In October of 2024, there's a guy named Brian Williams who is our deputy mayor of Public safety. Okay, now just to be clear, public safety is fire. It's emergency services, it's, you know, police. And it's really the conduit of the mayor to those groups of people. And so Brian Williams was the deputy mayor of public safety. Okay. Brian Williams decided to call a bomb threat into City hall over policies that he didn't like or agree with that Los Angeles had. And Brian was then raided by the FBI, and Brian admitted to calling in the bomb threat. That was roughly two months prior to the fire. Yet on January 1st, when Mayor Bass received notice that we were going to have these winds maybe a little bit worse than the winds today, she decided still to leave with no deputy mayor of public Safety in place. So the level of negligence, like anybody that runs a business, you guys have a business here. If your people that were doing the creative stuff today didn't show up, you probably would have put this podcast off to the next day and not try to do it, the two of you. Somehow she still left. She left. Her team had to be in shambles. I don't know how it couldn't be when the person that's responsible for that particular category bailed because he called it a bomb threat. Like, so he's going to be sentenced, I believe, this month, and I believe it's up to 10 years, and I think he'll get every year, because imagine the irony of being the person who's responsible for public safety, but you're the one that's threatening to bomb the city. It's diabolical. She left anyway. I don't care if she went to Ghana or she went to Memphis or she went to Salt Lake City. It's irrelevant to me where she went. What's relevant is that she left her team in shambles. That kills me, man. Like, I lead teams. I love people. Like, how would you even leave your own people in that situation, much less our community? So, yeah, I find her to be like, maybe the worst leader I've ever seen in public office.

[Heidi Montag]

That seems to be the trend. We have the worst leaders in California in public office right now. It's so unfortunate that we are the ones who suffer from that and they just get to do a horrific job and there's no, there's no repercussions for it. It's so shocking. Like, did their houses burn down? Is their community gone? No. What is their consequence for it? So you can answer to God when you die. Good luck with that. But it's just. It's crazy. So I'm hopeful. And I, like Spencer says, and it is so true. I don't care what political party. I really don't. I just. We want stuff. Someone who does a great job. It shouldn't be so a job.

[Sam]

Let's start at the base level, like, do the job.

[Jeremy Padauer]

By the way, how did Caruso, in a city that burns down almost entirely, save 4 contiguous acres of a commercial space with 10,000 gallons of water? How does he do that? We have a 117 million gallon drinking water reservoir, which is a complete lie, by the way. It was always meant to be a fire reservoir. There was a second reservoir called the Palisades Reservoir. That's right up here. That was 6 million gallons, by the way. Whatever it is. 17 million gallons. It's 14 years worth of drinking water for a city of 20,000 people. I'm pretty sure that's not a drinking water reservoir. That's math. Doesn't seem to math even, you know, for anybody. So the bottom line is, they tried this. Six million gallon reservoir broke. They cheaped out. As a city, they used us as a piggy bank, and they decided to make the 117 million gallon reservoir multipurpose, which is absolutely, again, diabolical behavior. Now, I can't blame Karen Bass for making that decision, but I can certainly blame her for being in a situation where people are so poorly managed, they don't even know that's a problem. Like, it's unbelievable, this whole thing.

[Sam]

She did hire Janice or sign off on Janiece Queen Jonas. So, you know, at the ladwp. So technically that's her being the team leader. Like, oh, let me hire this, you know, so, yeah, you are who you hire.

[Jeremy Padauer]

Yeah. And she also hired Brian Williams as her deputy mayor of public safety. Like, her track record is spectacular.

[Sam]

Not to mention there was a fire next to the reservoir in 2024, literally next door that they knew it was empty and they had to bring the water tender. So if you're mayor and you're getting an email or anybody's like, oh, there's a fire in the palaces. We don't have any water there. That it drive it in. Like these are. You should be in meetings where somebody's like telling you and you go, oh, well, let's get that filled up, because it seems like they need that.

[Heidi Montag]

So I'm sure it is.

[Sam]

And like, yeah, somebody.

[Heidi Montag]

That meeting happened.

[Sam]

Somebody emailed somebody.

[Jeremy Padauer]

I think I Think that what we will find. Well, by the way, the one thing we may not get is the mayor's text from that day because she erased them. And she even says it was on my personal device. I mean, allegedly. That's what I'm hearing. And I think we could fact check that very quickly. But most of those messages are not gonna be available. And I think that that's horrific. A lot of the messages from January, from that day are gone. It doesn't even make any sense to me.

[Sam]

Well, technically, if she did say that, with our congressional investigation, I'm sure Homeland Security and NSA can probably get anything that you think is deleted.

[Heidi Montag]

Nothing's gone off the web.

[Sam]

If you typed it into the matrix.

[Jeremy Padauer]

Good.

[Sam]

I have a feeling they can just about anything.

[Jeremy Padauer]

Good. Well, when they do, then what they're gonna discover is some of the grossest of gross negligence.

[Sam]

And look, we gotta start using the word criminal because the 12 people died. That's what I learned in Washington.

[Jeremy Padauer]

Well, that's interesting.

[Sam]

It becomes criminal when 12 people die.

[Jeremy Padauer]

Really?

[Sam]

It becomes criminal? One person dies.

[Jeremy Padauer]

Really.

[Sam]

So every time we say gross negligence. That's if there was no deaths.

[Jeremy Padauer]

Okay.

[Sam]

It becomes criminal negligence if what the negligence caused death.

[Heidi Montag]

I hate to say gross criminal negligence.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Heidi Montag]

How would we just say let's merge it.

[Sam]

All right. Well, on that note.

[Heidi Montag]

Yeah. Okay, great. So thank you so much for the Fame game. What toys could people buy now? Oh, yeah.

[Sam]

Do you have a promo code? You showed Pratt daddy palisades to get 10% off your squishies palisades.com sales going on.

[Jeremy Padauer]

No, I like look what I will say. No, no, but I'm still there. I'm still there. Actually, the entire team that sold the company is still there.

[Heidi Montag]

Jeremy's a team player, remember? And player there.

[Jeremy Padauer]

Judd stayed. Laura stayed. We all stayed.

[Sam]

So no toys are on sale. Christmas is coming up. This is.

[Jeremy Padauer]

This is the season where we want you to pay full price.

[Heidi Montag]

We need to rebuild everybody. Okay.

[Sam]

One third was the part.

[Jeremy Padauer]

Wasn't sure there was a bit.

[Heidi Montag]

Well, back to us. Who. Yeah, you could stream Heidi Montag music. Make sure you download it all. Please pre order Spencer's book. The guy you loved. Past tense to hate. Please like comment. Subscribe. Share. You can share this podcast. It was great. You loved it. It was funny. It was informative.

[Sam]

Re exit. You know, we're now putting these on Twitter.

[Heidi Montag]

Rewatch.

[Sam]

You could share it. It's going to be a real. Is a real. Share it if you're watching on Snapchat. Hey, Snapchat Yeah. And then a note to this you can buy more than one copy of my book. You can send them as gifts. Gifts. You think it's like a gag gift. You could put them in stockings.

[Heidi Montag]

Gag away.

[Sam]

Gag away. You could stick it with coal. Okay.

[Heidi Montag]

Well, thank you. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you for coming. Thank you for the information and being so smart. It was just really.

[Sam]

Pacificpalicates.com there's at least two blog posts a week. If you want to stay up to date with all of his thinking that he has lots of time to do mine.

[Heidi Montag]

Get read out loud. But you got to read for yourself.

[Sam]

Sam.