Thirsty Topics podcast
A weekly podcast dedicated to trending topics on social media, pop culture and entertainment. Lawrence and Meryl have healthy discussions with multiple perspectives.
Thirsty Topics podcast
Unfiltered Conversations: From Taylor Swift's Triumph to Elon's Black Eye for 6/3/25
Taylor Swift makes a powerful move by buying back the rights to her first six albums for $360 million, ending a long-running battle over ownership of her music with former manager Scooter Braun. We explore what this means for artists' ownership of their work and why this is such a significant moment in the music industry.
• Taylor Swift announced the purchase through a letter on her website expressing her joy
• The saga began in 2019 when Scooter Braun bought her former label Big Machine
• Swift paid approximately $360 million to regain control of her first six albums
• Artist ownership of masters has been a struggle for many famous musicians including Prince and Michael Jackson
• This purchase represents a major power move that changes the landscape for artist rights
President Trump pardoned Todd and Julie Chrisley from "Chrisley Knows Best" after a family member reportedly attended a high-priced fundraiser
• The pardon (not commutation) completely wiped their record clean
• Concerns raised about wealthy donors potentially buying pardons
• Questions about how this undermines the jury system and court process
A Maryland woman faces child abuse charges after allegedly slamming a child's head into an airplane window when called "Miss Piggy"
• Incident occurred on a flight returning from Disney World
• Child reportedly called her fat and "Miss Piggy" during an argument
• Woman took the child's phone away before the physical altercation
• FAA noted they fined passengers $7.5 million for unruly behavior in 2023 alone
A father tragically died teaching his 15-year-old daughter to drive when she mistook the gas for the brake
• Vehicle went off a 40-foot cliff during the driving lesson
• Daughter survived with minor injuries but faces lifelong trauma
• Discussion about the importance of starting driving lessons in safe locations
Hailey Bieber sold her makeup brand Rhode to Elf Beauty in a deal worth up to $1 billion
• The skincare line was founded in 2022 and rapidly expanded to $200 million in net sales
• Bieber's strategic silence amid public criticism paid off with this major business win
• Comparison to other successful celebrity beauty brands like Rihanna's Fenty
AI-generated content caused major newspapers to publish fake book recommendations
• Only 5 of 15 book titles in the summer reading list were real books
• Discussion about AI hallucinations and the importance of fact-checking AI output
• Growing concern about AI reliability in professional contexts
The NBA Finals features an unexpected matchup between Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder
• Both teams considered underdogs despite being statistically strong
• Prediction that hunger from these teams will create an exciting championship series
Great conversations and a place where independent filmmakers can be highlighted.
Hello, and thank you for listening to Thirsty Topics podcast! I'm Lawrence Elrod, and every week Meryl Klemow and I dive deep into the stories that matter, the conversations that shape our world."
Please help support our show by following us and telling others about our show. New podcasts weekly.
Everyone welcome to this week's episode of Thirsty Topics. I'm Lawrence Elrod.
Speaker 2:And I'm Meryl Clemo.
Speaker 1:Hey Meryl, how are you today?
Speaker 2:I'm so good, very, very, veryrill. How are you today? I'm so good, Very, very, very good. How are you?
Speaker 1:I am doing fantastic.
Speaker 2:Yay, is that a?
Speaker 1:good weekend, it's only going to get better, I think. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:It's only going to get better, I think.
Speaker 1:Oh, absolutely Absolutely. Did you have a great weekend?
Speaker 2:I really did. A sign of it is I forgot completely what I did, but it was very, very fun. Oh yeah, that's right. I had a fun show in La Jolla, San Diego, A really fun show. It was all women and like the best time ever Very nice, yep.
Speaker 1:Well, we're going to start off the fun. I'm going to let you start first. This is a fun one.
Speaker 2:I know. One that was very exciting and very unexpected to at least most of us, I think was that Taylor Swift announced that she bought back the rights to her first six albums and this ended a long running battle over ownership of her music. So she made the announcement. She put up, kind of like a letter you know a pretend written letter on her website saying that she's been bursting into tears of joy ever since that she found out that this was really happening. I'm sure many of us know at this point what was happening, but the saga began in June 2019 when the music manager, Scooter Braun, who we've heard of many times, bought her former record label, Big Machine, and with all of that it was all the songs from all six of her albums. Taylor was not shy about letting everyone know how she felt about that, and then that led for her to record some of her other songs to now have like those music you know that music.
Speaker 2:So it's so funny because everyone was thinking that she was about to announce Reputation, that she was about to do her version of it, and people were obsessed with it, thinking that she was going to announce it on like the AMAs. And then, you know, as we talked about last week. The AMAs were kind of a flop, so they were like, why would Taylor announce it? So I thought this was she did such a good job by like fooling her fans and just surprising us. I feel like one thing about Taylor is she like constantly keeps Swifties on their toes. I feel like I'm not a Swifty, but I'm like a Swifty ally, like where I really love Taylor Swift, but I'm not. I haven't fully jumped into the Swifty pool yet, but I'm dipping my toes in. So, yeah, I think this is so awesome. I think she bought it for $360 million, which I heard is crazy, but that's just, I think, a drop in the bucket for what she made on the Heiress.
Speaker 1:Tour? Oh, absolutely, and I think that it's so important for artists to own their masters, especially when you look at long term, and a lot of independent artists right now really don't want to be signed to labels just because of all the poops they have to go through wondering are they getting screwed? And then again, a lot of them when they do sign up. Major record labels don't own their masters, so famous artists like Prince had to fight for his master.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Michael Jackson had an issue with his. So it's not just the unknown artists, it's even the famous artists as well too. So I commend her. I think that's a great thing that she did.
Speaker 2:Me too. I can't. I can't even understand how it would feel to be an artist that wrote these things when you're like 14 and 15 and put your heart and soul into them, and then to have like weird slimy music executives and to have that like the business hands exchange and you'll be left out of it. You know, that's crazy. So I think that's like that's just so badass. And the fact that like a woman was just able to pay 360 million just to be like yep, you know, it's like she shouldn't have to in the first place. She should have just owned it outright.
Speaker 2:But I thought this was such a cool showing of it, um, so, yeah, that's really exciting. And I think that's like. I mean, those are all. All six of those albums are like amazing and so good. So it just people were commenting like it feels like the timeline shifted now that she owns all of her stuff. So that's one thing about taylor is she is able to like reach mentally like millions of billions of people, you know. So I think like, even though we don't know her, we all kind of have like somewhat of a you know. So I think like, even though we don't know her, we all kind of have like somewhat of a you know personal relationship with her. So I think that's cool to have that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know, because she's such a popular pop star and you know all around the world and stuff, you know it would only make sense that she should own her Masters anyway. So I thought that was a great thing and you know she's probably working on a long time behind the scenes.
Speaker 2:We just didn't know about until it was completed I know I wonder if travis kelsey was just like cool babe, like something, something tells me. I mean I think he hopefully I was thinking about that, because some ends of things I'm like I feel like they're really good partnership, but on other ends I feel like they just kind of like may not get each other like at their core. So I would love to see how that conversation went Like you know how much of it he like fully, fully understands and you know vice versa.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Hopefully, other independent artists are looking at this, and you know, realize the importance of owning your masters as well too.
Speaker 2:I know, I know and hopefully we'll see some type of like I don't know just change in the contracts. I don't think it's. I don't know if it's going to be worse, just the way that, like ai and we're going, and it's just going to get more and more, you know, soon they're trying to own people's like consciousness, basically. So who knows, like now, if, like a 14 year old version of taylor, swift signed something they may try to like, sign away her ai likeness and everything you know, which is the whole, a lot of the strikes and everything.
Speaker 1:So we'll see oh yeah, and because I've always said this before is, no matter how talented you are, it's so important to know the business side of music you have to know the business and and any type of entertainment. To be honest with you, you have to know the business side yeah, yep, so I don't know. It's very cool All right Talk about something interesting. Well, as you're probably aware of, president Trump has pardoned Todd and Julie Kriesley from the reality show Kriesley Knows Best.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh knows best.
Speaker 1:Now, from what I have seen from several sources, that a member of their family I don't know if it was the daughter or if it was a grandmother, but a member from their family went to, I guess, this invitation-only type dinner where it was a million dollars, I believe a person and magically, out of nowhere, the Grizzlies are pardoned Yep, you know, not commuted. And magically, out of nowhere, the Grizzlies are pardoned Yep, not commuted, pardoned. Not only do they get out of prison, but their record is wiped clean, right? What do you think about that, meryl?
Speaker 2:Didn't she somewhere include in a note like, by the way, we're big fans of you, or something?
Speaker 2:I think there was something that someone said like yeah.
Speaker 2:So she pretty much put like I think she like in the invitation or in something very easy, like, by the way, we're huge trump supporters, and I think that was like a big you know part of this piece of this thing and people were worried like now, are people going to commit crimes knowing that if they just say like hey, I'm a fan of the president, like is that going to be enough to get you pardoned? Yeah, I mean, I've listened to some really good, no matter like what side people are on. I just on the podcast Pod Saves America, I just heard from like one of our former attorney women and she was saying like she had such an interesting take because she's like I'm not from a political background, but she used to work for Trump and got fired and she was kind of explaining like why everyone should be concerned about just the like willy nilly nature of all these pardons and stuff. You know, and it didn't have to do from like a liberal perspective, it was just like the courts and yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh, absolutely. I think it undermines the court system because you know, people are talking about how he was prosecuted and all this. No one wants to say the fact that they were found guilty by a jury of their peers.
Speaker 2:It wasn't the Democratic Party, it wasn't this wild wing conspiracy. These were average Americans that convicted them. Yeah, and if you just say you're like a fan, like hey, big fan of Donald Trump, you can't just like get off for any single crime.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know, the other thing too that's bad is that it's kind of setting a dangerous precedence that well, if you have money, yeah, you can commit crimes. You know you'll be able to buy your way out of it. Yeah, which is not the way our system is set up to work, exactly.
Speaker 2:It's like if you're a donor of some things, I mean, that's a lot how pharmaceutical bills are passed and the lobbying and that's how this pays for this dinner and this person to go here and this, and then what you get gets passed. So it's yeah, it's a crazy thing. So, yeah, I don't love it at all. I think it's all. I think it's like scary and I think it's just like it doesn't surprise me that it's happening, but it's just weird. I'm surprised even that, like as much information about that situation got out to the public as possible, cause I would think that's the kind of story that they want to cover up or just not have it like leaked or anything.
Speaker 1:Well, one thing that I've noticed that generally people that are pardoned, they're going to go in one of two directions. Either A they're going to clean themselves up as far as they're acting what they do and they're going to go on a straight arrow path, or they're going to think they're invincible and then, down the line, they're going to do something stupid again. Yeah, and end up right back where they started.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:Yep, so I don't know it's kind of interesting to see which direction. I have an idea which direction they're going in but I don't know. What do you think, Remy?
Speaker 2:I sadly think I know oh my gosh, have you ever watched the show? No, I've heard of it, I've seen it too many times, but I didn't see it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know about the show, but yeah, I tried to watch it one time. I probably couldn't get through five minutes of it.
Speaker 2:It's one of those shows that you just think producers sit around and be like what could be the most lowest denominator. Shows that people would like, Even some of the TLC shows about people eating coupons and everything. Everything that's just too weird.
Speaker 1:Well, the crazy thing about merrill is that there literally is an audience for anything you put out there. Yeah, the right audience, you know yep, there really is.
Speaker 2:That's why we should make a show about that in general, we should just like interview all the people that were just part in and call it podcast or something.
Speaker 2:There you go. It's a new business idea. Well, my next story. Actually, this is the perfect person to. Uh, I bet she's maybe going to get part and she'll slip in a note that she loves our president or something to get parted. Now I'm we're going to talk about this.
Speaker 2:But when I first picked this article or this my topic, I thought it was like very cute and like light and funny. And then I read more about it and I was like, oh my god, this is crazy. So it goes down real fast. Uh, so basically, maryland woman it was a maryland woman charged after hitting a child on a plane who called her miss piggy. So you know, different headlines said different things. This article got me in the way that I love Miss Piggy and like at first I thought this was just like a woman was mad that a child called her Miss Piggy and I was sending it to all my friends, being like this is so silly. And then they're like silly, a woman bashed a kid's head on a plane. I'm like, oops.
Speaker 2:So basically, a woman a woman is facing charges after police in Florida said she hit a child who made fun of her weight on a flight from Orlando. They got some documents and it said that she slammed the child's head into the window of the plane, which is like absolutely crazy. So she's 46 and now she has to go to court, or she went to court for child abuse charges. For child abuse charges, um, they did not detail the relationship to the child, so we don't know if it's just like a random, random person or it's like someone that she knows. Um, it said that of course they became the kid, became disrespectful during their trip to disney world, as if this can't get any more convoluted and they got. When they got into the plane, they got into an argument and the kid began calling her fat and miss piggy. She decided to take the phone away from him and he got angry. He pushed her arm off of the armrest twice and then she started smacking him. I mean, this is just nuts and so like. I think to me this sounds like she knows him at first.
Speaker 2:The article reads as though someone's just walking down an aisle and, you know, gets accosted by a kid. They haven't said point blank, but I have a feeling this either was her kid or someone else's kid or something. And yeah, the FAA responded and just said they have zero tolerance for this type of stuff and in 2023 alone, they fined passengers $7.5 million for unruly behavior. Wow, yeah, I mean it seems like there's a few things wrong. Like the least bad is I don't think it's not nice, obviously, for a kid to be like yelling at someone calling them miss, piggy or fat, like that's not that. That should have some type of like reprimanding, but getting bashed in the head definitely is not it. That's not right.
Speaker 1:So like the first thing wasn't great, but then the reaction was 20 times worse yeah, I mean it would be kind of interesting to know what the relationship is, because it seems like they, based on what you just said, it looks like they know each other. They're either relatives, or maybe she's a guardian I don't know what the situation is but for the kid to be that comfortable saying something that disrespectful means that they've done this before. And they're doing it.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and the fact that she tried to take his phone away and the fact that they were done with Disneyland or Disney world. So it's like I also wonder. I mean, it's so many times like we've all probably said things to our parents that we regret, or you go over the line, I don't think you know, like I feel like people haven't said stuff since the dawn of time to their family. That's like whoops, you know. But calling someone on a plane, especially if it's like your guardian, like calling them Fat and Miss Piggy, is bad. But yeah, you don't want to bash a kid in the head, yeah, and bash a kid in the head.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it sounded like she was just trying to make a point. She wasn't really trying to hurt him, but just make a point.
Speaker 2:But you have to be aware too that where you're at, I know Now this is way different, but I do have to admit to all of us that sometimes I do like not children getting in trouble, but children getting like if they're having a tantrum on TikTok. Sometimes I like to watch videos of them like getting punished in a good way Never hurt, not this, but like I do like to see you know consequences. Sometimes and I'm also not a parent, but I don't know sometimes on TikTok I find myself liking to watch that, but like never, ever hurting a kid.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, and you know what? Were they going to Disneyland, or from Disneyland, I think they were coming home from it.
Speaker 2:I bet everyone had a big long day. Who knows, maybe the kid was mad that he couldn't pick out Disney ears, or they didn't get to eat a snow cone, or something.
Speaker 1:I was going to say if it was going to Disneyland, that's an easy fix.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, never.
Speaker 1:You want to clown? We're not going there an easy fix.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, never. Yeah, be like okay, you want a clown, we're not going there exactly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're going right back on the plane, yeah there you go, yeah, but uh yeah like I said I don't think she, from way it sounds, it doesn't sound like she meant harm. It was just kind of like she got fed up. But again, you have to be aware of your surroundings.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and no matter what, taking a child's head and hitting it against the plane window, I think that you should be charged for child abuse. I think that is very serious. If it is what the witnesses said, she took his head and bashed it in. That's pretty crazy.
Speaker 1:I don't know, I don't know If she had took him and maybe smacked his hand real hard, I don't think people would have really reacted the same way.
Speaker 2:That's just a discipline.
Speaker 1:You might not want to smash your kids head into a window in public. That's not a good look.
Speaker 2:Yes, so ridiculous. The other passengers said that they were like trying to tell everyone in this take a breath, everyone take a breath. But also my biggest takeaway is that it's not bad Like he's using Miss Piggy as an insult. Miss Piggy's a wonderful character and so in that moment I would have like been like you know, if I have Miss Piggy then you're going to. Like if you, in that moment I would have been like if I have Miss Piggy then you're going to, if you embrace Miss Piggy, she would never even touch a child. She would have her gloves on and not even deal with it.
Speaker 1:That's true. That would be a nice comeback too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, you're not even Kermit level, you ugly child, but also reason number 800 why I don't have a kid.
Speaker 1:So yeah, Talk about, but also my reason number 800 why I don't have a kid. So, yeah, yeah, talk about kids. This is actually a pretty sad story. Um, a father his name is james james uh polotovsky, died trying to teach his 15 year old daughter how to drive. No, what authorities are saying is that, um, you know, as with every parent, because, because I taught my son how to drive, you know, this is the season, especially in summertime, where parents are teaching their kids how to drive. And I guess she mistaked the gas pedal for the brake pedal. Yeah, shot a vehicle right off a 40-foot cliff.
Speaker 2:Oh my.
Speaker 1:God, her leg was on the roof. Unfortunately, her father did not survive. She had, like you know, minor bruises and cuts. But wow, there's a whole lot of things come to mind with that. It's like, first of all, it's just sad.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That daughter is going to be traumatized for a long time and you know she's definitely going to need to talk to someone on the middle mental side because in her mind she's thinking oh my god, I, I caused my father to die exactly and like I would never want to drive again, like the guilt that you feel, and it's probably like now, she will probably associate driving and learning to drive with just the worst thing that is ever imaginable.
Speaker 2:And it's so scary because I do feel like there is a big gap of learning how to drive and like being behind this huge machine. That's so scary. And then you're just on the road with everyone else, Like I always see, like student drivers on big freeways, and I'm like that is terrifying for everyone involved. You know, like that's it's just a lot. I wish there was some intermediate way that people could get a lot more experience than having to be like in the, you know, in the pack with all of us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean um, um, as far as, uh, how long he's been teaching her, I don't know. You know, I guess, in hindsight, you know, you have to wonder yeah, should they have been on that, on that road that has that cliff? Yes, exactly.
Speaker 2:But don't you think like, even when I see like new drivers, even if it's not a cliff, I still see them merging on to really like fast freeways or you know, curvy lanes or even driving at night, sometimes like I.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I agree, the cliff part is like that's so scary and weird oh yeah, and you know, the thing is, is that, um, you know, when I was teaching my son how to drive, I have to admit I was pretty terrified when I first started yeah you feel like you have no control. Yeah, and you, you know you're hoping that he listens to you or she listens to you, and you know, don't do anything crazy, you know.
Speaker 1:But I know when we started off I started them off in parking lots first, before I put them on the road, and then when I put them in the street I put them in our neighborhood streets because you know there's not a whole lot you can do in the neighborhood versus on me. So I kind of gradually got him into that.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and I think we have the luxury too. Yeah, like I learned to drive in northeast Pennsylvania so we had plenty of like little towns and little roads and stuff, you know. But like here in Burbank, like I'm just thinking there's not really that much of an opportunity for like a teen to do that. You know, because it's like you go three, three blocks and then all of a sudden you're like merging into a major highway and um, but yeah.
Speaker 1:So I think that's so scary and I think it's just like that's. That's so sad, yeah, I guess. So we'll pray for her and her family, because I know she's definitely going to need support um, okay, an upbeat one Another.
Speaker 2:It's so funny. Mine is a theme today. Besides, miss Piggy. Woman is like women, powerful women taking back their power.
Speaker 1:Very beautiful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I love it. So Hailey Bieber announced that she sold her makeup brand Road to Elf Beauty in a deal worth up to $1 billion. So the 28-year-old model, obviously married to Justin Bieber, co-founded the line of skincare products in 2022. And it's expanded rapidly, reporting more than 200 million in net sales over the 12 months to March. And so you know it was.
Speaker 2:There was talk about like people, really like road. I think I think Haley has done a good job of growing her brand and, once again, the same way, I applaud taylor for kind of surprising her fans. I have to, you know, give it to hayley, whether or not you like her, whether or not like your team, whatever team be birthing not. Uh, I think she did such a good job of just staying quiet, especially when there's so much hate around her and just like so much chatter about her and Justin. I thought that was like such a good clap back to be quiet and then, all of a sudden, be like like to let the news hit and then her just be like oh, yeah, okay, I sold my company for a billion dollars.
Speaker 1:Oh, definitely, and you know I took my hat off to her. I mean, right now I don't know if it's a fad or it's a permanent thing, but there's been a lot of different artists that's been selling their makeup lines and becoming billionaires.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you think about Rihanna.
Speaker 1:She's like what?
Speaker 2:1.3 billion, I think it was yeah, exactly, yep, and I believe, like Rihanna and Hailey, I really do think those women are in the business meetings and part of the creative. I think it goes well because you could tell they're part of the creative strategy and like I feel like we've seen some like some Ariana Grande perfumes and stuff. You could tell that she doesn't even know that she has a perfume, or like there's some situations where I feel like people don't even know they have something. But I think these examples, they they do. And like Selena Gomez with her rare beauty, I think when someone like that is really into it, it translates and women and girls and whoever get excited about it.
Speaker 1:Oh, absolutely, and I look at it as it's a great thing because they're making money. Not only are they artists, but also they're businesswomen, and that's the big keys, a lot of successful artists. Now, the thing we all have in common they're businessmen and businesswomen. Now, they're not just so narrow on their particular art but they're doing other things to supplement as well and kind of build off of it. So I think it's a great thing yep, and it's so funny too.
Speaker 2:I definitely saw a switch up online about hayley because people just pile on her and like I'm sure in some instances she is spoiled and not nice and maybe she was like a big fan of justin and you know kind of stalked her way in, but I'm sure she also has a nice side, like it's kind of you know I'm sure there's many sides to her, but like people were hating on her and then she got the cover of vogue and now this, and now I've seen in the comments people are like it's hayley baldwin with like the wind, you know, and everyone's like now people are like divorce him, divorce justin, you're better at it than it.
Speaker 2:So it's so funny to like watch the tides change and just I think, like for her. This is almost the best case scenario where people are kind of like you know, wanting, wanting good for her and even saying that she's too good for justin and you know all the stuff. So I thought that was just like whether or not you like hayley, I think the way that she handled it I'm just like never responding to people that much and then all of a sudden just popping off with like selling her company for a billion dollars was so cool oh yeah, the way you handle it is you let your success do the talking for you.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and you surprise people. I think that's the thing too, when they underestimate you and then you do something huge. I think it's fun to watch people recalibrate.
Speaker 1:Yes, it is, and talk about recalibrating Miley Cyrus. She faces her past and what she does by facing trauma that she's dealt with in the past. It has changed her relationship with her family. One of the things that I've learned, which I did not know, was that she was estranged from her father for some time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Billy Ray, yep.
Speaker 1:And I guess now that she's gotten help for her and things that she's been dealing, with her relationships are better, she's better, she feels. You know, it's like she's been reborn again.
Speaker 2:Yes, yep, I think that's great. It seems like Miley, especially as someone that had to grow up like very quickly and probably learn a lot of adult lessons and even probably like I would guess that she's probably a little bit more, even more like emotionally mature than most of her family and probably had to be the one to like, come together and maybe set boundaries and you know, oh yeah, and I think it's an example of you know, when you've dealt with with with trauma, uh, growing up or in your past, you know you're not weak by asking for help or going to get help.
Speaker 1:For that you're a strong person. Because, because, because everyone needs help at some point or another. Absolutely, and there's nothing to be ashamed or nothing to be embarrassed about it. There's all kinds of different ways that either a therapist can help you, a friend can help you, there's all kinds of avenues, just as long as you get that help that you need.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and I think, especially when it comes to family issues, I feel like sometimes people it's the best thing that they need to cut off their family for a little bit or, you know, after you've given them fair warning, but then you could be open to how she did like to come back again and kind of be like, ok, we're, we are going to work on it. So, yeah, it sounds cool. Miley definitely is like a, like a, like a big spirit. You know she has to work on a lot of stuff.
Speaker 1:It seems like she's been through a lot, but she's also like she's a tough, tough cookie, I think yeah, when I saw her being interviewed um, it's just and maybe it's me, but it seems like she's a lot happier than she's been in a very long time yeah, yeah, I think I think she's probably like.
Speaker 2:She's probably gone through so many phases of just being a kid star and then her whole like wrecking ball thing when she had the short hair and she was kind of like you know, finding drugs for the first time or whatever. So I think this miley seems very balanced and like and she's already married and divorced and it's just like.
Speaker 1:She's like uh, she's had to teach herself emotional maturity oh yeah, and I think she had to learn how to how to love her parents in a different way, because one of the issues she had in the past is you know her parents divorced. You know she disclosed that.
Speaker 2:That was a big issue that she had to get over as well, which unfortunately is kind of common in in households where the parents divorce yeah, and I've heard things too I mean, who knows how true these are, but I've definitely heard things that, like her, like her mom either like married or hooked up or something with like one of the other siblings, ex-boyfriends, or like I feel like there's yeah, there's been like, I think, ways that her parents have, either in a big way or in a micro way, like betrayed her and I think she probably had to deal with like that too. You know, like who to trust and who to who to, like you know, have in her life close by.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, Well, like I said I I'm glad she's happy and she's doing better and looking forward to seeing what she has coming out very soon.
Speaker 2:Me too. Me too I'm like I, I think I. I think Miley's one of those things where I like her way better than I like her music, Like you know, like I like the idea of Miley, but I'm hoping that I don't know. I think she needs a good pop album soon. We'll see.
Speaker 1:There you go.
Speaker 2:Someone that maybe Miley can talk with and give some insight to our boy, elon Musk, so you might have some Elon stuff to talk about too. I just wanted to bring up the fact that Elon left DC with a literal and reputational black eye. So you know, we just saw a video of elon uh, a send-off from trump and everything and so he was like in the oval office, dressed all in black, in his doge's hat on and his t-shirt and blazer, and he had a black eye given to him by his young son. So my question for you is do you think he was from the sun or what do you think?
Speaker 1:um well, I can see them wanting to blame the sun.
Speaker 2:I mean, tell you, that the sun did it. But it's also the most elon thing. Like why wouldn't his last day be with a black eye with trump? And like, and even someone I heard some interview and trump's like why wouldn't his last day be with a black eye with trump? And like, and even someone I heard some interview and trump's like I didn't even notice it, like I'm like, so someone's standing afoot from you and you don't know this, that their eye is like black and blue we know how that goes when, uh, when uh, the president falls out with someone, oh, I don't really know this person, even though they know each other.
Speaker 2:Yeah, person who't even know this person, who he is. If it ends up that Elon is able to step away and they still speak highly of each other, I will be very impressed because that will seem like the one Trump former aide or employee or whatever that has still a good standing.
Speaker 1:Well, the thing is, he came in like a wrecking ball. Yeah, Miley Cyrus, I think some of the things that contributed to his downfall is one, his company that you know we're going to talk about pretty soon. And then also, the other thing, too, is when you start firing a bunch of people, not knowing what they do, and then have to go oh crap, I need to find them, I need yep and like, oops, maybe the national parks do need employees and you know like, maybe people might need medicare, and this said so.
Speaker 2:It said, uh, basically he elon said that he told his son go ahead and punch me in the face, which would explain his black eye. Musk has 14 children. So my other thought, too, is like you're a dad, Is it normal or I mean nothing's normal Is it like it seems a little weird for a dad to like tell a kid to punch them in the face? That seems like a behavior you wouldn't really want to foster, right?
Speaker 1:That is incredibly weird, right? Yeah, I don't think I would ever tell my son hey, hey, son, go ahead, hit me in the face.
Speaker 2:you know, I don't think I'd ever say yeah, I can see if you're like playing, horsing around or something, but not punching. But I could see like roughhousing and wrestling, but but directly asking your kids to punch you in the face, like then they're going to go repeat that behavior with their friends or with someone else, it seems very weird to want to stir that up.
Speaker 1:I've known friends that want to toughen up their kid whatever. They'll roughhouse them a little bit, but they've never told their child to punch them in the face though.
Speaker 2:If only they had little kid prints like the little tiny five-year-old.
Speaker 1:But before he left the White House it started getting very, very weird. They showed him at a dinner. He was sitting with the president and other people, with one of the mothers of his children, and he was taking his finger, balancing like a fork and a spoon. It was like really kind of weird, you know.
Speaker 2:Yes, Well, there's definitely a lot of alleged like we don't know for sure, but definitely a lot of people say that he takes like ketamine a lot and a lot of other drugs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, which I wouldn't be surprised, because I just think these type of men, they're like dopamine is fried and you know they're just trying to get like the next fix and they probably have everything they want in life and it's not enough, and so it's just like you know, it's like the next thing, next thing, oh, yeah, because in that tape and I'm quite sure they're not they didn't mean to catch it.
Speaker 2:But you can hear the president sayon what the hell are you doing really? Yeah, yeah, yeah, and it's like I don't know. You would just think I mean like I can understand doing like recreational party drugs if you're elon and you have all the money in the world and you're so powerful, but it's just like that seems like a sad life to have is what you're constantly have to be on drugs and you're like not living very authentically. I don't know.
Speaker 1:But you know, one of the things that, um, that I believe is true and people say it all the time is money does not buy happiness. Right Takes away all the distract, distractions. But at the end of the day, if you're not happy with who you are as a person, it doesn't matter how much money you have, because you know we've both seen over the years people with money fame, everything that a person could dream of, and they're still very miserable yeah, definitely.
Speaker 2:And just think like when you just think, okay, this man has 14 kids and he's asking one of them to punch him in his face, it's just like, like.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the other one's going okay, I'm next, and I'm just kidding.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly To line up and be like okay, next up.
Speaker 1:But yeah, it was really weird because when I looked at him I'm like, is this a real video?
Speaker 1:He was looking kind of out of it. I'll be honest with you. And then, of course, when he did the um, the hand gesture, I mean there was a lot of weird things that was going on that people were like you know, he might have been high I mean it's allegations because, again, we don't know right but I do agree that they were very incredibly weird, you know definitely, and I do think too a lot of people have said that he is.
Speaker 2:I don't know if it's confirmed or not, but like people say that he is neurodivergent, maybe he has like autism, asperger's. You know, I don't know something and like I would, totally would believe that, but I don't, I still don't think that really lends itself to like really explaining why you would want my kids to punch you in the face or you know, there's some behaviors I'm like okay, maybe this could be like neurodivergent, but then there are just some like oddities.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's true. I still don't get what the balancing of the fork and the spoon was about, but you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know, and the combo of like Elon and Trump is just like what did we do in the planets to like have this happen in history?
Speaker 1:Speaking of Elon and weird. I don't know how you feel about this, but now you know we talked about in a previous show about how much Tesla has lost. They've lost customers all around the world. Yeah, their stocks have dipped dramatically. Well, now Tesla investors have demanded not asked demanded that Elon Musk work a 40-hour week.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh and this is from someone like you would think that he would be leading the charge of teaching people how to work harder or smarter, not harder kind of thing. Elon seems obsessed because I feel like he put in so many hours when he was starting Tesla that I think he seems obsessed with having his people match it and work just as hard. Um, and I just think that's so weird, like I mean, I also understand that you don't want engineers and people working four hours and slacking off like I do get that, but but why? I feel like we would do so much better if you're just like, just do the job that you're supposed to do, and whether that takes you six hours a day or eight hours a day, you know we trust you as adults.
Speaker 1:I agree, I agree and I think, and I don't know, but I think part of the reason why the investors demanded Elon Musk work 40 hours is because you know they're losing real money. People look at Tesla as a symbol of Donald Trump and Elon Musk. You know it's not the electric car anymore. It's a symbol of in people's mind is, what's wrong with politics is looking at that vehicle.
Speaker 2:Exactly. You're in the Oval Office too, sitting with like a black eye and it's like who's running the company. You know, so I could see I guess. I guess my people are like get back to work. Uh, I really wonder what tesla's gonna come out with next after the cyber truck. It'll be interesting to see like what direction it goes, because I feel like the cyber truck was such a weird and tesla may even have something new out, I don't know, but like it just seems so weird to have it be like the normal tesla and then like the weird ass you know, cyber truck. It's like I wonder, like where it will, what it will do next.
Speaker 1:I don't know, but for me the cyber truck to me is I got money and look what I have. Because yeah, I don't know, everybody's got their own taste, but I know, I would buy. You know, everyone has their own taste, or whatever.
Speaker 2:People love it. I would never be mean to someone, but I'm like if that's what a 40 hour work week produces, then like maybe we should take some days off or something. But yeah, and it seems like a lot of countries are going with a four day work week or are realizing more of like the work life balance or, you know, trying to do a six-hour work day or whatever. So, um, I don't know, I guess I don't need any of my like the companies that I buy from. I don't need to know that they're doing 40 hour work weeks. I just want to know that they're like having integrity and that that they're working, you know, like make, especially with tes, like safety first and all that stuff.
Speaker 1:That's true, and I would have to imagine it would be a little embarrassing being told by your investors that you need to start working more. Yeah, I think that's a bad sign. I don't know. What do you think?
Speaker 2:I think so too. I think that's alarming and I feel like that definitely. They probably see him all around town balancing forks and spoons in the Oval Office. He's anywhere but his company.
Speaker 1:That's true. That's true. So we'll see if Elon calms down and focuses on his business or if he's still trying to get into the White House. We'll see.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and, at the end of the day, those people are concerned about their money that they've invested, and you don't even like their their. What they want is money and not to like let things slip, and so I feel like they're probably accustomed to Tesla being like up a certain amount in the past. The plunge it's taken the past year has probably not been very good for them absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 1:It'll be interesting to see something tells me we're going to hear more from elon, whether we like it or not yeah, and also, how would someone like him?
Speaker 2:how will we ever know if he works a 40 hour work week? Because, like, I don't think he's like punching a clock or like like writing out a time card. I don't know how you, how someone like him, would track his time. That's.
Speaker 1:That's true, but I'm quite sure they have a way of knowing whether he's working on that.
Speaker 2:That's true, yeah Well, oh my gosh. Okay, this one I am obsessed with. I love this so much I think this goes into like one of my top one favorite stories that we've ever talked about. So the title of it is on NPRpr and it was how an ai generated summer reading list got published in major newspapers. So recently, some newspapers around the country, including the chicago sun times and at least one edition of the philadelphia inquirer, have published a syndicated summer book list that includes made-up books by famous authors, and so only five of the 15 titles on the list are real. This happened because, uh, the writer, bless, bless his heart, you know, very sad. The the list was partly generated by art of ai and then it was a huge mistake on his part. Um, now one of the you know subscribers were livid anything.
Speaker 2:The reason why I personally love this so much I think I shared with all of us a few months ago is that I embarrassingly had something like that at one of my jobs at one of the clients, where I didn't look and I had ChatGBT completely write out stuff that I usually proofread, but I was moving quickly and I just copied and pasted and, sure enough, it made up fake bills and fake laws and it was like a big deal and I got in really big trouble at one of my freelance clients and then, because of that, I've heard of this happening more and more, and so now to learn that like ChatGBT runs so wild that it's making up book titles, it's just A I feel this guy's pain. B this is like a larger issue in general. And C I don't understand how, like AI can be so good yet so it can go so rogue.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it's one of those situations. You know, unfortunately, that even when you use AI, you have to check behind it.
Speaker 2:You know, they only use truthful things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because, um, yeah, I can see how that would be a problem. You know, out of the 15 books, only five are real. Yeah, that that would be a problem. And you know, the thing is is that that happens probably more than people realize.
Speaker 2:It's just that a lot of people probably are checking it before they put the information out, just so they don't have any surprises, you know definitely, definitely like luckily, the type of writing that I do, it will never be like, yeah, I'll just say like, don't make any inferences, don't summarize things, don't you know? Don't think about things on your own, just organize things. But I hope, like I hope this doesn't leak into you know, medical usage and things that, that when they say the robots are taking over, I'm like clearly it's not up to par yet because there's so many mistakes and it just goes so far off the script. I don't know, I have a soft spot for this writer.
Speaker 2:I'm not as mad as I think other people are, because this is just someone guilty of maybe moving too fast and not checking his work. We've all been there, so I hope he's not fired, but yet I do understand that what a big deal this is too, because a lot of like independent authors and people like really want to be on the list because that helps sell their book sales. So when it's kind of making like a mockery and it's a fake summer reading list, you know that's like that's not. So it's one of those things that it's not that serious, but I hope obviously the person probably feels terrible.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think. I think when you use an AI, you just have to realize it's a tool. It's not, it cannot replace the human being. Right, it's a tool and as long as you think of it in that way, most of the time it should be fine.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 2:But you know, I say sometimes, you know shit happens, you know yeah totally Like similar to this writer, like something that I'll write about, like a lot of like local LA places, and if I'm writing about the top 10 hair salons, I don't trust Chachi, we need to make up the hair salons, but like I pick the ten I want to talk about and then I put a bunch of notes in them and then I'll have it, help me organize it or write a little bit more of helping me do that. But it would never if I just said make up hair salons. It would be like Clippy Whippies. But I could see a younger version of me just publishing that and being like we love Clippy Whippies, you know so.
Speaker 1:Well, man, I tell you, this time has flew by, but we have my last one. It's actually a really big fun one. Meryl, do you watch basketball?
Speaker 2:Only Syracuse, only Syracuse basketball. But I like to hear tea about it, okay, okay.
Speaker 1:Well, the NBA finals are set and the Indiana Pacers and the Oklahoma Thunder are both going to the NBA finals. No one picked these two teams to go, so it was a big surprise. Finals no one picked these two teams to go to the finals, so it was a big surprise. But me personally, I love seeing the underdog go out there.
Speaker 1:I think it's going to be a really, I mean on paper, statistically wise, these were the two best teams in the NBA. But a lot of people look for the bigger known brands to make it. But I think this is awesome. I think it's going to be a great, great show.
Speaker 2:Now, who do you think has more cachet? Is it both equal traction of both of them and momentum?
Speaker 1:I think the momentum is really high on both of them.
Speaker 1:A lot of people are saying and I agree with them that this is going to be a great series, probably one of the greatest ones we've seen, just because of the hunger. When you get someone who hasn't been in that spotlight very long or not at all, you know they're hungry, they want to win, they want to play real bad and that's when you get your best game. Because whether it's the football, whether it's baseball basketball, whether it's whether it's the football, whether it's baseball basketball, when you start getting to the playoffs or finals or anything like that, even the refs aren't really ticky-tack with the calls because they don't want to be the reason why someone wins or loses. Obviously they are going to make calls that are legit, but you know, kind of like the borderline stuff, they tend to kind of let slide and just let them play it out, which is actually nice too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, now, if you had to pick a team, which one would you be rooting for?
Speaker 1:I don't know. I mean, I kind of like both of them. I don't know I may lean towards Oklahoma, you know, just because of you know, them not being in the spotlight. You know, yeah, because of them not being in the spotlight, yeah, whatever, but I don't know, I'm kind of leaning towards Oklahoma and again, it's because I like the underdogs.
Speaker 2:What about you? I think that's nice too, especially like football same thing. But when it's not the Patriots or the Chiefs or something that's very obvious, or like baseball, like the Dodgers, the Yankees and stuff I like, when it's that I don't know who I would cheer for, maybe Oklahoma, because that's who you'll be cheering for, I jump on the bandwagon here.
Speaker 1:There you go. Like I said, it's going to be kind of fun and I can't wait to see. And then, plus too, there's a lot of great things Jimmy Kimmel does. I wonder if he's doing it this year or not, where he does the NBA specials or whatever, where he'll have someone from the NBA or highlights from the game and stuff like that. So that also adds to it as well too. So I wonder if he does it this year as well.
Speaker 2:Could you imagine if they which I'm sure people are doing now, but if they have like AI, help write some of the statistics and they're just like Oklahoma got 300 baskets.
Speaker 1:I'm quite sure people are using AI, but the thing is is that even when you're doing your brackets for March, may and this for college, it's literally a guess. People are like, oh, I got this system, it's still a guess. People are like, oh, I got this system, it's still a guess, really.
Speaker 2:But what if you say to AI act like you're a professional sports better or something? It's still a guess.
Speaker 1:It's still going to be a guess because there's so many variables. For example, one of your key players gets hurt.
Speaker 2:True, that's very true.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of variables that you can control. Yeah, when the ball's down to, it is really just a guess, you know. I mean it'd be nice if Chicago Bulls were there, but you know we'll have to wait for that Well, talk about waiting, Meryl. What do you have coming up?
Speaker 2:Um, I go to Minneapolis, my big Minneapolis trip. I feel like I've been talking about it for for months here. Uh, I'm very excited. So I will be at a festival called Moons on the Lake on Saturday night. Yeah, friday and Saturday night.
Speaker 1:Nice, nice. Well, I wanna thank everyone for watching the show and supporting us, whether you're watching it on LROTVnetworkcom or listening to our podcast that we have, which is Thirsty Topics Podcast. Please continue to support us, help us grow, help us have more items and more things on the channel. Us have more items and more things on the channel. We'll be bringing on some movies that I'm currently in the works of with filmmakers about. We're going to have some new items on LRTVnetworkcom. That's coming very, very soon. Once I finalize those things, I'll be able to share a little bit more information. Obviously, the more support we get, the better we can do Also, the better we can do and also the more we can grow and and, uh, sharpen up the pencils on what we're already doing. So, thank you everyone for supporting us. I'm laurence, all right I'm meryl pimo have a great day everyone.
Speaker 1:Bye.
