Independent Podcasting Workflows, Spotify’s AI Shift & Media News

Hi, this is David Kaye, and you're listening

to Altered Geek. Geek. Geek. Hello, and welcome

to Altered Geek. I'm your host, Steve Megatron,

and joining me on this adventure into geekdom

is TFG1 Mike. Boil them, mash them, stick them

in a stove. What's taters, precious? What's taters?

There's no taters for you, precious. Potatoes.

That's what he's supposed to say. Oh, yes. So

we're back. We're in another week and almost

another month. And a lot has happened in the

Internet sphere this last week. You'll get our

commentary on some of it. A lot of news, a lot

of AI related things, a lot of non AI related

things, as well as some changes at different

companies and things with actors and figures

and just stuff coming and going in the multitude

of awesomeness. 12 stories. I don't think this

podcast has had 12 stories in its. decade or

longer time for however the hell long this podcast

is i i don't remember the last time this podcast

has had 12 stories in the news that we've talked

about in one show it's definitely been a while

yeah but it's not a stained song it kind of is

actually i can't play that or else you know we'll

get copyright striked uh so anyways How's that

program of yours going? So it's going pretty

well. I'm as we as we speak, I am currently getting

ready to put out another version. And so as everybody

remembers, probably from the last episode, if

they listened, there was a guy that created Artcraft

Studio or Artcraft, the programming and his entire

studio. Consists of basically knockoffs of the

Adobe suite and the Microsoft suite and like

Figma and AutoCAD and like Pro Tools. So I got

involved with this Discord group probably two

weeks ago. It hasn't been that long. And there

was a lot of hubbub about, oh, we need to have

an Adobe Audition port. A lot of people were

asking for it. So the big crapola there was they

went for Pro Tools instead of Audition. Right.

Because Adobe really hasn't kept up with Audition.

They really haven't. It's getting dated. A lot

of the features look old. It doesn't have any

new capabilities that they've pumped into Adobe

Premiere, which is their video editing. But they

figure, oh, it's a video podcaster. They'll just

use Premiere. And I mean, I do want to dabble.

And I've been talking about doing a video show

for a while. It's just timing is not being awesome.

Although. In our household, we're trying to put

together a new endeavor of trying to do some

new form of video content constantly, like all

of us. My son's trying to be an actor. My wife's

trying to be a motivational speaker. I want to

be a voice actor. The best way to get noticed

is video, which means I actually have to do the

performance. Which means I have to clean up the

crap behind me and I actually have to just record

something, good, bad, or otherwise. I got a new

webcam for this specifically. I got to tweak

the lighting in here a little bit. But otherwise,

I think I can start recording. It boils down

to I don't like editing. And if it were as easy

as a podcast edit, I would probably do it. But

I don't like dealing with cutting it up or adding

a bunch of effects. I just don't want to deal

with it. So that's part of my issue. The other

part is... it's just an additional thing i gotta

throw on my plate editing audio is just simple

uh plus i have a lot of automation stuff in place

yep but uh going back to the art craft thing

they they have this whole studio anyways and

a lot of their programs some of them range from

like version and i don't quite understand the

versioning number thing that's a lot of these

are doing like i'm doing it too but it's more

so just I didn't know any better. So I'm just

kind of doing what everybody else is doing. So

they went like zero. The version number is zero

point something point something, you know, depending

on where they're at in the process. And so like

some of these art craft programs are like zero

point eleven point one or zero point eighteen

point zero or something, you know, so they all

are at different stages. My program, I started

out. with 0 .1 .0 or something, and then I just

progressively count it up with micro stuff or

major numbers if there's big changes, which I've

been pumping out a lot of those lately. Anyways,

I'm on version, or I'm about to publish at the

time of this recording, version 0 .8 .0, but

I've already put out 6 and 7 today. Okay. A lot

of features. I'm trying to get a lot of the functionality

that Audition had, but I'm also trying to add

a lot of new stuff and a lot of things that are

podcaster centric that are helpful, such as like

bins that I can actually sort like all of my

intros or I can be like, oh, this is the altered

geek bin or these are my voice promos or these

are and I don't have to like dig up a folder

somewhere where I don't have to like reuse an

old project file. I can easily like, oh, this

is where it's at. And I could just drag and drop.

The other thing I'm building into it is like

chapter markers. So that if I want to put chapters

in it, it embeds it in the file so that theoretically

on players or on upload to a podcast host, it

should work with RSS specifically. It should

work with other ones too, or like VLC player

or other players to where you can, you know,

use the the chapter feature so i'm i'm working

on that among other things for the podcasting

side but um yeah this has been in like a massive

project and people have been flocking to it and

now it's funny because i've had multiple people

it's called forking which is hilarious uh because

it branches off right yeah on github and uh one

of them went in a completely different direction

which you know he's he's more into the music

side i'm not so he's doing more like playing

around with it seeing what he can do with it

and experimental features and music stuff and

i'm like i'm going for more of the stable more

of what people know more of the tried and true

more of just kind of the clean interface because

i don't want all that nonsense like i just want

it to work yep so i'm playing around with all

of this i've got it like self you know auto updater

kind of thing built in the you know, I've got

links back to the GCRN. So it's, it's also cool

because I'm getting the notice for it for the

program and the, the way that it's licensed.

And so it's, it's kind of cool there because

they have to source it every time they do something.

So indefinitely this will be sourced. No matter

if other people copy it and do something else

with it. Right. Yeah. Because I started it and

it's not based off of anybody else's code. I

just, You know, they're based off of like features

I liked or functions I liked. And I've just like

narrowed it down. And some of it's very similar.

Some of it's not. So I'm trying to like streamline

it and add all these new features. And between

all these other people that are doing their own

branches, I can actually pull from their branches

and be like, I want, you know, what features

make sense to pull from theirs and put in mine.

And so I'm playing around with it and using AI

to kind of troubleshoot and build this thing.

And like eventually, like it will be kind of

its own thing and kind of just live on its own.

But I'm pretty excited for it. And I'm going

to build a spot on the website where you can

find it and more information about it and test

it out and all that kind of stuff. So I'm looking

forward to that. So speaking of AI. Yes. Speaking

of AI, first story on the list of stories of

12 tonight, we have Spotify against AI slop and

spam music. One year in. Oh, boy. A year ago,

we laid out our plans to protect artists and

listeners from spam. Impersonation and deception

in the age of AI. One core idea drives this work.

Human artistry comes first. Here's what we've

done and what's next. Keeping AI generated slop

and spam out of recommendations. AI generated

slop and spam don't belong in your recommendations.

And we've made changes. To keep them out and

protect the listening experience, this year alone,

we've taken more than 80 million slop and spam

tracks out of recommendations. Wow. That's a

lot. Like, who has that? I mean, I know that

you can have the AI do it for you. It seems a

little much. Yeah. Yeah. This is in addition

to more than 75 million spammy tracks we've removed

from our platform altogether for serious or repeated

violations of our rules. Earlier this year, we

looked closely at tracks listeners were skipping,

ignoring or telling us they didn't want to hear.

A clear pattern emerged. These tracks were consistently

ones identified as slop or spam. Over the past

six months, we've made numerous updates to our

recommendation system to remove slop and spam

and surface more music made by authentic human

artists. Our editors hold the same standard and

don't program content identified as slop or spam.

Since we made these changes, we've seen a marked

decrease in listener concerns, but think about

this content showing up in recommendations. No

single signal catches slopper spam on its own,

so we combine many listener engagement and feedback,

upload patterns, metadata, and information from

multiple third -party AI. Detection tools and

AI detection technology in particular has limitations,

and it will only get harder as generative AI

evolves. Using these signals together, we can

identify likely slop or spam with more confidence.

We also hunt for new tactics, including mass

uploads, duplicates, SEO manipulations, spammy

playlist networks. and artificially short tracks

as spammers change tactics we keep updating our

systems yeah so then they they do a deep dive

on all the tools that they built and all of the

different things you know the verified and yeah

the persona badges and the artist profiles and

monetization eligibility because what it what

it boils down to is they're trying to prevent

all of these you know crap things from eating

up the The money because there's no money in

it. Nobody can own those files. No, no, because

it's AI generated. You can own this. You can,

if you wrote the song, you can own the text.

You cannot own the song. Yeah. Because it's generated.

It's like, it's like this, uh, program I'm developing.

Even if I wanted to, because I've generated,

you know, half of it's me and then half of it's

AI. I couldn't, I couldn't copyright it. I couldn't

trademark it. I could sell it. But, you know,

again, there's other software out there. But

my whole so my whole angle with it was like open

source. Nobody owns it, but my name's on it.

So, you know, so that, you know, that was the

method there. But with this, like, I am I'm kind

of glad about this because. I don't know. Like

if I'm listening to Spotify, like I don't want,

I don't want a bunch of like garbage music. Like

it's one thing if I seek it out, if I seek out

certain songs and they have a certain sound or

their AI, like even our, you know, my intros

for my podcasts are AI generated, but it's specifically

for that. It's, it's more so, so that I don't

get hit with a copyright. I would love to use

official. stuff yeah but but again we don't have

yeah yeah and because also i can't afford to

you know pay somebody to develop individual stuff

i mean i did for geek cast radio uh but that

was on fiverr and that was years ago yeah uh

but as far as the other shows like i don't like

if i'm on spotify i want i want real music i

want to have an actual playlist i want podcasts

that are by real people like i don't want um

like my kid keeps falling into these stupid video

traps on spotify where it's like ai generated

like story slop and i'm just like what the what

is this crap like because i mean they got it

on youtube too yeah and and facebook and and

all these others but i'm like i barely tolerate

certain actual people on these platforms on their

shorts i don't want to tolerate an ai bot that's

like totally out of left field And that, and

that's the other thing. And this is a whole other

topic for a whole nother day. We can keep going

on and on about the Spotify for me is a listening

platform. I am not going like for me, I, whether

it's here on my computer or whether it's on my

phone. On my phone, I specifically will go into

one of my playlists. I will find whatever track

on one of my playlists I want to start on. I

will hit play. I will turn my phone screen off

and listen to the track. On my computer, same

thing. I will go to one of my playlists. I will

find whatever track I want to start on. And that's

in a playlist I've created. And I will listen

to whatever Nickelback or Blackstone Cherry or

Theory of a Dead Man or whatever, Hall & Oates,

whatever track it is. And I will start with that

song. But I don't have Spotify pulled up. I'm

not sitting on the desktop app. It's playing

in the background, blaring into my headphones.

I'm not on Spotify for video. Get video off of

my listening platform, please. I hate that all

of these listening platforms are like, oh, we

must have video now. We must do this. We must

do that. Not everything has to be watched. Sorry.

I agree with you. I'm glad that Spotify is doing

this whole AI clapback cut down. all the all

this ai getting rid of ai slop stuff i'm so happy

that they are doing that and that we are one

year into this thing with them that is so and

there's no money in it like and they know this

yeah yeah it's you can't monetize it so they're

they're playing with legal loopholes anyway and

so they're like this sucks like i don't want

to deal with this yep absolutely And even though

this is not the title of the next story, my first

thought and the way that it is written in the

script, fuck Spreaker. That is our PG -13 allowance

of the day. Yes, I understand that. No, I was

just joking because PG -13 usually lets you get

away with one. Yeah, that's the one. Yeah, so.

I saw this article, and it did not surprise me

in the slightest because having come from Spreaker

before we came to RSS .com, which, by the way,

if anyone is looking for an awesome podcast host,

I cannot recommend. Anymore like I cannot recommend

any higher praise for RSS .com. Yeah, because

we had an outage last week. And I was losing

my crap. Yeah. And I legitimately was like, OK,

something is weird here. And I thought we were

hacked. Yeah. Couldn't log in, couldn't figure

it out. But our, essentially what happened is

three of our shows during a update or something

essentially got wiped. Yep. And it was the ones

that have the acronyms or the period in between

words or letters. Mask Mayhem, Palka, yeah. And

Fit Ready Go, my wife's podcast. So it was funny

because I looked at it and I'm like, I can't

log in. I was like, I literally was just logged

in. And what had happened is something in their

system flagged it as a possible AI bot spam thing

because the periods in it, which I took out because

I didn't want this happening again when I go

to update the feeds. What had happened is AI

farms are putting URLs in the podcast name. Oh

my God. And so if there's a period in there,

it flags it automatically and disconnects the

account. And, and I was like, okay, like I get

it. But because of all of the snafu and like,

I mean, we've been with them for a couple of

years now. Yep. They gave us a rather nice credit,

which they did not have to do. And I could not

have been more pleased. I was not expecting it,

and they went above and beyond. Yes, they did.

And they may not have some of the fancy toys

that Spreaker did have, but they're working on

a lot of this. But I love their interface better.

Yeah, their interface is so cool. Their interface

is so much nicer. It's so clean. It's just, I

don't know. They're actually trying, whereas

Spreaker kind of... When they merged with Long

Talk? Yep, they dropped the ball. Well, and then

when iHeart bought them during COVID, they literally,

or may have been just before COVID, but they

took a huge colossal dump. And I was on the Prime

program, you know, and so we didn't pay anything

for hosting, which is why we had like a million

ads. Like some of the shows have a couple ads

in them, but that's just like... chump change

like it's at the end of the show a couple of

them at the beginning but there's nothing in

the middle to interrupt conversation yeah uh

which is where and i sorry which is where i started

burying the ads that's why yeah that's why i

have the ad breaks why i spreaker us being on

spreaker prime and them have and them Us being

on Spreaker and them giving us the thing of,

oh, your podcast is an hour and a half long or

your podcast is 45 minutes long because your

podcast is this time length. You must have four,

six, eight, ten ads in your podcast. This is

our requirement for you to stay on our platform.

OK, this is why some of the countdown episodes,

which the top 100 countdown episodes are two,

three, four hours long. Sometimes some of those

have had to have 25 ads in them. This is why

I have my ad breaks, because I will bury. I buried

the Spreaker ads in the podcast ad breaks where

I'm promoting. our other podcasts, as well as

other people's podcasts that I've interviewed

along the way in the last 17 years. That's why

my ad breaks at the end of whatever topic, like

at the end of this, even though you're editing

this, I'm not. But if you did do an ad break,

if we did throw to an ad, like whatever, that's

where I would bury it. So that being said, this

whole, this whole. got brought up because Spreaker

just got caught enabling wholesale copyright

theft of podcasts. Yup. And you wouldn't imagine

how this happens, but it's because other people

are making money from it. It says that they've

learned that multiple publishers that their shows

have appeared duplicated on platforms like Apple

Podcasts, Spotify, and others, causing confusion

for listeners and reducing advertising revenue.

They've also discovered that more than 1 ,000

shows, like individual shows, have been copied

in the same way and are earning revenue for Spreaker

as well as the people who have copied them. And

when they looked into how Spreaker works, they

can see that they – and you can tell they've

never used it. When they started listing this

information, I knew exactly what this looks like

because it hasn't changed. It looks exactly the

same. So anyways, James Cridland, the guy that

wrote the article, and I actually wrote an article

about something else about somebody that made

it easy to remove all types of ads from shows.

So if you were relying on revenue, you were getting

stiffed. Yeah. We collaborated and I got an article

in the podnews .net as well. Nice. But he signed

up for a service of it. He signed up for Spreaker.

And this applies to the free one as well. You

can do this on any of them. You can enable monetization

at a supporter club too. And then he did the

free account. He did the import episodes. He

says, couldn't be easier. Simply copying an RSS

feed address into Spreaker on the page. There's

no discussion of copyright or link to terms and

conditions. Just a simple way to import episodes

from existing feed. You send it, and then he

says they were expecting a tool to read the email

from the RSS feed and give some sort of check

that the owner wanted to transfer the episodes

to Spreaker. It doesn't. It just copies the show

audio and all the episode metadata into the Spreaker

platform without any notification to the original

podcast producer that you've done so. And they

said it isn't just a one -off copy, which, again,

as long as you have it linked. It says the Spreaker

platform gives you the ability to automatically

check every hour for new episodes, effectively

allowing your copy of the show to be kept perpetually

up to date. And they said little reason why a

podcaster would ever want this feature when switching

podcast hosts, but it makes the ability to copy

a podcast much easier since that copy is kept

up to date automatically by their system. Now,

I will say I did do this at one point. And I

did it because. When we were switching from our

original RSS feeds, I had it pulling or when

we were like moving from blog talk to that and

I needed to make sure that it, you know, it did

its thing. And you were doing it with our own

shows to like you weren't going and stealing

like some some other. bum f canadian podcast

who shall remain nameless yeah like you weren't

trying to steal somebody else's content you were

double checking triple checking our own content

to make sure it was being transferred the proper

way there's a huge difference in what you were

doing versus what joe schmoe in canada does exactly

and so what had what had bothered me about it

was you know, they can link it and it just stays

that way. Like when we were doing a syndicated

shows, this is what I did because it was the

only way I could get them under the network flag

and not have to manage it. But yeah, but by this

being a thing, like if, if I were to do this

on RSS to do anything, it needs your email address

associated with the podcast feed. And then in

order to claim them, when I had to move them

from Spreaker to RSS, I had to put RSS verify

in the description of the episodes, or in the

show, so that RSS could see that this was okayed,

like this was their code to say, all right, I

can pull it, and it's safe. Spreaker has no such

thing under this, and Spreaker's interface has

not changed since iHeart bought it. Yeah, because

that's the thing. I'm just going to say it because,

you know, we're not affiliated with them. I hate

media doesn't verify crap. They will buy stuff

up, shutter it, shelve it, whatever. They didn't

obviously shutter Spreaker, but like until you

brought up this story, like I hadn't even thought

of Spreaker was still a thing. Oh, I knew they

were heard. No, I knew they were. But like literally

out of sight, out of mind, like I hadn't heard

their name in months, if not years, since I hate

media bought them. Because that's the thing with

I heart radio and I heart media. They are a conglomerate

of radio stations and media things that will

just buy things up. to buy things up they say

in their podcast guaranteed human which is one

of the worst ai voiceover things that i've like

that voice that says that on their podcasts sounds

so fake to me so so to make matters worse with

this whole article The main thing to take away

from this is all this is possible from a free

account. No credit card details being given to

sign up. So it's not just free, it earns money

too. So in Spreaker's interface, you can turn

on monetization, which is then when it flags

it to actually talk to a human. So you can turn

on ad exchange and then they approve it and you

can start earning money through programmatic

ads, which is dynamic ad insertion and then the

revenue share. So they'll easily give you access

for monetization, but then they're still trying

to figure out how many have been pirated. That's

crazy. Now, see, when we went to rss .com, it

was a little bit different because they used

to have no free account. But now they do a free

account. But you have to enter in your credit

card to make sure that you're an actual person.

Yeah. And so they get the actual person's information

linked to it. And that's how they verify. And

so that they can tell that it's not a bad actor,

but they lock down like pretty much everything

unless you go to the next stage, which I'm fine

with because it's like, OK, if I'm too cheap

to pay for. the full plan and i'm getting it

for free then i shouldn't get all the features

like that makes sense to me but if you know spreaker

just makes it easy to open the door and like

all right here we are and they used to have limits

on how many episodes you could upload it doesn't

seem to matter now uh over there and then the

other problem i have with iheart is when we switch

from iheart um spreaker to rss .com It was near

like they have a feature where you're supposed

to be able to redirect your podcast feed to the

original feed or to the new feed. It didn't work.

It never worked. I had to I physically went over

there and I tested this theory because and I

talked to their support people who were incompetent.

I talked to multiple people. I talked to my rep.

I talked to everybody like even our rep was like

it was like. pulling teeth ridiculous yeah so

it's like pulling teeth to get anything and i

ended up going the route of just not not doing

it um i changed all of the logos for every show

to if you're viewing this feed please go to the

new and then i put the link to the new feed in

the image yep and you would be surprised the

amount of sites that it showed up on instead

of redirecting them to the new feed and then

uh and and then it was impossible at some of

the places to even get the link updated like

tune in had completely foobarred their podcast

division for a while to the point that you couldn't

update anything and the only thing they would

let you do is delete and you couldn't add so

or modify and so i had to have them all removed

Which sucked because we had rankings and it was

long time listings. But because Spreaker didn't

do what they were supposed to do. And then I

eventually, because it was still pulling from

the old stuff and it was feeding into their metrics

and not ours, I went and fully deleted everything

from their end. All the episodes. And then shut

it down. So then we lost quite a bit. It looks

like we're starting to regain now. because I'm

seeing a lot of bounce back so it's it's at least

good in that department now but it's on the upturn

on everything which is exactly what I was hoping

for but it seems we're on the other side of it

but Sprinker just screwed the pooch on this completely

but this this is an article from like last week

so I'm not I'm not surprised I'm not either rssdot

.com dot com is where it's at folks because rss

.com and it's so funny because it's weird Jesse

aka Matrix Prime who I've been doing his podcast

another comic review he started out at Acast

whatever Acast is I guess it's another one of

these whatever it's on by Spotify no okay well

whatever He recently switched over to rss .com.

Awesome. You can get another comic review .com

now powered by rss .com. Cause I had been, I'd

been, I've been telling him for three, three

and a half, almost four years. Now we just celebrated

the thing. June something is the anniversary

date for that show. Not literally. It's not.

june 1st it was like june 3rd or june 5 i don't

even know it was not even playing like i didn't

even know the guy was like whatever anyway but

um he we just celebrated the anniversary of that

show we've been doing however long the energon

universe from skybound under image comics has

been going on with the transformers and gi joe

and void rivals and Now we got Mask in there

and we got Rom the Space Knight and we got a

whole bunch of stuff in there now. But it's been

going on for three and a half, almost four years.

And he just made the switch over to to RSS dot

com with the show. So so, yeah, because I had

been telling him for like at least the last two

years out of the three that the. We've been doing

that podcast about how we've been on RSS for

however the hell long we've been on it. Oh, it's

been great. Yeah, it's been two years. Yeah,

however long, whenever it was that we originally

switched, I've been telling him about it and

how great it was and how everything's been running

smoothly since we've been on it. how the customer

service was when we needed it, if we needed it

and how great the transition was and how awesome

everything was that, you know, since we've been,

you know, and all that. So, yeah, no, but, um,

like I said before, if you, if you're on speaker,

if you use our affiliate code, rss .com, uh,

question mark via equals GCRN, which I'll put

in the show notes. Um, you can sign up and we

get a kickback which is nice too so uh don't

forget us help us don't forget us help us help

us help us dead mickey's over here all right

up next uh oh boy i don't think we'll spend real

long on this because it doesn't surprise me but

no no no not not Some of these will blitz through.

Yeah, out of these 12 stories, some of them we

will blitz through. This is not long. This is

a very simple switch. This is a very simple switch

off. I forget where I saw this, but Discord will

soon let anyone find public server messages through

Google. Discord has announced major changes to

how its public communities will appear online.

allowing messages from certain servers to show

up in Google and other web search results. The

update is designed to make conversations and

information shared in Discord communities easier

to find without requiring users to join a server

first. Well, that's just dumb. Announced on October

27th, the changes will roll out over the coming

months with new privacy controls allowing server

administrators and individual users to decide

whether their content can appear on the open

web. Discord messages will start appearing in

Google searches starting November 16th, 2026.

Discord will automatically create public server

web pages for discoverable servers, which are

communities with at least a thousand members

that meet the platform's activity and safety

requirements. Well, that sucks. These pages will

provide information about each community and

may include automated summaries of conversations

happening in public channels. Beginning in mid

-December 2026, messages posted in eligible public

channels may also start appearing on server web

pages and in search engine results. I'm sorry,

Discord should remain private. I'm sorry, but

messenger apps should never go to the public.

Yeah, no. It's not like, yeah. I am just so not

a fan of modern day internet or technology because

all of it seems like they just want our data.

They don't care. A lot of the AI stuff is like

they're even charging for stuff that used to

be free a month ago. And this is this is something

that I think is going to be hilarious because

I think the bottom is about to fall out. Yeah,

pretty much. I really do. And I feel that way

because they're they're about to like my brothers

even heard that Q1 2027 is when it's going to

like tank. And even in China, like a lot of their

markets tanking because they're so. all in on

AI and even the, the Microsoft, uh, CEO, he,

he posted something, uh, or, or believes that

every AI model is a security threat now and believes

that the, the AI would naturally align with humanity's

views as it evolved. But he now believes it's,

it needs the utmost security and guidance prevent

disaster. And, you know, comparatively from a

year ago to now. And my comment was like, really?

I was like, let's continue to pump it into Windows

11 and Microsoft and Office anyway. Yeah. Like,

I don't know what they expected. Yeah. Like,

even, you know, Getty, Getty Images, they're

filing for bankruptcy. Good. And they were overpriced

as all get up. Like I remember when I worked

for a news organization and they had to get their

images from Getty or, you know, AP News. And

we had an account on both and they charged stupid

amounts for their accounts and for the images.

And I get it like they're paying photographers,

but it's it's so overpriced. And then a lot of

times they because it costs so much and they're

only allotted so much, they reuse a lot of the

same pictures. And so like you could end up with

stuff that's like 10 years old and about somebody

completely different and people associate it

because of the picture with whomever it's being

written about. So like my, you know, even my

comment about that, like they're saying that

the company is restructuring to go private after

a merger with Shutterstock collapsed, which Shutterstock

is another one of those type things. But it's

AI is causing it. Yeah. So it's like all of these

big companies. Are reaping what they've sown

for so long, like screwing people for so long,

like people are figuring out ways around Nintendo.

People are figuring out ways around it. Give

it time with all of this crap going on with Discord.

There'll be a new one. So here's how to stop

your Discord messages from appearing on Google.

Discord is introducing privacy controls ahead

of the rollout, allowing users to prevent their

messages from appearing in search results. To

disable the feature, users can navigate to user

settings, data privacy, and turn off the channel

messages setting. The setting applies to all

discoverable servers a user belongs to, meaning

they won't need to disable it individually for

each community. It may take a while for Discord

to make it available, however, to check back

later if it's not an option for you yet. However,

the feature will be enabled by default for adult

users in the U .S. and most other regions. I

think this should be opt out automatically for

everyone. I have comments about this. Now, this

this like I don't I love I love the state I live

in, but they call it mini California. Yeah. Now,

what's funny? is like i don't love california

i don't because they're stupid laws politician

involvement everything else it's like just get

out of everybody's pocket our state does that

too like colorado does it too always trying to

tax you for everything if they could tax the

air you breathe they would um if they could tax

you to you know use a toilet they would oh wait

they do it's water tax uh but The one the one

thing it's kind of a double edged sword because

like I work in a subscription based type thing

and at the car wash. And so from a business perspective,

both these states suck because they have way

too much overreach into it. Like they have a

one click to cancel. You're not allowed to do

a downsell, you know, trying to upsell people

to stay. Like you're not allowed to do it. They

have to be able to just click and cancel. Like

there's no drip campaign. There's no opportunity

to recapture. So it's costing businesses a lot

of money. And so that's why in California, a

lot of them are leaving. But also in this situation,

they have it. So you have to opt out of messaging

or. communications or marketing or you know text

messaging any of that stuff like a lot of them

a lot of states and a lot of companies make it

so you have to opt out what California and Colorado

have done is made it so that it's illegal to

do that now if it's a business in those states

technically I think it also applies if you have

done business in those states I don't know how

it works for like it's illegal to opt out no

no it's illegal for the company to have an the

opt out checked like automatically checked like

of of not i'm saying this wrong but wow there

it's illegal to force people to opt in to any

of this stuff marketing communications any of

it okay they have to have uh so in other words

like you used to have to check a box to opt out

now you have to check a box to opt in okay gotcha

gotcha so they've made it in that regard like

as a consumer i love it because it's like they

can't send me a bunch of garbage they can't network

they can't sell my data they can't you know any

of that stuff so little by little they're doing

some good there so they're forcing it again it

sucks from a marketing perspective as as you

know a place of of work but as far as like a

consumer i love that but i wish that that was

like a nationwide thing yeah because it's not

going to get fixed unless it's a nationwide thing

yeah if i didn't the opt -in yeah yeah it should

never they should never be able to like meta

is trying to do it too like oh we can you know

steal your data and you're you know you use our

platform you're fine with it It's like, no, that's

not how this should work. It should work the

other way. Yes, you're providing a service. At

the same time, you're stealing my data. So it's

like, do I cancel? It's like, do I delete my

account? And businesses are so intertwined. And

this is why I'm such a stickler for owning our

data, owning the software, owning the plugins.

This is why... I have been like this last year,

I've been looking at how much, I mean, I've had

my identity stolen like six times in the last

like five years and like my social security number,

everything like just getting leaked because companies,

uh, don't prioritize security or our data. And

because they're hot swapping it, like it's candy,

like they're like in a candy store, like, Hey,

I'll trade or, or. better evaluation of this

is, uh, like Pokemon cards, like they're passing

them around and it's like, Hey, I got a, I got

a Steve Megatron's data. Do you want TFG and

Mike's I'll trade you, you know? And it's like,

at what point is, is this not, you know, can,

can we make this illegal? Like, can we stop doing

this? I mean, they're doing it with the stupid

traffic cams now to the lock cameras and all

that garbage, but. I'm to the point that I'm

just like, if I can own my data, if I can control

it, if I can remove myself from things or delete

all the accounts or, you know, whatever, like

any, any opportunity to not give somebody else

my data or even like our website, I'm, I'm so

like, I, I don't, that's why I don't have accounts.

That's why I don't hit people log in. That's

why I don't, uh, I could do a subscription service

thing through like our fourth wall store and

I've toyed around with it, but I'm like, people

are broke. Yeah. I'm like, like if I can make

money doing sponsorships or selling software

or something or doing, you know, some of this

stuff on the side, like I would much rather do

that or sell my expertise or buy my book, you

know, something to make, you know, to get the

support from people or if they want to donate

to the website. Great. I just, I don't feel right

doing the subscription thing. I don't feel right

having a million ads in the show. I don't like,

I want to feel good about it. And as far as like

the data that people are, you know, I don't want

to collect people's data. I don't want to, I

don't want that on my conscience or like, Oh,

I've got a data leak. It's like, I, I want all

of my programs to be proprietaries that they

all run on the site. They're self -contained.

They don't answer to anybody. Um, to some degree,

a few of them use like AI to pump stuff out,

but it's using data that came from us to begin

with it has nothing to do with anyone outside

no yeah it's all internal so like that's that's

my whole thing is like i'm so sick of these companies

doing this crap yeah and discord is no different

and and unfortunately discord is really the only

game in town yeah yeah because there are no other

there's just because the problem like yes if

we were to do Which we will never, we as a podcast

network that is wholly audio, like you mentioned

earlier in the show, we have toyed around with

video in the past. We want to toy around with

it in the present and in the future at some point,

but we have always been audio only for the most

part. There is no other, sadly. All these other

platforms like Zoom and blah, blah, blah, they're

all video forward focusing. And it's like, yes,

Discord does have that, but we don't rely on

it. It's not a, oh my God, you must use this,

blah, blah, blah. And the recorder that we use

doesn't even record the video, thank God. So

it doesn't even matter. But the Discord thing

with the tracking of the messages and the information

and the stuff, what I find absolutely hilarious

is this setting applies to all discoverable servers.

a user belongs to, meaning they won't need...

So once you turn the setting off, you won't need

to disable it individually for each community

that you're in. It may take a while, as I said

earlier, for Discord to make it available. However,

check back soon. The feature will be enabled

by default for adult users in the U .S. and most

other regions. It's crazy. It's going to be...

Already opt -in. We have to opt -out here in

the U .S. However, in the EU, UK, Canada, Brazil,

Australia, and South Korea, the setting will

be disabled by default, requiring users to opt

-in before their messages can appear online.

Huh? What? Oh, my God. Thankfully. Yeah. Go ahead.

What were you going to say? I was going to say

we live in a backwards society. Yeah. Thankfully,

teen users will be excluded from the feature

entirely until they become adults. So thankfully,

they are doing something good with this. So people

are just marking as teens now. I've seen it.

Oh, my God. I've seen people do it. They're like,

oh, so I just mark myself as a teen, right? So

then, yeah. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. But speaking

of, since we're dealing with more awkward BS,

They're saying that AI has changed video games

forever because people are using AI to decompile

games and then splice together like Mario 64

with like Halo or, you know, changing the sprites.

You know, back in the day, like when we played

Unreal Tournament 2004, people used to just mod

their own, like create their own skins and then

you just throw them in the game and they work.

Yeah. So that was our way of like. throwing Megatron

or Optimus into like Doom or into Unreal Tournament

or, you know, whatever. And so now people have

actually figured out how to bring the actual

character model in from one game to the other.

I saw this and I was like, no. Oh, it's a thing.

Like, I've known that this was a thing, but it's

funny because people, you know, have been doing

this and now they're decoding like PlayStation

5 games and making it so they run natively on

a PC and they run better and they're, you know,

they're. full 60 frames per second instead of

you know 30 frames per second and then outperform

the ps5 and then uh people are you know trying

to make these games that are online only so that

they're not and then it's we've hit this we've

hit this funny threshold now don't get me wrong

whoever's doing it they're gonna pay for it oh

yeah the ai is not cheap anymore no because they've

got everybody hooked now the problem with that

is it's the genies out of the bottle like these

these the more that these ais have trained on

it the more people are doing this modding and

hacking and reverse engineering and decompiling

the more these ais are knowing how to do it faster

and so you know we're at this point where the

corporations again that pushed ai are doing the

uh they're in their fafo phase now uh -huh uh

Or play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Yep.

And so, you know, as much as everybody was like

hating on AI and everything else like earlier

in the year or last year or whatever, I see this

as a win because now people have figured out

that, you know, if you take apart these games

and you're coding them, it's technically not

fully illegal because in the terms of service.

You don't own the game anyway. So you're not

bootlegging or pirating a game that you don't

actually own. And so they've essentially created

this weird beast where it's like, we don't have,

you know, the rights to the game. We don't own

it. We don't own any of this. But yeah, I'm so

stoked to see how this is going to play out because

I think it's hilarious. Yeah, it's crazy. Moving

on. Yes, moving on. Well, turns out Instagram

wants to be YouTube. Why? No one knows, and they

are just currently playing around with this right

now. They're trying to figure it out the best

they can. They tried IGTV back in the day. They

tried Reels. They tried this. They tried that.

But Instagram wants you to turn your phone horizontally

so they can do long -form video. Or they want

you to watch their app on your TV. I am never

watching Instagram on my television because I

can't turn my television vertically. Instagram

for me is on my phone. Doom scrolling at 3 a

.m. on reels. It is like it's either that or.

me uploading photos to my own page like it's

either photos or doom scrolling reels it's not

like and i listened to the colin and samir show

i listened to their creator support episodes

that they do but i also listen to their interviews

that they do they interviewed adam moseri uh

the head guy over there at instagram and they

interviewed him again they had him on i think

last year but they interviewed him just after

this announcement came out And they were talking

about how they wanted to try something new and

they wanted to see if they could jump into long

form video and they want to have Instagram on

TVs. And the Instagram model is different from

the YouTube model and this and anything. And

I'm just like, I don't want, I don't want long

form Instagram. No. This is just... Yeah, I think

this is going to blow over anyway because what

it is is they're struggling to keep people and

their attention because... And this is... I know

I'm harping on like the AI, like it's a double

-edged sword. I like aspects of it, but I hate

aspects of it because majority of social media

is just AI garbage now. Okay, so for me, when

I'm scrolling Instagram Reels... So I've been

on Instagram since, when did I join Instagram?

I want to say it was, it was either, this is

going to be a big jump in years. It was either

sometime in 2019 or maybe it was 2021. I don't

remember. I don't have my phone out here at my

desk with me. It's in the other room on the charger.

Initially, when I joined, it was because I wanted

to upload photos in a different place, and it

was before the reels really took off and whatever

else. But now, I would say in the last four and

a half to five years since 2021, 2022, let's

say, for me, consuming the, like, I hate stories.

store that side scrolling stuff i can't stand

it but you get me into reels and i start off

with a creator i know let's say the real grant

joseph who is a guy who is up in canada who is

a maple toronto maple leafs fan he's a big hockey

guy but sadly he's a maple leafs fan because

he's a canadian fan But, you know, I follow the

adventures of him and his family and all that.

But I just can't do the side scrolling stuff.

But if he does it as a reel, I'll start with

him and then I'll scroll to the next reel and

it'll serve me content from other things that

I actually follow. And then it might run out

of that stuff and it'll serve me like minded

things. And then I just end up doom scrolling

for like an hour and a half of. other things

i just can't see myself watch like i can't see

myself putting instagram on my television i've

even i've even tried doing the doom scrolling

thing on my tv with reels it's not the same as

just having my thumb on my phone screen it's

not the same thing And I know technically with

this long form video thing, basically what Adam

says in this video and what he said on the Colin

and Samir podcast thing was, well, we want people

to watch longer. We want people to sit there

and put on a show on Instagram and watch for

15 or 20 minutes or whatever else. I have so

many other places to watch television shows.

I don't like I know there are specific Instagram

creators that are out there. I don't need long

form content from Instagram creators. That was

the whole point of short form content on apps

like Instagram. Like, yes, I know there are YouTube

shorts and that's fine. That's a whole other

thing and a whole other conversation. But I know.

No, thank you. Anything else on Instagram? Nope.

Okay. All right, folks. Something that is near

and dear to my heart. We haven't seen her since

she went into the witness protection program

in season five, but ladies and gentlemen, she's

back. Law and order SVU Stephanie March to return

in season 28. Guess who's back? Back again. Cabot's

back. Tell Benson. Law & Order SVU alum Stephanie

March once more will reprise her role of Alexandra

Cabot in the upcoming 28th season. March will

appear in the current season's ninth episode.

She originally exited the show, as I mentioned,

in season five when her character, then Assistant

District Attorney Alexandra Cabot, was targeted

by a drug cartel she was attempting to prosecute.

During that storyline, they thought she was murdered

or killed or whatever. It was revealed that she

went into the Witness Protection Program. She

returned, testified against her attempted murder,

and eventually came back as ADA assigned to the

Special Victims Unit. After that, she retired

from that post. She took on work with a group

that helped abuse women, build lives away from

their abusers. March's last appearance as Cabot

took place in Season 19, so it hasn't been too

long, Episode 19. A few episodes before March's

season 28 debut, Chris Maloney will bring his

SVU Law & Order organized crime character Stabler

back to SVU for the show's Milestone 600th episode.

SVU airs Thursdays, 9, 8 central on NBC, streams

the next day on Peacock. So it's going to be

nice seeing Cabot again since her season 19...

God, 9... Nine seasons between appearances. I

didn't even realize that. I've only caught SVU

ever since Stabler left when he left. And originally

he left in season 12. I've only caught SVU episodes

here and there. When he returned in the organized

crime spinoff, I kind of got back into it. But

yeah, when I saw this news, I was like, hey.

I forgot they actually did keep her alive and

put her into WITSAC. So that's going to be interesting.

And then another thing that's coming back, folks,

for a, let's see, Friday, next Friday, and the

Friday after next. So for a fourth film in the

installment series of the Friday movies, folks,

we got Last Friday. We get Lawrence Lamont. He

has been tapped to direct Ice Cube's newest Friday

comedy, and apparently this is going to launch

New Line Cinemas again. Lawrence Lamont is about

to find out that a lot can go down between Thursday

and Saturday. Lamont, who made a splash last

year with One of Them Days, has been tapped to

direct Last Friday, the first installment of

New Line's buddy comedy movie franchise in 25

years. Ice Cube, who co -created the movie series,

is writing the script and producing and will

also star in the future, also producing our Bob

Tittle and Cube Visions. Michael Gruber. The

first Friday was directed by F. Gary Gray and

featured Cube and Chris Tucker as slacker Craig

Jones and small -time drug dealer Smokey. It

does not say if Tucker is going to return or

not, but basically the news here is that Lamont

is directing last Friday. Hoping to see more

about last Friday as far as what all that's going

to be about and everything else. So that's going

to be coming up. And then we have, well, I thought

this was the best way to pay tribute to the late

great Walter Koenig, a .k .a. Chekhov, as he

passed away recently. Yeah. Um, but I pulled

up an article here from TV line and I'll let

you go through it, but I pulled up an article

here. Walter Koenig's favorite Star Trek episode

is a classic that had virtually no budget. Yeah,

it was specter of the gun and it, it was like

the okay corral gunfight and yeah. Um, a bunch

of fake looking buildings without sides and it

just, yeah, it, it looked very cheap, but it

was a, uh, interesting episode. Uh, and then,

you know, he says his other favorite episode

was the city on the edge of forever, but it was

mostly like a Kirk Spock McCoy episode. Um, but

yeah, I mean, he made it to 90 and he's the first

of the gold shirt, original series cast to go.

Yeah. Uh, we lost all of our blue and red shirts

and, uh, Now there's now with him gone and he

was 90 and he, you know, he at least got to do

a cameo in the last episode of Star Trek Picard

season three. Oh, wow. He played his he played

his character's son. So he played Pavel Chekhov,

his son. was the president of the United Federation

of planets. So he's like super old in that too,

but he was a voiceover. He wasn't like, uh, he

was over the fleet intercoms. Gotcha. Gotcha.

Um, and he was supposed to be still alive, like

during the whole Borg fight. And so, uh, I thought

it was really cool that they, they had him do

a cameo and all he had to do was just do the

voiceover. Cause obviously he's like, you know,

it was late eighties at the time. Yeah. but it

was nice to see him get a nod because the last

time he got anything actual Star Trek was Generations

and originally his part was supposed to be Dr.

McCoy's and Scotty was supposed to be Spock originally

but neither actor wanted a reprise for the movie

plus everybody was button heads with Shatner

at the time so So a lot of the dialogue was just

kind of crap and it wasn't written for those

characters anyway. And so, yeah, they did that.

But at least he got to go out on one of the recent

series and lived a long life. And so it's just

Sulu and Kirk left and they both hate each other.

So it'll be interesting to see which one goes

first. God, that's depressing. It is. Let's see

which one goes first. Well, Shatner's 95 and

Takai is like 88. But Takai looks in worse shape.

Oh, he's seven years younger than Shatner and

Shatner looks in better shape. So that's pretty

sad. So moving, moving on to the next Hot Wheels.

And it's funny. I don't remember. Did I show

this to you or did you show it to me? I think

we probably showed it to each other because I

think we both saw it like within five or ten

minutes of each other because I think you showed

it to me first and then I saw it again and then

like as soon as you showed it to me, I was like.

Hey, look, my buddy Alex came down. He was up

in Grand Rapids, and he was going back home to

where he lives in Tennessee, and he stopped on

by, and he actually dropped off the Hot Wheels

turtle van, and I was like, hey, I can actually

check, because I have the Hot Wheels Super Pursuit

Mode kit. I've had this. I'm actually holding

it right now. Um, I've had this for like the

last two or three years. I forget who got me

the kit and I'm like, Hey, wow. That photo that

we shared to each other is actually right. There's

a whole lot of like detail on the, on the bottom

of the kit car. And there's like practically

no detail on the bottom of the turtle van. And

I haven't even opened the turtle van yet. Cause

I haven't filmed it in package yet for my YouTube

video that I plan on recording for the turtle

van. But but yeah, it's crazy how like less detailed

they they've become on the bottom of the cars

for Hot Wheels. Yeah, I looked at that and I

was like, I've noticed that that they've been

cutting back. And so like I got out one of my

one of my oldest Hot Wheels I still have is from

1992. And it's the or 93. I can't really see

it because it's chrome on the bottom. It's the

Thunder Roller. Oh, nice. Very cool. Semi -truck,

the red one. And it's got a couple of little

scuffs on it, but for the most part, it's still

in pretty good condition. That, for years, was

my Optimus Prime until I got the official one

that my kids found me. And I've never seen one

in the store. They just happened to find one

one day. But it's got the details. It's not super

detailed underneath, but it's got some. It's

not quite as detailed as the one they show of

that Hot Wheel 97 car. But I think it's just

dependent on the vehicle. But I do have a couple

of vehicles. I have the 2017 Batman the Animated

Series car. it's got a little bit by the the

front and rear axle and then down the middle

for the you know the drive shaft type thing and

then it's got a bunch of text in there and then

I was looking at I have a truck from 2018 like

a Ford Ranger and you know the tires have some

detail and like it has like mostly the axles

at that point like somewhat in the front but

only because you can see it when it's lifted

And then the back end just looks kind of abysmal.

Uh, and then I've got, I've got the, uh, what

is this year? Oh, this one's a 2018 as well.

Uh, this one is the, uh, the dark night rises

Tumblr. Oh, nice. And it's the beige and tan

one. There's no detail underneath at all. Yeah.

None whatsoever. And it's funny because they

at least tried to make it look fancy or nice

plastic on certain models. And then they just

look kind of like blah plastic. And then when

you get to the Thunder Roller, it's funny because

a lot of these things aren't even die -cast anymore.

There's almost no die -cast. Like, it's almost

like those cheap plastic knockoffs that you used

to see, like, in the stores at the time. And

they all look like crap now. Yeah. So, yeah,

they're basically just junk. But, I mean, they're

still a dollar. Yeah. I think that's what the

thing is, is that that's why they've done this,

is that they are trying. I think that's what

the video says as part of this is. I forget where

I saw the video of this thing because it's –

is that what this is? Yeah, this is – yeah, what

I linked is an Instagram video. In the video,

I think that's what the person says is that most

of it is they're trying to keep the price down

to keep Hot Wheels as inexpensive as possible.

They're trying to keep the price at a dollar

as much as possible and having all the detail

as they used to on the bottom part of the car

is not keeping the price down. And I mean, there

isn't like other than the text, like as far as

like the the. made in the blah -ba -dee -blah,

wherever it's made, yadda -yadda -yadda. The

only real thing that's on the bottom of this

kit car is there's something right under the

front wheel wells, and there's stuff, like, at

the back. The rest of it is all the writing.

So, I mean, there's not so much super detailing.

on the bottom of this, but there's way more detailing

on this than there is on the bottom of that turtle

van that's still in the packaging that I have

that's over next to me here, so. But, yeah, I

mean, I get it, because Hot Wheels, I'll say

this for Hot Wheels, they're going more for kids

than almost any other toy product is out there

currently, because they're just, Cars and trucks,

man. Yep, yep, yep. I like the branded stuff,

though. Yeah. Well, what do you mean? Well, I'm

saying like the Batman stuff. Oh, yeah, yeah,

yeah. Transformers, if you could find them. I've

never seen a Bumblebee or an Ultra Magnus in

the wild. I've only seen, I've never even seen

the Prime. I only have a Prime because, and there

were like five variations. My kids found it.

And I've looked and I've looked and I've looked.

I've not yet seen another one. Yeah. So. Yeah,

the only two that I've, like, I don't go after

Hot Wheels. It's not, it was never really my

thing, but I think, no, I know who it was now.

I remember. A couple years ago, I forget when,

but a couple years ago, my buddy Josh, Josh Flood,

Mr. Floorburger himself, Mr. The reason why he

likes David Hasselhoff is he likes the story

of when Hasselhoff went crazy and ended up on

the floor. That's why we call him Floor Burger.

Mr. Josh Flood, who helped me resurrect ToyCast

back in 2021 when we resurrected ToyCast, he

was the one that sent me the Knight Rider Super

Pursuit Hot Wheels car. But before then, like,

I hadn't had Hot Wheels since I was seven years

old in 1987. And now Alex brings me the Turtle

Van, which my whole plan for the video for that

is obviously film it in packaging and then film

it next to the DVD set of the Turtle Van. Like,

look, folks, scale. This is the big van. This

is the little van. yeah i i still want to get

a few more hot wheel figures or cars but um yeah

i more so just because it's nice to have them

in the small shape and not take up a lot of space

oh yeah no i like i i love having the the the

night rider car here because i assume the funny

thing is i always pair him up with um astro train

because they're not exactly the same size, but

they're close enough where they both fit on my

desk really nicely, since G1 AstroTrain was always

my favorite, and I have them both here on my

desk, even though everything, G1 AstroTrain's

all the way back here behind Optimus Prime and

all that stuff and whatever, but yeah. No, absolutely.

Can't go wrong with some Hot Wheels cars. And

then coming from snacks with Zach on Instagram,

when when he posted this, because I follow him

for all snack and food news related stuff on

Instagram. When he posted this, I literally my

jaw hit the floor because. If you know Kentucky

Fried Chicken, folks, you know that they are

a, or they were, a Pepsi forward company. Not

after 2027, they ain't. KFC to discontinue all

Pepsi products in 2027. They are going Coke.

I guess I'm going to be eating a lot more Kentucky

Fried Chicken in 2027. I like Coke better, so

I'm happy any time a restaurant changes. Yeah,

me too. You know, so every time I would see ads

for KFC about, oh, here's the Colonel's new meal

deal for this, or the Colonel's new, every time

I would hear Jim Meskimen or see Jim Meskimen

as the Colonel, try my new. Three -piece tender

meal with blah -blah -blah side, and you can

get it with a large Pepsi. And I'm thinking it

would be much better with a large Diet Coke.

Well, here we are coming up in 2027. You can

get it with a large Diet Coke. Again, another

one of my doomsday scrolls. I ran across this

creator on Instagram. I'm sorry. did i just get

an ad when i opened the app now this person this

creator on instagram is specifically talking

about snapchat but honestly any app uh but he's

talking about when he opened snapchat he instantly

got an advertisement when he just opened the

app app developers what are you doing that's

okay i just i've been deleting apps just for

stupid crap like this But, like, seriously, like,

if I open an app, whatever app it is, Facebook,

Instagram, Twitter, X, whatever the hell, if

you feed me an advertisement before I even get

to see your interface, there's something wrong

with your app and what you're doing. Yeah, I

think it's crap. Yeah, it's definitely, definitely

crap. Definitely crap. Most likely crap, crap,

crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap.

And then what's this last one? OK, so this year,

sadly, we for the last eight years, I think it

was last. I was trying to like three or four

months after. So after they had gotten him when

Karen and I had moved out. to oregon or right

before we moved out to oregon we had found again

when i first found instagram or whatever else

i found this creator called tucker budson and

it's uh it's courtney budson her husband mike

and their dog tucker And for the last eight and

a half years, she has shared her journey and

her journey with her dog, Tucker. And Tucker

Budson, over the last eight and a half years,

had become one of the most internet famous dogs

ever. And how I stumbled across his page was

I had followed or I... Saw a video of some other

dog, you know, these dogs on the Internet like,

oh, this is a dog trying a fruit or this is a

dog trying to do this or whatever. And I stumbled

across Tucker's page and I've been following

Tucker ever since sometime in 2019. Sadly, Tucker

developed cancer and he passed away. That sucks.

Yeah, big time. So now. She wrote a book about

his journey. And as she wrote the book, they

found out about the cancer diagnosis or whatever

else. So the goodest story ever told. And basically

what they're doing is. Making an impact for Tucker.

About 15 ,000 kids in the U .S. are diagnosed

with cancer every year. I want to get Tucker's

book and a squishy into as many of their hands

as possible so they can experience the same joy

Tucker gave to all of us. I'm personally donating

500 books and squishies. I'm also donating a

portion of book sales to fund cancer research.

With the hope of helping families facing the

biggest battle of their lives to make an impact

for Tucker, you can donate a book and a squishy

below. So, if you, you know, and with the website

link that I put in the show notes, I put two

links in the show notes. The one is the video

of where she – the YouTube video. I think it's

the YouTube video. Yeah. The video is where she

tells the whole story. And then the other where

to get and give his book here is the link of

where I just read all that from. It just means

a lot because this dog literally – her YouTube

channel, I've watched almost every single video.

I literally – They, I think two or three years

ago, introduced Tucker's Snack Attack. I'm on

the testing team for that game. I've been on

the testing team since day one when they asked

for testers. I've recorded and released so many

videos of levels for, like, obviously I make

sure that... when I'm recording the videos, I'm

not releasing them during the testing phases.

It's after. So my videos are obviously behind

the whatever. So it's not, it's after that the

public betas are released and whatever else.

But like, I've been in the community for this

kind of thing. And for just, I've been behind

them all the way. And it was just so heart wrenching

to hear that. he had that diagnosis and that

they weren't able to save him. They weren't able

to catch it until they thought they were going

to. And then he took a turn for the worse and

just, I remember the morning I woke up and I'm

like, again, as I mentioned earlier in the show,

when we were talking about Instagram and whatever,

there is several people that I, like when I opened

my Instagram, there are several stories that

I do follow. The first creators I always check,

and they're one of them. So, yeah, it means a

lot. I'm hoping when I get paid later this week

or beginning of next week, whenever it is, that

I can go ahead and grab a copy of the book. Because

the book, I think, releases November 17th. I'm

hoping I can get a pre -order in. Because it

just just just anything I can do for these people,

if I can possibly do it. And it just it just

sucks. But, you know, they're doing this final

mission because I know in the video she says

it would have been so awesome if he was still

here when she got the like the the the author

copies in. Cause every time this dog got like

a bark box in the mail, he would go crazy. Every

time they would go swimming, like just, this

is a dog that just loved life. Just watch any

one of his videos on his YouTube channel. He

just, and he loved just doing anything and everything

for his fans. And at this point, it's just anything

we can do to help support them and this cause

that they're trying to do, especially. Her putting

all the money towards or most, you know, most

of the money towards cancer research because

F cancer. Yep. So, yeah. Yep, yep, yep. So I

think that about rounds out this episode of Altered

Geek. Yep. So. Thank you, as always, for listening

to this episode of Altered Geek. You can, of

course, comment on this episode on the website,

thegcrn .com. You can find the episode there

as well as all of our podcasts and other content.

You can comment on our social pages on Facebook

and at the GCRN or Geekcast Radio Network. You

can also. Get a hold of me on X at SCP -21 and

you are at GFG1 Mike. That's right. So until

next time, get altered, get geeky with the Altered

Geeks. Continues sci -fi dreams with every episode

will unravel the spirits high discussion Let's

dive into lore from Star Trek to Transformers.

We're ready to soar Superheroes clash as we spark

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