Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - 9/14/26: Houthis Take New Strait, Lebron Games Gambling Ads, Midterms

Episode Date: September 14, 2026

On today's show Krystal and Saagar discuss the fallout from the Houthis taking the Bab al-Mandeb strait, Lebron James and Sydeny Sweeney hawking Gambling ads, and a dire outlook for the GOP in the midterms.   To become a Breaking Points Premium Member and watch/listen to the show AD FREE, uncut and 1 hour early visit: www.breakingpoints.com    Merch Store: https://shop.breakingpoints.com/   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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And we're the hosts of the Artists on Artists on Artists on Artists Podcast. The Improvised Character Comedy Podcast where each week a new panel of artists discuss their craft. Join us for a panel of Eurovision participants. And we do a little Halloween sometimes. Does the Pope dress up? He winks on Halloween. He gets right up next to the microphone. I hear you can almost hear the eyelashes hit each other.

You never seen Italy so quiet as when the Pope gets up to wink on Halloween. Listen to Artists on Artists on Artists every Thursday on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I survived nine months in captivity, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are the Survivor Files. Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable, abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. These are stories about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to The Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey guys, Ready or Not, 2024 is here, and we, here at Breaking Points, are already thinking of ways we can up our game for this critical election.

We rely on our premium subs to expand coverage, upgrade the studio, ad staff, give you guys the best independent coverage that is possible. If you like what we're all about, it just means the absolute world to have your support. But enough with that, let's get to the show. Turning now to the Houthis and the shocking developments in the Middle East, let's go ahead and start with some of the video that's come out of Yemen, where you can see Houthi forces that are seizing U.S. military assets. that were sold or given to Saudi Arabia. Here you see similar, you know, I mean, a lot of these guys walking around in sandals, the AK-47s hanging out on the beach, marching down the street. All of this would all be funny if it were not dramatically funded by the United States, the Saudi military, a total and complete collapse that has been accompanied by a huge strategic disaster for Saudi Arabia

and for the U.S., which is total seizure and control now of the Bob Almanda. straight. Let's put C2 up there on the screen. It has now been completely confirmed. Red Sea nations watch as Houthi sees the entire Bob Al-Mundab Strait. It is an economic bottleneck now for Egypt, security risks for Sudan, for Somalia, and leverage for Eritrea, for Djibouti. You have a lot of African nations where this has dramatically changed the maritime bottleneck, effectively giving them veto power over whatever they want. This comes on the heels of a genuine shocking situation for Saudi Arabia because it's not the fact that their forces, back forces, collapse in Yemen. It's that this is combined now with the damage to the East-West pipeline.

Let's go ahead and put C4, please, on the screen just to show you all. Initial estimates coming out, 4% of the entire global oil supply is now taken off of this Saudi pipeline. This already happened after Saudi Arabia admitted it had exported less oil than at any time since 1990, and they say they will run out of oil stocks for exports if it doesn't restart major pipeline within days. The current estimate that is coming out of Saudi Arabia is apparently weeks for this pipeline, which means that they will have to dial down the amount they pump out of the ground, which is very, very difficult to start back up. Obviously, a lot going on, but you have initial damage previously to a ramco to the pipeline. I mean, this is a genuine choke point, which is happening,

and all of it is reflected in the current price of oil as we are currently recording. It's running $109 a barrel at Brent Crude. Let's see where are we at in terms of our national average, $4.31 gallons up, 30 cents already just in the last like two weeks or so. And diesel, right? Oh, my God. Current average diesel, $6.23 a gallon. It was $6.00 last week. It'll be. seven. It'll be seven pretty soon. Yeah. Wow. That is extraordinarily dire. And it does feel like, you know, there's that, who is it that has a famous quote, the market will remain irrational longer than you can stay solvent. I think it's an apocryful one. Anyway, you know, and it has felt a bit like that because we've been watching the, even with more oil and gas getting out of the straight of four moves, it's still not what it was.

So, of course, for a long time we were talking to Rory, like, what is going on here? How come the market is not reacting more? to the state of affairs. And there were all sorts of cushions that were in place. You had China, which dramatically reduced their buying. We had our Strategic Petroleum Reserve that we were drawing. They were able to use this East-West pipeline to get more barrels out of the region via the Bob Belmondab Strait as well. And now it feels like all of those previous pieces, which cushioned the blow, are falling away. And Trump's ability to market manipulate just through jawboning has also seemingly fallen away. I mean, he is openly admitting now gas prices are not coming down before the midterms. And who knows when they will come down. He leaves that part down. He claims that as soon as the midterms are over, then things are going to go

back and the war is going to be over. There's no explanation of how or why that would happen exactly. But in any case, now you have obviously the seizure and the successful offensive by the what we call in the West the Houthis. You have East-West Pipelines struck, by the way, not by the Houthis. It appears by Iraqi militias aligned with Iran. You have a... have China reentering at a higher rate. Obviously, our strategic petroleum reserve has already been drawn down. So the situation is looking fairly dire, which is why you see those gas prices, those per barrel oil prices ticking up and up and up. And by the way, the overall stock market is down related more likely to the AI conversation we were having previously.

It's funny you bring that up. I was not to say that. I go, this could be, I mean, I know lots of this could be it. But let's say you have. have unilateral tech slowdown, which is propping up the entire U.S. economy. People start to wake up to, as I mean, look at my genuine reaction to diesel going 623 a gallon this morning. It was six last week. And that was a record high. That was the all-time high. I'm like, 623 a gallon. Let's combine that with San Diego. Put C-5 on the screen here. We were reaching things we didn't even know was possible. The California gas station has now hit $9.99 a. gallon with San Diego customers who are now giving themselves solace that it literally cannot get

worse other than $999 because of the way apparently that the sign is. Yeah, the signs only have three digits, so you can't go to $10. You actually just can't go to $10. So that appears to be the limit of what they're allowed to charge you for now. I'm sure a sign guy will fix that next week before the diesel prize is going to resolve. That's where we're at. So you got crushing consumer sentiment, there was inflation reading that came out, I think, on Friday. The University of Michigan survey was disastrous. You've got $4.31 a gallon gasoline. I don't even know what it is in California. Is it $6 bucks yet? Yes, $6 exactly this morning, $6 a gallon right now in California. $6.23. Diesel, national average. I mean, that combined with a genuine downturn in the U.S.

stock market, let's say we had a correction of 10 percent or something. something. We're living in a whole universe, I think, at that point. That would actually lead to, I mean, I can't even imagine. Like, you would have Federal Reserve behavior. Unemployment could skyrocket. I mean, even right now, the only thing really propping up our economy and hiring is health care spending. And as you and I both know with recession, when, you know, income goes down, people unfortunately don't seek out health care. So there's all kinds of downstream effects that could happen right now, directly as a result now of this Bobham. Mandeb situation and the general strategic picture in Iran, which is this is part of their playbook.

This is what they wanted. They want the dial continue to turn up. Every day that we get closer to the midterm election, they want to see that diesel price go higher. Yeah, that's exactly right. And Trump was hoping that he could sort of put this conflict on the back burner and people would become comfortable with maybe roughly $4 a gallon gas, but it wouldn't go that much higher. And then guess what? When you're in a war, your opponent also gets a say.

And so that's part of what's going on here. We've been long saying that it doesn't make any sense that Iran would just accept that state of affairs and do nothing in response. Now, the Houthis are their own actors. They are in this, you know, war with the previous government of Yemen. They backed by Saudi Arabia. So they have their own domestic priorities here in terms of trying to claim all of the territory in Yemen. But it's not crazy to imagine either that there is some coordination here with Iran because we know they are closely. ally in Iran has helped them with technical and military assistance in the past because there is a

question of okay well why now why did they decide to go on the march now what was it that happened here the other wild thing is that reportedly a bunch of their military adversaries a lot of them were what they they're calling like ghost soldiers who were being paid but weren't doing anything because they didn't really believe in the cause i was truly afghanistan 2.0 totally i was listening a professor morandi um this morning on with glendison and he was talking about how, you know, part of the victory for Ansar al-A or the Houthis is that they were very assertive in terms of standing with Palestine. And that really raised their esteem with their own population and throughout the region. So, you know, if you have people who are actually committed to you

who are willing to fight and aren't just collecting a paycheck as a ghost soldier, that is going to give you a tremendous advantage on the battlefield. I do think that is part of what's going on here. You know, another part of what's going on puts C-7 up on the screen, some reporting from the Wall Street Journal is Iran is now working over time producing ballistic missiles again. Intelligence finding say Tehran is assembling stockpiled components into weapons in underground facilities. They say despite heavy attacks on their missile sites and industrial facilities during the initial phase of the war, Iran has been busy assembling liquid propellant missiles, which have to be fueled just before launch, as well as solid propellant missiles, which can be stored ready to fire, according to officials,

points to activity at several underground sites. They're also attempting to build new underground assembly points to avoid getting struck again. So they are still able to build these ballistic missiles. They have restarted production. Meanwhile, of course, we've got all kinds of problems on our side with regard to munitions and with regard to missile interceptors in particular, which certainly were exacerbated by this last round of fire where we could all watch the videos of how many of our interceptors were being shot in order to be able to deter the Iranian attack. Admiral Bradley Cooper, however, was asked whether he is concerned about munitions stockpiles, and he had this to say this is C-6.

You have testified about this, a shortage of munitions, especially to defend against Iranian missile and drone attacks. That's become a big issue in this war. How concerned are you about that right now? I'm not concerned at all. We're well-armed and ready for any contingency. So even though there are estimates that the U.S. has already fired 45% of its Patriot missiles and use more than half of its thad missiles,

you're not worried about any future threats. I'm not. Wow. Super comforting. Yeah. You believe him? I actually do. You know why?

Because he's not the president. His job is just to worry about sent comm. So he definitely has all the munitions he need. The question is, does the paycom guy, the Indo-Pacom commander or Southcom or any of these other people, they're like, whoa, Mr. Sent-com, of course you have everything because you stole all of our stuff. So you should go, this is an interesting piece that ran in the New York Times over the weekend, and it was basically about how the vice president has been calling all of these sub-commanders

bypassing Pete Hegeseth and just being like, give it to me straight, what's really happening? And of course, this idiot Cooper, I mean, he's pro-Israel moron. You know, I've heard all kinds of stories about him. But the PICOM people and others, they're ones who are like, they're like, sir, I'll shoot it to you straight. This is a real problem. Yeah. This is bad. Well, the other thing to keep in mind here is that Hegsef and Trump have both, you know, called their staff and Hegseth called the military based on people who will be loyal.

I mean, that's really been the, you know, criteria for remaining in your post. And so there's no way this guy could go on television and tell the truth if he did have concerns because then he'd be out of a job. So it doesn't exactly foster unvarnished truth telling when you have enforced this sort of code of. silence and demands for loyalty up to and including require that you, you know, lie to serve Trump or to serve Hegset's wishes. Another thing, we didn't have the time for the element, but I just saw it, is that the Chinese imports are beginning to rebound. Yes.

Which you could say a couple of things. I mean, the conflict's been going on for more than six months. Yeah. So maybe their stockpiles are low and they just need to buy more oil. Yeah. The other thing is, I'm Xi Jinping. I've got all these annoyances with Donald Trump. You know, you burn a few billion buying some.

oil, get those gas prices cranking here in the U.S. Make sure that, you know, you just twist the screws a little bit in your favor. Wouldn't be the worst dollar that you ever spent if you're China. And on top of that, you're providing this new technology to the Iranians. Let's put that last piece on the screen, C-7 up here. Iran is producing ballistic missiles again. Intelligence findings say Tehran is now assembling stockpiled components into weapons in underground facilities. Combine that with a major story that came out over the weekend, which was the Chinese providing targeting information specifically on that Jordanian base to Iran. And Trump being asked about it, and he basically had to brush it off being like, yeah, I'm sure they have intelligence. We have intelligence too.

I mean, this is impotence. You can't do anything about it. First of all, it's obviously correct. But second, it's like, what are you going to do? You're going to sanction them? It's like, yeah, it's like, yeah, you can't. It's like, look at our economy. In fact, they're not them, but together, all in a much better strategic position to outlast and to push against the United States. Their population is willing to suffer, and we shouldn't diminish that. Iranian people are suffering right now. They've got gas lines. They've got electricity problems.

They've got, you know, economies, especially nationalized, complete turmoil. But they're literally under attack and their leader was killed, whereas all we want is $2.82 a gallon gasoline. We don't care about what's going on over there. And we definitely want to be paying for what this is on top of the price. on like with this so I think considering our first coverage about AI already this morning I mean it's still very very early but looking I mean yeah I mean the market is dropping like a rock right now who knows exactly where it could be we could end up like maybe one or two percent down on the

entire S&P 500 on the on the actual tech stocks let's see QQQQQQ is already down by about one points it's not horrible but you'll see continue to see where those things continue to be but if you combine that with very very high in physical input of gasoline and diesel, that is obviously just, you know, he doesn't need a genius to say depression very easily. Yeah. I would say the stock market dropping after all of these guys come out and, you know, sound the alarm and say they're going to unilaterally slow down. Fits very uncomfortably with the idea, but this is all hype to boost their stock and, you know, potentially increase their IPOs. But, yeah, I mean, the last thing I'll say on this is the Iranians have

long had their eyes on the midterm because they understand that the war here is unpopular. They understand that the American consumer is very, very sensitive to gas prices, that the ripple effects of diesel throughout the economy are going to be quite grave. So I would certainly expect that they continue to increase the pressure here, you know, between now and November to try to further imperil the political horizon for Trump because that's something that they've, you know, basically outright claimed as part of their war strategy. Right. I mean, why wouldn't you? And especially with the screws that are all tightening right now. All right, let's get to gambling. Back Pet Casino app is here, Ontario.

It's safe, secure, and crystal clear with fast payouts and 24-7 local support. You can play over 3,000 games right here, including Hard Rock Bet Casino Exclusives. The Hard Rock Bet Casino app is here, Ontario. Roll with us. Must be 19 years of age or older to play. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. Concerned about your gambling or that of someone close to you, visit connectsonterio.ca. When I was 14 years old, I was kidnapped and held captive for nine months.

I survived, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are the Survivor Files. I just remember this low, taunting voice next to my ear saying, shut up, don't say anything. Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable. I knew if he woke up, without a doubt, he was going to hurt me. I started feeling that there was someone at the end of my bed, and I just started screaming. They are abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. But these aren't stories about what's taken from them.

There's stories about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to the Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. If your bookshelf and your for-you page are equally important to your personality, welcome home. This is Prose Society, the weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for thought daughters, pop culture obsessives, and anyone who thinks pride and prejudice and love island deserve the same level of discourse.

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Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your book. podcasts. See you between the pages. Okay, let's turn now to gambling. So you might think, you know, just because it's me that we're covering this, and that's largely true. But it's also because it is the day after NFL Sunday. And so casual fans, you watch the games, you have a good time, hang out, maybe eat some, you know, unhealthy food. And that's the worst of your problems. But increasingly, what has now happened is a deluge

of gambling advertising from the traditional sports books now to the so-called prediction markets. And just to take a step back and remind us, the Trump administration has effectively legalized gambling in all 50 states, making it available to Texas and California, two of the states with the largest population. So for the first time in American history, this was the first NFL Sunday where you could gamble in all 50 states. The numbers are in. The numbers are in, and they're absolutely shocking to nobody if you don't see the rise of this addiction. Let's go and put D3 up here on the screen. A record of some 14. $1.1 billion was bet on prediction markets just in the last week.

Sports that were particularly favorable for these prediction markets included not only the U.S. Open tennis match, but also, as they say, the start of the NFL regular season. So that puts you at tens of billions of dollars in a single week that were gambled on these platforms, you might then wonder what exactly are all of these bets going towards. And you would be absolutely shocked to learn that a huge portion of these bets are going to traditional combos, otherwise known as a parley bet, of which you might as well just be handing your money over to the sports books. This comes on the heels of an advertising push where, you know, this crystal wears us like, we have no shame in our society anymore. You got LeBron James, who the current whatever net worth estimator has them around a bill, whether it's $1.1 billion or $800 million, it doesn't make a difference.

He never has to work a day in his life. Eli Manning, I mean, you know, the Manning brothers and all that, they've got enough Bud Light money in the can that they could literally do nothing. They do this for a choice. They do it for the paycheck. You got Spike Lee, of all people here. Sad. Yeah.

The guy who made Malcolm X is out here shilling for Polymarket. So that's the ad I'm about to show you. Here's LeBron James appearing. By the way, he followed this up with his polymarket picks for the NFL season. Here was his ad for Polymarket. Eli. What a little, Rob. Always be planning for Eli Manning.

Just to hit that button. And now we play. All right. Beautiful day to be great, y'all. Love it. Rob. Captain. Let's get to it.

Yeah, yeah, here, yeah. Go to it. Man, Craig from the office. How could you, Craig? How could you? So you got, I mean, just look at that. All these people, paychecks that are out there. And again, if you, it's so funny, they call themselves prediction markets,

you can literally go on the way. their website and live bet the spread per quarter. So like the spread, like literally about who's going to be up per quarter, all the future prop out, it is completely indistinguishable from any of the sports books. In fact, I downloaded the Polymarket app at one point on Saturday, or sorry, on Friday or Thursday, whenever the Rams and the 49ers were playing, there were 180,000 people in the live chat who were live chatting about the trades that they were making. And they've even gamified it so that there's a little tag next to your name about how much money you have on the game and in which way. And they're all shit talking each other and then encouraging

each other to put even more on parley. I've never seen anything like this in my life. Like this collaborative, it's literally like a streaming thing where everybody's just encouraging them to pour even more money. Now, we put the 14 billion. number up there. We showed you how LeBron and these others are doing this, but there are all these other competitors. And so my new favorite is called Novig, which decided that gambling, shilling for the sin of gambling was not enough. Let's combine it with softcore pornography of Sidney Sweeney. So here, take a listen. Think you know sports? Prove it. Novig is just sports. So they wanted a show.

Just Sports So yeah, that's America now. It's just Sidney Being naked and Shilling for just sports. I believe she made some quote where she was like, oh, it's better because it's just sports You can't bet on what color of my underwear is.

I'm like, well, why don't we just advocate for something so we don't have markets for that literally at all. How about that? Yeah, and so that's up in Times Square. Nobody blinks an eye over any of this stuff. All these celebrities, you got Timothy Shalame, all of these athletes, the U.S. Open,

which you're a huge fan of. They partner directly with Kalshi. I mean, this is it, though. CNN is partnered directly with Kashi. There's a rumor that the Times was like this close to signing a Kalshi deal. Are you serious? Yeah, but their employees were like, we can't do this. I mean, it's just to stick on LeBron for a second.

Like, here's this guy has more money than he could ever spend. Yeah. Right? Like, what? Yeah, why? Why? I mean, if we can resist selling out to Kauji and Pauly Market, like, how is this hard for you? Right.

And then to me, it's just so tragic because obviously, LeBron has all of these fans who are young men. I mean, that's why he's such a prize for them to sign because he's so influential with the group that is the most in hoc to these gambling companies that are those trading companies. And so it's, LeBron has done a lot of things for his hometown and really, you know, tried to uplift people who struggle there, et cetera. And now here you are backing and vouching for this company that's directly predatory. There's a leads to bankruptcies. I mean, the overwhelming majority of people are going to lose money on these bets. And then you have a growing subset that are actively addicted, that this will fuel and can lead

to just disaster and ruin in their lives. It's so hard for me to understand. But I think it just does come down to the culture where it is just accepted, you know, all the, the, um, so many of the YouTubers, the media, like everyone around you is doing it and no one's batting an eye. So you think, well, why shouldn't I? Now, it is interesting when he posted this on Twitter. A lot of the comments were very negative and really disgusted. But, you know, I guess the overwhelming cultural sentiment is in favor and comfortable with it. So he doesn't bad my mind at it. As I put, somebody was talking and being like, it's so hypocritical people are going after LeBron James. Michael Jordan famously had no gambling scandals. I'm like, let me tell you something.

Michael Jordan is 10 times more honorable. He lost his own money, all right, on his stupid ass bets. whereas LeBron is taking cash money, encouraging people to put their hard-earned money at risk while they're gambling. He's not the one who's actually doing any of these gambling. You know, the other thing that drives me absolutely crazy about this is the ad reads. So let's put D4 up on the screen. I was listening to a sports podcast, and this is literally the ad read I got. They go, with Polly Market, you're a trader, not a better. It's legal in all 50 states. That's why you need to use my code to get $50 and free bets. And as I said, they go on to discuss the trades of the spread on an upcoming NFL game. And let me tell you how you are, if you're trading parlays on Polymarket, you literally

might as well just load up the Fanduil app. Put D5 up here on the screen. This is what's so funny to me is that everybody thinks it's some brand new project. So this is from Nick Devere. He is over at Barron's Online, and he has this phenomenal scoop where they find out, whereas, you know, I've this before on prediction markets, how somebody else is taking the other side of your action, right? So the person who's taking the other side of that action is when you're on Cal Shee and you are doing a, quote, combo bet, aka parlay bet, a contingent bet for three different, you know, quote, legs in your parlay. The person who it turns out is market making, many of those, is literally just Fandual. So the people who have mastered parlay technology, the sports books,

by the single game parlay, when you log into Fanduil, that's what's loaded right up there at the top. They are literally just doing the exact same thing by using the Kalshi platform. So whether you use their app or use Kalshi, you're just getting the same bet. They're offering you the same thing. And as I've told you, that's 60% of their revenue and you lose with such regularity they can project in the future how much they are going to make off of your dumbass. And all of this together, you can see. We are siphoning. This year will be already gambling, eclipsed, all forms of entertainment combined.

Hollywood, museums, books. Now with all 50 states, with Novig and Sidney Sweeney and Drafking's prediction market, Fandals, prediction market, Kalshi, Polly Market. Already this week, put the screenshot guys, D8. I literally took this this morning on the day after NFL Sunday. Take a look at this. the top downloaded apps in the United States, Polymarket at number three, and Kalshi at number five. So you can see how this marketing campaign is working, how they are siphoning literally billions of

dollars from a lot of these working class guys, convincing them that they have some sort of edge, live trading, you know, exactly what's going on. And yeah, I mean, it's just, look, it's tragic because we all know the consequences. And, you know, the final thing I'll say is about this insider trading threat, which still remains one of the biggest problems is there's no real rules. Put, what is it, D6 please, on the screen, just to highlight how absurd this whole situation is and why you shouldn't even have markets on this in the first place is there were a cluster of polymarket accounts that one big on companies audited by KPMG findings came after the journal reported a KPMG employee is under investigation for alleged insider trading where he was betting on the earnings of different

companies and somebody put it together that all of the earnings that he was betting on all were audited by KPMG so we obviously had inside access. Ironically, it appears that he tried to do this because with the SEC there's insider trading loss. So if you were to short the stock, that's much easier to identify. So we explicitly used polymarket and these prediction markets to circumvent the robust insider trading law that we have whenever it comes to SEC in the stock exchange and instead wanted to circumvent it. So you may ask in the first place, why do you even need this market at all? And you would be correct. For insider trading. Yeah, for insider trading. Now, in fairness, apparently the Wall Street Journal has reported that federal authorities were

preparing to bring charges against a KPNJ employee over alleged insider trading. Not clear whether it's the same person very likely the same person. So his scheme here to skirt the law apparently didn't work. But how many instances around there that never get caught? I mean, and that's the other part. And he's a U.S.-based idiot. All you need is some guy in, you know, Kyrgyzstan. I mean, this guy could be printing money. Totally. Just paying people cash under the table.

Totally. If he just, yeah, used to straw purchaser instead to make the bets, then no one would have been the wiser. There's no doubt that that sort of thing is happening. So that's the other piece is like whatever you're betting on, there may be somebody betting against you who actually has inside knowledge and the whole thing is basically rigged. So stupid. All right. Let's get to the next one.

Behind every night spent making the kids lunches. There's a lot of suspense. Will they finally eat the veggies? Will the pasto survive the first bite? Will the lunchbox come home empty, half full, or come home at all? And will you finish episode 8 before you're done slicing the cucumbers? Get Bell Pure Fiber Internet with Craved Netflix and Disney Plus from $94 a month. Price guaranteed for two years on internet with a two-year term and auto pay credit.

Visit bell.com.com. And to check availability. Bell, connection is everything. When I was 14 years old, I was kidnapped. and held captive for nine months. I survived, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are the Survivor Files.

I just remember this low, taunting voice next to my ear saying, shut up, don't say anything. Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable. I knew if he woke up, without a doubt, he was going to hurt me. I started feeling that there was someone at the end of my bed, and I just started screaming. They are abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. But these aren't stories about what's taken from them. There's stories about what it takes to make it out alive.

Listen to the Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If your bookshelf and your For You page are equally important to your personal, personality, welcome home. This is Prose Society, the weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for thought daughters, pop culture obsessives, and anyone who thinks Pride and Prejudice and Love Island deserve the same level of discourse. I'm Eli Rallo and every week we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and the

conversations everyone can't stop having. I'm going to have to look up this story. I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed. From bestselling authors and your favorite book talk creators to the latest pop culture moments, nothing is off the table. It's like if you can hide some real messages inside compelling characters, then that is a Trojan horse. Whether you're looking for literary deep dives, smart pop culture conversations, or a community of readers who love to think a little too much,

you're in the right place. Listen to pro society on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. See you between the pages. Yesterday, President Trump weighed in on an issue that is increasingly on the minds of voters as they begin to head to the polls, flock cameras. Let's take a listen to what he had to say. Speaking of AI, flock cameras, you haven't talked a lot about these flock cameras. A lot of law enforcement say they really help them. Would you be willing to back that? No, I sort of like them because of that because of law enforcement. But some people don't. They think it's an infringement. They help catch a lot of criminals.

I like them. He likes them. Okay. All of those. comes on the heels, of course, of him saying that if you don't like data centers, you want to be backwards and poor, of saying all sorts of things about he doesn't care about the financial needs and concerns of the American people, lots of stuff that Republicans are absolutely loving from him. Kevin Hassett was recently on television asking about some of the dire economic polling with regard to Trump and his performance had quite an interesting spin on it. Let's take a listen of that. The bottom line is that Biden's economy right before that election was truly horrible. We were heading up towards almost close to above 10 to 12 percent inflation. Real wages were dropping by

about 3,000. And so then you ask yourself, okay, if that's a reasonable estimate of what people think about the economy, how come now that we have this booming economy, they say that it's worse. And the answer is that they're surveying Democrats who hate President Trump, that's all. And so therefore, I disregard that number. Polls are fake. They're discerveying Democrats. saga. They don't know what they're talking about. It's all just fake news. The economy is actually doing amazing. And the real problem, by the way, was Joe Biden. Very possible. You know, polls have definitely been off. I believe what I saw was one of the bets that the tech right people are making and a lot of the Republicans are hanging their hat on is because of the way the House is structured,

if the polls are off enough where it's just D plus four, then they could still hold the House of Representatives. That's what they're trying to sell to the people. Now, that's certainly, possible. I mean, we've seen many polling errors here in the history of our shows. It wouldn't exactly be, you know, novel. Let's put E2 up here, though, on the screen. Just check in where things are. This is where I generally find where the D plus stuff is always difficult to analyze whether any of that's true, especially because it's so off back in 2022. But approved, disapprove generally seems to be a pretty long-held metric, which equalizes over time, and usually absent. like a Roe versus Wade situation like back in 2022, could end up mattering and being the metric

that you could point to. And that's where when you see Trump at 39% approve and 61% disapprove, if you've got nearly a two-thirds majority of the country saying I disapprove, then why would they vote for the Republicans in the first place? Issue by issue. They have immigration minus 10, Iran minus 28, economy minus 32, inflation minus 46. These are not just numbers where, you know, even if the polling error is what, plus or minus six, it's like, what are you, still minus 40? On inflation. On inflation? It's still not exactly.

Seems important. Place to be. Remember what I said there about the generic ballot where I said that they could survive in D plus four. Well, you know, if you want to do the math, that's D plus eight in terms of the generic ballot right there. So even again, if we're plus or minus two, three, something like that, you're still in a situation.

We're almost certain to lose the House for a process. Well, and pause this one for a second here because I think this slide that's up is also really important. They ask people, okay, if definitely. Democrats win are you going to be better off financially? Numbers here, not exactly impressive. 36% say it'll be better off. 36% say worse off. The others say no change.

But the numbers are even worse for Republicans, where you've got near a majority, 46% saying they're going to be worse off if Republicans win. Let's go to the next slide. We've got some more numbers from this CBS News, you gov poll. Vote for Congress if you said that higher prices have created difficulty or hardship for you. So of likely voters who said that higher prices have been a bad thing for them that they are struggling because of higher prices, 62% say they're voting Democrat and only 38% say they're voting a Republican. That might be the most devastating number in this poll because so many people feel that they have been, you know, financially set back by high prices.

Let's put the next piece up on the screen. This is their house tracker right now. They're projecting 228 seats for Democrats, 207 for Republicans, and then, And last one we can put here up on the screen. Among MAGA Republicans, how do you feel about Trump not being on the ballot? Does it make you more interested in the election, only 16 percent, less interested in the election, only 12 percent, 72 percent said it doesn't matter to them. You know, some of the other numbers in this poll also indicated that Democrats are highly, highly motivated to vote against Trump. Republicans are less motivated. In general, you know,

but also less motivated vis-a-vis Trump, even though Trump has come out and said, pretend that I'm on the ballot. So it is polling in line with a lot of other polling that shows a lot of antipathy among the Republican base and a lot of problems among the broader electorate and especially deep, deep, deep discontent with Trump's handling of the economy. So Trump's big ploy to try to, you know, get people to come out and vote for him, get excited and give them a reason to come out and vote for Republicans, was this promised $5,000 check, which I'm sure we're all going to get right after our Doge checks and right after our

tariff-free fund checks. Speaker Mike Johnson was asked about this $5,000 ploy and had an interesting way of describing it. And overall, he's asked about it multiple times, seemed very less than enthusiastic, let's say, about the idea. Let's listen to that. Where would the money come from? We're already $40 trillion in debt, and this would put about $1.3 trillion additional onto that debt for your kids and my kids to have to pay off? It's a new creative idea. The president debuted at the convention. We have had zero time, of course, to process that, deliberate, discuss it.

As you know, I've got to build consensus every day on everything. But we applaud the president for thinking outside the box. He's the president, probably the strongest in that regard of any we've ever had. And, of course, we're worried about our fiscal stability and the nation's debt. We have plans to reduce the debt. So he says there, it's a new creative idea, soccer notably refuses to actually back it. Right, which seems to be the most important thing. It's like, so are you actually going to pass it? And this gets to Trump, too, where Trump yesterday

was asked about it aboard Air Force One. And they said, well, how serious about this? It's like 100%. Meanwhile, John Thune and Mike Johnson are like, yeah, it's an interesting idea. You know, we'll see whether any of that's going to happen. And so Trump's trying to manufacture a reason that you should vote for Republicans in the first place, except the other Republicans won't even get on board. with it. Somebody actually should just go Ken Paxton and all these other people, be like, what do you guys think about all? I would love every candidate on the record should say what they think. Yeah. Oh, 100%. I mean, the thing is, like, it's obviously fake. It's obviously not going to happen no matter what. And Republicans are very likely to win, lose the House, if not both chambers,

as well. There was checking in on some of the critical Senate races, there was a debate in the Alaska Senate race where Mary Peltola, the Democrat, seems to have an edge, at least in terms of the polling and certainly seemed to have an edge in the primary vote she got more than her opponent, Dan Sullivan. Interesting moment here where they're asked yes or no on a fishery question, and Sullivan has to cheat to get the answer. Let's take a look. Do the North Pacific Fishery Management Council and NOAA fisheries adequately consider impacts on subsistence users, salmon migration, habitat, and indigenous ways of life? Yes or no?

We have two noes. Thank you. So if you're just listening, she holds up her no sign and then Sullivan looks over and then picks up his no sign as well. So I'm not sure that that is going to land well, but mostly it's just a funny moment from the debate. And last one here, this is noteworthy because this is an infamously Republican-leaning pollster Rasmussen polling in the Iowa Senate race. This is a state that no one would have thought would be in play for Democrats, but it is very much in play for Democrats. Let's put E5 up on the screen here. If this poll is to be believed, Josh Turk has a five-point lead that's the Democrat over Ashley Hinson, the Republican, and a large lead among independent or unaffiliated voters. He's at 49 percent, and she is at 28 percent.

Again, this is from Rasmussen. So worth noting. And I do definitely think that the Iowa Senate seat is in play. Will he be able to pull it off? You know, Democrats have a long way to work back with rural voters. but Iowa is also one of the states that has been hardest hit by both the tariffs and the Iran war, and they already had economic difficulties to begin with. So it would not be shocking if there was a political earthquake in the state, given how dire the economics there have been.

I totally agree. And even if I didn't, I couldn't say anymore because I keep breaking into coughing things. So it means it's time to wrap the show. Yeah, I think, I think the tickle is telling me that there is left. All right, you're all closed the show today. guys, thank you so much for watching. We will be back tomorrow with much more on all of the various things

that are going on in the world, so we will see you then. Hi, this is Kylie Breakman. Angel Geratana. Jeremy Colhane. Patrick McDonald. And we're the hosts of the Artists on Artists on Artists on Artists Podcast. The improvised character comedy podcast

where each week a new panel of artists discuss their craft. Join us for a panel of Eurovision participants. And we do a little Halloween sometimes. Does the Pope dress up? He winks on Halloween. It's right up next to the microphone. I hear you can almost hear the eyelashes hit each other.

You never seen Italy so quiet as when the Pope gets up to wink on Halloween. Listen to Artists on Artists on Artists every Thursday on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I survived nine months in captivity and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart. And these are the Survivor Files. Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable, abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. These are stories about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to The Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

If your bookshelf and your For You page are equally important to your personality, welcome home. Pro Society is a weekly podcast that's part part. book club, part group chat for anyone who thinks pride and prejudice and love island to serve the same level of discourse. Each week, we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and pop culture with your favorite writers, book talk creators, and plenty of overthought opinions. Yeah, I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed. I listen to pro society on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.