Chewing the Fat with Jeff Fisher - Hallucinations?... Guest: Brad Meltzer | 1/20/25

Episode Date: January 20, 2025

Olympic Medals are rusting… Time on cell phones… Cell Phones have replaced?... Apple shuts down AI news… Donald Trump is President… Biden pardons happen till the end… Dylan memorabilia up for sale… Top movies of the weekend… Elon gives a billion to non-woke movie makers… TikTok shuts down and then comes back… NFL recap… CFP Championship game… Email [e-mail] Guest: Brad Meltzer / Latest book The JFK Conspiracy / www.bradmeltzer.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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19 plus Ontario only. Please play responsibly. Concerned by your gambling or that if someone close, you call 1866-3-3-1-2-60 or visit comex-onterio.ca. Blaze Radio Network And now, chewing the fat with Jeff Fisher Imagine training all your life, working hard. You finally made it. You made it to the Olympics. In fact, you were meddled at the Olympics.

You either got a gold, a bronze, or a silver medal at the Olympics. You're proud. And then you take the medals home and they start rusting. Yeah. That's a problem. At least right now, there's only 100 athletes from the Paris 2024 Olympics that just finished a few months ago to have returned their medals due to rusting. Incredible.

In response, the French mint, Monet de Paris, has been dismissed. and organizers have pledged to replace the flawed medals for the affected athletes. Yeah, thank you. Appreciate it. At least for sure find someplace else to make the medals. And it'll be cool to have your rusted metal next to a metal that's, well, in good standing and not rusting. I don't know if they have to send them back if they have to have them completely replaced or if they get to keep them,

but I guess they're going to be replaced. But wow, what a joke, Paris. Maybe you could have, you know, done a better job at, you know, making the medals. If I'm a medalist from the Olympics, I want a new medal. Because even if mine isn't rusting now, that means it's going to.

So just replace them all, please. How bad? Seriously, you've trained all. your life. You got a medal. And now, is that rust? Is it rusting? How cheap can you be, Paris? Welcome. Or France. It's just not Paris. It was the Paris Olympics, but it was the country of France. I know that, okay? Welcome. Welcome to chewing the fat. According to this, in 2024, and so if you're listening live, it is the 20th of January, 2025.

Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday national holiday day, which is the third Monday of January. It is the inauguration day of President Trump. It is the national championship game for college football today. So big day today. Anyway, in 2024,

the average American spent approximately five hours and one minute on their phone every day, totaling about 76 days over the year, represents a significant increase from previous years with individuals checking their phones around 205 times per day. 80.6% of people check their phones within the first 10 minutes of waking up, and 27% admitted to using their phones while driving.

And I would say that it's more than that, again, 27%. admitted to using their phones while driving. I try not to, but there are times when you do and you're listening. I mean, if I'm listening, if I start a podcast while I'm driving before I leave a parking lot, I don't know that I count that. Checking it before I get up, I mean, it's my alarm clock. So I don't know that that counts, but I'm sure it counts in some study somewhere. Our cell phones are so much to us.

It's amazing. When you think about the things that, well, smartphones, cell phones have replaced in our lives, cameras, cameras, maps, their GPS services, right? We don't have maps anymore. I remember printing out directions to places. Don't need to do that anymore. Calculators, alarm clocks, which I use. TVs, yes, radios, yes.

Camcorders, yes. Pay phones are gone, have a nice day. There's no need for those. And I see where Starlink is now going to hook up with T-Mobile for a trial run, and you won't need cell towers. You'll just be able to hook up anywhere in the world with satellites, with Starlink. Awesome. So pay phones, yellow pages.

Yeah, no one knows what information yellow pages are. Answering machines. Yeah. newspapers yeah i mean sadly they are they uh they are dying on the vine because we got our information on the phone but they are still creating content they just want you to pay for it uh calendars uh yeah we don't need those vcrs yeah flashlights yes yes watches yes timers yes compasses yes mail yes uh we send text messages whatever uh car keys yeah I still have keys.

I don't use my phone to start my automobile, but I have an older model car. Not like you with your newer model cars, your fancy smancy cars. I still have a key. Cash, yeah. I mean, I still use cash, and you still have a card,

but really you don't have to. You can use your phone. And I still, you know, I use, I do use my phone to, you know, be cashless on a many, many items. Cookbooks, yeah. Car keys.

Well, yeah, we just covered that keys. Well, I guess you could use them to get in your house too, right? So you don't even have to carry keys anymore at all for anything. I still have a key for my home too. Amazing, I know.

Man, what am I living in the caveman days? Airline tickets, yeah, photo albums, yeah. I was thinking about, you know, maybe family time. Yeah, if we're all on our phone for a huge amount of time, five hours a day. I'm sorry, five hours and one minute a day. That's taking away from a lot of family time, a lot of face-to-face talking, face-to-face communication.

We've lost sarcasm along the way because you can still, you still can be sarcastic and have that sarcasm in person, but man, do you lose the sarcasm when you're texting when you're texting? You still have it, you still get it back a little bit when you are video calling and FaceTiming each other. So you still get some of that. But texting for, get it. Texting an email. No, the sarcasm is long gone. And I know we mentioned newspapers, you know, because we have online news that we get,

such as, I don't know, the company that originates this podcast, the Blaze does, no question. but Apple now has suspended a new AI feature that drew criticism and complaints. And why did they suspend it? Well, you know, the AI was making repeated mistakes in its summaries of news headlines. Oh, okay. So they just went ahead and pulled the service altogether. They apparently were facing pressure to withdraw the service, which sent notifications that appeared to come from within news organizations.

organization apps, which it didn't. And they said at Apple that they're working on improvements and they're going to make them available in future software updates. But right now, maybe we just rushed the new feature. Innovation must never come at the expense of the right to citizens to receive reliable information. Uh-huh. Okay.

The feature should not be rolled out again until there is a zero risk that it will publish inaccurate headlines. I don't know that we're ever going to get that. The BBC was among the groups to complain about the feature after an alert generated by Apple's AI falsely told some readers that

Luigi Maggione, you know, the man accused of killing United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, had shot himself. So, and I remember seeing that, and then it went away because guess what? It wasn't true. The feature had also inaccurately

summarize headlines from Sky News to New York Times, the Washington Post, according to the reports from journalists. So it's imperative that these firms like Apple, you know, they want to release the new features first. They want to be the first ones on the scene. But they don't want, and this is something to think about when you think about AI, you know, using AI for everything. There's the thing called hallucinations, where an AI model.

makes things up. Is that concerning at all to anyone? Nah. I don't even worry about it. Misinformed the public. Such hallucinations have the potential to further damage trust in the news media. Yeah, I don't know if you can damage it any more than it's already damaged, but yeah, you go ahead and give it a shot when you have AI hallucinating stories.

So, you know, they've complained to Apple, and Apple has finally agreed. Yeah, you know what? We probably need to suspend the new AI feature. And, you know, we'll get back to you on that. With Amex Platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining means you not only satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds too. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. Don't be caught unprepared.

You know, we take some time to think about what happened in 2024. Hurricanes, fires, global conflict, supply chain disruptions. I mean, we still have fires and people are still trying to save themselves from the damage that hurricanes have done and the fires are still going. So, I mean, we are smack dab into 2025. and it may be time for you to start thinking about making emergency preparedness your New Year's resolution. Now, you can still make resolutions. Yeah, heck yeah. Doesn't matter.

Yeah, as long as you do them, it's fine. So when you make that New Year's resolution, maybe you make it by saying, you know what, I'm going to get a Jace case. That's how you ensure you and your loved ones have medical care when needed. Jace case offers peace of mind for you and your family. It's an emergency medication kit containing five life-saving antibiotics that treat the most common and deadly bacterial infections with a simple online evaluation just to make sure that you're not allergic to any of the medications. And that way you can ensure that you're prepared for the unexpected. So Jace makes that possible with the Jace case.

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for those of you listening live 2025. So by the time you're listening to this show today, that chewing the fat drops at 4 p.m. Central every day, Donald Trump will be the 47th president of the United States of America. I watched all the, you know, Clinton showed up, and Hillary was with him, W, and the wife showed up. Joe Biden, of course, is there. You know, they met each other at the White House for tea or whatever.

Just agonizing. I just wanted to get on with it. Let's do it. And one of my favorite things was Barack Obama, because they showed every, all the presidents walking in with their, you know, with their wives down in the rotunda and coming in, you know, looking all presidential. And here comes Barack Obama without Michelle.

Holy cow. So, I mean, we knew that she wasn't going to be. be there. But it really looked awkward. He, uh, I mean, I'm sure that they, I'm sure that their love is still kindling and on fire because he posted his I love you birthday post on X, uh, over the weekend. And I love you more than ever. And it was, it was just, it was too glowing of a love story post, uh, from Barack to Michelle, which led me to believe that the rumors of them being separated are true. would not surprise me one single bit.

But the President Obama was there, and he's, you know, handling it well without the wife. They were all there. All the hoity-toits were there. All the big money people were there. And they brought it inside because of freezing temperatures. Now, was it because of freezing temperatures or was it because of security concerns?

Either way, you know, if it was for security concerns, not real sure why they didn't say it, other than they just didn't want to let people know that that's what they were doing, and it was more about the cold, not to give the upper hand to whatever terrorists were trying to take action.

I'm not quite sure why they would do that. But nonetheless, they moved it into the capital rotunda, and then they're going to have, they had their big get-together at Capitol. one arena and the inauguration parade. It looked like they put in, since I'm recording this earlier, it looked like they put in where Trump is going to sign

some pardons during the party at the Capitol One arena. So that would be kind of cool. And I just, it's unbelievable to me. We found out earlier today that Biden had pardoned Anthony Fauci, Millie, General Millie, which, you know, that guy is just,

I do not like that man. I can almost tolerate Fauci more than Millie. And all the J6 committee members and the people who testified in front of the J6 committee, then today, and he must have done it on his way to head over to the Capitol Rotondo or maybe you went to the bathroom when they were getting tea

when Jill and him were having tea with Donald and Melania he gave he announced that he gave a blanket pardon to his brother James and Sarah Jones Biden

Valerie Biden Owens John T Owens and Francis W. Biden. He gave them all Executive Grant of Clemency. For what? And I think it goes back, yeah, okay, right here. It goes back to 2014. A full and unconditional pardon for any nonviolent offenses

against the United States, which they may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1st, 2014 through the date of this pardon, which would be today. Wow. Okay. Ah, that doesn't mean that they did anything wrong. This is just a preemptive strike.

Uh-huh. Anyway, congratulations to Donald Trump finally becoming the 47th president of the United States. And they can get out. I'm tired of all the pump and all the circumstance and all the I'm going to do this. Get out. All of you, leave. You know, Pat Gray is on vacation, so I was filling in on Pat Unleashed, and I'm filling in for Pat all week.

And we played a clip of Merrick Garland leaving the Department of Justice on Friday, and everyone was clapping, and he walked down the aisle. and shaking hands and hugging people and all those people that were clapping for him and his lawfare and the whole damn bunch of them, they ought to all be gone.

I hope Trump gets rid of them all. That is part of the problem in Washington, D.C. But we have a new president and his name is Donald. There's a new sheriff in town. His name is Donald Trump. And are we

giving too much too much optimism. Would you have too much hope for Donald Trump? Because all I hear is that look at how bad this is. Ah, Donald Trump will take care of it. Look at how bad this is. Ah, Trump will take care of it. Well, how about this? Yeah, Trump will take care of it. I mean, I hope so. But, you know, we survived. We survived the last four years. Many people thought we wouldn't. We survived Obama, the eight years of Obama. And then, now we got Donald Trump the sandwich there in the middle

to kind of bring back the country I don't know that he knew it was as much of a swamp as it is or was probably still is I mean still is we need to

get rid of it but I think now he knows how much of a swamp DC is so I'm hoping that this term he is going in with a full head of steam and it appears that way I just I think that

many of the MAGA people and the Trump people are being way optimistic. Way optimistic that Trump will take care of it. And I hope that's so. I do. I hope that so. But I mean, we've had our hearts pulled out before. So, you know, there's that. All right, let's go to the break room.

I need something cold to drink desperately. So apparently this weekend, they had a big sale on some Bob Dylan memorabilia. They sold the draft lyrics to Mr. Tambourine Man, went for over half a million dollars as part of a weekend sale of dozens of items related to Bob Dylan in photos, music sheets, his guitar, pencil drawings, an oil painting composed by the Nobel Prize for a literature winner, were sold on Saturday in Nashville through Julian's auctions. The items generated, and I love Julian's auctions, the items generated nearly 1.5 million in sales overall, though through in-person and online bidding. The auction house said that 50 of the items, including the lyrics that received the highest sales,

Price came from the personal collection of the late music journalist Al Oranowitz. Yeah, he had everything. That guy was a hoarder of Dylan. Al Oranowitz. Yeah, he was a Dylan hoarder. So the typewritten lyrics, which covered three drafts of the 1965 song, were written on two sheets of yellow paper with Dylan's annotations on the third draft. So, man, it's got all this. Dylan stuff and other high selling items Saturday included in 1968 Dylan

signed oil on canvas painting that sold for 260,000 and a custom 1983 Fender guitar that he owned and played for $225,000. Dylan who is 83 now wow. Garner attention last month released the movie, yeah, complete unknown

which I got to see Timothy Charlemagne plays Dylan in the movie in the movie. You look A Complete Unknown is still in the top 10. It's number 8 this past week. It brought in 3.8 million

domestically. It's brought in 57.6 million total. Streaming will be huge for a complete unknown because I'm really looking forward to it. And I'm looking forward to it. Ooh, do show up so I can watch it in my home. Mufasa was number one. One of them days.

Number two. Wolfman Number three Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Number 4 Den of Thieves Number 5

Moana 2 was number 6 And I see where Moana 2 just became Disney's third 2024 release

to top a billion dollars at the global box office So congratulations to Moana 2 for reaching a billion dollars at the global box office. I mean, you have Deadpool and Wolverine, and then Moana 2. Oh, and Despicable Me, four.

Yeah, okay. You got the billion dollar globally for those three. And anyway, Moana was number 6. Nasferatu was number 7, a complete unknown, as I said, number 8. Wicked still hanging in there in the top 10. There were number 9, 3.55 million it brought in. That's brought in 464.5 million domestic total, almost half a billion. And Baby Girl was number 10 with a $2 million domestic this weekend at the theater.

So congratulations to all involved in those movies. And it was announced that Elon Musk just gave a big. billion dollars to Mark Wahlberg and Mel Gibson for their Unwoke production studios. Okay. Elon, I'm going to start producing conservative movies as well. You can just, you know, you can just PayPal me a billion dollars and that's fine. I'll start those movies soon as that money comes in. Okay.

and I know we had a polar vortex to be concerned about this weekend. It's coming this coming week. It's super cold across the country. But we lost TikTok this weekend. I know. Went far away. And then it came back. It came back to life.

So the Supreme Court issued their unanimous decision and sided with the Biden administration upholding the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. That just rolls right off the tongue. Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Application Act. Yeah. They upheld that. And Biden signed back in April.

So there's no doubt that, you know, 170 million Americans on TikTok were a little sweating bullets. And TikTok went away. They, when you went to TikTok on Saturday, you got, sorry, TikTok isn't available right now. A law banning TikTok has been. been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can't use TikTok for now. We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office.

Please stay tuned. Then, a little aft sometime on later Saturday, sometime Sunday, somewhere in there in that version, there was a new message that said, hey, we regret the U.S. law banning TikTok will take effect on January 19th and force us to make our services temporarily unavailable. We're working to restore our service in the U.S. as soon as possible, and we appreciate your support.

Please stay tuned. Okay. And then they came back to life, and they brought it back. They just saying that Trump took credit for that at his rally on Sunday. And so, on yet, Sunday, right, the 19th. And so you've got it back.

And so is it going to be banned? Probably not. I know that's the law, but Trump will work out some kind of deal. And we've got, there's a package of billionaires. And you can package them if you want. I'll take that one and that one and that one. And that are saying that they're put together a team that is going to buy it.

Mr. Beast offered to buy it. Trump will pick out a couple of billionaires and say, go ahead and buy it. you own it now you run it go ahead and will it fix anything as far as the algorithm is concerned I probably not no but

will all the information go back to China or will it stick here in the United States and those people will just have our information I think that's the way we want it damn it if you're going to take all our information make sure you're an American and that's

what they're doing I think my favorite post and there were plenty of post of, you know, people calling 911 and all the sickos and wackos. Those people should be fine, you know, TikTok users. I think my favorite post was from James Charles, who was, I don't know, he's got like 38 million followers on TikTok and he's, I don't know, 20 million on Instagram. And I like some of this stuff. Apparently, I'm not supposed to like him because he's some kind of groomer, pedophile, but I wasn't aware of that. Oh, you mean you didn't do the story?

you didn't talk about it? Well, yeah, but I've forgotten about it. It's been so long ago now. So anyway, he had a total meltdown on the band. And it was really funny to me because at the end he was like, oh, and now I've got a root for Trump. Ew.

Made me laugh. It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get a next. rank on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice? Yes, we deliver those. Goaltenders, no. But chicken tenders, yes. Because those are groceries, and we deliver those too. Along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now.

For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. Great weekend of football. NFL, that is. No college since college is over. and we have the national championship two night with Ohio State taking on Notre Dame. I am looking forward to that game very much. I'm pretty sure Ohio State's going to win,

but I would like maybe to see Notre Dame win just to I mean, you thought Ohio State looked bummed to what Michigan beat him. Wait till they, I mean, they were bummed. They lost to Oregon, which they probably should have won that game. Will Howard screwed up

at the end of that game because they would have had the opportunity to win that game when they lost Oregon the first time. The first time they played them. They beat them the second time, obviously. And then they lost to Michigan, which, you know, as someone from

Michigan and raised to hate Ohio State, you know, it's nice to see. However, they shouldn't have lost that game as, you know, being the powerhouse Ohio State Buckeyes that they were, you know, presumably were at the time. And then they have crushed their, opponents since. And so

Notre Dame is so good, and I like Notre Dame, and I like both coaches, actually. Both of them have said a lot of things that I really like. And so it's going to, I don't really care who wins. I just won a good game. I hope I'd like to see it. I'd like to see

eight over times. And finally have a winner, but it's probably not going to happen. Ohio State. It's probably going to win decisively. You never know. You never really now, but that's probably, you know, Ohio State's probably going to win. Then we had the NFL games this weekend as we had the divisional round. So now we had two games on Saturday and two games on Sunday.

And this weekend coming up, we just have two games, both of them on Sunday. The Kansas City Chiefs will take on the Buffalo Bills. One of those two teams will go to the Super Bowl. And in the NFC, we have the Philadelphia Eagles versus the Washington Commanders. and that one of those two teams will go to the Super Bowl. All the games were fun to watch this weekend. Washington went into Detroit and beat Detroit. Holy cow.

And I know Scott, who emailed me saying, how could you say Washington beating the lions would be awesome? It was awesome. And I know you said that can you show us on the Dow where Michigan hurt you? which I have laughed about often because that's really funny. But they did. The commanders went in and put a whoopin on those Detroit lions. Oh, there were so many injuries.

I know. But Jaden Daniels, man, showed the world what he's made of as he went into Detroit and did that. And I will say this, that if Washington beats Philadelphia and goes to the Super Bowl and then wins. And Jaden Daniels is the rookie quarterback, first rookie quarterback to take a team to the Super Bowl and win, he should just retire. Be done with it.

I mean, he won the Heisman trophy. He was drafted second in the draft. Should have been first, but he was drafted second. And then he takes his team to the Super Bowl and wins. Just retire. You have nothing else to prove. Just retire and sit. sit on one of the NFL panels and talk to people about football

because you don't have anything else to prove and just be done with it and make millions of dollars and don't waste your body. You don't have to. You've already proven what you can do. I'm not going to spend another 20 years letting people beat up my body when I could sit behind this desk and just watch football and tell people about football and make a lot of money.

So if that happens, he needs to retire. But I'm looking forward to the football games of this coming weekend to see who goes to the Super Bowl. It was a lot of fun watching the games this weekend. A lot of controversy around the Kansas City game beating Houston and some of the referee calls and some of the non-calls that were made. Houston still struggled and did some things that cost them the game, no question. but it is funny how a lot of things happen in Kansas City's favor through the referees and that. And there's plenty of calls on all these games where it needs to be addressed. Some of these roughing the passer calls are just ungodly pathetic.

And I know we're out there trying to save, you know, quarterbacks, but we need to rethink that rule. no question. And there was actually a penalty during the one game. What was it? The Philadelphia game? Shoot. No, it was the Detroit game where they had 12 men on the field.

And that's a penalty that I hate. But they actually had 12 men on the field ready to play. Now, that's a penalty. I get it. You have to have 11 men each, that period. That's the rule. But when you have the rule drives me crazy when a player, is running off the field,

and he doesn't quite make it when the ball is snapped, but he's running off the field. He plays no effect in the play at all. That should not be a penalty. It just shouldn't. It just shouldn't be a penalty because there's not 12 players on the field. It's 11 players playing another 11 players with one guy racing to get out of the way,

and that should not be a penalty. I don't know. It just kind of bugs me. But, you know, Detroit actually had 12 men on the field to play lined up on defense, which you can't do. You cannot do that. But that rule, when they're running off the field just drives me insane. I know it's not a sports show.

I get it. So I'm just telling you, one rule, one rule. I won't start breaking down on a few other rules that drive me insane. We'll just stick to that and then we'll move on. So it'll be fun next week to see who goes to the Super Bowl. I'll give you my prediction later, who I think was going to go to the Super Bowl. And I already told you,

it'd be nice to have Notre Dame beat Ohio State, but I don't think they can. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. A new era of fitness is here. Introducing the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus, powered by Peloton IQ, built for breakthrough. with personalized workout plans, real-time insights, and endless ways to move.

Lift with confidence, while Peloton IQ counts reps, corrects form, and tracks your progress. Let yourself run, lift, flow, and go. Explore the new Peloton Cross-Draining Treadplus at Onepeloton.ca. Be sure to follow me on my social media at Jeffie JFR on X. Jeff Fisher Radio on Facebook and Instagram. You can follow me on my YouTube page, Chewing the Fat, with Jeff Fisher. You can order a cameo from me at any time at Jeffrey JFR on Cameo. That, of course, is not free,

but it's worth every darn penny at Jeffrey JFR on Cameo. You can email the show anytime, chewing the fat at the blaze.com. Chewing the fat at the blaze.com. Well, well, well, I was getting ready to get out of here on Friday, and I look up and my friend Brad Meltzer is in the building. amazing. So, I mean, we had to chat with Brad a little bit. How are you, my friend? I'm so happy to see you, is what I'm happy. Good to see you too. It really, I mean that. I came here. By the way, when I went in to go see Glenn, the first thing I did is I came to your

office. I don't think you did, yes, I did. I came right to the window. And I was like, oh, he's not here. Are you sitting over there or are we looking over here? I don't think you did. But I'll tell, you know what? You're right, Brad. I wasn't in here. You're right. I promise. If you were sitting there and I didn't see you, that's on me, but I know what you sit. Pretty much most people in this building would tell you that that's an impossibility,

that if I'm sitting somewhere, I, that you're not going to be able to see it. So I'm sure that I'm sure that I wasn't here. So you're out hawking your new book. What, okay, so before we get to the new book, the JFK conspiracy, because I do want to talk to you about that. What else is going on? What's happening at bradmeltor.com? What are you doing? What are you writing?

Why am I not a voice in one of your animated shows? I know. Well, if you were a Canadian kid, you would be hired. They have to be Canadian. That's where the whole show was filmed. And I want to be a voice. Yeah. And I'm like, why can I be a voice?

And they're like, because we lose all our tax credits. If we bring and break, they give you tax credits, the more people you use from where it's made. So that shows you how all your favorite cartoons are all made. They're all, truthfully, a lot of them are all made in Canada. There you go. So what's happening in my life? this is the craziest three-month run, I think in my career,

because we're doing three books in three months. We're doing, right now the JFK conspiracy, about the secret plot to kill JFK that you never heard about. You did this with Josh again. With Josh again, yep, Josh Minch, the great Josh Mench. Then we do next month in two weeks,

in our kids book series, we do, I am Sally Rye, the first female astronaut. Okay. And then in March, last year I gave the commencement address at the University of Michigan. Yes, I remember,

because your son graduated. My son graduated. I gave the speech to fully embarrass my child. Hail to the victors. I got it. And the speech went viral and it's all about making magic. Yeah. So we're doing a book based.

All these people were like, can I have the text of that speech? I want to text of that speech. I love that speech. Send me that speech. I want it for my kids. I want it for my grandkids. My friend, I've written books for 27 years. No one's asked me for the text of anything,

but they wanted the text of the make magic speech. Yeah, that's great. Make magic, the little book of inspiration. you didn't know you needed. So three books in three months and that's going to keep me busy for the next three. That's awesome. And so what in the animated stuff, what's happening with that? What's going on with that? Are we just done with that now for a while? I'm done working on it now because we finish the season and we're waiting to hear from PBS if they're going to pick it up for another season. We got nominated for a bunch of Emmys, which is really cool. And, you know,

full credit to Megan Reed and all the people who work on the show. And the greatest part is the Emmy that we got nominated for you know we've done abraham lincoln and george washington and amazing people and the episode that we got nominated for was the episode about grandmaster flash nice and and the and the furious five baby and i love you for it and and and when they go back in time they usually say oh we're going back in time to 1860 it's so long ago we're going back in time to 1776 grandmasters what 80 and they're literally like we're going way back in time to 1984 and i'm like That is not way back in time. I'm like, change that script.

I was like so pissed. Now, you do know, Brad. I hate to break it to you, but we are now closer to 2050 than we are to 2000. I know. It's killing me. I mean, when my algorithm is obsessed with those things, you know, that like we're closer to Cleopatra than we are to this. Like, those, that measure for me, the history thing is, it blows my mind.

And nothing, nothing makes me feel older for us Gen X people than realizing how far away 1984, 1974, 1974, and 1974 and 19, whatever four is. It's ridiculous. I mean, we start talking about 1990, 1980. Are my kids? We're sounding. Yeah, we sound like our grandparents talking about World War II.

The 50s and the 40s, of course, that's what we are. Before them, my stepdad would always, you know, when I was working at the far western end in Nebraska, I was building quots and Hudson the guy said, I asked him for some gloves and he said, gloves cost money, skin grows back. Okay. Well, I think of it.

I measure everything in terms of happy days. And right now, I remember thinking when I watched Happy Days and I was obsessed with the Fonz in the 70s, but I remember thinking that the 1950s might as well have been the Civil War. That was just like, who lived there? And now that's like, Happy Days is like the 2000s now. Like that's what feels like the civil war to young you and me.

I know. And I'm like, what a? No, no, that can't be. No, stop it. I don't believe it. But it is. It's very true. I know.

All right. So the new book, the JFK conspiracy. I had another friend of mine who used to teach on the JFK assassination at universities around the country. And he stopped doing that. Because everything you say that could possibly have happened around the JFK assassination, everybody believes. There's no.

Want to know why? There's no way that happened because everybody believes, yep, that could have happened. So your book, the JFK conspiracy. Well, here's the crazy part of it. Let's talk about this. I'll set it up and then we can talk about why. this is the plot to kill JFK you've never heard about it's a true story that we found no book has ever been written on it's the only book that's been written solely about this subject okay this is

three years before Lee Harvey Oswald takes his famous shot so it's 1960 JFK's just been elected it's a beautiful Sunday morning and JFK's on his way to church and what he doesn't know is there's actually a disgruntled postal worker named Richard Pavlik who wants to murder him and he's packed his car with seven sticks of dynamite. Okay. And he's followed JFK down the Palm Beach, Florida, because he believes that JFK's securities weakest there, and he's right about that. So as JFK leaves his house to go to church, all this assassin has to do is hit the

little trigger mechanism that he's built, and boom, will go the dynamite. And I won't ruin the, I won't ruin the book for you. Obviously, you know JFK lives that day, but what saves his life that day, it has to do with Jackie inadvertently doing it. it and it's one of the craziest JFK stories you've never heard in your life. And that's chapter one of the book. I think I just ruined chapter one for you. But when I heard that story, I was like, we have to tell people this story.

Yeah. It's a cool story. That's an awesome story. And I mean, your other secret plot books have been awesome. I haven't. This book I'm going to read this weekend, as a matter of fact. So you'll get my full review. Yeah, text me.

Yeah. my full review. No, but it's a thing that, the reason it's a crazy story and why I love it so much is also what it says about JFK as a person and really Jackie. You get to see inside their marriage, which is a really messed up place.

And, you know, we don't, we don't hope, you know, because we talk about it like it's Camelot, right? It's Camelot, the great time. But it wasn't. But it's the opposite. Yeah, it wasn't. And JFK, we don't pull our punches. JFK, we document all of his affairs. We show you him, you know, what he was doing

when he's sleeping around, we show you that when they get engaged, one of JFK's best friends goes up to Jackie and says at a party, you know Jack loves women, says to her face, he's going to sleep around on you. And she's trying to hold this together. In fact, the day she gives birth, she hemorrhages when she's giving birth to John John. I think I remember this story. JFK's nowhere to be found, right? He's on a plane the floor. You know what would happen to me, what my wife would do to me if I wasn't there? she was giving birth. We wouldn't be doing this interview now.

I'd be killed. You and me both. And I know your wife. You would be. I would be too. And so she's trying to hold this together. And I kept saying why they call a camelot? How is this camelot?

And where, when did the, is that starting in 61, 62? Right. I finally discovered this. That JFK, they don't call a camelot until after JFK dies. It's after the assassination that Jackie grants. Jackie grants one interview to Life magazine. She brings a reporter to her house. He's there until midnight.

She's transcribing and making sure all the quotes are the way she wants him. And she tells the report of this exclusive story. You never remember my husband this way. No, no, it's not even that. She's more subtle. She says, when my husband was in pain in the White House, when his back was hurt him and he couldn't fall asleep, the way I'd calm him down is I would put on this record of this play,

of the song he loved about this place called Camelot. And she's the one who inserts that word into the lexicon. And you forget that Jackie starts as a reporter. So she's a member of the press at the beginning of her life. She's hounded by the press. But my friend, she's a master of the press. Yeah. And she's the one who puts that word in there.

And she's writing JFK's legacy before anyone else can. She is so savvy, so smart. Incredible. That's an amazing story. where that came from. That's really incredible. Yeah, and the thing that you see in the book is, you know, and again, my obsession with assassins, right?

We've done the first conspiracy about a secret plot to kill George Washington. Fantastic. Which we did, thank you. We did the Lincoln conspiracy. I think that's my favorites, right? I think that's my favorite. About Bond to kill Abraham Lincoln before John Wilkes Booth.

We did the Nazi conspiracy about the secret plot to kill FDR Stalin and Churchill. That was pretty good. I mean, it's World War II and I love it because we're fighting Nazis. It doesn't beat Lincoln though for me. And then the JFK one, you know, what you see, I spoke to the Secret Service. And I'm like, tell me about presidential assassins. And presidential assassins actually fit into two categories. There's hunters and there's howlers. And a howler makes a lot of noise. Says, you know, I'm coming to kill you. I hate you, Mr. President. I'm come and get you.

I'm here. Don't look. Make sure you see me. That's right. But they rarely take action. But a hunter's very different. A hunter doesn't say a word, but they're the ones who tend to pull the trigger. And if you look at the four men who have successfully killed a U.S. president from Abraham Lincoln to JFK, all four of them are hunters. And Richard Pavlik in the JFK conspiracy, he thinks he's a hunter. But he's got a bit of a howler in him, and he opens his big fat mouth, starts monologuing. And I won't ruin it, but you'll see who's listening. Oh, not you. Who's listening?

No, no, he ruins it. Yeah, he ruins it. But he basically, I won't ruin the twist. But you'll see, you'll see who is listening. There's someone who's listening that he never is banking on. And it obviously the whole thing falls for. Right. It's amazing.

Incredible. So Brad Meltzer, along with Josh Munch, the new book, the JFK conspiracy, the secret plot to kill Kennedy, and why it failed. And so one more thing before you got to go, and I know you got to get it out of here. Why does everyone believe all the conspiracies for JFK? Yeah, my middle-aged brain. Okay, so here's why everyone believes it, to your friend's point. When you think, and by the way, I should say, we end the book.

We start the book, obviously, with the plot that tries to kill him, and then we end the book. You got to talk about it. We end the book with a look at the real assassination. What we show you is we show you the 19th, Lee Harvey Oswald Day from Jackie's perspective. And you've never seen that version before, I will wager. It's an incredible view. Thanks to her Secret Service agent Clint Hill and the Great Lisa McCubman, you know, they wrote this great book. And we're thankful to them that they'd let us use so much of that point of view.

you won't believe what it's like when, you know, when you see this woman and her brain, you know, her husband's brains are spied all over beautiful Pinterest, right? Yeah, she's reaching for. And you see, but here's why we believe everything about JFC. If you, if you want to know who killed JFK, that's what we're going to talk about right now on the show. You want to know who killed JFK in the 60s when it happened. Who did we blame immediately? It was the Cold War. We blamed our great enemies at the time. We said it was the Soviets did it. It was the Cubans who did it. In the 70s, as Watergate peaks and this, This trust for the government is at New Heights.

Who killed JFK? The government did it. It's an inside job. LBJ did it. The CIA did it. In the 80s, the Godfather's movie, Godfather movie, speak. Who killed JFK? Who killed JFK now?

Who killed JFK now? The mob. So decade by decade, if you want to know who killed JFK, it's whoever America is most afraid of at that moment in time. Because what JFK and Jackie have been forever is they're the first celebrity president and first lady. and we've been chasing that, and again, every president's famous, but that celebrity of like, the perfect life and the money and the fame.

And for some, we chased it, you know, Reagan, we thought it was Reagan, who was that. For some, it's the Obama's. For some, it's Trump, of course. But it's a completely useless endeavor because Camelot never existed. Right. It wasn't real. And chasing fame and money is also a completely useless endeavor. And the only thing that I think JFK gave us so, beautifully was he gave us hope.

And one of the great inaugural addresses. Yeah, absolutely. In a time when the country was bitterly divided, right? 1960 was bitterly divided. We hated each other. If you voted for Nixon or Kennedy, closest election of the 20th century, whatever side you were on,

you hated the other side, thought they were horrible, awful people. Does that sound familiar? It sure does. But in that moment, JFK says, let's stand together and let's have some hope. Yes.

And that's the best thing he did. And that's right now what we need to get back to. I don't disagree. All right, I know you got to go out here. I'll leave you, though. We're talking about JFK and the assassination. I mean, I can't, I can't not do my JFK joke. I'm ready.

You know, like he was assassinated in Dallas. I mean, we are in DFW, the greater, you know, the Dallas, Fort Worth Metroplex. But he had breakfast in Fort Worth that morning. That's right. That's right. Yeah, he had a speech. And so then he went to Dallas where he was assassinated. So Fort Worth is always like, he was fine when you left here.

the sad part is the sad part is that for that dad joke is you know that a lot of people still say that you know that that's not even a joke that's actually a thing that people say that's not even I don't know if that counts as a joke stupid people like we keep repeating it but the thing is you know that there are people who like that's like that it might be I looked it up it might be the first dad joke ever told really wow oh wow okay Brad Meltzer thank you my friend Love seeing you, my brother. All right. Safe travels.

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