Chewing the Fat with Jeff Fisher - Smarter Than We Thought…| 8|10|26

Episode Date: August 10, 2026

Endurance swimmer endures swim across the Baltic sea… Kris Cruz stops by with possible HR issue… Burger King back in second place… Burger King has a way to get a replacement burger? McDonalds has new U.S. president… A look at Powerball drawing… Email: [e-mail] Subscribe to Blaze TV / $20 off annual subscription… www.blazetv.com/jeffy NJ man has stick rammed into his face after fall… Etsy laying of employees due to competition… Neanderthals were sprinters?... Who Died Today: Ben Jones 84 / Mark A Nobles 66… Joke of The Day: Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

He finally did it. A Polish endurance swimmer, Bartholomew Kubkowski, has completed a non-stop swim across the Baltic Sea. From Klostmurga Sweden, which is beautiful this time of year, to D-ZO-N-O-W Poland. D-Z-I-W-Poland. He covered roughly 160 kilometers. in 55 hours and 10 minutes.

Remaining in the water without sleeping or taking physical break, a support crew accompanying him to provide food, snacks, and navigation, but he did not touch the boat during the crossing. Now, the achievement came on his fifth attempt after several previous efforts ended before he could reach the Polish coast. During the successful crossing, he battled cold water, duh, currents extreme exhaustion. He had no kidding. His severe sleep deprivation.

And he reportedly experienced hallucinations after spending so long awake. His challenge also raised nearly $190,000 for the Cancer Fighters Foundation, supporting children undergoing cancer treatment. which is a beautiful thing. But he finally broke the record. Why he wanted to do that, I don't know. But he's an endurance swimmer. And he decided, you know what? I need to swim from the Baltic Sea all the way over,

from Sweden's side of the Baltic Sea, all the way over to Poland. And, man, that's a, I mean, it's a good thing to have as your goal. is to do that. And he finally did it. Took him five tries. See? He didn't give up. Once you get started and you, once you fail, doesn't mean you always have to fail. Am I right, Bartholomew Kubikowski?

I am? Yes, of course I am. Congratulations on completing your endurance swim, 55 hours and 10 minutes. That does not sound fun at all. But, hey, congratulations. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome to Chewing the Fat. Fat 5 Plus. Fisher, I have a question for you. And maybe this will start you off. I don't know what you're going to talk about today. And I know you don't like when I do this, but you can just delete it if you want.

I can. Thank you for letting me do what I want to do, you know, to my show, Chewing the Fat. This audience knows and the Pat Grant-Garly shot in the notes I started going to the gym. Okay. Yeah. The last picture I saw. You showed me a picture. Yeah, I'll post that picture. A thirst trap picture from Chris Cruz, building the guns. Yes. So here's the situation.

I go to Planet Fitness. That's not the situation. Okay. I dislike changing in the changing room. Okay. Not because I'm uncomfortable with my gender or my penis. Like it has nothing to do with that. But I just, every time I change in the stupid dressing room, I forget my clothes in the locker.

So that's kind of dumb. So then I turn back and then go pick it up, right? Nobody's taking it. It's fine. But they open all the lockers at the end of the day, and then whatever is there, it becomes lost and found. Goes into a dirty, nasty bag? Yes. So I've been starting to change here in the parking lot.

Okay, yeah. I've actually witnessed you change your shirt. I have, yeah. Okay, so, well, it's not just a shirt. I also do the pants. Okay, so what? Do you get the door open to your car? Yeah, I sit in my car.

Is that, will that get me arrested for a decent exposure? As possible. You have to kind of be careful. You, I hope you do, and I don't know that you do or not, but if you do it between cars with the front door and the back door open, I think you're good. Well, I do it. What I do is I sit, right, in the driver's side, and then I've dropped my pants, and then I pull up my pants.

Okay. So I'm not exposing. the pants outside. No, I don't. Oh, you're fine then. I'm fine? Yeah, because you're just taking up your shirt. What about... Right? Well, and I have an undershirt. Yeah, I know. No skin is exposed other than my thighs. Yeah, you're just standing up outside to change

your shirt. Yes. Now you're fine. Does someone complain? I think so. Please tell me that someone did not complain about that. I have a HR appointment sometime this week. Get out of here! So... Oh my gosh. We have to find out who complained. I may have gotten caught.

is either that or they saw a picture of me my underwear in my backyard feeding the chickens and they want to talk about that I don't know which one it is but I just will say this

I will say this I can promise you it wasn't me okay that wasn't me because anyone that I work with that wants to change their clothes any sort of way

in a parking lot you go ahead whether I'm out there or not because I'm watching I don't care I'm not complaining. I want to be watched. That is unbelievable.

If that's the case, we have to know. We have to be updated here on 2 in the FAT after your HR appointment, because I want to know what the HR appointment was about, because that is unacceptable. We have to find that. They're probably going to do it anonymously, so you're not going to know, right? You're not going to know who decided to complain that you,

you were changing in the parking lot. Are you? Hello? He's already gone? Oh, well, off he goes. Oh, I should have asked him if he stopped by and get us a burger. Because I mentioned this earlier on my chewing the fat five during Pat Grey unleashed. The Burger King has taken back the crown from Wendy's for the number two U.S.

burger chain by systematic sales. after losing the position about six years ago. Wendy's has been in second place for six years no longer. Wopper Maker Burger King reported 8.5% spike in U.S. same store sales last quarter. Wendy's has seen the same store sales shrink for the last six quarters. And the real, you know, that's awesome for Burger King to be battling it out with Wendy's when really the number one burger chain is McDonald's.

And boy, I've had enough of McDonald's. in my life. I haven't eaten any in a long time. There are people in my household that bring in McDonald's because it's easy and you know what you're going to get and that, you know, it's kind of disheartening because it's like, eh, it's okay. And I get a call time to time. Like, hey, we're going to McDonald's and wanting a McDonald's shake. And most of the time I say no, not all the time.

But most of the time I say no because it's not a real ice cream shake. I'd rather have a sonic shake. Maybe a Chick-fil-A shake. Well, I don't want a McDonald's shake. It's been a long time since I've been to Burger King. Might be time to maybe try Burger King and see if it's worthy again. It's been a long time. I saw an ad this weekend that talked about how Burger King is currently letting people text,

send this text for Free Whopper to 250783. And you receive a free whopper. this year between the 6th and the 14th of this month. So if you're listening live today is the 10th of August, 2026, still have time to try this out. So if you text, send this text for a free whopper to 250783, you receive a free whopper. The promotion is part of a new guarantee where customers who are unsatisfied can have their sandwich remade and receive. a Future Burger for free. Oh, that's kind of cool, if that's true.

Now, I feel like as I was reading some of the comments, talking about this being misleading, should be taken down. Burger King, this is not an official promo. It's a company practice to make it right when a customer is not satisfied with a purchase. You must have a receipt and receive the free burger as compensation. Okay.

So at least, like if you get a burger, and you're unhappy with it. And I'm guessing you have to go through the Burger King app. Because I'm guessing if you go back to the store or the same store, they're going to help you out and give you another burger and apologize that you didn't like what you had, right? I mean, that's going to happen. That's got to be their policy.

All their policies have got to be that. So, you know, anyway, you can give it a shot if you want. The 250783. you text, send this text for FreeWopper. So good luck. Hope that works out for you. You know, I mentioned it this morning during the same story about Burger King on a chewing. I love the fact that the McDonald's fired their U.S. CEO because the sales were flat.

and it was they didn't have any growth and so it was time for the U.S. president to go. I said the CEO. The CEO didn't go anywhere which is what I love about this story. They got a new U.S. president. So Joe Erlinger

hit the bricks. Sky Anderson has taken over as president of the U.S. And according to CEO Chris Kempzinski The execution lapses were part of the problem that undermined efforts to win back low-income diners who have cut back on eating out. Man, it certainly couldn't have had anything to do with sales being flat with those videos that you were making, Chris, CEO, about loving McDonald's food and eating McDonald's food, because you made it look like it was terrible food, and you'd never eaten it before.

And so it was, that couldn't have had anything to do with the, what was the execution lapses. Maybe it was the execution lapses that Joe didn't tell Chris, hey dude, those are terrible videos and you shouldn't be doing that

to promote the product. But, you know, whatever, he's out and Sky is in. So congratulations to Sky. Good luck. And I suppose I should wish, Everyone, good luck playing the Powerball tonight.

You know, good luck. The Powerball is $95 million. The jackpot is $391.9 million. Man, I mean, the cash payout is $391.9 million. That just seems so low with the jackpot being so high. But it's almost at a billion. And that drawing, again, is tonight. A Monday, August 10th, for those of you listening live,

that is today's date. And good luck. I hope that you win, but, you know, I'll have a ticket, so I'm hoping that I win, actually. There was a moment when I thought I won a couple million this weekend. I was so good. It was such a, I was so happy. A guy from Texas that sat on the, I said on the Powerball page,

one winner from Texas, $2 million, won $2 million. And so I just took a second, and I took a deep breath. and I realized, okay, I just wanted to be happy with me. And then I knew, of course, as soon as I, you know, opened it up to find out that it was just some guy at a Tom Thumb grocery store near North Park Center that won $2 million or some girl, whoever, it wasn't me. So congratulations.

And again, good luck to everyone who is playing the Powerball tonight because, man, do I? I would be happy. I would be happy for you to win because I, man, I, you know, if I don't win, I want you to win. Be sure to follow me on my socials at Jeffrey JFR on X, Jeff Fisher Radio on Facebook and Instagram. You can email the show anytime chewing the fat at blazemedia.com,

Chewing the fat at BlazeMedia. com. You can also order a cameo from me at any time. Now, that's not free at Jeffey JFR on the Camio app, but it is worth every shiny nickel. So at Jeffey JFR on the Camio app. You can also listen to myself and Brad Staggs every Saturday on Saturday morning live. And we do that every Saturday live. You know, that's what we call it Saturday morning live. It's kind of a cute little thing that we do at 9 a.m. Central

on my ex account at Jeffie JFR. I think Brad puts it up on his ex account. You know, whatever it is. At real Brad Stags, I think. And he puts it up at a couple other places too. But really, most importantly, it is live on my ex account at Jeffey JFR.

Whatever Brad does, you know, every day over there at the daily The Dailymojo.com. That's what it is. The Dailymojo.com. You know, whatever. You can check that out if you want,

but, you know, he does the thing over there, too. But, you know, we do the Saturday morning live thing together. It's a lot of fun. So you should come along for the ride on that. You should also subscribe to Blaze TV. If you go to blazTV.com slash Jeffie, blazTV.com slash Jeffie, that gets you $20 off an annual subscription right now.

BlazTV, not Jeffie, BlazeTV slash Jeffey. BlazTV.com slash Jeffrey, that's what it is. Jeez, get it right. BlazTV.com slash Jeffrey. And that'll get you the $20 off, an annual subscription to Blaze TV, which you can watch me every day on Pat Gray on Leashed.

I'm on that program, 6 to 8 Central, Monday through Friday. I do a fat five every day on Pat Gray's program, which is I'm a part of, happy to do it every day. We have a lot of fun and we expound a lot of information on Pat Ray Unleashed. So you should subscribe to Blaze TV for that and so much more, all the other things that we offer on Blaze TV. And don't forget to review this podcast. If you have the opportunity, review this podcast. And I would guess really the best way to review it is 20 stars, best podcast ever.

There's other ways that you can review shows, but this show is 20 stars, best podcast ever. At IKEA, we make things just for college life, like the Rose and Mando blackout curtains in gray. They say you can't put a price on sleep, but we did for the low, low price of $49.99. Why are you in my room? Shh, go back to sleep. You have a big exam tomorrow. Shop back to school at IKEA. Did you see?

see the guy in New Jersey who survived and he said he wasn't in serious pain. Okay, if you say so, after a huge piece of a tree branch shot through his face and into his brain when he fell from a ladder in his yard. If there anything says don't climb a ladder and trim trees and bushes, this is it. Troy Hathaway came just inches from death while cutting branches in his backyard in Glassboro New Jersey, which is, you know, it's New Jersey, when the latter suddenly gave out under him and he fell about eight feet.

When he got up, he had no idea that a broken branch was sticking out of a massive hole in his jaw. I mean, you see the x-ray and it shows the branch went through his cheek into his nose and up into his brain. Initially, I said, I thought it my jaw. Yeah, no, you didn't. I hadn't lost consciousness. I wasn't nauseous. I felt fine,

other than being a little bit sore and my ego being a little bit bruised. But the footage from the operating table shared, shows the doctors carefully plucking this long, thick, leafy stick from his head. They determined they needed to they call in a specialist at the hospital. Yeah, you think? There was a pretty huge piece of tree that was stuck through the face and into his brain. We needed to move quickly on this, but we wanted to move smart, says neurosurgeon, Chris Farnel. Is it Farnel or Feral, whatever, neurosurgeons, that's how they, we wanted to move smart.

So Farrell's team, yeah, that's Feral. Feral's team decided to go through Hathaway's nose to remove the branch to avoid having to slug. open his skull, similar to the technique used sometimes to remove brain tumors. Yeah, let's go in through the nose and pull that thing out, shall we? It looks nasty. This was just rammed up into his face. Oh, man. And the branch, which fortunately did not puncture any vital tissues, and it was meticulously removed through Hathaway's cheek without any damage or bleeding in the grueling four-hour surgery. We walked out of the hospital with a few stitches, some bruising and a prescription for antibiotics. Wow. Now left, he's got a little scar on his cheek, and he's had no issues with his sight or any infections as he's recovered. How's the brain doing? Everything, he had to stick into your brain.

So did that affect anything? I guess not. No. He's become emotional because it's tough to think about how close it could have been to dead yeah no kidding could have died easily i had that stick gone in just a little bit farther and uh i mean we've all we've all cut ourselves and had it not hurt right away right i mean just uh you know i've cut my hand i've stuck screwdrivers in my hand and sliced my hand wide open with case cutters I still have scars from all of that.

But the screwdriver was my favorite because I was doing something in the garage. And that screwdriver went right in between my thumb and forefinger here in that skin that's right there. And it went all the way in and I thought, oh, I was just looking at it. I've got one hand on the handle of the screwdriver. And the screwdriver's in my hand and is stuck in my hand. And I'm like, that is going. to hurt. And then I pulled it out. And it hurt. And it hurt. But luckily nothing was really damaged because that's in the, you know, there's an area there, a little fatty area. Some people have

more than others. And, you know, it was good. It just healed right up. I put a little bandage on it. And then wrapped it up for, I don't know how long. I don't remember how long I walked around with the bandage wrapped on my hand. But that kind of hurt. I'm kind of hurt for a while. I mean, we've all had that, right, where you look at it. You've cut yourself, like I caught myself with a case cutter once. I got a big slice on my hand here. And I just remember, whish, whoosh, and I looked down, and my hand was split wide open from this case cutter,

and I was like, again, I said, out loud, that's going to hurt. And that's what I started hurting. So maybe it's all mental. Maybe if I had looked at that cut and said, you know, well, that's not going to hurt. I'm not going to let that hurt. it wouldn't hurt. I'm guessing that's not true, but you know, you could try it if you want.

You know, the next time that you get cut, and I'll try this too, okay, I'll try this too. The next time I get cut with anything that's going to really hurt, I'll try to think to myself, the first thought is that it's not going to hurt. That's not going to hurt. That's the first thought. See, that's the hard thing. You have to practice that because that's not going to be your first thought. Your first thought is, ah, it's going to hurt.

So you got to practice saying it's not going to hurt. So practice, okay? I'm just asking you to practice. If something bad happens to you, the first thought has got to be, it's not going to hurt. That's not going to hurt. And then we have to use that in life. So practice and then use it.

You let me know how that works out. Plus, I want to know the biggest competitors to Etsy. I should talk to my wife about this. because, and I never think of it when we're together. Etsy is laying off 12% of its staff, which that's about 220 people, as it faces increasing competition according to this. Okay, so what's the increasing competition to Etsy? eBay.

There's got to be some other sites, right, that you can knit stuff. You can knit stuff on Etsy. Well, if I understand, if I remember right, the last time I checked into Etsy for something, they take quite a bit of, they take a big cut out of what you sell on Etsy, right? So if you know the biggest competition to Etsy, email me chewing the fat at the blaze.com or chewing the fat at blazemedia.com. And let me know this Etsy thing, because if they're laying off employees, and facing increasing competition. Maybe they're just using the increasing competition as a ruse to lay off staff and they're moving everything to AI.

That would make sense. That would make sense. But that's not what the story says. Oh, now we're supposed to believe that Neanderthals were not brutish and culturally unsophisticated. Oh, no. We know that they made cave art and jewelry and complex stone tools and may have had language and cooked foods, and they were extremely physically strong, certainly stronger than the vast majority of humans living today. And yes, they were extinct just after our own species entered their territories. Yeah, that's right.

But in fact, they were, I guess, that doesn't mean that they were sluggish or cognitively inferior, cognitively inferior. to us humans. Okay, if you say so, there's a new study published in the Coordinary Science Reviews, which I love, we now challenge another long-held view about our distant cousins that they were pursuit hunters adapted to living in cold tundra environments. So they were sprinters. They were pursuit hunters. That means they chased them down. Researchers think Neanderthals used to live in a cold climate, and the remains have been found next to those of ice age mammals like mammoths and woolly rhinos, horses, and reindeer. Some have also argued that their physical characteristics, particularly short limbs, large nasal

cavity, and large torso were evolutionary adaptations to living in the gold. So we've, okay, so there you go. They were great. They were wonderful. and we love them all, and that's the way it goes. Well, you know, power versus endurance. Yeah, okay, all right, no problem. They were sprinters and they were smart, but they weren't smarter than humans, okay? So just be clear about that.

I don't care if they were sprinters, and, you know, that's fine. And now, you know, we find out that they were buried in the Ice Age with all these mammoths and other, you know, Neanderthal sites, but we don't really know. We don't really know. We're just kind of guessing. I mean, sure. I mean, the scientists probably have a pretty good idea.

And that's fine. But just know that they, you know, while they went extinct because of the Ice Age, they also went extinct because we're smarter as humans, okay? And that's what the deal is. I mean, they're saying, right, that the Neanderthals were probably as smart. We've heard the interbreeding between humans and Neanderthal, so some people have the Neanderthal gene in them. I mean, you know, they have, they've already talking about how humans now who have the Neanderthal derived gene variant of the growth hormone receptor may contribute to a higher muscle mass among some adult carriers. So, you know, if you have a little bit of Neanderthal in one of your relatives, you know, a few hundred thousand years ago, you still got a little bit of Neanderthal business in you.

And you can thank them if you're bigger and stronger. And that has paid off for you in your life. If it hasn't paid off for you, sorry about it. All right. Who died today? Who died today? Well, let's get started with Ben. Jones, Ben Jones. You know who Ben Jones is. Don't look at me like that. He played the scruffy mechanic, Cooter Davenport, in the all seven seasons of the Dukes of Hazard.

And he served two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. He passed away at the age of 84. According to this, he died from a massive heart attack. at home while preparing to watch a baseball game on TV with his wife, Alma. So very sad. You know, that stinks so bad, have a massive heart attack like that. I mean, those of us that have had heart events in the past know that it's not a fun time. And to be able to do nothing and, you know, drop over dead at, it's very sad no matter what age you are. but you have the wife there and you're just thinking you're going to have a relaxing day watching a little baseball. Not today.

You're dropping over dead. Ben Jones, rest in peace, dead at the age of 84. Then we have author Mark A. Nobles. Mark A. Nobles dead at the age of 66. Now, he's a Fort Worth author. And I really wasn't aware of Mark, but I get these Fort Worth updates. And he was working on a novel about the history of lynchings in Texas the last couple of years. And he had apparently he had a complicated relationship with his home state.

The writer was fascinated by Texas history, but often grappled with the state's appalling treatment of its residents by people who looked like him. He felt like Fort Worth and Texas in general could rise to be better than what some of its past had been. and this was how he was with people in general, too. He just saw the best in people, and after a while you saw yourself that way, too. He passed away, he had fighting cancer the last couple of years. I don't wish that on anyone.

His novel Picnic on the Square was just beginning published, California publisher, but he didn't, that was his latest work. He didn't live to see it through. Very sad. He had just,

he's bad, cancer and he had left a wife and kids behind. But I was reading about Mark and some of his published work is Fort Worth's rock and roll roots, which I would actually like to read. And then he did some horror genre stuff, chalk mountain and stories of a different dark. So the one thing that he had always done is make sure that his love of his hometown Fort Worth and the Lone Star State, Texas, was in his works, period. He was passionate about Texas history and Fort Worth history.

And he was kind of like that's what he thought of people. He always thought people were the best. And that was the way that he was. So rest in peace to author Mark A. Nobles dead at the age of 66. All right, let's get out of here. I'll leave you with the joke of the day from the King of the Dead joke calendar, 2026. Today, as I said, is the 10th of August. So let's go right to the 10th of August.

The actual date that it is will do that particular joke. Let's see if it's worth anything. This is in the calendar. Does anybody know where a guy can find a person to hang out with, talk to, and enjoy spending time with? I'm just asking for a friend. So I'm not quite sure if he's looking for a girlfriend or a boyfriend or a wife or just an actual friend. I don't know.

Go to a bar. So yesterday was my wife and I have decided not to have kids. The kids are taking it pretty badly. Yeah, and that happens to a lot of parents. The thing is, is that they don't leave. They can take it real bad at the time and think, oh, no, our parents don't want us, and then they just don't leave. So there's that. I mean, how does a parent get rid of their children?

Asking for a friend.