Chewing the Fat with Jeff Fisher - What is Going On?... | 12/15/25

Episode Date: December 15, 2025

Economic Indicators…  Time magazine person of the year…  Heisman ceremony / Mendoza wins / Deigo unhappy and parties / Mendoza does charity….  Email: [e-mail]   www.blazetv.com/jeffy   $20 off annual plan right now ( limited time )   Top weekend movies…  A look at lotto…  Coppola wants new tradition…  Oprah sells some property…  Fire was used earlier than thought?...  Who Died Today: Sydney terror attack at least 15 died 40 injured…  Brown University mass shooting 2 died 9 injured…Rob and Michele Reiner 78 and 68…  Jubilant Sykes 71 / Peter Greene 60…Joke of The Day… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Blaze Radio Network And now, Chewing the Fat with Jeff Fisher. There are plenty of ways that you can judge the way the economy is going. One of them is my way, the Jeff Fisher economic indicator of the more cars you start to see broken down along the interstate means the economy is doing, well, less good. Not poorly. No, no, just less good. Because people are not spending money on upkeep.

They're just waiting until they have to have their automobile fixed. And then there's this way, which just started from this buyer's edge, which apparently is a company that helps eateries source ingredients. Okay, all right, sure. They believe that we are now in the appetite. It's an appetizer economy, which to budget conscious eaters, therefore going pricey entrees and dessert and opting instead for finger foods that often come with promotions and drink specials.

I will say that that is true. My son works for a company. Let's use a company that you don't know about Buffalo Wild Wings. And more and more people are buying the appetizers and they have all kinds of deals and they get really busy when they have their deals and there's no question we are in an appetizer economy. And so the great appetizer awakening apparently is becoming a thing because Americans feel the bite of inflation when eating out.

Yeah, hello. The price of a meal at full service restaurant was up 4.2% in September compared to a year before. So I know that everyone wants to fit it into the K-shaped economy, which is what we've talked about before. That's where wealthier people continue to spend while lower-income consumers tighten their belts. Oh, okay.

For instance, the New York Times recently reported that online pizza orders have declined. While Papa John's customers are opting for smaller pies and fewer toppings. Interesting. Maybe they should, this is the lower the prices. The last time I ordered pizza to the house, it's not the usual, hey, let's get a couple.

couple of pizzas for 20 bucks and a two-liter soda. No, not any longer. It takes a pretty penny. I do love, though, that according to Washington Post, I don't know, analyzation from Adobe Analytics, this data, they were comparing purchases made on Cyber Monday to the category's average sales level for the month. month of October, and it found vacuum cleaners were up 1,300 percent. Small kitchen appliances were up 1,250 percent. So that is good. People are, you know, maybe women are buying their own vacuum cleaners or small kitchen appliances, you know, to, you know, upgrade their work around the house. Or perhaps husbands are saying, hey, it's Christmas time.

rings are tight and yeah sure i'd like to get you that diamond ring but here's a new vacuum cleaner i'm sure it's not that i'm sure it's not that at all welcome welcome to chewing the fat fat five plus So I see where Time magazine selected the Architects of AI for its 2025 honorary of a person of the year. So it's not just a single person. Weird. When you have a word of the year, it's a phrase or a saying, and now a person of the year is not a single person.

Don't people know what things mean? I guess not. But they selected the architects of AI. And they spotlighted on the cover. You know, they have a perked on a steel beam recreating the, you know, the lunch atop a skyscraper photo from, I think, 1932. That includes Mark Zuckerberg, AMD's Lisa Sue, XAIs, Elon Musk, OpenAI's Sam Altman, Nvidia's CEO, Jensen Hung at the center, whose chips power many of today's AI models. yeah so uh and i realize ai uh is you know first very in our faces uh for sure but it is interesting

to me that time magazine time magazine 102 year old magazine has chosen uh groups of people uh even you know non-human concepts before i get it and it's you know it's a cute little thing and they're trying to sell whatever they're trying to sell but it does surprise me that the man of the year or the person of the year, that Time magazine didn't have the guts to give it to Charlie Kirk. And it just, it's unbelievable to me that these people, it's incredible. I mean, who is the man of the year, the person of the year? It's Charlie Kirk, period. I get AI and all these architects are it. And maybe you say they're second place. Or, you give them another magazine headline of, you know, the it's of the year,

but the AIs of the year, whatever you want to call it, but the person of the year, Charlie Kirk, period. Not for Time Magazine, though. You know, speaking of people getting awards, and I don't know that Time Magazine's person of the year is an award, but I know we had the Heisman Trophy Award this past weekend, and they had, you know, Four of the finalists were Jeremiah Love from Notre Dame, Fernando Mendoza from Indiana, Diego Pavia from Vanderbilt, and Julian Sang from Ohio State. And saying, sorry, he's not saying, it's saying. And so congratulations to Fernando Mendoza, who won the Heisman Trophy.

He was, of course, the favorite, and he won. Congratulations to him. Now, the difference is, as I was watching the announcement, You could tell that Diego Pavia was so pissed that he didn't win. You know, it was just, you could just tell. You could sense it from when the camera was on him. It just had that look of being so pissed. Now, Julian Love and, I mean, Julian Sand and Jeremiah Love both were like,

oh, I mean, they were, you know, they were clapping. Of course they're disappointed. Of course you're disappointed. You didn't win. And you have to be happy for this guy, you know, that has won. and you wanted to win it, of course. But you could just tell that Diego Pavia was so pissed. Well, then we get reports that he went out partying.

And I don't know if it's true or not. I just know that I saw the reports of him out partying in New York after the event. And apparently he bought a sign that was an electronic sign that says F. Indiana on it. And he's out partying. And I mean, it's not a good look, Diego. You can do what you want. I got you. No problem.

you know, you do what you want. You be you, boo, Diego, Pavia, Pov, and you be you, Pov. But, you know, it doesn't look that great. You have to remember that you're representing not only yourself, but college football. But, you know, whatever, right, F, Indiana, and you're out partying and dancing the night that you lost because this is just an example of him being pissed that he didn't win the high. Heisman well then i see there's a there's another post that shows them all standing up on stage for the heisman trophy uh presentation and it talks they're all standing up and Diego looks

really short um but they have a they have it listed and it says uh jeremiah loves six foot um Fernando Mendoza 6 5 Diego pavia six foot uh julian sand 6 1 now i will say that uh someone is lying about their height. I don't know. Maybe it's the three other guys that are lying about their height, but someone is lying about their height because Diego looks really short here. He had a great year. He's a great athlete.

He was fun to watch, even though it kills me to say that about a Vanderbilt player and or team. And the coach handled not going to the playoffs great. I mean, it was a great season for them. And he helped put Vanderbilt on the football. map no question but uh just not a good look and it's just really funny that he looks really really short in here well then i think my favorite post of the night after that was that deigo pavia uh getting arrested breaking Diego pavia arrested last night in new york after

heisman ceremony now they show it's an old video and i don't even know where it's from but it's an old video of police arresting. And they've got this midget handcuffed and they're walking him back to the police car. Now that, I don't care who we are. That's funny. And Diego, that's what you get, bro. That's what you get.

And then on top of that, I see where Fernando Mendoza, you know, the guy that won the Heisman, he, the next morning, had families impacted by MS, which his mother has. He took them on a shopping spree, four families at an Adidas store in New York. He bought them, you know, I don't know how much money they had or what the deal was, but he let the four families impacted by MS have a shopping spree at the Adidas store in New York. So you tell me what the difference is. Huh?

I know. I know. me on my socials at jeffy jfr on x jeffisher radio on facebook and instagram you can follow me on my youtube page chewing the fat with jeff fisher you can email the show any time chewing the fat at the blaze dot com chewing the fat at the blaze dot com you can order a cameo from me at any time that of course it's not free uh but it's worth every shiny nickel at jeffy jfr on the cameo app you can do all of that And you can use that email address, chewing the fat at the blaze.com. You can send in your jokes of the day,

your comments, whatever you need to do. I do see them all. I may not respond to them all, but I do see them all. So you can make that happen. One of the things that helps keep this show free is a subscription to Blaze TV because I am on the Pat Gray-onleash program

Monday through Friday, 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. Central time. And you can watch that on Blaze TV and listen on Blaze Radio, but if you want to watch it and be a part of Blaze TV, you could subscribe by going to BlazeTV.com slash Jeffie, J-E-F-F-F-Y, BlazTV.com slash Jeffie, and that will get you $20 off an annual subscription

as we speak right now. I know, I can't promise how long it's going to last, but you're not going to want to get over there, ASAP, blazTV.com slash Jeffie, get you $20 off an annual subscription. what is happening at the theaters holy cow i mean nobody is going they were really down they were down 20% uh from the same time frame last year i mean they totaled like 75 million for all the movies this weekend uh wow zootopia two still number one with 26 five nights at freddies 19

Wicked for Good 8.6. Wicked for Good is Week 4 and they are at 468 million global 312 million domestic which on a $165 million budget so they've made their money

and they've got to be happy with that and then the week five of Now You See Me, Now You Don't wow, that was a $90 million budget. They made just $2.38 million this weekend. This is again their fifth week so they've made 59.3 million domestically and they haven't even made the budget back domestically and 208 million global so they've actually made money globally just the

united states doesn't seem to like now you see me now you don't maybe they will when it goes to streaming we'll see next week is uh supposed to be the big week though next weekend avatar fire and ash hits the theaters so Yeah. Yeah. Right? Not really, but it'll hit the theaters and it should revive the theaters at least for a little while. That's what they're hoping. I can tell you what I'm hoping for. And that is to, you know, maybe hit the lotto. I know. I know. I've talked about it before. But I really am looking forward to, you know, possibly winning the lotto. So there was no winner Saturday night. If you're listening Today is the 15th of December, 2025. And so Saturday night, the 13th of December, there was no winner of the Powerball drawing. So it rolls onward and upward, baby.

And that means the jackpot tonight is $1.10 billion. So you get a $503.4 million cash payout. That'd be pretty sweet. uh that'd be pretty sweet now if you think of yourself there's no way i could win that i mean this is uh what the seventh largest sixth highest powerball in history okay so it's the sixth largest powerball in history and um remember the last power ball jackpot went to missouri and georgia i think split the missouri and texas split the jacks split the jacks split the jackpot of the Powerball billion, $1.8 billion jackpot.

That's right. Holy cow. Congratulations to the people in Missouri and Texas. That wasn't me. That won on the Powerball. And then the Mega Millions is that tomorrow night. I barely want to mention it, but it's worth $80 million of the jackpot. 36.2 cash payout.

What happened? I continue to ask. I've got to get somebody on. to talk to me about the lotto. I thought the mega millions with the new plan. I mean, it's five bucks a ticket for mega millions. And I thought that was supposed to, they were supposed to make it possible for more winners

and bigger jackpots. That doesn't seem to be working. Because I have not seen, I mean, 80, you've taken forever. It's both 60, then 70, then 80, it's making small jumps. And at the same time, we're getting these massive jumps from the Powerball. all so what's happening you're not going to answer me right now all right well i'll just wait then and if i win i won't be worried about it see you know i mentioned this on saturday morning live

francis ford coppola uh wants to launch a new annual tradition and of course he does because he's trying to make his money back from his uh megalopolis movie a megaflopolis really is what it was uh and he spent uh i don't know he spent a lot of money trying to to make that movie got it in theaters 120 million self-financed to make that movie and it's only earned him 14 million dollars back wow what an epic bummer that is uh someone would call it a failure but i'm not calling it a failure i'm just saying francis ford copla uh that's a bummer i mean he spent 120 million and then now it's only earned 14 million he has been hawking some of his watches which we've talked about. He's been trying to sell some of his stuff so that he has money to

live. I don't blame him. But now he wants to launch a new annual tradition. And he wants to, apparently Megalopoulos, as we turn into theaters every New Year's Day, starting January 1, 2026, at select Alamo draft house locations to serve as what he calls a fulcrum of discussion about the betterment of society and humanity forget the gym start your year contemplating rome's collapse in a dine-in theater yeah yeah so just because i haven't made any money from this movie at all well 14 million but i spent 120 million i want to start a new annual tradition that brings back megalopolis every new year's day and we can show it at lmo draft house and we can have a fulcrum of discussion about the betterment of society and humanity.

Who doesn't want that, Francis? You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Yeah, you do. I don't know if she's trying to help Francis out, but I see where Oprah sold some of her property there at the Montecito promised land estate. She's sold four acres for $17.2 million. Oh, okay.

Now, she's been assembling this property for quite some time. And this was a property that was the more recent acquisition. She bought the Spanish Revival Style Ranch from actor Jeff Bridges in 2019 for $6.85 million. So she sold it six years later for $17.2 million. That's a good turnaround. And I don't know if it was to help Francis Ford Coppola. out or not. And it goes into what the, you know, the floor is, the single level main house was constructed in 1919, remodeled in 2016, you know, all wood kitchen, new bathrooms, spanning

about 3,500 square feet. It hosts two bedrooms, four bathrooms, formal dining room. Yeah, you know, it's the usual stuff for the hoity toys. And so, but she, you know, hawked it, really weird. And I'm not real sure why. So that's, You know, that's a change to the outline of her estate, but she's still, I mean, having to deal with others. She has 60 acres in Montecito in the promised land estate. So I don't know what she's, you need some cash for something, and I don't know what it is. It may be to help out Francis Ford Coppola. I don't know.

And I think she still has property in Colorado and Hawaii. Okay. Good for her. I mean, I got nothing to get Oprah having all those properties. It's just interesting to me that she's offloading four acres of the promised land estate for $17 million. What's she got going on? What's going on over there, oh? So apparently humans mastered the U.

of creating fire 400,000 years ago, almost 350,000 years earlier than previously known, according to a groundbreaking discovery in a field in Suffolk. Okay, so it's known that humans used natural fire more than one million years ago, but until now, the earliest unambiguous example of humans lighting fires came from a site in northern France dating from like 50,000 years ago. The last evidence, the latest evidence, shows this patch of scorched earth and fire-cracked hand axes, making a compelling case that humans were creating fire far earlier at a time when, you know, the brain sizes were approaching the modern human range and some species

were expanding into harsher northern climates. You know, our brains got, you know, bigger, and then we just like, we could go there. it's cold we could live there bring her along we'll bring we have fire let me see the documentary quest for fire anyway the implications according to dr rob davis a paleolithic archaeologist at the british museum which co-led the investigation are enormous that's right uh the people who have made uh the fire at the site in the village of barnum suffolk are unlikely to have been our own ancestors oh as homo sapiens did not have a sustained presence outside of Africa until about 100,000 years ago. Unless we didn't know about it there, Rob.

But they, uh, so instead the inhabitants were probably early in the Neanderthals based on the fossils of around the same age in Swanscom, Kent. And, uh, at the, but you can say Spain, nailed it. A-T-A-P-U-E-R-C-A. Apparently my girl's off today. So out of your Spain, which preserve early Neanderthal DNA. Okay. So apparently early Neanderthals were making fire in Britain about 400,000 years ago.

That's pretty cool. Of course, our species was evolving. Yeah, we knew that. And I love this. This is from the professor Chris Stringer of the National History Museum. And part of the team behind the findings. Of course our species was evolving in Africa While these people were living in Britain and Europe

We guessed that our species too would have had this knowledge But we don't actually have the evidence of that But maybe we'll find it It's just amazing how science evolves Isn't it? Okay, who died today? Who died today? I don't even know where to begin

We've got the three Americans, two U.S. soldiers and one civilian interpreter in Syria that were killed by an ISIS shooter, rest in peace to them. President Trump has said that there will be retaliation. So has beat heads up. So, you know, we have that to talk about. There's rest and peace to all the people who died and were injured. uh in sydney australia on bonday beach uh there was a terror attack killed at least 15 two shooters there uh continued to shoot for quite a long time it seemed like forever it was actually about 10 and 15 minutes but it seemed like a long long time so there were a number i mean dozens of

victims at least uh 40 people remained hospitalized and for right now we i believe 15 people are dead and it was a Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach, so rest and peace to all those who were injured and Godspeed on recovery to those injured. And then we had the mass shooting at Brown University, two dead, nine injured. On Saturday afternoon, gunman opened fire during a final exam of a principles of economics class.

I'm not sure why. We don't know why. In fact, we do not even have that person in custody. We have, they've released a video showing a guy turning a corner with this back to us. If you know this person, I'm sure, we've talked about it before. Look, if you know this guy, you know this guy or girl. If you know this person, you know this person.

No question about it. But it's just, it looks like, you know, an average, nondescript human wearing, you know, dark hoodie and dark pants. So, you know, it's incredible. The rest of peace to those victims. and, you know, speedy recovery, Godspeed to all those injured at Brown University. Then we have Carl Reiner and his wife, Michelle,

killed in an apparent homicide. Wow. He, Carl, 78 years old, and his wife, 68 years old, was found unresponsive. Law enforcement official brief, the investigation, told the AP on condition of anonymity that the deceased were the homeowners and occupants,

the actor, director, Rob Reiner, and his wife, Michelle Singer-Riner. The source also told the outlet that the victims appeared to suffer stab wounds and that a family member was being questioned by investigators. Okay. So Los Angeles authorities have not, well, I think they have publicly announced that it was Carl Reiner and his wife by now. But according to this story, they have not announced that yet. And everyone believes that it was their son. just a really sad story

and I don't know I don't know what to make of that Rob was you know he was a nightmare from time to time I did see a clip of him with Pierce Morgan after the death of Charlie Kirk

with words that were incredible coming from him not words of hatred at all but words of condolences and words of the tragedy it was just really really really something from Rob. And so we've known him to be kind of a douchey guy toward the right. But he made some

incredible movies. And, you know, there's no doubt about it. I mean, he was Hollywood royalty, right? I mean, his dad was in Hollywood forever. He was in Hollywood forever. So I don't know. It's going to be a weird story about the son. I'm not sure. Maybe the son could never live up to the family name. I don't know. I don't know if the son was adopted. Honestly, I don't know. But, you You know, rest in peace to Rob Reiner and his wife, Michelle, dead at the age of 78 and 68. And then last week, we have Jubilant Sykes, dead at the age of 71. He's a Grammy-nominated singer, known for his work in gospel and opera.

He was found dead in his home in Santa Monica, and he was stabbed to death from his son. Wow. Holy cow, his 31-year-old son was taken into custody. I know that, you know, Jubilence, remarkable artistry touched millions, but there's just, like, within a week, we've had two known people,

Jubilant Sykes, and of course, you know, Rob Reiner and his. his wife were a little bit more famous than Jubilant Sykes, no question. But still, this happened in Santa Monica. Rob and his wife were killed in Brentwood, not that far away, California. And now they both were stabbed to death from their children. Okay. Anyway, rest in peace, do Juulin Sykes dead at the age of 71. Then we have Peter Green, Peter Green, the actor, dead at the age of 60. He was found inside his NYC apartment

and he had been struggling forever. I'm not sure if he took his own life, if it was an overdose, but he was pronounced dead at the scene according to police in his Clinton Street apartment in New York. And Peter is one of those actors. He's a little bit better than, oh yeah, that guy,

but he is one of those, oh yeah, that guys. He was in the mask and Pulp. he was a villain for many of his roles on TV and when you see him you'll say oh yeah that guy so Peter Green dead at the age of 60 rest in peace all right let's let's get out of here let's do get you out here with the joke of the day another Dennis joke I am a I'm a fan of Dennis jokes because I'm not a fan of dentists at all. Whether going to them, I think

dentists are criminals. If you're a dentist listening to the show, you know what you are. You do. You know what you are. So this is just another dentist joke. I did one Saturday morning live. I did the dentist joke

about the guy that could take the gas or the shot. And so the doctor ended up giving him a Viagra. And he said, oh, what do you give me a vagra? I didn't know it was a painkiller. It's not, but at least you'll have something to hold on to it when I drill into your mouth. So this deal comes in from John to chewing the fat at the blaze.com.

Dentist says to the lady, I'm going to have to pull that tooth out. And the lady says, oh, I'd rather have a baby. baby. And the dentist says, make up your mind. I got to adjust the chair. See, because no, no, no, you got it. Yeah, you got it. Stream and subscribe to more Blaze Media content at the blaze.com slash podcasts.