Digital Social Hour - Dealing with Cancel Culture & Haters, Podcasting & New York Sports I KFC Barstool DSH #357

Episode Date: March 17, 2024

KFC comes on the Digital Social Hour to discuss the latest going on at Barstool Sports. APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://forms.gle/qXvENTeurx7Xn8Ci9 BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail] SPONSORS: Opus Pro: https://www.opus.pro/?via=DSH Deposyt Payment Processing: https://www.deposyt.com/seankelly LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

So speaking of Drake, actually, did you see Bobby Altoff got divorced? I don't want to, you know, start a rumor. No, no, no, not that. I just I don't want to like kick anybody when they're down. I went through a very public divorce myself and it it absolutely sucked. But I will say I hate to say it, but like saw that coming about a million miles away, man. A million miles away. Wherever you guys are watching this show,

I would truly appreciate it if you follow or subscribe. It helps a lot with the algorithm. It helps us get bigger and better guests and it helps us grow the team. Truly means a lot. Thank you guys for supporting. And here's the episode. All right. Finally got him in Vegas, guys. Took a year. Took a year, dude. I was just talking to the guy in the lobby. I said, you know, you reached out a year ago. And I was like, when we come to Super Bowl, I'll be out in Vegas. And I was like, he's going to forget. It won't materialize, but I'm happy you did, man.

No, I'm like that, man. I'm on top of it. I appreciate that. I'm very happy to do it. I actually don't do many appearances. I'm so used to having other people on my show that it's kind of nice to be on the other side of things. I noticed that, man. I actually did notice that. I'm very happy to do it. I actually don't do many appearances. I'm so used to having other people on my show that it's kind of nice to be on the other side of things. I noticed that, man. I actually did notice that. I want to start off with sports, man. That's what you're known for. So you're a Jets, Mets, and Knicks fan. Yes, sir.

Which team do you see winning first championship? this trade for OG, which had to be one of the best trades I think I've ever seen. I know a lot of Knicks fans were so had their hearts set on R.J. Barrett and IQ being like homegrown guys. But, I mean, the instant change on that team now. He goes down with an elbow injury. I think the Knicks almost, I'm almost I don't want to say this, but I'm almost like a little happy. Like, I don't want to, this happened

with the Mets too. When you get too good too quickly and you get too good too quickly and you think you're a contender but you're not really yet. In the Mets in 2006 they went from 85 wins to 97 in a year. We went from maybe making the playoffs to

we need to win the World Series. I think we needed to have a little more of a smooth ascent. I think with the Knicks right now as well, they have been smooth and all of a sudden people this year like can we win this year and i'm like it's a it's a long road to get to you know to beat the nuggets to beat the box to beat the top-notch dogs yeah so i'm almost like uh you know don't don't trade away anything don't go for broke in the short term like Trust the process. It's working. Leon Rose has turned everything around. Just keep moving.

I'd have to say it's them. The Mets would have been my answer a couple years ago, but they took a step back. I still think Steve Collin will, when the time is right, just drop the wallet on the table. I think he's biding his time, waiting for the right time. The Dodgers right now are just dominating everything. So I feel like

and I guess you could say, I guess right now for the first time, it's not all that bad being a Mets, Jets, and Knicks fan. It's because you got Aaron Rodgers coming back, hopefully. So at least there's a little bit of hope, but in my experience I'm 38 now uh so you

know let's say about 30 30 something years of a cognizant sports fan yeah anytime i've gotten hope is when i just get crushed 30 so i try to yeah it's getting up there man like when you can when you can start like you know you start watching and really understanding sports around 8, 9, 10 years old. So three decades of getting my hopes up or this is the year. And I always say for guys like me, what are you a fan of? I was a Giants fan when I lived in Jersey and Yankees. So yeah, for me, I always think we have it maybe the worst in all of sports because we have bad teams and in our own city we have the yankees and the giants and you know right now those teams are not shining but i got

my whole right you got two and they're they're the two best super bowls of all time yeah you know beating the patriots and the yankees had their dynasty when i was growing up i was born in the bronx so i was a mets fan in the Bronx behind enemy lines, like my whole life. So people don't realize that like when you're a fan of the little brother teams in New York, you're not even welcome in like your own city, you know? So like, I know that Detroit, the Lions have it bad. I know that the Minnesota fans have it bad, but you're not, when you guys lose, you all lose as a city you're all together

all the time when i lose i get dunked on by 75 of the population you know so we're the minority in the city we're the losers in the city it's just that's wow so you haven't witnessed a single chip it was 80 in 86 i was one was the when the mets won it so like i what i get worried about is that like does that count if there's sports gods up there, are they saying, well, technically he got a championship in his lifetime? Because I worry, man. The fact you toughed it out this long means you're a true fan. It is getting hard.

Yeah, it's, it's, I am slowly as I get older and as they keep losing. Shout out to Rocket Money. Have you guys ever had a subscription you forgot about or double paid on a subscription? Look no further than Rocket Money. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that you can use to track and cancel unwanted subscriptions and monitor your spending. It also helps lower your bills so that you can grow your savings. With Rocket Money, you have full control over your subscriptions and a clear view of your

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I've saved over $500 million in canceled subscriptions, and they save their members up to $740 a year on average when you use the app. Stop wasting money on things you don't use. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions by going to rocketmoney.com slash DSH. That's rocketmoney.com slash DSH. A little bit of me died in time we're like especially this this is the 20 the 2022 mets i put my heart and soul into that team i was on the podcast twice a week we were doing i watched every game we're doing live streams i'm i'm following that team

every single pitch and i was like this is our year it's gonna happen something special's in the air and then it all fell apart and i was like i had to check myself i was like, this is our year. It's going to happen. Something special is in the air. And then it all fell apart. And I was like, I had to check myself. I was like, it affected me so bad emotionally, emotionally. I was like, I will never let that happen again. I will never let, I'm a grown man letting my own like emotions and feelings and mental wellbeing be this affected by a bunch of random guys. I don't know, playing on a field. I was like, I can't do this ever again. So, well, that's your life though, man. I guess so.

The only thing I'll say that's good is most of the, my brethren back home who are all rooting for those guys when they lose, it's just horrible for me. At least it's, it's content. I can turn it into something good. You can monetize it. Yeah.

So at least there's a, you know, silver lining there. So I got that. Yeah. you've been at barstool for what now 20 years not 20 i got oh nine so we're pushing like 15 years did you see this growth oh hell no hell no man i came out of college i went to fordham got my mba all my friends were doing like you know finance route uh and i got a uh a job as an accountant at a school and i was just gonna go

like the finance route and kind of you know not that i i took some business classes but like i had no idea what i'm talking about when it comes to making money or markets or anything but um so i was miserable at it i was a terrible accountant uh always on the verge of getting let go and so i started my own blog for fun i had been reading barstool as like you always on the verge of getting let go and so i started my own blog for fun i had been reading barstool as like you know on the side at work like when i'm goofing off and right around when i started to really read it was when dave portnoy was like i'm looking to hire new writers in new cities because we basically conquered boston at this point yeah and he was like the first city i want to go to is new york that's our second biggest readership and so that

just happened to line up with me starting my own blog. And that, I mean, it was tiny. It was just friends of friends of friends reading it. So like maybe a thousand people were reading it. But somebody, a bunch of my friends sent it to him being like, you should check this guy out. He liked it. And it actually was great because I wasn't sure about leaving my job because it was good pay, good benefits, all that. But it came down to me and one other guy, K. Marco, Keith Markovich.

You still remember his name. Oh, yeah. No. I mean, so we were partners for a while because he was like, I like both of you, but I can't decide. How about you split the money, you split the workload, and you guys can keep your old jobs. Which was perfect for me because i could i was

already blogging on the side so i just blogged for barstool now i was getting double income uh and so for two years i was an accountant and a blogger and nobody at my accounting job knew that i was blogging and none of the readers in the bars in the barstool world knew that i had an accounting job so i kind of had a double life yeah it was a it's like a you know uh was it that man bruce wayne type thing what's that was under a different i i uh i just that i go by my initials on on uh which is not exactly the most uh you know the the best secret name but i just didn't want it to be like kevin clancy because you know what i got caught up on that so i i said just go by kfc and

uh and the rest is history. But it's cool to see you adapt. Cause obviously blogging is kind of dead now, but you were able to pivot into like podcasting. And yeah, I still believe that my strongest suit is blogging. I really believe probably like 2000, like 12, 13, like 11 to 13. I feel like I was, that was your peak.

Oh man. I was, I was MVP of the league I was blogging I was just seeing the matrix but yeah I knew I put all my eggs into the podcasting basket we started

the podcast in 2012 wow that's early man Rogan Kevin Smith Combat Combat Jack. There's a few guys. Bill Simmons were ahead of me as far as big names. But I'm up there. I'm up there as far as the early adopters for sure. And I didn't even – it's the worst podcast name in the world, KFC Radio. It's so bad. I just – I never thought i i never thought again like yes did i see this

happening to answer your original question no i was just kind of like around my my whole thing was i just want to get out of the cube life yeah so once barstool was solid enough for that dave gave me you know it's probably 50 50 grand i was like i'm good i don't know everything else after that is icing on the cake because i just don't want to go back to that miserable corporate life and then the podcast i was doing it with my brother who's my producer so it's kind of I'm good. I don't know. Everything else after that is icing on the cake because I just don't want to go back to that miserable corporate life. And then the podcast, I was doing it with my brother, who was my producer. So it was kind of fun as much as it was work.

And I was like, I don't know what to call it. I don't know. You know, KFC radio. At that time, I listened to WFAN radio in New York. So I'm like, I got the letters. I'll just call it radio. And now it confuses everybody. They think it's about chicken.

They don't know if it's a podcast. Is it radio? Is it a podcast? It's the worst name, but I'm in too deep now. You probably get asked if you eat KFC every day. All the time. Finally, just this year, right now in Vegas for the Super Bowl, was the first time KFC finally sponsored us.

No way. For years I was like, come on, guys. It's right there. And I think they were a little cautious of us. They're so corporate, right? Yeah, we get a little wild on the podcast and they finally like eased in and bought, uh, bought into us for a couple episodes as presenting sponsors.

So that was a bucket list item. Checked out a huge bucket list. Yeah. KFC on KFC, man. I mean, you made the right choice, man.

These podcasts are getting acquired for eight, nine figures. Now it's nuts. It's crazy. Watching, watching the gold rush, you know? Um, are you interested in coming on the digital social hour podcast as a guest? You know, it's crazy watching the gold rush, you know.

Are you interested in coming on the Digital Social Hour podcast as a guest? Well, click the application link below in the description of this video. We are always looking for cool stories, cool entrepreneurs to talk to about business and life. Click the application link below and here's the episode, guys. Because, you know, we've been around for a while

and I like to think that we paved the way for a lot of the barstool podcasts and then sure you did you know guys like pardon my take and spitting chiclets and foreplay and call our daddy chicks in the office all these other shows we have just skyrocketed and we you know we're in the comedy realm which is a lot of competition and a little bit more of you know our niche um but watching those guys just erupt into you know megastars and seeing some of the numbers being thrown around in the podcast game are insane robin just re-signed for 250 dude i thought what is what is that about do you i mean i don't get 250 and your audio and video can go on apple and youtube like i don't get it. What are they getting other than just their name is still somewhat attached to him?

Yeah, I don't understand it. There's got to be something going on there, no? The fact that they let Alex Cooper just completely walk and threw 250 at Rogan for non-exclusive is like, maybe it really just speaks to the power of Rogan, where it's like, I know he's the top dog, but maybe he really is just the top dog. was interesting because cooper's number one still right yeah i think i mean in terms of viewers she's interesting in in that a lot of her value to i shouldn't speak

for her because i don't know her business anymore but when she was at barstool her merch was like crazy and while i'm sure she was making a lot off of ad reads and and partnerships merch and and live shows now that she's doing a lot off of ad reads and and partnerships merch and live shows now that she's doing so it's not necessarily just the the actual video product um but i i think it was actually an interesting play by spotify you know rogan was 2020 cooper was 21 i think they just made their they went all in to get that market share yeah and it worked right it became i think number one in streaming And then I think they were kind of like, the job is done,

so go do your thing, Alex. But to be like, but we're sticking with Rogan. And he, I mean, imagine that. You go to the table and you're just like, yeah, 250,

but I can still post it everywhere. And they say, okay. It's crazy. But Cooper won too. She still made 60 mil and she gets to walk away now. To have all your rights back, if she does YouTube right, she'll be...

I think Spotify did retain the video on that. Oh, they did. The day that she can be fully independent and she negotiated the IP from Barstool like a f***ing gangster. The day that she can just be on YouTube, if they do that correctly,

she's going to take over the world anyway. Even more so you know yeah i know your drake post went viral what did you think of i mean that whole incident i mean listen do you think it was a net positive for him see yeah that's the thing it's easy to say that as a couple guys sitting here did not have a video of them masturbating it's you know i don't think it's the worst thing in the world when you are a single guy and the world finds out that you got an absolute hammer but i'm sure you know you could be blessed with with an absolute wrench and still not want the world to see you in that position so uh it's probably like a business wise and like internet wise net positive but i'm sure if he had his way he'd rather that not be out there yeah he

seemed pretty upset he's doing that curl guy yeah you just told me that i i mean that to me is the lowest of the low when you leak a leaking leaking sex tapes sex even even just texts uh anything really meant to be private right when you unless you've done something illegal or truly heinous where you know you need to be exposed if you're in a relationship or you know whatever it may be and you're doing something that's supposed to be private yeah anybody leaking that whether it's you know the person you were with or a third party it's just to me it's the lowest of the low yeah It's happened to a lot of slubs. Happened to Dave a few times. Yeah.

Yeah. Federal crime. It's a federal crime. Oh, it is to leak it? Yeah. Well, that's,

that was Dave's Dave. Anytime he kind of had some fun with it. Dave, Dave's a good example. Like that video, he always said, I didn't look too bad in it. So it's not the worst thing for me.

Yeah. You know, it depends on if you, you got a family, you got kids, it can be very different for a lot of different people, but was like i don't know don't bother me yeah it didn't affect sponsors or anything uh you know i shouldn't say that uh i i don't know exactly the ins and outs i don't think sponsors really bail because i think that can almost be a bad look for them where it's

like i'm the victim here and now you're gonna right you know unless it's if i think if you get leaked doing something against something illegal or bad but technically that's just a private moment that he was having um so i don't think he lost sponsorships dave is as a lightning rod i think there are sponsors who just in general stay away because polarizing they might or yeah you know maybe there is another sex tape that pops up and we don't want to deal with that or maybe you do say something crazy and we're all we all have a little bit of that at barstool i mean dave is kind of the the you know the top dog of it i would say i kind of i'm second in line when it comes to maybe being a little bit uh yeah you and big cat are definitely outspoken too yeah yeah dan's pretty smart about it dan dan picks

and chooses his spots you put me in front of a microphone and i just get going i just can't help myself i don't know if it's the new yorker in me or if i just don't i don't know i don't care i just yeah there's i reached a point it was like probably like three or four times that there was a legitimate attempt to you know quote unquote cancel me or whatever and once i made it through those i was kind of like all right i got an i have a loyal enough fan base that like they're sticking with me. Yeah. I don't want to say like I'm bulletproof cause nobody is, but as long as I don't do anything terribly stupid,

I feel like anybody who comes at me for a joke or a segment on the podcast or something that I went over the line, it might be a couple of weeks of bad headlines and you know, people bother me on social media, but my core audience yeah at this point when you're in it for 15 years people know whether you're a true yeah who's a bad person or you know you know behavior or if it's just like yeah he said something stupid or that joke aged poorly or whatever it is if you can skate on that you can skate on anything man so uh but i

mean yeah i think it's authenticity at the end of the day it's like if you are posing to be one thing and then there's uh you know video or something that comes out that shows you like the exact opposite it's like well now we don't believe anything you say but if it's kind of like yeah i don't know this is who i am and who i'll always be they're just like okay yeah if you own it like theo von owns all jokes, even though some of them are wild. Sure. People don't cancel them. I mean, jokes are,

if you get bent out of shape about jokes still, I don't know what to talk about. You guys had your moment for the last five years or so getting upset about jokes. I think the world has finally kind of come back around a little bit on that. We couldn't even say gay jokes for a while

or use certain words. And it's like, again, if you don't, if you don't look at the context or intent, it's like, you just, you're viewing it through, you know,

the most childish lens in, in the, in the world. It's like, why aren't, why aren't, why does that not matter? Why?

Obviously certain words and certain things are completely out of, you know, off limits, but anything else is like, did you listen to the whole conversation or did you listen to the, the context it was set in? Yeah. and certain things are completely out of, you know, off limits. But anything else is like, did you listen to the whole conversation or did you listen to the context it was set in? Yeah, you could clip out any five seconds of any interview and find something terrible.

And especially, I mean, I've done, I don't even know how, I don't even count episodes. So I mean, two or three episodes a week for 15 years. You're talking a couple hours a day, a couple hours an episode. I'm going to say dumb, I'm going to be wrong. I'm going hours an episode. I'm going to say dumb.

I'm going to be wrong. I'm going to age poorly. I'm going to, you know, all that. So when there's these new podcasts who have been around for a minute and they're throwing stones, it's like, well, give it a decade and go through a couple different, you know, political administrations. Go through a couple different, you know, movements of paradigm shifts and whatnot. And you'll probably sound stupid 10 years ago too. You know, for sure.

I think it's getting trouble for their tweets from 10 years ago all the time. And it's like, I think, you know, you don't want to be like a flip flopper or a phony, but if you haven't changed in 10 years, if your sense of humor is the same at, you know,

21 as it is at 31, as it is at 41, you're probably a douche bag. So you're not involved. Yeah is at 41, you're probably a douchebag. You're not evolved. Yeah, you got to grow a little bit and part of growing is also being wrong or changing styles or whatever it may be. Absolutely.

So speaking of Drake, actually, did you see Bobby Althoff got divorced? I don't want to, you know... Start a rumor? No, not that. I don't want to kick anybody when they're down. I went through a very public divorce myself and it it absolutely sucked but i will say i hate to say it but like saw that coming about a million miles away man a million miles away and not even

i know i know people speculate that like her and drake hooked up yeah i really don't even think that is the case i just think it's when you're married and you have kids and you have your life and it's just set in a very normal cookie cutter kind of expected way and then you go mega viral, mega quick.

I mean, she went I feel like viral gets tossed around pretty casually these days. Like, oh, your tweet got a lot of retweets. Fine. Like viral is like your life changed, you know? Right. She went from,

uh, I made tick tocks, funny tick tocks about breastfeeding with my kids to I'm in bed with Drake in like a year. Not even, not even right. Like a matter of months. And I mean,

that's just so much for a relationship to take on, but you gotta be rock solid. You got to have the perfect partner. I'm sure it's tough for a guy to feel that way, you know, for probably these weird emasculating issues. And all of a sudden you're the breadwinner and you're the famous one, whatever it may be. That felt like a lot.

It's a sad scene because I know they got kids and it sucks. I don't want to speculate why, but I do know myself having gone through a divorce. Like if you don't really address the fact that like, like I kind of put my head in the sand and was just like, all right, this is not a normal job, but I'm not going to be famous. I'm not going to buy into it.

I'm not going to drink the Kool-Aid. I'm just a normal guy. And it's like, you're really not, you got to accept it and like address it. Because if you don't, you're going to, it's just going to like, it's a jugger. Yeah. And it's like, you're really not, you gotta accept it and like address it because if you don't, you're going to, it's just going to like, it's a juggernaut.

It's once things start to really get cooking and everybody knows you and you, you know, people recognize you in public and people start to search your family and DM your, you know, like that. It's just, you gotta really make sure you work at it and handle it.

Absolutely. And, and that, you know at it and handle it absolutely and and that you know is a fraction for me and 10 times 10 000 for her yeah i mean i'm not as famous as you but yeah my girl gets some dm some time and it's super weird bro i if you are a person who has a uh you're a fan of somebody and you ever like seek out their family girlfriends boyfriends kids parents and then even just to find them and follow them is a little bit weird but there's a couple people i probably do that with but to dm them even if you're nice it's crazy and then harassing them you're the biggest in the

world yeah i mean that is oh they were harassing your ex-wife yeah i mean all sorts of people just sending rumors that aren't true and i mean just terrible it's like what is wrong with you animals you know you hide all her stuff like she's private yeah well again that's like if i could do it all over again this is early you know 2010 11 12 13 where it's like it was not this you know and and i probably should have had a little bit more foresight um but we were you know public and instagrams I probably should have had a little bit more foresight. Um, but we were, you know, public and Instagram pictures, public relationships, man.

I feel like they never work out. Dude, it's, it's tough. It's really tough. And I wish, I really wish I had known that and I would have, uh,

operated very differently, but that's kind of always been my thing is I'm like, my fans are kind of watching me grow and go. I mean, I started as a 25 year old,old single dude who has gone through. They watch me get married. They watch me have kids. They watch me get divorced.

They're watching me grow professionally, personally. So I definitely don't have the blueprint, but I can tell you what I did wrong before it. So, yeah, that's one thing I can definitely tell you if you're doing this shit. Keep your your private. Absolutely. Especially when, even if you get the itch to be like, let's, let's, let's go public.

Let's make it official. You can't go back on it. Once it's out there, it's out there. So even if you think the moment's right, you can't undo it. So it's tough though. Cause you want to show your love and you know, posting on social media stuff,

but it's like, you want to show you, I mean, I'm, I was been like an open book. So I'm like, I do want to show if I'm, if I'm with somebody, I want to show it. If I'm not, if I'm single, I want to show you i mean i'm i always been like an open book so i'm like i do want to show if i'm if i'm with somebody i want to show it if i'm not if i'm single i want to show it and i'm like i just kind of leave it always ambiguous because uh it's just not worth it for that person or the headache that comes with it i mean barcelo's a little different too barcelo can get pretty you know it's they're they're probably i was thinking about this the other day with pitchfork and sports illustrated went down

in like the same week after every other media outlet over the past few years i'm like is barstool almost feels like one of the last ones left that's like a website and a media company that's not just like individual influencers yeah espn barstool i can't think of many more yeah and even espn is such like a corporate you know like they're so tied into sports television where it's like, that doesn't even count. Yeah. And, uh,

and so we have, you know, this very rabid fan base that is amazing and can make us, you know, very wealthy and open up opportunities, but are also a little bit weird when it comes to the personal. So you got to give and take it. Well,

it's cause all your lives are filmed, right? You're filmed at the workplace. So they're like invested in take it. Well, it's because all your lives are filmed, right? You're filmed at the workplace. So they're like invested in your life. Totally. I mean, it's, it's almost like sports in a way.

Like you have the guy, like the teams you root for, the guys you root for, the shows you like, the people you don't like, you want to see your guys succeed. You want, you want them to be bigger than the guys you don't like.

New players come in almost like rookies, you know, there's the veterans. It's, it's almost, uh, it's a little bit of sports. And I almost, bigger than the guys you don't like. New players come in almost like rookies. The veterans. It's a little bit of sports. I say it's almost a little bit like Kardashians for guys. Whenever we talk about that pop culture bravo type shows or the Kardashians,

guys are always like, who cares? You realize you do that with us. You gossip about us and our personalities and what we do so don't act like you're above it absolutely you guys must have one of the biggest podcast networks in the world because i yeah no we i mean we literally do it's uh i remember when that first started it's so weird now i don't even know like how you measure it's still the wild wild west when it comes to measuring podcasts there's pod track and there's apple rankings and there's the rankings are so weird though they're all it's all still so fugazi man it's like you know this show's number one because they are brand new for the moment but then they settle in and

and uh you know this show's not measured by this company so we just throw that out there dude it's so weird i'll be number one one week and then 100 the next week it's like i truly i really try not to look at that because it's just like, again, I've seen so many podcasts come and go. And maybe they were number one when we weren't. And now they're totally gone. And we kind of just stayed where we're at. So we got that longevity. But yeah, I think literally we're, I think for sure, like top 10, maybe top five.

I mean, some of your shows are getting millions in episodes. Caleb's crushing it. Caleb is one of the most recognizable people on the internet busting with the boys and is a busting is well on their way to kind of doing that mcafee thing yeah uh part of my takes obviously like top dog and king we got chicks in the office in the in the female space dave's got his show too i mean yeah dave just launched another one with uh ryan whitney from spitting chicklets which is another juggernaut of a show. They've got their own liquor. They're dominating the NHL.

Brianna Chickenfry is probably going to be bigger than all of us combined, but she really starts to hit her prime. It's always the girls, man. They crush it. It really is. It's almost I'm jealous of it because I watched those girls come up, and I actually feel like out of all the the male shows at barstool kfc radio probably has the best split of of male and female okay uh i think most people

think barstool is like 95 percent men and it's really not the case but particularly with kfc radio i think we're close to like 60 40 it's like it's almost like half and half maybe maybe like 70 30 but even still is a very big chunk of girls who watch it. But when they finally got actual female shows to relate to, they were just so happy and relieved. I think that's why Call Her Daddy became the phenomenon it was. And then all these live shows that the girls do, the fans show up with signs, and they dress up,

and they're screeching and screaming for them. They just love them. So I think it's kind of a little bit, they like to see, you know, the girls hanging out with the, like the girls dominating the guy space. They really rally around that. It's very cool to see. Absolutely. What do you think the next wave is?

I know live streaming is getting huge right now. The streaming is the one thing. So like I said, I feel like blogging is my biggest strength. And that, but I was like, I'm pretty good at podcasting. I used to be very awkward on video i hope that i've gotten better i work at it um as far as the apps like i was we very heavy twitter company is barstool and then we got onto instagram and i found tiktok very hard for me to like crack that nut and adapt to that streaming is another thing where i feel like it might be old dog new tricks like i don't know i don't know if i have that in me i mean it's very it's interesting to me that these kids will just turn on a stream turn on a camera and just kind

of around play a video game play some music you know when i when the lights are on there's a mic i feel like i need to like perform i need to have a rundown. I need to not have any dead air. You're locked in. Yeah, I need to keep it moving. And the wave is much more like just chill. And that's very foreign to me. So I don't know if I have that in my bag. The deals that are being signed in that space are nuts.

So you think like all the Aiden Ross shit that happened last couple of weeks feels part of me is like, it could be real because these guys are making money hand over fist. And we're talking about rappers and streamers who all are very famous now, but also a lot of it tends to be like, it could be very scripted if it, if, if,

if you want it to, there's so many coincidences. Some of them have to be right. Yeah. And like, you know, handing a duffel bag of cash to, to play white Cardi for $2 million.

I'm like, was that, is that real? Was he going to take that? Was that, was kick going to sign him to a $2 million deal? And they said, Hey,

let's make a spectacle of it, you know, like that. So I'm a little bit, I'm a little bit skeptical because I've seen every wave on the internet and I know which ones, you know, are real and stuck around and I've seen which ones have been fake and kind of

faded out. Um, they're eating at Twitch though. Kick and rumble. Didn't barstool sign with one of those? Yeah, we, we,

uh, we have a deal with rumble right now for the year. Uh, all of our shows now live on rumble. Oh, all of them. Yeah. Every can't post on YouTube.

No, it's not exclusive, but it's like everybody, uh, it's kind of like, uh, almost like a right of first refusal. Like everything to rumble first a little bit of exclusivity period so it's not a full exclusivity but they get a little preferential treatment um

yeah i i mean twitch was top dog right and i feel like you know kick kind of where's kaisanet is he on twitch either on kick or he's on he got banned on twitch right that was the thing i feel like twitch got a little too big for their britches where they were like where they banned aiden right and i think that was a bad move i think uh i think there was a couple guys who did some up stuff that i understand yeah especially they got a younger audience right but there was a couple like things that were like that wasn't you know the best but not band worthy yeah and then you you know you go to a competitor next thing you know you lose that market share there's two corporate because amazon owns them and i think barstool has done a great job of being independent

right no one tells barstool what to do we've had two two companies that uh two like corporate groups that you know bought into us we had the churning group which is a production company out in la the initial like the initial time that we got real money. And they were amazing. They were hands-off. They very much understood if you buy into us but then change the people, what's the point of buying Barstool? And then Penn was a casino conglomerate out here and all over the country. And once gambling got legalized, that was that was a big time accelerator I

think Dave always said he's like was waiting for the the uh legislation to change on gambling and he thought it was gonna happen you know 10 20 years down the line and it happened like within five and so they bought us um I think the final number was like 600 640 million damn um to uh work with their sports book and promote their- How crazy was that for you? Wild. We used to talk about like almost as a pipe dream. Like, hey man, wouldn't it be crazy if one day we sold this thing for like $100 million?

Yeah. And I used to be like, no way. And then I'll never forget Dave was like, can you grab a coffee tomorrow morning? It was at the Superbowl in Miami. So like four years ago, whatever it was. And I thought I was in trouble. I think I had just sent a tweet that was going viral for the wrong reasons.

And he had texted me the night before being like, why the did you send that tweet? And then he was like, let's go get a drink or let's go to coffee. And I was like, I'm not like, he's never, I've gotten like slapped on the wrist,

but he's never been like, we have to talk about this. So I was getting in trouble. And then then he was like so we've been sold and i was like and he kind of paused and he was like um the number's pretty good like word and i think initially he told us it was like 450 yeah and then there was like a a bonus yeah something if we hit certain numbers went went up to 600. So I think I got up to $600 million. And I was like, bro,

for a guy who, again, like never thought I was going to be in media. I never thought I would be famous. Never thought any of that. Never thought I'd have a fan base of any sort of, to be a part of a $600 million ride is like not a raise. And you were there from early days,

like early days. I believe I'm a employee. Number three, Dave is one. He has his right hand man, Gaz, who was like, And you were there from early days. Early days. I believe I'm employee number three. Damn. Because Dave is one. He has his right hand man, Gaz, who was like, he was the original sales guy who then turned into like our social media guy. He's kind of like. All over the place.

He was Dave's wife at the time, like her friend. Okay. And so he was just kind of around. I wouldn't even count that. You're basically the first. Yeah. And you know, I shouldn't say that because when, when date went, when Barstool was in Boston as like a newspaper, there was a couple of guys who were rear Admiral wrote about hockey.

Jerry Thornton, this guy wrote about the Patriots, Pete Manzo. There was a couple of guys who were predated me, but once it was like Barstool sports, the website, I was the first expansion content guy. That is so cool, man. Yeah. It was, it's, it's a cool thing to be in on the ground floor of i got lucky but it was uh i i don't know how i would have lived if i didn't have a job that i was like passionate about yeah so it's it's been a fun ride to uh it's been good professionally but it's been good you know a lot of opportunities a lot of cool it's been it's been

good love that man well what are you working on, and where can people find out more about you? So right now, we are kind of at a transitional period in Barstool. Big Cat went out to Chicago. Dave's in Miami. So I'm kind of the last one left in New York, and I'm trying to kind of rally the office there to put out some content. So I'm kind of trying to launch like a Barstool Originals idea where every month there's about four different videos coming out from the Barstool New York office with all the employees there that I'm kind of like overseeing, hoping that works out. Right now, my bread and butter is kind of in the comedy space. ideas for um almost like a tiny desk uh at npr but for comedy instead of music uh that i really

want to work with uh the new like up and coming comics in new york i think that's going to be a big hit but uh the podcast is kfc radio we've got answer the internet which is our youtube stream uh my co-host john feidelberg has a sketch show called out of order uh and i'm on on social media doing my one minute man videos which are just like the news updates of the day so uh i'm all over the place it's kfc barstool on all social media kfc radio is the podcast and the uh streaming channels on rumble and youtube so uh anything kfc that's that's him yeah love it man i appreciate it bro thanks so much man absolutely thanks for watching guys see you tomorrow