Factually! with Adam Conover - Freedom 250 Concert Flop and Pattie Gonia v. Patagonia, with Bethy Squires & Sabrina Jalees

Episode Date: June 5, 2026

(In addition to your regularly planned episode of Factually, we’re bringing you a Friday news roundup where we check in on the week’s biggest stories as well as some that need amplification.) This week, Adam is joined by Sabrina Jalees, host of Good Enough, and Bethy Squires, writer at The Vulture and Pin-Up. It’s time to talk cities banning A.I. data centers, Pattie Gonia v. Patagonia, and the impending pickleballpocalypse.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is a headgum podcast. I'm Adam Conover. Thank you for joining me. It's Friday, so we're breaking down the news in a crisp 45 minutes. With two guests with me are Bethy Squires, writer at Vulture and editor at The Pinup. And we got Sabrina Jalise, extremely funny, stand-up comedian, co-host of the podcast, Good Enough When Natasha Legerro. Sorry, the name is not good enough with Natasha Legerro.

Well, I just wanted to say that Natasha is part of it because she's funny. Yeah. Yeah. The podcast is called Good Nogero. enough. It's a value ad. It's a value ad. But today we're talking about a bunch of shit that has happened.

And that's, as opposed to every other Friday. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Today we're talking about the real shit. Today we're talking about the news. Really quick, we've been talking a lot about the California election. People might know, they might not know. We count votes extremely slowly in California.

So we do not have results yet. And if you see people talking about, oh, Tom Steyer lost, Nithy Rahman lost. They have not lost yet because we are still counting. Tom Steyer has a little bit less of a chance. Nithia still might make it. Stay tuned. We'll talk about that next week.

Maybe we'll have more information. There is one story, though, that is actually very pursuant to this channel because voters in Monterey Park, which is a city that's a sort of suburb of Los Angeles, voted, they approved measure NDC, which is a proposition that banned AI data centers in the city. And they approved it by like eight. 8515 was the vote. We just had a video come out on YouTube. Everybody hates AI about this.

And like that was yesterday. Today we're talking about this. Yeah, I mean, it's crazy. I mean, who is the 15% that was like, please. Yeah, I want a buzzing, humming warehouse of doom right next to where my baby sleeps. Like, who wants it? I love, I like drinking water. But I love asking Chad GPT what to make for dinner.

Okay. And I will also say, I do understand there are. cool parts of it. I get it. I just wish there was a more, the water thing is dark. I actually do feel like I have a solution for AI. Do you guys want to hear it? What is it? So, okay, we've got all of these machines to cool

down. Why are we using fresh good water? We should be using piss. Okay? And the app is called chat, PPP. DM me. We need to leave. So, and it's like, okay, so

what? The warehouse smells like, burnt piss. No one in Monterey Park's going to smell it. Do you want to be, you want to be the person pissing? I want to get paid for pissing finally. You know how annoying it is to get up in the middle of the night and take a piss? I want to finally get my 50 cents per piss. Sell it to the big AI. I mean, there's already water bottles full of it in the Amazon warehouses. Just round them up. There we go. Every problem is an opportunity. When they don't let the, hey Amazon warehouse workers, You want to piss more often?

Oh, you've been begging? Guess what? Piss on this computer. Now you can pee all you like. In fact, if you don't pee enough, you will get in trouble. They're flipping it. They're flipping it. First, they didn't want us to be ever.

Now, Bezos is mandating that we do. I mean, I can't think of anything. I can't think of any topic that people in Los Angeles would agree on 85% of. Like, it's such a massive. They probably 85% of people, agree they have not done Botox. 85% of people in Los Angeles would agree. I don't know.

I knew this run would, I knew this run was dangerous. This was me sending you guys up. I got coffee off my PPP. 85% of Los Angeles residents have heard good things about the Brandzino, but they haven't tried it yet. Oh my God. But have you tried the Branzino at Hermann's?

I've heard good things. I'm going to get it tonight. I knew there'd be chemistry between you two. Let's talk about the Freedom 250 concert. that Donald Trump was trying to put together on the national mall, that the worst musicians you've ever heard of declined to do it. Or the best one of these was Morris Day and the time, right? Which is the other band from Prince's Purple Rain.

I don't understand anything you've said. And in fact, I'm from Canada. And just to go way back at the setup of the story, Why are you guys calling the mall? Like when you say national mall, I'm expecting a Clare's. I'm expecting a, what is another American store? Hollister. A Hollister, a Target.

I'm expecting a mall. The original word mall, like in the 19th century, a mall was a promenade. The place where you'd go steal earrings from Clairs. Okay, so sorry, I took you off track, but I bet there's people. listening at home being like, shit, this girl's for real. Yeah, no, it's a great. Spitting truth. It's a great point.

And also. 85% of Los Angeles right now is like, this girl's speaking truth to malls. It's like Paul Mall cigarettes. Where's the Paul in the mall? Where's the Paul in the mall? But he wants to throw a party in a mall, which is the big lawn. We're going to have a mall. It's could be beautiful.

Everyone will be there. Brett Michaels. Everybody's saying no to him. Nobody's saying yes to him. Is that what you're saying? The only people, the people have pulled out are young MC, Brett Michaels, Martina McBride, Morris Day and the Time, which by the way are a beloved and wonderful band. They're just most famous for being the evil band from Purple Rain. But the only two people set to perform still are Kid Rock and Vanilla Ice.

God, he's stuck with those two. There's one more. Freedom Williams from C&C Music Factory is in. but C from C and C Music Factory is out. Who's the other seat? Freedom Williams doesn't have a seat. We don't know who the other C is. I don't know who the other C is.

We don't know who the mall is. We don't know what the C is. No, a C used to be a place where you would go and steal earrings. I mean, so this is one of those classic, like, Trump things where he's, like, throwing an event but hasn't put any preparation into it. Like, he's just the world's worst party planner. He's all, every time he's doing a big. get together. It's like it's a fire festival every time.

He seems to be like specifically bad at event planning. Well, also just so deeply unpopular. Imagine having all of the money that you could steal from the American people and not one friend. You know, like not one person beyond Kid Rock and Vanilla Ice. Yeah. And the three of them backstage in the green room being like, this again. Morgan Wallin is like they won't even, they didn't even call me. I would have like said the N word right on the national mall if they asked me to.

Like just pay me a couple million, but they didn't even want to do that. Well, they didn't even call most of the people who were on the bill. The thing, the gag of this whole Freedom 250 concert series is that the majority of the people who are signed up are these like zombie acts where it's like who's in the Commodores anymore. Who is C and C&C Music Factory? No one really knows. Millie Vanilli was one of them and famously two thirds of Millie Vanillae. are dead. Yeah.

Wait, you're actually tapping into a whole other business idea, which is like bands that are dead that want to make a buck off of their name. If it's like, oh, Millie Vinoli doesn't want to do it anymore and then we could, you and I could buy it. Yeah. And tour it. And that's essentially who signed up for a lot of these. And a lot of them have the same manager.

Did you see this detail in the story? One of the people, not everybody, but like a lot of. of these acts are from United Amusements, I think was the name, Universal Amusements. Okay. Whose CEO is Jeff Epstein. No. No. His name is Jeff Epstein.

Oh, it's a different guy. No relation that I'm aware of. He's like, I dropped the re, okay? I did my due diligence. I dropped the re. If your name is Jeff Epstein, you got to go, Jay. You got to drop the F. Yeah.

What's the middle name? Like, it can't be worse. Yeah. Go for your middle name. No, middle name. are classically awful. Jay pedophile Epstein. What's your middle name?

My middle name is, oh, you want me to open myself to up to that kind of identity theft. Okay. Oh, we're not supposed to do that? And then what's your mother's maiden name? My middle name is Olmsted, which is my grandmother, my grandmother's maiden name. Yes, see, like, if my dad chose to honor his friend. If there was a pedophile named Adam Conover, you couldn't just be like, call me Olmstead. Yeah.

It's too wild. My middle name is Ursula. Oh, come. on that's sick. Yeah, well, sick pre-little mermaid and then that fucking octopus bitch ruined everything. Well, now she's like a queer icon. Yes, for being mean. She stole her voice. Yeah. No one thought of everyone before Ursula, the witch, was like Bond girl, Ursula. And then that witch came and stole all my sex appeal. So I'd have nowhere to go. I'd call myself stab. Isn't it funny how that one James Adomian stand-up bit from 10 years ago? completely changed, like, our view of this character.

Do you know what I'm talking about? No, tell it to me. You don't know this bit? Well, I can't do it, James Adomian, but he does a bit about how all the Disney villains from the 90s were gay man. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Like Jafar and that. Yeah.

But then the topper of the joke is that Ursula is like the awesome lesbian who runs the bar, who is like, all my babies can stay. Free drinks for everyone. Body language. It's on YouTube. It's like one of my favorite stand-up bits. How did we get on to? I'm telling you, I don't know a lot about the news,

so I'm going to wiggle waddle and do you know what's your shoe size? Okay. We were talking about Freedom 250. We were talking about these shell companies. We were talking about I would love to buy Shakira's identity when she's ready to retire and I'll tour Shakira. I think it's amazing that like Millie Vanilly, two of them have what, the producer died, one of them, which one, which one died? Rob died.

Rob died. So Fab is the only one. He's touring just to make a couple bucks. We know it's a sad story. He was a model, right? He was taken advantage of. So he's just trying to make a living. You don't know the story of Millie Vanilly?

I know, first thing you got to know about me. I know you've seen television. It doesn't have to do with Canada. I know very little. It's my trademark. I'm here to learn. Okay. So Millie Vanilla.

I literally, when I said Millie Vanilla, I was nervous because I thought, is vanilla short for vanilla ice? We've already addressed. Millie Vanilly Ice. I thought the Vanilly could have been like once he left Vanilly. The 80s were a big moment for vanilla as a flavor. Yeah. So this poor guy.

Millie Vanilly was a pop act from the 80s. They had a number one hit. It was revealed that the people presented as the singers did not sing the song. They were backup singers. and they would always perform to a backing track. And when people found out it was like a giant scandal and people would like destroy their CDs and stuff. Oh my God.

But then about what, 10, 15 years later, there was a seminal VH1 behind the music. And in fact, it was the first VH1 behind the music ever released in which they revealed that they were taken advantage of. They didn't know what was happening. They were really sort of pawns in this game. And so they had sort of their redemption arc. Then they learned to sing. They took singing lessons.

They were bad at it. They couldn't sing very well, but they sang the song well enough to tour as Millie Vanilli, again, singing as themselves. Oh. But then one of them died, I believe he was a sad sort of drug. I can't recall. Yeah. But I've heard that that. This story is giving Ursula, by the way.

Stola voice. You stole a voice. Body language. And also, like, who is in that VH1 behind the music? Who is the Ursula? When it's like, oh, we didn't know what we were doing. Who is this? Like, I'm going to take these miles.

I'm going to steal their voice. Do you want to know? Yeah. It's the producer guy. It's Mariah Carey. No, it's the producer who has done this like a bunch of times. So, like, his first act was Boni M who does that Ra Ra Rasputin song from the dance video game. Wild.

I know the song. Lover of the Russian queen. Precisely. I know something. And then Millie Vanilli. And I believe also Labusch. Like, he got a lot of songs out there as this German producer. I want to.

I can't remember his name right now. All the people involved with this story are German. the point that I was going to make is we got Fab, he's touring around, just trying to make a buck. Even he had the self-respect to not do the Trump 250. This is a man in dire straits.

Who's going out saying, these are all the girls I asked and they said no, but this is the one that I'm kissing. Like, why are they even releasing this information? Well, what happened was they announced the names of all the acts before they... Asked them?

Yeah, before they had contracts and before they knew what it was for. And so all those acts were like, wait, I'm supposed to be performing for Donald Trump. No, the fuck I'm not because their fans all yelled at them. Like, again, Morris Day is still a beloved figure. And people on blue sky were very, they were like, Morris Day, no. And then Morris Day was like, uh-uh, I'm not doing it. This is like that era, what was the Dubai?

What was the one that the Riyadh Comedy Festival? The Riyadh Comedy Festival. Except they all did it. Didn't one person say no? People said no. Maybe people didn't back out in the same way. I love that Trump is America's Riyadh. This is why musicians are better people than comedians on average.

Because you've got these like D-list comedians saying, I mean, musicians saying, no, we're not going to perform for Trump. And then the biggest comedians in America are like, yes, we'll fly to Riyadh to do something far worse for more money. I mean, it's the Japanese TV commercial of it all. Like, if it's far away, it doesn't count. It's like it never happened. Yeah. Live shopping on What Not is exploding. According to What Not, the number of sellers making over $1 million on Whatnot has doubled in the last year.

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Trump has also said, by the way, instead he is going to be the only attraction for the entire rally. He gets a bigger crowd than Elvis Presley. And so he will be the only entertainment after Millie Vanilli, Kid Rock, and Donald Trump, the three greatest white rappers of our time. Oh, my God. I feel like he did not look at, I mean, I feel certain he did not look at the schedule of this Freedom 250 concert series. Like, these people were booked to headline different.

days. He's not going to keep showing up and like doing like a new mix tape. He's not like pulling a Drake and dropping three albums like over this period. The Coachella timetable for the Feeding 250 is like mainstage Donald Trump noon to 4 p.m. Then in the in the dance tent from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. Donald Trump. God, that guy is overworked. Let's do another one. Bethy, can you tell us the story about the Patagonia versus Patagonia lawsuit? Sure. I feel like this came to my, this came across my 4-U page on TikTok is how I first dip my toe into it.

From what I was gathering, basically there's a drag queen who's like an environmentalist named Patagonia, who is now being sued by Patagonia. the hiking company? Like, what do you call it? Outwear brand. Yeah, they're a brand for outdoorsy people. They're Lulu Lemon for people who like to hike rather than do yoga. Yeah, I think of them as like the backpack water bottle people, but I think that just speaks to how little I hike.

Yeah. That's where I've encountered them. If you're a serious backpacker, you're buying like a lot of Patagonia. Like they are a supplier for hobbies. My brother gave me a promo code for Patagonia a couple of years ago, so I've got a lot of Patagonia that I'm either wearing or not. wearing, I'm not sure where I land on the story until you, of course, tell me. And so the issue is that Patagonia filed a trademark claim so that she could drop merch with

Patagonia on it. Yeah. And Patagonia was like, even now when I'm saying it, it's like I'm really over-known saying Pati versus Patah so that the captioners have an okay time with the conversation. They're like, this is too close. We have to enforce our copyright or our trademark. Yeah. They're suing her for they say $1.

She says, well, they're actually trying to stop me from using the name and destroy my livelihood. And also that they want to recoup their legal fees, which could be like a million dollars. One million dollars. Could be. And by the way, I just want to say one of my favorite details is the New York Times story about this referred to her as Mix Gonia, which I love. like MX and then Gonia, which is, you know like the copy editor at the New York Times. It's like, this is my moment. Like, finally we're using the mix.

It was such a beautiful. Like our rules are rigid for a reason and they are going to serve us well in this case. Here's the thing, though. It's also been on my TikTok page. There's a second half of this story, which is according to what I've seen, they've released like the emails between Patagonia and Patagonia. Oh, sexy? And.

Rivel. You'd wish. Filthy. It looks like Patagonia apparently was like bending over backwards to like allow Patagonia to use the name. No way. Yeah. And was saying, you can use it just please don't put, don't use something that looks like our logo on merch because there is stuff that if you did it, we would have to sue under trademark. law or also we might lose our trademark.

Yeah, it's like don't do outdoorsy merch like outer wear things that Patagonia sells don't make fun, like don't do our logo. And Patagonia was like, okay. She like did it for a little while and then she like released some stuff that she. God, I really relate to that. I relate. You give me an inch. I'll take a little mile.

This is a little bit. I'm going to walk out a head gun with a bunch of the cross rattling in my pocket. I can't stop myself. I get it. It's like they were so friendly. And then the lawsuit, was there a middle email between the lawsuit and the friendly? Or it was like, all you got to do is not make a mountain shirt. There, in fact, was where they were like, hey, we noticed a few infringing products.

Got it. Remember our email from like three years ago you told me personally? Remember when you emailed me Beverly? Yes. And then Patty was like, I'm the captain now. Yeah. Well, some of the emails were like, absolutely. Absolutely, Beverly.

Thank you so much for getting on this call, for hopping on a call. Oh, damn. I appreciate it. He flew too close to the men. We're all linking arms. We're all moving forward together. We all understand it. And then a couple years later, she's, like, violating the agreement that they had made.

And then, so Patagonia, I assume their stances under trademark law, like, in the U.S., if you don't enforce your trademark, you lose your trademark. Because then some other company could go, well, we can put Patagonia on whatever. You know, I think Patagonia would say like some, some oil company or some like anti-environmentalist company. And then that other company could say, well, Patagonia didn't enforce their trademark against Patagonia. So why should they enforce it against us? And then Patagonia might lose their trademark. So that would maybe be why they're suing just for $1.

Well, this explains a lot to me because last night, you know I'm doing the podcast circuit promoting my podcast good enough. Now last night I was on. You have to do podcasts. You got to do podcasts. So I am last night on this show called The Ultimate Spend where this girl invites you, you bring all your clothes, and you sell it, and people bid on it. It's really crazy.

There's this app whatnot, and you, anyway, she's got the show, the Ultimate Spend. And I am selling this Patagonia fleece. It's beautiful. And no one is bidding on it. And in the chat, someone's like, they're suing a drag queen. But then in the chat, basically, like, the vibe of everything you described sort of like bled in. And then Lara, the host, was like, fuck it, we're putting it back up.

And we put the Patagonia shirt back up after the, like, drag queen shame was sort of reversed. And someone was like, I'm a lawyer and she actually fucked up. And like Patagonia's in the right. And then the thing sold for like $75 bucks. But that's crazy too because it's not like Patagonia would get money from this sale either. You don't have to boycott. Even if you were to boycott something. I mean, look, we're all going to.

watch a Woody Allen movie at the end of this. I'm just baffled that you came on my podcast to talk about you doing a sponsored ad read on a different podcast. I know. And I said that podcast name so many times. And the name of the sponsor. I'm confused. I do have a take on this, which is that like it, it's like the vortex of presenting a commercial

enterprise as being something ethical and good for the world, like folding in on itself. Because Patagonia is a company that sells themselves. as being environmentally friendly. We're almost like a charity. We're almost like a nonprofit. The first video I ever did for this YouTube channel was about how that's marketing on the behalf of a large corporation

that is owned by a single family. Blah, blah, blah. You can go watch it. They're not the worst company in the world. However, it is marketing, right? Patty Gonia is also marketing herself as she's the activist drag queen. She's also a performer

who is trying to make money off of her name and likeness, much like myself. I do stuff I think is good for the world, but I also have to make a buck to survive. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only comic out here just trying to help people. Brave.

It's just like me and Kevin Hart. So you end up with this like endless series of people going like, well, did you know that Patagonia, the Angel Good Company is doing a bad thing? And then Padigonia is doing videos that are like, yes, I,

the perfect angel, Patagonia, who am nothing but good and being oppressed by the turns out anti-LGBT bad company and people are like, oh my God, drag queen, you're unimpeachable, of course. We love drag queens who are environmentalists. And then you have other people making videos going, oh, turns out, guys, there's all padigonia isn't. And like, it's just going around and around in circles in this way that is eventually nauseating. And not particularly useful because I think that if you, to me, the bad guy is like trademark,

copyright law, intellectual property laws in America. Like these two people, these two LLCs, these two entities are fighting for sort of like scraps over who can sell merch that looks like this, whereas I feel like, like I kind of like legalized bootleg merch, who gives a fuck? Yeah. A little bit. Yeah. Legalized bootleg merch for sure.

And also, isn't there now a place that like now you've like really scared Paddy Gonia? And now can't you just be like, and we're not going to go. all the way. We just want you to know, like, now are you scared? Now are you going to take away the bootleg part of your merch? I bet she'd be like, yeah. Well, no, they're not because, like, that would be settling the lawsuit. Like, they could just like reach a settlement before it was a trial. She says she's going to fight and go to court. And honestly, to me, it looks like she has flipped it again where rather than being scared, she's like, well, this is a personal marketing opportunity for me, Padigonia, right? She is very publicly fighting the lawsuit. So it's sort of like,

you know, you'd handle it quietly, oh, no, I'm being attacked until you see, oh, wait, I can broadcast the fact that I am being attacked and, you know, maybe not necessarily profit off of it, but have it be a, like another press hit moment. Like, like millions of people now know about Paddy Gonia who did not know about her before, right? Yeah. And you guys know that I've changed my stage name, right? Oh, no, what is it? It's Balenci Aga.

Mix Aga. And you can pick up some of my handbags after my. my shows. It's like it's just we don't need to always find like the perfect person in team no one is a great team to be on team. You know, hey, it's capitalism. They're suing each other and it's a spectacle for our enjoyment more than anything is it's a very fine position to hold. But it's like a weird moment in social media that we all have to find our pick our sides. Well, it's like to endeavor to be good. It's like the whole like Democrat versus Republican thing. like on the on the left side.

It's like we're trying to be kind to each other. And like on the right, it's so much easier because it's like we're a piece of shit, man. And we're the good piece of shit. But I've got... Introducing Vanili ice. I just get a little tired of the language of social justice and environmentalism

being used in such heated terms to describe what is a trademark dispute between a performer and a major corporation and in which both, have both are in the right and in the wrong. Like, it's not actually an ethical issue. It's contract law. It's literally boring.

Yeah. Like, this is not actually that interesting, but people are so incentivized to have the takeiest take to ever take about it that we have to act like we're at the, we're at the forefront of a dangerous new precedent being set over TK. Who knows? I think what's uplifting is that my fleece sold for $75. So all is right in the way. Was that again?

Okay, hold on. I'm not going to talk about the app anymore. Speaking of the takiest take that ever taped, I got to know what you guys think about John Travolta's beret. That's our next topic. This is my favorite social media story of the last two weeks. I love seeing John Travolta as this sprightly little character bouncing around. Like, doing like a little, doing like a little dance.

Well, he's doing a pose. Have you seen like the collage of every like picture he took at Cannes where he's doing? He's doing heart hands? Sort of. It's like a or like a uterus almost. Okay. Like it's like he lost a deal with a genie and the genie said if you lose this bet, you're going to give everyone the ick at this cool film festival.

You think it gives people the ick? I don't know, whatever you think. I don't even remember the picture. But when you're talking about this heart hands and the beret, I'm like, oh my God, Remember when he was like so sexy that even me so gay, Sabrina, Balenciaga, Jalise, Shakira would look at him in Greece. Like Greece lightning? Was that the movie? Yes.

When he was in Greece, that, I would have sex with him. Yeah. And this man you're describing with the beret doing a dance and the heart hands, not that guy. No, he's, it, what I like about it is that he's a sweet old man who's having fun, okay? He's made this movie. Here's the full story. He made a movie called Propeller One Way Night Coach. Which is obviously Chatsy PT.

A hundred percent. It's a one hour long movie. It's barely a feature. And the movie is the story of the first time he flew on a plane as a child. I watched it on Apple TV. It's literally my mom had to go on a business trip and I got to go on the plane. It was my first time on a plane. And the first time I saw that plane, I was like, wow, what a beautiful plane.

On the plane, they gave me some food. Like, that's what it is. You're leaving out one, the detail of that John Javulta, little John Javolta character within the movie gets a crush on the stewardess who is played by John Travolta's real life daughter. Oh. Whoa. I confess I did not get that far in the movie to see that happen. This is what I've heard on other podcasts. To be fair, I have not seen.

Okay. All right. This is a podcast about other. podcast at this point. So he's wearing the beret. What he has said is they're touring this movie around Cannes and other places in Europe. He is wearing the beret and a little, what kind of, what would you call the little beard he has a little, not a fu-manchu, it's a kind of a Van Dyke.

A Van Dyke, thank you. It's a Van Dyke beard. And he's doing that because he is dressing up like a director because he has directed a movie. And he's like, in the old days, you always used to see directors wearing berets. And so I thought I would dress up like a director to play the part of a director. And this choice on his part, no one is seeing the movie. This choice on his part is going viral. And everybody is talking about that that is created more of a spectacle than the movie itself.

And the thing that made me like it is that he is saying, look, men, men can have fun too with our wardrobes. And I genuinely do think that this is. part of the story because the first time I saw people were making fun of him, oh, this is embarrassing. Oh, look, he's making a fool of himself. And his response to this is, why can't men have fun with our outfits? Hey, I think that's good.

And good point. Yeah. Yeah. No one said you can't. Absolutely go off. Come on. Wear a clown noise. Put a strap on on. A lot of people do say you can't. A lot of... Who says that? A lot of... He can't... The idea that he's wearing something. He's speaking to a different generation, though, because like, to the left and right at can,

And, like, I'm sure Jordan Firstman at one point had his dick out. Like, everybody's having fun. It's like the younger, I mean, Timothy Shalameh is like wearing dresses on the, everybody is doing that. But he's sort of like, it's all sort of from the era of one propeller, night train, night coach. It's as if, like, he's like, I've got an idea from 1926. Yeah. A man should be able to jiggle his hips, if you know what I mean.

You don't have to be a woman to wear a simple hat. I also just have this feeling about him where like it's, it's nice to see him smile, you know? Like he's, he's, he's, he's, the guy's been through a lot, you know. Yeah, that's true. He's like famously maybe closeted, perhaps. He's famously a Scientologist. And you can criticize him for that. But also how much are people in Scientology victims versus perpetrators?

Yeah. Probably a little bit of both. Lawsuits. Yeah. His son died of a seizure. Perhaps Scientology related. his wife, the mother of his children died. Yeah, I'm feeling awful.

I love it. I'm so into it. I'm trying to guilt you. Some people have the takiest takes. I have the most bendable wiggly takes. Yeah, now that you're painting it, I'm like, I'm imagining my father wearing a beret and some dumb idiot on a podcast being like, that fucking guy. You know what? Go drown yourself to that person.

That would criticize my father for wearing a beret. That was a really dark ending of that. That's right. She's got to drown. You wanted a hot take. You wanted a hot take. I think me from the past should drown, but I have rectified my sins. I shall live.

That's growth. It's like drowning your past self. You got to do it over and over again, baby. You also are not bidding the Ursula allegations with that. No, no. Body language. You know what the meanest, the meanest best thing someone ever said to me? What?

This waitress in Palm Springs, the fires had happened. And we were all waiting for our fajitas. The never came. I talked to the manager. I tried to smooth things over with the waitress on my way out. I go, I'm sorry. I just, you know, I didn't want to pay full when it came cold. It was, and it just felt like you didn't care.

He goes, you know what? I hope you never meet someone like you. Wow. And that may be true for my take on John Travolta's Beret. That's the best burn I've ever heard. It had me shook. Because the first layer of it, it doesn't hit you until later. You're like, yeah, well, I probably probably.

would like that person. And then later on, I was, like, laying in the hammock. I'm like, I would. There would be something that I didn't like about someone like me, but I probably wanted to hang out with someone like me. Ultimately, if I, I'd be my friends like someone like me. Would I do I like my friends? I hope you never meet someone like you.

There's also the element of the story where, you know, the reason he was touring Cannes to make this thing that is truly not a movie. It's like a nice little project. It's like nice to see Grandpa's memory. It's already available. It's on Apple TV. You can watch it. When I logged into Apple TV last week, it was like the number one movie on Apple TV,

which kind of says more about Apple TV than anything. But the reason he's able to get on Apple TV and tour around Cannes is because he is like this sort of old redwood of a movie star. Like he's this type of movie star that we simply are not making anymore where he's one of the most famous people in the world. And so he can kind of do whatever he wants and make news from it. But, like, Timothy Shalame is not going to be doing that when he's 70, you know, because he's just, it's, the monoculture has moved on to such a degree where it won't, who will give a fuck? Hey, if he keeps drowning himself and reinventing, like I do on this podcast, you never know. But also, like, yeah, I agree that John DeVoio is one of the last stars, but he also has these, like, preconceived notions and burdens in his head of like, oh, wearing a beret is like very utre of me

directed his movie is also crazy of me like the manager in his head is perhaps who he needs to drown but he needs to drown him he's trying to drown himself with a beret I think it's a light drowning the beret is a light self-drowning yes I would go so far as to say that

but it's a light drowning You need to take the manager at his head and just like big Lebowski it into a toilet bowl. You are flipping it though for me a little bit. Where it is funny for a guy to show up in a barret in a beret and be like, isn't this the craziest thing you've ever seen being a beret? Your slip of the tongue actually my third invention on this podcast. What is what? Barrow, dude. A borough.

Are you insecure about wearing a beret? Well, this is a fucking barrow. Does it have like a bill to kill? Put it more into like that boy hat that you understand. Yeah, it does. Now it does. Only on Valenciaaga. Jalise.com.

It goes great with your like bro pearl necklace, right? All of those. Okay, one more story. Let's talk about the main family. This is our, by the way, this has been a little bit of a lighter episode of news, and this is the lightest story of all. This is our... This is the heaviest amount of news I've ever digested.

I want to be clear. This is the story. that Sabrina pitched for us to talk about. That's right. A main family say their lives have been ruined after a noisy pickleball court opened next to their stunning Bayfront home. Alexander Giblin, 40, and his family have been relentlessly tormented by noise from a nearby pickleball court as community members are heard playing for around 12

hours a day. Do you want to read the quote? Yeah. This is not a background tone, Giblin told the Belfast City Park Council. it is a relentless, invasive barrage that penetrates our windows, our closed doors. We hear it in every room. There is no reprieve. Now, to be fair, when I sent this to the group, I did think this had more news to it.

Because the headline said their lives were ruined. Now, to reach the end of the whole article and find out it's just this is an article that's one simple man. that doesn't like the noise of pickleball. I think the headline here is if you're like a rich white family in a nice house, your inconvenience is news. Is news. No matter what. Yes.

I saw a homeless person. Put it in the newspaper. That's the LA Times every day. Becky, call the Bangor Daily News. Like has anyone told Spencer Pratt about this problem? Because he could fly and run for mayor of Bangor. Oh, my God. Well, first of all, do you guys like pickleball?

You know, I've never played pickleball. Oh my God. Well, don't start unless you want your life to be absolutely, completely Ursulette on it. Ursula? Pickle ball is the, pickleball? Like, I like, is that good or bad? Yes. I still know if you like pickleball.

I love pickleball. Okay. I'm obsessed with it. And pickleball, I feel like my wife could contact the Bangor Daily News and be like, Pickleball stole my wife. And something about it. But I'm regulating a little now, but it's just fucking incredible. It's the place where, like, losers go to be winners, you know?

Wow. If you have been kind of mid at any sport and you commit the training at pickleball, you will stand on a pedestal. You will hold a trophy. Yeah. Yeah. My doper's 4.25, ladies, if you're listening. Your what is 4.5?

My doper, that's the score. Oh. It's Delaware Insurance purchased the rights to the score for pickleball. So it's called the Delaware. I don't know what it stands for. for. Dupor, D-U-P-R. Delaware Insurance

purchase the rights to the concept of a pickleball score? Yes, baby. Yes. And there's a drag queen named Dupor. No, I'm kidding.

Wow. But it is, yeah, my wife, so my wife, when she was pregnant with my embryo, huge burden to take on. It timed perfectly

with me. Getting really into pickleball. So into pickleball. So she's at home with SWATO. Bowling feet. Yeah. Like wishing, oh, God, won't someone just like make dinner so I don't have to hobble over to the kitchen?

And we were... And meanwhile, you're out in Griffith Park. No, I'm at my rich friend's place in Pasadena. Oh, even worse. Fuck, duck. I don't know why it's brown noises for me. Just dooping all over the place. I'm dooping.

I'm dropping. I'm dinking. I get the appeal of a sport that if you're mid, you can still be good at it. Oh, yeah. Because tennis is always a sport. Exhausting. That ball is so heavy now. It's really a hard game.

It looks like a nice afternoon. And I once for, when I was working on Adam Ruins everything, I don't know, Beth, you might remember this story from when you worked on the show. True TV made us have a tennis tournament with all of the advertisers. They took all the talent. It was me, the impractical jokers, the people from Hack My Life, Andrea Savage from I'm sorry. We had to go to, I think it was Santa Barbara. and they held us in a compound

and we had to do a round-robin tennis tournament with people from Kentucky Fried Chicken and like Gillette and stuff like that. That's so strange. And I was like, I was partnered with a lady from KFC. She was my partner. She was,

and she was very nice. Pickleball hadn't been invented yet, by the way. So this was about 10 years ago. And I was like, it had been invented. Okay, well, it wasn't popular. There we go. I was like, I'm going to, you know what?

I'm going to try to be good at this. I was bad at gym class, but let me take a lesson. let me try. And I had to play tennis for an entire afternoon. When I tell you, I did not return one volley. I did not serve the ball correctly one time. It was just like, what is it?

15, 30, 45 you lose. 15, 30, 45 you lose. To the point where other teams that wanted to be eliminated so they could go get drunk rather than continue to play tennis, they were like yelling like, come on at me because they wanted me to beat them and I could not do it. And it was just, it's a hard for. It's really hard.

Tennis is really hard. And you're out there alone. And pickleball is just like, it's just fun. And you meet all sorts of different. All the people that I know, I know ancient Asian ladies, I'd never get the pleasure to know. I know tiny little fellows as well. I know all, it's like all sorts of different. Like, it's such a.

Any big people? I know huge people, Adam. I know people that you would blow your mind. Small people first. No, well, the ancient. No, I said ancient. That lady is seven. foot too.

Oh, right. Yeah. Ancient giant Asian woman. No, I just love pickleball. So I sent this, I sent this just with that knowing that that would allow me to tell you guys, I love pickleball. Bethy thoughts on this one? Have they not heard of lock to put on park?

I'm very confused. Like, they say that the pickle bar court closes at like eight or something, but people are just coming in at all hours of the night. No lock would hold me back. I would chew that lock until my, Gumbs bled. But it would at least deter the casuals. I'm not speaking to the di-harts.

Nobody involved in pickleball is casual. Okay. Once you start getting into it, you'll realize everyone is deeply, everyone's in couples therapy with their pregnant wife being like, I don't see the problem. It's just a few hours in the morning, a few hours in the nighttime. This is healthy. This is exercise.

You just sound treat your house a little bit if you're stunning Bayfront home. Why is it so sound permeable? That's the... How loud is it? It's pretty loud. Okay. It's like, but talk, but talk. There's something about it that the paddle on the ball is like specifically loud.

And this has caused noise complaints. Like in rich neighborhoods across the country, it's like a nimbie problem of people being mad about pickleball courts. I bet the real problem isn't even that it's loud is that it's almost rhythmic. It's like one of those like if you really want to fuck with somebody, get like a clock that doesn't quite tick and talk evenly. And like that lack of pattern and always try to tease out the pattern will cycle on. logically torture them. Incredible. Anyway, so these are just tips that I have that I'm bringing it to your audience.

But also, if you're buying property next to a public park, which is where these things go up, you got to know, there's, you know, be grateful that the next big sport craze isn't like involving, I don't know, louder noise. Yeah, thank you so much. The skeet shooting doesn't become big. It's like when you get a property next to a public park, anything can happen. Yeah. Yeah, I feel like I lived near a public park that had tennis courts that were just never used for tennis.

We're just used for children doing drug. There you go. Which is also loud. It's quite. Yeah, it's slightly quieter. It depends on if they've got a boom box, I guess. I don't know. Well, those are our stories for the week.

Thank you guys. That's it. That's what a rip off. You said I'd hang out for at least three hours. Is there something else you'd like to talk about, Sabrina? Bigobah. Thank you guys so much for being here. Bethy, where can people find you on the internet?

I'm on TikTok and Instagram at Bethy Squires. There used to be Twitter. Who knows anymore? And I'm on vulture.com frequently. You're wonderful. You're like the last of the great pop culture bloggers, in my opinion. Apologies, but it's true. You used to be a whole industry of people recapping Mad Men, you know,

and you're out there doing the Lord's work. Well, Mad Men famously is over. So fewer people are recapping it. You got to recap. You know you got a recap propeller one-way night coach. Ooh. All 60 glorious minutes of it. Sabrina, where can people find you?

Please find me on Instagram. My name is Sabrina Jalise. And as you know, I have a podcast called Good Enough. It's a cool guy parenting podcast. But we talk to people who are not parents too. We'd love to have you on, Adam. Oh, I'd love to be on. We talk to people just about what's working, what didn't work in your childhood.

And it's pretty funny. Pretty good. Thank you guys for being here. We'll see you next time on Factually. Hey. That was a Hidgum podcast. Hi, I am Mandy Moore. Sterling K. Brown.

And I'm Chris Sullivan. And we host the podcast, That Was Us, now on HeadGum. Each episode, we're going to go into a deep dive from our show, This Is Us. That's right. We're going to go episode by episode. We're also going to pepper in episodes with different guest stars and writers and casting directors. Are we going to cry? Yes.

A little bit. Are we going to laugh? A lot. whole lot. That's what I'm hoping, man. Listen to that was us on your favorite podcast app or watch full video episodes on YouTube or Spotify, new episodes every Tuesday.