Juicy Scoop with Heather McDonald - Jay Shetty Whistle Blower, John McDermott and Chris Franjola

Episode Date: April 4, 2024

Chris Franjola and I kept talking and we got into why Barbara Corcoran’s marriage works and the celebrity marriages that don’t. Then John McDermott, a freelance journalist for Esquire, The Guardian and many other publications is here. John shares how he was given the assignment to do a piece on Jay Shetty, one of the most successful celebrity spiritual gurus out there today. He explains what he discovered about Jay Shetty and what did not add up. What is so interesting is how these stories get squashed in Hollywood, why it does matter if your origin story is a lie, and so much more. This is a Super juicy one, Enjoy! Shop Juicy Scoop Merch https://juicyscoopshop.com  Get EXTRA Juicy on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/juicyscoop  Follow Me on Social Media Instagram: https://www/instagram.com/heathermcdonald  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@heathermcdonald  Twitter: https://twitter.com/HeatherMcDonald Follow John McDermott on Social Media Twitter: Twitter.com/mcdermott  Instagram: instagram.com/johnny__mcd "Uncovering the higher truth of Jay Shetty" article: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/ng-interactive/2024/feb/29/jay-shetty-self-help-empire Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi, can I take your order please? Can I get a Big Mac McWrap, McFlurry and a McDouble? Keep it real, I need a Happy Meal McCrispy and 10 McNuggets Tasty garden fries, a cold drink with extra ice Junior chicken would be fire and a sweet hot apple pie Is that it? Let me get a quarter pounder of cheese, a flare of fish, oh please McGriddas, a McMuffin and a large coffee

A hamburger, cheeseburger, hot brown, hotcakes, vanilla corn shake and hot fudge sundae Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba Heather MacDonald has got the Juicy Scoop When you're on the road, when you're on the go, Juicy Scoop is the show to know She talks Hollywood tales, her real life, Mr. Segment's cereal data and cereal system Hello and welcome to Juicy Scoop. As promised, we had a couple more juicy topics and things that we wanna discuss, so I'm back here with the hilarious Chris Frangiola.

Well, I wanna discuss with you an article I just read before I came over. Yes. That about guilt tipping. People believe guilt tipping is getting out of control. You know, that every way you go now, no matter what it is, whether you get a lot done or nothing done,

it'll pop up however, what percentage you wanna leave. And it raises a guilt factor to it. You know, like, oh, I gotta leave something, and I wanna be that guy. Exactly, and they make it so easy, because so many of these places now are no cash. They don't even allow it. So you really don't feel it when you put in the card

and then they go, oh, he's spinning around the iPad. And they're like, it's gonna ask you a question. And I'm like, I think I know what the question is. And you know. And they look away like, you know, no question. And then some of these, like at Starbucks, it's one, two or custom or whatever it is. $1, $2 something custom.

Which I think is pretty classy of Starbucks. Now there's other ones that are literally 20, it starts 20%, 25% and 35%. And it's like a smoothie. And it's just like a hard thing because I'm like, look, I know food and all this stuff is more expensive. I don't want everyone to be replaced by a robot. So you're like, okay.

But then as you like leave, you're like, this fucking smoothie was like $22. It's crazy. And then you're just like, I don't care that, how well I'm doing, like there's a part of you that's just like, I shouldn't be spending this much on this sad salad. Or whatever. I was at a concert a couple of weeks ago,

and I went and bought a concert shirt and two things. And whatever, that's expensive already, so it was like $150 for two shirts. And then at the end it says 20%, 25% or 30%, but you have to hit something. So I'm like, I mean, so 25% on 100, that's like, whatever, $20 or something on. Did you do it?

Yes, for like the guy to hand me the shirt. Yeah, that's. I mean, I get it. I was a tipped employee for a long time, so I'm not gonna say don't tip, but. Yeah. Yeah, it is a lot. How do you feel about Uber and Lyft?

I tip, you gotta tip on that one. I feel like they're doing a lot. I do too, you know. Sometimes it's a little hard, because if it's a really expensive one, you're like, eh, I already paid like 120. I know, but here's the thing. They gotta drive back.

I know, right. No, I mean, I do it. I know, but here's the thing. They gotta drive back. I know, right. No, I mean, I do it. I do the typical whatever. Yeah, you gotta. Uber and Lyft, waiters. And I always give them the five star. Yeah, okay. Even if they weren't.

Yeah. Because I'm like, they're gonna figure it out. Right. Even if it was the worst one I've ever had and the guy didn't stop talking and the place still like B.O. I'm still like five star. Wonderful, because I'm like, you know, I live.

So like, I don't need him to like have some weird thing. I always imagined like a weird movie of like, where you have a really bad Uber experience, not like they attacked you or anything, but like it wasn't good. Guy was annoying, he talked, he didn't know his way around. Maybe he was on his phone looking and like not paying to the road.

Even then I would do the tip and the five star because I like, so the guy gets fired from Uber or Lyft and then because of that, his wife leaves him and everything. And he's like, it's all because I lost my Lyft job. I want to find that bitch. And then he sets out to do little things. We got ourselves a lifetime movie here. Yeah, that do little things to make you go crazy and infiltrate

all parts of your life, your personal relationship, your job, fucked up, goes around your backyard and like turns your pool on and floods your whole backyard, whatever, just all these little things and then she finds out it's because she didn't tip him or whatever. I like that. Somebody call... Iain Ziering is the lift driver in this, in our Lifetime movie, in my head. Who's the mom? The mom would be played by Joanna Kearns. She's too old. She's too old. She would be the mother and it would be Denise Richards. Oh, I like that casting. Denise Richards, oh, that's great. She's a single mom and she just started dating

and she was coming back from a date but she didn't like the date so she called an Uber to escape and then Ian Ziering, who was cute underneath but he's starting to look weird because he's getting weird, is just getting out in the dating world because his wife and he are like separated.

And he thinks they have a connection and she's like, listen, dude, stop talking to me. I don't wanna be around you anymore. And then gets out of the car. This is excellent. And then she is like, I'm so sick of not speaking up. So she tells Lyft, this guy's weird, he gets fired. And then he is like, it's all because of that bitch.

And she has no idea why her life is complete havoc. And then the final scene is she comes out of the shower and he's there. Yeah. And he's like, I thought you said you didn't want to talk on your app. You said you wanted it to be silent. Because she'll be like, can't we just talk?

Can't we just talk? Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Oh, I'm hanging on to the, I want to see how this ends. Does she kill him or? Of course. Oh, okay. Like fatal attraction. Yes, of course, she ends up killing him.

And then, you know, the daughter comes home and hugs her and the police are there. The real daughter, the sheen daughter. She plays the part. Oh, if she can leave her bedroom from doing OnlyFans, she has to do one day on this set. She's like, when can I go home, Mom? Wow.

Well, there was something else you were going to talk about. Oh, the tattoo. Oh, we were just looking at it. We were looking at TMZ before we came to Air. So Machine Gun Kelly, I don't know if he's still with Machine Gun, Megan Kelly or whatever her name is. What's her name? Is it Megan Kelly?

There is a Megan Kelly, but she's not dating Machine Gun Kelly. There's, she's on... Wait, what is his girlfriend's name? Is it Megyn Kelly? There is a Megyn Kelly, but it's not. She's not dating Machine Gun Kelly. She's on- Wait, what is his girlfriend's name? Megan Fox. Megan Fox, okay. So he, now he's doing the whole black thing. Yeah, he went completely black.

Which actually Kat Von D has done a lot. People are just going black on their arms. Yeah, okay. Right. Ugh, I do not like that look. I'd much rather just stick with the original tattoos. Yeah, like a dolphin under your ankle that you got in. How much do you have to tip your tat guy?

I'm sure you, a lot. That's a lot of work, I would imagine. I don't have any tattoos. You don't have any tattoos, right? No. Me neither. I wonder if they make you pay before and then you tip them before because you're like,

if you don't tip them, good luck with that. You don't really fuck it up. Yeah, misspell it and shit. Barbara Corcoran of Shark Tank says she has a great marriage because she's 75. But for the last 40 years of her marriage, so I didn't realize they'd been married.

But he's her second husband. Anyway, I don't know how long they did sleep in the same room together, but for the last 40 years, they've had full on separate bedrooms. Not just like in the middle of the night, whatever, I wanna watch some TV and I'm gonna go to the guest room, like full separate bedrooms. And on occasion, they invite each other over,

but who knows how often they do. And she said, because he's messy and his shit's everywhere and she can't stand it. And this way she gets a lovely night's sleep. I mean, I honestly don't really have much of a problem with this. I feel like it's almost, I feel like more people should adopt this lifestyle.

I feel like it's a taboo subject and half the country is not admitting to it. Well, Cameron Diaz recently came out and said that she does the same thing. Her and Benji Madden sleep in separate bedrooms. I don't know how true it is, but she did say that they do it as well. And their marriage is not 35 years. and sleep in separate bedrooms. I don't know how true it is, but she did say that they do it as well.

And their marriage is not 35 years, but so, I mean, I don't know. I think that people don't want to say it because everyone talks and they think you immediately must have a problem. But I know that there's like new houses being built and they do two primary masters. Really? Yeah, like you can do that. So that each room and you don't share the bath, you each have a beautiful bath,

you each have your own closet. And you know, but it's a thing that only financially, a lot of people can afford until their kids move out and maybe they can make another bedroom, a comfortable situation so that the two people could sleep separately if they chose. We don't share the bath anymore. I have a bathroom, my wife has a bathroom,

and we never go into each other's bathrooms. It's, so yeah, I mean, but bedroom, yes, still. But also, here's a good one, for those of you thinking about doing this, here's a way to kind of get in slowly. I do sleep in my daughter's room a lot. Not a lot, but some. So there's like a big bed in there

along with your little bed? Yeah, where one of those trundles and other things comes out the bottom and my daughter wants me to sleep in the trundle. So I'll stay in there and kind of enjoy it. And you just fall asleep there. Fall asleep in there and then I'm in there for the night. I'm like, oh, I'm not gonna get up now.

Oh, that's good. So I just stay in there. So that kind of, it doesn't look like I'm sleeping in another the night. I'm like, oh, I'm not gonna get up now. So I just stay in there. That kinda, it doesn't look like I'm sleeping in another bedroom. I'm like, I was with her. So yeah. All right, there you go. I solved everyone's problems.

Yeah, I think it's something that people will hide too, like if someone comes to your house. And you're like, oh, who's in here? And you're like, you know, I don't know. Listen, we are like- I feel like it's becoming much more acceptable. We are lucky enough to have extra rooms now with comfortable beds.

And look, I'm gonna say it before it comes out in a People article. We do sleep in separate beds often, not all the time, but often. How often? Now which house? We have, well- The Woodland Hills house is separate beds?

In the Woodland Hills house, we have a room that can always, that has a comfortable bed with a good TV and everything that's not the master. Okay. And then in the other house, not as often because it's not as many bedrooms and oftentimes kids or guests are there. Is there a reason?

Is it snoring? Sometimes you just have different time schedules. Yeah, it's just like- Like I wanna watch TV until 11 and you go to sleep at nine. Yeah, and then he wakes up early and then the dog wants its food early and he'll do the food for the dog.

I don't know, I just think there's so much resentment that can be built up because someone is fucking with your sleep. Oh, absolutely. That I think a lot of marriages could probably not get divorced if they had room to sleep separately. And have that separate time, and whether it's a woman who gets up and pees a lot,

and then the guy's mad that she's peeing, or the guy's snoring and disrupting her. I don't know. Okay, I'm all for it. You got no problem with that. I just felt like this for you because it said, Bianca Sensori is in revealing outfit with Kanye West at the Cheesecake Factory.

They are loving the Cheesecake Factory. I know. And I'm trying to figure out, I think they go to the one in Beverly Hills. There's a couple of, I mean, there's a particularly nice one here in Willow Hills, right in the mall. They must be going there

because this place is still in Hidden Hills, I think. I thought so, but then I saw pictures that it was not that one. I'm very familiar with that one. And it's not that one. And then there's, you know, I know the ones in this area. So I think they're in Beverly Hills or something.

Talking about it right now, I'm pretty hungry for lunch. It's great. I freaking love cheese, and I love their skinny menu. Yeah, it's a skinny menu. Anyway, her nips are out, her vag is out. Yeah, she's out. Other times she puts on a jacket. We still don't know what the deal is.

Did you see the video of her talking and everyone was shy? Like that, wait, her voice. Oh, before she met him. Oh, before she met him. Yeah, before she met him. And she was like. She was doing like a real estate commercial, or no, design, she was talking about design.

But she's an architect of fashion design, which I never knew even existed. She says she's an architect, but she's not an architect like building a home. No. It's very, and she's Australian. Yes, but anyway, it was interesting to hear her voice, but it is so funny that we just haven't heard her voice that you're.

Yeah. And you're like, what is it? She's yeah. Like intelligent. So Brad Pitt is finally just going to stop trying to fight for the custody. He's still going to see the kids, but this divorce has gone on so long and so ugly. I know. With their six kids and the winery. And I'm like, literally, I started to read this article. I'm like, this is Perez put it out.

And I was like, wait a minute, are any even under 18 anymore? And there's, I think, only the twins. I mean, I even think Shiloh is like very close, if not there, at almost 18. The other girls, Sahara's in college. The boys are in their 20s. And so it's like, I think it finally just ran out of time.

Yeah, also when they were, like when they got divorced, everyone thought, this would be like an amicable one. They both seem normal-ish, you know what I mean? Oh, it was vicious. I know. But I don't think they let it get as vicious because they're both big stars. And there's probably like, don't you drag Brad Pitt's

a big star. Well, there was vicious. Like, there's nothing that's true. It was that he was drunk and got physical with some, either she or Maddox or both, on the private plane. That is the story that came out. That was what made her defile. And then he was like, that's not true.

And then like Maddox, I don't know if he was over 18 or not, but like, was he gonna tell? And you know, Maddox was with her before they ever got together. So I think his loyalty to his mom and probably just like, you're a drunk dick. Then he got sober. Then she like sold the winery from underneath him.

Yeah, anyway. And then also, I don't know, like what has she done lately? I feel like we have, I think her whole thing is she is so into being a mom. I think after this whole thing with him happened, she was just like, that's it. I'm focusing on being a mom. Once the twins go off to college

or whatever they do at 18, then we're gonna see her like start acting and doing more stuff. That's what I think. This is my theory on all actresses of a certain era, especially very attractive ones like Angelina Jolie or all of them honestly. There's quite a few of them who you just don't see anymore.

And maybe it's an age out thing or whatever, but I'll get like Kelly Lynch, Madeline Stowe, Angelina Jolie, Kathleen Turner, just on and on and on of that era. I think before me too, those women, I mean, imagine the meetings that they had, the showers they had to watch that fat fuck take. You know what I mean?

And they were probably eventually like, I'm out, I'm out of this shit. I don't need it anymore, you know, because back then, I think it was just recently, Kirsten Dunst was saying that on the Spider-Man set, not that long ago, she was just like, there was, it was kind of a, you know, old guy energy set, whatever,

and they would say some shit to me, but I couldn't say anything, it was before me too, and I wasn't some shit to me. But I couldn't say anything. It was before me too, and I wasn't gonna lose my job. So I was like, fuck it. I feel like Eva Mendes is like that too. She's like, I'm out. I don't need this shit anymore. She's not jealous of her husband.

She doesn't care. She sells sponges, she's got sponge lines. And also like one with Paltrow, I think people think it's tragic that they're not doing movies anymore. I'm like, they don't need the money. They already experienced it at all. They got to go to the movie premieres,

they got to be in the movie set, they got to have the fans, they got to win the awards and they don't really miss actually being on set and waiting around and having their back hurt from standing up and being in the trailer and missing their home and their pets and their kids. And they're just like, yeah, something comes to me great,

but I'm totally fine with that being one part of my life. Or you're like a Reese Witherspoon who you were like, I'm not ready to give it up, so I'm gonna do the smartest thing, start my own company, buy all these great books, produce and stuff, and still act. She's really parlayed it perfectly. Nicole Kidman too.

I mean, doing the TV, the Moo, everything. I mean, both of them. Yeah, they've done it right. But I think there's other people that are like, it's fine. Like, just like anybody else. Like someone that's like, you don't want to teach anymore?

And so I was like, no, I'm good. Or it's like when I said to my mom, mom, don't you want to make the turkey this year? And she goes, no, I really don't. And I go, but you love doing the turkey, you love cooking. And she goes, no, I really don't, I'm really tired and I really just wanna go to your house and not.

And I was like, oh, you just think that your mom loved cooking and cleaning. And it's like, no, she'd actually like to show up, have a glass of wine, eat and fucking leave and she's done all the turkeys. She's gotten all the accolades and she's good. I just moved to a new agency and they wrote me the other day an email

like and blah, blah, blah, great it is that and we'll continue to stand up and everything else and would you be interested in getting back into acting? I was like, fuck no. Like I have no. Did you write that what you wrote or what did you say? Sure. I mean I wrote back like it's really not my interest

anymore to go like audition or read for hosting jobs or whatever. Okay. Because I just know I'm not gonna get it and why even bother driving to Culver City. You know? Well I do think a lot can be on self tape now. I know but I don't.

But even that is too much effort like you if somebody asked you to like are you interested in action anymore you like you times I had to do it on self tape Either my kids or my husband which basically I have three husbands Nobody is patient enough to shoot you like over and over Yeah, and then I'm like if the part is for a frustrated, annoyed mother and wife, then a hundred percent I need to do it, talk to the camera, have them and be like, and then I'll be like,

you know, then that'll be great. Then that'll be amazing acting. But then I also hear that like people feel like they do that. I don't know how it works with the self-doubt. It kind of started with COVID. All my friends who are actors now, I mean, they hate the self-doubt.

They're like, well, I can't, when I was in the room with the cat, I could differentiate myself from everybody. Right, and they can give you notes. Yeah, exactly. They can go, actually, you're not supposed to be this annoyed. What you don't know is in the script earlier.

They can explain something. You're like, oh, OK, OK, now let me try it again. Because they want you to get the part, too. They want their... Yeah. is in the script earlier, they can explain something. You're like, oh, okay, okay, now let me try it again. Because they want you to get the part two. They want their, so I don't know where that's going with the auditioning. I remember a couple years ago, I got one. I was in a hotel room doing standup,

and I remember propping up my phone on a pillow in the hotel room, and I was trying to do it. And I'm like, what am I doing? And then they were like, send it PDF. And I'm like, I don't even know what that is. Like I had to go down and ask the girl at the Hilton Garden Inn, like, what am I doing? And then they were like, send it PDF. And I'm like, I don't even know what that is. I had to go down and ask the girl at the Hilton Garden Inn, like, could you send this to?

Oh, so embarrassing. I'm so happy to be kind of rid of that. I remember doing that same thing. I was at my friend's house in Tampa, where you're going to be. And it was like, I had to play a lawyer or something. She had a beautiful home. So I was like, OK, this is good. We'll do it like in your husband's office. And we're like trying to film it. Of course I didn't get it. But still, it like screwed up my whole day. Like I had to get hair and makeup. But it's also like, there's the young Heather,

old Heather can never pass up an audition or an opportunity. I cannot just say, you know what, I'm gonna pass. I don't think I've ever done that. Like maybe now I'm starting, but like it's really hard to even think that that's an option, you know, like. Oh, it's an option, you know, I see now more than ever.

And now we realize it. Trish Cyrus, she says there's definitely issues with her new marriage. This is Miley's mother married this guy, Dominic. He's a big actor, Dominic Purcell, yeah. And apparently they got married and he slid into her DMs, but she didn't see it for a year. But I guess during that year, I'm assuming

is when he started to date Noah, her daughter. So he dated Noah first, they broke up. Noah's marrying somebody else, so I guess she's fine with it. But it's out there that he dated the daughter. Then he started dating Trish. And that is why Noah and the brother were not at the wedding. But she says that they definitely have some marital issues

and it's because they are different signs. And I just thought that is so- Marital issues, they got married three weeks ago. I mean, it's already. I know, so she said in 2016 he DM'd me but I didn't see it for a year. So I don't know. She said, I'm a Taurus and he's an Aquarius

and apparently astrologically speaking that's not a match made in heaven. Okay, people. Yeah. I mean. You can't with this astronomy signs. You cannot, I know people love it. And, but I just feel like it's such a way to like say,

either I shouldn't marry this person or I should. Yeah. But I know it's weird because sometimes you read the things and they are pretty like dead on. I know. But I feel like you fit your thing into it. You know, you're reading like, I am like that. But you could it's kind of written so vaguely that you can put anything out into it.

Right. But sometimes I always read them you know it's interesting I always wonder if like I guess the astro astronomical science astro top what is it astrology astrology astrological it is about you the day you came out of someone's vagina right but I'm like what is it though what is your sign when you're conceived I'm a Gemini I'm June 14 me too what you're a late Gemini what do you mean I'm cusp is your sign? When you're conceived, I'm a Gemini, I'm June 14th. Me too! What? You're a late Gemini.

I'm cusp, May 21st. Oh, so you're on the cusp of cancer. No, of Taurus. Not on like Dominic Persepolis. No! Oh, cancer's after, you're right, cancer's after. I have never even looked into like my kids' signs and thought if are they really like that or not.

I just, I don't know, I think once I used to be more into it. Right. And then I was like, I remember like friends being like going to psychics and stuff and I'm like, some psych is gonna tell you that, you know, the guy you're gonna marry has a C in his name or something. And right now you're dating a guy named Ben.

Right. So now all of a sudden that's in your head and you're gonna be like, oh, Ben is really not the one. And that's why I'm like, I think all that stuff just gets, especially when it's about love and stuff. I don't know, I don't think it's good. I need to know how come psychics

are the only seeming business that seems to be able to just put a sign right on the front lawn of their regular suburban home. Like, when nobody else could do that. But you'll be driving to a neighborhood and you'll just see a big sign on someone's front lawn. Psychic or a neon sign in the window. I'm like, well, you can't do that if you're a plumber. Like, a big sign. It's against the, like, I don't know.

I feel like there's zoning laws against that. But the psychic's big fucking sign, run the front lawn. How come they're allowed to do that? There is a house on the corner across from Kaiser Permanente. And the other side is the school. I know exactly the house you're talking about. It's a pretty nice house.

And it's like these big psychic signs. I'm like, is anybody really just like in a fight with their boyfriend and they'd like fucking just pull over. And then are like, I just need to talk to somebody. Like should I marry this guy or not? Come in and you know, and like, or whatever you're coming out of Kaiser Permanente and you're like, do I have cancer or not?

Let me just, let me just go over and like talk to this woman. My I had a friend who went once years ago, and of course about some guy, and she was like, what you need to do, and I remember, I thank God, talked to my friend out of it. She was asking for either five or $1,500 to put a spell on him. Shit. And then there was another one where you put your period blood in their coffee without them

knowing. And somehow then they'll pop the question. I don't know. Is that right? I don't know. And I was just like, this is just come on. Come on with this. I was in a bar many years ago in LA.

And you know how they come around selling the roses? Yeah. And it was late at night and a woman who was coming around selling roses and I said, no, no, I'm okay, whatever. And she put a spell on me. She was like, you now will have a spell forever. And she walked out and I swear to God,

from that day forward. You felt like you had better. Like I achieved something, but not a lot. And I'm like, maybe that was the spell like she didn't I did She's like your spell is you won't get to shoot You'll always never you'll never be the best friend in a sitcom. You'll never play half-filled comedy clubs for the rest of your life I'm like son of a bitch. You know not all spells you're gonna die some spells just, you're gonna be mediocre for the rest of your life. I'm like, so I always think about that.

I'm always like, what, is the spell working? I just always say, like, how did, like, show me the psych, show me, we know how people tape their readings, you know? Yeah. I just want someone to show me a reading that they got in early March of 2020. Right. And was like, what does the next year of my life look like? And if that psychic doesn't say, to show me a reading that they got in early March of 2020. And was like, what does the next year of my life look like?

And if that psychic doesn't say, I see you spending a lot of time at home, and working from home and staying at home, and your travel plans are gonna be canceled, for some reason. I bet there's some people who could say that happened. I need to hear the tape. All right, you're gonna get many of them now.

I need to hear the actual tape, even if they didn't say, I see a massive, because then maybe they, because then they could go, well, we don't see a war, but we know that there'll be destruction. Yeah. Like I need to see something like, I was just reading you, I was seeing your future, so you didn't get COVID,

you didn't lose your job, you didn't die, but you spent a year in your house. You worked from home and you didn't get to go anywhere. And I don't know why it says you're not going anywhere. And the girl's like, but wait, I have a whole trip planned to Europe in the spring. Well, I don't know what to tell you. I don't know why, but it's showing me you're not going. And that was like March of 2020.

Then I'd be like, that psychic is seeing something. They're actually seeing the future of you, of the person they're reading. Wow. I mean, I'm always, it always fascinates me. Also, when people talk to the dead people. Yeah, that's a good one, too. Never once is it ever like, it's always like, he's happy.

He's fine. There was a reason why you couldn't be there that last day, right? Yes, he's fine. There was a reason why you couldn't be there that last day, right? Yes, I was taking my medical finals. He's fine with that. Like I just want one psychic to be like, okay, he's still fucking pissed at you.

Yeah. Your dad is pissed. He says you're a disappointment. He doesn't like what you're doing with your life. He hates your husband. And he's still mad that you never cleaned out the garage that day. And then they're like, oh my God, my dad's a yeah, he's an asshole. He's in heaven, but he's still an asshole. Like something or like they are he is mad that you served potato salad at his funeral, just something. It's always positive. Yeah, that's true.

It's always, like, there's gotta be one person, well, because it's not, I don't really believe it, but I know people get mad that I say I don't believe it. Oh, they, people love it. I mean, I'm so glad I'm not- But that's why it works, because you never hear a negative thing from someone on the other side.

They're always okay that they died, they're always okay how you handled the funeral, they're always okay that you were busy on the day that they died, they're always healthy and dancing around in heaven. Well're always okay that you were busy on the day that they died. They're always healthy and dancing around in heaven. Well, maybe you get to a place where, yeah. So it's like, then you're happy to, so then you're just like, there's no harm in talking,

even if it's fake, there's no harm in talking because they don't tell you something like, you're the reason I'm dead. You forgot to whatever, give me my medicine. Like it's never that. Okay. There's some real estate divorce news. Brittany Snow was married to this cute guy on Selling OC. Yeah, this is a good one. And he was very flirty with this girl. And in the second season, they ended up kissing. Her name's Alex Hall. She came on Juicy Scoop.

And I remember I talked to her and I go, this before they announced a divorce. And I go, well, I think Brittany Snow and Tyler are gonna get divorced. And she goes, why do you think that? And I go, I think because Brittany Snow is the actress. She thought she was marrying a normie. And now he's a huge star and he's hot.

And that's not what she gambled for. She thought she was marrying a guy who could do real estate with his dad and surf while she went on to be, continue to be a star. And I don't know what she's been in lately, but it's not the top real estate show that her ex-husband is. And then I think there was something maybe going on

between them, maybe not, but probably, but I really think it was that she just was like, I don't like it. But didn't they wind up getting married? Didn't he marry the real estate girl? No, I think they dated a little, but I think they're still single. I don't know, she wrote me,

she said she wants to come back on Juicy Scoop. So, we get the scoop. Because I saw Brittany Snow on Call Her Daddy or something and she was talking about it saying she like watched it and the divorce happened. Yeah. Yeah. So like getting kind of mad about it.

But again, this is all great because I think their season's coming up soon. So you've got to get all this chatter going before. Yeah, there you go, that's what we were discussing earlier. Also real, Selling Sunset LA. Okay. This girl Chelsea from England, she and her husband are getting divorced.

Yeah. So, you know. Is that still on Selling Sunset LA? Oh yeah. Oh really? I mean, it's probably coming back. Christine Quinn, who was on it, that her husband.

But he was also on it. He was on it too, and then they had a baby, and now they're in this domestic violence situation where she called the cops. He tried to get her restraining order against her saying she's going to kidnap the kid. The judge didn't allow it. There is awful stuff in the report. Like he threw like dog poo at her. Like awful verbal awful. He's awful. According to, allegedly, according to them. We shared a nanny. We had a, my nanny. That's a scoop.

And there was her nanny too. And my nanny, who I had for lover, greatest lady, she was so happy to be working with Christie. She was like, it's fun. And then one day they just cut her loose. And she was very upset about it. She's like, kind of, we were kind of friendly, we were doing well, and they just fired me. Anyway, she went on to stay with us, and now she's with Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell.

You know what I wonder? Yeah. Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, what do you mean, grandchildren? She's, no, the grandchildren, yeah. Oh, so when they had the grandchildren, they had the little extra hands. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She still babysits for Beckett, but she. Yeah, but Beckett's in school. She comes over to our house, she goes,

oh, last night I was at Goldie and Kurt's, we had a sleepover with the kids. Oh, must be nice. Sorry about our dump. Yeah, so she's doing great. I'm sure she made sure. But anyway, she was Christine Quinn's nanny too, and I don't know.

Okay, so what I think happened with that, and she probably didn't realize it, but probably the husband, it's just a control thing. I think he became more and more controlling and insecure and controlling, and she probably loved the nanny. And he was like, you're not getting in, you know? And then she's just like,

I don't even want this woman to see how weird he is. I'd rather just let her go. Like, I think she was protecting. And then I've also, I also know someone who lived in the neighborhood that would hear that they would fight and scream and fight, and there was a lot of fighting. And then from someone else that she was trying to rent a house at one point to leave him

and then didn't follow through with the rental. So what did he do? So I think he threw a bag of glass. And hit the kid or something? The kid was okay, but hit the kid. When do you find a bag of glass? Who knows if they're just like cleaning up and something broke and there's fighting

and who knows what they're like, or they're in a contentious fight, how some awful person would act. Yeah. But I hope she gets away from him. I hope that both these girls are back on the selling sunset because they liked each other. Yeah.

This girl, Chelsea and Christine, they can wear their tiny outfits and go date guys and get listings. Yeah. Bring it back. Bring it back. I, on Easter, we got this little, you know, gingerbread house, but it was like an Easter version.

And so I was like, oh, come on, Haley, like, you know, and Brandon did it too. Like, let's just decorate it. And then Brandon goes, mom, once we decorate the house, you have to act like it's a selling sunset house. Oh, I watched it. So he did the video and everything, and I sold the house for just under 18 million.

Oh, wow. Yeah, I got multiple offers on Instagram. So it must have been in Malibu. Yeah, I said it was in LA County. Oh, okay. So it's just under 18 million. Oh, wow. Yeah, I got multiple offers on Instagram. So it must have been in Malibu. Yeah, I said it was in LA County. Okay. So it's just under 18, and I said it was one fourth of a square foot. Yeah.

It has no bathrooms, no baths. Yeah. But you know. But if it went down and out, you could eat it. Yeah. But went down in value? Yeah, yeah, right. Okay, so Chris, tell everybody where they can find you.

I am in Tampa, SideSplitters in Tampa, Saturday night, and then I'm in Danube Beach Improv on Sunday night, this weekend that you're listening to this. And then I go to Rooster Teeth Feathers in Sunnyvale, Dallas Hyenas, and so many more places. Friend, joeladotfun has every, all my live dates cover to cover and all that. Come on out. We're having a great time on the road. It's a lot of fun.

Yes. And now for my very juicy interview of you from the writer who really broke down the whole Jay Shetty thing and how stories get squashed and it's very interesting, super juicy Hollywood story. And of course, everything for me is at HeatherMcDahl.net, see you at Palm Beach this weekend. But now for this juicy interview. Hello and welcome to Juicy Scoop. I'm very excited because I have the journalist John McDermott. Welcome to Juicy Scoop, who wrote the article in The Guardian, uncovering the higher truth of Jay Shetty.

And I'm so excited to talk to you about it. I'm excited to talk to you. Thank you for having me on. Thank you. I talked about it on a previous show because it was a hot topic. And I suggest, let me give me a little background of what it's like to be a real journalist where you're really going deep and doing these investigative pieces because that is something I don't do. A lot of people sometimes get mad that I don't have all the facts and things. And I'm like, this is, I'm a comedian and this is comedic commentary about things I find juicy.

So that's why I'm glad to have the real person here to like answer all the questions. Sure. I'm a freelance journalist based here in Los Angeles. I do a lot of writing or did a lot of writing in the past for Esquire magazine. I've also written for GQ, the New York Times, Chicago Tribune. When I lived in Chicago, I wrote for them. So I've written for a number of different publications and yeah, again, work as a freelancer. So I kind of pick my own projects. But how does that work? Like they say, hey, we want to do a piece on Jay Shetty, we'd love to. Like how does it all start?

And then what are the steps that you take as the journalist to get that, you know, several pages long story in a fancy magazine? Typically, most of the times I operate where I'm pitching the stories. I come up with an idea and then I will pitch it to an editor or several different editors at various public occasions where I think it would be a good fit. And if they want it, they buy it. And if they don't, they pass. And if they want it, you kind of work out what you think the angle would be, the length of it, what the fee would be, all that stuff. And then you execute the piece. This was pretty atypical,

because I would say the vast majority of the pieces I write are stuff that ideas I come up with and I pitch. This was actually pitched to me and was assigned to me by Esquire. And I want to make sure to cover this because Jay's publicists and his attorneys have tried to portray me as this obsessed hater who has a preoccupation with Jay.

And I was acting with malintent, right? My intentions were impure. I did not know who Jay Shetty was until I received this assignment from Esquire Magazine. And the only reason I received this assignment from Esquire Magazine is because Jay's publicists asked for me specifically to write this article when they pitched it to Esquire. I'd written about one of their other clients previously.

They enjoyed that article. That was kind of a light and fluffy piece about a different type of influencer. Her name is Tynx. I don't know. Oh yeah, I know Tynx. So you did something on Tynx. Okay, great. A day in the life of Tynx.

And I wanted to capture, you know, I'm very kind of interested with what's going on culturally right now. We're in this very interesting position where fame is kind of hard to define. Like who's really famous in the internet age, you know? Jay Shetty is a good example, you know? This is somebody who has tens of millions of followers,

but I've also had, you know, close personal friends of mine who read this story after I shared it and they're like, I had no idea who this guy was. So right. Yeah. So true. Yeah. Because media is so fractured now, someone can have this intense rabid fan base that's even in the millions of followers, but then be completely unknown to someone else.

You know, when I, when I was growing up, there were like a handful of famous people and everyone knew who they were. It's totally different now. Exactly, or it's like, oh, my kids will know. And you know, this person that's a YouTuber or whatever, and just like, you know, I of course have a different reference. But yeah, as we grew up, there were the famous people

and they were on the magazines, the Us Weeklys and all that stuff. And now it's just totally different. Before we get into this, I was gonna ask you, do you feel, you know, when I was at Chelsea lately, we would have all the, we'd get all the magazines. And then there would be these longer articles about whatever, Gwyneth Paltrow.

And I used to joke that they would always be written the same way that like, she arrived, she was nice to the waitress, she ordered a tea, as she wished the hair behind her ear. And I was like, why is it always like what they ordered? And like, it was such a formula that, and now that there's opportunities for everybody to tell their story on a podcast,

either as a guest or their own. Has that affected your business of writing these bigger pieces for magazines? Absolutely. People like Tanks, people like Jay Shetty are no longer as reliant on a magazine such as Esquire to reach people. And it's kind of changed the power dynamic

where magazines for the entire time, they were the medium through which celebrities were exposed to the world, right? So they kind of had the upper hand. Now it's totally flipped. You know, those magazines, they need famous people on the cover. So, you know, when Housewives are shopping in Walmart

and they're going through the checkout aisle, you know, they see, oh, you know, Austin Butler is on the cover of the magazine. All right, I'll take this. Or whoever's on People, or Us Weekly, or whatever it is. But they don't necessarily need it. So it has changed the dynamics such that there's not as much adversarial coverage now. It's much fluffier. It's always been kind of fluffy doing kind of access-driven PR or access-driven celebrity journalism, which I've done. And, you know, I'm proud of the celebrity profiles I wrote. You know, I've profiled Nikki Glaser.

She was very fun. And, yeah, she was very honest about her struggles with her eating disorder and her various insecurities. I don't think it was a very fluffy profile, but it was access driven, right? It was done with the understanding that, she would not have been doing it if it were not for a publication as rapid while as ex-squire, so.

But with that, I still do love reading, obviously these kind of articles, because it is different, and I've been a subject of these, and I really enjoy reading them after, to hear that you have this conversation with the writer, and they ask you questions and everything, but then I love that they write

sometimes their point of view, or some other thing that they pulled from another interview you did and make it, which is different than just hearing a conversation on a podcast. And it gives you a different insight and a different perspective that I still think is super important and relevant today.

Absolutely. And when access-driven celebrity journalism is done well, it can be very revealing. Yeah. And it can be more than just pure fluff. Right. But, so I wrote that piece on Tinks. Right. And again, that was just kind of,

I was interested in what it was like to be this rising self-help influencer, or she's not a self-help influencer, sorry, I've been saying. But like advice and prop and- Right, she's a lifestyle. And she really blew up during the pandemic. Totally.

And she did the unique thing of, here's your starter pack as a mom in Palo Alto, which was very clever. And a lot of people have kind of copied that formula for different things. She's clever. And now she's done her own thing. And now she does original work, which I think is important to note for our purposes here today. Right.

You know, and then there are people who don't like tanks. I don't care if you like tanks. I don't care if you like Tinks, I don't care if you don't like Tinks, but I think she's an interesting person and she was worthy of a profile. And also it kind of speaks into this larger conversation about influencers and what fame really is in this age. And you know, she leads a glamorous lifestyle.

Like we ate at the Ivy. You know, and I wrote, I did all of the tropes you're talking about, you know. I wrote about, she ordered the crab salad, I did all that. So. Okay, good. She is represented by the same PR agency

that represents Jay. They ask, ask why Jay's new book was coming out in either late 2022 or very early 2023. So either, you know, December 2022 or January 2023, he was going on a big book tour for it. So they say, hey, we really like what John did with the Tink's piece. We know he's in LA.

Will he cover the LA portion of Jay's book tour? My editor brings this to me. She says, are you available to do this? I was like, oh, that's kind of interesting. And my original idea for the piece, again, did not know who Jay Shetty was. I don't really follow this kind of pseudo spiritual wellness space that closely. I'm not against it per se, although I do think

there are some structural problems that need to be uncovered as evidence here. But I was kind of interested in exploring it because the mainstreaming of mental health and now it's being kind of combined with this spiritual element is fascinating to me because now when you combine the two together, you never really have to answer for either one.

Because if you dismiss it, you're like, oh, for either one. Mm, yeah. If you dismiss it, you're like, oh, well, that's just a bunch of, you know, new age spiritual mumbo jumbo. You could be like, well, no, well, I reference all of this empirical psychological research that's very kind of based in science. And so you can point to that and that kind of gives it some legitimacy. But if you say, well, okay, so then, if you start to dive into the scientific part,

then you could just be like, well, it's spiritual, and it's not really subject to scientific inquiry, right? So it kind of straddles both of these lines, and there's just not a lot of accountability there. Okay, so. That was my original kind of take. Oh, that was your take, yeah, okay. And also, and Jay was just kind of an entry way

to talk about the mainstreaming of these topics. And you know, when I was growing up, going to see a psychiatrist, going to see a psychologist was kind of stigmatized. And now, just all of these psychological terms are just thrown around in everyday conversation. Gaslighting, narcissism. Trauma, you know, people just-

Trauma dump, yeah, yeah. Right, exactly. These things are mainstream in a way that I never could have anticipated. So that- I just have to say, I just heard an ad on like regular radio in LA that was like, did you grow up in LA? I swear it was California or LA and are suffering from toxic trauma. Toxic trauma. But it wasn't like, it wasn't like, you know, were you working at, you know, this lock eat or whatever and we were in a lawsuit, but it was like, did you grow up

in LA and you're just like, toxic, toxic trauma? Did you drink the trauma water? And I'm like, well, probably I grew up in LA. Am I feeling toxic? But it's, yeah, it's this kind of thing. But okay, continue. Right, so I go and that's kind of what my original take is. I have lunch with Jay.

We do the interview over lunch. We're at Oceana in Santa Monica. Very nice. The hotel there, yeah. And then we kind of split. His show was in the evening. We split for the afternoon and then I went to the show. And it was during the show that,

my suspicions had kind of been raised. I read his book. His book was bad. Is this his second book? How many books does he have? Yeah, this was his second book. I actually read his second book first. So I had been working on some other deadlines

and was not able to read both of the books. But I did what the understanding was like, all right, I'll read the second book because that's what we're covering here. And then I'll go in and fill in the gaps, I'll read his first book, which is his kind of like introduction to the world, Think Like a Monk, that's his memoir.

And I'll read that afterwards. So I read his second book first. And I was kind of unimpressed because here's this guy who markets himself as a monk, as a spiritual leader and yet so little of what was in the book pertained to his experience as a monk. I was like, well, if that's his origin story, if that's his basis for his authority, where is it?

Why isn't it in the book? It's all just pop psychology. That's just taken from all these other sources and put in the book, which I'm not against. I read a lot about psychology. I'm fascinated by what makes people tick and how they interact with each other. So that's why I was able to clock it very easily as like,

oh, these are all subjects that have been heavily covered by countless other people. Again, with the mainstreaming of mental health and psychology. So I was like, that's a little bizarre. It's kind of unoriginal, which, you know, not a crime, but sure, fine.

But then I go to the show and I was, there was some off-putting moments of the show. Like what? He started the show with a rap, like a spoken word performance. By himself? Yeah. Oh, he did it.

Jay's original aspiration was to be a rapper. Yeah. Interesting. His idol, I believe, is Eminem. So in... Yeah. Okay. All right. And apparently, when he was a teenager, he kind of, you know, like the London, the

term in London would be like a rude boy, like somebody who, Because he grew up in London. Right. Somebody who traffics and kind of like gangster urban aesthetics. You know, that, you know, kind of interesting for somebody who came from a traditional Indian family. But so he wanted to be a rapper. And actually in the investigation, we found a video of him rapping on stage at a Hare Krishna event when he was a teenager. Before he claims to have ever had any kind of background

in spirituality. So he's like, oh, my first introduction was going to this thing, not, and you know, and when I was 16, coincidentally, I was able to do a rap, but he never said that. Right. So Jake... That's, to me, that's very weird.

As someone who has written memoirs, shared everything about my life, and especially on this podcast, that's what I was trying to convey when I just covered yours for a little bit on it, that no, that is wrong. If your whole career is kind of sharing about yourself and being authentic, and then we find out that, the stories that we were told are not totally right or not true or not in the actual, the timeline changes, that tells me a lot about the person.

And you bring up an interesting point. Some of the reactions I've gotten is like, well, what does it matter? Yeah. I like the content Jay's shared. It's been meaningful to me. I don't want to take that away from anyone. Jay shared something new that's resonated.

Yeah. That's great. That feeling that you felt is just as real. Right. But when people try to make this separate the art from the artist argument, which is something I genuinely agree with, Kanye West is one of my favorite musicians.

Michael Jackson, if you're shopping at the mall and you hear Pretty Young Thing, are you gonna like immediately run out of Nordstrom because you saw Leaving Neverland? And I believe that doc, I've always believed that about him. I never choose to play that music, but yeah, if I'm someplace and it's playing, do I find myself bopping to it?

Yeah. Fair, totally a fair comparison. The difference is that with Jay, there isn't that separation between art and artists. He is selling himself. He is the product. Everything is about him and funnels into him and his backstory.

So once that backstory comes into question, what are we left with? That's the question. That would be my response to people who make that defense of Jay. So you're at the show. It starts out with a fun rap that he does. Yeah, kind of like a spoken word style performance. And then the first segment that I kind of looked sideways at was that he asked a crowd who's like,

who has trouble putting down their phone? And of course, you know, everybody. Right. He invites, he was like, so has trouble putting down their phone? And of course, you know. Everybody. Right. He invites, he was like, so would someone like to come up on stage? This young woman comes up on stage, she talks about, you know, how she's trying to get better about leaving her phone around. He's like, well, you know, putting your phone down.

He's like, well, so to demonstrate this, we're gonna put you in this sensory deprivation chamber. And he kind of brought a literal black box out onto the stage and Put noise-canceling headphones on her and then just had her sitting there and we watched her from a live feed like on The project is just to sit there by herself like she's like her thumbs a Little doesn't get to watch the show or anything. She has to just be like that. For like 10 minutes or so. Okay. Very weird.

A little bizarre. And not really fair to the person that just thought they were gonna get to maybe do a Q and A with him in a sense. Now they're in this thing. I don't recall him telling her that she would be on a live feed. Right.

To the rest of the audience. Maybe they discussed it in hushed tones on the stage, but I don't remember him asking it. If it happened, I didn't hear it. So then later on, late in the show, the show was three and a half hours, by the way. It had an intermission. Did everyone come back after the intermission?

For the most part, I saw it, yeah. Because I was there with press, I was sitting among the other VIPs. So it was just kind of a who's who of everyone who operates within this space. Again, not people I know, but the woman I sat next to was like, oh, there's Lewis Howes and all these other wellness luminaries and podcasters.

So toward the end, again, he asked kind of a general question, he was like, who here is having trouble with a relationship in their life? Again, it can apply to everyone. Invites this other woman onto the stage, she tells this story about how she's been estranged from her brother for years, haven't talked in years, and Jay has her call him on the stage.

First call goes to voicemail, Jay takes the phone out of her hand, ends the call and immediately calls back. And instructs her, she was like, this time if it goes to voicemail, I want you to leave a message. Again, in front of an audience of, I wanna say close to 3,000 people,

who's at the YouTube theater in the kind of SoFi complex. And we'd listen to this woman give a very heartfelt, difficult message to her brother, whom again, hasn't talked to in years, a very kind of intimate personal moment shared with 3,000 of your closest friends. And there's no question that maybe this wasn't a plant. I did not get that impression.

I mean, it's impossible, sure, but just the way these women behaved seemed. Authentic. Right, and there was nothing, especially kind of theatrical about it. Yeah. That would make me think that. But a bunch of people have asked that

because I know in shows similar like these, that's not uncommon to have a plant. So when that was happening, when the woman was leaving the voicemail, I distinctly remember the woman, two seats to my right in the audience, she audibly said, this is mortifying. It was just, again, kind of an off-putting energy.

Other friends of mine that I know who were at that were, they came in big fans of Jay Shetty, they came in, big fans of Jay Shetty. They left, not so big fans of Jay Shetty. They just, in general, the atmosphere and the ambiance of the event kind of put them off. So I was, you know, I was just like, well, so what do we know about this guy? You know, he writes this book, it's pretty unoriginal.

He has a stage show that's kind of Tony Robbins-esque in its execution. And there was another incident before, so Jay monetizes every single aspect. I mean, Nickel and Dimes every single part of the way. Give us some examples. So he charged something like $300 for a VIP package, which meant you got to attend a Q&A before the show

that included a meditation session, and then you got to meet Jay afterward and do a meet and greet, and get two minutes, shake his hand. Pretty, you know, it's a nice chunk of change. But during the Q and A beforehand, I remember this woman asked a very, what I thought was a very poignant question.

So again, he has this book, Eight Rules of Love. It's all about relationships and how to improve your relationships. No one ever bothered to ask why a monk who took a vow of celibacy would be an authority on relationships. He took a vow of celibacy would be an authority on relationships. He took a vow of celibacy with celibate during the assignment of the monk

and then married the first girl he started dating once he left the ashram. So this woman asks about non-monogamy and she was like, what are your thoughts on different types of non-monogamous relationships, be they poly or monogamish or stuff like that, which I thought was a very pointy question. Especially for today.

Totally, I mean, the definition of how a relationship can be in its various forms is kind of being brought into question and a lot of people are trying to redefine that. And Jay didn't really have an answer for her. He just kind of spoke in circles. He's like, well, you know, you have to talk with your partner and communicate

and find out what works with you. Again, very generic, nothing very substantive. So I went home and over the next few days I was like, all right, well, what do we know about this guy? And I found all this information that, you know, inspired me to take up this investigation. So what was some of the things you found out that were put out there by him that you found

were not accurate? The thing that really inspired me to take this up was this video by Nicole Arber. If you know who she is. Yes, I mentioned that part of your article on my show. I mean, this was so... It's like 2017 or something, wasn't it? Or 19? if you know who she is. Yes, yes, I mentioned that part of your article on my show. I mean, this was, so. It's like 2017 or something, wasn't it?

Or 19? I'm gonna say 2019. Okay, 19. 2020, that she put out this video very explicitly showing that Jay was a serial plagiarist and that his social media fame was fueled by taking other people's content and pawning it off as his own.

Yeah. And again, this had been out there for, I'm gonna say three years at the time. Per video, and she was very popular. Per video. Yeah. And the one thing that I don't understand is that so many other publications wrote all of these glowing profiles of Jay,

and a lot of this information that I found was just out there. Yeah. It was just ready for the taking. It just took somebody to kind of put it all together. Yeah. And then- It's weird how some things,

something can be so small and it really catches like a wildfire. Right. And every, and there's so, people are angry and they're doing their own videos and they're this per, and you know, and then this, and then something like this, it's like why did so few people care? I do not understand.

I think, well, actually I do know, because when I was pitching this around, a lot of editors told me, like, so what's a big deal? You know, he's another self-help guy whose backstory might not entirely check out. You know, there's another self-help guy who whose backstory might not entirely check out, you know there are a lot of people that Have embellished or you know Embellish their credentials or resume. What does it matter?

To which I say well Just as a general principle, it's not good to Lie about who you are Um not calling j a liar. I'm just saying is a general principle if somebody misrepresents who you are. Not calling Jay a liar, I'm just saying, is a general principle. If somebody misrepresents who they are, that's not a good thing. But it takes on an entirely different dynamic

when you build an entire business around those claims. Jay's life coaching school was taking seven grand for people for a life coaching certification that was based on some really dubious claims. And we can get into those details later. But when you're doing that, when you're taking. Let's just talk about the life because we're on it and then we'll go back. Sure. So explain. Right.

But when you're taking people's hard earned money, right. Material harm being done, you know, and I'm not saying people have to stop supporting Jay, but I think you should have all the facts about who this person is before you fork over, you fork over your dollars. So one thing we revealed in the investigation, and I have to credit my editor at The Guardian, Sam Wolfson, for really pushing me to explore this, because at first I saw the Life Coaching School,

and it kind of smelled like an MLM. Yeah, multi-level marketing, yeah. But it's, right, or as some people would say, a pyramid scheme. But, you know, for whatever reason, that didn't interest me as much as getting into his backstory. I just want to say, I've covered MLMs a lot, and I don't remember, but somebody wrote me,

and they're like, Heather, I'm telling you, and this was probably six months ago, this life coaching thing is going to be the new scam that's uncovered because it is out of control. Who's hiring all these life coaches? I don't know one person who, I actually I know one person who was a realtor who hired a realtor life coach like five years ago. Other than that, I don't really know. I do have a friend who kind of created

her being a divorce coach. Interesting. And I thought, and I think that her name's Alex Caphorner and I know her and I think, and I thought it was genius and I had her on my show. Sure. Because I'm like, it's a woman that's been through it and they can kind of not being an attorney

help you with all the things that you're not gonna spend $300 crying to your attorney about. She's gonna be like, hey, get these things and maybe you even meet with her before you let your husband know, whatever. I thought, now that's something valuable. And a personal trainer is valuable. And if it's like a specific business,

even like a realtor life coach that's like, okay, how many cold calls did you kind of force you to go door knocking, whatever. But in general life coaching, I don't really get it. And I don't get who's doing it. Yeah. And I'm not against coaching. Yeah. You know, in the general sense, I've had coaches in my life, I've had mentors in my life, I

had journalism mentors. But if a coach, like a divorce coach, who's been through a very specific experience, and is offering you advice about a specific area that they have expertise in, that is something different than a life coach. What authority does this person have on life? What authority does anybody have on telling you how to live?

And I found this series found a series of YouTube videos by this guy who was going through the Jay Shetty program. And he talked about how he wanted to be a life coach because he had failed in all of his other business endeavors. And it just struck me, I was like, well, why? Why would I hire someone that wasn't successful? Like it's one thing too to like, well, why? Why would I hire someone that wasn't successful? Like it's one thing too to like, yeah, you're paying someone. And there are people that are really successful

and they're like, I'll pay you $500 just to talk to me for 20 minutes because I need your, yeah, you're right though. But just someone that has no, like they're not successful financially or romantically or personally or anything. And now you're gonna, and that person thinks that they're gonna take this course and then be able to get 20 clients and make 500,000 a year? It's part of this cultural thing now

where everyone just thinks they're gonna be a millionaire doing as little work as possible. Totally. Whether it's crypto or- Podcasting. Yeah. Crypto or just like, you know, with the stock market craze when all the meme stocks were going crazy.

Everyone thinks they're gonna be the one who like has the secret and they're gonna, you know, work from their laptop beside a pool in Bali and doing this fake email job that somehow- So true. Somehow pays them, you know, 200 grand a year to live this lavish lifestyle. And life just isn't like that.

I mean, by virtue of my job as a journalist, I've interviewed a lot of successful people. By and large, successful people are talented and hardworking and they did it for years before they broke through. It's not, they didn't take shortcuts. So true. Okay, so getting back to't take shortcuts, you know? So true. Okay, so getting back to you,

start to investigate the life coaching thing. Right, so in his marketing materials, Jay claimed that the Jay Shetty Certification School, which is his online life coaching certification program, was connected to various universities in the UK. He named four universities by name. And essentially was telling these people that by completing the Jay Shetty certification school.

For seven grand. For $7,400. I actually got on a call with one of the enrollment advisors who is a salesperson. It's a person working 100% commission-based sales job, which I think is telling, you know. That person has no incentive to tell you, hey, you're not right for this, you know.

Don't sign up for this. Their entire incentive is to get you to sign up. Right. Their compensation depends on it. So that was a problem. So like you could call and you could say, like I live in a cabin 200 miles away from any other living being, and I actually don't have internet,

but I'm thinking I take this course, could I be a life coach? And they would be like, yes, you can. I can't say, I don't want to speak in hypotheticals. But possibly, yeah. It's possible, sure. If they have evidence that they have turned people away, I would like to see it.

Because in speaking with people who have gone through the Jay Shetty Certification School, people who've reached out to me after the article published, they got the sense that they were told it was going to be an exclusive group with small working groups and very hands-on. They got the impression that they just let anybody in who was willing to pay.

Did they ever let people, did they ever say, we help you get clients or anything? There is a portion of it where they help you. They say, yes, we will help you market. To procure clients? Not that directly. They say they will help you market your life coaching school. And then they give you tactics to do online marketing and kind of build up this business of your own.

So the one thing is he says, we're associated with these four universities and you found that to be what? Every single one of the four universities say, we have no idea who Jay Shetty is or why we aren't included in his marketing materials. There is no affiliation between our organization and theirs and we want our names taken off the marketing materials.

And all those names have since been removed. So your article came out. Yes. Interesting. OK, so there's that. Right. He also claimed it was accredited by a governing body that's based in the UK. And that governing body also said that the language on Jay Shetty's Shetty's website as it pertains to them was inaccurate and misleading and that they wanted their name removed as well. And has their name been removed too? Yes.

But right now it still exists. I could still have paid seven grand and joined, 7,400. Far as I know. Okay, but not, but from before this published, those people were all on it and now they're gone. Correct, yeah. Okay, so, and all right, what else? Talk about the monk situation. Okay, so Jay's, again, in, you know,

when my suspicions were raised, well, so the plagiarism thing, I saw the- About all the, like, so he would do these videos and, you know, he is good looking, he has an English accent, which makes Americans always think people that have an English accent are smarter than us. Piercing green eyes, like nice cheekbones, he's handsome. It's a very nice package.

And so he would be saying these quotes and philosophies and, you know, like one of the most famous quotes of someone that I think is a great one to live with and we always were told Maya Angelou came up with this and I believe that she has, I don't think there isn't, is when somebody shows you who they are, believe them. I remember Oprah having her on it and that is something I quote people.

That's a Maya Angelou quote? That's what I believe to be true. That's what I remember watching Oprah, her interviewing her, her saying it, and then it kind of going on, you know, just like I believe Oprah was the first to be like, what's your aha moment? So whenever I say, as Oprah would say,

what was your aha moment to know that you should leave this person, whatever. So I think then sometimes people, but if all of a sudden we saw, it was like if we saw a video with Jay saying, you know, when somebody shows you who they are, believe them, and he's selling it like he came up with that himself,

that is what was going on. With lots of philosophical and spiritual and inspirational quotes and theories, okay. He would take a tweet that some kind of, just random Twitter user and kind of put out and repurpose it on his Instagram to make it appear as though it was a Jay Shetty original. No credit given.

I would say even, he still does this to this day where he takes people's social media posts, repurposes them. He doesn't take a screenshot of the post and then post that. He puts them in his own format with the credit to that person, but it's still kind of a gray area. Yeah, like if I sometimes do the inspirational quote, I do that, I just do the thing, and then it goes to my stories,

and it's their thing. Totally. But he does it without, you know, because I interviewed some people. I was like, hey, I saw that your quote had been repurposed on Jay's channels. Did he talk to you about this? All the people I talked to said they had never heard from Jay

or anyone from his team. They didn't give him permission, and they didn't get compensation. He did credit them. He did tag them. But is that the right thing to do? give him permission and they didn't get compensation. He did credit them, he did tag them, but Yeah. Is that the right thing to do?

People have different feelings about that. I think at his level, no, it's not, in my opinion. But the plagiarism thing really stuck out to me because it is so easy to get caught for plagiarism on the internet. I mean, all you have to do is put the two posts side by side and there are timestamps there and it can very clearly be an indication

that someone lifted someone else's content. So my thought being, why would someone of this stature engage in those type of tactics? And if they were willing to do that, what else are they being potentially dishonest about? Isn't that really pinging my radar? And I personally also, you're an online creator. It's tough to make a living as a creative professional.

So that somebody would take somebody else's content. I mean, I've had standup jokes stolen. I've had bits of my standup that shortly after it, like within months after my special went out, I saw a whole scenario acted out on a major sitcom Wow, they didn't didn't act out and yeah Like I told the story and it really did happen to us and my kids were watching the show and they were like mom And on this particular show we it would happen like three times

Wow, did you pursue any no? Because I know how hard it is and I know that it's not worth it and I know that the world doesn't care. And then in this business, then it might make you appear to be problematic. And just like Louis CK didn't want those two girls to get writing jobs because he was afraid they would share the story of when he masturbated

in front of them. People will just wanna keep you out of the rooms so that you don't share an unflattering story about them. So it's like that, it's not as direct as people think it is in this business. Totally, and I think a lot of people have the mindset. I'm like, well, it was just a few memes that Jay lifted, or in your case, you know, it's just a little joke.

Like, they think these jokes are just floating around and just get plucked out of the air. I mean, you put thought into it, and you have to brainpower, you spent some time refining those bits, I'm sure. It took effort, and I don't think people always recognize that. So then, after the plagiarism stuff,

I found all of these Reddit threads and some on Quora from people saying they were from Jay's religious community in London and that his story didn't check out. So what was his story and what didn't match? Jay's story is that he was not interested in spiritualism until he was a freshman at Cass Business School in London. The name has since changed to Bayes Business School. And then one day he gets dragged to a lecture given by a monk and this lecture just completely changes his life. He's so in awe of this monk and the wisdom and just the holy energy radiating from this

guy that it completely changes his life and he goes on to pursue a life of spiritualism. After he graduates, spends three years in an ashram in India, he decides to leave because his calling is to use his gift as a speaker to share wisdom with the world. That's his origin story. And we began looking into that and we found what we found. Which is? Well, first of all, that epiphany that he experienced at the lecture comes into question. So what I found is that I read both of Jay's books,

I read the other book as well. Literally the first line of his book is that when I was 18 years old, I attended this lecture, right? That's the first line of the introduction to the book before even the first chapter. Okay. The problem with that is, is that Jay now says that it happened when he was in 2007.

Jay wasn't 18 when he was in 2007. Jay and I are just a month apart in age. We were both born in 1987. In 2007, he would have been at least 19 years old. If not 20, he would have turned 20 that year. So the book says 18, his official story that he gave us now through his attorneys that it was in 2007.

He couldn't have been 18 in 2007. The math just doesn't work. And then in all these, you know, before we even went to his attorneys and all these other interviews, he said sometimes he was 18, sometimes was 19, sometimes he was 21, sometimes he's 22. Again, this is... Oh really? Yeah. See, to me, as someone who has shared and written about my childhood, college times, everything, there is no, you know how fucking old you were when you were a freshman in college or how old you were when you graduated in college. You know how old you were. He's not 95 trying to recall.

It is whatever he is, 40. Like, but so I'm like, I call it, yeah, that to me says a lot. Yeah, he's 36. And again, this isn't like a stray minor detail. This is what he describes as the single most transformational experience of his life. It changed the trajectory of his life irrevocably.

It changed everything. And you know, when somebody- And he can't remember when it happened. When somebody has the opposite, when somebody has something traumatic happen to them, they remember everything. Like they remember I was wearing this, I had this for breakfast,

this was the last thing I said to my mom. You know, if something horrible happens, like the day their brother died, whatever. You remember that for years and years and years. So you would remember this the same way, in my opinion. Yeah. And I can't find any record that this lecture even occurred. I asked Cass Business School,

their records don't go back that far. So you don't even, oh, so they don't know. Okay, all right. There's no, yeah, confirmation that happened. Theoretically could have occurred. But even more so than that, Jay's story that he didn't have a spiritual life, so he always tells people that that was his first time

he's ever met a monk. He told that to Ari Emanuel, the head of William Morris Endeavor, which I don't know if your viewers will know, is the single most high-powered talent agency in Hollywood. Jay is wrapped and backed by the elite of Hollywood, the most powerful people in this industry. But even that story comes into question

because we found proof that he had been a part of ISKCON, the International Society for Christian Consciousness, or the Hare Krishnas, since he was 14. He grew up in a religious organization. So he couldn't have possibly not met a monk until he was 18 or 19 or whenever it was. And we have video evidence showing him at various events attended by other monks that occurred before he claims that lecture. That moment. Yeah. Mm.

Okay, so now you're finding this all out while you're writing this article for Esquire. Well, so when I initially found all these red threads, I went back to Esquire and I was like, hey, I know you wanted one thing, but I think we might've stumbled onto something else entirely here. And, you know, again, Jay's people have tried to brand me

as somebody with a vendetta against Jay. Again, didn't know who Jay was before I got this assignment. But I'm not gonna sit here and pretend like I'm not an ambitious reporter. When I get a juicy scoop, right, exactly, I'm gonna pursue it. And this was, you know, and I told them, I was like, this is a scoop

that doesn't come around very often. Right. And I was like, I'm not sure this guy's story checks out. And so I sent them, you know, I sent them the Nicole Arbor video, I sent them another YouTube video by a different YouTuber named Kia, Kia's World. She does great YouTube, she's a journalist by trade,

but does this incredible YouTube channel breaking down the wellness industry if you're in it, the various people in it. So I sent them all that. I sent them these various Reddit threads and what little I had found about these inconsistencies in Jay's timeline. And Esquire killed the piece right then and there. And they were not interested in turning what was supposed to be a fluffy profile into an investigation. Now what I said when I saw that part of the story was I was like, this is what you people want to really know. There is an elite power thing that happens in Hollywood and it's not worth it to them to piss off these people

and then not have any more clients from them, not done it, pissed them, it's not worth it for this one article or issue. And, but, so that happened. So then what did you do? Well, I think it's important to note that Jay's publicity agency also represents Matthew McConaughey, who was on the cover of Esquire in fall of 2022, just a couple a few months before I got this this assignment. And they don't even need to make a thread. It's just kind of understood,

you burn one of our clients, we're gonna revoke access to your others. I mean, that's just how the celebrity media game works. And so, as far as editors know that, again, they need access in order for them to put out a magazine in order for their publication to work. I mean, this is all stuff that's kind of hidden to the average viewer, but they will never know.

So, sorry, what'd you? But you know, that's what I honestly, just to make about me again, but that's what I love about doing this and that it is successful because I have such loyal listeners and people that come see my show, is because I've had people that maybe aren't comfortable talking like that on my show or don't wanna share something

or like we gotta keep it light because I'm so dependent on these powerful people putting me in their movies and their specials and this and that. Totally. What I kinda love is when I realize like I've got nothing to fucking lose. Yeah. And it is so fun and freeing.

Cause I'm like, oh, was I up for something I didn't know about and now this episode's gonna come out and they're gonna be like, cut Heather McDonald, she's a bitch that talked about Jake Shetty. Good, it's not gonna change my lifestyle. Yeah, but you know, there is a calculus there. I mean, there have been times where I've interviewed someone and they've said something interesting

and they've asked me to not include it in the article. Right, I understand that part. And I haven't included it because- Right, I do that too. It did not seem worth it to tarnish their reputation. Right, right, of course. This seemed worth it for me to pursue. Okay. 100%.

Okay, so you hear this and you're like, what? Fuck that, I'm gonna get this story out, what? I mean, kinda. Yeah. You know, again, I don't have any exclusivity with Esquire. Right. I'm a freelancer, I work on a project basis. So I told him, I was like, you know,

I'm gonna pursue this elsewhere, and I hope you know that. And, you know, I am free to do that. And so. So was The Guardian the first place you went? No, I went to to do that. So was the Guardian the first place you went? No, I went to some other places. And did some other people say, we don't want to touch this piece of shit? This got some stink on it that we're scared of? Yeah, and especially because Esquire had killed it,

that kind of tainted it in some people's eyes. And I understand why Esquire did it. I'm actually really kind of upset that this backstory has kind of been dragged into it. I love Esquire. Esquire was a magazine I grew up reading. I was literally a dream come true the first time I wrote for Esquire,

and to write for them, contribute to them frequently. I mean, that's all I wanted to be when I was a kid. I wanted to be a writer for Esquire. I adored that magazine, and I still do. The only reason we had brought it up is that it became very apparent that Jay's team was gonna try to use that information to discredit me and discredit the story. So we felt like we had no choice but to get ahead of it.

And, you know, when I went to Sam Wolfson, the editor at The Guardian, and I told him, I was like, look, there's this bizarre origin story behind this. We felt like we had no choice but to get ahead of it. And when I went to Sam Wolfson, the editor at The Guardian, and I told him, I was like, look, this is bizarre origin story behind this article that I'm looking into. And I tried to be very transparent with him. So I didn't want it to be like this,

but it felt like our hand was forced. So what other things does your article reveal that you can share? So also as a part of Jay's backstory is that he claims that he moved to India after he graduated. And we found, and that he was in the ashram there, ashram is the Sanskrit term for monastery,

essentially for this branch of Buddhism, or this branch of Hinduism, excuse me. But we found a bunch of information, first-person accounts from people who were in London who say, you know, Jay was not in India for that period of time. He spent the vast majority of his time in Watford, which is a town outside of London.

He was at the ashram there. We found newsletters, kind of like- And would the reason to say I was in the monastery in India versus the monastery in London is because it's just a more authentic, it sounds like more real or like he's less fancy or like why would you lie about. Because I think in the mind of white Westerners

who aren't familiar with Hinduism. That's what I'm saying. It seems more real or something more special. Right. This idea that you were in the mountains of India, you know, studying these ancient spiritual texts is a very compelling narrative, right? What's a more compelling narrative? You know, I wasn't interested in spiritualism.

I had this epiphany because this one holy man comes to speak with me and then I follow him to India and learn from him for three years in an ashram in India. Or yeah, I grew up in this religious organization. My family was part of it and I kind of came around when I was 18. And then joined the monastery outside of London. Yes. For a couple years. Yeah. The monastery, it's called Bhakti.

Got it. Okay, now I see what you mean, okay. It's called Bhakti Vedanta Manor. It was actually gifted to the Hare Krishna faith by George Harrison. Got interested in the group. And then bought them a monastery to live in. Right, bought them this huge, sprawling mansion

in this huge estate. Wow, okay. And kind of gifted it over to the church. So there was that, yeah? There was that. I'm trying to think what else. And then when the celebrity stuff came about, like he married J.Lo and Ben, right?

Yes, he officiated their wedding, yeah. And that's when I first started to hear about him, was when people were like, oh, Jay Shetty, Jay Shetty does so great, and starting seeing him at being guests on podcasts. And I was like, oh, yeah, OK, whatever. I didn't really know much either until this article. And then, of course, I was fascinated.

Yeah, he was heavily pushed by Facebook. When Facebook was trying to make itself a competitor to YouTube, it was paying people to create original content, and they would literally bring Jay on stage for industry events, for people who work in the media industry, who work in advertising, who work in publishing, and also for other creators and be like,

look at Jay Shetty, he's earning millions of dollars on the platform. You could be like him, if you worked with us, there were live events where they brought him on stage and kind of use him as this shining example of what can be done on Facebook. He was promoted by them. He was promoted by members of his own religious community.

So Jay was the head of the youth group within the Hare Krishna faith. When he was how old? I think when he was like 18. Oh, okay. But he had incredible stature within there. And so what other people who talk to me anonymously for this article told me is that when Jay decided he wanted to, you know, become a public persona and pursue

this career as a media figure, he would have members of the youth group and just members of the religious organization just spamming people nonstop with his content. And that kind of initially kickstarted his rise to social media fame. And then I found out a lot about the religious organization itself which has, you know, I imagine you grew up in LA? Yes. Okay, so you remember the Hare Krishnas? Yeah, I feel like I used to see them. Yeah, why did they go away in their orange outfits? Los Angeles made it illegal for them to panhandle at LAX. They're not allowed. There's an ordinance that they're not.

Like in the movie Airplane? Yeah, totally. They're featured in the movie Airplane. Yeah. Younger viewers will probably have no idea what we're talking about. And so once they couldn't panhandle, they just left LA? No, they're still here.

So the story of the Hare Krishna faith was in the late 60s, this old Indian man named Prabhupada wanted to bring this faith to the United States. Now, I wanna be clear, I've talked to a lot of people from this faith, good, decent people who feel as though J and other people in it have kind of sold out their religious traditions, which are as legitimate as any other religion.

They go back thousands of years, and they feel like J has kind of sold out their religious traditions for material gain. So I'm not against this group, you know, in general, but they do have a very controversial past. So- Which is what? Well, so this guy comes, he converts all these hippies in the late 60s.

In the 70s and 80s, they built communes all across the United States. Shave the head, wear the orange outfit. Right, shave the head, except for a small, like a small ponytail on the back of the head, which is protect a certain demon from sucking the soul out of the back of your head.

Okay. So have you ever seen Pulp Fiction? Yeah, yeah. You see how Ving Rhames' character has a bandaid on the back of his head? Oh, right. That's the implication is that, from this kind of ancient Hindu idea,

that someone has sucked his soul out and that's what's in the briefcase. Okay, okay. So that's why he needs to get the briefcase back so bad. Got it. A fun little pop culture. Hollywood moment, yeah. So Prabhupada dies, he was an old Indian man.

He passes away just from old age and it creates this kind of power vacuum within this organization that had grown to tens of thousands of members across the US. And again, these are all just white people who became enthralled with this man who was by every indication, by every indication, walk the walk, right?

And he was a legitimate holy man. He took this ancient Hindu religion, introduced it to these people, converted them. And these people, I mean, they're hardcore. They know caffeine, no meat, no sex outside of marriage for the specific purpose of procreation. I mean, it's a very orthodox heart provision. They slept on floors in these communes.

They would wake up at 5.30 every day and sing and dance and chant for two hours straight. I mean, that was their big thing, right? They would be in public chanting the Hare Krishna mantra. So he dies, it creates this power vacuum, and then things got really dicey. So especially in the commune in West Virginia in the hills of Appalachia, that was kind of their main one and that was going to be this new religious center. There were, you know, child sexual abuse,

corporal abuse of children within this faith. a lot of these kids, so these people that had converted, they ended up having kids, and these kids are grown in faith, they're sent to boarding schools in India, where they're beaten by, yeah. As young as five years old in some cases, they're beaten by their spiritual masters,

forced to have sex with them in some cases, girls married off to men twice their age and then on two occasions there was conspiracy to commit murder conducted by conducted by the church. So the one the man who would become the leader of the West Virginia commune a lot of people started questioning his authority because He was kind of a little emotionally mentally unstable and He ordered an assassination on two people two other devotees within the faith Who had been speaking out against him one in West Virginia and then one here in Los Angeles on?

Venice Boulevard in Culver City, like a mile and a half from where I live. And what year was this? This was in the 80s. Oh, wow. So there's a great Peacock documentary about it. Okay. Something. Yeah, if you just Google Peacock, Hare Krishna, it's called like Guru's murder

something. So Jay, but Jay just takes this as like, think like I'm on everyone and he's on Ellen DeGeneres and everyone's just like kind of loving that he's just taking the best parts of this and you're able to incorporate it in your everyday life. Yeah, but he never identified that this is the specific religious organization that he came from.

Jay would always just describe himself in these very kind of vague generic terms, like oh, I'm a Hindu monk. There are literally thousands of different traditions within Hinduism. I mean, there are different denominations within Christianity, but not that many. A lot of people would say even Hinduism

is kind of a misnomer because all these different traditions are so different from one another. Hinduism is this incredibly broad overarching term. He never said he was from, he grew up in again, did not have this spiritual epiphany at 18. I mean, maybe he did have a spiritual epiphany when he was 18, but he always leaves out the part that he had been going to these events when he was 14. Is there anything in you finding what made him think to change his origin story? Because it's actually pretty brilliant

until you get caught by a journalist. So like, you know, because I feel like the biggest thing that's going on right now is, you know, there's such a backlash against the Nepo baby, which has existed forever. And in every industry, quite honestly. Honestly, but like, so then you'd find the Nepo baby, which has existed forever. And in every industry, quite honestly. Honestly, but like, so then you'd find the Nepo babies now will try to say, I had to audition

and my dad didn't know I was auditioning and I had to take the train and whatever. And it's like a flex of like, I was poor. And I've joked about that a lot. Like just fucking, who doesn't matter? Like it doesn't, you know. So do you think, like, was there anything you found that maybe he got the idea of why not to tell his story

and why his story wasn't gonna be compelling enough to pop? Only Jay can answer that question. And I look forward to hearing his answer, which he has not addressed this article publicly. In fact, I think as we're recording this, I'm pretty sure he's giving a talk at South by Southwest, like literally right now. Uh-huh, interesting.

And I'll be very interested to see if he addresses this because it's been nearly two weeks now. And so in wrapping up, like, is there anything else that we wanna share besides everyone going to read this article for themselves and stuff? But like, what do you think is going to happen now? That's a good question. Jay's attorneys have been in touch with me and the Guardian. Can't really elaborate much more than that. But suffice to say, I stand by my reporting. I

think it's pretty rich with documentary evidence of everything we found. You know, we found Jay's old personal blog where he writes about his time in India and he says that he was there for only four months before he moved back to to London. So so then that that was the truth. The blog thing says four months, but other things say how long, three years, right? He said he had moved there and was there for three years, but he'd taken trips back. Okay.

And now it appears that from the evidence we gathered, it would appear that the opposite was true, that he was in Watford for the majority of time and took a trip to India. Well, the only interview that I listened to because I was into Jada Pinkett Smith and her book and that whole thing, and you know, I always found her to just be completely self-absorbed,

narcissistic, her red table talk all about it and just so, just pompous and know it all. So then she writes the book, you know, and I read the book. And so I'm like, oh, let me listen to this interview. talk all about it and just so pompous and know it all. So then she writes the book, you know, and I read the book. And so I'm like, oh, let me listen to this interview. And they are just kissing each other's ass and they've been friends and he's been on the Red Table Talk and, you know, just how close they are to each other. But in listening, and I'm listening to this,

and I was like, wait, is this guy a therapist? What is this? Oh, he's a spiritual advisor, whatever. And I'm like, but he's never, he, in it, he never makes her take accountability for anything. He was completely on her side of her narrative about anything. Everything that she said was, you know,

and she was mad at Will when, you know, Will wanted to throw her a birthday party and as everyone should be, because then the birthday party would be about Will throwing it and not her. And I'm like, how are you not just in a nice way being like, okay, but can't you see the other side? Nothing.

And that's when I was like, who is this guy? But I have listened to therapists be on personalities radio shows and they just wanna be invited back. And they, so, I mean, and I believe there's therapists behind closed doors that tell the Hollywood person what they wanna hear because they're paying $500 out of pocket and they don't want to lose that client.

I mean, you're not diagnosing cancer and then saying you don't have cancer. So it's like it's a very gray line of like, are you really doing your job or not? Because you're not going to tell this person that they're behaving poorly. Yeah. And there's, I have two responses to that. One is that Jay is very good at making people feel good about themselves. Both ordinary, everyday followers, people who know him through social media,

and big, high-profile celebrities. And you picked up on that. But also, with regards to Red Table Talk and all these people who lynchier their platform, this is what happens when celebrities and influencers replace real journalists as kind of arbiters of information in our public discourse. And if there's any reason I pursued this so aggressively,

it is because of that. We're living through this misinformation age. It's only gonna get worse with AI and this just tsunami of misinformation that's bound to come with us. So, if anybody takes away anything, it's just to be more thoughtful about where you get your information from.

I mean, I love that. Thank you so much. Tell everybody where they can follow you. Yeah, on Twitter, I'm just at McDermott, just my last name. And then on Instagram, I'm Johnny McD, J-O-H-N-N-Y underscore underscore MCD. It's long. Yeah. So now I would like to do a prediction of what I think will happen. Okay, you can predict whatever you want I I will abstain well You're gonna be just fine in life and continue to rock it and I don't know what your goals are

But like maybe get into the documentary world, whatever With him I think It won't really like nothing will really change for a minute, but it will be a different popularity or lack thereof in by spring of 25. It's gonna take a minute and people are not gonna want to open their eyes to it. But I think some people will still stick around,

but I don't think he'll gain a lot of new people. Some people won't leave, they'll still listen to a show. He's so big that it will be okay. It's not gonna like completely go away. But it's just, because I've seen this happen with other mommy type people, and everyone loves them and then they reveal it. Like I can't remember the woman's name right now,

but the one that did the video, and she just got her eyebrows done, and she's like got pissed at some comment and was like- Rachel Hollis? Yes, Rachel Hollis. And- Yeah, she definitely- She's still around. Traffics in similar circles as Jay.

Exactly, and she was someone that had, again, very similar to the story, didn't really have any real credentials to it, was a privileged white girl that got a job at Disney or whatever, met her husband. Yeah, her husband was a hotshot Disney executive. They got divorced and he has since left the earth. He was sick with something I think. Or did he end his life?

I thought he had a pretty serious addiction problem. It was addiction. It was addiction. Yeah. Which again, you know, they put on this face of having this. Of health and they had a whole thing of how to make your marriage Work and then they got divorced and but not to demonize what happened. He was battling demons. Right? I get everybody else. That's fine. Yeah, but when she did that video of

Yeah, I'm not regular. Of course. I'm not regular. I do this and then she compare herself to Harriet Tubman. Yes She said Harriet and it was like I believe she still has a podcast. I'm sure she's still making money. But before that video, she was doing the tours, the three day Tony Robbins type of events for thousands of dollars and thousands of people and merch. And she had like a huge staff and she and her husband, da da da da.

And then that happened, they got divorced. And like I said, I think she's still doing her thing to an extent, but it'll never be what it was. And that's kind of what I predict this to be. Well, we'll see, you know, I'm continuing to report on this. There was a lot of information that- I'm sure came your way after. Totally, that didn't make it into the article before

and a lot of information that I've received since, so. So do you think you'll do a follow-up article? Yeah, I think I'll do a follow-up article, yeah. Okay, well, any more stuff you wanna cover when it comes out, let's have you back. Yeah, I'd love that. And discuss that. This is great. And that'll be great.

So thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much, you guys. Remember, you go to heathermcdowell.net for all my cute merch, all my dates. I'll be at Palm Beach this weekend, like I said, on Friday and Saturday. Everything is there and you also can join my Patreon there, heathermcdowell.net. Only go to heathermcdowell.net for all of my tickets. Okay, thank you.