Pablo Torre Finds Out - Share & Rot & Tell with Mina Kimes

Episode Date: September 18, 2026

How do football and social media combust into the mainstreaming of old-school racism? Is sports media worse for women than ever? And should our brains go on strike? Plus: woke Karl Rove, MrBeast as Scorsese, a plea to Aaron Rodgers, sympathy for Vivek... and the Disney tour-guide celebrity draft board.• Subscribe to "The Mina Kimes Show featuring Lenny"• "I've Been an American My Entire Life" (The Dallas Morning News)• "Did Arch Manning, Steve Sarkisian and Cackling Reporters Act This Way? It Can't Be Real" (The Athletic)• "The Truth About Brain Rot: It's a Cry for Help" (The New York Times) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Pablo Torre finds out. I am Pablo Torre, and today we're going to find out what this sound is. And no kid ever got a playboy as a result. Right after this. My kid is at Disneyland today. How are you not there? It's like a joint birthday celebration for my son and then his best friend whose birthday is this week, Benji. But it's unfortunate because so like last year after the Super Bowl, I took them, they all

came because we were NFL live was at the suitbed at Disneyland after to do the MVP parade. Right. And I hooked them up with like the VIP tour guide. Oh god. Yeah, Elwood was like, can we have the tour guide today? I was like, unfortunately we cannot have the $10,000 tour guide every time. I have to like space out my ass. There's like in the back, there's a draft basically where all of the tour guys get to put

claims on celebrities. So if they show up, you. get to escort them. That's crazy. Who would be, if you were a Disney tour guide, who would be your number one celebrity draft pick that you'd want to give a tour of Disneyland to? Right, because it's not just like who do you like the best?

Who do you want to be on a line? Because they're with you. They're hanging out with you. Right. They spend all day with you. My go-to answer for this kind of question is always Marchant Lynch, but... That's a good one.

Yeah. Who also, you can just imagine. You want to be with someone who you know is going to have fun. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's scary. But you know he'd have fun there. Oh, my God. With the blast.

Yeah. I would, I mean, there's a whole New York Times Magazine article, which is incredible by John Jeremiah Sullivan also about, like, where you go and get stoned at Disneyland, at Disney World. I would like want someone who was, in fact. I wish you on the spot. Steve Balmer. Can you imagine pulling up, getting stuck. He pulls up. His family.

They take you, you know, behind the scenes through other like the secret hideaway. He gets out. He's just, I got to just cool off, spend a day with my family. The happiest place on him. And it's freaking Pablo Tori, has Disney tour guide wearing one of those little vests. With a pin.

What do you want to talk about today? There's so much that I could talk to you about. I want to talk to you about whether Aaron Rogers would come on this podcast. I think you would. I would like to make a plea for a second here. Talk to camera. You and Mina. I know, Aaron. Keep you out of food. I know. I know that you and me

have a thing. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not. I'm not. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not a part of that. Whatever that is, you and I have never talked. Mina Kimes, you know, had me to her house for a feature that I did. You know, like all these people were my friends in the media. And I would love to have you in the chair just to ask questions. It seems like you're in an answering mode. And pitch. That's your pitch. That's my pitch. open-minded, not here to, I'm not going to show up with like a bunch of files.

I promise that. He would probably want to get into some of the files. He can bring his documents. He'll say. He can bring documents. I mean, look, he's, he's one of us. He loves podcasting. He does love podcasting.

I think that's a safe thing to say. Has takes. A lot of takes. He has thoughts about where we are as a country. I have questions. about where we are as a country. I do want to start, though, I think, with football, with the internet.

Oh. And the state of Texas. I think we need to get back into what happened at Texas, Ohio State. Okay. And this is something that I think... Incredible comeback. Incredible comeback. Archmanning, redeemed, all that stuff.

And I think this feels chewed over, perhaps, because Twitter has processed it. But that's sort of what I want to talk about is the amount of content that came out of this. Out of this one game. Out of this one game. Out of stuff that wasn't even happening technically in the game. Which was a wild game.

It was like an amazing football game. 24, 23, unbelievable comeback. Yeah. And the culture war. I mean, this is sort of what it says about how popular football is, I guess. 100%. Yeah.

Like, I think we're going to continue seeing more hot, and culture war type stories, reactions, disputes, whatever, come out of sports events, precisely because of what you said, which is sports events are the most popular thing to watch in America, right? And the way the Internet now works is these algorithms will latch on to what is the thing that everyone is talking about, a football game,

and it'll be, again, other sports events. Okay, cool. And then what are the things we can spin out of that that they'd make everyone the angriest. So it's just like marriage of incredible popularity, mass appeal, and then divisive takes, reactions coming out of it. I want to start actually chronologically, I guess, because part of what happened,

and this is all about effectively Texas winning and things are happening as fans of Texas and the head coach are celebrating or trying to celebrate. And the dude who posts this, I had never heard of, I don't know if you had heard of at Bo French, who is the Republican nominee, to lead Texas's state railroad commission. Yes, I had never heard of it. But as I have learned, that's like a pretty big job in Texas. Apparently.

You regulate, like, the oil and gas industry. It's a big deal. But his focus on this thing was this photo that I think brings it to our doorstep as, I guess, broadly speaking, members of the Asian American community. It's around all of that. But also people who are wondering, like, oh, wait, sports was meant. to be a thing that allowed people to blend in. And here was Beau French, tweeting, quote, I heard UT graduation this year looked like this.

I didn't believe it. The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined. And the photo, which, if you haven't seen it, is a bunch of kids who are generally of South Asian descent wearing UT stuff. One kid's wearing a cowboy hat, as we have pointed out. Another one has a backwards cap. They are in this crowd.

like celebrating so inoffensively. Joyfully. And inoffensibly, it is like what you'd see, I guess, and this is his problem, it's what you might see in like the brochure. Yeah. And this was immediately, look at all these brown people. I found myself saying wow and I felt naive immediately after I said, well. Is the wow part, obviously it's repulsive and his reaction is repulsive.

And we'll get to that. But is the wow part more that an ostensibly like, public-facing official, you know, somebody, like a legit person. This isn't anonymous account on the internet hiding behind a statue avie or whatever. This is like a public person putting his name on this. And then you see it, you see people respond and say, this is disgusting. But then you also see it either minimized or cosigned because it's on the platform where hate propagates the fastest and is the most encouraged. Is that the wow part to you that like, it's not what is being said, that it's being said so nakedly

and that his own statement isn't being roundly just criticized. Well, it was also the, I thought this is what you guys, people who wanted assimilation, wanted. Right. They're wearing a cowboy hat.

I mean, I just can't get over. They are wearing the thing that it looks like when they are, they're following your playbook. And that's the part where I was like, wow. And then I remembered,

and this is where the reason I was like, I got to talk to me about this. It emerged because, Not only is this like an Asian thing and all that stuff. Do you remember the Jeopardy guy? This is the South Asian dude who thanked Alex Trebek for helping him learn English. Yes, yes, yes. I want to play this clip because this actually figures in in ways that made me say wow.

The new champion, 20,400 for Bert Tucker. Any family members back home cheering you on? You know, here's a true story. story, man. I grew up, I learned English because of you. And so my grandfather, who raised me, I'm going to get tears right now. He, I used to sit on his lap and watch you every day. So, this is a pretty special moment for me, man. Thank you very much. So I don't just bring this up because you're a Jeopardy Tournament of Celebrity Champion's champion. Michael Mooney, a PtFO correspondent in Texas, amazing magazine writer, reminded me of this. Bert Thacker,

you know what he does now? No. He is a, Frisco Councilman in Texas in one of these places that is apparently dealing with this very same strand of constant political argument about all of the Indians that are here. But the thing about Bert Thacker is that incredibly sweet clip, he's a Navy veteran, he is a Trump supporter, he is a councilman on the Maga side, and Texas Tribune reported that he has been sitting through council meetings where all of these speakers are just constantly warning about, quote, an Indian takeover. And it just makes me think about like, you think you're wearing the right outfit, you're saying the right things, you're voting the right way, you are literally

campaigning for the party that you think would accept you if you do all the things they are asking. And in fact, you are propagating whatever it is your personal philosophy is on that side of the aisle. and instead you're like reminded you're never actually going to be welcome here the post and it wasn't the only post by the way I saw some other post that was the one that got the most virality

because of the guy being a public figure but I saw a lot of posts circulating on Twitter shots of the student body with similar racist complaints it's awful that it's out there and I read an article in the UT News

student newspaper where they interviewed some of the kids in the photo and talked about how devastated they were because they were like, oh, it's so cool, UT's posting me, I'm at the game, this is amazing. And then you get returned to the internet, Twitter, whatever, and you see that. And these students were like, this is a reminder of like, it plays into my fears about never being well-coil. It was just horrifying and awful. But it's also, as you said, somewhat useful to have, like, the actual animus, like, laid so bare. Like, the post gives the game away, right? Which is, this was never, the anti-immigrant, anti-brown people sentiment is never about assimilation, as it purports to be this lack of assimilation. It's about just pure, just racism on

its face and saying it's not just that you, it's not that you actually won't integrate here. It's that you never should have been here in the first place. Well, it's the thing that, I mean, look, one of the things I love doing on the show, of course, is making fun of a fake Rumswamy, my classmate. And there are many reasons. to do so, and I will continue to do so, frankly. But the thing he's encountered as he runs for governor in Ohio is a version of this. He has tweeted some things that are about, you know, whatever. And I laugh at him for saying we don't respect Urkel enough.

It was one of his takes, and I think that's hilarious. But one of the things that he's facing over and over again in his mentions that he has talked about is just like the people that you'd think would be in his base. Yeah. Are just attacking him constantly. And that part of what it is to be on Twitter these days, Twitter as the Petri dish that unfortunately does influence. Whatever polling is done,

a lot of it effectively is happening on Twitter in your mentions. That's how people are making decisions, certainly at the highest levels. And there's just this, part of the wow that I said was just the perpetual, I think, underestimation of how much the South Asian population is used. So it is not merely like, my belief is that you should not be here. It's the I will use you. to demonstrate that you should be afraid and therefore you should vote for me.

And it's also just like the cynical part of it that's like, it's old school. Yeah. In a way where it's like, yeah, it is helpful to be just like, like this is textbook. It is textbook racism. And we're just like living.

It's old school, but people have always had these noxious beliefs. But the mainstreaming of it, the Twitter has a particular platform, but other social platforms is well. amplification of it, and the sense that it's actually more normalized now than it was 10, 20 years ago is kind of shocking. That's wow to me. I think what you're constantly wrestling with is just, are these incidents internet phenomena, or are they indicative of something in broader in society?

And it's very easy for me or it's tempting for me to say, no, this is just these platforms that have gotten increasingly work. and press their thumb on the scale to maximize bigotry. But the fact that we've got a public figure, and then there's this kind of room reaction to the AI clip story, makes you feel like this isn't just the Internet. Well, it's also, along those same lines, it's the question of, can we dismiss something that's just happening on the Internet? Yeah, right.

If the Internet is the thing that is actually driving real life in ways that we are constantly dealing with, because politics and media and sports all live online. And they specifically live on this platform. They live on the everything app. And so the whole thing with Holly Row for people who somehow miss this because your algorithm is mercifully different than ours. And God bless if this is how you were discovering this, because this also got chewed up

in process, but in ways that I think are worthy of our inspection here for a second. So Holly Roe is the ESPN sideline reporter. Steve Sarkeesian is the head coach of Texas. And Texas comes back and they win. and Sark basically blows her off. You know, he screamed, let's go Texas, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Let's out of hook him, walks away.

And Holly Row is visibly just like Miffed, walks off screen. And in the post game, this is what Arch Manning, the latest generation of Manning, the star quarterback of Texas, is asked and answered. I've seen a few AI edits of stuff,

but that's about it. I saw AI edit of Sarg's interview. you. You all see in that one? How's a good one? Of him slaving Holly Row. And look, the video that was AI generated is obviously AI generated

and not terribly complicated. It is Steve Sarkesian in that clip that played on TV instead of walking away, like winding up and slapping Holly Row who falls to the ground. That is the thing that Arch Manning found delightful for a time.

The laughs in the room are by far the most, to me, noteworthy part of all of this. Why? Because, and I'm not making excuses for him. I'm not calling him a kid. I know he's 22 years old or whatever. But, like, does it surprise you that 22-year-old, like a college football player?

Of course not. Not only is, like, consuming. Well, I guess it does surprise me that they think slop is funny because I'm like, this is not. Like, anyone who thinks that. Yeah, I want to talk to you about that too. That's wild to me. Setting that aside.

You know, you see that, you're like, it's a little surprising he's not more media trained to not say that at this point. And then to your point, like, this is a family that literally works in media, thrives in media, and has a history of having to deal with scandals around women in college. I've just seen a lot of college athlete,

football players in particular, give interviews in the draft process, or whatever, and they're often not a finished product. I understand his story makes it different, but all of us is to say that's, you know, I'm not, I didn't watch that and went, like, you know. Same. But the part that really was jarring to me, first of all, why was he asked about clips in the first place?

Insane question. Okay. Yeah. Imagine that clip again with no laughter. He wouldn't have kept going. imagine like him say y'all seeing whatever or like you know laughing or whatever like those are adults male laughs predominantly and like that cuts to kind of what we were talking about which is when we see these things on the internet and we wonder how real they are when you

see like a tweet like the one we talked about earlier from a public official oh my god that's a real person. When you hear the laughs, you're like, those are real people and it kind of gives you this feeling that this normalization of sentiments that you, frankly, you know, are regressive and we're not common even 10 years ago, suddenly feel more present than ever. I am somebody who, like I went to an all boys Catholic school, the idea that like we're going to make jokes. And again, he's 22 and not in high school, but we're going to make jokes and we know that it's naughty or whatever, right? We're going to get away with something that we know our mom doesn't want us to see our teacher.

The oldest thing in the book, I have zero surprise or find that necessarily jarring. But it is, to your point, the difference between we're going to do this quietly over here and we're going to do it in a press conference and we're going to post about it and we're going to put this into a public forum and we're going to laugh together about it. And that part, it's hard to be the person who's like, you shouldn't laugh at the thing that you want to laugh at that you know is wrong because you just feel like the teacher in the room. Yeah.

And you feel like you're scolding someone. And no one wants to feel like either the fun police or whatever. But I just find myself being like, do we really have to explain why this is a thing that we, why a video, AI generated or not, of an adult man, like slapping a woman to the ground, was ever a thing we had to, as a society again, decide maybe let's not laugh about this in public? Yeah, I think what was also just so crazy is the second I saw that, it was like, I already

know exactly how this is going to play out. Usual suspects will defend, he'll apologize, probably will graciously accept, and then the usual suspects will get angry again that there was an apology in the first place, instead of everyone just saying, hey, gosh, Wobbler made a mistake, you immediately owned up to it, move on. And it just sucks that we already know how these things will go every time. But I keep going back to those laughs, man. Can you, I guess, that sound is just so like, I don't know.

I think the reason why the laughs are so much more. sure, I don't want to say, like, jarring to me than the actual comment is the laughs are where, like you said, that's kind of the word the sea change has been. College, I keep saying college athletes have, I don't mean, again, I'm not trying to like juvenileize, you know, infanticize him or whatever. But like, like you said, young dudes have been saying and doing goofy stuff that they regret. Like, this is not new. I genuinely do feel like the reaction of adult men, like trying to bro out on that. That feels like of the moment.

It's a political party. It's a movement. That just feels like a pretty good encapsulation of the state of sports media, which is honestly significantly worse. And this is whatever. I say this. I don't like almost regret it because I don't want the usual aggregators to latch on. onto it and then it spirals into another blowback thing for women. But it's worse for women than

it's ever been since I started working in this field, which has been over 10 years at this point, which is wild. And you're not the only one who says that, who believes that. I mean, this is what, again, if you talk to your female colleagues in this industry, this is, again, most visible online, but it's also the thing that I keep on thinking about, like, what are our politics now as a country? And how is it that one party has risen to power on the back of catering to men who feel like they are being told that they can't say what they want to say. Like misogyny plays so well in the internet now that everybody's benefiting it from it, not everybody. But I think I think the logic for a lot of people is like, what's the harm? This is free speech. This is we get to laugh. You're telling us what's funny

or not. You're policing. Our thoughts. People are at home being like, I want to have fun. And I don't feel like I can. Whether or not that's actually enacted in their real life, that is the feeling from the hall monitors that they feel like they have to answer to. And that feels un-American. And I think it's like worth also emphasizing when we talk about like, no one's calling for cancellation here, right? No. If anything, people are like, hmm, probably going to want that one back. ooh how dare you like it's the

it's a small ask to be like can we just be a little ashamed of having done this thing in this way and laughed at it can't you just apologize and everyone move on no that's actually the apology is worse than anything you know it's just so tiresome and it's just endless

yes and meanwhile meanwhile suddenly Carl Rove is woke What do you say? Karl Rove had called Beau French a bigot at a private lunch event and said he's voting for French's Democratic opponent. And Donald Trump goes on truth social and says, this guy is a stone cold loser. And Beau French incidentally keeps doubling down since Saturday, defends the posts, goes on radio, all that stuff, favorite Texans over foreigners over and over again.

And I'm like, you guys made fucking Carl Rove a part of the resistance. It's a great barometer for kind of. what we're talking about, which is even the old lines now look quaint. It's like Carl Rove like and subscribe, you know. See if a podcast?

See on TikTok. Does Carl Rove have a podcast is a question that I need to Google the answer to. Share and tell with Aaron Rogers and Carl Rove. So you mentioned that what our brains are doing and what we're consuming is of interest and is kind of what we always end up talking about it, realize, when we podcast at this point together. But the reason why

this New York Times opinion essay that got published, I think is worth our discussion. The article, by the way, is titled, The Truth About Brain Rot, Colin, it's a cry for help. And you sent this to me is because this also kind of surprised me in terms of how I have always, just as a shorthand, referred to what it is that we're all watching when it comes to slop, when it comes to nonsense, the internet. And I think it's in part because I, mercifully, perhaps, am not watching the exact thing that Gen Z seems to be very into. Yeah. Like, I underestimated also what the fuck they're consuming. So, same. Like, when I think of, like, internet short form video slop, in my mind, so I guess, let's open the kimono.

why every time I say that I regret it it's the worst possible phrase but especially for me to say it I mean only you really in our cast of characters are maybe even vaguely allowed to say it it would be a Hanboak okay so my slop is like some lady

in her apartment saying here I bought this ugly sweatshirt watched me turn it into a prom dress and like a fast forward like people putting together, like, frankly, the end result is never worth it. But I'm like, I've watched for four minutes anyways because I want to see. I'm like, what is she going to do with those sleeves? How is this going to come together?

So in my mind, that's my slop. And the algorithm knows they're like, that. And the other one is like a scene, like a super cut of a lifetime movie. Would there be like, you'll never believe what happens to this housewife at home? You know, and then I'll go down a rabbit hole of, like, watching, like, reading the Wikipedia about the movie, trying to find more clips of the movie, and boom, 10 minutes are gone. So those are the two, like, disgusting things I do on the internet. But that's not what this is about. And so, full disclosure.

Yeah, what's your slot? So I'm also, I also realize that I am consuming what are known as microdramas. Yes, we all are. I'm like. You get so sucked in by them. I thought I was above it. What kind of microdramas? And I am not.

What kind of microdramers? It's just, oh. It's just microdrama is about infidelity. Micro dramas about, it's just like soap, it's soap opera as shit. Yes. And I realized that it's edited in such a way that has ensnared me. And when I laughed at the concept of microdramas as like, I would never watch that. I'm like, I'm fucking watching them all the time.

You're like, well, it's not a real movie or something. It keeps me hooked. I'm hooked to the next, it's retention editing. RIPP, Quibi, died too soon because that's everywhere now. So I, by the way, when I was co-hosting Morning Joe the other day, On set was physically, in real life, next to me, was Mr. Beast and James Patterson, the author, who combined for a now, of course, best-selling book that they've co-written together. I saw the picture of them standing.

It's a really funny picture because Mr. Beast looks insane as usual. And James Patterson is kind of standing next to him like the mom I fru-up pose. It makes no sense. Look it off if you haven't seen the picture. It makes you laugh. But they have this book and it's whatever. The most dangerous gang. I love that you know about this.

I did with out a rabbit hole reading about it. Yes. So the most dangerous games is the book. And I was talking to them on TV and then afterwards. And I kind of realized like, I told Mr. Beast the following sentence, I have read your manifesto. And his manifesto is about, there was this whole thing that was leaked. And he was very proud to hear, it seemed.

And I delighted in this part that I had read this. It was leaked or published or whatever. And it was just like his thesis about like how to retention edit things. And it's like, Here's the graph. Here's how you want to keep people not dipping, but like at the very least plateauing. And here's how he's made these things.

And I say that because what I complimented him on earnestly was how rigorous his thinking is in terms of how to hold attention. And now when I get to the Gen Z version of this, I'm like, compared to what we're about to talk about, Mr. Beast is Martin Scorsese. Like the stuff that I'm watching is microdramas that also, by the way, I'm watching watch content. I don't own a watch content.

Yeah. All guys get this. Yeah. What is the female equivalent of watch? I think it's like skincare. I'm watching people rank watches. And you'll watch it all the way through? And I don't, yes.

And then I'm like, I haven't even bought one. I don't plan on buying one. Now I'm thinking about it. But like, why am I thinking about? So anyway, that's what I thought we were talking about. Yeah. No, we're watching high art compared to this stuff. So I'm going to play an example.

I want to have you narrate this because this is largely going to be incomprehensible to the audio audience and arguably even less comprehensible to anybody who gets to see it. But this is an example of Gen Z Slop. I'm looking. Oh, my God. It was a dog drinking a cappuccino out of a woman's head that is the cappuccino. It's a chihuahua. She's crying.

She's talking to an animated AI stick. who comes home from DJing. It's his wife. Yeah, her wife. Her husband. Sorry. There's so much happening. I can't keep up with this.

Doing play-by-play, this sucks. Dogs now made a new coffee to pour into the wife's head. And the dogs are happy at the end. What the fuck is this? And now the stick is back and he's next to a crying shark. Rapping. This is a rap. battle. It says battle atop.

It's all. I spit fire. You splash the floor. The fuck. Don't rap no more. So that's what's going on. Okay. So the article is really

interesting because it suggests that Gen Z and below, I didn't know what the next one's called. Gen Alpha. Are watching these videos as a form of sort of

rebellion because they're so tired of being manipulated by digital content that they would prefer to just watch something mindless brain rot as like a

it's almost like a mental sit-in like a strike right like I... Funny way to put it, a mental sit- Like I'm just going to go my brain's going to go on strike right now which is interesting I would...

I'd never thought about it like that. I'd never thought about it. I will say not to get all like Marshall McLuhan here, but I don't... Medium is the message, though, is... It's still the same medium, and you're not really... They're still making money off of you with this, so I don't quite understand the capital, like the anti-capitalist part about it.

So I want to talk about that, because the whole notion to even further sort of articulate what the article is pointing out is that nonsense is a response to perpetually being sold things and feeling manipulated in a way... that makes you want to, as you put it, just embrace, quote, being entranced by an infinite stream of nonsensical TikToks and Instagram reels. And that is brain rot,

is the idea that I'm going to degrade my brain in order to effectively opt out of the economy that I am being subject to. But as you point out, someone's monetizing the cappuccino head lady and the rap battle stick. You're also watching it.

on TikTok reels, whatever. Unless there's some independent slop platform out there, I'm not aware of. Did we just sharks? For 50% of my standalone AI slap company,

you may. Locally grown heritage slop. Look, the whole thing here is that, and I'll read this part, the joke is that there is no joke. The meaning is that there is no meaning. And for a generation that grew up with every digital interaction tract, measured and monetized,

that refusal is experienced as a form of honesty in a dishonest system. You know, it's another form of rebellion against digital capitalism, attention-seeking algorithms? Touch grass. The thing, though, I will say that I also found really interesting in this piece, the author said that overwhelmingly young people who express these feelings about social media, and slop and the fact that they wanted to opt out

and overwhelmingly said it should be regulated. That was fascinating to me. This is where the seeds of an actual revolution are being planted. What if your product is so viscerally and physically misery-making that people were like, I actually think the government should intervene to save us, to save me from myself,

to save me from the fact that the delivery vehicle of my protest is actually the thing that needs to be controlled by the government. And it seems like young people have a more sophisticated view of what that would take than many lawmakers, not just in the U.S., but internationally, right? Because there's this broader trend, it's really happening around the world

where governments are trying to figure out how to crack down on social media. for young people. You have outright bans and countries like Australia, some countries in Southeast Asia that are reportedly not really working and unsurprisingly. There's bills. There's one just signed in California

aimed at regulating, basically not banning young people off of social media, but eliminating like short form auto play, addictive features, but how actually effective those are is also a matter of dispute, especially when a lot of the tech companies seem to

have a hand in or at least are very involved in like coming up with these rules. So the fox is in the henhouse. That's my read on it at least. I've talked to people who work at Meta and I was like asking them. So what about this $18 billion settlement with these states? This was last month implementing strict new age restrictions, time limits, safety controls for minors in particular. You know, speaking to just the general psychological, predatory aspect of social media. and the people I've talked to who work over there,

you know, like rank and file people are like, this company is not worried about that. Yeah. Like this is a settlement. It is... We will get you. It's a give, but they are not threatened by this. How do you feel about it as the father of a daughter?

As the father of a daughter. Both of our children are too young, so this is not a pressing concern. But it is obviously something I'm sure you've thought about. I think that my... The two wolves inside of me, right? Or like, I love freedom of speech. I want freedom of expression.

I am worried when any government entity gets to make decisions around editorial decision-making. And that is real. And we see the potential for abuse every day right now. The other wolf is that there is no more powerful, like, politics transcending entity in our civilization than these tech companies. Yeah. They will be here longer than any given administration. Their products are not going anywhere. And the idea that we need to set a precedent for the will of the people in some form to regulate them, that seems beyond obvious at this point.

It seems beyond obvious to me as, too. I've read the other side, which tends to be like the EFF. And like there are like scientists who have done research who are like, actually social media doesn't make kids depressed. And actually, you know, I just don't buy that. Electronic Frontier Foundation, the nonprofit that protects digital privacy, expression, consumer right? I'm sure that will just draw some of the experts of people study this out of the woodwork and say it's not been confirmed, but like, you know, based on my own experience, I really do not want my child to have the same access to addictive social media features that we have right now. And if you just look about it just logically, what is the prior historical precedent for kids have access to such things? Right.

We are an unshorted territory. Yes. We can actually deal with this. Well, actually, we stop kids from doing all kinds of stuff, guys. We put censor bars at the newsstand over Playboy. Like, why are we pretending like age restriction is suddenly a new thing? And no kid ever got a playboy as a result. My bed is a sovereign state.

Do not look underneath it. You're smiling the smile of a fucking who is this person? Hold on. This is the name of the fuck is it. Of ballerina Capuchina. Oh, that's AI Capitino Cuphead. Ballerina Capuchina. Vaporina Capuchina.

Horrifying. So speaking of established favored institutions. Always. massive upper hand in the competitive ecosystem that they were supposed to dominate. I want to talk about the Los Angeles Rams. All right. Sorry.

Didn't want to step on the segue there? When you start your segways sometimes, I'm like, all right, how's this going to go? It's like watching like a guy line up for like a 62-yard field goal. You're kind of your steps look a little nervous. And the crowd at game day is saying, one more kick. One more kick. Speaking of super teams, let's talk about the Los Angeles Rams. This is your account.

You know this team really well. You've been around this team for years. And now this whole thing, the football part of this, was like supposed to be very easy for me to understand. I'm like going to check in. They're going to be there at the end. I'm excited to have what, frankly, the Warriors were in the NBA for a while. Yeah.

It's the best comp. Ratings go up. Superstar. are there, people get mad, they're fun to watch, and we're going to have all these plot lines that, like, inviting casuals? Week 2 is upon us, and is this shit over already? There's so many good sports conversations to be had around this, one of which is our super teams actually good for the sport.

I think we're on around the horn together through the peak of the warrior's dominance, and I feel like we had that conversation a lot on that show. Is it unfair? Is it boring? Is it good for the sport? Is it bad for the sport? UConn? Is it basically cheating to have like all these guys want to sign up for something that, yeah. I guess people are still having it around the Dodgers, you know, to a lesser degree. But I actually think like the Rams losing in week one

and immediately losing their star acquisition, Miles Garrett, to an injury for an undetermined amount of time, is a really good case study for why you can't really do this in football like you can in basketball, right? Because what was the last time with the Patriots with Randy Moss? Was that like the closest thing? To me, I was trying to think of football comps for what the Rams have done. And the Warriors were just a better comp than any NFL thing, right? In terms of like, this isn't just a bunch of good players.

This is the best defensive player in football. and then we're going to bring back the former best defensive player in football, and we also trade for one of the best corners in football and this and that. But in football, certainly it's not the case of baseball, which obviously doesn't have the hard cap. It does come at a cost. I think every time teams do this, everyone's like, why are they allowed to do what's going on?

Why can't the rest of the league do this? It's so unfair. You know, well, there's a cost. There's a risk with this type of strategy, and they're already, the risk just hit a lot earlier, I think than anyone thought it would. What did the Rams give up to make this happen that now might make this, not just not a super team,

but like disastrous? Youth and depths is what you give up with this type of approach, right? Trade it away a young player. Traded away draft fix that could be spent on other young players. You know, in acquiring Garrett, bringing McDonald, again, is not really any cost at all

because they're not paying him that much money or whatever. But these are all San Francisco. that would otherwise go to other players. Giving away draft picks for Trent McDuffie, first round draft pick for him. He's not an old player, but he's not young. And then, by the way, youth depth and then future maneuverability, the Rams have a ton of really good players

who are going to be free agents next year. They still have not paid Pooka Nakua. Kobe Turner is a star. Byron Young, Steve Avila. These are like the best young players on the team, and the bill is coming due. So they're not going to, to be able to pay all of them. Now, they will be able to pay some of them because the way this

has worked out for them is actually not that onerous financially in the future. It's more so that now they do not have a lot of young depth at a few positions. The offensive line is kind of the most notable one, and that hasn't even been affected yet. So, for example, the draft pick they sent for Trent McDuffie, the draft pick they spent on Ty Simpson as well, those could have been spent on offensive line depth. If a tackle goes down, they do not have good depths behind them. So it's a more fragile build than a team with a lot of young, good players instead of a few older, really great players. Right. I mean, look, so the GM of the team, less need, you know, his whole thing was, fuck them picks. And that was like on a shirt that they wore and all this stuff. And so

the car, and it's just funny again, like, so let's compare it to in the NBA. stuff. You know, yeah, like the whole reason the clippers are, like, in this nuclear winter is because they gave up all the picks for Kauai. And I'm not saying that Jared versus Sheailders Alexander, but like there is something to the, we're going in for right now, we need this superstar. Get all, get even our promising young guy out of here. F*** them picks.

Here are five first rounders, et cetera. Was this a miscalculation? I don't think so. I know it feels like it right now. And obviously, look, if Miles Garrett, if the injury lags, then yes, obviously. But I still think this team is going to be extremely good. And if I'm the Rams, I still do everything that they did 10 times out of 10 because you really maximized your shot at the Super Bowl.

Here's what I am finding potentially very amusing about this whole experiment. Is that this is not just a team that went all in for this season and they got, eaten embarrassingly by the Niners in Australia. And it's not just that Miles Garrett, who you interviewed him, right? I've interviewed him a few times. Yeah, I personally think he seems super endearing. I've interviewed him more than I've interviewed Aaron Rogers.

So I guess he's also my close personal friend. Yeah, exactly. We're raiding friends, Miles Garrett, or Stringer, so to speak. It's beyond that. It's the idea that all these guys, I mean, Stafford. And Shaw McVey, you know, this team's weird. Shaw McVey was threatening to retire, and now he's not.

Matt Stafford also similarly seems to be almost done, but he is so clearly not that it was awkward when they drafted his replacement. And Shaw McVeigh had to get in front of everybody and be like, I'm on Team Matt. Team Matt. I've never met him. No idea who that other guy is. And then Aaron Donald did retire and unretired. Yeah. And are all these guys just having mutual midlife crises?

Did all of them sink up? Like, what, did the moon? What is happening? Sync up like their cycles? Is that what you're saying? You can say that. What's the male equivalent of that? Exactly.

The male equivalent of that is threatening retirement and then not. I think it's a great, like, as you like list all of the crazy stuff that's happened around this team. And who is also his own, like, file. of just like controversy and injury and insanity. Yeah. That is something that also kind of got... I talked about his pending contract, the fact that Nakuwa has had, you know,

the domestic violence accusation, the incidents off to field. Hanging out with streamers all the time. Like, he's like, he sounds like Nihon, and I'm like, he's... Puka Nikoa seems like a ballerina-capecina guy. Definitely does. I've interviewed him as well, and I think that's accurate.

But what I would say is this. I think the fact that all of these things kind of are happening at the same time, and this team is operating this way, reflects how in the NFL it is so rare to have complete conviction that you can win a Super Bowl. It's a team that coming off of last season firmly believed they should have won the Super Bowl. They didn't. The Seahawks were better, right? And you go into this season now,

with that continued belief and that creates, it sets off a cycle of decisions that you would not find with a team that didn't have because, you know, every team, not every team, every team, a lot of the NFL

knows they're not going to win at the start of the season. Are you going to go all in? Is a conversation that the public does not hear as bluntly as is being discussed in your actual like war room? Totally. And there are other teams

that have quote unquote gone all in with moves in the past, making big trades, doing, you know, huge swings, et cetera, trading up in the draft for a player is a thing you do. Maybe if you think this is that we can do, he can contribute this year, et cetera. But the level of, I think what it speaks to is like the very unusual degree of confidence that Los Angeles had going into this offseason because of the quarterback, the coach, the existing talent on the team. But this is the thing about the NFL. This is why Adam Silver says this. It doesn't. I mean, in the end, the league, people will watch the Super Bowl.

Yeah. Really? It's like in the NBA, they're like praying, please let the Knicks be in the finals. Yeah. Please let this not be Indiana, Oklahoma City. Please. You could throw ballerina capuchina out there for halftime. You could throw, it doesn't even matter who's in the game. Like, that's the position of strength that allows you to do all this last year. Yeah, the NBA, or the NFL does not need the Rams to be a super team or a villain or whatnot. It's just more fun for fans. It's just more fun for me.

It's more fun for people who perhaps this is, I don't know, this is a through line in this whole thing that we've been talking about today. It's that like there are some things that I think I feel great about being agitated by. They're like these things, these topics, these venues where it's like, we should be insane to each other. Yeah. We should be make fun of each other. We should insult each other. We should be rude.

We should have offensive memes. All of that. And there are some places where there are cries for help. And I'd like to just make sure that sports remains the fun kind. Yeah. The fun kind of you're driving me fucking nuts and I hate you. a low level of villainry is enjoyable. But what a just like fantastic result for the league to remind people that any given Sunday.

And that's why it's the best sport on Earth? Oh, God. Mina is not a fan of BrainRot. She is a fan of concussions. That is the difference. How dare you? That is the difference. And that is a difference.

And Aaron Rogers, guess what? I draft you as my number one Disney VIP tour pick. I want to hang out with you and go on rides. You and me on the teacups together. Being our own little ballerina capricino. I'm a stupid ballerina Camachino. Pablo Torre finds out is produced by Walter Averoma, Maxwell Carney, Ryan Cortez, Juan Galindo, Patrick Kim, Neely Lohman, Rob McCrae, Laura Newcomb, Matt Sullivan, Claire Taylor, and Chris Tuminello.

Studio engineering by RG Systems, sound design by Andrew Bersick, Digital Strategy by Bailey Carlin and Andrew Northern. Theme song, as always, by John Bravo. And we'll talk to you next time. I just kind of glipsed myself in the shot for the first time, and I had an unfortunate realization, which is, I look like you today. By the way. You're welcome. Does this not look like a jacket that you would wear? It is.

It is. It is. Oh, you have a work jacket. A blue work jacket. It's not a work podcast. A shacket. You have a work jacket. You have a blue jacket.

They call these like barn jackets, right? Yeah, it's like French workwear jackets. French work wear. We won't even have time to talk about this, but I love lanterns, obviously. And I'm like, you know who owns Hal Jordan's jacket? Is that the jacket that he wears? I mean, I've been wearing this for years. Wow.

Copts your style. Man, brightest day and darkest night, no podcast shall escape my science. It looks just as good on you. Thank you. End podcast.