Tangle - I'm observing Yom Kippur today.

Starting point is 00:00:00 Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. The flu remains a serious disease. Last season, over 102,000 influenza cases have been reported across Canada, which is Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. yourself from the flu. It's the first cell-based flu vaccine authorized in Canada for ages six months and older, and it may be available for free in your province. Side effects and allergic reactions can occur, and 100% protection is not guaranteed. Learn more at flucellvax.ca.

Starting point is 00:01:00 From executive producer Isaac Saul, this is Tangle. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, and welcome to the Tangle podcast, the place we get views from across the political spectrum, some independent thinking, and a little bit of my take. I'm your host, Isaac Saul. Today is Monday, September 25th. And if you are listening to this, well, it is Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. So I'm actually spending most of the day in synagogue today, praying, fasting, observing the Day of Atonement. The House and Senate are also both out today, which is helpful for me as a politics reporter for the holiday. And as such, I've asked my team to help me publish a skinny newsletter. Just some quick hits so you don't

Starting point is 00:01:56 miss any news, a reader question, and a have a nice day story. We're going to be back in your inbox tomorrow with a full podcast covering the shocking indictment of Senator Bob Menendez, the Democrat from New Jersey. Thank you all for understanding. And for those of you observing Yom Kippur today, I wish you an easy fast and a belated Happy New Year. With that out of the way, we'll jump in with some quick hits. out of the way, we'll jump in with some quick hits. First up, Senator Bob Menendez, the Democrat from New Jersey, is digging in, refusing calls to resign and reportedly planning to run again in 2024 despite being indicted on bribery and corruption charges. Number two, House Republicans are set to debate four of the

Starting point is 00:02:45 12 appropriations bills this week, defense, agriculture, state, and homeland security. They'll need to pass a stopgap funding bill or all 12 appropriation bills with Senate approval by Saturday night if they want to avoid a government shutdown. Number three, the Writers Guild of America says it has reached a tentative agreement with major Hollywood studios to end its 146-day strike. Number four, President Joe Biden is expected to travel to Michigan tomorrow with a picket with United Auto Workers Union, which is believed to be the first time a sitting president has visited a picket line during a strike. during a strike. And number five, U.S. officials said intelligence from the Five Eyes, that's the United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, and Canada, also linked India to the killing of Hardeep Singh Nizar, a Sikh leader who was killed on Canadian soil. All right, that is it for our quick hit. Before we jump into our question of the day,

Starting point is 00:03:55 don't forget on Friday, we published an edition on the prevalence of FBI entrapment and how it relates to the plot to kidnap the Michigan governor, Gretchen Whitmer, the Democrat. You can read that piece with a link in today's episode description. Also, last week, we put up a new YouTube video on the Ashton Kutcher-Danny Masterson controversy, and you can watch that video by going to our YouTube channel, Tangle News, or with a link in today's episode description. All right, next up is Your Questions Answered. This one is from Eric in Denver, Colorado. Eric said, why is it that corporate CEOs get vilified for earning $30 million per year to manage a multi-billion dollar global enterprise with 160,000 employees, yet nobody seems to complain

Starting point is 00:04:40 about an athlete or a singer making $40 million a year without endorsements just to entertain? So this is a great question, actually, and one I love talking about. It's not exactly in line with politics, but it does intersect with class consciousness in a way that I think is very politics-adjacent, and it brings me back a little bit to my roots as a sports journalist. So let me address the A-list performers and actors thing first. In a way, these celebrities are strange hybrids between actual people and functioning small businesses, ones that they're both CEOs of and weirdly the products that they sell. There are a lot of people who can talk about that way better than I could, but I will note that

Starting point is 00:05:20 there are many people working in the entertainment industry who are working low-wage jobs and not making a ton of money and I think are right to fight for better pay. That being said, I want to jump straight to professional athletes because that's a little bit more in my wheelhouse. They are paid fairly well for what they do and maybe even underpaid. If an A-list celebrity is both their own product and CEO, then professional athletes who don't reach that level are more like the assembly line workers who make the product that we all consume. Let's just consider football. For every one NCAA college football player, there are 12 high schoolers who don't go on to Blaine College. And for every one of the 254 players who make it to the NFL each year, there are 62 who don't, 73,500 college

Starting point is 00:06:08 athletes. Then, after making it to the pinnacle of their sport, the median NFL player will earn $860,000 a year. And no doubt about it, that's a lot of money. But the median player will also only be in the NFL for 3.3 years. That means they'll have to manage that amount as they find another job to support themselves and their families, hopefully one that offers health be in the NFL for 3.3 years. That means they'll have to manage that amount as they find another job to support themselves and their families, hopefully one that offers health insurance since the NFL doesn't guarantee lifetime pensions or health insurance for athletes who make the sport possible. Athletes who can make long careers last over 10 years in the league are often left with no marketable skills, ailing bodies, and a fixed though large amount of money to manage for their lifetimes. Of course, there are still superstar outliers who sign contracts

Starting point is 00:06:50 or hundreds of millions of dollars. But in those cases, players unions actually want those athletes to take those deals because doing so raises the bar for mid-level contracts and gives the union more leverage to negotiate for a larger share of league revenue and to be given player salaries. And there's a very good argument that a star athlete generates revenue directly proportional to their obscene pay, i.e. by driving ticket sales, improving a team's winning record, which gets everyone else in the franchise paid, and putting a team on the map, like what LeBron James did for Cleveland. That all seems like a pretty fair balance of union power, profit sharing, and ruthless free market capitalism to me. After all, pro sports and entertainment are pretty much the hottest commodity in America. Rather than compare CEOs to athletes,

Starting point is 00:07:35 I think it makes more sense to compare them to franchise owners or general managers of sports teams. But there are a lot of people who are plenty critical of owners and owners' compensation in the same way they are critical of CEOs. All said, I think there is room to see the pay structure of a sports league like the NFL and think the players are being compensated fairly for their labor while seeing the way worker pay and CEO pay is becoming more and more divorced in other sectors and think that pay is unfair. I don't think being critical of CEO pay and accepting superstar athlete pay are at all

Starting point is 00:08:05 contradictory. All right, that is it for our reader and listener question today, which brings us to our have a nice day story. Stella Puzo was born with spastic quadriplegia cerebral palsy and was five when she had double hip surgery that left her with casts on both legs and a bar between them, making it impossible for her to wear traditional pants. Surgeons told Stella's mom, Nikki Puzo, that her daughter would have to wear dresses or a long t-shirt for three months while she recovered. Instead, Puzo took apart a pair of brightly colored pajama bottoms at the seams and sewed in Velcro to make a pair of adaptive pants. After learning that there aren't any companies making clothing like that, Puzo teamed up with

Starting point is 00:08:49 her friend Joanne DiCamillo to create their own clothing brand of adaptive clothing called Be Free for people like Stella. I want to instill in her that she is beautiful, power, and strong, no matter what, Puzo said. And she can always do whatever she puts her mind to. And I believe that, you know, whether she's able-bodied or not. CBS News has the story and there's a link to it in today's episode description. All right, that is it for today's podcast. Like I said, we are publishing a skinny little short podcast today because I'm actually in synagogue because it's Yom Kippur and I'm observing the holiday. So we'll be back tomorrow with a real podcast edition, a full podcast edition on the Senator Bob Menendez indictment, though there'll be a little bit of a different voice on the podcast

Starting point is 00:09:42 tomorrow. I'm traveling. So our podcast editor, John, is going to tag in for me for the day. So I hope you enjoy that. A little guest voice on the mic. And we'll be back right here same time tomorrow. And I'll be back here on Wednesday. Have a good one. Peace. Our podcast is written by me, Isaac Saul, and edited by John Long. Peace. For more on Tangle, please go to readtangle.com and check out our website.

Starting point is 00:10:47 Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+.

Starting point is 00:11:04 The flu remains a serious disease. Last season, over 102,000 influenza cases have been reported across Canada, which is nearly double the historic average of 52,000 cases. What can you do this flu season? Talk to your pharmacist or doctor about getting a flu shot.

Starting point is 00:11:19 Consider FluCellVax Quad and help protect yourself from the flu. It's the first cell-based flu vaccine authorized in Canada for ages six months and older, and it may be available for free in your province. Side effects and allergic reactions can occur, and 100% protection is not guaranteed. Learn more at FluCellVax.ca.

Tangle - I'm observing Yom Kippur today.

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