The Ben Mulroney Show - The Dilemma Panel - Pitching in on a BBQ

Episode Date: April 22, 2025

Guests and Topics: -The Dilemma Panel - Pitching in on a BBQ with Guest: Andrew Phung, Award-winning Canadian actor, host, and comedian also Judge on the Big Burger Battle -Google faces trial in US bid to end search monopoly with Guest: Mohit Rajhans Mediologist and Consultant, ThinkStart.ca If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! https://globalnews.ca/national/program/the-ben-mulroney-show Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney Show. Thank you so much for joining us. And look, high level stuff about Ben Mulroney, things you need to know. I love my comic books. Ideally, if I could do the entire show from a lounging position, I would. And I love burgers.

I love burgers probably more than almost any food. No, more than any food. I've been asked if I could eat the best version of any food in the world, what would I want? You know, easy gimmies, layups on that list would be pizza and pasta, but if I could eat the best burger in the world, 100%, that would be my last meal on earth.

It would be my last meal on earth. And so I'm so happy to be joined now to talk about burgers because there is a new series coming to Flavor Network tonight called The Big Burger Battle and a man whose job I wish I had is Andrew Fung, award winning Canadian actor, host and comedian, also judge on The Big Burger Battle. Andrew, welcome to the show, great to see you again. It's weird for you to say a job you wish you had

because I feel like everyone in this country looks at your job and your career is like, wow, that's what I wanted. Well, let me ask you a question. Do I get to eat burgers on this job? Oh, you get to like everyone in this country looks at your job and your career is like wow, that's what I wanted Well, let me ask you a question. Yeah, do I get to eat burgers on this job? Oh you get to eat burgers in this job No, I don't which is why I want your job. You want my job. Yeah. Yeah Okay, so tell me about the big burger battle great title, but what's in the title? Basically, we're taking seven of the best burger chefs in North America Putting them in a kitchen and telling them to go to work, telling them to go make burgers. We give them challenges each round. They got to hit those

challenges. They're competing for money, $25,000, but also bragging rights to say you made the best burger. Look, if you love burgers, then being a host of the show is fantastic. But if you really love burgers, working with someone like George Moatsats, it's gotta be a dream come true. George Moats is one of the judges on the show. Kai Nassus is the other judge. She's the owner of Charcutte Out in Calgary, George Moats, Hamburger America. I call him Burger Daddy.

He is the scholar on burgers. He knows everything. He popped up at least on my feed during the pandemic and gave me everything I needed. Scratched every itch I ever had about burgers. Nobody knows more about him. Nobody knows more. He'll reference the history of a burger, where it comes from, who made it, where it was made,

and that's such a joy, and that's the knowledge you get on this show. In every round, we're trying out new things, and he's like, well, here's why they're making this burger. Well, we're gonna talk more about that on the other side of this next segment. We're doing a little pop-up version of our segment called The Dilemma, where you and I are going to read off some dilemmas from some of our

listeners. We're going to solve their problems. Okay. Are you ready? Yeah. All right. Here we go. Dilemma number one. Is it wrong to ask people to chip in money if I'm hosting a barbecue? I love hosting, but feeding a whole crowd adds up fast. I don't want to seem cheap, but I also don't want to bear all the expense. Wouldn't ask for much, just $10 a person. For a 30 person barbecue, that's 300 bucks and it would go a long way. It will have my cost of alcohol and food. Is this unreasonable to ask for? I'd still be out of pocket a few hundred bucks, but much better than the close to thousand dollars. I don't think there's a problem here. I don't think there's a problem, but I do think it depends on the situation.

Well, I'll say this. For those who don't know, I am Asian. Vietnamese, Chinese, Canadian. I just wouldn't do it in Asian culture. Because my mom would be so mad at me. She said, you're going to look cheap. Right? You're making us look bad. So I think it really depends. If I was doing it with my buddies,

if I'm having some buddies over for WrestleMania, right, we're having some burgers, something like that, I would for sure ask them to chip in. But it really depends. Yeah, there's it really depends on who's coming over. If it's family, you're telling me, if family was coming over. No, no, if the family was coming over, that'd be one thing.

But also, is Edgar here, is he doing this regularly? If people are depending on him once a quarter to host, even if it's the entire family, then there may be a fun way of doing it. Maybe you print up a fun invite and there's like an admit, like an admit one ticket and it says $10 on it. I don't know. And he said, all proceeds are going towards getting you

drunk and getting you fed. Like there's a way of spinning that, right? But I don't think that he's wrong for even thinking about it because these costs add up these days. And he's not wrong in thinking about it because these costs add up these days. And he's not wrong in thinking about it. It really depends on the situation. It depends on the situation and the delivery. All right, here's another one.

Dear Ben, my wife's family is visiting us from overseas for three weeks. And while I'm happy she gets to spend time with them, I'm starting to feel overwhelmed. We live in a small home and hosting five extra people has turned our quiet routine upside down. They're lovely people, but between the different schedules, cultural habits, and the general chaos,

I'm struggling to find any peace or personal space. I wanna be a good host and supportive partner, but I also don't wanna burn out or become resentful. I will suck it up while they're here, but my wife is already discussing them coming back around Christmas for two weeks, and I don't think I can handle it. How do I stop them from making that plan

without looking like the bad guy signed Ken? Ooh, Andrew, this is, listen, because I was down with sucking it up until I heard they're coming back for Christmas. Well, I suck it up for a weekend, three weeks? Yeah, three weeks. No, you gotta get your own spot. And I'm picturing,

I'm picturing for some reason a townhouse. I'm picturing Ken living in a townhouse and five extra people. If you've got two bedrooms and you've got five people living there, no, that's bananas. I think for me though, I don't even take up family's offer to stay with them.

I don't even want to. Like I had family who want to come out for Taylor Swift for two days and I got really hummed and hot on it. I'm like, I don't know. I don't know. That's too long. Yeah, my dad used to say, he used to say, listen, Ben, I don't care how successful you get in life.

I don't care how big your house is or how many people, if you ever have staff waiting on your hand and foot, I will never stay at your house. Because if I want room service at 2 in the morning, I'm going to order it at the hotel. And then I'll come visit you. But look, if the family can afford to come to travel all this way twice in a year,

hey, kick in for an Airbnb. And I guess I would put it to Ken. I'd say, listen, if you value your sanity, what's it worth to you? Do you have a few extra hundred dollars to kick in for an Airbnb? Maybe they can give in half as well and then you'll have your piece.

I would happily kick in money. Yeah. I would happily kick in money, and I'm not to not stay, I would happily pay for you not to stay with me, and I would tell them that. I'd say, look, for our relationship, for our family, it's best we don't stay together. If you want, and you tell your wife, look, if they stay somewhere else,

you will have in me the greatest ambassador for our family. I will pick them up, I'll bring them here for dinner, I'll drop them back off, we'll have so much fun together. But if you wanna see this thing get toxic real fast, yes, have them squat here for another two weeks. Well, I have a friend who- And Christmas, it's colder! It's colder, they're gonna be inside even longer!

Yeah, I have a friend right now doing a home reno, and she was staying with in-laws, they're like, we can't. They're living in the basement during the reno. They would rather live in a renovation, go home during a renovation than have to go live with family. I am speaking with Andrew Fung.

He's the award-winning Canadian actor and host and comedian. He's a judge on Big Burger Battle. It premieres tonight on Flavor. What's your favorite burger? You get to write, you get Moats to make you a burger. What's he making you? Well, I want him to make me an Oklahoma fried onion burger because that's what he loves. I love a thin smash burger. I'm really appreciating the onion goodness going into the bun because that's what he talks about.

It's not just about throw it, and that's the thing. People just more is more. They put everything on a burger. Oh, no, no, no, no. There's got to be a science to it. So when you make the burger, you gotta think about, wait, what's happening to the bun? Yeah. Right? Yeah. What's happening to the meat? What's happening with the onions? So I want him to make me that.

And I want thought placed in a burger. So what do you put on your burger? Well, I make a lot of Oklahoma fried onion burgers. I love a nice mayonnaise. I love the Hellmann's in there. It's really nice. See, plain mayo doesn't work for me. It doesn't work for me. You put some garlic in there and some salt and pepper. I'm good. Like if you add some flavor to the mayo, I'm down. But anything less than that,

if it's just plain mayo, it's like, what are we doing here? And I'll tell you one more thing. I do not put vegetables on a burger. Yeah. Okay. I get it. If I wanted a salad, I would order a salad and I've got something hot in my hands. I do not need it tempered with crunchy lettuce and tomato getting all over the place. No, sir. Ben, I'll say this. I had a Rudy burger last week. Rudy burger.

The lettuce and tomato in that rude dude does take it to another level. The balance, we want a balanced burger. It depends on what balance means to you. I will tell you this. I do think that a lot of those big fast food joints that make smash burgers like the Shake Shack, and I love a Shake Shack,

I think they missed the boat by coming to Canada because places like Rudy's in the city of Toronto filled that void and did a great job. They do fill that void. And I was such a big fan of Rudy's, I was eating it so much, that my brother called him up before my birthday, and he goes, hey, do you guys cater?

And they said, no, we don't. It's like, well, do you know who Ben Mulroney is? Oh, yeah, he's always tweeting us. It's like, well, his birthday's coming up, and we really think he should come to cater his house. And they came, they catered my birthday. First catering they ever did was at my birthday. They were so nice, they were so great,

and they make a mean burger. Also, what do you think happened to the world when we only have a minute left, but your thoughts on the potato roll, the potato bun? Yeah. Change the game. Change the game. Change the game. We're just putting thought, because a hamburger is simple. And when you think about the simple ingredients and try to maximize it, that's what happens. You get better products. And so the potato roll is what kind of

change the game. You're like, Oh, bun does matter here. Indeed. Andrew, I should say the big burger battle premiered last night. There's Mondays on flavor and stack TV. Check your local listings for the exact time, buddy, great to see you again. Congratulations on all your success. And come back any time. Anytime, brother. Thank you. I always love talking with Mohit Rajan.

He's up next because I read these stories, and they immediately elicit questions in me. And more often than not, he's got the answers. Mohit, welcome to the show. Well, that's a great way to introduce me. Thank you so much, Ben. Thanks for the beer. Well, that's a great way to introduce me. Thank you so much, Ben. Well, look, because this first story I want to talk about is how a student

started an AI website that matches flatmates. It's essentially a dating app for people who want to share apartments. And I'm trying to figure out what AI can do here that you couldn't do before by filling out, you know, like answering like 50 questions about who you are and what you're looking for. Like it's a matchmaking thing, right? So what can AI do that we couldn't do before? I think what's happened with this program, the story is really coming out of the UK. It's about matching flatmates and watching a couple of different kids and cousins, et cetera, go through the process of having to find a roommate or finding a place when they're taking a new job, et cetera.

Hearing about the story made me realize, oh, this is the phase of the world we're in now where a generation is going to look at an AI solution for a modern day problem and eliminate exactly what you said, that middle area of 50 questions in order to be vetted properly, etc. And I think it's just genius now because we're starting to see people just solving for problems. Remember when people started originally creating websites for every business problem? And then eventually you realize not everybody needs a website. Right. With AI, I think what's happening here with a program like this is it's really empowering people to tackle smaller problems that could have real real world implications.

Sure. But but what what what is what data set has this AI been trained on? If it doesn't know who I am, it doesn't know what I like, it doesn't know anything about me. So how is AI helping solve a problem here? I think the two things that it does automatically is it lets you connect with whatever social you're already out there with. So let's say you've got a verification through Snapchat or another social media platform, it automatically shows that you are who you are. And then the second part of it

is geographically, there's not many people who necessarily want to point out that they're looking for certain things or leaving certain places, et cetera. So there is an element of privacy that you can attach to be able to looking for a new place. What I know it's not yet is perfect, right? But what it opens up is this idea that people and students from around the world

have the same dilemma at different times of year. How do you vet, find, and actually move along the process of finding a flatmate, or in this case, a roommate, an hour case sometimes? And I think it's a great example of how people are taking some of the power into their own hands. And then we always say,

AI will never be as bad or as poor as it is today. In other words, it's only getting better. And then I read this next story. That's the other thing I was worried about, Ben, was what if your flatmate is virtual all of a sudden? And you're just like, well, wait a minute, this isn't how it works. Mohit, this next story is the one that really causes

concern for a lot of people. I read that China will integrate AI applications into teaching efforts, textbooks, and the school curriculum as it moves to overhaul education. When I hear that, I hear they are about to make some tectonic shifts in education. And if China gets behind the AI revolution and helps drive it, then yet again,

we will be playing catch up as we take these half measures and try little things as opposed to taking the bold steps that AI should allow us to take? You're right on the money there. We're about to see an overhaul that's expected to influence the entire global education sector because China is going to put themselves at the forefront of education reform. They're going to empower all their students and teachers, etc. to broaden more of their world view as a result. Well, I shouldn't say worldview, their ability to compete on the world stage in order to give by giving kids AI early in their education system.

Now, you and I understand that there are so many implications of that. But I think what it's alluding to is that, you know, when China lets the world know that they're doing this, and lets the world know that they're hoping to influence the global sector by by showing what there is reason to worry. Yeah, no, absolutely. And again, because if they if they with the the amount of people they have, and and and once they go out to the world, having gleaned all that AI information from their school system, yeah, we're just gonna be playing catch up.

Okay, again, we're back to Google. Now we're back to North America, and they're facing this trial because of their search monopoly. And we talked about this a little bit last week, that it just seems to me, seems a little odd that people will be coming after Google, especially because we keep hearing these stories

that bit by bit, it's going to be death by 1000 cuts, but they don't have the they don't have the monopoly that we that they once had on search, given the fact that people get their news from TikTok, and they're using chat GPT more than ever. Is it really the problem it was five years ago? Ah, let's see. And that's the thing. What's being unpacked right now is five years ago, the dominance was real, right? And so when you go back and you unpack how they got there, you start to realize, oh, was this a little bit of a crime story happening right in front of us

where these deals were being made with various different companies to be the default search engine, where they were able to write out a double-sided market where they could to be the default search engine, where they were able to write, you know, ride out a double-sided market where they could both be the supplier and the company that creates demand. There's so many layers than just the search side. You know what I mean? It's sort of like once we get the, once we eat the pie, we don't care about the recipe. If it's good, it's good. If it's bad, it's bad. And unfortunately, what we're seeing right now, well,

I wouldn't say unfortunately, what we're seeing right now, well, I wouldn't say unfortunately, what we're seeing is a deconstruction happening of the way Google got to be as big as it got. And the question now will be, will it be preventative of any other company being able to do it again in the future? Or will America understand that there's a model there that they should be trying to create more of?

And that, unfortunately, is another possibility of the situation as well. Well, what could happen? I mean, could Google be forced to sell off what Chrome or the search engine itself? I mean, how big are the implications here? I think what I think the two things that I will probably see right away is a deconstruction of their exclusivity in any relationship. So they probably won't be allowed to be the default search engine in certain cases in the way that they've been able to broker that deal.

On the second part, yes, what you just referred to is that where is most of the data coming from? Where is most of the tracking coming from? Where is most of their pipeline and therefore revenue coming from? It is things like the Chrome extension. They might be asked to, but on the other side, we both follow the European Union as well. And the European Union is throwing so many fines at them that they might be better off deconstructing themselves in certain parts of the world. So it would be interesting to

follow. And lastly, we're going to move over to Metta from Google to Metta Instagram is trying to use AI to determine if teens are pretending to be adults. What's going on Mo hit? You know, it's interesting because my my teen my new to the teen market teen told me that he was kicked off of a couple of different social media apps recently, because he became of age. So he was on the app prior to being of age. Yeah, I think what's happening now is Instagram is starting to say that, oh, we're going to use our sophisticated resources to detect any

kid that's possibly lying about their age. Now, let's be honest, using AI and any kids, likeness, pictures, et cetera, et cetera, is going to be problematic for any parent. Yeah. So even though a parent might read something and say, Oh, I think our kids are safer now on Instagram or something. Be warned that any one, anytime a company releases an AI driven system where they say that they're going to help secure and keep you secure, there's probably some sacrifice on your end. Well, also it feels like at least a year, maybe even more than that, that they've been

telling us that they want us to opt in so that they can use our data to train their AI. So maybe they should turn that AI on themselves and use it for good, because there are a lot of parents out there that are, yeah, and when we hear all these companies saying that they are gonna do right by parents and they're gonna put these safety protocols in place,

the rubber's gotta meet the road at some point. Well, and also, let's be honest, I don't know, I can't track in all of Meta's platforms what the rules actually are. For instance, can you be on their VR set if you're under 13 years old? Can you be on WhatsApp? You know, can you be on any of their platforms? So I think that, you know, there are parent managed accounts, and it will be interesting to see if that becomes a solution for that. Hey, Mohit Rajan, Mediologist and Consultant with ThinkStart.ca. Thank you so much.

It's great to talk to you again, and we'll talk to you real soon. Take care, bud. I'm ready to eat. Want to kick your cooking up a notch? This is the moment you've been waiting for. Flavor Network is giving one lucky viewer $15,000.