The Broski Report with Brittany Broski - 45: KFC & Climate Change

Episode Date: April 16, 2024

This week on The Broski Report, Fearless Leader Brittany Broski learns the history of the fast food chains Wendy’s, Popeyes, and KFC and unpacks the impact of major corporations on the climate.👕 Get your merch here: https://broski.shop/ Follow The Broski Report:https://www.linktr.ee/broskireporthttps://www.tiktok.com/@broskireport https://instagram.com/broskireport  Follow Brittany: https://www.tiktok.com/@brittany_broski  https://instagram.com/brittany_broski  https://youtube.com/brittany_broski Follow Royal Court:https://www.tiktok.com/@bbroyalcourthttps://www.instagram.com/royalcourthttps://www.twitter.com/bbroyalcourt  Brought To You By:Seat Geek – Get 10% off your ANY purchase with code BROSKIShopify – sign up at https://shopify.com/broski for a $1 per month trial period#brittanybroski, #broski, #broskination, #broskireport, #wendys, #popeyes, #kfc, #consumerism, #climatechange, #dune, #dune2

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible, financial geniuses, monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to progressive and save hundreds, because Progressive offers discounts for paying in full, owning a home, and more. Plus, you can count on their great customer service to help you when you need it, so your dollar goes a long way. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. Potential savings will vary, not available in all states or situations. Direct from the Broski Nation headquarters in Los Angeles, California.

This is the Brozky Report with your host, Brittany Brosky. Yeah, I'm fried. I'm fried, I'm fried, I'm fucked up. Guys, sit down. Sit down. All right, take your seats. your seats. I'm fried, I'm fried, I'm fucked up.

Today, I have a very special gift for you guys. Welcome back to The Brookesky Report. String me, your host, Pretty Broski. Special gift for you guys in today's class, okay? We've got a live special guest performer. Please welcome Future. Yeah, I'm fried. I'm fried, I'm fried, I'm fucked up.

And the type of mood type shit. I move type shit. Hey, hey, hey. Okay. Because I'm hardness, and I'm back in my wings, and I'm hardness. Hey, guys, I am three Red Bulls Deep, okay? It's 11 p.m. Whatever!

There is so much to talk about at all times, and just like, I feel like no one takes me seriously, and I cannot imagine why, because I've never joked once. I've never joked I've never come on here and tried to like act funny everything I say is genuine and earnest and it hurts my feelings

when someone's like I can't take you seriously because have you never seen a multifaceted woman would you look Sylvia Plath in the eye and tell her to not be depressed you guys welcome back to the broskey report today we're getting to the bottom of who the fuck is Wendy and why does she make burgers why did Wendy come up with a four for four

and where did it go? Okay, welcome back to what was Chris Hansen's show called? Where? How old is Chris Hansen? 64, damn! Chris Hansen is an American television presenter, a journalist, and YouTube personality?

He rose to mainstream recognition as a correspondent for Dateline NBC and the host for short-lived segment to catch a predator, which revolved around catching potential internet predators using a sting operation. Now, that would be, makes sense that he's moved on to YouTube. There's a lot of predators on YouTube,

uh, Minecraft specifically. Okay, what was I going to look up? I was going to look up. What is the backstory of Wendy's hamburgers? Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendy's, okay, so it's not even Wendy herself. Once again, men, using women as a marketing ploy, he is exploiting a little ginger child like They don't have it hard enough. Oh my God, what a creep. Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendy's,

opened the first Wendy's in Columbus, Ohio, in 1969. Now, arguably, probably the only good thing to come out of Columbus, Ohio, in the last, what's that, give or take, 54 years. Thomas was inspired to start Wendy's after being unable to find a good hamburger in Columbus. There's nothing better to complain about during, literal war time, 1969, prime

Vietnam War sort of era than being like, damn, you know, we can't really get a good burger out here. We just start up a joint, shouldn't we? Yeah, we should. Mear. He believed in serving fresh food made by nice people,

and his first Wendy's had an upscale feel with carpeting. Tiffany lamps, hanging beads, and bentwood chairs. What thought? The workers wore white aprons with men in white pants, white shirts, and black bow ties, and women in white dresses and scarves. Now, that is crazy. His boyhood dream of opening a burger restaurant was coming true.

After trying all five of his children's names for the restaurant, Dave decided on his daughter, Melinda's nickname, Wendy. What? If someone named me Melinda and they were like, we're just kidding, we're going to call you Wendy. I would be like, there is a bomb planted somewhere under this house. The last person to find it? Well, we know how that goes.

Dave's legacy. Who the fuck is Dave, dude? That's about to piss me off. Oh, this nickname stemmed from the fact that her siblings couldn't pronounce her name. So they started calling her Winda, which then turned into Wendy. Kind of like a smiley, mildy Cyrus sort of thing, okay? Destiny Hope Cyrus. Isn't that crazy?

Her government name is Destiny? Smiley, Miley, okay? He felt, okay, here we go. He felt that the logo of a smiling, wholesome little girl with the name Wendy's old-fashioned hamburgers would be the place where you went for a hamburger the way you used to get them with fresh beef. nothing says fresh ground-fed beef like a little six-year-old ginger girl. The first menu included hot and juicy hamburgers, rich and meaty chili, French fries, soft drinks, and a frosty dairy dessert. Indiscriminate, I guess. Undisclosed, indiscriminate, frosty dairy dessert.

From the beginning, Dave wanted Wendy's to be a place to get great food, made fresh, served by friendly people, a place that didn't cut corners on quality. And now they serve you horse meat chicken nuggets in a Ziploc bag with a hamburger the size of your fist. Wendy's became known for square ground beef hamburgers that hang over the bun made with the customer's choice of toppings. How the Mighty Have Fallen. That looks like a damn good hamburger dude.

How the Mighty have fucking fallen. Let's pull up a normal Wendy's Burrower. That is not what Wendy's hamburgers look like, dude. They always... Oh, the baconator. No, the baconator is... Yep, here we go. Oh, God!

Oh, Jesus! Wendy's loaded... nacho cheeseburger. The impulsive body, you know what this looks like? It looks like... The girl that killed the health inspector on that episode of Spongebom! The burger is called the Nasty Patty. It contained the...

Following ingredients, regular crabby paddy ingredients, volcano sauce, sea horse radish, toe nail clippings, to the toilet, dried with old gym socks, miscellaneous revolting items. Oh my God. Tried with old gyps socks. Okay. You want to know something about me? I'd eat it. I eat it. Okay. Looks kind of crunchy. Tell me that there is not some form of aesthetic similarity between the Wendy's loaded nacho volcanic diarrhea cheeseburger and the nasty patty. Please show me the difference. Oh my God, that is fucking repulsive, dude.

Give me three vodka shots, though, and I am bodying that like I'm in one of those burger-eating competitions, dude. You have never seen someone's jaw. unhinge in a way, like a human serpent. Have y'all ever seen a snake really actually eat a mouse? Let's pull up handy-dandy YouTube. Snake eating mouse. Their jaw unhinges.

Freaking redneck. Welcome back, guys. We're going to be feeding my little snake or garter mouse. We're going to be feeding my garter snake, a little mouse. Come on, skip to the action. Don't edge me. Oh, my God, snakes are so scary. Oh my God, ew, that's going to sit to chill down my spine.

We'll be right back. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible, financial geniuses, monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds. Because Progressive offers discounts for paying in full, owning a home, and more. Plus, you can count on their great customer service to help you when you need it, so your dollar goes a long way. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates.

Potential savings will vary, not available in all states or situations. On this episode of Plant Killers, we'll explore one nation's most notorious fruit and vegetable killer. Bad dirt. What makes bad dirt so bad? The answer? The ingredients. But fear not, true crime enthusiasts. This story has a happy ending.

Miracle grow organic raised bed and garden soil. It's made with quality organic ingredients from upside. recycled green waste like compost and aged bark. Unlike the other guys who can't say the same, looks like bad dirt's murdering days are over. Thanks to Miracle Grow. Join us next time on Plant Killers. Welcome back.

So I don't know why that was actually like Exhibit A of Intrusive Thought winning. I don't know why I've had the like literally a compulsion to YouTube search snake swallowing mouse hole and then I did it and then I didn't like it. But is it a crime to be repulsed by nature? Am I so far removed from my primal chimpanzee ancestors that that truly sent a chill down my spine? That that really actually disturbed and repulsed me. That is just nature, baby.

What are snakes supposed to eat? What are snakes supposed to eat? A Wendy's loaded nacho cheeseburger? No. That shit's too big. They couldn't unhinge their jaw. that to the big boys like me. Leave that to the real fucking Olympians. Jaw monster. I unhinge my jaw and it expands and comes down. You know like when you see,

when you would see like old Vikings or whatever, they would wear tiger heads, like, or they would like skin a bear and like wear that, the revenant. It's, but that's me. That's, okay. The cheese burnt, Wendy skinned me. And Wendy's wearing my skin like a, like a battle relic, like a reward. Okay? Because Wendy, actually, when you choose to eat at any of these disgusting fast food restaurants, look at this shit. What is that, dude? It's got pre-com on it.

It's freaking, it's freaking jizzing everywhere, bro. It freaking jizzed out of the freaking square thing. Okay, cows aren't square. Why the fuck would it be square under burger, bro? Ew. Okay, did anyone say, I don't see Wendy's did it jizzed on their mouths all up in their mouths and on their tongues?

You guys gave me the gay burger. You guys gave me the gay freaking cheeseburger, jizz burger. Wendy's loaded jizz cum burger. Oh, my saddica just flared up. Anyway, what was I talking about? Oh, yeah, Wendy's gonna skin me like a sort of barbaric Viking reward for besting me,

and that's honestly on me that I chose to go to Wendy's and be like, one hamburger please, and they serve me the nasty patty, and I fucking eat it. That's on me at a certain point, okay? Guys, can I level with you really quick? I'm having what I might call an episode.

My man was supposed to come visit me this weekend. Didn't, okay? Having somewhat of an episode, I will not be taking questions at this time. I am feeling like the little kid from Wild Thornberries which Nigel would Wild Thornberries

This show was crazy The Wild Thornberries They were like, yeah we're gonna make a sexy one And then a little fucking nerd Here's the sexy one, God, she was so period And then here's the fucking nerd Nigel Thornberry I think deep inside of me is a Nigel Thorinberry

Okay, back to Wendy. I want to know more about the lore. Let's go back to the lore. The Wendy's, I want to see Wendy's original interior. Oh, wow, y'all. That is just gorgeous. Oh, wow, look, there's greenery.

Oh, that is just, darling. This is something that I could genuinely, like, to be earnest for a second, I could bitch about it for hours on end. the loss of personality, style, detail, and design as we move towards the digital age. We're in the digital age. As it progresses and as things become more clinical, as they become more technologically inclined, we lose the glass, the art of glass blowing, stained glass, wooden etchings and carvings,

a nice wallpaper. all these things inherently are human in nature of we want a space decorated with a beautiful, ostentatious things. Superfluous design that is there because we want it there. Fuck these houses that are all modern. Everything's white. There's no personality. There's no character to any of these like, and it just looks so medical.

I mean, it looks like a hospital from the future, but people love. live there. I remember people were gagged when Kim Kardashian showed her house. Like, you're raising children in this house? That's crazy. Oh, my God, take me back to this, Wendy's. Look at this. Tiffany Lamps and the Wendy's, take me back,

God. With the little beads, we're losing our pizzazz, people. We need to make 2024. We need to make 2025 the year of pizzazz. This is for my East Coasters. Do y'all know about this place? Friendlies?

Friendly's family restaurant and ice cream. Friendly's interior. Maryland. Am I not thinking of Friendlies? Friendlies restaurant. Yeah. Yes. This is Friendlies.

This is a place on the East Coast. I remember it having a lot more character as a child. It's just like a classic diner. And they, oh my God, they have the best desserts. But now that I'm older and I'm not like motivated by high fructose corn syrup, and let me qualify that with saying, I still am, I just, my doctor now scolds me. And I get charged thousands of dollars when I eat too much high fructose corn syrup. Okay, so the repercussions, the stakes are a little higher as a 26-year-old going on 27, okay?

As a child, high fructose corn syrup is similar to the nectar of life. As an American child, waking up and just necking. Do you remember the vacuum from Telitubbies? Say, uh, one more time. Like, can you speak? Speak normal. Speak like an educated adult. When you, uh, can I, uh, like when you, uh,

vacuum sucker from Telitubbies. This guy. Now, this is what I turn into, and my eyes kind of look like that. This is what I turn into when you put a high fructose corn syrup or any form of red 40 dyed snack in front of me. I'm talking lucky charms. You know what I loved as a kid, honeycombs. Do you remember honeycomb syrup?

I literally would turn into the vacuum from Telitubbies and just I could eat a whole box of honeycombs by myself in under 20 minutes. I love honeycombs. They just did it for me for some reason. I didn't see, I wasn't like the rest of you bitches. I didn't need the fake marshmallows and the tricks with all the colors and all the whatever. Give me a box of honeycombs.

Give me liberty or give me death. You know what? I also loved raisin bran Because my dad loved raisin brand And when you eat it enough It starts to become sugary Because everything in America has You guessed it, added sugar

Added sugar. Even what's that skinny almond mom one? Special K How much sugar is in special K cereal with strawberries? 11 grams of sugar 21 grams of sugar With 3 4 cups Skim milk

Okay 21 grams of sugar with milk How much sugar is in Lucky Charms One cup serving of Lucky Charms contains 15.5 grams of sugar A 3 4th cup serving contains 10 grams of sugar Okay I don't know if we're comparing apples to apples though How much sugar is in

What's another one? Um, uh, cocoa puffs. Coco puffs. 10 grams. See what I'm saying, the fucking special K had more sugar in it and that was marketed as the skinny one. Unless I'm tweaking. How much sugar is in special cake? Special K with strawberries because that's the one.

Let's be totally for real. That's what everyone would eat. Yeah, dude. It says 11 grams. It's up there. Like, there are so many things that we're marketed to, especially as women, we're marketed to with, like, pink packaging and the fucking pink washing with the breast cancer awareness. And you think that you're making a difference when you're buying these foods and these processed items. And you're not, it is poison.

You're putting poison in your body. Okay? But would I eat honeycombs at a drop of a hat? Yes, I would because they're delicious. They're delicious. I can't have milk or sugar on this fucking, it's not even a diet. It's like a, they, stupid. I'm giggling at a somewhat edited the telitubby suck machine on a browser's thing.

It's dumb. I have the sense of humor of an eight-year-old boy. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible, financial geniuses, monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to progressive and save hundreds. Because Progressive offers discounts for paying in full. owning a home, and more. Plus, you can count on their great customer service

to help you when you need it, so your dollar goes a long way. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. Potential savings will vary, not available in all states or situations. On this episode of Plant Killers, we'll explore one nation's most notorious fruit and vegetable killer, Bad Dirt. What makes Bad Dirt so bad?

The answer? The ingredients. But fear not, true crime enthusiasts. This story has a happy ending. Miracle Grow organic raised bed and garden soil. It's made with quality organic ingredients from upcycled green waste like compost and aged bark. Unlike the other guys who can't say the same, looks like bad dirt's murdering days are over. Thanks to Miracle Grow. Join us next time on plant killers.

What was I talking about? Oh, yeah, being a woman, I resent diet culture because diet culture is not pushed on young men, the same way it's pushed on young women. I started to become aware of it, like truly sentient in college. When you start truly thinking about the ways in which products are marketed to you so that you as an empathetic individual will spend your money on an object or an item or a food item, I started to be a more cognizant and informed buyer in college. But then, you know, you live in this idealistic mindset, this idealistic world that you can be a conscientious shopper.

And that is not always the truth. When you are poor, when you live in a food desert, when you have any of X, Y, Z factors contributing to you would like to shop sustainably, you would like to eat sustainably, but you cannot afford to. That is the reality for a lot of Americans. That's what I was met with post-college. You know, you take all these classes about greenwashing and cancer research and companies like Patagonia where, you know, they're doing great things and you should support this

company or you know you start learning about sustainability reports and uh corporate corporate corporate social responsibility corporate social it's a CSR report CSR report corporate social responsibility yes the practice where businesses disclose information about their environmental social and governance activities there are consulting companies that's what a lot of people in my major calm went on to do is CSR report or consulting for a lot of these major companies, you know, where they have to hit a threshold of like, we're not emitting this much whatever into the atmosphere

and we have to report that. And then all the shit about like carbon offsets and all, it's a whole world that I won't even talk about. But when it comes to companies like, and these are notable from the classes I took, Ben and Jerry's and Patagonia, those are the two that come to mind because we studied them as case studies of here are companies that are willing to accept

profit loss for the sake of social responsibility. Being a high earning company, being a company that feels more of a moral responsibility to their purchasers and their investors and their investors and their state, stakeholders than, you know, profit. And that is so incredibly rare. And I'm not saying that, you know, the two companies I just mentioned are worthy of, like, worship and, you know, only buy it from these brands. No one is innocent.

Every company is evil. It's just a matter of, you know, lesser of evils in the game of capitalism. So I think that taking that class for me really opened my eyes to, there are, it starts with an individual at a company being like, I refuse to be a part of this statistic, regardless you will be. It's just a matter of minimizing damage. Patagonia recently like sold Patagonia CSR. Here we go.

In June 2023, Patagonia became the most recognized corporate leader by sustainability professionals in the Globe Scan slash Sustainability Survey, overtaking Unilever, which had held the top spot for over a decade. Unilever held the top spot. Patagonia doesn't own any of the apparel assembly factories that make its products, so it has limited control over how much workers receive. Patagonia's CSR efforts include fair trade.

Patagonia uses fair trade to improve workers' wages and provide them with benefits that improve their lives. These are all just such a general statements. Partnering with grassroots organizations. Patagonia partners with grassroots organizations and frontline communities to restore the health of lands, air, and waters. Patagonia funds work that addresses the root cause of the environmental crisis and seeks to protect the environment and affected communities.

You know, these are all like, you want to believe these things. You want to believe that lending your money to these sort of companies in exchange for a product, and Patagonia is not cheap, that that money, is working towards a better world, fair wages for the people that made the product, sustainable methods of creating said products, because Patagonia is a clothing company, and clothing, specifically fast fashion, is one of the largest contributors to climate change and how rapidly climate change is accelerating. So all that considered, you know, I guess it's the same.

question of is it an overall, is it a net positive? Or are we just praising some of these companies for not being inherently evil? I don't know. We learned about all this and it was just so jaw-dropping to me because I don't know, I think there comes a time where you're like, I'm going to start to look at the world more critically. And that's what, you know, around college, around late high schools, when you start to think about, oh my God, I'm going to be voting. in my first election. You know, I'm going to be taken seriously as an adult. I'm no longer just a student or I'm no longer just a kid. It's like I am, I could be conscripted. I could be enlisted in the military. Can't drink alcohol, but I can fight for my country. Love that.

And a switch happens. That's why I'm such a proponent for, I'm such an advocate for higher education. And I know that it's not accessible to everyone in this country. And I know it's an inherently flawed system, all that goes without saying. But I can still say that there is such value in pursuing a degree, being around people in a different environment that isn't your hometown. There's so much to be learned and there is so much to think about that you never would have been forced to think about. And that is a truth.

I've talked about it before how Europeans are so shocked that Americans, a lot of Americans never ever leave the country. They never leave the state that they're born in. First of all, because America is so vast and it is so large that, you know, you can experience a lot of different terrains, a lot of different cultures without ever leaving the borders of the United States. But what is to be said about how that limits your understanding of the world and how it works and how we're lied to and how, you know, it's,

just how the powers that be maintain and enforce power. You never learn or even have enough care to question authority. And places like college campuses are where those sort of grassroots, you know, it's where those sentiments are, the fire is, the flames are fanned, okay? Anyway, when we studied this in calm, I remember feeling so, and there's an innocence to it, you know, feeling so lied to and feeling so disappointed. And then you feel this overwhelming compulsion or need to, well, I'm only going to shop sustainably.

I'm only going to do this. I'm only going to do that. I'm going to reduce my water usage. I'm going to be waste free. I'm going to buy everything organic. I'm going to do this. These things are just not possible. for everyone.

It is definitely a goal that all of us should be working towards, but the onus lies on the major companies. There is only so much individuals can do. Individuals can start a movement, and that's not to be undervalued, but there's a limit. You know, there's a limit to enacting

a certain amount of change, and that was something, because it was a double sort of, wave that hit me of we have fucked this planet my God we fucked this planet and there's no going back and we're all going to die

then you get a wave of hope for people like Greta Thunberg and companies maybe like Patagonia or Ben and Jerry's where Ben and Jerry's more so is like socially you know they they're incredibly leftist

not so much doing a lot for sustainability, but they're very leftist and liberal and believe in gay rights, so thanks Ben & Jerry's. But at the same time, that does not absolve you of the sins of being a major conglomerate fucking capitalist pig business, whatever. Okay, love ice cream. But, so that was, it was coming at me in waves in college and it was, it was hard. You know, when you, you start to lose that innocence slowly, but surely, everyone has to do it as part of life. But, it's about where you land after that wave of disappointment and betrayal washes over you and then a wave of hope washes over you if I can change this I will be a part of the change

and then a more neutral wave washes over you of okay let's be realistic and you you resign yourself to this idea that you know yes I can be a part of change I can't affect change but it starts you know it's about dismantling the powers that be it's this sort of impossible uphill climb is what it feels like, and maybe that's me sort of resigning myself to nihilism, or, you know, I'm so frustrated by living in this country and feeling powerless, and it's a hopeless feeling. But you cannot give up on hope.

Hope is what makes us inherently human. It is a human quality. You cannot crush hope, okay? It will always find a way. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible, financial geniuses, monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds, because Progressive offers discounts for paying in full, owning a home, and more.

Plus, you can count on their great customer service to help you when you need it, so your dollar goes a long way. Visit Progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary, not available, all states or situations. On this episode of plant killers, we'll explore one nation's most notorious fruit and vegetable killer, bad dirt.

What makes bad dirt so bad? The answer? The ingredients. But fear not true crime enthusiasts. This story has a happy ending. Miracle Grow organic raised bed and garden soil. It's made with quality organic ingredients from upcycled green waste like compost and aged bark. Unlike the other guys who can't say the same.

Looks like bad dirt's murdering days are over. Thanks to Miracle Grow. Join us next time on plant killers. Um, okay, so, anyway, yeah, if you, if you guys are curious about, uh, CSR, Google that shit. Very, very interesting. And it is impossible to be a 100% just informed buyer.

In my opinion, you know, there are certain things and being realistic about budgets and the failing economy and, and living within your means that you have to sacrifice, you know, not everyone can afford fucking organic eggs. Not everyone can afford organic herbs.

So, moving on. Back to Wendy's. Okay, back to Wendy's. I also want to talk about Popeyes. What is the history of Popeyes? Alvin C. Copeland Sr. founded Popeyes in 1972 in Arabi, Louisiana. and named it Chicken on the Run.

The restaurant served traditional southern fried chicken, but initially struggled to attract customers. Copeland changed the name to Popeye's Mighty Good Chicken in 1972, but the Los Angeles Times claims the new name was Popeye's Mighty Good Fried Chicken. Copeland later claimed to name the stores after the fictional detective Jimmy Popeye Doyle in the 1971 film The French Connection through the company's early brand, though the company's early brand became closely tied to the country. cartoon star.

Interesting. Okay, let's look at. Detective... Detective Jimmy Popeye Doyle. portrayed by Gene Hackman. Doyle is tough, obsessive, and intolerant, and he doesn't always follow the rules. Man. Nothing says fried chicken, like, tough, obsessive, intolerant, and doesn't follow the rules.

That's actually so... No, true. Popeyes has had several name changes since then, and as of 2021, it has 3,705 restaurants in more than 46 states and the District of Columbia. The restaurant's menu features spicy chicken, yep, chicken tenders, yep, fried shrimp, y' up, and other regional items. Like rice and beans, red beans and rice. Damn. Which is older, KFC or Popeye's? Okay, when was Popeye's?

1972. I bet KFC's older. Popeyes has been frying chicken since 1972. According to People magazine, the founder, Copeland Sr. opened the eatery to compete with Kentucky Fried Chicken franchises, the first of which opened two decades prior in Utah. Okay, so that's in the 50s. KFC was in the 50s. Now let's talk about the Colonel. Was Colonel Sanders

at the Capitol on January 6th? I'm stupid. was Colonel Sanders real Colonel Harlan David Sanders was an American businessman Holy shit he was real and later he acted as the company's brand ambassador he founded it

no fucking way I don't know why I'm acting surprised I've seen this photo before crazy real life story let's read it this man was probably a raging racist oh my God it's just radiating off of him. Colonel Sanders is an American advertising icon

whose goateed and bespectacled face is as well known around the world as Ronald McDonald or the Kool-Aid man. The difference, of course, is that Colonel Sanders was an actual person. It can be easy to forget that he was a real man and not just a cartoon character. His life story is a Buck Wild roller coaster full of struggles and gunfights and not finding success until Social Security times. What? Harlan Sanders had a hard go of it from a young age, following his birth outside Henryville, Indiana.

He's not even from Kentucky. He was born in 1890. He was raised by an ultra-religious mother who taught him that alcohol, tobacco, coffee, and playing cards were all equally poisonous. I know, that's right. After his mother got married to a man who wasn't so keen on the idea of stepchildren, Sanders had to go make his way in the world at 12 years old. Damn. Time to work the mines, boy. You got a tight little body. Let's see how it fits up the chimney. He worked on a farm while going to school, and when that got too hard, he quit school just two weeks into seventh grade to start slinging chicken. Over the next three decades of his life, he was a streetcar conductor, a railroad fireman, studied law by mail. Now, what does that mean, do you think? Worked as a midwife? operated a steamboat ferry

and even more mostly failing at all these things. Now that is the realest shit I've ever fucking heard. He did this, this, this, and he fucking shocked at all of them. And he was horrible. He got married at age 18

and had three children after Sanders got fired from the railroad. Man, how do you get fired from the railroad, brother? You're just laying nails and hitting them into the ground. You are quite literally laying railroad track and you got fired.

His wife left and went to her parents in Alabama. Sanders planned and failed to kidnap his own children and instead he just reluctantly reconciled with his wife. They divorced almost 40 years later. Oh, that is just so, I love that. 40 plus years of loveless marriage. Harlan Sanders' life would change at age 40 when he began selling food to travel, from the back room of the gas station he ran in Corbin, Kentucky. He became a hit with travelers selling his simple country fair of country ham, okra, biscuits, string beans.

Damn! Country ham, okra, biscuit, string, please. And similar items as an alternative to the typical diner food found along the highways. Ironically, for some time, the only thing he didn't serve was fried chicken. That was just too many of y'all. Oh my God, they're so funny. Y'all, they didn't even sell chicken at the damn gas station. Did y'all know Colonel Sanders didn't even sell chicken at the damn gas station?

He was selling okra. Yeah. They should have called it Kentucky Fried Okra. Kentucky Fried Green Tomatoes. All right, I'll see y'all later. Sanders would advertise the food at his shell station by painting giant signs on barns in the area. Marketing 101. Vandalize other people's.

barnyard property agricultural surface area this clever marketing scheme greatly upset Matt Stewart the operator of a nearby competing standard oil station Stewart began painting over Sanders

signs so Sandra went to pay him a visit along with two shell district managers what they weren't expecting was that Stewart had a gun with which he shot and killed one of the managers Sanders who was a known tough guy famous for the force and variety of his swearing.

Sanders, who was a known tough guy, famous for the force and variety of his swearing, naturally had his own gun and returned fire. They did a redneck shooting match over the fried chicken. He only wounded Stewart in the shoulder, but even if he didn't knock out his competition by killing him, he still got the result he wanted. Stewart went to prison for murder,

and charges against Sanders were dropped, leaving him the gas station king of Kentucky. And that's the American dream. That's the American dream. You vandalize your neighbor's property. Get more business than him. He comes and finds you, shoots you, kills one of your friends, you shoot him, he goes to jail.

That's crazy. His chicken was so good, he got named a colonel. He is not a colonel. While it's true that Harlan Sanders did serve in the army, he wasn't that kind of colonel. He lied about his age to join the army in 1906 at age 15 or 16. He served in Cuba, but only... Fuck, Norton antivirus, bro!

Get this shit off of my bed! I guess we'll never know. We'll never know the true story of Colonel Sanders because Google wants to fuck on me. Here we go. How racist was Colonel Sanders. Let's get to the bottom of the shit. See, I don't trust anything from Quora.

Yeah, let's go on the Wikipedia. I was tweaking on that one website. Here we go. Okay, so he killed off his competition. Sanders was commissioned as a Kentucky colonel in 1935 by Kentucky governor Ruby LaFoon. Now, that is the most loony tunes-ass name I have ever heard in my damn life. Ruby LaFoon? His local popularity grew, and in 1939, food critic Duncan Hines visited Sanders' restaurant

and included it in Adventures and Good Eating, his guide to restaurants throughout the U.S. The entry read. Corbin, Kentucky, Sanders Court and Cafe, a very good place to stop en route to Cumberland Falls and the Great Smokies, continuous 24-hour service. Sizzling steaks, fried chicken, country ham, hot biscuits.

50 cents to $1. For lunch, and for dinner, 60 cents to $1. In July, 1939, Sanders acquired a motel in Asheville, North Carolina. His North Corbin restaurant and motel was destroyed in a fire. in November of 1939, and he had to rebuild it. By July 1940, he was 50 years old,

Sanders had finalized his secret recipe for frying chicken in a pressure friar that cooked the chicken faster than pan-frying it. As the United States entered World War II in December 1941, gas was rationed, and as the tourism dried up, Sanders was forced to close his Asheville Motel and Chicken Restaurant. He went to work as a supervisor in Seattle until the latter part of 1942. Damn.

Oh my God, he had a mistress. This man lived a life. Let me tell you something. After being recommit... Okay, here's his public image and personality. After being recommissioned as a Kentucky colonel in 1950 by Governor Lawrence Weatherby, Sanders began to dress the park,

growing a goatee and wearing a black frock coat, later switching to a white suit, a string tie and referring to himself as colonel. His associates went along with the title change, jokingly at first and then in earnest. He never wore anything else in public during the last 20 years of his life, using a heavy wool suit in the winter

and a light cotton suit in the summer. He bleached his mustache and goatee to match his white hair. John Y. Brown Jr. remembered Sanders as a brilliant man with a gourmet flare for food, a visionary, and a great motivator. He was a Freemason. Freemasons scare the shit out of me, dude.

That's as close to the Illuminati being confirmed as we will ever get. And I know some people can be like, it is confirmed. Shut the fuck up. I'm not trying to talk about that with you right now. Freemasons do scare me though, okay? He died of leukemia in 1980. That is real sad. By the time of Sanders' death,

there was an estimated 6,000 KFC outlets in 48,000. countries worldwide with $2 billion in sales annually. That is just crazy, truly. Like, the fact that you can go to any country on Earth, arguably, arguably, and get Kentucky Fried Chicken, American Manifest Destiny is still finding its destiny. It's still finding its destiny, Hope Cyrus. Smalley, Molly, okay?

You know what I think about a lot? that episode of Hannah Montana when Dolly's on the episode and she uses her pinky nail as a key. I tried to do that as a child so many times. Doesn't work. And then I realized oh, it was a joke for a TV show.

When she's like, I haven't carried keys in years because she uses her long acrylics to unlock stuff. Hurt myself. Hurt myself. I was like, well, Dolly Park. Okay, back to the history of Popeyes. Popeye's UK.

What are we talking about? Oh, you know, I had this thought the other day, this is a total tangent. I had this thought the other day of like, you know how there's that girl on TikTok who does the like making fun of influencer voice where she's like, hey guys, today I'm going to get my hemorrhoid cream from CVS.

Like that voice, that I want to do that bit. Like if I ever did stand up, I would do that for just 30 minutes. Okay, guys. going to get my eczema cream from Walgreens. Now, this is under my Blue Cross Blue Shield health insurance. If you cannot afford that, don't know what to tell you. I am meeting my friends there and I am wearing my glossy ain't, like just that for 30 minutes. That's so funny. But like the most disgusting, rancid shit you've ever heard. So I'm just going to apply this to my hemroid. It is black and blue today because I sat on it and squitched it.

Get ready with me to go get my hemorrhoid cream from CVS. That's the bit. Just wanted to test that on you guys. Let me know if I should workshop it. Okay? It's in development. I also wanted to touch on, okay, really quickly. I know I've been saying I want to talk about Dune for the last four fucking weeks.

Here is me actually talking about Dune. Dune ignited something in me. I'll be honest, I did not see the first one when it came out. Okay, I had my Timetee renaissance after Dune 2 that ignited it. I've gone back and watched Little Women. I'm going to watch Comic by your name. And so I went back and watched Dune 1, then watched Dune 2 again in theaters. And when I say, like, obviously the discourse online has been all about like Star Wars

and every sci-fi movie you like. love is based on Doom. Dune was the Genesis. Dune was, it's the blueprint. It's the whatever. Yeah. Okay. That doesn't mean I can't also enjoy Star Wars.

That being said. I have been warned about the evolution of the Dune plot and timeline and what ends up happening with Paul LaTrade is, and he has children and one of them is a half worm. I don't particularly know what follow-up questions I even have to ask right now because I'm just very confused. There's also like nine books or something like that. I will say I do want to read the first one before they come out with Dune 3, which I'm so excited for. So going back watching Dune 1, everyone was like, oh, you don't need to see it. It's just world building.

Okay, that's the whole fucking point is sci-fi, bro. World building. I'm locked in. So I go back and watch Dune 1, loved it. I read all the lore, which means I watched like 13 TikToks on it, the little slide shows where they're like, here's the T on the Harkinens. And I'm like, right. So I'm like, I'm fully invested. I go back and watch Dune 2 again.

And oh my God. I mean, just truly, I don't think they could have casted Paul better. I think that I love stories of the reluctant hero or the, that. the hero's journey of, you know, I don't want to do this, but I have to do this. And the whole joke of like, Lisa La Gaiib,

like he has written. Like, he's like, I don't want to be in power. And they're like, as written, because he doesn't want to be. Because true leaders don't want to lead, but they are destined to lead. I really think that Timothy did it so well. A beautiful,

he's just such a, he's one of the greatest actors of our generation. So, so good. And it started me down this rabbit hole of the dune lore, A, of like how fucked it is that he's part hearkening and he's like started this holy war that, I mean, is it doomed to fail? None of the other houses came to his aid. Like, is he raging this holy war because he is, you know, the prophet? Like, he is. He drank the blue worm piss.

And now he truly is, you know, and it isn't just a matter of convincing everyone else that he is the chosen one. I'm so excited for the third movie. Also, I don't know if I'm going to get through the whole book series by the time. So don't ruin shit for me, dude. I'm avoiding spoilers. I know the book's been written. Leave me alone.

Okay? It's fun to fantasize. It's started me down this whole rabble. of like sci-fi dystopian books because for me, everyone knows, it has to be fantasy romance for me to really give a fuck about it. And I stand by that. There has to be an element of romance to it. If I'm leaving the world of fantasy and I'm entering into, you know, dystopian sort of science technology-based things, that's a different, I need to tap into a different part of my brain to really enjoy that and like, because it's a lot of history there. The way that it's different,

with when you're reading something like Akitar or like Twilight, you know, where it's fantasy and it'll explain the lore. It's different than like, okay, I have to figure out how this world works. I'm reading a book right now and I've had a bunch of others recommended to me and it's books like that where you have to figure out, okay, what do these terms mean? What do these ships look like, it's a complete reimagination of, you know, what, what you have in your head as like Star Wars or Dune or any of these, you know, even Blade Runner sort of thing. Like, this is my understanding of what a dystopian futuristic, post-apocalyptic, post-sociital collapse society would look like.

And so that's been a little hard for me because the last time I really was into that was like divergent and hunger games, which are great, you know, but it's different as an adult because I'm not, it's not YA anymore. So yeah, that's been fun and I'm really loving it. And there's elements of romance in it, which I'm, of course, need. I crave it. I thrive on it. But I think after this, I do, I need to go back to my fantasy shit because it's, it's a lot to go from one sci-fi world directly into another when it's like, okay, I'm needing to understand how this society is structured. Okay.

Thanks for listening team. Love you guys. Go get your merch at broskey. Dot shop. And I'll see you next week. Bye. I'm U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.

We all seem to be in a rush these days. From work to driving our kids around. But when you're behind the wheel, please do not speed. A few minutes saved by going faster is never worth a risk. So follow the speed limit. Enjoy the drive. Maybe bring some snacks for the kids. And know that along the way, you're getting quality time with your family.

Paid for by NHTSA. On this episode of Plant Killers, we'll explore one nation's most notorious fruit and vegetable killer. Bad Dirt. What makes bad dirt so bad? The answer? The ingredients. But fear not true crime enthusiasts. This story has a happy ending.

Miracle Grow organic raised bed and garden soil. It's made with quality organic ingredients from upcycled green waste like compost and aged bark. Unlike the other guys who can't say the same, looks like bad dirt's murdering days are over. Thanks to Miracle Grow. Join us next time on plant killers. For many men, mental health challenges aren't recognized until they've already taken a toll. Work pressure, financial stress, changing relationships, and traditional expectations around masculinity can quietly wear men down.

Often without clear warning signs. In season three of the visibility gap, Dr. Guy Winch and his guests explore how these pressures show up, how to spot them earlier, and how men can access meaningful support. Listen to the new season of the visibility gap, a podcast presented by Cigna Healthcare.