The Daily Show: Ears Edition - In the Field with Ronny Chieng

Episode Date: March 23, 2025

Venture out of the Daily Show studio and into the real world with Ronny Chieng, as we revisit some of his best field pieces.  Ronny heads to Arizona to dig up the dirt on body donation scams, then to Washington D.C. to try his hand at law enforcement policing plastic straw bans. Next he plugs in to the world of Bitcoin and stupid meme currencies. Heading to Chicago, he goes to jail to find the best pizza in town, then all the way to Australia to learn about compulsory voting. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to Comedy Central. If you're going to talk about Arizona, you have to talk about old people because they are everywhere here. See? Which brings me to death. No, no, not yours. Obviously, you still have a long road ahead of you. And here in Arizona, people thinking about the afterlife are choosing something new.

Whole body donation. More and more people are choosing to forego traditional burial and just donate their bodies to science. There was a 20% increase in the number of people donating their body right here in Arizona. That's about 47,000 people. To investigate, I hit up a popular spot for the old folks to see if body donation really was all the rage. What do you want to happen to your body after you die?

I'd consider whole body donation. Have you considered whole body donation? Yes, I have it all ready set up. So you seem pretty old and close to death. What do you want to happen to you after you die? So you seem pretty old and close to death. What do you want to happen to you after you die? I'm going to be donating it to science. What made you think of doing that?

I have no living relatives. Who's going to bury me? Any friends? Yeah, they don't care about my body. Well, maybe they should care because when I turned on the news, I discovered this. Scandal involving a body donation business in Phoenix. The owner accused of selling bodies and body parts. Essentially running a chop shop for human body parts. A human chop shop?

These were people, not cars you strip down for pots. I turned to a team of lawyers trying to end this horror. So what the f*** is happening in Arizona? People are getting people to donate their bodies and telling them that they're going to treat the bodies with dignity and respect. And they were sold off like you would sell off the parts of a cow. And then ultimately the FBI raided this organization here in Arizona. So what did the FBI find?

There were coolers and freezers of disarticulated body parts. You know, a cooler of arms, a cooler of legs. They found heads. They found the torso of a large human male with the head of a small female sewn on the top. Alright, okay, we get it. Enough already. Jesus. Anyone have a puppy I can pet for 10 seconds just to clear my head? And they found a giant bag of penises.

They found a bag of dicks. Yes, it was referred to as a large bag of male genitalia. So it was a large bag of dicks. Yes it was referred to as a large bag of male genitalia. So it's a large bag of dicks. Yes. I'm scared to even ask but what were they gonna do with this large bag of dicks? Well we really can only speculate we know that some of it may have gone to the black market in Southeast Asia for something like penis wine. Okay I'm from Southeast Asia I've never heard of penis wine. What is it? I think it's a wine that has a penis in it

that's supposed to make people more virile. That is disgusting. I thought so. Is it red or white? I didn't even get close enough to it to even. What kind of flavor profile is this? Is it nutty? I didn't taste it.

Is it notes of foreskin? I... Can we move on? This is a serious case. Oh yeah, that's right, Holly. We're just gonna mention penis wine and not talk about it. This case is about the harm that was done to people

and families, not about penis wine. She's right. People thought they were donating their bodies for research to find cures for diseases, but instead it was real life invasion of the body snatchers. How are they gonna fix this? We need regulations. Licenses, for example.

You don't need a license to deal with dead bodies. Correct. You need a license to do nails. You need a license to fish. You need a license to drive a forklift. Pay your money, fill out a form, and you're a medical director. That has to change.

This is horrific. This is not just an Arizona problem. It's a nationwide problem. And if you think it's not happening in your backyard, you're mistaken. Okay, sorry. Can we just go back to the penis wine for a second? Do they stomp on dicks the way they stomp on grapes?

Are they squeezing out the penis? Are they just fermenting it? I don't know. And I'm really not sure I wanna know. No one should have their dead body violated or their genitals turned into a tasty beverage. If people are gonna donate, they should at least know exactly

what they're getting themselves into. They need to know the truth. Until Arizona puts regulations in place, all we can do is offer competing services. Introducing GiveRonnieYourBody.com. Just give me your body, and we'll take care of the rest. With us, you'll know exactly what you're getting. We provide services such as...

Be turned into a human ventriloquist dummy. Be used for Weekend at Bernie sequels. Literal body pillow. Skif you're-filled Oscars. Those are just some of the many things we can do. Sound horrifying? You betcha. But it's also perfectly legal

until Arizona changes its laws. Give Ronnie your body.com. Give me your body. I want your body. Ronnie Chang is unlicensed and has no experience in this field, which is not a problem in the state of Arizona. So avoid this service altogether

and do your research or donate to medical centers. -♪ Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah But recently, local governments across the nation have been challenging our God-given right to bare straws. Straws represent only 0.02% of the 9 million tons of plastic waste that is estimated. People would like to keep the plastic straw, just saying. Conservative Big Bird actually has a point here. So I headed to Washington DC, the latest city to ban straws, to meet Lillian, an environmental inspector. Her actual job is to go into local businesses and make sure they're not using plastic straws to meet Lillian, an environmental inspector. Her actual job is to go into local businesses and make sure they're not using plastic straws.

That's right, she's a straw cop. So what do you hope to accomplish by banning something that's like 0.000000001% about trash? You know, that's a good question. It's a perfect symbol for our overuse and dependence on single use plastics, right? So what am I supposed to do? If I don't use straws, what do you want me to do?

You want me to do this? Yes, absolutely, that's what I would love. Lillian explained that over 40% of all plastic manufacturing is single use. Throw away items that will take somewhere between 450 years and forever to disappear. But still, why are people suddenly so angry about straws? Why do you hate straws so much?

What do straws ever do to you? I think that really started with the straw video, the plastic straw getting stuck up the sea turtle's nose. It has over 35 million views on YouTube. Wait, this is all because of a dumb viral video? Look, I've seen a lot of shit on YouTube. How bad could this be? Turns out, really f***ing bad.

Oh. Oh! Oh, man. It's a freaking straw. Okay, okay, I'm done. No more straws. But the video did leave me with one burning question. If I stick a straw on my nose, I could get 35 million views on YouTube.

I can't guarantee that. You know, people might not connect with seeing a person, a full grown adult with a straw up their nose, the same way they connect with a sea turtle. I wouldn't go further. No, that's stuck. No. Okay, so tell me what you do on a day to day basis. Turns out that turtle was not faking it. We actually go out and do some random inspections and we talk to business owners about the new rules and how to come into compliance

That sounds great it was time for me to hit the streets and shadow Lillian on an actual straw raid First step case the joint clear clear clear clear clear clear clear All right, clear. So once we enter a business usually we kind of take a look around Right. We want to see if we can see any straws. It's not racial profiling Yeah, I mean we're looking at the straws. What race is more likely to use straws? Next look for contraband So these are what we use. Great. Compostable. Okay, that's excellent. So these are absolutely in compliance. Turns out this guy was clean, at least for today. But I knew things were about to get real

when we hit the mother low. A coffee shop with enough plastic nose candy to take down Nemo's whole goddamn reef. It looks like these are plastic, right? So you are currently out of compliance. That's right, you're busted. And now the straw carbs are gonna make you pay. Right now we haven't switched yet,

but we are in the process of switching. Oh really, that's convenient. Just happen to be switching when we walk in, okay. I'm sorry. So what I'm gonna do today is I'm just gonna give you a warning letter. Okay. Wait, what do you mean warning letter?

So Lillian just walks around warning businesses? That's it. I'm taking the lead on this investigation. Straw, straw, straw, straw, we got a straw over here. You crazy gonna pull out a straw in front of a straw cup? Is this your straw? Whose straw is this? Straw, straw over here.

Sorry, false alarm. It's fine, it's paper. Dispatch, we are entering premises. Over. You see that guy over there? The black hoodie? I'm just gonna go ask him a few questions. Oh, oh, he's going, he's going! Go, go, go, go, go! Straw police! Straw police! Drop the f***ing straw. Get on the ground, motherf***er.

But despite the successful raid, Lillian wasn't happy. Yeah, that was absolutely useless in getting people to come into compliance. Well, let's agree to disagree. Yeah, it takes a lot of time and energy in those one-on-one conversations to really enact real change. Okay, change people's minds

through constructive conversations. I can do that. Do you know how many f***ing turtles are dying in the ocean because there are straws up their nose? Why? Because motherf***ers can't seem to drink from cups without straws. Just put the cup to your mouth. Just put the cup to your mouth. That's it. You don't need a middleman.

Do you know how much damage this could do to a dolphin's anus? An oyster could eat this and suffocate to death. It's like you guys don't even care. Sir, we need to go before I call the police. Yo, you can't call the police. We are the police. Guys, guys. We are the police.

We are the police. Show her your badge. We're not the police. Show her your badge. Yeah, we're not the police. Show her your badge now. She has a badge. Show her the badge.

After a successful conversation, we voluntarily left the restaurant. I come back, I see any plastic straws in here. I'm burning this whole place to the ground. And hey, if a restaurant can ban me just for doing my job, how hard can it be to ban straws? Cryptocurrency. Is this some fake s***, some f***ing nerds made up on the internet to steal our money?

Or is it the future of finance? There is no way all these people buying cryptocurrency have any idea what the hell they're investing in. And it's not just Bitcoin. Ethereum, the number two cryptocurrency, has risen 5,000% since the start of this year. Why? If you imagine Bitcoin as being a gold coin, Ethereum is a coin that has a magic spell

in it. What the hell does that mean? I spoke with one of the founders of Ethereum, Joe Lubin, to find out. First question, what is it? What is it? Ether, the cryptocurrency that lives on the decentralized Ethereum platform, it's actually a much more programmable cryptocurrency than Bitcoin.

That doesn't mean anything. What is it? We created a platform for decentralized applications. Does everyone in cryptocurrency talk like you? Pretty much. Is it just everyone just going decentralized from the dark web and drugs online? Exactly.

Does cryptocurrency make you feel angry and confused? Well, it should. To make it easier to understand, we ripped off the big short and asked Margot Robbie to explain it in a bubble bath. But she said no. Cryptocurrencies are transparent and decentralized. When two strangers exchange money over the internet, it requires a bubble bath, but she said no. Cryptocurrencies are transparent and decentralized. When two strangers exchange money over the internet,

it requires a middleman, like PayPal or a bank, who takes a percentage of the transaction. And that transaction is vulnerable to hacking. Cryptocurrencies are recorded in a public ledger called the blockchain, so it's impossible to cheat. They actually solve a lot of problems with exchanging money in a global digital world. Now get the fuck out of here, I don't have to go back.

But still, is that worth a bajillion dollars? Why do so many suckers on the internet, sorry, I mean people, believe fake money as value? Ether's real. It's based on faith in the Ethereum blockchain. When you get enough people believing in cryptocurrency, then you can snowball into something that a society actually deems valuable.

Like the US dollar. Whoa, what do you mean the US dollar? The US dollar is based on faith in the system. So the only thing backing this money is belief in the competency of the US government. Unfortunately, that's true. Damn! So not only is cryptocurrency fake, all money is fake.

Wake up, Wall Street. You know, money isn't real, right? All this stuff is all fake. But Wall Street doesn't care if money is real, as long as they're making lots of it. They've been pumping millions into Bitcoin and Ethereum, driving the creation of thousands of new cryptocurrencies. But how low is the bar for entry?

Let me get this straight. You took Bitcoin and you just changed the font to Comic Sans. And we put a dog on it. This was the guy to talk to. So tell me about the genesis of Dog Ecoin. Well firstly it's Dogecoin. But I created- Why is it Doge? It's actually based on a meme.

What? It's not dog E coin? E coin, electronic coin, dog E coin. That's pretty smart actually. It's not. But guess what? This stupid meme currency is worth almost $400 million. So why does X Creator have some problems with cryptocurrency? When you see price charts go up and to the right exponentially, ultimately it can be a sign of a bubble. Yeah, bubbles are great We're talking about I love bubbles people are gonna lose a bunch of money and sure cryptocurrency might destroy the planet through climate change and supporting

Road nuclear states, but this is America So I decided to make my own cryptocurrency, but that has to be an incredibly complex done That was easy. I did it It literally takes 10 minutes to go on a website and make your own coin. Time to make it rain, Changcoin and kickstart the financial revolution. Do you accept Changcoin?

Chang? Changcoins are Bitcoin. It's disrupting global financial systems using blockchain technology. No. No. No, only cash. I'll send you money over the internet.

I don't have money? I'm gonna demonstrate. So imagine if I send you this. Okay. Right? Thank you. No, no. But digital. No, no, no. Give me back my five. How are people not getting this? No, I'm paying you. I'm paying you in ChanCoin. Get the f**k out of my cab. Out of my cab.

Remember this moment. Remember this moment when you had a chance to jump on ChanCoin and you didn't. All right, his loss, invest in ChanCoin. Just don't ask me how it works. Chicago, big city, windy city, opinionated city. Whether you're from Hyde Park, Lincoln Park, or Wicker Park, why is everything a park? Their food is as iconic as their corruption. Al's Italian beef sandwich,

Garrett's addictive popcorn mix, Portillo's jumbo hot dogs, and of course, the legendary Chicago pizza I've heard so much about. What the f*** is this? This is Chicago deep dish pizza. Yo, I said I wanted a pizza, not some Italian guy's dump on a plate.

This looks like me eating pizza and then throwing it up into a bread bowl and then leaving it in the sun to dry. This is how Chicago does pizza. I refuse to believe you can't get a decent slice of pizza in this city, all right? This is the birthplace of Lincoln, Obama, Michael Jordan. None of those people were born here.

F***ing brothers. Ugh. This is what people in Chicago call pizza? Why can't I find a decent slice in this city instead of this stupid bull****? I couldn't find a single place that sold real pizza. Just these deep dish dough dumpsters. This isn't pizza. This isn't even human food.

After hours of only deep dish, I finally found a place that served delicious, normal pizza pie. The Cook County Jail. That's right, the best pizza in Chicago is in the biggest jail in America. This gourmet pizza is actually made by and sold to inmates as part of a training program called Recipe for Change. Recipe for Change has made it a point to put together a program where we have phenomenal

pizza. Thomas Dart is the sheriff of Cook County Jail. He's been running the pizza program for four years. We have a lot of good pizza in Chicago. This is really good though. What do you mean there's good pizza in Chicago? Have you tried that deep dish Chicago pizza? Yeah, but the inmates didn't want that.

So you're telling me even in jail, people did not want deep dish pizza? They haven't been asking for it. Recipe for Change is one of several rehab programs at the Cook County Jail, along with drumming, painting, chess, gardening, and more. So what made you become a hero sheriff and not a Joe Appiah sheriff?

You know, recidivism rates like 70%. It's expensive to incarcerate people. It's not expensive to give them a skill. The man giving them that skill? Local restaurateur Chef Bruno Abate, who volunteers his time and expertise to teach inmates how to cook the best pizza in Chicago. Chef, what do you think about this deep dish pizza?

It's garbage. People should not eat this. It's like a brick. Look at this. Look, I mean, I don't know where you buy this. I's like a brick. Look at this. Look. I mean, I don't know where you buy this. I don't want to know.

But this is shame. After a straight hour of shitting on deep dish pizza, Chef Bruno finally got around to telling me more about how his program is affecting inmates. The program recipe for change is here to open your mind, to open your brain. Give you hope, give you self-esteem, give you dignity. Give you pizza. Everyone in the Cook County Jam

wants to be a part of this great program. I learned how to be a better leader. I learned how to work with a lot of other people. Basically, I've learned how to eat better. It was great to be with people in Chicago who understood what pizza is supposed to look and taste like. Guys, this pizza is genuinely awesome. You must have people lining up around the block to buy this.

Actually, it's only for inmates. Guys, we gotta rescue Chicago from that bull**** deep dish pizza! Look, I know the pizza is great, but this is not how you deal with conflict. Alright, I'll be right back. Hey, where you going with the pizza? Ronnie knew pizza this good wasn't meant to be caged. He also really loved prison escape movies. Ronnie, where are you?

Look at the mess up. ["Pizza Man"] In October 2017, Ronnie Chang smuggled thin crust pizza out of Cook County Jail. Oh, Ronnie loved pizza, but he also hated Chicago deep dish. He had to find a way to get thin crust pizza to the people of Chicago. All it takes to get pizza out is cheese, dough, and time. That and a big ass poster. Ronnie Chang, who crawled through a river of marinara and came out smelling like basil.

In the last presidential election, 44% of Americans did not vote. That puts you in 26th position among developed countries. That's pathetic. You should be ashamed of yourself. That's pathetic. You should be ashamed of yourself. That's garbage. It's so garbage that in 2016, Trump got elected if only a quarter of eligible voters supporting him. That is a broken system. Some politics nerds are proposing a solution.

Jury duty and taxes are mandatory, so why not voting? But America is the land of the free, where the whole point is to do anything you want, even dress up as fat Iron Man in Times Square on a Tuesday afternoon. So can you really force Americans to vote? Do you think in America voting should be compulsory? I think it should, but it's not going to happen because people won't even wear masks. If we were told to do something, at this point exactly f*** it, we wouldn't do it. Do you think America would ever accept mandatory voting?

Definitely not. Why not? Because Americans are lazy, in general. America is the land of the free. People come here because it's a free place. And that includes the freedom to not participate? Yeah, pretty much. Do you think mandatory voting can happen in America?

No, I do not. I do not. I think that American values are like a toxic version of what freedom is. Isn't that what makes America great? It's not so great at the moment. Maybe Americans think it's impossible, but mandatory voting does exist in 22 countries, including one that's even drunker, crazier and whiter than the US. I'm talking about Australia,

where they've had it since 1922. It was quite a small step for Australians to think, well, we want the majority of people to be selecting our government. And that gives it greater legitimacy. So basically in Australia, you force people to exercise their democratic rights. That's right, yes that's right. I don't think people in Australia regard it as a particularly big deal. You've got to turn up on

election day which is a Saturday. You know it might take you like 15 minutes and the Parents and Teachers Association will be there selling sausages and that's where we get the term democracy sausage. Okay for Americans the term democracy sausage has had a bad taste since the Clinton administration. But for Australians, consuming charred intestine meat on bread has been a voting tradition since the 1940s. But what about the people who don't think a sausage sizzle is enough incentive to vote?

What kind of punishment do you have to enforce to make it so that over 90% of people go and vote? What jail time? Public spanking? You have to wear a I didn't vote sticker. It's a $20 fine. That's it? That's a bargain, I think. Look, there's big advantages in our system because the political parties don't have to get the vote out and that means they don't have to appeal to the base. So you don't get the same sort of extreme ideological appeals and so it makes our democracy I think more moderate.

Doesn't that make your election process very boring? Well it doesn't make it boring. Look, I don't know that that's a problem. For me, what democracy means is that the majority of people participate. And I find the extent of voter suppression in the United States truly shocking. I don't understand how the Americans can call themselves a democracy at all. Damn, political science world star is going to love this. But how do everyday Australians see it?

I took a 25 hour flight and spent two weeks in quarantine just so I could talk to them myself in sunny Brisbane, Australia. What do you feel about the fact that voting is compulsory in Australia? I feel very proud that it is. And for people who don't want to vote, they should go and live somewhere else.

Everybody has to decide and it's mandatory to vote so if the result doesn't go your way you can't complain. If we lose oh we're sad but at least we've had a chance to vote and that's it brother, done. You should just do it, it takes five minutes you just go in there and vote and get out. No time, no effort. Just shut the f*** up and vote. What do you guys think about mandatory voting in Australia? and vote and get out. No time, no empty. Just shut the f*** up and vote. What do you guys think about mandatory voting in Australia? Um, I think it's pretty bullshit.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're not a fan of it. We don't care what we vote for. We just go in there and tick a few boxes and then fingers crossed we get the right one. I don't know. Are you guys drunk right now? Yeah, we had a few beers before.

We had a couple shots. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Big beer with brekky, you know. Man, that is f***ing Australian. Why do you think voting isn't mandatory in America? Oh, maybe, I mean... Yeah, now I rethink it, actually. Maybe there's a purpose for it.

America, Australia, which one's doing better? I feel like I'm a witness to cavemen discovering fire right now. Yeah, that's fair enough, actually, yeah. Even drunk Australian bros can see the benefits of mandatory voting. But for America, the good news is that voter turnout in 2020 is on track to hit record levels. All we needed to get people to vote was to elect Donald Trump. And then guess what?

People turn up. We don't need to force people to vote. Well, that's a pretty big price to pay. I'd rather pay a $20 fine than have to put up with President Trump for four years. Touché, Judith. But hopefully one day Americans will also learn to enjoy the sweet, sweet taste of democracy sausage as much as our drunk, vote loving mates down under.

Thank you. Explore more shows from The Daily Show Podcast Universe by searching The Daily Show wherever you get your podcasts. Watch The Daily Show weeknights at 11, 10 Central on Comedy Central and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount Plus. ["Paramount Podcasts"] Paramount Podcasts.