The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - #BecauseMiami: Back at Your Ass for the Two-3

Episode Date: August 4, 2023

2 Live Crew founder Luther Campbell joins Billy Corben and guest co-host Brittany Brave to talk about his run-in with John Ruiz. He also talks about the state of Florida's current attitude towards African American studies. We spin the wheel of despair. And, Jeff Goodell, author of "The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet", speaks on the climate situation in Miami. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to Giraffe King's Network. Comedian Brittany Brave, named by the Miami New Times as Miami's best comedian. It's weird when that happens like once and then like beat Kempestor's hit but then like other people get like how like it's like winning the Oscar I guess one year. But then you don't win it the next year and so are you not? I might as well. Did I expire? Right. Yeah, exactly.

I, it's strange and all these credits, well, even as a comedian, any kind of credit, is always a catch 22 because I feel like every time a host introduces you with your TV credits or your accolades, nine times out of 10, the universe smacks you in the face and you bomb. So I would rather almost not even... And also, you're reminded of how long ago some of those credits were. Yeah. It's like, I watch trailers from my docs now and they're like from the director of cooking Cowboys and I was like, that was so long.

I mean, it's good if you remembered for something that nothing at all totally. It feels like when Brian DePaul mitz is from the director of Scarface. It's like that was 40 years ago. It reminds you of the passage of time and then you start having an existential crisis, which has a comedian. I don't need to have any more of those.

Seriously, that's like what you do basically. And then do the therapy right on stage. Speaking of the passage of time, Uncle Luke is going to be joining us. I say that because of course, the birthday song. I feel like he made me a woman. I feel like he's a... What? I say that. He's a Miami native. I'm a Miami. I just feel like he played such a huge role in my like.

No, okay. Coming up, I won't like I said, I won't get into details. Should we talk about this? I feel like we should talk about this. We can, I'm just saying his music has sound. It's so deep. It has soundtracked a lot of big moments for me, formative moments, and hope forever hold a place in my heart.

So, like his music sort of playing on the radio in your car while at nightclubs, at parties. What kind of clubs are you going to? In the moment. You're strawberries? What was that? Exactly. I was at Boogie's Chavern in South Miami.

I just love it. Yeah, so yeah, I feel like I grew up with him. Yeah. Is it Boogie's or Boogie's? I don't know. Boogie and Vee-a-ya, is that what you're talking about? It's like a chicken to the egg. I don't know that they play Uncle Luke at Boog and Vee.

Well, you gotta be there at the right time. You gotta be there at the right time. Right, yeah. That place also literally always has hundreds of people there every night of the week. Yeah, I like that spot. It's like an old school spot. Yes.

As well in South Miami. Brittany Brave, that spelled B-R-I-T-T-A-N-Y, last name Brave, which I'm sure is your real last name, like Corbin is mine, dot live is her. It is a hundred percent my real last name. It is the widest most, get outta here. Patriotic America, yeah. For Nounsbury, not like Brave, yeah.

No, well, all of my, my Emmy teachers were like Brita Nibrave and I was like, no, Yosoy Gringa, yeah, but no Brave. It is, I'm a second generation Italian-American, and my grandfather was Bravo, and then when he came to America, he assimilated, and he changed to the most American word ever. And how long do you and Miami?

I grew up here, actually. I was born in New York, New Jersey, and... Both? Yes. Sort of straddled the... I was right, your mom straddled the border when she gave her a deal. She's really good at spreading her legs.

Ah. God. She's a very flexible woman. Jesus. What can I say? It's going to be that kind of show. It is. You and Uncle Luke.

How do you think I am in Minuton? So where'd you get a school? I grew up West Kendall though. I went to- Nobody's perfect. Exactly. It builds character. I even have a tattooed on the side.

What kind of character? It's. Well, I just told you, my formative moments were top uncle who was music. So she grew up in what A-Rod would call the hood. My kind of character. Which, exactly. Which, Wes Kendall people find very offensive, but.

So speaking of Miami characters, I have to glute right out of the gate here because John Ruiz, who is a character that we have followed for the entirety, I think the existence of this program. Roy, is that right? That is correct. Like from its inception, we have been talking about John Ruiz, who is this sort of like classic only in Miami

shady character, who went from nothing, from like failed lawyer to self-identified billionaire. Fail lawyer is a great start. And the press immediately started to call him a billionaire despite the fact that at the time he was not, in fact, a billionaire. And then he started to... Make a ring on the king.

And he became the University of Miami athletic departments like NIL Sugar Daddy. He became the face of N athletic departments like NIL sugar daddy He became the face of NIL the NIL king I think ESPN called him and No one was quite sure where all this money was coming from he had this you know PI law firm, but then he claimed that they had we have biometric technology and these proprietary Algorithm that they were using to identify these various things that they could identify and go that this. Sounds like he just learned those words that day.

He just made them up is what happened. I'll build for technology. Yes, and so now the man who claimed that he was gonna build the Miami Hurricanes a stadium first on top of Coral Gable Senior High School, later at Tropical Park, he is now his company Life Wallet which went public last May, when the stock was worth about $10.78,

as of this moment, it's trading at 20 cents. Oh, it's even lower. Yes, it's even lower. Okay, because I was not going up. Right, well, the news isn't getting better. Great, but the last I had checked, it was a quarter. It was 25 cents. Sorry, you can't, you can no longer make a phone call

with your share of Life wallet, but it turns out that we can round up and donate to a charity at a conference turns out it turns out That John Ruiz his company life wallet is under federal investigation both civil and criminal the IRS the SEC and the FBI are looking into this company because allegedly they're looking into whether or not it is what he said it was and the claims that he made about the... We have biometric technology. And the claims he made about... he said the company was going to generate about a billion dollars in revenue last year.

It was actually about 23 million in revenue. The other problem is they spent their overhead was about 300 million. So not a very good law firm either. I would say not also not a very good businessman either. And so I've been perpetually concerned about what this was gonna mean for the Miami Hurricanes and the football program. Because we called this fuckery out pretty early on. And in fact, we are now gonna do since they won't let me do a top five benefits of

the Holocaust, we are going to do a top five, I told you so, John Ruiz edition here on because Miami. And we're going to flash back all the way to December of 2021. Number five, you can spend his money wherever and however he wants to. He's not gonna build those a public high school. He's not gonna build a stadium anywhere in the city of Carl Gables.

Miami is a sunny place for shady people, and I resent when some of that shade overshadows the good that people are doing a positive moment in the history of this community in this program who should be cupping his ear to an adoring public, his Mario Christobal, and the people who are responsible for making that happen. And this moment belongs to them. It doesn't belong to drunk tweets about building stadiums on the moon. I don't think it's helpful, and I don't think it's true. This is why Miami. This is why Miami can't have nice things. Are you talking about my hair?

No. And that clip. No, talking about John Rue. He's definitely not talking about my hair. Who's that guy on the left? It's the lost beegee. I think. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that my pandemic haircut there. You were a substitute member. Needless to say, this was right around the time

that Mario Cristobal became our head coach and John Ruiz showed up to the press conference with his own publicist. And this is a guy who had donated no money to the university. This is a guy with nothing, less than nothing to do with this, I think, very historic and extraordinary hire. But there he was, was like doing a victory lap at Mario Christobal's press conference.

It's just like, it's pathetic. Now let's go back to January of 2022 with number four. A billionaire who's money may or may not be real, who is very interested in you knowing he has money and is looking to buy the marlins, buy the doll things, but change, put stadiums on top of stadiums and conquer all of South Florida. But he said, certainly, you've heard of Nevin Shapiro. This is Nevin Paiso. This is so Miami.

All of it is so Miami, Mike. Obviously, this is earned skepticism. It's not like we didn't see what Scott Rossstein and Nevin Shapiro. If you're going to make the competition about who in America can do this better with dirty money. The U is back. Like, if that's how you're going to do this, the U is back, baby. The U is back.

He was interested in buying all of the sports teams in Miami. With this guy, he was talking just like piles and piles of trash. But yeah, if you remember. We have biometric technology. So, so you can do anything. Number three, we are still in January of 2022. The University of Miami has been the subject of clawback litigation from bankruptcy trustees, from Ponzi schemers in the past, Nevin Shapiro, Alan Rothstein.

I just don't want to see a bunch of student athletes get an NIL deal with one hand and a grand jury Sapino with the other. Come on, get outta here man. Right, because we've never seen anything like that. That'd be such a skeptic. Wow. Being a skeptic, I was being minimally observant. I like- You were just pointing things out.

Just pointing out facts. Right there was John Ruiz's nephew. Mike Ryan Ruiz just pouring, dumping the hate array all over me. Hey, when you're just, you're just an observer of society. Good God. These are the top five I told you so.

John Ruiz edition here on because Miami, going back to September of 22, here is number two. Big booster man on money that may or may not be real. Is real. It's real. Kind of real. It's definitely real. Okay. The real money that may or may not be real is real kind of real. It's definitely real. Okay. Real money that's subject to it was subject to all sorts of scrutiny and it went public

guys. I don't know. At a time when things being real in currency seems less real than it's ever been. The reason thing smells like Miami and when something smells like Miami, I am left to distrust anything that smells a little too much like Miami and we drape in some of that good Cuban cologne. That was also for May 22 when we were sort of at peak like crypto hustle here so with all the aros con manbrose and so Dan was pointing out the fact that like real money is not so like real

and he was like, No! At all, you know what? You know what? Crypto always had that energy of the kid in middle school who's like, I have a girlfriend, I swear, she's really hot, she goes to another school, that's why you haven't met her yet and you're like, okay, I'm a billionaire, yeah! Totally, right, totally!

But alright, just a big of a point, like Ryan is not actually the enough you John Ruiz and this is just a little bit of a refact checking a refact checking live here mitigation remember I season to sis letter was sent to you remember that he's protecting you there was no season to sis letter sent to me he didn't send you what no he didn't send a season to sis letter oh man I bet the over on that one I am thoroughly surprised I'll somebody some money. Oh, absolutely not.

He sent it to like literally everybody else though. I was like, he has like, he just that cease and desist letters, like just like ready to, just, who micro eight? So just ready to send on that. I'm ready to send on that. I'm always ready to hit send on that. I would love a cease and desist letter from this guy. And now number one, from April of this year

where I made a very, very, very prescient prediction. Number one, obviously the concern always has been for what like the last two years, that shady man with shady money pouring it into the Miami, University of Miami again was gonna end the same way that always ends and it looks by all indications, like that's exactly what's going to happen. I was labeled a hater for just sort of saying, hey, look, the sky's blue.

For stating what I thought was the obvious or abundantly clear what is now proven to be a fact, what happens if and when there is SEC investigations, which some people have theorized have already begun. Money's been paid. Players are taken care of. There is no player that is going to be left holding the bag if anyone's going to be holding the bag it is john ruiz well i was certainly right let's hope that not

john ruiz is nephew mic ryan is also right that none of our student athletes are the university's self-league is not you will be left this is met a large attorney on the line, but I will say one thing. John Louise is a slave. Nice. And I can't wait to hear what Uncle Luke has to say about this guy. We're joined now by Miami legend, first of them in Crusader, and the one birthday song that everybody thinks about at Phileas Gumballianos time here in South Florida, Luther Campbell, AKA Uncle Luke, our favorite uncle, and Uncle Luke, we were just talking about Mike Ryan Ruiz's favorite uncle, John Ruiz. You did a whole lot less and got into a whole lot more trouble at the University of Miami,

Hurricanes football program than this guy did. This guy just didn't finally admitted that his company is under federal investigation, both civil and criminal. He's being investigated by the SEC, by the FBI, by the IRS, and alphabet soup of federal agencies. Probably. Yeah. So it's good to be here.

We are all mercifully unindicted. Luke is unindicted. Brittany is unindicted. I am unindicted. For now. I think it's early. It's early yet. It's early.

Uncle Luke, what do you make of this John Ruiz character, this life wallet, this, you are the original NIL, you know, sugar daddy at UM. But what do you make of this John Ruiz character, this life wallet, this, you are the original NIL, you know, Sugar Daddy at UM, but what do you make of this guy? Look how Billy does this. First of all, thank you guys for allowing me to come on the show, shots out to my brother Dan, and my prayers is with you and your family. I was looking at my brother's picture,

and he came in for me of my face, and my condolence goes to the family in this difficult time. But I mean to ask the question, let me give you a second thought. So my brother invited me over to Johns Highs and my brother has a company called My Back, he created it for the federal government and basically for the pandemic. And with my back, in follow-up is the application that you put on the telephone. That folks can be able to, you know, add this information on the phone and their medical records will be added onto the phone.

And then the other part of my brother's business is he gets probably 70% of every prescription field in the United States of America. He has a platform. So, Ruiz was introduced to my brother and Longster is short in trying to work out a deal with him before going public with that whole life-bottled platform, which in my opinion was stolen from my brother, but did not have the infrastructure to the individuals in finding out who would be able to use this product or the good folks that hold database of people who have used prescription to be able to go out to those individuals and possibly use this platform So my brother didn't do the field

They negotiated all the way up to the fourth quarter the last minute I was going to public I remember clearly It was on Friday night and on the Monday. He ended up going public. He didn't do the deal So the brother said look man Friday night and on the Monday, he ended up going public. He didn't do the deal. So the brother said, look, man, if he's your public with this, that's not going to go up and go down, because we've got all the infrastructure that my brother owns and controls.

Uncle Luke, can I ask what your thoughts were on the name Life Wallet? Because for me, already, that sounds like one of the sketchiest names. That sounds like a prop in a black mirror episode. I mean the name life wallet, I mean you know creative name, but at the same time you know in my opinion you can't take somebody's ideal and call it your own if you do not have the inventor. You can still you

can imagine still something and run down the highway with it, but at the end of the day, isn't gonna work. If I still, you know, Billy does great documentary, he can, everybody in the world, I've been looking at a Billy's documentary, people, they can do that. But at the end of the day, they don't understand the difficulties and the things that are going into it.

Yeah, I think you're making a great documentary. I think you run out of steam when you don't have that authenticity up front. It kind of catches up to you. Yeah. It catches up to you. Uncle Luke, we've seen a lot of characters come through this program. Call themselves billionaires, call themselves boosters, claim that they want to help the program succeed, help the student athletes. Nevin Shapiro, probably the most notorious of them.

Have we ever seen a hustler like John Ruiz before, though? Dollar for dollar, grift for grift. This is man, I'm from Liberty City and the guy with a big mouth and the guy with the fast money and the fast cars, we always say the guy, the smart guy does everything on the nose. The guy who runs around talking about what he got and all this is doing all their bragging, it'd be a quick burn.

It's a fast burn. It always happened. You know, Nevin was flamboyant. He had the black girl friend, six foot and he was black. But anything here, when these guys are flamboyant like they're whether you're the real guy, you create enemies. And a lot of times, what they say,

ain't really what is gonna be. Because they're just creating this energy around them that they don't really need to do it on a low. You invite yourself to create those enemies because you're being so over the top. But hang on, but street hustlers, street hustlers a lot of them are into drugs,

they're robbing people. That's actually real revenue. It's not a legitimate business, it's a criminal business, but they do have the money. Be in fake rich on paper, okay? Because of an alleged scheme that you cooked up for an IPO. That's not real money. You don't even really have that money. You're out there kind of getting loans against your paper wealth and then making it rain on,

you know, uh, uh, make it rain on the king. And talking, and talking this trash about building a stadium on the grave of Coral Gable senior high school and then building a stadium at Tropical Park, a.k.a. Shalela's in Chandid Forest like this guy was so transparently full of shit and yet you had Keynes fans coming out of the woodwork call on you're a hater Billy. I'm like a hater. I'm just calling it like I see it man.

This guy is a straight up hustler, no? The one thing he tried to be with a hustler and he couldn't even do that. No, he failed. I tried to give him a benefit of that. You know, because when you go to his house, you see a big 100 foot yacht, you know, I don't want a short demand on his yacht,

but you see a big yacht in the back of the aisle. I don't have a yachtall I can't say anything My yachts my yachts have been circumcised so it's a little shorter It's a steamboat to steamboat It took a hold off Last time I checked my yachts it's still a 16 feet 16 inches But you see the big yacht in the back and you see the big house

You know you can't think that, okay, man, you know, this may be real. You know, so it's a lot of bells and whistles. It's a lot of smoke and mirrors. If it is, that's what it is. But I kind of was like, you know, just chill, bro. If you all that, just chill, you know, but then again, I really thought he was really trying to push his stock, you know, because if you know how to stock market work,

it works basically on press releases and so I just was like, okay, this dude is trying to blow this stock up, losing the football players, doing NIO deals with him, and then trying to get people to sell his stock, but then at the same time, the people who you were trying to get the purchase of stock, you know, you're pissed. And then, they're from other boosters and everywhere else around the country. You'd like to be a bad anybody behind this stock.

This whole situation to me is actually the most quintessential Miami situation. Oh, absolutely. And I just think it mirrors something greater in Miami that everybody thinks it's a hustle mentality, but it's, it's, you're hustling yourself, you're lying, it's like every single guy, you're like, what do you do for work? And they're like, just out here, grindin', buildin' an empire, I know people, don't worry, VIP,

exclusive, you're on the list. And I'm like, can you put what you do on LinkedIn? Can you show papers? Can I see a bank account statement? Yeah, show me the paper. And statement? Yeah, show me the papers. And they're like, he's winning. Show me the papers. Exactly.

Uncle Luke, and speaking of the NCAA and impermissible benefits, perhaps now is a good time to talk about the benefits of slavery, which have been really a big part of the national conversation in recent weeks. You had one of the greatest, it's not called twitter anymore it's called x but one of the great spaces i've ever heard my life last week about this subject and so here's what the uh... the governor florida ronda santis you got them right me bold here's what he has to say about it in response and i'd like you to respond to him if you don't mind

what you should talk to them about i mean i didn't do it and i wasn't involved in it uh... but i think uh... i think what they're doing is I think that they're probably going to show some of the folks that eventually parlayed you know, being a blacksmith into doing things later in life. But the reality is all of that is rooted in whatever is factual. They listed everything out. And if you have any questions about it just ask the department of education you can talk about those folks but i mean these were scholars who put that together was not

anything that was uh... that was done politically uncle he's talking about the african american history task force many of whom have now distance themselves from this curriculum about the benefits of slavery claiming they didn't know anything about it it was kind of like a a secret side task force that former Miami State Senator Manidia's junior, the other Manidia's junior put together. And so what do you make of first the governor basically downplaying and denying that he had

anything to do with this and be saying go talk to the African American history task force about this and this is what he thinks they mean. What do you have to say? I gotta say that's great bullshit. I mean, everything that he said was bullshit. You know, I mean, he's been on a attack against African Americans since he ran against Andrew Gilliam. You know, Andrew Gilliam, you know, came 50,000 votes from beating him.

You know, he really disrespected him in a lot of debates and he just has just been better against African Americans since he's been an author. And this is just one of the many things that he's done against African Americans, you know, and he's getting a pushback. And once he gets pushback, you know, he has a tendency of deflecting.

Oh, I didn't do it. No, it was some people that dress on the board that out that, you know, but he places people on the board. He places people on these different boards. He is a total tick-sale of every board. This man actually dismantled the Florida high school in the association and created another board where he self-appointed people to be on the board

to govern ice and sports in the state of Florida. I mean, that is what he does. And he did this with his board. He carefully picked track plots to be on there who are radical black people who don't like their own skin color that have been outspoken on this issue. And now they're feeling the heat because the community and for the men is completely full of shit.

I almost wonder if he even thinks that this work group, as he calls it, is gone too far because exactly what you said, he's deflecting and taking zero accountability, which I know it's like, oh, shocker of Republican, not taking accountability, but allow me to be full dystopian for a second. Sure. Why not? You've come to the right show. Right.

I'm in the right state to do so. But this, the policies against reproductive rights, the policies against the queer and gay, all of this seems like a precursor to trying to bring back all of this suppression. It's trying to groom people, change history, manipulate history, manipulate education. That to me is the scariest part. And Luke, let me ask you this on Brittany's point, they have gone after this governor, a lot of the super majority Republican state legislators here in Florida have targeted a lot of minority groups, a lot of underrepresented communities and marginalized communities. But I think the target on the back of black people has been the biggest of all.

And I'm reminded of the words of fictitious senator j. Billington bullworth played by Warren Beatty where he says rich people have always stayed on top by dividing white people from black people But white people got more in common with black people than they do with rich people so it strikes me and uncle I ask you is this just classic Racist device of politics because this guy thinks he's running for president He's just trying to divide all of us. Well, basically what he's trying to do is he's trying to sell to the world Trump on steroids. I mean, when you look at what Trump did, Trump

he energized a base of people that wasn't really involved in the political process after the Tea Party. You had Mark O'Roofield, Tea Party Movement. Trump went beyond that and became Tea Party on steroids. So he's trying to go beyond Trump to then engage those people. This just my little opinion. And but when you speak to the average or the problem,

then they don't like this. Most people just, why are we talking about this? Because you can't make a statement that says black people learned a trade by being enslaved as if black people who you brought from Africa had not learned a trade. You carefully picked these people to come over here and be slaves and work in these houses, in these quarters because they had a train in Africa.

As if life didn't exist, they just dropped off a mark and brought these people in and trying to make this point. As if someone learned a train, learned, I mean, after you were beaten, played, told at auction, women of great things like that men side of my you can't do that. It's something you just don't bother with. And in this governor, like Rick said, he's

taking no accountability for him because he's getting pushed back. He thought it was going to go over real nice and easy, but the dude is a straight asshole. And I do agree. And I've been. Average Republicans do think this is extreme. Like I did to your point.

Like they're even like, OK, this is even too far for us, but it does seem like all the Republican candidates are just trying to out extreme each other now. It's like a big problem. But you know, it says a lot about our state and legislator that are Republican. I mean, the last time Democrats control the state of Senate and the House tried to be 30 years ago,

but they have no fucking backbone. They allow something like this to happen to pass a bill like this. There are much more responsible. If many D.S., you know, when I think about them, I think about Cuban immigrants who came to this country that you know, I think about people like Dan, Dan, and other, you know, Cuban immigrants who came to this country, that you know, I think about people like Dan, Dan, and other, you know, Cuban immigrants who came,

said, for Bill Castillo to come here and this fucking education, he should step down. I mean, something like this, this is a look man, you can have this shit. No, I'm not a part of this, but he's going out and selling it. Yeah, you are a Cuban immigrant and you're selling some cynical bullshit like this. I have no respect for the education of our secretary. Luther Campbell, Miami's unofficial poet laureate, author of the Book of Luke,

my fight for truth justice Liberty City. Read this book. I love this book. Uncle Luke, thanks so much for joining us. Continuing down the path of what Brittany Brave calls going full dystopia our wheel of issues this week is going to be a wheel of despair. Oh, even better. Yes, the end. It's the full stand up comic experience. Oh, that's the only emotions I'm familiar with. So Roy, our topics on the wheel this week are,

Miami is full of shit, literally. We have some sewage problems. Yeah, we're not talking about the people, we're talking about the material. We're talking about the material. We're talking, and like literally the water is full of shit. We have crypto bros. Absolutely. You're favorite.

My favorite. And we have some Nazi memes, as we know, Governor Ron DeSantis. And finally, Leprecy. Can I just say, everything becomes so much more digestible with an upbeat jingle. You're welcome. Did not. Yeah, thank you. And in case you missed it, the last one is Leprecy.

Yeah. Because Miami. So Roy, why don't we spin the wheel? All right. It landed on it. Oh my god, it landed on Leprasie. Of course it did. Leprasie making a comeback.

Yes, Leprasie is making a comeback. It's surging and it turns out that Florida is the Leprasie capital of the country and especially central Florida. I think you were just there doing a gig. I was, I was in Orlando and I have leprosy right now. So, yeah. Sorry, it's 81% right. 81% of cases in Florida and nearly one out of five

leprosy cases nationwide are in central Florida. You enjoy Fattone, have leprosy. That would be the allegedly, allegedly, I don't want to, I don't it. Allegedly, I don't want to- Allegedly, I don't want to- Yeah, we don't want to, no, no. You know, it's a bad day in Florida when leprosy is one of the lighter news stories.

Out of, it just makes all the sense in the world. I always say that people from Florida who grew up in Florida are built different because of not only the politics and not only the social climate of Florida, but I mean, hurricanes and gators and leprosy. Oh my. Gators.

Gators. Don't say gators. It's Florida, you don't say gators. Gators, gators, okay. Gators. Right, I went to public school, I can't pronounce anything. So it's, I.

Sala gators. Gators. Gators. Speaking of Central Florida, like I'm thinking like Orlando, So it's, I, Salagatus. Salagatus. Gattas. Speaking of Central Florida, like I'm thinking like Orlando, where all of the major like recreational parks are Disney Universal, islands of adventure, all of that, I always say that Florida's greatest park

is the state of Florida. Like that's the greatest survival game. That's the greatest park. And you know, if you're lucky, you just, you know, die early in the villages, you get a fast pass. I certainly think of it at this point in my life as an escape room. That exactly, that's what I'm saying.

Yeah. And I drive, you know, some demented Ripley's, believe it or not, kind of. I'm sorry. Can we take 30 seconds to unpack my joy, fatone remark though. You just did a comedy gig with Joe of NSYNC fame in Orlando getting

leprosy. Yeah, I mean, it's the only reason I could justify ever getting leprosy. It's, it's, it was really, really worth it. Started a new boy band called in leprosy. In leprosy, the leprosy girls, kind of like the Cheetah girls, but spicier. The lepers. The lepers. The gunner's.

The gunner's comedy. He does. So he, it was a taste funny festival. the gunners. The gunners. The gunners. The gunners. The gunners. The gunners. The gunners. The gunners. The gunners. The gunners.

The gunners. The gunners. The gunners. The gunners. The gunners. The gunners. The gunners. The gunners.

The gunners. The gunners. The gunners. The gunners. The gunners. The gunners. The gunners. The gunners. The gunners. The gunners. The gunners. lot of childhood fantasies, K full circle. For you to this week with Uncle Lou and Joey Fattone. I'm really coming into my mind.

So all the posters on your West Kendall bedroom. I'm finally going through puberty, Billy. And it's a big time for me. Okay. But no, it was really, it was a great experience. And the only way I would ever enjoy the city of Orlando would be if Joey Fattone Steve Burns, you and Joe Goddo could be that's awesome. Yeah. Roy, let us spin the Wheel of Despair. I do this every night.

I know the Wheel of Despair. That's not a euphemism. It landed on crypto bro. Honestly, I just saw a comic use this line to a Heckler saying, like, there's nothing you could say to me that I haven't said six inches away from a mirror before. Yeah. Like, really spoke to me. It's always interesting, Hecklers think that they're hurting our feelings and it's like nobody starts stand up comedy

because things go well. Like, it's not. Speaking of things going really well. Yes. The crypto bros. Oh, God. So how can I help? So what we revealed last week was that there was apparently some kind of, what do they

call it? They call it like a straw donor scheme that someone had donated half a million dollars to Francis Suarez to his super pack, which has spent $3 million in counting on his fake presidential campaign. And so they thought it was this Chinese-based artificial flower company with a storefront unlike the Amazon marketplace, and it turns out that the mystery person who may still incidentally be guilty, potentially, of a straw donor scheme, was the CEO and co-founder of Moon Pay, a Miami-based tech platform for buying and selling

cryptocurrencies, Ivan Soto Wright. -♪ They're crypto world, what if he runs for president? So it turns out that this guy, who's BFFs, who did a Kephasito talk with Mayor Francis Suarez. Yeah. How can I help? So you can't. He by not running for president is how you can help.

I don't know why he didn't just this guy. I even sort of like just not like donate the money. Like this is me. It's free and clear why he tried to do it through some weird, obscure, new LLC and shell company that didn't have any money. But then you realize that this guy and his company, Moonpay, they are defendants in that lawsuit in California that claim that the board, ape, yacht club, NFT people also amymie connection there. And Moonpay that they conspired with celebrities like Justin Bieber and Paris Hilton and athletes

to push. So all people that mattered in the early 2000s. Yes, to put Jesus. I don't know, that was brutal. I'm sorry. But he is a defendant among like 40 in that lawsuit, basically saying that you were praying on unsuspecting retail investors

to wind up holding the bag when crypto collapsed. And you knew this was gonna happen. And should have known this was gonna happen. So this is the guy. It has been revealed, donated this money to a half a million dollars. Okay, not to make this a full circle moment, but when you said mystery person,

I was like John Ruiz, right? This sounds like something John Ruiz was like. So I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, we have, right? This sounds like something John Ruiz would do. I'm like Moonsay. We have biometric technology. We sure do. Me, me, Moonsay and Life Wallet just sound like they should go into business today. I think that's an award-winning company. You know what my biggest red flag with the entire world of crypto was? Everybody went in on it. Everybody over-hyped it. Everybody made risks. They had no business making,

like I know people who didn't have savings accounts that were like, I just sold my kid for Ethereum or I just sold my kid for Bitcoin or whatever. And you're like, this seems a little, this entire world in this ecosystem just already seemed a little too inflated and extreme that it was like, obviously it's bound to collapse. And I would say whenever Francis Suarez

opens his mouth and promotes anything, you should immediately run the other direction. Yeah, I would. If you put garbage in, you're gonna get garbage out. He's one of the most respected journalists covering climate change today, a contributing editor at Rolling Stone. I love the titles of his last two books. It's basically like the first two parts of the Miami trilogy. The water will come and the heat will kill you first.

I'm guessing the third one is just dead or like adios, you know, just you're gone. The water will come rising seas, sinking cities and the remaking of the civilized world and as latest, the heat will kill you first. Life and death on a scorched planet was an instant New York Times best seller when it was released last month.

Jeff Gidell, according to Miami meteorologist Brian McNoldy, senior research associate at the University of Miami's acclaimed Rosensteel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science, this past July, when your book came out, was the hottest in Miami's history. It set new monthly records for Heat Index and Dew Point. 2023 is also the hottest year on record for the January to July period. And Miami just experience, we're coming off of a record breaking 46 day streak

with the heat index topping 100 degrees Fahrenheit, blowing past the previous record of 32 consecutive days. And water temperatures around South Florida have been clocked at 101.1 degrees hot tub weather. When do we start panicking, Jeff? Or is it too late? It's too late. Win.

Yeah, well, I think a little panic in Miami might be a good thing right now. I mean, you know, actually, you know, panic is a weird word because panic suggests, you know, panic is a weird word because panic suggests, you know, I don't know a kind of freak out that is not necessary. What's necessary right now is like, hey, there's a lot of shit happening and we need to take this seriously. And, you know, Miami is really good at, you know, what Steve Jobs used to call, you know,

reality distortion field. You know, I spent a lot of time in Miami for the last book and I know it well and it's a great place. I love Miami. But it's also like the belly of the beast when you think about how our world is changing. And it's a place that all of these, the heat, the water, the rising water, all of this stuff is playing out in real time right now, all around us and all around you. And you know, my book is called The Heat Will Kill You First. It's a very kind of provocative title that a lot of people said, don't, don't, don't title your book that because it'll freak people out.

And nobody will want to read a book like that. But I really wanted to make it clear what you, everyone in Miami should know is that this is real. This is happening now. And it's happening to me and to you and to everyone around us and to everyone we know and love. And we got to think about and get smart about this and pay attention to it. I spatted off a lot of statistics at the top, but a lot of your journalism is about the personal impact and effects of this. Can you talk about, you said you spent a lot of time in Miami, what was there someone or something that struck you about the said you spent a lot of time in Miami. What was there someone or something that struck you

about the time you spent here talking to people being impacted by the reality of this? Well, I spent a lot of time in Miami for the sea level rise book, not so much in Miami for this book about heat, but I really think that climate changes and people who write about climate change are kind of fail in two ways

in the biggest sense. And there's lots of great writing out there about it. But one way they fail is they make it about data and numbers. And it's like, the classic example is, there's a lot of discussion rightfully so among the IPCC, the International Climate Negotiations, and all that about two centigrade of warming, and that's a sort of dangerous threshold. Well, to most people, like, two degrees of warming sounds like nothing. I mean, it's like, who can tell that difference

between a 90 degree day and a 93 degree day, right? So no wonder people are not paying attention when you put it in this terms of data. And also, you know, there's not enough stories about the sort of human impact of this. And so I really work hard to kind of tell this story in a kind of human narrative. And I did that with sea level rise in Miami

and the previous book about architects who were working on building various buildings at a higher level, people who are in the keys who are being, whose homes are being washed away, the people who are struggling to pay insurance for flooding. I mean, all of this data, all of these changes have real human impacts. And my narrative, my books really try to tell

those kind of personal stories. I think you, you spoke to a general oblivion that exists in Miami, especially when you were saying not knowing the difference between 90 and 93 degree weather. I'm a Miami native. I love summer. I usually love and feel very comfortable in hot weather. This is the first summer I've struggled with this. And I've been like, there's, I've paid more attention. You feel it, you literally feel it. I literally feel it. Is there something, and I'm just curious about, is there something that you could speak to at the infrastructure of Miami and Miami's like core neighborhoods that are maybe like adding to this intense heat?

Is there a way that the city is laid out? Is there a way a structure to the city of Miami that's making this heat more extreme? Outside of, of course, just being in a tropical climate. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot about the way Miami's built that multiplies this heat. And that has to do with like highways everywhere, concrete asphalt, all that stuff sucks up and radiates heat back. And so, you know, when you're walking down the street in Miami, and if the air temperature

is, you know, 100 degrees, it's probably 120 where you're walking because all that steel and concrete and asphalt is radiating it back. So, you know, Miami is a classic example of a city that is built without thinking about heat in mind at all. You know, palm trees are great, right? But they offer like zero shade, for example. I find it interesting as a Miami native and now living in Miami again as an adult, we're booming in so many ways as a city. Comedy, art, culture, cryptocurrency for better and more, a technology, cocaine, you know, all these things.

That's a joke. I'm on it right now. No, I'm kidding. But it's interesting to me that Miami, and I understand it's a relatively younger city and compares into New York or somewhere else, Miami almost skipped over, perhaps unsurprisingly, the core elements of running and maintaining

a safe, clean, sustainable city. And we see that with the trash and the waste issues that we're having. The urban heat islands. Right, absolutely. Right, the lack of public transportation. It's almost like we skipped over the basics and we were like the one place that needed to care most about this and the

responsible and sustainable development and green space and and we were the place that I mean you talk to urban planners and they say that Brickle especially is one of the great urban planning disasters and missed opportunities in the history of the world, because we had a blank slate 25 years ago, and instead of master planning it through and making it livable and walkable and green and sustainable. We just made a flashy.

We just made it the third worst urban heat island in the entire, you know, of the 44 major cities in the entire country. I wanna ask you, Jeff, this last question, because we've been hearing a lot about it lately, and I just want to make sure people understand it. We've been hearing about coral bleaching. We've been hearing about the death of the sea grass

in some of these key areas of our bay, and the bay very much sustains life here in more ways than one, not just marine life, but the economic lifeblood of this community. We sell our beaches, we sell our waterways and our waterways and our water fun. What is the threat here and what is going on in our waterways to our coral and seagrass? Well, this is one of the aspects of all this that kind of really hits hard for me,

because you have temperatures in this came bay now that are like a hot tub. And you know, you think about all the creatures that are living there and all the life that is there, and they're literally being cooked. And coral reefs are these magnificent ecosystem for which a lot of life in the sea depends. And they are just being destroyed. They can't move to cooler waters, right? You can't, a coral reef can't just

sort of up and swim to cooler waters, right? You can't, a coral reef can't just sort of up and swim to cooler waters. And so they're just being kind of cooked in place. And it's going to take, you know, for all intents and purposes thousands of years for them to come back. And there's been so much University of Miami has done some amazing research and attempts of restoring these reefs

and all of that work is going away now because of these intense water, and saying water temperatures that you're seeing around Miami. The heat will kill you first, life and death on a scorched planet, essential beach reading this summer here in Miami. If you can, if you can stand,

if you can stand the heat, Jeff Gidell, New York Times bestselling author, thanks so much for joining us. Thanks for having me. BritneyBrave.live for more information to find you to see you live. Yes. And you're in Stahandle.

BritneyBrave, BritneyBrave, comedy on TikTok. Don't go to BritneyBrave.com, somebody stole the domain and it's a weird. It's probably a porn star. It's a weird Asian porn slash. Is it really? Gambling. Yeah, I feel like somebody's.

Oh, I'm going right there now. Oh, yeah, do it. Yeah, it's like, I feel like somebody's punking me. So BritneyBrave.live. I'm doing a lot of shows. I'm always in South Florida, but I'm doing some touring this fall in a whole bunch of places. So come hang.

I want to finish today, and Lou of Miami Moment with a story about the Roosevelt Theater on 41st Street, the entryway to Mid Beach. I mean, if you're coming from the airport and going any of the famous hotels, like the Fountain Blue or the Eden Rock, you pass through 41st Street.

And the Roosevelt Theater is one of my favorites because for the last 20 plus years, I've been hoping that I would make enough money to be stupid rich where I could buy this historic theater and restore it, make it like our rack and tour office so we could produce docs from there and then use it as a screening room and never been able to do that, but the place was open in 1949. For a while it showed indie films and rock films and then eventually in the 1970s in a post-deep throat world, one of the great made in Miami movies. It became a porn theater, a triple X theater. They tried to play Debbie Dulles at one point at the rabbi at the synagogue

across the street got pretty upset about it and it closed permanently in 1989. And I would pass it almost every single day going to our racon tour office. And suddenly in 2016, and I would pass it almost every single day going to our Rackentor office. And suddenly, in 2016, a mural started to be painted on the side of this big, ugly blank wall. That, again, was like literally the entryway to Miami Beach, but suddenly this big, ugly blank wall had the outlines of this beautiful mural. There was a parakeet, there was a flower,

there was a Miami, there was a Miami Beach, lifeguard stand, and it said welcome to Miami Beach. And slowly but surely, it bore the signature of the artist, Libo. And I remember how it made me feel. I remember the difference between coming into Miami Beach and admiring this old historic building and this hideous wall that was suddenly this beautiful, colorful, and vibrant welcome to this city. And this is what artists do. They don't die when they die. They don't even die when their art disappears or when their murals are gone or painted over. They stay alive in the way that they make us feel, in the way that their work made us feel, they take these empty spaces, empty walls and emptiness in our hearts and they

fill them with color and joy and love and happiness. That is how Libba will always be remembered in all of our hearts as someone who filled that emptiness with his gift and his love and his joy. Rest in peace, Libba. someone who filled that emptiness with his gift and his love and his joy. Rest in peace, Lebel.