The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - PTFO - Share & Tell (Dark Triad Edition) with Katie Nolan, Dan Le Batard, and Pablo Torre(s)

Episode Date: November 3, 2023

Would you clone your dying dog? Why are burner accounts still a thing? And how much do you REALLY care about what other people think about you? Also: Stephen A. Smith mispronouncing Pablo's name (twic...e), Dan sobbing shirtless in a convertible, and Pablo defending the relative scale of his narcissistic, psychopathic Machiavellianism. Further reading: Are Pet Cloners Happy With Their Choice? The Atlantic HBO Bosses Used ‘Secret’ Fake Accounts to Troll TV Critics Rolling Stone The Sociopaths Among Us — and How to Avoid Them The Atlantic Dark Triad Personality Test (If You Dare) Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/xZvtRCuNdPs Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to Pablo Tore finds out I am Pablo Tore and today we're gonna find out what this sound is I Wanted to I wanted to be an alpha in this test and I wound up a Machiavellian Narcissist psychopath who needs the approval of the bottom of Stephen A Smith's boot right after this ad You're listening to Giraffe King's Network. Can I start with a clip? Yes, it's your podcast. So before we get into the show and the topics that Dan and Katie have brought and me, can we play this clip from Stephen A's show? Yes.
Starting point is 00:00:49 That, uh, that has to do with me. Huh. And I want, I want to unpack it here for a second, Dan. Can we, can we, can we play that clip, please? We begin with Pablo's narcissism. Now, that was them on Pablo Torres, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my colleague at ESPN, great guy, by the way, contributes to Dan Lebertard, shows sometimes, got his own podcast as well, he's doing great things, always root for my colleagues, and it's everything I all of them.
Starting point is 00:01:14 You know, not the fat bastards, I don't root for people like that. Y'all know the hell I'm talking about. We ain't stutterin', but I'm not you, I don't root for the fat bastard. Okay. But most of my colleagues, I root for him. Pablo Torres is one of them. So I wish him nothing but the best. Oh, no.
Starting point is 00:01:33 Yeah. Yeah. It's okay, though. It's okay. So two things, like I wish he had. He did on his own as a podcast. He did the Marcus Larson. He doesn't know who he is.
Starting point is 00:01:44 He does. He knows the idea of him. Well He does. No, he knows the idea of him Well, but no, he's got the wrong idea of him. A rose by any other name. Torres. No smell These are not the same thing. These are these are not the same thing. I worked with Stephen A. in the C-plore for years. Yes, very close. I showed him a sonogram of my baby. Oh, wow. And I- Baby Taurus. Baby Taurus.
Starting point is 00:02:12 Lil Violet Taurus, to which Stephen A went into an extended monologue about how I remember this vividly, about how I will never care about anything else, anything else as much in that I would one day like him want to murder someone to defend my child. Whoa. And now I, I, I am just a Torres. Torres, well, look, the man deals with a lot of information all day every day, okay?
Starting point is 00:02:39 And if he gets an athlete's name wrong, he's gonna hear about it but in the places where he can slack off, he's got a, because he's got 75,000 shows. That's what that constantly uner. This is what makes him the most gangster of all the sports journalism gangsters. He can get away with calling him Torres because Pablo is insignificant in his wake. It does not matter if he is Torre or he is Torres,
Starting point is 00:03:07 he's someone working from Levitard over there. That's right. He did get your name, right? I noticed. Yeah, Fat Bastard. Well, I was gonna say, I mean. I was gonna say, I mean. Do we?
Starting point is 00:03:20 People thought with me. And he had to come back from commercial break as if to say, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, that That's not the fat bastard. I was talking about he's honorated me by saying I was his buddy You would not call me a fat best. That's right. I know who it is. You know who it is. Oh, it's it's we'll bleep the name here But it's obviously I'm not if you're gonna say his name because I don't trust that you'll bleep it And I do not speak that man's name. It's like beetle juice. I for one love Stop it That man's name, it's like Beetlejuice. I for one love. F***. Oh, stop it. Is it bad that I was still deeply excited about this?
Starting point is 00:03:49 Not at all. That's the other thing about being in his wake. I'm like, oh, yes. I'll tell you right now. This feels good. Having his sunshine upon my pluralized face. If you put a picture of me in front of Steve and A Smith and gave him no other information and to a her he'd go nice girl. I don't I'm not sure
Starting point is 00:04:10 I'm not sure I remember that this is why I'm telling you. It's the most gangster of thing. Yeah, you us Us little us little journalist barnacles in his giant wake whether it's a Torres or a fat bastard or a levitard, he is sprouting his wings and he doesn't, it's the ultimate insult that we can all genuinely say, yeah, he doesn't even know your name. Doesn't need to. And now I just want to make it my voice mail message. You should. Pablo Torres.
Starting point is 00:04:38 Thank you, Katie Nolan's. Who's going first? Katie Nolan goes first, Dan. Katie Nolan goes first today. Katie Nolan brought Katie Nolan's Katie Nolan's Katie's Nolan. Like, like, uh, Tony general. Yeah. Katie's Nolan brought, um, an article from the Atlantic about cloning your pet. It says our pet cloner is happy with their choice is the title of the article.
Starting point is 00:05:18 Um, and it goes into basically, this is a technology that's been around for a while. We all remember in 96 when they cloned Dolly the sheep. That was big. I remember that being in my yearbook as like a big thing that happened this year. Katie, that's literally the last thing I remember about cloning. And this story is updating me on one. Really? From 96.
Starting point is 00:05:39 Yes, I checked out on cloning after that. And then I wake up to this story and I'm learning. So you didn't know about Barbara Streisand because that was an update to the story for most of us. She cloned her dogs in 2019, I believe. Yep. Missed that. We found out that she cloned her dog. So it's apparently like a thing. It's a cottage industry now, I guess you would call it.
Starting point is 00:06:05 There's this one company that's the biggest facility in the US called Viagin. They started cloning livestock and horses in 2002 and then they expanded the dogs and cats in 2015. It is expensive, it is not cheap to clone your dog, but basically they take a pet's tissue sample, they produce millions of cells from it, and then the nucleus of a donor egg is removed and replaced with one of those cells, and then the embryo is implanted into a surrogate animal, which will then give birth to an identical twin of the original pet.
Starting point is 00:06:41 Now, because surrogates are implanted with several embryos, there's about a 30% chance that multiple clones will be born, which means you're going to get two dogs that are like your original dog. Clones. Clones. But why are they doing this? Well, at Pablo, I think you can easily understand that loss is difficult to cope with. And so, when told that perhaps you won't have to cope with that loss, that you can just delay the dealing with this a little bit longer, a lot of people jump at the opportunity. There's people who say they have this unique bond with this animal that they've had multiple animals before,
Starting point is 00:07:18 and they've never truly felt connected until this dog. And so if, or cat, so if this happens to, if their cat or dog happens to die, they want to bring that cat or dog back, which to me sounds like straight out of black mirror, and is obviously not a good idea. Can we, Dan, I don't know if you're familiar with Viagen, you guys are both dog owners.
Starting point is 00:07:44 There's a real Jurassic Park-ass vibe to Viagen. Yeah, they have promotional material. Should we take a look? I think we should. Let's take a look. Today, Viagen Pets has thousands of clients who have chosen to genetically preserve their pets, as well as a growing number of clients who are moving forward
Starting point is 00:08:06 with Vigin's cloning service. I'm with them through the whole entire process from start to finish, give them updates along the way, and hopefully I'll actually be the ones to deliver the cloned pup you're kitten to the client. I manage the cell culture department. I'm the one that receives your pets tissue biopsy samples. Clients will call typically and they say, you know, I've got this dog and I've had lots of dogs,
Starting point is 00:08:31 but this is the best dog ever. There's something special about this dog. And so I'd like to have another one. The music underneath alone makes me suspicious and cynical about what's happening here. They're larding it with that real friendly acoustic medical disclaimer. So it's easy to mock, okay, but I really don't know how it is that people want to move
Starting point is 00:08:58 around wherever their grief is to scientifically bring back something that aids them coping with losing something. But I think what is funny is about that commercial is just that those people paid or sincere are arguing on behalf of, look how sweet it is it is that we are going to allow you to have a scientific replica that is soulless of the beast you used to love just because you can't cope with this. Like that as a commercial is a peroriously funny by itself, even if you don't want to judge this. I wonder though, Dan, whether any part of you seeing this is is moved by the premise.
Starting point is 00:09:45 I know I don't wanna make every conversation we have with you about losing loved ones, but I know you've lost a dog before. Well, let's talk about this part of it, though, because I don't know what Katie, before Katie took on a pet at the beginning of the pandemic, I'm guessing having no idea how unholy those beasts can be to tame.
Starting point is 00:10:05 You know, I had a horse, a wild horse in my house chasing around cats because we didn't know what we were taking into our house most recently after I lost my dog in the funniest way possible. But, and heartbreaking, and I think this whole thing is here only because Pablo wants me to tell this story and wants to tell everyone to see how uncaring he is because in the middle of deep deep loss Pablo said something to me. There was so cold and scientific that has to be heartless and render sort of me thinking that he and I should never be friends really because science over heart doesn't work from here. But this is the short story Katie because I want to get to your relationship with your pet. I don't know what your history with pets is,
Starting point is 00:10:46 but 20 years, I have a dog, a tiny ninja schnauzer, left by my brother in my care, a wonderful dog, good relationship, and the last, I don't know, 18 months of its life were terrible for me because he was in a diaper and I was just chasing him around the house. He wasn't in any pain, but I had to have like us, the people with him if I wanted to go out
Starting point is 00:11:10 and still after that, I hear like the clacking, I'm getting stuck in corners still to this day. He won the Nimo. Nimo. So one night he start late in life, he starts to spasm. I'm shirtless. I'm trying to get to a vet at two o'clock in the morning with a dog that's you know spasming and about to die. I'm in my convertible. I'm trying to find
Starting point is 00:11:35 an emergency center. I the dog is spasming. I tell Nimo it's okay to go. And and he dies in my arm. So he takes his last breath. I'm sobbing shirtless at a stoplights sobbing, because my dog is dead in my arms, but you can't see my dog because I've got the card door to my left and someone pulls up next to me at 2 a.m. on a Tuesday and it's like, sees me sobbing there, but doesn't see the dog and just says, damn, lebitard.
Starting point is 00:12:05 Oh no. Oh no. Yes, and so they can't see the dog. I'm just someone who parties so much that he sure listen sobbing at a stoplight. It is convertible. At 2am, but Pablo, when I told him this story, which for the heartbreak, I don't think I knew
Starting point is 00:12:20 all of the details. It was a heartbreaking story to me. And Pablo looks at me one day when I'm telling him how heartbroken I am, and he simply doesn't understand how I could possibly love an animal. And so he's crying. No, I'm laughing. He's crying from laughing.
Starting point is 00:12:35 He calls it Katie, the con of mammals. Wait, what? Okay. Well, that's because you've had a horrifying experience of his hamster's eating their use. We'll play a clip from've had a horrifying experience of his hamsters. We'll play a clip from that here just as a quick refresher. Still haunts my nightmares. I'm a little kid, I'm growing up.
Starting point is 00:12:52 I can't have a dog or a cat in my apartment. What can I have? I can get hamsters. I go by hamsters. I get a wire cage. I get a plastic spinning wheel, like an exercise wheel. So hamsters, what do they do? They procreate a lot.
Starting point is 00:13:04 All of these hamsters are born in the circle exercise wheel. So hamsters, what do they do? They procreate a lot. All of these hamsters are born in the circle spinning wheel, right? That's cool a little nest. But you know what? Else hamsters do Katie Nolan. Hamsters eat their young. So what happens? Well, let's let's let's begin to eat their babies inside of the plastic translucent Patrick Bateman Ferris wheel of death. And what else happens? The hamsters decapitate their babies. And so we have a spinning wheel that they're still exercising on. So the wheel is still spinning,
Starting point is 00:13:33 forming a literal death rattle of hamster baby heads that I watch every day when I wake up and see how are my pets doing. The answer, very bad. You've never had pet? Never had a dog, grouping an apartment building. Never had the emotional bond that you guys clearly
Starting point is 00:13:50 with multiple animals, now multiple beasts have felt. And so for me, I think of like, I'm like, a bird can speak English. Like, we're gonna give a f*** about birds. Like, we care about dogs in a way that is elevated pure. Because they are mammals, they remind us of ourselves. We see ourselves, we see them as creatures with souls. And I am just like, but this bird is speaking English,
Starting point is 00:14:21 we don't give a f*** about this parrot. So anyway, I give a take, I'm not proud of it now that the whole prey lured me into the back. The timing was bad. The timing was bad. The timing remains bad. Oh, so I have a dog. Her name's Myrtle.
Starting point is 00:14:32 She's the greatest thing that's ever existed in the world. She's just a little bag of goo. And I love her so much. My first dog ever, I wanted a dog my whole life. My parents never let me have one. Now guess what? They're obsessed with my dog, isn't that funny? But she's the greatest.
Starting point is 00:14:48 I would never clone her because, and this is why probably what you were saying is interesting to me where you don't think that they have souls, which is fine. Well, not the same soul. And you say that we only love them because they remind us of us, which again, I think will be very interesting when we take a look at your narcissism test rating.
Starting point is 00:15:03 I'd be able to do this podcast. But I would think you'd be supportive of cloning because to you, if they don't have souls, then you should just get the same dog and it'll be exactly the same. To me, it's like if I were to make another, there will never be another murder for a million different reasons, but one of them is just that
Starting point is 00:15:23 we built our relationship. Yeah, she did not come to the house with this relationship with me. We built this relationship and so like, it's $50,000 basically to clone your dog. I think this is a very expensive therapy is cheaper than that. Men will clone their dogs. Men will literally clone their dogs
Starting point is 00:15:43 before going to therapy. Before going to therapy. It's just like a, and look, I'm not, look, if it helped you and it helps you cope or whatever, and I'm sure there are, you could cook up like two or three specific situations where I'd be like, okay, I get that. No, but Pablo's cutting through it, I'm sorry to cut you off, Katie,
Starting point is 00:16:00 but I just think he's cutting through it and saying, hey, kind of mammals, this is the equivalent of a sex doll. It's not. Well, that's pretty yucky. That's a take that part of me does cosine admittedly. In this sense, Dan, in this sense, this story, the bereavement tool that is a clone dog,
Starting point is 00:16:19 it's about us. Yeah, this does feel selfish. It also feels selfish because there's plenty of dogs out there that need homes. That's the other thing, right? Or like, oh, this is a dog. But that's the apocalyptic part. I mean, oh, real animals that need real care,
Starting point is 00:16:36 let's let them die in shelters, but then let's bring on these science robots so that you can have a coping mechanism. That's not actual. That the care that an actual dog with an actual soul should receive isn't something recreated in a lab. And I also imagine too, when these cloned animals one day in this dystopia get the ability
Starting point is 00:16:54 to actually speak English like a parrot. Sure, as they will. They will wonder like, why the fuck are we worthless to you in this joking manner? We didn't ask for this. I was born inside of a surrogate dog that apparently, like, was there a- Okay, so that part's even crazier.
Starting point is 00:17:13 Right. So the surrogate dogs that are birthing these clones, this is the part that appalled me, and makes me feel better about like laughing at that video or criticizing this act in general, surrogate dogs are rentals. better about like laughing at that video or criticizing this act in general. Surrogate dogs are rentals. They lease them from shelters and they fill them, or no, from breeders, sorry.
Starting point is 00:17:33 So they lease them with an option of buy from a breeder and they put the embryos, tons of them, into the dogs. And then the dogs give birth to the baby They used to give the people who would be ordering their cloned dogs an option to take in the Surrogate dog, but then complaints from the people who were ordering the clones so the customers They were like the the dog is more the the clone dog is bonded more with the surrogate than with me, and I don't like that. So then they stopped letting them also donate the surrogate. Right. If we were adopted surrogates.
Starting point is 00:18:11 If we were to extend empathy to its most extremes, and I would simply say to the both of you, hey, someone who is sad is being made less sad by whatever this purchase is. How about we just let that person made less sad by whatever this purchase is. How about we just let that person be less sad and not judge it with whatever we think about a soul or coping with grief? I just feel like the technology on this,
Starting point is 00:18:37 the reason it was jarring to me while I'm obsessed with this story is because I woke up one day and this was possible. Mm-hmm. And I just don't think that we have reckoned in with the unintended consequences of a world in which we just do this now. And part of me does think that we should just
Starting point is 00:18:56 be giving people sex dolls. Okay, here we are. Oh, see, he did do that. I wanted to go in time. Are you guys having sex with your dolls? No, this is what it's doing. No, that's not the relationship that's in the middle. No, but this is what he's doing.
Starting point is 00:19:09 He, look, he didn't want to say it, I will say it for him. He is a pet agnostic at best. And what he's saying is that basically your relationship with these animals, no matter how much you want to humanize them, they are basically the equivalent of sex dolls. There are a place for you to put your emotions because you don't want to put them in here.
Starting point is 00:19:26 I hate this. I hate this. That's not specifically what I said. That is what you do. My emotions into a lot of human beings, but I also love my dog. That's what he implanted. And we should all have that right,
Starting point is 00:19:37 as long as... I'm brave enough to say it. As long as we don't pretend that they are something they are Pablo Torres would say it. They're pecs. Pablo Torres would have the balls to say. There's a four reds. Pablo Torres loves a sex doll.
Starting point is 00:20:04 I feel bad about what I did to you guys and to dogs and to mammals as a mammal. Can we move on? Okay. Who's next? Dan. I'm next and I don't, he's insincere and I'm just telling you that the things that he really thinks, he's not brave enough to say the things that he really thinks he's not brave enough kind of enough to say the things really things that stories about how humans shouldn't
Starting point is 00:20:30 shouldn't even have these relationships with animals because they're not humans like all of this is muted he's hiding he's hiding behind a mask public or finds out but he does it because he's speaking of bravery in opinions Dan what do you want to talk about thank you I'm sorry So I was reading this story and I, uh, Katie, I'm falling woefully behind when it comes to just in general social media. I don't even want to keep up. It's a toxic fire pit. And I,
Starting point is 00:20:58 I'd like to just let it go and fly away and not be addicted to it the way that everyone else is. But, uh, HBO executives, evidently, were creating, and there's a paperwork trail of trolls that they would go to shake the confidence of TV critics. Like instead of, you know, being confident in the content you're making, still caring in the modern age, because everything's high school, everything is high school, no matter what age you are, your insecurities are going to show, the idea that Hollywood executives would care for a moment, what critics are writing so much that they would try and send an army of bots that way. I just wanted to sort of talk about what it means that these TV executives would care what Rudy Marzci of the modern age,
Starting point is 00:21:46 what a what a critic that has no real power. Why would that affect a Hollywood executive when you're making good content? Well, the story here is fascinating. It's enrolling stone and they have the paperwork as Dan says. And I think something that we should accentuate here is the idea that this mattered to the most powerful people running the most prestigious television network.
Starting point is 00:22:12 He's formerly. HBO, Casey Bloyes, the head of HBO at the time, was he was conscripting not just bots, but like lower level employees to get in the replies of like Alan Sappinwall, right? Noted TV critic. To respond to tweets that they had about their thoughts on like the show The Never's apparently,
Starting point is 00:22:37 which was a show that came out near 2021. Never's heard of same. Same. It was a Joss Weed and Steampunk fantasy series. That's why I'd never heard of it. And Rolling Stone's Joss Weed and Steampunk fantasy series. That's why I'd never heard of. Yep. And Rolling Stone's own TV critic, Alan Seppinwall, gave it a two and a half star review. And so here is a in this lawsuit filed by one of the lower level employees who was told, please go be a burner account for Casey Bloyes. He was told to tweet, quote,
Starting point is 00:23:05 Alan is always predictably safe and scared in his opinions and just gotten to the mentions. And there is this pattern of this where this guy would create an account named Kelly Shepherd. Okay, Kelly Shepherd is a self described Texas mom and herbalist who would reply to Alan Seppinwall's tweets, word for word, the things that he had been instructed to say. And it goes on and on.
Starting point is 00:23:30 Like, here's one that Casey Blois had literally dictated to have said, quote, maybe our friend, this is a response to the numbers again, maybe our friend needs to say what a shock it is that two middle aged white men are shitting on a show about women. Like just planting in a way to get back at these critics. And all of that reminds me Dan, like it doesn't matter, but it matters to them. Oh, but it's not, but it's not just look, it's not just getting back at the critics because you're sensitive or because we all want our work judged in a way that's friendly and has a lot of applause. I'm the part that I'm more interested in is sending an army of people at the TV
Starting point is 00:24:12 critic who has now had an opinion about your thing. And then those people rattling at the mental health of Alan Seppinwall, who dared to be a critic, and now is reading that his mentions are sort of meant to bring the war back to him. Okay, criticize us now. We're going to bring something your way that feels like it's the real world, but it's just seven people we've paid to actually attack you. Yes.
Starting point is 00:24:38 Yes. That's most of the internet now is that everything you see could be a paid bot. You saw it with like on a more serious scale with the, I'm afraid even say these two names out loud publicly, but Johnny Depp and Amber heard that whole trial, everything online was like a, what do they call it when you do have a bunch of bots? Astroturfing. Astroturfing.
Starting point is 00:25:02 It's like a thing now that you can pay people to do, to change the online narrative in regards to your story. So it seems like you have a lot of support that then garner's real support that then becomes a thing instead of just not happening that way. It's like controlling the narrative. That's why people always say you can't put too much stock in Twitter replies, but X replies, you can put zero stock in because you have no idea who they are.
Starting point is 00:25:31 And the more we're on the internet, the more we're gonna start faking things on the internet, the more things are gonna stop being real entirely. Do people understand, I'm just curious because my parents used to tell these stories about how communism crept in. And it obviously wasn't technology, but it was these things.
Starting point is 00:25:51 It was techniques to inflame propaganda from sides that would bring communism because people who have lived in freedom all their lives don't know that it or maybe don't really understand that it requires unrelenting, unrelenting protection and resilience and that you have to protect it and the way that communism creeps is just like this with, with, these are almost military campaigns really. If you can create an alternate universe where people attack from all angles to just divide everyone on whatever the divisions of the day are.
Starting point is 00:26:31 When we talk about it's a campaign. It's a campaign not because it's just ego alone, but because they know it can make an impact. And I know it can make an impact because I am the person still checking my mentions. Right? Like the Dan, the whole thing about the Siaop aspect, the reason it's a Siaop, a psychological operation, I believe it stands for, is because the human brain
Starting point is 00:26:56 was never intended to consume this many opinions from this many strangers. And so the idea that at the end of my day, the thing that'll stick with me is what this person said in my mentions, which still happens by the way, to me. Oh, this one person made a dent. I know it matters to Casey Blois because Casey Blois in all of this sway
Starting point is 00:27:16 is telling us it matters to him. He, his brain has been dented by all of these people, these commenters, these critics, and I should point out that Casey Boyz is also saying, quote, how dare someone write that exclamation point, exclamation point, I want to say something on the lines of, quote, lol, okay, they are just counting their M's, end quote, or something like that, exclamation point, giving messages to respond, to not a critic in this case, but just a random person arguing with the commenters, not just the critics.
Starting point is 00:27:47 Yeah. And we've seen this, not just an entertainment. We've seen this in sports, Brian Kalangelose, burner accounts with a 76ers. What a day that was to be a sports media. Shout to Ben Dietrich and the ringer for breaking that story. It's a greatest. But James Comey had a burner account, former director of the FBI, stuff that he wanted to say that he could not say under his own name, Kevin Durant.
Starting point is 00:28:08 The list is endless because the human brain cannot reconcile the idea that this person, personally talking about me in public, is not consequential. Of course it is to us. I also think it reinforces this idea that if you have something to say, you can't respond. Like the whole reason he felt the need to task this to somebody below him and to say specifically in the text, we need this to be removed from us.
Starting point is 00:28:40 It can't come back to us, which maybe don't write that in a text if that's really the plan Just a little bit of advice from me across the board here Maybe just make a phone call but anyway If it can't come back to you It's like it reinforces this idea that when somebody like me admits that like yeah I do check my mentions and sometimes I'll mix it up with people in there and people are like that's embarrassing You should be above that. It's like, look, nobody's above this. It's just whether or not you make somebody else do it so it looks like it isn't you or you do it yourself.
Starting point is 00:29:11 Like if this guy himself jumped in to replies, it would be a story. It would be a very different story. And this is like somebody trying to control the narrative without participating in it or having any of it reflect on them, which is impossible to do. So if you care, say you care, if you care, don't pay somebody else
Starting point is 00:29:33 to pretend to care for you, get in there and mix it up. There is perpetual ego measuring in a way that makes me feel, Dan, this brings us back to Kevin Durant, right? He's maybe the most famous user of burner accounts. Kevin Durant did Katie what you said, he went from guy using burners to defend his own honor. And by the way, we've seen an NBA ref Eric Lewis get fired from his job for having burners in this way because he was biased in favor of the Celtics, allegedly
Starting point is 00:29:57 all that stuff. Kevin Durant is now out here just saying the thing. Mm-hmm. Shout out Kevin Durant. And shout out to him. Our greatest Olympian. That's right. Dan, I don't even know if you know this, because I think you're divorced from the entire internet in ways that old people are invariably.
Starting point is 00:30:17 He just called you an old guy. I mean, but this protects me though. He did call me an old guy, but this protects me, right? After a lifetime in the columnist business, where I had 25 years of people just torching every opinion I had, eventually I got to a rather strengthened point of like, okay, I'll take critics without it hurting me if my critics are people whose opinion I respect. But not if it's just random strangers who don't know as much about what we do for a living
Starting point is 00:30:43 is we do, then, you know, from there, it can't really hurt you. And then if I check out on social media, if I, if it, then I can skate free of something that I think is a an addictive poison well of temptations to reinforce that your opinion matters and your ego and identity need to be fed. Like Like it scares me being too addicted to commentary, any kind praise or criticism. I like the little tidbit about what was in her bio. She was a what? She was into herb.
Starting point is 00:31:15 Oh, yes. Herbalist. My her count bio and I don't use my, I don't use my burner account for anything other than on Instagram. You know how you can't watch people's stories without it saying like this person watched your stories. So I have a burner account so I can than on Instagram, you know how you can't watch people's stories without it saying, like, this person watched your stories. So I have a burner account so I can watch people's stories that I don't like and that don't like me.
Starting point is 00:31:33 Oh, it's over. And so breaking news. My burner accounts bio something like just a guy who loves his dog and craft beer. That was a pretty good bio. Pretty believable. A good disguise. I'm not sure.
Starting point is 00:31:45 Is it better than herbalists though? No, you're thinking that. Is it better than Kelly Shuffard at Kelly SH33889356? That's crazy. That already sounds like a fake bio. She's lesser. Cray. Mom, Texan, herbalist, aromatherapist, vegan.
Starting point is 00:32:04 Oh wow, they really went for a vibe with that. Yeahomatherapist, vegan. Oh wow, they really went for a vibe with that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. If you're gonna use your burner account to send tweets, which again, I don't, but if that's the purpose of your burner as this one was, you've got to make sure you also tweet about random other stuff. Had a sesame bagel today, just so that when somebody clicks
Starting point is 00:32:23 on your account, they don't just see at Alan Seppinwall Constant because then they're gonna put two and two together. It's the number one. It's how they caught Kalangelo Yeah, there are no other tweets about anything else except this very specific thing Another pointer if you're gonna do that maybe don't have it Operated by a lower level employee that's going to sue you later for being asked to do this. All of this show has been a natural segue towards the thing that I wanted to do with you guys that I'm actually afraid of in a real way now.
Starting point is 00:33:06 Play Spider-Man too? Love Spider-Man too. Dan has never known the choice of playing Spider-Man too long PS5. Dan? I'm scared of, I'm sorry to interrupt you. I go ahead, you were pointing at me, I'm still playing Miss Pac-Man. I was gonna say Dan has a Miss Pac-Man arcade machine in his heart. All right, that was unnecessary.
Starting point is 00:33:27 Is that invasive? Is that too much finding out? Yes, because, yes, because it's the lamest of the video games. No, it just makes me look the oldest, but- No, you're a favorite gender equality among the Pac-Man. Yeah, that's supportive, you're an ally. That's right. Yes, I like the game and I'm not gonna apologize,
Starting point is 00:33:44 and I'm also very good at it. Oh's right. Yes, I like the game and I'm not going to apologize and I'm also very good at it. Oh, good. And still, she moved different than he does is that what's the difference between misnusion? She's just got a ribbon in her hair. Look, it's from a different time. Stop judging what I'm doing. I have in front of me the results of my test, but I haven't actually been told what the numbers mean. So, okay, That's why I'm uncomfortable sharing them. This is perfect. So I'll explain what it is that we're doing here. I have my results, Katie has her results.
Starting point is 00:34:10 There's a story in the Atlantic about what's called the dark triad. And this is a psychological term that was coined by the psychologists Del Roy, Paulus, and Kevin Williams in 2002 for people with three, as per the triad term, salient personality characteristics. Number one, narcissism.
Starting point is 00:34:29 Number two, Machiavellianism. Number three, a measurable level of psychopathy. Meaning you are in total here, quote, social predator who charms, manipulates, and ruthlessly plows their way through life, leaving a broad trail of broken hearts, shattered expectations, and empty wallets. Now, the dark triad is a personality type that can be tested, and it gives us the results on where on those three levels, narcissism, macchi-evalonism and psychopath.
Starting point is 00:35:11 We are. And I got to say, I don't know what your guys' experience taking this test was before we reveal our answers, but some of the questions, it made me stare into the middle distance for a while, reflecting on what the f*** my actual answer here is going to be. These types of tests, I always find a little bit difficult because they depend on the honesty and self-awareness
Starting point is 00:35:38 of the test taker. You have to be honest with your answer. You have to not see the obvious, oh, I know that if I answer, agree to this, I'm going to get a high score. You have to, and you have to answer it not in the way you idealize yourself, which I think a lot of us do. We're like, oh, I wouldn't care what others think about me, or you have to sit there and go, do I? Do I care what others think about me? And you have to ask yourself, and then you have to answer honestly.
Starting point is 00:36:11 So I think a lot of these questions for me, I was like, uh, oh, well, even through that lens dam, through the lens of like, we're gonna save these allowed, the fact that we don't know how to interpret our own results is part of I think why this is great. I should explain to the people though because as Katie is saying all that what she is bringing to the testing is honor in self-assessment and I'm assuming a lot of people would just take the test and try to win the test by
Starting point is 00:36:42 I will not be a narcissist I will the test by, I will not be a narcissist, I will not be a psychopath, I will not be Machiavellian because I don't wanna be seen as somebody who is cut throat and we should define some of these things. Machiavellianism is pejorative. It means you will do anything to cut someone's throat. Narcissism, you are so self-involved, you care about yourself and very few others
Starting point is 00:37:02 and psychopath is self-explanatory. So when you answer these questions, none of us want to be any of these things. And so there's a correct way to answer. But as Katie is saying, there's also an honest way to answer. But this is the beauty of this testing instrument, which is again, something that I've only taken,
Starting point is 00:37:17 haven't really studied, but it's lines like this, right? It's so much of it is about the phrasing of the statement. So it's a scale of disagree, slightly disagree neutral, slightly agree agree, five rungs on that spectrum of answer, right? And so when there is a question, that is a statement, that is, quote, I know that I am special because everyone keeps telling me so. Period. I read that and I thought about this so long that my phone went back to the lock screen. I was like, like, how much do I actually rely on external validation to reinforce, like in an honest way? Someone agree.
Starting point is 00:37:58 I, I, I, this is where I think. So you're being honest, so honest with yourself that you're not sure that you like who's looking back at you. That these silly questions are making you think about yourself in a way you had not explored before this silly three minute, three minute, 30 question test. I thought about like my mom encouraged me when I was younger, like telling me I'm smart and special. And I was like, wait, I did not think about that.
Starting point is 00:38:23 Is she in the everyone? Like, do I actually have the confidence? So I need, why do I feel so good when people tell me that I am special? Right, that's what I was dealing with. And I think I settled on a slightly agreed. Yeah, agreed to. But by the way, another question, like, oh my God.
Starting point is 00:38:41 I mean, this one, Dan, this is where it hurt me, right? I like to get acquainted with important people. Yeah, you are a full agree. If you could do agree so hard, my fingers are falling off, that should be the one that you hit. I have, if I could write in maximum agree I would have had to, for honest.
Starting point is 00:38:58 Well, what is that? Let's explore that for a second before you get into the results of the testing because when you need the validation of Stephen A Smith and you hate to admit it to yourself but you and you'll take it. You'll take it as the validation even if it's torrents of pathetic. Even if it's torrents like honestly the faint width whiff of the man's boot. Well this is you orgasm.
Starting point is 00:39:19 It's pathetic. It's pathetic. You have to have more selfless. You have to have more selfless. You have to have more selfless. You have to have more selfless. You have to have more selfless. You have to have more selfless. You have to have more selfless. You have to have more selfless man you have to aphrodisiac-ass boot is getting me horn no Dan but here's but here's here's a question that I want to know how Dan answered in his memory right
Starting point is 00:39:35 Dan didn't answer these honestly here it is well here but I will say I answered it quickly I was not pondering my existence as I answer them but I also was not trying to win the test. I did well. I know how cutthroat am I. Yeah, I know how cutthroat am I. Well, statement. Quote, it's true that I can be mean to others, period.
Starting point is 00:40:01 Noticable silence from everybody as we pondered what you're answering. I thought you said you wanted to know what Dan would say. Well, what are we all saying? Well, still for me. He made me think about it. Katie, the way that I did the first time because can I be mean to people slightly agree?
Starting point is 00:40:15 But I don't want to ever think of myself as a person who lands mean. So it doesn't mean I don't. It means it forces me to look into a place like, I can't go neutral there. I have to slightly agree with that because too often without intent, I hurt people and it can feel like crazy.
Starting point is 00:40:34 And I didn't know I was doing it. And it doesn't exonerate me that I didn't intend it. Yeah, same. I think if you answer, disagree to that. For me, that would make you narcissistic. Yeah. Because that would mean that you think you couldn't possibly mean to somebody, which would mean that like your, so to me, it was like, look, I've, people have told me that something I have
Starting point is 00:40:54 said has hurt them before. So I have to acknowledge that, yes, slightly, I guess I could be. I don't look at myself as mean and I try very hard not to be mean. So I'm not going to say agree. But I, I would have to slightly agree. I would have loved to click neutral or slightly disagree but be honest with myself. But I want to be an empath. I like to be an empath and an empath would know to admit that your mean is to say that you have blind spots about you you are not the most empathetic. You are not caring enough. You are a failure as someone who cares appropriately. What about this one though? I insist on getting the respect I deserve period.
Starting point is 00:41:34 All of these things, by the way, when you see them through the lens of sports, it's like I insist on getting the respect I deserve is like the definition of like mamba mentality, right? Like that's what it means to be an alpha. It's, of course, I will get what I deserve, what I have earned. The hard one for me was something about celebrity. Oh, yeah. How do you guys answer that one?
Starting point is 00:41:58 And I was like, well, that's a tough one day answer because right. We have something. It's not the exact phrasing of it, but it was something like, it's, do you consider yourself a celebrity or essentially that? Right. Which was tough because it was like, I... Do you... Yes. In the guys of what I do, I don't. I know that I am the lower of the... But in the guys of this test, to be honest, I'd have to say like, slightly agree.
Starting point is 00:42:21 Yeah. But it doesn't take into account that maybe that is your job. Maybe that is what you do. Maybe you are that. I think the point, Dan, is that the jobs we do are by definition blurring the line between narcissism and normality. Like, it feels like... I think it would be impossible to do this
Starting point is 00:42:47 for a living and score a zero on the narcissism, but at least. Agreed. Because there's another thing that was like, I like being the center of attention. You're right. It's like you can't sit. There are situations in which I don't,
Starting point is 00:42:57 but I also sit here and I tweet a link that says, watch me talk. So I have to be. You can't be on television without having I mean No, there's nobody on television Nobody who doesn't like in some way to be the center of attention you wouldn't choose that as a As a career, but when you say it's funny my answer that question I guess we'll get to our numbers in a second
Starting point is 00:43:20 I want to know what my mean, but I don't legitimately I that answer that question is I wanted some other option other than the five because I wanted to be saying, well, I did consider myself a celebrity when I was on ESPN every day. I don't anymore. I've retired from celebrity is what because it wasn't what you say that. No, that wasn't the right option. No, that wasn't the right option. Yeah, that's what I wish it was. Yeah, because That was a one of the choices. Yeah, but I wish it was yes
Starting point is 00:43:46 Because I would answer the same thing Would actually click that same exact button Should we give some of our I guess our scores to give context here and explain them? I don't know what they mean here Okay, so I got a I got a two on Machiavellianism. Oh, okay. I got a 2.7. Oh, God.
Starting point is 00:44:10 What'd you get? I got a 3.8. Yeah, I don't find myself to be Machiavellian at all. I don't even think I am surprised. Clearly I have been countered in that because when some statement, like, quote, most people can be manipulated, comes across. I had a problem with that as well because,
Starting point is 00:44:31 I'm stronger because otherwise QAnon wouldn't exist. Like, I think, I don't think about it as like, I would manipulate them, but I would be lying to say that people couldn't. I know they can be, I don't use that to my, I don't manipulate, but I know that most people, I mean, obviously, I'll keep manipulating. Cursor thing.
Starting point is 00:44:49 A scale of one to five, and I feel like I answered a lot of this through the, this is, I'm defending myself on the stand. Yeah, I think I am too. Your honor, I'm 3.8 out of five, 90th percentile among US adults on Machiavellianism, because I'm a keen observer of human nature, not because I'm actively manipulating everyone around me This is not gonna exonerate the way the numbers work just to explain it to the people So it's one through five and if you're close to five or you're 90 percentile
Starting point is 00:45:19 You are running very strong Society Lee as a psychopath as a narcissist or as a cutthroat macchi-avillion person. So you were at 3.8, so that on all of these 2.5 is about gonna be the middle of this, of the average? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You guys are pretty safe. I don't feel good about it. I'm above average on narcissism.
Starting point is 00:45:41 I'm at 2.6 on narcissism. I'm at 3.6. I'm at us just a flat four. How that's up? I'm not, this is bad. Yeah. Can we believe these? Yeah, I don't know.
Starting point is 00:45:53 You're not doing this. You're not doing this. I was thinking you guys are gonna be way more like my school. No, I was shocked by these two. I'm scared of this next one, though. I'm scared. Psychopathy? You're not gonna rate high on Psychopathy.
Starting point is 00:46:06 Neither one of you. Now I'm okay, you know. I got a one. Katie has a flat one. Katie wins. She's the least psychopath. I'm 1.3, but look, it says, it says, it says, it looks like a zero.
Starting point is 00:46:17 So is it possible it's 0.1? Like it's the lowest, Katie is a free. Here's my percentiles for psychopathy or zero and four. Katie scored the lowest possible, right? Yeah, I don't relate at all. That's the only part of it that made sense. Here's the part that sucks as a narcissist who is Machiavellian, is that I'm also a 1.4
Starting point is 00:46:39 on the psychopathy scale, which is unfortunately still the highest among the three of us today. Yeah, wait, Dan, what was yours? 1.3 was mine, so I got it. I've got, I was pretty close. I was pretty close. Dude, I feel good about any of this. I don't like this test.
Starting point is 00:46:55 I think the test is flawed. I think the phrasing of the questions can be kind of confusing. There were some that were negatively phrased in a way that made it hard to say, agree or disagree because you were like, wait, to me. It's not the test that's flawed, Katie. It's not the test. No, it's certainly us as well. It's the host of that. It's the host that finds out over here that is the most deeply and obviously flawed. I just want to warn you guys that in response to quote, people who mess with me always regret
Starting point is 00:47:22 it, period, I slightly agree. I wrote disagree. There's nobody's ever regrettied messing with me always regret it, period. I slightly agree. I wrote disagree. There's nobody's ever regretted messing with me. Watch. I'm gonna be in the door for messing with you. You can't answer it that way. I think this is aspirational. I think that one I will get a better.
Starting point is 00:47:37 Pablo, you're trying to make the test respect you. You're trying to make the test. It's gonna give me the respect I deserve. I wanted to be an alpha in this test, and I wound up a Machiavellian narcissist psychopath. Who needs the approval of the bottom of Stephen A. Smith's boot? So in terms of what we found out today, I think it's self-explanatory for me at least. Yeah, I found out that I'm obsessed with myself.
Starting point is 00:48:14 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. While also definitely being a person who likes to think that I am definitely not obsessed with myself. That's the number one trait of a narcissist is thinking you're not narcissistic. Yeah, I should have read the fine print on this test. My wife is gonna have a field day with this when she gets my results incidentally. I wanna give this to an ex-boyfriend
Starting point is 00:48:33 because I think he would score very high on all three. Oh, I would suggest to people listening to this, if you think that you are in any kind of abusive relationship with a partner, go read about narcissists to see if any of the behavior speaks to you because people who would come high on these narcissists list could Pablo B. Psychopaths, like they could be dangerous manipulators
Starting point is 00:48:55 if they know how to trick you into getting into an imbalanced relationship. Well, one in 14 people in an international population sample qualified as dark triad members. Thankfully, I think we did fall short of membership. How, what does it have to be? Do you know the threshold? I don't, I'm just gonna hope.
Starting point is 00:49:14 You're just gonna say, I think that feels right. What did Pablo Tories find out today that when the testing that may be flawed and the people may be flawed, they get together and try to win the test, we're good people. We're good. We're the good ones. The three of us, the light triad. That's right. People have been calling us that. I've heard it in an comment section. And it may just have been a guy from HBO, but it has definitely been said, the light triad.
Starting point is 00:49:38 All right. Ten of the show. What would a narcissist not do? Oh yes, he would credit to everyone who is responsible for his success. So Pablo Torre finds out is produced by Michael Antonucci, Ryan Cortez, Sam Daywig, Juan Galindo, Patrick Kim, Nelly Lomon, Rachel Miller Howard, Ethan Shryer, Carl Scott, Matt Sullivan, Chris Tuminello, with Studio Engineering by RG Systems, Post Production by NGW Post, a theme song by John Bravo, of course, and God, I am never going to hear the end of this, am I? Okay.
Starting point is 00:50:15 I'll talk to you soon. you.

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