The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 03.18 IT'S SO BAD! What This Hack Really Exposed, MrBeast Risks It All, Missing Student Riley Strain, &

Episode Date: March 18, 2024

There’s 10 things you need to know today… Start your free trial today: http://www.Squarespace.com/Phil  & enter offer code “Phil” to get 10% off your first purchase!  ==== The New https://BeautifulBastard.com Drop just went live! Emotionally Exhausted, I Naps, Skellies, and SPORTS! ====✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ – 00:00 - NY State Takes Alligator From Man Who Cared For Him for 30 Years 3:32 - MrBeast Reality Competition Show Coming to Prime Video 6:41 - Police Continue Search for Riley Strain, Alongside TikTok “Investigators” 9:12 - March Madness Puts College Athlete Pay Debate in Focus 12:59 - Sponsored by Squarespace 13:44 - Apex Legends Finals Canceled After Hacking  16:50 - Lawmakers Aim to Repeal Law Requiring States to Seize Assets to Pay For Medicaid 18:55 - SCOTUS Hears Another Case That Could Reshape Free Speech on Social Media 21:45 - More & More Jobs Are Getting Rid of Degree Requirements 26:00 - Your Thoughts on Yesterday’s Show List of Games That Use EAC: https://www.easy.ac/en-us/partners/ ——————————   Produced by: Cory Ray Edited by: James Girardier, Maxwell Enright, Julie Goldberg, Christian Meeks Art Department: William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Brian Espinoza, Lili Stenn, Maddie Crichton, Star Pralle, Chris Tolve, Jared Paolino Associate Producer on Hiring: Star Pralle  ———————————— #DeFranco #MrBeast #Livvy ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sup, you beautiful bastards! You're watching the Philip DeFranco Show, and we got a lot of news to talk about today. But first, I'm excited to announce that the big, unvaulting drop just went live at beautifulbastard.com. We brought back best-selling classics and tweaked some, like our new

emotionally-exhausted Color Swirl Tees hoodies and brand-new tank tops. You also wanted some zip hoodies, so boom, you got that now. But then there's also more. We brought back sports and classic and new colorway shirt hoodies and brand-new tanks. One day we'll all be skeletons as we return from the grave and new colorways. And even more of you can

now let the world know you'd just rather not with the return of I Love Neps. All available right now with other best-selling goodness at beautifulbastard.com. Of course, first come, first served, and as always, thank you for being a part of the family. But the main thing here, we've got so much to talk about today, so let's just jump into it. Starting with... So usually when you hear the news, breaking news, local man kept alligator as a pet. One, for that story to have taken place in Florida, and two, for that man to possibly have been tragically eaten. But this is not one of those stories. And my boy Albert, uh, not one of those gators.

Because it turns out, this 11-foot, 750-pound prehistoric dinosaur is more than just a pet. He's family. With his owner-slash-papa, Tony Cavallaro, telling reporters that he adopted Albert from a reptile show all the way back in 1990 when the animal was just a baby. And since then, he's come to see Albert as a son, giving that boy a luxurious home in Hamburg, just south of Buffalo, New York. Hell, in 2016, he even built out an additional room decked out with an in-ground swimming pool and a waterfall. With a neighbor explaining to WKBW, he swims in the pool, lays on the pool deck, eats chicken, and doesn't bother anybody. And Tony adding, I'm Albert's dad. That's all there is to it. He's like family to everybody.

But now, Albert's gone. Because according to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Tony's dangerous animal license, it expired in 2021 after it was determined that Albert's holding area failed to meet safety standards. So Tony, he tries to get his license renewed, but with no luck. And either way, the department told reporters, even if the owner was appropriately licensed, public contact with the animal is prohibited and grounds for license revocation and relocation of the animal.

You know, because allegedly Tony allowed people, including children, to get into the water with the unsecured alligator. Also, the department claimed that Albert had blindness in both eyes and spinal complications, among other health issues. And all of that leading to last week, authorities swarming Tony's home, snatching Albert, and according to Tony, they didn't even let him say goodbye. With him saying in a statement, they brought at least 20 or more agents to my house in full body armor and guns, treating me like a criminal. It was like I was a gun-dealing, drug-dealing criminal the way they acted. Right now, officials are still deciding whether to press charges or not. But all of this

as Tony rejects any suggestion that he put people in danger. Admitting to 7 News that kids had posed for pictures in the pool with Albert in the back, but saying that it wasn't often. Also showing a report of the medication that he'd been giving Albert for his eyes, also claiming the gator wasn't blind. And adding that Albert swam and moved fine, saying he never noticed spine issues. So now with all this, we're seeing a story catching fire. And not just in the community where Albert's beloved, but all across social media. In fact, over 100,000 people so far have signed a petition demanding that New York bring Albert back home. With this including no shortage of people speaking out in videos about it. Let's support Albert's father and get him home.

Albert should be with his rightful owner. I hope that he does get Albert back. I think he should just give the man his alligator back. Let's bring Albert home. Let's give him back. Give Albert back. And finally with this, you had Tony throwing in his own words for the petition, saying in a statement, I took care of him better than most people take care of their kids.

They changed the rules two years ago about what you need to do to have an alligator. I've had him 34 years and abided by all of them and renewed my permit annually as required. I tried renewing it when they changed their rules and had questions to ask. They ignored my emails and phone calls to make sure I did everything right, even though I should be grandfathered in. I will have a court date when they provide it. So that is where we are. And depending on you, you see it as probably one of two things. This is a man who has a dangerous pet or this is a man who's fighting to get his son back. But also no matter where you land on this, I'd love to hear from you in those comments down below. What do you think should happen? What do you think will happen? And then huge entertainment news. Mr. Beast is either

killing the old school mainstream model or he has forced his way in. Because you know how for the longest time people would say like, why doesn't like a Netflix just throw the money bags at him and have him make something for the platform? Like he's getting more views than the Super Bowl. Well, we've seen online creators get those swings. Odd Ones Out, of course, had a Netflix series. More recently, we learned that Jake Paul and Mike Tyson will live stream their fight on Netflix. But the big news we got today is it's not only Netflix in this game. With Mr. Beast announcing the massive news that he is bringing a new game show to Amazon's Prime Video. And the stakes are as big and ridiculous as a MrBeast video.

He's calling it Beast Games, he's hosting it himself, and he also explained, "'It's going to be the largest game show in history, "'over a thousand contestants, five million dollar prize, "'and many other world records.'" So just absolutely insane numbers. It also makes me wonder, like, how much is this whole deal? You know, you had Mr. B saying,

My goal is to make the greatest show possible and prove YouTubers and creators can succeed on other platforms. And noting specifically, Amazon gave me the creative control I need to try and make it happen. I hope to make the YouTube community proud. You know, that pressure that he's feeling, that is on him right now. He actually talked about it more on the Colin and Samir show. Noting that he views this as something that won't change

the game just for him, but also the space as a whole. Obviously, if this show doesn't do well then it's like oh he's just you know a youtuber you know he can't yeah but it's not even just me it's also other creators like it's yeah i take it very serious this is why i'm putting so much effort and energy into it because like if this flops then people are gonna be like yeah youtubers aren't capable of you know making on streaming platforms and i i recognize it could either have a massive positive effect and that every stream platform is going to be throwing deals left and right at creators or a negative effect. And people are going to go, if Jimmy couldn't make a hit show, what makes you think you

can? And like, that is one of my biggest fears is the inverse, which is why I'm not going to let that happen. And so saying that he's trying to do this the right way, making it as good as possible, not as fast as possible. He's not going to just try and cash a big check and run saying that he wants to really innovate the game show space with his own style and saying it's not going to be like anything we've seen before. And with that, he just kept reiterating that the biggest thing for him was having creative

control and not being tied to the demands of the streaming service, calling the shots on his own, which was actually something he really had to fight for. It's just not fair to the audience, right? They're trusting when they come over that it's content that I back. And like, I just don't care what some exec says is good content. Like I literally couldn't care less. And as far as how he hopes his impacts other creators, you had him saying, hopefully it ends up crushing. And then people can go like, look, they trusted Jimmy and look what he delivered. Trust me. So absolutely huge news. And I wish him the most success with this because, well, obviously this is big for him. I do agree with the idea that this could be huge for the space. A moment in time where there is an even bigger shift

towards the idea that these other companies, they are the lucky ones. They are the ones smart enough to make the smart move to bring in an online creator. And not the other way around that, wow, that YouTuber or that TikToker, how the hell did they get that deal? They're so lucky.

But also not to throw extra pressure onto the situation, Mr. Beast is an outlier creator, and if somehow this ended up being a shitshow, a failure of some sort, if we're being honest, it would likely close the door on the sort of thinking to bring in online creators, at least with something this big.

So, you know, no pressure. Good luck. And then, so if you haven't heard about this yet, it's been more than a week since missing University of Missouri student, Riley St Strain was last seen in downtown Nashville. He's 22 years old. He reportedly went missing around 10 p.m. on March 8th when he was asked to leave a bar owned by country music star Luke Bryan. And following the timeline, on March 11th, police also shared his photo and description.

And on March 13th, they shared this video from the Nashville's Emergency Operations Center showing their search of the Riverbank area near where Strain went missing. And now just today, they shared body camera footage showing Strain's chance encounter with a police officer responding to a vehicle burglary on the night that he went missing. While the accompanying tweet notes that Riley did not appear distressed in that video, we also have some other surveillance footage where that doesn't seem to be the case, with Strain seen stumbling and even falling. And I mean, this case has gotten so big that even Luke Bryan himself has shared a statement on X, saying that the restaurant is working with police to provide police with security camera footage, transaction records, and staff accounts. And this is notably the Tennessee Alcohol and Beverage Commission is investigating the bar to see if there were any violations. For things such as over-serving strength.

Aaron Rumage, an executive at the commission, saying, State law prohibits serving alcoholic beverages to someone who is visibly intoxicated. A violation is a Class A misdemeanor. We have bar staff claiming that he was only served one drink before being asked to leave. And the restaurant's statements say their transaction records show he ordered only one alcoholic drink. So this is still some have argued that the bar bears responsibility for kicking out an intoxicated person into the street, even if they didn't over-serve him. Regarding that, Rummage notes, I quote, there are no specific rules or statutes that govern

escorting out intoxicated patrons from their businesses or providing assistance in getting someone home. Right? And so the situation and the case itself is big news on its own, but also a big part of the story now is that this case has attracted a lot of fascination. In fact, so much so that its virality has started affecting the situation. You know, we've seen things like this in the past, like with the case of Gabby Petito,

whose death became a national sensation. Certain stories just blow up, even though hundreds of thousands of people are reported missing in the US every year. And so there's this question of like, with this Strain case, are we seeing something similar? You have TikTok commentary speculating on the case, racking up millions and millions of views. But at least this one guy apparently taking the initiative to reach out to Strain's friends

himself and spread his own conclusion that Riley was roofied. Although there, the latest official update from police says that there is still, quote, no evidence of foul play. With that said, we've also seen some how social media can be useful. With the local newspaper, the St. Louis Star Times reporting yesterday that Strain's bank card was discovered on the banks of the Cumberland River. And a family friend telling the paper that it was actually discovered by TikTok users who had taken an interest in the case. With the two women, Anna Klendening and Brandy Bainan, saying they'd been scouring the riverbank for days. But as of right now, all of this is still developing in real time and we don't have answers. But it is going to be

interesting to see not only what comes from the investigation, what else do we learn, but also at the same time, how does this continue and grow online? And in what ways, good and bad, will we see those two things intertwined? Because again, keep in mind, as of recording, we have very little idea what actually happened to Riley Strang. And then March Madness is here,

and it's got people fighting about exploitation of student athletes. Or because you have outlets like Bloomberg saying that the NCAA stands to make over a billion dollars from the tournament. The athletes, they don't get a share in that revenue, even though they're the ones doing the work and putting on the show. With that, you might go, well, you know, what about name, image, and likeness deals, right? NIL. And yeah,

it is a huge deal for a number of college athletes. It's made some crazy kinds of money. People like Bronny James having NIL valuations of $7.2 million. Libby Dunn's net worth estimated to be $3.5 million. But the thing is, not every athlete is Ronnie James or Libby Dunn. The New York Times kind of noting that this is where NIL falls short, saying that's an ad hoc system organized largely by supporters of the athletic department that allows some athletes to bring in millions while others make nothing. It's not the same as universities paying athletes they employ, which has brought questions into this debate like, should athletes be paid as employees? Should they have unions? What about pay for play? What would any of this actually look like?

And while that's a debate that's been going on for a while, March Madness has absolutely blown it up. You had, for example, a piece from the Daily Beast where they argued that NIL is not sufficient, and they spoke to one former athlete who said, it's everyone saying, yeah, these guys can get paid now, but we aren't getting paid for football or the value we bring through football.

We are getting paid for a side hustle that we have to seek out. People like Libby Dunn, they're largely not making money for being gymnasts. She's making money for selling clothes and energy drinks when she's not on the mat. And actually with that, you had OutKick just doing a piece on that, noting that in public view, her role as a gymnast actually falls second to her role as an internet celebrity. So for her, making money comes from a whole separate entity.

It's like having a second job. While hers might be on the more glamorous side, that's not true for everyone. When you're not the biggest of the big names, trying to get an NIL deal can be a grime. With, for example, another athlete telling the Daily Beast, I'm out here hawking chicken for a little bit of cash and coaches are rolling up in Land Rovers. When it comes to the players, the men who actually play and bring in people to buy shit, you gotta go out and get some other job doing promo work or signing autographs and shit. That shit takes time, right? You think anyone wants to spend their time after practice showing up to a car dealership to sign autographs? Nobody wants

to do that shit. So with all that, you have places like USA Today saying that athletes should be employees, not only because they, quote, "'deserve to be compensated appropriately for their efforts,' but also because many do not go pro, and many don't even complete their degrees. Therefore, their earning potential is often never greater than it is during their time spent

as part of powerhouse college athletic programs." You also notably had the New York Times doing a piece on where unions fit into all this, noting, for example, that Dartmouth basketball players just voted to unionize. But you have economist Andy Schwarz saying that more widespread unionization efforts would not look so much like what's going on at Dartmouth.

Explaining, you would have conference level unions to negotiate the terms of employment and to enshrine in contracts the rights and duties of an athlete. And saying, in my view, the schools would provide the education and the conferences would be employing the athletes to be participants on a television program.

Even though the NCAA has been resistant to changes in athletic compensation, the Times talked about an upcoming case that accuses the NCAA of illegally depriving athletes of compensation for NIL use in promotional broadcasting. And that case put the NCAA and its conferences on the hook for $4 billion. And explaining that could bring the NCAA to the table. And a lawyer in the case saying this could lead to the complete transformation of the current structure so that the athletes who generate all the revenue can receive fair compensation for what they are contributing. You know, revenue sharing is a big, big topic right now.

For example, the likes of former Alabama football coach Nick Saban talking about this in Congress recently. I'm for it. It's truck month at GMC. Tackle the open road with added confidence in a 2025 Sierra 1500 Pro Graphite at 0% financing for up to 72 months. With an available 5.3 liter V8 engine, 20 inch high gloss black painted aluminum wheels,

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For student athletes being able to share in some of this revenue. And I think the number one solution to all this is if we could have some kind of a revenue sharing proposition that did not make student athletes employees. We also noted that while he supports NIL, he does have issues with the idea of college sports becoming all about income. And actually with that, some have pointed to the fact that a court ruling for CNCAA to stop investigating booster-backed collectives for making NIL deals with athletes. You know, the situation's not going to get figured out today. This is a long-standing debate, but it is very likely we will get more answers and possibly a transformation of the landscape soon.

In the meantime, go Gonzaga. That's a team, right? I don't watch college sports. I know, shocking. The guy who sells a sports shirt does not watch every sport. And then, you know, for any of you focused on getting your business off the ground, creating a place to share your homemade goods, or even for a personal blog, I got a great solution for you. And it comes from, and I want to thank, the fantastic sponsor of today's show, Squarespace.

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So the game is Apex Legends, and in the middle of its North American esports finals, over 100,000 live viewers suddenly saw pro players clearly hacking. But here's the thing, those players didn't mean to. In footage from the event, you can see the players freaking out as suddenly random hacks are enabled. Things like being able to see other players through walls. I'm getting hacked. I know, but can you play? Can you play? Yeah, but it's cheating.

With some of the hacks, like with Aimbot, they had little jokes in there like a checkbox that said, vote Putin. We had players adamant that it wasn't them doing it. And there were so many instances of these things happening that something fishy was obviously going on. In fact, it led the company behind the game to tweet. Due to the competitive integrity of this series being compromised, we have made the decision to postpone the NA finals at this time. We will share more information soon. But here's the really, really big thing. The reason that all of this has sparked an even greater concern than, oh look, some gamers got hacked, is that there are greater concerns about

consumer data safety because it's widely believed that the hacker was able to do all this by exploiting easy anti-cheat. Brain EAC, if you're not familiar, is software used by many, many games to detect cheats. And it acts at the kernel level, which, just to say, I'm not going to get into the nitty-gritty of what that means. All you need to know is that anything that has kernel-level access has access to essentially everything on your computer at a fundamental level. Right, and anti-cheats like this method because it makes hiding game hacks on a computer extremely difficult. But there's a drawback. If someone was able to break into the anti-cheat, they'd be able to do just about anything on your computer, such as uploading hacks onto your game in the middle of

a major event, and or more sinister things like stealing your data. I'm talking about everything you type, passwords, names, social security numbers, credit card information, addresses, every single thing. In fact, there's such a concern that accounts started warning people to avoid opening any games that use EAC,

which ends up being a huge list. However, notably with this, we've seen some pushback by EAC itself, saying in a tweet, we have investigated recent reports of a potential remote code execution issue within EasyAntiCheat. At this time, we are confident that there is no RCE vulnerability within EAC being exploited. We will continue to work closely with our partners for any follow-up support needed. And so then that led to speculation that maybe this was an issue with Apex itself, which if that turns out

to be the case, that is still a massive problem. Apex has millions of players worldwide, and seemingly they could also be vulnerable to someone using it to access their computers maliciously. Now with that, I will say, as of recording, Apex Legends hasn't given an update to what they think the issue is, and you have many thinking that this is going to turn into a corporate finger-pointing thing between EAC and Apex, which if that ends up being the case, it wouldn't be too surprising. Obviously, neither side would want to be the focus of this PR nightmare, especially if we're about to see even more people getting screwed over. So it's not a shock that we've seen figures like Thor from Pirate Software, who has an extensive background as a legal hacker, saying in a response to the situation in EAC's tweet, being confident is different from fully understanding

the recently claimed RCE vulnerability. With EAC's claim here, I'm still waiting to see if the vulnerability lies with Apex or with EAC. Better to be correct over being fast. Don't spread needless fear and wait for more information. You know, this entire situation is actually reigniting a whole large debate in general about kernel level anti-cheats. You have people like Linus from LTT having long warned that despite any anti-cheat benefits they may provide, at a fundamental level, they're just extremely dangerous. And hopefully, we're not about to find out just how bad this could be. But in the meantime, especially as we wait for more information, if you want to be extra cautious, in the description of this video, I'm going to link out to a list of EAC games. And in the meantime, it probably would

not hurt to just make the safest of choices, at least until we know more. And then y'all got to watch out because your state may be coming after your home. That's because of a federal law that's been on the books since 1993 and is getting a burst of scrutiny right now, with it mandating that all states recoup Medicaid expenses by seizing the assets of dead people who received long-term care through the program before they died. And in many cases, that includes their homes, which you might say is already cruel enough on its own. But what makes it so much worse is that many people actually have no idea that their property is on the chopping block when they sign up for Medicaid. Like this woman in Tennessee whose mother suffered from Alzheimer's. She told the AP that she initially

cared for the mother on her own. But then when she herself was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015, she had to turn to Medicaid for help, with a representative from her local office advising her to drain her mother's bank account so she would qualify for Medicaid, which she did. And she used those funds to pay for an assisted living facility. But she had no idea that when her mother died in 2021, Tennessee would send her a bill for $225,000, as well as seeking to force her to pay by selling the home. And notably with this, she says it's not just about the money for her. She's saying her mother, a black woman, purchased this dream home after she won a discrimination Lawsuit against boeing, right? So you have this daughter saying she fought hard for equal pay and equal rights just to see that ripped away

Just because she was sick and I was sick. It's just absolutely devastating And of course the big thing here is this is just one of many many stories from people who have lost Billions of dollars over the past three decades because they couldn't afford health insurance While every state is required to recover assets for long-term care expenses, some are just way more aggressive than others, right? Namely, New York and Ohio, with those two topping the list with more than $100 million in a single year, according to Dayton Daily News. And depending on the state, like, it's all over the place. Some states go after homes, some don't. Some recover all expenses, others only do long-term care. The thing is, this program doesn't even bring in that much money. It turns out states only collect

around 1% of the more than $150 billion Medicaid spends yearly on long-term care. So for the states, that money is like a drop in the bucket, but for these families, it's everything. And so that's why with all this, this month, we saw a Democratic House lawmaker, Jan Schakowsky, propose repealing the federal law. With that, we're going to have to wait to see what happens. And it is doubted that this will actually pass, especially as there is a lot of Republican opposition here. But then also, even if it was passed, it wouldn't stop states from seizing homes. It would just leave the choice up to them. And so it's very likely that this is an issue that if there is going to be change, it's going to take a long, long time. And again, that's if ever. And then

the Supreme Court is hearing yet another case that could reshape the future of free speech on social media. Fun times. And specifically, the high court is considering this overarching question. When do government efforts to limit misinformation on social media cross the line into censorship of free speech? Right, and all of this centers on a lawsuit brought by the Republican attorneys general of Louisiana and Missouri, along with five people who said that their speech had been censored on social media platforms. And in their suit, the plaintiffs argued that the White House, the Surgeon General's office, the CDC, the FBI, and a key cybersecurity agency had violated the First Amendment by trying to persuade social media companies to remove posts containing misinformation. And this,

especially around COVID, elections, and Hunter Biden's laptop. Also very notably here, this suit does not focus on whether these companies have the right to remove that kind of content. Instead, it argues that the government officials urging them to take certain posts down amounted to coercion that resulted in illegal censorship. With the suit claiming, the government's incessant demands to platforms were conducted against the backdrop of a steady drumbeat of threats of adverse legal consequences from the White House, senior federal officials, members of Congress, and key congressional staffers, made over a period of at least five years. But this is government lawyers have said that these government agencies were just alerting tech companies to these posts, saying they thought

they could be dangerous or violated company content rules already in place, claiming that COVID misinformation on the platforms was causing preventable deaths, and asserting that a key part of presidential power is the ability to use the office, quote, to persuade Americans and American companies to act in ways that the president believes would advance the public interest, and arguing that the plaintiffs were actually unable to show any examples of the government threatening certain regulatory actions or other retaliation if they failed to remove the flagged content. And that's also something that's been echoed by experts who have pushed back against the idea that the executive branch could actually pressure social media companies

to remove content against their will. There, noting that it's Congress that has the power to remove existing legal protections for big tech, not the president. And arguing that these are massive companies that aren't going to be easily influenced or scared by the government. Meanwhile, others also argue that both private companies and the government can actually benefit from these kinds of communications. With one expert giving an example of the Pentagon alerting a social media company to a terrorist group doxing a State Department official and calling for violence against them, an apparent violation of the platform's policies, and saying that most of the time the platform would be grateful for the information because it does indeed violate their policies. But their

algorithm just happened to miss it because, you know, that happens. But back in September, the famously conservative Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, they ruled that the federal agencies named in the suit had likely violated the First Amendment and blocked them from any communications with social media platforms. But then, a month later, the Supreme Court lifted that order, allowing communication while litigation played out. So how the court rules here will have huge sweeping implications, not only for how the government communicates with some of the biggest, most important companies in the world, but also for government efforts to fight health misinformation and secure elections ahead of an insanely consequential presidential race.

It's an absolutely massive news. While hearing oral arguments today, a majority of both conservative and liberal justices on the Supreme Court signaled that they would reject the Republican-led case, with many expressing concern about what would happen if the court limited government communications with social media platforms on key issues. But that said, how things seem and how they will actually play out, we have to wait, because the final decision here is not expected until June. But hey, lucky for you, I'm not going anywhere. So just make sure you subscribe to the channel and I'll keep you on the list. And then, do you know the labor shortage that everyone's been freaking out about? Well, it turns out there may actually be an easy solution. With one of the big problems being that some companies and hiring managers are hesitant to let go of outdated

practices that exclude nearly two-thirds of applicants. Because we're talking about college degrees, or rather those who don't have a college degree. Because among other things, according to federal data, college enrollment's been on the decline for a while, dropping 15% over the last decade. And a lot of students are just deciding to forego college for a variety of reasons, including the astronomical price tag, colleges shutting down, dissatisfying returns on getting a degree. And because of that, only about 38% of Americans over the age of 25 actually have at least a bachelor's degree, meaning that the remaining 62% rely on non-traditional training or experience when applying for jobs. That group, they're often overlooked or outright dismissed because of their lack of official education.

And that's despite the fact that work experts have been warning about a long-term labor shortage for years. Baby boomer retirements, low birth rates, shifting immigration policies. These are just a few factors in the perfect storm that is quickly leaving the U.S. with too few workers to fill job openings. Now that said, some companies have decided to broaden their minds. IBM, Google, Walmart, Medtronic, and GM have all eliminated the degree requirements from hundreds of their job listings. Instead, choosing to lead the movement for skill-based hiring, where employers evaluate the candidate based on their skills and experience rather than education. With that, you have IBM Vice President of Growth and Development, Kelly Jordan, saying,

if you're putting unnecessary requirements on jobs, you're automatically removing 62% of the population that could apply. And the removal of this often unnecessary requirement has allowed for a number of employees who don't hold degrees to progress their careers further than they would have. Like, for example, Benita Robinson with Medtronic. She finished one semester of college and worked mostly in retail until finding a better fit as an assembler at a Medtronic components factory outside of Minneapolis.

With her rising through the ranks and working her way up to a team lead position, but then having no expectations of actually being able to move up further. Like, her supervisory roles demanded a four-year degree. That is until Medtronic removed that requirement, which then allowed Benita to apply and get the job. And so she now oversees several production lines and makes 40% more than she did as a team lead, which then makes you wonder just how many employees or applicants like Benita were previously overlooked or locked out of promotions and raises. And that's despite having the ability to fill vacant leadership positions. And it's not just factories or tech. We've seen skill-based hiring implemented across many different industries.

Delta Airlines, for example, by 2021, 94% of the jobs that Delta filled did not require a college degree. And one of the only positions that held onto that requirement for longer was the coveted pilot role. With Eric Hendrick, Delta's director of pilot outreach, saying, the supply was always larger than the demand, so no one saw the need to change it. But as the demand for air travel and cargo flights surged, so was the need for pilots. And because of that, by January of 2022, Delta removed the four-year degree requirement for pilots, allowing for people like Rene Rodriguez, who wanted to fly for Delta for years and had years of experience with other airlines, to pass his assessment. And he actually piloted his first Delta flight last year in September.

And so now, according to Hendrick, of the 7,500 applicants for pilot positions, Delta has interviewed 150 that don't have degrees. And of those, 70% were offered positions, which was nearly the same rate as applicants who did have a degree. With Hendrick saying there, there's no trend that shows anyone with a college degree doing better than anyone without a degree

in any of our assessments. But while there are some success stories, since companies have relaxed degree requirements, according to a new report from Burning Glass Institute and Harvard Business School, progress is slow. But the share of jobs that actually went to those people only increasing by 3.5%. And according to that report, even though that barrier doesn't exist anymore in many places, other factors are slowing down real change, with that including automated systems that favor

applicants with higher education as well as real-life hiring managers who are hesitant to change things up. With Joseph Fuller, a management professor at Harvard and co-author of the report saying, all these companies are doing is removing a prohibition. So the hiring manager is not saying, oh, we should now be moving affirmatively to hire someone on a skills basis without relying on credentials. They're saying, if our favorite candidate has no BA, we're no longer prohibited from hiring them. And that's despite the fact that according to Fuller's research, employers in most major industries have found that people who don't hold degrees, they are just as likely to outperform degree holders as the other way around.

But it's outdated mindsets and picky automated systems that have overlooked many candidates who would be perfect. We're talking about people like Melanie Argyle. She dropped out of college when she couldn't afford it anymore. But since then, she's gotten several digital marketing and IT certifications. But even with that training and years of retail management, she keeps hitting walls trying to break into IT and project management, saying the people choosing candidates, they're missing so much in people like me. But ultimately, for now, that's where we are. We're going to have to see how, I guess it's not even the situation, how society as a whole and the business space in general develops. But regardless of which side of the table you've been on, if you've been doing the

hiring or you're just doing like you're just trying to get a job, I'd love to know your thoughts here. And then finally, today we have yesterday. Today we dive into the comments of the last show and see what y'all had to say, maybe even sometimes have a conversation about it. And on that last show, there was a lot of conversation around Olivia Rodrigo, because there was that whole controversy around Plan B and contraceptives being handed out at her concerts. Which also, to give you an update there, after our show went out, I think it was the day after, it was announced that Plan B and other contraceptives will no longer be handed out at her concerts,

with Variety reporting that the decision came from Rodrigo's team because, quote, children are present at the concerts. Though you had The Guardian reporting they'll still be allowed to have booths at her dates, but only to hand out information and materials such as hats, t-shirts, stickers, and badges. Though notably, you also had the DC Abortion Fund tweeting, little did these decision makers know, we have no issue handing out Plan B free of charge on the public sidewalk outside the venue, and saying Guts World Tour ticket holders or not, see you July 20th outside Capital One. Prior to that, in the comments, you had folks like Crushed Femur saying, just the line, quote, she's helping kids kill their kids, shouldn't we be more

concerned about the fact that kids are having kids? Contraceptives and proper sex ed are so necessary. And yeah, a lot of y'all seemed really caught off guard by the line, she's helping kids kill their kids, saying, does that person not realize what they're saying speaks volumes? We also had Moonlit Dreams writing, as a teen mom, people always act surprised when I say I'm pro choice. No, dude, me being a teen mom is the reason I'm pro-choice. I chose to have a baby at 18 and I'm very thankful for my son every day. He is the light of my life, but I do not wish this life on anybody who isn't 1000% sure they want it. And saying props to Olivia for actually standing up for what she cares about. Also, Basement Dweller Cosplay adding, as a Missourian, absolutely

continue giving information on birth control because our lawmakers are so dumb. They don't know how contraception works. More people need to get proper information on how birth control and contraception works, thinking of the children by making sure those kids don't have kids. Right, and there was definitely a big focus on information. Enzo's Benzo saying, Shielding your children from information regarding sexual health is how you end up with unexpected children. Regarding the idea that kids were also at these shows, you had Elizabeth Miller saying,

Olivia is 21. She sings about sex and drinking. If you bring a kid to her concert, that's your choice. But Olivia being 21, talking about issues that affect her and women both older and younger than her is allowed. Don't blame the artist because you aren't involved enough in your kid's life to vet the artist they listen to before you purchase tickets. And I will say in those comments, there was definitely no shortage of conversation around parents being parents, like what that entails for doing enough, doing too much, right? And that absolutely makes sense because one of the other big stories that people were talking about was that parent that went into their kid's classroom. Right, confronting that kid that was allegedly bullying his daughter.

Well, you know, there was a fair share of comments of like, he went too far. No, he was standing up for his family. One of the big things I saw was people sharing their own experiences. The Fresh Princess Saiyan saying, Schools never take bullying seriously. I got pantsed in front of a huge group of people and got completely exposed. I was traumatized and went to the school counselor and told her what had happened. They did nothing. Despite knowing exactly who did it, they did nothing. They only pathetically gave him lunch

detention after my parents called to complain. They just chalked it up to boys being boys. My brother was also not taken seriously at all when both him and my parents talked to the school about him getting bullied. You know why? Because they claimed it's not possible for girls to be bullying a boy. They would punch him as hard as they could and laugh and mess with him in any and every mean way they could possibly think of. The school did nothing because they claimed girls wouldn't be capable of hurting him and said he should stand up for himself. Unbelievable. And y'all have watched me for a long time, you know I'm not one of these fucking manosphere fuckers. But what do you think the odds are and like how bad do you think the punishment would be if that guy hit one of those girls that was bullying him? Stupid,

old school thinking like this just results in more of the same problems. Also, we had a person with a bunch of letters for their name saying, my mom almost did the same thing as the dad of that poor girl being bullied. I was bullied relentlessly in high school by my astronomy teacher. I cried almost every class. She would physically separate me from the rest of the class and hold my test scores up for everyone to see and laugh at because I was struggling. The school knew and did nothing,

but I was too embarrassed to tell my mom because I was failing the class. One day I just broke and when I got home, I told my mom I wasn't going back and told her everything. She got dressed, told me to get into the truck and drove us to my school to unenroll me. She was screaming at the guidance counselor, at the principal, was demanding to see my teacher. Thank God they didn't let her speak to her. I've never seen my mom that angry before and never since. She's told me that if she had seen my teacher, she would have laid hands on her. And I'm so glad she didn't. I love my mom and I'm sure that girl loves her dad so much. Yeah, I don't know. I will say rightly or wrongly, I understand that anger. Literally, one of the only things that can set me off is someone fucking

with my kid. It's the only thing that can break through just years and years of therapy. One, because I'm just protective of my family, but also two, as someone that was bullied, I know the fucking long-term impacts of that. I get stunted my emotional growth for the longest time. When there's a lack of accountability with bullies, whether it be from parents or schools, it's... That's where I'll leave that story. And the final thing I'll note, I'm glad that so many of you got joy out of my blooper. It's super easy, you just tear... Part of the reason I died inside for a second is I had just cleaned this desk. And so then I also just had to kind of laugh at it. Honestly, that day, it could have been the straw that broke the camel's back.

But, you know, you just have to laugh at it. Otherwise, everything will break you eventually. You know, it all adds up. But that is where today's show is going to end. And so in addition to a friendly reminder to get what you want over at BeautifulBastard.com with a brand new drop, I leave you as I always do, because my name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love your faces and I'll see you right back here tomorrow.