The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 10.10 "PURE EVIL!" Hamas Israel War Updates, Disinformation, Confusion, & Backlash Growing, & Today's News

Episode Date: October 10, 2023

Sign up for an account at https://grammarly.com/defranco10. If you want to get access to extra features, get 20% off Grammarly Premium. Sign up for Underdog Fantasy HERE with promo code DEFRANCO and get a $100 first deposit match: https://play.underdogfantasy.com/p-philip-de-franco Go Buy http://WakeandMakeCoffee.com 50% OFF select orders! This new batch won’t last long. Catch up on our latest PDS: https://youtu.be/hIxryOyDKZY?si=8fFtYsP8KvTbVxjr Check out our daily newsletter! http://dailydip.co/pds  Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/phillydefranco/?hl=en  –✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ – 00:00 - Clashes Erupt Between Pro-Palestine and Israel Groups 8:24 - Woman Sues Insurance for Refusing to Cover Wegovy10:45 - Sponsored by Grammarly 11:47 - Principal Criticized For Punishing & Reciting Bible Verses to Student Who Danced at Party  13:55 - WGA Ratifies Contract 14:58 - Drake Faces Backlash For Objectifying Billie Eilish & Millie Bobby Brown In Song 16:41 - McCarthy Floats Return as Speaker  19:19 - Sponsored by Underdog 20:26 - U.S. Prisons Banning Games like Dungeons & Dragons  27:34 - Your Thoughts on Yesterday’s Stories ——————————   Produced by: Cory Ray Edited by: James Girardier, Maxx Enright, Julie Goldberg, Christian Meeks Art Department: William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Brian Espinoza, Lili Stenn, Maddie Crichton, Star Pralle, Chris Tolve  ———————————— #DeFranco #Israel #Palestine ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, we're talking about the intense new updates we've seen between Israel and Hamas, threats, chilling accounts from the ground, international responses, and more. You've got Kevin McCarthy trying to sneak back into his House Speaker position. Meanwhile, you've got people upset at Drake over this Billie Eilish situation. A high school principal shamed and caused a young student to lose her scholarship because she was dancing. And we've got to break down the massive debate over D&D in prisons you've probably never heard about.

We're talking about all that and so much more on today's extra-large Philip DeFranco show. You daily dive into the news, so just make sure you're subscribed and let's jump into it. Starting with, we need to continue talking about the Israel-Hamas situation. First off, right, as we were wrapping up yesterday's show, some EU members moved to block the union from canceling its $700 million Palestinian aid package. So that is back on the table. But moving on from that, one of the first big things we now have is a lot more information from the various villages and sites that were attacked by Hamas, and the stories are absolutely devastating. I'm not going to get into too much detail because YouTube will nuke this video, but the main point is that it's pretty much indisputable that Hamas went door to door to try

and hunt down as many Israelis as possible. Those who weren't shot in their homes and taken out back to be executed, being carted off to Gaza as hostages, with their lives being on the line for every Israeli airstrike. And they've made sure to be particularly cruel about it as well, such as an incident that more baiters share, with her talking about how during the attacks, her aunt called her and her mother and told them to open up Facebook,

saying that her mom couldn't do it, and so she did. And then... ראיתי תאסון הכי גדול שאפשר בך לדמיין. סבתא שלי על הרצפה בבית שלה, רצוחה בסרטון. כל הרצפת דם, סבתא שלי שוחבת שום. המחבל פשוט לקח את הנייד הפרטי שלה, Also, we've heard about other acts of extreme cruelty, such as when I-24 News, which is alleged ties to Netanyahu, reporting that Israeli soldiers told them about finding beheaded babies. And then slowly, other outlets like Insider reported getting information about

the atrocities from the IDF. But then only for the Turkish outlet Anadolu to claim that when they spoke to the IDF, they were told, quote, we have seen the news, but we do not have any details or confirmation about that. Which is also, I want to stress right here, like a lot of details in war, it is very hard to pin down the exact details. And notably, all this reportedly happening is things are now getting worse and worse in Gaza itself. There have been constant Israeli airstrikes leading to civilian casualties. And because Gaza is nearly 50% children, they're being disproportionately affected. And the people there are just stuck. I mean, we talked about this a bit yesterday, but Gazans aren't allowed to leave. During more peaceful times, yeah, they can

sometimes get through one of a few border crossings with either Israel or Egypt. But even then, it's very rare and those crossings are normally used for supplies. So even if there were people in there that wanted to get out and heed Prime Minister Netanyahu's warnings, they couldn't. And his warnings make it seem like Israel is not gonna mess around here

with him warning yesterday, just as we finished the show. Hamas will understand that by attacking us, they've made a mistake of historic proportions. We will exact a price that will be remembered by them and Israel's other enemies for decades to come. It also doesn't help that after issuing those warnings, Israeli bombing forced the only open crossing to be closed, making it extra difficult to leave. And then after that

incident, the Israeli military again told Gazans to leave. Making matters worse is that the only place they could reasonably go is neighboring Egypt. And they don't seem to want them and isn't exactly making moves to open crossings up. Although there have been calls from across the political spectrum to put pressure on Egypt to open it up. But without that intense pressure, it's unlikely to happen for a few complicated reasons, with the two biggest being, one, the Sinai Peninsula, where refugees would likely be based, is hardly set up for 2 million people to live in. And two, the current Egyptian government is strictly opposed to Hamas due to religious and political differences, and many Gazans still support them. So they don't want to risk having a bunch of Hamas supporters in Egypt.

There's also been word from the White House about the situation, with President Biden saying today that some of the hostages were American and that at least 14 have died in the attack, and then going on to say, The brutality of Hamas, his bloodthirstiness brings to mind the worst, the worst rampages of ISIS. This is terrorism. And also adding that if the U.S. was in Israel's position, our response would be swift, decisive, and overwhelming. It's also important to report with this situation that the conflict has also polarized much of the world

with pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli rallies happening all over the place. For example, the Australian government has been forced to react to viral videos showing Palestinian supporters in front of the Sydney Opera House shouting things like, Right, and all that happening reportedly because the Finns of the Opera House

were in Israeli colors following Hamas's attack. While in other places, the protestors from either side got into scuffles. I should also update something we talked about yesterday, right, Mia Khalifa's tweets, that many interpreted as her supporting Hamas's attacks. Yesterday, shortly after show went up, she retweeted one of her controversial tweets

with some clarification saying, "'I just want to make it clear "'that this statement in no way, shape, or form "'is enticing the spread of violence. "'I specifically said freedom fighters "'because that's what the Palestinian citizens are. Fight for freedom every day. While some supported that tweet, she got a lot of pushback, people saying she was just trying to save face. So she then went on to eventually delete that tweet alongside some other ones that got her into hot water. But seemingly some damage had already been done.

Over the weekend, she apparently lost work with a company, Red Light Holland, although she didn't seem to care, and at the time she said she was just upset she worked with Zionists. And actually, possibly connected just before she issued her tweet where she said it was a clarification on Monday, Playboy, where she's a creator on their OnlyFans-like platform, emailed users that they had cut ties with her, saying, We are writing today to let you know of our decision to terminate Playboy's relationship with Mia Khalifa, including deleting Mia's Playboy channel on our creator platform. And going on to say, over the past few days, Mia has made disgusting and reprehensible comments celebrating Hamas's attacks on Israel and the murder of innocent men, you have people wondering, you know, is Elon Musk going to have her back? Because a few months back, he promised to back up anyone's legal fees who got in trouble for their tweets.

Actually, in the note of tweets around this, and specifically Hamas, it sparked a viral moment from H3 podcast's Ethan Klein. With him popping up because he expressed his frustration and anger at people in posts that he felt were celebrating Hamas' attacks. There, it seemed like some users had issues about two things in particular that he said. With the first being, If there's a terrorist attack where 700 people are killed, and your immediate response is,

I stand with Palestine, how am I supposed to interpret that other than I stand with Hamas? Israel hasn't done anything. They haven't airstriked Gaza. All that's happening is that they're trying to count dead bodies. And then the second being, if you think Hamas is dope, just remember that you, even more than Israelis perhaps, deserve to be burned alive by terrorists and your whole family murdered in front of you. With a number of people then quick to say things like Ethan Klein is a stupid fucking Zionist with cotton balls in his brain. Ethan Klein going on his podcast, slobbering all over himself for Israel. LOL, these fake woke leftists are showing their true colors.

Then you have a lot of people saying there's a lot of context missing that people are responding to from that entire clip, which is about an hour long. People pointing out that in it, Klein bends over backwards to express that he has a long history of supporting Palestine, saying that he just doesn't support actions like Hamas's and doesn't think their attack should be equated with Palestinian liberation. And as for the, you know, the I stand with Palestine right after the attacks part, he equated it like this.

It's like America and Iraq. We killed a fuckload of people there horrific so imagine a group of terrorists iraqi terrorists made it into la went to a neighborhood and just started killing everybody going in the houses dragging them out burning them alive kidnapping, desecrating people's bodies. Who's going to go? I stand with the people of Iraq right after that happens. That's psychotic. Also, then went on to say that he's extremely anti Netanyahu and has also voted against him every chance he's had, alongside largely not supporting Israel's actions towards Palestine in general. With things like the construction of settlements in the West Bank, he called those war

crimes and cultural genocide or the bombings of Gaza on that, he mentioned, I'm scared to even imagine the casualties that are going to happen as a result of this in Gaza. And I'll actually end this on that last bit, because so far the death toll across both sides is over 1,600. And this, as it's expected that there will be more civilian Israeli deaths due to those in critical condition not making it and hostages being killed. But also, we're going to see a huge spike in the number of Gazan deaths as they are struck in what's likely going to be a horrendous war zone with no way out. With the airstrikes set to just get worse and worse, and that's without mentioning that there's likely going to be an impending

ground war in the region to eradicate Hamas. But again, this horrible and frightening situation is still developing, so we've got our eyes on it. But in the meantime, of course, I'd love to know what your thoughts and feelings are on everything that we're seeing. And then, should health insurance cover drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic? That is the question at the center of this lawsuit filed in Washington state by a woman named Jeanette Simonton. And she's been described as a textbook candidates for these kinds of obesity drugs, which is why her doctor prescribed her Wegovy earlier this year. At that time, she was five foot two inches, 228 pounds at a body mass index of nearly 42, which I do want to

note that there are issues with BMI and there's a whole, we've talked about this in the past, but I mentioned hers here because it's above the cutoff for someone to be eligible for the drug under the current U.S. regulations. And also important to note, she has suffered from serious joint problems due to decades of struggling with her weight. But despite the fact that her doctor recommended and prescribed the obesity drug, her insurance refused to cover because of a blanket ban on insurers paying for weight loss drugs. And in her lawsuit, which was filed against the Washington State Agency that buys insurance for public employees, Simonton argues that the state's health plans are discriminatory because Washington state law considers obesity as a type of disability. And so the suit could have serious, massive,

sweeping implications because it is widely viewed as a test case in the ongoing nationwide battle over whether insurers should cover obesity drugs. Right, drugs like Regovia and Ozempic have shown an incredible potential to help people lose weight. And while much of the public discourse around this drug is about celebrities and rich people using them to slim down, their main purpose isn't to be a fad weight loss drug. They are designed to help people struggling with obesity. But these drugs are insanely expensive. Wegovy costs more than $16,000 a year, which is largely why it's got a reputation as a designer drug for the elite instead of important medicine. Now that said, notably here, some insurers have begun to cover

the cost of those drugs. But it's also been found to be a huge burden for many payers to provide wide coverage for the drugs in America, where more than 100 million people are obese. So for many employers and government-run programs, it's said that this would be an absolutely massive cost. And even just sample size cost estimates here are insanely staggering. For example, one study found that if the federal law banning Medicare from paying for weight loss drugs was overturned, around 2 million Medicare beneficiaries would take WeGoVit. And just under that scenario, the government expenditure would be $27 billion a year. And state health insurance plans for public employees like Simonton are also faced with similar costs. Like in Arkansas, where 40% of public employee insurance holders are obese

and the annual cost of covering these drugs would be about 83 million. But also looking at the other side of this, you have people saying, well, think of all the cost savings. How many fewer procedures would be needed? How many fewer issues would there be if you had a less obese population? Or will someone's weight 100% doesn't equal like what their health level should be? There are a lot of health problems that come with obesity. So there's also an argument about what are the long term impacts here regarding the other costs? Do things even out? Is it less severe? Is it even maybe net beneficial? But with all that said, I'd love to know your thoughts here, whether you've had experiences with the drugs or not. And then putting on a daily news show is a fast paced

environment and clear and concise communication is absolutely crucial with the team. We're constantly going back and forth through Slack and email. And thankfully, the fantastic sponsor of today's show, Grammarly, provides the tools to make our lives easier. Grammarly is an AI powered writing tool that helps everyone with their writing journey. And we're talking start to finish so you can get through your work more efficiently and concisely, offering suggestions that you may prefer. And I personally love that Grammarly helps you get started with initial ideas, outlines, and even tips. If we get stuck on a title, we can just type in, give me 10 possible taglines for a video. This is what it's about. And bam, we get ideas that we can choose or just expand on.

And when you're done writing and you need that polish or it's running on too long, Grammarly's rewrite function is awesome. Just ask Grammarly to rewrite it to be shorter, more engaging, whatever, which is imperative when reporting news, right? Everyone can talk about something, but how do you actually make sure someone can consume it? And Grammarly's reply feature is for all of us with unruly inboxes. It helps you summarize your emails, providing suggestions on how to reply in seconds. And I'm telling you, you will be amazed at what you can do with Grammarly. Plus all the features I mentioned are free to use. You get a hundred free monthly prompts and you can just go to Grammarly.com slash DeFranco10 and get 20% off Grammarly Premium.

And then, okay, yo, do you see this girl on the left wearing neon green? She's tearing up the dance floor. Well, that is 17-year-old Kaylee Timoney, the student government president at a public school in Louisiana. And she's been dancing since she was just two years old. So for her, it's only natural that she throws down like she's done for years at an off-campus party following homecoming. But when Principal Jason St. Pierre lays his disappointed eyes on the video, he pulls Kaylee into a meeting with himself and the assistant principal to give her some lip. With him telling her she's not, quote, living in the Lord's way, according to her mother. With him then reportedly showing her Bible

scripture he printed out and specific verses he highlighted. And also questioning who her friends were and whether they followed the Lord. To which her mother told reporters she didn't know how to answer that, and they said it's a yes or no question. Meanwhile, she's sobbing, with Kaylee later recalling, They basically told me I should be ashamed of myself and that they were concerned about my afterlife if I wasn't following basically God's ideals, which made me cry even more. And finally, because it wasn't over, he told her she would be removed from her position with the Student Government Association and that he would no longer recommend her for college scholarships. Which is completely ridiculous and especially outrageous, not just because she'd just dance, but also because, motherfucker, this is a public school, not a religious one, and the party was at a private event. So what we end up seeing is all of this blowing up on social media, hundreds of students walking out of class and protesting, wearing shirts and pins that say, let the girl

dance, and all that leading to St. Pierre then pivoting with a public apology, saying that he's sorry to her and her family, reversing his punishment, and acknowledging that, quote, the subject of religious beliefs were broached during the meeting. For the Madding, while that conversation was meant with the best intentions, I do understand it is not my responsibility to determine what students or others' religious beliefs may be.

That should be the responsibility of the individual. But while he did technically reinstate Cayley's scholarship endorsement, by that time, she said that the application deadline had already passed, so it was too late. And so now we're seeing in a follow-up to his apology, St. Pierre requesting to take leave for a remainder of the school year, according to the district. Which, one, I think it's a good start, but also I don't think that you should be in a

position of power like this if you're thrusting your religion and beliefs onto students. Especially because you're not just being judgy, you are actually impacting their future options. But two, I am a forgiving Phil. If the district said, hey, you can have your position back, but you have to go to weekly dance classes, I'd be a little bit on board. That way, at least there's a possibility that the stick up his ass might get dislodged and he can experience the most basic joy of human self-expression

without the fear of eternal damnation. But ugh, what an embarrassing loser. And then the Writers Guild has officially ratified its new contract, which is huge and fantastic news, right? Because the writers and studios, they reached a tentative deal last month. And while writers have been allowed to return to work

and it seemed like pretty much a done deal, this was kind of the loose end. With the members just needing to vote, and they have with their support being overwhelming. With 99% agreeing with this contract. In fact, there were only 90 no votes. And so you had WGA West president, Meredith Steem, releasing a statement saying,

together we were able to accomplish what many said was impossible only six months ago. The Guild also releasing a memo to members reminding them to continue to show solidarity with the actors who were still on the picket lines. But also, a thing to keep an eye on here is that even though the writers have their deal fully settled,

you have some members of the Guild saying the fight may not be over, right? The big important task next is making sure the contract is enforced. With, for example, one writing, just because studios and streamers signed our new contract doesn't mean they intend to honor it. They have whole departments

that will spend the next two and a half years looking for any and every loophole they can exploit to deny us benefits and pay us less. Don't let them get away with it. So while their strike might be over, there's a distrust about labor and studios that remains. And rightly so, the unfortunate reality is whether it be people or corporations, it is usually easier to separate them from their morals than it is their money. And then in entertainment news and controversy, you know, Drake has faced backlash for texting Billie Eilish and Millie Bobby Brown, and now he's getting backlash for singing about them.

And that's because he mentions both of them in a song called Another Late Night with Lil Yachty that just came out on his new album. Regarding Billie, at one point in the song, Lil Yachty says, She had big tits like Billie Eilish, but she couldn't sing. With many fans slamming that line and saying things like, She's spoken several times about hating being sexualized, something that contributed to her love for oversized clothing, and men just do not care. How many times and how many different ways does she have to say she doesn't like the constant commentary on her body? And why are so many people comfortable disrespecting that? Even though Drake wasn't the one that sang the line, you have some saying that because it's his

song, he is complacent in allowing the objectification of women. But saying that it's especially disturbing because Drake's known her since she was younger with her doing one interview at the age of 17 and saying, There are very few things that you can be certain of in life, but you can always be sure the sun will rise each morning. You can bet your bottom dollar that you'll always need air to breathe and water to drink. And of course you can rest assured that with public mobiles, 5g subscription phone plans, you'll pay the same thing every month with all of the mysteries that life has to offer. A few certainties can really go a long way. Subscribe today for the peace of mind you've been searching for.

Public Mobile. Different is calling. The new Mitsubishi Outlander brings out another side of you. Your regular side listens to classical music. Your adventurous side rocks out with the dynamic sound Yamaha. Regular you owns a library card. Adventurous you owns the road with super all-wheel control. Regular side, alone time. Adventurous side journeys together with third row seating.

The new Outlander. Bring out your adventurous side. Mitsubishi Motors. Drive your ambition. Drake is like the nicest dude I've ever spoken to. I mean, I've only like texted him, but he's so nice. But you might remember at the time, even people then saying it was weird that Drake was texting a teenage girl. Many people pairing that now with his song that includes explicit discussion of her body.

With all that also bringing us to Millie Bobby Brown, because just like Billie, he previously faced backlash for texting her while she was a teenager, with Millie famously saying in an interview when she was just 14 years old, He's honestly so fantastic and a great friend and a great role model. You know, we text, we just text each other the other day and he was like, I miss you so much. I was like, I miss you more.

What advice does he give you? Like, what does he say? Uh, about boys, he helps me. What? Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's great. And again, people thought this was creepy. But now in his new song, he addressed the situation, seemingly dismissing the criticism with the line, weirdos in my comments talking about some Millie Bobby look.

Bring them jokes up to the gang, we get to really flocking. But still, you have people saying, yeah, Millie is 19 now. But saying things like, I don't think I care if a grown man befriending a 14-year-old thinks I'm weird for thinking he shouldn't be befriending 14-year-olds. But yeah, with this situation, especially if you're a fan or a critic of any of these three, I'd love to know your thoughts here. And then, the situation with Israel and Gaza is so dire that Kevin McCarthy is actually considering coming back as speaker after being ousted. This coming just one week after he was ousted from his leadership position and a historic vote, and he vowed to not run for speaker again. But McCarthy has now done a complete 180, with a former speaker holding a press conference yesterday to outline a five-point

plan to support Israel in an attempt to fill the totally unprecedented power vacuum in Congress that has seriously undermined the country's ability to respond to the crisis. Because when the House removed McCarthy last week, it essentially put the chamber at a total standstill. So if you're an American ally, it's a really bad time to have a full-blown war breakout. Because while this is a completely unprecedented situation, it is widely believed that the acting Speaker pro tempore can't do anything besides just elect a new permanent Speaker. Hell, I mean, it's unclear if he can even receive classified briefings on Israel. And so in his remarks yesterday, McCarthy vowed to fill the leadership void, telling reporters,

Whether I'm speaker or not, I can lead in any position I'm in. And then when asked if he wanted to reclaim his position as speaker, McCarthy said it was up to his fellow Republicans, and he would support their decision if they wanted him reinstated. And with that, also repeatedly reiterating that he still has a lot of support within the party. And saying at one point, The only thing I would ask my conference? You have 96% of the conference in one place

and you're allowing 4% with the Democrats playing politics that now have putting the doubt inside this body. That is wrong. Now, notably, many Republicans have come out in favor of reinstating McCarthy, but in general, it's widely believed that he still doesn't have the 217 votes needed to get his position back.

Or those same eight far-right Republicans who ousted him are very unlikely to change their minds, something that Matt Gaetz himself made clear in comments to reporters yesterday, saying not a single person who voted against Kevin last week is of a different mind this week, and even claiming that plenty who voted for Kevin last week would never vote for him again. So right now, it's really unclear if McCarthy can use this situation to stage a comeback. The pressure that Israel really, really needs our help, and specifically anyone in the position would have to lay heavy on those eight, or he'd have to somehow convince

enough Democrats to rally behind him by arguing the House needs a speaker because Israel needs American assistance. And so while that seems unlikely, the other options also seem unlikely. It's been widely reported that neither of the two frontrunners for Speaker, Jim Jordan and Steve Scalise, have shored up enough support from the divided party. Though, as far as what actually happens next, Republicans are set to hold a party vote on the new Speaker tomorrow. And if they can agree on someone, somehow, that person will then head to a formal election on the floor. And this, as of course, emergency aid to Israel isn't the only thing at stake if Republicans drag this out. In case you forgot, which makes sense, the news is moving a mile a minute, Congress is still in the middle of a huge spending battle. And even though

they were able to kick that can down the road a bit, they only have a little over a month to reach a deal to avert a total government shutdown that would impact millions. And beyond that, there's also renewed funding for Ukraine that's on the line, as well as a handful of incredibly important domestic bills, including annual defense spending legislation. But ultimately, that's where we are now. And we're going to have to wait to see, which is really the timing here is horrible. Internationally, domestically, things have been popping off for a while, but it feels like even more so now. And America is not on solid footing. And then I love football season. It is an amazing escape from the real world, which is also why I want to say thank you to Underdog Fantasy for sponsoring today's show and

adding to the excitement of my favorite time of year. Because Underdog's the easiest way to play fantasy sports and not just football. You can make picks on baseball, basketball, UFC, and more. And it's simple. You pick whether your favorite player's stats will be higher or lower, and you make big money. You don't just get bragging rights. I mean, you can make your own entry with as few as two picks and 3x your money or go bigger to win up to 20X. And Underdog's giving you a special free pick for week six of the NFL season. Do you think Patrick Mahomes can get more than one yard? All I need to do is have one yard to win,

and I'm pairing my free pick with Russell Wilson to get lower than 224.5 passing yards. And if it hits, I'll three times my money. And Underdog's pick'em games are available in 32 states, including California, Texas, and Florida. So what are you waiting for? Especially because I've got a special hookup for you. For a limited time, Underdog is offering new users a $500 deposit match. That's right, $500. All you gotta do is click the link down below or download Underdog via the App Store and use code DEFRANCO.

That's Underdog Fantasy promo code DEFRANCO for a first deposit match worth up to $500. Plus, it just makes watching the Jets and Chargers games even more interesting for me. So, wrap your team and make your own picks with Underdog. And then, in the American prison system, inmates face some of the harshest realities of the world with the deepest divisions between people that you can imagine, and they're often forced to resort to violence to solve problems. But for many, there's one small game that brings them joy, a game that brings people together for a common purpose and allows them to briefly escape their reality. I'm talking about tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons or Pathfinder. And you have inmates like Aaron Klug and Melvin Woolley Bay spending years playing D&D both in and out of prison. Since turning 18, Bay's been

charged dozens of times for theft, burglaries, and drug possession. When he first set foot into the Sterling Correction Facility, he discovered a D&D group and joined it. With that, finding a place where he could shed the hardened criminal persona that kept him alive on the street. And for his part, Klug has also spent his life in and out of the system. And most recently, he was serving an eight-year sentence for robbing a bank. And Klug has always lived and breathed tabletop RPGs. In fact, the only reason that he was actually caught three months after the bank robbery was because he registered for a local D&D event.

And while some might be concerned about being mocked or teased for playing D&D in prison, Bay disagrees, saying, When you're in a setting like prison where so much depends on bravado and presenting a credible threat, to sit down and play a game that has the word fairy anywhere in it takes a certain self-confidence that I think demands respect. And this game is important to these men,

not just as a way to pass time, but as a necessary outlet, with Bayes saying, You're definitely looking for a way to express yourself, you know, and you're looking for a way to succeed. So, you know, you're going through this game, you're going through these challenges,

you're slaying all these monsters, you know, and you're winning, man. But there are risks to playing D&D on the inside, especially with the way that the Department of Corrections views it. In the Department of Corrections, if you have more than four people who always hang out together and always do the same thing, it's called a security threat group or a gang. And a gang has to have a hierarchy. So for us to have a dungeon master, somebody who's running the game basically puts them in a position of authority over other inmates, which is, that's pretty lame. Because we all take turns, you know? And that perception makes playing these games unreasonably difficult or outright impossible in many correctional facilities across the country. In fact, many prisons have outright banned tabletop role-playing games like

D&D or have at least banned the necessary tools like books and dice. And with that, you have things like one landmark case from back in the early 2000s at a prison in Wisconsin seeing D&D banned and one inmate's materials, including a 96-page handwritten adventure campaign being confiscated. There, the inmate was Kevin Singer, and he sued the prison for violating his rights to free speech and due process. And at that trial, the man responsible for Singer's materials being confiscated and the prison's security supervisor said that games like D&D, quote, promote competitive hostility, violence, and addictive escape behavior, which can compromise not only the inmates' rehabilitation and effects of positive programming, but endanger the public and jeopardize the safety

and security of the institution. Singer then appealed the decision in 2010, and according to Harvard Law Review, presented 15 affidavits on top of his own, most from D&D players on the inside, but some from RPG and D&D experts. Meanwhile, the president only presented the one affidavit from the security supervisor in their defense. But ultimately, the Seventh Circuit Court dismissed Singer's evidence because the, quote, experiential expertise

came from, quote, the wrong side of the bars. Now, like we said, in some places, tabletop RPGs are not outright banned, but they have banned the dice that are needed to add an element of chance to the game. And they are saying the ban is an effort to prevent gambling, which is also why many inmates have developed unique workarounds to these problems. Some create their own dice using origami patterns, cardboard, and fine sand to add weight to the die. Some forgo dice entirely and

create spinners. Recircular graphs with a paper clip or a bit of plastic to land on whatever number or styrofoam cups stacked on top of one another. And notably, this is, and it doesn't really feel like it makes sense, some prisons ban dice to limit gambling, but then also have playing cards available, which is also why some D&D players on the inside use cards for that element of chance. We're coming up with creative systems for what the value of the role would be associated with each card. Or the worst case scenario, just use the old-fashioned lottery system of numbers on slips of paper and a cup. But it's also not just dice. The other materials like character sheets, maps, and even the books are hard to come by. With Micah Davis, a former inmate in Texas, saying his group handwrote nearly everything,

including fantasy contracts and their own maps. But then that also creates a problem because to a guard unfamiliar with the game of Dungeons & Dragons, maps like that can look an awful lot like escape plans. Though luckily, at least in Davis' case, there were at least a few guards who played tabletop RPGs themselves. With one guard even telling Vice that he was called a nerd by his fellow officers when he identified tabletop RPG maps during routine unit searches for contraband. Though also, notably, he went on to say that he observed the good that these games can do for inmates firsthand, saying, I firmly believe gaming can help to combat the

rampant mental illness in our prison system. I always encouraged these groups and always took time to explain what they were to any curious staff. Games were often a common ground for me to gain the respect of inmates. Trust and respect are a big deal in prison for officers and inmates alike. And as for fantasy-based prison breaks, Davis never even considered it, saying, I never ran or played in a game where the PCs had to escape from jail or prison. Two on the nose. Come to think of it, we tended to avoid the trope of being in a dungeon filled with monsters as we were already in a dungeon filled with monsters. And as for the necessary books for many of these games, they aren't widely available to inmates.

So there you see some using photocopies or handwritten players guides for the games they wanted to play. They even transcribed the books read aloud by Family members over the phone or sent via email Well, a lot of this story is like wow Isn't this a random interesting thing that you probably never knew about another aspect of this story is that there are many who say that These type of workarounds shouldn't be necessary and the bans on tabletop rpgs and prisons just don't make any sense with brian Ritchie, for example a former inmate of the california prison a paper titled Dungeons and Dragons, a life-changing experience. And in it, Richie details the deep racial divides

within prison and the violent enforcement of these unwritten rules of segregation. With Richie sharing his experience with D&D and how the game rewards diversity in its characters and how people from these painfully separated groups could find community at this table. With him telling the story of a white man covered in tattoos that indicated

that he was involved in violence against black inmates and how that man found the D&D table to be a place where he could communicate about the segregation within the prison and the impact that it had on his life, and he became better for it. With Richie saying that, man then quickly began developing friendships with people of other races and maintained them until his death from a heart condition. And that sentiment has been echoed by many former inmates, including one with over a million followers on TikTok, who said, I remember one game had a Sunni Muslim, a Norse Viking, a couple gang members, and a bunch of unaffiliated guys. It was like the setup line for a joke every time they sat down. It was cool to

see it build bridges because that Muslim guy and the Asatru guy never would have talked if it wasn't for D&D. They started talking in the game and then started talking outside of the game because they lived in the same pod together. They ended up so close that anytime there was a beef between their two groups, they would settle it. And with all this, you have outlets like Screen Rant that have also noted that with D&D, it helps build community, commitment, creative problem solving, communication, and on top of everything, basic math skills. So even all of that barely scratches the surfaces of all the positive impacts that D&D can have with the lives of players. Like, y'all, there are even licensed psychologists who use the game as a therapeutic tool. Megan Connell uses it to help her patients notice patterns of behavior as a tool for young women to build self-esteem.

She's not the only one either, right? In fact, Connell became interested in implementing D&D into her practice after listening to another clinician speak on a podcast about his work with the game and teaching social skills to children on the autism spectrum. Hell, even all the way back in 1994, a psychologist by the name of Wayne D. Blackman published a case study showing how D&D was used to rehabilitate a suicidal teenager. However, thanks in large part to the satanic panic of the 80s, there's very little clinical research to support the use of tabletop RPGs in therapy or a rehabilitation environment, which has made the defense of D&D in prisons even harder. You really can't prove something is good

with strictly anecdotal experiences. But ultimately, that is where we are here, and I'd really love to hear from you on this. Whether you kind of came into this situation blind like myself before I started this story, actually never sat down for a D&D campaign, I think I'd like to. Like when I was a teenager,

I was the nerdy kid hopping through forums, role-playing, and not the weird sexual role-play. Now that I said it, it sounds like that's 100% what it was. But also for those of you who love or have even just dabbled with D&D, what are your thoughts here? I'd really love to hear from you. And then let's talk about yesterday today, where we take a look back at yesterday's show, where we covered a lot of news. We then dive into those comments, see which stories stood out to you, what your thoughts were, what your opinions were, sometimes what are your experiences. Yesterday, it was absolutely not a surprise. The comment section was completely taken over by the Israel-Hamas war. With the comments including things like, this is going to be absolutely

horrible for the Palestinians no matter what. And the failure of Netanyahu is definitely an angle that's being underreported on. And saying this is so hard to watch because for those of us who feel empathy for Palestinians, what Hamas just did not only is a deplorable terror attack on civilians, but also doomed so many non-radical Palestinians to death. Others chiming in, I'm so glad you talked about the nuance of the whole situation in Israel. Saying the story is nowhere near as black and white

as a lot of people would like it to be. Hamas is terrible and their actions are barbaric and you can argue that their actions are actually hurting the Palestinian cause, but the Israeli government has been oppressing Palestinians for decades. And noting, no matter the outcome, the human cost of this war will be paid by civilians, not soldiers. Some of y'all broke down what you were feeling with this even further, saying all of these things can be true at once. One, Israel's government has

enforced a brutal apartheid on Palestine, leaving 2 million people crammed into a densely populated open-air prison, saying only about 10% of Palestinians even have clean drinking water, and as long as this apartheid goes on, it's practically guaranteed to breed extremism. Two, Hamas is a terrorist organization, and their murder, kidnap, and rape of civilians is horrifying and impossible to justify. Three, if this conflict escalates, and it probably will, most of the civilians who die will be Palestinian, and Hamas will try to use these deaths to further radicalize people. Four, Hamas often uses civilians in their homes, hospitals, and schools as human shields. And five, Israel often takes too few measures to avoid civilian casualties and has a history of targeting journalists. It feels like there is no solution in

sight and it's one of those conflicts that just drains my faith in humanity. And that is where your daily dive into the news is going to end for now. But remember, for more news you need to know, I got you covered right here. You can click or tap or I got links for you in the description down below to watch. But as always, my name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love your faces and I'll see you right back here to break down more news tomorrow.