The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 8.20 BIG Chappell Roan Drama, Josh Shapiro Slams Trump’s “Hypocritical Jewish Jab”, Disney Backtracks, &

Episode Date: August 20, 2024

Go to https://ground.news/defranco to stay fully informed, think critically about the news you consume and get all sides of every story. Subscribe for 40% off unlimited access through my link.  Go to http://zbiotics.com/DEFRANCO and use code DEFRANCO at checkout to get up to 15% off your first order. Get 50% OFF Tee & Tank 3-Packs @ https://BeautifulBastard.com and 25-35% Off Select Graphic tees and tanks while supplies last. 77 Days Until Election Day! Make Sure You Are Registered to VOTE: https://Vote.org  – ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ – 00:00 - Chappell Roan Divides Internet After Calling Out “Creepy” Fan Behavior 03:58 - Interview With Gov. Josh Shapiro at the DNC 10:28 - Sponsored by Ground News 11:34 - Disney Gives Up Trying to Force Arbitration Over Wrongful Death Lawsuit 13:28 - Trafficking Victim Sentenced to 11 Years 16:37 - Election Deniers in Georgia Board Pass Another Rule that Could Delay Certification 21:20 - Sponsored by Z Biotics 22:25 - Republicans Move to Strike 40,000 Voters From Arizona Rolls 24:56 - Body Brokers Are Doing All Kinds of Crazy Stuff with You After You Die ——————————   Produced by: Cory Ray Edited by: James Girardier, Maxwell Enright, Julie Goldberg, Christian Meeks, Matthew Henry Art Department: William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Brian Espinoza, Lili Stenn, Maddie Crichton, Chris Tolve, Star Pralle, Jared Paolino ———————————— #DeFranco #ChappellRoan #DNC ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sup, you beautiful bastards. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show, your daily dive into the news, and we have a lot of news to talk about today. So buckle up, hit that like button, and let YouTube know you like these big daily dives into the news. I am gonna take this jacket off

because it's probably gonna be a minute, and let's jump into it. So the first thing that we're gonna talk about today, it was a heavily requested story over on the text line, and that is that Chapel Roan has found herself in a big, big controversy, and her comments have been dividing the internet. Right, you know, we've talked about her meteoric rise to superstardom this year, and even before that, she's made it clear that she

finds some aspects of all of this to be overwhelming, but among other things, she's already had to deal with stalkers and things like that. But on TikTok yesterday, she really called out fans, posting videos saying, I need you to answer questions. Just answer my questions for a second. If you saw a random woman on the street, would you yell at her from the car window? Would you harass her in public? Would you go up to a random lady and say, can I get a photo with you?

And she's like, no, what the f***? And then you get mad at this random lady? Would you be offended if she says no to your time because she has her own time? Would you stalk her family? I'm a random bitch. You're a random bitch. Right. And also asking if you would dissect a random person's life online and then bully them or assume things about them. Then following that up with another video saying she doesn't care if like there's this notion that harassment or stalking just comes with fame. That does not make it okay. That doesn't make it normal. I don't, doesn't mean I want it. Doesn't mean that I like it. I don't want whatever the f*** you think

you're supposed to be entitled to whenever you see a celebrity. I'll give a if you think it's selfish of me to say no for a photo or for your time or for a hug. That's not normal, that's weird. With Chaplin adding that she finds it weird how people feel like they know her just because they listen to her music or they've seen her online and closing by saying, I'm allowed to say no to creepy behavior, okay?

And that, you know, it's really split a lot of people, some fully on her side, writing things like, I think celebrities should clap back more often, actually. It's become weirdly normalized for fans to think they're entitled to every detail of their fave's personal lives or are owed the privilege to dictate their lives purely because they support their career. It's fucked. And there is something so wonderful about newer pop stars rising and actually calling out the heinous behavior that has been tolerated for decades. Setting boundaries is okay. But for others, it really rubbed them the wrong way with people saying things like, oh Jesus, she is not cut out to be famous. Goodbye, chapel. And she's acting like she got battery acid splashed on her in

public because a teenage girl asked to take a selfie with her. But then others, you know, they're kind of torn, right? Saying that harassment is not okay, obviously, but at the same time, she just isn't a random person anymore. People saying things like, she's right, she has every right to say no, but asking for a picture or a hug respectfully isn't creepy behavior. As well as she's totally not obligated to do anything, but putting asking for a photo and like stalking someone on the same level is not serving. Claiming that of course, celebrities can decline photo requests or set boundaries, but also if you can't be grateful for the support fans want to give you, choose a different career, right? So clearly that

has spawned a massive debate. And this also notably coming as she was already making headlines this week for discussing fame and how it impacts her, right? Because she was just interviewed by Bo and Yang for Interview Magazine, and of her newfound success, she actually said she does not even care about the charts because they are fleeting and everyone who's on the charts leaves them at some point. But they're also frequently talking about the specific pressures that come with being a queer artist. Explaining it's been really emotional because I'm not just singing pop music, it's automatically political because I'm gay. So clearly there's a lot of talk here, there's a lot to balance out. I mean, if you're familiar with her or you're looking into it,

she's already said that she wants to pump the brakes on her fame, with a big part of it being that it's just happening too hard, too fast. Which is also why I have some people saying it's hard to put themselves in her shoes, thinking that it must be insane to have such a quiet music career for so long and then just blow up seemingly overnight, saying it must be impossible to process. You know, with all this, I'm interested, which camp do you think that you land in here? And then, okay, so day one of the DNC, it's in the books and it was a productive one. Well, no, I wasn't able to convince the delegates to make me supreme Leader of Nebraska, yet, I did, among other things, sit down

with Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro. And while we talked about a number of political things, the conversation started with a question my buddy Ben in the group chat asked me to ask him. You know, the most important kind of questions. Eagles or Steelers? Eagles. Phillies or Pirates?

Phillies. Sheets or Wawa? Wawa. And Flyers or Penguins? Flyers. Thank you for ruining my political career right there. You cannot bullshit your way through sports. You just can't.

Everything else. I will say, like, I will go to a Steelers game and root for the Steelers if it has nothing to do with the Eagles. I enjoy that. And I celebrate that they've got way more rings than the Eagles do. They're great franchises. But you've got to be true to your sports. I grew up a Philly sports fan and I'm not going to give that up. I respect that as a consistently sad Jets fan. Yeah. It's like you're born into it and then you just kind of have hope for some reason, even though you're never given anything.

And you're probably conflicted on Aaron Rodgers. Like you want him to play well, but you also know he's like a little bit of a nutcase now, right? I mean, your words. Yeah. Yeah. No, I agree. I agree. I was last, last year I was like, you know what? I want to have a little amnesia. I don't know. I don't know anything this guy's ever said. Yeah. Yeah. You know, with that out of the way, I want to have a real conversation about real things because you know, he's been in the news for a number of reasons lately. He's the governor of arguably one of the most important swing states going into this election. He's also one of the most popular and prominent governors in America. And while locally

he's known as a guy who has manned the ship and you see things like violent crime plummeting, he was recently also getting a lot of national attention because he was on Kamala Harris's shortlist. Of course, ultimately Harris picked Tim Walz. And since then, that's something that Donald Trump and Republicans have tried to use to sow division. With Trump and the like trying to push this narrative that the only reason he's not the VP pick is because he's Jewish. They turned him down because he's Jewish.

That's why they turned him down. And I'll tell you this, any Jewish person that votes for her or a Democrat has to go out and have their head examined. So when I sat down with Shapiro yesterday, I asked him about those comments. When you hear stuff like that, what is your, what's your take? What's your response? Well, Donald Trump is the least credible person to speak with any authority on hatred and bigotry. This is a guy who has brought hate into the conversation, who attacks people who are different than him or think different than him. I mean, you really want to get the heart of it. This is a guy who in the

wake of Charlottesville, when those folks were marching with those tiki torches and said, Jews will not replace us, Donald Trump said there were good people on both sides. That's what he said. And he continues to peddle anti-Semitic tropes all the time. So he is far from a word of authority on this. Let me be very, very clear. Anti-Semitism played absolutely no role in the dialogue I had with the vice president. She was very clear about what she was looking for in a vice president. I was clear about what I'd be looking for in a vice president. And I think she made the exact right pick in picking Tim Walz to fulfill that role

as she laid it out. There is anti-Semitism out there. And there is anti-Semitism in this country. And there is some anti-Semitism within the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. And I think it is critically important that leaders speak and act with moral clarity. Donald Trump is bankrupt when it comes to moral clarity and do their part to speak out against hate in whatever form, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, racism, you name it. We have to speak out against it and condemn it, not encourage it the way Trump does. But then also beyond that, I talked to the governor about the difference that we're seeing in polls, right? Because not only is he one of the most popular governors in America in a very

unique state, but generally what we've seen in polling is a drastic difference between the national polls for the presidential election and the more statewide races. And so I just asked him like in his eyes, what is the secret sauce? What's this thing that's seemingly allowing you to connect to this part of the voter base that we're not seeing at a national stage for others? I really pride myself on getting out of the office

in the Capitol and traveling around the state as much as I can. I still do myself on getting out of the office in the Capitol and traveling around the state as much as I can. I still do my work as governor on the road, but when I'm in a community listening to people, it allows me to be a more effective governor for them as opposed to forcing them to come to Harrisburg, come to the Capitol and meet with me. If you really listen to people, they all basically want the same four things, right? With some exceptions, but they want a really good school for their kids and grandkids. They want safe communities. They want economic opportunity, you know, in a fair shot.

And they want their rights and freedoms protected. And that's true if you're a Democrat, Republican, rural voter, urban voter. And so what I try and do is come up with common sense solutions largely in those four areas that can speak to folks in different communities. And I don't get upset if they disagree with me in one community on one issue because I think in their heart, I think my election results bear this out. And as you said, the kind of polling in terms of my popularity bear it out. They just want to know someone's fighting for them. And those basic common sense Pennsylvania principles that I think are really adaptable across the country. And so that is, at the end of the day, what people want the most. Not like some purity that you're

going to be with them 100% of the time. Nobody's going to agree 100% of the time on everything. But if they know your heart's in the right place, they know you're willing to show up, and they know you're going to work on those core issues, they're going to usually give you the benefit of the doubt. And you know, with all that, I will say, and this is, you know, this is my personal experience. It's very anecdotal. I was going to say a lot of you know, but I don't know if I've mentioned it here. I recently moved to Georgia, and I will say it's been very helpful being outside of what's been my 15-year LA bubble, being around more folks with different lived experiences, different opinions. While I'm a cynic, and you know, a lot of things come down to political speak,

I have found a good chunk of what he said there to be largely be true. A lot of people from different sides have a lot of the same hopes. They just have different opinions and ideas of how to deal with those issues. Not true about every issue and every person. But for now, that's where I'll leave it.

I think by the end of this week, I might start uploading the full interviews. I'm trying to keep this tight. Yeah, let me know your thoughts on anything, whether it be his reaction to Trump or his opinion is about Aaron Rodgers. And then, you know, it's no secret that media polarization is especially wild going into election season. And it's often hard to know if you're getting the full picture, which, you know, is something that I strive for when we're making the PDS every day. That's also where today's sponsor, Ground News,

comes in. See, Ground News' app and website combine news from across the political spectrum and around the world, allowing us to compare coverage with helpful context on each source, like political bias, reporting reliability, and even their sources of funding. Because I think comparing coverage is critical to getting to the heart of a story. Take, for instance, VP Kamala Harris' addressing of food prices as inflation remains a big issue in the presidential race. More than 60 articles have been published on it and distributed somewhat evenly across the political spectrum, but of course the narratives differ wildly. You've got right-leaning outlets like The Daily Wire referencing Soviet-style price controls, while left-leaning outlets like Raw Story and Business Insider applaud Harris' first-ever milestone.

And Ground News makes it easy to leave our silos to see the full picture on every story we read. Whether moderate, liberal, conservative, or politically homeless, we all win when we're better informed and also just understanding what other people are consuming as well. So go to groundnews.com slash DeFranco or scan the QR code on the screen for 40% off unlimited access, which is what I use to read the news. And then I think y'all just scared the hell out of Disney.

Right, because I got a quick update regarding that whole Disney wrongful death lawsuit, which if you don't remember, a guy by the name of Jeffrey Piccolo is suing Disney for the wrongful death of his wife in 2023. Right, because she died from anaphylaxis after eating at a restaurant in Disney Springs, despite being repeatedly assured that her food would be safe. And there, you had Disney trying to force the case into arbitration. With him saying that Piccolo actually agreed to settle all disputes with the company through arbitration when he

signed up for Disney Plus back in 2019. With the company then also arguing that Piccolo did so again when he purchased tickets to Epcot on the Walt Disney Parks website. And as you can imagine, for Disney Plus back in 2019. With the company then also arguing that Piccolo did so again when he purchased tickets to Epcot on the Walt Disney Parks website. And as you can imagine, or as you might remember, there was a lot of pushback. Piccolo's attorneys pointedly calling the argument preposterous and quote,

"'So outrageously unreasonable unfair as to shock the judicial conscience.'" And this is the online reaction used much more colorful words. With people saying things like, no matter how seemingly forward thinking or progressive any of their individual products may be on the surface, never forget that the Disney Corporation are fucking ghouls.

You can't sue them for wrongful death because you signed up for Disney Plus? What kind of heinous shit is that? And this is one of the most ludicrously evil things I have ever witnessed. These goddamn arbitration clauses are a blight on humanity. But now, the big update is that Disney is backpedaling hard, with them waiving arbitration and agreeing for the case to move to court. With Disney Experiences

chairman Josh DeMauro saying in a statement, at Disney, we strive to put humanity above all other considerations. With such unique circumstances as the ones in this case, we believe the situation warrants a sensitive approach to expedite a resolution for the family who have experienced such a painful loss. But with that, I'm not going to give Disney a pat on the back and a thumbs up here. Instead, I'd rather thank all of you who got angry and vocalized it when you heard this news. Because you know the truth, Disney has shown itself to be just like any other corporation and they care about money over all things. And everyone who vocalized their dissatisfaction or their rage, they made them clutch their coin purse and back away.

But for now, we're gonna have to wait to see what happens with this case. And then we need to talk about Crystal Kaiser because she is a woman who's in the news right now because she is going to prison for killing a man who sex trafficked her. She's from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. And when she was 16, she met 33-year-old Randy Voller,

a man who sexually abused her numerous times and on occasion filmed it. And according to Crystal, Randy also trafficked her to other men as well, plying her with drugs and driving her to a hotel to meet them and then taking their money. And with that, she then said he would give her expensive gifts and take her shopping in exchange. But in 2018, when Crystal was 17, she shot and killed Randy before burning down his house and fleeing in his BMW. According to court documents, she told detectives that she was tired of Randy touching her. And so she faced a slew of charges,

including first degree intentional homicide, arson and car theft, and she was looking at a possible life sentence. With prosecutors arguing that this was a premeditated murder by Crystal to steal Randy's BMW. On the other side, you had her defense saying that she only killed Randy after he pinned her to the ground when she rebuffed his sexual advances.

And so her attorneys argued that Crystal could not be held criminally liable under the 2008 law that absolves victims of sex trafficking from, quote, any offense committed as a direct result of being trafficked, known as an affirmative defense. So prosecutors said that there was no way that that law actually extends all the way up to homicide.

But in 2022, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that affirmative defense would include homicide. And so Crystal's defense team could use it as an argument if they were able to present, quote, some evidence on which a reasonable jury "'could find that the defense applies.'" And this actually isn't uncommon. More than 30 states across the country

have affirmative defense provisions that allow victims of sex trafficking to be acquitted of charges if they can prove that the crime was committed because of their abuse. However, how this played out this year is that Crystal agreed to plead guilty to the lesser charge of second-degree reckless homicide, and her other charges were dismissed.

Though still, she maintains that Randy's death was a result of self-defense on her part. And it's also worth mentioning that earlier this year, Crystal did skip town when she was free on bond and spent two weeks on the run before being arrested in Louisiana. They're also being charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct in a domestic violence case before that. But as far as the homicide case, Crystal was sentenced to 11 years in prison and five years extended supervision by Judge David Wilk yesterday. While delivering the sentence, Wilk told Crystal that he was quote, "...well aware of the nature of the relationship between her and Randy," but added, "...you are not permitted to be the instrument of his reckoning. To hold otherwise is to endorse a descent into lawlessness and chaos."

And with that saying, she abandoned the affirmative defense that the Supreme Court allowed her when she took the plea deal. Saying you entered a guilty plea. That allows you to argue your circumstances warrant mercy, but not that they warrant absolution. Now with that, Crystal won't be serving the full 11 years in prison. She was given a credit of 570 days for time served. And so she should be released in 2033

when she's in her mid-30s. But notably, with this, many advocates were disappointed with this sentencing, including Claudine O'Leary, a human trafficking survivor and founder of a consultancy group for victims of human trafficking, who said that with this sentencing, including Claudine O'Leary, a human trafficking survivor and founder of a consultancy group for victims of human trafficking, who said that Crystal's sentencing is evidence that courts don't embrace trauma-informed justice,

telling the Washington Post, too often these courts are looking for the perfect victim, and Crystal did not fit the image of what they thought a perfect victim would look like. And adding to the New York Times, there are men in southeastern Wisconsin walking around free today who paid for the ability to sexually abuse Crystal when she was a minor and they never faced accountability. This is the kind

of case that young people will remember. They'll say they didn't believe Crystal, why should they believe me? So of course with this, I'd really love to know your thoughts and where you stand on this. And then in big swing state battleground state news, we got to talk about Georgia. Because while in the past, Georgia was the swing state at the heart of Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election, today we got to talk about the Georgia State Election Board, which if you don't know, is the unelected body that's meant to make rules and publish guidance to maintain order and integrity in elections without thinking about the political impact. With that, its election-denying majority has just passed a rule that could delay the certification of voting results. And that is just the latest thing that's got people worried that

the board's far-right takeover could swing the 2024 election. But to start with the rule that was just passed, it prohibits county election boards from certifying results if there is a discrepancy between the number of ballots distributed and the number of voters

until the board investigates the discrepancy. And with that, it authorizes any member on any county election board to, quote, examine all election-related documentation created during the conduct of elections prior to certification of results. Right, and a key thing there is it's not unusual for there to be small discrepancies between the total numbers of votes cast and the total number of voters.

Right, and these differences usually aren't large enough to actually affect an election outcome. And in places like Georgia's Cobb County, election officials say any discrepancies are always explained in a report submitted to the Secretary of State's office after an election. And finally, in general, according to groups like Voting Rights Lab, Georgia already has rigorous processes in place to verify, count, and review every ballot and audit those results prior to certification. So basically, this new rule has got people worried

that just one rogue election official, they're going to just, one, have the power to slow down the electoral process. They'll have even more power to slow down the certification process, create uncertainty around this election, and just throw the state's entire vote count into chaos. And so with that, you had lawyers from the ACLU and other rights groups sending a letter to the board saying, it provides no safeguards against requests unscrupulously designed to delay or obstruct the lawful certification process. And adding, it would empower individual county board members to make unreasonable and vexatious demands for any election-related documents, even ones that have no bearing on certification, without providing any basis for their requests.

And in fact, we already know at least one person likely to take advantage, namely Julie Adams, a Republican on the Fulton County Election Board who refused to certify the May primary election. And she is reportedly a member of an election denial activist network founded by someone who aided Trump's efforts to overturn the election in Georgia and elsewhere. But of course, the concern is that's exactly what members of the state election board want. I mean, the proposal was submitted by Republican Sally Grubbs, and she told CNN she believes her county's 2020 presidential election results were inaccurate without providing any evidence to back up her claims.

And in fact, all three Republicans who voted for the rule have expressed beliefs in widespread election fraud that even conservative groups have said doesn't exist. And notably here, two of them were appointed within the last year, right? Because back in May, Republicans finished their takeover of the board with the appointment of right-wing personality Janelle King, with the chair of the Georgia Republican Party even saying at the time that the new appointments would help Trump win in November. And since then, the board has approved various rules backed by right-wing election activists who claim that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, right? I mean, earlier this

month, for example, it adopted a new rule giving local boards the power to conduct a, quote, reasonable inquiry into elections before certifying. With a big important thing there is they did that without defining the term reasonable inquiry. And in fact, Donald Trump himself has taken a lot of interest in the Georgia State Election Board,

with him in multiple social media posts commenting on the board's meetings, including sharing the raw footage of a debate among board members at a public meeting. And then, at a rally, he actually outright praised his supporters on the board and called them out by name. I don't know if you've heard, but the Georgia State Election Board is in a very positive way. This is a very positive thing, Marjorie. They're on fire. They're doing a great job. Three members.

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Rick Jeffries, and Janelle King, three people. But even one of those three people reportedly telling multiple other people that he had a job lined up in a future Trump administration. And so all that, as people like the board's lone Democrat

saying earlier this month, the makeup of this board has changed from being a board that followed the rule of law and made decisions based on what state and federal law required to one that is being driven by far right-wing narratives. With that, people from voting rights groups like Fair Fight adding, Trump and his MAGA allies have taken over the Georgia State Election Board to try and give the veneer of legality to their illegal scheme to disrupt the certification of Georgia's 2024 election results. With that, I should say that there are Republicans who aren't on board with it.

Right, the last Republican on the election board, the chairman, he actually voted with a Democrat more than once saying, "'This board is once again exceeding our authority,' and adding, "'We are not elected officials. "'We should not try to create law.'" And of course, there's Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, famous for rejecting Trump's call

to find more votes, with him saying in a statement last week, these misguided last minute changes from unelected bureaucrats who have never run an election and seem to reject the advice of anyone who ever has could cause serious problems in an election that otherwise will be secure and accurate. So while that is still obviously gonna have to continue to play out up to and then after the election,

for now it seems like one of the ways that Democrats and just non-Trump voters can try to fight back against this is to just vote and vote in droves. To try to make any baseless accusations just look outright ridiculous. And then, so for those of you who enjoy having a few drinks, but you know, you're not a big fan

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considering that we're talking about Arizona, this is a massive deal. This is a key battleground state where the polling shows it to be a toss-up, and Biden in 2020 won by under 11,000 votes. And with this, you have the RNC wanting the Supreme Court to move fast, saying that a decision needs to be made by Thursday before the state starts printing ballots. Right, and to fully explain this, the core of this effort is from a 2004 proposition followed by a 2022 update to the law that Republicans passed. See, the proposition made it so that all Arizona voters

needed documentary proof of citizenship before registering to vote, which is notably the most strict standard in the United States. With that then being fought in court, and in 2013, the Supreme Court ruled that it conflicted with the National Voter Registration Act, right? And that federal law requires states to register voters who complete a standardized voter registration form. And notably, under that form, voters only swear under the penalty of perjury that they're a citizen, no proof required.

And so after the 2013 ruling, Arizona started to partially register voters to comply, meaning it'd make a subclass of voters that use that form who could vote in national elections, but not for state and local ones. With then, in 2022, state Republicans taken another crack at the issue, blocking the, quote, federal-only voters from voting for president or voting by mail. And once again, we saw this run into legal issues with lower courts blocking the law, which now brings us to the RNC filing for this emergency ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court. And here, their main argument is that the federal rules can't infringe on the Arizona legislature's sovereign authority to determine the qualifications of voters. Now, with this, you have the Biden administration pushing back, saying that judicial intervention at this stage would undermine the orderly administration of the election,

risking the disenfranchisement of thousands of voters who have already registered to vote using the federal form. And one of the things critics of the move have pointed out is that this would punish voters who thought that they were registering correctly, but turns out, oh, there's actually two different voter registration forms in Arizona, and they filled out the wrong one. And this is Vote Beat, which is a nonprofit that monitors voting access, found that if successful, this would disproportionately impact college students and those living in shelters, while others have pointed out

that it hurts tribal voters. And in Arizona specifically, there are a lot. And while some may think, you know, hey, the Supreme Court already ruled on fundamentally the same issue over a decade ago, as we have seen in recent years, the Supreme Court has no issue undoing past precedent. And so this is definitely something we're gonna keep

an eye on and likely talk about on Thursday. But in the meantime, one, what are your thoughts on this? And two, whether you're in Arizona or really any other state, you should check out vote.org right now. If you think you're registered, make sure you're registered. You never know if something's up. And also if you've never registered, register to vote.

Whether it's national, it's statewide, it's super local, you should have a say. But then for our final story today, because it is a gnarly one, we have a special guest, Philip DeFranco from Saturday, because he has possibly the most important question of your life for you. What happens to us after we die?

Well, while one, I have no idea about the metaphysical part, I do know two, that a corpse often means one thing for a lot of people, and that is cash money. And that's because in addition to just how much a funeral service can cost, there is an entire industry that revolves around obtaining and selling human corpses and body parts. And the issue that we need to talk about right now is that it is an industry that is filled with horror stories, like when the body parts of 12 people were thrown out in Arizona. And outside of vague laws designed to protect burials,

the laws governing the buying and selling of human remains are almost non-existent. Now that said, obviously with this being the US and we're a very bunch of patchwork in many ways, so we have a million exceptions across each state and county, but generally speaking, only eight states seem to explicitly ban the sale of human remains

as of 2023. One of the big reasons why is that a lot of people just don't realize what's going on because it's not widely known what the different forms of donation means. Or you can donate organs and other tissues specifically for people in need of them, or you can donate your body to science.

And that second category, that can be largely broken down into two broad categories, universities and body brokers. With the ethical standards between those two being generally night and day. You know, universities, they rarely go out of their way to solicit for bodies and instead have forms that would be donors can fill out.

Those bodies are then used for a wide variety of scientific learning and study, ranging from anatomy classes to learning about rare conditions, to how bodies can decompose in various conditions for forensic reasons. And after about three to five years, they cremate what remains

and they try to send it back to the family. Notably, how each body part is used and studied is heavily documented, so nothing's misplaced. But all of that is in stark contrast to the body broker business, which is just a complete shit show. They generally get their bodies from people who wish to donate to science

or in other cases, offer to take the body off a family so they don't need to deal with the cost of disposing it. I mean, even if you choose cremation and you take the ashes back home, it's still like a thousand dollars, which many families just don't have. So, you know, there's people who see a company saying, we'll use them for science, you won't have to pay a dime, and it seems like a godsend. But the brokers end selling those bodies to medical research companies or other institutions for thousands of dollars. And you know, with that, a lot of families still probably have an expectation that their loved ones remains will at least

be treated with respect. But despite the influx of cash, that's not always the case. It's actually common for corpses to be parted out to various companies and groups, but not be properly tracked. So unlike when you donate to a university or for organ donation, there's no real guarantee there'll ever be a true effort to get their hashes back to you.

With a huge example of that being the Biological Resource Center. And for years, it would secure human remains for various clients, but the families of the donors, they often had no idea what that really entailed. Such as in the case of one woman whose body was sent to the army for IED testing. With it essentially just being strapped to a chair

and having explosives rip it apart to see what an IED does to a human body. When the family got ashes back, they didn't know it was only of her hand since the rest, you know, no longer existed. Also, that same company shocked the world when investigators found a cadaver that could only be described as Frankenstein-esque. You know, it had multiple body parts for multiple

people sewn together for seemingly no real reason. Well, that was like a decade ago. Things haven't gotten much better. In 2020, Arizona was shocked when multiple human parts were found at Prescott National Park, with it being clear that it was from a body broker because of the small metal tags attached to the parts. And in total, the remains of at least 12 people were strewn about the area because Walter Harold Mitchell III's body broker business was going under. So apparently instead of incurring the cost

of returning the bodies to their loved ones, he just dumped them. I mean, the lack of oversight, it causes all kinds of issues beyond ethical ones. These cases actually highlight how little can be done in these cases. Right for the Biological Resource Center, for example, there was an FBI raid back in 2014

after they were accused of selling the donated corpses for a profit rather than trying to get them shipped down for scientific research. And to be clear, these companies are allowed to make a profit, but at least they need to pretend that the bodies are ultimately used for science.

But that raid, it seemingly never resulted in criminal actions. Instead, there was just a $58 million lawsuit with the facility also then being shut down. And as for Mitchell, well, he got hit with a ton of charges, but none directly related to his business. Instead, he was found guilty on 29 counts of concealing or abandoning a dead body.

What we see in general is authorities needing to use preexisting laws to try and give some justice when body brokers do unethical things. Like when employees at Harvard were siphoning off donated bodies for their own personal gain in 2023. Which to be clear there, Harvard's bodies are explicitly donated for their medical research. So this. Which to be clear there, Harvard's bodies are explicitly donated for their medical research.

So this was a case of employees going rogue after seeing how much money they could make. I mean, parts were sold both privately on Facebook and to vendors like Katz Creepy Creations in Massachusetts, who would then sell the curiosities like silver cufflinks inlaid with human skin and hair to the public. But because all of this took place over multiple states, it was unclear what exactly could be done.

And in the end, federal authorities just charged everyone with transporting stolen goods across state lines. And so while for some, you know, the preexisting laws are enough to cover the situations appropriately, others feel that there need to be more explicit laws that harshly penalize those who misuse corpses, as well as there needing to be new laws in general to reign the industry.

And actually with this, back in 2023, there was a bipartisan effort to pass such a law, but that ended up just fizzling out and it hasn't gone anywhere since. And that's despite there being large industry groups supporting this, like the National Funeral Directors Association, which means as I'm filming this and possibly as you're watching this, there are still just a patchwork of laws about the industry and a general lack of knowledge around the situation. And to be clear with talking about this, I'm not saying that you should not donate your body to science. By all means, it can be an amazing thing. It is really impactful and it's important to do and it helps

researchers a lot. But if you are going to do it, I would definitely recommend directly working with the university as nearly all the big ones have programs for it and they make efforts to treat you and your family with respect outside of niche outlier situations, which is drastically different to the private industry right now, which has almost no oversight and is only held accountable when they super royally what the fuck fuck up. Which is a shame because not every company in this industry seems to be a bad actor either. It's just that there's really no great way to tell.

But that my friends is the end of your Tuesday evening, Wednesday morning dive into the news. And I could already tell that tomorrow is gonna be a big show. So, hey, I love your faces and I'll see you right back here tomorrow.