Top Story with Tom Llamas - Tuesday, November 11, 2025

Episode Date: November 12, 2025

Tonight's Top Story has the latest breaking news, political headlines, news from overseas and the best NBC News reporting from across the country and around the world. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Tonight, the powerful winter blast, snow, ice, and freezing temperatures, sending early winter shockwaves through much of the country. Heavy snow pounding the east coast, cars spinning out of control. This semi-truck ripped apart after being struck by a train. The brutal blast freezing the south, snowflakes in Myrtle Beach and frozen iguanas falling from trees. Also tonight, the new round of flight cuts now in effect, cancellations and delays stacking up at major airports. The concerns over long-term impacts stretching into the Thanksgiving holiday. Plus, House lawmakers racing back to Washington, will they have enough votes to end the shutdown? Dozens of cruise passengers stranded at sea after a catamaran suddenly sinks.

The dramatic rescues all caught on camera. President Trump floating the idea of a 50-year mortgage, but would home buyers really save? We crunch the numbers. Wild video of a massive bridge collapsing just months after it opened, what caused an entire section to crumble. Terrifying moments on the tracks, a train conductor falling asleep as the train picks up speed, screaming riders sent flying. And can he really predict what you're thinking? Mentalist, O'S Pearlman, is in the house for one of the most unbelievable segments in Top Story history. The incredible mind tricks he played on me, you'll want to stick around to see.

Plus, the CEO of GoFundMe joins Top Story to talk about the platform's origin and why he says seen a surge in people using the site to raise money for everyday essentials. Top story starts right now. And good evening. We begin tonight with that early winter blast slamming the country from the Great Lakes all the way to Florida. Many cities getting their first snow of the season. And right now, millions are still under freeze alerts. Heavy snow and howling winds leading to dangerous driving conditions across the U.S. Hundreds of crashes reported. in the last 24 hours. Emergency crews responding to the scene in Indiana, a semi-truck ripped

apart after it was hit by a train, and even beaches down south, not spared from the cold snap, flurries coming down in Myrtle Beach, the earliest ever on record. And in Florida, the low temps causing iguanas to seize up and fall from the trees, the cold weather coming with dangerous winds that grounded flights at busy airports already facing staffing shortages and sweeping cancellations from the government shut down. So is this winter weather here to stay, or is Is it just a hint at what's to come? Emily Akedis, tracking it all. It starts us off tonight.

An early blast of winter barreling east today, dumping up to two inches of snow an hour near Lake Erie and making for dangerous roadway conditions. Car after car skidded off an interstate in Vermont, while state troopers in Indiana reported hundreds of calls for assistance from stranded drivers on Monday alone. A stuck semi-truck was left in pieces after it was hit by a train. Residents in parts of West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York now digging out from eight plus inches of snow paired with powerful wind gusts. The early season wintry weather mixing with fall foliage across the region. New York City saw its first flakes of the season and the cold even extending into the south.

These flurries in Myrtle Beach are the earliest on record. And here's an unusual site, beachgoers bundling up in the sunshine state. It's real cold. my blanket. It hasn't been this cold, this early across southwest Florida in nearly 60 years, where temperatures dropped from the 80s on Sunday into the 30s today. He's just kind of like frozen in time. A sign of weather whiplash, cold stunned iguanas falling from trees. They'll revive once the weather warms up. You actually saw the iguana fall out of the tree? Yeah. It almost looked like a broken branch. And I saw something falling. And then I heard this.

like thump as much of the u.s gets its first taste of winter all right we hope those iguanas wake up emily kenned joins us now live here in top story she's in new york emily we know it's cold out there and those wind gusts tonight making it feel even worse yeah absolutely tom wind gusts topped 40 miles an hour in parts of new york city philadelphia dc further exacerbating those flight delays we've been covering so extensively in several airports there were ground delays at LaGuardia Airport, Dulles Airport, but this cold snap will be short-lived. You'll soon be able to put away the handwormers, the gloves, the hacks, because it is expected that temperatures will approach 60 degrees this weekend here in New York. Tom, talk about

some serious weather whiplash. Yeah, Emily, Aketa for us. Emily, we thank you for that. And on that point that Emily was just talking about, we turned now to the onslaught of delays and cancellations hitting airports across the country. The FAA cutting 6% of flights today as the nation waits for an end to the government shutdown. And tonight the Trump administration warning Thanksgiving travel could be in jeopardy if the House doesn't agree to reopen the government. Here's Tom Costello. Tonight, a warning from the Trump administration.

Airline cancellations could jump this weekend and Thanksgiving travel could be at risk if the House doesn't agree to reopen the government this week. You may find airlines that stop flying. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says aviation risk levels have risen during the shutdown. We've seen incursions on runways, we've seen loss of separation in the airspace, and we've seen heightened complaints by pilots of the communication they're having with air traffic controllers. The FAA ordered airlines to cancel 6% of flights today, more than 1,200 flights, though ATC staffing levels have improved. The 40 busiest airports, the most affected, from New York to Chicago, Atlanta to San Francisco. I am going on hour 11 in San Juan Airport in Puerto Rico.

I will never travel again. If I travel again, it'll be I will drive because I don't trust any airports. The airlines expect to carry 31 million people over Thanksgiving, but tonight they're warning. Airlines reduced flight schedules cannot immediately bounce back to full capacity right after the government reopens. The president threatened to dock the pay for controllers who've not come to work, writing, you didn't step up to help the USA, as fear of another shutdown next year looms. They're going to make different choices of how can I do this career, how long can I last, and that stress and pressure isn't going to be relieved.

So the big question is how quickly might we see full operations resume, normal operations at the nation's airports, if the shutdown ends this week. The answer is that air traffic controllers should get 70% of their back pay within 48 hours, the rest of it within a week, The airlines are saying that they expect normal operations, a normal cadence, would probably take a few days. So hopefully that means by the time we go into late next week, when the Thanksgiving rush begins, they're back in a full stride. Tom? All right.

Congress is in the final stages tonight of ending that shutdown. House members racing back to Washington for a vote after a group of Senate Democrats broke from their party to get the measure to reopen the government passed in the upper chamber. NBC News Chief Capitol Hill correspondent Ryan Noble joins us now from Washington. Ryan, how confident are Republicans that the bill will pass in the House? They're very confident, Tom, but there are no guarantees, and there are a number of complications with getting the necessary 218 votes out of the House in order to get this bill to President Trump's desk, not the least of which is the shutdown itself. It's actually complicating its efforts to end this shutdown with members making the difficult task of trying to avoid some

of the shutdown-related delays at airports across the country to get here to Washington. Republicans feel confident the votes are there. Democrats, however, are whipping their members to vote against this bill. They still believe that it is not the right prescription to end the shutdown. They're still looking for those provisions related to health care to be included in this bill. That's something that Republicans have rejected up until this point. If every single Democrat votes know, Republicans can only lose two votes and have this bill still pass. President Trump was confident today that he expected the bill to pass and has said that he will sign it into law. Tom. Yeah, the speaker was pretty adamant about getting everybody back in 36 hours or so. What does it look like for the House because it's very hard to travel? And we know some representatives are going to extreme conditions to get over here. Yeah, we were looking all across the social media of all these different members today to see the different ways that they were working to make and ensure that they would get here to Washington in time. One member, Derek Van of Wisconsin, who's known for driving his motorcycle right up to the Capitol steps for votes,

decided that he was going to take his motorcycle from Wisconsin, 16 hours all the way back here to Washington to avoid those shutdown delays at airports across the country. It was very cold in Wisconsin, Tom, and it's very cold across the entire northeast as he makes his way here to Washington. But Van Orden, last check was already in Pennsylvania, so he is well on his way. to getting here in time for that vote, which is scheduled to take place here tomorrow night. 16 hours on a motorcycle in the summer sounds tough. I can't imagine now with this winter weather. All right, Ryan, so great to see you there. Now to Money Talks and the controversial idea floated by President Trump. Get this, a 50-year mortgage, 5-0, the president posting about the idea

on Truth Social, comparing himself to FDR, whose new deal helped lay the groundwork for the 30-year mortgage. But is a 50-year mortgage a good idea? Brian Chung has been crunching the numbers on this one for us. He joins us live on Top Story tonight. So, Brian, first of all, walk our viewers through how this would work. Yeah, well, the idea is that you're spreading that payment over a longer period of time, which means that those monthly mortgage payments would be smaller. There are a few things I want to point out here. So some mortgage brokers that I've been talking to all day, Tom, have said that, yeah,

on the margin, this might bring in a few buyers, but a lot of them are not going to see this as attractive because when the median or rather the typical home buying age for a new first-time buyer is at 40 years old, it's hard to imagine someone at 40 years old wanting to take on debt for another 50 years after. And a few quick things I should point out here, it's not clear if the law would even allow the government to guarantee a mortgage like this. There are members within the GOP, like Marjorie Taylor Green, that actually oppose this. And then lastly, there are concerns over the supply side of things. People saying actually the best way to get around home affordability is to just build more houses. Okay.

But if we did do this, and this was an option for buyers, how would the math work compared to a 30-year say? Yeah, if I could do some math for you right now, Tom. Let's take a look at a 50-year mortgage compared to a 30-year mortgage. Again, those monthly payments would be less. because you're spreading it out over a longer period of time, you would save about $260 per month on a median home with a 10% down payment at current interest rates at 6.3%. Again, we're assuming that 6.3% would be the same rate for a 50-year mortgage,

which people I've spoken to have said it would not be the case. It would likely be more expensive. It would be higher than that. But take a look over the duration of the entire loan. If you spread that out, it's going to be 800,000 roughly for a 30-year mortgage over time. But for the 50-year mortgage, take a look at that. $1.2 million. That is a $400,000 difference. If you're someone that's looking to buy a home, are you really going to take the $200 a month savings to spend $400,000 more over

another 20 years? I think that's the reason why there's some skepticism over this type of thing. Okay, Brian Chung, for us, crunching the numbers, Brian, we appreciate that. We're back in a moment with dozens of cruise ship passengers left stranded at sea after their catamaran sank off the coast of the DR. How crews pulled them to safety. Plus, Sean Diddy Combs now in a rehab program while serving his sentence in prison, could it help him get out early? And the massive bridge in China collapsed in just months after opening

will show you the stunning moment it came crashing down ahead on top story. We're back down with a dramatic rescue in the Caribbean, a catamaran carrying dozens of tourists sinking into the water and sparking an emergency rescue operation.

NBC's George Solis has the details. Dramatic video, capturing the tense moments, passengers were left floating in the Caribbean Sea after their catamaran sank. The stranded tourists can be heard shouting, one person appearing to hold a cell phone in the choppy water. And this is the moment rescuers tossed in life preservers attempting to save the passengers. The life preserver. The life preserver is heard as someone is pulled out of the water, this photo capturing

people floating before they were rescued. Authorities say tourists from a German cruise line went on a catamaran contracted by the cruise company. The excursion, just off the coast of the Dominican Republic, took an unexpected turn on Sunday. The vessel named Boca da Yuma collided with an unknown object in the ocean and began taking on water, according to officials. Part of the 40-foot vessel seen here before mostly disappearing into Samana Bay, a tourist hot spot. In a statement to NBC News, the cruise company saying, in part, the rescue of the guests was the top priority and that they'll work with the authorities during the investigation. Everyone on board, around 50 people, including the captain and crew, was saved according to officials. Tonight, the search for answers into this high sea rescue continues.

George, Solis joins us tonight live from Miami. George, it looked like from the video you showed us there, a lot of the passengers were already wearing life preservers, which is always the best practice when you're on some kind of, a boat like that. Exactly right, Tom. And so multiple agencies are still working to investigate what went wrong here. And as you pointed out, every passenger there was wearing that life preserver, which all officials say made it so much easier to rescue all of those people in the water. Still unclear how long they may have been there, but certainly, obviously, with all those boats around in that very popular tourist hotspot, people were able to get rescued. You saw those people asking to throw those life preservers in the water. It's amazing that really everyone

made it safely out of that water after that harrowing. It is. All right, George Solis, we thank you for that. All right, coming up, we got more terrifying video this time out of San Francisco, the driver of a light train appearing to light rail train, I should say, to fall asleep, setting passengers tumbling. Plus, we'll sit down with the CEO of GoFundMe, while he says more people are turning to the platform to buy groceries right now. But first, top stories, top moment, powerful displays all across the country,

honoring those who serve this veteran state. President Trump laying a wreath on the tomb of the unknown at a ceremony at Arlington Cemetery, and one group of men and women making an honor flight to D.C. where they were welcomed by a very special guest. Hello, everybody. As we approach Veterans Day, I wanted to stop by and just say thank you for extraordinary service. To you, your family, the sacrifices that all of you made to protect our country is something that will always be honored.

And we are very grateful, and we also happen to welcome you with the 70-degree day in D.C., which doesn't always happen around us. You know that voice, you know that face, former President Barack Obama giving a warm welcome to veterans of World War II, Korea and Vietnam, before they were cheered by crowds at the airport, and we thank them and their families, all of our veterans for their service. Stay with us. More news on the way. We are back now with Top Stories News Feed. Holmes now in a rehab program in prison, which could reduce a sentence by a year, according to a spokesman. The music mogul is serving 50 months behind bars after being convicted of transporting

people for prostitution. Combs is expected to be released in May of 2028. And the driver of a light rail train in San Francisco appearing to doze off while behind the wheel. It happened during the morning rush in September. Transit officials say the train blew past stops and took a turn at 50 miles per hour. Too fast for that route. You can see passengers getting jolted, some even falling over. The driver then apologize. You listen. I'm sorry, relax, relax, relax. We didn't crash. Relax. Okay, we're told that driver has been taken off the job. A rural county in Kansas agreeing to pay more than $3 million and apologize over a rate on a small town newspaper. You may remember this. This is the surveillance video from that rate in 2023.

the parent company of the Marion County record filed multiple lawsuits after the incident triggered a national debate about press freedom. Prosecutors say the paper committed no crimes and the warrant signed by a judge contained inaccurate information. And terrifying video of a bridge collapsing in southwestern China just months after it opened. You can see a landslide starting on the mountainside sending dust and debris into the air.

And moments later, a portion of the bridge crumbling into the water below. It's part of a national highway linking China's province of 7,000, to Tibet. Luckily, authorities say nobody was hurt. Next night, top stories spotlight. If you've watched our program recently and seen long lines at food banks, our stories about crippling medical debt and wanted to give back, where do you turn? GoFundMe has become synonymous with giving since its founding in 2010. The platform has raised, get this, $40 billion, the site getting more than 100 million views a month, and on average, two donations are made on GoFundMe every second. Their CEO, Tim Kodogan, named one of

times 100 most influential people of 2025. And he joins us here in studio. Tim, thanks so much for being here. You took over GoFundMe in 2020, and people go to GoFundMe for all types of things. What stood out to us is, you're noticing a new trend. People are actually donating to help other people buy groceries. That's right, particularly. Remember, GoFumme is here to help people help each other with whatever's going on in their lives or the lives of people they care about. And recently, with the pause and snap benefits in the U.S., we've seen a significant increase in fundraising, both individuals fundraising to get food into their communities and fundraising for nonprofits that we support. It's actually 6x higher over the last two weeks from the prior two

months. That's incredible. When people go to go fund me and they want to help out someone who needs groceries for their family, how do you know that that person definitely is? is in need, just to be certain. Well, you can do a couple of different things. You can give to a nonprofit. We provide the software for many nonprofits, many of the food kitchens around the country. And you can do that.

Or you can go to the essentials fund that GoFundMe.org, which is our sister 501 is set up, and that sends grants to people. Or you can give to someone you know who is struggling. That's the best way maybe sometimes. That is always the best way. You know if somebody's gone through someone. Absolutely.

It's hard to ask for help, right? And people go out there and sometimes they put themselves up or their families up. What is sort of the guiding principle, would you say, of GoFundMe? Help people help each other. You're exactly right. It's much easier to help. It's hard to ask for help. And very often, it's easier for someone to ask for help on behalf of others.

We have a customer right now, Jeff Nouse, up in New York State. He set up a fundraiser in collaboration with, Eggman's to send gift cards to people who needed food. He thought he'd raise a few thousand dollars. He's raised $216,000 from 2,000 donors. So him opening that door, let all those people who care about the issue step in and make a really big difference for over 1,000 families. This note is interesting for my producers. They said that there are, the overall giving number is up, but the numbers of actual individual donors is down. What does that tell you? What can we draw from that? So if you look in the U.S. overall, they're correct.

small percentage increases in total dollars. But the amount of donors, particularly smaller dollar donors, those are people who give less than $100, they're down 10% year-over-year, sector-wide. So that's one of the things that GoFundMe is very different because GoFundMe is used very heavily by millennials and Gen Z, and is growing quickly. And so we're trying to connect that audience

and bring them into the habit of giving and bring them into the habit of helping. Your site does a lot of good, right? You've changed people's lives. In some ways, you've saved lives. but there is a business there, and you have to raise money, you have to make money. How do you draw the line on how much money you guys decide what percentage you take from every donation? How is that calculated?

Because when you make a donation to GoFundMe, everybody knows this, you can make a certain donation. You're told very plainly some of your money's going to go to GoFundMe. You can add more if you want. It's all very plain. You're not trying to hide anything. But how do you make that calculation? Because that has to be tough. It's actually we asked the donor to make that calculation.

So the model is very simple. We thought a lot about it. We said, okay, we want the most amount of money possible going to the recipient. So the only money that comes out of the donation of the standard transaction processing fees, which is 2.9% plus 30 cents for a personal fundraiser. And that basically goes to the banks. After that, we give people the option when you've donated to tip us, GoFundMe to help us run the company. And you can set that to zero in the slide of your mouse. Very, very simple. different model in that we ask our customers. You decide what you want to pay us. I had the founder of Wikipedia here, I think last week or two weeks ago, and he was like, just explained to me the sort of the genesis of where he had this idea. Where does GoFundMe come from? What is the genesis of GoFundMe? How did it come about?

The genesis of our two founders, Brad and Andy, lived in San Diego and thought, wouldn't it be amazing to create a place where people could help each other. And they were originally thinking honeymoons, weddings, trips. And then they realized as they set it up and people started using it, that they were using it for the whole array of things in life for great things, for tough things, for organizing for non-profits, for causes that they cared about, a huge array of different activities, and it just started taking off, and it's grown from there. Last month, the National Council of Nonprofits raised some concerns about what they called unauthorized, unauthorized, I should say, fundraising pages on GoFundMe, detailing over a million pages for organizations.

They say were created without their knowledge or consent. GoFundMe has since apologized and have changed, the pages to be opt in. What happened here? And what exactly was it thinking? Because on one hand, you could say, listen, we just tried to help all these non-profits out of the goodness of our heart. Some critics may say, yeah, but you're also going to make a percentage of money off them. Yeah, sure. So just to back up, we have two sides of our business. We have the personal fundraising, which most people are familiar with, and we have a business called GoFundi Pro, which pride software and tools to non-profits around the country. Medicine, So Frontier, World Central Kitchen, Salvation Army, $5,000.

You guys know how to raise money. You offer the service, right? We offer the service. So one of the things that we touch on it is we have a declining participation in philanthropy in America, but we have a very active audience on GoFundMe. We have over 100 million people a month coming to GoFundMe, and many of them are those demographic that people want to attract. The average age of a donor in the U.S. is 63. And yet we have huge numbers of Gen Z and millennials. So we build a series of products to try and connect that audience to non-profits. We probably went a little too fast in that area, and we made sure we had It's one of the many products we offer, and we hope to do more and better for the non-profits we serve. Tim, I mentioned when we introduced you, you took over in 2020. As a CEO, why did you take the job? Because I got to think every day, you ought to look at this two ways, right? There's all these problems in the world that are coming to us, all this sort of very sadness, misery, tragedies. Or you're looking at it like, we're going to help all these people. But I got to think that's tough to swallow every single day. Well, I actually had the inspiration because I became a search and rescue volunteer a decade before. Okay.

On the front lines. Yes, I'm actually getting out there in the mountains in the dirt and helping people. Volunteering. Volunteering. Okay. And it just occurred to me, wouldn't it be great to have a job where I could actually help people and use my ability running companies and technology and so on? So I took that on, and the underlying thought is very simple, which, yes, there are difficult things that happen in the world to all of us. Right.

But you can help. We can all help in little ways and big ways. And every act of help makes a difference. And that is what is behind GoFundMe, helping people help each other, doing it a large scale, doing it in 20 countries. Is it rewarding or is it incredibly stressful? It's incredibly rewarding. When I get to meet our customers, the stories they tell me about what they were able to do and what their community is supporting them meant for them and how it's changed there, their children's or their relatives' lives, is like nothing I've ever seen. Tim Kodogan. Great conversation. Great to meet you. Thank you for all you're doing and helping all those people.

We appreciate you. Talk to us here on Top Story. Thank you so much for having us. All right. Still ahead on Top Story, tensions rising over those U.S. strikes on alleged Venezuelan drug smuggling boats. The USS Ford now in Latin American waters and our Richard Engel is on the ground in the region. That's next. We're back now with the major military show of force in South America. The USS Ford, the world's largest and most advanced aircraft carries. arriving in the region in an escalation of tensions with Venezuela. Our Richard Engel is on the ground in neighboring Colombia, speaking to fishermen now afraid to go out to sea amid relentless U.S. strikes and alleged drugboats.

The Pentagon today announced the U.S. Gerald Ford arrived in the Latin American region, part of President Trump's war on drug cartels. The Ford is the biggest aircraft carrier in the American fleet and has accompanying warships, Manying warships, far more firepower than needed to sink a few alleged drug smuggling boats. The target could be Venezuela. President Trump calls its authoritarian president Nicolas Maduro a narco-terrorist.

Neighboring Colombia is also on edge. Colombia is a drug den. It's a drug den and it has been for a long time. I met the chief of Colombia's elite counter-narcotics division. He was emphatic. His troops fight drug smugglers. What do you think when people in the United States, critics say that Colombia, your forces, aren't doing anything.

Every day we continue to carry out intelligence, land, and air operations to combat this scourge of drug trafficking, he said. The U.S. military strikes on boats, allegedly carrying drugs heading for the United States, is having a chilling effect on fishermen here in Colombia. Normally, these boats go far out to sea to find their catch. Now, fishermen tell us they're too afraid, worried that if they go far from the shore, they could be hit by a U.S. drunk. These fishermen only brought in a meager haul after six hours at sea.

Richard joins Top Story tonight from Bogota. So, Richard, we have the USS Ford there pulling up across the coast of Venezuela. Has this been big news in Colombia and in the region? Are they talking about this aircraft carrier now sitting there in the Caribbean? Absolutely. They are talking about almost nothing else. Not just this particular aircraft carrier, but the entire armada that has arrived in Latin America. We're talking about thousands of troops, thousands of sailors, dozens of aircraft, dozens of drones, a submarine, far more than you would need to just sink some boats. So the question on everyone's mind here is, what's the end game? Is this regime change? Does the U.S. and intend to invade Venezuela? Is this just to try and convince Maduro's inner circle to give up on him and send him into exile, potentially to Russia?

I would say the number one conversation at dinner tables here in Colombia and in many parts of this region is why are all of these forces here? How long are they going to stay in the region and what is their ultimate objective? Richard, those fishermen, they're clearly scared. They said they don't want to go too far out to fish. What is their sense? I mean, have they seen drones in the air? Do they believe these are drug-running boats?

Do they think other boats are being targeted? I mean, what's being said, if you will, in the streets of Colombia? So even the fishermen that we spoke to, they're not naive. They know that there is drug smuggling here and that they know that narcos do leave from beaches like the one where I was standing and go and bring their narcotics. to the United States or drop them off in the middle of the ocean with detectors so that they can be collected by other boats. But the fishermen that I was talking to, they showed me their boats. It had a 25 horsepower engine on it.

And it was a little barely seaworthy craft. You're not going to get very far with a 25 horsepower engine. And they're worried that small-time fishermen like them are going to be hit accidentally, that they're going to be, targeted and become collateral damage. So there is this chilling effect on people who know that they're not involved, even though they admit, yes, sure, this does happen, but not on the people who are using just tiny craft like this to catch some fish. And they also told me that it's particularly upsetting right now because they're only able to get very small fish, sardines and other small fish that really don't catch much of a

a price in the market, but right now is the tuna season. And tuna are very expensive here in Colombia and all around the world, but they're not able to go out far enough to get them. So this policy is making the lives of some of the most poor people in this country that much more difficult. Richard Engel for us from Colombia tonight. Richard, we thank you. All right, and when we come back, we're going to switch gears here. Ose the Mentalist joins top story. He'll show us a few tricks that you won't want to miss in one of the most incredible top story segments we've ever had. And we'll talk to him about this new book that he has on mastering the power of your own mind. That's all next. Coming up.

Finally tonight, a little magic of the mind. If you've been on the internet recently, you've likely seen our next guest. O's Perlman, better known as Ose the Mentalist, has gone viral countless times for his TV appearances, correct. predicting things like names and numbers people have in their heads. And even when things don't go initially right, like this moment on CNBC Squawk Box, late last year, in the end, it's all part of the show. Take a look. Close your eyes.

Close your eyes. First name is Mark. Is that correct? Yeah. Joe, do me a favor. Tell us all which company open it up. Meta, Zuckerberg. Is that right?

No. What do you mean? That's not the one I got. Which company is it? Who's a person? He's going to get it. Mark Klaus? Mark Klaus?

Campbell's Soup. Campbell's soup? I'll go with Campbell's Soup. Holy! I can't even say this is not fair! It looks like magic, but Ose says he's not a mind reader. According to him, he just reads people.

In a new book, O'S says, teaches his readers how to apply the principles of mentalism to their everyday lives, at home and at work, to read people more effectively and achieve success. And Ose Perlman joins us now here in studio. O's, it is such a pleasure to talk to you. Thanks for having me, Tom. I saw that clip, and since then, I've wanted to talk to you because I just, I couldn't believe it. I knew would happen. It's incredible. For our viewers at home, what is a mentalist? So a mentalist is not a mind reader or a psychic or supernatural. I want to get that out of the way right now. Everything I do is a learnable skill

that I've spent about three decades perfecting. It's kind of like a magician because I use some of the same tactics as a magician, but minus the sleight of hand. So I'm not having you pick a card, any card and finding it. I'm seeing how you would think about potentially

choosing a card in your mind, influencing you and guiding you a certain way. It's in the school of magic then. It's 100% the school of magic, but it goes further than magic. And your roots where you really developed your skills, if you will, we're at a young age. It's kind of interesting, right?

A lot of people, including I started doing news at the age of 15. You started to think around 13, right? Exactly right. And you were working in restaurants? I was. That was my hustle. So I started this at age 13. I was barely tall enough to make it to the bar.

And I was at 14. I somehow sweet talked my way to a restaurant gig. And I'd go do close-up magic table-to-table. And that was the school of Hard Knocks for me to learn how to win people over, how to figure out what's going on in their head when they meet me, how to overcome fear of rejection, how to kind of get my confidence boosted, all the skills that have helped me throughout the course of my life and career were all learned at that young age just by iterating over and over

and learning what people think. In the book you say it's not a supernatural ability, right? It isn't. Can anyone do what you do? I 100% think that anyone can do what I do, but the ceiling might differ for different people. The same way if you start playing piano, will you make it to Carnegie Hall one day? I won't, I don't know if you will, but no matter how much practice you put in, you might not make it, right? There's an innate skill, God-given gift, whatever you want to call it.

to get better beyond a certain point. What do you think the difference is between someone like yourself and someone like David Blaine or David Copperfield, something like that? So between the two of those who are huge, you know, inspirations to me, very clear cut. My whole ethos is one of knowing how people think, and by knowing how people think, I determine what they think. My show is not magic. It is mentalism.

It is the illusion of me reading your mind. Yeah. What do you think about magicians that reveal their tricks? There's nothing you can do about it. Honestly, I think what it demands, is innovation. So that if people reveal it, there's something to be said for the fact that people want wonder and that it doesn't matter what gets revealed at a certain point in time. You just want to enjoy yourself. So I think there's been revelations. There's a mass magician for years. It's in one

year out, the other people want to feel wild. They want to feel like kids again. And it requires you to keep innovating. In your performances and your interviews, you keep things very positive. I do want to ask you, a lot of people out there pay a lot of money to psychics, people that say they can look into the future. Have you ever seen anyone that you could not understand? what they were doing? In essence, have you ever seen anyone that you didn't think it was a trick? So I can't say a sweeping statement because I think it would be just, it would be arrogant. Right.

Some of you have shared me with the experiences of psychics that they can't explain and that I can't explain based on the way they describe it. Right. But in the same vein of what I do, which is I not only know how to know what you're thinking, I know how to change your thoughts in a certain way. I know how to highlight certain memories and make others be forgotten. A good psychic does the exact same thing. So when you see psychics, when you see psychics, you see your own stuff there. When I see most psychics, I see people doing what I do worse than I do it.

So if I had a different moral compass, I would be an extremely great psychic. Because the same thing I do is what they do. I reveal secret information that you couldn't possibly know. And I do it based on means that are worldly. I'm not talking to dead people. I'm reading you. A good psychic watches you. And when they say the right thing on the right name, they see your body tense in a certain way.

they go, oh, I got a hit. Let's keep going down that path. It's just like fly fishing. And it's just like reps, too, right? The more you do, the better you get at. Ten years ago, I cringe when I see my appearances. Really? Yeah, because I've gotten so much better. It's just because hundreds and hundreds and thousands of shows have allowed me to improve my techniques and skills. You talked about it a little bit, but talk about it more now because it's in your book. Some of the tips that you give people, and you give people, you give people example of when it

comes to dieting sometimes. So the book is all about secrets to success. I am not teaching you to be a mentalist. my book and you want to learn these tricks, get a different book. That's not useful for you. I want to teach you the skills surrounding how to read people more effectively, like you said. So many people, their fear of rejection is what keeps them down in life. It's the fear of rejection and failure that doesn't allow you to go after your dream. I worked on Wall Street out of college. Everyone thought I was crazy when I quit my job. I had a high-paying job. They're like, you're nuts, man. You're going to be a what? A mentalist? You think my mom said great job? She's like,

you're crazy. So what did I do? Step A, step B, that allowed me to get to where I'm today. And how do you learn how to fast track your success? That's what it is. Knowing how to influence people and win them over in a deeper way. I'm going to give you a great example. You talked about dieting. Dieting is achieving a goal where for me, I realized that I need to trick my own brain.

When I was, I run marathons and ultra-marathons. That's kind of the side hustle. And I need to lose weight. Get a little fit, drop a few pounds. The second night I'm doing it, I'm like, oh my God, I want a burrito right now. I want to have some dessert and chocolate. So I know that if I argue with myself, I'm going to win. My brain's going to say, screw it.

I'm breaking down. I want to eat this now. So instead, I would set an alarm for 10 minutes from now and never say no to yourself. No doesn't work. I would say, I'm going to eat anything I want in 10 minutes. But first, I'm going to have a huge glass of water, and I'm going to eat a banana or something healthy that's got a lot of fiber or an apple. I'm going to force myself to eat that. When the alarm goes off in 10 minutes, if I still want that cake, that burrito, that chocolate, I'm going to have it.

Screw you, the person is guiding. the good angel. And 10 minutes later, you know what happened? I didn't want it. Yeah. Because so much of what it is is your brain tricking you. If you can rewire your brain, use the tricks and skills of a mentalist on yourself, you can achieve success? So let me ask you, do you use this with, say, your doctor, when you're like, you know, doctor, can I see you in a couple, can I see you in two weeks? He's like, I got no appointments. Can you tell that he's lying to you? So I'll tell you where it's very useful. One, I have five children. Okay. Very useful with your kids. Right. And I want you know for parenting, knowing what they're thinking and knowing when

lying to you is a superpower in life. So even if you're a parent or you want to enhance your relationships, I think there are skills associated with mentalism that you can apply to your life. Another one is negotiation, which everybody knows. You don't need to be a mentalist to know that negotiating is lying, Tom. Somebody's lying to you. You go, I won't take a dollar or less. Yeah, you will. Yeah, you will. So if we can find out what is their bottom number? What is their body language telling you? What are all of their indicators of interest and how they react to you? How long does it take them to respond? And what about breaking someone? someone's poker face because obviously great negotiators have good poker faces.

So poker face is a funny one because anyone watching this should say right away, this guy's full of crap. Why doesn't you just go win millions of dollars at poker? Because it's not a superpower. I'm not psychic. My skills don't generalize to everything in life. When I'm performing, I get to call the shots. So if I would ask you right now, imagine a card in your hand.

I would guide you through a series of procedures to try to deduce what you have. I don't just know it. I have to figure it out. I'm telling you the truth. So in a poker table, I can't say to the person next to me if she's got cards, look at me, think Ace, think this. She'll be like, I'm not listening to you, buddy, stop. So I need to control a series of procedures that occurs for me to get the information.

Have you read somebody and they were so afraid or they were so in shock that you had to sort of calm them down? I have had people cry during performances. I have had people run out of the room famously, watch my NFL clips. That happens at pretty much every team. But I think some people, again, if you hit a certain emotional point, a trigger point, if they think if someone's passed away

or someone they haven't talked to in ages, or if you get to a memory that they believe no one could possibly know, then yes, that can set. And that's happened with you. That happens every day. That's my life. And that's just reading people. That's not reading their mind. That's just using the tips you have. So it's using a series of skills.

I don't want to lie to you and tell you, oh, it's not all his body language. If you could just body language and know somebody's ATM pincode, you know, that didn't work as well with Joe Rogan. Right, right, right. Pretty flustered, but it's using a series of skills added together. Just like a chef has sauces, has salt, has

pepper, has garlic. I have all different methods to not just get into what you're thinking, but honestly, the other part is to guide you to where I want you to go. Did you have someone like a mentor? Did people help you along the way, or is this a very singular sort of career? It's a little bit of both, but there's literally a chapter in my book that's all about how to find

mentors. Because if you want to fast track your success, the best way is find someone who's where you want to be in one year, three years, five, years a decade. I agree. I tell people that all the time. And how do you get your mentor to share with you that knowledge? Everyone's so busy, right? You want to create not just a take relationship, but a give and take. You want to learn how to give, give, give, give, so that at the moment you need to take, they want to give you that. You want to create those relationships. And that's all about deeper bonds. And not just networking to get something from someone, but know what's going

on in their head. What do they want that you can give? It might be time. It might be doing something they hate right go shovel their driveway yeah find a way all right um great great tips again check out the book and it's it's incredible um i do want to ask you do you think you can read my mind so i i told you i can't read minds even though it's in the book but what i like you know what i like spontaneity okay i like when something impulsive happens how many people do you think you've interviewed in your life round just probably probably a thousand thousands i don't sure yeah yeah and during every interview i'm sure you have a series of things you do one of them is to be polite, you silence your phone.

Yeah. So I want, this is why I say in this moment, imagine this scenario is that your phone was not on silent. Okay. And suddenly it rings and you're mortified. And you go, oh, my God, oh my God. And you're trying to turn it off and you grab it out. Imagine your pantomime.

Don't actually grab real. It's in your pocket. You grab it out and you're about to silence it and you look down. And right when you do, you see on the screen and name of someone calling you, you silence it, you put it away. Yeah. In that moment, when you look down,

your brain just filled in a blank. Because I led you. I said, you look down, you're surprised. who called you, you see that person, your body language, I could tell you. It should be 50-50, but it's 100% you thought of a guy. Is that correct? Yeah. See, I could tell you're, if it was a female, there would have been a different reaction.

Now you're wondering, what would that have been? Yeah. When was the last time you've spoken to this person? Give me a sense, days, weeks, months? Maybe weeks. Weeks. Yeah. Think of their name.

Okay. Not just who they are to you. Yeah. See, if it would have been family, think of who they are to you. I think it's a friend. say anything more. Think if the name is short, medium-sized, or long. Now, right away, just you saying okay that quickly, you don't realize, you gave a lot away. I'm serious. No, I see. I see. I understand. If the name was an in-between,

like if the name is six or seven letters, you go, is that medium? Is that long? You hesitate. You knew instantly whether it was short, medium, or long. There's only one way that happens. If it's really long, it's really short. Right. And you said okay too quick. The name is short. Yeah. Think in your head, three, four. It's three letters, isn't it? it is oh my gosh you're a journalist you're on nightly news you need to know I didn't tell you

who to think of in this moment right this was entirely your choice yeah this is utterly random think of all three letters of his name okay close your eyes okay I ask you to picture your phone going off it calls you have no idea who calls you literally look at it

in your mind you imagine this person's name there is no way in the world I could know this could I there's no way you could know keep your eyes close i want the viewer at home to see it so i can't change my mind open your eyes tell us who did you picture calling you at this very moment say it or just first name first name tim tim oh my god oh man that is crazy i should i should have thought of a more complicated name that is that is crazy okay you know what you get a mulligan you get a mulligan you told me that you've literally thought that the number is over a thousand you're in the four digits of how many people you've interviewed, is that right?

I always like this question for someone who interviews for a living. I disappear from here, and you get to interview anyone that's ever lived, dead or alive, past or present. Think of the number one person you'd love to interview. Can you see it in your mind? Yeah. Bam, you just thought of this person. Right when we shake hands, imagine I could turn into that person.

You ready? Yeah. Pull at your hand, and right at this last moment, right now, you ready? Yeah. You change your mind. This makes it spontaneous. Don't go with that first person. Change your mind. Next person, Bob Marley is who you just thought of. You just change your mind, isn't it? Oh my. Oh my. Oh my. I just I can't. I'm trying to think of I've ever said that anywhere.

That is that is crazy. I cannot believe you. I can I don't know what to say. This is crazy. You are you are starting to scare me. That is that is crazy. gold standard he changed his mind at the last moment that's crazy the second choice it's crazy and that wasn't an easy one I just I and about I'm racking my brain that I ever say that in an interview somewhere but you'd have to probably go you probably didn't have time to go through all that that's why he's gonna go through his whole life right I'm gonna go to you tell me who I would interview you know how about this I keep asking the questions the phone rings

who is the person who would you like to you know you get to ask me a question okay You get to ask me a question, a question about yourself that, no matter what, no matter what online presence, no matter how much I research you, or how much anything, swear to God above, there is no way I could know what question you're about to say to me. There is no way you would get this answer. Now, when we go right now online, people always say the same thing. Well, you set this up. Did he write this down somewhere? Did he write the question now?

Did he enter the question in his phone? Do you whisper it to somebody? Zero, zero. This question right now that you're about to ask. is only a thought in your mind. Is that correct? Yeah, truly. Ask me the question. What's the question? I just want to be really clear with our viewers. There's no way that he would know this. There's probably a few people on the planet that would know this. I know you haven't spoken to them.

Let's go. I just can't believe that you would know this. If you ask me the question, could I guess it just from what the question is? Maybe, but it's going to be very hard. But if you say to me, what age was I, when I got my driver's license, I go 16? It's not like that. It's not like that. It's incredibly complicated. Great. Ask me the question. When I played Little League.

Yep. What was the name of my first team? Okay. And again, this is such a weird... I just... If he gets this, I don't know what to do. Okay. Let's break it down because this is impossible.

You've established... There's no set up. There's no way I could notice. I couldn't have known what you were about to say. Yeah. No way. Yeah. There's no way.

Imagine that I hand you a pad of paper and I ask you to write down the name of that little league team. Yeah. How many words? Tell us how many words it is? Three words. Three words. One word, two words, three words. In your mind, focus on one of the three words that to you feels the most interesting. Do you have one of the words in the thinking? Don't tell me. You look down. Your eyes went to the bottom. They jumped back up to the second word. You completely excluded the first word. It was very telling. That's crazy that you even picked up on that. You're 100% right. Yeah, yeah. So you go out of the third word. Is that what you went with? I went with the second one. Okay, so you changed one to another, but the first word seems innocuous, which tells me that maybe it's a quality. I don't know what it is.

If you're thinking of this word, pick any letter in that word. So I don't know if the second word, just look at the word and imagine again, you see all the letters, whether it's short or long. And I want you just in your mind to reach over and just grab a letter and just focus on that letter. Maybe something interesting too. Do you have a letter? Yeah. Of the second word, right? Any word you want.

If that's the one you're focused on, I'm fine with it. If you want to change right now, to show. You're the name up here. All right. I look to see, you didn't do the first letter, did you? Yeah. You did? That's so funny you did that.

Someone cuts you off on the highway, Tom. I'm not saying you would do it. You seem very friendly, not a lot of rage. But under your breath, it's called a sub vocalization. The kids are in the back. You don't say a swear, but you go, you, right? Do you see me do that? I saw you do that.

You knew what I was going to say. Yeah. This is squeaked. F, F, were you thinking of letter F? You were, right? Oh, man. It could have been a V. I'm telling you right now, if you get this,

I'm going to go straight to St. Patrick's and Parade. If you get this, this is crazy. It's almost Christmas. I'm putting this down. I cannot believe there's no way. Should I? So people always think that if I write it, I write it later, I do something. So close your eyes. Yeah.

Take out your little earbud that talks to you from the control room. So nobody says you could be hearing a thing. Okay. Cover your eyes with your hand, please. Okay. And I want everyone at home to see what I just wrote down that he challenged me on the spot, on a question. Open your eyes.

Open them? Please. Little League, right? Eight years old. I wouldn't say you peaked, but you were very good that year. what was the nickname you had for that little league team tell us? The nickname? Whatever you called it.

I don't know if this is the real name. The name of the team? Yeah. Geez, I think it was like the nickname. No, no, no, no. What did you say was the three words? Oh, yeah, the name of the team. Yeah, yeah.

So want me to say it? Sure. Okay, it was named after a restaurant in Miami at the time of the 80s. It was called the French Connection. It was called the French Connection. Oh, my gosh. Call St. Patrick's. I am going, oh, my gosh.

I don't, that's, I do not know how you got that. That is impossible. And I've got three words for you. Buy the book. There we go. Wow. O's Perlman. You just blew me away.

I don't know what to think. Thank you so much. Thanks for a time. Incredible. I'm stunned. I'm actually out of words. I have a prompter here, but I'm out of words. Thank you. Thank you for watching Top Store. I need a moment to myself for a little bit, some silence. I'm Tom Yammis, New York. Stay right there. More news on the way.