Will Cain Country - WNBA Trans Controversy: Is It Saving or Ruining the League? (ft. Danny Polishchuk)

Episode Date: August 10, 2026

Is Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-NY) Millennial messaging strategy the mark of a media savant, or just plan out of touch? Is Woke 2.0 going to be even worse than 1.0? Comedian Danny Polishchuk joins the show to help Will and Tinfoil Pat break down the Democratic Socialists of America’s insidious marketing strategy, and the radical young women that are making it all possible.Plus, they break down Howard Stern’s bizarre rules for his employees, whether the Right has embraced "Cancel Culture," and if the WNBA’s race and gender controversies would truly benefit the sport.Subscribe to ‘Will Cain Country’ on YouTube here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Watch Will Cain Country!⁠⁠⁠Follow ‘Will Cain Country’ on X (⁠⁠⁠@willcainshow⁠⁠⁠), Instagram (⁠⁠⁠@willcainshow⁠⁠⁠), TikTok (⁠⁠⁠@willcainshow⁠⁠⁠), and Facebook (⁠⁠⁠@WillCainNews)Follow Will on X: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@WillCain Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Trans debates. Is it possible to... all be good for the WNBA. Plus, woke 1.0. Hoo! That was crazy. Says AOC. With comedian Danny Pulisher on Wilcane Country.

It is Will Kane Country. Streaming live at the Wilcane Country YouTube channel, the Wilcane Facebook page here at your leisure on your demand by simply hitting follow at Spotify or on Apple. A new week, new cruise. tinfoil pat Justin filling in for two a day stand but joined today to hang out is the co-host of the boys cast and the host of low-value male in the bathhouse comedian Danny Palshick what's up Danny hey hey how you're doing good good to have you on the show good to have Justin hanging in here today for two a day

stand who's having a much deserved week off much deserved criticism Danny for Woke 1.0 coming from surprising source. It's coming from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, making her rounds on the Sunday show circuit. Here she is on ABC. Being asked about Abdul-Sayed, the Democratic Socialist of America, the policies of defunding the police and defunding and doing away with prisons. And some of the positions she's held on the past when she's asked about woke, She says, whoa, that's crazy. Standing is that Francesca Hong has made clear her present stances to her electorate.

Yeah, she's moved away from it. Right, she's moved away from it. And I have a local city councilman that has this saying woke one was crazy. Loque one was crazy. Okay, that's true. And I think that what's important is... Woke 1.0. That was crazy.

laughs. Yeah, I don't feel like for some reason Woke 2.0 is going to be less crazy. Usually it's goes in the crazier direction, is my assumption. I think we're getting played here. I don't think you,

I don't think you get to just laugh it off either. I mean, if you're one of the principles behind the ideas of Woke 1.0, I'm not sure you get to, who, man, we really lost our minds there for a little bit, didn't we? Yeah. We got it back together. I have a while time, huh? Yeah.

Like, like, why don't we put some, why don't we flesh that out a little bit? Like, okay, which, which ideas did you personally push that you look back on and go, man, that was dumb? What was I thinking? Defund the police? Like, let's go ahead and walk through it. Which ones do you now disavow? Yeah, I mean, they're acting. She's kind of acting like how you, like, dressed crazy in high school and you're like yeah that was just a phase you're like i just i'm not buying it that they're just going to be totally normal like their their party is going so far to the left and then now we're also led to believe you're like oh no no no that stuff that was that was the the craziest of got i'm like not buying it yeah i hear you not buying about where they're headed in the future

like they haven't come back to their senses but the other thing i would want to know is this okay if if sincere, which you're questioning the sincerity, which I think is a totally legitimate point of view. Let me now just take her out of word and presume for a moment that she's being sincere. Okay, I do want to walk through it. I want to know what you now think was crazy. But more importantly, I want to know how you got to be crazy. So I want to know, like, you're a leader and you're an elected representative. By default, that makes you a leader.

But you're also a leader within the movement and within the party. And so anybody in a leader position, we need to be able to explain. on one of two fronts. One, are you a coward? Are you totally given to fear? Are you totally at the whim of the mob? Like if everybody runs in one direction is the leader's job to run in the exact same direction.

So if everybody lost their minds, so too did you, and that's cool, you're a leader, and wow, it was just a crazy time. Yeah, I mean, it sounds just like politics, you know, just saying literally whatever you think is the right, thing to say at the exact moment, which is kind of goes with what you're saying, where it's like,

yeah, it's like they've just, they have no principles or not many. And they probably know that, you know, a lot of the stuff that they currently believe is a little unpalatable. So she's just trying to be like, again, I can't imagine, imagine Trump was like, you know what, that MAGA stuff was kind of crazy, MAGA of 1.0. We're just kind of, people would be like, what are you talking about? So, Will, last week we found out that you used to have an evening. hearing when you were in high school. So you renounce that? Because that was your era.

I renounce. I do. Renounce me, hearing. I also had an earring for three days. Earing 1.0 was, who crazy. So what did you,

what did you do later on? Did you, you just embrace cowboy boots? So maybe she's going to, maybe woke 2.0 is going to be traditional marriage. Can be trad wife. It's going to be, uh,

you know, the complete opposite. at the antithesis of everything. I don't even want to know what point you know what it looks like. But your veiled shot at me and your analogy to my teenage years, I think is actually spot on because it's conducting politics as though a teenage fad, as though you just went through a phase. And that is kind of the vibe that AOC gives anyway.

It's a little bit like she does this combination. And I want to tell you something, I do think it works. She does this combination of like super trendy, you know, popular girl combined with serious philosophical intellect of the left. She mixes these two things in a very effective manner. She's got her finger on the pulse of the memes and the trends and the use of the Internet, and then she'll sit there and put herself forward as the philosophical backbone of the new left. And I do think she is. By the way, I do think she's both of those things.

I think she has got her finger on the pulse of the trend in the high school of politics. Look, here's AOC. She just did this this weekend talking about she's 37 years old. She's been engaged for four and a half years. She's not yet married and she doesn't have kids. And here she is posting a video about, not just about, but taking the shot of free her eggs. Watch. Don't be weird about this.

Even though I know all of you will be. Okay. That wasn't so bad. That's her taking. I don't know what kind of shot is needed to freeze your eggs. I actually don't know anything about that medical procedure. What she is, she's doing. But she's doing it for the world.

And Danny, I heard somebody say to me, this is going to play really well with a lot of the ladies out there. With the cost of IVF, like, I mean, even Trump, I believe before the election, last election was saying, we're going to make IVF free. I don't think he's followed through on that. But there's a lot of people right now who, you know, kind of waited a little too long and they're like, you know, what, I want to leave the option open. And they see the price tag. Like, this stuff could be $50,000. Like, it is a lot of money with, you know, personally with the birth rate stuff in this.

country, I do think it is a good idea to somehow try and make it a little more affordable just to promote just population increasing just on that basis. But yeah, this is going to play incredibly well. But not just the issue like her sharing that. Like that, I don't, I, I, I, I'm, I'm old, I guess. Is it old to have a sense of privacy? Like there's just some things, as much as I value, and I do, I value, like, being real and authentic with the audience and being 100% who you are. I don't, I don't value that.

You know what I mean? She's a politician. She's almost like an influencer. So she does the kind of stuff that an influencer would do. And again, she's like, she's the influencer like to the max because she, you know, I like, I was talking about this on my show. maybe a month ago when, you know, the first kind of DSA stuff, these people started picking up wins. I'm like, it wouldn't be crazy to me if she's the candidate for the Democrats in 2028. Like, and I think her odds have doubled since that time.

I think she was, she was well behind Newsom, and now I believe she's above him to be the candidate. So you can see how this is trending. She's over 35. Well, I recognize the talent. She would be a geriatric. I, like, so. This is true, Patrick. Yes.

That would be a geriatric. not a not what is it geriatric diabetes gestational diabetes geriatric president for yes yes yes geriatric pregnancy and oh my god imagine how that'll play if she's the president and she's pregnant oh they're going to eat that up yeah they will man i'm going to tell you something i'm getting she's got it she's got i'm telling you there is something really um appealing about her and it's not just that you know whatever she's She's pretty cute or everybody throws around these words like mom, Donnie is hot and who's in the last one's saying about?

You're the first person I'm going to say that, but yeah, nobody ever talked to. I'm not, I'm not. I did this last week. I can't tell him people come on here and be like, well, he's a good looking guy. He's got the ribs, for sure. But she's got that. But she's got that. She has it.

She's got it all, but other than good idea. Yes, and so I can recognize that talent, and that's what I'm saying. I can recognize whatever that talent is. Back to the authenticity point, though, I don't know what it is that turns me off about it. Again, as someone who I believe, and it might be my primary prism through which I view humans. Like, my wife always says that, you know, everybody's got their filter through which we kind of categorize people. And mine's sort of like, you know, real fake, insecure, covering up something, being confident, you know, authentic. I guess I just feel it's I don't I have trouble assigning authenticity to here let me set up my phone and hit record before I do this thing it just doesn't feel authentic I don't know if that's age or not well I think this is just a new era of politics right like you saw they were talking about Syed in Michigan and you know like his his opponents spent 60 million dollars and the previous game.

playbook was you just you know if you have more money to buy ads like you kind of win and he's just like no i go on the internet like there's way more eyeballs on the internet and it's obviously a different audience an older or younger sorry audience and it's just this is a different play i mean it's not way different than you know setting up a press conference and giving prepared remarks if anything it's maybe a little more authentic or at least it's viewed that way let's take quick break but continue this on this Monday with comedian Danny Polishwick here on Will Kane Country. A career opportunity is waiting at PTW Energy Services. On August 18, meet the team at a hiring event for welders and fitters from 1 to 5 p.m.

Explore the next step, make a strong start, and connect with real openings in the field. Join us on this day. Welcome back to Will Kane Country. We're still hanging out with comedian and host of the boys' cast, Danny Polishit. I can't imagine any political consultant in the past would have been like, yeah, pull up your midriff, explain. Bose your belly. Put the shot in. The midrack.

Hey, let's not start hitting on midrits. Okay. I said it's one of two things. I said number one, is it that you are not a leader, that you're a limbing, and you simply run to the front of the limbing herd, no matter where the lemming herd is headed, and you can't look back of that. Maybe you can look back on that and say, whoa, that was crazy. But you don't get to then proclaim yourself a leader.

But she goes on in that interview, then she invokes something called the Overton window. And she says there's value in those conversations and those policies were pushed during that period because of the Overton window. And I said this to my show stuff. I said, don't take for granted that everybody knows what the Overton window is. But the idea is that by essentially when the moment presents itself, if you can push extreme ideas, you move the center acceptable range of ideas in the direction of your extreme ideas. So it may not be that your extreme idea. It's not unlike Patrick, do you think it's very similar? Have you heard of the Mott and Bailey rhetorical tactic?

Yeah. Mott and Bailey. Overton Window and Mott and Bailey are somewhat connected. The Mott and Bailey is like picture of, what is it? A castle would be, is that the Mott or the Bailey? It's an old school, so it's an old school castle. So the big part of the castle that you're familiar with, the part that like you see in Disney, That would be the... Acceptable idea.

That's the acceptable idea. Right, that's the acceptable idea. And then the Mott is the part that's lower where the villagers live. And that's where you like branch it out. That's your extreme ideas, your crazy ideas. And those are the ones on which the battlegrounds you fight are. You fight over the crazy ideas,

even though you're not really sincerely wedded to the crazy ideas, but you move the battle away. from the castle, which becomes more acceptable over time. And so same thing with the Overton window, which AOC invokes. And so the question is, are you doing this stuff? Because what you're doing is pulling the Overton window or the acceptable idea more over into the mainstream. In which case, we need, you know, somewhat history would back her up because here we are today and the DSA is ascendant. We're having serious political debates with serious political candidates who are pushing what were the extreme ideas of woke 1.0.

Yeah. I mean, I just want to know what they're new. I really want to know what woke 2.0 is supposed to look like if woke 1.0 was what it was. I can't imagine that's great. But, I mean, she's a scaled politician. I think she knows what she's doing. I mean, look, when you think about the Democratic Party, you think about these childless cat ladies, right?

What's more appealing to them than, you know, hey, there's actually, you didn't blow your shot at having kids. Like, at least the option is open. Or look, I'm doing it. You can do it. Maybe I'll make it free. In between her, Taylor Swift, right? Like, I think if Taylor Swift has a kid in the next year or so, I mean, they're going to really just blow this whole thing open for women their age. Well, it's working.

Here we have the latest polling from National Public Opinion Reference Survey, 2026. Young women are the most Democratic. The percentage of Americans who identify as Democrats or lean towards the Democrat Party. And the takeaway here is the movement of young women. So young men, 18 to 29, 44% say they lean toward the Democrat Party. 66% of young women. And it's a massive gap, 44%. to 66, much bigger than any other age group.

You know what's interesting to me on this chart, by the way? What's the second biggest gap? It's women 65 and older. So women 30 to 49 and women 50 to 64 are much closer to men, but the young and the old. So when you said childless cat ladies, I kind of wondered what the image you were talking about, Danny is. It could even be either one of these, I would guess. Sure.

I mean, there's people who are just, there's younger women who are like, you know, don't want to have kids or some big, you know, the big, you hear it all the time, like, how could I bring a child into this world, like that kind of, like a world like this? So there's all these people who have either decide, either missed their window or decided they're like, I'm never having kids. But then there's obviously a biological element where at some point your body has just starts screaming that it wants to have kids. So, I mean, she's, she's playing this smart, I think. And young women, and the point is now, young women are, are, eating it up. And I don't know what, Patrick, I would love to look at a chart like that over time as well,

because I do think it's moved where young women have gotten far radically more left over time. So it's not as though that gap between young men and young women are a constant throughout the decades. It's that that gap has increased. And it's not that men might have moved slightly more conservative, although I think charts so they haven't. Despite all the talk of the rise of the alt-ride or, you know, the new generation, it doesn't. show up that they actually have moved that further right, but women have lurched really far left. And that makes you wonder, like, what the, I mean, what, what does that mean for the future? I saw another chart that essentially was tracking this over the, over the last decade, and men

were 4% went up 4% and women also went up 4%. So I do think that Gen Z in general is not super right wing either. no and again there's real you know uh grievances with you know cost of living like you constantly see the stuff where people are like you know this is how much how many hours you used to need to need to work or you know how many years you used to need to work to buy a home and now it's the it's way skewed so there are a lot of people who are just like you look the system's not working for me so they'll listen to some you know crazy ideas from aOC not that i think she'll fix them, but they'll listen. Well, that's the politics

side of it. Like, this chart, to me, is deeper than politics. It's like, how do those men and those women ever come together? Do they get married and do they whip those dudes into becoming Democrats? Do they never get married because they don't have

enough common ground on values? We see the decline in marriage. We see people putting marriage off till later. We see have you guys seen the charts in decline in childbirth worldwide? Oh, it's worldwide, or at least across Western civilization. I think it's everywhere. It's almost everywhere.

Like, it's not like I saw some things, you know, they talk about it's just in the West problem. It's not. Like, even in, you know, places in the Middle East, like where you think, oh, they're cranking them out. No, it's still an issue there. So I'm not sure why, but it's happening. Why? That is so multifaceted. I think, you know, first, over the past 150 years, 150, yeah, roughly, 130. With the Industrial Revolution, kids became a net negative compared to a net positive.

When we lived in a more agrarian life, more kids meant more workers on the farm. And then you move into this world where it's like, no, kids are cost. They cost money. Reliability. So everybody starts doing that. Yeah, everybody looks at it that way now. That's everybody's mind frame. Can I afford to have kids?

That's what everybody says. And the old days, it was like, I can't afford not to have kids. How am I going to do all this? You know, so, and, you know, left, right, Christian, atheist. Everybody says that, can I afford to have kids? So that in and of itself is going to reduce your numbers. But then just the decline, the stuff that's really scary is decline in sex, decline in marriage, decline in all of that.

So you have just less family. It's not as though we have a bunch of families who are choosing not to have kids. We are. We have families that have fewer kids. But then we also have less family formation as a fundamental structure of society. And so now you have a society. What is a society? Well, we know the answer to this in part.

It's Europe. What does society look like when it gets old and doesn't have kids? But beyond that, like there's a world beyond that that's going to start getting us into the Elon Musk. I mean, Japan's even worse. Japan's way worse in Europe for that. Like they have the percentage of, you know, people over, I think, 70 or 80 versus young people is way more skewed than anywhere else. Yeah, it's not good. It's not good and we don't really know.

I don't know. I mean, I think the easy solution if you're a politician is, you know, okay, well, people are going to have kids and we'll just bring in more immigrants and fix it that way. It's the easiest solution, but obviously they definitely believe that. With that, it's the easy solution. They definitely believe that. No question. And also, we've already lost a generation with this birth rate thing. So it's not something you snap your fingers and fix.

It's like you're lucky if you can fix it in 20 years. But it's like, you know, once you lose that 20 years of people not having kids, you can't just make it back. Right. Yeah. But going back to Japan, like I think a lot of, of people think that, you know, pornography might play a major role in the decline, you know, people not being sexually active as much. But you look at Japan, and they're all pixelated. So I don't even think that plays a role.

Yeah. What do you mean? They're pixelated. Like all their porn is you can't see anything. It's all they're all picks. They blur out all their pornography. Blurt out. That's not even a good excuse. You guys knew all that. You knew that Immediately that has. Wait till the AI robots, sex robots come, man. Then we're toast. I'm telling you, I think I'm on the front end of this beat and I'm telling you it's the existential threat to humanity. Stop talking about climate change, folks. The threat to humanity is the AI sex robots and we are within 10 years of the talk about Overton window. This is the Overton window. We're done having kids. We're done having wives. We're done. We are about to just be in the Matrix. We are about to plug in at home. We're virtually there.

We spend 13 hours a day on our phone, and when we're not on our phone, we're on Netflix. So let's get real. All you're doing is plugging in from the box on the wall, or the box in your hand, into the chip in your head, or that robot that comes and visit your room every once in a while. Right.

Yeah. And once they make himself cleaning, then it's all over. I think I well that's not happening that's how it's going to start it's going to make them clean and they go what else can they do they have 100% Can you imagine? I mean, like, you're going to order. They are supposed to take the place of women. You want to make it in your head like it's like the 1950s and you go into the Tesla dealership and it's like, which model can we interest you in here today, sir?

And you're like shopping the various hot, you know, robots. And sure. But it's not. You're going to order it on the internet. And the robot, by the way, is going to change, meaning you could be like, today I want my robot to be like this. Today, I want a Japanese without anything pixelated. It's going to destroy everything. I'm telling you, and it's coming in our life.

Everybody laughs this one off. I'm not even joking. This is serious. Yeah, imagine when they reach economies of scale on these things and they're cheap. There will be. Not going to be good. Yeah, I know. They're just going to get cheaper and cheaper.

It's not going to be good. Speaking of sex talk, Danny, you might be buddies with this guy. This headline's out here right now. And are you laughing because you are? Are you friends with Stern? No, I don't know. With Howard Stern? No, I don't know.

I was like, I don't know where things are going, but can't be great. Are, have you ever done Stern? You ever been around Stern? No, no, no, I've never met. I've never done it. Okay. Patrick, this is a headline right now, but I feel like this headline has been around for a while. Don't you?

Like, I feel like I've heard this. Howard Stern's staffers, allowed to speak to radio host at parties in cultish company, people were warned. The story says people have been fired for going up to Howard and talking to him, like at parties, office parties. Of course. This is a, somebody, they all signed NDAs. I read in the article they're supposed to.

Not everybody apparently did. But if you work there, you have to sign an NDA. And has this book been written? It may have already been. somebody writing a book about the work environment on the Stern show would be absolutely fascinating. You've got a germaphobe, narcissistic, hugely famous guy who doesn't like people. And, you know, all these people have to work around him. The stories have to be amazing.

Yeah, I'm curious when this started. I feel like the old, like, good Stern probably didn't do this stuff. This is, you know, because he's had essentially, you know, two careers. I don't know if you've tried to listen to Stern recently, but it's, It's unlisted. Like when I was a kid, it was the best. It was the greatest radio show on earth. And then now you listen to it.

It's unlistenable. And obviously something happened at some point where he switched from like the old guy to the new guy. So I'm curious if the old guy was doing this too. Or if he, you know, he's just like, I'm a big Hollywood celebrity. You know, he's the host of like America's Got Talent. Like he's just, he's that kind of guy now. And you're like, yeah, you can't talk to me anymore. He, I would totally be this way, by the way.

was 19. If this happened to me, 2019, I would definitely distance myself from the, from the group. If you were the host of America's Got Talent, no more talking. If I were, you will, I would not allow me to talk to you. I

think, Danny, this is I think this is a long time in the making. I think that there are two careers, maybe three careers for Howard Stern. I think the transition from Rebel to, you know, cliched, stereotypical establishment, lefty, celebrity is a big divide in the career. That's a huge divide when that transition happened. And I believe, and I don't know this, but most people say it's with this marriage, this second marriage, right? Yeah.

That this is maybe, maybe not. That's when he became friends with Jimmy Kimmel, and he wasn't friends with anybody, and he destroyed everybody. That was who he was in the first part of his career, and went after everybody, and he was a true rebel. But I think the don't look at me, don't talk to me thing is a, I bet that's a gradual, that's the gradual growth of neurotic fame. He was obviously neurotic anyway. and the German phobb stuff is in there as well. That's what I think is going on mostly, and that didn't happen overnight.

Yeah, I mean, I'm surprised it's crazy. His show's still on. Who is listening to this besides people renting cars? Like, you know, I always wonder, I'm like, who, the only time I ever listen to a show is I happen to have a car rental somewhere that has Sirius XM. I'm like, who, if you ever go in like the Howard Stern's, subreddit, which used to be like this huge subreddit, everybody's just like, it's over, you know,

and it's been like that for a decade. But, you know, nobody is like all the old diehard old school fans, they've all left. They're like, this stuff is unlistenable. I mean, obviously, if you listen to Howard Stern 20 years ago, it's like so different. Like everything he used to say, he's now apologizing for essentially. And, you know, he would never do any of that stuff, which is the stuff that made him famous. So I'm just like, who is even listening to the show anymore? I'm surprised. What a dirt does he have on serious CEO?

Let's take quick break, but continue this on this Monday with comedian Danny Polishwick here on Will Kane Country. Whether life serves you an ace or an unexpected backhand, the high-protein yogurt, Oikos Pro, is there to feed your strength and help you turn every challenge into a smash. Oikos Pro helps build strong muscles and support muscle recovery with high-protein, and contains no added sugar because true strength isn't about

being able to take the hits. It's about being able to bounce back. Oikos Pro. Feed your strength. Visit oikos.cai for more details. Welcome back to Will Kane Country. We're still hanging out with comedian and host of the boys' cast, Danny Polish it. And he's going down to one day a week, by the way, us all.

One day a week is where he's headed. Okay, really quick. quickly on this front. So I wanted to talk about cancel culture and Hassan Piker. So Hassan Piker, the whatever, streamer, lefty, influencer, kingmaker, campaign buddy of Abdul El-Sayed. He had a speech canceled at, where was it, Patrick? Is it University of Washington? That's correct. U-dub. U-Dub. Okay.

And, you know, a lot of people on the, not just the right, on the left, too, are wondering, you know, when are Democrats going to distance themselves from this guy that said 9-11, America deserve 9-11? Capitalist blood should run in the streets, among other things. And Piker tweets, Republicans are the cancel culture and anti-free speech party. Free speech is not about protecting people from backlash to hate speech. it's supposed to protect speech that truly challenges power. I mean, we mustn't let the reactionaries get away with their repression while owning the First Amendment. And I have interviewed several people, Danny. Yeah.

Abdul L. Said being one where I say, you know, do you stand by Hassan Piker? Because you're campaigning with him. You're on a stage by him. He's like, I didn't know you were into cancel culture now. And I do think this is a real interesting rhetorical trick to flip it on its head. But is that what's happening now? Are we, is, is, is, is Piker being canceled? What was the reason for the cancellation, Patrick? Was it just like unsafe?

I don't think they actually gave a reason. I'll have to look that up real quick. Let me look that up. Yeah, I'm curious about that. Well, this was, like I'm surprised that this is kind of coming to the left because, you know, obviously there was an eight year period, probably 2015 and onwards, where this was a common thing on the right where you were trying to go speak at a campus and it would get canceled because the campus is essentially saying we can't guarantee your safety and they you know and that was that was a

big gripe of the right where they're saying this is the this is kind of cancel culture and you know this is unfair essentially so I'm curious the reason why he's getting because I mean look he is kind of the face of like this stuff is not abating in my opinion with you know him representing the Democratic Party. We're only starting. So they claimed that it was, did not meet the necessary level of rigor for university hosted events in the speaker series. So I think it might just be that type of series.

So like, okay, you know, there's other things like these other canceled events back in the day, they, I don't think they were like, you know, headlining major, major events. I think it was like this is meant to be a little more. academic and they're like he doesn't really have any academic qualifications he's just i mean i wouldn't put that in the category of of uh cancellation i think that this would be closer to someone who was at the school probably messed up maybe they liked him and then this got looked at by someone else and they're like no this isn't really exactly for this i can't imagine if he just wanted to go do some event at the university of washington they would just cancel it so

but i just think there's something different there was there's There's something different about, set aside Washington for a minute. But questioning whether or not a political candidate should be buddying up to a streamer who has said these things. When I say budding up, I mean on the campaign stage, on the campaign trail on a consistent basis. Questioning whether or not that is the right choice for a politician is not the same thing as having the bachelor at counseled for going to a K.A. sorority party in 2012. There's something different. You say, oh, you're asking the same fundamental question.

Should you, Abdul Tayed, be associating with that? Should you, ABC, be associating with, that was literally why a bachelorette got canceled, right? Because she went to a Kappa Alpha sorority event, which was Southern themed. And then the host got canceled for defending her. There's something different. And I don't think the difference is my hypocrisy. There's something different about asking someone running for elected office what you choose to associate with and whether or not that's accurate and representative of what you hope to represent as a senator or congressman, then whether or not a television show should be paying attention to something that somebody said 10 years ago, did 10 years ago. That's fundamentally different.

That's not cancel culture. So for the left, and I'll be like, I thought you weren't into cancel culture. you're turning it on its head. That's not the same thing. I don't know about the University of Washington. I would actually, believe it or not, I would welcome Assam, if I were running a university, I would welcome Asan Piker to speak.

I would. And I would also welcome in Ben Shapiro, you know, or God rest of the soul, Charlie Kirk. I would let the students hear at all. Yeah, and there used to be how colleges were. They let these people kind of, you know, with different ideas come in. But I mean, look, Hassan Piker for him, this is a gift.

It's, you know, just like for the right, it was every time they got something canceled, you're like, oh, you have kind of the forbidden ideas. Like, why it's the Streisand effect almost? Like, why aren't we allowed to hear this stuff? Regardless if it was not even, he was canceled for his opinions. It was just, you know, some something else. Like, it just, it's a gift. And he saw how this work for people on the right.

And he'll run with it for sure. Certainly helps him. I agree with that. Like Shane Gillis getting canceled from S&L. That's kind of pretty, that was a little bit the height of cancel culture, right? When they went back and they found that, he had one, what do you have, one day, one week on SNL? Something like that. And they found that.

Yeah, a couple days. A couple days. And then that was it for him. Some old podcast clip resurfaced. But again, it helped them. Like that's the game plan. That's almost the strategy. You want like if you're someone who's in the ideas business, you almost want to get canceled as much as possible.

It's a different era now. Like it doesn't silence you because you still have your live streaming. You still have Twitter. You're still getting covered by the press. Like this is all positive. Even that even did Louis C.K. Did Louis C.K. Come out the other side better?

Better. No. I mean, he was a big movie TV star. Like I saw him maybe two. two years ago at Madison Square Garden sold out. So he's, he's doing fine, but he's certainly not where he was quite just because of the film and television industry, which, you know, they're a little because it's like, you know, a business.

They can say, you know, it's too risky to make a show or a movie with you. But, yeah, in terms of comedy, he's fine. He's back to, he's not back to. You know, I recognize. There's a difference between being canceled for words that you said and actions that you took, right? I do think, but I was just thinking to your point, I can look in my business. If somebody gets fired for saying something, it's not going to hurt that bad. You're going to go and you're going to start something on your own.

We have plenty of examples of this and they're going to be fine. But there are some people, maybe it's if you're tied two days. directly to having that particular platform, right? So whatever happened to the ESPN tennis sportscaster who said that Venus Williams was using guerrilla tactics, remember? What was his name? Was it Brad? Nelson was it Brad? I don't care.

Did he ever get to come back from that? Checking. And I know back to the actions thing, Matt Lauer was permanently canceled. We haven't heard from Matt Lauer again. And all he had was a button on his desk. You just had a desk button, which, look, if I was Matt Lauer and you have a big office, I'm like, I want a button to lock my door too. People bothering you all the time? A lot, a lot was made of that button, but you could say, you could see how somebody would be like, I don't want to get up and shut my door.

I want to be able to hit a button for my door to shut. So I don't have to get up and go from my desk to the door. He's a very powerful person. He doesn't have a lot of time on his hand. to get up and go to the door. Yeah. I would like to do a, I've said this before. I want a specifically me too.

I want to go back and, but I think a canceled, as somebody done this, a canceled at large database of who got canceled, where they ended up afterwards, you know, which of them ever got to come back who didn't get to come back. That would be really, really interesting to say, I mean, like, Louie came back because, like for standup, because you can't. cancel a stand-up comedian. Like if people want to buy tickets for a comedian, you can't stop them.

But, you know, like Matt Lauer requires a network to hire on Charlie Rose. Like, they got Charlie Rose. Like, Charlie Rose needs a network to- Yeah, but Charlie Rose was old. Don't you think Matt Lauer could have started a podcast? Right? Like, he had a lot of, I mean, he made enough money.

But, but the thing with the podcast is people and, you know, like especially when this happened to Matt Lauer. At the time, it was really considered if you were like someone like Matt Lauer. Like you were slum at it if you were going from a TV show to a podcast. Like that was considered such a step down that I think it was almost like a humiliation element where they're like, no, I'm not doing that. I'd rather be just gone.

I'm going to tell you, I'm getting really tired of these names coming down to this level, by the way. Okay? like Conan O'Brien, Amy Polar, they're coming in, they're taking up. I mean, Michelle Obama has a podcast. Yeah, you don't need a podcast, okay? This is for us. It is for us. And the thing is, like I started, you know, we started the podcast because it was at the time where,

and, you know, like, it was literally like, hey, we're not really given stuff to white people in the entertainment industry, white guys specifically. So it was like, you know, go over to podcast Island and do what you want to do. And it was almost at a necessity. Like I certainly didn't dream of when I started comedy being like, oh, I'm going to have a radio show on the internet. It was more like, hey, this is just this is the opportunity that we have. So go do it. And then for them to all of it, you know, for it to start working.

And then everybody's like, oh, podcasting. It doesn't look so bad. And you're like, no, we didn't do this because we wanted to. Do you think we've reached peak podcasts? Like, Sean, to the next thing? Oh, yeah. What's the next thing? Is it streaming?

Maybe live streaming? Yeah, maybe it's live streaming, although, I mean, there's no shortage of that at all. But it feels like we've maybe reached. I mean, when podcasts are on Netflix, it does feel like maybe we have. We dropped the shark on it, definitely. We're getting turned. the decline. You know, my old friend,

Ryan Rassillo used to say this. He's like, you know, they did podcast. And somebody's like, I've got an idea. Let's take the podcast and stream them live. And then we'll have some live reads in it and all that. We can make some money in there. And he's like, you mean like radio? Sure.

We just took it and we just remade radio. Which, by the way, it's all we've done in media for the last two decades. We destroyed cable and then we created these packages and recreated cable. Yeah. Now the podcast isn't enough to just have audio. Okay. You have to add video to it and you do the same thing and now you're recreating television again. Yeah.

So now we're- Yes. Basically. There's no new ideas. They're just repackaged. All ideas are just old package ideas. Okay. Finally, here's the debate for the day. Is what's happening in the WNBA good for the WNBA?

Yes, Patrick? We have a poll, by the way. On this question? No, no, no. We ask people, should Will join the WMBA? And when I last looked at it, it was overwhelmingly 90% of the people said you should join the WMBA. You should declare it for the draft. Okay, hold on.

We're coming back to that in a minute. Okay. Coming back to that. I'm not going anywhere from that. So in the past week, we've had two former NBA players declare their eligibility for the WNBA. First, I give you Enos Freedom, aka Enos Cantor. After careful consideration and review in the current eligibility guidelines, I am officially declaring myself a WMBA prospect. If simply declaring who you are is all the time.

that's required that I meet every single requirement necessary to compete in the WMBA. My team and I have carefully examined the WMB's eligibility criteria and governing framework surrounding self-identification and inclusion. Based on the current guidelines, I can and am officially declaring my eligibility for the upcoming WMBA draft in May 27. All right, Enis, available for what, draft? When's the WMBA draft? I don't know. Sounds about right next year. Nobody. Nobody knows. And then.

Royce White, former of the NBA, and running for, is Royce running for senator in Michigan? Is that right? I believe that's... What is he running for? Or Minnesota? Is it Michigan? Minnesota. Minnesota.

I think it's Minnesota. He's announced his eligibility. Here's Royce White. Oh, earlier this week I made the announcement. I'm transgender. I'm a woman. I'm identical. as sometimes identifying as a woman for purposes of basketball, professional basketball.

So I'll be declaring for the WNBA draft in 2027 as well. There you go. I think you got... He should identify as someone who's not afraid to fly. Is that, is he afraid to fly? Yeah, that was his whole thing, was he got drafted. He was like a top, he was a lottery pick in the NBA. And then he was just too scared to fly.

So he's like, and he wanted all these concessions about how to get to games, and then they're just like, you're way too much to deal with, and they just kind of get in the boot. This is why I'm not a TV producer. Same issue. Do you afraid to fly? Because you can't fly? Do you afraid to fly?

I can't fly, yeah. I don't like flying. This really puts the whole thing to the test, because how are you going to tell them they're not a woman? How do you do that? I mean, it is funny that they're now. having to decide what the W and WNBA actually means. But they're going to, so the argument's going to go, and I've seen some man on the street stuff, well, they're not sincere.

How do you know somebody's sincerity? What do you mean? Why is Will Thomas sincere and Royce White is not sincere? Explain to me the difference. Or what about all the prisoners, male prisoners who all of a sudden are like, hey, I'm transgender, put me in a female prison. I'm transgender now. I can't be in a male prison. and they're doing that.

So again, they're going to, you know, they're going to obviously find a way around this. That's the only thing that would get me to watch the WNBA is if Ennis can't turn, Royce White played. I would watch so hard. If Royce White was a tip-off 2027, I am going to watch the WNBA. I'll be it.

I'm not missing a game. Yeah, I might get season tickets. Let's take quick break, but continue this on this Monday with comedian Danny Polishuk here on Will Cane Country. Canadian Superstore has everything you need this back-to-school season. Save on lunchbox savers, like Ziggy's sliced deli-meat products for always 375. And get life brand pure Vita shampoo or conditioner for $8 each. At Real Canadian Superstore, when you're ready, we're ready, with a whole world and more.

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Get tickets now. Welcome back to Will Kane Country. We're still hanging out with comedian and host of the boys' cast, Danny Polish it. Just the AI Clarendon. They are scheduled. They are scheduled to meet on this and try to come up with a policy, which we all know what the policy is going to have to be. I don't know if they're going to try to try to. middle ground it, start talking about testosterone levels or something.

I don't know what they're going to do. But, yeah, that's the way all the Olympics and stuff does it is they do it based off of testosterone levels. I feel like they're going to say, you know, didn't the Olympics move? Didn't the Olympics move to birth? I think the Olympics moved to things like tennis is pretty, it's pretty hardcore. Yeah.

But they, but, well, because there's like, remember the Jamaican runner, Castor, Simonia or whatever I think was her name. Yeah, but that's a different issue. Yeah, that's a different issue. She's intersex. Yeah, she's intersex. So, but I think she was female. But I think they dinged her on testosterone because they're like, I think her birth

certificate was female. And she appears to be female. I think that's a test they still employ for intersex. People like to conflate these. The trans movement tries to conflate these things. But that trans is not intersex. That's not the same thing. Intersex is people legitimately built with some.

combination of both sex hormones and so forth. Like there are a very, very, very small fraction of people that fall in this category. And they do need to be considered and they do need to, we do need to come up with a test and align and figure out where, but that's not what we're talking about with trans. We're not talking about that. No. No. Well, I was just going to say, like, the WMBA obviously doesn't seem to care at all about

the success of their league. you know, concerning the way they treat Caitlin Clark and all this stuff. So there's no chance that they're going to allow Edis Cantor and Royce White what they come up with to do that. I'm curious about, but I think it's a pot dream at this point. That's right. There's no chance they'll allow them to participate. How will they come up with something to keep them out? And I really hope that both these guys are sincere.

Like they're really, really going to try to do this. Meanwhile, Sophie Cunningham, who is. Well, just because they're getting the short-term publicity boost and that's what they wanted. I hope that's not all. I hope they're legitimately want to test the sincerity of the W&D. I think Royce White plays in the big three, does he, Petter? Do you know? I don't know.

Does he play big three? I think he does. So it's not like he's off the court. He still plays somewhat competitive basketball. So for him, he's like, yeah, why not? And the average salary now is like, what is it? Isn't it like 500 grand or? something. It's not bad.

For the big three? No, no, no, for the WNBA. They got a huge pay raise. So it's not like you're like, playing on driving on a bus and making 60K a year. You're like, well, it's kind of real money at this point. Also an update, the tennis

tennis guy was Doug Adler. He later suffered a major heart attack and then eventually settled with ESPN who he's now eligible to call tennis matches again for ESPN, but I don't see anything clarifying if he has or not. Yeah, I mean, maybe he's eligible, but he's not going to be doing that. Okay, so Sophie Cunningham, who's been the outspoken athlete on this trans issue, and earned the ire of the rest of WNBA, received a very hard foul from Dijun A Carrington this past weekend.

I think we have the play. Faye's coming down, trying to prevent the layup, but that is just a hard hit. That's definitely going to be upgraded, I think, to a flagrant too, Ryan. I think that is going to be a flagrant too. There is wind up. There is follow-through. There's potential for injury. There's Sophie Cunningham in a vulnerable position in the air.

Oh, wow. Yeah. I mean, there's no question why Sophie Cunningham got up and took exception to that. That hit. That was an ugly foul. That was, that was the whole arm across the head. I've seen that a thousand times in the NBA. Like, honestly, that is actually the kind of thing the WNBA needs is, like, them playing

hard like this. The problem is then the one player goes and it's just like, this is white privilege. And we're like, nah, you ruined it. That's what, like you know what I mean? That is when Dijunet Carrington posted, white privilege. Yeah, because her foul was upgraded to a flagrant two. She was kicked out of the game. Yeah, but I mean, I've seen that found in the NBA thousand times.

That's, you know, you want them to play hard. I don't think like anybody doesn't want to. Clearly, Danny, you're a basketball guy. That's not, that is intentional. That's exactly, that's not making a play on the ball. You know, did she do it because Sophie is a controversial figure now? Why did she do that? I don't know.

Take it into her mind. Yeah, that's hard to say. But, you know, you see it a lot where they'll try and, you know, they wrap up a player who has kind of like an uncontested layup, something like that. So like it happens. That's not what this was. Not what this was. No, for sure.

I think her mouth was bleeding. But I'm like, that would actually be good for the WNBA. People see stuff like that and like, oh, they play really hard. They're like the, but then the moment that goes, white privilege, you're like, all right, these women can't help to just be super catty. It's in their biology. Patrick. I can't. Okay.

Back to me now being, I couldn't make the WMBA. I know that he's like so, so cocky, so chauvinistic for me to even entertain the idea. Like, the whole debate about a high school boys team being able to beat them, I saw, was it Michael Porter? Can't remember Lamello Ball? Yeah, Michael Porter. Yeah, it was Michael Borer, La Mallele Ball. They said seventh and eighth grade. have beat him and did be it. So they scrimmaged D1 girls.

But I'm not those guys. I mean, Patrick, I'm not making it. Okay. So the Secretary of War was on our show a few years ago. He could make it. He said that Caitlin Clark was better than him and would school. I don't believe that. I think he would destroy her. No. Like things, you know, they shoot 500 shots. Hold on, don't, Danny. Pete.

No, no, no. He was a college. He was a college basketball player. Pete, what was he? Okay, I didn't know that. I didn't know that. Yeah. He played for Princeton. Now, he wasn't a starter.

He got very few minutes, but he was a, you know, outside three-point shooting white guy, you know. Okay. No offense to Ted Cruz. I'm not talking about Ted Cruz or anything. Yeah, yeah. Then, yeah, maybe with some training, you could. I mean, obviously, look, it's crazy. We still are having this conversation.

But, like, there's just a huge biological advantage. for men, like, especially if you can play above the rim. Like, that's, you know, if you can play above the rim, if you can take an alley-up and dunk it, how is anybody supposed to stop you from just taking a lob every time down the court? Yeah, can you jump, Will? I definitely cannot do that. You can't jump? No, I definitely cannot do that.

No. But you can swim like a fish, so that's good. You got that going for you. Yeah. Can you touch the rim, Patrick? Can you jump up and touch the rim? No, I can't do anything anymore. my body's shot. I'm literally joking.

How tall are you, Patrick? How tall are you? Six, one and a half, roughly. Okay, yeah, me too. I've never been able to touch a room. I've always been terrible basketball. So here's the debate. Is this good for the WMBA?

I saw a clip from Bill Simmons saying that the WNBA has plenty of good storylines and players and interesting fun games going on. and this he was blaming the league and the commissioner for mismanagement of all of these controversies and these issues and incompetence in leading the league. And his suggestion was that the people that are doing these conversations, trans conversation, Caitlin versus everybody conversation, that they don't care about the league and, you know, whatever, grifting off the topic or whatever may be. I don't care. What I'm really curious about is whether or not Simmons is right.

In other words, do you think, Danny, that all of this, he did have this line in there that I thought was really accurate. He said the WMBA has become the 4U algorithm league. It's like everybody opens up their 4U on Instagram or X, and it's full of WNBA stuff. But it's all about this crap. And so the question is, and I'm sincere in this question, is it good for the WNBA? Like everybody says, oh, focus on the league, focus on the basketball. Caitlin Clark says that. And I get why they have to say that.

But the WNBA is being talked about. Granted, in a not very positive light, is it in the range of all publicity is good publicity? In the end, do you think all of this is good for the WNBA? No, because I don't think this stuff gets people to watch the games, buy tickets. It's fun to talk about, you know, it's a lot of people dunking on them. No pun intended, but there's no, like, you know, the play is. is what sells the league on like, oh, this is something I would buy a ticket to.

I would go to. I would watch on television. But there's just pure drama stuff is, I don't know if this really gets people watching it, which is what they need. Let me walk through some things. When the UFC first came out, do you remember how controversial it was and everybody called it human cockfighting? No weight classes.

All of that controversy, yeah, all that controversy was good for it. Now, that being said, it was controversy about the thing that was happening in the ring. It wasn't extraneous to the game. So I moved on from that. Okay, when I was at ESPN, one of the stories everybody liked to talk about was all the drama in the NBA, all the, and most of it had to do with player movement, but who hated who, who liked, who was organizing to play with who and all that. And I remember everybody saying the NBA was like a soap opera. And the NFL didn't have those storylines. This was the narrative at the time. And it was wrong. And the idea was that everything happening outside the game was making the game more

popular. And I don't think that's true in retrospect. I don't think that it did. So I'm trying to find things that are outside the game that have lifted the league. And it came down to this. Kaepernick, it's the best example that I can think of. Was Kaepernick good or bad for the NFL? It had nothing to do with the league, nothing to do with the play, nothing to do with any of that. It was a huge conversation in society outside of the world of sports that drew attention to the league. And the question is, in the end, was that a net positive or net negative for the NFL? Because I think that's the closest apples to apples comparison we could come up with. Nothing much of what we're talking about with the WMBA has to do with what's going on on the court.

Yeah, I mean, the only net positive that I can think of that the WMBA has had is Caitlin Clark. Caitlin Clark kind of moved that WNDA, the attention and, you know, the interest in the WNBA, like, moved it substantially higher. Other than that, like, I can't think of nothing compares to that. Like, Caitlin Clark, when she was leaving college and, you know, her first year in the WNBA, like, that, you know, there was Indiana fever games selling out. That was kind of stuff's unheard of for regular season games, selling out on the road. Like that never, you know, you need that starboard. player you don't need them complain i mean look i my best idea for the wmba will never do it is uh all star game white versus black every person in the country will watch it um i actually think

royce white enous canter suiting up would be the best that too that too but if they want to keep it to just biological women because it's like these race war dynamics it's like they're turning into like a women's prison yeah I don't think Kaepernick brought a single new viewer to the NFL. I don't think anybody who didn't already watch the NFL got invested in that controversy. I'm going to start watching the Niners or whoever it may be. Absolutely not. I don't.

I don't think the steroid era, the steroid accountability era of players testifying in front of Congress, Rafael Palmero and Mark McGuire sitting there, I don't think that brought any new fan to watching baseball. So most of the time, this stuff, not most time, every time. I can't think of a single one where it said, this publicity led to good things for our league. I mean, the only thing that hurt baseball was the lockout

because they stopped playing. Like there was just like there was nobody playing anymore. And then all these people are like all these greedy baseball players and all that stuff. But that was the only thing. Yeah, like all the steroid stuff, people loved it. Right. So we're talking about the fallout. The fallout after the steroids. And technically, based on the numbers, revenue continued to grow.

And it was the, you didn't start seeing decline in baseball until later post-steroids. So it was, it was well after the steroid fallout. And then as far as Kaepernick went, the revenue also continued to climb. You did see a dip in TV ratings, but it didn't impact revenue. So it went down a few million. But then and then it came back up just like it was like it. I mean, the NFL's a unstoppable. Unstoppable force.

Like, you know, it's, uh, it's only going one direction. Yeah. And again, he wasn't some big star, Kaepernick. You know, by the way, Dijunay, Dijunay, Dijunay. Not all publicity is good publicity. I have regret. My daughter, we named her Elizabeth, my oldest daughter, and she hates it. She's like, it's so generic.

I bet you if she was named Dijunay, she'd be a lot happier. It's so much more creative. Your daughter, Elizabeth, she can be Lizzie. She can be Liz, she can be Beth, she can be a lot of things. Eliza. Yeah, exactly. I mean, you kind of have a specific problem, Patrick, where you just have so many kids where you're like running out of names. We're getting there.

Is Elizabeth the most versatile name out there, the most derivatives of any name. I think it might be. They're like 20 different nicknames. It might be. What rivals Elizabeth? Nothing. Not much. Not much in time.

I'm going to think. Yeah, it's certainly up there. King of the derivatives, Elizabeth. Huh. And that's where we're going to leave it today. Always good hanging out with Danny Polishick. Make sure you check them out at the boys' cast. Danny, thank you for hanging out with this as always.

Pleasure. As always. Have a good one, guys. All right. And we have, I believe, this from Chevron. I believe we have, you should know, if you're listening, that since 1879, there people have been more than a source of energy, they've been a source of progress, helping deliver record U.S. energy production and fueling the breakthroughs that move America forward.

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