The episode kicks off with a listener question for Dr. Dan, which is what Bill is calling him now. A loyal listener wants to know whether Dan told him to buy the red or blue Wegmans fiber pills. Dan corrects the record with full authority: TopCare green cap fiber powder, not pills. Skip the Metamucil. Grab flaxseed if you're on a budget. Bill points out that somewhere in Rochester, a gastroenterologist who spent twelve years in medical school is sitting in his office while Dan from Billified is the guy people are calling for gut advice.

But that's the thing about confidence. Bill makes the observation that when someone speaks with enough authority, we just buy it. Dan jumps on that with the perfect example: John Ratzenberger bombing his audition for Norm on Cheers, turning around on his way out the door, and pitching a bar know-it-all into existence on the spot. Cliff Clavin was born because one guy spoke with total conviction. Dan owns it: he is the Billified Cliff Clavin. Whether he knows what he's talking about or not, he says it like he does, and that's enough. Bill takes it further, pointing out that the internet has turned this into an epidemic. Confident voices become gospel, and nobody checks the receipts.

That gets Bill thinking about all the little behaviors that make you quietly take a step back from someone, which becomes the topic du jour. The Red Flags of Humanity. Not relationship red flags. Human red flags. Bill has a list and it just keeps growing: the dashboard tchotchke museum, the selfie industrial complex, duck lips, the person who is always busy, #girldad, and of course, clapping when a plane lands. Dan adds his own, including a woman he once dated whose house was wall to wall photos of exclusively herself.

The conversation then opens up into what it actually takes to believe something happened. Bam Adebayo just dropped 83 points and people saw it! But there are people who still don't believe Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 in a game because the only evidence is a guy holding a piece of paper. Or what about how David Wells supposedly partied all night before throwing a perfect game? Or Lawrence Taylor showing up at Phil Simms' house at 6am on game day to borrow golf shoes, then going out and dominating! We have actual footage of the moon landing and people still call it a fake! At what point did cynicism get confused with intelligence?

From there it's cancel culture, the COVID vaccine debate, and whether political division has gone too far to recover from, before closing out with an old radio bit coming back from the dead. Maybe not the resurrection we were hoping for, but we'll work on it.

Hear all of it and enjoy!


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