Fatal and devastating fires recently upturned the lives of many Los Angelenos. Even now, with the fires thankfully extinguished, things aren't back to normal.

As you may know, we record several episodes in a day, that's allowed us to keep publishing during these difficult days. Some on our staff are still dealing with significant issues in the aftermath which have unfortunately prevented us from recording a show for you this week.

As we take care of some real-life business, we wanted you to know we aren’t going anywhere, we’ll be back NEXT WEEK with more of the zany, mind-blowing, off the wall science, pop culture, news of the day nonsense you’ve come to expect from us.

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Jeff "Skunk" Baxter is a missile defense expert and a counter-terrorist authority who has consulted for Congressional Committees, the Pentagon, and the US intelligence community… he’s also a legendary guitarist who performed that sick solo on “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number”. Really, no Really!

Skunk is universally recognized as a legendary guitarist. Best-known for his work with Steely Dan (as a founding member) and the Doobie Brothers, his versatility and highly developed technique as a soloist made him a hugely in-demand session guitarist from the '70s on to today.

In the mid-1980s, a series of chance encounters led Baxter to a second career working in the defense industry where his natural ability to look at existing technologies and to see alternate ways to use them, led to multiple security clearances and contracts consulting for a litany of major intelligence and defense agencies.

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IN THIS EPISODE:

• Explaining how musicians translate improvised melodies on stage from their mind to their fingers.
• Discovering his would-be passion – playing the guitar.
• How a founding member of Steely Dan end up being a missile defense thought maker.
• Predicting why and how the bad guys do what they do.
• What happens when government agents need you when you’re playing with Ringo Starr?
• Explaining Russia’s motivations in 5 seconds.
• Were Steely Dan’s founding members really taskmasters?
• What makes for a good rock solo?
• Insight into working with Elton John, Donna Summer, Eric Clapton, Dolly Parton and more…
• The difference between a good guitar player and an excellent one is…?

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FOLLOW SKUNK:

Website - jeffskunkbaxter.com

Facebook – SkunkBaxter

Instagram - @JeffSkunkBaxter

Album – Speed of Heat

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As TikTok America’s legal limbo continues, Australia became the first country in the world to ban minors under age 16 from social media. Australia’s eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant warned the world saying, tech companies aren’t doing enough to protect kids online. Really, no Really!

While the powers of social media apps are undeniable, the harms they cause are more… enigmatic. Even if harmful effects of social media are established, are bans an effective response? As this international debate rages on, there are millions of parents and young people looking down at their smartphones wondering what if anything they should do differently.

To break down the pros and cons of social media we’ve invited Dr. Jacqueline Nesi to make sense of it all. She’s an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Brown University, where she studies how technology use affects kids and how parents can help.

She’s published over 50 peer-reviewed publications related to youth and technology use, and her work has been funded by organizations like the NIMH, NICHD, and NSF. She’s also testified before U.S. congressional subcommittees at both the national and state level on issues surrounding tech and mental health.

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IN THIS EPISODE:

• How do we define social media and would a ban even work?
• So… how does social media affects us?
• Should kid’s online activities be treated like getting a driver’s license?
• Default privacy settings.
• Teaching media literacy is an important facet of modern parenting.
• What age should kids be allowed to use social media?
• The social media changes kids are actually asking for.
• Speaking to kids about dangers like bullying and pornography.
• Deleting, taking a break, downloading again… deleting again… and again.
• How Jason altered his social media algorithm in 6 weeks!
• REAL or FAKE: Jason stumps the panel on potentially actual websites.
• Google-HEIM: Mistakes!

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FOLLOW JACQUELINE:

Website: jacquelinenesi.com

X: @jacquelinenesi

Substack: Techno Sapiens

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Survivor: Borneo – the very first season of Survivor, debuted on Network Television in the year 2000. And with it, reality TV began to transform America’s television industry.

25 years later the Hollywood Reporter proclaims that “Reality TV is on Life Support.

Sure, shows like Love is Blind, Real Housewives and new, up-and-comers like The Traitors are still very popular. But at the same time, more and more reality shows are being canceled, less episodes are being produced, and dramatically smaller budgets are being offered for any of it - indicating to both audiences and industry leaders alike that reality shows may be becoming extinct. Really, no Really!

Today, the guys will be talking to Emily Nussbaum, a Pulitzer Prize winning television critic and the author of: Cue The Sun!: The Invention of Reality TV. She’ll reveal some of the reality behind reality television and how much of it isn’t reality at all. Plus, she’ll discuss the long history of the genre, and the practicalities and impracticalities of its success and possible failure. Which leads me to say this episode of our show should be called: Reality. No Reality!

In 2014 she won a National Magazine Award for Columns and Commentary and in 2016 she won thePulitzer Prize for criticism. She’s written for The New Yorker, New York Magazine, Slate and The New York Times.

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IN THIS EPISODE:

• Is Reality TV dead?
• Reality TV was birthed by radio “audience participation shows”.
• Alan Funt was a sneaky guy with a hidden microphone that invented prank shows!
• “Cinéma véritéto” to Abject Bull$%*t - Defining Reality TV
• Non-Disclosure Agreements are WAY worse than you think.
• Most morally compromising?  The Bachelor!
• Why Jason doesn’t think he’d do well on Survivor.
• Punking the guy who made “When Animals Attack”.
• Live Executions? Really?
• “Don’t try this at home!” born on Woody Frasure’s “That’s Incredible!”
• Forget Reality TV for a sec, will TV survive?
• Don’t miss Jason on Netflix’s “The Electric State”
• REAL REALITY TV SHOWS OR FAKE? Jason stumps the panel.
• Google-HEIM: The most watched TV EVER! EVER!

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FOLLOW EMILY:

Website: emilynussbaum.com

Instagram: @emilynussbaum

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Ratings for professional sports are booming! Football is up, the WNBA continues to break records, people are even watching Major League Baseball! But despite record amounts of money flooding into professional basketball the ratings are actually sinking. Really, no Really!

And while neither Jason nor Peter are known for their athletic prowess, they both had the same question. Why? Is it the number of games, the officiating, a marketing flaw or has the game itself changed?

To answer those questions, we’ve brought in a true expert, four-time NBA champion, John Salley, he was the first player in NBA history to win championships with three franchises and he was a long-time host of The Best Damn Sports Show Period. If he doesn’t know… nobody does.

IN THIS EPISODE:

• Basketball’s success led to a much more competitive sports consumption market.
• Streaming’s global impact on how we all consume sports.
• Caitlin Clark’s star power created tremendous excitement around the WNBA.
• Has the normalization of the 3-point shot broken the game?
• Refereeing can make or break the game.
• How NOT to be distracted by excitable spectators.
• The moment John fell in love with basketball wasn’t on the court.
• Talking to the Media in the locker room… naked.
• Cannabis, cocaine, and women in the NBA.
• How marijuana changed his life… after retirement.
• John’s scariest life moment was on a television set and what it taught him.

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FOLLOW JOHN:

Website: johnsalley.com

Instagram: @johnsalley

TikTok: @johnsalley22

X: @thejohnsalley

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You’d be hard pressed to find a Seinfeld fan who doesn’t know what “shrinkage” is. But in real-life shrinkage is a phenomenon that’s happening all around us and it means, companies are secretly selling us less product for the exact same price or even, at an increased price! In fact, one in three supermarket products have stealthily, shrunk over the past 4 years. And that means, we’re all getting much less product but actually paying more! Really, no really!

Edgar Dworsky who is known as “Mr. Consumer” has been a consumer advocate for over 45 years, and he joins Jason and Peter to expose selling scams, and to explain and reveal how many companies rely on and use “shrinkflation" and "skimpflation".

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IN THIS EPISODE:

• Shrinkflation is legal, so consumer beware.
• Where have all the local consumer reporters gone?
• When salad dressings replace oil …for water!
• The hidden shrinkflation inside dollar stores.
• How “Party Size” and “New and Improved” trick customers.
• Toilet paper rolls have 90% less sheets than they had in the 1960’s.
• Shrinkflation isn’t isolated to your supermarket.
• What triggers someone to become a consumer advocate?
• We’re celebrating 75 years of shrinkflation!
• Jason and Peter share their personal habits relating to expiration dates.
• The strange lengths Jason takes to postpone eating his bananas!
• Googleheim: The breath mint with “Retsyn”, and the dangerous truth about Retsyn!

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FOLLOW EDGAR DWORSKY:

Website: consumerworld.org & Mouseprint.org

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IN THIS EPISODE:

• William Shatner explains what would have happened, if he had suffered a heart attack during his recent mission to space.
• Dick van Dyke discusses his career, turning 100 AND he sings for us!
• Wayne Knight reveals the somewhat controversial atmosphere on the Seinfeld set.
• Tech entrepreneur Bryan Johnson attempts to de-age himself.
• Simpson’s producer, Mike Reiss explains why he vacations in dangerous places and shares his experience on the Titan submersible that later exploded.
• Bryan Cranston’s “Breaking Bad “character Walter White, meets George Costanza.
• Dr. Laurie Santos shows us the path to true happiness.
• Scam baiter Kitboga, enlisted Jason to scam a scammer, by impersonating a fake elderly couple.
• Dr. Samuel West explains why he created the Museum of Failure.
• Jason and Peter have the same favorite episode…

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FOLLOW REALLY NO REALLY:

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It's an encore presentation of our Festivus episode... with a TWIST. Jason will forever be associated with the 166th episode of Seinfeld, which featured Festivus...the holiday where families air their grievances, then demonstrate feats of strength around an unadorned, aluminum pole. For Seinfeld writer Dan O'Keefe, the horrors of the real-life Festivus, invented by his mad genius father, were traumatizing events. Really, no Really!

But wait, that's not all. In this updated episode we have a very special performance of a brand-new Festivus song, with lyrics by Peter and music and vocals by Sunny and the Black Pack.

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FOLLOW SUNNY AND THE BLACK PACK:

Instagram: @blackmediapresents

Facebook: @sunnyandtheblackpack

X: @blackmedia

FOLLOW DAN:

X: @djok_er

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In today’s episode, our guest, Dr. Jonah Berger, a Wharton School professor, best-selling author, and world-renowned expert on word of mouth, and consumer behavior…discusses with Jason and Peter, how his cutting-edge research, revealed the six types of words that can increase your impact… in every area of your life!

These are the “magic words” that salespeople use to convince clients to buy, customer service reps use to increase satisfaction, lawyers use to persuade juries, and you can use, to motivate people do things they otherwise wouldn’t do! 

And by the end of this episode, you’ll understand how, by simply altering your words, you can increase your persuasiveness…by 30%!!!    Really, no Really!

IN THIS EPISODE:

• The 6-types of Magic Words.
• Why Dr. Berger decided to study the power of words.
• The astounding difference between “helping” and “being a helper.”
• Why appealing to our identity is more persuasive than asking for an action.
• The power of evoking certainty.
• Revealing the science of contagion.
• Using language to intentionally manipulate – is that a good or bad thing?
• The difference between “should” vs “could” in motivating creative problem solving.
• What really happens when we ask people for advice.
• What’s the difference between saying a movie, “was good” as opposed to “is good”?
• Googleheim: What were the first ever words?

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FOLLOW DR BERGER:

Website: jonahberger.com

X: @j1berger

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Humans may be sent on a scientific round trip to Mars, potentially as early as 2035. Beyond the technical challenges, the big question is whether human beings would be capable of dealing with the long period of isolation and loneliness necessary to make the journey.

Anxiety, depression, cognitive decline, emotional dysregulation, weakened immune system and even hallucinations and delusions are just some of the effects of isolation; not exactly great traits when sending people to a distant planet. That’s why scientists all over the globe have begun researching isolation in some of the most remote places on Earth.

Dr. Beth Healey is not only one of those scientists…she’s also a research guinea pig who’s studying the effects of extreme isolation in Antarctica at the spaceflight research center ‘Concordia”, otherwise known as ‘White Mars’. Jason and Peter spoke with Dr. Healey about which human traits are best suited for handling long periods of isolation, how she personally deals with isolation and, how befriending a volleyball, like Tom Hanks did in the movie Cast Away… is an actual phenomenon. Really, no Really!

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IN THIS EPISODE:

• Who chooses to join an extreme isolation study?
• The personality traits that successful candidates possess.
• 3rd Quarter Syndrome and its effect on male and female participants.
• Dr. Healey discusses the traits, qualifications and abilities that made her a successful White Mars candidate.
• The psychological challenges of isolation.
• What happens to interpersonal relationships with friends and family back home?
• Wilson the volleyball from the Tom Hank’s film “Cast Away” is a real phenomenon.
• Why someone in Antarctica maliciously hid Dr Healey’s gloves? Really???
• GoogleHEIM: We found her glove!

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FOLLOW BETH:

Website – BethHealey.com

Instagram - @BethAHealey

X - @Bethahealey

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