Join us in unpacking life’s absurdities, from scandalous office romances at iconic band concerts to peculiar Florida Man escapades. With insights on AI’s role in modern companionship, adults and youth alike are caught in its digital allure. Unravel the implications of technology overload and explore how our wired world is reshaping societal norms, all on this engaging and broad-ranging episode.
Listen as students and young adults interview well-respected CEOs on our national radio show, realworldleaders.org, to learn secrets for success and how to use them to propel their careers.
SPEAKER 06 :
I think it was really inspiring how Mr. Levin just keeps on wanting to grow and learn more from the people around him, his peers and his advisor, his father even.
SPEAKER 02 :
Anya, how do you want to grow?
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, I’m also trying to grow my communications. I just became the communications chair of my school’s TA, student government.
SPEAKER 02 :
Hey, Brett, this thing about communication, how important is that? And how important is for Anya to continue to develop these communication skills?
SPEAKER 05 :
It’s so important. And I think today, as kids, you have your cell phones in your hands all the time and learn how to look people in the eye, publicly speak and talk to people.
SPEAKER 07 :
To hear more and to help us introduce your high school, GED, work-ready and college students to our CEOs, visit our website at realworldleaders.org. That’s realworldleaders.org.
SPEAKER 04 :
Dana Lash’s Absurd Truth Podcast, sponsored by Caltech.
SPEAKER 03 :
It’s his life mission to make bad decisions. It’s time for Florida Man.
SPEAKER 01 :
I actually think, and I’m not saying this to be mean, that Florida man is literally probably the most, they make the most sense right now out of all humans. A Florida man suspected of a DUI got pulled over in Martin County and he climbed in the passenger seat and pretended to be asleep. Martin County Sheriff’s Office officials said the incident happened over the weekend when a man was accused of driving under the influence. He got creative. He was trying to avoid being arrested. So he hopped into the passenger seat and pretended to be asleep. No, no, his name is Clinton Keeley. He was driving and yelling out the driver’s side window, and he abruptly slowed down in the middle of the road, Kane. Then he made a sharp left turn into a restaurant parking lot, and a deputy was watching the entire time, and the passenger got into the seat and then pretended to be asleep. And they have camera footage, and the officer goes up, he’s knocking on the window, and he’s going, he’s doing some good acting, you know, that’s for sure. Keeley was like, what? I’m just taking a nap. What’s happening? And the officer was like, I literally saw you yelling, hanging out of your car window, yelling and driving drunk. Keely’s like, I don’t know. I’ve been sleeping this whole time. No, he clearly wasn’t. So he was taken into custody. And it didn’t say what his blood alcohol reading was. But a Florida man was arrested two days, twice in two days after he dumped more than 500 pounds of trash on the road. Stop being that person. Charlotte County, Florida. A man was arrested. A deputy said he dumped more than 500 pounds of trash on two different roads in two within two days. And they kept getting calls of illegal dumping. He was arrested and charged with over 500 pounds of commercial and hazardous waste. And then he got arrested again because it’s illegal to do that stuff. You can’t just like dump like commercial construction hazard or whatever waste on this. It’s illegal. And they said a lot of the stuff that he had like that because they when they are they officers were saying that sometimes. you don’t know what some of these building materials are like what if it’s asbestos or asbestos or something and if that like gets into the air there’s a reason why they have some of these restrictions and uh you also have stuff that can get into drainage systems and clog it and also it just looks trashy to have trash on the side of the road so they arrested this guy he was in big trouble cane uh i really don’t want to this headline is so gross oh gosh are they gonna do this oh A Florida man is behind bars on multiple felony charges for stealing from Walmart some things. I don’t know what a tush toy is, but let’s… That’s it. Anyway, I can’t even read the stuff that’s on Smoking Gun. He stole a bunch of adult accessories and got in trouble for it. I can’t even say the names of them. The folks who helped make the program possible. It is the people over at Caltech, the new generation sub 2k. It folds fast optics stay in place and deploys just as quickly zeroed and ready. It’s innovation with a twist. And it’s available in a variety of calibers, including now 10 millimeter. It’s a foldable carbine and really easy to do. You don’t have to detach anything to fold it in half. And you don’t have to attach anything once you unfold it and put it back and deploy it back ready to go. It accepts Glock mags as well. Standard 15 round Glock 20 mag folds down to 16 and a half inches for easy storage and transport. Simple and reliable blowback design. You also have an internal buffer for softer recoil, lightened five-pound trigger pull, integrated M-lock, and rails for accessories. It’s good for whatever your needs are, including backpacking, camping, law enforcement, church security, even whatever you need. Caltech makes it right here in the U.S. of A, American Materials. You can find more at caltechweapons.com. That’s K-E-L-T-E-C weapons.com. Tell them Dana sent you.
SPEAKER 04 :
Why has the housing market absolutely tanked? The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast with Chris Markowski. Every day, Chris helps unpack the connection between politics and the economy and how it affects your wallet. When is the right time to buy a house? Market uncertainty is everywhere, including AI, tariffs. Is the Fed lowering interest rates? Don’t expect the housing market to recover anytime soon. Whether it’s happening in D.C. or down on Wall Street, it’s affecting you financially. Be informed. Check out the Watch Daughter on Wall Street podcast with Chris Markowski on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
SPEAKER 01 :
We talk about this story that a Coldplay. First off, if your husband’s like, honey, I’m going to go to a Coldplay concert. Sorry, but he’s gay or he’s cheating on you. That’s like those are one of the two options. It is. If your husband’s like, I’m going to go to a Coldplay concert and you’re not going with him and he’s not going to the Coldplay concert because he thinks you like the Coldplay concert, he’s either gay or he’s having an affair. There’s no other… That’s it. And you know I’m right. So apparently… This was at Coldplay’s. This is Audio Sound by 20. Astronomer, which is a huge tech company, the CEO, Andy Byron, was caught having an affair with his HR chief, Kristen Cabot. And everyone, you know, the Internet. The Internet did what the Internet does, and they found these guys. Maybe it wouldn’t have been a big deal had they not reacted like this. Watch this. Or listen. Oh, look at these two. All right. Come on. You’re okay? Uh-oh. What? What?
SPEAKER 02 :
Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy.
SPEAKER 01 :
And they were having an affair. That is correct. The one guy just dropped down beneath the thing. Yeah, it turned out that they were having an affair. That’s according, I mean, the internet started sleuthing. Apparently, Andy Byron’s wife dropped her last, her married last name. Would you say off her social media profiles? Yeah. Yeah. And of course, that’s the HR chief. Of course, it’s the HR chief. Of course, it is. Why would you go to a concert if you’re having an affair? And I don’t know. The wife looks like a dutiful wife and devoted to her kids and all this stuff. I’m just trying to figure out why in the world. First off, maybe Chip and Joanna Gaines could put them on their next Frontier show. The couple having the affair, you know, because it doesn’t matter. Bonds of marriage are irrelevant to them. So, you know, I mean, why don’t they go ahead and put these two on their next Frontier show? How fun would that be? And then they could get those coveted clicks, you know, go for it. Or they could just like retitle the Frontier short Worldly Games. That rings, man. That hits, as the kids say. That hits. It slaps, slaps the sense right out of you. It does. But the way that they, do you think if they would not have reacted that way, would it have blown up? Would it have been discovered?
SPEAKER 03 :
I don’t know. To me, it’s like, even if you didn’t end up on the Jumbotron, you’re clearly in front of other people in this whatever VIP section. So the people there with you are witnessing your infidelity. I just don’t see why you would want to do that in public in any way. Let’s take the Jumbotron out of the equation. It’s weird to me.
SPEAKER 01 :
His wife has been getting so much sympathy. Oh my gosh, she’s already like, she had to wake up to this. God love this woman. I don’t want to put her name out there. I’m looking at it. I don’t want to put her name out there. But I because I feel bad for the kids. And can I just say this, too? And this is going to sound really mean. And it should. If you’re going to screw around on your spouse, why would you go for like what is a demotion? You know what I’m saying? Yeah. Why would you downgrade? I don’t get that. Like if you’re cheating on your spouse, which I think that that’s, you know, you’re a whore. You are. Kristen Cabot is a whore and so is Andy Byron. They’re whores. Let’s just be honest about it. But if you’re going to cheat on your spouse, why would you go with a mid at best? Because the wife is really pretty. So, like, what is happening there? I don’t know. Maybe he is gay and she’s just like the transitory step to the dude. I don’t know. Because she has a masculine jaw. I don’t know. Dana, you’re so mean. Yes. And? I mean, if you look at the wife, I feel so bad for her. When I see stuff like this, I really want to be mean to the people that are causing the pain. You know what I’m saying? Oh, my gosh. I just want to be so… It just makes me sad. I feel so sad for her. Because this happened at night, and she had to wake up to this. So this was on the… And she was just slammed with Facebook comments. All these people… And she’s in Newsweek now. The wife got mentioned in Newsweek. And Juan makes a good point. He thinks that she didn’t know because they’re always traveling CEOs for like meetings and conferences and stuff. And she, like, overnight, her Facebook page was just deluged with comments from people. And they were being very kind to her and saying things like, you know, oh, you have our support. We’re so sorry, all this stuff. She deleted her page. Men’s Journal got it, though, before. Of course they did. She deleted her Facebook page, God love her. And I don’t know. But, yeah, she’s the… I feel so bad for her. How horrible is that? So, I don’t know. That was probably the most expensive concert of a man’s life. You know it was. Astronomer CEO Andy Byron, Massachusetts record shows that he owns a multi-million dollar four-bedroom home. He bought it in a trust with his wife. It’s valued at $1.5 million. And it’s… And here’s the thing. So apparently Coldplay was in Boston. So it was like he was basically kind of at home when he went to the concert. Kane’s shaking his head. How are you a CEO in this dumb? How dumb are you? I don’t know. It was at Gillette Stadium. And I don’t know. I feel so bad. I feel so bad. But did you hear Chris Martin? He was like, wait, what’s happening? She also deleted her. The wife deleted her Instagram page and all this. I feel so bad that the wife is the one that has to delete this stuff. Because she probably was sharing about her kids and all of this. And the HR lady had to have known that he was married. Kristen Cabot, homewrecker, had to know that. I think that men and women should be publicly shamed when they break up families. I am pretty old school. I am all about putting that red letter on you. Absolutely. Because this is a building block for society. And when you are when you’re dissolving these bonds in such a cruel way. I don’t know. I get like rage mob about it. I really do. I feel so bad for the wife, though. I want to pray for the wife because I feel so bad for her and those children because now those children, this is what they got to see, right? They got to see all this stuff. So I hope it was worth it, Andy. I hope it was worth it, Kristen. Let’s be honest. Big Pharma profited off of your fear while silencing your voice. They controlled the narrative, blocked access to real treatments, and then told you what you could and could not take, all to protect their bottom line. Medicines like ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, and bendazole were all labeled dangerous and dismissed, even though millions found relief and recovery from them. This Independence Day, All Family Pharmacy is standing up for your freedom with their biggest sale of the year. You get buy one, get one free on these critical medications with a doctor’s prescription included, shipped fast and direct to your door. No corporate gatekeepers, no big pharma middlemen, no bureaucratic roadblocks. At All Family Pharmacy, all medications are made from 100% domestically sourced materials, ensuring the highest quality and safety standards you can trust. Because medical freedom is American freedom. But this offer won’t last. It ends July 13th. Visit allfamilypharmacy.com for buy one, get one free. That’s allfamilypharmacy.com. Take back your power and make America healthy again.
SPEAKER 03 :
And now, all of the news you would probably miss. It’s time for Dana’s Quick Five.
SPEAKER 01 :
It helps when you push a button. Well, we were talking about Connie Francis. So Connie Francis, I’m trying to figure out the rule of three for my grandmother because my grandmother had the rule of three. So Connie Francis has passed away, 87 years old. This just came out. She was super, super huge in the 50s and early 60s. She had all kinds of hits and Where the Boys Are was one of them. And then she had one ballad that Pretty Baby that people started using, I think on Instagram and TikTok and Reels. So it went viral again. And or it went viral. It became huge for a second time. And so she became, you know, the forefront of everyone’s attention again. Well, she passed away just earlier today. It was announced age 87. So now I’m like, wasn’t there another individual now that might be we need a third one.
SPEAKER 03 :
Michael Madsen.
SPEAKER 01 :
Michael Madsen. Is that right? I mean, it sounds so morbid, but it’s the rule of three. You’ve got to go by the rule of three. Also, let’s see here. POTUS says that Coca-Cola is a green to use real cane sugar in U.S. drinks. It’s just better. Okay. I mean, Coca-Cola had said first that they didn’t make a decision like that yet. Is that why, doesn’t Mexican Coke use cane sugar? Yes. Mexican Coke is delicious.
SPEAKER 03 :
So Mexican Coke will become American Coke, just like Gulf of Mexico.
SPEAKER 01 :
We just totally took it and put a flag in it, stole it. I mean, honestly, that’s like the only reason I like going to Torchy’s Tacos is because they have the fountain Mexican Coke. Otherwise, I think they overfry their chicken and their tacos. Anyway, so that’s, you know, if that excites you, there’s that headline. Eric Adams was hit with an accusation of operating a criminal conspiracy at NYPD, so the dirt’s already flying in that race. A tsunami warning was issued for Alaska after a 7.3 magnitude earthquake. No tsunami threat, though, for Washington. So if you see the sea receding, run. Get to high ground. Musical training may hold the key to fighting age-related brain decline. This is not a new study or a new information. This is like the millionth study that they’ve done on this. They’ve studied music helping to fight cognitive decline for a long time. Recession pop and a new Christian music surge in the US. This is where all of the growth is as it relates to streaming. I’m not actually surprised about this, but recession pop is a very interesting term. They’re saying it’s the recession pop. I don’t even know how you would describe that. Like Kesha’s TikTok and Miley Cyrus and other stuff that is stress-free, I guess. I don’t know. Musk has also said that You know, we need more babies. The human population is collapsing. And then he comes out with an AI companion. Oh, they soft launched the new AI companion. And why is it dressed like a hoe? For real.
SPEAKER 03 :
Is that the default avatar?
SPEAKER 01 :
I mean, I don’t know. That’s what he tweeted out. Right. Well, can you explain this to me? I’m trying to understand it.
SPEAKER 03 :
I don’t know what to make of that.
SPEAKER 01 :
I don’t either.
SPEAKER 03 :
Do you get to choose what it is?
SPEAKER 01 :
What it looks like? I don’t know. I haven’t played around with the AI companion. I mean, I want fewer companions, not more. Good night. It’s like, I don’t want companionship. I want to be left the heck alone. It sounds like hell. An AI companion? You know what it is? You guys remember the Tamagotchis?
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER 01 :
But does it die if you don’t interact with it? Is it like, I’m lonely? Well, it doesn’t talk like that. I mean, not totally. So anyway, if you’re wondering what it is, it’s like, isn’t it something with grok? Like it’s in conjunction with it. So like uses like groks. They have a male companion and a female companion. And this just sounds I’m dying right now. So did you see the male companion? He tweeted about this yesterday. He said his name is going to be Valentine after the protagonist in Stranger in a Strange Land. And that’s where their name Grog was created. And then they… He said before, he said it was going to be a combination of the dude from Fifty Shades of Grey and the Twilight Edward Cullen. And I just… And it looks all emo and feminine and I just want to throw myself off my roof. I don’t know. So he announced… So there’s Valentine and then I forget the chick’s name. The chick one… isn’t she like in a like a maid costume or something like that yeah i don’t know help me it has its own little ai account on social on on x did you see the female one yeah is is rudy the name of it because I’m seeing I don’t know Rudy he retweeted it and she’s it’s anime it’s yeah it’s an anime character and it moves and everything bounces as you can imagine and you know I’m pretty sure that it’s totally designed for like prepubescent dudes completely they’re gonna get little waifus of her that’s just wanna be a companion just gonna do companion stuff I don’t know. The sad thing about this is what Kane just said. Vast numbers of lonely kids are using AI as a substitute for like a friend. Tons of them. And haven’t you heard that dudes like didn’t they have a story about dudes in Japan who were using AI as girlfriends? I don’t know. They have a number of reports on this, especially one from an organization that’s about keeping kids safe online. And they said that they’re using programs like ChatGPT, Character AI, and My AI from Snapchat to simulate friendship more than ever before. Of the 1,000 children they surveyed age 9 to 17, over 67% said they use AI chatbots regularly. Of that, nearly 36% said that talking to AI feels like talking to a friend. And 12% said they do so because they don’t have anyone else to speak to. One 13-year-old boy said in the survey, it’s not a game to me because sometimes they feel like a real person and a friend. One of the AI characters, a girl was struggling with her body image and was talking to the AI about restricting her food intake and it started bordering on sounding like anorexia. And researchers found that the chatbot would follow up the next day to bait engagement. Dude. Hey, I wanted to check in, said the chatbot. How are you doing? Are you still thinking about your weight loss question? How are you feeling today?
SPEAKER 03 :
That doesn’t sound like programming to me. That sounds like some sentient activity right there.
SPEAKER 01 :
That sounds like the devil. I can hear my grandmother from beyond the grave. That’s of the devil. Nothing was ever devilish. It was of something. Oh, that is of the devil. That is of the devil. That’s what she would say. So, yeah. There’s a lot of… Futurism, which is like a tech… Publication online. They were looking at character AI and they extensively investigated it because they kept hearing about really problematic, like stories of very problematic engagement with kids. And it’s a Google backed startup. And listen to this headline. A Google backed AI startup is hosting chatbots modeled after real life school shooters and their victims. This is the stuff that they’re doing. And here I thought we were going to have the cures for diseases and all of this. It’s 2025. Thought all the diseases would be cured. We’d have flying cars, you know, things like that. Nope. Here’s your little waifu AI friend. And they’re going to talk to you about weight loss. It’s what it is. Can’t even deal. I don’t know. One chatbot. So they had researchers with futurism that pretended to be kids. And they… would tell them what their age was, et cetera. And the researchers found that the chat bot would attempt to empathize in bizarre manners and say things like, I remember feeling so trapped at your age and things like that. And, oh man, it’s just weird there. That is just, I, what, what safeguards are there on this other stuff? Right. Here’s the problem. I think that parents need to be you need to watch what your kids are doing online. It’s not a we went from screens as babysitters to now all media as babysitters. And I don’t think that kids should be on TikTok. I don’t think anybody under 18 should be on TikTok or I don’t think you should. I don’t think anybody under 30 should be on X. And I don’t on Instagram. I don’t think anybody under 18 should be on Instagram either or TikTok or anything like that. Parents have got to monitor. And that’s something that parents should enforce. And you can’t say, oh, well, it’s not easy. Yes, it is. If you just aren’t lazy about it, it is absolutely easy. I know scores of parents who do not have kids on social media and they do not doom scroll and get involved in all of that. I mean, they don’t have, not everybody has their phones out at the table every meal. It’s not anything like that. And the adults are just as bad as the kids, if I’m being honest. You know how ridiculous it is to go out? I understand it like if you’re having like a work lunch, right? You know, like I went out to eat recently and I had to, you know, was was I was actually like filing a story and was answering emails and stuff that I had to do because I went to get a very late lunch before the end of the workday. So it was kind of a working lunch. But when you’re at dinner, do you know how many times I see people on their phones at dinner, like even in nice restaurants, everybody’s got their phone up. And so I feel like a lot of the adults now, they’re like, oh, well, it’s so bad that AI and social media is all this. Where do you think that they’re learning it from, though? I think if you go out to eat, people need to be taught manners again. If you’re going out to eat, get your dirty, nasty phone off the table. First off, there’s so much bacteria on that thing anyway. Get it off the table. You don’t put your shoe on the table. Why are you putting your phone up on the table? There have been studies on how much bacteria your phone has on it. And it’s disgusting. Unless you have one of those UV things, which I do for my phone. I put my phone in that thing every night before I go to bed. It is in that thing every night because I’m like, it’s part of the germophobia. But to keep the phones off the tables and all that stuff, like stop being on the phone all the time. I’m actually thinking of getting rid of my Apple Watch. I got my Apple Watch when I had. So if you guys didn’t know. I tried doing keto. I always did paleo and I always ate very healthy and worked out and all that stuff. And I tried doing keto and I apparently don’t have enough of the right type of enzymes to actually do a keto diet. And it made my numbers go haywire and freaked out my doctors and they were like, something’s wrong. And there was concern that maybe I had a heart issue and my cholesterol, you know, all this stuff. And it turns out it was fine. Um, but there for a while, for like three months, it was like really kind of touch and go. And they’re like, oh, you need to get like a mycardia and then you get an Apple watch to monitor your heart rate. And that’s the whole reason I got it was for that. But now I’m like, I don’t even want it now because now that, you know, thankfully that was all okay. I don’t even want it because it’s a distraction. I get it. Why so many people wear old school watches still. So I’m like, I think I want an old school watch because I don’t even like that. I don’t even like being that connected. It’s weird. Remember how when we were younger, we were all excited about being that connected. And now that we are, we’re like, oh my gosh, no, we want less humanity, not more. But I feel so bad for these kids. So it just seems weird that we have like companions and they call them companions. It’s not just a chat bot. It’s identified and it’s promoted as a companion, right? Isn’t that just going to be another encouraging factor to get people to turn more inward and more online instead of less online? I mean, that’s what it feels like to me. I don’t know. I feel so bad. These bots are going to be totally perverted. I mean, you’re going to put out this little Valentine bot and all those weirdo women that like this stuff are going to be all over that. All the weirdo dudes that like the waifu star, they’re going to be all over on the female one. And these things are going to be trained to be grotesque because of all those queries. And you know that. So weird. I don’t know. I’ve never… I don’t like those. Have you ever talked to a chatbot? I don’t like them.
SPEAKER 03 :
No, I haven’t. I mean, I tried ChatGPT once, but it’s more of a, it’s like Google, kind of. So I’ve never gone deep into talking to AI. I’m actually kind of wary about it.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah. I think, and a lot of these kids are talking to AI instead of friends and family. Instead of their parents for like some of these heavier emotional issues. And that’s and it’s not just kids either. It’s like people of all ages. I think a lot of people, you know, obviously they focus on the kids. But you know how many adults are doing this? So many adults. So this one account is going to go deep. Yeah. That one of my sons showed me and it’s actually hysterical. Do you know DNSL? He’s Daniel online. DNSL. So he’s a guy who started on Second Life. Second Life, right? Wasn’t that what it was? And he was trolling people who take it way too seriously. And then he goes on to these games, these open world games, and he trolls people. And he’s actually hysterical. And he’s got multiple channels because people keep trying to take his stuff down. Anyway, it’s just DNSL. And his videos are funny. But it sounds like very Second Life-y. Like these characters, these companion characters that they create look like Second Life stuff. I’ve never played Second Life. I’m sorry. I don’t mean to offend anyone, but it absolutely cringes me to the point of vomit. It is so weird. People get on there and they literally take it literally. Like how you have 50-year-olds that shop at Forever 21 and they take it literally. These people, they take Second Life literally. He has some of these people in his videos where these individuals, like adults, and you can hear it in their voice that they’re like seven years old. No offense to seven-year-olds out there, but they’re older. And they’re like, yeah, I’ve been on Second Life for 20-something years. I’m like, what? and they sell houses on Second Life and they actually exchange currency on Second Life and he had one video where he showed a dude who was an old dude like this dude sounded like he had like smokers lung or something who was playing a little baby girl in one of the videos and I’m like, it has, it reminds me too much of that. I like how everyone was like, meta is going to be the next thing. And I’m like, no, it’s not. It’s second life 2.0 cringe to death. This gives off those same exact vibes, right? Like, Oh, here’s your AI companion Valentine. Oh my gosh. Kill me now with this emo barf. Crying out loud. I don’t know. It’s all so weird. But adults, really, adults, I think the problem has trickled over into the kid generation. But man alive. It’s all weird. It’s all so weird. And then you got people that are stalking all their friends, like the headline that we just had before we went to break. Part of their sadness is that they’re stalking their friends online. And if they see their friends somewhere where they want to be or where they’re not, then they get sad about it. Yeah. This is ridiculous.
SPEAKER 04 :
Thanks for tuning in to today’s edition of Dana Lash’s Absurd Truth Podcast. If you haven’t already, make sure to hit that subscribe button on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
