Transcript of Hour 2: Sorry, I Was Hardly Listening (feat. Maxwell Frost & Jessica Smetana)

Now is a good time to remember where tequila's story truly began. In 1795, Cuervo invented tequila. Cuervo. What are you doing here? Cuervo.

Anytime someone says Cuervo, I show up.

Well, I do know that to be true, but even during an ad, reads like... Cuervo. I think you could lay out, especially for one of our great partners.

Sweet, delicious Cuervo.

Since then, Cuervo has stayed true to its roots. The same family, the same land, the same passion. Cuervo. So enjoy the tequila that started it all. Cuervo. Cuervo. The tequila that invented tequila. Proximo. Cuervo. Com. Please drink responsibly. Cuervo.

This is the Dan Levatore Show with the Stugats podcast.

We got to... Let me start again. I'm sorry.

No, keep that. That was good. Please.

I like that.

All right, keep it. We...

Five, four. No, no. Come on, you coward. Keep it.

Three, two. All right, keep it. Check out her weekly Notre Dame podcast, The Echos, with Mike Golic. Echoes. Echoes. Junior. Hold on. This is not an echo chamber. And you will hear her as well on Zazlo's show 2. 0 because she's going to be showing around Zazlo, the Notre Dame campus. This is her new thing at Metalark Media, to just show our employees around Notre Dame. She did it with Lucy. What tips do you have for Zazlo before you guys head to Notre Dame here this weekend?

Well, apparently there's a lot of media coming to this little USC Notre Dame game. I don't know if you guys have ever heard of this rivalry, but it's been around for 100 years. And apparently the weather is going to be a little sloppy on Saturday, Zaz. You will likely have a bit of a wet tour around campus. But I do recommend walking around the quads and just letting it all soak in like me and Lucy did a couple of weeks ago.

What's the deal around Touchdown Jesus? I was in Europe this past week, and I go to see the Mona Lisa. There's a huge crowd of people around. If I go to Touchdown Jesus- You were unimpressed by the Mona Lisa. Very small, all right? Very small. Is Touchdown Jesus all it's cracked up to be?

The difference between the Mona Lisa and Touchdown Jesus is about 5,000 square feet. So there's not much of a crowd around it because you can see it from farther away. Whereas when you're at the Louver and you're in that little Mona Lisa rooms as, you know this. You got to go all the way up. You're like, Where is it? I can't see there's too many people in front of me. And then you see and you're like, Oh, there it is. And it's like a little guy. So it's quite different, I would say.

All right. So I'll be able to go right up to Homeboy, Touchdown Jesus.

If you get too close, you won't be able to see it because then you'll be creating your neck up.

Are you excited about this, Zazla? Or are you excited about going to South Bend for the first time?

Yeah, I went last year, too. I didn't get to see everything on campus, but I went last year, too. I think South Bend's got some cool places to hang out. I'm not doing a show tomorrow night, actually, so I get to actually... I'm going to lose it up. So I'm pretty excited about tomorrow night, actually, before the show.

Jessica, can you explain to Zazla what he's in for? Do you believe it to be a unique experience among all college football experiences?

I would say, I mean, yes and I know. It's a lot like a lot of other really beautiful college campuses. It's unique in how small it is, I think. A lot of people are surprised by that, and some of the landmarks on campus are pretty unique. But no, I think it's going be a great college football atmosphere. I do think Zaz, you're in for a bit of a hostile environment because as of the recording of this, there's still no announcement on if this rivalry will continue past this game. We are operating under the assumption that this may be the last Notre Dame-USC game ever. I think the fans are very upset about that right now.

What is the back and forth like? Like tailgating all day because it's a night game. Usc fans, Notre Dame fans. Will they be nasty with each other?

I don't think they'll be nasty. I mean, maybe some, obviously. I don't think there's always outlier crazy people, but I've never been at a Notre Dame tailgate where people were nasty to anyone. And that goes for most college football games. I feel like most home crowds, I think, are pretty welcoming of visitors. And a lot of Notre Dame people have LA friends and vice versa. So I don't think it's going to be like people are going to be fist-fighting each other in the parking lot. But I do think it's going to be a little rowdy, probably a little rowdier than the Boise State crowd that Lucy and I were in town for, which was a warm October day, a little lazy vibe out there. I think this is going to be a lot more charged.

Jess, this is a massive game for Notre Dame. This is probably the last... We'll see what twists and turns the season takes, but this is on your schedule, the real last chance to impress a committee. If you were on the table, you should make the CFP. Do you feel the same way?

Yeah, definitely. I mean, Pitt, all of a sudden, is playing a lot better with their new quarterback. Notre Dame travels to Pittsburgh next month. Maybe they could be ranked. I don't know. We'll see. But yeah, this certainly would be a great boost on the Notre Dame resume because, like you said, they play Boston College, who I believe... Mike, check me on this. I think Yukon is a favorite against Boston College.

This weekend. I couldn't believe that.

Boston College on a multi-game skid. They have just been really bad the last few weeks. So Notre Dame goes to Boston College. They play Navy and Syracuse without Steve Angele. So Stanford at Stanford to end the season. So yeah, there's a ton of opportunities for ranked wins in there, which is why they probably should have beaten Texas A&M at home. You probably shouldn't have lost by one point, and you probably should have stopped them on fourth and 11. But if they do win this game against USD, I think that would be a huge help.

I'm sorry, Dan. Is this a one year where not being in a conference really hurts you? Because the conference Championship would certainly solidify that. I don't know if you're nervous at all about not making the CFP because you don't have one, but I've heard a lot of experts weigh in. This is the one time where their independence may haunt them a little bit.

I don't think any Notre Dame fan... If Notre Dame goes, say, nine and three and is on the playoff bubble and misses it, I don't think any Notre Dame fan alive would be like, Man, I wish we were in the Big Ten this season. So no, I think they should have just beaten Texas A&M at home, honestly. And they should beat USA at home if they want to make the playoff, win the games. That's really what it comes down to.

I don't know that there's ever been a video that I can play for Jessica that is more in her wheelhouse than that Pope video from earlier in the show. Let's play that for Jessica because this is genuinely and generally shocking to see a Pope. This is not a Pope in costume. This is a Pope who's a White Sox fan being trolled by a Cubs fan in Vatican City.

So sad.

Dan, how How could he do this to me? People keep saying, Oh, man, Chicago Pope, you must feel so happy, so represented. No, he's a White Sox fan. He's laughing at me right now. The Pope is laughing at me, Dan, and I deserve it. I deserve it for being a Cubs fan. And this is what I've said my whole life: God doesn't love the Cubs. It's obvious. 2016 was a fluke, and it sent the whole universe into some dark, black hole tailspin that we still haven't fought our way out of. God does not love the Chicago Cubs, Dan, and neither does the Pope.

Put it on the poll, please. Was the Pope trash-talking? Because that's as close as a Pope's ever going to come to trash-talking. Is it not?

I love that he responded in Spanish first, too, and then translated it into English. That was solid Pope work by him.

I have a number of different college football controversies to get to. So which do you want? Handshake Gate, Tortilla Gate, or Trent Dilfer being fired by UAB? Which one would you like first?

Well, I'm shocked you guys haven't covered the Trent Dilfer news because it was the big college football head coaching news of the weekend. He was let go by UAB. But now let's talk about the tortillas first, Dan, because this is one of those silly college football things that it started off a little silly, then it It got real. And then it got real. Now there's fines involved, and now Kansas's head coach looks like a liar. A liar? Dan, you know of the Texas Tech tortilla throwing tradition?

I do. It was up for Hampton Farms' nuttiest fan of the week a couple of weeks ago.

Love those peanuts. Anyway, so this past weekend, huge game between Texas Tech and Kansas, and the fans were throwing tortillas, of course. And over the summer, the Big 12 said, If you throw tortillas, you'll get a warning, and then eventually you'll get 15-yard penalties because you can't throw stuff on the field, which makes a lot of sense. Even though tortilla is very soft, they don't hurt. They're not hurting anyone, but it is a pain in the ass to clean up, and you shouldn't throw stuff on the field regardless. Anyway, so the Texas Tech fans were throwing the tortillas. Texas Tech was getting fined. And Lance Leopold, the Kansas head coach, was not happy after the game, and there was a very awkward handshake between him and Joey Maguire, the Texas Tech head coach. And you can hear the audio on it. I'm not sure if we have the video, Dan. If we do, we'll play it. But you can hear the audio. Here's some explitives were said during this very tense handshake.

Yeah, I know. That's what I did.

Coach, I can't do anything about it. You want me to do something about it?

I know. And I said I got it.

What's he supposed to do about it?

That's what he said.

Well, so after this game, so Texas Tech won big, but I will add, one of the penalties was when the game was still pretty close. So both coaches were, I think, exasperated by the fact that the tortillas kept coming even after the first 15-yard penalty. Afterwards, Leopold said that someone threw a pocket knife at one of his players on the field. So not only were the fans throwing tortillas, someone threw a pocket knife. He said this in his postgame press conference. And then Joey Maguire did his postgame press conference and said that he needs the fans to chill out a little bit, which is really all he can do, right? Is tell the fans, Please stop. You're hurting our football team. We're actually really good this year. You're going to blow this for us. So subsequently, Dan, the Texas Tech apparently submitted footage to the Big 12 conference showing that they think a Kansas staffer dropped the pocket knife on the sideline I have watched the video several times. I can't tell what the hell is going on in this video, but apparently it shows this Kansas staff are dropping a pocket knife on the Kansas sideline.

So I don't know.

To make it look, to plant that there was a- Planting evidence.

You're saying? I don't know the intent. I don't know the intent. Both teams did get fined. So Texas Tech was fined for the tortilla throwing $25,000, and Kansas was fined for Lance Leopold's comments about the Big 12, which he said the officials didn't handle it well, and the league hasn't handled the tortilla thing well. So They got fined, and now there's this further speculation on what the hell happened with this pocket knife. That as of the recording of this, Dan, I don't know. I don't know where the pocket knife came from.

But if you say thrown pocket knife, I think most of us assume after our knife throwing adventures a week ago that most people are assuming that the pocket knife is being thrown with the blade out. You're suggesting that it's just a pocket knife that's falling out of somebody's pocket that might not even have the blade out.

Well, So when Leopold said this in the postgame press conference, it was implied that it was aggressively thrown onto the field by fans and hit a player. And now it seems like it potentially just fell out of someone's pocket or dropped out of someone's pocket. So again, I've watched the video and the videos are like, You can clearly see here that this guy did this, and I can't see shit, Dan. So you want to watch the video and tell me. But it's very bad look for Kansas because this is why you wait until your Monday press conference to be really emotional and call people out because then maybe you take a step and then you're like, Okay, I probably should not say what I was going to say Saturday night.

Hey, audience, I got a special treat for you because I want to talk to you about Miller Light, but I want to talk to you about Miller Light with my good friend Rose. Hey, Rose. Hi, everybody. When we hang out, and we hang out often, we're friends. I consider us friends. Yeah, me too. We're often toasting the good times. And what am I toasting with? With Miller Light. That's right, Miller Light. Whether you're hanging out with your dear friend Rose or at the game day, it just hits different when you got a Miller Light in your hand. From jaw-dropping touch downs to fantasy heartbreak, it's a beer that has been there for every moment. Fifty years of great taste, simple ingredients, and that iconic golden color that you can spot across the room. And it's just not the color of the beer, which is brilliant. That beautiful white can. How beautiful is that? Is that you doing the sound of a can opening? Yes. Is that your favorite sound? No, it is a horsey. A horsey? All right, we'll stop doing that. And here's a kicker. Miller Light is just 96 calories, 3. 2 carbs per 12 ounces.

The original light beer since 1975. Five. That's right. And still hitting different five decades later. You're so good at this, Rose. I know. So whatever your game day looks like, remember, Miller Time is always a good-Time. Look at us. We're a great tag team. High five again. Can you do that beer sound one more time? And the horse sound one more time? I regret asking you about that one, but the Miller light sound is good. Miller Light. Great taste, 96 calories. Go to millerlight. Com/janna. Find delivery options near you, or you can pick up some Miller Light pretty much anywhere they sell beer. It's Miller. C'est bien. Celebrate Responsive. Bli. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. C'est bien. 96 calories and 3. 2 carbs per 12 ounce. Ouncess. No, ses. Ouncess. Howdy, folks. It's Mike Ryan, Super excited to talk to you about the official ticketing partner of the Dan Lebitard Show. They've been a good partner of ours, and I couldn't be prouder of it because, folks, I really use Game Time. I practice what I preach here, people, because the Game Time app gives the advantage here, people, because the GameTime app gives the advantage here, people, because the GameTime app gives the advantage here, people, because the GameTime app gives the advantage here, hands.

It's a hack for unlocking amazing tickets, especially when it comes to the National Football League. It is hard to get some really prime NFL tickets, and Game Time makes it so incredibly easy because the interface is beautiful and easy to understand. And the game time guarantee means that you can trust that you'll be getting 100 % authentic tickets on time and at the best price. Plus, fees are always included. So what you see is what you pay. You get zone deals, favorites, panoramic steep views, the low price guarantee, and game time's unparalleled ticket coverage. Take the guesswork out of buying NFL tickets with game time. Download the game time app, create an account, and use code, Dan, for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code, D-A-N, for $20 off. Swipe, tap, ticket, go. Download the Game Time app today.

Don Lebetard.

I just texted my best friend Hannah and asked her who she thinks is going to win tonight, and she has never watched a hockey game this entire season. She's picking the Rangers, and she's She's an astrophysicist.

She's real smart. I'll text Joey.

Dan, you know what I found out about Hannah today? An anagram. Stugatz.

You said Anna or Hannah? Hannah. Okay, I don't know.

Anna, too, depending on how you spell it. Even though if there's two ends, it's also an anagram. Same with one end Anna. Anagrams are fun. Race car. A Hannah-gram. This is the Dan Levatard show with the Stugatz.

When you talk about bad looks, how do we feel about the blue collar jacket look in Michigan here? How do we feel about going to the press conference with a jacket that has your name over your heart, and you're giving off a whole lot of blue collar.

Collar jacket on the day. We got to go back to work right now. There's no pouting, there's no worry about it.

There's no making excuses for it.

That's all we got to do, and that's all I know, and that's what we're going to do right now.

Now, Jess, this has led to spectacular photoshopping from college football social media and corresponding captions. This is a bit ridiculous.

Can I say something controversial?

Yes, of course.

I like the jacket. I think it's cute. I mean, everyone wants to clown Sharon Moore. It's a cute jacket. I like it, and I get what he's going for. Go back to work. He lost to the USC on the road. But I I mean, maybe he's just flexing on everyone because he's like, Look, I got a jacket with my name. I would wear that. If it said Jessica on it, I would wear that. It's cute.

This is where artificial intelligence can be used for good because you get all sorts of photoshopps like him wearing a chef's outfit with a cabchin. That's why I'm wearing a chef white. To remind the team that AIM fans, just keep calm and let me cook. I wore one as him as an astronaut, which is accompanied by as a program, we have to take small steps before we can make giant leaps.

Nice. Dan, can Can I give you three guesses on who UAB's interim head coach is right now?

Sure. Watson Brown.

No. I'll give you a hint. His father was also an ESPN employee.

I saw it. It'll be fun if you get it.

Do we know if Billy's okay? Do we know there was a pocket knife thrown in the back room, and I don't think Billy's okay. I don't know.

I don't want to kill him before he leaves. I also feel like I am attending someone else's funeral right now, and it's a weird vibe. But we already recorded our last mystery crate, so it's not like I haven't addressed with Billy already on air.

I thought Billy was your favorite among everyone here. I thought Billy and you had the greatest chemistry on and off air. You can say whatever you like here for those not listening to mystery crate about Billy's final couple of days.

I think people- Jess and I That was a good chemistry.

That was the greatest example. I thought that you thought that Jeremy was my favorite.

Yeah, I also thought that you thought that. But he's not. I definitely didn't think that myself of our friendship.

Which isn't true. Just kidding. Okay, give me another guess. Father, former ESPN employee, son, played college football, was an analyst at Alabama for a long time, was on the UAB staff.

I'm hardly listening to your hint, and I didn't want to play this game when we started. Thank you. It's a fun game. You can go ahead and just tell me- Billy loves the guessing game.

Billy, you guess. You love the guessing game.

I mean, it's Morton's son.

Morton's son.

Oh, Chris Morton's son is the UAB head coach. He works hard. Trent Dilfer was terrible. How long did he last? A year and a half? Two years? How long did he last? He was so bad.

He was awful. But at least he was a super nice guy the entire time.

Definitely not yelling at kids at all.

I think we should just keep doing that. Keep giving jobs to people who haven't done anything to earn those jobs. Just put them right at the top. We should do that with pool holes, too. The Orials and the Angels are fighting over pool holes. Just keep giving people jobs when they haven't done anything in the way of training for jobs. What is that, Mike? The AI thing is a complicated one because I I see that Robin Williams's family, MLK's family, they're desperately asking everyone to stop putting their beloved family members in AI videos.

Yeah, and I'm doing my part by liking every MLK wrestling video I see.

The MLK is amazing.

It makes sense he would be a great wrestler because he's such a great order. Oh my God. I love it. Oh, my God.

Big heel turn, unexpected, Dan, by M. Okay.

Yeah, yeah. He is the dream.

He is the dream. I saw a Boiler Room set from George Washington the other day. That was cool. Yeah, we're in a dangerous place, and this is all going to be used for bad. But for the moment, let's enjoy some of the fun stuff.

Speaking of a dangerous place, Jessiq, James Franklin just changed all the rules on how much time and how much winning coaches have to do, right?

Sorry, I was hardly listening to you. Trent Dilfer's record was 9: 21, Dan, at UAB. He also, like Mike said, made a lot of jerky comments, like when he had his grandson join him in a press conference and then was like, What? It's not like it's Alabama, which is something you probably shouldn't say if you coach at UAB. But yeah, the James Franklin thing is shocking. I was less shocked when I found out his buyouts, not like a $50 million lump sum payment, which some of them are. So they're going to be able to pay it out over a few years. And there's been a lot of conversation about this duty to mitigate clause in his buyout, which means that if he gets another job, the money will offset. But that's pretty standard among college coaching contracts. Mike, I don't know if Mario's got one of those. You probably know more contract details than us lay people. But it's going to be interesting what the appetite is for hiring him at another coaching job, too, because he's also someone that I think a lot of fans of non-Penn State teams, maybe even including Penn State the last couple of weeks, they've been clowning him for a long time for his reputation of not being able to win a big game.

Now, I have seen a number of Wisconsin fans say, We don't even care who it is. Just get Luke Fickle out of here. And this may, in fact, be Luke Fickle's last game coaching Wisconsin because they have had a terrible season. He has not been fired yet, and they play Ohio State on Saturday. I'm not sure I don't know what the spread is there, but I imagine it's five TDs. So I'm curious to see if he does get another head coaching job or if he does broadcasting or what. But I think the buyout number, we'll just have to wait and see what that ends up being.

I think it's interesting what you're saying there about fans around college football for years clowning him, and now this idea that maybe he'll take a media job. That's weird to me because I feel like people- Well, Jeremy's got some interesting facts about this.

His buyout is super strange.

Yeah, front office sports reported that when he signed the extension with Penn State, that he not only has to look for another job, he has to seek out the highest possible payment for said job within his skillset so that Penn State can get the difference. What I think, personally, we should hire him.

Yes. He's incentivized to take this.

Yeah, but you... So yes, the language says, diligently, search for new employment in good faith, and it has to be market rate. So I guess, yeah, whatever you're paying Billy. So that'll offset the buyout by about, let's say, $200,000 over 10 years? I'm not sure.

I saw a thing, and I'm wondering if you knew that James Franklin, not only if he gets another job, he has to find another job. And if he doesn't, then- He has to. Yeah, he has to look for another job.

Wait, Billy, I didn't hear that. Tell me more.

Well, it turns out it's not just he could take the money. He has to find the job. The highest paying job. And it has to be the most money possible from said job at that role. It could be media or coaching, I believe.

That's very interesting, Billy. Sam Pitman, who was fired a couple of weeks had this duty to mitigate Klauss in his contract. He was like, Actually, I'll take less money if we strike that because I want to retire. They were like, Sure. They renegotiated it. Now he does not have to look for new employment. That's amazing. Because he's like, I'm done.

That's amazing.

Respect. It would be funny if Billy weren't here Monday, but in that chair, James Franklin was. My other idea was Udonis Haslem replacing Billy in terms of just visual funny.

This is rough for Michael Kea. What's he going to do now?

True. Yeah, he's really the big loser in all of this, if you think about it.

Can you tell me, Jessica, a team that you think not enough people are talking about as good? I've got two in Texas Tech and South Florida. I think both of those teams are actually play off good, and not enough people are talking about the fact that I think they're play off good. Do you have anyone in the landscape where you're like, Man, I really like what that team is doing, but I don't think anyone is paying real attention to that team?

That's a great question. Yes, I have so many. But I feel like that South Florida game, I don't know if you guys watched it last weekend, that was incredible. The North Texas South Florida.

Mike was watching it. They score very easily.

It was crazy. It ended up being just... How How many points did they score in the span of three minutes?

Sixty-something.

It was absurd. Let me think about that for a second. I don't think BIO is awesome, but they are undefeated right now, which I think a lot of people would be surprised to find out. But this weekend, Holy War, BIO in Utah. And Utah is also ranked, even though they lost by a lot to Texas Tech. So I think that's going to be a fun game. Honestly, there's just so many big 12 teams right now with one or two losses that they just keep beating up on each other, which is totally expected. But yeah, Cincinnati's quarterback has been really good. There's another Big 12 game this weekend, TCU and Baylor, where I don't think either team's great, so this doesn't really answer your question. But right now, the total is 65 and a half, and both quarterbacks are top 10 in adjusted yards per dropback, I want to say. They're just slinging it a lot. So that could be an old-school Big 12 game this weekend. That would be fun. And then I think if you're Dykes or Aranda, it's like, Uh-oh. You might be in a little bit of a warmer seat situation after that one.

But to answer your question, Dan, this is like, I feel like October, around this time of year, once a lot of teams are done with their buy weeks, this is moving weekend. End where you get into the meat of the conference schedules. Washington and Michigan could be a really good game. Those are two teams. Michigan's obviously got two losses, but they've only got one loss in conference right now. Washington has the loss to Ohio State, which was tough, but they hung in there for a few quarters. But that's a game where you will know a lot about whichever team loses that. And we'll start stacking some of these conference losses, too, which tells you where more teams are. But Yeah, I don't know. There's just so many good games this weekend. I don't even know where to begin.

I like Maryland, too, but Maryland coughed up that game against Washington. Well, September Maryland. I do think that, Mike, you like Washington against Oregon, right?

Yeah, I like Washington. I'm looking at that Penn State, Oregon result, and I know Signetti just had his signature victory. I am not trying to take anything away from that. It's a difficult place to play. The record proves that. But I don't think Oregon is as good. I look at a road trip to Iowa as a trouble spot for Oregon. Like I said, I locked in Oregon to not make the playoffs. I think a team that's going to creep back in there because of the conference that they play in. We saw one win in the SEC is a get-right in the eyes of many. Texas is going to creep back into this conversation, I think.

Are you willing to do this publicly, though?

Put the town on alert. Yeah, I'll be on Iowa, and I'll be on Washington when Oregon plays both those teams.

Iowa came very close to beating Indiana.

That was another team that I like.

We would not be talking about Signetti. They were a play away from beating Indiana. We would not be talking about Iowa and Signetti this way if they had lost to Iowa.

I'll do you one more. We wouldn't be talking about it if that game wasn't on Peacock, because I feel like not a lot of people watched it because it was on Peacock, and you can't put it in your quad box.

I'm wandering around listening to it on satellite radio because that's my new thing on Saturday, is just listening to local Iowa broadcast talk about disposable furniture.

I have to put your business out there, but you also listen to a lot of Pitbull globalization. I got a picture once a week from you listening to Pitbull on Sirius as you're driving around, which is awesome.

Thank you, Jessica. Good talking to you. We'll talk to you next week, and I'll do a better job. If you want to ask me any questions, quiz me on UAB football again. I'll do a better job of listening next time.

We can talk about the Skims fake Bush thongs next week, too.

Check her out on- Yeah, I saw that. Those are crazy.

What's with those vagina hairs?

Check her out on- Hey, Maxwell.

That's Maxwell Frost.

That's not a mystery creep. Oh, my God. You're really bringing in congressman, Maxwell Frost?

No, I'm not.

I was talking some cubes, Max.

He just happened going to pop in the Zoom.

My man likes that. He's in cues.

Thank you, Jessica. We'll gather ourselves here and welcome in the congressman more appropriately than with pubic talk in a second.

Well, I'm glad he stayed there.

I mean, politics, pubic talk might not be that much different.

Yeah. Don Lebatard.

Billy's got a conundrum here. He's got a dog now, and he doesn't know how to socialize with other dog owners.

Stugatz. Dogs, Dan. I don't know if you're aware of dogs. Dogs like to smell each other and socialize and all that stuff. Then I'm holding on to a leash with my dog on it while another owner is doing the same thing, and I don't know how to interact with this owner in this case. Hey, my dog likes your dog's butt smell. As you guys know, I'm not good at small talk. So this is a nightmare for me because what do I talk to these other dog owners about?

I experience this exact same thing with my kid at a park.

It's the same thing. Kids and dogs are basically the same. It's the same exact thing.

Put it on the poll at Lebitard show, are kids and dogs basically the same?

Because my two-year-old wants to run over and play with other kids, and all of a sudden, I'm standing there and our two kids are chasing each other, and we're like, Hey, yeah, there's our kids.

How about that? This is the Dan Levatard show with the Stugats.

We like to talk to congressman, Maxwell Frost. We're getting, as you can tell, a little more and more comfortable with him in ways that are inappropriate. He is from Florida's 10th district. He represents the people of his hometown in Orlando and Central Florida. He's been giving us fairly honest and factual information at a time. It's hard to get honest and factual information. So thank you for joining us again, congressman. What can you tell us about the government shutdown that is most problematic, and where is all of this headed? Yeah.

Well, thanks for having me on, man. So essentially, people who don't know the federal government is currently shut down, what does that mean? It means Congress has not done its damn job to make sure that there's is funding allocated for the government. And when that doesn't happen, the government essentially shuts down. A lot of people get furloughed, which means people are told, Don't come to work, you're not going to get paid. There's a lot of people who are told, You have to come to work or else you're going to get fired. And by the way, you're also not going to get paid. But when the government opens, you'll receive your paycheck then. So that's a lot of our TSA workers, people working as a Social Security Administration, my staff, a lot of just different people who work in the federal government. And the whole reason we're in this situation is, number one, we've been talking about this for months. We know the date is coming up. It's not like this comes out of nowhere. People in Congress know that in X amount of months, the government will shut down. But what always happens is they wait till the last minute to do anything about it.

And that's what Speaker Mike Johnson did. Waited till the last minute. We got a bill, maybe literally just a day or two in advance that kept out something very important. For people who don't know, at the end of this year, the Affordable Care Act tax subsidies are going to expire. What does that mean? It means that, especially in Florida and across the country, people's health care is going to go up anywhere from 50 to 300 %. So it is our job to handle that in this funding bill. They don't want to do that. And so they rather let the government shut down than actually handle health care. Why would anyone want people to pay more for health care? They're trying to make more room in the federal budget to give a tax break to billionaires and mega corporations. I mean, it's like the same tired story of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poor, and that's exactly what's going on right now.

What are the details that you find most problematic about how this affects people who can't actually afford it financially?

It's the fact that Donald Trump said in this meeting, Well, let's handle it at the end of the year. Here's the problem. Open enrollment for health care on the Affordable Care Act, which the biggest marketplace is Florida. The most people in the country on the Affordable Care Act are in Florida. I have 200,000 people in my district alone in central Florida that if we don't do anything, we'll get a letter, and many of them have already gotten a letter that says, Hey, next year, your health care is going to go up anywhere from 50 to 300 %. The average we're seeing is about double. And we got to think about that. Maybe for a billionaire, that's not a big deal, but for a working class person, you get that letter, you're going to start making decisions now based on what you have to pay to keep your family healthy next year. That means we've gotten reports from people locally. We did a survey and asked people, Tell us what decisions you're making now. Here are some of the decisions. We're going to have to cut our grocery bill in half. We're thinking about moving out of our current rental unit because we're paying too much for rent.

We need to put aside some of that money for health care next year. Other ones, which is like, I haven't seen my parents in years and years and years, and I'm canceling the trip because I can't afford it because I'm going to pay double for my health care next year. So this is real. This isn't some abstract BS that politicians are using for talking points. This is going to impact real people. And the disturbing part about it is we can do something about it right now. Congress is the only job in the world where you can to say, You know what? I'm going to clock in at the end of the year. Mike Johnson literally came out and said, the House of Representatives is not going back into session until the government opens. But we're the ones that have to open the government. It makes no sense to me. This is part of the reason I understand why most of the country hates Congress is because of this thing going on. And it's really simple. The speaker needs to call us back to session. We need to actually fix the healthcare problem, pass the funding bill, open up the government, and move on.

But But Dan, there's also one other part of this that some people don't know about. And it's that in Arizona, there was a Democrat elected in a special election. She was elected 23 days ago. When Mike Johnson brings back the House, he has to swear her in to be an actual representative. He has a problem with that because she said that the first thing she's going to do is be the last signature on the petition to release the Epstein files. Unfortunately, that's a big part of this, is that he doesn't want that petition to have the last signature on it.

How How big a part of the Epstein files is everything that's happening with Trump's behavior beyond just trying to distract us with other nonsense that includes just bombing random boats?

I think it has a lot to do with it. And here's the thing. Number one, we know from reports that Trump is in the Epstein files. To what degree? Why did he do this and that? We don't know, but we want to see. And that's the reason we want to have it. But I promise you that a lot of his friends are implicated, too, in this as well. And that's why he's telling his own supporters who a lot of people who supported Trump said, I'm doing this in part because he said one of the top things he's going to focus on is the Epstein case, which where people don't know, I'm on the Epstein investigation right now. Before this year, it's not something I knew a ton about. Now, I've spent hours and hours with survivors, with lawyers. I was in the Alex Acosta debt position. And I can tell you this is something that does need to be uncovered, of course, for the victims and survivors. But also this is like a cover up of epic proportions that implicates Republicans. And yes, it implicates Democrats, too. And for people who tell me, Maxwell, there might be Democrats implicated.

I don't give a shit. If you're implicated in it, you need to be held accountable. I don't care who you are. And we're in this issue now where Trump, on one hand, is gaslighting his own supporters saying, The Epstein thing is nothing. It's a Democrat hoax. It's not a hoax. This is real. And being from Florida, a lot of this happened in our state with a lot of our government officials either looking the other or empowering this pedophile rapist human trafficker. And so we need justice on this, and it's the same story of rich elite people playing by a different set of rules. And again, I don't care if you have a R or D next to your name, you need to be held accountable.

Donald Trump was positioned effectively as a populist candidate, but the policy is not good for most Americans, which is why, them knowing this, you have the Voting Rights Act presently being heard by the Supreme Court. There will be an attempt to gerrymander and to rig things that way. You have Dominion voting being purchased by a Republican ally. What are the countermeasures to this? Because they have a fair amount of power, and they don't really seem to have a lot of respect for court orders or court rulings. They'll just keep appealing and find an ally there. What can the Dems do without the House, without the Senate, without the presidential power, without even the Supreme Court? What can they do to counter this?

Before I was elected in Congress, I was an activist and organizer of Fighting in the grassroots. So I'm used to not having all the power I want. And so when you don't have all the power you want, you use all the power that you got. And the fact of the matter is there's a few things here. Number one, the court rulings are still important because we've still gotten a lot of wins. A lot of people don't realize this, but throughout history, fascists and authoritarians, part of the way they exert power is by making people believe that they have power that they actually don't have. And it's about blatantly lying about things. 45 % of all of Trump's executive orders or actions have been stopped, reversed, or paused by courts, and they've actually been stopped, reversed, or paused. Now, there's still another 55% to worry about. I'm not saying that's the end all be all, but it is something that we should be doing. And what we do need is courage from our politicians to put themselves on the line for the greater good. And I'm going to give you an example. Alligator Alcatraz. We spoke about this last time I was on.

Not just myself, but myself and other elected officials said, You know what? We have privilege as electeds. Let's demand that we be let into this facility, but not just to go in for a photo op and to talk about it on the news. Let's go and talk with the plaintiffs that are suing them and figure out what do you need to know about this facility. So we did that. I walked in with a binder this big. I've been inside that facility twice and was able to fill that binder with very specific answers to questions they had, which informed the lawsuit. And it's going to go back and forth. Unfortunately, they're starting to be more people in Alligator Alcatraz, but it was got shut down for a while, and the judge in her decision actually quoted my declaration after I left the place saying, This is what congressman Maxwell Frost found in his findings in there. I bring this up to say that oversight and seeing ourselves as people who can put ourselves in situations that other citizens can't go in, I think is really important. The other thing is people power. Power on the streets.

There's a no king's protest this on the 18th. A lot of people come up to me and say, Maxwell, what's the purpose of a protest? The purpose of a protest is it is oftentimes the entry point for people to get involved in political advocacy. We know that one protest in it of itself doesn't solve all the problems. But what it does do is it shows an authoritarian that you don't have the people on your side. And it gives the organizers on the ground an opportunity to see a bunch of people they've never seen before and get them involved in the day-to-day things that are going on. People ask me all the time, Maxwell, what can I do? And I always tell them, get involved in a local group that will answer that question for you every day. Because I can give you some abstract things that are really important and some tactics, but there's people in your community right now who are doing this work who, quite frankly, have been asking for your help for a long time. The good thing is it's not too late, get involved, and protest allows to do that as well.

Beyond the health care crisis and what you were telling us earlier, what do you see as the greatest life and death dangers involved with the government shutdown?

Honestly, I'm thinking a lot We're talking about our federal workers, and I did a roundtable last week with a bunch of them from the TSA, from Social Security Administration. People got to realize that starting a few days ago, they're not receiving any pay. So if this government shutdown goes for another three months, That means that these people will not get a paycheck for three months, but they're still expected to go to work. And who are these people? They're the people making sure that we're safe when we fly on a plane, that there aren't weapons or even worse, getting put on a plane when we're on there. These are the people sending social security checks to our seniors and to people in our community that are not getting paid anymore. And I didn't realize this until I sat in the meeting that in this meeting, 90 % of the people there, both of the spouses, both The mother and the father were both federal workers. So that means you got zero money coming in. And these are civil servants who Donald Trump and Elon Musk have been alienating, have been literally in Project 2025, it says that their goal is to traumatize federal workers.

These are civil servants. These are working class people who are not getting rich off of working for the government. They're there because they believe in a mission, and they're not getting paid right now. And their voices in the mix of all this political BS, their voices are going to be buried But I'm committed to making sure people understand what's going on. So if you can, you're going to see a lot more food drives. You're going to see a lot more support groups locally rise up to help get them gas cards and feed people and stuff like that. I'm going to be organizing that in Orlando as well. Get involved if you're listening to this because we got to support them.

The ICE raids are horrific. Yesterday, Los Angeles County declared a state of emergency over immigration raids. Can you tell me, please, where we are with something that feels less American than most of the things that I've experienced in my life in America?

It's a lot of things. One thing I want to bring up about the military occupying our cities, being unleashed on US citizens, on Americans, mass ICE agents going and kidnapped. I try to be very blunt about this, not to be... Not to exaggerate, but this isn't even mass deportation. Deportation is a legal process you go through. They're not even Following that. They're kidnapping people in our communities and literally human trafficking them to other places. But the thing is that I always encourage people, follow the money. A lot of these issues at the end of the day have to do with enriching reaching a few people, a few friends of the President. Actually, this is no different. Because what's going on is the Big ugly bill was passed a few months ago, and that gives ICE the most amount of money they've ever had. They have more money than the United States Marines. Where do you think that money is going to? Because I actually go to my local jail every month, and I do a roundtable with people being held by ICE. And when you talk to them about who's transporting you, who are the people you talk with?

A lot of times, it's not even ICE. It's a third party company that's being paid millions of taxpayer dollars to do this kidnapping operation. And what they're doing is greatly expanding the prison industrial complex, where we have all these private prisons that are making hell of money, tons of money, millions of taxpayer dollars on locking up people who, most of whom, have never broken the law before, a law abiding immigrants or people are undocumented. And so that's something that we're investigating on the Oversight Committee, and people have to pay attention to it. This agency is not rogue. What do I mean by that? Ice was created to go into communities to find people. So if you disagree with that, then you disagree with ICE.

I have no time left, so let's keep this lighter and quick. All right. We need to get one bet from the congressman. Billy, bet the house. Give it to me as short as you can, please. Bet the house.

It's time to bet the House of Representatives. Bet, bet, bet, bet, bet, This week's guest is a cadet major in the Civil Air Patrol. At 25, he became the youngest member of Congress and first year to serve. He represents Florida's 10th district in the US House of Representatives. It's Manuel Frost.

You've got a Go down in the Mountain West.

Wyoming Cowboys galloped Colorado Spring to take on the Air Force Falcon. Representative Frost, who you got?

Thank you for keeping it short, Billy.

Air Force. Air Force, Air Force, Air Force. Air Force.

Go Air Force.

All right. Thank you, congressman. I appreciate the time. We appreciate the time, and we appreciate the work. Thank you.

Appreciate you guys.

Thank you, Billy, for keeping that short the way that I knew that you would.

Now is a good time to remember where tequila's story truly began. In 1795, Cuervo invented tequila. Cuervo. What are you doing here? Cuervo.

Anytime someone says Cuervo, I show up.

Well, I do know that to be true, but even during an ad reads like... Cuervo. I think it could lay out, especially for one of our great partners.

Sweet, delicious Cuervo.

Since then, Cuervo has stayed true to its roots. The same family, the same land, the same passion. Cuervo. So enjoy the tequila that started it all. Cuervo. Cuervo. The tequila that invented tequila. Proximo. Cuervo. Com. Please drink responsibly. Cuervo.