Transcript of So... Are You Worried About The Explosive Diarrhea? | Hour 3 (feat. Jessica Smetana)

Meditieren, Yoga, Joggen—

nichts entspannt mich. Echt?

Mich entspannt meine Steuer total.

Steuer?

Wie Finanzamt?

Die Steuererklärung?

Ja, ich hab ganz locker über 1.000 € zurückbekommen.

Hast du geheime Connections oder Excel-Superkräfte?

Nö, nur die WISO Steuer App.

Wow, und das ist einfach?

Klar, die macht fast alles automatisch.

Ich fühl mich plötzlich so entspannt. Hol dir dein Geld zurück.

Abgabefrist: 31.

Juli.

Was?

Schaffst du ganz entspannt mit WISO Steuer. Ach ja. You are listening to the Dan Levitan Show in partnership with the DraftKings Sports App, now live in all 50 states. Time for World Cup picks. This segment is presented by DraftKings Sports. DraftKings, the crown is yours. I think England get on the scoreboard. I think they crack through, and if they do, my money, I think it's going to be either Harry Kane or Jude Bellingham. So why not both? I'm taking them both. Anytime goal scorer. They're both plus juice. Harry Kane, +150 on the DraftKings Sports app, now available in all 50 states. Jude Bellingham, how do they keep pricing him this way? +257. Been eating this World Cup with Jude Bellingham. I'll take that too. Clutch player. DraftKings, the crown is yours.

How about Jude Bellingham? Look at Tony laughing at me. I think you need to—

Now you do it. Go ahead.

I think, I think you need to slow down making fun of me. Getting Bellingham wrong when you did what you did in the last segment.

You know what you did.

I don't know what I do. I don't know whether we have that ready or not. I've asked them to go get it so that I can unleash a special request. Yes, I've— I had a special request during the break, and I'm— and they tell me it is now ready. So here's Tony describing 9/11.

So we had just an insane and just unbelievable—

quite a bit.

Thing that was so terrible, right? And you got the weight of the world on you.

You're talking about 9/11?

Yes.

Yeah, it was bad.

And you walk up— there's some people that don't know about 9/11.

They learned it.

They learned it in history. Everyone knows about it.

Well, not everybody knows about it.

You know what?

It's not great. Jessica is with us now. We've got a number of different things to talk about with Jessica. You should check out her weekly Notre Dame podcast, The Echoes with Mike Golick Jr. It's probably a little late for me to be asking the question of whether it's okay to laugh at that grandpa who got hit by a bison. Given what our show has been doing, and given that we were telling you as that was happening, hey, he's in the hospital, he has had surgery, has had his leg broken in several places, and right before that had to be the most horrifying moments of that man's life. Uh, Chris told me today that we have a new angle. Do you mean a new, uh, camera angle on what happened, or do you mean a new storyline angle on what happened?

No, it's a new physical angle, like another camera angle.

Really?

I saw where it's just a little bit more to the left. You get like a slow motion view.

All right, so before I ask Jessica whether it's okay to laugh at this, let's play it and then ask her afterward whether it's okay to laugh at this.

Here's our new angle from a slightly different—

oh, it's better.

You really see the bison get low there.

Incredible.

Uh, Jessica, where are you on this? AI on this?

Yeah, was that AI?

I think that I think that new angle could be AI.

I mean, it looks pretty realistic given that we've seen the previous angle, which also seemed like it was comically cartoonishly real.

You feed into the AI, give me a different angle, and it does look real. Have you seen the Mitch McConnell stuff?

That does not look real.

I think it is real, actually. I think Mitch McConnell reeled that angle AI.

I think it's real too.

I wasn't sure if I could laugh at this old man being flung into midair, even though my gut reaction was to point and cackle when I saw him flying through midair, Dan. But then I received validation from a place where I don't often seek validation, which is the New York Post, who wrote in an article where they talked about this guy and where he's from and what he's up to, that he immediately cracked jokes about his painful viral ordeal as soon as he landed back on Earth. I think we're, we're all cracking jokes now. We're good.

I can't think of a funnier thing to be wearing except maybe for like a barrel and no other clothes than the suspenders and the jeans.

It does look like that Broncos fan. That's what it was.

It's—

you nailed it.

Yeah, you're right.

Actually, I didn't really consider the suspenders until now. That is kind of what makes it great.

I still argue this guy's a hero though. As soon as the scary part happened, you didn't see the kid. He said, hey, you get away, I will take this.

Oh, he totally Jeff Goldblum'd.

He's a hero.

Do you believe, Jessica, what's presently on the screen is the closest thing that human beings have ever produced to the opposite of the Jumpman logo in terms of greatness and athletic excellence?

That's the Fall Guy.

Yeah.

I have a number of things that I want to talk to you about, but we have not talked at all about what's going on with Michigan. And I don't know if there is a empirical correlation that we can make throughout time. Your programs get good and all of a sudden we find out things about your programs that are really, really unpleasant. But Michigan has spent a lot of time this week talking about and investigating whether or not they need a complete culture change. But I can make the argument Michigan's never been more successful at sports than they have been in the last 5 years of basketball and football. So where are you on everything that's happening presently as Michigan examines its culture. Jessica?

Yeah, Dan, if that's true that you need to be unscrupulous to be successful, then this is, I would say, a very extreme case of that. And I don't know if it's entirely true, but yeah. So Michigan hired an external law firm to look into all of the BS surrounding the athletic department after the Sharon Moore incident in December, where he was revealed to be having an affair with a subordinate and then was let go and went into her apartment and brandished a butter knife, allegedly. And most people, I think fairly, wondered at that point, would the athletic director Ward Manuel survive long enough to name a successor to Sharon Moore? And he did. Michigan's had a number of issues hiring a new university president, which may be a factor in that. But all of this has now come to a head as the findings of this law firm's of this multimillion-dollar investigation are slowly trickling out to the media, because this is an oral report that they're giving. They don't want— Michigan's trying to control how much of this gets out. Some of it has gotten out. There's a story in The Wall Street Journal this week that Ward Manuel may have been aware of inappropriate relationship with the assistant Paige Shiver and with Sharon Moore as far back as 2024 when he sent them a message about not— them not traveling together.

Um, and so there's been like a slow trickle out of, of findings from this investigation. The full investigation probably will not be released anywhere. Um, that all makes Bored Manuel look really bad. So then there was a little bit of, uh, information over the weekend that like, yeah, probably gonna have to resign or would be fired or step down. And then he did a, a radio show or a media appearance and was like, I'm not stepping down. So now It seems like there's this Board of Regents meeting on Thursday, tomorrow, and he may in fact be stepping down, slash perhaps be fired, and the amount of money which he is owed is now probably the only thing left in dispute, I would have to guess. But it is a very gross and messy situation involving Dan, other than the Sharon Moore thing, like just so much insanity. Like, the Connor Stallion sign-stealing saga is only like a minor detail in all of this.

I'm not making fun of the incident, but I am making fun of the language that you used in describing the incident. I don't think that the butter knife rises to the level of brandishing. I think it has to be a different verb. If you're brandishing something, it has to be something more than a butter knife.

Like a shetty?

Well, just That's not a knife.

It's a knife.

I feel like a knife's a knife.

I feel like you can— Dan, you— have you never brandished a pen as a columnist?

I feel like the weapon of a pen is more dangerous than a butter knife, both actually in a physical altercation and using it to write.

That's insane.

The pen is powerful.

What are you going to do with the pen that you can't do with the—

The pen is mightier than the sword.

Ah, there it is. If it's mightier than the sword, how is it not mightier than the butter knife?

Yeah, I think you've brandished a pen metaphorically.

Put down your weapon!

But I think Dan was talking about it literally, like, I can poke somebody's eye with a pen. I'm like, yeah, you can poke somebody's eye with a butter knife too, dude.

I think you can brandish any sort of long, hard object that could be used as a weapon.

There you go.

Butter knife— I have no— put it on the poll @LeBittardShow. If you're brandishing something, does it have to be more weaponized than the butter knife? Yes or no? I was told before the show today by Chris Cody that there was a food he'd invented. Jessica is our resident connoisseur and food expert. Would you like to present to both me and Jessica? Because I don't know what you're talking about. A food you've invented?

Well, it wasn't Chris's invention.

This came from Twitter, and we saw the big brain of this Twitter account.

Whoa.

Post. Oh. Some shit you couldn't even begin to fathom, as they coined themselves.

So this is peanut butter and jelly.

Yeah.

As the condiments for a banana in a hot dog bun.

Whoa. You know what I just watched right before coming on here? Dan, do you know who the Rizzler is?

Yes.

Okay, good, thank God. Do you know what Subway Takes is?

I do not.

Okay, Subway Takes is this digital video series where a guy on the subway asks people what their take is, and then they usually say something that ends up going viral. Sometimes it's incredibly offensive, sometimes it's very benign. The Rizzlers— the latter, not the former, thankfully— it was about him not liking peanut butter, but he did talk about this specific invention being the banana hot dog with the the peanut butter jelly, ketchup and mustard. And it did pique my interest. I'm kind of worried about the amount of— I think the bun needs to be toasted with butter.

Really? Yeah.

Oh, you're adding butter to peanut butter and jelly and the banana?

You're adding butter like you think that's bad.

Yeah, I don't want a raw dog. I don't want a raw bun. I don't want a raw bun for my—

Well, but toasted seems enough. The butter— you, you, you're putting butter with peanut butter and jelly. I'm not— that's not something I'm hearing very often.

Bun, come on, stop pretending.

So lubricate the bun.

So of course we've taken this opportunity to create this ourselves, so I'm going to take it for a walk. Yeah, I want to eat it.

Take it for a walk.

Okay, so there better not be any lettuce on that.

No greens.

A lot of banana.

Oh, that's really good.

I was hoping for like banana slices instead of like a dick of a banana.

That's not how it works. I mean, banana and almond butter or peanut butter, those are both good.

What are the rules for looking in the eye when you're eating the banana but in a hot dog bun?

Must stare you in the eye.

No, mandatory.

You don't want me to?

How do you, how do you feel about what you're eating though, Jeremy? How is it? So a lot of bananas, not much of a critique.

Messy, but this is truly delicious.

I would have this anytime. It's kind of like the Elvis sandwich, right? But without the bacon, it's on regular toast.

I'd honestly be good with this without the banana. Just give me a PB&J as a hot dog.

Well, yeah, yeah, that doesn't make bananas a thing.

I'm just saying.

And I'm just saying.

So you'd prefer something different?

I prefer without the banana.

He prefers a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and I'm giving my take.

Like, what are you guys looking for me here?

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For 22 years on this show, we've debated the greatest athletes of all time. Who's the GOAT in football? Who's the GOAT in soccer? Who's the GOAT in hoops? One thing that we all know is Dan's the GOAT of finding the worst possible take. But there's another kind of MVP/GOAT that doesn't get enough credit. The friend who knows to show up with enough Miller Lite. Plus extra ice because they just know. The one who already has seats at the bar when you walk up, that is a Miller Time MVP. I've been on this show long enough to know that Dan is gonna make everything about his feelings and Jeremy is gonna push back on whatever I just said. But here's something nobody on this show will argue with. Miller Lite is the summer beer, the original light beer since 1975. This summer, recognize your MVPs. We all have that one friend who makes every game better. Now it's time to give them their moment. Head over to Miller Lite's social media pages to learn more about being a Miller Time MVP. You can pick up some Miller Lite pretty much anywhere they sell beer. It's Miller Time.

Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces. Dan Levitar.

I don't like smutty either.

Jessica Esmatana.

Women stay home in the kitchen where they belong.

This is the Dan Levatar Show.

Jessica mentioned that it has no greens. Were you making a diarrhea joke?

I was, Dan. This summer in New York City, we were all having the time of our lives in June, and now July has come. We have gotten the bad juju of the Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce wedding. On the 4th. We have multiple heat waves. It's a jillion degrees out. And most importantly, everyone has diarrhea now.

They might be on to something here with the PB&J without the banana.

He says, did Chris think that he invented the peanut butter and jelly sandwich? Hold on a second.

It's just PB&J without the banana. Are you saying that— are you saying it might be a good idea to have peanut butter and jelly in a bun, essentially bread, but no banana? Is that what you're saying right now?

I prefer it without the banana.

Okay.

Okay, get off my back.

It's a sandwich.

No, no, I think Jessica was talking about diarrhea.

Yeah. Have you altered your eating behavior, Dan? I mean, I know you already have a restrictive diet.

I don't do Taco Bell. I don't do Taco Bell. For all Mike's buttery bread jokes, I'm not doing Taco Bell.

You would not brandish a taco, um, the way Jeremy is brandishing that banana in a bun. I'm a little I'm a little stressed out, Dan. I went and got wings yesterday during the France game, France-Spain World Cup match, and they had side celery and carrots. And normally I will dip my little celery, my carrots for a nice refreshing treat between wings, but I'm kind of afraid of raw produce right now.

Wait, so what's going on here? What am I not supposed to eat?

All right, so Zaz, there are thousands of cases of this parasite called, I believe, cyclospora. Nationwide right now, dozens of states, that is causing watery, relentless, explosive diarrhea in people who have it. And according to an article I read today in USA Today, the CDC had a foodborne disease surveillance network that was cut slash defunded last summer that did surveillance testing for this parasite, which would in theory catch a large outbreak before people could purchase infected items at the store, or, you know, restaurants could purchase them from their suppliers. And so with that gone, it's possible that this outbreak is now as bad as it is because there is not as much surveillance on this parasite. And so we have a situation now where thousands of people are just relentlessly blowing it out the ass, and there's really not that many hints at what it could be caused by. But the prevailing theory is it's probably lettuce.

It could be anything. And for the record, this is all hearsay.

Put it on the poll, please.

I thought my internet was broken for a second.

@LebatardShow: Is watery, relentless, explosive diarrhea redundant 4 different ways?

That was Democrats holding up a big, beautiful bill.

Speaking of passing of bills, that the daylight savings time is going to be permanent. Do we have that right? Is that— this is— Zaslav is a big advocate for daylight savings time, one of the biggest nationally you will find anywhere. What is the latest? Do you know anything about this, Jessica?

What a fascinating lane for him. I would love to hear more about how that advocacy works. Dan, I feel like every time people are really mad at like the House of Representatives or Congress, they're like, what can we do to kind of take some heat off of us?

Okay.

Let's pass this Daylight Saving Permanent Time Act that will probably not go through Senate, but why not? It'll make people not talk about all the other terrible things we're doing or not doing, and God only knows what else that could be, like, you know, preventing parasitic outbreaks in people causing watery diarrhea. The problem with this is that in many parts of the country, the sun would not rise until like 9 o'clock in the winter, which Sounds horrible. The upshot is that maybe when you come home from work, if you work like a 9 to 5, it's not already been pitch black for an hour and a half. So I don't know, trade-offs there. But personally, I think daylight savings time should exist to just help me out in whatever job I have at the time. So like when I have a job where I have to wake up early, we need it. And when, you know, I don't, then it's fine. And I think that's how it should go for the rest of my life.

It's enough already. This daylight savings bill, which apparently is going to go to the Senate now, It's been signed off by the president and the House, now it's just going to be in front of the Senate. It's a brilliant idea. Enough of this fall back, spring forward bullshit, all right? I'm tired of hearing about that. I'm tired of wondering if my alarm clock on my nightstand, if that moved forward on its own, if that's the real time. And I'll tell you what else, I'm pretty sure we've talked about this before, too. We know that we live in the Lord's time zone, all right? The next step—

What?

The next— yeah, that's right, this is the Lord's time zone. Eastern time? This is the Lord's time zone, alright? And matter of fact, the next bill, we're getting rid of this daylight savings garbage. We should all be on the Lord's time zone. That's right.

You want us to be China?

I want whatever time it is here. I'm tired of figuring out, oh, how many hours are they behind us? How many hours are they in front of us? No, no, no. We're all the same time. So if I have a meeting at 9 AM It's 9 AM everywhere. No one needs to figure out what your time is. It's about time we all get on the same page.

He's a communist.

You said you wanted to hear his thoughts and you got them, and you learned as a bonus fact he has an alarm on his nightstand.

I do.

Uh, no, you don't.

No one has alarm. The reason why this is possible is because now we all have digital devices that know when daylight savings time is.

But mine doesn't know. Like, it sets on its own. It's like, this is bullshit. I know that time is not right., and then I have to manually do it. If we get rid of this daylight savings and, and if we all get on the same page on the Lord's time zone, no one's ever confused again.

If anything, we should all be on Central Time.

You are showing your South Florida privilege because we did this in 1974 and it lasted 10 months. People didn't long, didn't like long, dark winters. You don't have to worry about that here in South Florida.

That's right.

Because we don't have winters that are cold, but it lasted 10 months. We already did this 50 years ago.

Whatever. This is what happens when you're making a character.

You gotta do it again. No one remembers that, Dan. Tell us about it though. What was it like?

Well, I was only 6, so I was hearing about it from my grandparents. It wasn't really— On holiday, maybe? Yeah, I wasn't really remembering it. Her podcast is The Echoes with Mike Golick Jr. It's unfortunate that Greg Cody left. He could have told us, but he had to go. I'm just learning this.

I thought he was in the studio the whole time. He would have.

Giving us some good expertise. Jessica, thank you. Appreciate the time.

Bye.

The Echoes with Mike Golik Jr. I was happy to hear the other day that the Goliks were making a return to ESPN Radio, that anything with the Goliks and the father-son team of the Goliks is something that I really like to see because of how respectful Mike Jr. is of his father's career. Unlike Chris Cody, for example, who doesn't read his father's columns.

I listen to it.

And has never, has never read his father in any form, even though his father is a writer. And really, I would say, doesn't appreciate reading in general.

That's fair.

Oh, I meant to ask Jessica and forgot, even though she's our food expert, if she had any thoughts on the never-ending pasta at Olive Garden, because—

Dan, it is back for the first time in 6 years since the pandemic. The never-ending pasta is back at Olive Garden, $100 for 13 weeks of never-ending pasta.

What are the limits? Yeah, give it to me.

Like, you can only show up like every day if you want?

Yeah, you could go every day. I think you can only go once per day. So it's once per day.

What's the time limit on that one visit?

I'm guessing, uh, as much as you can eat.

Okay, deal.

It's a good deal.

It's unquestionably a good deal, but you're asking immediately about the limits. Uh, it said never-ending. Don't make it false advertising.

But I've seen a lot— I'm never with Olive Garden, but I've seen, unsurprisingly, a lot of my algorithm is like people doing food stuff. And there's a lot of times where like a guy's doing a selfie video of like, all right, I'm going into this chicken wing joint and I'm going to clean them out. And like there's a lot of times where at some point the managers come over and they're like, that's the— you'll be— you'll get one more serving and that's it. Like there's a lot of funny business with this all-you-can-eat stuff. There are limits.

Now it's— so it's never-ending pasta. What about the breadsticks?

I think those you get for free.

Those are always free.

Oh, okay. It's been a while since I've been to Olive Garden. Matter of In fact, it was about 20+ years ago, Dan, you shamed me one time about going to Olive Garden. I'll never forget it. And I'm not even sure that I've been back since then. I love Olive Garden. I think Olive Garden's a great place.

You don't love it that much.

Olive Garden shaming is a thing. My wife does it. She's anti-Olive Garden.

I didn't know about this.

He had a big anniversary and he was taking his wife to Olive Garden. He didn't know how to be romantic. He doesn't know how to be romantic.

We showed up, okay, on our way out, for our big dinner, we decided to stop by— this is like '04, maybe '05— we decided to stop by a remote, a remote that the Dan Le Batard Show was doing. I think it was maybe Gulfstream.

You are bad at romance.

Your anniversary? I think it was maybe Gulfstream. We stopped by to say hello.

We were making $4 an hour.

Yeah, I had to show everybody I'm a team player at this point. You know how much money I was making? It was nothing. We showed up there, we say hello, and Dan asked where we're going tonight. I say we're on our way to Olive Garden and you shamed me. And you actually said it was Italian Denny's and we, we didn't go to Olive Garden that night. We went somewhere else. I don't know if we've been back. I love Olive Garden.

Put it on the poll. Is Olive Garden Italian Denny's? Uh, put it on the poll as well. Is there a lot of funny business going on with the all-you-can-eat stuff? Because Chris is saying that it's always false advertising. They tell you—

not always. I'm just saying these places do have a limit. Like, if you are talking about mom-and-pop places, if you're some like professional eater that comes into this place and like, I'm eat 150 wings, they will say something.

The question is, did the never-ending shrimp kill Red Lobster?

Right.

I don't know. They're bouncing back.

Yeah, I've seen their CEO all over social.

But are they doing the, the never-ending shrimp?

I've seen him. Got my eye on it. I mean, let's have something merit-based, like Lindsey Graham's sister.

Your marriage is a miracle.

100, uh, days of never-ending pasta for $100.

13 weeks. So I don't know what that averages out to, but okay, so 13 weeks.

That's a good deal. 4 months, 4 months of you can eat pasta with a pass at all times every day. You're gonna gain a lot of weight. That's a lot of carbs. It's gonna— you're capable of gaining £100 for $100.

Like, usually it's lose, lose a pound for every dollar you spend. This is gain a pound.

Well, but did you say it's $100 though for an all-you-can-eat pasta pass? That is so affordable that I would shame no one for doing that. That is That is family-friendly. That is finance-friendly. That is an unbelievable deal to be able to go in with a pass and eat all the pasta that you want for 100 days. In fact, I'd be willing to argue without knowing what the other qualifiers are that that has to represent the best deal we've got going these days in eating of any kind. If you're— look, man, And I— my father and I looked at each other the other day because my father was horrified while he was buying me a cup of coffee and it cost me $9. It cost him $9.50 because I didn't have my wallet on it on me. And he hadn't just bought a cup of coffee in a while. And so he was just stunned.

It wasn't the order of 40 different things into one coffee that confused him.

It was just coffee with oat milk. It's all it was.

That was just those two things.

Yes, that's all it was. It was $9.50. So when you tell me you're saying $100, I'm gonna give you exactly that.

So from the official Olive Garden website, what you'll get: your very own pasta pass. So you get like a little card, unlimited dine-in value starting at 8/24 Kobe Day for 13 weeks of never-ending pasta, never-ending first course of soup and salad and breadsticks also. So you got soup, salad, and breadsticks.

Yeah, but you gotta skip that. You're not gonna— you're gonna fill up, you know.

That's a trick. He's so right. You gotta get that.

You got 13 weeks to figure it out.

That's what Sweet Tomatoes did with that salad buffet.

That is true, actually.

Unlimited Unlimited plates of your favorite never-ending pasta bowl creations, unlimited toppings so you can switch up each bowl so you always meet your protein goals. Protein's above all.

That's what it's about. This deal's about protein.

Yeah, a passport to stamp as you work your way through every never-ending pasta bowl, the same great price for $100.

Again, this is Tony describing 9/11.

So we had just an insane, unbelievable—

quite a bit—

thing that was so terrible. Terrible, right? And you got the weight of the world on you.

You're talking about 9/11? Yes. Yeah, it was bad.

And you walk up— there's some people that don't know about 9/11.

They learned it, they learned it in history. Everyone knows about it.

Not everybody knows about it.

You know what, let's just keep it moving.

I could have been talking about the Olive Garden pasta pass. I don't know.

I thought it was very helpful.

Unbelievable.

I mean, you know, that kind of thing.

Uh, Jeremy, what is the final verdict on the hot dog banana with peanut butter and jelly?

Oh, I thought you were gonna ask about my top 5.

It was delicious.

I feel terrible.

Yeah.

I want to ask the group whether they'd prefer a top 5 from Jeremy on his All-Star Game moments or a top 5 from Tony. We only have time for one of these. A top 5 from Tony, top 5 quarterbacks that need to show him something.

Which—

can I get some votes? Uh, Zazz, who are you voting for, Jeremy or Tony?

Not Jeremy.

Uh, Roy, who are you voting for, Jeremy or Tony? Not Jeremy. Uh, Mike, who are you voting for, Jeremy or Tony?

I abstain.

Well, that can— Chris, who are you voting? I'm voting for Jeremy. Chris, who are you voting for? You can either tie, and then we've got a problem when we have to go to the abstainer, or you can, uh, just close the vote.

Can't leave this to Bit, Tony.

Wow, how much must Dan hate you? Dan Levitar.

The Packers win or the Bears lose? Bears lose. Jonathan Sasselow. Shit, do you want to know how that— what were the kids doing? This is the Dan Levitar Show.

So we're going to get to Tony's top 5 list of top 5 quarterbacks that need to show Tony something. But before we do that, I want to remind everybody that we are on in more places than we have ever been. So if you want our podcast, you could do that. Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music. You can also get our radio show as a radio show, SiriusXM Channel 85. If you want the televised product, it's Peacock, NBC Sports Now, Monday through Friday from 12 to 3 Eastern and on YouTube Live and also DraughtKings Network, Samsung TV Plus, the Roku Channel, Vizio WatchFree Plus. But Mike has something for Peacock. We're on Peacock, we're on NBC Sports now. And Mike has a request for Peacock. The bosses at Peacock, I want you to please listen to Mike Ryan. He is imploring you. He is begging you. You need to do something with your programming.

This is with the caveat that this streamer remains free.

Free.

Yeah, but I am a soccer fan, and no one in sports consuming has a more difficult plight than the soccer fan. In order to follow the sport globally, you have to have about 15 streamers. ESPN is no longer the home of the Bundesliga, and I love the German Bundesliga. I watch it all the time. I was very excited to see that NBCUniversal has agreed to terms with the Bundesliga. That means 30 live matches on USA Network, which is a great home for soccer, but they have found an unconventional home for the rest of the package. That's just 30 matches. That's barely anything. Fandango. NBCUniversal owns Fandango, presently a free option for a service. But if this is no longer remaining free, you're, you're, you're spreading me thin here, folks. I got— I can't have yet another stream.

Fandango? So like these, these games are gonna be in the movie theater?

Although I would be there for Stuttgart-Wolfsburg. I don't think it's for the movie theater.

My movie theater sells pickles.

I, I associate— I associate Fandango with just movie theaters.

Did you know that they had a streaming service?

I did not.

So that might be the play here. And I'm not sure how Fandango and Bundesliga mesh. It may be a great home, and it may be just as good as ESPN, which I thought did a tremendous job with it. But please put some Peacock options up there, NBC Sports on the YouTube TV channel. I need more access to the Bundesliga. If this is going behind a paywall, I, I am already signing up for never-ending pasta bowls. Help me out here.

I would like Fandango to televise this show because it's Fan Dan Go. The middle word in Fandango is always Dan. We've got a slogan and everything. How do we get on Fandango? Fandango with the Bundesliga.

We can be shoulder programming. I can talk Bundesliga. I just didn't know that this was going to be a sporting destination. In fact, it's never been. Ah, so this is quite the tentpole attraction. I'm a little confused by it. I don't know what the whole plan here is with Fandango. This is bizarre.

I'll join you on the broadcast if you'd like.

I don't— in fact, I omit everything that I said from the record.

So when you talk about the amount of money being spent on streamers, I pointed out to you guys the other day— I don't know if you're watching, Marlon, Marlins baseball, they're worth watching. It's not just because they're stealing bases. Also, no one can steal bases against them. And, uh, I was telling you that for the rest of the season you're going to get, uh, if you buy the rest of the season for $27.99, you get all Marlins games for less than 50 cents a game. That's clearly a value, right up until you have 7,000 things that you're paying 50 cents for. Are you watching Marlins games?

I've started watching watching? Yep, a few weeks ago I started watching.

Okay, because, uh, less than 50 cents a game. If I tell any fan of any sport, hey, it will cost you less than 50 cents to watch this, they would all say yes, except for the fact that it is now getting so difficult to do this if you're a sports fan, because you're going to have an assortment of charges that make your life difficult and expensive if you want to watch everything you want to watch. This is quality baseball the Marlins are playing, and you will get less than 50 cents a game. You watch these games. But I don't know what's too much anymore for people if you're going to charge people for all of their interests, because that's not how we had to do it before. We'd get it on free television, we'd get it on ESPN, we wouldn't have to do it this way. And it's becoming prohibitive. I feel really bad for the sports fan. You simply cannot do this if you do not have money, even if it's less than 50 cents a game.

Well, and all of our teams now here locally are on their own service now, like All of them.

It feels like the sports fan has really been done dirty on this, the way that this has all happened. Like, the sports fan has been thought of last, and as everyone's grabbing the new oil wells, this feels super unfair to keep changing. You used to— what I was telling you earlier in the show about Howard Stern and the idea of going behind a paywall and not wanting to do that to our fans, where you're having something that used to be free and then charging, uh, people for it. You will lose the loyalty of people if you do something like that. You can't make it free first, not have it be a trial period, and then just switch rules as you go.

Yeah, Don Garber is giving voice to the mistake that they made, not being mature enough. I think when we look back on it, MLS made one of the big gaffes in sports history.

Heat games are going to be free, and you just have to be real careful with the loyalty. You will lose even the ardent loyalty that there is in sports. You've heard me say before, our audience is as loyal as any I've ever seen in the history of sports media, and I did not want to test that loyalty with a paywall, even though at the time, Zazz, it would have been the moral thing for the audience to do, which is, wait a minute, the ESPN, the big corporate giant, let go of Chris Goede, we ride with them. I didn't want to test it with a paywall because I've seen what's happened to newspapers with just subscription services. There's no information that people are now willing to pay for.

None.

It's, it's— nobody is willing to, who doesn't already value newspapers, Pipers. There's no one story that's making people pay a subscription service in order to get whatever the story is that is the unique information. Everyone stops now at the paywall.

Now we are behind some paywall services, but our YouTube is free, our podcast remains free, we're easily accessible. We are not exclusive to being behind a paywall. We are part of paywall premium experiences. We've had offers in the years, as Dan's mentioned, to go exclusively behind paywall paywall. And I don't think we're there. That might— I don't want to write it off entirely. That day may come where it makes sense for us. There's a lot of big properties that have made that move, and I like to think that they're cashing in. We see an opportunity to continue growing as a visual product because we primarily, for the majority of our 20 years, have lived between the ears as an audio platform. We haven't really built out the video, so we're going to keep climbing there.

The offense, though, that sports fans should feel about being priced out of everything is a mirror for everything that's happening in society with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer and everything being not affordable, less affordable, or a different kind of affordable as it's ever been. I don't feel like the warning was sufficient from these leagues or from anybody. Hey, sports fan, you're about to get gouged from every angle as everyone grabs more dollars.

I can't believe my Bundesliga topic kept us away from both top 5s.

Well, it's in the postgame. I just— no, while we were talking, I asked, I asked Tony if we had enough time for his top 5, and he said no, just put it in the postgame. I wanted to be fair to Tony. So play again for us how he described 9/11.

So we had just an insane, unbelievable, quite a bit thing that was so terrible, right? And you got the weight of the world on you.

You're talking about 9/11. Yes. Yeah, it was bad.

And you walk up— there's some people that don't know about 9/11.

They learned it, they learned it in history. Everyone knows about it.

Well, not everybody knows about it.

You know what, let's just keep it moving.

What are you laughing at? You, what are you laughing at sitting over there?

Weapons?

I mean, you can't brandish a butter knife. It's a butter knife.

You're not poking an eye with that.

No, but a brandishing— if you're brandishing something, if you're brandishing— I picked Picture Indiana Jones waving something at snakes, a torch at snakes. Like, if you're brandishing something, classic, you're moving. It can't be a butter knife. Tony's top 5 next, not Jeremy's.