Ep. 92: Too Online with Trevor McFedries: Male body dysmorphia, AI Baby, Yassified Harry Potter, Blakes Breaks

[00:00] Man, my story feels very dorky. [00:03] Mine's super dorky too. Mine's super dorky. So dorky. And in a, in a land of dorkness that I'm completely unfamiliar with. So same, same for me too. Welcome to two online by boys club, hot internet news served fresh. I'm Natasha Hoskins. I'm Dina Burke. And this is boys club. [00:26] Wait, is it just boys club? It's just boys club. [00:29] The Boys Club podcast? No. No. [00:32] Just Boys Club. Hi. Hey. So taking a break from the SPF trial today because we need to go online. We also need to cleanse the palate a little bit. We need to have a palate cleanser. This is Two Online by Boys Club. For those of you who don't know, this format of this podcast is where we talk about internet stories that we've come across and we bring on our friends who are two online to talk about their corner of the internet. So today we had on Trevor McFregerys, [01:02] about who the most online people I know, he's pretty much at the top of the list. [01:07] So if you don't know Trevor, he's a great follow. He's one of the co-founders or founder of Friends with Benefits. He also has founded a bunch of other things in his life. He created Lil Micaela, or was part of the team that created Lil Micaela, which was the [01:20] AI, influencer, girly, [01:23] one of the first, if not the first. Yeah. He's just done a ton of cool shit. He's a really funny dude and deeply online character. And honestly, I,

[01:32] perfectly suited to the show format. [01:35] Yeah, 10 out of 10. He really delivered. The brief was loose. And when we've had on other people for two online, we've like, been like, hey, send us your stories, like just do just doing a gut check, just to see. And there was absolutely zero vetting. And he really delivered. So we're really grateful. And we had a great time. So give it a listen. And as always, send us your internet stories. Yeah, please. Yeah, one of the internet stories that you're going to hear today was [02:05] and love more of that. And I have to say, you've gotten a lot of them. I have. You've gotten a lot of them. So if you're thinking who it's me, that's who you just had to do. Hey, Natasha, what is crypto to you? Crypto is so much more than charts and gains. It's a whole new financial system, entirely new technological rails to enable creativity, ownership, wealth building, and more free of credit scores and spending habits. Kraken is your easy to use newbie friendly bridge to this [02:35] Everything can be better. So why not finance? To get started, go to kraken.com backslash boys club, sign up in just a few minutes and see what crypto can be. Not investment advice. Crypto trading involves risk of loss. Cryptocurrency services are provided to U.S. and U.S. territory customers by Payward Ventures Incorporated. PBI, DBA, Kraken. [02:55] - Trevor McFedrys, welcome to 2Online. We're so excited to have you. - I've been to online for a long time. It feels nice to be recognized. - I was saying before we started, a little nervous, because your side of the internet

[03:08] is I think different than my side of the internet, which is the point of the show. [03:11] But I asked you to bring two stories, internet stories, that you have been exposed to, [03:18] entrenched in [03:19] recently. And so I'm going to hand it over to you. What's your first internet story? [03:25] Yeah, I was trying to think of things that maybe wouldn't have crossed your path. And I guess I kind of think in things and more like in themes because I don't know, things move so fast on the Internet. But one of the things I've been kind of intrigued by is kind of this emergent theme of like male body dysmorphia and like how it manifests. And so at the center of it is this pretty interesting character. I don't know if you've seen him on TikTok. His name is Sam Suick. I don't know if you would know this guy. No. A, he's like 20 years old, but he's probably like. [03:51] 6'1", 6'2", and I'm legit probably like 280 pounds. Like he's like jacked out of his mind, on steroids, out of his mind. - Okay. - And I guess like, [04:02] He's become extremely popular because he kind of represents, I guess this is me, me, I'm protecting my audience, but he kind of represents this kind of like post-Incel, post-neat. [04:13] world like post what what's the second one meet it means like not education employment or training it's kind of like early 4chan slang for like you're a loser kid who's you know sitting at home and his parents unemployed and playing like warcraft or okay is it like is it like wow we're here we're inside of it um okay [04:36] I'm rocked already. Okay, so is it a derogatory term or is it something that they like, something that you would own and say proudly wear? I think it was like probably initially derogatory, but then it became this kind of this term of endearment. Like in the kind of Trump election meme magic moment, you'd often hear of like an army of fucking neats.

[04:55] You know, like, blowing memes. And really, it is, like, the kind of, I think, generation of young men that, like, a Jordan Peterson or, like, a Trump spoke to, [05:04] They were kind of disaffected at home alone, no options. [05:08] Like, there was this kind of like, [05:10] lean into the kind of like corny incel caricature of like, I'm just going to fucking destroy the world and tear everything apart. Something. And then there was this kind of like Jordan Peterson, like make your bed angle. Like, get up, make your bed, be a man. And that kind of like. [05:27] Joe Rogan, David Goggins, and a lot of them were kind of like older figures. But what's interesting about Sam is he's like, [05:35] 20? [05:36] You know, so you can tell like an average suburban kid who did a gang of steroids, worked out super hard, and now he's fucking jacked out of his mind. Okay, I need to get a visual on this guy. What's his name? Sam Sulek. S-A-M-S-U-L-E-K. [05:51] Oh my gosh. [05:54] Okay, he's a big, big boy. Oh my God! [05:59] Oh my god! [06:00] This is insane. And he looks like he's, you know, mid-30s, but he's just been doing so much testosterone and anabolics, he's, like, yacked out of his mind. Oh, my God. This is, like, so... It's, like... [06:15] It's totally unnatural. It's grotesque. [06:17] It's not of this world. It's veered into something else. [06:20] What's wild is like you look at it some of these pictures and he has like crazy hormonal acne. [06:25] Oh, sad. It's like he's pumping yourself, pull a lung on. He's got acne all over his chest. It's like crazy. But what's interesting is he's become this really popular figure. I see him a lot in my TikTok feed because he's this really sweet guy. And he's pretty bright. And he kind of has that same engineering neat brain where it's like, yeah, I can level up a character in Warcraft to Super Mage 99 or whatever.

[06:55] And [06:56] At the same time, he could apply that to like tracking his macros, managing his diet, eating exactly the right things, deploying the right steroids at the right time, doing exactly the right workout. And he's like this incredible Hulk dude who's a monster. He does these videos where he just [07:11] records himself like going to the gym like he'll be driving and there's no editing nothing he's just like driving talking [07:17] talking about his life, setting up the camera, doing like tricep pushdowns. And he's become this like super inspirational character. I think you look at the comments and people are like, [07:27] We made the right guy famous. Love you, Sam. People are really committed to him. Yeah. Whereas I think that like Arnold Schwarzeneggers of the past were like these kind of like alpha superheroes. [07:37] Sam is kind of like, I'm just a guy. I eat like Subway sandwiches. I'm like, work out. You can do it too. Okay, I have a few questions. He's got 2.2 million followers on Instagram. What kind of numbers is he doing on TikTok? TikTok. [07:50] I mean, that's the thing is TikTok, it's hard for me to measure because it's obviously like a social graph, but I see the content all over, like on his page, on other pages, on like, you know, people reacting. So he's like getting stitched and like people are... [08:03] repurposing his content on their own content. [08:05] All the best of, you know, all the drinks, top 10 Sam moments, all that kind of stuff. Do you feel inspired by him? [08:13] I don't, I'm 37 years old, but I can imagine like a younger lost version of me. I think I respond to it because, you know, I played college football and like effectively grew up in Iowa and had, [08:23] coaches that were very similar to this were, and it kind of fell out of vogue. When I was in high school, it would be like, "Fedries, you're Black. You as a race to a white kid, you run it again until you win them." I'm like, "That's explicitly racist," you know? Or like,

[08:36] learning to bicep curl by having them saying like, lick it, stick it. Lick it, stick it. It's like this kind of macho, you know, kind of push out of popular culture. [08:48] And now it's kind of coming back in from this like, [08:51] more acceptable angle. It's almost like an intellectualized, like, Jordan Peterson. It's less, like, military bro, and it's more like... [08:58] Hey man, make something of yourself. [09:00] but do it in an intellectual way or a pseudo intellectual way. I don't know. I think it's intriguing. [09:04] First of all, I just want to say that you completely understood the assignment and have knocked it out of the park. You started the story by talking about... [09:12] body dysmorphia, which I feel like is a recognition that there's something very [09:16] unhealthy in this expression of masculinity. Say more about that because I feel like what you've been saying is that he's kind of this heroic figure but they're [09:26] There is a darkness in what I'm seeing from this young man's [09:29] It's an extension of like, you know, the Virgin and the Chad meme that was quite popular in like crypto circles for a moment. Often you kind of see this like, [09:39] character who looks like your normal tech bro, which is interesting because like, he almost is like an Allbirds wearing, Everlane wearing, [09:49] It's not like a nerd in a movie from the '80s. That's not like Screech. He looks more like Martin Chacrilli or something. And then the Chad is like-- [10:01] blonde hair, you know? And there's this other character who you guys-- like, when people say we're all going to make it,

[10:08] that comes from this character named Ziz [10:11] who was this Australian... [10:13] roided out [10:15] super into like hardcore and like hardstyle rave music guy who would be like, "Oh, I'm," you know, like in an Australian accent and has this long speech where it's like, "Bro, we're all gonna make it." And that became this like, [10:26] meme that, you know, I think permeated through crypto. Now, crypto kind of co-opted it with Ziz died of a heart attack. I'm pretty sure or heart complications. [10:35] So a lot of these guys that do like a gang of steroids, their heart can't manage the amount of muscle mass it has to pump blood to you. So they fall over and die. [10:42] I think that's how it works. [10:43] So sad. All it is to say, like, the version in Chad meme to me is kind of like... [10:48] created this, this like, [10:50] because seemingly connective tissue where it's like, yes, there is the Chad and he's the one having all the sex and having all the good time and you're the virgin. [10:58] But insert the Gary Veification of the internet. Here's a pipeline. [11:03] to become the Chad. And so you have stuff like the steroid usage, you know, and there's stuff if you've ever seen like mewing [11:11] Or like the mastic gum. I don't. I don't know what this is. I have. [11:15] You know who else comes to mind? That dude, Brian... Remember the guy's reversing his age? Yes, the PayPal Venmo guy. Brian Johnson, yeah. Where does he sit on this pipeline? He, to me, I think is... [11:26] if there's some kind of horseshoe here, he almost is like, I think almost back at the Virgin because he's applying all of this capital. And like, [11:35] all of these things that feel almost like Gen X-y. Like what I think is interesting about

[11:42] Sam is, his pipeline is like pretty simple. It's like work hard, eat a lot, you can buy these anabolics or not like, and he's not like, you know, building his own chambers or sleep chambers or like a blood boys, whatever Brian's doing. It seems like a little bit more blue collar, so to speak. But yeah, Brian definitely exists in that spectrum. I think it just reads as a little more like, I'm wealthy and successful and now can attempt to do these things. - I feel like my only exposure to this type of [12:11] like content is anytime I go on YouTube and try to figure it out and get on YouTube shorts. It's like all this type of content with either workout and like lifting or it's like investing, how to get rich, that type of thing. My understanding of who all these guys like sort of level up to is like Andrew Tate. [12:32] Is that true or is that not true? Because he, to me, is like... [12:36] an embodiment of [12:38] everything that is wrong with the world. And then there's like things that stem off of that that are less-- like the Sam guys-- more wholesome and less like, [12:47] I see Andrew, I mean, I think like in a lot of these situations, like to me, there is like a need, like it really is usually an emotional need. And it's met by media that like addresses those emotional needs. And I think that's a lot of people who are in the world. [13:01] I think that there are... [13:03] Lots of niches inside of them. [13:05] often the ones that get covered are the ones that are more inflammatory because they lead to more things i think energy state fills that one very well but i i don't think that like you know that you see these i mean clips on shorts or whatever all the time but there's these real estate flipper guys who are like oh here's how to like you know and then there are like the gary v like hustle grind guys and then they're like how to become 100x engineer guys and it's like how to use ai and of course the crypto scammers and there's like

[13:31] But there's all these little niches of like how to get rich, how to be successful. And I think [13:36] What's interesting to me moreover is that that stuff used to be kind of cringe. Like Tony Robbins wasn't an aspirational thing when I was 20. I kind of like wrote a tweet once that like I'm so bummed I took the Instagram sunset latte bikini era for granted because now we're in the UK. [13:55] everyone as guidance counselor era. And it like makes me miserable. And it's always unimportant people just trying to like sell you courses. And it's like it's miserable. Everyone is kind of like social graph as [14:09] your marketing funnel is annoying. [14:12] Yeah. [14:13] Trevor, I really want to I'm just going to go ahead and crown you our man internet correspondent. I feel like it's a whole other side of the internet that I don't see or know or understand at all. And you I really appreciate your thing. Well, I mean, the other part of this, I think it's intriguing is like there was this kind of. [14:35] interstitial as well in there where I don't remember all these these these viners that kind of became youtuber tiktokers like Dallas Cameron or like Griffin Johnson or there were these like really kind of hot Justin Bieber looking guys and they were all like 16 17 and they were probably like you know kept on the baseball team yeah and [14:58] I think what was really intriguing to me is like, it became pretty clear, like I moved to LA, and they started working out the influencer gyms, and they all started doing,

[15:06] SARMs, they're basically steroids or steroids. - Okay. [15:10] They were very aware of their audience, of their... [15:15] audience and their brand and they started doing like really homoerotic stuff because i think they recognized that a lot of their fans were just like dudes and so [15:24] They would like get oiled up in the gym and like come and hug the other one from behind and like flex and like hold each other. [15:34] And that I think that felt a little too unattainable because they had really, they're really beautiful. Yeah, Bieber. [15:40] And so like they kind of plateaued and I feel like Sam surpassed them because it's like the more attainable version of that. There's something like more relatable in him than like a really pretty boy. Can I ask a dumb question? Are steroids illegal? Like I thought they were illegal. Totally. Yeah. But I mean, there are these like gray area things called SARMs. [15:59] their peptides. It's like the same stuff that Kardashians will use, you know, stuff that can like race up, you know, get you burning body fat or help you like, you know, it's Olympic adjacent. Okay. Wow. Story number one, really strong. Very, very strong. What a ride. [16:15] you [16:19] Okay, should we go to the next one? Sure, this one is maybe best described with this visual. I kind of loathe TikTok, but I feel like it's getting weird again. Like, it was kind of weirder. [16:31] And then I think when America wanted to ban it, they like really family branded it and it made it kind of saved. And it was like back to Charlie D'Amelio land. And now it's getting weirder. What is this? This looks so scary.

[16:42] AI generated like mid journey baby, this mouth is moving via AI and it's saying, my mom put me in a microwave and killed me. I was only 28 days old. My mom put me in the microwave, turned on the microwave. I didn't survive. And [16:58] It seems like they've generated all of these videos, right? And they probably have used headlines that are like really jarring. I don't know, New York Post headlines, whatever. You can imagine like a chat GPT, them like filling in the data or like writing three sentence riffs, putting it into whatever those apps are that make the mouth move, like the Balenciaga, Bidjourney things, and then just spamming them. And they hit paydirt with one of them. Like this TikTok one was dominating my feed for a moment. [17:28] them, but it literally is just an AI baby saying my mom put me in a microwave. Let me watch. [17:33] This, just so we can get a feel for it. My mother in the microwave. [17:37] My body couldn't handle the heat of the microwave. At the age of 28 days, [17:43] I was placed in a microwave by my own mother at the age of 20. It's so fucking weird, but the comment on this one, the comment is someone that says, literally me, what the fuck? [17:54] Like, it just doesn't make any sense. It's so funny. Wait, like, why is it... Like... [18:00] Who's, why is someone doing this? Well, I imagine because they're just trying to like engagement farm and there's probably like some link or something that you want. Then we click through and find more or if it's like learn more, this link and you click out to some website that has 800 ads inside of it and they get. Okay.

[18:16] a certain amount of impressions. I don't know. But I guess, like, [18:19] The thing I'm... [18:20] kind of most intrigued by all is this kind of like, [18:24] TikTok terms of service boundary walking people are doing. [18:30] Did you see the kind of strategic hide and expose nipple thing on TikTok? [18:34] No. It was funny because like... [18:36] you would see like a door open [18:39] in like a laundry room, and there'd be like a little nipple poking out behind the door. [18:45] And then you would see it go back, and then you would see a girl walk out with her bikini on, you know? But like, the AI couldn't detect that as a nipple. - Okay. - And so... Or it would be like... [18:57] a girl sitting at her desk and like behind her is like a mirror or something and in front of her is a mirror and she's standing there and you can see in the mirror the reflection of the mirror of her titty hanging out or whatever. [19:12] And so she's like sitting there and like the AR algo couldn't spot the nipple. [19:17] So they were getting like a million views and like hearts and comments and engagements and a follower. And they're probably driving them to an OnlyFans or whatever. But like that kind of human innovation to me is like my favorite. [19:30] You're like, we will find a way. That is so good. This video reminds me of three or four years ago. There was like hysteria amongst parents. [19:41] with young children that there were videos that were being produced by content farms, presumably.

[19:49] uploaded to YouTube that were designed for kids to watch. And they were like... [19:54] they would take popular IP, like Peppa Pig characters, and then mix them in with different universes. Like they take a Star Wars character, and they make these really, [20:02] eye-catching videos and make them like hours long for kids just like sit in front of and consume and [20:08] there would be weird stuff that these characters would end up doing that were obviously not endorsed by [20:14] Peppa Pig Incorporated, whatever it is, and kids were watching them. And so parents were freaking out about YouTube, and YouTube came under this big scrutiny around how they were letting anyone upload videos and presumably monetize these videos individually. [20:29] even though, and there was no sort of [20:31] filter for quality and [20:34] it reminds me a lot of these videos where it's like, it's just being generated by an algorithm somewhere. And now it's 10 times easier with AI, but they're weird. And when you are a human watching them, it's like really upsetting to see like the expression, this weird twisted expression of like humanity interpreted by this AI that's then fed back to us as content. And I think what's crazy to me is like how it then shapes the Overton window for what's acceptable on the internet. Like, Hey, we have this like, [21:04] real child abuse issue in the world, but in America, and I think it isn't talked about as much as it should be. So instead you have these like, [21:11] you know, these release valves on like QAnon or other kind of like... [21:16] As a response to that stuff you're talking about, YouTube really minimized the surface area for what you could--

[21:23] post on YouTube and what would be monetized. And it's interesting to me because like, I made a music video for my band with my girlfriend and we put it out and it's kind of like a fail comp. It's 'cause I'm too online. It's just all these like, you know, [21:38] people going to blow up their birthday candles and lighting their hair on fire. Stuff you would have seen before, you know? But one of the clips, the person looked, it actually was like a, probably like a college-age Asian girl. And the algorithm saw her as being a teenager. [21:53] And it flagged our video and wouldn't allow it to be like viewed anywhere or without being without it's basically age. You have to be 18 to watch it and really decrease the amount of views you could watch. So to me it was like, wow, okay, so. [22:05] we have these moments [22:07] that kind of poke on certain parts of the global psyche. And as a result, like big tech has to respond in a way that to me was a bit heavy handed. I guess I come up on the internet that was like mostly free. Like I just saw horrible things on YouTube and rotten.com and 4chan. And the idea of like a Tyler, the creator, eating a cockroach in Yonkers. [22:28] 10 plus years ago, maybe 10, 13 years ago. Like, I don't know if that would work today. Like, I don't know if you could get YouTube scale with that because it would just be too inflammatory. It'd [22:39] the charlie d'amelio brand safe whatever i love how you keep using that as like the ultimate like death of all culture and humanity it's like charlie d'amelio to me i think like what is frustrating about that is like i think it's been well documented they kind of put their finger on the scale tiktok was like okay we're gonna make this person a star and the illusion of a social graph that is meritocratic and

[23:03] and then having effectively [23:06] TRL, where MTV execs pick the things. Here's the 100 things you can pick from and pick the top 10. That, to me, is kind of the worst of both worlds, whereas... [23:16] Okay, meritocracy meant... [23:18] 100 little pump songs that were on the Spotify top 50 and maybe that wasn't like the best use of our brains and [23:25] But at least it was the voice of the people. And now we have this thing where it's like, not really the voice of the people, it's the illusion of the voice of the people, [23:31] with like a fat finger on it. And I don't know, I just would prefer fucking real gatekeepers. [23:38] or a true meritocracy versus it's like... [23:43] this lie. [23:44] We're living. Yeah. [23:49] Wow. Great stuff. [23:51] You blessed us. Trevor, thank you so much. My pleasure. This was... [23:55] Truly exceptional work. Do my best for my boys. [24:05] Can I go first? Sure. Are you familiar with Once I Make My Move remix? When I Make My Move. Oh, you are. Is that it? You are. Yes. I only have heard the song a million times on TikTok, but I don't know anything about it. [24:20] Okay, I was first exposed to this [24:23] on TikTok as [24:25] a video and I'm going to play it for you here. [24:28] Okay. I will say, I just want to preface by saying I've never watched Harry Potter. I don't know anything about the Harry Potter universe. Same. I have never watched Harry Potter. I've never read a book. I know literally nothing about Harry Potter. Yeah. So my first exposure was...

[24:42] seeing this video, I'm going to describe it and then we'll play a little bit of it, of these different characters who I don't know who they are because I'm unfamiliar. Voguing, they sort of look like children. [24:54] sort of in dancing in a voguing type style. And then... [25:02] there's this song that is overlaid and the animation is very poor. It's a very poor animation. So this is what it sounds like. Once I make one move, you can't take me out of the head. And you're free to take the king. No. Run, no! What is it? He's going to sacrifice himself. Really? [25:22] Oh my gosh. [25:25] Okay, so they're like open legs move was there's an open leg. Yeah, there's like a real like it's not sexual, but it's not not like it's sort of weird. And the first time I saw it, I was like, what is this? And I like scrolled past it. I was like, I don't like this. Almost similar to the baby in the microwave. When I first saw it, I was like, Oh, I don't want to watch that. Like, I don't know what that is. And then it just kept coming up, kept coming up, kept coming up. And then I was like, fine, I'll watch it. And then I realized, Oh, at one point, one of the characters says Hermione. [25:53] And I know like enough to know, okay, Hermione, I think it's like a Harry Potter thing, whatever. Not for me, but fine. Not for me, not for me, pass. But then it kept coming up and I was like, okay, I got to dig in for two online. This is going to be my two online story because that video, the one with the remix on it had 5.1 million views. So a ton of views. And so then I started to dig in and the original video is that video with no music.

[26:23] So strange. And it has 10.1 million views. So this is the original of this. [26:32] Which is even weirder. Like it's so weird and there's no music. So, okay. I'm going to dig into the evolution of what has happened here. So there's like a, I want to say that there's kind of like a, for the listener, like a yassification of Harry Potter that is, [26:47] A hundred percent. A great way of describing it. Totally yassified. I started digging in. What happened was this [26:54] original the animation without the remix music on top of it was the first [26:59] sort of video to come out. [27:01] with the yassification and the voguing, and it was remixed all on the same account. But the source material of this is from the first Harry Potter, as I learned, the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. And it's about a scene where I guess three characters in Harry Potter, Harry, Ron, and Hermione... [27:23] are playing chess against, like, a wizard or something. Again, like, this is not my world. I don't get it, but it's a big scene, I guess. Okay. But... [27:30] They're really like acting in it. Like it's like very over dramatized. It's overacted. And so I guess for Harry Potter people, like this has sort of been a really core scene because it's so over the top. Okay. And so I asked somebody who is a Harry Potter person and they said, quote, fans of the series have taken the piss out of the scene for a while.

[28:00] nerdy and to me very cringe reenactments of this scene so fans have been doing this for years and years a really viral one was in may 2021 this woman kimberly pezzo who did a her own very cringe like reenactment in her bedroom but had 6.5 million views it has been remixed on top of each other like it's the original and then it got remixed by fans and into their own sort of reenactments and then this animation came out and that animation was then remixed and so the layers [28:30] And then this most recent in October viral moment around this, [28:34] remix is the music. So now the music, as you have known, has gone absolutely all over TikTok and touched every corner of it. And people are taking the song and doing other stuff with it. So my personal favorite and sort of the pinnacle of this whole internet moment is this video here that we can watch together. And we're going to listen to it because it really is mostly audio. So just to describe for the listener, it's a DJ. He's in his house and he's... [29:01] DJing with this song and he's dancing.

[29:31] Sound of Boat. [29:34] Oh my gosh. [29:36] - - [29:38] Ha ha! [29:41] - This is my favorite of all time. Like every time I watch it, it hurts my stomach. I'm laughing so hard because it's, [29:47] Like... [29:48] so stupid and if you've been watching these videos you know like you can hear the words like you're like not Hermione you and like to remix it with a soldier boy is a perfect climax to the story too much internet today honestly so that's my story oh my god amazing really amazing really incredible to see the evolution of an idea and I do want to say shout out to the person who did the animation and then the remix of the music on the that person's a mastermind [30:17] That person should be the... [30:19] president of the internet had nailed it. Like they, they did it. They nailed it twice with the animation and like, [30:27] lightning in a bottle. Very strong, very strong. And they made the remix based on the dance moves. The foot kicks up and the beat drops. And like, it's really, really good work. Absolutely. Astonishing work. Really. So if you're a Harry Potter fan, I'm sorry if I have offended you, but it's very entertaining. Yeah. [30:47] Thank you for your work. Anytime. Okay, what's your story? When you're first getting started with crypto, it can be scary. Am I doing this right? Is this just like my bank or trading app? How is it new and different? Well, that's why we love Kraken. They have a 24-7, 365 customer support team that's there to hold your hand all along the way. This isn't a 9-to-5 Monday to Friday bank. This is crypto. It's all the time. Anyone's welcome. Open door policy. Come one, come all. Try something new at kraken.com backslash boys club.

[31:17] Crypto trading involves risk of loss. Cryptocurrency services are provided to U.S. and U.S. territory customers by Payward Ventures, Inc. PVI, DBA, Kraken. [31:27] Okay, so my story is called Blake's Breaks. You haven't there's no chance you've come across this. No. Okay. So Blake's Breaks involves a [31:37] An NFL star, a former NFL star, Blake Martinez. [31:41] Pokemon trading cards, Pokemon the game and the cards, $11 million and a scam. And so we're in this. So that's the world of Blake's Breaks. Intrigue. [31:53] Intrigue. There's the intrigue. There's the hook. I want to give a quick shout out to Livster who DM'd me this story last week. I would have never in my entire life come across this story, but she DM'd me and I think she's very much in the Pokemon trading cards world. So she was like, okay, you got to see what's happening here in my world, which is incredible. And thank you so much for doing that. So Blake's Breaks was one of the most popular channels on this thing called WhatNot. Have you heard of WhatNot? [32:23] a bit series d lots of money big tech whoa yeah the company thing it's basically tiktok meets qbc so there's like streaming and people are like cool yeah so blake's breaks was started by blake martinez he's this former nfl star turned pokemon fan [32:41] streaming [32:42] entrepreneur. Okay. Yeah. He's built a business around this. So there's this whole story about how he like

[32:48] was in the NFL and he was like, I'm breaking my body and my brain and I want to do something else. And he was in the NFL for many years. And then he was like, I want to do this other thing. And this other thing turned out to be this. [32:59] Pokemon streaming business. So [33:01] It's a whole ass company. He did $11 million in his... [33:06] first year he's bought warehouses. He had almost 20 full-time employees to host live streams and do all this. Can I ask some questions? Totally. Okay. He's doing this on whatnot, like his business is built on whatnot. Yeah. So basically what they do is. [33:21] streaming media and games and like betting on what not. Okay. And there's this thing called Guess the Energy Game, which is like a really popular format. And it's basically like, [33:35] At the meat of it is... [33:36] people really enjoy watching Pokemon packs get opened. [33:41] Okay. Live. [33:42] And so all the videos are kind of based around this. [34:07] And they're opening packs and you're, you're waiting to see if there's any like any rare cards in the packs. And if there are like you win and you're like trying to like guess what the rare cards are. And basically it was revealed that they were like switching stuff out off screen and,

[34:22] Oh, okay. So it wasn't pure. It wasn't pure. And they were like pretending that that packs were sealed when they weren't. And so they had like been manipulating the packs and people were like losing. And then there was this other part of it where how did it become revealed? It was a bad edit. Yeah, bad edits. [34:38] because it was all live streamed and so people there's videos of like people taking [34:42] screenshots of that edit moments basically okay where they're like oh this pack is actually you can like see the little are they doing this on tiktok are they like green screening videos so let me i want to show you a quick video just to give you sort of also the world of what this [34:56] universes. So let me just paint a picture what's happening here. There's a man in a room, a dark room. [35:04] With a mustache. And he's got his plugged in headphones. He's using the microphone, holding it to his mouth. And behind him is a ton of Pokemon paraphernalia. So I don't even know, like cards and games and toys and stuffed animals and boxes and stuff like that. Boxes. He has 16.6 thousand subscribers. [35:25] Yeah, and he opens by saying, hey, what's up, noodle slurping virgin gang? I hope you're doing well. Like, he's just like, this is the world that we're in. Okay, so let me just show you where the incident happens. Flight of hand, Art is surreal. I fucking mean it, but this person just sucks ass at it. She just got off a whole birth of Wonderstone just dropping the ball right there. So if you didn't catch that... [35:45] They actually put a pack right on top of the other pack. [35:48] split that one back because they actually knew about stuff. I don't know if you could actually tell, but they had a little bit of the rustling on the packs. I don't know if you could hear that in the back.

[35:54] So someone gets caught. [35:55] basically yeah he's an investigative reporter just like me at the spf trial and just for the listener yeah you're watching this nobody would you have to be deep deep deep in the game to be able to decipher what he is demonstrating as a crime totally totally but people people were because like i said there's money here there's a 11 million dollar business that's built off the top of this so they are hobbyists but there's enough money that people really care taking it [36:25] honestly I'm like he was just waiting to get caught is there's this thing where you you send your cards off to get authenticated which is basically you send them to a what's called a grader they look at the cards and [36:36] and they're like judging the quality, and like, is this like a one quality, is it a 10 quality? And if a card, if a rare card gets scored a 10 in pristine condition, then it can sell for like, [36:46] $10,000. Like it can sell for a lot of money. [36:50] And so basically there's one where he opened a pack on stream and someone got a really, really rare card. And then he was like, I'm going to send it to the authenticator. And then he basically just ended up selling it himself. And like, it was just messy, messy stuff. So what's going to happen to him and this channel? So he got banned. He's banned. He's off the platform. The final part of the story, which I think is might be interesting for our listeners, is that there's kind of now a growing conspiracy. He gets kicked off the platform, whatever. And then people are like, wait, did what not know? [37:20] all along that this was happening. [37:22] And they kept him on the platform anyway because they were making so much money off of him. And so there's now this whole sort of movement around what not and people questioning that app.

[37:34] And there's like other scams that are coming to light. And I just want to say that whatnot, Series D, $260 million raised last year, valued at $3.7 billion. Y Combinator, Andreessen, like they're, I've never heard of them, but they're super legitimate. And now like that seems to be kind of crumbling. They're called into question. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Wow. That's a great story. So that's that. That's really good. That is really good. Wow. This episode had range. We went from incel culture, male body dysmorphia, [38:03] Two Pokemon cards and Andreessen. [38:09] Really good stuff. I really had a great time. Yeah, I had a great time with your story too. So that's that. There's two online.