Weekly News 8.7

 If you're listening to the latest Radcast news update, here's Ryan and Riley.
 Hey guys, what's up? It's Ryan Alford and Riley Clark here for the latest news update.
 What's up, Riley?
 Hey, what's up? How's your week been?
 It's been a good week.
 Yeah.
 You know, lots of podcasting.
 Oh my gosh, yeah, we had a lot of podcasts today, Earth this week.
 Yeah.
 You were on a podcast.
 We had a few guests.
 We had our eSports series and it's been a good week though.
 It has been a good week.
 So, for our news, let's start.
 What's the most radical thing you've seen this week?
 The most radical thing I think I've seen this week.
 I'll give you two answers.
 We'll give one.
 Oh boy, here we go.
 This is me, like yesterday.
 Can we get the best app of them?
 I'm like, well, there's one A and one B, three and one.
 I'll give like a fun one, you know, like a cool one and then, you know, a knot.
 Well, you know what I mean.
 Yeah.
 But I think my cool one was at my apartment the other day after that really big rainstorm that happened the other day.
 It was a gorgeous sunset, first of all.
 And then there were these two really big, there was a double rainbow right outside my apartment.
 But I had the full view of the sunset and the rainbow.
 So I got the full thing.
 I like the positivity and the good news.
 Was there two pots of gold or just one?
 I didn't go looking.
 But I should have.
 I don't think I've ever seen a double rainbow.
 Really?
 Like I've seen a rainbow.
 You've never seen a double rainbow.
 Like I've seen a double.
 Okay.
 So then that was pretty radical.
 We'll just leave it.
 Did you take a picture?
 Yes.
 I posted it on my Instagram.
 Oh yeah, that's right.
 I was checking your story.
 Did you just go see it?
 Yeah, I forgot.
 It must have just skipped over accidentally.
 I hit the forward button too fast.
 Right, right, right.
 No, but I guess my other thing that's not so positive.
 Well, it's like just what's going on with Ellen DeGeneres.
 Yeah.
 It's kind of sad.
 I feel like you grow up in that you're always watching Ellen.
 And it's just sad when everyone's human.
 But it's just, you know, those reminders are...
 People aren't...
 And who knows?
 Like it's interesting how people are powing on.
 But usually when there's as much smoke, is there seems to be here?
 There's some fire.
 Right.
 But, you know, you kind of put these celebrities on a pedestal.
 Oh, absolutely.
 And if they tear from it, we freak out.
 And it does kind of bother me a little bit.
 Again, presuming that there's some truth to it that she does all this stuff and comes off
 like, you know, everything's perfect and she's got that hole.
 I don't know if it's joy or happiness or just stay, you know, there's like this stuff.
 And then, you know, you hear toxic work culture.
 It's like, okay.
 Yeah.
 It kind of makes you sad.
 It does make you sad.
 But I guess we'll see what comes out of it.
 Yeah.
 All right.
 What's your radical thing?
 All right.
 Well, staying in the positivity theme here, Americans were pulled on the best dance songs of all time.
 Oh, no.
 And this was actually pulled on 2,000 people were surveyed.
 You know, with COVID going on, everyone trying to find ways to stay happy and, you know,
 actually, essential like songs for what they called socially distant dance parties.
 I'm sure there's not any real ones going on.
 So they study, they study had 2,000 Americans and I'm going to give the top 10.
 Okay.
 Some of which I agree with some I don't.
 Okay.
 So I'm going to start number one.
 Mm-hmm.
 Wait.
 Is it reverse order?
 So like number ones.
 I guess.
 Yeah.
 Maybe I'll do 10 to 10 to 1.
 I like it.
 I like the drama.
 You're shaking up over there, which speaking of shaking up, number 10.
 Shake it off.
 Oh gosh.
 Taylor Swift.
 Number 10.
 These are the songs guaranteed to make people move and groove during a party.
 Top 10.
 Okay.
 Number 10.
 Shake it off.
 Taylor Swift.
 Shake it off.
hape
 I loveックz.
 Shakeit off.
 Shake.
 Brother Anna.
 All right, we're getting radical here. Just dance. Lady Gaga number six. Dancing Queen,
 Abba. Yeah. All right. You can hear all these songs. Uptown funk for no more. So we get
 a blend of old new here uptown funk. Yeah. You can see that. Stayin' alive, the Bee
 G's at number three. And our top two, number two, Billie Jean, Michael Jackson.
 Love it. And get behind that one. And number one is pretty, you know, it's about dance
 songs. And it's, I want to dance with somebody Whitney Houston. Wow. I want to dance with somebody.
 Yeah. I feel the heat. Okay. Yeah. Actually, next we come to me is Ryan singing. I will
 be singing. Many of the talents and I have many talents all very average and singing would
 be at the very last of any of those because there's no talent whatsoever. But my radical, you
 know, I think it's cool, like top ten dance songs. Like we go down to the lake and it's
 like playlist city when we're on the lake, especially on Friday, Saturday nights. Like we're
 always fine in playlists. So maybe I had, you know, these top ten. I was going to say, are
 you going to make that your playlist and everyone six feet apart on your boat just individually
 dancing to all ten of these songs? Maybe. Yeah. You should take a video of it. You know,
 they had a top 40 list that I was kind of going through. It seems there's anything else
 that would have bumped up. I don't know. But I don't know if I want to dance with somebody
 Whitney Houston. I can see where it gets people dancing because it's definitely got that
 beat. But I think I had Billie Jean Michael Jackson. I think that one, me doing the moonwalk
 on the boardwalk or something. That sounds more appropriate. Yeah. I just wonder the age
 of who they pulled for that because I feel like I wouldn't have necessarily put all those
 up there, but you know, teach there. It's 2000. So it's anything more than 500 is supposed
 to be actually, you know, representative of the nation as long as they've done it with
 proper techniques, you know, to not to get into scientific studies and data. But 500 people
 are the minimum to be representative of the U.S. So 2000 should be representative. That's
 interesting. Yeah. So anyway, radical. Well, that's news of the week. Yeah. Well, then
 our news, I think that we should talk about today, a couple things. So first, did you hear
 what happened with Joe Rogan on his podcast the other day? I did. I do follow him and I've
 been following the news around it. Oh, yeah. That's been interesting. So for those of you
 who might not know about what's going on, Joe Rogan on his podcast and made a comment
 about video games, not being like actually productive for human. And also said that it
 was addictive and a waste of time. But I think, I think it's important when we're talking
 about Joe Rogan's addictiveness with like video games is on his channel. This is coming
 from a personal place. Like I mean, he did have like a personal addiction to video games
 and something that he did talk about. Yeah. I mean, when you have that kind of money to
 like, you know, put that kind of software and hardware into your house, I think it's
 safe to say he can get rid of 10,000 RT-1 line to it. Yeah. Yeah. So you can test this
 connection. Yeah. I think it's two people before they even knew it. Yeah. Right. I mean,
 you know, we've been doing this eSports series and obviously it's booming with the competitive
 side of it. And I think that's essentially what he was doing, you know, 15, 20 years
 ago. But look, as a parent, I kind of, I mean, I'm going to talk kind of both sides on
 mouth. It's like seeing the growth of it and having the guests that we've had on and
 seeing the marketing potential. People are spending time there, no matter how you feel
 about it. Right. And there's everything in moderation, including, including moderation.
 And so there's no doubt that there's some addiction going on there. So I can see it.
 I can see it how, you know, between the way the games are set up, the way they reward,
 I'm sure the neurons in your brain, you know, with like winning and then the add-on stuff
 that they spend money on and all those things. I see the potential for that. But at the
 same time, it's like, you know, you can obsess and go overboard on anything. And so you
 get to just kind of put checks and balance, especially for kids, get a monitor accordingly
 and make sure they're staying active in other things. And so I think Joe's just being honest.
 Yeah. I think there's some truth to it, absolutely. But at the same time, I think we've got
 to move past some of the stigmas of, and I've tried to do that myself, like, especially
 with the z-sports series going, okay, this isn't just a lazy, you know, non-productive,
 you know, there's waities to get camaraderie out of this. There's ways to get communication.
 Like this is the way kids interact now. And so if there's ways to pull the positive
 out of it, the way to make it productive. And some of these kids are making thousands of
 dollars, hundreds of thousands of dollars. So I don't know, there's a lot, a lot to unpack
 there.
 Well, I think his point with, I mean, he's, I think he's trying to bring more like realistic
 expectation into video gaming, that not everyone who plays video game, like what you're
 talking on the other day, not everyone that plays a video game is going to turn around
 and make a million dollars at the next tournament. And while there's truth in that, like, I
 think, you know, the, the YouTuber that was talking about what Joe had said, PewDiePie,
 that YouTuber name, he was talking about the fact that, I mean, he gets it, like, not
 everyone realistically is going to become a millionaire. But I think it's interesting
 to bring this point into it too, like where I think Joe Rogan's coming in from the, you
 know, you can take those eight hours a day that you're playing video games. And, you
 know, like he works on his splits, right? Or he's over there, like, yeah, right, or like
 breaking boards and half. And like, that's awesome. But there are some people that the kind
 of intellectual stimulation they're getting from video games is, you know, it's, that's
 sustaining them. Like, that's what they need, you know? And so I think there's just everyone
 has their own thing. But I definitely don't think I can see, you know, Joe Rogan having
 a guest on his podcast. And then, you know, he's like, Oh, actually, my mind's changed.
 So, uh, exactly. I mean, the one thing I would say is, look, I played video game. I, I
 definitely binge on video games when I was a kid. And, you know, obviously it screwed me up.
 It screwed me up majorly. You see how I am? It's heard me, uh, completely. But in all
 seriousness, there wasn't the outlets for the competition. And for maybe some of the
 more positive outcomes, because it was all in, you know, your bedroom at the couch that
 wasn't the online component, which there's good and bad to that too. But it was just, you
 sitting there binging for eight hours. And whether or not that's productive or not, whether
 or not that's getting you where you need to go. We can argue that it likely isn't, but some
 of the more, the better things that are coming out of eSports, the building, the comraderies
 of the teams, the more organized activities around it. And you're even seeing some of the
 gamers that are on top. You see like some of their like routines and not saying every
 one of them, but like their workout routines and like their mental, you know, how they prepare
 for things. And so again, I think it's all about balance. Yeah. Finding that. No, absolutely.
 The other news we're going to talk about today, I think kind of goes into this a little bit.
 And the sense of so much time online can make you exposed to certain targeting ads. And
 particularly this is kind of a change of topic, but it goes similarly, I think the military
 has been using like avenues like Twitch and other things like that to recruit for the military,
 which personally, I don't necessarily think that's a horrible thing. But I do think it's an
 issue when you have like targeted ads of like if you, you know, on Twitch, like if you enter
 all your information into this portal, you'll get a free Xbox or whatever. And then you go in,
 but it's actually just an army recruitment site. And there's actually no Xbox. Like that's not okay.
 Got a bait and switch. Right. But yeah, what are your thoughts on that? You know, I don't have a
 problem. Look, it's a free country like these platforms are there for marketing and communication.
 And, you know, the thought and the notion that the military is recruiting kids that might not have
 any other opportunity in a platform with which they're consuming media and content anyway.
 I don't have a problem with, you know, at its surface. If those practices, like you said,
 are misleading and misguided, I have a problem with anything that's quote unquote false advertising.
 But the notion of using the media to potentially recruit kids that are spitting a lot of time
 on games that might have no other avenue. Like think about it. It's kind of the same thing with
 professional sports. 99.9 of kids aren't going to become the next LeBron James. Right. And
 while the avenues in the sports are probably greater odds and better opportunities with all
 the leagues and all the games and all that, you know, but there's still probably an 80% chance
 that you're not going to get into a professional money making position of esports. So the notion that
 the military itself is marketing itself to kids and giving them an avenue as long as it's on the
 up and up I'm okay with. Yeah. I think like even when you go to like college games and stuff like
 that, I mean, if you look closely, there's tables of army recruitment people there. Do you know what
 I mean? And I think in the same light, it's the same thing, right? It's just on a virtual platform
 now where it's literally shown. But I think the thing is like, I think some people, some
 representatives, they just didn't necessarily like it because a lot of the people that are on
 Twitch are 12 and 13 year olds. And so from that perspective, like I get it, but, you know,
 teach their own, I guess it's the same difference. I again, I think if you go to like any college
 campus or anything like that, you literally you see all these advertisements, but they're just in
 like a live form, you know? And I think when you start seeing them online, it's like, oh my gosh,
 wait a minute, like that can't be there. And it's like, well, you see it all the time, you walk by
 it all the time on campus or wherever it is you're at. But kind of on the same note, what do you think
 about the whole TikTok situation? Yeah. Here's what I think, you know, we talked a little about this
 before the episode and things like that, certainly believe in free speech and free, you know,
 where we have liberty, we have the ability to do what we want to do. But, you know, I don't know
 enough about the back end of the technology platform having not been privy to it to know. But I assume
 if it's a Chinese government that owns the, you know, is involved in some ownership of Chinese company
 that has to report to Chinese Communist government. It is what it is, no matter what my opinion is
 on the Chinese Communist Party, they are a Communist Party and they do collect data from their companies
 and all of their business have to kind of have a transparency to the government. It's a little
 different than ours. Not that we aren't, not that our businesses aren't transparent to the US
 government, but it's a, it's different. It's a different and so not being naive to the fact that
 I'm sure there's data being collected, then I don't have a problem with the government trying
 to step in to make sure that our data isn't managed properly and maybe it should be run or sold
 to a US company. Like a version of TikTok or like... Well, I think that a company would buy it and
 it's current entity, you know, like I've heard like Microsoft and others, you know, US
 companies buying it and it would probably, in a lot of ways, stay exactly what it is. But all that
 data would be housed on servers in the US and not being transferred and, you know, there'd be some kind
 of breadcrumbs back to where that all is living. And right now I think it's just going into the
 the data is going to the the nether worlds of the internet back to the Chinese companies that are
 running it. Right. And so part of me gets a little frazzled of the government kind of stepping in
 and then part of me is like, well, you know, it makes sense. Yeah. And so, you know, I'd like
 I'd like that we didn't take a brush and just shut it down because you've got a lot of people
 that are on the platform doing things. I like that there seem to be tempering the just shut it
 down. But if they can get the company sold and get it into hands that we feel like are managing
 the data properly. Right. Then I think that's the appropriate course. But do you think Instagram
 Reels are trying to do something similar to TikTok? Do you know what I mean? I mean, social video,
 whether it's, you know, we, Triller, it became the number one app over the weekend in photos and
 videos for a couple days. I think it's dropped back now. I think most people aren't going to want to
 move from TikTok because they don't have to. Right. Because they've got all their. Yeah.
 They're using all that. Yeah. So they got nervous because they're like the president's like,
 I'm going to shut it down tomorrow. And I think people flocked elsewhere. So I think you're going
 to see some splintering of people moving, whether it's Reels with Instagram. I mean, look,
 Instagram is a behemoth already. And so anything that's backed by them as long as the app is
 as good as it needs to be the technology and maybe some bonus features, which I'd
 imagine I wouldn't imagine it being an exact, you know, copy of everything that that TikTok is. But
 if there's some plus one plus two features that that people can gravitate around, I think you'll
 see people naturally migrating a little bit or even it's not migration, it'll just be an expansion
 of the platforms that are on potentially. But yeah, that's where it's just getting so like
 splintered it as far as you've got Facebook, you've got Instagram, you've got TikTok, Snapchat,
 Twitter, you know, and obviously they all have their place, but you're getting a little
 exhausting of where you share your world view. Yeah, exactly. Whether that's a dance or your
 political or how active you are on all the platforms, like which ones are you more active on,
 like which ones are you not? And, you know, you can't be super active on all of them. That's just
 exhausting. Yeah, I mean, it's even from, you know, bringing it back to the marketing standpoint,
 you know, brands were just not saying just now, but in the last six months, starting to get
 their hands around how to use TikTok for brands, you're starting to see some of the ad platforms
 develop on TikTok. And now it's kind of like if you're a brand that spent money or time
 or thinking about it and you're in the same thing of like a kid that's got a million followers
 or something, they're going, oh, wait a second. And so I think you're probably seeing a little bit
 of pause with that because I don't know how much money you want to dump in and if there's the
 potential of it being locked down. Exactly. And so, you know, it'll be interesting to see where it goes.
 Mm-hmm. So I guess to handle my kind of a positive note, or I think something kind of fun and sweet,
 the drive-in esports arenas. Yes. How sweet are those? Very nice. Yeah, I'm looking forward to them
 actually happening though. I think it's, you know, without the in-person stuff and I saw
 know what the increase but it's all several celebrities posting there at like a drive-in movie
 or something a few weeks ago, a couple that I follow. And so I think picking up on that theme and
 you know, people are pivoting into where and how to deliver content and how to deliver experiences
 outside of it. So I think it's cool. I think it's cool too. I think it's interesting the point
 about it being like more of a mobile platform because obviously the Wi-Fi issues are just like,
 oh, let me casually bring my super expensive, you know, full on gaming monitor and, you know,
 everything. I think that I think that mobile aspect will be nice. But I'm looking forward to
 those four locations. Louis Vulcan-Tucky, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, El Paso, Texas, and La Rada, Texas.
 Interesting. You know, it must have something to do with the parent company, I imagine, but
 I'm not sure what the logic was. I'm trying, I have no mental, I don't pretend to be a knowledge
 base of every city in America, but those, the four of those don't ring any natural
 like tendencies together. Yeah, like I was like kept reading, I know there's only four,
 but like I was like hoping that one of the cities would have been one that it's like, that makes
 sense, you know, like I felt like Austin, Texas might have made sense or you know, something like
 that, but I mean, nothing against those places. Those are, those are great places. Yeah, no,
 they're great. I've been to Louisville. Yeah. It's nice. I went to a football game there. Oh, really?
 Yeah. Clemson played Louisville a few years ago at Louisville. It was okay. I could fan following
 actually for all their sports and basketball is usually kind of the thing there, but I don't
 pretend to know what the dynamics or geographic, you know, tendencies that link all those
 together, but are all kind of tier two DMA markets. None of them are, you know, like top 20 cities
 in the country or something. Right. Right. Right. Maybe it's affordability of doing it. I wonder if
 it has to do with the partnership, though, because I wonder if, because I think horizon group
 properties and the esports analytic company, arena data, I don't know if like one of those
 places are like their headquarters or something might be in those places. And maybe that's why there's
 a connection there. I'm not entirely sure, but anyway, that's going to be interesting. I'm looking
 forward to obviously COVID not affecting things to where I could see these popping up a lot more
 and a more retro kind of space too. I think it's again, the, the growth of this segment and they
 kind of the, I don't know, just a note, like I can't wrap my head like 10 years ago or five years
 ago, this notion, and obviously COVID has a lot to do with it, but even just, obviously these
 aren't gigantic markets, but how mainstream esports is becoming, you know, the notion of... Well, and even
 yesterday, not to spoil that episode, but when we were talking, you know, yesterday with our guest,
 and he was making a comment that if anything, COVID just like sped up the process of a lot of
 companies, you know, two to five years in terms of like what work was actually going to look like,
 what production was actually going to look like and things like that. So if anything, I do think
 there's some positivity to COVID speeding up some of that kind of processes, but... Yeah, I mean,
 I imagine it's going to be mainly mobile based in some way. I don't know what, you know,
 you're not bringing your console. Right. I don't know, if you're on your tablet or on your
 smart phone. There's a huge extension cord that runs through. Yeah, there's about tipsy
 outlets working, an outlet, so I mean, I might get it going, but I don't know, most average vehicles
 are probably not running their Xbox off their car batteries or something. Yeah, no, that probably
 wouldn't be it. But no, that's the news for this week. Anything else you want to talk about?
 I don't think so. Looking forward to releasing some of the episodes for eSports.
 Got a few more, and then we're working on some specifics around e-commerce. We haven't
 ironed out everything for the next series, so excited about that. We have three more episodes
 for the Radcast for eSports. Next episode is Tuesday at noon, and then we're going to start our e-commerce
 series and all my little secrets up here. We'll see where they go. Hey, I guess we can close with,
 as we look at, you know, if you're listening or watching, depending on where you're consuming
 this, our Radcast merchandise. We've got, we got our t-shirts in and some samples for,
 there are yeti cups or for lack of better tumblers, tumbler, that's what it is. Radcast tumblers,
 so be on the call. Yeah, on our Instagram page, we have all of our merchandise that we're getting,
 we're posting it on there. Cool. All right, guys, that's it for this week. Ryan and Riley,
 we'll see you next time on the Radical News Update. See you next time.