12-22-25 Scott Sloan Show

Hey everybody, Lady Luck here, and we're celebrating America's 250th birthday. Now, all summer long, I'm going to be celebrating by playing on SpinQuest.com, which is an American-owned social casino. It obviously features over a thousand slot games and live blackjack, live craps, live bubble craps. Head on over to SpinQuest.com. Get yourself a $30 coin pack for just 10 bucks. SpendQuest is a free-to-play social casino. Avoid where prohibited. Visit SpenQuest.com for more details. These days, it's getting harder and harder to trust what you're seeing. Who made it? Is it real? But with Eyeheart, everything you hear is guaranteed human. That's why 78% of listeners trust their favorite radio hosts product recommendations. And if you own or manage a business here or need to drive sales, that trust goes a long way in creating your future customers. Make iHeartMedia a part of your 2026 plan today. Visit iHeartadvertising.com. Again, that's iHeartadvertising.com. When you experienced the PFL live, the hits are harder. The crowd is louder. The action unmatched. There's no more stopping these queens and queens for well in your crime. July 25th in Washington, D.C., undefeated that the silverbacked gene fights to cement his place atop the division against the silent assassin Shemil Musayev with PFL gold on the line. The tension is building. Be there. Saturday, July 25th, live from Care First Arena. For tickets, visit pfell. info slash DC. Bubba Wallace here from 2311 racing. You know what's slower than a pace car? Waiting at the car wash. That's when I fire up Chumba Casino. It turns those slow minutes into fast fun. With new games every week, you'll never get bored. Next time you're stuck in the slow lane, speed up with Chumba. Play now at chumbacasino.com. Let's Chumba. Sponsored by Chumba Casino. No purchase necessary. VGW Group Ford were prohibited by law. 21 plus. Terms and conditions apply.

Biden waived student loans about 150,000 people. You know, just kind of a little tip of the hat as he headed out of office about a year ago. On that, though, it's not like, you know, the Trump administration has righted a lot of those wrongs. We've just simply forgotten about this. You know, the total U.S. debt is almost $2 trillion in student loans. The average borrower owes. over $39,000 per person. And so many more have defaulted on those loans as well. Delinquency rates are high. The repayment timelines are questionable at this point. Where do things stand relative to this? And how do we solve this? Alan Klinch is the founder of studentloanjustice.org. Alan, welcome back. Hey, Ben. Good morning, Scott. We saw default rates spike after COVID and then once we return to payment or tried to anyway. Where are we headed to now relative to the default cliff? Yeah, that's right. Yeah, we are headed for a mass default. uh people are just done um people you know so many people have been paying for years and years and years under any one of the alphabet soup of already existing income driven repayment plans there's been four since 1995 and the disqualification rate for these idr programs is upwards of 90 percent and so um It is a huge crisis. Yeah, yeah. There's no, I mean, if you don't have the money, you don't have the money. I get that. And it's easy to wag your finger at young people and say it's your fault. But, and I get that too. But I'll be honest with you, the plans that I've seen from both Trump and Biden don't really address the issue. I mean, forgiving a loan during COVID, I guess we can suspend it. That's all fine. But. There's no accountability here for universities. That's why I don't like the entire bailout system. The way it's been proposed and structured is, so what happens is fine. We're going to wind up wiping all this debt out. All right. Well, what then happens? Well, universities will raise their prices even more because students will have extra money to pay. Students who took on huge levels of debt will be able to turn that towards the government, meaning me and you to pay that pick up the tab. And politicians score points with young voters who seldom turn out. in order to get elected or reelected. So it serves all those interests, but it doesn't solve the problem, right? The problem is you keep subsidizing college. It gets more and more and more expensive. That's really the problem here, and it's not addressed in any of these plans. I actually almost completely agree with you. I mean, the lending system is a large catastrophic failure at this point, but the loans will not be paid. So ultimately, the loans at this late date, they will be canceled.

But you raise excellent points. You know, canceling student loans solves nothing. The price of, for all the reasons that you mentioned. And, you know, the core of this problem, Scott, lies in the fact that unlike every other loan in this country, student loans have been uniquely stripped of the most fundamental consumer protections you can imagine, mainly bankruptcy rights. So the family father is called for bankruptcy rights, uniform bankruptcy rights in the Constitution, ahead of the power to, you know, raise an army and declare a war. And this has been stripped uniquely from student loans. And this really is the linchpin that has enabled this runaway spending, well, runaway charging tuition prices and so forth by the colleges, no accountability. And. You know, counseling loans is all good and well. But if you don't change the underlying system, then we're going to be right back where we are now in a few years. The system, the system from top to bottom is messed up. I mean, if you go back to the 1960s, 70s, I think it was 18% of family income is what tuition was, which is manageable. 65, that's when the government says, hey, you know what, we're going to guarantee student loans now. And then Sally Mae gets involved. And by 78, as all these government programs, more government gets involved, the more they screw things up, tuition and fees crept up to, what, almost 50% of a family income today. uh it it's a totally government controlled problem because they stepped in guaranteed subsidized for gave loans they have the power of the pen and all it does is encourage universities and colleges to hike their prices up because they're getting free money uh it's a simple solution if you got government out of this because i'm guessing back in the 60s and 70s you take out a private loan like you would for anything else um or you simply the cost would be affordable for a family to pay out of pocket that's not true anymore No, that's exactly right. And, you know, in some states, particularly a lot of the southern states, average student loan debt in those states exceeds the yearly earnings of the average earners there in those states. But, you know, Ohio is actually terrible as well, $75 billion in mostly federal student loan debt. across the country. And it's this sort of rampant inflation that just can't be allowed to continue. Now, we as a group, student law and justice.org, we've been pushing probably 80% of our efforts have been towards getting the right of bankruptcy returned to these loans. Not so that everybody can run out and file. That won't happen. Nobody wants to file for bankruptcy, but rather because bankruptcy serves to constrain the lending side. It makes, it ensures good faith in the lending relationship, but more, maybe more importantly, it guarantees rational sort of market-based prices. You know, it prevents the price of the commodity being purchased from getting out of control. And so.

If there is even to be a federal student loan program going forward, and I'm not sure the government really is, I should be in the lending business at this point. They're not very good at it, considering our federal debt right now, yeah. Yeah. But if they are, at a minimum, whatever loans that they want to use to fund higher education in this country, they've got to have all the consumer protections, most notably bankruptcy rights that every other loan for every other borrower has. We think that's really the core of the problem. And, you know, if they had returned bankruptcy to student loans back when we started our group 18 long years ago, there would be no student loan crisis today. The Department of Education and Congress would be very much more judicious in how much they lend out and maybe even for what sort of programs. Well, I think that's interesting. You bring that, by the way, Alan Cullin, J.C. President of Student Loan Justice.org, normally we actually are agreeing on a lot of stuff here, too, because I hear student loan justice to think, well, you know, we're just going to give free money away, make college free. That's not really what you're saying. And I agree on some points. There's no way these young people are generally young people going to be able to pay these loans back. We're seeing a 75% default rate. That is just catastrophic. But I guess when I think about bankruptcy, which you're right, it does keep the lenders in check going, okay, is this a good risk? But here's what's going to happen, right? And it's two sides of the same coin. there's going to be arguments and going, well, now you're stifling, you know, higher institutions of higher learning and what people are going to study and career paths and things like that, which I say good because. You know, if the argument is that if we forgive all this money or make college free, it results in a better educated population and it's got to be worth the cost. But it's not because what happens is you get a whole bunch of students majoring, and I'm sorry, BS that the market doesn't value. And other people simply just. You know, showing up going out, I guess I'll go to school because someone else is paying for it. So if it's for free, it's for me. And then it doesn't even discount all the ones that go to college who fail and still have to pay the loans and drop out for whatever reason. Graduates need marketable skills going, and we know this right now. And so I think the bankruptcy thing in a way would eliminate all these fluffy programs and education and the ivory tower, Alan, would finally have to come around and go, hey, guess what? We're in a market too here. We're not in a bubble. This is a market economy. Teach the... jobs and teach the skills that people need to make money to service their loans and the rest will take care of itself.

did bankruptcy. Well, yeah, that remains to be seen. Right. That's the problem with it. But currently... You can pick a random college funding scheme out of a hat at this point, and I can almost guarantee you that whatever they get will be far better than what we have today. So, you know, it's always a balancing act with Congress, different disparate interests will have their say. But at the end of the day, you know, we can't be financially ruining 85% of the people who take out student loans. and leaving them with, you know, predatory, unpaidable debt for the rest of their lives. I mean, that does not serve the country. Yeah, I mean, I look at it and go, well, okay, mom and dad in the equation, they should kind of know better about how much money they're borrowing because you're old enough to know how that works. But if you're young and you're, you know. 16, 17 years old and you're applying for colleges and it's all well and good. You don't have an idea what that's like, what servicing alone is. And I think they keep kids financially ignorant from the beginning for a reason because at the end of the day, it's mana from heaven for the federal government. They're just going to keep getting their money. How, when you can go after mom and dad's social security because the kid... doesn't have a job that's going to pay anything and can't service the loan. I think that just speaks volumes about where we are right now. And the sickening part is, I honestly, I mean, outside of Jim Jordan, as you said, both sides to be complicit in just... basically doing the dirty work for colleges and universities. It's insane that someone has not called us out sooner rather than just going, yeah, we're going to, oh, just give you free money and, well, what about next year's class? They're going to want. And once this starts, of course, once you say we're going to give forgiven loan debt, each 23, 24, 25, 26, 2027, every class is going to want basically a bailout. If the idea is we forgive loans to stimulate the economy, well, I don't know about you, Ellen. I got a mortgage. That'd be great. Imagine how much money I'd spend on liquor and hot tubs and strippers and Coke. Well, I would actually disagree with you on not so much what you just said, but sort of the underlying premise here. And the important point here that I haven't brought up yet is the federal government, believe it or not, the Department of Education, they have been making a king's ransom in profit on this federal student loan program.

Certainly since Obama federalized in 2010. You know, in 1965, the President LBJ declared that these student loans would be free of interest. Well, today, over $100 billion a year in interest. Absolutely. And it accrues to the books of the Department of Education. And so the Department of Education is, this is really a cash cow for the people in Washington. people don't quite understand how incredibly profitable this thing has been for the taxpayers. And out of that, I mean, think of it. There's no, you know, you can't discharge it. You don't put any collateral up. They can garnish your wages. They can go after your mom and dad's Social Security. They can do all these horrific things that, you know, in the private sector, you can't do it all. Alan, all the best. Thanks again. Well, thank you, Scott. It's been about, I think almost exactly a year since Biden and his, one of the last gasps of his presidency, wave the magic wand would come to student loans. I haven't heard a lot in last year with Trump on that one in regard, but the problem is still there. It still exists can be fixed, but they refuse to address the issue. And it's a big problem. It's a big problem. It's what college looks like is being changed by AI, for example. We'll get a news update in and more ahead. It's a Scott Sloan show on 700 WLW. All right, Scott. Blun on 700 WLW. It's a short week, getting ready for Christmas, winding it down, ready to eat some good food. And a lot of that, by good food, I mean food that's not good for you. A lot of sugar this time here. A lot of candy, a lot of pie, a lot of cake, all that stuff. Cookies, you name it. I am down for it. However, a word of the wise here. Nicole Levina joins the show again. She writes a book called Sugarless about the, I don't know if it's the dangers of sugar, but who didn't like some sugar from time to time? Nicole, welcome. Good morning. Good morning. When's the last time you had sugar? Well, you know, I have to say I can have it in moderation. I have it, you know. now and then. I have it under control, but I have very little compared to most Americans, I would say. I'm more of a savory person. I like the savory stuff. I'll have, don't get me wrong, a good dessert or something like that, a piece of candy, but I'm not a sugar fiend. Now, I have a friend of mine, about the same age, and he has the diet of an eight-year-old. He'll drink like three of those blue slushies a day, and yeah, he's a mess. Yeah, I think there's a lot of people that sort of fall into one of either camp, right, where you have that sweet tooth and you crave it all the time or you're more of like a savory chips and cheese type person. He has the, you know, if you go to a hotel and they have the cereal dispenser, it's got three things and you turn the crank and a cereal comes out, he's got one of those in front of his TV. Oh, I think that's definitely the sign of a sugar addict. If you're pulling one of those devices. Yeah, I was like, okay, skittles all over the place. It's like Willie Wonka in his basement. It's something else. Some guys have bars. He has unlimited sugar. All right. Why is sugar so easy to do?

I guess to abuse. I don't want to say abuse. It's not a fair term because everything in moderation, as you said, it's fine. I'm glad you're not like, oh, you can't eat sugar at all ever. I mean, sugar is, it's good. You just can't make it a steady part of your diet. Yeah, but I think that's really the issue that a lot of people are struggling with because although we want to do it in moderation, most of us have a really hard time doing that because it's so pervasive. If you think about it, you know, everywhere you go in the grocery store, if you go to restaurants, I mean, most of the dishes that we order when we eat out have sugar added to them. And so even if you're trying to cut back or even if you don't really have a big sweet tooth and... You think you're not eating a lot of sugar. Ogs are that you probably are eating more than what is recommended by the guidelines. What are the guidelines? I have no idea. Well, you know, it's funny because for the longest time, we did not have government guidelines about sugar. We had guidelines about everything else in terms of vitamins and, you know, how many calories you should eat to have a healthy diet, but we didn't have it for sugar. Now we do, and it's recommended that you have no more than 6 to 8 teaspoons of sugar a day, which sounds great, but the problem is the average American has 22 teaspoons of sugar a day. So, yeah, we're all eating way too much of it. You know, it's not just about obesity or being overweight. There's so much research that's come out. I talk about it in my new book, Sugarless, about how sugar can impact your physical health. It can also impact your mental health, too. So it's a really good idea to cut back, even if you're not struggling with your body weight. And I think it's important to you go, well, wait a minute, I don't eat a lot of sugary food. How could I have 22 teaspoons or tablespoons of sugar a day? Well, it's hidden. And so the formula for really, really good food, if you want to make food taste well, you've got to have savory, you've got to have sweet, you've got to have fat, you've got to have those things in it and tart. Every good dish, like, well, it's a secret of ingredients. Probably most people don't use enough acid in their cooking, like lemon or something like that. But the big one is sugar. And if you get that balance right between sweet, fat, and salty, you're going to, this is why you can sit down and get a whole sleeve of Oreos and not be satisfied for that reason. Exactly. And it's hidden in, you know, pasta sauces. Everything has sugar in it. It does. And I think that's really, you know, the tricky part. So it's really important to take a look at the nutrition fact labels on the foods that you're purchasing and really, you know, look at the ingredients. You'd be surprised so many things that you wouldn't expect to see sugar in. You'll find that, you know, sugar is listed as one of those ingredients. And again, you know, even if you're...

thinking that maybe you are consuming too much of it, it's not about, you know, completely cutting it out of your life. And I really make a point of this in my new book because that's just not sustainable. And, you know, that's going to set people up for failure. It's really more about reducing it and doing more to try to replace it with healthier alternatives. So you could still enjoy the foods. and have them, but just without all that added sugar. You know, big holidays roll along or occasions, whatever, and you have some sugar or somebody bring some cookies and you know, I'll have one, you have a couple and, you know, you feel great. And then all of a sudden, like, minutes left, for me, minutes later, maybe like an hour later, I want to kill myself. What is that? Well, you know what the problem with sugar is, is that it affects our brain in so many strange ways. It can affect the brain in a way that leads us to be addicted. It can release dopamine and these other neurotransmitters, and that's what leads people to crave it and want more and more of it. But it also does so many things to mess with our mind. It causes us to feel guilty after we eat it. It causes us to have these, you know, rapid spikes in our blood sugar levels that then... lead us to then have these crashes in our blood sugar levels that can impact our mood. So when people start to reduce the sugar in their diet, they really start to get in touch with those feelings and see that, wow, you know, this stuff is really making me feel strange and act funny when I eat a lot of it. So if you stay away from it, then you really can get a better control on what it's doing to your brain and your body. Yeah. What does it do to your, is it more of a physical thing or a mental thing, or is it both? Well, it's both. I mean, you know, when you consume sugar, it's affecting your blood sugar levels, which then in turn affects your neurotransmitter levels. And so it's affecting your brain. And I think, you know, we have this physical change that occurs in response to that, right? We react to it. Our brain tells us, you know, how to react and how to feel. But there is also this psychological piece of it, too. And I think that goes along with the fact that, you know, it is so pervasive in our society. And it's sort of this. forbidden thing in many ways. You know, we know sugar's bad for us. We know we shouldn't have too much of it. And then when we do indulge, we get that psychological guilt. And I think this is what happens with a lot of people who are dieting, right? Around this time of year, everybody's, you know, trying to clean up their diet and maybe lose a couple pounds, like you said in the beginning. Yeah. And, you know, you get that guilt. If you gave in and, you know, ate that giant place of cake, then you feel bad about it. You feel like you let yourself down. So that's important to avoid. And I talk about that in my new book. Sugarless about how, you know, you want to change your relationship with food. You don't want to, you know, have this unhealthy relationship with the things that we're eating. It's got to be a healthy dynamic. All right. Nicola Venus here. Sugarless is the book, and it's the big problem for people, and that is kicking the sugar habit. If you want to lose weight, sugar is definitely going to add some hidden calories, and it does a lot. One of the issues that came up, and this is totally, well, it's kind of related, and I won't know when to get into this, is we just legalized not long ago for recreational use, Ohio did. recreational marijuana. And the opponents of it always talk about how it's a gateway drug. You smoke some weed. It's going to, you know, next thing you'd be shooting heroin. You get blast. You're going to cocaine. Nipple bumps, everything, right? And I never, and I think that's a bunch of bunk. And I basically my counter to this was, well, if that's the case, if that's the gateway, is the real gateway drug, caffeine, or in this case, sugar. Is sugar gateway drugged other things?

Absolutely. I think sugar is a gate. I think it's the original gateway drug. Yeah, because you get it when you're a kid. Right, Halloween comes along, the holidays, whatever, you pack your kid full of candy Easter, and they lose their mind and they're bouncing off the walls. They're like, wow, I feel great after eat sugar. That's, that's a drug. Yeah, and, you know, we've actually conducted research studies in my laboratory looking at that, looking at the relationship between sugar and then behavior later on and proclivity to use drugs and alcohol. And for sure, if you have experience with sugar, you're more likely to use drugs or alcohol. So, yeah, I think that's really the bigger problem. It's, you know, not about recreational marijuana. I think it's about getting to the root of the problem, which is sugar and it starts, you know, in kids when they're three, four, five years old. It's crazy. You have a Snickers a few years later. You're doing lines off the rear end of a hooker. It's a down. It's a slippery slope, Nicole. It sure is. It really is. Yeah. All right, so there's just sugar addiction and drug dependency, and there certainly is a link there too because you get that. It's that feeling that you wind up getting a wow, the sugar high. This is really cool. And then later on, you're looking for that maybe in different ways, so it makes sense. But again, it's moderation, it's tolerance. It's a bunch of other things, too. And we also have a culture in our society, too, this diet culture. You know, there's a gym I drive by. uh near my house it's the gym and then right next door is like a cookie place so it's you can't even get past the gym without being tempted by by cookies and i think we have a thing where hey if i work out i can treat myself uh to a cookie or sweets later in the day and the problem is you just eat too many of them Yeah, what is that? That's happening where I live in New Jersey, too. I feel like that must be something going on with like the planning boards of towns where you have to put a cookie joint next to the gym because I've seen that myself. Yeah, I think, you know, you're so right that it's sort of part of this culture of like rewarding ourselves. If we do something good, like work out, right? Then we're supposed to reward ourselves with a cookie. And I think that happens on multiple levels throughout the day for a lot of people when, you know. They do a good job at work or let's go out and celebrate by getting ice cream if you got a good grade on your test. You know, it just happens throughout the day in multiple ways where people reward themselves with food. And that's fine, but the problem is, you know, if you're rewarding every little thing that you do right with food, then that's where people start to get into problems with, you know, health issues, diabetes, and being overweight. Yeah. Yeah, in our household, we had to fight that. I mean, if me and my two brothers would have stayed at home and lived at home, God, we'd probably be 4,000 pounds by now. My mom would, you know, hey, you're having a bad day, have a meatball. You're having a good day here, have two meatballs. I mean, one of those Italian mom situations. What about withdrawal? You mentioned the...

connection between sugar is a gateway drug and a full dependency on sugar later in life. And like anything, that means there's withdrawal symptoms. We know what it is for other hard street drugs, which are much more serious than sugar, certainly. But are there withdrawal symptoms? And how do you combat that? Yeah, absolutely. And so I think this is one of the main reasons why people end up going back on sugar is because of the withdrawal. We see this time of year where people say, okay, I'm going to cut back on sugar. And then all of a sudden they get irritable and they get lethargic and cranky and crabby. And, you know, maybe they're tired a lot. And a lot of times people will misattribute that and say, oh, it must be that I have low blood sugar. So I better eat more sugar so that I can make sure I don't pass out. Well, the reality is it's withdrawal. That's what sugar withdrawal looks like. These feelings that are similar to what would happen if you try to quit smoking cigarettes. that's really been the one that seems to parallel at most. And again, you know, it's not going to kill you. You're not going to, you know, die from the withdrawal, but it's uncomfortable. And, you know, a lot of times it's enough for people to then say, you know what, forget it. I'm just going to have some sugar so I feel better. But then that starts this whole vicious cycle all over again of, you know, okay, now I'm overeating sugar. And then I try to quit and I want to withdraw and then I crave it. And so it's this non. stop cycle that emerges. Where are you on artificial sweeteners? That's a good question. So I look at them as kind of like the methadone to heroin, right? I mean, they're better. than sugar, but you don't want to stay on it for the rest of your life. And so what I usually recommend is that if you are really struggling to get the added sugar out of your diet, if you need to rely on some of these artificial sweeteners or these alternative sweeteners as a crutch to kind of bridge you away from it, then that's fine. But the ultimate goal should really be to reduce the dependence on the sweeteners in our diet. You know, we don't need to add sugar to everything we have. Coffee is a perfect example, and I've been talking about this a lot because I think about it more and more. When I don't know coffee shop anymore, it's more like going into a sugar shop. I mean, there's more sugar in the store than there is coffee. Yep. So, again, we have to, I think, really just focus on reducing the dependence on sweetness and think about, you know, why do we have to have sugar in all these different things? It maybe doesn't really belong there in the first place. Yeah, I go a little cream in my coffee. That's about it just to, you know, get that little balance going on. But black is fine, too. Yeah, you know, you go to a place and it's kind of frightening, actually, that some of these drinks, I don't want to vilify any coffee chain Starbucks, but you go in there and one of their drinks is the same number of calories as a Big Mac. That's a problem.

Oh, yeah, and they're desserts. I mean, I don't even know how they can be considered coffees anymore. I mean, they're like literally desserts. I think I could probably find, you know, fewer calories at the ice cream store than I could from, you know, many of these coffee chains. So you do need to be mindful of that. And the marketing is a big part of it. I mean, they're marketed as being, you know, coffee drinks and you're getting your energy and getting you through that 3 p.m. plump. But the reality is, you know, you're going to hit a huge crash when that. sugar wears off and it's going to be compounded by the fact that your caffeine's wearing off as well. Right, the caffeine and the sugar at the same time. You put two or three of those down to some people do a day, and you're talking a full day amount of calories just in your liquids on top everything else, and you wonder why, you know, we're a little heavy. So people are concerned about maybe dropping a few LBs and getting right as we have those cycles every year, and this would be one of those cycles. The good idea would be looking at how much sugar you're getting in your diet. Sugarless is the name of the book. It's Nicole Levine. I know you have some strategies in there, too, for trying to wean yourself off the sugar, right? Yeah, absolutely. I have a whole seven-step plan that talks about how you can figure out where the sugar is in your diet because a lot of people just don't know, right? It's kind of hidden in many places. And then also dealing with, you know, the cravings. That's really a big thing. And I think that's a hard problem for a lot of people because, you know, sugar's everywhere. We got ads for it all the time. You're, you know, being offered it basically everywhere you go. And so how do you cope with that and, you know, really just reevaluating your relationship with food and really just. basically retooling yourself so that you can eat things alike, but just not have them have so much control over you. Yeah. And I think it's the thing. We all have our food triggers. I guess I'm a savory person, less and more than a sweet one. You know, put up pizza in front me. I'll kill it. But, you know, an entire cake or I may have a cupcake, but I ain't going to eat 12 of them. But everyone has their own triggers. But if yours is sugar, sugarless is the name of the book. And it's Nicola Vena. She's a PhD, but also a world-renowned neuroscientist. So great having on the show this morning. Thanks for the info. All right. Thank you. Yeah, you lean into it. And then after the holidays, hopefully you back off. Unless you've got that elf diet or everything you get in sugar. I know people like that. So there you go. All right. We're winding it down for 2025. And we'll get news here in just a few minutes. Traffic, all that. Just ahead. Scott Sloan show 700 WLW. You know what? It sucks to be bored. But when I get on my phone and play real casino games on SpinQuest.com, the time flies by. That two-hour wait at the DMV seems like 10 minutes. Play your favorite slots. Live blackjack, live craps with a live dealer. New players, $30 coin packs are on sale for $10.00. Play SpinQuest.com and you'll never be bored again. SpinQuest is a free-to-play social casino. Avoid where prohibited. Visit spinquest.com for more details. You know what your customers are doing right this second? The exact same thing you are, listening to me, which, let's be honest, is kind of flattering.

But my point is, ads on IHeart Radio actually get heard. In the car, at the gym, on the couch, while people are walking their dogs. Who's a good boy? Who's a good boy? You're a good boy, that's right, you're a good boy. So why not make the next ad about you? Get started today. Call 844-844-Ehart or go to IHeartadvertising.com. That's 844-844-Ehart or IHeartadvertising.com. Hi, Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. Are you looking for a beach read this summer? May I suggest your big wireless bill? It's got suspense, mystery, a slightly flat, emotional arc, and a shocking twist where you realize you've been overpaying the entire time. Fortunately, though, Mint's story is better. Every plan, $15 dollars a month a month. Every plan, even unlimited. That's it. Happy ending, zero tiers. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. Upbron payment of $45 for three months, $90 for six months, $1.80 for $12 per month. Taxes and fees extra. Initial term only greater than 50 gigabytes, and slow when network is busy. See Terms. Ready to put a little spin on your day? Then check out Chumba Casino's new online social casino game, Ryan Seacrest 10K Ways. It's free and packed with 10,000 ways to play. Only at ChambaCasino. No purchase necessary. VGW Group, void where prohibited by law. CTs and C is 21 plus sponsored by Chumpa Casino.

we go it's a scott sloan show monday more 700 w o w here we go after the big bengals win yesterday enjoying life what is not to love about this time of the year i got something for you because it's all not you know happy holidays even though that's most of the show today i don't know if you caught this but um Seven on Friday, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine shockingly, line item vetoed a provision of the state CBD law, which will now effectively ban the sale of something a lot of Ohioans enjoy. And that would be the hemp-derived THC beverages that you can get in bars and restaurants and other similar products from general retailers in the state. Not necessarily carryouts in life, but we're talking about bars. And we're talking about bars that have spent a fortune to try and stay alive. because the craft industry is fading. And THC-infused beverages are the future. And they've been embraced by millions of Ohioans. And with one stroke of the pen, the governor overrode that. And the ban means these beverages that millions enjoy can no longer be sold in locations like convenience stores, bars, breweries, or general stores. And these restrictions will take effect in mid-March. I cannot believe. that it's come to this. Ohio State Senator Steve Hopman from Just the Tip City joining the show this morning on 700W. Steve, I wish I wish you a good morning. It doesn't feel like a good morning based on what feels like a good part of your life's work here. I mean, you've spent so much time on Senate Bill 56 being the author of it. And this is like the 15th time we've had this conversation about stuff getting changed. Well, you're right. Now, we're done with it. There's a couple House members that have already introduced some other things that they'd like to see change. But overall, it was a good bill, but unfortunately the governor saw differently on this one subject. Did he explain his reasoning why? And please just don't tell me because it's about the children. Yes. So whenever he line item vetoes, he has the reason for doing it. And basically he said that there would be confusion because, you know, in the bill, you know, we got rid of gummies, different things like that, especially for children. So we got rid of that. But then we carved out the beverages until November because we're following the federal law. And he said there would be too much confusion with the beverages being outlawed before the, you know, after the other one. So we're just going to outlaw everything all at once in 90 days. Okay, well, if it's the federal legislation is the root cause of these problems. And given this Congress, just banned certain THC products when, you know, they reopen the government, why did we need, why would the governor have to act more aggressively than federal rock requires rather than just simply mirroring federal standards? Well, I mean, in the bill, we did because we, in Ohio, wanted to get rid of the gummies and stuff that underage kids were getting, and we were doing that in 90 days. I'm not sure that there would be confusion among the consumers, at least over the next year. It would give people to finish their, you know, whatever allotment that they currently have. But also in the bill, it would allow them to continue to process.

We were at 5 milligrams, so that was, you know, your 6%, like a 6% beer. But would allow, was going to allow Rheist and 50 West to process at 10 or 20 so that they could sell out of state, make money, keep people employed. That has gone away in 90 days also. Does the governor realize how many millions of Ohioans not only enjoy this, but how many thousands of people it employs? Does he understand the business dynamic here? I, you know, that would have to be a question for him. My understanding, in the state of Ohio this year, it is a $75 million business, mostly in the craft industries. You know, recently, Coors and Anheiser Bush is starting to get into the industry, but basically it's something you find in the craft. Yeah, and as I talked to purveyors of craft beer, the taste for craft beer has ebbed. I mean, we hit a peak. Everything has a business cycle, as you know, Steve Hoffman. And now we're starting to be like the post, you know. select beer kind of thing. A lot of people still enjoy it. I don't think it's going to go away, but it's pretty clear that people are switching to other beverages. Seltzers are big and certainly THHC beverages are big too. So my concern is you don't give people that option. Do they go back to drinking craft beer? Probably not. They'll find something else, I would imagine, that these breweries aren't selling. Doesn't that mean jobs and some of these breweries close on? I would think so. You know, the statistics I see is that people under 30 drink more of the THC drinks than they do beer. And, you know, $75 million industry in the state of Ohio, that seems to be a good number of jobs that ultimately would be lost. And do they go? to beer or something else, or do they just, they want the THC effect and do they just start smoking it? Yeah, right, and kind of cut the middleman out entirely. And I, you know what, I cringe every time, you know, Mike DeWine is a Republican, and I hear about how Republicans are pro-business, pro-business, pro-growth, for all this, and they do things like this that completely even leave me scratching my head. Is Mike DeWine turning his back on what used to be conservative values, or has always been this way? Well, I mean, again, you need to talk to him about it, but I think he is more concerned about safety of people and health of people. And I believe that's in conflict of what other people are thinking that these things do for him. Mike DeWine is a lawyer. He's not a physician. You, Steve Hoffman, are a physician. What's your physicians take on this stuff? Are people killing themselves when they sip THV-infused beverages?

You know, I think like any other intoxicating substance, it's within reason. So, yeah, if you're within reason and you're not going out and driving after taking large quantities of them, no. I don't think we know the long-term health effects of these things, but, you know, the early science says, you know, it's not that bad. You know, maybe beer and whiskey in the long term might be even worse for you, but... you know, no real big negative effects currently known. Yeah, that we currently know. Now, the future is always, you know, always changes. Science always improves, and we listen to that science. But at the same time... I have a definitive right by God to put whatever it is on my body. Plenty of people abuse substances, food, whatever it might be. I mean, you name me something in the world and I'll find somebody who abuses it. You see that all the time in your practice, Steve, and have to deal with those kind of things for sure. And you see the effects of people not taking care of their bodies and neglecting their health and focusing on too many vices. And we say that decline. But again, we all know that today. We know that cigarettes are carcinogen. We know that smoking is not good for you. popcorn lung now with vaping and things like that. But again, you could do things in moderation and it's fine. To me, it just seems to not only be left to the adults to make a decision, not kids, of course, but adults. And we know what we put in our bodies. I mean, it's not. I don't think an exaggeration to think, okay, should there be a, I don't know, the size. Remember when, I don't know, more liberal states, we're talking about banning the size of sodas. We're going to talk about regulating the fast food industry and only being allowed to eat at McDonald's once a month. I mean, how far does the government go? I hear these things. And, you know, damn it, I'm a grown person. I can make an informed decision as what I want to consume and put in my own body. It should not be up to the governor with the stroke of a pen to undermine that. Because I think, in your opinion on this, Steve, does this at some. level go against the will of the voters. Let's not forget about almost six and ten people supported recreational marijuana in Ohio. We generated over 700 million in the first year. At what point does legislative modification of a voter-approved citizen initiative cross the line from reasonable regulation and defying the clear will of what people want? Well, I don't disagree with that, a lot of that, but the beverages had nothing to do with the ballot initiative because we're talking hemp, and the ballot initiative was strictly concerning marijuana. But you should, within reason, have the right to do, you know, in the same for however you feel about Cratum. You know, his pharmacy board. last week is going to outlaw that and many people feel that is of benefit for their own health yeah let's say i mean i don't want to get up in the weeds on that but i think it's an excellent point steve hoffman is is cratim a lot of people don't know what that is i mean i personally don't use it um i i don't really know anyone that does uh it's been around for what's the substance what's a concern with cratim

Cratum is something kind of like a T from East Asia that people use and they feel that it helps with anxiety and sleep and a lot of things that the hemp people do. But in that in there, there's a substance, the intoxicating substance is known of 70H and it is at a very, very low level. So it's really not thought to be intoxicating, but just like hemp. They manufacturers will concentrate 70H and put a large amount in there and then makes it dangerous, makes it, makes it intoxicating. And so that's, you know, the pharmacy board is going to band all of it. So. But at the same time, we live in a country where you can get, you know, an intoxicating mushroom tea or some of those lines where, you know, tribal ancestors and news net for eons, right? And seemingly, I don't know if there's ill effects to that or not. But for some people, they feel that it's therapeutic. I agree. I just, you know, it's a schedule, it's not a scheduled one, but he wants to make it a scheduled one drug so we can get rid of it. But there's no real scientific research, you know, Ohio State and UC and other highly academic places aren't really doing the research. or haven't done the research to tell us this is good for you and this is what it's it's you know this is why it's bad for you catch 22 it's a schedule one so they can't research it and then the people who've made a schedule one say well there's not research yeah because you you made a schedule one we can't do research on something that's that's that controlled it's simple yeah you know how how about the the great news from donald trump last week on marijuana really good This is an odd, Steve, isn't it? I mean, you mentioned, okay, yeah, the Citizens Initiative and 60% of people wanting recreational THC marijuana. And you get, well, that doesn't, this THC, the CBD, THC derivative liquids and the alcohol, well, not alcohols, but the beverages, it's not really with the vote. But. I get that argument at the same time. I think the spirit of it is going, hey, you know, if I can smoke THC, what is it that far reach to think that that would include CBD derived beverages like this? And now that Trump is doing what he's doing. I think that's even more against what Mike DeWine thinks with this veto. No, I don't disagree. You know, when Trump said that, you know, I'm going to speed up the process of making marijuana, THC, a scheduled three drug and Schedule I, it will be great for the banking industry. We can't, you know, can't bank. It's all cash business in the dispensaries and everything. It'll provide the ability to do scientific research, and I'm hoping that.

the academic institutes in the state of Ohio will jump on it and be able to go out and get federal funding to say marijuana is good for you or it's bad for you and let's settle this for you know what type and how in what what conditions Steve, another, by the way, it's Ohio State Senator Steve Huffman on the show on 700 WLW. I'm sure you heard Mike DeWine shockingly line item vetoed a provision in our state CBD law. You know, the CBD slash THC infused beverages that a lot of people enjoy that's spurred an entire industry that's rapidly growing as big as a craft beer industry. And it was, I think, in a few years eclips that because so many people want the stuff. Mike DeWine banned that in Ohio. So all these companies that leaned in and invested the small. breweries the rindgeist the 50 west of the world and others are no longer in 90 days going to be able to sell and produce that stuff and so 6,000 plus people and so 6,000 small businesses alone by the way businesses not not people but 6,000 businesses are no longer going to be able to compete in the sphere despite the massive demand by millions of adult Ohioans that that want this stuff the other element here too we had talked about I think last time around Steve about protections for how housing, employment, organ donation, stuff like that. Is that been removed by the governor? Is that still in there? It's still in there. And basically, those things are things that mere previous laws. I don't believe there was anything really new in there. I mean, if you're a smoker, you can be banned from an organ transplant because of scientific studies that show that you're in so. That's why it was, you know, the organ ban has been included in there. Is there a connection medically, Steve, between organ donation and marijuana? Why would you be excluded from that? If I remember right, the law doesn't say that you are excluded. It says if there's a scientific basis, you can be excluded. if they feel, hey, look, if science shows that if you smoke marijuana and you get a liver transplant, your likelihood of rejection is higher. If the science is there, then we should stick by it, but we shouldn't just totally get rid of that. not based on science yeah i mean if it's science says that you have a higher rate of not not being able to you know get the organ it's kind of a waste of that pressure tree so i kind of get that element one of the thing i saw too was um allowing police to establish probable cause during traffic stops because someone is a known user of marijuana is that still part of this I can't remember, but again, I think that was, you know, restated from previously that, you know, when we initially did...

uh the medical marijuana law back in 2016 most of the drug dogs in the state were became obsolete because when they smelled marijuana they would hit and they you couldn't tell if it was a legal substance or an illegal substance or where they derived it from so it that caused a lot of a lot of trouble but uh you know they if they still have probable cause not because you're smoking because they feel you're impaired right they would be able to do a field sobriety test. Yeah, a lot of contradictions here. It just leaves one scratching there. Is there any remedy here for the manufacturers? And I'll try to get somebody on maybe from Rheingeister-Fifty West to talk about this later on. Is this fight completely over? Could this thing be overturned? Well, in the original bill, the House and the Senate had an agreement that we would, you know, the feds are going to get rid of it in a year in November 26th. If they changed things, that we would look at that and see, because we didn't have time to put taxes on it and regulations and the whole scheme of things. So we kept it, the plan was to keep it until November. So we can really look at it from that. from that aspect and see if Governor Mike DeWine has a different view of it. We could look at a veto override. It would take two-thirds of each body. So there are some things. We could reintroduce this, you know, when there's a new governor. Well, that won't be long. That won't be much either year, but still, you know, ramping down production, ramping it back up. I don't know what to tell the 6,000 small businesses out that have invested in this stuff when it was legal yesterday. Now it's illegal today, or 90 days, I should say. Steve, my head is scratching. You're scratching your head, I'm sure, but we'll leave it at that. And you have a Merry Christmas. Thanks again for joining the show and keep us updated and what the future holds for this. Merry Christmas to you and your family and all your listeners. You take care, Scott. All the best, my friend. Thanks again, Steve. That's Ohio State Senator Steve Hoffman from Just the Tip City, just north of Dayton. And Mike to wine, again, allegedly pro-business. I don't know how this is pro-business, pro-consumer because it goes against a face of a hottest growing beverage. I guess niche in the state right now, if not the country for that manner. We don't want any part of it. Why? It's about the children. Oh, my God, stop. 700 WLW. Everyone needs help every now and then. And she's here to help us get our heads right. This is Mental Health Monday with mental health expert Julie Hattershire. All right. It's hard to believe that 2025 is coming to a close. And the end of the year calendar. You know, we've got a lot crammed in there, lots going on, lots to do, a lot of things to wrap up at the end of the year. You know, one of the things we'll talk later is about credit reports and pulling those and look at those. You know, financial advice, Andy Beshear tomorrow beyond talking about that. In one area, though, people often don't think about it. And that is what Julie's here to talk about this morning on 700 WLW. Julie Hattershire, our licensed mental health expert. It's Mental Health Monday on the Scotts Lone show. Welcome. How are you?

Hey, I'm great. Thanks. How are you? Good. Ready for the holidays? Ready for the... What do you got going for the holidays? We're having family over on Christmas and then a couple of days later. We're taking off for a week. Going someplace warm and beachy. It's going to be lovely. Oh, nice. Good time to get away. All right. So this one weird trick for your mental health would be what? Well, this is something that I've been doing for a few years. I didn't invent it. Lots of people do it. And it's called sort of a year-end life review. And, you know, businesses do year-end reviews. If you're an employee of a business, you very often get a performance review annually. But we don't often take a look at our own lives in a holistic way and ask ourselves some questions. and reflect on what went well and what didn't go as well over the course of the year so that we can set ourselves up for success going into the following year. And I think I've been doing this about four or five years now, and I love it. I love the whole process. So I thought we could talk about it as a way to... close out 25 and set ourselves up for success. It's like a personal annual self-review sort of thing you got. Exactly. Most of us, though, tend to, you know, people like, hey, you know, something bad. I don't want to talk about it. But there are those of us that tend to just focus on the future because, you know, I can't change what happened. I can learn from it and move forward. I don't really want to look back. Is that flawed thinking? Well, you can learn from it and move forward, but only if you take the time to reflect on not only what happened, but what it meant and why it happened, and how maybe to prevent what you didn't like and to optimize for and maximize what you did like. So if businesses just closed out their books at the end of the year and started fresh the following year without learning lessons, positive or negative from what happened in the prior year, They wouldn't have the level of success that they do if they do a comprehensive review. What were our hits? What were our misses? What went well? What didn't? And why? And move forward from that. So it's not really dwelling in the past. It's learning from your year to set yourself up for an even better year to come. All right. So seven point maintenance check here, like your car. What do you got? Yeah. So the first one is, and I don't didn't do this one, this article that I, we were going to list in the show notes is one that I really liked. And the first question that the guy asks is, what did I change my mind about this year? What did I think I knew or what did I think was true or what did I think was right that I learned wasn't? Because one of the things that we know about mental well-being, both cognitive and emotional, into old age, is that cognitive flexibility is really important. Being able to think something is true and then being able to find evidence that indicates it's not, being able to consider that evidence and maybe change your mind.

this mental and cognitive flexibility is really important for emotional well-being, but also cognitive health as you enter later into life. And so being able to take a look at what you believed and what you might have changed your mind about and how cognitively flexible you were over the course of the year. And then also what those changes meant. So you may have thought A was true. You realize at that point A is not true for you. I mean, it may be factually true, but it doesn't work for you anymore. So you change your mind about it. And what does that do for you during the rest of the year? How does that impact your life going forward? So being able to take a look at that is really important. Okay. We're in the post-truth world, though, and many more people would rather be right than finding the truth. Well, in that case, then this question may not appeal to them. But I look at it. I look at it as sort of, you know, software updates for your brain. You know, you update your phones, you update your computer, things that used to work didn't work anymore, plans that you tried. So, for example, I tried a scheduling tactic with some of my clients over the last couple months of the year. It wasn't a huge hit. Not going to do it anymore. It thought it would be. Tried it. It wasn't. It doesn't have to be actual facts. It can just be, I tried this. It didn't work. I changed my mind. I did something else. but how cognitively flexible are you? Okay, good. Next up. What gave you energy? What really energized you? Whether it's physical energy from working out, sleeping more and eating better, whether it's energy from being with different kinds of people, whether you started a new hobby or a new project that really, really got you juiced. What gave you energy this year? And take a look not only at the thing itself, but sort of a larger theme and see how you can incorporate more energy promoting things. into your life going forward. So if you did a home reno project for the first time and you found you really liked it, are there more things like that that you can do to create positive, generative life-affirming energy in your world? And what really got you turned on and got you juiced this year is another really good question to ask. Gotcha. All right. No, that makes a lot of sense and find that and then maximize that for the next year. Obviously it would be the suggestion there. Yes, maximize that for the next year. If being with certain types of people really work, do more of that. All right, good. And then the flip of that is what drained your energy? Yeah. What were the vampires? What sucked your energy this year? Was it people that you spent time with certain people? Was it activities or projects that you were involved in?

Was it staying up too late? If we're talking about physical well-being, was it staying up too late? What really sucked your energy this year? And if you can take a look again at the overall themes of that, then you can try to minimize those and optimize for the things that at least are neutral if not create energy in your life. Okay. Yeah, it makes sense. You've got to look at the, it's a yin and yang, understandably. Julie Hatter's here. The term boat anchor, we know what a boat anchor is, but how does it apply to what we're talking about here? Well, for all of us, we have some things in our life that kind of hold us back. They don't necessarily prevent us from getting where we want to go, but they make it harder. So, you know, we have maybe an unsupportive spouse if we're trying to get healthier. Or we have a boss who doesn't really seem to put our ideas forward. We have to work really hard to get anywhere with that person. Or we have some beliefs that seem to hold us back from doing our best. women can't be successful or I shouldn't make too much money or whatever that can kind of hold us back. And so just taking a look at what those things might be that aren't necessarily preventing you from getting somewhere but are making it harder for you to get where you want to go. You have to work twice as hard to get half as far. Those are boat anchors. And just kind of understanding in your own life what those are and then minimizing, eliminating if you can, or figuring out how to work around them. so that you can maximize your success and your potential and your happiness in the new year can be really impactful. We tend to look at the things that stop us, but we don't necessarily tend to look at the things that slow us down or make things harder than they ought to be. Yeah, because you're dragging that anchor is what you're doing. But for many people, isn't that going to be your career or your job? And what does that mean? Well, it might be for sure. And one of the things that this life review can let you do is if you are in a career or a job that you really don't like and that really is an energy suck for you, then you can take a look at maximizing the positives in other areas of your life to sort of balance out the negative of the work. I realize not everybody loves their work like I do. And so being able to maximize the positives, the projects, the hobbies, the people, the activities, the habits that really build your energy and build the positivity in your life can work to offset some of the negativity around maybe your job, maybe a family situation that you can't get out of, maybe a health situation that you can't get out of. I mean, boat anchors can certainly be.

poor health that doesn't prevent you from things, but just makes it harder. You're in pain or movement is hard. So maximizing the positive can help offset some of the negative or minimize the impact of some of the negative. It's Mental Health Monday and the Scott Sloan Show on 700 WLW. She's Julie Haddish, your local licensed mental health therapist and the personal annual review, which very few people do. And it certainly has great appeal, I think. You know, you want to be a better version of yourself in 20, 26, and you're in 25. And there are seven things you should do if you do your own self-analysis, mental health analysis. One being, what did I change my mind on this year? The second one is what created energy, then what took my energy away? number four is what are the boat anchors in my life and that brings us to number five yeah what did i not do because i was afraid what did i want to do but i didn't do because i was afraid um for me that would be skiing skiing terrifies me um i'd really like to i'd really like to learn but i get so freaked out about it that there's no way i think i'll ever be able to what is it scares you about skiing um i can't stop And stopping is a really important part of seeing. Trust me, you can stop. It may not be pretty, but you can stop yourself. It may be a freaking yard sale when I stop, and I may take others down with me. It could be really ugly. I'm going to take you skiing. You know what? Let's do that. We should make a play date. I'm going to take you skiing. It's a ski date. All right. You've never skied before. I have and I'm really bad at it. All right. I haven't seen a few years. I have tried many times and I'm really bad at it. Okay. All right. We may have to do that and break your fear of that. So I'll go out to Perfect North. All right. So what did I not do because of fear? There are some people that are extremely brave. They'll do anything. But man, you don't fear. It gets in your head and that's a huge problem. Yeah, it is. And, you know. You can take a look at if I didn't do this thing because I was afraid, what would have been the upsides if I had done it? What would have been the downsides? Now that it's passed and I'm looking at it in the rearview mirror, I can maybe take a more clear-eyed look at it and recognize where the fear came from. And fear comes from being new at something, from not knowing how to do it, from being inexperienced very often. It doesn't come from being incompetent. It usually comes from being inexperienced and new. And the only way to get experience is to do things. So there's a really great book out there called Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway. I can't remember who wrote it, but it's a classic. It's been around for a long time. And it talks about how fear can actually motivate and energize you to do things if you harness it correctly. But I think taking a look at our year and saying, what did I not do because I was afraid can set us up to be braver going into the new year. and to really more clearly analyze the risks and benefits. Yeah, yeah. And that's true. The fear thing is true, especially the more of a competitor or someone who's a perfectionist because that fear gets in your head and it'll prevent you from doing things in life that you enjoy. And that's a whole different matter. Yeah, it really can. Yeah, yeah. Greatest hits and worst misses, number six.

Yeah, so I think it's important to take a look at what went well, really well, and what didn't go so well, and optimized for what did go well. We learn as much from analyzing what works as we do from analyzing what doesn't work, because sometimes we think it worked and we don't need to pay attention to it, but oftentimes the reasons why it worked the ingredients for the hit are replicable if we understand what they are. So we tend to take apart the misses, the things that didn't work and really... analyze those deeply. It's also important to analyze what did go well and understand why. So you can do more of what works, which is a great, great tactic. And just it's important to do a balance, not just look at the things that didn't go well, because a pessimist tends to do that. Optimist tends to look at what worked, but take a balanced view, what worked and what didn't, and understand a little bit about why that is so that going forward you can optimize for the positives and minimize the negatives. All right. So Albert Einstein, families, he said, when you stop learning, you start dying. And that would be number seven. What did you learn this year? Yeah, what did you learn? What new thing did you learn? It might be something you changed your mind about as in question one. It might be a whole new thing you learned. Did you learn to play piano? Did you learn that you like spicy food when you didn't think you did? Did you learn how to ski? Maybe that's me next year with you. But what did you learn this year? What new thing did you try? What were you willing to be a beginner at? What did you allow life to surprise you with? What did you learn this year? Because we really are creatures that are meant to grow and learn until the day we die. And oftentimes we get stuck in our bubbles of competence. We know how to do this. We know we like this. We know we like to go there. And we keep doing the same thing over and over. So did you expand your horizons in any way? Did you broaden your world and make it bigger and richer in any way? Did you learn something new? And what was that? And what impact that have on you? And how can you maybe do more of that going into the future? Okay, makes sense. Julie Hattershire, a licensed mental health therapist, your own personal annual review in your head. What did you change your mind on this year? What created energy? What drained your energy? What are the boat anchors in your life? The thing's slowing you down. What did you do because of fear? Or did not do because of fear? Greatest hits, where it's misses and what you learned this year. All kind of center around the same theme. And if you do this, you have a greater direction of what... 2026 is going to look for you. I appreciate you so much and thanks for joining the show every Monday all this year and I look forward to meeting up with you and maybe skiing in 2026, Julie. It sounds great. We'll talk soon. Take care. Merry Christmas. Be well, my friend. Let's do a news update and more to follow here. It's a Scott Sloan show. On the home of the best Bengals coverage, Big Dubb yesterday. Big Dubs, baby, 700 w-Dubbies. What's up, everybody? It's Bretzky. And America is turning 250. And I can't think of a better way to celebrate that than playing on an American-owned social casino, SpinQuest.com. With all of your favorite games, live craps, bubble craps, live blackjack, there's no better place to play for free and win real cash prizes. SpinQuest.com.

SpendQuest is a free-to-play social casino. Avoid where prohibited. Visit SpenQuest.com for more details. You know what your customers are doing right this second? The exact same thing you are, listening to me, which, let's be honest, is kind of flattering. But my point is, ads on IHeart Radio actually get heard. In the car, at the gym, on the couch, while people are walking their dogs. Who's a good boy? Who's a good boy? You're a good boy, that's right, you're a good boy. So why not make the next ad about you? Get started today. Call 844-844-Eheart or go to iHeartadvertising.com. That's 844-844-Ehart or iHeartadvertising.com. When the day is over, your bed shouldn't make things harder. Keraloha bed sheets are crafted from organic bamboo to deliver naturally breathable, moisture wicking, and irresistibly soft comfort, helping you stay cooler and comfier throughout the night. It's comfort that's gentle on skin and designed for better rest. Healthier qualities were proud to highlight through our partnership with the National Exema Association. Tonight, discover what Kariloha bamboo comfort feels like. Shop Kariloha now at Kariloha.com. That's C-A-R-I-L-O-H-A dot com. Keraloha. Sleeping Better starts here. Hey, it is Ryan Sechrest here. Want to bring a little Hollywood excitement to your day? Take a few spins with Chumba Casino's brand new game. Ryan Seacrest's 10K ways. It's free and features 10,000 ways to play, giving you nonstop action, including thrilling bonus re spins and cascading reels. Every spin brings something new. So step into the spotlight. Enjoy the excitement. And play today at chumbacasino.com. No purchase necessary. VGW Group. Voidware prohibited by law. CTs and Cs 21 Plus. Sponsored by Chumba Casino. Natty. I don't want to be an American idiot. Scott Flom 700 WLD. Guest who leads the nation in spam and scam messaging. This guy, Ohio. Congratulations. Study just came out and said we get more junk mail, more fishing emails, more fake texts or tolls we never went through and had to have to pay. It's incredible. I don't know why that is. We're going to find out. His name is Brian Cross. Brian lives in the realm of SMS messaging and he is one of the guys. who follows this stuff on a very, very close basis. And I guess, Brian, I've always said this. First of all, welcome. Secondly, if we didn't respond to the spam and the scams, they wouldn't send us as much stuff. It's our fault because clear that there are people who love junk mail. You know, that's exactly it. There's always the complaint of junk mail in the mailbox.

And, you know, the response is always the junk bail would go away if it didn't work. These marketers have budgets and they've got ROI numbers to hit. And if a tactic isn't working, they're the first to stop it. So these things keep coming because they make money. It's an interesting study, though, too, because I'm trying to think 10,000 ads a day. Do you think that is 6 to 10,000 ads a day is what the typical person faces? And you're like, I don't really see that many. Well, I guess if you included billboards and radio and television, typical broadcasts, but then factor in, you know, email, product placement, text messaging, things like that. Maybe we're getting closer to that, Mark, but that seems awfully high. 10,000 seems very high. I've heard that number in terms of pieces of information things that we see, but an actual advert, something like that, that does seem a bit high. But there's no doubt about it. You know, most people don't like this. I guess it would be that one-third of consumers in the service. If 66% surveyed said they want fewer marketing messages, that means a third are fine with the amount they're getting or don't think they're getting enough, which is driving this whole problem. Yeah, I'd be curious to break that one down. I was telling none of those people are saying, I need more. Well, somebody's responding or clicking on this. I mean, that's the thing with social anyway. If you click even accidentally on something, that algorithm is going to force more of that type of product to your device. And not only that, it's also going to show them, hey, we've got a click through here. So that encourages more of the bad behavior. It does. It does. And marketers have this thing. There's many different ways. Call it 360. Call it surround sound, call it whatever. But they're basically starting from a point where they say, hey, if, you know, there's information that says the average consumer make the buying decision after being touched at least seven to 12 times. And I think with Gen Y now, I think that number. jumps up to like 20. So it means I got to talk to you. You have to see something from me at least seven or eight times before you even start thinking of buying my products. So the 360, the surround sound, you know, you think, okay, I need to surround the consumer. I need to touch you with, you know, TV, radio, out of home, internet. Where do you go? Like text message. That's why we're seeing all of this because, you know, it's sort of. I guess exasperates it, right? It's, okay, if Gen Y is 20 hits, you know, is Gen Z going to be 35 hits? So if the science has to touch you that many times, that's probably going to increase the amount of advertising you see from every brand that is out there. Yeah, because in order to, I guess, overwhelm your senses to put that to the top of your feed, so to speak, you've got to hit people more with your message in order to get through it. You do. Now, that's one theory, right? So, you know, there's lots of talk of, you know, disruption and differentiation and things like that. You know, I mean, every, every marketing school has a slide where you see, like, you know, all these advertising, you know, usually like in Times Square or something like that. But, I mean, you see billboard over billboard, over billboard, over billboard, and things like that. And you're taught, okay, you have to differentiate from this. Well, everyone's differentiating with quantity.

But one of the things that kind of has been going away, you think I would say quality, right? So you can combat quantity, you do quality. Well, generally quality is a subjective term, but basically, you know, some sort of creativity, some sort of risk or reward. One of the other problems that we have in marketing is not just the number, the sheer number of it, but. Everyone's doing the same thing. They all blend together. The reason why it takes 18 hits, 20 hits, whatever to find somebody is because they all look the same. Everybody is afraid of losing their job. CMOs have this, I think it's not like an 18-month average tenure at their company. So everybody's following the data trends. Everybody's following, you know, the best practices. Everybody's playing it safe. Well, the thing is, is if you go down to the base... core of marketing, it is to differentiate. So if you look like your competitor and everyone's doing the same thing and doing what data tells you to do, or gosh, now, whatever the AI bot tells you to do, you look the same. You're not differentiating, quite frankly, you're not doing your job. And I think that that's why the majority of all this marketing that you're seeing. is useless because it's terrible. It's not the right stuff. Yeah, it's really interesting. I mean, you know, having some experience in this too, Brian, and not certainly to your level, but, you know, you watch, I don't know, streaming or regular broadcast television, let's say, because, you know, the visual, too, is, you know, every car ad looks the same. And I always joke about it is, I just listen, I just need this SUV or this truck. to get me through the potholes in Cincinnati. I'm not driving up a mountain. I'm not towing the Queen Mary. I'm not trying to pull, I don't know, some sort of, it looks like a giant steel cover over the top of a nuclear missile silo or something. Right. And no one is driving their truck like that. And, you know, there's a new one, the render in the Super Bowl, the Jeep, where there's a charging station on top of a mountain. I think, yeah, no one's doing that. So, but that's to your point, right, is. somebody will come up with that idea and everyone will rush to copy. We've seen, I think, the diversity thing in TV and also broadcast too, right, is if you look at your typical ad now, they're really, I think a lot of these ads are more diverse than what that's reflective of the general population. I know someone may take that in a Dilbert kind of wrong way, but that's what I'm saying is you just have this rush to imitate that going, okay, well, we need a lot more diversity or we need a lot more of these. the same thing over and over and over and you just beat the you just beat it to death. You know, we're taught about authenticity and we're taught about, you know, hey, if you really want a consumer to pay attention to advertising, it needs to provide value. And a lot of people scratch their head and they're like, how does it, how does it advertise that provide value? And sure, you can do things like, hey, here's a, you know, here's a recipe for my, you know, liquor brand or whatever, that provides value. But, you know, what struck me is when you were talking about driving the potholes of Cincinnati.

And I was thinking about, you know, if you think about a pizza commercial, right, every pizza commercial is a slice of pizza being pulled away from the main pie with this long. The cheese pole. You got to have the cheese pull, Brian. The cheese pull. So that's what all these marketers are rushing to. But there was a key study a few years ago where dominoes. basically went and put these trucks out on the street, you know, obviously branded them Domino's, and they were going through and they were filling in the potholes of people's streets. That's right. And people were like, what the heck is going on here? And they had a cute little tie-in about making it safer for the pizza to be delivered to you faster or whatnot. But they were filling potholes that the city wasn't. So you talk about providing value. breaking through clutter and having a bunch of people go, man, you know, when you see Domino's fixing that bottle you hit every night coming home from work, you go, oh, that's different and you remember it. Well, as a new one, since speaking of Domino's, is the one that advertises that they're going to, not an all-electric, but they're converting a lot of their cars to electric now. And I'm not quite sure that trans. I get what they're doing, and that's trying to appeal to a younger environmentally conscious consumer. But I don't know if that's the right play. You know what I'm saying? It's like, okay, well, I just want my pizza to get there hot and fresh. I, you know, I'm assuming that some drivers are electric and some aren't, but why is this part of a national marketing campaign? Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, no, you're trying to hit all the things. So that one obviously would be, hey, let's show that we're, you know, conscious. And we're not the mean corporation destroying the plan. Right. Brian Cross on the show, he's a marketing expert with elasticity, his name of his agency. And we're talking about a new study coming out. Two-thirds of consumers want fewer marketing messages. Well, no, duh. We're just, we're inundated all the time. And it's working because there's a percentage that. that will click and go through and actually use the product or service, and that'll drive more of this stuff too. You know, the one I thought would die by now, and I just saw it this morning, the free newspaper, I live in suburbia, proud suburbanite, where once a week someone will drive through and throw a, I don't know, some newspaper thing. It's just like a big ad section in my driveway in a plastic bag, which I then promptly pick up and throw in my recycling. And I do this exercise every week. I'm surprised that's still around. You know, it's the exact same thing as the direct mail. There is a lot, you know, one of the things that we do when we bring, you know, you know, new teammates on, you know, the younger employees right out of college and whatnot, we take them and we sit them in focus groups. And what's interesting is they go through school and even, you know, early two, three, four years in the industry, they come out in this bubble thinking everybody does what they do. That the entire country is like them. And they stick them in a focus group and they just scratched their head. They're like, what? And we're like, yeah, these are the people you're marketing to. This is what you need to think of. Like, not everybody went to design school and thinks exactly like you.

No, for everyone, and I do the exact same thing, right? I take it, I lean over, I pick it up, I put it right in that trash can, but again, it's the same thing. These newspapers, you know, it takes money for them to, you know, write it, print it, produce it, stick it in a wrapper, stick it on a van, have that van drive around at 4 a.m., throw it around. That all takes money, and I mean, they're not doing that just to burn money. They're doing it because the advertising and the things in that paper. pay for all of that to happen. So there are enough people that don't throw it away, that do pick it up, that love it. And they're like, I want the local news. This is way better than what I get on the national CNN. Like, I need to know. Yeah, but this is a bad of ads, a bag of ads. It's not even like a baby. Yeah, it's just ads. I'm like, well, now I'm going to take it out of the plastic wrap and somebody's looking. And of course, the ones in your mailbox and, um, I've got a, I think I don't know, gutter or windows or something. Every week they send me something. I'm like, wow, that is an incredible lot of money and markup that you have to add the cost of your product in order to send me these unwanted messages. And it's a lot easier to just bombard people with the email. And that's the new frontier, right, Brian? And maybe not that new, but texting now. I get probably three or four a day now. And I'm guessing that number's going to grow in the near future. It will until the numbers change. So again, everything is, when I talk about data driven, some of the data is good. So, you know, we now know that, hey, if I put out through email, if 5% open my email, then, man, I did good. 90% of people with phones. they can't have an unread text message. Like, like, if they get a text message, they have to read it. It's just, it's behavior. Whereas people are used to having these big, full, fat, you know, email inboxes of unread things. So, so if you, if someone comes and says, hey, if I send a text message, I have a 90% chance of them opening it, well, I'm going to use the text message channel until that, that stat changes. When that stat comes back to, hey, most text messages are, you know, getting bounced, getting blocked, aren't being read, then they'll start changing their tactic. So, yeah, that number will go up as long as their stats are, people read them. Yeah, your little balloon pops up says, you know, one, two, three, four messages and you click on it like, oh, there are ads, but you click on it to get rid of that. The alert that tells you how many there are. I think the phone companies are going to start figure that out pretty soon as a way to work around that. And then in addition, we have the 800-pound gorilla, which is always and has been now the automated aerobocalls, right? Yeah. There's an article I wish I would have researched. And I'd know we go this way, but one of my favorite articles I've read, and I'd say the last month was a guy, they were interviewing a man. who you know because robocalls are are illegal now and with fines of up to i think something like 50 000 per you know instance or something he's he's made a side business of using that that that that law because these robo calls aren't following the law so you know he's talking about you know it's a job like it takes persistence and writing papers and knowing the process all these things but apparently this guy makes like something like 20 25 000 a month

in following up and charging the robocalls that are breaking the laws. Yeah, we all want to figure out a way to streamline that. I get that people continue, I think lonely people. I just want to talk to somebody when the telemarketers call, which is a sad indictment of our society, but it kind of ruins for the rest of us. So that's why we're getting texted and inundated with all these things. And finally, too. I look at this and go, at some point, you know, all these cold and personal marketing messages you get get deleted, they're going to have to fine tune that, aren't they? I mean, you mentioned the onset of this thing, Brian, that it's the different stuff that cuts through the clutter. Be a difference maker, make a change, and don't do the same old, same old, but a lot of these are the same old same hold that are getting, I don't know, I guess marginal results, so it'll continue. It will. And that's a fine line there, right? You said the cold and personal conversation or the marketing message. Well, if you flip over the other side, you know, marketing has the data and the ability to, you know, say, hey, Scott, saw you just bought a glass of red wine at dinner last night. Hey, we're selling red wine. You know, we love it. And on that line, you have that creepy like, whoa, wait a second. How do you know my name and what I bought and whatnot? So you're always trying to kind of thread that needle of how do I make it important to you and personalized to you so that's not cold, but not like, hey, creepy, we're tracking you, a big brother kind of thing. So it's definitely a fine line to walk there. He is Brian Cross on the Scott Sloan show this morning. text marketing expert or communication expert, I guess, stuff that annoys you. Brian, with the news that Ohio leads the country when it comes to spam, scam communications. I don't know why we're getting hit. Maybe because so many Ohioans apparently like getting that kind of stuff and react to it. All the best. Thanks again for joining the show. Well, I appreciate you having me. Thank you. Merry Christmas, buddy. Have a great holiday. Got to get to a news update. Traffic weather, all that. And what lies ahead is Christmas here, 2025. Hopefully you have some good time to sit down and relax to enjoy your holiday. Scott Sloan Show 700 WLW. Monday morning. Scott Sloan Show on 700 WLW. Not too many more of these left at the show, but Bengals football following last week's shutout embarrassment by Baltimore. The Bengals end a two-game stand there up to, what, 5 and 10 now? Of course, out of the playoffs. The team is healthy. They look dominant. They look pretty good for most of this game. James Rapine is here with bengels talk.com and Sports Illustrated, of course, and a lockdown Bengals podcast, James. Welcome. How are you? I'm doing well. I'm doing well. They look pretty good yesterday. As I said, healthy. You know, when they're healthy, when you get tea and you get Jamar and Joe together, magic things happen. And if you looked at that, certainly you could always do the what-if game. You know, if they stayed healthy this season, what, okay, well, that didn't happen, obviously. Although I look at this and go, I've seen this movie before in previous lives, James, and you have as well, and that the Bengals go and they beat Baltimore. And then they went out, let's say, their last two games. And now we're on a three-game heater right now, great. What scares me about that is...

Front office looks at it and goes, we're fine. Everything's good. We've done that before. We've done that in previous seasons. Why would this time be different? I don't know that it is. And you're right. That's the scary part because what they may say is, oh, we're four and two with Healthy Joe. and we've found a way to build to momentum, and that momentum can carry into the off season, which is completely false. I think specific players can build momentum for themselves. Teams don't carry momentum from one year to another. It's not how it works. And so, yeah, I think... That is the major concern in the thought yesterday as we're starting to wrap the dolphins. And then you see the schedule and it's the Cardinals and the Browns who are both really bad. And theoretically, you should beat them. Well, theoretically, you should be able to beat them. But again, let's just say they do. What changes then in the mind of the Browns and the Blackburns? I don't know if there's. Let's start big picture. I don't think Duke Tobin and Zach Taylor. I don't think that that is happening. And you go beyond that. Al Golden, the defensive coordinator, yeah, it's his first year and they've had an up and down year. But that's that Taylor's got. And I know he believes in Al. And so if you're keeping Zach, I've always thought you're keeping him. And so I don't think that they're going to let Al go. And so then what change do you want? Like what major changes? You know, maybe you're saying, all right, you want them to add more scouts, which sounds great to me. or you want them to do organizational structural changes like that. And maybe some of that could happen. But from a coaching staff standpoint or a Duke Tobin standpoint, which those are the two areas that fans are frustrated with and calling for change, I just don't think you're going to see it because you're right. I think they have a good shot to win these next two games. And even if they split them, I don't think Zach Taylor's necessarily in danger. I don't see that either, simply because they don't like to pay someone for not playing for them or not working for them. I mean, part of the organization, they're extremely loyal to a fault. And I can tell you know, as people, there's billboards up. Fire Duke, fire Zach. Okay, great. You could bring in, I don't know, you could bring Bill Belichick in. You could bring Bill Cowher in. You could bring in George Hallis. You can bring in Hall of Fame coaches if you want to. But the problem to me, and I think most fans, is above them. It doesn't matter the coaching. It's the front office. And yeah, you've added more pieces to your scouting staff, still the small C NFL. They tend to be, you know, a pound foolish, penny wise. But unless that attitude changes, it really doesn't matter who the coach and GM are. I mean, could Duke Tobin do his job if he had more tools? He says no, but like Zach being the spokesperson for the entire organization. If it continues to be that way, it doesn't really matter who you bring in, am I right?

I think to a degree. Yeah, I think to a degree, it's at the same time I do think that certain things could change and matter and the identity of the team and the players is, as much as you put it on ownership, it certainly would be the head coach and you take the identity. And I think Zach would say, hey, we know what we need to do. to get back to where we need to go. And I don't think they feel like that they're internally, that they're super far off from doing that. Obviously, part of that is Joe's health. But what I would say is you need to be able to find a way where if Joe Burrell misses nine deans, that the season doesn't just go completely down the drains. They would push back and say, well, that's our franchise quarterback. And it's really hard to win without your franchise quarterback. Fine. I'm not saying it's not hard. It's hard to win a Super Bowl, too. But that's the standard. And so, yeah, I think the entire organization should be looking at itself right now because Joe Burrow has missed the playoffs for three straight years. And that should be damn near impossible. And yet they pulled that off. And yeah, 2020 was the one that I'll give them a molligan for. But this year, I don't. And certainly last year, when Joe, without the U-Doh. Yeah, it's a downer trajectory. You know, the AFC championship appearance is a Super Bowl appearance. We're well past that after three seasons. Something Monty Mill has to change. Nonetheless, let's not overshadow a win yesterday against a division rival in the Baltimore Ravens. Baltimore, the week before they got destroyed by them. And ending the two games skit, obviously five and ten now for the Bengals. Dolphins are a terrible team. Two, it gets benched in favor of a rookie. Bengals had a third quarter was unbelievable. Three takeaways, a fourth down stop in the third quarter, set up the offense for the 45-21 win. And, you know, I watch that game, and I went, well, that was kind of an unremarkable first half. I mean, Bengals on the first drive, Miami with a fumble caused by battle, and Miles Murphy scoops the ball up. Amy Coney Barrett Carter intercepts him on the Dolphins next drive. Dolphins had a lot of big plays in the first and somewhat in the second half against the Bengals. Yeah, and they did. And it did feel like at one point there was going to be a shootout. The Bengals go down and they score and take a lead. And then Devon A. Chan has his huge run where Gino Stone. And you mentioned we only have a few games left of this. We better have only a few games left. I mean, he's right in front of Devin A. Chan. He doesn't even get a finger on it, I don't think. And A. Chan goes off and scores a really long touchdown. And you're like, all right, well, this is going to be a shootout. And obviously the Dolphins took the lead. later in the half. But this, this defense, they were opportunistic. They force the fumble and then they bat a ball up and it gets intercepted. And that's usually what happens when you're facing a rookie quarterback, a late round rookie quarterback making its first start is you can force a couple of turnovers. So that's a game they should have won when you have Joe Burrow and you have Jamar and T and you have your full allotment of weapons and a defense that as shown, as bad as they've been this year, they've shown that they can force turnovers.

in few times, and they did that. I mean, it was a crazy third quarter where the game just completely gets away from Miami. Yeah, I've never seen a meltdown. Well, I mean, Bengals' opponent meltdown like that. Bengals have had plenty of that this season for sure. The Vikings game. It was like the Vikings game. Oh, my God. It's good to see another, the other team, the opponent actually had that. James Rapine from BengalsTalk.com and Lockdown Bengals podcast, chopping up the win yesterday. Get Right game for the Bengals. Certainly it looked in weak spots. You mentioned Gino Stone. and all intents as purpose should not be in the league now. He shouldn't be on the team next season. If you're to restructure that defense next year, who stays? Who do you lie? DJ Turner, obviously. Miles Murphy has surprisingly turned his game around. Shemar Stewart, I think the sample size is a rookie is just too small with the injuries and the holdout and all the other stuff. You've got to give him a little bit of time. But other than that, can you think of people who would be necessary and vital to building around on the defense for 2026? It's tough. Like I'll just go to it. It's such a short list because like I think that they're going to build around their young linebackers, but I'm not sure those guys are going to start next year. I just think they have three years left on their deal. Miles Murphy, I think, has become a building block piece. But that doesn't mean you don't need another edge rusher. Like you still do. Right. And that's what's really tough here is outside of corner. And I feel pretty good about corner. I think Daxell and DJ Turner. You saw Jaylon Davis step off. But back selling DJ Turner, I think those are two real building blocks. Jim Jordan Battle, I think he can start for you in his final year of his rookie deal. Gino Stone has played his way out of Cincinnati. I wouldn't have him play on Sunday this week, to be honest with you. I would try to get a look at some of these young defensive linemen. Obviously, he tells Mar Stewart out there. You need to get him as many looks as you can. McKinley Jackson, as many looks as you can, just to see if there's anything there. But you're talking about all three levels. You're going to need to invest in your defensive line room and tactical linebacker and safety. And you still can use another corner. There's no doubt about it. So there's a lot of work to be done in my mind, specifically in free agency, where you go get proven talent that can fill some of those needs. Yeah, and they did have a quarter for sure. I mean, at halftime, I'm watching them interview Zach Taylor for the, you know, the three questions he gets. And one of them is him, he responded, said, you know, if we could win the turnover battle, and sure enough, they go out and get four just in the third quarter alone. That was absolutely remarkable. Talk about calling your shot. On the other side of the ball, though, offensively, Joe Burrow had the worst performance of his career last week against Baltimore this week, 25 or 32, 309 yards, 4 TDs. He has surpassed 20,000 career passing yards and 150 touchdown passes, and they pulled him after Cincinnati was up by 31. That's a great comeback game for QB1. Yeah, it is. It is. And he's...

That's what you expect. Like I went and I was thinking about it going into the game and certainly when I was driving to the game. And I'm like, man, I think Joe is just going to play really well today. Like it's sunny out, it's Miami and it kind of resets you and he's playing against the team that he should be able to dissect and bounce back against. And he did that. Now he was aided by some short fields. But you look at it as 146 and a half quarterback rating, passer rating. is the second best of his career. And the four touchdowns, it just seemed like he got whatever he needed to. And early on, it was T. Higgins. And then it evolved into Jamar Chase. And then it was Chase Brown. And Andre Yosevosh made a big play. And Drew Sample made some big plays. And then it was Mike Gisicki with the touchdown. And he just was able to spread the ball out. And so the one takeaway I had from yesterday from a Joe Burrow perspective is. It was just, at least for me, if I was in the organization, it would just remind you how close you can be when you have a franchise quarterback, an all-star quarterback like that, and how desperate and bad you look when you don't. Yeah. And so to me, it should remind them that they need to be very aggressive this off season, but I, you know, I'm not them and they're not me. Sure. Right, exactly, exactly. Chase Brown, 12 carries 66 yards, then, and a touchdown, by the way. And as a receiver, just four catches, 43 and two touchdowns. That was a huge performance by the feature back. What, three of those scores came in just over, I think, seven minutes of game time, both of those rushing and receiving scores. And you see that, you go, wow, why can't we have that nice thing all the time? And then, you know, next two games, maybe he rushes for, I don't know, 50 yards. I just, I can't figure it out. Yeah, it is tough. I'll say this. I think the past two weeks, the Buffalo game, I felt like it was all snow, and that was the issue. Last week, the offense was just so bad. It was hard for me to put it on chase. But he definitely has shown this year. He's well over 1,200 yards from scrimmage, that last year and the end of last season wasn't a fluke. I mean, the juke he put. on that Dolphins defender in the third quarter when it's 1714 after catching the ball out of the backfield and I use number 20 I forget exactly which Dolphins defender it was to score the touchdown like that's special like that's a really high level play and we've seen that where he just continues to rack up 100 plus yards from scrimmage I do think he's a building block and it's going to be interesting because he's going into a sports season and end of his rookie contract next year is that a guy they try to get ahead of with a team friendly deal do they draft a running back instead I know everyone's focused on the defense they're going to have to spend some draft puts on offense either start building the replacements, Andre Yosevosh going in last year next season. You know, like you start to do that now. And so I do wonder what they'll do with a guy like Chase Brown has clearly been productive. Yeah. James Rapine, we've got two games left, both home games. So the road trips are over. Way to end in Miami. Well, the sunshine. That's nice.

And maybe that was the happy juice that Joe Borough needed. You just needed some vitamin D to quit tripping and just focus on the game. Home games against Arizona, they're fighting for a spot. Cleveland, of course, is out of it. And there are many in Cincinnati, and I think some people even in the media and influencers think the bangle should tank it in order to get a better draft pick. I don't think football's ever worked that way nor should it work that way. And not only that, even if you did, and you lost three instead of one three, what does that move you up? A couple spots. Yeah, if they lost yesterday, they'd be 8th instead of 9th late now. If they win the next two, there's a decent chance that they drop to the 12th, the 14th pick. Like in that range, I think is realistic to expect. I get it. I do. I think it's really tough because you want to see Joe Burrell play football. And if he plays like he did yesterday, then you live with it. But at the same time, They do need talent, man. And the earlier you pick, it's not just the first round. The earlier you pick in the first round is the earlier you pick in the second, third, fourth, different. And so that is... I'm not telling fans that they need to worry about that or should worry about that because that's not their job. That is my job, so I do think about it. The good news is their draft position was completely unchanged. They went into yesterday picking nights. They're still picking ninth. I think if they win the final two, they'll be in the... the low double digits somewhere in the 10 to 14 range. Gotcha. James Rapine, let's catch up off this week, obviously, but we'll catch up and do a post-mortem on the season. What do you say after that Cleveland home game? Yeah, it's over. It's over. There is no postseason. Hey, Merry Christmas, buddy. Enjoy your time off. There ain't no time off. Yeah, you got time off. Come on. What do you do? You show up, you watch a football game, you write a couple words. That's like four hours. That's like seven hours of work. Come on. Time off. There's no time off. Enjoy your time. You too, buddy. Thanks again. I appreciate you. Merry Christmas. James McPie. Talk about just, yeah, just diminishing what he does for a living. Got to get to news and Willie on the way. Scott Sloan, home of the best Bengals coverage, 700 WLW since now. You know what? It sucks to be bored. But when I get on my phone and play real casino games on SpinQuest.com, the time flies by. That two-hour wait at the DMV seems like 10 minutes. Play your favorite slots. Live blackjack, live craps with a live dealer. New players, $30 coin packs are on sale for $10.00. Play SpinQuest.com and you'll never be bored again. SpenQuest is a free-to-play social casino. Avoid where prohibited. Visit spendquest.com for more details. You know what your customers are doing right this second? The exact same thing you are, listening to me, which, let's be honest, is kind of flattering.

But my point is, ads on IHeart Radio actually get heard. In the car, at the gym, on the couch, while people are walking their dogs. Who's a good boy? Who's a good boy? You're a good boy, that's right, you're a good boy. So why not make the next ad about you? Get started today. Call 844-844-IHeart or go to iHeartadvertising.com. That's 844-844-Ehart or iHeartadvertising.com. When you experienced the PFL live, the hits are harder. Oh! The crowd is louder. The action unmatched. Hey no more stopping these teens and queens for well on your crime. July 25th in Washington, D.C., undefeated that the silverbacked gene fights to cement his place atop the division against the silent assassin Shemil Musayev with PFL gold on the line. The tension is building. Be there. Saturday, July 25th, live from Care First Arena. For tickets, visit pfell. info slash DC. Tyler Reddick here from 2311 racing. Another checkered flag for the books. Time to celebrate with Chumba. Jump in at Chumbacasino.com. Let's Chumba. No purchase necessary. VTW Group. Boyd were prohibited by law. CTNCs, 21 Plus. Sponsored by Chumba Casino.