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Yeah, they've got I think three books out.
One of them is called the unanswered questions with Ray McGinnis.
I don't know anything about that.
And the one that I brought in, you're using today encyclopedia of word and phrase origins.
That's a good one.
That's a big one.
Yeah.
That really helps out a
off
would be but
It shouldn't be like that.
And now they're making medical decisions.
These are the Republicans that don't want... I have bureaucrats getting in the way of what people, the freedom that people have to make their own decisions.
So they're right in the middle of this thing.
And all the way through, the transgender issue is mentioned the word sex all the way through.
And then their decision says, this has nothing to do with sex.
Wow, transgender, nothing to do with sex.
All right, anyways, six of the conservative Supreme Court justices thought that was true.
I don't know.
I mean,
All right, so in 1960, the first NASCAR race is actually held at the Charlotte Motor Speedway.
1960.
I don't watch a whole lot of NASCAR, so it's not.
Super important to me, but I know a bunch of other people really love NASCAR.
And then in 1951, the invention of Velcro.
So there... 1951?
1951.
They held
I was even
But they had some great songs.
You know, a lot of those older groups played acoustic sets.
Yeah.
And in rock sets.
And that's what I liked about the old, old groups.
They could do both.
Nowadays, it's just kind of, you know, either hard rock or, you know, you're a folk singer.
Right.
But they don't combine the two.
Remember the like 10, 10 years after did Acoustic Things?
Yeah.
Deep Purple did a few.
All right.
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This portion of Johnny Gordy in the morning brought to you by Virlo Mattress.
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Okay.
He's a complete idiot and he is.
He's right about the food coloring situation.
The FDA for some reason has not banned all these food colorants that are banned in Europe.
And they know best.
And the line in this story goes, we never realized that we're eating petroleum-based chemicals banned in much of Europe.
So that's where the food coloring comes from.
Petroleum based.
Yes.
And some of the products that might have a problem with this is Hostess Cupcakes.
Oh no.
That uses dark chocolate and of course strawberry colorings.
That is red 40, red 40.
There's two red 40s.
Blue Lake 2 and Blue 1 Lake.
and yellow five.
Boy, I'm
So
Big thing, yeah, the M&M's are going to be changed.
They're going to have to change the Skittles, M&M's, coloring in that.
They're going to use fruits and vegetable extracts, which is just a little bit more expensive, and those are the extracts for coloring.
in Europe and in other countries that have banned all these petroleum based colorings.
Will we
I raised my kids on Twinkies because I knew what it did.
I became tall, strong, manly.
Wow, that's big news.
Yeah, it's really wild.
They have special colorings.
They're worried about some of these products like runts.
I don't even know what a runt is.
Do you know that, Dom?
Do you know what a runt?
I have no clue
what a runt
It is a candy.
Yeah, some sort.
They're worried about Reese's Puffs.
These are cereals now, cinnamon, toasted crunch, honey nut Cheerios, cookie crisps, and of course, tricks.
Tricks are for kids.
I know.
And so are those food collards.
Wow.
You know, my kids stopped eating.
We used to buy tricks.
But they stopped eating it.
And the containers stayed in the cabinet and I said, this is it.
We're not eating food colorings anymore.
And they had already made up that decision.
They never told me.
So, so we had to throw them out.
But yeah, you know, it's sad because, you know, I have all those brilliant colors.
The deceiving part about, you know, tricks and all those other fruit loops is that they had the same flavor.
All the colors tasted the same.
There weren't different
sodas have
like that.
How the colors change.
Well, you know, Marie Callender has these frozen pies and they're really good.
A lot of those pies are exceptional.
Yes.
But now they're having a problem because their bottom line is very tight already because they do have to have a competitive price out there.
But these food colorings are if they go with actual natural fruits and vegetable colorings, then it's going to raise the price up by two or three cents and they don't want to do that.
Prices are already going up.
OK.
right.
Yes it is.
And we're overlooking State Street.
The leaf blower guys are not out this morning for some reason.
We haven't seen them for days.
I know what happened.
They were not sure.
They went out and they blew leaves during the rainstorm that we had.
It was fun
Make sure those guys are doing their job.
Sure.
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yeah, I mean, well, first of all, good morning.
Good morning.
Yeah, you know.
Yeah.
Thanks for the weather update.
Here in Pennsylvania right now, you know, modes of transportation are canoes.
Wow, raining.
Lots of rain, lots of rain, but no.
Yeah, think about, you know, I saw this article because it's, you know, interesting to think that more and more
students are literally saying, um, you know what college?
No, not for me.
Um, there are opportunities in particularly around, you know, getting trade training and going out and going to work.
The other part of the article though was is that the survey of the parents going, uh, I'm not, I don't want, wait, wait, wait a minute.
You're supposed to go to college, right?
And.
I think that what's really happening there, though, too, is that students might actually have a little bit more of a take on this of saying, but why would I go to college when it doesn't seem like graduating from college gives me anything other than
debt and no job opportunities.
And right now, you know, even without a trade school just coming out of high school, taking a job that has an apprentice type of a program like that, that this they can start earning money and going forward in that direction.
And so the reason I brought this to the busted pencils was to say,
Well, what would that mean currently in a higher education landscape where we already know that enrollments are declining and there is a kind of a cultural
anti kind of like, well, you know, don't go there because, you know, all they do is, is teach you to, you know, overthrow the government.
Well, yeah, you know, well, yeah, and install some form of a Marxist authoritarian.
yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
know, and now, and
And I wonder, though, too, when I look at this and say, I don't know that the kids, let's say the kids, I think that they might be onto something and the parents, though, are still kind of trapped in this sense of going,
But we always imagine that you, and if we're really talking about first generation college students here, we really imagine that you were going to go to college.
And so the parents are up against this vision of what they saw college as, meaning this pathway to some form of a middle class job type of security, when the reality is that maybe that is more of a myth.
Than it is an actual truth and maybe the students in high school have more of a grasp on thinking You know what?
I think a future is for me right now Is this to get a good job to get some training and one of the things that I kind of highlighted in this article was one of the the students really pointed out and say That doesn't mean that I've ruled out college.
It just means that I've
I'm thinking about it for now as something that, you know, I can go out, I can make some money, I can get a trade, and then I can go back to college.
And that is a unique potentially cultural shift to think about going, okay, what if college isn't immediately right after you graduate high school?
And, you know, Johnny in that episode was talking about saying that
you know he always did think that you know taking a year off before you go to college really does kind of give a sense of you know
when you actually sign up to go into college then after a year break or going out and doing something you have more of a sense of going you know why you came to college
But you know, you brought this up, you brought this up in your podcast and I looked on, I looked at the, uh, uh, who goes back.
And according to the statistics from last year, I believe, uh, 39 million went back to college.
24% of those who were at college undergrads, uh, were adults.
Okay, and and the in the pathway of course is Doing that going back to college now I'm wondering how many of these had gone to college for a year Dropped out didn't think it was useful then went on to the workplace, but then decided to go back to college So they met they had a year or two of college already and they just you know went back to know that in fact
that
Yeah, that population, we refer to them as some college.
and it's a huge population
people that have gone and done a year, did a year and a half.
didn't work out.
They didn't like it.
And now they're out in a job.
And, you know, some of them are saying, Oh, Jesus, I should go back.
But actually, there's a huge population of some college that legitimately had significant problems.
And right now, institutions are saying, How do we get them to come back?
What is it?
And
This is where I think there's a real opportunity for higher education and colleges to point out and say, you know what, we have, and in fact, let's design pathways for this population that is a little bit different than a traditional four-year going, you know, living in the dorms, waking up on Monday morning and going, I'm not going to class and realize that this population, maybe if we change the way we do college, we could get them to
come back and create pathways.
So there's a whole lot of opportunities here for higher education, particularly to kind of say, OK, we have a traditional track.
We know we want those students.
But what about all of these other people?
Because if higher education is truly beneficial, then how we allow people to access it and how we allow them to progress through it, we might need to change those types of modalities to fit
somebody who maybe is working quote full-time and still wants to go to college and so how do we you know allow or encourage them to have the ability to come back to college.
about his
The thing about college is that it can lead to a career that doesn't destroy your body.
The trades are hard on your body and it's unlikely you can do it for 30 years as opposed to a thinking career.
He says, that's my two cents.
Because he's talking about jobs like welders or plumbers.
That does take a toll.
I guess that comes into consideration when thinking about what you're going to do with your life.
It actually does.
In fact, I was down at the Carpenter's training facility in Pittsburgh yesterday actually talking to that group who is trying to, you know, imagine college as a pathway.
And one of the issues is, is that, you know what, this is hard work.
It's hard on the body.
And, you know, if I had in addition to my, you know, Carpenter's, let's call it a license, if I had maybe a bachelor's
degree in construction management that maybe in 15 years, I can then kind of move into a direction where I'm not on my hands and knees
lifting heavy things.
And it's a real issue.
It was interesting because they were particularly flooring installers who are truly on their hands and knees all day long.
After 20 years,
Um, it might feel good to stand up.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
I have a nephew who's a master plumber, you know, and has gone all the way up in the union and, uh, and as a crew manager and goes all over the state doing plumbing, but he's, he's, I think he's about 45 years or so old and, uh, he can't wait to get it.
get retired.
He's like, I'm looking forward to the day that I don't have to do this kind of work.
And he's in charge of it.
And so he does do some hands-on, of course, but
It gets into the side issue of when is the best time for retirement?
You know, the Republicans want to extend it.
They don't want you to retire too early.
And they want to make it even later in life that you can retire.
And that's kind of foolish because of all these
laborious jobs that are destroying your body, right?
Well, yeah, but you know, understand that where they're coming from is, is that they need people in their 80s to come in and fix their toilet.
Well,
I was waiting for something profound and we got it from you on that Okay, I want to bring this up too because we have a Gen Z as our producer Dom and I wonder what do you think on this Dom?
Do you guys like debate whether
you know, there's a feel that you can get into, but it may not be there for long because AI might replace it or robotics might replace it.
Well, what's your feeling on
I actually just talked about this with my roommate, who's about the same age as me.
And yeah, he 22, correct.
22.
And he is very afraid of where AI might go with this whole issue about
Yeah, you know gaining jobs gaining going into the real world I just started going into the real world a couple months ago and Yeah, my roommate was was really nervous.
He does sort of lab testing and already, you know robots are kind of
Going into the forefront there and yeah, and and kind of taking over his job essentially And I know it's gonna be much much more in in about you know five to ten years or that's what that's what we think That's what we think so
it's a real fear.
I think the idea of potentially being replaced by robots isn't necessarily... I mean, if we're talking about the manufacturing process, that's going to continue to be an issue.
But I see Dom... Yeah, I have some thoughts about that that I think might give Dom a little bit more of...
a sense
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Well, I think the concern that robotics are going to take your jobs is that in one way, I mean, they already are and they already have been, particularly if you're talking about in the manufacturing areas, right?
And
so I'm not sure if that is this idea of, you know,
truly like humanoid robots that are going to take over their jobs.
I don't think we're at that point yet.
What I would say to Gen Z, which is my daughter and my son, is that my best assumption and guess is looking at the AI world, is that the way you
Guard against being quote replaced by AI is to you yourself get involved and understand AI because Again, I'm taking somebody else's quote, but AI isn't going to replace you but Dom if you understand and know how to use AI You're going to replace people who don't know how to use it.
Like that, you know, and so so it really is on
all of us to really understand how to do it.
But it is, you know, as the AI world comes forward, we don't really know what is going to be, quote, replaced and how it's going to affect.
And so I really look at this and say, this is an opportunity for people to dig into AI.
And particularly, I'm really following and I really see this as a unique thing is that
more artistically inclined liberal arts types of people are actually really, really great users of generative AI because they can think creatively with it where when you're more people are like, I don't want to get into tech.
I don't want to get actually users of this are actually better at it and can come up with much more creatives.
So I think about this, you know,
David Bowie was quoted back in the 60s and 70s when the synthesizer came out.
It could absolutely replicate every instrument there was out there.
And they were like, are you worried, David, about this replacing your musicians?
And his thing was actually,
I don't find the synthesizer interesting because it can replicate.
It's when they, as artists, started mixing it to make unique new sounds that he found this.
And so there was an artistry into the tool that puts this way.
And so I see the same thing with generative AI.
What I'm training myself to be, though, is that I'm going to be an AI counselor because I see that when AIs are
counseling, you know, lots of other people that they, the AIs are going to have to get really tired and they're going to need a human to actually coach them back from the brink because of, you know, you know, you got to think,
know, because the AI is going to be, you know, can you imagine all of the crazy people the AI is going to have to experience and they're going to be like, what is going on?
I'll be like, okay, check it out, AI.
Here's the deal.
know, so we're going to have to be there to
like, look, I know you like you've been working with my, with my aunt.
tell you,
school.
where people could go into college and test it out and see if they like it and stay there.
And maybe if they don't like it, they could leave, but go back in because it's free.
It's paid for by the general public.
Wouldn't that be just better that way?
That sounds like
some form of communism.
That's what I thought too.
Giving humans the access to flourishing on
dime?
What are you talking
I know.
No, I mean, yeah, I think that though too is this is to imagine that I think we do imagine Education as these kind of segmented
times that are really broken apart when really we need to be thinking about that, you know, and this is somewhat of a generic term, but lifelong learning
and
realizing,
you know, and
so therefore access, access to education at any point in your life is something that we as a society should be trying to figure out.
Yeah.
Yeah, so again, you know, visit to the Carpenters facility in Union yesterday.
In fact, they were talking about this in a way that, you know, they're interested in bachelor's degrees, they're interested in master's degrees, but they're trying to say this and I totally get what they're saying is that
But couldn't it be that on the way to those degrees, that they're getting certifications along the way that count towards the degree, and so that their members could say, you know what, after 15 credits of a certification, I'm good.
This now gives me something.
But if I want to come back.
I can jump in and I don't lose anything.
In fact, I'm always accumulating towards something else.
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