Flip side of the opioid war
I would love to see you cover the other side of the opioid war. Because of increasingly restrictive policies on prescription opioids, long term pain patients are getting cut off and/or losing legitimate medical treatment. There is rising cases of suicide from patients that feel shut out of the medical system. Pain patients feel helpless and demonized from the negative media attention. The DEA is threatening to revoke licenses from pharmacies for filling prescriptions recommended by qualified pain management physicians. A gentleman named Red Lawhern has an open letter to media to discuss this issue, viewable on Facebook. The overdose problem has far more to do with illegal fentanyl laced drugs pouring in primary from our southern border. Listen to podcasts involving Ed Calderon as a guest for a small window into what’s happening on the southern boarder. If you’d like more sources, please ask.
Tipping and worker pay in the US
I'm curious to get your take on the current state of tipping in the US in relation to workers' pay. Over the years and especially post Covid, its becoming more common for restaurants to ask for up to 20% gratuity up-front for to-go orders. As a former server who waited tables for 8 years, I remember the days where I had to wait on a tables for over an hour, bringing multiple courses, clearing dishes and often staying late until my tables were finished in hopes of a 20% tip. Now the public is just expected to tip 20% for to go orders before they even receive their food. I am all for service industry workers being paid a fair wage. It is hard work and people should be able to make a good living doing it. My issue is that, as a culture, it feels like we are enabling employers to pay lower wages by putting it on the whims of public to compensate for it. What are your thoughts?
Baseketball
I'm a big fan of your show and was in the audience in Chicago. I had asked a question in June about South park and the importance of comedy in our climate of division and was surprised to find out that Krystal watched the movie Baseketball. I was just curious if Krystal could share her favorite scene if she remembers and also if Saagar could share his most favorite scene or episode of South Park.
Twitter files and Elon musk relation
There’s a lot of talking about the Twitter files, and a lot of talk about the Waze Elon is handling things at Twitter. How did the Twitter files become available to Barry Weiss, is this related to Elon’s acquisition of Twitter, or is all of these things coming out through research and journalism?