Ryan Alford [00:00:03] Hey guys, what's up? It's Ryan Alford and Riley Clarke here for the latest news update. What's up, Riley? 

Riley Clarke [00:00:22] Hey, what's up? How's your week been? 

Ryan Alford [00:00:25] It's been a good week. 

Riley Clarke [00:00:28] We had a lot of podcasts today for this week. You were on a podcast? 

Ryan Alford [00:00:34] Several guests, our sports series. And it's been a good week, though. 

Riley Clarke [00:00:38] It has been a good week so far. 

Ryan Alford [00:00:41] Let's start. What's the most radical thing you've seen this week? 

Riley Clarke [00:00:46] The most radical thing I think I've seen this week. I'll give you two answers. We'll give one.

Ryan Alford [00:00:51]  Oh, boy, here we go. I know this is me like yesterday or can we get the best app? And I'm like, well, here's one, two and one, three, three. 

Riley Clarke [00:00:58] And I'll give, like, a fun one and a cool one. But I think my cool one was in my apartment the other day after that really big rainstorm that happened the other day. There was a gorgeous sunset first of all. And then there were these two really big, there was a double rainbow like right outside my apartment. But I had a full view of the sunset and the rainbow. 

Ryan Alford [00:01:26] So I got the full thing. I like positivity. And the good news was there are two parts of gold or just one. 

Riley Clarke [00:01:32] I didn't go looking, but I should have I 

Ryan Alford [00:01:34] don't think I've ever seen the double rainbow, really. Like I've seen a rainbow. 

Riley Clarke [00:01:38] You've never seen a double rainbow. Like I've seen it done. OK, so then that was pretty radical. 

Ryan Alford [00:01:42] We'll just need to take a picture. 

Riley Clarke [00:01:44] Yes, I put it on my Instagram. 

Ryan Alford [00:01:46] Oh yes. Right. I was checking your story. Did you go see it? Yeah, I forgot. I must have just skipped over it accidentally. I hit the forward button too fast. 

Riley Clarke [00:01:58] Right. But I guess my other thing that's not so positive. Is like just what's going on with Ellen DeGeneres. Yeah. Like it's kind of it's kind of sad. I feel like you kind of grow up in that you always watching Ellen and it's just sad when, I mean, everyone's human, but it's just those reminders are 

Ryan Alford [00:02:19] Who knows, like, it's interesting how people are piling on and you don't. But usually when there's as much smoke is there seems to be here, there's some fire. But you kind of put these celebrities on a pedestal. 

Riley Clarke [00:02:34] Oh, absolutely. And if they tear from it, we freak out. 

Ryan Alford [00:02:36] And it does kind of bother me a little bit. Again, presuming that there's some truth to it, that she does all this stuff and comes off like everything's perfect and she's got that whole I don't know if it's joy or happiness or just stay  there like this stuff and then you hear toxic work culture. It's like, OK, yeah. 

Riley Clarke [00:02:57] Kind of makes you sad. 

Ryan Alford [00:02:59] It does make you sad, but I guess we'll see what comes out of it. Yeah. 

Riley Clarke [00:03:03] Alight. What's your radical thing? 

Ryan Alford [00:03:04] Well, staying in the positivity theme here. Americans were polled on the best dance songs of all time. And this was actually a poll done. Two thousand people were surveyed with covid going on, everyone trying to find ways to stay happy and actually essential like songs for what they called socially distant dance parties. I'm sure. There's not any real ones going on. So they studied the study, had two thousand Americans. And I'm going to give the top ten, some of which I agree with, some I don't, so I'm going to start number one. 

Riley Clarke [00:03:45] Is it reverse order? So like no one's the. I guess. 

Ryan Alford [00:03:47] Yeah, maybe I tend to not like it. I like drama. You're, you're shaken up over there speaking of shaking up No. Ten shake it off. Oh gosh. Taylor Swift, number ten. These are the songs guaranteed to make people move and groove during a party. Top ten, no. Ten, Shake it off. Taylor Swift Number nine work Rihanna featuring Drake eight get lucky. Daft Punk. I love Daft Punk so I can get behind that one. Hey, Outkast. I like Outkast as well. It's been a while and hey, you all right. Yeah, we're getting radical here. Just dance. Lady Gaga, number six, Dancing Queen Abba. AYou can hear all these songs, Uptown Funk, Bruno Mars. We've got a blend of old and new here. Uptown Funk. Yeah, I can see that. Stayin Alive, the gees at number three and our top two, number two, Billie Jean, Michael Jackson. Love it and get behind that one. And no one is pretty. It's about ten songs and I want to dance with somebody. Whitney Houston. Wow. I want to dance somebody. 

Riley Clarke [00:04:59] You wanna feel the heat. Actually next week I,

Ryan Alford [00:05:03] I have many talents. All right. Very average and seeing would be at the very last of any of those days, no talent whatsoever, but my RadicalI think it's cool, like top 10 dance songs like we go down to the lake and it's like Playlist City when we're on the lake, especially like on Friday, Saturday nights, like we're always following playlist. So maybe I'll add these top ten, I was going 

Riley Clarke [00:05:29] To say, are you going to make that your playlist? And everyone's six feet apart on your bow, just individually dancing to all ten of these. Maybe you should take a video of, 

Ryan Alford [00:05:37] They had a top 40 list and I was kind of going through it. Since there's anything else I would have bumped up, I don't know. But I don't know if I want to dance with somebody, Whitney Houston, I can see where it gets people dancing because it's definitely got that beat. But I think I had Billie Jean, Michael Jackson, I think that one me doing the moonwalk on the boardwalk or something. That sounds more appropriate. 

Riley Clarke [00:05:59] Yeah. I just wonder the age of who they pulled for that, because I feel like I wouldn't necessarily put all those up there, but teach there 

Ryan Alford [00:06:10] So anything more than five hundred is supposed to be actually representative of the nation as long as they've done it with proper techniques, to not to get into scientific studies and data. But 500 people is the minimum to be representative of the U.S. So two thousand should be representative. That's interesting. So anyway, what's the news of the week? 

Riley Clarke [00:06:38] Yeah. Well, then our news, I think that we should talk about today, a couple of things. So first, did you hear what happened with Joe Rogan on his podcast the other day? 

Ryan Alford [00:06:49] I did. I did follow him and I've been following the news around it. 

Riley Clarke [00:06:52] Oh, yeah, that's been interesting. So for those of you who might not know about what's going on, Joe Rogan on his podcast had made a comment about video games not being actually productive for humans and also said that it was addictive and a waste of time. But I think it's important when we're talking about Joe Rogan's addictiveness with video games, as I understand, this is coming from a personal place like you mean he did have a personal addiction to video games, something that you did talk about? Yeah. I mean, when you have that kind of money to put that kind of software and hardware into your house, I think it's safe to say,

Ryan Alford [00:07:35] He could take ten thousand forty one line to get this kid into action. I could shoot people before they even knew it. I mean, we've been doing this sports series and obviously it's booming with the competitive side of it. And I think that's essentially what he was doing, 15, 20 years ago. But look, as a parent, I kind of I mean, let's talk out of both sides of the mouth. It's like seeing the growth of it and having the guess that we've had on and seeing the marketing potential. People are spending time there no matter how you feel about it. And there's everything in moderation, including moderation. And so there's no doubt that there's some addiction going on there. So I can see how between the way the games are set up, the way they reward, I'm sure the neurons in your brain, like winning and then the add on stuff that they spend money on and all these things, I see the potential for that. But at the same time, then you can obsess and go overboard on anything. So you get it just put checks and balance, especially for kids, and monitor it accordingly and make sure they're staying active in other things. And so I think Joe's just being honest. Yeah, I think there's some truth to it. Absolutely. But at the same time, I think we've got to move past some of the stigmas I've tried to do myself, like especially with this sports series going, OK, this isn't just lazy, nonproductive. There's ways to get camaraderie out of this. There's ways to get communication like this is the way kids interact now. And so if there's ways to pull the positive out of it, the way to make it productive and some of these kids are making thousands of dollars, hundreds of thousands of dollars. So I don't know. There's a lot to unpack there. 

Riley Clarke [00:09:32] Well, I think his point with I mean, I think he's trying to bring more like realistic expectation into video gaming that not everyone who plays video game like we were talking the other day, not everyone that plays a video game is going to turn around and make a million dollars at the next tournament. Yeah, and while there's truth in that, like, I think, the YouTube that was talking about what Joe had said, PUE Di Pae, that YouTube name, he was talking about the fact that, um, I mean, he gets it like not everyone realistically is going to become a millionaire. But I think it's interesting to bring this point into it, too, like where I think Joe Rogan's coming in from the you can take those eight hours a day that you're playing video games and he works on his splits. Or he's over there like jutsu. Yeah, right. You're like breaking boards in half and like, that's awesome. But there are some people that the kind of intellectual stimulation they're getting from video games is, sustaining them like that's what they need? And so I think everyone has their own thing. But I definitely don't think I can see Joe Rogan having a guest on his podcast and then he's like, oh, actually, my mind's changed. 

Ryan Alford [00:10:48] So exactly. I mean, the one thing I would say is, look, I play video games. I definitely binged on video games and I was a kid and obviously it screwed me. It screwed me up majorly. Do you see how I am? It screwed me completely. But in all seriousness, there wasn't the outlets for the competition and for maybe some of the more positive outcomes because it was all in, your bedroom at the couch. There wasn't the online component, which there's good and bad that too. But it was just you sitting there bingeing for eight hours. And whether or not that's productive or not or whether or not that's getting you where you need to go, we can argue that it likely isn't right. But some of the better things that are coming out of sports, the building, the camaraderie of the teams, the more organized activities around it. And you're even seeing some of the gamers that are on top. You see some of their, like, routines and not saying every one of them, but like their workout routines and like their mental, how they prepare for things. And so, again, I think it's all about balance. 

Riley Clarke [00:12:05] Absolutely. The other news we're going to talk about today, I think kind of goes into this a little bit. And the sense of so much time online can make you exposed to certain targeting ads. And particularly this is kind of a change of topic. But it goes similarly. I think the military has been using like avenues like Twitch and other things like that to recruit for the military, which personally, I don't necessarily think that's a horrible thing, but I do think it's an issue when you have, like, targeted ads of like if you are on Twitch, like if you enter all your information into this portal, you'll get a free Xbox or whatever, and then you go in. But it's actually just an Army recruitment site and there is actually no Xbox. Like, that's not okay. 

Ryan Alford [00:13:04] Bait and switch. 

Riley Clarke [00:13:07] But yeah. What are your thoughts on that? 

Ryan Alford [00:13:09] I don't have a problem. Look, it's a free country like these platforms are there for marketing and communication. The thought and the notion that the military is recruiting kids that might not have any other opportunity in a platform with which they're consuming media and content. Anyway, I don't have a problem with at service. If those practices, like you said, are misleading and misguided. I have a problem with anything that's, quote unquote false advertising. But the notion of using the media to potentially recruit kids that are spending a lot of time on games that might have no other avenue like think about it. It's kind of the same thing with professional sports. Ninety nine point nine of kids aren't going to become the next LeBron James. And while the avenues in these sports are probably greater odds and better opportunities with all the leagues, all the games and all that, there is still probably an 80 percent chance that you're not going to get into a professional money making position of any sport. So the notion that the military itself is marketing itself to kids and giving them an avenue, as long as it's on the up and up, I'm OK with. 

Riley Clarke [00:14:34] Yeah, I think, like, even when you go to college games and stuff like that, I mean, if you look closely, there's tables of army recruitment people there, do what I mean? And I think in the same light it's the same thing, right. It's just on a virtual platform now where it's literally shown. But I think the thing is, like I think some people, some representatives, they just didn't necessarily like it because a lot of the people that are on Twitch are 12 and 13 year olds. And so from that perspective, like I get it. But, to each their own, I guess it's the same too. France, I again, I think if you go to any college campus or anything like that, you little you see all these advertisements, but they're just in like a live form? And I think once you start seeing them online, it's like, oh, my gosh, wait a minute. Like that can't be there. And it's like, well, you see it all the time. You walk by it all the time on campus or wherever it is you're at but kind of on the same note, what do you think about the whole TikTok situation? 

Ryan Alford [00:15:37] Yeah, here's what I think. We talked a little bit about this before the episode and things like that certainly believe in free speech and free, where we have liberty, we have the ability to do what we want to do. But, I don't know enough about the back end of the technology platform, having not been privy to it to know. But I assume if it's a Chinese government that is involved in some ownership, a Chinese company that has to report to the Chinese communist government. It is what it is, no matter what my opinion is on the Chinese Communist Party, they are Communist Party and they do collect data from their companies and all of their business have to kind of have a transparency to the government that's a little different than ours. Not that we are not that our businesses aren't transparent to the US government, but it's different. 

Riley Clarke [00:16:30] It's  a different system.

Ryan Alford [00:16:32] I'm not being naive to the fact that I'm sure there's data being collected, then I don't have a problem with the government trying to step in to make sure that our data isn't managed properly and maybe it should be run or or sold to US company 

Riley Clarke [00:16:49] Like a version of TiKTok or like,

Ryan Alford [00:16:51] Well, I think that a company would buy it in its current entity like I've heard, like Microsoft and others, U.S. based companies buying it. And it would probably in a lot of ways stay exactly what it is. But all that data would be housed on servers in the U.S.. Right. And not being transferred. And, there'd be some kind of breadcrumbs back to where that all is living. Yeah. And right now, I think it's just going into the data that is going to the nether worlds of the Internet back to the Chinese companies that are running it. Right. And so part of me gets a little frazzled of the government kind of stepping up, stepping in. And then part of me is like, well, it makes sense. And so, I'd like that we didn't take a brash and just shut it down because you've got a lot of people that are on the platform doing things. I like that there seems to be tempering just shut it down. But if they can get the company sold and get it in the hands that we feel like are managing the data properly. Then I think that's the appropriate course. 

Riley Clarke [00:18:03] But do you think Instagram reels are trying to do something similar to TikTok? 

Ryan Alford [00:18:10] I mean, social video, whether it's Trilla, became the number one app over the weekend and photos and videos for a couple of days. I think it's dropped back now. I think most people aren't going to want to move from tick tock. They don't have to rise. They've got all their user base and all that. Yeah. So they got nervous because they're like the president is like, I'm going to shut it down tomorrow. And I think people flocked elsewhere. So I think you're going to see some splintering of people moving, whether it's reels with Instagram, hey look Instagram is a behemoth already. And so anything that's backed by them, as long as the app is as good as it needs to be, the technology and maybe some bonus features, which I imagine I wouldn't imagine it being an exact copy of everything that that TikTok is. But if there's some plus one plus two features that people can gravitate around, I think you'll see people naturally migrating a little bit. Or even if it's not migration, it'll just be an expansion of the platforms they're on potentially. But yeah, that's where it's just getting so splintered as far as you've got Facebook, you've got Instagram, you've got Snapchat, Twitter. Obviously they all have their place, but you're getting a little exhausting where you share your world view. 

Riley Clarke [00:19:35] How active you are on all the platforms. Like which ones are you more active on? Like which ones are you not? And you can't be super active on all of them. That's just exhausting. Yeah. 

Ryan Alford [00:19:46] I mean, it's even, bringing it back to the marketing standpoint.Brands were just not the same just now, but in the last six months, starting to get their hands around how to use Tick-Tock for brands. You're starting to see some of the ad platforms develop on talk. And now it's kind of like if you're a brand that spent money or time or thinking about it, you're. In the same thing of like a kid that's got a million followers or something, they're going, oh, wait a second. And so I think you're probably seeing a little bit of pause with that because I don't know how much money you want to dump in if there's the potential of it being locked down. Exactly. And so it'll be interesting to see where it goes. 

Riley Clarke [00:20:30] So I guess to end on positive note now or I think something kind of fun and sweet. Um, the drive in EA Sports arenas. 

Ryan Alford [00:20:41] Yes. 

Riley Clarke [00:20:42] How sweet are those? 

Ryan Alford [00:20:44] Very nice. 

Riley Clarke [00:20:44] Yeah, I'm looking forward to them actually happening though. 

Ryan Alford [00:20:48] Exactly. I think it's without the in-person stuff. And I just saw the increase but saw several celebrities posting. They were like a drive in movie or something a few weeks ago, a couple that I follow. And so I think picking up on that theme, people are pivoting into where and how to deliver content and how to deliver experiences outside of it. So I think it's cool. 

Riley Clarke [00:21:15] I mean, I think it's cool, too. I think it's interesting the point about it being more like a mobile platform, because obviously the Wi-Fi issues are just like, oh, let me casually bring my super expensive, full on gaming monitor and everything. I think that the mobile aspect will be nice. But I'm looking forward the those four locations, Louisville, Kentucky. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. El Paso, Texas and Laredo, Texas. 

Ryan Alford [00:21:40] Interesting. It must have something to do with the parent company, I imagine. But also, I'm not sure what the logic was. I'm trying. I have no mental I don't pretend to be a knowledge base of every city in America, but those are the four of those don't ring any any natural tendencies together. 

Riley Clarke [00:22:00] Yeah, like as I kept reading, I know there's only four, but like, I was like hoping that one of the cities would have been one, that it's like that makes sense like I felt like Austin, Texas might have made sense or something like that. But I mean, nothing against those places. Those are great places. 

Ryan Alford [00:22:17] Yeah, no, they're great. I've been to Louisville. Yeah. It's nice. Went to watch a football game there. Clemson played over a few years ago at Louisville. You could actually fan following for all their sports and basketball's usually kind of the thing there but I don't pretend to know what the dynamics or geographic tendencies that link all those together. They're all kind of tier two DMA markets. Uh, none of them are like top 20 cities in the country or something, so. Right, right, right. Maybe it's the affordability of doing. 

Riley Clarke [00:22:55] If it has to do with the partnership, though, because I wonder if because I think Horizon Group properties, um, and the sport's analytic company, Arena data, I don't know if, like, one of those places are like their headquarters or something might be in those places. And maybe that's why there is a connection there. I'm not entirely sure. But, um, anyway, that's going to be interesting. I'm looking forward to obviously covid not affecting things to where I could see these popping up a lot more and a more retro kind of space, too. 

Ryan Alford [00:23:31] I think it's again, the growth of this segment and the kind of the I don't know, just the no. Like I can't wrap my head like ten years ago or five years ago. This notion and obviously covid has a lot to do with it. But even just obviously, these aren't gigantic markets. But how mainstream EA Sports is becoming the notion 

Riley Clarke [00:23:57] of well and even yesterday not to spoil that episode. But when we were talking yesterday with our guest and he was making a comment that if anything, covid just in like sped up the process of a lot of companies two to five years in terms of like what work was actually going to look like, what production was actually going to look like and things like that. So if anything, I do think there's some positivity to covid speeding up some of that kind of processes. 

Ryan Alford [00:24:26] But yeah, I mean, I imagine it's going to be mainly mobile based in some way. I don't know; you're not bringing your console. Right. I don't know if you're on your tablet or on your smartphone. There's a 

Riley Clarke [00:24:38] huge extension cord that runs that runs through my truck 

Ryan Alford [00:24:43] as well. It's like an outlet. So, I could get it going. But I don't know that most average vehicles are probably not running their Xbox off their car batteries or something. 

Riley Clarke [00:24:53] Yeah, no, that probably wouldn't be it. But no, that's the news for this week. Um, anything else you want to talk about? 

Ryan Alford [00:25:00] I don't think so. I'm looking forward to releasing some of the, um, episodes for EA Sports. Got a few more. And then we're working on some specifics around e-commerce, and we haven't ironed out everything for the next series, so excited about that. 

Riley Clarke [00:25:17] And we have three more episodes for the Radcast for eSports. Next episode is Tuesday at noon. And then, yeah, we're gonna start our e-commerce series and all my little secrets up here. We'll see where they go. 

Ryan Alford [00:25:34] Hey, I guess we can close with as we look at, if you're listening or watching, depending on where you're consuming this, our Radcast merchandise. We've got our T-shirts in and some samples for or there are Yeti cups or for lack of a better tumbler, Tumblr. This is America's Tumblr.

Riley Clarke [00:25:57] On our Instagram page, we have all of our merchandise that we're getting. We're posting it on there, so. Oh, yeah. 

Ryan Alford [00:26:04] All right, guys, that's it for this week. It's Ryan and Riley. We'll see you next time on the Radical news update. 

Riley Clarke [00:26:10] See you next time.