Episode #1
Whatever Happened to Pizza at McDonald’s
With Host Brian Thompson
Note that transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and are checked by over-worked and under-paid interns.
So, please excuse any inaccuracies. Thank you.
Original Release: Monday, August 31,2020
00:00
Zack Robidas: (PodSpotter Host) You were asking to see Donald Trump? You wanted to see the president?
00:04
Brian Thompson: Yeah, I want it because he's such a big fan of McDonald's. I thought he was the most powerful fan of McDonald's on earth. And if anybody could bring back pizza it would be him.
Cut to Excerpt:
Brian: I was wondering if it's possible for me to go inside and speak with Mr. Trump.
Secret Service: Unless you have an appointment. You can't go inside the complex.
Brian: Can I ask you Do you remember when McDonald's used to serve pizza? You're shrugging.
00:30
Zack: That and so much more, coming right up on today's episode of the pod spotter.
MUSIC INTRO TO BREAK
00:53
Zack: You're listening to the Pod Spotter. I'm your host, Zach Robidas. There are a shitload of podcasts out there. Believe me, I've counted and it's way too many for one person to sit down and sift through which is why we are here. We're here for you guys. We're going to do the heavy lifting and we are going to find the little diamonds in the rough those little nuggets of quality podcast entertainment, and every Monday, we're going to talk to their creators and their hosts and we're gonna have a few laughs and play a couple clips and hopefully you guys learn something in the process and if you like what you're hearing then please subscribe to our little pod and visit us at the podspotter.com and on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at @thepodspotter for extra content and information on upcoming shows. Thanks y'all.
01:45
MUSIC OUT OF BREAK
02:02
Zack: Okay, hi pod people. We got a treat for you today. From 1989 to 1991. In an attempt to shake up the pizza industry, the fast food giant McDonald's began serving pizza. It was brought to the table by a member of the staff for a time and later handed to you in a box once baked to perfection. It was enjoyed by millions and quickly became a customer favorite until one day, inexplicably, out of nowhere. McDonald's stopped serving pizza. Today's host Brian Thompson has led a crusade for the past four years trying to uncover the deep dark secret of that fateful day when McDonald's sliced the budget on its pizza project. What started out as a podcast over time has morphed into an investigative journalism program, and has led Brian all over the world as he attempts to answer the seemingly simple question. Whatever happened to pizza at McDonald's. Welcome, Brian. And thank you for sharing this wonderful podcast. With us today, how are you?
03:01
Brian: I'm doing very well. How are you, Zack?
03:03
Zack: I am good. I want to just start out by taking you back to the very first episode that you ever recorded of “whatever happened to pizza, McDonald's” because unlike a lot of podcasts that are out there, we can kind of just like jump in and like pick your favorite guest and kind of dance around. This one I think is important for folks to start at the top of show start at that first podcast, and really get a sense of what it is. And so let's listen quickly, if you don't mind to a bit from your pilot episode of whatever happened to pizza at McDonald's and then we'll dig in.
Cut to Excerpt:
Phone Ring
Guy: This is McDonald’s can I help you?
03:41
Brian: Hi, do you remember when McDonald's used to have pizza?
Guy: I’m sorry.
03:46
Brian: Do you remember when McDonald's used to have pizza?
Phone hang up
Phone ringing
Guy 2: Good afternoon, this is McDonald’s, how can I help you?
03:55
Brian: Uh, hi do you have pizza?
Guyr 2: No.
Brian: Didn’t McDonald's used to have pizza.
04:03
Guy 2: I don't think yso.
Brian: You don't remember McDonald's ever having pizza.
Guy 2: No, I don’t.
04:09
Brian: Can I speak to a manager? Please?
04:11
Guy 2: I am the manager.
04:13
Brian: You don't know whatever happened to the pizza at McDonald's?
Guy 2: No.
04:18
Brian: Okay, have a nice night.
BACK TO INTERVIEW
04:23
Zack: And that's pretty much the first episode, right? That's pretty much it.
Brian: Yeah, that’s right. Yeah. Yeah, that's the first episode. It was intended to be the only episode.
04:33
Zack: how did we get here? How did we get here, Brian? 167 episodes later? That was supposed to be. It was it began on a bit of a lark. Is that right?
04:42
Brian: Yeah, you could say that. Yeah. I was sitting around the house and my girlfriend is a big True Crime podcast fan. And she clued me into this one particular show I won't name that's hosted by an Australian guy who chooses to remain Anonymous. And it's very clear to me anyway that he's just reading Wikipedia articles about various murders. But it has like this huge following.
05:11
Zack: Yes, yes. Yeah.
05:12
Brian: I just thought it was very funny that somebody could just be like, I'm now an expert on murders. And I want to just read a Wikipedia page about them.
05:23
Zack: In an eerie voice in like, a scary voice and --
Brian: Yeah, kind of kind of an ominous monotone. Like, I'm listening to these things. And it's just like, they're entertaining.
05:32
Zack: I mean, I find I am susceptible to some to all of that, you know, to like some good producing some good musical transitions. Some seemingly innocuous sound cue of someone opening a car in the bed, like the whole form works for me. And so when I hear your podcast in satire form, you sort of it's not only send up of the form, but you also are revealing something that like, hey, anyone could do this. And we can make anything sound important pretty much.
06:00
Brian: I mean, the show has morphed into being a parody, I guess, of just the entire medium of podcasting. Because I do think that it has become this thing where people like I saw the other day, there was a TV critic for The New Yorker who just tweeted a joke about how she got drunk with her husband the other night, and they were spitballing ideas for a nonprofit to pay people to not do podcasts. It's just you know, it's a joke. And then I saw my timeline because I follow all these like podcast people. And they were so defensive. I've never seen such a reaction. It's like it's such a super serious reaction, just like, ‘how dare you like, this is what this is someone telling you to not follow your dream like that. Nobody ever says. There are too many movies. There are too many books’ and like, first of all they do and secondly, it's like, I like podcasts. I do podcasting but it's not that big a deal
07:03
Zack: It’s not, you're just you're not saving the world. You're just howling into a microphone into the deep dark, you know maw of the internet right? But you happen to do it very, very well. And it is very, very funny that the way that you satirize the medium and I, I just want to know about that first day, I guess when you sort of did it as a joke is like a, you know, ‘screw you guys I can do anybody could do...’ like, how are we 160 some episodes later then?
07:31
Brian: Well, the joke was supposed to be that it had all of the trappings of a pot, a real podcast. So like the main part of the joke was that I started a Twitter account, and I started a Facebook page, and I like put it on iTunes. And it was only ever supposed to be one episode. I'm doing this investigation. I googled how to be an investigative journalist. And my entire investigation is just me calling McDonald's and asking if they remember Serving pizza. And when they tell me no, that's it, that's the end of everything.
08:05
Zack: It should be the end of everything, until...
08:07
Brian: Right and so like half the episode would be, you know, ‘...that's Thank you for listening to whatever how to pizza, McDonald's, follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, blah, blah, blah.’ Like, that's part of the joke too. I thought of the idea at like 10 or 11 o'clock at night, and by two or three in the morning, it was up and ready to go and submitted to iTunes. And then a few days later, I remember I was at the ATM and my phone just started exploding all these people following the show.
08:36
Zack: You know what I love about it is I've been thinking a lot about my brother's best man speech at my wedding. He started with this joke that was like, I remember he started with I remember when Zach and I were kids. We used to go down to the local petting zoo and put salt on our butts and let the animals lick it off. And right away, just cut half of the room said , said half of you aren't going to Enjoy this speech i want to i i'm not talking to you. I'm talking to these people over here. And yeah, I feel like when I listened to your episode, I feel like it's for me. I feel seen. I feel like I'm in like an inside joke. It's not for the masses. It's for these people over here. And that is well--
09:18
Brian: Well you can if you look at some of the iTunes reviews, you can see that the other half is also well represented.
09:23
Zack: Oh, no, you read those.
09:25
Brian: I've seen a couple of Okay, good, good. I wouldn't expect anything else. But yeah, I mean, I like that's, to my own probably financial detriment that's how I've approached my entire creative life is just, you know, I would rather for people absolutely love something I do. Then a million people kind of like it. Yeah. So, you know, it's like, I mean, this this show is definitely the, the purest of any sort of creative endeavor. I've done like the one that is the just me doing whatever comes to mind.
10:05
Zack: It’s clear you've created your own sandbox and you're just happy to play and riff and go down whatever alley that you want to go down that entertains you, is there a metric by which you're evaluating? Like, are my followers into this? You know, tangent that I'm going on? Or do you just have the freedom to, to just play and do whatever you want.
10:25
It's not conscious as far as like, you know, the numbers of listeners and things like that. But the thing that really does keep the show going in a way that I completely did not expect is interaction from listeners, like people, they definitely play along. Like when they write to me on Twitter and stuff, It's definitely from the understanding that I am like, the person who's on the show and like, you know, I, you know, I have these informants all over the world that are just like, ‘you know, I went to my McDonald's and like, I don't know if I should send you this information on a secure channel...’
11:01
Zack: You’ve created a cult of sorts. Well, let me just get to another piece because you get some fuel pretty early on and one of the episodes from one of the employees at a Pomeroy Location. One of the last known locations to serve pizza at McDonald's --
Biran: Originala recipe.
Zack: Okay, okay, this is not the stuff you'll find in Orlando, this is the good stuff. And let's listen to the conversation with that McDonald's employee, which kind of gives you the fuel for the rest of your show:
CUT TO EXCERPT
11:34
Woman on Phone: We fight every year to keep it. We use to serve pizza in our McDonald's. And then they gradually just took them away that these two particular McDonald's that we have does real well with their pizza sales and stuff.
Brian: What do you mean you have to fight every year to keep it?
11:55
Woman on Phone: Well, we just have to prove that it's a good sell in our stores.
12:01
Brian: Do you know why McDonald's as a corporation is so against selling pizza in their restaurants anymore?
Woman: I don’t have a clue.
12:10
Brian: When did they stop?
Woman: I can't even tell you that. They just gradually just started taking it out of all the McDonald's,
12:17
Brian: is there a downside to serving pizza and McDonald's?
Woman: No, there’s just so many things we’re not allowed to talk about an employee for McDonald's.
12:27
Brian: Has anyone at McDonald's specifically told you not to discuss why they no longer serve pizza and most of their restaurants?
Woman: no, there’s just lots of things we’re not allowed to talk about.
INTERVIEW RESUME
12:38
Zack: Thus the sort of cloak and dagger is component of whatever happened to pizza McDonald's is born.
12:44
Brian: Yeah, we're just it's another thing that I didn't expect. I think one thing I pride myself on on the show is that almost none of it is is fake as far as like the people I talked to and -
Zack: And that can be really cringe worthy on shows when You know, like the sort of jerky boys pranking people but you your way in is very interesting in that, like, we're always laughing at Brian, like we're always laughing at the character of you, which by the way, I was sort of more nervous for this interview than most because I didn't know who was showing up I had to prepare like, separate questions for you know, podcast-Brian and real-Brian because you're having to the character, it's tribute to your commitment to the character really, because you are so committed that we are laughing at him. We're not laughing at these people that you're quote unquote punking you’re making yourself the butt of the joke. Was that a conscious thought?
13:36
Brian: Oh, for sure. Yeah, I guess I don't I mean, I I like the sort of prankier stuff as well. But the versions of that that I've always found the most interesting are the ones that sort of take the focus of the joke off of the person who's being thrust into the unusual situation. You know, there are a ton of like influences on the show. You know, the big one of the biggest ones is this is a show called The Phil Hendry show, which was on for many, many, many, many years on KFI. And it's this guy Phil Hendry, who hosts the show. It's like a normal talk radio call in show. They'll have a guest on and his guests will gradually get more and more insane the things that they're saying. Um, you know, will start very innocuous it'll be somebody that's like a diaper expert about how a lot of diapers that babies wear, don't breathe very well and they overheat babies and then eventually he'll talk about how you know there was this one time a baby got so hot in his diaper in the middle of the night he climbed out of his crib and crawled out into the snow and died. Just a cool off and real people will call into the show to hear this on the radio and they call in and we're like ‘this this man's insane get him off radio.’ And the genius part of the show is that Phil Hendry is playing both himself, the host and the character. He has in one hand like literally one hand has the Telephone receiver and a button to switch. And you would not know that if you just tuned in for the first time. And so like the tension of that show where the last are coming from is not just the reaction of the audience members, like, they're kind of like crazy talk radio call-in people. So there's like a little bit of that. But really, the tension is between, it's about him, like egging on the audience because he'll take the audience members side against the character that he's playing. And so listening to that play like it was really entertaining to me and it takes the joke off of making fun of some unaware person.
15:39
Zack: I've been describing to people as like as though if Peter Sellers only saw Rain Man and then binged Serial, this is the podcast that he would create. And I hope that is fair because that's what I feel --
Brian: That's very fair. It's actually a compliment. Thank you.
15:54
Zack: Good, good. I hear what you're saying about just that, that the tension of juggling that Those moments and keeping them up in the air that sort of inspiration had. But if I had to find one piece of audio where I feel like you got caught up in your own story a little bit, would be the conversation that you had with garlan manufacturer, where you actually started learning, like you'd actually done really good investigative journalism. And I want to play this clip because the character kind of, it’s the one time I hear the character kind of go away and like, Brian, the actual guy, is like, ‘Oh, that's Thank you. I that's really interesting.’ Let's, let's hear your conversation with the garland manufacturers and Brian actually learned some real information.
CUT TO EXCERPT
16:38
Brian: According to the operations manual, it was manufactured exclusively for McDonald's and the manual itself bears the McDonald's logo.
Guy on phone: Yes, it was and it was 10 to 15 years ago. They were only in McDonald's for roughly two to three years because of the difficulty to program them.
16:58
Brian: Oh, really?
Guy: Yes.
Brian: How are they difficult to program?
Guy: They are extremely difficult to program. I don't even think there's a program manuals for it. And if you call garlan technical support, they will not tell you how to program them. Because all that information is proprietary.
17:12
Brian: Oh really? It belongs to McDonald's?
Guy: And you won't be able to buy parts for it either.
Brian: So you're saying that McDonald's controls all of that information and keeps it under lock and key, so to speak.
Guy: Yes, Yes.
BACK TO INTERVIEW
17:26
Zack: This guy this is like your biggest sort of treasure trove of like you actually kind of solve it here a little bit.
17:31
Brian: Yeah, I was shocked as anybody else like this is like something that keeps happening this is what that's the main reason why the show has gotten like 160 something episodes is because it actually is investigative journalism tby complete accident.
17:45
Zack: tell the story how you got to garlin how you found these people in the first place.
17:49
Brian: A long time ago, I found out that there was this remote island way off the coast of mainland Alaska. They used to house military base, and they had a McDonald's. And the only reason that I that military base existed was to keep an eye on the Soviet Union. So once the Soviet Union collapsed, that thing just was abandoned almost overnight, and, including the McDonald's. And it happened to be kind of around the time that McDonald's served pizza. So I thought it would be funny to do a fundraising campaign to pay for a trip to this island. Because it's outrageously expensive to get there. It's like you have to fly to Anchorage, Alaska. And then it's another like, thousand dollar flight just to this island, because nobody goes and there's planes only come in twice a week.
Zack: You mentioned twice a week. Yeah.
18:45
Brian: So I set up this fundraising campaign with a purposefully ridiculous timeline on it, like just a few days, and I had to raise an outrageous amount of money to do this very stupid thing. And and I thought you I wasn't going to succeed, and then I could milk having failed at my fundraising campaign for a while. But it did succeed. And then I had, so then I had to go to Alaska. And it turned out to be this amazing trip. It's one of the craziest experiences of my life. I could do a whole show just talking about this town, this island in Alaska. But while I was there, I went to this McDonald's, and I talked to some people. And I tracked down a guy who had bought that McDonald's after it was abandoned, and he came into possession of these pizza ovens. And he found out that they were manufactured by McDonald's. He wanted to repair them, because pizza is like the only thing people eat on this island. And so he wanted to repair them and put him in one of his current restaurants. And he called McDonald's and asked, you know how to get the parts to repair these things. They said that they don't make it anymore. It’d be cheaper just to buy a new pizza oven. So he threw him in a dump. And so there's McDonald's pizza ovens in a scrap metal dump on this remote island off the coast of Alaska. But he also he gave me the operator manual, he was able to track down the operator manual for it, and it had the name of the manufacturer. So I called the manufacturer and then I find this guy who his job was to service McDonald's pizza ovens when they were in operation.
Zack: Just an unbelievable story.
Brian: And he gives me this entirely different explanation for why they stopped using them because McDonald's official position, which is on their website, is that it just took too long
20:39
Zack: Time, the time Yeah.
Brian: Which is completely reasonable.
20:43
Zack: And right it's, it's on brand for them to sort of like how their inception and --
Brian: Yeah, but no, this guy tells me that's not the case. It's that they were too difficult to program.
20:52
Zack: Is there a moment when you're in a hotel room though, and you're in Alaska and you have like maybe your pizza hat the character There's pizza hat and you're just like, Where's the line between Brian and this character? I've created this...the character is you. And at a certain point, it’s you. You're doing the thing. It's not a joke anymore.
21:13
Brian: Yeah, my life is very Charlie Kaufman esque. Because I am. It's like I am, I am doing this as a joke, but I am also literally here like with equipment. There's a guy driving me around and you said hotel room. But there are no hotels on this island. It's, it's just military housing that people have bought. And they rent out. And it's just one guy who, who through Airbnb rents out these three houses that are all connected to his house. And it's just a guy who like picked he picked me up from the airport .
Zack: And is he at all like weirded out by your mission by why you're there.
Zack: I was in character the entire time but i but I'm not dishonest with people. Well, even when I'm in character, you know, I'm saying My name is Brian Thompson I have these questions about pizza. I really do. I think that's another key to the show success is that people, because I'm honest with them ,I don't think people feel like they're put on the spot they just think they want to help me like they're desperate to help me because they ... think I’m just a an idiot.
Zack: Well, that's the thing about that audioI just played to because you've cared so much for you fooled yourself into caring so much. The audience does care. So even though it’s a lark, we want to know. And when we get this information, you're like, ‘Oh, my God, I can't even believe this’. I do have to know that on the plane, are you when you're dealing with a stewardess, which Brian is there?
Brian: I was in I was I was in real character the whole time and from setting foot on the plane at LAX, to coming back home. I was pretty much in character.
22:56
Zack: And who is that guy is he he's a part of you. He's in you. That guy is a manifestation of something --
23:03
Brian: you know what I that's another weird side effect of this show is that I hear from a lot of people who are like, I love the show because I listened to it with my kids. And in my, like, comedy career as liberal definition of the term career. I definitely ... that is not my background. My background is like stuff that's not--
23:29
Zack: No, you're a performer, you're a performer. I come from an acting background. I'm listening to I'm listening to a really like a very good comedic performer and there must be some preparation or something that sort of gets you into that mindset of you're thinking about anything other than just do the voice like --
23:47
Brian: Um, no, it's like the voice comes out of the attitude of just being someone who is singularly focused on something. You could say simple minded, but just like that characters, He's the defining qualities are prudishness and fastidiousness.
This like obsessive adherence to politeness that's clearly masking a lot of internal rage that doesn't know how to get out. I think that the character, it's definitely evolved over the course of the show. And I think that that character has become like, outrageously passive aggressive at this point, especially when it comes to dealing with people who he thinks are in his way or like --
Zack: I want to play, maybe my favorite piece of audio, from the time that the character that you built this identity came across the real human that exists in the world. Do you know what piece of audio I'm talking about?
24:54
Brian: Is this the chip in my head?
24:55
Zack: This is the museum, sort of McDonald's museum curator that you talk to here, let's have a listen to when Brian called the McDonald's museum. And yeah, let's have a listen.
CUT TO EXCERPT
25:11
Guy on Phone: Right now I'm in the middle of trying to get someone relinquish control to us, a original workers camp for those who worked one of those ovens.
25:21
Brian: Oh I do I also have a McDonald's pizza cap. It's red and it says ‘McDonald's pizza’ on the front - vintage cap. That is not something --
Guy: We don’t have that, I'm trying to get this person to donate it to us.
25:34
Brian: Yes, well, I would donate mine but it's one of my most treasured possessions. I wear it all the time.
Guy: Understandable. I'm like you I'm on the search for things like that. Because it's such a bizarre chapter in McDonald’s history that people don't even think it actually exists. And I'm trying to gather the evidence, to display and say ‘yes, this did happen.’ Like you said, McDonald's doesn't want to talk about it, but it did happen.
25:56
Brian: This is exactly my own personal quest. I believe we may be kindred spirits.
BACK TO INTERVIEW
Brian: Yeah, I found the real life Brian Thompson
Zack: Real life Brian Thompson and he's the curator of a McDonald's museum. Sees about 300 people a day which I couldn't even believe that number when he said
26:19
Brian: It seems almost unbelievable
26:22
Zack: it's really great. Have there been people like that curator that you've come across who have other attachments to sort of novelty fast food items that like are like I want you know, while you're working on this, Do you happen to know anything about like, I don't know shamrock shake is sort of like the, the one that everyone has like a very personal relationship with at McDonald's, but there are, you know, countless other sort of novelty items that have come and gone from fast foods attempt to bring in new customers.
Brian: Yeah, the one I hear about the most is the Wendy’s super bar. People are very curious about the Wendy's super bar.
Zack: Producer here is like ‘you got to ask him about the superbar. Like that was like his first thing after listening to the pod. What is it about the Wendy super Bar?
Brian: It's just such a I mean, I think people it was one of those things that people who loved it really loved it and that was why they went to Wendy's and everyone else was just like this is a disgusting like, public health hazard. And I'm not gonna get anywhere near this. This is like, you're really getting out of your lane Wendy's with what you're good at. Cuz there was like a taco station and pasta and stuff.
27:34
Zack: It sounds like a salad bar. I don't know why it doesn't work. salad bars is still around.
27:37
Brian: Well, are they?
27:40
Zack: Diners? I don't know. So part of the podcast for Brian is that he does regularly see, you know, it's not always about, you're not always so focused on pizza at McDonald's. The majority of it is but sometimes you spend time at the library trying to take out Willow and Various other adventures. It's sort of you know, it makes sense with your UCB background, this is a sort of this is a very like, improv concept, the idea of like, give me a word. And now I'm going to expand on that word for an hour, you know, a seemingly simple question. Whatever happened to McDonald's has now spanned, you know, how many years of your life and how many hours of your life it's consumed so much. Are there moments when like strange phone numbers call? And you're like, ‘Oh, shit, I don't know ... do I answer as me or do I answer as investigative-journalist me.
28:30
Brian: Yeah. I mean, I, sometimes, sometimes people will call me back long after the fact. There was one guy, one of the only times I've ever like, kind of been yelled at, like by someone who got like, really mad and had like, a really contentious relationship with me was when I called this UFO reporting hotline. And this guy got very upset with me. He was like, kids are constantly these punk kids are always constantly calling --
29:01
Zack: Was it right around when Roswell was trending that takeover Roswell thing, was it?
Brian: It was, fairly. Yeah, it was last year. Yes. That guy called me back, that guy call me back a couple of times, tried to talk to me.
29:19
Zack: Funny, but not the White House, not the FCC Not that
29:24
Brian: I did have I did have a run in with I've actually been thinking about that because of all the protests. Like I had a really frightening run in with the Secret Service when I was outside the White House. They Yeah, they got very upset with me, because I wouldn't leave.
29:38
Zack: you were asking to see Donald Trump, you wanted to see the president. Yeah--
29:42
Brian: I wanted because he's such a big fan of McDonald's. I thought he was the most powerful fan of McDonald's on earth. And if anybody could bring back pizza, it would be him. But he wouldn't. He wouldn't take an audience with me. And then they were like, you know, just go on our website and schedule a meeting and I just kept asking them what What's the website? Is it a.com or.gov? And they just wouldn't answer. And then next thing I look around and I'm surrounded by like 12 Secret Service agents all like, advancing on me.
30:12
Zack: Let's hear a little bit of that audio.
CUT TO EXCERPT
30:13
Brian: My name is Brian Thompson. I'm an investigative journalist and I was wondering if it's possible for me to go inside and speak with Mr. Trump.
Secret Service: Unless you have an appointment. You can't go inside the complex.
Brian: Oh, really? Has anyone, can I ask, has anyone mentioned my name or a show called Whatever happened to pizza at McDonald's? To you?
Secret Service: I'm really not sure to be honest. We do have a one voice policy with media so I'm not permitted to really say anything.
Brian: Butt can I ask you? Do you remember when McDonald's used to serve pizza? You're shrugging. You don't. You don't recall that at all?
Secret Service: Personally, no.
Brian: You can’t direct me to someone who might be able to tell me how to get into the White House today to talk to Mr. Trump.
31:00
Secret Service: Sir. Give me one moment.
BACK TO INTERVIEW
31:03
Zack: i'm curious about what, what's the longest you've waited on hold to get the answer you...
31:14
Brian: I think it was for one time one of the times that I've called a prayer hotline to get some spiritual guidance in my investigation. Those things will sometimes keep you on hold for like an hour. Yeah, I definitely have spent a lot of time on hold.
31:32
Zack: Wow. You must have intimate knowledge about like how to navigate those sort of prompts and customer service. You probably could write a whole separate podcast--
Brian: I know that you can just smash zero most of the time and we'll get back to a person.
31:50
Zack: It's a great tip. But let's take a quick break here. We'll be right back.
MUSIC TO COMMERCIAL BREAK
32:01
ZACK: We are here to fill the role of looking for great content for you we are we are podcast liaisons, if you will. And if you like this show, please check us out and subscribe and visit the pod spotter.com and on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and all the other places you put pictures of your kids, we're going to be there on IG we are @thepodspotter and check us out there for lots of good stuff. And please leave a review if you can a good one a bad one doesn't matter. All press is good press and subscribe and rate and review us on Apple podcasts and help spread the word if you don't mind. We are going to release a new episode every Monday, every Monday we're gonna have a new interview and we're going to feature a new wonderful little pod that we think you should be listening to. And we're just gonna start plowing ahead so please keep listening and if you have any suggestions of quality pods that we haven't highlighted that you think we ought to give a listen to, please recommend those and visit us at thepodspotter.com so we know about them. Thanks, everybody.
BACK TO SHOW
33:07
ZACK: Well listen, one of the sort of evergreens we do on this podcast is a game called How well do you know your pod? How well do you know your baby Brian, I am going to ask you a series of questions. If you get two out of three of those questions correct, I will proudly display some Whatever happened to pizza at McDonald's swag. On this here bookshelf until the end of time or until the bookshelf falls over. Two out of three questions about your podcast. Let's see how well you do. Are you ready for three questions?
33:40
Brian: Yeah, as ready as I'll ever be.
33:41
Zack: Okay, number one, Brian Thompson. And you can answer them as you or you know if IJP Brian.
33:53
Brian: One of these things
33:54
Zack: Yeah, please. I imagine you putting on your hat. You have an authentic--
34:01
Brian: I do. A priceless item it's what much more expensive on eBay than when I bought it.
34:04
Zack: It's probably because of your podcast. Alright. Question number one. What is vortex energy?
34:12
Brian: vortex energy is a, it's an idea that the people of Sedona, Arizona seemed to have but there are these vortex they call them. I think the technical term would be vortices, but they insist that it's actually vortexes. And there are these swirls of mystical spiritual energy all around Sedona, Arizona that they draw upon for psychic powers and UFO studies and all kinds of weird meditation.
Zac: Let's have a listen to this definition of vortex energy,
CUT TO EXCERPT
34:44
Woman on Phone: energy that seems to help people when they're going through transformations here. It's like a beautiful thing. Like Niagara Falls where you know, you feel exhilarated being in that place. So it's been called the vortex energy by people who are familiar with energy you can probably Google search and I could give you a definition.
35:08
Brian: No that makes absolutely perfect sense.
35:12
Woman: Oh, thank you.
BACK TO INTERVIEW
35:19
Brian: Oh that, poor woman
Zack: Oh that, poor woman but also she's selling vortex energy she I mean, we, you know, come on. But hey, somebody's trying to benefit from vortex energy. Okay. Well very good. Question number one was successful. Let's move on to number two identify the character in this clip
CUT TO EXCERPT
35:41
Woman on phone: Chick Fil A is circly chicken and they're amazing. Have you ever ate there?
35:46
Brian: I have not.
35:48
Woman: That is a really good suggestion you need to apply in your life.
Brian: What's so good about their chicken, If you don't mind my asking.
35:57
Woman: Well there’s been rumors that they put pickle juice in their flour.
Brian: Pickle juice in their flour? And you say these are just rumors, these aren’t confirmed?
36:15
Woman: No they’re not confirmed but it’s amazing. It’s the best chicken I think I’ve ever had in my life.
BACK TO INTERVIEW
36:22
Zack: who's the character? Who are you talking to?
36:24
Brian: I do not remember the specifics of that. I do. I remember that conversation. I think she was. I was asking her about something else clearly for sure. A customer service person maybe... Southern accent so that narrows it down a little bit, but I don't recall.
36:42
Zack: You were seeking Long Term life insurance because you were worried about what was going to happen to you should McDonald's find out about your investigation that was selling life insurance and I love the clip because it shows the listener how you get caught up in tangents, how you can quickly start Like get distracted from your pizza mission to, ‘oh, pickle juice, you say?’ And what is also amazing it's just how candid people are with you. And I think it's because of how kind that the care that you take with your very polite with people you never sort of like are too demanding you're you just are respectful and people frequently open up and divulge more information to you than they probably should.
37:25
Brian: It's very surprising to me and it fuels the show me like there can be months worth of episodes that are based on something that somebody told me I had no idea they were going to tell me and it just fuels the show. I would say like maybe half the show are ideas that have come from just random things that somebody has told me when I call them
37:45
Zack: Is that all from your, your Google search of how to be a private investigator?
Brian: Yeah, that's from an ehow.com article.
37:58
Zack: Electronic-how I believe. Brian, frequently on his podcast refers to emails as electronic mails. And eBay is the electronic Bay. Now just so you're not confused when you start listening, Brian, you are one for two. But you could still bring it home by answering this third question correctly. And for this one, you mentioned that you read reviews of your podcast sometime. I was curious about that. I'm going to now read you some reviews of your podcast, three of them. And you try to identify the one that is just me. trolling you. Oh, so spot the troll here, two are real, one is me making it up here. Okay. Are you ready?
Brian: I'm ready.
Zack: I work for This American Life and help create invisbillia. And this is one of the best podcasts I've ever heard. That's one review. Another is “it's like fast food for your ears only healthier and full of candor”. And number three, “better than other podcasts, which ones? all the other pods”
Three reviews of your podcasts to our real one is fake. I work for This American Life person. It's like fast food for the ears, or better than all the other pods.
39:13
Brian: I know for a fact that one of them is is real. The first one.
39:17
Zack: Knock it right out of here. It certainly is. And what a compliment? Have you investigated that? Have you used your investigative journalism skills to find out who that person is probably a small batch of people.
39:30
Brian: I know exactly who it is. Yes. I do figure that out. I've got a lot of I've got a lot of public radio people who listen to the show. Great. Um, but boy, oh boy. The other two I'm not so sure I guess but I will say that number three is the fake
39:51
Zack: It is not the fake one, ‘better than all the other pods which ones all the other pods’ - that person is a super fan. Two out of three incorrect, I will not present any swag, but maybe there'll be some fans later and you can still get up on the bookshelf. I probably have one other game or something planned for later, but high, high praise from the person who worked created invisibility, which is a great podcast and This American Life which leads me into ‘this American slice’, which is another just brilliant piece of audio that I want to that I want to get to. Let's listen to a little bit from this American slice and will discuss
CUT TO EXCERPT
40:30
Brian: From whpm in Los Angeles. It's this American slice. I'm Brian Thompson. Our show today in two acts Act One who is Nelson Sullivan. In that act, we learn more about this vandyked man who film nearly every waking moment of his life, decades before filming yourself, became boring. Act two whatever happened to pizza at McDonald's. In that act. We follow Nelson and his friend dig into the McDonald's in 1989 to see if we can uncover any evidence of pizza. Is it on the menu? Is it in the oven? How long does it take to make? It's called serious journalism. And sometimes, that's exactly what we do. Stay with us.
BACK TO INTERVIEW
41:14
Zack: You realize how much mileage they get out of that music. It's so good, that transition music for This American Life. It can only come from someone Yes, you're poking fun of it at it. But it's also clear to the listener that you are a fan of podcasts. You're a fan of This American Life probably because it is a true homage to the medium and you're obviously a listener because you're doing a very good it's not a an exact IRA. But you've got the NPR cadence down.
41:41
Brian: Yeah, long time. Long, long time listener
41:44
Zack: That’s the big gateway I think for a lot of people, is the gateway drug. I think. This American Life is the first like podcast I remember seeing billboards for I was like, What the hell is it like what is that? You know, you saw him around New York on the subway, you're like, what is going what is a pocket you know, and so yeah, sort of brought us all on board a little bit.
42:02
Brian: I was like a big I was a big, you know, like literary snob like McSweeney's nerd when I was much younger and so I think that sort of you know, you start reading Dave Eggers books and pretty soon you're reading like Sarah vowel books and then you realized Sarah vowel did all these This American Life episodes and one thing leads to another
42:23
Zack: Well, it's it's clear that you're a fan of this American life and the pods Do you have an Ira Glass impersonation?
42:31
Brian: I do, that when I was trying to sort of split the difference between the character and an Ira Glass. My favorite thing that I my favorite Ira Glass-ism is he does this thing when before he asks a question of someone a lot of times where he just sort of does this freight train of words before he asked a question. Just like, ‘...let me just ask. What's your name?
43:16
Zack: From WBC, Chicago are today in three acts.’ Uh, I don’t have an Ira Glass
43:22
Brian: Oh, well, yeah. And then there's that sort of voice. Yeah. At the end of the sentence. There's a new slightly different thing that's like, that's a cadence that everyone uses specifically on this--
43:45
Zack: I know where you're going with this one. You're talking about The Daily--
43:46
Brian: Yeah, it's like modern podcasts that are like well reported that are like that sort of NPR style. It's a little bit different.
Zack: Do you Brian Thompson think That this water bottle is blue. It's bad. It's like guys, let's get to it. I know it's the daily I got 15 minutes here, I gotta wrap this pod up, you guys need to talk a little faster and you're hearing it everywhere. And the other interesting thing is you're hearing it in the commercials that advertise on that podcast because they're like, they want to catch your ear. They're like, Oh, is this this is important. Now, this is an important he's trying to sell me MeUndies. What's going on here? So are there certain things about in making a pretend podcast? You've made a successful good podcast, What have you learned about the medium that you sort of started lampooning, And now found yourself actually, actually doing what Have there been big aha moments in terms of generating audience or just generating revenue, you know, that you that you wish you knew early on.
45:00
Brian: Not really. I mean, I've sort of stuck to my guns about what I don't want to do with the show. And there's a lot of things about modern podcasting that I don't like. And I don't want to do with my show. And and I was thinking about that a lot. And then I got invited to give a talk at this podcast industry conference in Florida A while ago, and that was like very eye-opening because it was clearly just this gold rush of all of these old media companies that have sort of rebranded and, and coagulated around all of these new media companies, and everybody just seemed to be clamoring to figure out a way to milk as much money as possible out of podcasting. The thing that was very surprising to me is that they were all acting as if this was like a major industry, which I think it probably is now, but like I said, it's still kind of a shock to me. I don't think of it that way. So, I see a lot of the stuff that seems to be just a very corporate-minded and, you know, like,--
46:25
Zack: tIs this that thing that's on YouTube, by the way?
Brian: Yeah, it's on YouTube.
Zack: Did they know you were going to be coming in character? Or did they think that you were gonna show up?
46:34
Brian: Yeah, I was, um, my hosting company that I'm with, which is just, I'm with them completely. But I mean, I really I like the service. It's very good service, but it's just sort of by accident because they had very good tools for doing live broadcasts, with call in capabilities. And I wanted to do that one time, and I was just like, you know, who does that I found a show that was doing something that I kind of wanted to do, and saw that they We're using this company and I signed my show up to that company, okay. But it was just sort of coincidence because at the same time, they had hired somebody to do like, content development for them, and really like, curate their shows that were just sort of using their service and promote them. And he was already a fan of my show. And when he came over to the company, he was like, I was thrilled to see that you were hosted on our company, and I wanted to do anything I could to like help your show and so he had me fly out to Florida, and I did a panel. We did an in character Q&A, which I do not think went well, because most of the people there ... there were like seven people in the audience and three of them I think were the listeners of my show. And then the rest were like industry people. And then I did another another like panel discussion out of character. But it was definitely like a trade show.
48:02
Zack: Yeah. interviewee know that you were gonna be incorrect? he seems like he's in on the joke a little bit.
Brian:That guy got it. Yeah
Zack: Its clear that audience, most of them are probably just like looking at their phones trying to figure out how to sell their podcast right?
48:16
Brian: you're in, we were, it was the worst possible environment to do any kind of comedy.
48:23
Zack:Tell me about that balance and maybe personal people in your life or is there anyone Mom Dad anything that's like, ‘Hey, what's Uh, what's going on with this? You're going to where you're going to Alaska?’
48:36
Brian: Uh, you know, they they're very perplexed by it. The Alaska thing in particular I think was was maybe a step too far.
48:46
Zack: I don't think so.
48:47
Brian: I think they just couldn't believe that anyone would waste any money paying for me to go to Alaska for almost no reason whatsoever.
48:56
Zack: Comedy gold. That's the reason
48:58
Brian: We'll see. But I don't think they even know how to listen to a podcast
49:05
Zack: Well, I want to give you one more opportunity to earn some swag display here by asking you just one final question. And then if we'll have time after this, uh, I need to ask you about the board game. But one more question here for Brian to test his private investigator skills which you boast. You learned from “googling” and wondering if you could use those skills to figure out which of the following fast food items never really existed. Are you ready, Brian? I'm going to give you four, three actually.
All right, number one, Popeye's chicken shakes, a taste of bacon, maple syrup. Chicken and Waffles delivered in one cool summer treat, that's Popeye's chicken shakes. Pizza Hut to crown crust. Pizza. That's a pizza with many cheeseburgers baked into the crust. Taco Bell seafood salad and this was a salad. blend of lettuce, tomatoes, olives, showered with tender Bay shrimp, and a mix of snow crab and white fish. And then of course Burger Kings Whopper-rito. A chopped up Whopper. With added peppers blend of cheese, onions and taco sauce stuffed in a tortilla. Again the four items popeyes chicken shakes, Pizza Hut crust crown pizza, Taco Bell seafood salad, or Burger King's Whopper-rito. Can you sniff out the phony of the novelty food items?
50:42
Brian: Well, I know that the hamburger pizza is real.
Zack: That's awful. Yes it is
50:49
Brian: It crosses over into some of my areas of expertise.
50:52
Zack: Well, it's sort of their it's their companion piece to pizza at McDonald's. Yeah, mini sliders, guys got to go see this. images on the internet, they baked sliders into the crust
51:04
Brian: if I recall it was it was only available in the in like the United Arab Emirates or like
51:11
Zack: oh most of this stuff is only in Japan. like most of them not that weird stuff is like Japan will try anything apparently.
51:18
Brian: I hope I'm just hoping that the chicken shake is not real
51:24
Zack: that's exactly righ. Thank God it is not real. Taco Bell did have a seafood salad, short lived, and Burger King Whopper-rito doesn't sound terrible, chop up a whopper. you know you've got all those ingredients that makes it. Well, congratulations. We will proudly proudly display whatever happened with pizza at McDonald's and actually if you want we can ... we probably can't get the board game right ? There is a Whatever happened to pizza at McDonald's board game. It looks like only one has been sold. Only one has been made and sold.
Brian: Many were sold.
Zack: Oh, my goodness. Tell us about, well, let me just read the tagline. You know for anybody interested in the board game of whatever happened to attend McDonald's “based on the award winning investigative journalism program or IGP. Whatever happened to pizza at McDonald's, the board game simulates the battle between the Friends of the truth and the enemies of the truth. Two to four players will command their factions in a fierce competition that includes tactical movement around the duel ringed board, risky management of resources and clever card play using both tricks of the trade and undercover ops.” Sounds like a fascinating board game and you must be a board game lover. Correct? Because this thing is has all of the board game mechanics, the staples, classic.
Brian: It's my primary hobby. I'm a member of the board game geek message board. I've met people from like buying, selling and trading board games.
52:57
Zack: This whole podcast was just a reason to create a board game for yourself.
Brian: I mean kind of. I have the pizza game somewhere around here, but it's not offhand but like right next to my computer here. I'm currently working on painting some little figures for a game I've been playing called street masters.
53:24
Zack: We do like board games around here. We are big Katan people. I feel like yeah, that's canon.
53:31
Brian: Well, I used to have what I called the board game closet. But I was informed by someone else who lives in this house that that is just a closet and No one asked it to be the board game closet. So---
53:47
Zack: is 128 right. I think that's what's on the website that you own under your under your board game profile because I there's a profile of whoever purchased the one on the board game website, and it's under the name. Let me “AMSCI”. Is that right? Am I pronouncing that right?
54:01
Brian: That's my civilian gamer tag board game geek name. Yeah, I am. AMSCI. which is a long story about why that is but--
54:11
Zack: Okay, so that that's you and it shows your your board game collection when I looked up amsci it had some traces of a manufacturing plant in England, but that's not right. Okay. I tried to do a little investigative journalism myself.
54:25
Brian: I used to do a podcast A long time ago called the amateur scientist and that, like tag on I've had that account for so long that I haven't changed it.
54:34
Zack: Got it. Check out the board game, check out the pod. It's all good fun
Brian: but if you want to play the game, you can play it online
Zack: and we tried to buy it actually, but that explains why we couldn't get it because --
Brian: you can play for free at table topia.com
54:48
Zack: Play for free or watch the very funny unboxing video that Brian Thompson has on YouTube. an unboxing video where he may or may not wrestle with shrink wrap for 45 minutes. I'm not sure I That's a very funny unboxing video. Brian, I want to thank you for your candor. This has been a real joy talking to you and it's been one of our favorite pods that we've screened. So thank you for creating it. I'm excited to listen to more. I'm excited to see the second edition board game that you in a bit inevitably create.
55:21
Brian: And I have a new game, a new game in development.
55:23
Zack: What is next for the pod? Do you know what's coming up in this next season or any?
55:27
Brian: Well Currently, I'm on NPR. I received electronic mail correspondence from john D and Catherine T. MacArthur, the third for the husband and wife, descendants of john D and Catherine T. MacArthur, the endowers of NPR invited me to join because there were so impressed with this American slice. The relationship has had some ups and downs, but currently, it's an up period and my show has undergone a drastic reformat. It's now called morning Pizza-sion. Hmm. And it's a morning news and, you know, light entertainment show.
Zack: So it's exciting stuff. The beauty of it is it can be whatever you want it to be you or not. You don't have to adhere to any format the thing morphs. And it's a lot of fun. Just subscribe and go along for the ride. I think it's essential listening. I think more people need to have it in their library. And so I'm really glad that you came and talk to us today. And thank you, we were able to to highlight it. And because it is the last five minutes of our podcast, I usually do this thing that where no one is listening. So we can sort of just talk about whatever we want. I do believe that no one listens to the last five minutes of any podcast except for some of yours, which are like 20 seconds long. They probably listen to that but for the most part, people are done with their run or they're done cooking and no one is here anymore. It's just you and I, Brian. So if you wanted to use this time to sing a song or recite poetry, tell a secret or tell someone off you certainly can and I will go first with my fast food related. No one is listening moment. And I just wanted to share how sorry I am to the employees of some of the fast food locations around my neighborhood when I was a teenager, some friends and I, we would do this thing and this is totally fine to talk about because no one's listening. But we would do this thing. It was called the drunk vomit. And we would, we were teenagers, and it was that sort of that pre jackass error when we were just sort of like doing shock things to make each other laugh. And for drunk vomit we would, we would go to the convenience store and get chocolate milk and m&ms, chocolate milk and m&ms, that combination was important. And we would get a whole mouthful of chocolate milk and m&ms. Two buddies would sort of fireman carry the person, the third person past a window at McDonald's or Wendy's you know fast food place. Like you're going to get him to the bathroom and right you know before you get inside just in front of the window of all the families. Eating their various meals, you would dispense of the chocolate milk and m&ms, which you've sort of garbled up that and, and then you just sort of, you know, get that person out of there, you just leave. And just to see the reaction of young families enjoying their meal and watching this drunk person vomit next to them, and I just want to apologize because, you know, often we would then circle back and there would be an employee hosing down the sidewalk. You know, sort of just like, ‘this is my day. Now, this is my job. This is my life. I have to close the sidewalk and vomit.’ That was the drunk vomit challenge and i i feel bad about it.
58:37
Brian: Well, at least it was outside so they can--
58:39
Zack: We never inside never inside. No, we weren't animals. We weren't--- We were just having some goofs.
58:46
Brian: any major metropolitan area has enough drainage to handle a little bit of vomit.
58:51
Zack: m&ms. Actually, it wasn't even vomit.
58:53
Brian: Yeah, that's fine.
58:55
Zack: Okay, well, that's my that's my that's my moment of no one's listening.
59:01
Brian: You know, I did discover an embarrassing thing about myself. Because of the quarantine situation. I started getting an ungodly amount of deliveries from places that I would never normally consider getting delivery from. one of them being 7-11 because there was one brief period where there were the only place that would deliver any aluminum foil. I desperately needed. And
59:31
Zack: Wait 711 delivers?
59:33
Brian: That's right. Yeah. It was an app
59:34
Zack: Did you use the third party? Does like grub hub show up.
59:39
Brian: I thought that they employed their own people because you do it through the 711 app itself. But once you make the delivery through the 711 app, it transfers over to postmates. So God knows how much money they're they're having to fork over to Postmates. I want to help a mom and pop business like 7-11. Yeah, but while I was looking for aluminum foil, I saw that they had a wide variety of 711 branded ice cream. I think it's called 711 selects or something, that was not very expensive and it had been a while since I'd had some ice cream, so I thought I'd chuck some ice cream in there too. And I gotta say the 711 branded ice cream is the best store. Best store bought ice cream ever had my life. It's so good. It's so much better than any fancy. Oh, like we get a bunch of fancy ice cream places around LA that always have like, it's like a word-ampersand and another word like Salt & Straw or like, cream & sickle or something. They're really fancy
1:00:48
Zack: we use cream cheese in this ice cream. Yeah.
1:00:50
Brian: Yeah, you go inside and everything's either white or natural wood. Sure. And 711 stuffs the best. It's so good. It's so good. I am disgusted with myself and I've ordered it more than once since then.
1:01:08
Zack: So you would say you would not say pretty good for the price, which is, of course, anybody that listens to the pod. Brian did eventually, you know, try original recipe pizza from pizza and McDonald's in his endorsement of that pizza was pretty good for the price
1:01:23
Brian: Yeah, I wrote a song about it on my album, ‘Songs from the Pizza Slice’. There's a song called good for the price.
1:01:31
Zack: Seven-eleven ice cream, you'd say, much better for the price. The best for the price
1:01:36
Brian: Great, great. Not just for the price. Just great overall,
1:01:41
Zack: it's got to be some unnatural science going into that they probably don't have to adhere to any of this sort of FCC regulations that uh---
1:01:49
Brian: Yeah, they're exempt from a lot of stuff at 711. But yeah, yeah, no, I definitely. Yeah, I've risked my life since then to once once they open back up, I risked my life walking over there with a mask on To purchase it with my own hands.
1:02:04
Zack: There you go. There's the endorsement for the 711 ice cream. I Brave COVID It's so good. Brian, keep doing what you're doing. It's so fun to listen to. And please come back and chat with us again about, you know, all the stuff that you continue to create.
1:02:21
Brian: Thanks for having me. It's been a real pleasure.
1:02:24
Good, good. All right. Thank you, Brian. The podcast is whatever happened to a pizza at McDonald's. You can find it on iTunes or anywhere else, on all of them, where ever you find your podcasts, you can go find it. It's easier to track down than actual pizza at McDonald's. Thank you, Brian.
Brian: Thank you.
MUSICAL ENDING
1:02:56
Zack: This has been the pod spotter where we showcase the pods that you're not listening to but you really should be. If you have one that you think we should know about please let us know via the podspotter.com or Facebook or Twitter or Instagram @tepodspotter. Thanks everybody.
1:03:17
This has been Zack Robidas. The Pod Spotter is created by the Price Brothers, produced by Oink Ink Radio, associate producer Tori Adams, and is recorded and produced at Baker Sound in Philadelphia.
Whatever Happened to Pizza at McDonald’s
With Host Brian Thompson
Note that transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and are checked by over-worked and under-paid interns.
So, please excuse any inaccuracies. Thank you.
Original Release: Monday, August 31,2020
00:00
Zack Robidas: (PodSpotter Host) You were asking to see Donald Trump? You wanted to see the president?
00:04
Brian Thompson: Yeah, I want it because he's such a big fan of McDonald's. I thought he was the most powerful fan of McDonald's on earth. And if anybody could bring back pizza it would be him.
Cut to Excerpt:
Brian: I was wondering if it's possible for me to go inside and speak with Mr. Trump.
Secret Service: Unless you have an appointment. You can't go inside the complex.
Brian: Can I ask you Do you remember when McDonald's used to serve pizza? You're shrugging.
00:30
Zack: That and so much more, coming right up on today's episode of the pod spotter.
MUSIC INTRO TO BREAK
00:53
Zack: You're listening to the Pod Spotter. I'm your host, Zach Robidas. There are a shitload of podcasts out there. Believe me, I've counted and it's way too many for one person to sit down and sift through which is why we are here. We're here for you guys. We're going to do the heavy lifting and we are going to find the little diamonds in the rough those little nuggets of quality podcast entertainment, and every Monday, we're going to talk to their creators and their hosts and we're gonna have a few laughs and play a couple clips and hopefully you guys learn something in the process and if you like what you're hearing then please subscribe to our little pod and visit us at the podspotter.com and on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at @thepodspotter for extra content and information on upcoming shows. Thanks y'all.
01:45
MUSIC OUT OF BREAK
02:02
Zack: Okay, hi pod people. We got a treat for you today. From 1989 to 1991. In an attempt to shake up the pizza industry, the fast food giant McDonald's began serving pizza. It was brought to the table by a member of the staff for a time and later handed to you in a box once baked to perfection. It was enjoyed by millions and quickly became a customer favorite until one day, inexplicably, out of nowhere. McDonald's stopped serving pizza. Today's host Brian Thompson has led a crusade for the past four years trying to uncover the deep dark secret of that fateful day when McDonald's sliced the budget on its pizza project. What started out as a podcast over time has morphed into an investigative journalism program, and has led Brian all over the world as he attempts to answer the seemingly simple question. Whatever happened to pizza at McDonald's. Welcome, Brian. And thank you for sharing this wonderful podcast. With us today, how are you?
03:01
Brian: I'm doing very well. How are you, Zack?
03:03
Zack: I am good. I want to just start out by taking you back to the very first episode that you ever recorded of “whatever happened to pizza, McDonald's” because unlike a lot of podcasts that are out there, we can kind of just like jump in and like pick your favorite guest and kind of dance around. This one I think is important for folks to start at the top of show start at that first podcast, and really get a sense of what it is. And so let's listen quickly, if you don't mind to a bit from your pilot episode of whatever happened to pizza at McDonald's and then we'll dig in.
Cut to Excerpt:
Phone Ring
Guy: This is McDonald’s can I help you?
03:41
Brian: Hi, do you remember when McDonald's used to have pizza?
Guy: I’m sorry.
03:46
Brian: Do you remember when McDonald's used to have pizza?
Phone hang up
Phone ringing
Guy 2: Good afternoon, this is McDonald’s, how can I help you?
03:55
Brian: Uh, hi do you have pizza?
Guyr 2: No.
Brian: Didn’t McDonald's used to have pizza.
04:03
Guy 2: I don't think yso.
Brian: You don't remember McDonald's ever having pizza.
Guy 2: No, I don’t.
04:09
Brian: Can I speak to a manager? Please?
04:11
Guy 2: I am the manager.
04:13
Brian: You don't know whatever happened to the pizza at McDonald's?
Guy 2: No.
04:18
Brian: Okay, have a nice night.
BACK TO INTERVIEW
04:23
Zack: And that's pretty much the first episode, right? That's pretty much it.
Brian: Yeah, that’s right. Yeah. Yeah, that's the first episode. It was intended to be the only episode.
04:33
Zack: how did we get here? How did we get here, Brian? 167 episodes later? That was supposed to be. It was it began on a bit of a lark. Is that right?
04:42
Brian: Yeah, you could say that. Yeah. I was sitting around the house and my girlfriend is a big True Crime podcast fan. And she clued me into this one particular show I won't name that's hosted by an Australian guy who chooses to remain Anonymous. And it's very clear to me anyway that he's just reading Wikipedia articles about various murders. But it has like this huge following.
05:11
Zack: Yes, yes. Yeah.
05:12
Brian: I just thought it was very funny that somebody could just be like, I'm now an expert on murders. And I want to just read a Wikipedia page about them.
05:23
Zack: In an eerie voice in like, a scary voice and --
Brian: Yeah, kind of kind of an ominous monotone. Like, I'm listening to these things. And it's just like, they're entertaining.
05:32
Zack: I mean, I find I am susceptible to some to all of that, you know, to like some good producing some good musical transitions. Some seemingly innocuous sound cue of someone opening a car in the bed, like the whole form works for me. And so when I hear your podcast in satire form, you sort of it's not only send up of the form, but you also are revealing something that like, hey, anyone could do this. And we can make anything sound important pretty much.
06:00
Brian: I mean, the show has morphed into being a parody, I guess, of just the entire medium of podcasting. Because I do think that it has become this thing where people like I saw the other day, there was a TV critic for The New Yorker who just tweeted a joke about how she got drunk with her husband the other night, and they were spitballing ideas for a nonprofit to pay people to not do podcasts. It's just you know, it's a joke. And then I saw my timeline because I follow all these like podcast people. And they were so defensive. I've never seen such a reaction. It's like it's such a super serious reaction, just like, ‘how dare you like, this is what this is someone telling you to not follow your dream like that. Nobody ever says. There are too many movies. There are too many books’ and like, first of all they do and secondly, it's like, I like podcasts. I do podcasting but it's not that big a deal
07:03
Zack: It’s not, you're just you're not saving the world. You're just howling into a microphone into the deep dark, you know maw of the internet right? But you happen to do it very, very well. And it is very, very funny that the way that you satirize the medium and I, I just want to know about that first day, I guess when you sort of did it as a joke is like a, you know, ‘screw you guys I can do anybody could do...’ like, how are we 160 some episodes later then?
07:31
Brian: Well, the joke was supposed to be that it had all of the trappings of a pot, a real podcast. So like the main part of the joke was that I started a Twitter account, and I started a Facebook page, and I like put it on iTunes. And it was only ever supposed to be one episode. I'm doing this investigation. I googled how to be an investigative journalist. And my entire investigation is just me calling McDonald's and asking if they remember Serving pizza. And when they tell me no, that's it, that's the end of everything.
08:05
Zack: It should be the end of everything, until...
08:07
Brian: Right and so like half the episode would be, you know, ‘...that's Thank you for listening to whatever how to pizza, McDonald's, follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, blah, blah, blah.’ Like, that's part of the joke too. I thought of the idea at like 10 or 11 o'clock at night, and by two or three in the morning, it was up and ready to go and submitted to iTunes. And then a few days later, I remember I was at the ATM and my phone just started exploding all these people following the show.
08:36
Zack: You know what I love about it is I've been thinking a lot about my brother's best man speech at my wedding. He started with this joke that was like, I remember he started with I remember when Zach and I were kids. We used to go down to the local petting zoo and put salt on our butts and let the animals lick it off. And right away, just cut half of the room said , said half of you aren't going to Enjoy this speech i want to i i'm not talking to you. I'm talking to these people over here. And yeah, I feel like when I listened to your episode, I feel like it's for me. I feel seen. I feel like I'm in like an inside joke. It's not for the masses. It's for these people over here. And that is well--
09:18
Brian: Well you can if you look at some of the iTunes reviews, you can see that the other half is also well represented.
09:23
Zack: Oh, no, you read those.
09:25
Brian: I've seen a couple of Okay, good, good. I wouldn't expect anything else. But yeah, I mean, I like that's, to my own probably financial detriment that's how I've approached my entire creative life is just, you know, I would rather for people absolutely love something I do. Then a million people kind of like it. Yeah. So, you know, it's like, I mean, this this show is definitely the, the purest of any sort of creative endeavor. I've done like the one that is the just me doing whatever comes to mind.
10:05
Zack: It’s clear you've created your own sandbox and you're just happy to play and riff and go down whatever alley that you want to go down that entertains you, is there a metric by which you're evaluating? Like, are my followers into this? You know, tangent that I'm going on? Or do you just have the freedom to, to just play and do whatever you want.
10:25
It's not conscious as far as like, you know, the numbers of listeners and things like that. But the thing that really does keep the show going in a way that I completely did not expect is interaction from listeners, like people, they definitely play along. Like when they write to me on Twitter and stuff, It's definitely from the understanding that I am like, the person who's on the show and like, you know, I, you know, I have these informants all over the world that are just like, ‘you know, I went to my McDonald's and like, I don't know if I should send you this information on a secure channel...’
11:01
Zack: You’ve created a cult of sorts. Well, let me just get to another piece because you get some fuel pretty early on and one of the episodes from one of the employees at a Pomeroy Location. One of the last known locations to serve pizza at McDonald's --
Biran: Originala recipe.
Zack: Okay, okay, this is not the stuff you'll find in Orlando, this is the good stuff. And let's listen to the conversation with that McDonald's employee, which kind of gives you the fuel for the rest of your show:
CUT TO EXCERPT
11:34
Woman on Phone: We fight every year to keep it. We use to serve pizza in our McDonald's. And then they gradually just took them away that these two particular McDonald's that we have does real well with their pizza sales and stuff.
Brian: What do you mean you have to fight every year to keep it?
11:55
Woman on Phone: Well, we just have to prove that it's a good sell in our stores.
12:01
Brian: Do you know why McDonald's as a corporation is so against selling pizza in their restaurants anymore?
Woman: I don’t have a clue.
12:10
Brian: When did they stop?
Woman: I can't even tell you that. They just gradually just started taking it out of all the McDonald's,
12:17
Brian: is there a downside to serving pizza and McDonald's?
Woman: No, there’s just so many things we’re not allowed to talk about an employee for McDonald's.
12:27
Brian: Has anyone at McDonald's specifically told you not to discuss why they no longer serve pizza and most of their restaurants?
Woman: no, there’s just lots of things we’re not allowed to talk about.
INTERVIEW RESUME
12:38
Zack: Thus the sort of cloak and dagger is component of whatever happened to pizza McDonald's is born.
12:44
Brian: Yeah, we're just it's another thing that I didn't expect. I think one thing I pride myself on on the show is that almost none of it is is fake as far as like the people I talked to and -
Zack: And that can be really cringe worthy on shows when You know, like the sort of jerky boys pranking people but you your way in is very interesting in that, like, we're always laughing at Brian, like we're always laughing at the character of you, which by the way, I was sort of more nervous for this interview than most because I didn't know who was showing up I had to prepare like, separate questions for you know, podcast-Brian and real-Brian because you're having to the character, it's tribute to your commitment to the character really, because you are so committed that we are laughing at him. We're not laughing at these people that you're quote unquote punking you’re making yourself the butt of the joke. Was that a conscious thought?
13:36
Brian: Oh, for sure. Yeah, I guess I don't I mean, I I like the sort of prankier stuff as well. But the versions of that that I've always found the most interesting are the ones that sort of take the focus of the joke off of the person who's being thrust into the unusual situation. You know, there are a ton of like influences on the show. You know, the big one of the biggest ones is this is a show called The Phil Hendry show, which was on for many, many, many, many years on KFI. And it's this guy Phil Hendry, who hosts the show. It's like a normal talk radio call in show. They'll have a guest on and his guests will gradually get more and more insane the things that they're saying. Um, you know, will start very innocuous it'll be somebody that's like a diaper expert about how a lot of diapers that babies wear, don't breathe very well and they overheat babies and then eventually he'll talk about how you know there was this one time a baby got so hot in his diaper in the middle of the night he climbed out of his crib and crawled out into the snow and died. Just a cool off and real people will call into the show to hear this on the radio and they call in and we're like ‘this this man's insane get him off radio.’ And the genius part of the show is that Phil Hendry is playing both himself, the host and the character. He has in one hand like literally one hand has the Telephone receiver and a button to switch. And you would not know that if you just tuned in for the first time. And so like the tension of that show where the last are coming from is not just the reaction of the audience members, like, they're kind of like crazy talk radio call-in people. So there's like a little bit of that. But really, the tension is between, it's about him, like egging on the audience because he'll take the audience members side against the character that he's playing. And so listening to that play like it was really entertaining to me and it takes the joke off of making fun of some unaware person.
15:39
Zack: I've been describing to people as like as though if Peter Sellers only saw Rain Man and then binged Serial, this is the podcast that he would create. And I hope that is fair because that's what I feel --
Brian: That's very fair. It's actually a compliment. Thank you.
15:54
Zack: Good, good. I hear what you're saying about just that, that the tension of juggling that Those moments and keeping them up in the air that sort of inspiration had. But if I had to find one piece of audio where I feel like you got caught up in your own story a little bit, would be the conversation that you had with garlan manufacturer, where you actually started learning, like you'd actually done really good investigative journalism. And I want to play this clip because the character kind of, it’s the one time I hear the character kind of go away and like, Brian, the actual guy, is like, ‘Oh, that's Thank you. I that's really interesting.’ Let's, let's hear your conversation with the garland manufacturers and Brian actually learned some real information.
CUT TO EXCERPT
16:38
Brian: According to the operations manual, it was manufactured exclusively for McDonald's and the manual itself bears the McDonald's logo.
Guy on phone: Yes, it was and it was 10 to 15 years ago. They were only in McDonald's for roughly two to three years because of the difficulty to program them.
16:58
Brian: Oh, really?
Guy: Yes.
Brian: How are they difficult to program?
Guy: They are extremely difficult to program. I don't even think there's a program manuals for it. And if you call garlan technical support, they will not tell you how to program them. Because all that information is proprietary.
17:12
Brian: Oh really? It belongs to McDonald's?
Guy: And you won't be able to buy parts for it either.
Brian: So you're saying that McDonald's controls all of that information and keeps it under lock and key, so to speak.
Guy: Yes, Yes.
BACK TO INTERVIEW
17:26
Zack: This guy this is like your biggest sort of treasure trove of like you actually kind of solve it here a little bit.
17:31
Brian: Yeah, I was shocked as anybody else like this is like something that keeps happening this is what that's the main reason why the show has gotten like 160 something episodes is because it actually is investigative journalism tby complete accident.
17:45
Zack: tell the story how you got to garlin how you found these people in the first place.
17:49
Brian: A long time ago, I found out that there was this remote island way off the coast of mainland Alaska. They used to house military base, and they had a McDonald's. And the only reason that I that military base existed was to keep an eye on the Soviet Union. So once the Soviet Union collapsed, that thing just was abandoned almost overnight, and, including the McDonald's. And it happened to be kind of around the time that McDonald's served pizza. So I thought it would be funny to do a fundraising campaign to pay for a trip to this island. Because it's outrageously expensive to get there. It's like you have to fly to Anchorage, Alaska. And then it's another like, thousand dollar flight just to this island, because nobody goes and there's planes only come in twice a week.
Zack: You mentioned twice a week. Yeah.
18:45
Brian: So I set up this fundraising campaign with a purposefully ridiculous timeline on it, like just a few days, and I had to raise an outrageous amount of money to do this very stupid thing. And and I thought you I wasn't going to succeed, and then I could milk having failed at my fundraising campaign for a while. But it did succeed. And then I had, so then I had to go to Alaska. And it turned out to be this amazing trip. It's one of the craziest experiences of my life. I could do a whole show just talking about this town, this island in Alaska. But while I was there, I went to this McDonald's, and I talked to some people. And I tracked down a guy who had bought that McDonald's after it was abandoned, and he came into possession of these pizza ovens. And he found out that they were manufactured by McDonald's. He wanted to repair them, because pizza is like the only thing people eat on this island. And so he wanted to repair them and put him in one of his current restaurants. And he called McDonald's and asked, you know how to get the parts to repair these things. They said that they don't make it anymore. It’d be cheaper just to buy a new pizza oven. So he threw him in a dump. And so there's McDonald's pizza ovens in a scrap metal dump on this remote island off the coast of Alaska. But he also he gave me the operator manual, he was able to track down the operator manual for it, and it had the name of the manufacturer. So I called the manufacturer and then I find this guy who his job was to service McDonald's pizza ovens when they were in operation.
Zack: Just an unbelievable story.
Brian: And he gives me this entirely different explanation for why they stopped using them because McDonald's official position, which is on their website, is that it just took too long
20:39
Zack: Time, the time Yeah.
Brian: Which is completely reasonable.
20:43
Zack: And right it's, it's on brand for them to sort of like how their inception and --
Brian: Yeah, but no, this guy tells me that's not the case. It's that they were too difficult to program.
20:52
Zack: Is there a moment when you're in a hotel room though, and you're in Alaska and you have like maybe your pizza hat the character There's pizza hat and you're just like, Where's the line between Brian and this character? I've created this...the character is you. And at a certain point, it’s you. You're doing the thing. It's not a joke anymore.
21:13
Brian: Yeah, my life is very Charlie Kaufman esque. Because I am. It's like I am, I am doing this as a joke, but I am also literally here like with equipment. There's a guy driving me around and you said hotel room. But there are no hotels on this island. It's, it's just military housing that people have bought. And they rent out. And it's just one guy who, who through Airbnb rents out these three houses that are all connected to his house. And it's just a guy who like picked he picked me up from the airport .
Zack: And is he at all like weirded out by your mission by why you're there.
Zack: I was in character the entire time but i but I'm not dishonest with people. Well, even when I'm in character, you know, I'm saying My name is Brian Thompson I have these questions about pizza. I really do. I think that's another key to the show success is that people, because I'm honest with them ,I don't think people feel like they're put on the spot they just think they want to help me like they're desperate to help me because they ... think I’m just a an idiot.
Zack: Well, that's the thing about that audioI just played to because you've cared so much for you fooled yourself into caring so much. The audience does care. So even though it’s a lark, we want to know. And when we get this information, you're like, ‘Oh, my God, I can't even believe this’. I do have to know that on the plane, are you when you're dealing with a stewardess, which Brian is there?
Brian: I was in I was I was in real character the whole time and from setting foot on the plane at LAX, to coming back home. I was pretty much in character.
22:56
Zack: And who is that guy is he he's a part of you. He's in you. That guy is a manifestation of something --
23:03
Brian: you know what I that's another weird side effect of this show is that I hear from a lot of people who are like, I love the show because I listened to it with my kids. And in my, like, comedy career as liberal definition of the term career. I definitely ... that is not my background. My background is like stuff that's not--
23:29
Zack: No, you're a performer, you're a performer. I come from an acting background. I'm listening to I'm listening to a really like a very good comedic performer and there must be some preparation or something that sort of gets you into that mindset of you're thinking about anything other than just do the voice like --
23:47
Brian: Um, no, it's like the voice comes out of the attitude of just being someone who is singularly focused on something. You could say simple minded, but just like that characters, He's the defining qualities are prudishness and fastidiousness.
This like obsessive adherence to politeness that's clearly masking a lot of internal rage that doesn't know how to get out. I think that the character, it's definitely evolved over the course of the show. And I think that that character has become like, outrageously passive aggressive at this point, especially when it comes to dealing with people who he thinks are in his way or like --
Zack: I want to play, maybe my favorite piece of audio, from the time that the character that you built this identity came across the real human that exists in the world. Do you know what piece of audio I'm talking about?
24:54
Brian: Is this the chip in my head?
24:55
Zack: This is the museum, sort of McDonald's museum curator that you talk to here, let's have a listen to when Brian called the McDonald's museum. And yeah, let's have a listen.
CUT TO EXCERPT
25:11
Guy on Phone: Right now I'm in the middle of trying to get someone relinquish control to us, a original workers camp for those who worked one of those ovens.
25:21
Brian: Oh I do I also have a McDonald's pizza cap. It's red and it says ‘McDonald's pizza’ on the front - vintage cap. That is not something --
Guy: We don’t have that, I'm trying to get this person to donate it to us.
25:34
Brian: Yes, well, I would donate mine but it's one of my most treasured possessions. I wear it all the time.
Guy: Understandable. I'm like you I'm on the search for things like that. Because it's such a bizarre chapter in McDonald’s history that people don't even think it actually exists. And I'm trying to gather the evidence, to display and say ‘yes, this did happen.’ Like you said, McDonald's doesn't want to talk about it, but it did happen.
25:56
Brian: This is exactly my own personal quest. I believe we may be kindred spirits.
BACK TO INTERVIEW
Brian: Yeah, I found the real life Brian Thompson
Zack: Real life Brian Thompson and he's the curator of a McDonald's museum. Sees about 300 people a day which I couldn't even believe that number when he said
26:19
Brian: It seems almost unbelievable
26:22
Zack: it's really great. Have there been people like that curator that you've come across who have other attachments to sort of novelty fast food items that like are like I want you know, while you're working on this, Do you happen to know anything about like, I don't know shamrock shake is sort of like the, the one that everyone has like a very personal relationship with at McDonald's, but there are, you know, countless other sort of novelty items that have come and gone from fast foods attempt to bring in new customers.
Brian: Yeah, the one I hear about the most is the Wendy’s super bar. People are very curious about the Wendy's super bar.
Zack: Producer here is like ‘you got to ask him about the superbar. Like that was like his first thing after listening to the pod. What is it about the Wendy super Bar?
Brian: It's just such a I mean, I think people it was one of those things that people who loved it really loved it and that was why they went to Wendy's and everyone else was just like this is a disgusting like, public health hazard. And I'm not gonna get anywhere near this. This is like, you're really getting out of your lane Wendy's with what you're good at. Cuz there was like a taco station and pasta and stuff.
27:34
Zack: It sounds like a salad bar. I don't know why it doesn't work. salad bars is still around.
27:37
Brian: Well, are they?
27:40
Zack: Diners? I don't know. So part of the podcast for Brian is that he does regularly see, you know, it's not always about, you're not always so focused on pizza at McDonald's. The majority of it is but sometimes you spend time at the library trying to take out Willow and Various other adventures. It's sort of you know, it makes sense with your UCB background, this is a sort of this is a very like, improv concept, the idea of like, give me a word. And now I'm going to expand on that word for an hour, you know, a seemingly simple question. Whatever happened to McDonald's has now spanned, you know, how many years of your life and how many hours of your life it's consumed so much. Are there moments when like strange phone numbers call? And you're like, ‘Oh, shit, I don't know ... do I answer as me or do I answer as investigative-journalist me.
28:30
Brian: Yeah. I mean, I, sometimes, sometimes people will call me back long after the fact. There was one guy, one of the only times I've ever like, kind of been yelled at, like by someone who got like, really mad and had like, a really contentious relationship with me was when I called this UFO reporting hotline. And this guy got very upset with me. He was like, kids are constantly these punk kids are always constantly calling --
29:01
Zack: Was it right around when Roswell was trending that takeover Roswell thing, was it?
Brian: It was, fairly. Yeah, it was last year. Yes. That guy called me back, that guy call me back a couple of times, tried to talk to me.
29:19
Zack: Funny, but not the White House, not the FCC Not that
29:24
Brian: I did have I did have a run in with I've actually been thinking about that because of all the protests. Like I had a really frightening run in with the Secret Service when I was outside the White House. They Yeah, they got very upset with me, because I wouldn't leave.
29:38
Zack: you were asking to see Donald Trump, you wanted to see the president. Yeah--
29:42
Brian: I wanted because he's such a big fan of McDonald's. I thought he was the most powerful fan of McDonald's on earth. And if anybody could bring back pizza, it would be him. But he wouldn't. He wouldn't take an audience with me. And then they were like, you know, just go on our website and schedule a meeting and I just kept asking them what What's the website? Is it a.com or.gov? And they just wouldn't answer. And then next thing I look around and I'm surrounded by like 12 Secret Service agents all like, advancing on me.
30:12
Zack: Let's hear a little bit of that audio.
CUT TO EXCERPT
30:13
Brian: My name is Brian Thompson. I'm an investigative journalist and I was wondering if it's possible for me to go inside and speak with Mr. Trump.
Secret Service: Unless you have an appointment. You can't go inside the complex.
Brian: Oh, really? Has anyone, can I ask, has anyone mentioned my name or a show called Whatever happened to pizza at McDonald's? To you?
Secret Service: I'm really not sure to be honest. We do have a one voice policy with media so I'm not permitted to really say anything.
Brian: Butt can I ask you? Do you remember when McDonald's used to serve pizza? You're shrugging. You don't. You don't recall that at all?
Secret Service: Personally, no.
Brian: You can’t direct me to someone who might be able to tell me how to get into the White House today to talk to Mr. Trump.
31:00
Secret Service: Sir. Give me one moment.
BACK TO INTERVIEW
31:03
Zack: i'm curious about what, what's the longest you've waited on hold to get the answer you...
31:14
Brian: I think it was for one time one of the times that I've called a prayer hotline to get some spiritual guidance in my investigation. Those things will sometimes keep you on hold for like an hour. Yeah, I definitely have spent a lot of time on hold.
31:32
Zack: Wow. You must have intimate knowledge about like how to navigate those sort of prompts and customer service. You probably could write a whole separate podcast--
Brian: I know that you can just smash zero most of the time and we'll get back to a person.
31:50
Zack: It's a great tip. But let's take a quick break here. We'll be right back.
MUSIC TO COMMERCIAL BREAK
32:01
ZACK: We are here to fill the role of looking for great content for you we are we are podcast liaisons, if you will. And if you like this show, please check us out and subscribe and visit the pod spotter.com and on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and all the other places you put pictures of your kids, we're going to be there on IG we are @thepodspotter and check us out there for lots of good stuff. And please leave a review if you can a good one a bad one doesn't matter. All press is good press and subscribe and rate and review us on Apple podcasts and help spread the word if you don't mind. We are going to release a new episode every Monday, every Monday we're gonna have a new interview and we're going to feature a new wonderful little pod that we think you should be listening to. And we're just gonna start plowing ahead so please keep listening and if you have any suggestions of quality pods that we haven't highlighted that you think we ought to give a listen to, please recommend those and visit us at thepodspotter.com so we know about them. Thanks, everybody.
BACK TO SHOW
33:07
ZACK: Well listen, one of the sort of evergreens we do on this podcast is a game called How well do you know your pod? How well do you know your baby Brian, I am going to ask you a series of questions. If you get two out of three of those questions correct, I will proudly display some Whatever happened to pizza at McDonald's swag. On this here bookshelf until the end of time or until the bookshelf falls over. Two out of three questions about your podcast. Let's see how well you do. Are you ready for three questions?
33:40
Brian: Yeah, as ready as I'll ever be.
33:41
Zack: Okay, number one, Brian Thompson. And you can answer them as you or you know if IJP Brian.
33:53
Brian: One of these things
33:54
Zack: Yeah, please. I imagine you putting on your hat. You have an authentic--
34:01
Brian: I do. A priceless item it's what much more expensive on eBay than when I bought it.
34:04
Zack: It's probably because of your podcast. Alright. Question number one. What is vortex energy?
34:12
Brian: vortex energy is a, it's an idea that the people of Sedona, Arizona seemed to have but there are these vortex they call them. I think the technical term would be vortices, but they insist that it's actually vortexes. And there are these swirls of mystical spiritual energy all around Sedona, Arizona that they draw upon for psychic powers and UFO studies and all kinds of weird meditation.
Zac: Let's have a listen to this definition of vortex energy,
CUT TO EXCERPT
34:44
Woman on Phone: energy that seems to help people when they're going through transformations here. It's like a beautiful thing. Like Niagara Falls where you know, you feel exhilarated being in that place. So it's been called the vortex energy by people who are familiar with energy you can probably Google search and I could give you a definition.
35:08
Brian: No that makes absolutely perfect sense.
35:12
Woman: Oh, thank you.
BACK TO INTERVIEW
35:19
Brian: Oh that, poor woman
Zack: Oh that, poor woman but also she's selling vortex energy she I mean, we, you know, come on. But hey, somebody's trying to benefit from vortex energy. Okay. Well very good. Question number one was successful. Let's move on to number two identify the character in this clip
CUT TO EXCERPT
35:41
Woman on phone: Chick Fil A is circly chicken and they're amazing. Have you ever ate there?
35:46
Brian: I have not.
35:48
Woman: That is a really good suggestion you need to apply in your life.
Brian: What's so good about their chicken, If you don't mind my asking.
35:57
Woman: Well there’s been rumors that they put pickle juice in their flour.
Brian: Pickle juice in their flour? And you say these are just rumors, these aren’t confirmed?
36:15
Woman: No they’re not confirmed but it’s amazing. It’s the best chicken I think I’ve ever had in my life.
BACK TO INTERVIEW
36:22
Zack: who's the character? Who are you talking to?
36:24
Brian: I do not remember the specifics of that. I do. I remember that conversation. I think she was. I was asking her about something else clearly for sure. A customer service person maybe... Southern accent so that narrows it down a little bit, but I don't recall.
36:42
Zack: You were seeking Long Term life insurance because you were worried about what was going to happen to you should McDonald's find out about your investigation that was selling life insurance and I love the clip because it shows the listener how you get caught up in tangents, how you can quickly start Like get distracted from your pizza mission to, ‘oh, pickle juice, you say?’ And what is also amazing it's just how candid people are with you. And I think it's because of how kind that the care that you take with your very polite with people you never sort of like are too demanding you're you just are respectful and people frequently open up and divulge more information to you than they probably should.
37:25
Brian: It's very surprising to me and it fuels the show me like there can be months worth of episodes that are based on something that somebody told me I had no idea they were going to tell me and it just fuels the show. I would say like maybe half the show are ideas that have come from just random things that somebody has told me when I call them
37:45
Zack: Is that all from your, your Google search of how to be a private investigator?
Brian: Yeah, that's from an ehow.com article.
37:58
Zack: Electronic-how I believe. Brian, frequently on his podcast refers to emails as electronic mails. And eBay is the electronic Bay. Now just so you're not confused when you start listening, Brian, you are one for two. But you could still bring it home by answering this third question correctly. And for this one, you mentioned that you read reviews of your podcast sometime. I was curious about that. I'm going to now read you some reviews of your podcast, three of them. And you try to identify the one that is just me. trolling you. Oh, so spot the troll here, two are real, one is me making it up here. Okay. Are you ready?
Brian: I'm ready.
Zack: I work for This American Life and help create invisbillia. And this is one of the best podcasts I've ever heard. That's one review. Another is “it's like fast food for your ears only healthier and full of candor”. And number three, “better than other podcasts, which ones? all the other pods”
Three reviews of your podcasts to our real one is fake. I work for This American Life person. It's like fast food for the ears, or better than all the other pods.
39:13
Brian: I know for a fact that one of them is is real. The first one.
39:17
Zack: Knock it right out of here. It certainly is. And what a compliment? Have you investigated that? Have you used your investigative journalism skills to find out who that person is probably a small batch of people.
39:30
Brian: I know exactly who it is. Yes. I do figure that out. I've got a lot of I've got a lot of public radio people who listen to the show. Great. Um, but boy, oh boy. The other two I'm not so sure I guess but I will say that number three is the fake
39:51
Zack: It is not the fake one, ‘better than all the other pods which ones all the other pods’ - that person is a super fan. Two out of three incorrect, I will not present any swag, but maybe there'll be some fans later and you can still get up on the bookshelf. I probably have one other game or something planned for later, but high, high praise from the person who worked created invisibility, which is a great podcast and This American Life which leads me into ‘this American slice’, which is another just brilliant piece of audio that I want to that I want to get to. Let's listen to a little bit from this American slice and will discuss
CUT TO EXCERPT
40:30
Brian: From whpm in Los Angeles. It's this American slice. I'm Brian Thompson. Our show today in two acts Act One who is Nelson Sullivan. In that act, we learn more about this vandyked man who film nearly every waking moment of his life, decades before filming yourself, became boring. Act two whatever happened to pizza at McDonald's. In that act. We follow Nelson and his friend dig into the McDonald's in 1989 to see if we can uncover any evidence of pizza. Is it on the menu? Is it in the oven? How long does it take to make? It's called serious journalism. And sometimes, that's exactly what we do. Stay with us.
BACK TO INTERVIEW
41:14
Zack: You realize how much mileage they get out of that music. It's so good, that transition music for This American Life. It can only come from someone Yes, you're poking fun of it at it. But it's also clear to the listener that you are a fan of podcasts. You're a fan of This American Life probably because it is a true homage to the medium and you're obviously a listener because you're doing a very good it's not a an exact IRA. But you've got the NPR cadence down.
41:41
Brian: Yeah, long time. Long, long time listener
41:44
Zack: That’s the big gateway I think for a lot of people, is the gateway drug. I think. This American Life is the first like podcast I remember seeing billboards for I was like, What the hell is it like what is that? You know, you saw him around New York on the subway, you're like, what is going what is a pocket you know, and so yeah, sort of brought us all on board a little bit.
42:02
Brian: I was like a big I was a big, you know, like literary snob like McSweeney's nerd when I was much younger and so I think that sort of you know, you start reading Dave Eggers books and pretty soon you're reading like Sarah vowel books and then you realized Sarah vowel did all these This American Life episodes and one thing leads to another
42:23
Zack: Well, it's it's clear that you're a fan of this American life and the pods Do you have an Ira Glass impersonation?
42:31
Brian: I do, that when I was trying to sort of split the difference between the character and an Ira Glass. My favorite thing that I my favorite Ira Glass-ism is he does this thing when before he asks a question of someone a lot of times where he just sort of does this freight train of words before he asked a question. Just like, ‘...let me just ask. What's your name?
43:16
Zack: From WBC, Chicago are today in three acts.’ Uh, I don’t have an Ira Glass
43:22
Brian: Oh, well, yeah. And then there's that sort of voice. Yeah. At the end of the sentence. There's a new slightly different thing that's like, that's a cadence that everyone uses specifically on this--
43:45
Zack: I know where you're going with this one. You're talking about The Daily--
43:46
Brian: Yeah, it's like modern podcasts that are like well reported that are like that sort of NPR style. It's a little bit different.
Zack: Do you Brian Thompson think That this water bottle is blue. It's bad. It's like guys, let's get to it. I know it's the daily I got 15 minutes here, I gotta wrap this pod up, you guys need to talk a little faster and you're hearing it everywhere. And the other interesting thing is you're hearing it in the commercials that advertise on that podcast because they're like, they want to catch your ear. They're like, Oh, is this this is important. Now, this is an important he's trying to sell me MeUndies. What's going on here? So are there certain things about in making a pretend podcast? You've made a successful good podcast, What have you learned about the medium that you sort of started lampooning, And now found yourself actually, actually doing what Have there been big aha moments in terms of generating audience or just generating revenue, you know, that you that you wish you knew early on.
45:00
Brian: Not really. I mean, I've sort of stuck to my guns about what I don't want to do with the show. And there's a lot of things about modern podcasting that I don't like. And I don't want to do with my show. And and I was thinking about that a lot. And then I got invited to give a talk at this podcast industry conference in Florida A while ago, and that was like very eye-opening because it was clearly just this gold rush of all of these old media companies that have sort of rebranded and, and coagulated around all of these new media companies, and everybody just seemed to be clamoring to figure out a way to milk as much money as possible out of podcasting. The thing that was very surprising to me is that they were all acting as if this was like a major industry, which I think it probably is now, but like I said, it's still kind of a shock to me. I don't think of it that way. So, I see a lot of the stuff that seems to be just a very corporate-minded and, you know, like,--
46:25
Zack: tIs this that thing that's on YouTube, by the way?
Brian: Yeah, it's on YouTube.
Zack: Did they know you were going to be coming in character? Or did they think that you were gonna show up?
46:34
Brian: Yeah, I was, um, my hosting company that I'm with, which is just, I'm with them completely. But I mean, I really I like the service. It's very good service, but it's just sort of by accident because they had very good tools for doing live broadcasts, with call in capabilities. And I wanted to do that one time, and I was just like, you know, who does that I found a show that was doing something that I kind of wanted to do, and saw that they We're using this company and I signed my show up to that company, okay. But it was just sort of coincidence because at the same time, they had hired somebody to do like, content development for them, and really like, curate their shows that were just sort of using their service and promote them. And he was already a fan of my show. And when he came over to the company, he was like, I was thrilled to see that you were hosted on our company, and I wanted to do anything I could to like help your show and so he had me fly out to Florida, and I did a panel. We did an in character Q&A, which I do not think went well, because most of the people there ... there were like seven people in the audience and three of them I think were the listeners of my show. And then the rest were like industry people. And then I did another another like panel discussion out of character. But it was definitely like a trade show.
48:02
Zack: Yeah. interviewee know that you were gonna be incorrect? he seems like he's in on the joke a little bit.
Brian:That guy got it. Yeah
Zack: Its clear that audience, most of them are probably just like looking at their phones trying to figure out how to sell their podcast right?
48:16
Brian: you're in, we were, it was the worst possible environment to do any kind of comedy.
48:23
Zack:Tell me about that balance and maybe personal people in your life or is there anyone Mom Dad anything that's like, ‘Hey, what's Uh, what's going on with this? You're going to where you're going to Alaska?’
48:36
Brian: Uh, you know, they they're very perplexed by it. The Alaska thing in particular I think was was maybe a step too far.
48:46
Zack: I don't think so.
48:47
Brian: I think they just couldn't believe that anyone would waste any money paying for me to go to Alaska for almost no reason whatsoever.
48:56
Zack: Comedy gold. That's the reason
48:58
Brian: We'll see. But I don't think they even know how to listen to a podcast
49:05
Zack: Well, I want to give you one more opportunity to earn some swag display here by asking you just one final question. And then if we'll have time after this, uh, I need to ask you about the board game. But one more question here for Brian to test his private investigator skills which you boast. You learned from “googling” and wondering if you could use those skills to figure out which of the following fast food items never really existed. Are you ready, Brian? I'm going to give you four, three actually.
All right, number one, Popeye's chicken shakes, a taste of bacon, maple syrup. Chicken and Waffles delivered in one cool summer treat, that's Popeye's chicken shakes. Pizza Hut to crown crust. Pizza. That's a pizza with many cheeseburgers baked into the crust. Taco Bell seafood salad and this was a salad. blend of lettuce, tomatoes, olives, showered with tender Bay shrimp, and a mix of snow crab and white fish. And then of course Burger Kings Whopper-rito. A chopped up Whopper. With added peppers blend of cheese, onions and taco sauce stuffed in a tortilla. Again the four items popeyes chicken shakes, Pizza Hut crust crown pizza, Taco Bell seafood salad, or Burger King's Whopper-rito. Can you sniff out the phony of the novelty food items?
50:42
Brian: Well, I know that the hamburger pizza is real.
Zack: That's awful. Yes it is
50:49
Brian: It crosses over into some of my areas of expertise.
50:52
Zack: Well, it's sort of their it's their companion piece to pizza at McDonald's. Yeah, mini sliders, guys got to go see this. images on the internet, they baked sliders into the crust
51:04
Brian: if I recall it was it was only available in the in like the United Arab Emirates or like
51:11
Zack: oh most of this stuff is only in Japan. like most of them not that weird stuff is like Japan will try anything apparently.
51:18
Brian: I hope I'm just hoping that the chicken shake is not real
51:24
Zack: that's exactly righ. Thank God it is not real. Taco Bell did have a seafood salad, short lived, and Burger King Whopper-rito doesn't sound terrible, chop up a whopper. you know you've got all those ingredients that makes it. Well, congratulations. We will proudly proudly display whatever happened with pizza at McDonald's and actually if you want we can ... we probably can't get the board game right ? There is a Whatever happened to pizza at McDonald's board game. It looks like only one has been sold. Only one has been made and sold.
Brian: Many were sold.
Zack: Oh, my goodness. Tell us about, well, let me just read the tagline. You know for anybody interested in the board game of whatever happened to attend McDonald's “based on the award winning investigative journalism program or IGP. Whatever happened to pizza at McDonald's, the board game simulates the battle between the Friends of the truth and the enemies of the truth. Two to four players will command their factions in a fierce competition that includes tactical movement around the duel ringed board, risky management of resources and clever card play using both tricks of the trade and undercover ops.” Sounds like a fascinating board game and you must be a board game lover. Correct? Because this thing is has all of the board game mechanics, the staples, classic.
Brian: It's my primary hobby. I'm a member of the board game geek message board. I've met people from like buying, selling and trading board games.
52:57
Zack: This whole podcast was just a reason to create a board game for yourself.
Brian: I mean kind of. I have the pizza game somewhere around here, but it's not offhand but like right next to my computer here. I'm currently working on painting some little figures for a game I've been playing called street masters.
53:24
Zack: We do like board games around here. We are big Katan people. I feel like yeah, that's canon.
53:31
Brian: Well, I used to have what I called the board game closet. But I was informed by someone else who lives in this house that that is just a closet and No one asked it to be the board game closet. So---
53:47
Zack: is 128 right. I think that's what's on the website that you own under your under your board game profile because I there's a profile of whoever purchased the one on the board game website, and it's under the name. Let me “AMSCI”. Is that right? Am I pronouncing that right?
54:01
Brian: That's my civilian gamer tag board game geek name. Yeah, I am. AMSCI. which is a long story about why that is but--
54:11
Zack: Okay, so that that's you and it shows your your board game collection when I looked up amsci it had some traces of a manufacturing plant in England, but that's not right. Okay. I tried to do a little investigative journalism myself.
54:25
Brian: I used to do a podcast A long time ago called the amateur scientist and that, like tag on I've had that account for so long that I haven't changed it.
54:34
Zack: Got it. Check out the board game, check out the pod. It's all good fun
Brian: but if you want to play the game, you can play it online
Zack: and we tried to buy it actually, but that explains why we couldn't get it because --
Brian: you can play for free at table topia.com
54:48
Zack: Play for free or watch the very funny unboxing video that Brian Thompson has on YouTube. an unboxing video where he may or may not wrestle with shrink wrap for 45 minutes. I'm not sure I That's a very funny unboxing video. Brian, I want to thank you for your candor. This has been a real joy talking to you and it's been one of our favorite pods that we've screened. So thank you for creating it. I'm excited to listen to more. I'm excited to see the second edition board game that you in a bit inevitably create.
55:21
Brian: And I have a new game, a new game in development.
55:23
Zack: What is next for the pod? Do you know what's coming up in this next season or any?
55:27
Brian: Well Currently, I'm on NPR. I received electronic mail correspondence from john D and Catherine T. MacArthur, the third for the husband and wife, descendants of john D and Catherine T. MacArthur, the endowers of NPR invited me to join because there were so impressed with this American slice. The relationship has had some ups and downs, but currently, it's an up period and my show has undergone a drastic reformat. It's now called morning Pizza-sion. Hmm. And it's a morning news and, you know, light entertainment show.
Zack: So it's exciting stuff. The beauty of it is it can be whatever you want it to be you or not. You don't have to adhere to any format the thing morphs. And it's a lot of fun. Just subscribe and go along for the ride. I think it's essential listening. I think more people need to have it in their library. And so I'm really glad that you came and talk to us today. And thank you, we were able to to highlight it. And because it is the last five minutes of our podcast, I usually do this thing that where no one is listening. So we can sort of just talk about whatever we want. I do believe that no one listens to the last five minutes of any podcast except for some of yours, which are like 20 seconds long. They probably listen to that but for the most part, people are done with their run or they're done cooking and no one is here anymore. It's just you and I, Brian. So if you wanted to use this time to sing a song or recite poetry, tell a secret or tell someone off you certainly can and I will go first with my fast food related. No one is listening moment. And I just wanted to share how sorry I am to the employees of some of the fast food locations around my neighborhood when I was a teenager, some friends and I, we would do this thing and this is totally fine to talk about because no one's listening. But we would do this thing. It was called the drunk vomit. And we would, we were teenagers, and it was that sort of that pre jackass error when we were just sort of like doing shock things to make each other laugh. And for drunk vomit we would, we would go to the convenience store and get chocolate milk and m&ms, chocolate milk and m&ms, that combination was important. And we would get a whole mouthful of chocolate milk and m&ms. Two buddies would sort of fireman carry the person, the third person past a window at McDonald's or Wendy's you know fast food place. Like you're going to get him to the bathroom and right you know before you get inside just in front of the window of all the families. Eating their various meals, you would dispense of the chocolate milk and m&ms, which you've sort of garbled up that and, and then you just sort of, you know, get that person out of there, you just leave. And just to see the reaction of young families enjoying their meal and watching this drunk person vomit next to them, and I just want to apologize because, you know, often we would then circle back and there would be an employee hosing down the sidewalk. You know, sort of just like, ‘this is my day. Now, this is my job. This is my life. I have to close the sidewalk and vomit.’ That was the drunk vomit challenge and i i feel bad about it.
58:37
Brian: Well, at least it was outside so they can--
58:39
Zack: We never inside never inside. No, we weren't animals. We weren't--- We were just having some goofs.
58:46
Brian: any major metropolitan area has enough drainage to handle a little bit of vomit.
58:51
Zack: m&ms. Actually, it wasn't even vomit.
58:53
Brian: Yeah, that's fine.
58:55
Zack: Okay, well, that's my that's my that's my moment of no one's listening.
59:01
Brian: You know, I did discover an embarrassing thing about myself. Because of the quarantine situation. I started getting an ungodly amount of deliveries from places that I would never normally consider getting delivery from. one of them being 7-11 because there was one brief period where there were the only place that would deliver any aluminum foil. I desperately needed. And
59:31
Zack: Wait 711 delivers?
59:33
Brian: That's right. Yeah. It was an app
59:34
Zack: Did you use the third party? Does like grub hub show up.
59:39
Brian: I thought that they employed their own people because you do it through the 711 app itself. But once you make the delivery through the 711 app, it transfers over to postmates. So God knows how much money they're they're having to fork over to Postmates. I want to help a mom and pop business like 7-11. Yeah, but while I was looking for aluminum foil, I saw that they had a wide variety of 711 branded ice cream. I think it's called 711 selects or something, that was not very expensive and it had been a while since I'd had some ice cream, so I thought I'd chuck some ice cream in there too. And I gotta say the 711 branded ice cream is the best store. Best store bought ice cream ever had my life. It's so good. It's so much better than any fancy. Oh, like we get a bunch of fancy ice cream places around LA that always have like, it's like a word-ampersand and another word like Salt & Straw or like, cream & sickle or something. They're really fancy
1:00:48
Zack: we use cream cheese in this ice cream. Yeah.
1:00:50
Brian: Yeah, you go inside and everything's either white or natural wood. Sure. And 711 stuffs the best. It's so good. It's so good. I am disgusted with myself and I've ordered it more than once since then.
1:01:08
Zack: So you would say you would not say pretty good for the price, which is, of course, anybody that listens to the pod. Brian did eventually, you know, try original recipe pizza from pizza and McDonald's in his endorsement of that pizza was pretty good for the price
1:01:23
Brian: Yeah, I wrote a song about it on my album, ‘Songs from the Pizza Slice’. There's a song called good for the price.
1:01:31
Zack: Seven-eleven ice cream, you'd say, much better for the price. The best for the price
1:01:36
Brian: Great, great. Not just for the price. Just great overall,
1:01:41
Zack: it's got to be some unnatural science going into that they probably don't have to adhere to any of this sort of FCC regulations that uh---
1:01:49
Brian: Yeah, they're exempt from a lot of stuff at 711. But yeah, yeah, no, I definitely. Yeah, I've risked my life since then to once once they open back up, I risked my life walking over there with a mask on To purchase it with my own hands.
1:02:04
Zack: There you go. There's the endorsement for the 711 ice cream. I Brave COVID It's so good. Brian, keep doing what you're doing. It's so fun to listen to. And please come back and chat with us again about, you know, all the stuff that you continue to create.
1:02:21
Brian: Thanks for having me. It's been a real pleasure.
1:02:24
Good, good. All right. Thank you, Brian. The podcast is whatever happened to a pizza at McDonald's. You can find it on iTunes or anywhere else, on all of them, where ever you find your podcasts, you can go find it. It's easier to track down than actual pizza at McDonald's. Thank you, Brian.
Brian: Thank you.
MUSICAL ENDING
1:02:56
Zack: This has been the pod spotter where we showcase the pods that you're not listening to but you really should be. If you have one that you think we should know about please let us know via the podspotter.com or Facebook or Twitter or Instagram @tepodspotter. Thanks everybody.
1:03:17
This has been Zack Robidas. The Pod Spotter is created by the Price Brothers, produced by Oink Ink Radio, associate producer Tori Adams, and is recorded and produced at Baker Sound in Philadelphia.