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From the principal Toyota Studios, it's Morning in Memphis with Todd Starnes. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to Morning in Memphis. It is a beautiful day here in the 901. As you can probably tell by my voice, I am not Todd Starnes. He is out in the Golden State in California at a spiritual leadership conference.
But don't worry, you won't miss him too much. He'll be back on the mic bright and early on Monday morning. Today, we kind of have a little staff takeover of the morning show. I'm Ian August, more known as Ian the Intern. I've been on the The national show a couple times.
We have a couple familiar voices who you'll know if you're a loyal KWM listener. Pass it over to Dylan. Dylan, what's going on here? Man, what's up, man? This is crazy, right?
Like, is this allowed? Todd Starnes gave us a mic. Is this really what he wanted? I don't know. We'll have to check on Todd because.
I don't know. This is he might not be in his right mind giving us a platform here, but we'll see. We'll see how it goes. It should be interesting for sure. Hi, I'm Dylan.
You hear me on the Todd Starn Show sometimes. A lot of times you don't, but I'm there all the time. Helen, how's it going? And I'm Helen Hazard. I'm also here.
Todd is currently downstairs banging on the door, begging to be let in. He's like, "Please give me back the mic." Disclaimer: No, Todd Sarns was harmed during the production of the show. Todd Sarns is fine. He's uh he yeah like Ian said he's in California spiritual leadership conference at Lancaster Baptist Church which right a lot of cool things are happening over there that's true and we're just a team here that I mean we're we're basically siblings it's true we we get along very well we actually hang out we live in Memphis we all hang out Helen you don't you've lived in Memphis the least amount of times but you still count we're coming up on a year a year will be October 31st and. Today is October first.
Wow, it's spooky season! It is. We just jumped into it. Yeah.
So, so we hang out. We we live in Memphis. To give you an example of how we hang out, we actually went to a Redbirds game this past. What was it? Monday?
Last Tuesday. Last Tuesday. I've lost track of time. Obviously, this was the international championship game between the Redbirds, and I'm so mad at the other team that I forgot Rochester Red Wings. The Red Wings, and Helen knows that because she's actually a Nationals fan, which is the.
MLB version of that. It's true. You guys told me not to wear a Nationals jersey, and that's all I have. Yeah.
No, you have to wear a Redbirds jersey if you go into a Redbirds game, Helen. That's what everybody knows.
Well, luckily I got there early, and they were giving out free T-shirts. Yeah, you got free T-shirts. But it was like two XL, and I yeah, but it's okay. It fit me pretty well, Helen. Anyways, we did go.
We hung out, and you guys. I I don't know how this happened because there's. I mean, there's a lot of people there. This is the championship game. I don't know how this happens, but one of the staffers who's like part of the events team came up to you guys.
Actually, they came up to me and was like, "Does do you and Ian? Do you guys want to participate in a game?" Mid third inning, which of course I said, "What's the game?" As long as it's not trivia, yeah, I'll play it. Guess what it was? She said, "Alas, it's an adult game." And we were like, "Wait, what's an adult game?" Yeah, what exactly does that mean? Turns out it was trivia.
It was trivia, and you, so you guys wanted me to go very badly, and I obviously am not going to do that. You did not succumb to our peer pressure, our healthy. Of course, I'm the oldest here, by the way, the oldest. In this studio right now is twenty seven. Just wanted everyone to know that Gen Z takeover, by the way.
So you guys participated in the game. I stayed back and watched from afar, and it was trivia. You would have been allowed to go down too. They were like, "You, he can come down with you guys, yeah, for moral support." And you're like, "No, no." When they told me like what the twist was, which it was, if you get the answer wrong, you have to squirt the other one with ketchup and mustard. It was perfect, and we were human human hot dogs.
I hate mustard, so I can't be near mustard. You guys did great. You know, I guess you got most of the answers wrong, but you got the first one right.
Well, also we looked up some of the answers because she, the woman, told us we had a lot of questions for her beforehand. Helen did look up some of the answers. I didn't. Like the Memphis Redbird games have been a staple. Of living here for sure, for like my whole life.
Yeah, it's something that we love to go to, like a great community event. You can get to support your team, you get to meet cool people. Everyone there was really nice. What I didn't know is how competitive Helen is. Anytime we're out and about somewhere, yeah, right.
Immediately she went straight for blood. I don't know what happened, but something just clicked. I said I wouldn't go for the face, and then the first. One that I got right, I went for the face, and I was like, "Oh." Don't care. Once I crossed the threshold, I was like, "It's no." You guys definitely emptied out those bottles.
Like there wasn't anything left in there. He was so the promote the main promoter guy that's on the mic. The old time, he was basically waving his arms up in the air because you guys or the game was done, and you guys just kept squirting each other with ketchup and mustard. The video was still going, showing you guys do that.
So I think it was worth it in the end. But he was like, "All right, these are kids. This is not an adult." That guy is listening. Helen Hazard is mad. All right, well, guys, we are Memphians, and this show is sort of themed around Gen Z being part of Memphis and also like what we want to see as Memphians moving forward.
We obviously want to live in a Memphis that is safe, affordable, and also thriving for our generation, Gen Z, but also for our kids and our kids' kids.
So that's sort of the it's not the goal of the show, but it's sort of just sort of where we're coming at. We we've lived here. We we work on the show. We follow a little bit of politics, and you know we were here to have fun too. This is like the first time this has happened.
It's like the theme. It's the overarching theme of the show. Theme of the show. I feel like, and you, Dylan, have lived in South Haven. You lived in South Haven most of your life.
Ian, you were in California for a little bit, but then you've been here most of your life. And then I'm like a newbie, so we have like. Ranges of everybody who's like lived here basically. Just called me old. Pause.
So, I like having different. We've all been here in different stages. Yeah, which is good because you know I only know basically Virginia, but coming here is completely different. Yeah, you probably have a different perspective of what we have.
So, like, and we'll talk about this later coming up. But the Memphis Safe Task Force—they've been here a whole year, and. We, I mean, for me personally, I can tell that things have changed in terms of crime, and I think the biggest thing, and what you'll hear the most out of, you know, the police that you'll see and the people that you talk to, is the presence of the police. There is really what matters the most. And the crime numbers they've definitely come down, but I think the fact that we see more police out there, we see National Guard out there, yeah, that's what matters because we, if we see them, we know a crime's probably not going to happen.
Also, criminals can see them. I have a story about that related to the Redbirds game, Fourth of Fourth of July, right outside Redbirds Stadium. I think one or two people. That were either threatening people or got in a fight, got tackled on Fourth of July at the Redbirds game that I was out. They also took down, I think, a block away, an armed gunman.
Yeah, on that same night.
So that's three criminals prevented. At a Redbirds game, that me and my family were at on America's birthday. On America's birthday, yeah, that's great.
So they're out there, folks, and and we'll you know we'll talk about it more later. John Covington, the vice president of the NPA, he'll he'll weigh in a little bit. He has some thoughts on that. But yeah, we're we're here to have fun. We are.
This is a we've never done this before. We've only been part of the audio team, the audio and video. Ian's the tech whiz of this company. He's also the youngest, which is sort of sad on me and Helen's part, but you know we'll get over it. I think we'll see if Todd ever lets us do this again.
If Todd ever lets, he might be listening right now, being like, "Never give them the mic again." By the way, it is seventy-one degrees here at the Principal Toyota Memphis Studio. It's, I mean, it feels good, but it's a little on the warmer side. A seventy-one. If it was seventy. I don't know what it is about just being seventy, but that feels better than seventy-one.
It it doesn't throw it over the edge into into hot. It's officially like mid. Yeah, but it's October, and I want sixty-degree weather when I wake up in the morning. He wants to pull out the sweaters. I have a box of sweaters that's sitting under my bed right now that has not been touched.
In in months, so we're looking forward to this month, and there's some things coming up this month that we can do. Obviously, haunted houses. If you're a fan of that, I'm not. I know, and I definitely after we go to break when we come back, I will definitely tell some fun haunted house stories because I love the spooky season. I love going to the mazes.
I love the apple cider donuts. I got Ian into an apple cider donut. Those are good, and. Who would have thought an apple cider and a donut could mix together? It's so good, and they heated them up for you.
They asked me, and I'm like, "Oh, they're gonna be." I'm thinking about them now. I want them.
Well, guys, stick around. Coming up, we have more on the AI data centers. We have Memphis Safe Task Force updates. Quickly, I want to give a shout out to Atlanta Braves third baseman Austin Riley. He's a he.
He grew up in Southaven, Mississippi. He went to Desoto Central High School. Which they were rivals of Southaven High School, but it's fine because he was amazing. He hit a three-run home run that put the Braves ahead of the Philadelphia Phillies to cap Game One of the National League Wild Card Series. And if the Braves, so he's part of the Atlanta Braves, if they win that series, they move on to the.
NLDS, which I'll figure out what that means in the break, but that's the next step to the World Series, which is cool.
So shout out to him. Our telephone number, if you want to call in to the Gen Z takeover of the morning show, is nine zero one two six zero five nine two six. That's nine zero one two six zero five nine two six. Let's go to Commander Chuck and Laura Huckabee with the traffic and weather. Who answers America's call for more energy?
Our people do. They've helped boost Chevron's U.S. energy production by nearly sixty percent in the past three years, helping fuel national energy security and drives down the open roads that make America. Learn more about what our people do at Chevron.com/america. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to Morning in Memphis.
We kind of had a little Gen Z takeover as we are filling in for Todd, who is out today at a spiritual leadership conference. I'm Ian August. I'm here with Dylan and Helen right now. I wanted to bring up.
Some new controversy over the AI data center. It's going to be quick. I know probably a lot of you are bored of hearing about these over and over again. This is something you should know to stay informed about what's going on in your area and in your community.
So Mayor Paul Young has claimed that he endorses the data centers. He wants to bring them in for. Revenue for the community through taxes, and Justin Pearson says he strongly disagrees with that, claiming that they're just bringing them in to take our water, sacrifice our air quality, and take jobs.
So there's bound to be some sort of disagreement there within the Memphis government.
So it's interesting to see how it's going to play out. It's actually surprising that the mayor is talking very highly.
So not to me, and I'm glad that he's doing it because I think that AI is the future. I think that he knows that AI is the future because AI is one of the biggest, if not already the biggest, like business from a business standpoint thing that's happening in the world, right? And the fact that we have several data centers that are here in our area—that's huge for not only business itself, jobs. I mean. You know, I I'm trying to think of what else is is so good for it.
There's a lot of negatives. There's a lot of people that are complaining about the noise, about the pollution, about the water, which I don't know. To me personally, I don't live near a data center. I don't know how how much of a nuisance that really is. You know, but I think that the good outweighs the bad in this scenario.
Right, and that there's a lot of controversy because it's so hard to determine does the good outweigh the bad, and who gets to decide that? Is it the people who live around it? Is it the government?
So right now we have SpaceX AI, which has the mega data center right across the state line in South Haven, saying if the people in the area around it who are complaining. Agree to sell their homes, right? They'll buy them as long as those people don't join a lawsuit against them for like public nuisance and negligence, which is interesting. I haven't seen something like this before.
Well, we're not only do they have the land, but they're trying to buy out the area and people's houses around the data center. Yeah.
Well. If I'm a South Haven resident and I'm complain, and this is really what's bugging me, they're offering to buy my house. I don't know about you guys, but I might take that deal. I don't know. I might move somewhere else.
Right? It does seem pretty tempting. I'll take the money. Like someone told me, and it might be our our next guest, and we'll we'll get to that in a minute. But the sound that is they're complaining about, the sound part, is only one decibel higher than the legal.
Sound limit of a city or something or whatever it is, which is not that bad considering the fact that me personally, I sleep with a sound machine. I don't know if you guys know this, but like I sleep with a Category Five hurricane in my room. That yeah, you would never even hear anything outside of that. Wow. And I'm thinking a lot of people sleep with fans on.
That can't be. Too much louder, Dylan. You've actually suggested that I get the sound machine that you have because sometimes there's loud. My roommate plays a lot of TV right next to my room. Yeah, and I'm such a light sleeper.
And you have recommended your sound machine, and we kept trying to look up the video of it, and it wouldn't tell you what sounds were on. No, it wouldn't. But that's fine. It's called Hatch, not sponsored. Hatch alarm clocks, folks.
They work miracles.
So is the AI data center just a free noise machine that you get? You know what? I would probably be okay with it. That's a pro, me person. But who knows?
I think the question is: Is it okay if you're if you're not okay with any of the things that are affected by the data center, like noise, the air quality, or the consumption of water? Are they Trying to push people out of areas that they move into. Yeah, that's a good point.
Well, so moving on, we have the one-year anniversary of the Memphis Safe Task Force, which has been a great, great thing that's happened in our city. I know, me personally, I've noticed that crime has gone down. I, you know, personally, things have happened to me, and you know, cars been vandalized. I didn't go back to that area for years and years because I was just, you know, nervous that it was just going to happen again. And so, the numbers are are out for the Memphis Safe Task Force.
Crime overall is down nearly thirty eight percent, which is great. And I want to bring in our next guest. He is the Vice President of the Memphis Police Association, longtime police officer John Covington. John, how's it going? It's going well, guys.
You're doing a great job.
So, congratulations on your new career. The Gen Z Takeover Show morning. Yeah, we'll see if Todd lets us keep the mic for next time. But I appreciate it, John.
Well, you are a professional at this. You know, we're just we're just young guns out here. We don't we don't really know what's going on out there. But I wanted to get your take on the numbers from the Memphis Safe Task Force. Force what?
What are your thoughts overall of them being here and the impact that they've had on the city of Memphis?
Well, here comes a shameless plug because I have an op ed that ran this morning. That's it's in today's Daily Memphian, and it says one year ago they told Memphis to be afraid. And I'll tell you on the numbers side. And now I do want to be fair. We had started to see crime trending down, you know, before the task force got here.
But when they got here, it's clear it was an accelerant because we've reached crime lows that we haven't seen in 15 years, which is pretty amazing. And you know, it's freed our officers up to be more proactive. We're seeing more guns off the street, lost children found.
So it has had a huge impact. And the point of my article is. Seeing how where we are after a year, I went back and looked at what people were saying before they got here, and you had one group; it was the most hyperbolic. We're going to live in an Orwellian dystopia, and then you had other people saying this is going to be a force multiplier. It's going to make Memphis safer.
Well, it's been a force multiplier. Memphis is safer, and we are not living under a dictatorship.
So I just wanted to point out. That the things people are saying to scarementians, we're just we're just ridiculous. And so, some of these voices, when when people tell you the sky is falling, you might want to double check and look up at the sky to make sure. Yeah, well. John, we're about to run out of time, and I appreciate you so much for the work that you do and the and everything that you just said.
We certainly are living in a in a safer Memphis, and me for one, I I'm very thankful, and I and I'm and I'm thankful to President Trump. I'm thankful for the Republicans that sent the National Guard here. You know, everything has just been overall positive for me personally.
So I appreciate you joining us today. Absolutely, my pleasure. All right.
Well, folks, give us a call nine zero one two six zero five nine two six. We're going to check in more on that traffic as your roadways and you're getting to work this morning.
So stay with us. Who answers America's call for more energy? Our people do. They've helped boost Chevron's U.S. energy production by nearly 60% in the past three years, helping fuel national energy security and drives down the open roads that make America.
Learn more about what our people do at Chevron.com/america. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to Morning in Memphis. Here with the K-WAM crew. I'm I'm Ian. We have Dylan and Helen also with us.
Now, I know a lot of people in our community. Of course, I'm pretty young, so a lot of us are just looking for internships, looking for jobs, trying to get. A head start on our careers, and I know there's like a a little thing going on about bringing iced lattes into to job interviews. Dylan, do you bring iced lattes into job interviews? I think that you do.
I think that maybe you do. And here's the controversy.
Okay, it kicked off with a TikTok corporate recruiter. Is that a thing? She called out Gen Z candidates for arriving to interviews with ice lattes in their hands. Drawing from her 16 years of experience placing candidates at Fortune 500 companies, she warned job seekers against the casual habit. "Quote: When you show up with an iced coffee or an iced latte, it is perceived, from my opinion, in a hiring standpoint, that this interview is just a stop on your list of errands for the day." I kind of see that.
But at the same time, it's just coffee. I'm I'm personally not an iced coffee person. I was born and bred on hot coffee. I my dad when we went to church, I wanted to be like my dad, so I would get black coffee.
So your problem is with the the iced.
Well, yeah, because it also waters it down.
So then you're you have watered down coffee, and that makes me sad. I want it all coffee. I guess, but if you're the if you're the person that's hiring, and you're you're you're you see the candidate walk in, they got a hot coffee. Are you're changing your mind? You're saying that's that's.
I'm hitting the red buzzer. I'm hitting the red buzzer from American Idol. You're Simon Cowell. Yeah.
I think I think it's it should be fine. Like they can drink whatever they want, as long as they don't show up late with a drink. Because that shows that they prioritized coffee over the job. Yeah, quote. It looks like you went to Target, went to Starbucks, and now you're stopping by for your interview before moving on to your next thing.
It's sort of giving off the lazy, like Gen Z. I don't really care to be here. This is just one of my interviews. I have thirteen other ones coming up. I I also have a different take from it, but this might just be like public school, uh, high school, Helen trauma.
Maybe it's more of the. I don't know if anybody else saw this in high school, Dylan. You can confirm because you went to public school, but unfortunately, when when all the girls got their license, what they would purposefully Do is show up late to class with their Dunkel latte, and they'd have like a million keys on their thing, and they'd shake them around, be like, "I'm so sorry, I'm late. Like, I had to stop and get my coffee." That is what I see if that if I was a hiring manager and somebody came in and did that. I guess.
Though being late contributes to that, but I would still get annoyed because they're like, "Oh, sorry, I had to drive my car." Yeah, and that's annoying. I it's the vibe. Yeah, high school girls are annoying. I'm just kidding. Also, the Dunkin' that throws me off because I I don't know if I've ever had a Dunkin' coffee before.
What I've had their breakfast Sammys. Oh yeah. But the Dunkin' coffee, I'm not sure. And Starbucks is not that much better. I mean, it all tastes burnt to me.
At this point, I'm like cool with community coffee, like the the K cups. Give me the K cup, I'm good. We have a special creamer here at the office, a little insider that Helen buys for us. Thank you, Helen. Every time we call it cookie butter creamer.
It's actually not even called that. No, we just call it cookie butter, like brown sugar something. Yeah, brown butter chocolate chip cookie. Yeah, it's great.
Well, on that same beat, we also have another story. This is sort of a Gen Z segment because. You know we're Gen Z. You know that's it makes sense. That's just what it is, right?
So the next Gen Z demands millennials retire so they can grab their corporate jobs for themselves. Quote: How do you expect us to live? First of all, let me just let me just say this: I think the oldest millennial. Actually, I don't think this is a fact because years are a thing. Forty-five years of age is the oldest millennial.
I can math. He went to public school. Yeah, I can math. Surprisingly, I think you don't get Social Security until like mid sixties, so we shouldn't be worried about the millennials grabbing. I mean.
You know, going for their jobs, right? We should be looking at the boomers. We should tell the boomers to retire, folks. It's true. It's true.
There's also the question: What are they supposed to do? Yeah, retire, right? No, millennials. Yeah, move up, move up in their job. the The argument it is that they have the The what are those jobs?
the The first job that you get, entry level entry level jobs. That's what the argument is, and they're stealing our jobs. I think we may have some audio. We have a we have an audio clip of the millennials saying, "You know, we wish we could retire. Here's what we do if we retire.
Here, let's play cut number three." How is Gen Z supposed to climb the corporate ladder if all you boomers and millennials won't retire? You think we don't want to? You think we don't want to retire? Have you seen a millennial? We'd sell off every worldly possession today, just to live out the rest of our days at a swim-up bar, neck deep in margaritas, with Lil Jon's whole catalog on repeat.
Like we can barely afford our plants and our puppies. We got 68 people sharing streaming passwords, and you think we're ready to retire? We've been swimming upstream with ankle weights since 2001, but we need to retire. Half of us just got the job, and the rest of us are slinging toes on Feed Finder. Like we told you, adulting was a zero out of ten experience, and you didn't want to hear it.
That's on you, okay? Like, how did we get here, dude? Boomers think we don't work at all. Zoomers think we work too much.
Meanwhile, we're just trying to stay hydrated and alive. Like, for the love of God, please just. Leave us alone. I think he's got a point there, right? He sounds more mad than Gen Z would be.
I think he's like fed up with his own job. I didn't know millennials knew what Feet Finder was. I'm not gonna lie. Yeah, seriously, that's a that's a snipe. That's a pull right there.
I was taken off guard. Yeah, don't Google search that, folks. But that's yeah, you don't want that in your ears. This segment is spot. No, but if you're thinking about it, like.
If I'm trying to get a job as a fry cook at McDonald's, and some thirty-five year old, okay, I'm not going to talk bad about thirty-five year olds. Let me let me. I'm going to back that up. I think I think an issue is. It's hard to move up the corporate ladder, as everyone's experienced, not just the younger generation.
There can be arguments that, like, it's going to get harder as technology advances and as the population grows. But it's an issue that we all face: is the cost of living, and people get whatever jobs they can. Right, not everyone's able to get an entry level position, then move up, move up, move up, move up, and create more entry level positions. I I remember when I was looking for jobs about a year ago, or when I got out of college. It's you go on LinkedIn, Indeed, whatever, and it's like, oh, entry level, and then you look down in the description.
It says you've done a hundred years of experience, years of experience, right? And an internship with you know the co-founder of whatever your you know thing is like music. You need to have been working under Mister Music as a music major. You needed to have been with Mister. Right, right.
No, I I totally understand that. And I guess I don't I don't know how to relate to this because I've only had two jobs in my life, three if you count the lawn mowing business, which was a booming thing for me, by the way. I worked at a grocery store for for the longest time. Shout out to them, but then it rhymes with pooper lo. No, they're they're they're a great great company.
But then this job, and so I I don't know, you know, being a Gen Z now, how hard it is. I know that jobs coming out of college are not the easiest to get. Like you guys. That that that is a true thing. You go on LinkedIn.
You do have to have a lot of experience.
So there maybe maybe there is something to this. Maybe we should be mad at millennials, folks. We're you're listening to Morning in Memphis. We're the Gen Z staff of Todd Starnes. Todd Starnes is the owner of KWAM, and it's seventy one degrees, which is yeah.
I can't really complain about that. Yeah, and if you have something to say as either like a hiring manager, a CEO, or talking about millennials or the job market, call in. We would love to hear what you have to say. Our number is nine zero one two six zero five nine two six. Do we want to talk about pickles?
I know Ian does. Ian likes pickles. I don't understand this phenomenon with Gen Z. And I am Gen Z, and I don't understand it because so the headline is pickles snacks are surging in popularity as Gen Z buys all the pickles. I I can explain this.
Okay, thank you.
So, I think it's I don't know how to say name. It's like Grillos or Grillos. Sure, right. It's uh. It's a pickle brand.
Some guy just took his grandma's recipe and he started making like pickled everything with it, right? And he makes these super like strange videos where he just goes up to random people on the street and he's like, "Do you want a pickle? Do you want a pickle carrot? You want a pickle?" I've seen this video. Yeah, this is great marketing.
It's great marketing. Yeah, and I'm the only one at the studio that actually enjoys. Pickles, yeah, but that's the love. The love of that food is not just a young people thing, but that specific brand and that specific style of like super fun, like social, cringy marketing. That's what brings it into like the young people's space.
My wife loves those little pickle chips that you buy in the little bags. My fiance also loves the pickles. It's the smell for me, and not just that. It's also the texture. I'm not a.
I'm a big texture guy, and that means like I don't want to have that texture on my thing. The the. It's not just pickles though. It's literally the the toothpastes, the the the crackers that are pickle flavored. The pop.
The cotton candy. Toothpaste. I love toothpaste, but then what's the problem? Pickle flavored toothpaste shouldn't be a thing. I don't want your breath to smell like pickles when I talk to you.
Agreed. Is that okay to ask for? You know, I think that's a fair request. You're asking for too much, Dylan. I don't think that I am.
Like, so, so here it is: from pickle flavored cotton candy to Devil Dave's pickle crack, a craft dill pickle hot sauce. The brand claims is the perfect addition to homemade Bloody Marys. Bloody Marys, by the way, ew. Countless brands are cashing in on the tart trend, with an overall snack category growing 3.8.
So it's still low.
So it's the social media push for pickle flavors. Propaganda. No one likes pickles. That's not true. I think exactly 50 of people like pickles.
If you like pickles, do not call it. Oh wow.
Okay. All right.
I think we have time for one more story. Do you guys like nostalgic things? Love nostalgic things, like the vinyls. Yes, the the flip phone. Are we a flip phone team here?
Yeah, but would you buy a flip phone now? If I did, I would give my number to maybe five people. Sure, sure. That's kind of like Christopher Nolan, the the star movie director, Interstellar Oppenheimer. He doesn't have an iPhone.
Apparently, he has a flip phone. Which I'm really jealous. I'm jealous of him. A new study claims that Gen Z craves nostalgia, restoring to pre-tech era. Have you guys heard of a brick?
Brick? A brick? You? I'm not gonna say. Like Lego?
No. Like the brick you can buy. It's a physical device. You put it on your fridge if you want. And it locks your phone when you get to where you're going, so you can't access social media.
You can't access the internet. I I I like that idea as a concept, but every time I've like deleted an app or blocked on my phone to spend less time on it, I always re-download it.
So I feel like no matter what you do, as long as you have a normal phone. Um, you're still going to end up using it regardless, right? And I know there's one company I forget the name of it, but they're coming out with a phone that just has like a camera, maps, and you can call people to get you off of social media and like back in to the real world. Yeah, we need to talk face to face more. I I and I personally struggle with this.
I'm on my phone way way. Y'all are the problem. We are definitely the problem. I'm not, but y'all are. If I have to meet someone new, I have a literal panic attack in front of them.
I forget my own name when I talk to people. Yeah.
So I think being off my phone would help, and I think that phone is probably marketed towards Gen Z because, like, that's that can't be.
Well, and old older folks probably Boomers.
Some people probably still rocking the flip phone, and I'm I'm totally down for that. Yeah.
But I also love Instagram. Dylan, be honest. Are you able to talk to like people when you go up and order food, or do you like order ahead of time so you don't have to talk? Oh, I order on Doordash. I don't even, I don't even enter.
So not only do I order on Doordash, I make them leave it at the door.
So you don't have no contact delivery.
So you don't have to say hi to them. And that's another problem with Gen Z. We can't afford anything, and maybe that's the problem. I think that is a big problem.
So this is a separate issue. But Gen Z, they they care about money. We we love to self fund. We love to live our you know exuberant Starbucks filled lives, but. That's the problem.
We buy Starbucks every day, right? We order DoorDash, and I'm saying we like it's not just me here that's talking because like I feel like I do that way too much. And you know, let's get back to. I don't know a lot of Gen Zs that are meeting with financial advisors on a regular basis. Yeah, I agree with you.
That is an issue. Like everyone nowadays has bad spending habits because it's so easy to spend money. But also within the past, like. Six years, we had a thirty percent rise in cost of living. I feel like a lot of people use like, oh, Gen Z spends all their money on Starbucks as like an excuse, like forgetting about how much prices are constantly going up, and the jobs are not like raising pay, and t here is also super competitive job market.
I think the gist of it is we need to have a little bit more self discipline, a little bit more financial responsibility. Is that that's not a word? Responsibility? Responsibility that should happen because you know we we're struggling out here and it's kind of our own fault. I don't know.
That's what I. That's a hot take. Maybe that's my hottest take. Is that Gen Z? The reason why you're struggling is because of you.
All right, fight me on it.
Well. I think I think on that note, we're gonna have to take a break and listen to some traffic and and weather. If you want to give us a call about you know Gen Z and talk about you know our job markets, our nostalgia, give us a call nine zero one two six zero five nine two six. Who answers America's call for more energy? Our people do.
They've helped boost Chevron's U.S. energy production by nearly 60% in the past three years, helping fuel national energy security and drives down the open roads that make America. Learn more about what our people do at Chevron.com/america. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to Morning in Memphis. We are guest hosting.
I'm Ian. We have Dylan and Helen with us. I guess on a final note for the last segment of our show, I guess the overall theme has been stay engaged with your community. Get off your phone. This is the loneliest generation that we're coming up on, Gen Z.
Right, we need more personal interaction in our Memphis community. Yeah, talk talk to talk to other Gen Zs, talk to adults. Just like get Ian said it perfectly. Get get active, like physically and like engage your mind a little bit. That's something that's a little bit more than scrolling on TikTok because that's.
That needs to happen a little bit more for us to actually make a difference in the community. If you're you're going to be an adult, you're going to be a leader one day. Get get off the phone. Get off the phone. Yeah.
Well, it's about time that we're we're almost done. Billy, you have a shout out. I do.
So, guys, like I just said, get off TikTok. But I actually do make TikToks. Like. Thank you, Helen. I'm a TikToker, folks.
No, I'm not. I I made a TikTok out of desperation to get topics for the show, and someone commented and said that their family-owned business, Newton's Trophy Corner, and it's in White Haven. They're celebrating their 50th anniversary of being in business.
Now, this company makes trophies. They make plaques, and I think that we should maybe we could have like a Dundies like from the Office. Yeah, we could have the like whammies like the K whammies, you know, like the Grammys. K whammies. What would you get an award for, Alan?
Uh, probably most talkative in the Office for sure. Oh yeah, you know, most techie. I would get probably most awkward. Most awkward for sure.
Well, we want to thank Todd Starnes for giving us the opportunity to host. If we make it back on the air next time, you know we appreciate you listening. Thanks for joining us today. Join us next time on Morning in Memphis. We'll see you guys later.
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