Hey, guys. Welcome to Good News York. It's Monday.
We're awake. I don't know if Mike's awake. I'm
not. I am, uh... I went to the Metallica concert.
Oh. Wearing the shirt. We're gonna have to get
it. He's wearing the shirt. So it's official.
Yeah. Just so you know I went. You had to prove
it. Yeah, but this is my first time going to,
uh, see Metallica in my 40s. And we'll talk about
it. It was vastly different. Old man Metallica?
Yeah. But I mean... I was the old man, too. It
wasn't just them. No, I understand. So I don't
drink anymore, but I think I'm hungover. Like,
I literally feel... I told my wife, I'm like,
I think... I feel like the last time I felt like
this was when I was hungover. And that was two
nights ago, so I'm still reeling. But I'm excited.
You know, you get old and these things happen.
But enough about that. We have an incredible
guest. Waiting on the line. We don't want to
make her wait no longer. She's being incredibly
courteous for joining us Danny if you want to
pop her up there. Hey, oh there. She is welcome
to my Very I don't want to say old friend because
that doesn't sound right, but my very longtime
friend Candice Candice you've got I'd love you
to just kind of introduce yourself and we're
going to talk a little bit about this really
cool new thing that you've got going on. I genuinely
don't know anything about it, which is why I
wanted to have you on. And please tell us who
you are, what you do. Okay. My name is Candice
Jared. I'm the co -founder of Xcova, which is
a tech startup that uses blockchain to completely
reimagine the payment system. Now what that means
for like regular people is that We're going to
make frictionless, very easy payments that have
extremely low fees, that are super fast and secure,
that you can do cross border. I mean, it not
only, it has benefits for a whole spectrum of
people, but you can think, you know, small business
owners. I don't know if you guys know about like
PayPal on Stripes fees are like, ridiculously
high, like upwards of 3 % nearly. You lose right
off the top of all revenue coming in. So our
product not only fixes that, but also fixes instability
for places in the world that are hit by economic
uncertainty, rampant inflation, stuff like that.
So I don't want to get too boring with it. No,
it's all right. We're passionate about it because
we really are on multiple levels changing the
world. So that's our goal. That's awesome. Um,
and I want to, I want to learn a little bit more
about the details, but before that, I'd love
to hear just how did you come to this? How did
you get into this sort of, uh, venture? It's
been a, it's been a winding road. Yeah. Um, so
I guess how we arrived. All right. So it's, I
don't know if I want to start back at the cradle.
And don't worry, we can edit this if you need
a moment. No, no, it's okay. I guess I guess
I'll start here. So we had originally created
a different invention, which is like a decentralized
wireless to allow blockchain transactions to
happen without the internet. Oh, wow. which is
huge because that could really help like last
mile places that have problems getting access
to the internet. Absolutely. And with very inexpensive
infrastructure. So we invented this thing. And
then as we were talking about the logistics of
creating blockchain transactions, we dove deeper
into that and thought, well, we need an app to
do this. So we created like a super app. See,
here's the problem. My co -founder, who's my
husband, we're husband and wife team making this,
we really believe that blockchain is too complicated
for normal people. I mean, we've both been in
the field for many years, but it's very hard
to even onboard somebody who has metamask, who...
is in the space. It's difficult to onboard them
from one chain to another, let alone somebody
who's never touched it at all. It's intimidating.
It's complicated. It's easy for people to get
scammed. I've even seen people who are really
like good at crypto get scammed. So we decided
that what we were going to do is create this
product that is completely abstracted. And what
we mean by abstracted is that it looks like Venmo
or PayPal. Like you don't even see the cryptocurrency
in it. It just runs on blockchain underneath.
So this is solving a big problem. People who
want to get the benefits of blockchain, like
without the complicated learning curve. Sure.
So this is, this is what we set out to solve
and we really did it. So we've got our public
beta up, which we released like maybe about two
weeks ago. Very exciting. So it's up if I can
say where it is. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
It's beta .excova .com, so B -E -T -A dot X -K
-O -V -A dot com. Anybody can go and try it out.
So basically what you do is you can send cryptocurrency
with an email address. Right now it's running
on a stable coin. So stable coins are cryptocurrencies
that are pegged to a fiat currency like the US
dollar, euro. And when I talked earlier about
solving the idea of economic instability in places
hit by rampant inflation, this is how they would
do it. They would choose to, if someone was hit
by war or like a crumbling government, or even
just for other factors, their currency was very
quickly devalued, they could choose to transact
in a more stable currency like the dollar or
the euro. So we're talking like in South America,
Southeast Asia, Africa, these places. So that
would give them freedom, really, and stability.
So the app that we have up now transacts with
a stablecoin called USDC, which is pegged to
the US dollar. But Excova is not just an app.
It's infrastructure. So there is another instance
of Excova being developed right now on this thing
called Bitcoin L1, which would allow people to
send Bitcoin, send and receive Bitcoin with just
an email address. So you go to the app, you log
in with your email, and then you can, right now
with Testnet, you just hop up from a faucet,
but you'll be able to like connect your bank
account and your cards and stuff in the future.
Just hop up and then send cryptocurrency anywhere
in the world. Instantly. Wow. Yeah. There's got
to be massive competition for this, right? There's
two big competitors, but we're better than them.
Yeah? Yes. The reason why we're better than them
is that nobody right now, anyway, has the commitment
to abstraction that we do. See, they have the
infrastructure for the consumer side. For example,
one of the things our app does is if you have
an e -commerce store, just say Shopify or WooCommerce,
you can use a plugin to, just in a couple clicks,
connect Excova so when someone's checking out
on your website with a hat or t -shirt or whatever
they're going to buy, instead of seeing... like
they'll put in their payment details and instead
of saying pay with PayPal or pay with Stripe,
they see pay with Xcola. Sure. Or whatever it
is, like the instance of Xcola. And so that then
saves the e -commerce store upwards of, we have
3 % on our payment processing base. So yeah,
it's... It's crazy. So other companies do that
as well as the P2P payments like we were talking
about, but none of them do what we do, which
is the abstraction part of it, which is to make
it look like PayPal or Venmo and just hide the
blockchain engine. So it's pretty exciting what
we're doing. That's awesome. It sounds like you've
taken something that is incredibly complicated
and I'm a full -time nerd and even I. would not
try to speak expertly on these topics at all.
So exactly what you're saying to me is, if I've
got an app as simple as all those other payment
apps that everybody's come to love, that I can
just send this guy some money and make him grab
us some coffee like that. Yes. That's awesome.
Candice, I'm wearing headphones, not because
I want to hear. It's because I'm keeping the
smoke from pouring out of my ear. Because I represent
the population that has no idea of what's going
on with cryptocurrency. So I almost sat out this
interview for that reason. I was like, there
is nothing I can do. Now you're the target audience.
But I am the target audience. And for that, I
don't want to take us a step back in this interview.
But just for the people out there like me, is
there a brief summary that you can give on what
exactly is crypto and blockchain and just...
Again, I'm sorry. No, it's a great question.
I'm dumbing us down here, but do you mind doing
that for mostly for me? This is something that
actually I'm I'm very passionate about is I do
believe that this technology is going to change
the world. But I also believe that it's extremely
complicated for people and so that there needs
to be a bridge over this over this gap. You can't
expect everybody to become like, you know. A
tech nerd is, I guess. Yeah, absolutely. Lifetime
commitment. Lifetime commitment. So, I believe,
so when we're talking about blockchain and in
cryptocurrency, we can think about blockchain
as the underlying technology. Okay. Now, when
you visit a website, do you care where it's hosted?
Not at all. Do you care if the website is using
AWS? Matt does, because he's a nerd. But I don't,
I do not. I don't, I wouldn't even want to find
that. I mean that lovingly. Most people don't.
We just want the website. Yeah. Yeah. You're
just visiting a website. You don't care what
technology the website is built with. Now, when
we talk about blockchain, I believe that that
is the future. That you're going to be using
all kinds of products that use blockchain and
you won't even know it. It is just going to make
things fast, cheap, secure. It's like rebuilding
The internet and technology as we as we have
now and it's it's not just industries like payments
like when we think cryptocurrency we think currency,
but it's it's so much more than that. It's like
anything that Would be able to have a database
Would be able to to strip now. I mean, I don't
I don't personally believe that every industry
is going to change to it But but a lot will you
know the California DMV is using blockchain now
it basically Blockchain is what we call an immutable
ledger. You can't mess with it. It is super secure.
It is transparent. So if we think of like, I
guess a good example would be like a government.
If you want to be able to track government spending,
well then we can have this immutable public ledger
that you can literally see where all these payments
are going. It gets a little bit more complicated
than that because there's technologies that allow
you to have Encrypted transactions for privacy.
So you balance that depending on the application,
right? So but I guess we can just say for normal
people blockchain is technology You may use it
without even knowing that you're using it. But
just trust that it is going to change the world.
Okay, I I trust your word So I think an interesting
thing is that a lot of people have you guys dabbled
with AI at all? Oh, yeah. Yeah, very much. This
is something I think is extremely interesting.
So AI has reached, you know, the masses a lot
more quickly than than blockchain and cryptocurrency
has. I mean, not that AI hasn't been around for
a long time. It's been, you know, it's been many,
many decades in the making. But to see how it's
being supercharged now to be used in social media,
I mean, in all kinds of applications from law
to just making a funny meme, you know, it's wild,
the applications of it. So we've seen a brand
new technology being adopted by people very rapidly.
And why is that? Cause it's so easy to use. It's
easy to just type in a little thing and click,
and all of a sudden you get this cute picture.
of a lion riding a unicorn in outer space. It
could be anything. And it's also fun. So I do
believe that blockchain needs to get there. It
needs to get to a point where it's easy and fun
for people to use. That's another thing. So in
our app that we have, it's not just the payments.
Of course, payments are extremely important.
That's a problem that we think is important to
solve worldwide. For sure. Also inside of Excova,
we have an app store so that people can build
apps on top of our network. And those things
will be like games, bill pay, trading, you know,
whatever you like to do with it. So there's a
lot of blockchain games now that you don't even
know are using blockchain. Which is really wild.
So like when you win something in the game, like
you win a skin or you win a weapon or whatever
you win. It's actually like an NFT, which is
a type of token when we talk about cryptocurrency.
I get two in the weeds. No, no, it's great. No,
we love this. It is great. Yeah, I'm learning.
I've learned long ago that anytime you can get
in and talk about crypto, it actually becomes
some of the best content you can get because
there's so many people like us that just don't
understand and want to absorb as much as possible.
We very much appreciate that. I'm someone that
prides myself on, I've always been good at saving
and investing money and kind of staying on top
of that stuff. And this is kind of the one category
where I'm really lacking and I feel like I'm
missing out on some possible investments because
I don't understand it completely. So I don't
really think there is the weeds here. I think
it's really relevant. So Candice, let me ask
you a little bit kind of some some business style
questions What's what's your goal with this?
Is it to are you gonna need to raise a bunch
of capital? Is this something that you can bootstrap
or eventually sell like what's what's your goal
here? So right now we are Applying for grants.
So we've gotten so we were part of an incubator.
I don't know So the incubator that we were in
is called Codebase. It's specifically for blockchain
startups. It's like the Y Combinator. That's
awesome. Yeah. So we were in that last year and
we graduated in December. And then the company,
so now that we're graduates, we have people that
are helping us on these next stages. So we're
just heads down building, applying for grants
right now. But after that, we will need to apply
for funding. We'll definitely need funding. you
know, for this type of product. But however,
we've been able to get really far with just our
internal resources. Like we have the beta up
for people to use. The product is built. So it's
just next steps into getting it out to the masses
really. That's incredible. What is the best way
that people can participate? Is it just to go
to the beta and sign up? What should we tell
folks to do? Yeah. Yeah. So if they go to the
beta, all you need to do is just put your email
address in and it will be, and you log in and
then you can just explore the app. You can just
go and see how you would, would top up. And then
if you want to send, you know, test funds to
a friend, you just click send and then you put
your friend's email address in and it will, however
much you want, like send them a dollar and then
it will just send them. They'll get an email
that says, Hey, somebody wants to send you a
dollar. Awesome. It's so easy. Like I know I'm
talking all these like. abstraction, blockchain,
like all these complicated words. But the point
is that we're making it so that you can send
crypto with only an email address and you don't
even need to know anything about blockchain at
all. So it's easy if you go to the beta. That's
absolutely the right solution. I don't even necessarily
understand all these folks that really want people
to get into these things and they don't see that,
which is just the most obvious in any business.
Make it as easy as possible for people to do
business with you. Absolutely. And again, because
I'm a little behind the eight ball on this, is
it fair to say that you guys are kind of the
venmo of cryptocurrency? Is that what it is?
Because I don't know what it takes to... I guess
I assumed that crypto was easy to send anyway.
I didn't realize that there was kind of a hole
where it needs to be easier. Is that kind of
what's going on? Yeah, I would say Venmo PayPal
because of cryptocurrency. Like if you can use
PayPal, you can use Excalibur. I mean, if you
can use Venmo, you can use Excalibur. It's that
easy. It's just kind of a normal app. I always
assumed it was the same thing, right? It would
be very easy to do these things. And to some
degree, if you have all the pieces set up, it
can be pretty easy. But even just setting those
up, and I've messed with that. You've got to
have wallets. You've got to move things around.
You've got to be connected to the right networks
and have these different pieces. And then the
other side's got to have all the same things
for you to properly interact with them. Or you're
doing something where you've got these crazy
fees and you lose half of your money in the transaction
that your buddy doesn't even get. It's a crazy,
and if you click the wrong thing, suddenly you
fucked yourself. Exactly like she's saying. It's
almost surprising to me, and I mean this respectfully,
because it's an amazing idea. How has this not
been done? Because crypto has been out for a
bit now. No point intended. I'm surprised that
there's a hole in the market for this, which
is amazing for you. Did you have to do a lot
of research for that ahead of time, just to make
sure? Well, yes and yes and no. Um, so the, as
far as the competitors are concerned, uh, they've,
our competitors have only been around for like
two to three years. Right. Which is baby for
a company. It's an open space. Yeah. And, uh,
one of our competitors, HelioPay has only been
around for two, three years and they just sold
in January for $175 million. Wow. Yeah. So that's,
that's, uh, You're up next. Because they, as
I said, don't have the commitment to abstraction
that we do. Sure. As far as the abstraction is
concerned, there are other, like this abstract
chain, there are people who are recognizing this
now at the same time as we are that abstraction
needs to be, when I say abstraction, I mean making
it easy for everybody. Yeah. Yeah, so like hiding
the blockchain underneath it. So, I mean, I understand
people who are, because I'm the same, people
who believe blockchain will change the world
and want people to learn about it. And I've also
spent time trying to help people understand how
to use cryptocurrency in the traditional way,
like with Metamask. What Matthew said is absolutely
correct. You know, it is complicated. It's easy
to accidentally lose funds. Um, I mean, there's
so many scammers trying to steal funds, like
asking people for their, for their seed phrase,
which is a phrase that protects your password.
Yeah. Um, and even just installing it in a web
browser is difficult for a lot of people. So
we, we made it as easy as, as humanly possible.
Just put your email address in and. That's all
you need to do. There's nothing to install. There's
nothing to download. There's no learning curve.
So, but I do understand the ethos of wanting
people to learn the, the, the right way, not
the right way, the regular way, you know, because
like, you know, you want people to get excited
about this technology, but that's just unrealistic
to expect everybody to uproot their lives for
this thing. I think cryptocurrency should serve
people, like, make people's lives better and
not make people frustrated about learning this
new thing. I mean, I know there are some things
that I don't want to learn. Like, for instance,
I was at my friend's house and she had kids and
they were playing this game and they wanted me
to play it. And I didn't even know how to plug
in the console. I'm just like, here, child, here,
make this work and then I will use it. So. Um,
yeah, I mean, but, so you don't want to always
learn new technology and especially cryptocurrency
with the fact that you can lose a lot of money.
Um, you know, it, it, there's an added sense
of stress there using it. So we, we take that
away. People only got so much time. You know
what I mean? You can't, you can't expect everybody
to be on top of everything. So that's, that's
great. Uh, Candice, we're, we're running short
on time, but Before we, we dip out of here, I
gotta, I gotta just ask you, aside from crypto,
you're an author and a musician and all these
other things. Do you have time for any of those
activities while you're building this company
or is it a nose to the grind here? Oh, I would
say, uh, the, well, like I haven't done, done
music for a while. I'm kind of retired in quads
for that. But the books, yeah, I mean, I think
that it's important when you're doing something
as intense as this to have another outlet that
allows you to kind of relax and put your brain
in another direction. I really enjoy reading.
Like I read a lot for fun, not blockchain books.
I read science fiction, fantasy, you know, I
just, I enjoy losing myself in good fiction.
And so I also enjoy writing. don't have as much
time for it as I would like, but I am working
on the sequel to my first published novel, so.
Amazing. Just take one minute, tell us about
that. What is that book, what's it about, and
where can people get it? Oh, thank you. Yeah,
so it's called Mortal Tether. It is on Amazon.
It is available as a paperback, hardcover, or
ebook. It is for ages 13 and up. But so it is
really for a teenage audience, but adults really
do enjoy this book as well. Cool. It is kind
of like Stranger Things meets The Hunger Games
meets The Last of Us. OK. Post -apocalyptic.
OK. All the adults on the planet have been turned
into monsters and now kids inherit the world
and they have to remake it and survive. I like
that. I dig it. This is awesome. I dig that.
It was fun to read. That's so cool. Check that
out. And I'm guessing that's, it's actually the
one right behind you, right? As I'm, I realize
as we're talking that you just mentioned that
like, there you go. It's actually your book on
the shelf. That's so cool. Wow. I love that.
Fantastic. I love that. Candice is a, a woman
of many talents. Yes. And I'm really excited
about, about this, that, that they've got going
on. It's a pretty cool thing. One more time,
the website. I know it's beta .xcova .com. Oh,
he's got it already. I wrote it down. Am I right?
X -C -O -V -A? X -K. Oh, no. X -K -O -V -A. Beta
.xcova .com. Beta .xcova .com. I gotta ask, where
did XCOVA come from? Oh, so X, well, X... Like
the Roman numeral ten sure and Kova in Inuit
means like strength and courage and determination
love it We are a small team that is very passionate
So we knew that if we're going to succeed we
need to be ten times more Determined and courageous
than anybody else that is fantastic, and I think
we are I love that see I love that because it's
a that's like a real meaning behind that yeah
That's inspiring sometimes you ask people they're
like well my first dog was named Daisy so when
we created you And that's fine too, but this
has got some stuff behind it, you know? No, I
love it. It's a great, you get to remember that,
the mission baked into your name. I do love that.
That's pretty brilliant. It's not just a random
startup word that you threw letters at a board.
I love those. It's one of those things, now I'm
even more interested in checking it out based
on that. on that backstory of the name alone.
See? You know? I appreciate that. Thank you.
She's also a marketing genius. She didn't realize
that. She does it all. She does. She does. Candice,
it's been incredible to talk with you and catch
up. And we shouldn't make it 30 years next time.
Yeah. But I'm so excited and glad to see you.
Anything that you have along the way, you got
different things that are happening, milestones,
new versions you're releasing, whatever, hit
us up and we would love to have you on and talk
about it anytime, because it's a blast. Yeah.
That would be amazing. I appreciate you guys
so much. Thank you for having me on today. We
appreciate you. Candice Jarrett, Excova. Again,
check it out, beta .excova .com. Author, marketer.
What would your title be? CEO of Excova? How
do we? And co co -founder co -founder of Excova
there. Yes, that's it. That's it Candice. Thanks
so much for joining us And guys will be back
with more good news York in just a minute Hey
guys, welcome back to good news York and you
know, we got thinking we started this show A
while ago. Yeah idea of being good news and we
we're talking a lot of good news We've been doing
a lot of interviews and we've been you know going
crazy with that, but This is a new show. Yeah
Technically we're a news show. So we gotta talk
about some news. So we should probably do some
news. And good news. So without further ado,
we will eventually, Danny, you're gonna have
to make us like a news show jingle, you know,
it's news time, you know, whatever, don't ever,
cut that out. That's it right there, cut it,
that's the song. It's news time. There's our
soundbite. We haven't really prepared this, but
you know, fuck it, we'll do it live. Fuck it,
we'll do it live. Mike, without further ado.
Tell me, what is the good news, my friend? Well,
first of all, let's talk about what happened
over the weekend right here in Syracuse. Yeah.
That was a crazy weekend. Yeah, it was. Because
not only is it WrestleMania weekend, not in Syracuse,
but it's WrestleMania weekend. On top of that,
Metallica came to the JMA Wireless Dome and set
a record for attendance. The last time a band
or artist Had that many people at the JMA Wireless
Dome was the who back in forever ago, which actually
surprised me Because Billy Joel's played there.
Yeah, I would have assumed they had increased
capacity since those years You know, they might
have with the renovation. I'm not sure but Amazing
show. Then again, they can put, for shows, they
put people like right down in front, right? So
it's not even just the stadium seats? Yeah, there's...
The crowd on the floor, I guess you would say.
I mean, it depends on the artist, but yeah, there's
definitely... So they fit more than the bleachers.
That is actually why I think part of the reason
they did set the record is because there was
actually floor seating available. But concert,
phenomenal. And I'm gonna talk about... How are
your seats? That's the thing. I had floor seats,
and I'm 40 -something. So I was terrified. I'm
like, I don't want to get smashed around. I'm
an old dude. I just want to sit there, enjoy
the music, rock out. And here's something I didn't
take into consideration. Everybody else is your
age? Yes. I had all this anxiety about going
there. The last time I saw Metallica, I've seen
Metallica probably eight times. The last time
being in 2003. I assumed that I'm going to get
there, everyone's going to have their shirts
off and sweating and screaming and banging on
cars. That's what I used to do. And I thought,
man, this is going to be tough for me because
I'm older now. I got kids, you know. And I looked
around. To hell with the starts. I'm like, what?
Everyone's low energy. And I'm thinking, no,
the burnouts are burnt out. It's just fucking
old. The burnouts are burnt out. We're all old,
and we all just want to watch. So there was a
lot of emotions that came with it. Another thing
I did notice, and I wanted to ask you about,
Remember in the 90s, at least it was, I think
it started in the 90s, remember that whole don't
be that guy thing? Don't wear the shirt of the
band. You're wearing the shirt of the band you're
going to see. Right. Don't be that guy. That's
it. It's a line from PCU. Here's the thing. I
didn't wear my shirt for that reason. Sure. So
I wore it today. There were a lot of people wearing
Metallica shirts, and it was mostly with the
younger generation, you know, that heard Master
of Puppets on Stranger Things. So I'm wondering...
The kids that have been wearing the Metallica
t -shirts and had their chops broken because
they never actually heard Metallica. Pretty much.
They're going to earn their chops. But I guess
when I'm asking, maybe it's a poll for our listeners,
our viewers. Is that a thing now? You do wear
the shirt to the concert? Or are you not that
guy? I've always followed the ECU rule. I don't
know. Me too. But I get it, you know. And to
be fair, when I saw the Grateful Dead a couple
weeks ago, you know, everybody was wearing Grateful
Dead outfits. But to be fair, most Grateful Dead
fans only own a wardrobe of Grateful Dead outfits,
so I don't know if... Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,
hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,
hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, this past
weekend at the concert because I had floor seats
and then a buddy of ours... You wanted to sit?
Well, that and a buddy of ours messages me. He
saw that I was going to the show on Facebook.
He's a tour manager for a lot of different bands.
He's like, I got a guy that works for Live Nation.
I'm going to text him. I was like, dude, you
don't have to do that. A few minutes later, we
have a private Live Nation suite in a box. Wow.
And we get up there and the lady's like, yep,
hot food comes out at seven. Dude, I ate a hot
dog. chicken tenders, brisket sandwiches, they
had free drinks. Nice. And so I thought, I'm
gonna watch the show up here, this is more of
my speed, because again, I thought, I'm not getting
down there in the mosh pit. Fuck that. Yeah,
well, there was no mosh pit. There were a couple
mosh pits. But by the time, you know, about three,
four, five songs left, I go... I gotta go down
and experience the fluke. So I went down to the,
I double dipped. And that's why I hated who I've
become. I double dipped. I did the suite and
then I went down and I did the floor. All right.
But it was great. It was great. So without further
ado, let's get into some articles. Some stories,
some news stories I heard. This is kind of exciting.
Three Syracuse area restaurants have cracked
the top 10 in the annual battle. for burger supremacy,
including a newcomer to the local restaurant
seat. Now, here's the thing. Wait, hold on. This
is a nationwide thing? This is the nationwide
thing. In three places in Syracuse. Syracuse
.com, okay. According to them. Little bias, but
I'll hear it. But here's the thing. I have trouble
putting stock in some of these polls because,
you know, who created them? The nationwide poll
taken by people in Syracuse. Exactly. This is
actually taken by the, where is it here? Oh,
the New York Beef Council. So I feel like that's
pretty reputable. They would know. I mean. I
mean they're gonna promote New York. If they're
gonna do like the best taco joints in the nation
and they're like, and the Taco Council came up
with it, I would be like, okay, these guys kind
of know what they're doing. Fair. So the finalists
that came up, now there were burger makers in
Rochester, Utica Corning, and Port Jervis, which.
didn't even know that was a part of New York.
They have cracked the list. The top 10 finalists
selected were based on public votes, and they're
in alphabetical order. Alan Angus in Syracuse
gets - Hold on, hold on, hold on. Are they ranked?
Is this like a - Not here. This is listed in
alphabetical order. Okay, so these are just -
These are just in no particular order in no particular
order alphabetical like us the the the Syracuse
Folk we've got get smashed. We've got Alan Angus
And I'm not seeing the third on here. Where is
the third one? Probably on the next page probably
on the next page possibly No, it's not Well,
they have Ben's Fresh in Port Jervis, Brewer
Union in Brewerton, Butcher's Son in Corning.
Brewerton is the other Syracuse one. Okay, then
there you go. I didn't realize they were doing
outskirts, okay. Madison Hotel in Illion. Get
the fuck out of here. No, I'm not kidding you.
R &M in Corning. I didn't even know that place
was still open. Rooster's in Utica, and the Tapit
Bar and Grill in Rochester, as well as Wendy's
Diner in Cassville. Rooster's is great. Hold
on, back up for a second, though. The Madison
Hotel in Ilion is technically barely in Ilion.
It's in the end of the Ilion Gorge. It's borderline
Cedarville, and no one listening to this show
knows what the fuck I'm talking about. Buddy,
I don't know what you're talking about. This
is a place like in the middle of nowhere. It's
an ancient old hotel and bar, and the fact that
they are rocking and rolling and being known
for a good burger is awesome. It's not only awesome,
but it kind of gives both parties in this situation,
more credibility. Because, obviously, if they're
finding this hidden... Somebody's going out of
their way. Someone's really looking. Yeah. But
then that kind of contradicts what I was just
gonna go, which is, the best burger I've ever
had in my entire life was at the Ithaca Ale House,
as well as their wings. If you want great wings,
and the best burger... What makes the burger
so good? First of all, everything's fresh. All
the ingredients are fresh. They're thick. They're
juicy. You saw the cow off front when you pulled
up. It is just unbelievable. I don't know how
to explain it, but the Ithaca Ale House, Best
Wings and Best Birds, they're not on the list.
Do they plain broil it? They do not. All right,
tell me if you remind, and we're going to get
off this topic, but tell me if you remember this
place. You remember Lew's Dairy Isle in Mohawk
when we were kids, the ice cream place in Mohawk?
Oh, on the main street. Yeah. The only fucking
street in Mohawk. Yes, I absolutely remember
that. In the summer, that's where we go. You
remember their burgers? Did you ever eat the
burgers? Never did. Only ice cream. For as long
as I live, that'll be the standard by which I
gauge all burgers. You know what I miss? Have
you ever had TP driving? TP driving is phenomenal.
The Papa Mexican burger. And that's a different
type of burger. It is. They had the, what do
they call it? They call it the Mexican hot. The
Papa Mexican. their own blend of onions in the
ground beef. Incredible. The word on the street.
My dad was the mayor a few years back, and even
then... They have great chicken tenders, too.
Everything they had at that place was great.
Even then, they were... Shrimp baskets. Even
then, my father could not get the recipe for
the... They have a hidden recipe that nobody
can find. It's great stuff. I'm getting the rap
sign from Zanny, but... I had a couple other
news stories. Basically, Red Robin... Wrap it
up! Red Robin... Yes, kids, wrap it up. Uh, Red
Robin did a thing... In other burger news. In
other burger news, where they were giving away
a pass which cost 20 bucks. It allowed customers
to get one free burger with a bottomless side
every day in May in honor of National Burger
Month. Okay. Everyone went on, and the entire
website crashed. They melted it down. Yeah. That's
one of those things where you have like... a
promotion that works too well. So, exactly. So
people in Syracuse are boycotting Red Robin.
But Red Robin is choosing 12 of its royalty members
to get free burgers for a year and you can enter
to win by purchasing both a burger and a beverage
while logged into your account between May 1st
and May 31st. So hold on, hold on, hold on, hold
on, hold on, hold on, hold on. To protest the
fact that they couldn't buy the coupon, they're
not going to go to the restaurant. That's correct,
and that's not a protest. I couldn't agree more
that is there's no room at the inn and Clearly
then ain't gonna hurt red robin cuz they fucking
sold out exactly It didn't help red robin never
went on social media. I don't teach them. They
never apologized That's I think that's why people
are all so the website crash people spent over
an hour Trying to get this thing and they kept
getting error messages and finally they just
were like we're boycotting they haven't answered
And I'll end it on this, because again, we're
getting the wrap. They're boycotting until the
next promotion. Yeah. In June, they're back.
So a couple that are both paramedics were dining
at a place in Gettys called, where is the name
of the place? Danielas, right? Danielas. They
were just on an inn. Great steakhouse. Why is
this all about food? Well, I didn't. Were you
hungry this morning? Should I feed you breakfast
before this show? This was my cry for help. I
need breakfast. Are you hangry, buddy? I'm hangry.
I'm very hangry. I'm sorry, let's get back to
the life -saving. Yeah, I don't know why they
all had to do it. And you know what's weird?
They all had to do with burgers, pretty much.
Anyway. In this case, somebody was choking on
a burger. Yeah, so it turns out this couple.
We don't know that it was a burger he was choking
on. We do not. We can't confirm that. But this
couple was on their anniversary dinner. They're
both paramedics. They heard someone yelling,
you know, this woman's choking. They start doing
CPR. They clear the area, call 911. Ended up,
they couldn't. She passed out. And they ended
up doing chest compressions. Very scary. Come
to find out they saved her life. It was an elderly
woman. They saved her life. And she was a regular
there at the restaurant. And the restaurant owner
has been really shaken up because she's a regular.
He said they confirmed, they got a picture from
her in the hospital. She's fully recovered and
she's fine, so. I mean, I figured, look, good
news, York. What's better news than people in
Syracuse saving them? Listen, and that's, you
know, just, it's a friendly reminder. Everybody
thinks, you know, choking. You talk to your kids,
don't take big bites, things like that. Every
person of every age can easily choke on something.
It's incredibly common. And we need to just...
Sometime I'll have to read you my bucket list
on the air, because it's pretty goddamn hilarious.
You want to choke on something? No, no, no, wrong.
Opposite on my bucket list. I want to save somebody
from choked. Oh, I just I've always wanted to
do that ever since this are you sorry out fire?
Are you Red Cross certified? I was I think it
expired. Yeah, when I was in college. I had there.
No, it's it's honestly it's a great thing Honestly,
I think everybody should it sounds like I'm kind
of joking but in all honesty It is something
that everybody should do years ago I've worked
at a couple places where they've offered CPR
training and first aid training and even though
I've had it before, anytime you can take that,
do so, especially if your employer's willing
to foot the bill for it. I couldn't agree more.
The problem with me is all that training goes
out the window when something happens. I'm like,
I got it. I'm studying for the test. I nail it.
Someone starts choking. I'm like, what do we
do? I don't know. You know, take their shirt
off. Cut it. Start doing chest compressions.
Sir, you don't need to do chest compressions.
They're breathing. I just, I freak out. So I...
There's no amount of... I mean, that's something
you should probably work on. But kidding aside,
again, preparation is what gets you over those
things. That's right. You know, when you know
what to do is ingrained in you enough, even that
freak out instinct, you're gonna jump to acting.
One of my favorite quotes from my 11th grade
English teacher, fail to prepare, prepare to
fail, which is why I suck on this show. That's
like a... It's like a dad ism if I ever heard
one that isn't but anyway, that's uh, is that
the news? Is that all we got today? That's you
know, that was a start. Yeah. All right. It's
all food related, but it's a start and we'll
go over You know WrestleMania and of course the
Metallica concert throughout the week here on
Good News York. Awesome. Yeah. Awesome Thank
You Candice Jared promise Yes, thank you to our
guests. Thank you to Danny. I don't think we
any trouble I think I've ever thanked Danny on
the show. Have we ever we've had a We gotta,
you know, here's the thing. You haven't fed me.
We'll do a little live working on the show here.
I think we gotta organize some of our segments
a little more. So like we do, we'll do the news,
we'll get a nice little jingle. I know we got
the intro, right, that we don't hear. I think
we need an outro. Or maybe even just like a closing.
some sort of thing. Tagline or, you know, spay
and neuter your pets or, you know, some kind
of... Well, if it's time to... Let's do it. Because
I've been just kind of following your lead, man.
What do you think? What should we say at the
end of the show? I think we should say... If
you can't be good, be good at it. No. I don't
know. I don't know. I mean, I think... I think
it just kind of naturally happened, I think.
Don't sweat the petty stuff, and I won't finish
that. Don't fry bacon naked. Matt's peace out.
Peace out. Peace out. That's what we should do.
Don't fry bacon naked. I mean, it hurts. But
again, I think we just got to let it happen.
Daily bit of it. What if we did this? Oh, I got
a great idea. What do you got? If you're listening
to the podcast, you tell us if this is a great
or the stupidest idea I've ever had. We need
to do a Jerry Springer -style final thought.
Remember Jerry Springer Show? It's not bad. Did
you ever stick around to the last... I actually
did. ...minute of the Springer Show? The reason
I... Because that was the gold. A lot of people
skipped over that part. I always listen because
I just loved the dynamic of going from people
fighting with, like, live fish and hitting each
other over the head to now Jerry's telling you
something very serious. You've got the moral
of the story. Yeah. You know? I love that man.
It's great. By the way, did you see the documentary
on that? No. Oh, God, it's fantastic. I think
it's on Netflix. It's absolutely fantastic. Jerry
was the band. I've got one before we go. My dad
still watches the reruns of his show every day.
I had an idea. And he's like, I want to go home.
This could be... Shut the fuck up. No, no, no,
hold on. This could be an amazing idea or horrible.
What if we start proposing to the public, we'll
facilitate it, people can come here and try to
attempt... to break a Guinness Book of World
Record. We'll facilitate the filming of it, we'll
get a hold of Guinness, and we'll start like
once a month, or I don't know. I mean, this is
the most random thing you've ever come up with.
I'm not even opposed to it, but we gotta pre
-screen the... Yo, there's a whole process we
gotta talk about. We gotta be able to choose
something that we could possibly do here. I was
gonna talk about it off the air, and then I saw
Danny said rap, and I wanted to piss him off
a little bit, so I just started talking about
it. This is great. This episode is going to be
called Danny's Pissed. Danny's Pissed. Mike's
hungry. All right. This is Good News York. Happy
Monday. Mike Brindisi, Matt Mazur. We'll see
you tomorrow.