21. Devil’s Advocate Special: Attorneys Debate Pop Culture, Food, Tech & Marketing

[00:00:00] Rita Richa:
Hello everyone. And thanks for joining our special edition episode of the Hot Docket Podcast, Devil’s Advocate. In this episode, we’ll be spinning a [00:00:10] wheel to select from a random set of topics, pop culture, food, tech, politics, and marketing. And within each topic, I will then read out statements. and [00:00:20] please answer if you agree or disagree.

[00:00:23] Rita Richa:
Once we get to disagreement, you both have a moment to draft a response. Have 30 seconds to lead [00:00:30] with your argument, and then we’ll go into debate mode for about 3 minutes. We’ll have the timer going, and as we are doing this, Bobby and Andrew will be [00:00:40] here as our silent judges, voting to see who will be the winner, but there will be a twist.

[00:00:46] Rita Richa:
So before we jump in, in 30 seconds or less, please [00:00:50] tell our listeners who you are and what you do so we can get started. I’ll start with you, Alex.

[00:00:55] Aleks Cuic:
My name is Alex Cuic. I’m a partner at Brown Immigration up here in Cleveland. [00:01:00] I’ve been doing this for 17 years now, almost starting 18 years. I focus primarily on removal defense and family.[00:01:10]

[00:01:10] Rita Richa:
All right, Rishi, your turn.

[00:01:12] Rishi Oza:
My name is Rishi Oza. I practice with Alex at Brown Immigration. I’m a partner down in our North Carolina office in Durham, North Carolina. [00:01:20] I do primarily employment based immigration and I like salads.

[00:01:24] Rita Richa:
You like salads. I love that fun fact. That’s really great.

[00:01:28] Aleks Cuic: [00:01:30]
Listen,

[00:01:30] Rita Richa:
we’re not ready to debate quite yet.

[00:01:32] Rita Richa:
We’ll get there. I know you’re both itching just to get started. So let’s go ahead and spin our wheel and then [00:01:40] we will let the wheel determine our fate and get going. So let’s get started.

[00:01:49] Rita Richa: [00:01:50]
Marketing. All right. So for marketing, are you ready? So first one, size matters versus the Texas hammer.

[00:01:59] Rishi Oza:
You got a Texas [00:02:00] hammer. That’s funny. I think Texas hammer is hysterical.

[00:02:04] Rita Richa:
Aggressive attorneys versus compassionate lawyers.

[00:02:09] Rishi Oza: [00:02:10]
Compassionate lawyers.

[00:02:12] Rita Richa:
Y’all are really needing to pretend like you hate each other and disagree.

[00:02:16] Rishi Oza:
Let’s get better at this, alright.

[00:02:17] Rita Richa:
Okay, uh, go bald or go [00:02:20] broke versus from underdog to top dog.

[00:02:24] Aleks Cuic:
Go bald, go broke. Underdog to top, I’ll go, I’ll take underdog to top dog, top

[00:02:29] Rita Richa: [00:02:30]
dog. Alright, we have a disagreement, here we go. Let the devil advocate game begin. So as we mentioned, you will now have to switch [00:02:40] sides.

[00:02:40] Rita Richa:
So Alex, you’re going to have to be from underdog to top dog and Rishi, you’re going to have to prepare your argument for go bald or [00:02:50] go broke. Okay. So

[00:02:52] Aleks Cuic:
in the idea of marketing.

[00:02:53] Rita Richa:
Yes. And the idea of marketing. And then I will pick one of you to start and lead with your opening [00:03:00] argument. Here we go. Writing stuff

[00:03:01] Rishi Oza:
down.

[00:03:02] Rita Richa:
He’s writing. He’s ready. He’s ready to go. All right, Alex.

[00:03:06] Aleks Cuic:
Sure, I’ll go first.

[00:03:07] Rita Richa:
You’re gonna go first. I’m gonna start the [00:03:10] timer. Ready? And go.

[00:03:12] Aleks Cuic:
Yeah, underdog to top dog is the superior marketing, uh, kind of avenue. Simply because Americans [00:03:20] love the underdog. You want the underdog to win in sports, you want them to be the top dog at the end, right?

[00:03:25] Aleks Cuic:
We’re a nation of hard workers that want to strive for the best we can. We’re always the [00:03:30] underdogs trying to fight. You always want to fight for the little guy. By far the superior. It’s what we are, inherently as Americans, we love the underdog.

[00:03:38] Rita Richa:
Alright, well [00:03:40] then, love that. Let’s go to you, Rishi. What’s your opening argument?

[00:03:44] Rishi Oza:
Well, I would say, uh, go bald or go broke. Particularly because we’re willing to lose [00:03:50] our hair because we care. We are willing to sacrifice our personal appearance for your overall success. Hair is merely just [00:04:00] a personal appearance. But your case and your success, it’s worth, it’s worth there for a lifetime.

[00:04:05] Rishi Oza:
So go ball to go broke.

[00:04:08] Rita Richa:
All right, gentlemen, [00:04:10] thank you for your opening statements. We will now begin the open debate for two minutes.

[00:04:16] Rishi Oza:
I guess I would open by saying, and the other slogan was, what was [00:04:20] it? What was Alex Williams? The better one, underdog to top dog. Underdog to top dog. Does America love a good success story?[00:04:30]

[00:04:30] Rishi Oza:
Sure they do. You know, Rudy got on the field for what, eight seconds at the end of that Notre Dame football game, but he’s not a starter. He wasn’t there the championship game. He played like eight or 10 [00:04:40] seconds. So the underdog story, sure. It’s a great story, but overall you go broke. You always hit home run.

[00:04:47] Rishi Oza:
People love home run hitters. No, no one’s going [00:04:50] for singles or doubles. Why do people go to baseball games? Because you want hitter that’s going for broke. So. You go bald, you go broke, you shave your hair off, you lay it all [00:05:00] on the line. That’s why you go broke.

[00:05:01] Aleks Cuic:
You’re probably wrong. Rudy got a movie. You know how many movies there are about guys losing their hair from working too hard?

[00:05:08] Aleks Cuic:
Zero. They don’t exist. [00:05:10] Right? Hollywood focuses on the little guy. There’s a lot more money in Hollywood for the underdog guy. Bald people? There are now a dozen. Right? You didn’t lose your hair [00:05:20] because you worked hard. You lost your hair because of genetics. Right? Underdogs win, and when they get on, when they’re on top, they make moves about it.

[00:05:26] Aleks Cuic:
Underdogs usually don’t win. Underdogs usually don’t win. But when they do, [00:05:30] when they do, you remember, when you remember, who do you remember more? The bald pitcher on the 86 Mets? Or do you remember the US Olympic team beating the Soviet Union in hockey? The underdog [00:05:40] won. That’s what you remember. You remember the bald guy.

[00:05:41] Aleks Cuic:
You go broke.

[00:05:43] Rishi Oza:
You go for broke. Every single time. You go for broke. And even if that Even if that hurts me as a person, knowing that one of [00:05:50] my, my favorite people in the world happens to be bald. But you know what? You go bald, you go bald, or you go broke. And you always go for broke. You don’t go for bald, you go for [00:06:00] broke.

[00:06:01] Rita Richa:
We are out of time. Thank you for your arguments. This was, we are ready to spin the wheel for our next segment. I wonder [00:06:10] what Bobby and Andrew will vote as our winner for that round. Okay, let’s see. [00:06:20] All right. Food. Food.

[00:06:22] Aleks Cuic:
All right.

[00:06:23] Rita Richa:
Here we go. Egg salad or tuna?

[00:06:26] Aleks Cuic:
Okay. I’m gonna, I’m gonna take, I’m gonna go. I have a tuna, like tuna

[00:06:29] Rishi Oza:
fish, like tuna salad.

[00:06:31] Rishi Oza:
You know what? I’ll take egg salad because then you got to argue it. Yeah. Done.

[00:06:35] Rita Richa:
All right, here we go. Awesome. So go ahead alex start

[00:06:42] Aleks Cuic:
i’m arguing pro egg salad

[00:06:43] Rita Richa:
Yes.

[00:06:44] Aleks Cuic:
Okay. You’re on the fence anyway. It’s not that hard. Yeah, so egg salad is superior to tuna salad for a couple reasons. Number [00:06:50] one, tuna smells, and eggs don’t smell.

[00:06:52] Aleks Cuic:
They’re hard boiled eggs that are like chopped up, right? And no matter what you do, egg salad is more versatile. You can eat it, like, you can let it sit on your [00:07:00] desk and eat it. You can’t let tuna sit at your desk. It’s just gonna smell the whole place up. It

[00:07:05] Rita Richa:
just tastes better.

[00:07:06] Rishi Oza:
Rishi, your turn. I would start off by pointing out [00:07:10] a flaw in the fact that eggs don’t smell An average person knows an egg smells bad.

[00:07:15] Rishi Oza:
You’re

[00:07:15] Aleks Cuic:
hard boiled,

[00:07:16] Rishi Oza:
it’s hard boiled. Look, tuna, the most versatile of [00:07:20] fishes, the chicken of the sea, you mix it up with mayonnaise, put some capers in there, everybody loves tuna salad. Everybody loves tuna salad. People, cats, everything. Anybody loves tuna salad. [00:07:30] So, I mean, to the extent that tuna salad is delicious on bread, it’s delicious by itself, you can put it on a salad, it has salad in it, so tuna salad is far superior than egg salad.[00:07:40]

[00:07:42] Rita Richa:
All right, gentlemen, have at it.

[00:07:44] Aleks Cuic:
Yeah, I think, number one, Rishi used the word fishes when he was explaining this, which is wrong. Number two, [00:07:50] Rishi must hate the environment. And all, because you’re, you’re just killing the tuna population where eggs are just endless, right? Eggs don’t destroy the environment, we’re killing tuna, they’re, they’re, [00:08:00] right?

[00:08:00] Aleks Cuic:
And to make, you’re so selfish that you want to kill this tuna to eat your, to eat your lunch, right? So that’s why the eggs are superior. There’s no death involved in eggs. We’re not [00:08:10] slaughtering innocent little tuna to get to, to get to your lunch plate. I’m going to stop right there.

[00:08:15] Rishi Oza:
If you’re going to break out the environmental factor of my love of a [00:08:20] certain type of food, I didn’t quit.

[00:08:21] Rishi Oza:
That’s a, that’s a weak starting point on trying to say why egg salad’s better because it’s better for the um, Tuna’s delicious! It’s just delicious. The bottom line is

[00:08:28] Aleks Cuic:
delicious.

[00:08:29] Rishi Oza: [00:08:30]
And I’m sure it’s

[00:08:30] Aleks Cuic:
delicious when the little mother tuna is being ripped away from tuna babies and they’re being slaughtered.

[00:08:35] Aleks Cuic:
Uh, and in addition to that egg salad, you can do more. You can make egg salad [00:08:40] sandwiches. You can make a tuna sandwich, right? When you can do, you can’t just eat tuna, like out of a bowl, tuna fish or tuna. That’s gross. You can’t with egg salad.

[00:08:47] Rishi Oza:
The nice thing about tuna salad, you don’t have to do much [00:08:50] prep work.

[00:08:50] Rishi Oza:
Take a can of tuna. Take it for you for the next week and a half. Whenever you want it. You can break it out. It’s it’s versatile. It’s

[00:08:58] Aleks Cuic:
it’s superior [00:09:00] Fantastic. Nothing like having mercury in your bloodstream. It’s awesome

[00:09:07] Rita Richa:
All right, we are out of time let’s move on to [00:09:10] the next one

[00:09:14] Rita Richa:
So we’re still on food. It’s a yes or no question. Ketchup makes [00:09:20] everything better. Yes or no?

[00:09:21] Aleks Cuic:
No. No.

[00:09:23] Rita Richa:
Okay. Interesting. Wow. Cold pizza is better than hot pizza. [00:09:30] No? No? Okay. Um, pineapple pizza is an abomination.

[00:09:35] Rishi Oza:
Yes.

[00:09:36] Rita Richa:
No. Here we go. [00:09:40] Let’s, now, you now have to switch. I have to

[00:09:41] Aleks Cuic:
argue pro pineapple pizza?

[00:09:43] Rita Richa:
Yes, you will.

[00:09:45] Rita Richa:
Pro pineapple pizza. And Alex will be arguing [00:09:50] anti pineapple pizza. Pineapple pizza

[00:09:52] Rishi Oza:
is terrible. Pineapple pizza is terrible because pineapples don’t belong anywhere near pizzas. Pizzas are [00:10:00] wonderful because they have three basic ingredients. Dough, sauce, and cheese. You don’t need to introduce sweetness or the juiciness of a pineapple.

[00:10:09] Rishi Oza:
Pineapples by [00:10:10] themselves are fantastic. You can have a pineapple for breakfast. You can have a pineapple for dessert. You want to put pineapple on ice cream. Those are all great, but you don’t want to mix. The nice, uh, crustiness of [00:10:20] a pizza pie, the, the savoriness of a sauce, the cheesiness of a cheese, with this kind of crap of a fruit on, uh, on a pizza.

[00:10:29] Rishi Oza:
It [00:10:30] just ruins a pizza, so you don’t want to go that route. Plenty of other, uh, uh, uh, toppings that you can include on a pizza that doesn’t have to involve pizza. Wrap it

[00:10:39] Aleks Cuic:
up, sister. [00:10:40] You’re done. No one wants to hear your opening statement. Here, here’s why pineapple pizza is great. Because you live like in like the 1950s, where everything’s the same and monotonous.

[00:10:49] Aleks Cuic:
It’s like everything’s black and [00:10:50] white. It’s 2024, man. We’ve evolved, right? And sometimes you add a guy, a little bit of sweetness, a little bit of fruit. A little bit of kind of zest to your pizza, right? Pineapples are sweet. They can, they’re [00:11:00] a good sweetness to offset the tartness of the, of the tomato sauce, right?

[00:11:05] Aleks Cuic:
They’re, they’re a little bit soft to the crunchy part of the crust. It’s a good mix. [00:11:10]

[00:11:11] Rita Richa:
All right, that’s time. So let’s start the debate. I mean,

[00:11:15] Aleks Cuic:
listen, Rishi wants to live in a world where you have three simple ingredients for pizza. [00:11:20] You have dough, tomatoes, and cheese, right? And it shows how limited he is in his taste, right?

[00:11:25] Aleks Cuic:
Where the pineapple adds so much flavor and it’s so good. It’s healthy for [00:11:30] you, right? It might push up your blood sugar a little bit, the natural sugars in the pineapple, but it’s a little bit diabetes among friends, right? You want a little bit of pineapple on your pizza, right? And you [00:11:40] want to have something different.

[00:11:41] Aleks Cuic:
Call me a traditionalist. There’s certain things that don’t need to be improved, you know, like hey, you know what old school [00:11:50] Because it’s just great by itself pizza works by itself You want to get sassy get some fancy like

[00:11:55] Rishi Oza:
types of pepperoni to put on there cool Don’t introduce fruits on there [00:12:00] Next thing you’re going to want to do is you’re going to want to put apples on there or tangerines on there Hey, why don’t we try some watermelon on there at some point?

[00:12:06] Rishi Oza:
It’s going to be like, oh cool Like why don’t we try this? Cool lookin plastic on [00:12:10] there cuz it’s gonna make the pizza look

[00:12:11] Aleks Cuic:
You know what the problem with your argument is? The whole thing You know what the underlying problem with your argument is? You know what a tomato is? It’s a fruit. The entire foundation of one of your three ingredients is a fruit.

[00:12:19] Aleks Cuic:
You [00:12:20] probably want like a

[00:12:20] Aleks Cuic:

five legged dog. At some point, like More fruit to the fruit. Leave stuff alone! Leave stuff alone! Your argument Your argument’s It’s It’s It’s a It’s just Poorly constructed. The house of cards. You’re [00:12:30] saying You’re saying Your whole thing is
More computer screens because you think it’s so much better than having a You said you can’t add fruit to pizza and tomato sauce is a fruit.

[00:12:39] Rita Richa:

All right gentlemen, that’s out of time. We are on to our next.

[00:12:44] Aleks Cuic:
Pineapple should have nothing to do with pizza, by the way. You probably like cherry.

[00:12:47] Rita Richa:
No more discussion. Out of the [00:12:50] debate, out of bounds, out of bounds. But put my flag out for that one. Where’s the football flag? Yellow flag.[00:13:00]

[00:13:00] Rita Richa:
OK, so here’s another topic within foods. Yes or no. I put salt on everything.

[00:13:08] Aleks Cuic:
No. No. [00:13:10]

[00:13:10] Rita Richa:
All right. Now we’re talking about the food when I mentioned this one. Okay. So keep it to the food. Chinese food or Japanese food.

[00:13:19] Rishi Oza:
Chinese food. [00:13:20] Japanese.

[00:13:22] Rita Richa:
So, you will now have to switch your, your,

[00:13:26] Aleks Cuic:
your arguments. I’m pro Japanese food?

[00:13:28] Aleks Cuic:
Yeah. Okay. [00:13:30]

[00:13:30] Rita Richa:
So, okay, let’s go ahead and start with Alex this time.

[00:13:34] Aleks Cuic:
Okay. I mean, Japanese food is superior to Chinese food for a variety of reasons. One is, it’s much more fresh, [00:13:40] right? You have raw, raw vegetables, raw, I mean like, high quality vegetables. Fish that only a certain type of, like it’s a certain level, like you can’t just get [00:13:50] any fish.

[00:13:50] Aleks Cuic:
You can’t get like tuna out of a can you make bad tuna salad out of. You have a really really high quality tuna, right? Japanese food tastes better. You know what else they don’t have? They don’t have fast food Japanese [00:14:00] restaurants because their food is high quality. They have fast food Chinese restaurants everywhere because it’s a poor quality food.

[00:14:04] Aleks Cuic:
It doesn’t take a lot to make it.

[00:14:07] Rita Richa:
Rishi, it’s your turn.

[00:14:09] Rishi Oza:
Call me a simple man, but if it’s a Friday night, I’m It’s been a long week and I just want to go home and I want to sit on my couch and just chill out I want some [00:14:20] General Tso’s chicken. I want it nice. I want it, I want it hot. I don’t want a bunch of clutter and crap in there.
I just, it gives me a simplicity. A [00:14:30] warmness in my heart. General Tso’s my guy. And Chinese food is ubiquitous. It operates in a piece of Americana. The Christmas story where you go to a Chinese restaurant when [00:14:40] times are tough. You don’t go hit up a Japanese restaurant and eat fancy Japanese food with chopsticks and stuff like that.You go to a Chinese restaurant, common people, it’s good food, it’s good for [00:14:50] you, it warms your soul.

[00:14:53] Rita Richa:
Thank you for your opening statement, Rishi. We will now begin the debate. Please begin.

[00:14:58] Aleks Cuic:
Chinese food is like [00:15:00] saucy and it’s messy and it’s just like there’s a If you were to take it home and eat it on a Friday night like a loser, and sit there by yourself on our couch, you know what’s gonna happen to that styrofoam?
It’s gonna melt through the styrofoam, because there’s so much sauce and just gunk and everything all over your nice fancy couch. And you don’t want that, right? Japanese food doesn’t have that. Japanese food is like pâté. [00:15:20] Eat with your hands, you have to. Eat with chopsticks, it’s nice and light. It’s fluffy, it’s unique, right?
And you know what? There’s not a Japanese little restaurant at every corner, right? Japanese food is like, you actually have to [00:15:30] go and try to get it. You have to find it, it’s so good. It’s like It’s like an albino squirrel. It’s not there for everybody, but you gotta find it. Right? Chinese food, you can find it anywhere you want.

[00:15:38] Rishi Oza

It’s funny that you [00:15:40] mention that it’s not everywhere, because if you go to every mall in America, there’s a Tokyo Express. Uh, every single place. What goes to malls? Malls here in open. Do you go to mall before [00:15:50] you go to your right? Export to the Chinese food? That’s what I’m saying. It’s everywhere.
It’s the same food. It’s not fresh. There’s no way that Japanese food is fresh. Miso. What is miso? It’s not fresh. Whatever that [00:16:00] is. Soy sauce. That’s not fresh. You know how long that fish has been sitting there that you’re eating that’s raw? A long time. So the idea that Japanese food is somehow better for [00:16:10] you, it loads up on salt.
So hopefully you do put salt on everything because in all the Japanese food that you’re eating.

[00:16:14] Rita Richa:
I mean, I guess if you know what else has, we have 30 more seconds. If anyone wants to throw a left jab or a right [00:16:20] jab. Chinese

[00:16:20] Rishi Oza:
food. All day, every day. It’s when you can get it. It’s all over the place. It’s fantastic.

[00:16:24] Rishi Oza:
It’s a common man’s food. It’s not hoity toity. It’s, it’s fantastic.

[00:16:28] Aleks Cuic:
Chinese food comes in cans at [00:16:30] Walmart. Japanese food doesn’t. Peking duck. That’s what I’m thinking about. It’s fantastic.

[00:16:33] Rita Richa:
Alright, well then, that’s time for that argument. We will move on to the next topic. Uh, [00:16:40] within the food category and see what happens.

[00:16:42] Rita Richa:
Okay, street food is a must. Yes or no?

[00:16:45] Aleks Cuic:
Yeah. Where? Yeah. But yeah.

[00:16:46] Rita Richa:
Okay. Texas barbecue is the [00:16:50] best barbecue. Disagree.

[00:16:53] Aleks Cuic:
No way.

[00:16:54] Rita Richa:
Oh, so did you both disagree? Okay, so we can’t argue it because [00:17:00] nobody chose the opposite side. All right, let’s move on to the next topic.

[00:17:08] Rita Richa:
Okay. Pop [00:17:10] culture and entertainment. This will be fun. One Seinfeld or friends.

[00:17:15] Rishi Oza:
Probably watch neither of them. I’ve never watched that. I hate Seinfeld. I’ll never see it. Oh [00:17:20] dude. Seinfeld all day long. You can have friends. I’ll take friends then. And now I can argue Seinfeld. Okay.

[00:17:27] Rita Richa:
I’ll give you guys a couple of seconds to think through your [00:17:30] All right, Alex, you may begin.

[00:17:33] Aleks Cuic:
I mean, Seinfeld is by far the superior show, right? If you’re thinking of kind of like the, the Mount [00:17:40] Rushmore of American TV, right? We have like Friends, South Park, you have the Cosby show, you have Leave it to Bieber, and then you have Seinfeld. No one’s not talking about Friends, right? [00:17:50] Friends is lame.

[00:17:51] Aleks Cuic:
All they do is sit around a coffee shop and talk, right? And they date and have sex with each other every once in a while. Horrible show. Seinfeld. Seinfeld. All right,[00:18:00]

[00:18:02] Rita Richa:
Rishi.

[00:18:03] Rishi Oza:
The irony of what Alex just said of sitting in a coffee shop and having sex with each other, both existed in Seinfeld [00:18:10] and in Friends. In Friends, you had more variety of what made Americana Americana. You had the wily ones, you had the, uh, the good looking ones, uh, [00:18:20] you had the neurotic ones, and Friends was about a, a fun, uh, apartment complex in New York Uh, where, you know, zany things happen.

[00:18:29] Rishi Oza:
So of the [00:18:30] two, uh, Friends is a superior show to Seinfeld.

[00:18:35] Rita Richa:
All right, you may begin your open debate.

[00:18:38] Aleks Cuic:
Listen, for people who’ve never [00:18:40] watched Seinfeld, and not that those people exist, right? But like the tagline, no soup for you, they all know that. What tagline do you know from Friends? I’ll have another [00:18:50] mocha, I’ll have another latte in my little, this does not, Seinfeld has crossed barriers to people, people don’t know it, people watch it, they know it.

[00:18:57] Aleks Cuic:
No one knows Friends, no one can name a character [00:19:00] on Friends, you know what they can name? They can name Seinfeld, you know why he says his name is in the title. Uh, Enterprising. Courtney Cox. You don’t know their character names. [00:19:10] What are their character names?

[00:19:13] Rishi Oza:
I don’t

[00:19:13] Aleks Cuic:
know. Jennifer Aniston. That’s her name of the show.

[00:19:16] Aleks Cuic:
But you know what I know? I know Seinfeld. Monica, Phoebe, Chandler, uh, what’s [00:19:20] the whole boy’s name? You watch it when you eat Chinese food on Friday nights? Yeah. Probably, because you know, it’s a good show. It’s a good living. So Seinfeld is the superior show. [00:19:30] If you were just to Google what is the best show on American TV, Seinfeld’s gonna always pop up.

[00:19:35] Aleks Cuic:
You know what doesn’t pop up? Friends. It just doesn’t happen. Mount Rushmore. Has six faces. The [00:19:40] six faces of friends. That’s all I’m saying. No, Mount Rushmore has four people and there’s four people in Seinfeld. There’s Kramer, the bald dude, Jerry Seinfeld, and Elton Allen. [00:19:50]

[00:19:50] Rita Richa:
That’s time. The timer saved you on that one, I think, Alex.

[00:19:54] Rita Richa:
The bald

[00:19:54] Aleks Cuic:
guy.

[00:19:55] Rishi Oza:
The bald,

[00:19:56] Aleks Cuic:
what’s his name? George. George. [00:20:00]

[00:20:01] Rita Richa:
Okay.

[00:20:01] Rishi Oza:
Go bald or go broke.

[00:20:04] Rita Richa:
Hockey is boring. Yes or no?

[00:20:07] Aleks Cuic and Rishi Oza:
No.

[00:20:09] Rita Richa:
Country music or classic rock?

[00:20:11] Aleks Cuic:
Oh, classic rock all day.

[00:20:15] Rishi Oza:
I think country music.

[00:20:16] Rita Richa:
Okay. Here we go!

[00:20:19] Aleks Cuic:
I have to say pro country [00:20:20] music? Yeah. There’s nothing more I hate than country.

[00:20:24] Rita Richa:
Yeehaw, partner!

[00:20:25] Aleks Cuic:
Cool. I mean, country music is the superior form of music, simply because classical Country [00:20:30] music has more, uh, kind of roots and ties to grassroots and kind of blues than rock does. And so country music’s older. It makes more sense, right? Country music is the everyday [00:20:40] everyday man’s music, right? You drive your pickup truck, you get your six pack of Miller Highlights, and you listen and you talk about losing your dog. Right? Classic rock doesn’t have that. Classic rock’s over the top. You have guys like [00:20:50] KISS wearing makeup. They don’t wear that on the farm. Man, on the farm we work hard, we fix art for the Ford F 150, and we listen to our mom and we have values. You don’t have that in classic rock. [00:21:00]

[00:21:00] Rita Richa:
Alright, Rishi, you’re on the floor.

[00:21:02] Rishi Oza:
Again, call me a traditionalist. I like my pizza with cheese and sauce and good dough. I like my [00:21:10] classic rock with Jimi Hendrix and, uh, you know, With Kiss, with Led Zeppelin, with the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, I mean household names. They’re, they’re the, uh, yeah, [00:21:20] they’re the Seinfeld of music. Everybody can name them and they’re all fantastic.
I mean, classic rock, classic rock ran subcountry music, walked subcountry [00:21:30] music and ran, can run. Country music is built off the backs of people that did classic rock and the blues back in the day. So to the extent that country music, which is, [00:21:40] which is wonderful with the young generation, I’m sure that’s who Alex likes hanging out with.

[00:21:43] Aleks Cuic:
But come on, classic rock is where we’re it’s at.

[00:21:45] Rita Richa:
Out of time, unfortunately. Let us [00:21:50] begin the open debate.

[00:21:51] Rishi Oza:
We’re not seriously debating classic rock versus country rock because Alex knows. I

[00:21:56] Aleks Cuic:
 You know what? It kind of goes back to the beginning of our [00:22:00] first, kind of this whole thing started. We should keep saying he’s a simple man, he’s a man of tradition, blah, blah, blah. You know what he’s not wearing? He’s not painting his face like a demon and wearing six foot [00:22:10] stilettos walking around, right? A simple man. What’s on his cowboy hat, wears blue jeans, works on a farm, respects his wife and kids, right? Respects his mama, [00:22:20] listens to Jesus, right? That’s what country music’s all about, buddy. That’s what you don’t have in classic rock. Classic rock, you have Ronnie James Dio throwing the devil horns. That’s not, that’s not the common man, right? The common man, it listens [00:22:30] to his mom and listens to God. That’s what country music’s all about. And you know what else it is? It loves America, and classic rock does it. Country music loves America.

[00:22:37] Rishi Oza:
Classic rock defines [00:22:40] Americana. Hendrix at Monterey, the, uh, Woodstock, I mean, the entire genre of like 60s and 70s, [00:22:50] even 80s music, is all based upon rock and roll, man, I mean like, and it still hits. You can go to Ormstead Closet now.

[00:22:57] Aleks Cuic:
It has to change and evolve all the time. It has no foundation. Country is a simple foundation that changes generation after generation.

[00:23:05] Rishi Oza:
You’re wrong. You know you’re wrong. I mean, classic rock blows country away. And it has, [00:23:10] because you know that these things are iconic. Some things just don’t change. The Beatles don’t change. Rolling Stones, Andrew,

[00:23:19] Aleks Cuic:
George Strait, [00:23:20] and Reba McIntyre. Who is that? I don’t know, Reba McIntyre? She sings country, right?

[00:23:30] Rishi Oza:
Good, I saw her in concert this summer.

[00:23:33] Rita Richa:
Yes, Reba, our friend Reba. Alright, next topic. [00:23:40] Sports. Related.

[00:23:41] Aleks Cuic:
Oh, here we go.

[00:23:42] Rita Richa:
Um, Buckeyes or Tar Heels?

[00:23:47] Aleks Cuic:
Come on, Tar Heels. Come on [00:23:50] now.

[00:23:53] Rita Richa:
do one inspired by my home state. Seminoles.

[00:23:59] Rishi Oza
: Oof. [00:24:00]

[00:24:00] Rita Richa:
And I don’t know if that’s in the same genre of college or NFL or whatever, but you’re going to still have to debate it.

[00:24:08] Aleks Cuic:
I’ll take the Gators. I’ll take the [00:24:10] Seminoles.

[00:24:10] Rita Richa:
All right, here we go. Rishi, I will have you set the stage for this one.

[00:24:16] Rishi Oza:
I will talk about the Florida Gators in terms of being not [00:24:20] only a preeminent public institution in terms of education, but sports wise, the Gators are awesome.

[00:24:27] Rishi Oza:
I mean, they got ball code from back in [00:24:30] the eighties and nineties, Steve Spurrier, they’re in Gainesville, their basketball team is legit. They had like back to back championships in like the mid two thousands. And [00:24:40] plus the Seminoles are terrible. I mean, even this year, they were a top five team in football.

[00:24:45] Rishi Oza:
They won two games, Kewik! They won two games against like, some weak [00:24:50] competition, so You’re talking about, uh, Gators versus Seminoles? Gators all the way, man. Just, just chomping. Chomping

[00:24:57] Aleks Cuic:
at the Seminoles.

[00:24:57] Rita Richa:
Alright!

[00:24:58] Aleks Cuic:
I thought I was arguing pro [00:25:00] Gators, but I guess I’ll take your Seminoles one, alright? Yeah, we’ll have at it.

[00:25:04] Aleks Cuic:
I guess I’ll argue the Seminoles now. Uh, the Seminoles, man. Here’s why the Seminoles are great, right? You have a [00:25:10] stadium of 80, 000 people all doing a chant, all doing kind of the Tomahawk thing, right? You know, what they do in Florida, they start going like this, they start clapping their hands like a gator, right?

[00:25:18] Aleks Cuic:
They start like, running sideways, they’re [00:25:20] trying to chase something, right? Florida State atmosphere is better, right? The city’s better. They’re down in uh, Tallahassee maybe, and wherever the gators are, right? Wherever Florida State is is a [00:25:30] better city than where Florida is at, right? Florida, the FSU colors are cooler, right?

[00:25:35] Aleks Cuic:
Maroon and gold is way cooler than orange and blue, right? Like, 1986 [00:25:40] Cavs.

[00:25:43] Rita Richa:
You may begin arguing amongst each other.

[00:25:46] Aleks Cuic:
Florida. Who’s, who’s the great Florida football players? Like, one Heisman, what, [00:25:50] Danny Warfel? Deebo. Ooh, wow, thanks. Gonna sign me up for Danny Warfel, right? Florida State, man. You have a recent national championship three years ago.

[00:25:58] Aleks Cuic:
Florida hasn’t once since I had [00:26:00] hair. That’s how long it’s been since Florida’s won a national championship, right? Florida basketball, they had a good run with Joaquim Noah where they choked in the final four two years back and back. Wow, they signed me up for that. [00:26:10] Give me Florida State, better colors, better tradition, more national championships.

[00:26:14] Aleks Cuic:
And you have Bobby Bowden, right? Was it Steve Spurrier or Bobby Bowden? Steve Spurrier won [00:26:20] the NFL and choked. Bobby Bowden kept winning. Right? Old guy, sun, wore sunglasses in the dark. It’s like Corey Hart, man. Steve Sperry was never wearing sunglasses in [00:26:30] the dark. Florida is by far a, it’s by far a

[00:26:33] Rishi Oza:
better institution all the way around.

[00:26:36] Rishi Oza:
Florida State sucks. I mean like they, they [00:26:40] genuinely suck. I’m almost sad that they’re in the ACC because I wish we could just give them away. They’re awful. The crappy school, they have a quasi bigoted [00:26:50] chant done by 80, 000 people

[00:26:52] Aleks Cuic:
and they’re not even good at the sport. At least they have a chant. You guys would be like, this is your chant.

[00:26:56] Aleks Cuic:
Everyone listen, I’m just trying to like snap your gums [00:27:00] around. I’m trying to eat like a little, like a rabbit that ran into your swamp. And, and Kewick,

[00:27:04] Rishi Oza:
you know what Vegas says, Florida is a 13 and a half point favor. That’s a [00:27:10] huge line. I mean, Florida is superior, even according to the betting odds, which I just looked up, I mean, we’re talking about the history, the history has no history, right?

[00:27:18] Rishi Oza:
Florida was good. Florida was, [00:27:20] Enjoy your, your 7 Eleven, your pineapple pizza. Yeah, have fun. Knock yourself out.

[00:27:24] Rita Richa:
All right, thank you for that argument, gentlemen. I have one [00:27:30] more that I’m just kind of inspired by from this conversation alluding to pop culture. I would love to see if you have an opposing view on it.

[00:27:38] Rita Richa:
John Cena or [00:27:40] The Rock.

[00:27:40] Aleks Cuic:
Ooh, The Rock. John Cena sucks. He’s new. I don’t know. No one knows him.

[00:27:45] Rishi Oza:
John Cena. You can have John Cena, Cuick.

[00:27:49] Rita Richa:
All right, [00:27:50] Alecks, you may begin.

[00:27:52] Aleks Cuic:
Yeah, I mean, John, if we’re gonna rank wrestlers in the history of the WWE, we have to kind of look at the time when they were dominant. John Cena [00:28:00] was dominant for an entire time.

[00:28:02] Aleks Cuic:
He was the king of the hill, right? He was a top dog in this, in this whole WWE at the time. You know who The Rock was? The Rock was like in fifth place. [00:28:10] He rocked out of compete, he was behind Stone Cold, he was behind Triple H, he was behind The Undertaker, he was behind Hollywood Hogan who was at WCW at the time, he was behind The Stinger who was at [00:28:20] WCW.

[00:28:20] Aleks Cuic:
John Cena was the top alpha dog in an entire generation of The Rock, he was like 6, he was like as good as Al Snow and Gilbert. Get out of here. [00:28:30]

[00:28:30] Rishi Oza:
Uh, well I guess a couple of points I would make, uh, in terms of, If you smell what The Rock is cooking. Uh, one, The Rock doesn’t [00:28:40] wear jean shorts. I think that by itself, kinda takes the cake.

[00:28:44] Rishi Oza:
That’s one. Two, The Rock is the people champ. He just is. He’s fundamentally the people champ. [00:28:50] Does he wear black? Spandex undies. He might, he might, but he doesn’t wear jean shorts over them. I mean, I think that by itself is critical. And on top of [00:29:00] that, in terms of post wrestling careers, it’s no question.

[00:29:03] Rishi Oza:
Yeah, John Cena might have a cameo here, a part over there. The Rock cooks, man. He’s a [00:29:10] Hollywood force. He’s a franchise by himself. You ask your grandmother who’s The Rock, she’s gonna know who The Rock is. You ask her who John Cena I don’t know, maybe he’s like the local grocery [00:29:20] store guy. I don’t know who John Cena, nobody’s heard of John Cena.

[00:29:22] Rishi Oza:
Get out of here.

[00:29:23] Rita Richa:
Hurrah. It is time to debate amongst yourselves. You

[00:29:27] Aleks Cuic:
know, for somebody who keeps going this whole day, you keep saying [00:29:30] you’re like a simple man, you pick black, tidy spandex over jorts? Man, George can, like, the superior clothing. You can put your, [00:29:40] you can put your ruler in there, you can put your hammer in your George, and you can’t, you know, you can’t put anything.

[00:29:45] Aleks Cuic:
You also can’t, you can’t put in your little black thing, multiple championships. John Cena has multiple [00:29:50] championships. He’s better than The Rock, and I actually, I think he beat The Rock when they wrestled at WrestleMania. So he’s not a superior wrestler. Yeah, of course he did, because I’m making this up.

[00:29:58] Aleks Cuic:
He totally won. And like, [00:30:00] WrestleMania 27 or something like that. Cena carried the WWE on his shoulders for a generation. The Rock was running behind [00:30:10] Undertaker and Kane, trying to get little niblets of what they’re leaving behind. Oh, Undertaker, can I have a little bit of your flagel? Whatever that thing is, because I can’t get my own, right?

[00:30:19] Aleks Cuic:
That’s where [00:30:20] he was superior. He was like the eighth guy in line.

[00:30:23] Rishi Oza:
Yeah. The Rock, by himself, carried wrestling for a decade. [00:30:30] Who was Stone Cold? Was

[00:30:32] Aleks Cuic:
he not there? Triple H not there at the time? Undertaker not there at the time? I’m telling you, he wasn’t there. John Cena wasn’t there. I thought he was like 14!

[00:30:38] Aleks Cuic:
He was 14! You [00:30:40] know where The Rock wasn’t? You know when John Cena was winning by himself? He wasn’t coming back in the ring. You know why? He was scared to go back in there. Nah. Alright,

[00:30:47] Rita Richa:
we are out of time, unfortunately. [00:30:50] Whitney Houston or Celine Dion?

[00:30:53] Aleks Cuic:
They both suck. Whitney, man, come on. I’ll take Whitney.

[00:30:57] Aleks Cuic:
I’m gonna debate this. They’re both horrible. [00:31:00] I’ll take Celine Dion. I’ll take Celine Dion too.

[00:31:03] Rita Richa:
Alright. Here we go. Rishi, you may begin.

[00:31:07] Rishi Oza:
Look, Celine Dion. [00:31:10] Is amazing. She’s what? She’s Canadian. Uh, she’s sang that epic Titanic song. She, uh, she was amazing earlier this [00:31:20] year, even though she has like that crazy disease girl, girl’s got pipes on her man.

[00:31:24] Rishi Oza:
Like Celine Dion can, can rock. And, and I will say she’s been doing it for a while. Like [00:31:30] Celine’s been in there for like 30 years. Whitney, God rest her soul. Uh, was only in the game for like 10, 12 years. She was there for a pretty short period [00:31:40] of time. So Celine Dion got her on just Longevity.

[00:31:44] Rita Richa:
All right, Alex, your turn.

[00:31:46] Aleks Cuic:
Yeah. I mean, we’re going to talk about Longevity here. I mean, he was just arguing how [00:31:50] great Jimi Hendrix was in classic rock. He had a four year career, right? So let’s kind of forget about Longevity. Listen, Whitney Houston. Here’s the bodyguard, right? In addition to being a singer. She. [00:32:00] She was the head of one of the greatest movies of all time.

[00:32:02] Aleks Cuic:
A love story that you could only wish you could experience. But not only that, think about the National Anthem, right? When you think of National Anthems at the [00:32:10] Super Bowl, when you think of Whitney Houston’s rendition at the Rose Bowl in 1988, where she just took, brought people to their, I still cry to this day thinking about her [00:32:20] rendition of the National Anthem, right?

[00:32:21] Aleks Cuic:
Celine Dion, you know why she didn’t sing the National Anthem? Because she’s Canadian, she’s not American. I mean, the one thing that

[00:32:29] Rishi Oza:
I will say [00:32:30] that Celine Dion has that Whitney, uh, One thing Whitney had that Celine didn’t have was a raging drug addict. Uh, you know, Celine Dion has been a, uh, a [00:32:40] model, uh, person for, uh, for people growing up.

[00:32:43] Rishi Oza:
Whitney, again, hey, you got me on the National Anthem. It was an amazing National Anthem. She had, like, the jogger suit on and everything, but Celine [00:32:50] Dion, man, she’s like a, she’s, she’s an icon, even if she’s not an American, global icon.

[00:32:54] Aleks Cuic:
You want to also know another thing she didn’t have? The ability to control Bobby Brown.

[00:32:58] Aleks Cuic:
But when Whitney Houston did, she [00:33:00] controlled him. And you know what she did? She was married to him and she controlled him. Even when Celine Dion didn’t, she didn’t marry, she married like her co producer and killed that co producer. Whitney Houston, people, [00:33:10] no one’s gonna, no one, Celine Dion walked down the street right now and nobody would notice her.

[00:33:14] Aleks Cuic:
When Whitney Houston did, people would be like, Oh my god, she’s alive, and they would notice her.

[00:33:19] Rishi Oza:
Oh my god, [00:33:20] you died ten years ago, but somehow you’re walking down the street. Yeah, what do

[00:33:22] Aleks Cuic:
you

[00:33:22] Rishi Oza:
want to say?

[00:33:24] Aleks Cuic:
Actually, the better voice.

[00:33:25] Rishi Oza:
Anyone

[00:33:26] Aleks Cuic:
else? She’s American.

[00:33:29] Rita Richa:
Okay, well, [00:33:30] that was Devil’s Advocate. Thank you so much to the both of you for joining us.

[00:33:37] Rita Richa:
Um, make sure to tune in [00:33:40] to the live version where you can hear Bobby and Andrew’s remarks, and we appreciate you guys for being [00:33:50] on.