May 15, 2025

Even the Pope Gets Sent to Voicemail: Papal Pranks, AI Aging, and Swamp Swims with RFK Jr.

Show Notes
Transcript

Pope Leo XIV’s call as Supreme Pontiff goes straight to voicemail—because his brother was busy. We break down the viral sibling moment, explore a new AI that guesses your age from a selfie (sorry, Wilford Brimley), and wade into questionable waters as RFK Jr. takes his grandkids for a dip in a bacteria-infested creek. Plus: Steven Seagal's parade cameo in Russia. Yes, really.

WEBVTT

1
00:00:03.160 --> 00:00:09.720
Callaroga Shark Media from Washington, d C. Where we've been

2
00:00:09.759 --> 00:00:14.080
blowing off calls from the Pope. This is ballad, boy, you.

3
00:00:14.080 --> 00:00:16.359
Think the Pope would have a red phone like Commissioner Gordon.

4
00:00:17.239 --> 00:00:21.320
Let's hit this Hi. I'm Patrick Gutfield and Pope Leo

5
00:00:21.559 --> 00:00:25.039
formerly Robert Francis Privos from Chicago just became the most

6
00:00:25.079 --> 00:00:28.120
famous American not currently residing in the White House. And

7
00:00:28.199 --> 00:00:31.320
apparently even the Pope can't escape the classic family complaint.

8
00:00:31.679 --> 00:00:35.560
Why don't you answer your phone? John Prevost, the Pope's brother,

9
00:00:35.640 --> 00:00:37.759
was in the middle of an ap interview when a

10
00:00:37.799 --> 00:00:41.600
persistent ringing began. The reporter noticed the phone had been

11
00:00:41.600 --> 00:00:46.640
going off NonStop during the entire interview. John mentioned casually

12
00:00:46.719 --> 00:00:49.799
that it might be his brother calling, you know, the Pope.

13
00:00:49.880 --> 00:00:53.960
After realizing he'd been missing calls for two hours two hours,

14
00:00:54.240 --> 00:00:56.920
John finally picked up to hear his papal brother's first

15
00:00:56.920 --> 00:00:59.479
words as the leader of the Catholic Church, why don't

16
00:00:59.479 --> 00:01:03.520
you answer the phone? Because apparently not even divine appointment

17
00:01:03.600 --> 00:01:08.239
can prevent older brother energy. John's response was perfect. First,

18
00:01:08.599 --> 00:01:10.280
you need to know you're on the air right now.

19
00:01:11.000 --> 00:01:14.000
That's the moment when reality hits. Your brother just became

20
00:01:14.040 --> 00:01:16.480
the pope, and now the whole world is listening to

21
00:01:16.560 --> 00:01:19.799
him scold you for missing his calls. The ap cut

22
00:01:19.840 --> 00:01:22.439
the audio there, respecting that Pope Leo didn't agree to

23
00:01:22.480 --> 00:01:26.760
be interviewed, but they confirm the brothers chat like normal siblings,

24
00:01:27.879 --> 00:01:30.840
because nothing says family dynamics like getting a gentle lecture

25
00:01:30.840 --> 00:01:33.599
from your brother who happens to be the Vicar of Christ.

26
00:01:34.439 --> 00:01:37.959
Nearly one million people have watched this clip, probably because

27
00:01:38.000 --> 00:01:41.879
it's refreshing to see that even papal election doesn't change

28
00:01:41.920 --> 00:01:47.239
the fundamental laws of zibling relationships. Somewhere, mothers everywhere are

29
00:01:47.280 --> 00:01:52.680
nodding knowingly. Called for two hours already is apparently universal language.

30
00:01:53.439 --> 00:01:56.400
John promised to visit Rome soon, which is nice because

31
00:01:56.439 --> 00:01:59.000
now he can say I'm visiting my brother, the Pope,

32
00:01:59.280 --> 00:02:01.920
instead of making excuses for why he can't come to

33
00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:05.879
Sunday dinner. The whole exchange proves that no matter how

34
00:02:06.159 --> 00:02:08.800
high you rise in this world, even to the highest

35
00:02:08.840 --> 00:02:12.080
office in Christianity, your siblings will still give you grief

36
00:02:12.120 --> 00:02:16.639
about your phone etiquette. Some things transcend even papal infallibility.

37
00:02:17.439 --> 00:02:20.759
Scientists at Mass General Brigham just created an AI called

38
00:02:20.840 --> 00:02:23.800
face Age that can tell your biological age from a selfie.

39
00:02:24.360 --> 00:02:27.199
Apparently your face has been snitching on your health this

40
00:02:27.280 --> 00:02:31.680
whole time. They trained this AI using fifty nine thousand

41
00:02:31.680 --> 00:02:35.800
photos of people sixty and older from Wikipedia and IMDb.

42
00:02:36.680 --> 00:02:40.879
Nothing says cutting edge medical research like using celebrity headshots

43
00:02:40.879 --> 00:02:43.919
and whatever photos were lying around the internet. When tested

44
00:02:43.960 --> 00:02:47.199
on cancer patients, the AI determined they looked about five.

45
00:02:47.039 --> 00:02:48.879
Years older than their actual age.

46
00:02:49.360 --> 00:02:52.960
What a revelation. Sick people look older than healthy people.

47
00:02:53.719 --> 00:02:55.719
This is the kind of breakthrough you'd expect from a

48
00:02:55.719 --> 00:02:59.719
computer that just discovered the sky is blue. The researchers

49
00:02:59.719 --> 00:03:03.360
had doctors try to predict patient survival using just photos.

50
00:03:04.240 --> 00:03:07.520
Doctors will write sixty one percent of the time, basically

51
00:03:07.520 --> 00:03:11.000
a coin flip with medical degrees, but when they combined

52
00:03:11.039 --> 00:03:14.599
face age with medical information, accuracy jump to eighty percent.

53
00:03:15.479 --> 00:03:18.400
The AI turned doctors into better fortune tellers than that

54
00:03:18.479 --> 00:03:22.599
woman at the County Fair. To demonstrate, they analyzed photos

55
00:03:22.599 --> 00:03:25.439
of Paul Rudd and Wilford Brimley at age fifty.

56
00:03:26.240 --> 00:03:27.080
Face Age said.

57
00:03:27.000 --> 00:03:30.759
Rudd was biologically forty three, while Brimley was almost sixty nine.

58
00:03:31.719 --> 00:03:33.840
This explains why Rudd still looks like he could star

59
00:03:33.919 --> 00:03:36.879
in teen movies, while Brimley was already selling oatmeal like

60
00:03:36.919 --> 00:03:41.000
your friendly neighborhood grandfather. Of course, there are privacy concerns.

61
00:03:41.159 --> 00:03:44.039
Nobody wants their insurance company discovering an app that can

62
00:03:44.080 --> 00:03:47.919
diagnose you from your driver's license photo. The AI still

63
00:03:47.960 --> 00:03:52.120
needs work. It can't handle lighting, makeup, or plastic surgery. Basically,

64
00:03:52.319 --> 00:03:55.719
it's confused by everything Instagram influencers due to their faces.

65
00:03:56.479 --> 00:03:58.840
The researchers are trying to teach it the difference between

66
00:03:58.840 --> 00:04:02.560
actual aging and really good contour. They're still figuring out

67
00:04:02.599 --> 00:04:06.240
what the AI actually looks at. Turns out being bald

68
00:04:06.360 --> 00:04:09.199
or gray doesn't matter much, which is great news for

69
00:04:09.280 --> 00:04:12.240
anyone who's been coloring their roots thinking it's a health strategy.

70
00:04:12.960 --> 00:04:15.759
Face age isn't meant to replace doctors, just give them

71
00:04:15.800 --> 00:04:18.800
another tool. So now is along with asking if you

72
00:04:18.839 --> 00:04:21.879
smoke and drink, your doctor might ask for your best angle.

73
00:04:27.519 --> 00:04:30.560
Stephen Segal showed up at Putin's Victory Day parade because

74
00:04:30.600 --> 00:04:34.279
when you think celebration of military might you naturally think

75
00:04:35.199 --> 00:04:37.120
guy who needs a stunt double to get up from

76
00:04:37.160 --> 00:04:41.160
a chair. Steven's been a Putin fan since twenty sixteen.

77
00:04:40.920 --> 00:04:42.480
When he got Russian citizenship.

78
00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:46.439
He even became a Special Cultural Ambassador to promote Russian

79
00:04:46.439 --> 00:04:50.240
culture to America. And let me tell you, nothing promotes

80
00:04:50.319 --> 00:04:52.720
Russian culture quite like a guy who hasn't made a

81
00:04:52.720 --> 00:04:58.319
good movie since the Clinton administration, Health and Human.

82
00:04:58.079 --> 00:04:59.600
Services Secretary Robert F.

83
00:04:59.639 --> 00:05:03.199
Kennedy decided to celebrate Mother's Day by taking a dip

84
00:05:03.199 --> 00:05:07.319
in Rock Creek with his grandchildren. Just one small problem.

85
00:05:07.680 --> 00:05:10.439
The National Park Service has banned swimming there due to

86
00:05:10.519 --> 00:05:14.360
dangerous bacteria levels. But hey, when you're the guy who

87
00:05:14.360 --> 00:05:17.279
wrote a book challenging the idea that germs caused disease,

88
00:05:17.720 --> 00:05:21.240
a little e coal, I never heard anyone right. Kennedy

89
00:05:21.319 --> 00:05:24.639
posted photos on social media showing himself fully submerged in

90
00:05:24.680 --> 00:05:27.560
the creek, and another holding one of his grandchildren while

91
00:05:27.560 --> 00:05:31.759
the child's feet dip into the forbidden waters. The NPS

92
00:05:31.800 --> 00:05:35.439
warns that Rock Creek contains pathogens harmful to humans and pets,

93
00:05:35.839 --> 00:05:39.040
with signs basically saying please protect yourself and your pooches

94
00:05:39.040 --> 00:05:42.199
by staying on trails and out of the creek. Apparently,

95
00:05:42.279 --> 00:05:44.920
Kennedy took that as more of a suggestion than a rule.

96
00:05:45.759 --> 00:05:48.639
This is the same creek that runs past Washington, DC's

97
00:05:48.839 --> 00:05:52.319
two hundred year old sewer system. Because nothing says family

98
00:05:52.399 --> 00:05:56.839
fun like swimming downstream from ancient plumbing. The DC Water

99
00:05:56.879 --> 00:05:59.920
and Sewer Authority recently discovered a two hundred foot long

100
00:06:00.120 --> 00:06:03.199
fracture in a sewer tunnel next to Rock Creek. That's

101
00:06:03.279 --> 00:06:05.720
not just a red flag, that's a whole parade of

102
00:06:05.759 --> 00:06:06.759
red flags.

103
00:06:06.360 --> 00:06:07.560
Doing synchronized swimming.

104
00:06:08.519 --> 00:06:11.720
Kennedy captioned his post mentioning the swim with my grandchildren.

105
00:06:12.720 --> 00:06:16.199
It's touching when grandparents want to create memories with their grandkids,

106
00:06:16.480 --> 00:06:20.120
but usually those memories don't involve potential gastro intestinal distress.

107
00:06:22.120 --> 00:06:25.000
This is the same Kennedy who's made headlines for claiming

108
00:06:25.079 --> 00:06:29.079
vaccines contain aborted fetus debris and suggesting bird flu should

109
00:06:29.079 --> 00:06:30.560
be allowed to spread on farms.

110
00:06:31.360 --> 00:06:32.399
At this point, his.

111
00:06:32.399 --> 00:06:35.000
Approach to public health seems to be what's the worst

112
00:06:35.000 --> 00:06:35.680
that could happen?

113
00:06:35.920 --> 00:06:37.920
Followed immediately by doing exactly that.

114
00:06:38.839 --> 00:06:41.959
His swimstone is particularly ironic given that a top FDA

115
00:06:42.079 --> 00:06:46.480
vaccine official recently resigned, citing Kennedy's work at HHS as

116
00:06:46.480 --> 00:06:50.839
a contributing factor. The official wrote that Kennedy prefers subservient

117
00:06:50.920 --> 00:06:55.240
confirmation of his misinformation and lies over truth and transparency.

118
00:06:56.000 --> 00:06:59.360
Turns out the truth includes basic messages like don't swim

119
00:06:59.399 --> 00:07:03.240
and contaminate water. Kennedy also recently came under fire for

120
00:07:03.319 --> 00:07:06.560
comments about autism, claiming people with the condition.

121
00:07:06.399 --> 00:07:07.959
Can't live normal lives.

122
00:07:08.639 --> 00:07:11.439
His own cousins had depended an open letter basically saying

123
00:07:11.920 --> 00:07:15.160
that's not how autism works, Bobby. So here we have

124
00:07:15.199 --> 00:07:19.439
America's health secretary wading into bacteria infested water with small

125
00:07:19.560 --> 00:07:22.639
children in tow. If there's a better metaphor for his

126
00:07:22.639 --> 00:07:25.120
approach to public health, I haven't found it yet. At

127
00:07:25.199 --> 00:07:29.560
least he's consistent whether it's vaccines, bird flu or contaminated creeks.

128
00:07:29.839 --> 00:07:34.279
Kennedy's message remains the same, rules are more like guidelines, and.

129
00:07:34.279 --> 00:07:35.759
Germs are just doing their best.

130
00:07:38.079 --> 00:07:41.160
That's a wrap for this week unless Trump does something crazy,

131
00:07:41.199 --> 00:07:42.879
in which case I guess it's another weekend in the

132
00:07:42.920 --> 00:07:46.319
studio for me. Don't forget to check out White Smoke,

133
00:07:46.560 --> 00:07:49.720
our podcast about Pope Leo for for the complete opposite

134
00:07:49.800 --> 00:07:51.000
are cleverly named.

135
00:07:50.720 --> 00:07:52.879
Podcast Did He Do It? About Diddy?

136
00:07:53.759 --> 00:07:55.720
Portions of today's show were made with the help of

137
00:07:55.759 --> 00:07:56.519
American AI