Tag Archives: Defector

Frotcast Bonus: Yasha Levine on ‘Pistachio Wars’



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I did a big write up for Defector recently about California water, wildfires, The Resnicks, Yasha Levine’s ‘Pistachio Wars,’ and the Central Valley, where I grew up and live. I had a great long chat with Levine for the piece, and only a handful of quotes actually made it into the article. Luckily, through the magic of recording equipment, I actually saved the whole thing so that I could share it with you here. We talk about water rights, the Resnicks and how they got started (owners of The Wonderful Company; mostly pistachios and pomegranate juice), California’s “terra forming” system, how the Iranian Revolution impacted the American pistachio market, and much, much more.

Make sure to listen to this and see ‘Pistachio Wars‘ so that you can tell DemocRAT Gavin NewSCUM to stop hoarding all of Central California’s beautiful water, and release it so we can all grow more delicious pistachios, which definitely taste better when good old fashioned Americans grow them instead of those evil Iranians.


Frotcast 617: The Bullshit Asymmetry Economy, w/Chris Thompson



PLEASE SIGN UP ON PATREON, EVEN IF IT’S FOR FREE! Posting everything here has become a burden, and if you’re only listening to this feed you probably aren’t getting all of the episodes. Patreon dot com slash frotcast! Sign up at Patreon to listen to this and future episodes.

Hey Frotfans, (spins chair around backwards) before we get started on today’s episode, please consider donating to Matt’s sister’s GoFundMe, as she and her family unfortunately lost everything in the recent LA wildfires.

Our guest this week is Chris Thompson from Defector, who joins us to talk about his piece investigating a mysterious Chinese concrete company-turned-metaverse provider called Color Star. This one’s got everything, folks; intrigue, alleged fraud, Spanish soccer legend David Villa, press releases, former NBA point guard Mo Evans, shady middlemen, the Philadelphia 76ers, and to top it all off, Ohio. And don’t forget the documents. Oh, so many documents.

His investigation tries to answer the question: what if a company was a concrete manufacturer that also launched a metaverse product but was also, also a concrete manufacturer. Does he succeed? We’re not really sure. Just be careful of people who amass photos of themselves with celebrities, ok?

Matt also cleans out his closet, both metaphorically a la Eminem, and literally a la Matt.

Find Chris at Defector.com and nowhere else online, for the love of God. As always, thanks for listening, like, subscribe, comment, contribute to the GoFundMe and Frot on!