Witnessed: Devil in the Ditch - Fierce Rivalries: When Beliefs Clash and Rivalries Erupt

Episode Date: May 5, 2023

Fierce Rivalries is a podcast that explores the most intense and bizarre rivalries throughout history. Hosts Delta Work and Kelsey Padgett delve into the juicy details of each feud, revealing the strange and hilarious stories behind each one. From classic Hollywood stars to business wars, no rivalry is too big or too small. Tune in each week to get your fix of the wildest fights and pettiest feuds throughout history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Do you love true crime stories with twists and turns that leave you on the edge of your seat? Then you're in for a treat with fierce rivalries. Fierce rivalries is a show that dives deep into some of the most iconic and intense rivalries of all time. From Hollywood divas like Betty Davis and Joan Crawford to passionate cheermoms, this podcast explores the pettiest and most iconic rivals from pop culture and history. Just like how the Phoenix Goddess Temple claimed to offer healing through sensual touch, the rivalries on this show have an intense emotional connection that can't be ignored. Each episode of fierce rivalries delves into the psychological underpinnings of these intense relationships,

as well as the external factors that spark them. You'll learn about the rise and fall of these intense relationships, as well as the external factors that spark them. You'll learn about the rise and fall of these powerful figures and how their battles shape the world we live in today. Take a listen to a short clip from the show. Today's rivalry has everything. It's got cannibalism, cows, and Oprah, of course. I don't think there's anybody that can rival Oprah. So I'm curious as to what this is going to be because it has to be like Oprah versus

Jesus or like Oprah versus oxygen. Totally unrelated. How much do you like burgers? Hamburgers. I love hamburgers, but I'm really sort of picky in the sense that, it's so funny, I say I'm picky, I'm not that picky. I have preferences, but I generally,

if I get like a McDonald's, if I go to McDonald's, I like to have the two cheeseburger combo, but I have to have them plain. I don't want any sauce or pickles or anything on them. But if I have a gourmet burger as it is, I like all kinds of stuff on it. I hate those little onions and McDonald's. You all like those?

Get out of here, tiny onions. Well anyway, we could go off about onions. Right. But today, burgers and Oprah, all the beef industry. How many do you go? I knew this was coming. Burgers and Oprah, all the beef industry. How many do you go? I knew this was coming. So you say, oh, the beef industry,

it tells me that you're familiar. Oprah had a beef with the beef industry, but I don't remember all the intricacies. I don't remember if it was like, she was going vegan maybe? I don't know, I mean, it could be anything or she was telling people not to eat it because, you know, tell me all of it. I'm going to tell you all about it. All of it.

And I got to say there's going to be some gross meat stuff in this today. So if you don't want to hear that, this is your sign. I should say, if anybody is not familiar with Oprah, Oprah Winfrey was a daytime talk show host in her show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, ran from 1986 to 2011. At its peak, it had 42 million viewers a week. And the arrow that we're going to talk about is the mid-90s. At this time, Oprah had successfully molded her show into something different than the rest of the day time TV landscape. Instead of being like shock value TV, like you are not the father or my cousin slept with my husband

and then married my aunt. Her show became what she liked to call change your life TV. She was doing spirituality and health stuff and just like self improvement stuff to create positive change in her viewers lives. Oprah walked so goop could run. Mm-hmm.

I love the idea of constantly wanting to improve and evolve, but I feel like there's so many people that sort of regurgitate the same thing over and over. Sometimes it feels like it only applies to people who don't have like real-time problems that they're kind're dealing with. We can't all eat, pray, love, every summer. We just can't.

We should be able to find the time to do it. Right. Well, Oprah would also have topics that were serious. She'd talk about racism, sexual abuse, and addiction on the show. She really wanted her viewers to also be reading. So she started Oprah's book club. Right. Her first selection was in September 1996. The book was called The Deep End of the Ocean.

And it only had a hundred thousand copies in print. After she plugged it on her show, it sold three million more. Wow. And just like the books, every time she talked about a product on her show, that product would have increased sales. This became known as the Oprah effect. Some have even claimed that the Oprah effect gave Barack Obama one million extra votes in 2008. Oh wow, okay. Celebrity endorsements, a big deal.

True. But in 1996, the Oprah effect worked backwards. It backfired and landed Oprah in a rivalry with an entire industry, the beef industry. Boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop boop One of my favorite songs, it's all coming back to me now by Slian Dianns on the radio. Twister just came out, love that movie. Bargo, train spotting, this is the time that we're in. And on April 16th of 1996, Oprah aired an episode on food safety with a segment called dangerous foods.

Okay. And here is where we're going gonna have some gross cow stuff. One part of her episode focused on mad cow disease. Do you remember mad cow disease? I do, I do. There was always, there's always times where it's like, the mad cow disease or bird flu or obviously now COVID. Mm-hmm.

I'll just just mention those. And I'm like, I remember who I was at that time, what it was doing. Oh yeah. Yeah, so yeah, mad cow disease. Blast from the past. I'll just just mention those, and I'm like, I remember who I was at that time, what it was doing. Oh yeah. Yeah, so yeah, Medcow disease. Blast from the past. So, Medcow disease was on everybody's tongues in 1996.

Hopefully, it's not on your tongue, though, because Medcow disease is very deathly. So it is bovine, spongeborm, and cephalopathy. It's a neurodegenerative disease, meaning it wastes away the brain. You can get it as a human if you eat beef from a cow who has had mad cow disease. Right. Yeah, it's very scary because there's not a cure. All you can do is just sort of be like,

well, here we go. And also, like, you could contract it and then not have symptoms for many years, but once symptoms start, then it is most definitely fatal. So in 1996, there was an outbreak of mad cow disease in the UK. But at this time, it had caused 10 deaths. Eventually, it ended up causing 178 deaths, but at the time in 1996, it was down at 10 deaths. British ranchers.

They were destroying the cows that they had found were infected with mad cow. But the disease was continuing to spread to other cows and then there for two humans who ended up dying. It's very tragic. And they were like, well, why is this happening? Why are we still spreading this disease even though we are killing the cows that have it?

Well, there is a practice amongst farmers that goes back to the 1800s and it is that you use everything. And so if a cow is destroyed or killed, it would be rendered and then turned into a substance called imbi-im, meat and bone meal. Okay. And then MBM was used as a protein supplement in the feed for other cows. This didn't cross anyone's mind that this, wow, okay. Over as disturbing. It's so disturbing.

Cow cannibalism. Yeah. So they stop doing this in the UK once they find out that this is the cause, right? But on the Oprah show, she's telling the audience about this for the first time. She has a vegetarian animal rights activist who his name is Howard Lyman.

And he's like, if you turn just one infected cow into a protein supplement, then it can go on to infect thousands of other cows and that it would be really horrible if that happened here. Right. And it's true. In the UK, they ended up having to incinerate four million cows to stop the spread of this. Yeah.

But then Howard Lyman made some really big claims on Oprah show that it was probably already present amongst American cattle and that it could be so bad that it would make AIDS look like the common cold. That's a claim, yeah. That's quite the thing to say, right? That can be dangerous when you don't have, when you're just surmising.

Right. I don't know. It's just a very scary thing to say. And Oprah doesn't really question them on it. She's just like, wow, turns out this doesn't happen. Obviously, we're living here way past 1996. And I haven't really heard about Mad Cow in a long time. There has only ever been six cows in the US that contracted Mad Cow. The first one wasn't till 2003. So Howard Lyman, he's telling Oprah that the Mad Cow is probably already here and it's going to make everybody dead and it's so crazy and it's very shocking. And Oprah is shocked too. What she says next on the show has some huge consequences.

Oprah turns to the audience and she says, now, doesn't that concern you all a little bit hearing that? It has just stopped me cold from eating another burger. I'm stopped. If you love the twists and turns of Mystic Mother, then you're sure to be hooked on fierce rivalries. These are just a few examples of the exciting stories. Whether you're looking for drama, intrigue, or just a good laugh, fierce rivalries has

got you covered. From something else in Sony Music Entertainment, listen to fierce rivalries on Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks.