Episode 110 of Whatever Happened to Pizza at McDonald's?.
Episode 109
Mar 15, 2019
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Episode 109 of Whatever Happened to Pizza at McDonald's?.
Episode 108
Mar 09, 2019
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Episode 108 of Whatever Happened to Pizza at McDonald's?.
Episode 107
Mar 01, 2019
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Episode 107 of Whatever Happened to Pizza at McDonald's?.
Episode 106
Feb 16, 2019
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Brian Thompson is accused by a “grifter” of being sponsored by an employment app. With an email from Mr. M, Thompson is told about Woodrow Derenberger, a sewing machine salesman, who witnessed the UFO sighting of (self-named) Ingrid Cold. Thompson called the math homework hotline, hoping to get some help on calculating probability/average of UFO sightings. To calculate this, the math support hotline asked Thompson to get more data. Calling a 44 year old UFO report hotline that can hardly hear Brian, the only thing that is reported is that the data is reported online and it is reported there, on the website, that 128,000 UFO cases have been reported
Episode 105
Feb 08, 2019
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Says podcast no longer and never was sponsored by Ziprecruiter and title is back to previous form. Brian shares an electronic correspondence with someone from Ziprecruiter. Company became aware of the podcast’s Twitter page; Brian implies sponsorship with the Twitter username of the pod; improper use of ziprecruiter remarks in podcast logo; no affiliation exists between ziprecruiter; Brian says he left out some remarks so not as to bore the listener and for them to fall asleep at the wheel while driving. Brian reads his response; claims he discovered a pamphlet that was left on his car with Ziprecruiter offering sponsorship of his show with quarterly payments starting in 2020. Brian says he realizes this was negotiated by a bad actor and that they did not represent Ziprecruiter and Brian hopes the perpetrator will be brought to justice. Brian says another pamphlet was left claiming that they “buy cards.” Brian says he is willing to submit the pamphlet to the authorities, but that he threw away the Ziprecruiter pamphlet after a ketchup incident. Brian claims he would like to be sponsored by Ziprecruiter in the future. When Brian announced that Ziprecruiter was no longer a sponsor, he thought it maybe could have been in relation to the Panoply sponsor debacle. Brian thinks more similarities will arise as well and Panoply was driven out of business, and Ziprecruiter may meet the same fate. Brian also mentions the differences: a pamphlet was left on his car/house; says perpetrator is a copycat criminal; Brian claims many of his listeners may be bad actors that are pulling jokes on him and taking advantage of him; he thinks that through DNA he could find the suspect’s fingerprints on the pamphlet. Brian thinks his life may be in danger if he keeps pursuing his investigation. Brian says he does not have plans to end his investigation. Brian was planning on using Ziprecruiter to find his apprentice and instead put a help wanted ad in his local penny saver. Brian claims he will continue providing pro bono advertisements for other companies, but cannot do these reads himself. He understands he needs to do ad reads with his own personal spin, but asks his colleagues to join him in not personally vouching for products that may in fact be dangerous, such as a loot crate being filled with Anthrax
Episode 104
Feb 01, 2019
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Brian says he would like to apologize to M. Morganstein; recovered an article about pasta and pizza making a revival and M left a comment on the account warning that Mr. Lazarus died of mysterious circumstances; Brian said that he overlooked this and is therefore apologetic. Brian has discovered that a spokesperson for the US Postal Service won his award for “Most Outstanding Candor;” Brian apologizes to Mr. M. Brian considers Chick Fil A pickle case closed; Brian says female agent from last episode could be in front running for second “most outstanding candor” award; Brian goes on the hunt for horsemeat being found in McDonald's food. Brian found a story where some patties from Tesco and other supermarket chains contained traces of horse and pig. Brian refuses to buy anything from supermarkets since he bought a banana with a sticker on it. Rumor of McDonald's horse meat was just like a bag he found in a dump near Krispy Kreme...full of holes. Brian talks of taking on a character that may have been affected by the horse meat scare in the UK. He takes on the voice of Nigel British and calls McDonalds claiming that they have put horsemeat in their burgers. Worker says that is not true and that there are no traces of horse meat in their burgers.
Episode 103
Jan 24, 2019
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Sponsored by Ziprecruiter; Recaps about George Lazarus who talked about McDonalds maybe bringing back pizza at the turn of the 21st century. First thread any harm has befallen a “fellow journalist.” Talks about the insurance industry and not being able to use this money if he were to pass, so he begins the process of trying to find someone to be his apprentice to take over Brian’s search. Brian calls a company inquiring about their life insurance policies, who mistakenly calls him Ryan and not Brian. Brian explains how Lazarus died and in case it happens to him, he wants to know if his life insurance policy can be handed down to the next investigator in this line of questioning. Asks if the company insures undercover journalists. Brian says he is looking for a small amount of 2 or 3 million dollars. Wants to make sure they do not insure any major fast food companies. The women says they only insure Chick Fil A. Brian asks if they have ever served pizza. The woman recommends Brian try it. Woman says there are rumours that Chick Fil A puts pickle juice in their flour. Brian's pen falls. The woman asks if Brian is from North Carolina, to which Brian says he is in California and wants to get life insurance as far away as possible. Woman says has heard rumors about McDonalds including that they use horse meat. Brings up that a movie was released and says a guy left his McDonalds cheeseburger up on the dashboard and it never got old. Brian says he does not have a refrigerator. Woman says he is so interesting. She asks if she will be releasing some information. Brian tells her candidly about Lazarus dying in his search for McDonalds pizza. She says she will look into some things and give him a call back. Brian then calls Chick Fil A and asks if they use pickle juice in the flour. Kitchen staff member says they do not. Brian claims that is one mystery solved.
Episode 102
Jan 17, 2019
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Ziprecruiter presents: Whatever Happened to Pizza at McDonald’s. Brian is suffering from laryngitis, shouted at a gas station which caused it. Continued selling of pizza in Walmart was met with success, but tried to bring back to individual stores. Nation Pizza and Foods may be supplying pizzas to clients that may be the same as the McDonald’s pizza. It is against their policy to say anything about their clients. Policy was enacted 20 years ago around the end of the McDonald’s pizza program. Brian contacts the writer of the article, George Lazarus of The Chicago Tribune. Mr. Lazarus turns out to be deceased. George Lazarus passed away around the same time of the end of McDonald’s pizza went away, about a year after his article was posted. His body was found on a commuter train and his cause of death was unknown. Two of the entities involved in the McDonald’s pizza supplying have now ended up dead. Brian takes comfort in the Bible and relates how Lazarus in the Bible was resurrected, but Brian will not be able to do so with George Lazarus and instead uses the story as a metaphor for his search for McDonald’s pizza.
Episode 101
Jan 10, 2019
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Ziprecruiter presents: Whatever Happened to Pizza at McDonald’s, the IJP. Brian tells listeners that he hopes his sponsorship with Ziprecruiter will allow him to stop living in his car. He then refers to his lack of trust in his local public library because of their failure to provide him with Willow. He has been sleeping in his car outside other libraries, one of which has a microfilm archive of the Chicago Tribune paper, which contains information on the national pizza museum- a potential lead. Brian finds an article from April 1999 revealing that McDonalds pizza was supplied by the Chicago-based company Nation Pizza Products, which is still in business. He calls their HR department in an attempt to find an employee who has been with them since ‘99. He asks about their business with McDonald’s, but unfortunately, since the 90’s their policy has been not to disclose their customers, which Brian finds suspicious.
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