GLP-1 Drug Risks, University Hot Mic Fallout & A.I. in Schools

Ultimize. Buying GLP1 weight loss drugs online sounds cheaper, but the risk can be real and significant. A Hunter College professor gets caught on a hot mic and faces backlash. AI literacy is the newest school trend, but what does it actually teach? In Budapest, a pizzeria goes full ancient Rome. No tomatoes, no mozzarella. And the Supreme Court knocks down tariffs. Then new tariffs are added back. Anyway, all that and more today on Filtered. Welcome to Filtered with TJ Walker. Hi and welcome to Filtered. I'm your host, TJ Walker. Thanks for joining me today. Hope you had a great weekend. Hope wherever you are, you're staying warm and safe. Massive, massive snowstorms facing much of the northeast. Here in the United States we have a, by Florida standards, a brutal cold chill here. It was 48 degrees when I woke up this morning and now is only about 59 degrees midday. So hoping you stay safe and healthy. Speaking of Health, GLP1 Weight loss drugs Bought Online in the news, more Americans are getting GLP1 weight loss drugs from telehealth sites and medical spa instead of their regular doctors. The appeal is obvious. Easier access and lower prices, often through compounded versions that mimic brand name drugs. But and it's a significant but, experts warn that compounded GLP1s aren't FDA approved and typically face lighter oversight than approved products. Regulators have issued warnings to some compounders for sterility problems or for products containing less active ingredients than promised. And beyond drug quality, doctors say GLP1s work best as part of a full care plan, labs, side effect management, dose adjustments and nutrition guidance, especially because rare but serious complications can include gallbladder or pancreatic issues. The advice? Ask exactly where the drug comes from, how follow up works, and loop in your primary care doctor. Okay, before you get too carried away, don't complain and write to me that I'm a shill for the American Medical Association. Although, full disclosure, I did a training assignment for them many, many years ago, but I'm not on their payroll now. I'm not billing for doctors so they can continue to have six and seven figure incomes. That's not my point. It's really about helping you get an accurate sense of risk. Now, I'm not a medical doctor and I'm not here to give you medical advice, but I do want you to be healthy and to practice and maintain and build healthy habits. So when it comes to weight loss and GLP1 drugs, let's face it, they're the most popular thing ever in the history of weight loss, in the history of humanity. They're the most popular thing. More and more people are on it. You'd have a hard time going on any street in America with more than two or three homes where somebody isn't on a GLP one these days. Let's look at some of the facts. As I mentioned, 1 in 4 GLP1 users do not get the drug from inside a doctor's office. Now, you don't need me to remind you, but it's worth saying, just because somebody has a website and says it's a drug, they could be selling you dried dog food. They could be chopping up bark from their tree and selling it. Maybe it's not legal, but how are you going to get caught? How are they going to get caught? So I urge you, try to do some due diligence in finding a reputable supplier if you choose this drug. Now, GLP1 shortages have been declared officially by the Food and Drug Administration. These compounded drug versions of it. Different, you know, different versions of the drug, but compounded together differently in different places. Not FDA approved. Now, you could say, well, TJ supplements, vitamins are not FDA approved. Fine, but be careful. A company called Hims sold cheaper WeGovy compound briefly, but they got in all sorts of legal hot water and had to take it off the market. Some compounds mixed with B12 or NAD plus, whatever that means. If you're thinking, well, that doesn't sound bad. How do you know the FDA has sent warning letters and, you know, this is an FDA that generally doesn't seem too worried about people's health being damaged. They've sent warning letters over sterility issues from some of these GLP1s that have been sold online. A study, many studies found that there's been rampant mislabeling of GLP1 products and that you look, there's financial conflicts everywhere. Your doctor can make money. They have a conflict of interest. They want you to be healthy with the least amount of damage to you, but they like to make money. And prescribing drugs and prescribing drugs that require you to come to the office regularly and get more blood tests. Conflicts are everywhere. So I don't want to tell you, but just because there's a conflict, that means it's wrong. But a lot of people are really rushing into this and I'm not sure enough due diligence is being done on all sides of this, not just people getting the GLP1s online from shady sites or sites that don't really have any form of credentials or Certification or signs of authenticity, but even people rushing into their family doctor and demanding these drugs. So let's look at some bigger perspective here. Let's look at just the risk, where we know it's not rumor, it's not hearsay. It's literally written on the bottles that these drugs come in. It's literally written into the advertisements. The side effects, common side effects, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, abdominal pain, bloating, gas. Again, this isn't me hypothesizing. This isn't someone who's, you know, anti a particular pharmaceutical company trying to trash them. This is what the pharmaceutical companies themselves say about the side effects of these drugs. Heartburn, reduced appetite. Well, that's the one thing that is intended. So that's a good thing if you're used to eating too much and eating junk food and all sorts of other food all day long. Fatigue, dizziness, headache, injection site rejections. So these are the common side effects. Nothing unusual at all. To get those, there's other moderate risks of the GLP1s. Dehydration, and this can be from persistent vomiting and diarrhea, gallstones, gallbladder inflammation, delayed stomach emptying. You could say that's a good thing. You're less likely to want to go ahead and go ahead and eat more. But there can be problems. Muscle loss due to rapid weight loss, nutritional deficiencies, hair thinning. Now we don't need any more of that around here. Worsening reflex symptoms, low blood sugar, which is not a good thing now. So those are the moderate risk as reported by the pharmaceutical companies making GLP1. So this isn't TJ listening to hearsay or just some anti pharmaceutical crusader. This is what's on the box generally. Okay, now for serious risks from taking GLP1s again, all documented by the pharmaceutical companies who created them, tested them and are selling them. These are not as common. Let me be clear and let me be fair. Pancreatitis is a serious risk you can get from taking GLP1. Severe gallbladder disease, acute kidney injury can happen, bowel obstruction, severe gastroparesis. I don't know what that is, but it doesn't sound good. Vision changes in diabetics, thyroid C cell tumor risk, and severe allergic reactions. So there's lots and lots of risk here. There are behavioral and structured risk. The weight regain after stopping, psychological dependence on medicine, loss of lean muscle mass if you're not doing resistance training. Other risks specific to the compounded GLP1s, incorrect dosing, contamination, non sterile production out and out, counterfeit products. What if it's aspirin you're taking? There can be a lack of batch testing. There's no FDA approval process. So there are a lot of issues here. According to Dr. Amy Scheer, she told the New York times, the compounded GLP1 drugs are not approved by the FDA. According to Dr. Giuliana Simonati, who told the Times as well, this is not just about the weight. It's about improvement of health. So, yeah, some people do get improvement of health. So, yes, I am listing to you all the things you could do, get all the side effects. You know, pancreatic disease sounds horrible, but you have to balance that in life. Most things, there is a balance. And right now, if you are an obese person, there's a good chance you're going to lose 5, 10, 20, maybe 25 years out of your life because you're much more likely to die from heart. Heart attack, stroke, diabetes. There's all sorts of diseases you can get that can end your life by decades by being obese. So if you've tried everything you've tried and tried and tried and tried, I don't begrudge you or anyone trying a GLP one. But I do think that too many people rush into it without really looking at all these side effects. Because vomiting, diarrhea, kidney stones, those are painful. Look, I get it. It's hard work to turn down the dessert. It's hard work to not snack all day in America because we have tasty snacks thrust in our face all day long. It's hard work to drink water instead of delicious, tasty, sugary beverages. I get it. It is hard. But at some point, dealing with pancreatic disease and kidney stones and gallbladder issues and vomiting and diarrhea, that's hard, too. So my challenge to you is try again. I realize that different people have different metabolic rates, different health issues, different degrees of physical strength, mobility, all sorts of issues. I'm not here to tell you that, oh, it's really easy for anyone to weigh their ideal weight without a single excessive pound of fat. I'm not telling you it's easy. I'm not. What I am suggesting is that it can be really hard to manage your weight properly, especially for the rest of your life with GLP1s, if you happen to be one of the many people who have numerous side effects. And for many people, the solution, the first solution should be go to the grocery store. Forget going to restaurants, fast food restaurants, or any other kind of restaurant, just Go to the grocery store for the next three months and shop exclusively in the produce aisle and perhaps the fresh seafood and meat aisle. Forget all the sugary based products, all the highly processed products, all the products that come in boxes and bags with sugar and salt and highly processed carbohydrates put into it. Eat real food. The time you spend looking at your phone and even watching this show, which I appreciate you watching or listening on your favorite podcast platform, do it while you're out walking, do some exercise. So again, I am not your doctor and I'm not anybody's doctor, but I have eyes. And I've certainly seen pictures of what human beings look like in the United States, in Europe, in Asia, 50 years ago, 60 years ago, 70 years ago, 80 years ago, a hundred years ago. If you have eyes, you've seen people from all these cultures. And the one thing that's amazingly consistent, nobody's obese. Obesity till about 40 years ago was extraordinarily rare. We're talking about 1%, maybe. And certainly the extreme obesity, the 400, 500 pound people that you commonly see in America today simply did not exist 50 years ago. 60 years ago, 70 years ago, 80 years ago, 90 years ago. Well, why is that? Genetics, human genetics, do not change that quickly. Evolution doesn't happen that quickly. Natural selection just doesn't happen that quickly. There have been two things that have changed. We gorge ourselves with garbage food all day long. And I'm sorry, Diet Coke is a part of that. We gorge ourselves with absolute crap food. And when we're not doing that, we're sitting back staring at a screen, not moving, not exercising, not running, not playing sports, not kids out playing in the streets. Everyone is sitting, watching a screen and cramming stuff in our faces. And that's why we have an obesity epidemic. That's why GLP1 drugs are so wildly popular right now. So yes, it does solve the problem for some, but the side effects are massive. You know what the side effects are of eating healthy food? Nothing. You know what the side effects are for most people who don't have pre existing conditions when it comes to walking an extra hour a day? Nothing. The side effects are you feel better, you sleep better, those are the side effects. So I'm humbly begging you, requesting you take your weight seriously. I'm not fat shaming anyone, it's not about how you look. But weight is a huge, huge indicator of overall health. And while yes, some people of healthy weight can be unhealthy, and yes, some people who have a higher BMI can actually be in great shape, especially if they're a professional athlete. But in general, having a waist that is above about 38 inches for men and what about 2830 inches for women, having a waistline above that, having a weight that is 1020 pounds above your recommended weight is a sign of poor health and problems for your health. It's got to be taken seriously. I think it's great so many people are trying new things like GLP1s, but why not make it the second choice rather than simply stop eating garbage food and moving more? Those I think should be the first two choices. I'm TJ Walker. We've got a lot more interesting stories to come. Please stay tuned. Like what you heard. Don't let the algorithm bury us. Subscribe now@substack.com J WalkerSuccess want direct access to me live? Want to unlock bonus episodes behind the scenes takes and full access to my premium courses? Then become a member today. Just go to tjwalker.com members and choose your preferred platform, YouTube, Patreon we whatever works for you. This isn't just another subscription, it's a full access pass to the tools, coaching and content that can transform your communication and career. TJ Walker.com members I'll see you inside Hunter College Professor Hot Mic Controversy Hunter College says it will review whether abhorrent remarks by a professor violated school policies after comments were captured during a public meeting about potential school closures. At a Feb. 10 Community Education Council meeting, a student spoke in support of her school. An attendee, identified as Alison Friedman, a Hunter College associate professor attending virtually as a parent, was heard saying, quote, they're too dumb to know they're in a bad school, along with a reference widely condemned as a racist trope. Now, Friedman later said in an email statement she was trying to explain a systemic racism to her child by citing an obviously racist trope and that these abhorrent views are not my own. City and school leaders denounced the remarks, and the school's chancellor said the community deserved better. Okay, so this is an unfortunate situation that is only going to happen more and more often. I don't mean people being racist, and I don't mean to dismiss that issue. But the idea of getting quoted and being heard on a microphone for a conversation that you think is a private conversation and all of a sudden the whole world hears it. Next thing you know you're being vilified, you're being turned into a monster, fairly or unfairly, and your life, your career can be in turmoil. I'M going to look at this from a slightly different perspective. I by no means am suggesting that we should discount racism or that racism or saying racist comments isn't a serious problem. But I want to step behind this for a moment without casting any judgments for or against this woman who says she was not making racist statements, but simply sharing how others often do it with her own child. You got to be careful. Here's the problem. You're on a zoom call with a whole bunch of people. Your mic is on. You hit click, turning it off, and you look too quickly. It didn't actually go off. You clicked the wrong button. Or maybe you thought your mic was off and you clicked it thinking you're turning it on. You're not on. People can't hear you. And then you click it again. Now people can hear you, but you think you're off. It's very, very easy. Now, I've never been caught saying something horrible like that, but I have gone to the restroom before when I was still wearing a wireless microphone. Fortunately, nothing worthy of of a bad movie making fun of it or mocking it. But embarrassing things can happen in the world of microphones and these days, all of us. If you have a cell phone, you're around a microphone 24 hours a day. It doesn't mean everything you're saying is being recorded, but it increasingly is getting to the point where you've got to act like it could. Let's look at some more of the the issues surrounding this case. Again, it happened February 10th at a community Education Council meeting. The professor was identified. Allison Friedman. The student speaking was black. And so here's what she said. She said, they're too dumb to know they're in a bad school. This is after the young black student was talking about why she wanted to keep her school open. And then here's the part that really got into trouble as well. If you train a black person well enough, they know to use the back. You don't have to tell them anymore. This is in reference to a racist sentiment that you want to train black people to, I guess, come into the back of the house or the back of the factory, the back of the business. Because according to the theory of racist, they are subhuman and inferior, so they should not come in the front door. So the woman is saying, I had been trying to explain the concept of systemic racism to my child, who was in the room with me, by referencing an example of an obviously racist trope. She went on to say, my complete comments make clear these abhorrent views are not my own, nor were they directed at any student or group. I fully support these courageous students and their efforts to stop school closures. However, I recognize these comments caused harm and pain. While that was not my intent, I do truly apologize. She is apologizing. Others said somebody, a parent, interrupted her in the call and said, what you're saying is absolutely hearable here. You ought to stop. I think they realized this person did not realize she was on. Now. Other politicians who weren't there weighing in. The Manhattan borough president called it particularly despicable. The city councilman, Eric Dinowitz. These racist comments are horrendous. Hunter College as an institution has to weigh in. We stand firm in our enduring commitment to sustain an elusive educational environment. Okay, what are we to make here of all of this? I want to be clear here. I don't think we should all go through life with the idea of, wow, here's a complex subject. I want to talk about problems in society, but I'm afraid to do it with a close family member for fear that if any one sentence is taken out of context, I could be made to look like a racist or a sexist or a bigot or someone discriminatory against someone's religion. I don't think we want to get to the point where every human being feels like they're walking on coals at all times and cannot ever advance a complex argument. Because when you're dealing with complexity, sometimes you have to surface ugly ideas in order to rebut them. But if someone only hears you surfacing the idea without your context, you can be made to look like a fool. Someone can do it to me right now. It is commonly believed that Nick Fuentes says essentially that he loves Hitler. He says, I love Hitler and Hitler's great. That's obviously repugnant, and I think it's a real problem for the conservative commentariat and the Republican Party in general. Now, someone could pull just the part of what I where I said I love Hitler and show that playing again and again and again and say, whoa, look at TJ the anti Semite. He said I love Hitler. Well, yes, technically, I said it in a discussion criticizing the anti Semite who said it. Now I've got the luxury here of knowing everything I'm saying is recorded here. So if I do get criticized, I can simply divert people's attention to this whole video and exonerate myself. But most people don't have that. Most people are not thinking in advance. How do I protect myself so that no matter where anyone's standing or sitting or looking or poking at my comments, I still come out smelling like a rose. Most people are not doing that. And if they did, I think it would be harmful to. To freedom of expression. More important, it's harmful to freedom of thought. Many people miss that nuance. The reason it's important to have freedom of expression in America is if you can't express yourself, sooner or later you stop thinking new ideas. Society becomes calcified because ideas don't grow, ideas don't improve, institutions don't improve. Now you may be saying, well, that's a bit of a stretch, T.J. you're saying our institutions don't get better and this woman can say racist things at a school board meeting. No, it's. It's not a direct line. It's not that crystal clear. If you are someone who has directly experienced racism and you heard someone saying this, I don't blame you for instantly jumping to conclusions that, oh, my God, how can this woman say this? She must be awful. I don't blame you. However, if you are an institution and you are her employer, and you're going to use the heavy hand you have of hiring and firing decisions and completely making and breaking careers, I don't think you should simply look at the quote, look at the headline. Oh, we got a one day negative headline. Let's try to manage this crisis by having another headline tomorrow saying, our college fired this bad person. Because that, unfortunately, is the common reaction of institutions, whether it's Hunter College, whether it's a small community college, or whether it's an elite school. My own alma mater got into trouble with this a couple of decades ago, Duke University, because they received so much negative publicity regarding the alleged rape of a woman by Duke lacrosse players. There was a tremendous rush to judgment. The students had their academic careers just. They were kicked out of school, they were vilified, they were trashed, they were presumed guilty. And this went on for years until, oops, it came out. The woman made it all up, and it was found in a court of law where all the allegations simply were based on nothing. But Duke University apparently wanted to look good, wanted to minimize the damage, wanted to make it look like they were on the right side of power imbalances. Just went with the quick media narrative without really looking at the facts. You could say they did it. Reasons about that were good, spirited. You could make the case, but it's not how a free society should be run. So let me be clear. This woman who made these allegations or these statements may be a closet clansman. I have. Absolutely. And I'm not making that allegation. Certainly doesn't seem like someone who would be teaching at Hunter would fit that profile. But I'm willing to have an open mind. All I ask from you is really two things. When you hear a quote from someone that sounds outrageous, that sounds ridiculous. Judge them. Judge them fairly, but judge them with an open mind, the way you would want to be judged. Look at the broader context. Look at their life history. Look at what they've done with their life. Look at what they say is the reason they said it. Now, I don't personally happen to be a a teller of dirty jokes. Not saying it's a bad thing, it's just not my thing. I don't remember them. It's just not my thing. But do I think there are some people who've accomplished a tremendous amount of good in the world who've told dirty jokes? Sure do. I think they should have their entire lines ruined, their careers ruined because they did not really. We've got to look at these issues from a balanced perspective, try to figure out what's going on and then come up with some punishment that seems based on fairness. And it sounds like this woman already has had an extreme amount of pushback and at least punishment in terms of beating in the public square verbally. I'll let you know if I hear of more evidence coming out on either side to make the case whether she is this horrible racist using her position of power to oppress minorities, or she's actually a really nice, decent, good person who was legitimately trying to teach her daughter a lesson about how racists think, which I don't see how any serious person could deny that there would be some value to that. I'm T.J. walker. This is filtered where we don't try to take the easy, quick, knee jerk response to any issue in the news. Instead we dive deeper, analyze the messages and also try to come up with some personal development tips for you. I do recommend you're on any kind of a public meeting. Zoom anything where the rest of the world of people are not your best friends Listening. Be very careful with what you say. Don't assume just because the button on your screen says mute that you're actually muted. Want a shortcut to powerful communication skills? Download the TJ Walker Success Library. Five of my best selling books for only 9.95. Go to tjwalker.com books instant access. Big impact. I've had entire YouTube channels wiped out overnight. So if you enjoy this show don't lose track of me. The Safest Way is my newsletter. Substack.com J WalkerSuccess Sign up for free and you'll get exclusive commentary, live session alerts and and first access to new tools. Again, that's substack.com just search for TJ Walker or go to substack.com jwalkersuccess your direct line to everything I do AI literacy takes over schools AI literacy is rapidly spreading in schools, pushed by tech companies and reinforced by government workforce messaging about an AI driven future. In practice, AI literacy can mean learning how to prompt chatbots, verify answers, spot misinformation, and understand bias and deepfakes. One Newark, New Jersey high school is piloting an elective that treats AI like driver's ed. Are students steering the technology or is it steering them? That's the real question here. Teachers there use classroom chatbots to challenge student arguments, but they also draw bright lines. Initial critical thinking and peer discussion should stay AI free. The larger debate is unresolved. Advocates say students must learn these tools for jobs and competitiveness. Skeptics warn chatbots can make things up. Oh yeah, they can. Enabling cheating and erode reasoning. The middle ground approach Teach Use limits and ethics okay, I'm glad to see that at least some schools in America are trying to teach kids how to use AI. I understand the initial reluctance where many teachers, many administrators said, oh, it's all bad. It's just for cheating. No students allowed to use it. Can't use it in our classroom. Anyone who's caught using it is going to get an automatic F. I understand that initially, but that was kind of the same response to calculators. When the calculators came out in the 1970s, I mean, this was, this was my time that was seen as, oh, a big cheating tool. Better not ever use a calculator. These days, no one's serious involving math. No serious mathematician doesn't use calculators on a regular basis. It's an enhancement. It doesn't push the outer boundaries of new mathematical discovery, but it's an important part. It's an important tool to make things happen. Students still had to learn how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide. Similarly, I think students are going to have to use AI. Now, if you listen to the prognosticators who seem to know the most about AI, not just gadflies on the Internet, but serious researchers, the Ray Kurzwals of the world, there is a consensus that at Some point, whether it's 10 years from now, 50 or 200 years from now, AI will be so good that there will be simply no need for humans to do labor unless they want to. And yeah, maybe humans will still make a meal to show love or draw or paint for the beauty of it, but there will be AI, robots and other things to do those things as well or better. So I do think that's very serious. Nobody really knows at what point that will happen. I tend to be in the camp that it's not 100 years away, but it's probably not going to be in the next 25 years. Time will tell whether I was foolish or accurate on that. But if it is, for example, 25 or 30 years from now, then yes, students today need to learn how to use AI. The old saying goes, you're not going to be replaced by AI, but you are going to be replaced by someone who knows how to use AI. And that's why I think it is incumbent upon schools to across America and across the world to teach children and students how to use AI effectively. Let's look at some more facts on this particular case. Google's pledged $1 billion in AI training going to schools. Microsoft announced a 4 billion AI skilling effort. There's been an executive orders urging AI literacy from kindergarten up. The Labor Department here in the United states has issued AI workforce guidelines. 100 million children tried Google digital citizenship lessons. And to talk about some of these issues now, the Newark school system serves about 900 students. With this particular program, 18 students have enrolled in a new AI elective. So it's an elective now. According to Jake Baskin of the Computer Science Teachers association, students need to be able to make informed decisions about when and.