PBD Podcast

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FBI Wire on Newsom, Empire State Proposal & Mamdani's War on AC | PBD Podcast #827

Explore episode Jul 3, 2026

Where this was said

Jill Biden's Memoir & Spotify Manipulation: Erosion of Public Trust

At 56:20 · chapter starts 47:50

Patrick reads from a ZeroHedge story reporting that Jill Biden's memoir debuted at number one on the New York Times nonfiction list with a Dagger symbol — the paper's indicator of suspected bulk purchases — before dropping off the charts with total U.S. print sales of just 29,000. He then walks through a comparison of first lady memoir sales: Michelle Obama's Becoming sold 725,000 on day one, 2 million in 15 days, 10 million in 4 months, and 20 million total; Melania Trump's memoir moved 85,000 in its first week; Hillary Clinton sold approximately 3 million copies; Rosalynn Carter sold around 400,000. Biden's 30,000 is the bottom of the list. Vinnie argues the numbers reflect a public that was 'lied to' about Joe Biden's cognitive state and is now actively uninterested in the administration's legacy. Tom pivots to connect the book story to a parallel Spotify scandal: the platform deleted over 500,000 streams from an indie song that shot to number one on the US daily chart the same day suspicious wagers surged on prediction markets, revealing coordinated streaming fraud. Tom frames both stories as part of the same phenomenon: a systematic manipulation of public trust in rankings, charts, and polls that he argues will continue until consumers fully embrace prediction markets like Kalshi as more honest signal than manipulated media metrics.

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