Kayal and Company

Today in Music History, hitting Led Zeppelin, Guns N’ Roses, Ozzy Osbourne, The Beatles, John Waite and The Doors. Dawn’s Big Three starts with the newest details in the Eugene Horsch investigation. We discuss how investigators believe women were drawn into contact with the Horsch home, the staggering volume of material authorities are reviewing, footage involving Nicole Fusaro, and theories investigators are examining about what may have happened to victims whose bodies have still not been found. The scale and nature of the evidence make this the most disturbing story of the morning. Dawn then turns to Mayor Cherelle Parker’s new Philadelphia Data Center Task Force, created by executive order to study proposed facilities and their potential effect on electricity, water, infrastructure, public health and neighborhoods. We debate the possible economic upside against residents’ concerns before moving to viral SEPTA videos showing people hanging from or riding on moving trains. The Big Three continues into the federal indictment of Scott Testa, who is accused of cyberstalking a Whitpain Township official and police officer and posting altered images of them and their families. We finish with Atlantic City’s Steel Pier hitting the market for $85 million and debate what a future owner might do with one of the Jersey Shore’s best-known sites. The listing does not require the property to remain an amusement park, opening the discussion to hotels, restaurants, housing and other uses.

Rich Zeoli joins us after 9 and gets pulled immediately into food. We compare pizza, hot dogs and the eating habits of our kids before discussing Helen Zoe Veit’s research on why American children have become fussier eaters. Rich, Nick and Greg compare whether they make separate meals for their kids, how school snacks undermine parents and how food delivery and phone payments change the way older kids order meals for themselves. Fight Club gives us a school-bus brawl that produces more jokes than actual fighting, before we pivot into the morning’s major artificial-intelligence discussion. Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon have recently appeared at the same gathering calling for tighter controls on advanced systems despite their huge political differences. We play Sanders’ concerns about jobs, privacy, children and human control, then debate whether Washington understands the technology well enough to regulate it. The conversation then moves from existential warnings to everyday uses: search engines, GPS, music recommendations and generated hosts. Rich discusses how artificial intelligence and data centers may become part of campaign messaging without settling the political question for listeners.

We begin the hour inside the Cut Sheet with Gavin Newsom’s fly-fishing interview with Jake Tapper. Newsom says closing beaches during the pandemic was “insane in hindsight” and says some major school districts stayed closed too long, leading us into a lengthy argument over California’s restrictions, Florida’s approach and how political leaders discuss those decisions years later. We then turn to Josh Shapiro’s CNN interview about Pennsylvania’s measles outbreak and the dispute with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over the state’s measles-associated deaths. That health discussion expands into Pennsylvania’s proposed changes to communicable and noncommunicable disease regulations, with Dawn and the crew sharply questioning what the proposal could permit. The state’s Independent Regulatory Review Commission page says the proposal expands the list of reportable diseases, infections and conditions, with public comment closing September 21. We then react to a Senate committee clip involving Mitch McConnell and a vote, before Denver City Council member Shontel Lewis discusses why she believes her 2008 theft conviction gives her firsthand knowledge of poverty as she runs for mayor. Jimmy Failla joins us and immediately turns the hour into chaos. We talk Sydney Sweeney, his son Lincoln’s first weeks at college, strange things people find satisfying and videos of people consuming absurd quantities of fast food. Then Failla tops everybody with his own tale: 12 hot dogs during a roughly two-minute-and-45-second television break, followed later by a $64 McDonald’s order featuring about 30 cheeseburgers, 40 nuggets and Grimace shakes. Before he heads out, we play part of the Tilly Norwood artificial-intelligence interview and get Failla’s take on the political panic surrounding the technology.

Dawn responds to the Big Take by putting the latest economic figures on the table, including record real median household income for 2025, a lower official poverty rate and continued consumer spending. We weigh those numbers against high borrowing costs, fuel prices and federal debt, then turn to Pennsylvania energy policy and the arguments surrounding electricity costs. The conversation becomes a comparison of positive national statistics against the expenses listeners encounter every day. Then we get some terrific news about the Kayal and Company audience: Families Behind the Badge Children’s Foundation plans to honor the team with a Community Engagement Award after our Ben to the Shore effort. We look back at the riders, the roughly $52,000 raised by our crew and, most importantly, the listeners who donate and show up for the cause. The 2026 Ben to the Shore ride takes place July 26 and supports families of fallen or critically injured first responders along with community programs. We then debate the House passage of the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act, which would require AM radio access in new passenger vehicles without an extra charge. Greg objects to a federal mandate even though the measure benefits our industry, while Nick and Dawn make the case for AM radio’s local-news and emergency role, with New Jersey serving as a major example. After the break, we turn to a wave of public apologies involving Callaway and Good Good Golf, Sydney Sweeney and Novig, Arch Manning and Holly Rowe, and criticism of the new Philadelphia arena renderings

We kick off Thursday with Singapore’s ReadSG campaign and the concept of rewarding people for spending more time reading and less time scrolling. That quickly becomes an argument over government involvement, old-fashioned books, school textbooks and, in classic Kayal and Company fashion, whether Greg should be entrusted with a Singapore cane. The opening conversation gives us plenty of laughs before Dawn turns to much heavier news. Dawn leads with the widening Eugene Horsch investigation in Philadelphia’s Olney section. We go through the women now linked to the house, the enormous collection of images and videos investigators are reviewing, the families being asked to identify loved ones and the unanswered question of where the victims may be. We also revisit the disappearance of Dulce Maria Alavez seven years later, react to Chuck Norris being excluded from the televised Emmys memorial and update the Lindenwold school fire before Phil Omquist gives us the Phillies, Eagles and Sixers news. The Big Take begins with the Federal Reserve raising its benchmark interest rate by a quarter point for the first increase since 2023. We work through Kevin Warsh’s insistence on Fed independence, President Trump’s push for lower rates, the pressure Americans still feel from borrowing costs and energy prices, and the political strain created by the Iran war and congressional inactivity. We also hear Aaron Rodgers’ broad distrust of Washington and Joe Rogan’s criticism of the continuing Iran conflict while keeping the discussion centered on what all of it means for household finances and the approaching midterms.