590 Cigar News, Reviews & Industry Talk | Cigar Hustlers
Episode Summary
Episode 590 of A Cigar Hustler's Podcast finds Mike the King and engineer Phil joined in the co-host seat by Oliver of United Cigars for a loose, unfiltered news-and-industry hangout. The first half is pure off-the-rails talk radio: the Florida Python Challenge (280 Burmese pythons removed, with one hunter, Tom Rahill, taking 96), Howard Stern's dismissed hostile work environment lawsuit from a former personal assistant, a second beaver attack at a Maryland state park, and a heavily debated Louisiana case in which a father lured and shot a man who had been messaging his 11-year-old daughter on TikTok. Along the way there's listener mail from The Lounge, the ongoing charity auction for Oliver's signature masks, and CHPod swag talk.
The cigar news block covers Casa Carrillo bringing back La Historia Silk in a second batch — a 6x52 Toro with an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper, Nicaraguan binder, and a filler blend including Pennsylvania broadleaf, Dominican La Canela, Mexican San Andrés and Dominican Pelo de Oro — now with proceeds benefiting Dress for Success Miami. That leads to a genuinely good conversation about whether Ernesto Perez-Carrillo gets enough credit next to Fuente, Padrón, AJ Fernandez and Litto Gomez, with the crew pointing back to the original La Gloria Cubana Serie R and the Wavell as career-defining cigars, plus the back-to-back Cigar of the Year wins for Pledge and Encore. They also cover Apostate Cigars shipping The Lost Pages, a $1.45 machine-made cigarillo with a Brazilian Arapiraca wrapper built from the chopped remnants of all eight core blends, and the Mormon-culture origin of the Apostate brand name.
The industry segment digs into Pöschl Cigars' new online retailer portal — real-time inventory, order history, backorder tracking and notifications — built by Oliver himself, with Mike Palmer handling national sales. Oliver explains how being on both the retail and brand sides (via Two Guys Smoke Shop and David Garofalo) exposed the follow-up and backorder gaps he set out to fix, and why little touches like automated notifications and a sales dashboard actually move the needle.
The show closes with "What's the Score?", where Phil nails an 87 on Brooks Whittington's half wheel review of the Lure The Wahoo The Kingfish (Mexican San Andrés wrapper, Estelí binder, Estelí and Jalapa filler, $16, 250 bundles), and Oliver plugs what's next from United Cigars: the Byron Tribute four-tube set spanning the different centuries and the 1850, the Independence Robusto and Toro at $10.50 and $11, the Firecracker Independence 12-count tin that converts into an ashtray, a Rehuso Toro in September, and the Bandolero Firecracker — a blend of the A and C Bandolero that he calls the best Firecracker they've ever done.
In This Episode
- 01Lounge comments, mask auction and CHPod swagListener comments from chpod.com and YouTube, plus the ongoing auction for Oliver's listener-made masks sitting at $26.
- 02Florida Python Challenge results280 invasive Burmese pythons removed in 10 days, one hunter taking 96, and a 16-foot 5-inch giant from Everglades National Park.
- 03Howard Stern wins hostile work environment suitA New York judge dismisses a former personal assistant's claims against Howard and Beth Stern in their entirety.
- 04Beaver attacks and a Louisiana father's shootingA second beaver bite at a Maryland state park, then a heated debate over a dad who lured and shot a man messaging his 11-year-old daughter.
- 05Casa Carrillo's second batch of La Historia SilkFull blend disclosure on the 6x52 Toro, $165 boxes of 10, and proceeds benefiting Dress for Success Miami.
- 06Does Ernesto Perez-Carrillo get enough credit?The crew argues E.P. Carrillo belongs alongside Fuente, Padrón and AJ Fernandez, citing La Gloria Cubana Serie R, the Wavell, Pledge and Encore.
- 07Apostate Cigars ships The Lost PagesA 4x20 machine-made cigarillo at $1.45 using Brazilian Arapiraca wrapper and remnants of all eight core Apostate blends.
- 08Pöschl Cigars launches a retailer portalOliver walks through the 24/7 ordering, inventory, backorder and dashboard features he built for retail partners.
- 09What's the Score: Lure The Wahoo The KingfishPhil and Oliver guess the half wheel score on Brooks Whittington's review of the limited Nicaraguan Lure release.
- 10What's next from United CigarsByron Tribute set, Independence Robusto and Toro, the Firecracker Independence ashtray tin, Rehuso Toro and the Bandolero Firecracker.
Brands & Cigars Discussed
Linked items are in our shop. Mentions without a link aren’t currently stocked or couldn’t be matched with confidence.
Transcript
All right, now sit back, relax, and here I come. That's probably going to be a bad thing to say. Two, here we go. Ah, I'm so nervous.
Welcome to a Cigar Hustles podcast where the cigars are premium, the opinions are unfiltered, and the conversations have no boundaries. I'm your host, Mike the King. In the co-host seat we have, insert name, Oliver Novell with United Cigars. We have Mr.
Oliver, my dear friend, United Cigars, and the man from the new movie, Oh, God, I'm launching my rocket, our engineer, Phil McGuffey. Hello. How'd that movie go? I'm sure it'll be a hit.
You think it'll be a hit? Yeah. It's well-received? Yeah.
Is it like Tom Holland, billionaire money, or what? Yeah, crazy thing is, is I actually have a British accent. I just fake it on this show. You do?
Yeah. I knew that about you. I can see that. You know what's creepy is that when you just have one eye showing, when you turn, it's like a profile, and it shows through the mask, and it's just, it's wild.
It's okay, Oliver, we just all accept it, and just do the show, and don't talk about the mask. Whether it's cigars, sports, business, current events, pop culture, or the craziest stories making headlines, if it's worth talking about, we're talking about it. No scripts, no safe spaces, just honest conversation, big laughs, and the kind of show that can go from premium cigars, Mike Sincere, The Cigar Hustlers Podcast. Mike Sincere, The Cigar Hustlers Podcast.
Mike Sincere, The Cigar Hustlers Podcast. Mike Sincere, The Cigar Hustlers Podcast. Mike Sincere, The Cigar Hustlers Podcast. Mike Sincere, The Cigar Hustlers Podcast.
Mike Sincere, The Cigar Hustlers Podcast. Mike Sincere, The Cigar Hustlers Podcast. Mike Sincere, The Cigar Hustlers Podcast. Mike Sincere, The Cigar Hustlers Podcast.
Mike Sincere, The Cigar Hustlers Podcast. Mike Sincere, The Cigar Hustlers Podcast Podcast. I haven't seen these prompts yet. So just for the record, spell check.
I'm like, oh, nope, that's wrong. So settle in and welcome back to a Cigar Hustlers podcast. Yeah. On today's show, well, that's one less snake to worry about.
Howard Stern says, "Can't believe that beaver bit me. " And then in cigars, they buy women clothes? Well, what else were we gonna do with the scraps? And finally, an announcement from Poschick Cigars.
Oh! But first, Phil, how do we get some of that CHPod swag? Let me see how you screw this up, again. Come on.
Did somebody send me the thing? No, I don't know. Am I supposed to read that? How do you not know?
All right, fellas, this is what you do. com, you're gonna buy one, get one, 40% off. Gunks for fire. And we get free shipping if it's over $100.
Check out a lot online. And right now we have the Wings Hazars. Yeah, Wings Hazars. Wings Hazars.
You're the prettiest unicorn. Is it a shirt or a hat? It's a shirt. Oh, my God.
It's a shirt. You're going to get it. You should definitely look at it. And back to Mikey.
S. There's nothing in India. So that is a key point I think you should share with the audience. You're American.
We're American. He threw it through. Yeah, it's all-American-made. It's all-American.
Yeah. First of all, like and subscribe wherever you're listening to this show. Kind of missed that one, buddy. You didn't give me the thing.
Yeah, I mean, you hear that five days a week. It's his first show. It's his first time. He's a little nervous.
Yeah, yeah. com for CHPod swag. com, a Cigar Hustlers podcast where we talk shit about Oliver, but he can't hear it. I mean, where we don't...
Long-time listener, first-time caller. Yeah. Are you a subscriber, Oliver? No.
To the podcast? To the Patreon. Leave Oliver alone. I didn't...
Well, I don't know. I thought he said he was a long-time subscriber. I didn't know. I've already attacked him.
Oh, did you? Yeah. Damn it. I feel threatened.
He's like, hey, I'll come on the pod. I'm like, all right. com, we got one, it says, from iHeartBDP, "Soldiers, really? ".
Wow. Yeah, so that was in regards to a particular brand that just made a new cigar, and obviously that iHeartBDP is attacking that brand a little bit. Yeah. Which is totally fair.
We get it. We understand it. It makes sense to me. People do bad things sometimes, and we like to make fun of it.
Highlight that. Yeah. Yeah. Somebody has to expose.
Or discuss, right? It's not even highlighting, 'cause they like it highlighted, but you have to discuss it and figure out what it all means. Well, yeah, there's a significant difference between just kind of like reading the news or saying something out loud, and then, you know, exposing a person for you think they're wrongdoing now. You're like the TMZ of podcasting.
I guess. Oh, thank you. But I think that the wrongdoing can be, like we all make mistakes, right? Like there's that aspect of it where you could say, "Hey, you're my friend and you're screwing up," and bring it to their attention and everybody else's.
" Right. So, some comments from the show on our YouTube page. Did we ever figure out the lounge situation, by the way? Uh, as far as the winner?
No, no, no, we, we figured out the winner, but, um, you said something about, like, it's not posting, it's like one back or something like that. Oh, and you know what, dude, I honestly, well, it looks like it's up to date now. It's up to date. Yeah.
There's something that happens on the weekends, I have to figure that out. Michael Z. Cigar Guy says, Beaver Podcast. Oh, I want to see the be-real after that comment.
There's definitely some, yeah, we had to crop a couple things out of that last episode. For sure. For sure. Well, there's another beaver thing in today's show, so great.
Yeah, there is another, yeah, that's true. Beaver's for everybody. Yeah, and I don't read the prompt, I have no idea what's on this. This is all Palmer's algorithm.
Algorithm. Yeah. Yeah. Our fearless leader.
Right. @CW6383 says, "We need a new BDP. " I could totally make that shirt. Oh, the thirst trap.
With his image. But do you think it'd be better as a hat, or do you think it'd be better as a shirt? A shirt. Yeah?
Yeah. I mean, what are you gonna do with a hat? Like, boobies or something on it? No, no.
I got the image of him going like this with the rag. Oh, a shirt. You think it should be a shirt? You think it should be a shirt?
Yeah, you should put like a bandana on them like Tupac. I was just going to take the legit image. Oh, you could do that. Yeah.
Did you see this image? You probably haven't seen this image. You're going to. I'm going to send you this image right now.
I like it. I'm going to send you this image right now so you can see it. Because it's pretty good, dude. You're going to love it.
And then you can send it to him later. And that would even make him more happy. He did a video. Here you go.
There you go. He did a video, and it's like him cutting, after he's done cutting the grass, and like he wipes his neck like it's, you know, this whole thing. It was in slow-mo in black and white. Yeah, and it was up for like 20 seconds, but 20 seconds was more than enough time for me to screen record the entire video.
That is great. It is absolutely epic. Yeah, he thought it was a good idea at first, and then realized what type of friends he had. People started sliding into his DMs, like he started getting dudes, you know, messaging him and stuff.
It's incredible. That just needs like a soundtrack behind its 70s. Maybe like a Matthew McConaughey narrator. You can't.
That's podcast gold right there, my friend. Or a Matt Booth narration. Oh, that'd be so great. I bet you we could do that.
Yeah. - I bet you we can do that. - So. - Animate that.
- I have the video. - So you get the whole slow-mo, like, fast time to Richmond High, coming out of the pool. - We should totally just kind of melt it into the intro if you wouldn't see it. I bet you I could do that, too.
- Yeah. - @BenRoland6241 says, "If you go to Southeast Texas, where the franchise started, You'll see quite a few Buckees there, closer to normal convenience store gas station sizes. So, that's where Buckees started, I guess? Aren't you from Texas?
No. Where are you from? Originally Massachusetts, but I live in New Hampshire. Why did I just think Texas?
I don't know. I go to Texas. That's not even close. It's like a totally different world.
No, and New England, all of New England is like DFW. It could fit right in DFW. Really? Yeah, it's tiny.
Are you a Pats fan? Yeah. Red Sox, Celtics, True Mass Hole. True Mass, you're like, you're the trilogy, you're the trifecta?
Yeah, my son's middle name is Fenway. Really? Yeah. That's cool.
So you're more baseball than football? I'm more baseball than football. Okay. But are you a hockey fan?
Bruins? Yeah, I mean, Bruins would be up there. No, I can't say I'm a hockey fan. I've been to hockey games.
Yeah. Like, I'll go to sports events, sporting events. Right. But not, I don't follow hockey.
No. But it's a cool sport. sport i don't know why i don't i never it's incredible i never got into it yeah yeah i just started getting into like three years ago yeah it's just fast there's hard i mean everything you want in a sport is right there right and there's no there's no flopping no yeah the basketball shit there are no fouls unless there's blood right right and even then maybe not right yeah uh at david hasselhoffman i like the updated his name when bdp was talking about wrinkles i thought I thought we were talking about Phil, the hip breaker. Wow.
Phil? The hip breaker? You remember? I don't know why everyone's attacking me.
Remember your geriatrics? Yeah. Oh, you're going geriatrics, okay. Yeah, he went into a nursing home in one of his most recent movies.
I was kind of thinking like sexually, like he's just a hip breaker. He goes out there and crushes, smashes. You know, I like Oliver. Well, you're 100% correct with that.
Not with senior citizens, though. It's 80 plus is what he's smashing. If you want to hear your comment read aloud on the show, simply comment below on our YouTube page or go to the lounge. com on the lounge.
Now, you ready to get on with the show? No. Yeah. We started?
Did anyone bid on the mask? Oh, you want me to tell you? Where's that at? Yeah.
Ah. See, thank you for keeping me in line. I remember that part because it's about me. It's still holding fast at 26 bucks, buddy.
Alright, come on, guys. Come on guys. One bid from Christopher W. Oh, where can I bid?
I might... What are the increments? Yes. Dollar, just a dollar.
Dollar increments? Yeah. About 25. It's a dope, not this mask.
Oh. It's my last mask. I had like an eagle mask. Yeah.
So we don't... Nothing screams United like an eagle mask. I mean, this mask will definitely go in with that. We have a listener that started giving us these masks.
So then I decided like, okay, well, how much would you charge for this? And we put it in on for auction and then give him, you know, the value that he wants. And anything we make above it, it's like, it isn't crazy, but realistically, if he's going to send them every month, they would just amount over here. And he makes them?
David Hasselhoffman does. That is awesome. Yeah. Isn't that badass?
Yeah, with a printer. And then he's getting better and better with this. So like that's his most recent one with the gems and shit. Yeah, that was spectacular.
Dude, my daughter was here yesterday and she's six. She's like, why does he have a unicorn mask on his desk? Like, she's, you know, looking to snipe it. Why don't I have it?
Yeah, right, right. What's up with that? Daddy doesn't love me. Yeah, Daddy doesn't love me.
That's exactly the case. So holding fast at 26 bucks, bud. All right, we need to get some up in there. 26?
I thought you said 24, 26. I like it. Yeah, it's 26, and it'll go all month until the next one comes up, so. Yeah, send me the link.
All right, you got it. You got it. You ready? Yep.
280 invasive Burmese pythons were removed from the Everglades during the Florida Python Challenge with one hunter catching 96 snakes to claim the top prize. I feel like we already have a story. Well, it happens every year. And it's always 96?
Yeah, I don't, that's almost a lost cause. You think so? Yeah, I mean, those, they, I don't know. I don't know for a fact, I should just stop.
That's okay, we're not back. We don't know anything about anything on the show. I just know pythons, they're laying a lot of eggs and there are a lot of snakes out there. We had one where the possums, where somebody was tracking possums in the Everglades, and then the Burmese pythons were eating them, so then people would find the Burmese pythons that way.
That's pretty interesting. That's interesting. And just so you know, the more wrong you are on the show, the better the clip is going to be, because then everybody lets you know how dumb you are. It's incredible.
It's pythons lay up to 100 eggs like every hour, that's what I hear. Exactly, exactly. They're like Pez dispensers. Yeah.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission announced Wednesday that 907 participants from 30 states, Canada, and Vietnam removed 280 Burmese pythons during the 10-day competition. That means that some people didn't get any snakes. Oh, yeah. A lot of people didn't get any snakes.
What do you think some people just go, and they're like, I'm gonna be a part of this, and then when they start going like, I don't know, knee deep, and not even water, it's like marsh, and then they realize, this isn't what I want to be doing. This is ridiculous? Right, this is stupid. Yeah, that makes sense.
I mean, you're talking about two, over two-thirds of the people didn't catch anything. Yeah, that's a lot. I wouldn't know what to do. Meanwhile, one dude, he's responsible for 30% of the kill.
Right, a quarter, yeah. He must have found like a snake pit or something. That's wild. This year's ultimate grand prize went to Tom Raheel, who removed 96 pythons, all from Everglades National Park, which returned this year as one of eight official competition sites.
Yeah, man, I just want to take all my sponsors, I've got to wear snakes. The event's longest python, a 16-foot, 5-inch snake, was also found in Everglades National Park and removed by Rom Levinson. Wow. FWC Chairman Rodney Barreto called the results a major victory for Florida's native wildlife.
Noting that more than 1,600 pythons have been removed through Florida Python Challenge events since that, since the competition began. He added that the FWC and South Florida Water Management District contractors have removed more than 19,000 invasive pythons since 2017. But you think this is, how many do you think are still out there? Yeah, thousands.
They don't have a natural predator out there, right? They're just going through and just outside of the humans. Okay. Maybe the gators?
I don't think gators. Gators don't eat pythons? What can you do with pythons? Wasn't like a badger or something like that?
You can eat the meat. You can eat them. You can eat python meat. Yeah.
There will be stands soon, especially in Florida. There will be stands and there will be python tacos within the next five years. Iguana sticks and pythons. Yeah.
Python wallets are coming out. Pistania, Python Slayer, 10-pack. Yeah. Easy.
I mean, it sounds better than uncaged by Diesel, I can tell you that much. The annual challenge is designed to raise awareness about the invasive species while encouraging the public to help protect the Everglades by removing Burmese pythons, which prey on native wildlife and disrupt the ecosystem. Other top winners included professional Christina Kraus removed 36 pythons to win the most pythons category, while Taylor Stanberry finished runner-up with 34. Wow.
There's so much predators. Right? S. Army veteran Stephen Payton claimed the top prize with three pythons removed.
What? Like, I guess there's probably like a veteran one? Yeah. Like, if you're a vet, USA.
Right. Dude, this is, you know what's funny is it's gotta be a hard task. I don't, you know, I don't understand. To catch a python?
To catch, yeah, to go, to go catch a python. I mean, for one, you've got to find one, right? In the Everglades. Then you've got to kill the thing.
Like, it's not like you're going to go quietly. Right. Does it come after you? I don't think so.
Well, I think they'll strike, but it's not poisonous. Yeah, Burmese pythons can be aggressive, but I don't... Right. Could you imagine being hit by a 16-foot, 5-inch Burmese python?
Yeah, no doubt. Yeah, and their squeeze PSI is like 10,000 pounds. There's no joke in that entire clip, by the way. So Palmer just kind of just winged it.
Oh, yeah. You know, there was nothing about like, you know, 16 feet. Yeah. Yeah.
Which was, you know, part of Phil's last movie or whatever. Title of Justin Andrew's sex tape. Justin Andrew's sex tape? Sorry.
So there's a lot of predators. There's crocodiles, big cats, birds of prey, king cobras, mongooses, monitor lizards, pigs, foxes, and humans. And the Everglades, or those are the average? Those are the predators for them.
But it's not enough. A mongoose? Yeah, I don't know if that's in the Everglades. How much python can you eat?
Yeah, it's true. They eat young and small pythons, so if they're not maybe the size. Okay. Oh, yeah.
Alright. So we need the mongoose to go into the nests. Yeah, get them young. Destroy the eggs.
Eat whatever. But there's no mongoose in Everglades. Oh, so what? I don't know.
He's just talking about predators. Just in general. Yeah. Alright, let's move on.
Howard Stern wins hostile work environment legal battle against former assistant. Leslie Kuhn, who previously worked for the shock jock, filed a lawsuit in April following her alleged "manufactured" termination. New York State Supreme Court Judge Melissa A. Crane ruled in the shock jocks' favor on Wednesday stating some of the claims made by Leslie Kuhn are moot according to legal documents obtained and viewed by Entertainment Weekly.
"Defendants' motion to dismiss the complaint is granted and the complaint is dismissed in its entirety," ordered Judge Crane, Crane, with costs and disbursements to defendants as taxed by the clerk of the court, and the clerk is directed to enter judgment accordingly in favor of defendants. Entertainment Weekly has reached out to Stern's legal team and an attorney for Kuhn for comment. On April 5th, Kuhn accused Stern and his wife, Beth Stern, of creating a hostile work environment and questionable business operations. Prior to her February 2026 termination, she valued her declaratory judgment claim against the couple and the production company 112 at not less than two and a half million dollars in her complaint kuhn alleged that after she was prompted for from office manager of sirius xm the howard stern show the host personal executive assistant in january 2024 the stern requested she moved to their residence in southampton new york once there we've covered this before yeah yeah i remember when it happened once there kuhn claimed she was required to help with managing the staff Kuhn alleged that at the time of her manufactured termination, two years later, a confidentiality agreement and non-disclosure agreement were forced on her, thus making their terms fraudulent and unenforceable.
With her lawsuit, she hoped to void or declare unenforceable all documents. or declare unenforceable all documents all right whatever so how's your at-home staff my yeah my at-home staff is pretty solid you know what i mean like uh we don't really have a feline operation we have one cat at this point yeah feline operation yeah yeah that's uh so yes yeah yeah hostile work environment hey i'm gonna tell you coon needs to stay out of the cigar industry that's for sure yeah yeah yeah you want to talk about hostile yeah and not work for Howard That's Howard Stern. Right. What do you expect?
Yeah. He's the shock jock. But it's kind of, I mean, it's entertaining to hear that it was just kind of thrown out. Yeah.
Yeah, which is good. Yeah, I think so, too. In a way, I don't know the full details. Yeah, I mean, judging from the cheap seats and the bird-eye view, we got an opinion.
It's probably paid well. Yeah. Doing next to nothing. Right.
And Howard's a legend. Scheduling, feeding the cats. But like resumes, you can make feeding cats and letting them out sound like a feline operation. I mean, it sounds good, right?
Right, yeah. Throw it out. Manage feline rescue operation at in-home mansion. Right.
Right. But realistically... Is that python skin on your shoe? Yeah, this is Everglades Burmese python.
Yeah. Yeah. These are actually Kobe's, bro. These are my Kobe 6's.
Yeah. I never... I bought... I got them at like raffle.
I entered and I screwed up and won. So they were like, you know, regular price of $130, and I love the Kobe 6's, I love how they feel, and then I was like, these are really worn, and I went to go look to see if I could buy them, they're like 500 bucks, yeah, off market, so I'm just gonna, once my toes start going through here, I'll switch to the jaws or something. Python skin, from my knowledge, of pythons, lasts forever. Do they?
Yeah, so you may never get out of those. But they're plastic, it's just rubber, it's just an imprint. It might be the next market. You never know.
What do you think about this there Phil? About Howard's situation? Yeah, do you think that she should have won? No.
I think she should have shut up and took the money that she was already getting paid. She probably got fired, you know, because she was complaining. I mean realistically, a lot of the things that she does now, even like as this argument's closing out, she can be replaced by AI. Yeah, right.
For like 60% of the things that she did. Right, except for the feedings. Yeah. But even the feedings are automated.
Yeah. I'm surprised Howard doesn't have that. He might now. Especially with cats.
Yeah. Yeah. How much did that cost the state taxpayers? Yeah.
No doubt. Right? Throw it out. Was this in California or where was this?
In New York. Oh, New York. Oh, yeah. Not only that, she's going to get stuck with a bill.
60% more. She lost. Good luck with that. She lost.
- She definitely didn't save any of the money that she made while she was working for him. - Not at all. So she's got her attorney bills and his attorney bills, plus whatever the court charges. - He probably had six attorneys, some law firm.
- Oh, easy. - Yeah, that's not gonna be cheap. - Apparently there's some hush money here. This is entirely too long.
Let me just scoot this down. Oh, wait, I went too hard. Wait, no. Oh, yeah.
A second person was bitten by a beaver. Oh, that's what he was talking about. There's like no indication that there's a new story either. Yeah, I just threw it together.
Yeah. A second, it says a second person was bitten by a beaver at Maryland's Cunningham's Fall State Park in less than two weeks, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources said. m. The fisherman was taken to Merida's Medical Center in Hagridstown for treatment.
The Natural Resources Police captured and euthanized the beaver. What? Yeah, which is being sent, that's ridiculous. It's asking, it says, it's checking if it has rabies.
The adjacent boat ramp and big hunting upstream and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Closures prohibit swimming, fishing, boating, and other water access until officials determine the area is safe for visitors. Other areas of the park, including the campground, remain open. Are beavers aggressive?
Yes. They are? Well, this is from his neck of the woods. But they're so cute.
One of the world's most underrated, dangerous animals. Really? I think it goes from hippos kill the most people to beavers. Which is right there.
Right, next one. Hippo. Not hippo, beaver. It's gonna be so many comments.
And then Siberian tigers. And then Siberian tigers. So many comments. That makes sense.
What's a beaver bite like? Yeah. Is that a chunk? I would just think with the- It's a little, it's a little yellow nugget.
You can get down the road in Daytona. Beaver bite? Oh, beaver bites. Yeah.
He loves food. They do, right, they use some of their oils, their anal glands for perfumes. Oh, whoa. Really?
Yeah. Beaver, beaver anal glands. Oh. I mean, they got the two teeth, the two, like the big ones.
Right, so I would just think like it's, it's a chunk out of the leg. Yeah, it'd be a decent- Do they have more than the two teeth? I would, I would assume so, yeah. Oh yeah.
I like that you had to ask that. I'm just ask. What do beavers eat? Trying to drag it out.
What do beavers eat? Beavers eat fish? Beaver nuggets. Beaver nuggets.
Also beaver nuggets? Yeah. What do beavers eat, buddy? Bucky's nuggets, baby.
What do beavers eat? I'm sure fish and everything that's in their pond. Anything fish. Are they that fast?
Nope. Well, I got news for you. They're herbivores. Herbivores.
Oh. You say herbivores. Herbivores. So they eat the tree, and then chop it down.
And they eat up to two pounds of food daily. Wow, that's a lot. So leafy greens, not fibrous wood. Could you imagine eating two pounds of salad a day?
Just so you know, they do not eat fish or solid wood. Instead, they consume the nutrient-rich inner bark, twigs, leaves, and buds of dissidious trees alongside of soft, aquatic plants. Do you say buds? No, buds.
Oh, buds. You like the flowers. Yeah. Hmm.
Hmm. Learn something new. This podcast is off the rails. DNR said officers search for the additional signs of rabid beavers.
We don't really care. We're moving forward. Palmer does this to us every time he leaves. He does.
Oh, look, I can increase the speed. This is good. Ooh, speed increasing. And then you should make all the letters super big.
Holy moly. You've probably seen social media posts claiming it. What? What?
Oh, this is a good one. Hold on. I like how you pre-read it though, just to make sure. Well, look, dude, it legit.
Check this out. The beaver tested positive for rabies. And then like the next sentence, there's no space. There's nothing.
It just says, you've probably seen social media posts claiming that semen retention can dramatically boost testosterone, increase confidence, improve focus, build muscle, and even change your personality. But what does the science actually say? A disturbing case out of Louisiana is making headlines after a father allegedly used social media to protect his daughter from a suspected predator. What are we talking about?
What's going on here? What's the first part have to do with the second part? Yeah, I don't know. I have no idea.
" Maybe the father wasn't confident enough, didn't have the strength to confront the predator, But because he built up his semen, then he was able to do it? Yeah, let's see. I mean, let's try and read and find out. I just, I gotta be honest, I think what had happened was he started with that article, and then he just moved to the next thing.
Yeah, he's old, you know what I mean? So, it's kind of wild. According to authorities, the father discovered that an adult man had been communicating online with his 11-year-old daughter through TikTok. Investigators say the father then created a fake account, posing as his daughter and continued conversation with the suspect.
Police say the messages eventually led to plans for the man to come to the family's home, believing he was meeting the child. When the suspect arrived, the authorities say the father confronted him and shot him twice. The man died at the scene. The father remained at the location and called 911.
He was taken into custody while investigators reviewed the circumstances surrounding the shooting. Okay, law enforcement, this is a good story. Law enforcement has confirmed they are examining the online communications, digital evidence, The case has sparked intense debate online. Some see the father as someone who is protecting his child from a suspected predator, while others argue that citizens should allow law enforcement to handle these situations rather than taking it into their own hands.
As the investigation continues, authorities are urging parents to stay involved in their children's online activity, reminding families that they should be able to handle these situations rather than take it into their own hands. As the investigation continues, authorities are urging parents to stay involved in their children's online activity, reminding families that social media platforms can be used by predators to target minors and that suspicious behavior should be reported immediately to law enforcement. There's a lot to unpack. Oh, yes, indeed.
This is probably the best one. We got past the Burmese pythons. There was an alleged conversation of semen that's been botched. We just skipped right over that.
Yeah, I was like, ooh, this is gonna get good, and then it was just gone. Howard's cat feeding. Yeah, we don't care about Howard's cats. Right.
This is a good one. Okay. 16 feet was thrown in there. Yeah.
What state is that in? Louisiana. Oh, man. I'm thinking of gun laws.
Right. Like, I'm all fours, right, a little obsessive, but to capture him, because he's probably like, well, the authorities aren't gonna do anything until I do something, so he set a trap. - But at that point, when you have that predator coming to the house... - Right, that's intent.
- Right, you're right. And then you shoot him, that's gonna be a problem. - You think so? - I think so.
- You think it's a problem for the guy? - The guy that shot him, yeah. - Yeah. - What about the guy that showed up?
- He didn't do anything. He was showing up with the intention, I don't know what he said his daughter would do. - Yeah, and furthermore, you might not ever know the intent. So we got to wait for him to diddle the daughter before-- But I don't think you can, I think in some, in most cases, would I do the same thing, it could be justified that if somebody were to do something to my daughter, especially an older man, yeah, you know that.
But you invited him over, not for a gun battle. Lured. You lured. Yeah.
This guy's my fucking hero. Right. How old are your kids? My son's 21 and my daughter's 20.
Okay, so they're older. Right. I got news for you. I think in Florida this thing happens?
It doesn't even make the news. I think in Florida? Yeah, Louisiana? Oh, it does make the news.
Yeah, right. Dude gets iced and it's like, all right, have a nice day. What did you use on that? 38?
Yeah, like, well, nicely done. Yeah, wow, good grouping. Yeah, that was really... Did you wait?
Were you waiting for him at the door? Like, you know? Right. Did anything drop behind him so he couldn't escape?
Right. Well, this guy's name doesn't even get mentioned. He'll just be a John Smith here in Florida. Well, as of right now, I mean, it's an ongoing investigation.
And I guess maybe they haven't named the name. - No, no, but I mean like in Florida, he would, they wouldn't even care. They're just, oh, it's a John Smith. - I can see both sides, but like you just can't, you can't shoot the guy.
You didn't do anything because now that's gonna open it up to, you're going, people are gonna be luring people to their house. - Right. - And then just shooting. - Well, there's social media evidence of showing what that guy's intentions were.
- Right. - I mean, now there's, you know, pictures, videos of the guy who was sharing, this is what I'm gonna do. - Right. - Maybe, but I don't know if you're legally He's about to shoot someone.
Deadly force is not authorized. Right. Dude. I got no problem with this.
No, no. I have no problem with it. I got no problem with this, and I don't think there should be legal action against this guy whatsoever. Whatsoever.
That opens it up to some psychos, though. Man, you want to make an album, you got to break a few eggs, I guess. Here's what I'm gonna tell you. Well, there's a whole group that does this.
There's like a military veteran group. Yeah. That hunts down predators for children. I mean, realistically, there's going to be a trail, there's going to be some form of evidence that you can argue what someone's intentions were.
Now, you know, if so-and-so acted to try and get somebody over for breakfast and then iced them, I mean, like, that guy's obviously going to get in trouble, you know? Breakfast burritos. Yeah, like, "Hey, come have some eggs," and just posing as a regular person, you know? But if you're saying that you can argue the one side, that means you have to also justify his actions through those arguments.
I can easily justify those actions. If you're talking to an 11-year-old child on social media. Right. 100% agree.
Right. I know you do. But once you go to the legal system, I don't know. But it is Louisiana.
They might be looser down there. This is a super hard case because in testimony, you're only gonna have one side. No, you actually have the other guy's argument because he made contact on TikTok, so you know exactly what he was saying. Yeah, but if he didn't go, "Yes, I'm coming over there to bang your daughter," or whatever, then there's no real intent for the act.
" No, I know it's just-- If he's a grown-ass man, and he's meeting up with an 11-year-old girl-- Knowingly, right, yeah. Put two rounds into them, like I don't have an issue here. I completely agree with you, I'm just saying how the judicial system works, there has to be some type of black and white. Here's the black and white, if you as a grown-ass man make contact with an 11-year-old girl and then try and meet up with them, two rounds, center mask, call it a day.
The issue and the sad part is now that that father, if the legal system then finds him guilty, now he's going to miss out on his daughter. Okay, sure. There was one, it was an old case, it's always... There's been a lot of cases, by the way.
The guy was like on the phone and his daughters were right. Happened in Florida. Was that Florida? Yeah.
Did he get off? Oh yeah, he didn't do it. He didn't get arrested. Awesome.
Awesome. But this is Florida. Right, but that's Florida. Okay, Louisiana, look, maybe Duck Dynasty will come in, because they have duck calls, they're all about hunting, maybe there's some association, they can help them out.
Well, they're godly people. Yes, they are. Are they godly people? They're godly, yeah, they're very godly people.
Yeah, they pray at the table at the end of every show. So how does that play out in this scenario? Yeah, it doesn't at all. Yeah.
But it's Louisiana. Okay. And they're based in Louisiana, and they have duck calls. Yeah.
And it's hunting, and there's guns involved, so I just put the two together. Okay. Okay. Okay.
Okay, yeah, okay, all right, that's fair, that's fair. Yeah, so, but like, plus it might be, maybe it maybe gives you some, 'cause you mention it, I mention it, maybe it clicks through. I think what would have been a better situation for this guy to do in Louisiana is not call the police and just take the body to the river or whatever, like it is, they have a lot of gators and crap, right? No, no.
They have pythons? No, no, because it's too traceable. In the gator? No, I mean, look, you go back, there's social media tracking of him going out to this place, right?
There's ring cameras across the neighborhood that will show his car arriving, right? And then he just disappears? So now the guy legitimately hid a murder. No evidence, no charge.
He probably didn't have a suppressor. Right. Definitely no suppressor. He hurt two shots.
Yeah, but no evidence, no charge. I just gave you all the evidence. Yeah, but wasn't that the whole Casey Anthony case? I think what you're trying to say is that if there's no body, then they can't prove that he did it.
Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Right. Like Casey Anthony, that's the whole way she got off, right?
No body? There was. Yeah, there was no. That was in Florida, too.
That was in Florida. It's the Wild West over here, baby. That's how we roll. So you're saying he should have gone to a party afterwards.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, he should have. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Like, we're gonna burn his.
Right. Like, Weekend at Bernie's. Yeah, just believe in that. Quite the segue there, buddy.
Good job, Palmer, on that one. Yeah, it took four to get there. I think that was a fluke. I think it was a fluke.
Well, I hope this guy gets off, and you know what, if the guy does any time, in his daughter's eyes, when she grows up, she'll realize that he was a dad doing the right thing, and that's what dads should do. I don't know if it's the show or my semen backing up, but I'm feeling strong. Yeah, it could be the semen. It's definitely the semen.
By the way, Gold Star, I'm having this right now. Thank you very much, Mr. Oliver. Are we doing a cigar show?
Yeah, we are, kind of. Speaking of cigars, let's get into some cigar news. Oh, there you go. Nice, nice transition.
What were you going to say? It did ash on you, but there was a lot of movement. I felt bad, I was like, ah. He's always a mess.
It's kind of standard. Yeah. I do appreciate you bringing it to my attention. It is Phil's job to tell me when that happens, however, he does not.
No, you took care of it. Yeah. As you were talking, it was great. Yeah, thank you.
Well, it's not really in the shot. I mean, you got a lot of white stuff on your shirt, but you're not getting that all off. That sounds like it's one of your movies. You should hire somebody with a brush just to come by.
Oh, yeah, like, ooh. Keanu. That just stands behind you. Just a manservant, yeah.
Yeah, like that one guy used to have when he, when San Parai. That guy was awesome. Johnny. Johnny.
The ashtray. All right, cigar news. Let's see. Casa Carrillo releases second batch of La Historia Silk.
Oh. Casa Carrillo is bringing back its limited edition La Historia Silk line back to the market, and this time it has a charitable aspect to it. It's the same cigar as the one released in August 2025, a 6x52 Toro with an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper from the Cuevito region, Cuevito? Cuevito?
Cuevito? Cuevito? Cuevito? Cuevito?
Cuevito? You think so? Is that it? Sure, somebody will correct this.
Of course. AIDS and fermented for more than 18 months, according to the company. The company has also disclosed the rest of the blend, which uses a binder from Nicaragua, Esteliz region, And filler tobacco from SLE as well, with Pennsylvania Broadleaf, Dominican La Canela, Mexican San Andreas, and Dominican Pelo de Oro. Previously, the binder and filler had been undisclosed, but Lisette Perez Carrillo told Half Wheel that it is the same blend.
And messed up by giving that info this time around. Or just realizing that's not a big deal. Saying the same blend. Yes, or maybe they just didn't know at the time of the first press release, but they wanted to get the press release out, and now that they've kind of moved.
It would have been better to say originally released in, as opposed to the same blend. Correct. It just sounds better. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Even if it is. It's like saying when something's cheaper, or something has value. Right. Yeah.
That's why you are who you are. That's why you are here. That's why we're here together. Who am I?
I don't know who I am. We should get an apartment together. We put it in the apartment together. Yeah?
Yeah. One bedroom or two? Bunk beds. One bedroom?
Oh, perfect. Studio. Do karate in the garage type of thing? Sounds amazing.
No garage, just living room. We just become best friends. We just become best friends. The first one was limited to 1,500 boxes of 10 cigars, though the company said it would produce more cigars in subsequent years.
Pricing is set at $1,650 per cigar and $165 for a box of 10 cigars. Okay, I was wondering, I thought that he closed it out, but he did not. A portion of the proceeds from the cigar will benefit Dress for Success Miami, the local chapter of the organization that helps women achieve economic independence by providing a network of support, professional attire, development tools, and career resources. Since 1994, Dress for Success Miami has helped more than 40,000 women prepare for employment transition into new positions and achieve long-term professional success.
I had no idea that something like that existed. Existed. There's a lot of things that exist that we don't know. Yeah.
Thank God for the show. Wow. Okay. Cigars are produced at Casa Carrillo's factory in the Dominican Republic and are now shipping to retailers.
Do you like Ernie's stuff, Casa Carrillo's stuff? Yeah, I like the family. I know what they're doing, yeah. Ernie, Ernesto.
I mean, that's a legacy right there. Yeah, it's funny, though. Lisette also mentioned. What's that?
What's that? Lisa at the daughter, yeah. You know, but, like, what's kind of ironic is that he never, his name doesn't pop up as much as you think it would. Right.
Right? Like, I just saw an interview that was popping up, and it had Lito Gomez, it had Jorge Padron, and it had Carlito Puente. Yeah. But I think Ernie belongs in that.
Ernie, absolutely. Belongs in that conversation. I would agree. For sure.
What about you, Phil? Do you think that Ernie gets snubbed too much? Yeah, he's like, to me, he's like, He's like one of the wizards, if you will. He's a wizard?
Yeah, like he's like the original, like the OG, like him, AJ, you know, those guys, you know what I mean? I even put him up, no disrespect to AJ, but I put him above AJ. I do, yeah. He's older.
But I mean like a Fuente or a Padrón, to me, is not as high as like an Ernie or an AJ, you know what I mean? What do you mean? I don't know if that makes sense. It doesn't.
Do you know what cigar Ernesto Perez Carrillo originally created? What really kind of put him on the map? Almost some could argue put the cigar industry on the map. Yeah.
Because there was a huge buzz. No, but he has made one of my favorite cigars. All right. Well, let's stay on topic.
Just so you don't know what it is? No. It's the La Gloria Cubana CRIR. Oh, I think I'm allergic to that.
Oh, yeah. CRIR, when it first came out, was a banger. But before that, the Wavelle from the regular line of LaGloria was phenomenal. That's the one with the girl on it?
Yeah. Yeah, I'm definitely allergic to that cigar. You're allergic to it? Yeah, you don't remember when I first started coming here, I started smoking through all the cigars, and it was a Highclair Castle in LaGloria Cubana that I was getting real itchy, and my sinuses were getting stopped up and stuff.
It made you sneeze? Yeah. No, I don't remember that. It might have been part of the feline operation.
Yeah, yeah, that's true. Yeah, but that's after the company had been sold. So what is it? Yeah, that's well past it, not the original blend.
Right. So what cigar does he make that you like? Well, it was a collab. Okay.
What the fuck was it? The Quinquaginero, right? Oh, you like the one with Roma. Yeah.
Got it. Yeah, okay. All right. Is there one that you like in particular that he makes that you smoke?
It's got to be hard, right? Because you represent a brand at this point, right? Right. Right.
And you have a pretty wide portfolio of so many different cigars. So I would assume that you smoke a lot of that. Right. Right.
Traveling. And when I get to sit down, so to say that, you know, like Pledge Encore, I thought was a good, a good step there. I just don't then end up smoking enough of 'em, there's just no time to really say those are great, I think what they're doing is great, the family being more involved, and they're doing a lot more, but Ernesto doesn't get enough credit really out there. Yeah, that's true.
Well, saying that too, they also got Cigar of the Year back to back. Did they? They got both? Yeah, I think from Cigar Aficionado.
I remember they got the Pledge, right? Yeah. I didn't know they got another one right after. I think they got it right back to back.
Really? Yeah. From the Encore right after. Oh, maybe you're right.
Do you want more Brooklyn? I don't know. I'm not really in the cigar industry. All right, moving on.
Apostate ships the Lost Pages. Oh, Apostate. Apostate Cigar's first Cigarillo is on the way to retailers. The Lost Pages is a 4x20 machine-made cigarillo that uses a Brazilian Araparaca wrapper on the outside and a filler blend composed of chopped-up remnants of all eight of the company's existing core blends.
All the cigars are being made at Tabaculera Palma in the Dominican Republic. Each cigar has an MSRP of… Each cigar? Yeah. As a cigarillo?
Yeah. 50. Okay. Bill?
50. That's pretty close. 45. How'd you know that?
Oh, I don't know. I like cheroots. You like cheroots. Okay.
And it is packaged in a hundred count boxes. The cigar's name refers to the original manuscript pages of what Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter-day Saint movement, said was the translation of the book of Lahai? According to Wikipedia, prepare to become a chain smoker, said Kendrick Wulstenholm, co-founder of Apostate Cigars, in a press release, these little treats are something truly special. Apostate Cigars was founded in 2020 by Brandon Ovason and Wulstenholm, and listen, I just want you to know, that's not easy.
I just want you to know, none of you can pronounce my last name. So, you could say, "I'm gonna screw all of this up," and regardless, I want you to reflect on yourself before you make a comment, and the company gets its name from a term in Mormon culture that refers to the fact that choosing to smoke cigars is an open act of rebellion against the church's teaching, as tobacco is forbidden in Mormon culture. Wolstenholm, and Ovisun both grew up in Utah as active members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who are also known as Mormons. " I think that's kind of funny because like if you look into some of the Catholicism stuff, tobacco is definitely interlaced in a lot of Catholicism.
They use it as trade and all these other things. - They're very big intrigued. - Yeah, so like I'm looking, I'm trying to, the school does this whole thing, like this whole, like it's a church fest thing, and I'm like gunning for us, like we need a cigar lounge to be kind of propped up during this thing. - That's a tough, yeah, all right.
- I mean, they do beer. - Right. - Oh, yeah? - Yeah.
- Oh, yeah, and they should absolutely, right. - Why not have like a lounge? - A cigar lounge, yeah. - I mean, where we can all just kind of go, and then now I'm like, well, just so you know, like, Cigars, tobacco, is kind of interlaced in Catholicism.
So I'm starting to push for it a little bit harder and harder. I like it, alright. We'll see where it goes. It's a good angle.
Exactly. I don't understand why they give us, like, I have one kid, and he has this really curly hair, he looks like Carrot Top almost, right, it's wild. But once it gets, the argument is that once it touches the ear, that he has to cut it, from school. But that just doesn't make sense to me.
Samson didn't cut it. Jesus had long hair! Yeah. Yeah, Jesus had long hair.
He was a rock star. From the images that we've seen. Right. Right, well, from whatever.
He might have been a high and tight guy. Yeah, we don't know. He could have had a face. The pictures didn't look right.
Yeah, you know, it could have been offset. You know, it could have had the lightning bolt. Right. You know what I mean?
That might have been the original filter. Yeah. Right? An artist.
Exactly. Right? Adding long hair, beards, makeup. Yeah.
They're just like, you know what? I had long hair. Yeah, I'm going to add that. But if that's the image that they portray, then why can't my kid have long hair?
Yeah, that's true. You know? Sandals. Yeah.
Flowing robes. Sandals. You're right. Flowing robes.
He just comes in looking like Jesus. Right. Why is that so wrong? What's your argument?
Right. He's just, you know, the guy. Yeah. He's just trying to be like the guy.
Yeah. You might be setting him up for failure in the future, but... You think so? Yeah.
He's a bit controversial. He likes to argue everything. Yeah, all right. He's like, "But wait a second.
Hold on. You're not in charge. Jesus had long hair. Jesus had long hair.
So daddy fights for his long hair. " Did you? Yeah, with the principals. Yeah?
Yeah, yeah, silly stuff. Tell me. It was mostly my son, mostly my son. So he, you know, they were out at the recess one time, he pulled down a kid's shorts.
That's kind of standard. You know, they were, you know, they were, Kind of standard, but he was saying, yeah, we were, no, we were all just wrestling and, you know, it was like, uh, the game, right? Throw the football. Right.
So he said, yeah, and we, you know, pulled down his shorts, but, either way, it's on the playground, it's what happened. " Went to the nurse, and you're more than welcome to go check with your nurse that you oversee, that my son did have a bloody nose on this date, and it was reported that it was this kid, but guess what, I didn't complain, I didn't call you to let you know that my son was physically injured, and they just let it go, and then he brought a pocket knife, because I was actually very proud of him that weekend, he made a bow and arrow at the house, you know, carved it out of wood, made the arrows, and he still had that little, it was a little Leatherman pocket knife. Right. And it had a knife on it.
Principal called me and said, your son-- Oh, it's like a super tool thing. Yeah, super, but not even the big super tool. Right. Like the key chain super tool.
Right. So the knife, the blade is what, an inch? Right. And a half, maybe, not even an inch and a half.
So anyway, she called and said that your son brought a weapon to school. I said, could you describe the weapon? Right? Well, it's a, he brought a knife.
I said, are you talking about, are you referring to the Leatherman multi-tool that has a knife on it, but also a screwdriver and everything and a ruler? And she's like, yes. I don't see an issue with that, but I'll let him know not to bring it. He brought shell casings for show and tell, which I was like, okay, maybe you shouldn't bring shell casings.
He brought a little gun. - But they're empty. - Empty, yeah, yeah. Casings, just a case.
- Yeah, there's no ammo in it. But I was like, alright, maybe for the school, whatever. And then another time he brought a little ray gun. That was probably like that long.
Made sounds, but he brought a... - Plastic. - Yeah, plastic. That made like the Martian, you know, alien noises, right, not a big deal in my eyes.
- Public school or private? - Public. - And it was in Massachusetts. - Yeah.
- There's a lot of stuff that's happened over there. - Yeah, no, no, no, no. No, yeah, major issues, major issues. Because we never, look, kids figure it out at school, right, until it gets to, you know, something extreme.
But, yeah, there was a parent from a neighboring town that had grabbed him at a basketball game. Because they were all, and he's like, you know, he's a bigger kid, and I don't know, was, you know, taking his position to cheer for his team. The parents didn't like it, so they came over, and yeah, they ended up grabbing him. Oh, Mikey usually beats those guys.
Yeah, that's not cool. Yeah, that's not cool. No. And so, I didn't, I didn't even complain to the school at the time, but they brought something else up.
I was like, how about we address, how about I address the fact that my son was grabbed by an opposing team's adult parent, And there was no security there, and how about I address that with the local ED, the local news, blah, blah, blah, blah, and I just like, all right, we'll let it go. - No kidding? - Yeah, it's a mess. Like, just let the kids figure it out.
- They're gonna, it's bruises, not scars. - Right. - Like, that's, they have to grow. - Right.
- You can't put them in this bubble and not expose them to things. - Right. - Now, obviously, you wanna make sure that they're safe at all times, right? - Right.
Well, yeah, he would have laid out this parent if it got to anything extreme, but, but still. It's wild. Yeah. Your daughter had no issues?
No. No. She was more low key. Daddy's daughter.
You had two opposites. Yeah. Yeah. You got two opposite kids.
Yeah. Yeah. She doesn't give you a problem this day. No, no, no.
She's good. Outside of just bleeding my wallet. Right. They're really good at that.
Yeah, they're good at that. Yeah. Standard. The cars, the insurance.
Dude, I'm not looking forward to it. I'm not looking forward to it. It's not funny. I'm crying on the inside.
I'm crying on the inside. Dude, you know, so my daughter is six, and our boys, they both play Fortnite, right? And then I'll play Fortnite with them. I'll do whatever they want to do.
Right. You know, so there's three Xbox. And we all play Fortnite. And then what I'll do is I'll take turns, I'll let my daughter play, right?
" That's right. So then I go to, I'm like, oh, you know, of course, Daddy's Girl, like, I just instantly go to look it up. They're like $500 right now. Are they now?
I don't know if it's the tariffs or whatever, but I'm like, oh, man, yeah, no, you can just play on mine. We'll just switch off. Yeah, yeah, they're good. What about Facebook Marketplace?
There have to be-- A used one or something? Yeah, you know, regretful purchases from parents. Right, yeah, not doing that again. I don't know, but I don't think that I paid 500 bucks for the other ones.
No, no, they used to be like 250. Yeah. Yeah, I just bought a new Xbox too, that's 500 bucks. Yeah, better processors or better whatever, they make excuses.
I think it's the same thing though. Yeah. I think it's the same one that they have. Is it?
Well, it's more terabytes. Ah, it's a terabyte. Yeah, more storage. And some are branded, it might be branded with Fortnite on the outside, so then they have to pay the royalties.
Oh, those are even more. Those are like a thousand. I was just looking up the standard Xbox, and I'm like, $500? That sounds...
I don't remember paying that. Yeah, you either get the X or the S. Yeah, the S. I was looking up the standard...
whatever. Okay, all right, moving on. Pojic Cigars has officially launched a brand new online customer portal, giving retail partners a faster and more convenient way to manage their business 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The secure portal allows authorized retailers to place orders online whenever it's convenient, view their complete order history, check the status of current and previous orders, monitor backorder items, and access real-time inventory levels to better planned purchases and restocks.
According to Mike Palmer, National Sales Manager for Posting Chigars, the goal is simple: provide retailers with greater control, transparency, and instant access to the information they need without waiting for a phone call or email. The portal was designed and developed by Mike Szczeponkiewicz, whose work focused on creating an intuitive, reliable platform that simplifies the ordering process while improving communication between retailers and Postex cigars. And this is just the beginning. Future updates will include: a complete digital asset library featuring high-resolution product photography, promotional graphics, social media artwork, marketing materials, The new customer portal is available now for authorized retail partners.
a. Mike Palmer. Pojic Cigars is the distributor of the award-winning Powstanie Cigars and Ceniza Fina, continuing its commitment to premium handcraft cigars, exceptional customer service, and long-term partnerships with retailers across the United States. Okay, so I guess he did a press release.
Yeah, which is great. It was picked up. Well, it was definitely picked up by him. I don't know if it was picked up by anybody else.
Yeah, I know this guy. I can look at Half Wheel right now and see if they acknowledge that they probably didn't. No. Let's see.
Let's see. Lures here, Oz, Platinum, nope. What about the other one? Coop?
I didn't want to say it. Coop's not going to cover that. Coop hates us. Coop does not like us.
Why? Why so much? Why so much hate? I don't know.
I don't know. He's got a lot of hate. Just saying, we love him. We do love him.
Well, I love him. You don't love him. Well, you're mean to him. You're mean to him.
No, I didn't. Listen, I'm neutral. I don't love. I don't hate.
I just make fun sometimes. You know, for a guy that's neutral, you sure do say a lot of mean things. Well, you know, here it comes. I got the gun.
He gave me the bullets. Sometimes, you know, I just got to get it out there. You're like the Louisiana dad. So, yeah, I mean, so we kind of like briefly were talking about this prior to.
I didn't know it was going to be a news article on today's show, but I guess it was a slow news day. And, dude, I'm really excited about this. It's great. Yeah, it's pretty cool.
So yeah, like we were talking about before the, I don't know, before the show started, maybe the show was starting, but that's, I mean, that's an asset, not only to the retailers for what you're doing, but further out, maybe some other people want to use it. Yeah, I mean, when I, you know, like you just look at, even, what's cool too is because, I mean, even like Garofalo, you're on different sides of this platform, right? So you have experiences with brands and manufacturers, and you can see where they're missing spaces, where something goes wrong, like I just had a backorder fill from a manufacturer, and it just fulfilled and sent, and I probably need, I don't know, another seven or eight boxes of cigars from that brand that I just never got around to addressing. So nothing really checked in and said, "Hey, this is happening.
" So like, "Hey, when something is now available from backorder, I want an email notification that they're sent and they're saying, "Hey, this is what's going on. " Little stuff like that. Yeah, no, it's an added touch. Yeah, I think all of that stuff is important.
Yeah, yeah. And I think that what happens too when you're doing sales is that a lot of times that when things, you don't do a follow-up schedule, like if you go into a retailer or you contact, call a retailer, and you speak to them, maybe it was left kind of just up in the air. Maybe samples aren't being sent or discussed, maybe a price sheet was sent or wasn't, but you didn't iron out a time when to contact them, and then what happens is that retailer just falls off completely. " So, making sure that that person is still in your rotation of contact is important.
Yeah, all those little things. It's a big step. Yeah, it's pretty cool. I think it's a cool feature.
That's a cool feature. I'm excited. And you've had a good response so far. Yeah.
Yeah, we're getting really good feedback, and he has a line of people that he has to contact every day, and when I did this last modification, it would never update that he made that contact. Like, he didn't hit 20 people a day. Right. So now I put a bar across it, right, and it shows him how he's progressing throughout the day, so he knows where he's at.
" That's great, that's great. Oh, so it has like an overall dashboard. Yeah. Yeah, it has all kinds of cool things.
Yeah. That's cool. Just little details, you know? Yeah.
And it's something that, it takes some time. Yeah. It's taken a lot of time, but I love doing it. It's, I love fixing people's problems.
Yeah. Is the thing. " - Right. - Right?
Like that's a feel-good feeling. - Yeah, that's a reward, right? - Yeah. - For the hours that you put into it.
- Yeah. - Right? - Like, oh my God, you know how much, you just saved me an extra 25 minutes a day, right? We're now compound that over the year.
- And made me. - Right. - X amount of dollars, because we did the sale, we didn't lose the contact, the touch. - Exactly.
- Yeah, yeah. - So, it's pretty badass, but I'm excited. - Yeah, that's cool. - I'm excited about it.
- Nice. All right, now it's time for industry's favorite game, What's the Score? Oliver, you weren't in it. Yeah, we need you locked in on this.
And we know you watch this every day. I was on it too, I did it last time. Yeah. All right, we're gonna try one more time.
Here we go. All right, now it's time for the industry's favorite game, What's the Score? Much better. That was nice.
Can you predict a cigar score from a half-wheel review Before it's revealed? We'll give you the clues. You make your guess. As the review unfolds, the answer gets closer.
Or does it? The closest guest wins. Let's play What's the Score? No remote today, huh?
No, you don't get... Oh, they're behind him. Well, you know, you didn't want to do the remote, so... Is there a remote over there for you?
Probably not. On the left side? Look on the left. No?
Yes? Something? Yes. All right.
Oh, press the on button. Hit the on button. Tilt it behind you and hit the on button. He didn't plug them in.
Oh, it doesn't work. They're not hot. You had sparklers behind you. Oh, mm-hmm.
August 5th, 2026, Brooks Whittington, Cigars, Limited Edition, Lure, Nicaragua Reviews, Lure, the Wahoo, the Kingfish. Oh, really? Now, have you been on Half Wheel recently? Because this is a recent-- Oh, I haven't been on in the last couple of days.
That's the last couple of days. Okay, perfect. All right. So, since you are our guest, you get the honor of doing it after Phil.
Phil, go ahead and make your first guest. Wow. Wow. I thought I was going to say first, but no.
It's not first. First is harder. Lure, I like this cigar. We smoked it.
This is good. Let's go 89. 89. Hmm.
Safe play. I have not smoked it. I do like, I like their packaging, and I think it has become a quiet fan favorite. I'm going to, I'm going to start with 88.
Okay, perfect. 5 inches, ring gauge 52, shape round, MSRP, even though it doesn't affect the review, allegedly, $16, available in bundles of 10 and 160 bucks, came out June of 2026, 250 bundles released of 10 cigars, 2,500 total cigars, number of cigars smoked for the review, three. Right. Phil?
89. Holden Fast at 89? Yep. I think that's right in his wheelhouse as far as tobacco, size, I'm gonna go 87 though.
Okay, 87, moves down one to 87. Clue number one. The cigar delivers a full flavored complex profile with layers of gritty earth, roasted peanuts, cocoa nibs, leather, bread, mesquite, and evolving sweetness, Keeping the Smoking Experience Engaging from Start to Finish. 93.
Phil jumps to a 93. Yeah, he's like Cocoa Nibbs. Cocoa Nibbets. Brooks Whittington loves Cocoa Nibbs.
Yeah, I'm gonna go up to an 80, 89. I'm gonna sit my Red Bull. Clue number two. Construction is excellent overall.
Despite slightly wavy burn lines early on, Early on, the cigars required almost no touch-ups and featured consistent draw smoke production and burn performance throughout the entire smoking experience. That's big for these guys because you know how they count off for the burn experience. Let's go 90, I'm staying 93. That's high.
I'm going 90. 90, okay. Clue number three. The ash is fragile, frequently dropping at less than half an inch, and the reviewer also noted that the cellophane In packaging feels noticeably cheap compared to most premium cigars.
Oh, that was it? That was it. Oh, uh. That's the clue.
Ninety-one. Eighty-eight. So, flaky ash and shitty cellophane. Half inch.
Yeah, to note it, to point it out. Yeah. That's short fill, right? Not necessarily.
No, not necessarily. Yeah, maybe he's smoking like on a boat or something. All right, here is our final thought. It is always interesting to me when there is a major divergence between the cigars I am smoking for review and even more interesting when that occurs in only one portion of one cigar.
For the most part, the profiles of the three cigars remain in lockstep with one another featuring main flavors of gritty earth, roasted peanuts, and powdery cocoa nibs, as well as some light peanut brittle, sweetness on the retrohale. However, the third cigar took a massive turn during the second third as a new main flavor combination of charred meatiness and leather took over its profile, not to mention the strong black licorice sweetness on the retrohale, all of which significantly punched up the complexity and enjoyment of that particular cigar. Obviously, you can't depend on that happening with every cigar, but the one-third proves just how good the lure, the Wahoo, the Kingfish can be. You should have just said the lure Wahoo Kingfish?
Final score, Phil? 87. We're going 89. Phil, you have won.
Yes. Wow. You have nailed it. Yes.
87. Dropped that. Well, I shouldn't say dropped that far down. Yeah, that is crazy.
Yeah. I mean, with the cocoa nibs. I don't know how you went. How did you go 87?
I don't know. I just felt like 87. I was like, man, you know. I think you cheated.
How would I cheat? I'm sitting right here with a pink mask and a cigar. I'm smoking the gold stars down to the nub here. If you're going to profile anybody to be the cheater.
Yeah. It's definitely a PU with a uniform mask. Yeah. Oh, wow.
I mean, it said Coconibs throughout. Right. You know what I mean? And like, he gravitate, he knows that.
There's no way that he would have dropped to 87. The drastic change on that third one. Well, there's only one cigar that I can really guess over at 94 when he says Coconibs with, and it's a Tatuaje. Anything else?
I'm gonna go, it might be a high 80. And Lure's new. That's new. I might have to pick up some cocoa nibs on my way home.
Get some cocoa nibs. You can get them on Amazon. Yeah. Okay.
Are you going to be anywhere in the upcoming weeks? Do you want to plug? Got any events? No, but traveling out to, I mean, we have some, you know, some good stuff.
Talk to me. Tell me. So we just shipped the Byron tribute set. Okay.
Right? Four-tube set. All the different centuries in the 1850. 00.
The tin got a great response, just the packaging alone, right? Before anybody had tried it, when the Firecracker Independence was coming out, it's a 12-count tin, when you turn it over, it turns into an ashtray. It's approachable in pricing because of the the smaller quantity and uh so anyway in September we have the Rehuso and Toro uh coming out getting ready to to ship out to everybody so okay yeah excited about that one and then the bandolero firecracker is going to hit the market in about two weeks nice that's our le that blends incredible it's a blend between the a and the c bandolero uh in the firecracker format it's a great that's the best firecracker really in my in my opinion there we have great Collaborations that we've put out over the years, but that one's phenomenal. - That's the one that slaps.
- Yeah, big time. - Okay. My dear friend, David Garofalo, has been recently doing these Facebook posts where he's been sitting at his desk and he shows packaging and stuff like that, and I think that they're great. Can we get him a mic?
- Ah, yes. - Can we get him a mic or something? - We'll do that. - All right, it's important.
- Yes. It's gonna be way better for him. Yeah, the sound quality. It's, you know, he can get like a, if he wanted, he could get like a DJI, like an Osmo Pocket 3, they're a couple hundred bucks, then you can buy the mic, and you can, done, done, done, we're gonna skyrocket that production quality.
Especially when the production quality for the podcast is so high. It's so high, yeah, right. And then he goes to his desk. Yeah, you know what I mean?
Yeah, that's a valid, valid, I'll bring that up. All right, just send him this clip. And I'm gonna give you credit. I don't need the credit.
You might get it because he watches this. He doesn't watch this. Yes, he does. He watches this?
Yeah. Oh, nice. Sure. Does he watch the Patreon?
You guys are the number one podcast on the air. Yeah, obviously. Every week, obviously, he's gotta watch it. I knew it.
I knew we were. Yeah, I mean, like the first half of this podcast was just so great. It was incredible. Right.
It just tracks. Yeah, seamless. Burmese pythons, a casual semen drop in the middle of it. Very casual semen drop.
With no follow up. Just done. - I was attracted at that. - And that was over.
- Right. - So yeah, of course, I understand why you watch this show. - Yeah. - Yeah.
- Yeah. But no, I mean, like, I'm a big believer in just kinda, like, if people are good people-- - Fixing problems. - Yeah. - Yeah.
- Yeah, that's exactly right, man. Just, you know, help 'em get better. - Yeah. - 'Cause the whole industry needs that.
- Right. - It's a valuable critique. - Right? - Right.
- I'm not sitting here just, you know, pissing in somebody's Cheerios. - Right. You know? Maybe in some people's Cheerios.
I wonder if anybody's ever tried that. Pissing in Cheerios? Yeah, because it's a big, it's a big saying. Yeah.
Did it happen one time? It had to. And then someone's like, who pissed in my Cheerios? Exactly.
And then it was like, sorry, King. Right. I did. I did it.
Yeah. Maybe that'll be a flavor on Half Wheel sometime. Cheerio piss? Yeah.
Speaking of Kings and getting beheaded, did you see this soldier, - Do you remember in Korea that took a selfie with Kim Jong-un's wife? - No. " And then he was just taken away. - Sweat away?
- Yeah. I'd like to know what happened to him. - Oh, he's gone. - He's gone, right?
He's gone. Louisiana dad. - I was trying to compare the two there, trying to bring them in, you beat me to it. - Two to the chest.
- Yeah, exactly, two to the chest. Done. Yeah, it was crazy. Dennis Rodman probably took care of him.
What was that guy thinking? No idea. He was uncomfortable doing it, and then he kind of, like, tapped her and, like, got her going, and then he put the phone up, and then, you know, she looked up, he clicked, took the picture, and then she looked at her husband with, like, this look of disgust, and then... He was gone.
Yeah, he was gone. Ah. Never to be seen again. No.
No, he's... He'll be forever remembered as a legend, though. Yeah. Well, we don't even know his name.
What do they say? What was the thing in Sandlot? Heroes are remembered, legends never die. Correct.
That guy definitely died. Yeah, sad. All right, well, dude, thank you so much for coming on. Yeah, awesome.
You know, it worked out well. Yeah. No Palmer, so. Yeah, no Palmer.
That's why it worked out. Yeah, it was a perfect fit. Yeah. You know, you timed this.
It's perfect. I had to, you know, if I'm coming to the area, I had to stop in and say hi. I'll just stop in and say hi. Yeah, that's great.
And I love it. I love having you on the show, so thank you so much. It's always a good time. And anything else there, Phil?
No. Put that mask back on. No. All right.
Well, like and subscribe wherever you're listening to the show. com for all your chpod swag. Thank you very much for your time. And we hope you provided some good edutainment on this show.
And bye. Boo!
Show Notes
Oliver Novell joins host Mike the King on the Cigar Hustlers Podcast to review and discuss the latest from United Cigars, Pospiech Cigars, E.P. Carrillo, and La Historia.A full cigar-industry news discussion — reviews, interviews, and commentary, plus the week's wildest headlines.In episode 590 of the Cigar Hustlers Podcast, host Mike the King and guest Oliver Novell run from the news desk to the humidor — reacting to the week's headlines before digging into cigar news and reviews featuring United Cigars, Pospiech Cigars, E.P. Carrillo, and La Historia. Honest conversation and industry commentary, new episodes every weekday.CHAPTERS0:00 Cold open & welcome2:37 Show merch & where to find CHPOD4:29 Comments from the Lounge38:26 Cigar News39:19 Casa Carrillo releases a second batch46:05 Apostate ships the Lost Pages.56:21 Pospiech Cigars has officially launched a brand new online1:02:55 "What's the Score?" game1:14:56 Wrap-up & thanks——————————————ABOUT CHPODThe Cigar Hustlers Podcast is a premium-cigar, news, and culture talk show — honest conversation, industry commentary, and cigar reviews, new episodes every weekday.▶ Subscribe and turn on notifications so you don't miss an episode.👍 Like and comment — your comment might get read on a future show.SUPPORT THE SHOWSupport CHPOD on Patreon: https://patreon.com/acigarhustlerspodcastCHPOD show merch (mentioned in this episode): https://chpod.comCONNECTInstagram: https://instagram.com/cigarhustlerMENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE- United Cigars- Pospiech Cigars- E.P. Carrillo- La Historia- Independence- Padron- La Gloria Cubana- Pledge(Links above are references to products and shops discussed in this episode, for viewers who want to learn more.)DISCLAIMER: This channel features cigar reviews, interviews, and industry commentary for adults 21+. Nothing here is a solicitation to purchase tobacco products.#CigarHustlers #CHPOD #CigarPodcast