Liz and Matt dive into Cosa Nostra’s extortion tactics, jokingly proposing the "Brace Belden rule"—demanding $50 for kidnappings or 10% of income—to avoid legal hassles victims dread more than crime itself. They pivot to Italy’s linguistic quirks (triple-C words like compania), Liz’s 2020 illness, and their "clan" dynamic, before Matt joins to dissect the mafia’s psychological grip on power—where fear isn’t just violence, but the perception of inevitable cost. The episode frames organized crime as a system where victims internalize complicity long before the first threat. [Automatically generated summary]
If you're in the mafia and you're listening to this, I have some advice for you.
But if you take it, you can't do it to us.
Can I give it to them, Liz?
Before you say that, I would say hello and thank you for subscribing to our Patreon.
Buena Shorno.
Yes.
My female companion is arm in arm with me on this.
Almost as if she was my companion, compania.
You know what I'm saying?
Okay.
I will say this: if you're in the mafia and listen to this, I have a great business opportunity for you.
You know, podcasts?
You know, Patreon, that kind of bullshit, right?
Check this out.
You just go to these guys' houses and be like, you give me like 10% and I won't fucking kill you.
And they're going to say yes.
Wait, you're saying we should do that?
No, we shouldn't.
I mean, we could do that.
But I'm saying if you're in the mafia, I also get 1% of that because I gave you the idea.
But my whole thing with this, Liz, is with extortion.
This is the Brace Belden rule of extortion.
You want to extort someone for a really low amount so that it's more of a hassle to report it to the police than it is to just pay them.
Like you want to basically make it so that getting a lawyer or like getting police involved would cost, technically cost more than just paying off the extortion.
This is also like my other idea where you should kidnap someone for $50.
And if they, because people will just pay, like, if someone kidnapped, like, I think the cost benefit on that, you got to kind of weigh, I mean, it's going to cost you more than $50 to kidnap someone.
No, but like, I'm like, well, like your neighbor or something, right?
Like, if someone like called me was like, it's not like proximity that's the cost on that.
What's the cost then?
Gas?
Yeah.
I thought you made a gas and stuff.
Oh, my God.
Because if someone called me and was like, I have Liz, it's $50 to release her.
I'd be like, well, I'll just pay that.
I mean, it's not like I call the police or anything.
It'll take way longer.
Okay, so if someone calls you and I'm kidnapped, will you please call the police?
I don't care what the amount is.
Well, it is $50.
I'm just going to pay the $50, dude.
But I'm not calling the police ever.
First of all, a cab.
So if anyone ever calls me and is like, I have Liz, and I'm going to murder her, I'll be like, I'll give you whatever you want as long as it's under $75.
Young Spaghetti Episode00:02:12
Hello, everyone.
I'm Liz.
My name, of course, you know me, you love me, Meatball.
And of course, we are joined by producer Young Chomsky.
And the podcast is called.
Truman, hello.
I thought you were going to call him like Young Spaghetti.
Young spaghetti?
No.
Let me call him.
What can I call him?
Rigatone.
He's the pulp.
He's the young pulp.
He's the young pulp.
He's a baby pulp.
Did you ever watch young pope?
Fuck.
Under what circumstances would I watch the young pulp, Liz?
I watched it.
Yeah, you and I are different people.
I'm a copy.
That's why.
He is hot, right?
He's a guy.
Oh, he's well.
No, he's a young pope.
Yeah.
But like, isn't he?
I mean, he's like a young actor.
I don't know.
It's all very stylish.
It was very weird.
I don't really understand it.
I will say this.
Much, I feel like, I mean, this is, as if you can't tell, a little Italian episode.
I feel like damn Italy 2020 because I'm still sick.
Oh my God.
Yeah.
I got this fucking.
Listen to me.
It's awful.
Yeah.
We're back.
We're back in the mafia, Liz.
We are back.
And we've got part two of our Mafia 101 episode with Matt from Ghost Stories for the End of the World right now.
You know, around these parts at Truanon, we're like one big family, right?
That's true.
They always think of us.
The true fam.
It's true, Bris.
You're always referring to Truinon as a family, right?
I am.
I am.
And you keep saying the family.
Yeah.
Well, you call it the clan, Liz.
With a C.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, but several C's, unfortunately, which I don't think doesn't make sense.
But you know what?
That actually led me to think: what other culture uses a bunch of C's and words and that make them hard to pronounce for me?