StirredUp

Those small black cameras on poles at the edge of town? There’s a good chance they belong to Flock Safety, and they’re doing a lot more than reading plates. This week we dig into the company that sold license plate cameras to thousands of police departments, HOAs, and businesses, and turned them into one of the largest vehicle-tracking networks in the country. We break down how the system works, w...

Four companies control 85% of the beef in this country. One of them has been paying for its own misconduct for thirty years and still produces one in five bites of American meat. This episode is about Tyson Foods, but it's really about what happens to a food system when the buyers consolidate and nobody with a vote has to live with the consequences. We get into the actual structure of the American...

A Canadian pipeline has been running under the Straits of Mackinac since 1953. In July 2026, the Michigan Supreme Court threw out its key permit and told state regulators they had spent eight years asking the wrong question. We're doing this will strolling through the grounds of Northwood University during Gus Macker, where we really stir it up about what the culture of Midland, MI is like during...

When a parasite outbreak made headlines, we decided to look into the company that was originally tied to it all.  Taylor Farms, the $7 billion company you've seen in the aisles of Kroger. They are the mega supplier of salads and pre-cut produce to every major restaurant and grocery chain in America.  Literally the day after this was recorded, we learned they weren't responsible for the parasite ou...

We're back in the studio after a long break, and we open with the usual stirred up tea: whether we look better now or in our 20's, getting a new puppy in the fall, a hot take on whether Scandal and Yellowstone know how to ruin a character right, and a genuinely unhinged detour into who's really bankrolling the AI boom and what happens to communities when that money comes looking for land, water, a...

This is the kickoff of our summer series. New format this year: garden tours, real food talk, and the same "we don't know, we're just having a conversation" energy you already know. In this episode: - A full garden walkthrough (raspberries, tomatoes, dahlias, cucumbers, peas) - Why Burpee Seeds grows fastest during every recession - The Monsanto/GMO seed patent problem, explained - Farmland gettin...

Your local hospital. Your kid's school. Your apartment complex. You might think these are owned by your community but increasingly, they're owned by Wall Street. Private equity firms are quietly buying up essential services across Michigan and across the country. But it's not just your standard flip. They're loading them with debt, cutting costs, and selling them for profit. And by the time they'r...

It's the Summer on the Porch series, and we're doing what we do best: starting somewhere random and ending up somewhere real. This week Jessica's continued hot take that's been sitting with her — that the only people genuinely impressed by AI are men, because women have been running these systems in their heads their whole lives.  Heather's a little salty about Mother's day and we know she's not a...

We recorded this one while literally hauling the last bits of garage sale pieces to the thrift.  This week, Jessica and Heather unpack garage sale culture, the surprisingly fascinating people who show up at dawn for your old blender, the people who were fighting over a 25 year old tin canister of crackers and definitely got sideways on topics such as the real return of smoking as a vibe. Heather r...

Joann Fabrics is closing its doors but Hobby Lobby just keeps growing. New stores, bigger profits, a billionaire family quietly getting richer.  Hobby Lobby is a story about private ownership, religious exemptions, a workforce that keeps showing up, and a customer base that treats Sunday closures like a sign from God. This week on Stirred Up, we're pulling back the curtain on one of America's most...

This week, Jessica and Heather are going full banana on the most chaotic, joyful, and surprisingly genius sports business model in America.  We're breaking down how a broke couple from North Carolina bought a failing baseball team for $1.8 million, eliminated every single thing that makes sports annoying, and accidentally built a $500 million entertainment empire — with a waitlist longer than the...

$10,000 and a Prayer. outh travel sports is a $40 billion industry built on one thing: parental hope. Families are spending $3,000, $5,000, even $10,000 a year... going into debt...  skipping vacations... working extra jobs...  all chasing a dream. Meanwhile, private equity firms are buying up the tournaments, the facilities, the uniforms, and the software. Every dollar your family spends has a de...

Heather and Jessica chat in the studio to update on just about everything...  - Job Applications - Crashing Out - Women's Health - Olympic Hockey And what else? 

Have corporations tossed their ESG - sustainability goals out with the trash? Or are they just too scared to talk about it? 🌍🔥 In this episode of StirredUp, we’re challenging... I sustainability dead?  While the world warms up, the corporate suits are cooling down and quietly scrubbing ESG goals from their websites and deleting goals that hold these highly influential companies to being good whi...

The average American household now manages over six entertainment subscriptions alone—but the "leaks" don't stop at Netflix. We are now "renting" our office software, our car’s performance, and even our home security.  In this episode, we pull back the curtain on the $250 billion subscription economy. We explore why brands are desperate to turn every product into a monthly fee, how new "Click-to-C...

The house used to be a destination. Now, it’s an app on your home screen. 📱🎲 Today we pull back the curtain on the multi-billion dollar rise of the online gambling industry. It’s not just about luck anymore; it’s about high-level data science, psychological engineering, and a business model designed to keep you clicking.   But how did we get here? And who is it affecting the most?    Since the 2...

The game is over, the confetti has settled, and the CFOs are finally waking up from their cold sweats. For Super Bowl LX, the price of a 30-second spot hit a record-breaking $8 million to $10 million. That breaks down to roughly $266k per second. Yeah.  We break down the "all-in" cost of a Super Bowl spot—which often tops $20 million once you add in A-list celebrity fees and $5 million production...

It's fair that America's health culture is more complex that what one single gym can represent, but the gym that represents America, the number one gym in the country, is Planet Fitness.  With nearly 3,000 locations and over 20 million members, Planet Fitness isn't just a gym it’s the primary source of how many Americans experience exercise.  But is their "Judgment Free" philosophy truly about inc...

Turn on any news station or scroll through social media, and you’ll hear the same warning: Foreign adversaries, specifically China, are quietly buying up the heart of America—our farmland. The story goes that they are snatching up the soil to control our food supply and compromise our national security. But is that actually what’s happening? In this episode, we follow the paper trail to find a dif...

We had a few too many laughs to have a proper send off so we dropped into the studio for some last-of-the-season laughs and to spill some tea from the thanksgiving parties we both hosted. See you Feb 6 for SEASON 3 and stay tuned for some LIVE drop in visits until then.

We're taking a break in December and will be back early next year. 

It’s the Season 2 sendoff and Jess & Heath are fully unhinged (in the best way). From Trump and Epstein to kids, families, and the little things that keep us sane—this episode is part gossip, part therapy, and part “clink if you’re tired.” Kick back, pour something strong, and join the chaos.

The global scam economy is now a trillion-dollar industry—spanning call-center crime rings, AI-powered fraud, romance scams, crypto schemes, money-mule networks, and full-blown international operations that law enforcement can’t keep up with. In this episode of Stirred Up, Jessica & Heather break down how scams became one of the world’s most profitable industries, why it’s nearly impossible to...