Submit Questions for New Years Show

Hello, I would like to ask you two about your opinion on why do you think people are so interested in crime in general at the moment. As professionals touring all around the globe, maybe you could give anecdotes about how crime is viewed and written about in non western countries. All the best!

What up Underworld. BeerSpillPhil from Philadelphia again. Congratulations to Sean on the birth of his child, but also congratulations for working a crazy cricket story into the podcast and Sports Illustrated. My two takeaways were: - Was there any potential cricket story that would confuse an audience that does not understand cricket even more as to how the game actually works? - I speak a bit of Russian and went to Russia (over 20 years ago now), and pay attention to Russian culture and news, but I never knew that Russians were such degenerate gamblers that they would bet on any kind of cricket match, let alone a fake one. There are two items I wanted clarification on from Sean: - I wasn’t sure from the article—was 1xBet successful in attracting gamblers in India? - Can you describe a potential money laundering use case for one of these fixed matches? Is it the same actor on each side of the bet? (Gambling always confuses me.) Or any thoughts as gambling as a money-laundering vehicle more broadly. What is the Underworld Podcast take on the trend in U.S. media to cover “organized retail crime”? There’s been a lot of media hype that was (potentially) recently deflated because it turns out the industry group was just making stuff up (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/08/business/organized-shoplifting-retail-crime-theft-retraction.html). I can understand why the media would fall for this stuff—it’s something that impacts their readers and viewers, something people can see examples of in the real world (even if it’s just more things behind lock-and-key at RiteAid/Duane Reade/CVS, etc.) And it’s all over social media. And I think it’s happening in other countries, such as the UK, as well. What are your thoughts on organized shoplifting. Is it anything either of you would be interested in researching or reporting on more, and which aspects of it would you try to cover? Since I’m talking about local media hype in places like Philadelphia and the Northeast U.S., any thoughts on car theft, both carjacking and the Kia-Boyz style of car theft? Is there money in it or is it just “for the thrill”? [Clearly there are more niche kinds of car crime, such as catalytic-converter theft, which does make money (https://www.inquirer.com/crime/tdi-towing-catalytic-convert-theft-millions-bucks-philadelphia-20231016.html?query=catalytic%20converters).] Wishing the Underworld team a prosperous 2024.

beerSpillPhil