Luigi Mangione allegedly murdered UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson
Full Episode
So this guy, his name's Luigi. And Luigi just unalived a man. And people love him for it. So Luigi's got a lot going for him. He was a valedictorian in his high school, he went to an Ivy League university, and he's generally a charming and friendly dude. And one day, he decides to move to Hawaii. I mean, he's in his 20s, he has a remote job, so why not? And there, Luigi learns to surf.
Here's the thing, though. Luigi has had bad back pain since he was a little kid. He actually has a condition called spondylolisthesis. And I guess all the surfing aggravates his spondylolisthesis and his back starts hurting like crazy. In fact, it's so bad that he's in bed for a week and even after he recovers enough to get out of bed, the pain doesn't really go away.
So most days, Luigi's just in pain and it sucks. So he does his research and he starts reading books about chronic back pain and he does everything he can to help himself. But nothing seems to work and this back problem is really starting to consume his life. Like he's not sleeping right and he can't surf, he can't have sex, he can't live the active life he wants in Hawaii.
So eventually he leaves. And I don't know exactly where he goes after this, but things continue to get worse. Like the pain is just unbearable. Sometimes his legs feel numb and he just never feels rested. And this is just a bit of speculation on my part because we don't have all the info right now, but it is speculated that this whole time he's battling with his health insurance provider.
trying to get them to cover his treatment. And that, unfortunately, isn't going too well, as these things generally don't. And eventually, something happens to him that gets him sent to the ER. And from there, he has to schedule a surgery for his back, no matter what it costs. I mean, there's no other way around it. This is ruining his life.
So he schedules the surgery, and he gets it, and it's a spinal fusion surgery where doctors fuse part of the spine together. And so they do the surgery and after about a week, he's already starting to feel better. And little by little, he becomes active again. And he goes backpacking through Asia and he ends up in Japan. And this is just what he really needed.
But again, this is speculation based on how American health insurance works. But it is speculated that during this, he continues to fight with his health insurance provider to get them to cover his back surgery. And they just keep giving him the runaround like they are known to do. And by the time he gets back to the US, Bro has had enough. He's done with these insurance companies.
And he's done with the US healthcare system. And so he decides to do something about it. And he comes up with this insane plan to assassinate a CEO. So first, he distances himself from his friends and family and he stops posting online. He basically ghosts everyone for months. Then he gets a bunch of fake IDs and he 3D prints a pew-pew and a silencer.
Then he takes three bullets and on the casings, he etches the words deny, defend, depose on them, which deny, defend, depose is a reference to delay, deny, defend, which is a reference to the shady tactics that American health insurance companies use to deny coverage to people in need.
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