Pod Insights Scam Goddess Peak Fraud & Sherpa Shenanigans w/ Ginger Minj About this episode Fresh off the LIVE Scam Goddess tour, Laci is joined by the fabulous drag icon Ginger Minj (Hocus Pocus 2, Stop! That! Train!). Together, they chat about Ginger’s love for Wawa, mourn the loss of Spirit Airlines, and dig into the monumental scams surrounding Mount Everest expeditions, from fake rescues and insurance fraud to dangerous labor disputes and growing tensions between wealthy climbers and the Sherpas who make their summits possible. So much high altitude drama! Stay schemin’!
Keep the scams coming and snitch on your friends by emailing us at [email protected] .
Check out Ginger's comedy film: Stop! That! Train! premiering in theaters on June 12, 2026.
Follow on Instagram:
Scam Goddess Pod: @scamgoddesspod
Laci Mosley: @divalaci
Ginger Minj: @gingerminj
Research by Kathryn Doyle
SOURCES
https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/mount-everest-climb-nepal-insurance-scam-sherpa-poisoning-b2952027.html
https://www.fox13news.com/news/mount-everest-guides-accused-poisoning-climbers-force-fake-rescues
https://allthatsinteresting.com/mount-everest-insurance-fraud
https://www.fodors.com/world/asia/nepal/experiences/news/the-shocking-tourist-scam-where-guides-allegedly-poisoned-guests-for-insurance-money
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/article/climbing-mount-everest-1
https://www.climbing.com/travel/how-much-does-it-cost-to-climb-everest-in-2026/
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0j99xxd1z1o
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/130501-mount-everest-fight-sherpas-sahibs-world-mountain-climbing
Transcript 11,969 words · 8 speakers
Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
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1:47 Laci Mosley? What's poppin' congregation, it's your girl, Lacey Mosley, AKA Scam Goddess, back with another installment of the podcast all about robbery, fraud, and those who practice it. Sometimes we love them, sometimes we hate them. We will see along the way. I know some of you guys are gonna like that my voice sounds like this. I have been traveling, y'all. The Scam Goddess live tour was lit, clearly. Your girl can't even use her throat no more. I don't like how that sounded, but anyways, congregation, y'all already know I'm very what? Yes, excited, thrilled, elated. Today, we have an icon on the show, honey. She is a drag legend and the winner of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars 10. Last fall, she wrapped the Hocus Pocus Live Tour across North America.
2:28 Laci Mosley? And not only did she star in it, but she also wrote, produced, and directed it. She authored her debut memoir, Part Cookbook, Southern Fried Sausage. No, that's right. And you've seen her on Netflix's Dumplin', Disney's Hocus Pocus 2, and the feature The Legacy of Cloudy Falls. She's busy! And you'll be able to catch her in the newest funny film marking the first ever theatrical feature from the RuPaul's Drag Race universe, Stop That Train. Yes, congregation, please welcome the queen Ginger Minch to the show. Hi Ginger.
3:01 Speaker 04 Hello, how are you?
3:03 Laci Mosley? I'm doing wonderful. Clearly, you are quite busy. I'm glad that we could grab you. I feel like you're...
3:09 Speaker 04 Well, I love being grabbed. I will take any opportunity I can.
3:12 Laci Mosley? I feel like we had to grab you. I guess like if we waited, we were never gonna see her.
3:18 Speaker 04 Well, I don't know. Some people think they see me too much, so...
3:21 Laci Mosley? Oh, no such thing. Not with you.
3:23 Speaker 04 No.
3:24 Laci Mosley? Oh my gosh, congratulations on all of this wonderful work that you've been up to. This is so dope.
3:28 Speaker 04 Thank you. I mean, I was raised where idle hands are the devil's work, you know? So I try to stay as booked, blessed, and busy as possible.
3:38 Laci Mosley? We share that in common. That's why I was sounding all raggedy.
3:42 Speaker 04 I've been keeping up with you on the internet, too. There's a reason that your voice sounds like that.
3:48 Laci Mosley? I forgot it's an instrument, and I was hooting and hollering. We was hooting and hollering so much.
3:53 Speaker 04 Hey, sometimes you gotta use that instrument for good and bad.
3:56 Laci Mosley? Right. Okay, listen.
3:59 Laci Mosley? We not even gonna get into that.
4:03 Laci Mosley? We ask everyone on this podcast now their opinions about scams, or just things that are technically legal right now, but we don't know how we feel about them. So I want to ask you in this segment, is it a scam, is it a scheme, or is it a real thing? A scam being something that should be illegal and is like, you know, people are being ripped off. A scheme is like, it feels illegal, but pink hat the rest. We just go home. We just go to the app. And then a real thing is something that we think is like legit and we find some value in it. So those are the categories. And so we're gonna get Ginger's opinions all throughout. So Ginger, the first one, just because we're coming off of this season,
4:45 Laci Mosley? or maybe some of us are about to go to jail for this season, myself included. Tax accountants, scam, scheme, or real thing?
4:53 Speaker 04 Uh, I think a real thing, you know, as I've shifted tax brackets throughout my career, I don't think that I would have been able to navigate that without the know-how and help from other people. And believe me, I am a cheap queen. I love beauty on a budget. I love a bargain. So I've tried to go online and do it myself, but I just get so confused. I can't figure it out. I need somebody to take me by the hand and say, no, no, no, no, no, this is what you do.
5:23 Laci Mosley? Right. I mean, I would have to agree. Obviously, I have an accountant as well. But for me, it still feels kind of like a scheme because it's like a middleman that we created because we made the tax system so complicated so that...
5:38 Speaker 04 Okay, yes, I would give you that.
5:39 Laci Mosley? They can make all of this money. Like, there was supposed to be direct file, TurboTax lobbied against that hard body because they were like, uh-uh, y'all can't just get on a government website and then get a government, yo, tax money. You need us. You need nebulous jargon. You need the fear of Wesley Snipes jail hanging over your head. And like, so we can get your money. Because I'm like, it just gives middleman. And like, yes, when you get into a certain bracket and you start trying to hide assets, it makes a little more sense. I mean, not hide assets. I mean, just like, you know, like, you know what I meant. So...
6:10 Speaker 04 You know, like, write off your eyelashes.
6:12 Laci Mosley? But honestly, aren't you using them for work, Ginger?
6:15 Speaker 04 I am. I am. But that's the thing, too, right? Like, when I started getting into this, I didn't know if I could write off eyelashes or what's the difference between writing off an eyelash and having a gown made or anything like that, you know? So it's like, there's a lot of nuance to it. And I agree with you. I think it is all created to feed into that system, to make us think we need them a little bit more than we actually do. So they could take more of the money, but I also know that I would be completely lost without the guidance of somebody.
6:46 Laci Mosley? I'm literally having anxiety right now about it still.
6:49 Speaker 04 Me too.
6:49 Laci Mosley? Like, so...
6:51 Speaker 04 Girl, and I am out of Ativan right now, so let's, uh...
6:54 Laci Mosley? Oh, no. Oh, Lord, it's just won't even have to take deep breaths in a Benadryl. You can't have anxiety when you sleep.
7:01 Speaker 04 Oh, I got asthma. I can't take a deep breath if I wanted to.
7:06 Laci Mosley? I have asthma too. It's okay. Mine is like only like allergy related, though. Like a cedar tree could kill me, which feels very sad because I would be like super dead in the 1800s. Like a tree could kill me.
7:19 Speaker 04 Yeah, I think we all would have been dead in the 1800s by now.
7:22 Laci Mosley? Well, somebody had to make it.
7:24 Speaker 04 Like, wasn't the life expectancy then, like, you were old at 20?
7:31 Laci Mosley? Yeah, it was like 30s. It was. That's when people were like, let's go back to these old interment time treatments. I was like, do y'all not remember the life expectancy?
7:39 Speaker 04 No, no, no, I'm good. I'm good. I'm about to be 42. I'm happy where I am. I feel like my life is actually finally starting.
7:46 Laci Mosley? Which I love. That's something that I think that people don't talk about enough is like as you get older, things get easier. So for the most part, some things get harder.
7:55 Speaker 04 I think we understand them a little bit better.
7:58 Laci Mosley? Yeah, you've seen them before. So it's not as like jarring. You're not making the same decisions you made the first time you saw everything all wide eyed. So the next one, scam, scheme, or real thing? Loyalty programs. So if you get like a little punch card, if you go somewhere, the 10th one's free. Or like airline loyalty, it could be any kind of loyalty programs. What do you think? Scam, scheme, or real thing?
8:23 Speaker 04 I think that it's a scheme. I don't think it's a scam. And I mean, I do see the value in these programs because I have benefited from some of them, especially like, you know, I'm a million miler Delta Platinum Medallion member and have been for years.
8:39 Laci Mosley? Yeah, I'm sure you got all the diamonds and rubies in.
8:43 Speaker 04 But the problem with it is, is that. It's accessible to so many people that once everybody starts getting the same benefits, then they move the goalposts again.
8:55 Laci Mosley? Yeah.
8:55 Speaker 04 So then nobody gets them and you have to start working even harder to reach what you already had. So it feels like it's this endless cycle of you can have this, but you have to keep working harder for it. You gotta give us more and we're gonna give you less.
9:11 Laci Mosley? And we're gonna get into that exact point in a second with the next one. But to hop back on to like the loyalty programs, just in general, I find that they're also so emotionally manipulative because it's like I'm, I have brand loyalty to this company. And so then when I'm like locked in to like, you know, oh, whatever this punch card is, or whatever this little letter on my flight chair is, or whatever the hell, you know, I get perks for, you know, only shopping here. Then when a better deal is around, like around, I'll go for the more expensive place. Because I'm like, oh, well, this is where I'm gonna get my points. But it's like, this is cheaper. I should probably go with the cheaper thing and just not be loyal.
9:50 Speaker 04 See, and I'm the girl that will always go with the cheaper thing. I don't care how loyal I've been to you. The only place that I think I'm like legit loyal, loyal to because of the loyalty card is Wawa. I love Wawa. You can get anything there. And their loyalty program actually like really works because if you have the, the little card, I mean, I'm a smoker. I know I got asthma. I know I got problems, but I do smoke. And I get a discount on my cigarettes every time I buy them there. I get free coffee one day a week.
10:22 Laci Mosley? What city do you live in?
10:24 Speaker 04 I'm in Orlando.
10:25 Laci Mosley? Oh, okay. Cause I was about to say, you just got, Wawa's around, like.
10:28 Speaker 04 We do, well, and but the thing about that is they all popped up like overnight about a decade and maybe a decade and a half ago. We, I had heard about them for years, saw them on TV.
10:37 Laci Mosley? That's like a PA thing. That's like a, yeah.
10:40 Speaker 04 And then like one popped up and then within six months, they were everywhere. And I love that. I love a Wawa. Gotta have a Wawa. But I do feel like out of all of the rewards programs I've ever been a part of, that's the one that actually seems to benefit me every time.
10:56 Laci Mosley? For being so glamorous, it's very, very funny to me that she's like, the only one I got is wah wah.
11:04 Speaker 04 I mean, I get my Sephora.
11:05 Laci Mosley? Like V I B Sephora. I thought you were gonna say like.
11:08 Speaker 04 My Sephora points. I do get my Ulta points and I go to both of those, of course, for like different things. I don't know. Does she encounter as a fashion house?
11:22 Laci Mosley? I mean, technically it is a house and they they are making something.
11:27 Speaker 04 Yes, they're making fools of all of us. It's what they're doing. Now that's a scam right there. That is the scam where they post the most beautiful picture in the world. And you know, in your head, you're like, there is no way I'm getting this couture gown full of ostrich feathers and rhinestones for eleven ninety five. But there's that part of your brain that goes, maybe, just maybe this is the one time. No, it is never the time.
11:51 Laci Mosley? That in the factory, like they just really ate that up, you know?
11:55 Speaker 04 They had a good day. They had extra rhinestones and they just went. No, they did not ever.
12:01 Laci Mosley? No, no, no, no, no. I mean, like, I get it when people are buying T shirts or very, very tight dresses or whatever, you know, stuff there's. I get that stuff, but whenever it's something that I'm looking at it, I'm like, the quality and the time it would take to make this, like, you should have known better.
12:17 Speaker 04 Yeah, or I mean, at least, I don't know, if you're gonna A I the image that you give us. I mean, at least make it a little more realistic. Just just type in your prompt like, make it good, but not too good. Like, make it, if we're charging eleven ninety five, maybe make it look like we should have charged fifty.
12:36 Laci Mosley? Can't you just go back to the old fashioned ways and like, go get a picture from the real website and then pretend that that's yours? We don't need to use A I to do crime. Well, I want us to get back on the old fashioned wave.
12:50 Speaker 04 We don't need to use A I for anything, honestly. And I love the the times that people use A I to like, generate images of me. Uh, I always look like, I always look like a seventy year old Hispanic woman.
13:06 Laci Mosley? I think made you look like Yolanda Saldivar. That's not right.
13:09 Speaker 04 Well, yes, but there are times, I mean, sometimes it's like really beautiful and I can see like, okay, maybe that's my eye, or maybe that's my cheek or my lips or whatever. But there are other times where I'm like, what does, what does this artificial intelligence think I am? What does it think I look like?
13:26 Laci Mosley? Well, it'll combine a lot of different images into one. And so that's why it ends up looking very strange. Cause it's reaching out from different like photo sources and putting them all into one face. That's why it's like super weird.
13:40 Speaker 04 It's always weird. And that's the thing. I'm like, I don't, I don't see like the benefit of it.
13:45 Laci Mosley? No, there's no benefit. It's killing the planet and it's starting to create like heat, like areas where things are drying out and wildlife is like not being able to find.
13:52 Speaker 04 Girl, it's killing the planet. It is killing my self-esteem.
13:56 Laci Mosley? Oh, my goodness. All of us.
13:58 Speaker 04 All of us.
13:59 Laci Mosley? Killing is like, it's not like we were already not getting dumber. And George Bush said he was gonna leave us behind and he definitely did. He was like, screw, screw.
14:09 Laci Mosley? And now you got AI slop and chat GPT making it even worse. Nobody wants to know anything anymore.
14:14 Speaker 04 No, and, and the, the like, the, the biggest part about that is like, you use it without even realizing it most of the time. Cause like, I'll go in and do a Google search. I had to learn like months after it started happening. You have to hit the, um, to disable the, the AI prompts for it. Because like I'm, I'm going in and I'm doing, okay, who was this actor that was in this movie? And then all of a sudden, it's like this whole AI generated, um, dossier on this one person, where they were born, how they live, what their personal beliefs are in every movie they've ever been in. I'm like, girl, I just wanted to know the name of that actor.
14:49 Laci Mosley? Right. And now it's in our emails too. You get an email be like, okay, they talk about some, some money, something, something Tuesday, something, something availability. I'm like, I didn't ask you to summarize this. I was gonna open the email.
15:04 Laci Mosley? But anyways, last scam scheme were real thing.
15:08 Laci Mosley? Spirit Airlines. Was it a scam?
15:12 Speaker 04 Like just in general?
15:13 Laci Mosley? Was it a scheme? Was it a real thing? Now that she's gone on to that, that's. Now, she's become a spirit.
15:20 Speaker 04 She's become a spirit.
15:23 Speaker 04 I don't, I mean, I certainly think that it's a real thing. I mean, it, it, it had its benefits. I, I utilized it sometimes, but the problem, okay, it's a scheme. I'll go with scheme.
15:37 Laci Mosley? I was gonna say.
15:38 Speaker 04 Okay, I'm gonna go with scheme because while, I mean, yes, if you just need a quick flight and you've got the clothes on your back and that's all you need to get to and from where you wanna go, that's fine for your $45 flight. But whenever you purchase that $45 flight and you show up with your personal overnight bag or a checked luggage and you, you start realizing there's different rules than every other airline, right? So your bag can't be 50 pounds, it has to be 40 pounds. And instead of charging you a certain amount like other airlines do for any overages, you're getting charged almost double what you would be just to check that bag on a
16:20 Speaker 04 regular airline or taking, like back in the day, a Southwest flight where you get your two bags free or whatever. So then you get on and you're like, okay, can I, can I have a Diet Coke? And they go, well, yeah, but you gotta pay for that. Or can I use the bathroom? Yeah, put the quarter in the slot on the side of the door before you go in.
16:38 Laci Mosley? Can I have a seatbelt? Yeah, you got $20? Seatbelts is not cheap.
16:43 Speaker 04 So that's what it, it felt like the few times I took Spirit or Allegiant or any of the, the budget airlines. It's like, okay, I see what purpose this serves, but I also see how once I am on board and I am a captive audience, I cannot escape giving you more money to where I'm actually paying as much if not more than I would have just to take a Delta or, or some other airline that was a little bit more expensive.
17:13 Laci Mosley? Now, see, I agree with everything that you're saying and that's why it's so conflicting because it is a scheme where like, it's almost like Sky Lailway. Like, okay, yeah, your ticket was $39, but then when you get there, they're like, you better be wearing all the clothes you wearing on the trip on your body right now. Now like.
17:29 Speaker 04 Uh huh. And it better not weigh too much because if it encroaches on the seat next to you, we are going to charge you for that.
17:36 Laci Mosley? We will weigh you. You will, we'll put you on the baggage weight too, to see how much clothing you got on, absolutely. And also, what it did too was it discompartmented all of these different things that used to just be included in one ticket price. Which would like in a way was really great for people who couldn't afford like really expensive flights, had never taken a flight before. Um, maybe last minute flight for bereavement or whatever. Now these people could be like, I can just go with the clothes on my back. You know, if, if I'm cool with getting under the plane with the luggage, I can get there for twenty two dollars. Like, you know, like they gave you some options, right? But then, the issue is, is that, yes, that democratized air travel for people who couldn't afford it.
18:19 Laci Mosley? And I thought that was really beautiful. That's kind of was sad, especially because Spirit had, uh, never had an injury. Like, they've never had anybody die on any of their flights, which I think is amazing. So seeing seventeen thousand employees just lose their jobs, like some of them in the sky is really sad.
18:37 Speaker 04 It is very sad. I mean, that's a whole other story.
18:40 Laci Mosley? Right. So I think the service was a scheme because you know, if you went to the, the Spirit ticket counter, they, everybody who goes to that counter is having the worst day of their life. So I, at that point, I was convinced they was giving the employees Xanax or something because everybody was so chill. You couldn't tell the Spirit employee nothing that was gonna ruffle them. You could be like, there's a gun to my back right now. They'd be like, okay, so is you and the gunman coming on the flight?
19:03 Speaker 04 Yeah, and, and the, the gun is gonna be an extra fifty dollars. Is that okay?
19:07 Laci Mosley? Is that okay? Okay, yeah. Like, they, they did not give a fuck. But also, other big airlines started to do what they were doing. Like, they started to be like, oh, you know what, we're gonna, American Airlines was the first one, we're gonna charge for bags. Oh, now like, oh, the, the drinks are gonna be separate. Now Delta has three different econ, like they have two, no, three different economies. I think there's like economy basic, then there's economy regular, and then there's a con, like comfort plus.
19:37 Speaker 04 Well, plus they have the gotta get away fares, which are basic economy.
19:43 Speaker 04 Lowest base price, but it doesn't include anything. You can't, there's no insurance with it. You can't change the flight if you have to. You can't get miles. Yeah, it's like, it sets such a bad example.
19:56 Laci Mosley? It really did.
19:57 Speaker 04 Everybody else starts going, well, I mean, they're still, at that point, still in business, so it's working. I guess we can start doing it too. But then what other airlines don't, I guess, realize is that you're not starting at that base forty-nine dollar ticket.
20:13 Laci Mosley? Right.
20:14 Speaker 04 You're still charged, I mean, well, I mean, well, I guess. But they're charging, you know, a couple hundred bucks for these basic gotta get away fares that include nothing. And you've gotta add on to it and add on to it. That at that point, it's like, I could have bought just a first-class flight and gotten all this stuff for free at this point, plus a meal.
20:34 Laci Mosley? But I think their hope is that if you are like most Americans living check to check, that like, maybe we didn't have the whole shabuya in the beginning, so you pay little by little. They nickel and dimed you. But they studied Spirit's, like, their customer base to see how much they could get away with, with all of us. And now, that's why I feel like it's the biggest scheme, because flights are ridiculous. Like, when Spirit went out of business in the sky, I was on my way to the airport. All of a sudden, curiously, my flight was canceled by Delta. And then all the other flights that I could get on were way, like, twice the price.
21:07 Speaker 04 Really?
21:07 Laci Mosley? Yes. Southwest Airlines went up. This is a flight from San Francisco to LA, one way, four hundred dollars.
21:14 Speaker 04 No, no ma'am.
21:16 Laci Mosley? Because I was in the airport when Spirit was like, Spirit, like, it left.
21:20 Speaker 04 Yeah. It caught the spirit.
21:23 Laci Mosley? It caught the spirit and the Holy Ghost and left us with these vultures in hell. But yeah, like, I, I say Spirit is a scheme too, because the customer service was trash and nickel and diming people to death is also ass. But at the same time, it did open up air travel for people, so, R.I.P. Spirit.
21:40 Speaker 04 Yeah, I mean, I remember, like, before I was on Drag Race, I, I mean, I've been doing drag for twenty-five years now.
21:47 Laci Mosley? That's beautiful.
21:48 Speaker 04 And it was like, I'm glad you think so. Um, but there were, there was like, it At least a good decade that I was traveling on my own dime to go and do pageants and go do out of state bookings that weren't close enough for me to drive to and Allegiant Air, which is basically Spirit without the big yellow signs, they run a little airport out of Sanford. So I was like, well, I guess for, you know, that extra 30 minute time for me to drive over there, it's worth taking this $29 flight to go where I have to go. But then when you're traveling with drag, I started realizing, oh my God, I'm, I'm literally paying an extra
22:30 Speaker 04 $150 just to get all of the things that I need back and forth with me.
22:35 Laci Mosley? Oh yeah. You got wigs, you got make, I don't know why you thought you could travel like.
22:39 Speaker 04 No, but it did in certain times.
22:42 Laci Mosley? I've seen your drag. The wig alone is gonna get run you like a hundred dollars.
22:47 Speaker 04 Yeah, it's true. It is very true. It is true. But there were those moments that I had no other option and it was basically a layaway plan for me because I knew, ooh, if I buy my tickets for these next six gigs on the 4th of July, when they used to do those $14 each way or whatever it was, I would just, I would just stack up my flights and then save up my money going, okay, I know it's gonna be another $150, but it's not $150 I have to spend right now and I know I'm gonna be able to get there. So pluses and minuses, but definitely a scheme.
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24:57 Laci Mosley? Let's get into historic hoodwinds. This is where I will regale Ginger with a famous con caper group of criminals. We'll get our beans all throughout. And today, we're going to be talking about a sky-high $20 million fraud scheme. So hiking guides, helicopter companies, and hospitals near Mount Everest have been poisoning foreign climbers to trigger pricey rescues and collect on their travel insurance. So this is Everest.
25:28 Speaker 04 I'm familiar with Expedition Everest at Animal Kingdom at Disney. That's actually my only frame of reference for this. It looks very similar.
25:39 Laci Mosley? Right. I mean, I've never looked at this mountain and been like, what's it like to be on top? I don't give a shit.
25:45 Speaker 04 No, I don't give a shit. I'm not a nature girl. In the first place, like, it takes a lot to get me outdoors, mostly because of my allergies and the sun, and literally everything trying to kill you all at once.
25:58 Laci Mosley? I'll hike, like, as long as, you know, it's like a little bit flat, you know? And also, I'm not camping. I'm not sleeping outside. Like, my ancestors fought way too hard. Why the hell would I go cosplay, like, not having a home? That's wild.
26:13 Speaker 04 Would you glamp?
26:14 Laci Mosley? See, to me, then it's like... We're one step away from just being in a house, like a cabin in the woods. Like, why does it need to be, why does it need to be tiny and uncomfortable if we're, if it's gonna already be nice and in the woods?
26:28 Speaker 04 Okay, I will concede that, but there are some moments in my life where I have never found the kind of solitude that I have, like, in a pop-up camper in the middle of the woods, like, just by myself. And I know that's like, that's super weird to say out loud sometimes and hear it because it sounds like, oh, you're just begging to be murdered in the middle of the woods.
26:50 Laci Mosley? Oh, no. People who are doing murders, they gotta be in high-traffic areas. Do you know how long you'd have to wait to get you a murder if he was in the woods? Like, you'd just be standing behind a tree, like, oh, my god, damn it, that's a squirrel. All right.
27:03 Speaker 04 Well, maybe a squirrel would murder me. I don't know. Just keep waiting.
27:08 Laci Mosley? But, yeah, so you find solitude in the camper and, like, resting.
27:12 Speaker 04 Yeah.
27:12 Laci Mosley? And are you by yourself?
27:14 Speaker 04 Either by myself or, like, with my husband or... It's not something that I will... I don't want to put out the idea that I am like this, uh, mountain woman and I just go out there and camp all the time. This has been very select times throughout my life. I could count on one hand how many times I've done it, but I, I do see, like, the intrigue and, like, how it is good for the spirit sometimes to be a little spirit. We're always bringing it back.
27:42 Laci Mosley? I know.
27:43 Speaker 04 But how it can be good for you just to, like, be in that solitude, but no, it's not something that I would want to be in all the time. And I would not want to have to hike to the top of a cold, snowy mountain to do that.
27:54 Laci Mosley? No, and it's so dangerous. It's really expensive. It's bad for the environment. And it's like 8,000 meters above sea level. Mount Everest is the highest point on Earth. That cloud attracts a lot of climbers and some people who know what they're doing and many who do not. I'm gonna say most probably don't.
28:14 Speaker 04 I'm gonna, like, wager a bet to say, no, they don't.
28:19 Laci Mosley? Right.
28:19 Speaker 04 I mean, I jump into things I don't know how to do all the time. That's kind of how I, like, ended up here 25 years later as a drag queen. I jumped into it, didn't know anything about it, but I think it's a little bit different than saying, I'm gonna take this backpack full of beef jerky and climb to the top of the, the highest point in the world.
28:38 Laci Mosley? I don't know Ginger, I feel like the next time I see you, it's gonna be an ad for like you sponsoring REI.
28:46 Speaker 04 I only know what REI is, simply because when I was filming All Stars 6, I could look out of my, it was during like the height of COVID. So we had to quarantine for 10 days in our hotel rooms and like couldn't leave them. And the only thing I could see out of my hotel room was this REI. And I didn't have a phone to look up what the hell it was. So everybody that would come by, like anytime the PAs would come by, I'd be like, hey, what is REI? What is it? And nobody could tell. It took a week for me to get that info. That's the only reason I know what REI is.
29:22 Laci Mosley? I love that all these queens were like, what is REI? My producer suggested a collab, maybe Patagonia and Gucci.
29:30 Speaker 04 Patagucci.
29:31 Laci Mosley? Patagucci?
29:32 Speaker 04 Yeah. Yes.
29:35 Laci Mosley? I like that. So when the climbers are doing this, obviously they're encountering like really harsh obstacles like altitude sickness, weather and wind and frostbite and avalanches and kumbu. That's icefall. It's like a glacier. Yeah, that's sliding about one meter down the side of the mountain every day. So you know, also just like ice knives.
29:58 Speaker 04 Yeah, like Frozen.
30:01 Laci Mosley? Exactly like Frozen. So Everest Summit has one-third the air pressure that exists at sea level, which reduces a human's ability to breathe in enough oxygen. And also getting drunk faster. If you're ever in a mountainous area, you should really wash it if you're trying to get your little drink on because you'll get lit faster.
30:19 Speaker 04 I, I heard years ago, like when I first started traveling after my first season of Drag Race, one of the other queens told me on the flight, she was like, well, this is back when I drank, I don't drink anymore, but she was like, hey, you experience things like at such a heightened level when you like reach your cruising altitude. So you should always drink, drink more before you hit up there. That way you don't have to drink anymore because you're already drunk and it's gonna stay that way. Um, don't watch sad movies because you're gonna cry harder. Like, this was something that I don't, I don't know the actual facts behind it.
30:55 Laci Mosley? Right.
30:55 Speaker 04 But there were things where I was like, oh, that kind of does make sense. Because I used to wait till I got up there to drink. And then I would drink what I usually drink on the ground. And it was hitting me ten times harder.
31:05 Laci Mosley? Right.
31:05 Speaker 04 And then I watched, I watched Coco. I watched Coco on the airplane.
31:09 Laci Mosley? So you were not following the instructions that you were given.
31:13 Speaker 04 Well, I was testing the, the hypothesis.
31:16 Laci Mosley? I like that, a scientist.
31:17 Speaker 04 Yeah, I am a scientist.
31:19 Laci Mosley? All of a sudden Ginger, she's in a white trench coat. Don't know where it came from. I don't know where it came from, but I love it.
31:26 Speaker 04 My hair in a messy bun with pencils.
31:29 Laci Mosley? With so many pencils, because that's how you know you're, you're doing science. It's like you really need to reach for the pencil so fast.
31:35 Speaker 04 Science.
31:36 Laci Mosley? So people cannot survive indefinitely above nineteen thousand feet. So you have a limited amount of time before your organs stop working and you die. You know when you're doing like a hobby and it's like, we gotta hurry up before our organs stop working and we die.
31:53 Speaker 04 I don't think I've ever had that conversation, but now it will be at the forefront of my mind.
31:58 Laci Mosley? It's gonna be so much fun. Well, we gotta hurry up though, y'all, because otherwise candy failure, okay? We good? Just said maybe you shouldn't do shows up there, Ginger. I don't know. I feel like if Mount Everest wanted you.
32:11 Speaker 04 Well, maybe just like, like a, a pop-up number, a hotspot.
32:15 Laci Mosley? Like a helicopter, like for tips.
32:18 Speaker 04 Oh, girl, I could do the whole, uh, Diana Ross when she came down in the helicopter.
32:24 Laci Mosley? Yes.
32:25 Speaker 04 But then just keep going all the way down.
32:27 Laci Mosley? Never, yeah, never, never stop.
32:29 Speaker 04 Don't stop.
32:30 Laci Mosley? It's a cameo.
32:31 Speaker 04 Can't stop, can't stop, won't stop.
32:33 Laci Mosley? Uh-uh, uh-uh, yes.
32:36 Laci Mosley? Since a Nepalese Indian climbing guide and an English mountaineer first got to the top of Everest seventy years ago, more than three hundred people have died on the mountain. And more than two hundred of their bodies are still up there frozen in time. I mean, we all know about green boots, the landmark green boots. There's also Sleeping Beauty. There's some other ones I've heard of. But like, what's wild to me is like, I don't wanna go anywhere where a mile marker is a dead man's shoes.
33:04 Speaker 04 No, no, I don't.
33:06 Laci Mosley? Well, there's a dead man's shoes. That means we're on the right track. And I don't, I think we're on the wrong track.
33:12 Speaker 04 Exactly. I mean, you see how it worked out for them.
33:15 Laci Mosley? Right, for green boots, for Sleeping Beauty, like, please. So, and green boots has been lying at the top of the North Face for almost thirty years. Because it's too dangerous to bring green boots down, which is really sad, but like, people, people show green boots a lot of respect when they're climbing the mountain and stuff. I think the most respect would be just not climbing the mountain, but here we are.
33:37 Speaker 04 Yeah, heed the warning.
33:38 Laci Mosley? Right.
33:39 Speaker 04 The only reason I know what North Face is is because of the clothing brand.
33:43 Laci Mosley? Same. I never even knew it was a reference to a side of a mountain.
33:47 Speaker 04 I, I didn't either. I had no clue, but look, we're learning every day.
33:52 Laci Mosley? We are learning. It just sounded very like outdoorsy. So I was like, yeah, the North Face. I'd like, like, like, um, a compass.
34:03 Speaker 04 Yeah. Oh, sure. Yeah, we'll go with compass.
34:06 Laci Mosley? Yeah, that's where I was going, but clearly.
34:07 Speaker 04 I just thought like, maybe like when you walk out and you don't have a compass, you just turn your face until the sun hits it. And you're like, we'll walk that way, cuz you walk into the light. But now that I think about that, and like, maybe these people did walk into the light, and that's why they are now mile markers.
34:24 Laci Mosley? Oh, no.
34:25 Speaker 04 Girl.
34:27 Laci Mosley? That was a really whimsical way of thinking of it though, Ginger, though. Like, I thought it just turned your face to the light, and that was how the North faced.
34:34 Speaker 04 Yeah, no, don't, don't ever follow me anywhere except on the internet, cuz I will probably lead us into peril.
34:43 Laci Mosley? Same, same. I just walk really fast, and then people think I know where I'm going, but I don't. My mom always just said, move with purpose, never be walking around like you don't know where you're going. So, I be lost, but just walking like real determined.
34:56 Speaker 04 Mm-hmm. Oh, I, I've lived in Orlando for, uh, most of my life now, probably almost thirty years I've been in Orlando. And I can still get lost. I mean. In all fairness, they change our highways every single day because it's been this construction project that they've been under since I moved here. But there's so many days that I will just keep driving around and the people in my car are like, "Do you know where we're going? You said you lived 15 minutes from the airport." I mean, yeah, I'm just, I'm showing you the town. I'm just, I'm showing you all the beautiful things that we have to offer here. They're like, "Really? Because we've passed that 7-Eleven 15 times."
35:35 Laci Mosley? Well, I really want you to appreciate it.
35:37 Speaker 04 Yeah, it is, then you just make up facts. Like, that is the world's largest 7-Eleven with the oldest slurpee that ever existed.
35:49 Laci Mosley? And one time, Reba went there, so...
35:53 Speaker 04 Yeah, and it was today, and we're going to meet her.
35:56 Laci Mosley? Yeah, and it was today.
36:00 Laci Mosley? I love this ginger. Just take the Andy up even more.
36:03 Speaker 04 Just go. Just keep going.
36:06 Laci Mosley? Robert!
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37:41 Laci Mosley? And run. It costs between like $50,000 and $80,000 to climb Everest. So you know, we're all doing it. We're taking our Spirit flights to Nepal and then we happen on Everest like everybody else. So the Sherpas, they get paid around $4,000 per climbing season, plus tips and bonuses if they make it to the top. And if you get stuck and need a rescue, it'll cost you, the climber, right? So $4,000 per climbing season to risk your life as a Sherpa, to take privileged people up a mountain that they have no business climbing,
38:22 Laci Mosley? where you carry all their stuff and clean up after them and help them do everything. You get $4,000. It costs $50,000 to $40,000 to do it and you're giving them $4,000 a season? That's not even a climb.
38:35 Speaker 04 No.
38:36 Laci Mosley? That's egregious.
38:37 Speaker 04 That's bad. That's really bad.
38:39 Laci Mosley? I'm kind of on the Sherpa side now. I'm kind of on the tour guide side because y'all ripping these people off. My life, every time I climb? No.
38:47 Speaker 04 Mm hmm. Especially since you are solely responsible for these people who do not have the qualifications to even start this climb.
38:58 Laci Mosley? Right. Like if they're lucky, they'll be able to successfully do this once and successfully get down. You've been running up this bitch every day like, like it's like the grocery store. Like, like I gotta get some coffee. Let me climb Everest real quick.
39:12 Laci Mosley? It's on the other side of Everest. No, it's fast if I just climb over Everest and then get the coffee. Like you have a skill set. Yeah, it's on the south face, so. Y'all ain't been to South Face Coffee? Oh, it's good as hell.
39:23 Speaker 04 Oh, so good. It's so good.
39:25 Laci Mosley? I'll be back in an hour. But like, these people might do this once and not die. Please, if your life is in my hands, hmm.
39:34 Speaker 04 It should be worth a little bit more to you than $4,000 for the season.
39:38 Laci Mosley? This is like if you're really cheap when you hire babysitters. I've never understood that. Those are your kids. You can't be running too much discount on who watches your kids.
39:47 Speaker 04 No, no. I mean, just my fur babies, just my, my dogs. It's a vetting process.
39:54 Laci Mosley? Yeah.
39:55 Speaker 04 And if your price is too low, I don't trust you.
39:58 Laci Mosley? Cause what?
39:58 Speaker 04 From the jump. Just because, like, why, why are you undercutting everybody else? Why do you want this? Like, I understand you're trying to build your business, but if this is the going rate for something and you are so severely under that, what's wrong with you?
40:14 Laci Mosley? Yes, giving too good to be true.
40:16 Speaker 04 It is, and I am one of those too good to be true people for sure. Like, I always try to see the glasses half full, but so many times, somebody's picked that up and dumped it out right in front of me.
40:27 Laci Mosley? Right, and that's how you stay. Not they dumped it out. That's how you keep from getting scammed. So I'm with you, Ginger. So helicopter rescues. For flying a rescue helicopter into thin air and dangerous weather, it's, you know, very difficult, which is why it can cost from $5,000 to $10,000, depending on where you are. So if you're on the north face, if you're on the south face, we don't know.
40:49 Speaker 04 At the coffee shop.
40:50 Laci Mosley? At the coffee shop. So that's why you need travel insurance. Depending on which insurance company you use and how much coverage you want, that could be between $70 and $15,000. I feel like I'm not gonna go with the $70 life insurance for Mount Everest. Feels low.
41:08 Speaker 04 No, no. The only thing they're preserving at that point are your shoes.
41:13 Laci Mosley? Right, it's giving remains. Giving I'm gonna come down.
41:20 Laci Mosley? So about a thousand people attempt to get to the top of Everest and nearly a hundred thousand visitors travel to the Everest region for hiking each year. So they go just to like hang out, but they're not really trying to do the real thing. So like a hundred thousand people go slide and take some pictures. And then a thousand people are like, we're climbing up this bitch.
41:40 Speaker 04 Okay.
41:41 Laci Mosley? And like Everest has a rule too. Like you can't like, I guess you can always lie and say you climbed Everest, but apparently you're supposed to like get up there, take a picture, like you have to do all this stuff for them to officially recognize that you climbed it. Cause people would like not make it all the way or you know, probably hanging out at the summit. And they were like, yeah, I climbed Everest.
41:59 Speaker 04 I mean, there are rules in place when you do eating challenges at restaurants. Like if you want that, yeah, if you want that free T-shirt, then you definitely have to show people that you ate five pounds of food in 25 minutes. Before you get your picture taken and put on the wall. Like there are little things that for something a little uh, less dangerous as climbing Mount Everest.
42:26 Laci Mosley? They were like, there will be no stolen baller.
42:29 Speaker 04 No.
42:33 Speaker 04 If you make it to the top of Mount Everest, I would think you would want the picture anyway, right?
42:39 Laci Mosley? Yeah.
42:39 Speaker 04 Yeah. So I ain't gonna trust nobody that said that they did it and then didn't show a picture.
42:46 Laci Mosley? That's true.
42:47 Speaker 04 Picture it didn't happen.
42:48 Laci Mosley? Picture it didn't happen, but also like, give me a, give me a good Photoshop. We could really devalue going to Everest. If we all just started posting that we were there.
42:58 Speaker 04 Hashtag I climbed Everest. Let's do that.
43:01 Laci Mosley? Hashtag Everest so easy.
43:04 Speaker 04 Everest so easy. Stop at the coffee shop on the south face.
43:08 Laci Mosley? Me and all my homegirls be going to Everest.
43:13 Speaker 04 Girls trip.
43:14 Laci Mosley? Girls trip. Girls trip to Everest. Yeah. We ain't ever coming back. That's worse than the Miami ones. So mountaineering generates a significant source of revenue for Nepal, which is home to eight of the 10 tallest peaks in the world. So Nepal got all the mountains. And climbing fees bring in more than $5 million per year. And so a bunch of foreign tourists with money to burn arrive in like harsh, unforgiving landscapes they've never been to before. And they're a pretty good target for a scam. Yeah, I would say so. So it turns out Everest hiking guides have been triggering those expensive helicopter rescues when they're not necessary. Either by giving the tourists an upset stomach on purpose, or by faking the rescue altogether.
43:57 Laci Mosley? So the ones who are giving the upset stomach, I feel like you're getting a little risky here.
44:02 Speaker 04 Yeah.
44:03 Laci Mosley? Like maybe, like, cause you know, remember, we don't got a lot of time before our organs shut down. I feel like messing with somebody's organs to get them on a helicopter is a little too sketchy for me. But the people who just completely staged it, oh, I'm on your side. You're like, no, you're not making it. We need a rescue. You're like, no, I feel good. I feel like we could still do this. No, no, no, you're dying.
44:23 Speaker 04 Exactly. Oh, you look peeking to me right now. I can see three. Oh, oh, you're so translucent.
44:30 Laci Mosley? Your skin is getting that Everest blue. Yeah, we gotta get you out. If you just gaslight the people into getting on the helicopter, I think that's amazing. Poisoning them, a little too risky for me.
44:41 Speaker 04 That is a little too risky, especially since like, just from a sanitary aspect, I'm going to assume there are not bathrooms up and down the side of the mountain.
44:50 Laci Mosley? No, you gotta take your bathroom bucket with you and you gotta take it back down. All your poops. That's the other thing. What is glamorous about this? I'm walking around with all my poops on me?
45:01 Speaker 04 In a bucket. I know. Nothing that sounds good. Like, not that I was on the fence about doing this in the first place. But I genuinely don't see the appeal in it, other than simply for bragging rights at that point. But there's so many other things you can do in this world to get fabulous bragging rights that you don't have to do. Like, girl, go eat the five pounds of food in 45 minutes.
45:28 Laci Mosley? And I will treat that just like. Like Everest, like this is, don't like, you can just be just as insufferable at dinner parties.
45:35 Speaker 04 Exactly. Well, even more. And you'll probably still end up with the bathroom issues with the upset stomach. Before your organs shut down.
45:44 Laci Mosley? My producer just just called them ego trips. Yeah, I think that's what they are. Like you gotta, you gotta go on an egomaniac vacation. Like, what's wrong with you?
45:53 Speaker 04 Well, I have my whole life, I've been obsessed with Titanic, like outside of Wizard of Oz stuff. I've, I won't say I've loved the story of the Titanic, but I'm fascinated by it. And then with the Titan submersible and everything that happened with that.
46:07 Laci Mosley? Oh, you know, I was all over that. Stock and rush.
46:10 Speaker 04 Yes, it feels very, yeah, it feels a lot like this in the sense that like you're going somewhere where you're not really supposed to be, you're not built to go there. And it feels like, you know, with the, the, the people that have been lost on Everest on their way up and you can still see them and their boots and all that kind of stuff. It feels a lot of the same going the opposite way under the ocean for the Titanic stuff like it just bothers me from a human aspect, like, like, why, why do you find, you can appreciate something so much and have reverence and respect for it.
46:54 Speaker 04 But what do you get out of trudging along those same footsteps? Doing the same things and expecting a different outcome. Do you think you're smarter? Do you think you're better? I think it's disrespectful.
47:05 Laci Mosley? Yeah, I absolutely agree. And I think that is the ego of it all. Oh, I know that I'm gonna be better than this person. I can achieve this thing. I think that's why we all keep reaching for new heights in certain arenas because it's like, oh, no, we'll, we'll be able to do it. Me personally, I don't really enjoy how much they try to send people out to outer space. I'm like, there's, we have so much, I know there's some technological developments with satellites and things like that that work for us here down on earth. But a lot of times these be vanity bullshit trips to the stratosphere and I'm like, I don't really.
47:37 Speaker 04 Do not take astronaut Katy Perry's name in vain.
47:45 Laci Mosley? Astronaut Katy Perry is crazy.
47:48 Speaker 04 It is for her, what, it was nine minutes in space or whatever it was?
47:52 Laci Mosley? Right, in the stratosphere.
47:54 Speaker 04 In the stratosphere. I feel like, what, but what did we get from that? Like, what was the point of that? Other than for the rest of the world to now forever call her Astronaut Katy Perry?
48:06 Laci Mosley? Right. It's giving, Jeff Bezos has really just been giving money laundering these days. I'm like, the Melania movie, the like, hey, y'all wanna go to space real quick for five minutes? And we'll spend like hundreds of millions of dollars. Like, Bezos, what cartel are you involved with? Cause it's giving the money has gotten too large and you gotta get rid of it any way you can.
48:27 Speaker 04 Anyway, I mean, I've got, he could just send some over here.
48:30 Laci Mosley? You could just start sending it out to us if you wanted to. You didn't have to like buy the whole Met Gala this year. So you could have, you could have just floated some of it to us. I'll, I can give you the invoice. Jeff, I got hella invoices free.
48:42 Speaker 04 Shh, exactly. Or just reimburse some of the things that I've had to purchase off of Amazon over the years.
48:49 Laci Mosley? What about three million dollars in our shiny Q-ball head?
48:56 Laci Mosley? I give it a good shine up.
48:59 Speaker 04 Right?
49:01 Laci Mosley? Okay, we can write that off. So Sherpa insurance fraud, speaking of fraud. Multiple operators and managers from rescue companies were arrested for this insurance fraud scheme in January. The guys used different strategies to trigger helicopter evacuations, including faking medical emergencies, spiking the food with large amounts of baking powder, which upsets your stomach in a similar way to altitude sickness. Oh no, don't tell the witch is that. It's not a recommendation out there, y'all.
49:34 Laci Mosley? Baking powder isn't toxic when used in cooking or baking, but it does contain sodium bicarbonate and acid. And if you dump a large amount in your food, it will cause like an overdose. The symptoms are thirst, abdominal pain, severe vomiting, and diarrhea. So the main symptoms of altitude sickness are also vomiting, nausea, headache, can be diarrhea. So it was easy to have a baking powder overdose and say, that's Everest for you. Got to call that helicopter now, Mr. Warbucks.
50:08 Laci Mosley? Which like, okay, at least it was something that's not like super poisonous. It's baking powder.
50:15 Speaker 04 Yeah, in, in, in my head, when you first brought it up, I thought it was gonna be like the whole X lax move.
50:20 Laci Mosley? Yeah, me too.
50:22 Speaker 04 Where there's something, I mean, I feel like that's probably a little more dangerous. Even though I look like one, I am not a scientist. I took my hair down, got rid of the pencils.
50:31 Laci Mosley? Where are the pencils?
50:32 Speaker 04 Uh, they're back in the jar.
50:36 Speaker 04 But like, even though I'm not a scientist, I would kind of think that if you're like literally like shitting your brains out on the side of a mountain, it's probably going to dehydrate you and be a lot worse for your inner organs than what you get from the baking powder.
50:52 Laci Mosley? Yeah, I agree with you. And I mean, other hackers were given like medications with excess amounts of water to trigger symptoms. Some truckers even got sick due to eating uncooked chicken or rat droppings.
51:06 Speaker 04 Oh, okay.
51:06 Laci Mosley? Let's not put, now why y'all putting rat poo poo up in the, in the, rat poo poo re, no.
51:12 Speaker 04 No.
51:13 Laci Mosley? Okay, Sherpas, I'm, I'll even with the theatrical Sherpa who was just like, you're dying. We gotta go.
51:19 Speaker 04 Yeah, I mean, I love, I love a good performance. I love the, all the dramatics. So I, I, I will go, I will give you that one. Like, that's fine. You earned it.
51:29 Laci Mosley? A performance is fine, but the poisoning, I can't stand by.
51:32 Speaker 04 I know.
51:34 Laci Mosley? So, you know, once a rescue was triggered because they're having these symptoms, helicopter operators inflated costs by billing each passenger as if they had taken a separate helicopter flight. So even when multiple people were picked up along the same route, like an Uber ride share.
51:53 Laci Mosley? Y'all remember Uber pool?
51:56 Laci Mosley? Helicopter pool is crazy, our Everest.
51:58 Speaker 04 Well, now you see they're trying to do the helicopter Ubers in New York City, right? Yeah, they've been doing that to take, to get people back and forth to the airport.
52:07 Laci Mosley? Yeah, I just don't feel, yeah, no. I don't need Shahid coming to pick me up on my rooftop to get to, I'm, I'm good to get to JFK. I'm actually fine.
52:17 Speaker 04 Yeah, I I I enjoy that ride uh from Manhattan into the either of the the airports. It's a good time for reflection.
52:25 Laci Mosley? It is, and I'm just like too scared to get in a helicopter. I just don't think it's like a necessary.
52:29 Speaker 04 It's too loud. It is way too.
52:31 Laci Mosley? Too loud and just like the the risks of like, you don't hear about many people landing safely in a helicopter. Like airplanes, they can sometimes it can land upside down. You could walk your ass out of that bitch like I actually read about the slide in the exit row. Cause I was like, okay, now I know how to use the slide now. Maybe we might slide off helicopter. They're like, we go down. This bitch is just over. So I don't know.
52:51 Speaker 04 Well, I feel like too, like if you land upside down in a helicopter, then is the like the propellers keep going. You just keep spinning around. That's how you get really sick.
53:01 Laci Mosley? Breakdancing?
53:02 Speaker 04 Uh, girl, I don't know. I feel like you, especially if you were already poisoned on the side of the mountain. And you're already nauseous and sick. And then to have that happen, you just keep spinning. You keep getting sicker and sicker.
53:16 Laci Mosley? Yeah, having diarrhea in a helicopter sounds just terrible.
53:20 Speaker 04 Especially one that's spinning around very quickly.
53:23 Laci Mosley? Or nausea. Oh, my goodness. I thought sitting in the back of a car was rough sometimes. So guides used to also, they would let the climbers in on the scan. They'd be like, look. If you want to just fake an illness, then you don't have to walk back down. So like we could climb up, woo hoo. And nobody's ever like, I climbed down ever. It's nobody really cares about that. So.
53:44 Speaker 04 That's true.
53:45 Laci Mosley? Yeah, just tell them you gotta poop and your head hurts and we'll get you a helicopter. Don't worry.
53:49 Speaker 04 My bucket's full.
53:51 Laci Mosley? My bucket's full. I'm dying. So uh let's see what's gonna happen to these people. Other times, guides overstated the effects of mild cases of attitude altitude sickness and recommended evacuation. So that's our that's our theatrical person that we like, like somebody, you know, maybe like sneezes and they're like altitude sickness. They dying. Get in a helicopter.
54:14 Laci Mosley? They're like, no, no, no, I'm fine. I just sneezed. Mm hmm. That's the first sign. You know, it's the first sign, right Sherpa Dave? Yeah, that's the first sign. We gotta get your ass in the sky.
54:23 Laci Mosley? I love that guy. I love, I love whoever that is. And so the mountain scammers used fake flight records and forged medical documents to support exaggerated insurance claims, while hospitals created false admission and treatment reports in some cases. There were insurance claims for tourists who were not actually receiving care. So sometimes if you had good insurance, they would just be like, okay, we're gonna run it up on you. The hospital got involved, the Sherpas, the helicopter company. I love that they're all in lockstep.
54:53 Speaker 04 Yeah, I, I mean, yeah.
54:56 Laci Mosley? They're working together.
54:58 Speaker 04 They're working together. And I think that at the end of the day, that's the lesson we can take from this. If we work together, we can achieve anything.
55:06 Laci Mosley? We can. As a country, we need to all come together and work together and we can, we can take our country back. Okay?
55:13 Speaker 04 Well, you take our country back.
55:16 Laci Mosley? They don't have to know we're taking it back. I mean, we can start taking it back a little bit at a time. One insurance fraud at a moment. A little bit of baking powder here, a little bit of theatrics there.
55:28 Speaker 04 A little bit of rat poop here and there.
55:32 Laci Mosley? Like McDonald's, do us a favor. Come on, just a little bit of rat poop.
55:35 Speaker 04 Just a little bit.
55:37 Laci Mosley? You know you could get to him. You're our only hope.
55:42 Laci Mosley? We're not even asking for a lot of rat poop.
55:44 Speaker 04 No, just a, just a speckle.
55:46 Laci Mosley? So, um, almost 5,000 international climbers were targeted in this scheme between 2022 and 2025. Police in Nepal said that more than 300 cases of alleged fake rescues have been uncovered. About $20 million was charged to insurance companies and sometimes to climbers themselves. I mean, 20 mil in three years? I think you gotta give up your Sherpa career.
56:10 Speaker 04 Yeah, I, I mean.
56:11 Laci Mosley? I'm not gonna keep going at that point.
56:14 Speaker 04 No, but I've also like, I've been that type of person where like, I didn't come from money. So I've never really had it or held on to it very, you know what I mean? Like, I don't know. I would just wanna keep working. So if it's a passion, I guess, keep going for it, but. But no, if you, if, if you hate doing it.
56:33 Laci Mosley? Did you call me a passion?
56:35 Speaker 04 I said, if it's a passion, then go for it. But if you are tired of climbing up and down that mountain, lugging people in their poop buckets that you
56:44 Laci Mosley? Right.
56:44 Speaker 04 have no desire to be around, then yeah, like, take the payout and, and go do something else. Open that coffee shop.
56:52 Laci Mosley? Cause you're gonna get caught eventually. You're also scamming some of the most entitled people in the world who are usually also the cheapest.
56:58 Speaker 04 The scammers.
56:59 Laci Mosley? Right.
57:00 Speaker 04 They're usually the scammers.
57:01 Laci Mosley? You're scamming the scammers, so you think they're not gonna notice at some point that what you did? So, police charged operators and staff from three helicopter companies, uh, mountain helicopters, Manhattan Air, and Altitude Air. And that's very clear to me where we're going, the sky. They also charged physicians and administrators from international hospitals, um, three international hospitals. And in some cases, investigators use CCTV footage from the hospital, named in the insurance claims, to find patients who are said to be said, uh, said to be getting, receiving, like, like, treatments and critical care. So they use their cameras, cause they're like, we all see them come in or out. What do you mean they have open hearts bypass? What are you talking about?
57:45 Speaker 04 Oh, it was, it was imminent. We had to do it in the helicopter.
57:49 Laci Mosley? Yeah, that's why you ain't see it happen, cause it happened in the helicopter.
57:52 Speaker 04 And then we just dropped them off at home, yeah.
57:55 Laci Mosley? Yeah, cause they was actually good by the time we was landed, then we just, we just brought them back to their hotel.
58:01 Speaker 04 Yeah.
58:02 Laci Mosley? So more than thirty people have been charged and eleven have been arrested so far. Several of those charged were not arrested, like, who were not arrested are likely, like, to flee the country or who have already fled the country. So if you weren't arrested or charged, you already got the fuck ASAP out of Dodge. Personally, I feel like Nepal is very performative of you to go try to arrest these people. I'm sure y'all knew this scam was going on, but they don't wanna ruin their tourism. But the only reason why I don't think this would ruin any of their tourism is that the main part of this tourism is walking up a mountain with hella dead people on it. Do you think anything discourages these people?
58:39 Speaker 04 No, like literally death does not. So at that point, it's like everything else is just a stepping stone to that.
58:47 Laci Mosley? Like they might get robbed a little bit, ooh, I'm literally climbing to my death. I don't care.
58:54 Speaker 04 That's the thing, like you can't take it with you. So you might as well put it all out on the table if if you're literally walking towards what could be your death.
59:03 Laci Mosley? Your demise.
59:04 Speaker 04 Yeah.
59:05 Laci Mosley? And this has been going on for a long time. Similar scams were reported in 2018, which prompted this whole wide reaching government thing, which to me, like, like I just said, I don't care because y'all going to death march, so you're good.
59:19 Speaker 04 Yeah.
59:19 Laci Mosley? So travel insurance companies, they have reviewed the possibility of suspending coverage for trips to Nepal. After the 2018 report, so now they will almost certainly take a closer look at removing the country from their insurance plans. Or at the very least, insurance premiums are going to go up. So everyone's mountain insurance is going to skyrocket. Thanks, Sherpas.
59:41 Speaker 04 Oh goodness, I'm going to have to go to REI. Return everything.
59:47 Laci Mosley? Return everything. I'm going to North Face.
59:49 Speaker 04 Return everything indignantly.
59:52 Laci Mosley? Amen. I'm gonna go to North Face and I'm gonna give all my shit back and then I'm gonna go to Shein and give me some of that South Face.
1:00:00 Speaker 04 Exactly.
1:00:02 Laci Mosley? Why won't anyone think of the rich people and the insurance companies that we love? Oh my goodness, Ginger, so what do you think of this scam? Where would you rate it?
1:00:13 Speaker 04 Where would I rate it?
1:00:14 Laci Mosley? Do you love it? Do you hate it? Is it, is it, is the scheme? Is it, obviously the scam?
1:00:19 Speaker 04 I love it. I love it simply because these people who are putting their lives on the line for these other people to fulfill whatever weird kink or dream or whatever they have, have been so undervalued. I mean, this, this is typically how it is, right? It's always the people who have the most to offer that get paid the least, whether that's attention or monetarily or sometimes both. And I think that it's great that the Sherpas. are like, you know what? This ain't paying the bills anymore. We are busting our ass for these people, so we need to start getting what we deserve. And it's it's almost like a like a revolution or a mutiny or something.
1:01:03 Speaker 04 I am going to get it by hook or by crook because I deserve it. So.
1:01:08 Laci Mosley? Literally by hook or by crook.
1:01:12 Speaker 04 I I'm here for it and I am on the side of the Sherpas with this.
1:01:18 Laci Mosley? Yes, I am on the I'm on the side of the Sherpas too. Like, I mean, I liked the poisoning ones. I didn't like as much. Clearly, they didn't kill anybody. They didn't kill anybody, though. You know, mild discomfort, but the theatrical ones, I'm really behind all the way.
1:01:33 Speaker 04 I've been known to give people diarrhea from from
1:01:38 Speaker 04 from time to time.
1:01:40 Laci Mosley? Hasn't. Oh, my goodness. Well, Ginger, we always ask at the end of the show. Well, one, thank you so much for being here. I'm so glad that we got to do this.
1:01:48 Speaker 04 Thanks for having me. This has been fun.
1:01:49 Laci Mosley? Yes, I'm glad. And two, we always ask Ginger, where would you like to be found? Social medias, projects? We know you got a lot of projects.
1:01:57 Speaker 04 A lot of projects.
1:01:58 Laci Mosley? Yeah. So where would you like to be found?
1:02:00 Speaker 04 I would like to be found anywhere that I am. You can find me across all social platforms. It's either at the Ginger Minj or at Ginger Minj. Um, of course, we have the movie coming out, Stop That Train, starring RuPaul, Juju B and myself. And then Juju B and I are like together for this entire year. We're doing a wicked parody show called Licked. Uh, which is all about the lesbian aspect of Glinda and Elphaba's relationship. All set to the music of Ariana Grande.
1:02:34 Laci Mosley? Love.
1:02:35 Speaker 04 That will be in Atlanta in June and in Provincetown all of July. Then, right after that, we kick off our Hocus Pocus Live Tour.
1:02:44 Laci Mosley? Yes, okay.
1:02:46 Speaker 04 That'll be Juju B, myself and Safira. Yeah.
1:02:49 Laci Mosley? I gotta get at the Hocus Pocus Live Tour. I love Hocus.
1:02:52 Speaker 04 You have to. You have to. You have to. I love it too. It's I. I literally sip from it all the time.
1:02:58 Laci Mosley? Love, love, love.
1:02:59 Speaker 04 If we are anywhere near you, you just let us know.
1:03:02 Laci Mosley? Oh, I'll be stalking away, Danger. Because I got, I guess, to get up in there and see the Sanderson sisters. That is just.
1:03:08 Speaker 04 You got to.
1:03:09 Laci Mosley? A dream. Um, as always, you guys can find all the photos of Mount Everest, I guess, um, on Scam Goddess Pod on Instagram. And if you want to email the show and give us a little listener letter, we're gonna have more of those coming back. Scam Goddess Pod at gmail.com. And then if you want to follow me, D I B A L A C I D, Lacy on all platforms. If you don't watch the television show Scam Goddess, you can watch all of the episodes now on Hulu. You can watch the first two seasons of Going Dutch also on Hulu. Uh, you can buy books anywhere that books are sold. It's also called Scam Goddess. We keep the brand pretty strong here. Congregation. I want y'all to get out there and keep, keep the spirit of the scheme alive, okay?
1:03:51 Laci Mosley? Spirit may have gone to the sky, but they can still be scamming in our hearts. Yeah. Yeah. Scam Goddess. Scam Goddess stars and is hosted by me, Lacey Mosley, AKA Scam Goddess. Our producer is Jessica Cisneros and our audio engineer is Rich Garcia. Research for the show is conducted by Kate Doyle. Stay scheming.
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