It’s the Season 1 finale of Certified Bad Example, and August Black and Jameel Mayers are closing out 19 episodes the only way they know how: with bad parenting, viral chaos, questionable decisions, and people taking things way too far.

First, a 67-year-old American Airlines passenger allegedly becomes violent mid-flight, choking another passenger and biting responders before being restrained with zip ties and duct tape. Was this air rage, drugs, a medical emergency, or something else entirely? August and Jameel break down what happened and debate how far passengers and crew should go when someone becomes dangerous at 30,000 feet.

Then, a Louisiana child endangerment case raises an even bigger question: what do you do when a four-year-old accidentally ingests a THC gummy? According to authorities, the child was left with another juvenile for hours instead of immediately receiving medical attention. The hosts discuss marijuana edibles, child safety, parental responsibility, and the decision that turned an accident into something much more serious.

Next comes one of the season’s most disturbing stories. An Oregon teacher allegedly created fake celebrity social media accounts — including impersonating Ariana Grande — as part of an alleged grooming scheme involving students, thousands of messages, and a second phone. August and Jameel unpack online grooming, authority, trust, catfishing, and why teenagers can be particularly vulnerable to elaborate social media deception.

Finally, a viral California school-bus confrontation gets a reality check. A mother was portrayed as desperately trying to rescue her child from a bus — until video showed the bus had reportedly been delayed only about four minutes while the driver dealt with disruptive middle schoolers. What followed included an angry confrontation and a broken bus door.

Plus, August and Jameel look back at Season 1, the Instagram DM that started the podcast, listener disagreements, Jameel’s controversial Robert Pattinson opinions, and what they learned after six months and 19 episodes of Certified Bad Examples.

Season 1 is officially done. The bad decisions are not.

Follow and subscribe to Certified Bad Example with August Black and Jameel Mayers, catch up on Season 1, and get ready for Season 2.

What do an alleged doomsday kidnapping, a fake crypto fortune, a multimillion-dollar child modeling scheme, and publicly humiliating your kid have in common? Adults making very big decisions with questionable judgment.

In Episode 18 of Certified Bad Example, Jameel Mayers and August Black dig into stories where fear, money, ego, and parenting collide.

First, they unpack the alleged case of a mother who took four children overseas amid beliefs that the end times were approaching, including allegations of passport fraud and international parental kidnapping. That quickly raises a bigger question: if you genuinely believed disaster was coming, what would you actually do?

Then there’s money. A lot of supposedly existing money.

Jameel and August get into the story involving Katie Price and Lee Andrews and claims surrounding a multimillion-dollar crypto fortune that allegedly wasn’t what it appeared to be. From there, they tackle an alleged $4.6 million child modeling scheme involving advance fees, fabricated records, and opportunities that reportedly never materialized.

Finally, the conversation turns to parenting and public humiliation. Does embarrassing a child actually teach accountability—or does it just teach them that their parent is willing to embarrass them?

Along the way, Jameel and August talk consequences, grounding, classroom conflicts, helping kids recognize when they handled something badly, and why your child should always know they can call you when they need help getting home.

Because sometimes the lesson isn’t complicated: check the facts, keep the receipts, and maybe don’t make life-changing decisions while everybody else is asking, “Wait…what?”

What do Batman, James Bond, 35 girlfriends, a fake kidnapping and a severed hand have in common?

Apparently, nobody involved knows how to do anything the easy way.

Episode 17 of Certified Bad Example starts with Jameel Mayers and August Black debating men who live double lives — Christian Bale and Robert Pattinson as Batman, Daniel Craig as James Bond — before accidentally stumbling into an episode almost entirely populated by people taking that concept much, much too far.

First: a Japanese man accused of dating more than 30 women at the same time and allegedly giving them different fake birthdays so he could keep collecting birthday gifts.

Bruce Wayne has Batman. James Bond has 007. This man apparently had an entire birthday cinematic universe.

Jameel and August get into the surprisingly complicated question underneath it: when does lying to someone you’re dating cross from being spectacularly shady into actual fraud?

Then we meet an Arkansas mother accused of staging the kidnapping of her adult daughter to teach her about the dangers of meeting strangers online.

Because apparently “we need to talk about internet safety” wasn’t dramatic enough.

The case turns into a much more serious discussion about disability, vulnerability, online safety, fear-based parenting and whether traumatizing someone can actually teach the lesson you intended.

And finally: Slovenia.

A woman and her boyfriend were convicted in an insurance fraud scheme involving deliberately severing her hand with a circular saw in an attempt to collect insurance money for permanent disability.

We have officially traveled from “fake birthday” to “WHERE IS YOUR HAND?”

Jameel and August discuss the scheme, the prison sentences and the financial question nobody should ever need to ask: exactly how much money would someone have to offer before you’d even consider losing a body part?

The answer is not whatever they were offering.

The episode closes with August’s daughter announcing that she doesn’t want to go to school because it’s “all rhyming,” before Jameel and August talk about yelling, stressful mornings and the responsibility parents have for setting the emotional tone their kids carry into the day.

So what actually connects Episode 17?

Secret identities. Elaborate schemes. Questionable parenting. Terrible risk assessment. And an alarming number of adults who could have saved themselves a lot of trouble by choosing literally the second idea.

Certified Bad Example is hosted by Jameel Mayers and August Black.

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