Chewing the Fat with Jeff Fisher - Ep 733 | Fat can be Fit… | Guest: Brad Meltzer

Episode Date: October 20, 2021

Gates wedding struggles… Rachel Levine an Admiral… One World Religion… World Uyghur Congress / boycott Olympics… Zellweger in a fat suit... Weight loss may not be good… Theme Park stories… Subscribe to the YouTube Channel… Email to [e-mail] Subscribe www.blazetv.com/jeffy / Promo code jeffy… Brad Meltzer stops by with new book… https://bradmeltzer.com/Discover.html https://www.ordinarypeoplechangetheworld.com/Books/I-Am-Oprah-Winfrey Netflix reports and changes… Haiti kidnappings…  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is it the matcha or am I this energized from scoring three Sephora holiday gift sets? Definitely the sets. Full size and minis bundled together? What a steal. And that packaging? So cute. It practically wraps itself. And I know I should be giving them away, but I'm keeping the Summer Fridays and Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez. I don't blame you. The best holiday beauty sets are only at Sephora. Gift sets from Summer Fridays, Rare Beauty, Way and more are going fast.

Get full-sized favorites and must-have minis bundled for more value. Shop before they're gone. In-store online at Sephora.com. Blaze Radio Network And now, chewing the fat with Jeff Fisher. So the daughter of Bill and Melinda Gates, Jennifer 25, just had a wedding. And the wedding required all 300 guests to be vaccinated and test negative on the big day of the wedding. But really, the interview with Jennifer, she talks about how challenging

this $2 million wedding was. Was it, Jen? Was it? Well, yeah, it was about the divorce. You know, it made that just extra challenging. Mom and Dad were fighting

and the struggles of that. But she married Nail Nassar at their... They had the wedding, you know, it wasn't at the local Moose Lodge. It was at the home of Bill and Melinda Gates in North Salem, New York at just a little dumpy ranch that they've got out there.

Sure, I think the price tag was $25 or $30 million. It's just a little horse farm. I mean, just invite some people over to the horse farm for the wedding. But it was really struggling. It made me feel sad for her because if you ever had to, you know, struggle through a wedding. and your parents are fighting. It can't be easy.

I'm sure that the few millions she spent on the wedding made it a little bit easier. It's always a little bit easier when there isn't really a budget when it's like, well, we'll just have it at mom and dad's moose lodge. You know, the horse farm in New York. We'll have it at the end of the summer. So the weather will be beautiful. And we'll just make sure everybody has to be vaccinated.

and test negative and how much can we spend dad how much can we spend well i think i spent two million ah don't worry about it i got it for you baby okay i mean if you are neil nassar the new hubby son-in-law to bill and melinda you are thankful That's the word I'm thinking of. I thought of a couple other words there, too, but I didn't use them. Welcome to chewing the fat. So, you know, they say you learn something new every day. And that is true.

And that's one of the things I try to do here on chewing the fat is, you know, attempt to have you be able to leave the show by saying, huh, you learn something new every day. So I didn't realize that we had a, United States Public Service Commission Corps, the P-H-S-C-C-C. It's also referred to as the commissioned corps of the United States Public Health Service. Yeah, I mean, that makes it so much better. But congratulations to Rachel Levin, who is the first transgender four-star admiral,

who is her real job as the Assistant Secretary of Health. but she's now a four star admiral, Rachel Levin, the surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, he's the second in command, the vice admiral, and a deputy surgeon general is Denise Hinton as the rear admiral for the, what did I say their name was again? Oh yeah, the commissioned corps of the United States Public Service. I didn't know. It was founded in 1889. amazing. It's a uniformed service.

Healthcare and medical services are their role. They have 6,500 plus officers. Incredible. I mean, look, it's a made-up military thing. You know that, right? I mean, absolutely. But they say that they've engaged in the Spanish-American War,

World War I, World War II, War in Afghanistan, the Iraq War. So, I mean, they're there. fighting arm and arm with the soldiers. They're there to help provide health care related services to medically underserved populations. Okay. So they're there for the American Indians and the Alaska natives and other population groups with special needs. All right.

Anyway, congratulations to Rachel Levin for being the first transgender. Admiral. I'm surprised I mean, she's at the top. But I'm surprised that she didn't actually get the rear admiral position. But maybe that's just me. So we may as well continue on learning something new and speaking of tolerance.

We have the One World Religion Headquarters is set to open next year. The headquarters will be called the Abrahamic Family House and is being built on an island in the Middle Eastern City of Abu Dhabi. So it should be gorgeous. I mean, the headquarters is being done in collaboration with Pope Francis and the Sunni Muslim leader, Sheikh Amin Al-Tai. After they both signed the Global Peace Covenant called the Document the Document of Human

fraternity for world peace. So that's great. The stated purpose of the Abrahamic family house is to bring understanding and tolerance among the faiths. But there's a couple of challenges to the whole thing. Abu Dhabi is a part of the UAE. They, uh, well, Christians. Christians are illegal to be there in Abu Dhabi.

So, I mean, the Pope is lucky to make it out alive, I guess. I don't know if they signed it there or not. Maybe they signed it someplace else. So I don't know. Now, the headquarters is going to have three buildings, one building each, representing the mosque, the church, and the synagogue. Now, that having been said, remember, Christianity really is. illegal.

So the church, now they're not going to be able to permit it to have a cross or anything, any method of identifying themselves as being a church in Abu Dhabi. So I'm not really sure that you'll be able to know that it's part of the one world religion headquarters. You'll see the mosque, you'll see the synagogue, and then you'll see some dump that's just painted white. in the corner. What's that place? Oh, nothing. It's just a place where those dirty Christians go.

But tolerance is all about the Abrahamic family house that is part of the document of human fraternity for world peace. And that sound nice. The document of human fraternity for world peace. headquartered in the UAE. So you Christians, and we want to be tolerant of you, but we're going to pretend you don't exist, okay?

That's how tolerant we are you. Oh, that's great. That is great. Isn't it? Isn't it great? We're in a good place on the globe. We're in a good, good place. I watched a video.

today. We didn't play it on Pat Unleashed. I'm sure they'll get to it. It's one of the great leaders from Afghanistan. And they're asking him to point out where Afghanistan is on the globe

and he can't do it. I want to see our president of the United States. Joseph Robinette Biden asked that same question. Because I have a feeling Now you'd think, you know, really,

I want to believe that the president of the United States of America would be able to look at a globe and go, that's us. He might have a tough time with China, Japan. He might have a tough time with finding Afghanistan as well. But you've got to believe he knows the United States. Right? Right. Come on now. Come on.

everybody can look at a you remember the the campus reform bit that they did where they're having people look at the map and point out different countries now I remember the map was kind of inverted you know they had it switch like if you look at a map of the globe

laying flat they had it switched around so they you know the way it normally is so it did make it a tad more difficult if you weren't familiar with where things are on the globe. But I, you know, it would take that, it takes that split second to go, oh, you've got that switched around.

Okay. That's the United States. That's Africa. Oh, yeah, because they were asking for countries. And the guy pointed at Africa. And it was like, that's a continent, not a country. But that's right. I remember this.

It's all coming back to me now. But my point is, you got to believe, right, that the president of the United States knows where the United States is when he looks at a map of the world, right? Raise your hands if you believe that our president would know where the United States is on a map given the opportunity. Anyone? And as long as we're talking about religion and global awareness of where, countries are. Get ready for the big fight as activists are urging the Beijing Olympic boycotts over human rights concerns. So if you could, you know, lay out the map, you know where China is, right? That's right. It's right here. I'll hold up my hand. Let's say this is the globe,

right? And we're here. That means China would be right here. Okay, right across the ocean. It's right there you can see it okay now we know according to the program and advocacy manager of the world weger congress man betcha that's a swinging club right there the the world wigger congress uh the olympic torch is supposed to represent peace and hope but for our people who are living under the brutal chinese communist party. This represents global global. I have to say it right. I want to quote the

Zumetre Arkin, the program advocacy manager of the World Uyghur Congress. I apologize for not getting your quote right. This, for those people, our people, who are living under the brutal Chinese Communist Party. This represents global,

complicity in China's extreme repression. Um, yeah? Uh, yes. Now, raise your hand if you think Joe Biden could find China on a map. Go ahead. Anyone? Anyone? No? All right. Let's go to the break room then. You know where China is. I already showed you. I need something cold to drink. Come on. Desperately, actually.

Oh my God. Oh, no, that's not China, silly. That's India. Wow, are you dumb? So do you see where Renee Zellweger is in trouble again? Because she's playing another fat person and she's being filmed in a fat suit? And now, you know, the fat people are pissed.

I want to go on record as saying, as an athletically overweight human, I'm not upset with Renee. It's okay. She's an actress. I'm sorry, an actor. And she gets to play roles that doesn't represent her exact body type because that would mean she would have to act.

And so, you know, if you're going to play a fat person, you've got to act like a fat person too. That takes a little bit of doing. There's a way about fat people. I don't know if you know this, but I do. Okay. I'm aware of being fat. Just saying.

So the 52-year-old, wow, Renee Zelliger, 52 now. She's taking the lead role of Pam Hup in an upcoming, you know, I mean, it rolls right off the tongue when you think of a fat female, Pam Hup. It's the upcoming true crime tale. She has to play the, you know,

because Pam was, overweight. Now, she... They have pictures of her and they're pissed that she had to wear this fat suit. She's unrecognizable. Yeah, that's good. She might get, you know,

maybe she'll get an Emmy or an Oscar for it. Now, Pam would, was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after pleading guilty to the murder of a mentally disabled man. All right, I know, I know. She sold her husband out for killing this guy.

And her husband was found guilty of killing this guy. And then they were like, wait, nope, it was her. So it'll be a fascinating story. although you look at the pictures of her in the fat suit. It's a good look for Renee. That's a really good look for Renee. Just, just saying. They are unhappy with her playing the play of the fat person, though,

because now it's damaging, fat-phobic, and potentially triggering to fat people. Oh, no. Oh, no. Because you know as well as I do. a fat suit has always been a way of mocking fat people, no matter who wears it, even if it's for an acting role.

Yeah, that's, but she's not mocking it. She's playing the role of a fat person. If they could find a good fat, because what's her face? Who's the big, there's two pretty big fat chicks now that are stars? You know who I'm talking about. The one from the one show and the one from the other show. You got the This Is Us chick, right? Right.

Okay, what's her name? Chrissy Metz. Yeah, Chrissy Metz. So she plays a female that's, you know, overweight. And then you have, what's her face? Melissa McCarthy, right? She could play though. Now maybe there's two actresses right there that might be able to pull off.

the, you know, the murderer, Pam Hup. I don't know. I don't know. Now, the thing is, we're told that what's her face, Zellweger is wearing a fat suit.

I mean, if she wants to win an award, she needs to put on the weight herself. She needs to balloon out on her own. Okay? That's the way you win. wearing the fat suits and stuff actually the people that said

you make fun of fat people that's actually kind of true I mean I've worn a fat suit before I've wearing a big fat belly before when I played Chris Christie because Chris Christie is seriously he's a fat guy you know at being an athletically overweight

person we you know when you play a fat guy you got to wear a fat suit and I did so I guess that's kind of right because I was making fun of them so maybe they're right I don't know. I'm just saying, I'm just talking about, you know, I'm just saying. But we found out today that weight loss may not actually make you healthier.

Another way of making fat right. I'm telling you, man, the new world. So new research suggests exercise is more important for longevity than weight loss. Okay, so I just want to be clear about something right now. Okay. That very well may be true. but with exercise comes weight loss. You don't see

there's not a lot of old fat people. I wonder why that is. I'm just saying, I don't, when you go to a nursing home, and man, you can't keep me away from nursing homes, I stopped by and just to see how everybody's doing. And hey, how are you today?

And play a game of checkers with Mo. and play a game of yuker with Millie over there in the corner. But you don't see a lot of fat people being old. You just don't. But according to this now, the recent scientific review strengthens the points that health experts have increasingly embraced, that the idea people can absolutely be fit and fat. I, you know what?

I think I need a new t-shirt that's either I'm athletically overweight fit and fat, I'm fit and fat chewing the fat, I like that actually Fit and fat, chewing the fat, chewing the fat, fit and fat, it would be the fit and fat club for chewing the fat. Okay, we got something to work on.

We got to chew on that for a little bit. Let's have some cookies brought in We'll work on that. All right. And then we've got, I actually, I've got another idea that was given to me from the producer Chris Corby.

An excellent idea. I can't remember what it is. It was so good. I can't remember what it is now. Just tell me what it was. It was a bumper sticker for a fat guy seating. Oh, yeah.

Now, one thing that I have a problem with that is that who puts a bumper sticker on their car anymore? I love bumper sticker. I love the idea. of bumper stickers, but nobody puts bumper stickers on their car anymore. You can stick it wherever you want to, okay? That's a good point. So, okay, the bumper sticker, this, this car has fat guy seating.

I like that. I like that a lot. Maybe we get the ones, oh, we get the cutouts. You know, the guys have the family and the dogs and the, you know, the mom and the dad and the kids and the dog. We get the cut out of a fat guy with, because of this cut out. has fat guy seating. Yes! That's what we need.

We need to get that made in China and have it shipped over. Oh, it'll be here in two or three years. All right, no problem. Don't worry about it. So anyway, that's just saying you can be fit and fat. And listen to chewing the fat. Somewhere that works. I'm not quite sure where that works, but it works somewhere.

You know, I was reading a story yesterday about theme parks, and it caught my attention because it talked about how the nasty stuff that happens at theme parks. And it talked about, you know, people throwing up, people going to the bathroom, you know, on themselves and on the ride, and how people had gone through the haunted houses and left remnants of themselves in the ride

or, you know, the walkthrough, which, you know, they had to shut it down and just horrible. But at the end of the story, the person that's doing the story of the bad stuff that happens at theme parks, one of the biggest problems they face is people trying to get on rides when they're too small or too big.

I guarantee you, the too small, there's no walk of shame for the little kid that can't get on. Little kids just, well, actually the little kid's doing what the fat guy's doing. taking a shot. What are they going to say?

No, and then I walk away. Except that you get fat shamed. Because the little kid, they just say, now I'll get out of here, nice try. The fat guy, as we've talked about on this show before, they try to squeeze you in. And then you can't, so you have to do the fat walk of shame.

Yeah, because they said the amount of time I've seen people try to sneak their infants on a ride is astounding. Really? You want to take your infants on some of these rides? I mean, maybe they're trying to accidentally have something happen. I don't know. I don't know.

Maybe they don't have anybody else to watch the kid. They want to ride with the hobby, I guess. I guess. I guess that's the way. But they also talk about how telling people, the worst thing is telling people that they're too large for the ride. It's always pretty awkward. Some people just didn't understand you could not ride the ride. if you couldn't buckle the seatbelt.

The sad thing is a lot of times we'd tell people that they were too big to fit and they'd start arguing with us and yelling at us just to push the lap bar down harder. Yeah, that's because they tell you, that's the fat guy's seat. So they say this is the fat guy seat. So you're trying to suck it in

and make them push the bar in on you. And then it doesn't click. I mean, you are praying. Come on, click. I'm sucking it. as far as I can go, click, click. Come on, let me hear the click. Oh, no, it doesn't click.

All right, get off. You're too fat. Get out of here. You may be fat and fit, but you ain't fitting to ride to ride. Bro. Or ma'am. Either one works, you know.

Hey, a reminder, hashtag shave heads, save a human. Okay? I'm raising money for our rescue to help put an end to modern day slavery. And I'm going to shave my head live on Facebook and Instagram a month from now. If you're listening live, it is the 20th of October,

2021. So on the 19th of November, 2021, a Friday afternoon, I'm going to go live on my Facebook and Instagram pages, Jeff Fisher Radio, and shave my head, get rid of this hair. It's actually getting pretty long.

I'm actually, I mean, I was, I'm in ponytail land now. I can do it in the ponytail. And I think I may start coming in with a ponytail. It'll be. a good look. And I mean, everybody, any fat guy with a ponytail looks great. Go ahead, tell me I'm wrong. That's what I thought. You can't. So I'm trying to raise enough to help one human for a year.

OUR says that it takes $6,000 for one year. It pays for legal documents, medical, travel to home country, food, water, lodging, transportation, and educational, vocational training for that survivor for one year, it takes $6,000. So I'd like to raise $6,000 to help one person for one year to become free and safe again in their life. So if you want to help me do that, the links are in my social media accounts, in the bios at Jeffrey JFR on Twitter. Like I said, Jeff Fisher Radio on Facebook and Instagram.

And just give what you can. That'd be great. Thank you. I really appreciate it. And it just is something that I've wanted to do. And, you know, hey, anybody can just shave their head. All right. But let's do it for a cause.

And you can join in. You can hashtag shave heads, save a human and send me a pick of your head shaved. Huh? Only, you know, do it after you show that you've donated a little money to my cause, okay? All right. Good. Thank you. Oh, my gosh.

The phone line is blinking. Is that Brad Meltzer? Holy cow. he must have a new book out. Well, it is Brad Meltzer on the line. I saw the phone blinking. I figured it was you. Hello, Brad Meltzer.

Welcome to Chewing the Fat. How in the world are you? I'm good. I'm glad to be talking to you again. Oh, fantastic. Well, we only just had a couple of seconds there this morning on Pat on Leash. So I just wanted to chat with you again today. And we got to speak two weeks ago also.

That's right. We did. And we spoke on the day that you got to speak in front of the school board. and get your books back from being banned or frozen. Was that the correct? Let's do the ending of that story because I feel like we left a cliffhanger for everybody. So the quick version being,

they banned our books. I am Rosa Parks and I am Martin Luther King Jr. in York County, Pennsylvania. It had nothing to do with the content. They banned every single book on the list by basically just saying, we're going to wait, we're going to read them, we're going to check them out another day. They waited 11 and a half months and never read any of them.

That seems like a long time. Right. And again, so if it became a freeze, This freeze turns into, right, this freeze turns into what becomes a ban because the librarians don't know what to do. Teachers are asking questions. There's no answers from the school board. We team up with the Little Free Library in the local area and say people, you know what, don't just buy our books, buy every book on this list. There's great books by Malala by Sesame Street.

You know, if you're Ben and Ernie and Bert, you're screwing it up. No kidding. And so that people start buying the books. When I speak to you that day, that night I go to the school board meeting, virtual meeting. I'm the first person called on. And Jeffrey, they literally, all I do is read from I am Rosa Parks. I read those lines that just show them what kind of book they've banned. It says, you know, I'm not a famous business person.

I'm not a rich scientist. All I am is an ordinary person. And I'm proof that there's no such thing as an ordinary person. One of my favorite lines than I am Rosa Parks. And I think I've saved the day again, isn't it great? then all the community starts speaking. And these students, 16 and 17-year-old students start speaking, telling them, you know, we need these books and, you know, these are books about people that look like me and how do you

do this. And they're giving like speeches like it's the final scene in Braveheart. I mean, they're just incredible. And by the time these kids are done, who are of course the real heroes of the day, the school board unanimously votes to undo the freeze, to give back the books. and democracy gets saved for another day. But sadly, you know, we're going to see that battle being fought over and over and over again, especially as election approaches and everyone's trying to make a point and try and prove that their side's right.

I say we should always, this is just cut, you know, it's the thought off the top of my head. We should always err on the side of, I don't know, freedom and let people decide. That's just me, though. One of the problem is, is that's what you know, what you're seeing is, you know, because everyone's home, in the pandemic for the last year and a half from their with kids school they're seeing what their kids are studying and research and reading more than they ever did and that's not a bad thing you should be no it is not life right and we all you know we all want to blame everything on the government i always say you you want your kid to be learning that teach it to them you're their

parent teach it amen problem is is now that we're all in our kid's stuff you have every parent you have and again this is a both sides problem if we say it's one side you're kidding yourself you have some side saying, oh my gosh, you know, why aren't you teaching more about these race issues and diversity issues? And for some people, that goes too far. And then you have the other side saying, you can't, I don't want race in here at all. That's a scary subject. Don't try and indoctrinate my kids into other things on the other side. And each side thinks that theirs is the only way to look at things.

And I always say, you know, if you think that when we fight like that and we don't listen to each other, we lose common sense. And it's like if someone says, hey, you want your kids indoctrinated? of course not. No one wants their kids indoctrinated. And have you met a kindergarten teacher? They're not trying to indoctrinate your kids. They're trying to teach your kids how to share. But, you know, what happens is if you say them, hey, should we talk about race in a sensitive

way that lets kids know what it's like to be someone else so we can actually all get along a little better? 99% of people in America, but yeah, I would like that. So it's just a question of how that's framed for you by the media as to how you react to the question. And just remember that to everyone listening. When you hear that out there, you hear that word indoctrination, that's designed to scare you.

Critical race theory is designed to be like, look, if they're trying to get you, it's like, man, it's a college level thing that is just a really good push button for fear. And the same way anyone who says, you know, they're trying to like shove American values down the throat is, you know, it's a push button to make you get you all ginned up, whatever side you're on,

they want to get that reaction out of you. Don't fall for it. So, Brad, now that we've got this squared away, and, you know, if anybody has any questions and why, wants to know how to solve problems of the world, I'm sure they can call us and we'd be happy to answer them.

I know I would. I see that you have just one new book out right now. What are you doing with your life? What's going on? I know, truly. Well, there were supposed to be two. One of them got caught in shipping delays, which killed me physically. One, we worked on it and two, it was done.

So they actually sent me one copy. And Chris Elioplas, our amazing artist, one copy. So there's two copies of the IAMPaybook. but yeah, we only have one copy of the new book. Do you know what ship it's on? I mean, it's somewhere, man. We got two copies. I feel like we should auction them off or something for charity.

That's a great idea. That is a great idea. So anyway, the new book that wasn't lost in shipping isn't in a cargo yard somewhere at the Los Angeles port. I am Oprah Winfrey, up for sale today as we speak. Yeah, and listen. people are like, it's the first book we've done. And listen, every book we've done,

this is the 25th book in the series, we get complaints about someone saying, why are you doing that person? I am Abraham Lincoln. People are like, why are you doing Lincoln? I am George Washington. Why are you doing George Washington? I'm Benjamin Franklin.

Didn't you know he known slaves? I'm like, yes. And he spent the last years of his life fighting against slavery, calm down, man. Yeah, we already know that. We were taught that. We all know it, right? But Oprah Winfrey, people are like, why are you doing her? I'm like, there's no politics in it.

The reason I'm doing her is because I look at my own kids and these books are always designed as you know to teach my kids and give them better values to teach them how to be kind how to have compassion and how to build character characters that thing we kind of lost in america that's for sure days and Oprah is such a success sorry Oprah Winfrey is such a success I mean her story what I love about is we barely deal with her success are what we deal with is how she got there and and I and my kids are anxious right now, so I want to teach them how self-love works. I wanted to show my daughter and my sons what a strong business woman looks like. And Oprah, when she's a little girl,

this is the story I didn't know about her. When she's a little girl, she hated her look so much. She thought her nose was too wide. She used to sleep at night with a clothes pin on her nose to make her nose smaller. That's amazing. And if she gets older, they tell her body's the wrong size, her skin's too dark. They even tell her she cares too much about people. In fact, one of my favorite stories in there is when she's covering a family whose house burns down from fire. And the next day, she covers her for the news. Next day she shows up with blankets for the family because they have nothing left. And the person at the news station says to her yells at her,

why are you getting involved with the story? You can't do that. She's like, the story, what about being a good person? And I want my daughter to know and I want my sons to know that her whole life. Oprah Winfrey is told she's the wrong body type, the wrong size. She cares too much about people. There is no such. thing the only thing you ever got to be is you and that's the greatest gift you can give yourself

and that is the core of i am Oprah winfrey as a book fantastic so this is number 25 wow and we told our publisher yesterday there was a 25th anniversary and i was like i think that's the buy your author a car anniversary absolutely it is they did not think so yeah either that or perhaps a jet uh would come to mind that'd be nice just saying It would be nice, too, but I think they were, I mean, I don't think even the publisher would be like, you know, the books that did do well, but not that well. So you've got 25 of these and you've got, I'm sure, you know, many in the pipeline coming. And I know, you know, we joked around this morning on Pat's show that one of them obviously should be, you know, me, Jeffrey. I'm Jeffrey.

I'm all for that. Look, you say, you say, I mean, your website, bradmeltzer.com. talks about how every person has a story, every person, every life makes history, every life is a story, I believe is the quote on your website. Listen, I said I would read that book. And we just haven't done, you know, when we rank the people, no offense. We haven't done Nelson Mandel yet. I think you might be right behind Nelson Mandela.

I think it's like that's the ranking. But it's a good place to me. I'm willing to be behind Mandela. That's fine. All right. You get back to me when you're done with Nelson, no problem. So, all right, so you've got I Am Oprah Winfrey, a brand new book out right now. You can get it anywhere or go to Brad Meltzer.com or go to Amazon.com

or support your local bookstore if they're back open for business and get I Am Oprah Winfrey. So we have the one book lost in the luggage somewhere that will show up sometime in a year or so. So now you, and then you have another thriller coming out as well soon, right? Yeah, so here's here's the order of things. In February, the next two kids' books are I Am Malala and I am Muhammad Ali. And I've been waiting to do Muhammad Ali for so long. It's such a good book. Fantastic.

Yeah, that would be great. And then we're doing I Am Pay and who's an architect that got delayed. But he's coming out with I am Dali Parton. And I love the Dali Parton book. That's another great story. Gosh. Love her story. She's been amazing.

And then in March, it's the 23. fifth anniversary of me as a writer, since I've been a writer, I should say. And that's when the new thriller comes out. It's called the lightning rod. And the lightning rod, she is a killer. And she strikes like nobody's business. So you'll see the lightning rod come March. I think it's March 8th. I am a huge. I'm ready. I'm ready. So those are already done. What are you working on, Brad? What's going on? What are you got coming up after that? The one that I'm working on, you're so good. The one that I'm working on after that is actually top secret. It is so good. and you will never guess who it is.

It is a total twist, but I can tell you personally, you will love it. I know you and I know who you love, and you are going to love this one, and no one's going to ever guess it. And then we're working on the next in the conspiracy series. You know, we did the first conspiracy, the secret plot to kill George Washington. We did the Lincoln conspiracy about the secret plot to kill Abraham Lincoln. And we're also, Josh Munch and I are working on that, the third book in that series. So that's actually been taking up lots of time as well. So, and what's happening with,

you still got the TV show going? Yeah, so they took, yeah, so they took, it's called, they took our kids' books, the ordinary people change the world books that I do with Chris Elioplas. They turned it into a TV show on PBS TV. I think we're a couple of shows after Sesame Street, which is just crazy because of Sesame Street

and then Xavier Riddle in the Secret Museum. It's about a boy named Xavier, his sister, Edina, their best friend, Brad, the most handsome cartoon character of all time. Funny how that happened. Right? And they have a problem like they're being bullied. They go to their back in time.

They meet Rosa Parks. Rosa Parks teaching them how to deal with bullies. They come back to the present day and they use that problem. And it's just like the kids' books in cartoon form. And we are working on that as well right now and love working on that show. We've, you know, we had an amazing first season. We got to do Thurgood Marshall and Amelia Earhart. We did obviously all the people we did books on.

We did Abraham Lincoln and Neil Armstrong. strong and let us put out the kids, you know, lessons about humility. You know, remember when humility was a great American value? We've lost that and we need it back again. And I love that our kids' books and the cartoon show with them get to put those heroes back in the public eye. We did George Washington. And, you know, and we spend so much time kind of tearing our heroes apart and then

building them up again in America. And we just should spend a little bit more time just talking about the amazing accomplishments they did do rather than all the flaws that they're filled with. Okay, so you said this morning that, you know, Oprah was kind enough to send you. I see some of the pictures that are in the book and, you know, some of the things that, you know, she's aware of the book.

But I haven't seen the Brad Meltzer.com Apple Plus TV interview with Oprah Winfer. What's her problem? What's her deal? Yeah, I mean, truly, right? That's the, when we did, I am Jane Goodall. Jane Goodall got on the, you know, she was so amazing. When I did it, when we did, I am Billy Jean King, she spent two hours on the phone with us.

You can tell you've reached the pinnacle. Oprah has like obviously this whole team, but she really was, I'm making a joke. Harper and everyone there was so kind. They gave us photos. And listen, corrected details about her childhood

that you're like, okay, only one person can really know this story this well. Right. And they just couldn't be more supportive. I mean, you know, I think when we got,

when we did Ironwall Disney and Disney Corporation let us use Mickey Mouse on the cover, that was when we knew like, okay, people are really digging. in the books and like they gave us the golden goose right like that that was a huge deal and having Oprah send her childhood photos and you know that was a it was it's really meaningful and and even

dolly part we're doing i am dolly parton is one of the ones you can pre-order now but she and and everyone in the imagination library are so amazing and so kind and so generous and i love the fact that people realize that we're on a mission and we're on a mission to help build the next generation of little do-goaters one book at a time. And we're going to give them all these lessons of character and compassion and how to be good people because, my God, our kids need some light right now. We all could use some light right now. Amen. Brad Meltzer, Bradmeltzer.com for all the information on everything that is Brad Meltzer. Just go to Bradmelter.com. And the latest edition out on the shelves today, I am Oprah Winfrey. Brad, I love you. We'll talk to you soon, okay?

loving brother thanks so much for everything and for supporting us in every different genre thrillers nonfiction for adults in these kids books now it means more than you know okay I cannot wait to see the footage of what's purported to be hundreds

of Netflix employees walking out of work today because they're pissed at Netflix bastards for releasing Dave Chappelle and his transphobic material from the closer.

Huh. And they left out how much he got paid for it. Well, that person walked out because they fired her. Or him. They didn't say. I'm sorry. I don't mean to. I don't want to misgender someone that got fired.

But you shouldn't have done that. You can't be releasing confidential information out. So. So. Now, a number of Netflix stars have publicly supported the walkout. Uh-huh. Okay. but and Ted Sarandos has backed the decision to air the special so he doesn't care obviously what's going on

and he doesn't care about the criticism or the pushbacks now the walk of the organizers have presented a list of demands to the company now they sent a boring letter that was hugely long and I'm sure Ted read every word of it but the list that they added to the letter of their demands. Content investment. They want to create a new fund to specifically develop trans and non-binary talent. This fund should support both above the line and below the line talent. Oh, okay.

The fund should exist in addition to the existing creative equity Fund. Increase investment in trans and non-binary content on Netflix comparable to our total investment in transphobic content, including marketing and promotion. Invest in multiple trans creators to make both scripted and unscripted programs across genres. Revise internal processes on commissioning and releasing potential harmful, sensitive in quotation marks, content, including but not limited to involving parties who are part of the subject community and can speak to potential harm or consulting with third party experts or vendors. Increase the ERG role in conversations around potentially harmful content and ensure we have best in class regional support on complicated intersectional diversity issues. How about you just do your job?

I mean, if you're working it, never mind, I'm not, I'm not Ted, and this is a great idea. It's a great idea. We need to have more funds. More funds need to be created. In fact, I want a fat person fund. I want to, how about you hire a fat guy fund?

And I'll go to work for Netflix, okay? That's what I want. Hire trans. I'm just going to replace trans and non-buy- with higher fat and non-skidding content executives, especially BIPAC, especially extra fat in leading positions. That's what I'm saying.

This is the new letter that I'm sending to Netflix. I'm just going to replace trans and non-binary and Bipok. Although I still might be, am I part of the Bipak community? I'm part of the bi-fat community. So that goes to Bipat. All right. So recruit fat people, especially by fat, for leadership roles in the company,

director, VP, et cetera, and promote an inclusive environment for them. All employees to remove themselves from previous company promotional content. Allow employees to remove themselves from previous company promotional content. Oh, they made videos and now they're pissed. No, yeah, we love working for Netflix. No, we don't. not because of Dave Chappelle. Acknowledge.

Oh, this is harm under the heading of harm reduction. Acknowledge the harm. And Netflix's responsibility for this harm from fatphobic content. And in particular, harm to the fat trans community. Add a disclaimer before fatphobic titles that specifically flag fatphobic language, misogyny, fat phobia, hate speech, etc. as required. Boost promotion for disclosure

and other fat affirming titles in the platform. Suggest fat affirming content alongside and after content flagged as anti-fat. I am a fan of this. Netflix call me and we'll get this thing worked out for you. Okay?

Sincerely, now they signed it because they want to have a more entertaining place for us all. is how they ended this letter. And they signed it sincerely. Don't forget I'm changing trans to fat for these letters. Sincerely.

Fat. Netflix. Oh, man. I, we, we, I love Netflix. I love them. They actually said that yesterday,

I think yesterday they said they were going to change how it measures. titles, the viewers post on how they do it because of Squid Game. Apparently, you know, they do the, we talked about it how they measure their metric with the two-minute view metric that has used the last couple of years. But now they're going to report total hours viewed within 28 days of release. So that should be interesting. So we think engagement as measured by hours viewed is. a slightly better indicator of the overall success of our titles and member satisfaction.

Yeah, I don't disagree with that. It also matches our outside service measures, how they TV viewing and gives proper credit to re-watching. Yeah. So that's cool. Now, so I guess we have, I mean, holy cow, Squid Game would create nearly 900 million in value for the company. despite costing only $21.4 million to produce. Cost them $21 million to produce Squid Game. I guess I'd be right.

What, they have nine episodes? Right, eight or nine episodes of Squid Game? They did a lot of flashbacks. That's worth of money. That's what costs a lot of money in production when you do with the flashbacks. No, I'm not kidding. When you watch some of the movies,

when you watch some movies that don't have the flashbacks, Like they, because they didn't have the money, you see the guy, in a scene that would be where a flashback would be, it's just him, you know, sitting there shaking. And, you know, you realize that he's thinking about the past, but we didn't have enough money to film any of the flashbacks. So you just get the guy sitting there shaking. Okay. That's the way, I mean, that's the way it works. It's what you got. You only have 10 million, so the 21.4.

So we're not doing the flashbacks, but it was well worth it. So apparently Netflix says the series racked up 142 million views over its first 28 days. That seems pretty good. That seems pretty good for Netflix. According to this, money heist got 69 million views. I think we looked at some of these listings before. So right now, Netflix. Netflix has

213.56 million global subscribers. That seems pretty good. People paying 230, almost 14 million people paying you monthly

to watch your service? Yeah. I'm, uh, that's, yes. Okay. Even if, let's say, 20 million of those are free for the first 30 day. You got 30 days free, right? Oh, hell.

That's, makes me want to hate them. You know what? They need to become more, less, they need to become less fatphobic at Netflix. Yeah, that's what needs to happen, okay? And I know it's time to, time to wrap it up. So I'll just remind you that Haiti is probably, not the best place to go this time of year or any time during the year. The 17 members of the missionary group that were kidnapped Saturday, now a ransom has been

demanded. The group that kidnapped the missionary group, 400 Mawazzo Gang, demanding $1 million per person for their release. They reached out to the Christian Aid ministries themselves. They were made directly to the ministry leader. So this group were on the way to the airport. They were there to help an orphanage, and they were leaving, and then they got kidnapped.

So, and it's only a million dollars a person to get them out of Haiti, if you believe that that will get them out of Haiti. Haiti. I don't know. I mean, if you could pay it, I guess you would pay it to get these people out of there and be safe. Security in Haiti has, well, declined in the recent years to say the least. I mean, they had the assassination of the president. They had the earthquake, another big huge earthquake in August. Gangs are pretty much running the country. And the kidnappings that have been reported. in the first nine months of 2021, more than 600 of kidnappings have been reported.

Last year, there were only 231. And I know you say, only 231 compared to 600 plus in 2021. Yeah, it's only 231. I will say that they also talk about how Haiti has gone into this strike, where everything is shut down. So businesses, schools, public transportation, already are hurting

because of, you know, the, I don't know, the country is in turmoil. They're shutting down. They're on strike. Oh. Okay. So now not only are you hurting because of the gangs running the country,

you're just going to shut everything down. They're going to run it all. Good times. good times. You may decide when thinking about where to go for a vacation, or you look at that map and you say, where is Haiti? Maybe that's a country you don't point out. That right there is Haiti. And you've decided, nah, we're not going to go there. Let's go somewhere else for the holiday, okay? All right, that's good. And always remember, I learned a quote today from the great Tom Petty.

Rest is soul. Tom Petty. Do something you really like and hopefully it pays the rent. As far as I'm concerned, that's success. I got to say, I agree with Tom Petty. That's the American dream right there.

When you're doing something that you really like, money is just a secondary thing. Hopefully it pays the rent. that's in the words of Tom Petty personally I would say man the American dream and success does tend to be a lot

better when the bank account is flush but what do I know I'm not Tom Petty stream and subscribe to more Blaze media content at theblaze.com slash podcasts