Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay - Processing the Los Angeles Wildfires With William Gude

Episode Date: January 10, 2025

Van and Rachel react to the devastation from the Los Angeles wildfires (0:00) before being joined by activist William Gude to provide insight on the fallout and impact of the disaster (16:01). Then, Stephen 'tWitch’ Boss’s widow, Allison Holker, has received criticism for the promotion of her memoir (47:40), Rachel speaks on her divorce being finalized (1:05:31) and Presidents Obama and Trump share a moment at Jimmy Carter’s funeral (1:12:50). Hosts: Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay Guest: William Gude Producers: Donnie Beacham Jr. and Ashleigh Smith Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yo, yo, yo, thought lawyers. What is up? How are learning is on. It is I. Van Lacey Jr. It is me, Rachel and Lindsay. Okay. The city is on fire. Now, as you get this podcast,

it will be Friday morning. We are taping on Thursday. So it's important for us to say that because the situation in Los Angeles is so rapidly changing that we don't know what state the city will be in on Friday, should I say?

And that could be that fires are calm down or contained or extinguished or that something else is on fire. So we wanted to make sure that we said that. But we're going to jump right into the podcast because there is no way for us to put into context the amount of devastation, displacement, and, almost attack from the fire that the city is under right now. Yeah, it's, you know, I don't even know where to start. You, I'm not from here, and you're going to probably hear me say that multiple times in this podcast. And it's one thing to watch it from the outside. It's another thing to be here.

It's one thing to be in the thick of it. And it's another thing to be in the city unharmed and feel like helpless, like you can't do anything. It's a really an unimaginable situation when this, when you know the city is burning all around you. And it just seems to be so unending. And at any moment, things could change to your point. For example, last night, you know, I've had people through, come through the house, like, if they need to be. because of smoke or it's getting closer. They need to get away. And I had somebody over here we're watching the news. And all of a sudden, my phone is going off like crazy because I live

close to Studio City. And one moment, you think the fire's not even close to you. And because of the wind and the embers blowing and the dryness of LA right now, all of a sudden, the fire is one mile away from you. And you're running around, trying to answer phone calls, people are texting you, you're throwing stuff into, it's just, it's unimaginable. And, you know, fortunately, at this point, helicopters were in the air and they were able to put that out and to stop forward progression. But it just shows you how quickly things can change and how chaotic it can be. And it's really unnerving. and it's been like that for the last few days. And it's just, it really is such a devastating situation.

I'm sure, just like me, for you, it's hard to turn away from it all. I mean, it's the local news and, you know, the thanking to the local news for, you know, putting, in addition to firefighters and emergency crews and everyone else, they're putting their lives on the line to show us what's going on to keep us informed. and I've been watching it like clockwork. I can't turn away from it. Just figuring out what the resources are, what people need, where you can donate,

where you can drop things off, or just to stay informed. It's really just a wild situation. Disaster. Traged. Yeah, tragic. So, yeah, five people die are dead, as far as what we know right now. 2,000 structures have been burned.

130,000 residents are under evacuation. these are wildfires that are all throughout Los Angeles County. If you guys aren't really sort of familiar, L.A. County is sort of the greater L.A. area. We're going to talk about a bunch of different places that are off or close to various freeways that we used to get through Los Angeles. But normally when you hear someone say L.A., I mean, there are different pockets of different cities in L.A. that technically, should I say, aren't Los Angeles like Beverly Hills is its own city. West Hollywood is its own city. There are other places inside Compton is its own city.

But normally when we're talking about Los Angeles, we're talking about the community shared of people that are in Los Angeles County. Now, I don't mean that culturally. There's a real L.A. and there's an L.A. that transplants typically live in. But when we're talking about the things that are shared in terms of community, stores, things, roads,

all of that stuff. we're talking about LA County. These fires are basically bunched into a couple of different ones. Palisades Fire was the one that first got people's attention. 17,234 acres burned. Numerous homes, businesses, landmarks around the Pacific Palisades. Pacific Palisades has been devastated. Westward going along Pacific Coast Highway towards Malibu.

Fire jumped the PCH. If you've ever seen, if ever been to Malibu, you know that the way that you navigate Malibu. Primarily is through the Pacific Coast Highway, which runs along the seashore right there. That is the way that you come from Santa Monica into Malibu. Beachfront property worth millions and millions and millions of dollars. Staple businesses like Moonshadows, the Malibu Pier, all of that stuff, Dukes, all of that stuff that's been there for a long time. The fire started on the other side of the road. Embers jumped over that and just leveled the PCH up past Mojow's just burned everything, burned everything. It's gone like a nuclear explosion happened there.

The Eden Fire, which the fire chief has said that the growth has significantly stopped in the Eden fire, burned 10,000 acres, over 10,000 acres, nearly 11,000 acres and many structures in Altadena and Pasadena. I know so many different people who have been affected by that fire, particularly it's affected us here and in our podcast and family very particularly. And people have lost their homes. Families have lost their homes. Just unimaginable. The sunset fire was the fire that Rachel was just talking about the second ago that burned Hollywood Hills, burned 42 acres and triggered mandatory evacuations in Hollywood and Hollywood Hills. All those orders now have been lifted.

It looks like the sunset fire has been contained. We will have William Gould from Always Film the Police, who was on the ground. He's a community activist that films the LAPD, puts the stuff out there. I saw that he was in Hollywood watching how the fires in Hollywood were being man. She's going to join us in a second to talk about things. And they have the Hearst Fire, which burned about 855 acres in the area around Silmar. Now, some nights ago, the winds in Los Angeles. just got terrible. I'm talking about, we're talking about wind gusts between 60, 80,

up to 90 miles an hour. And whenever that happens when we've had the type of dry winter that we've had, people are worried about the possibility of there being wildfires because normally what fires those high wind gusts, if a transformer gets knocked down, if there are sparks, sparks varsity the flames, flame leads to embers, and then the embers can go anywhere. There was one time when I was talking to people who were worried, who were worried legitimately if the whole city of Los Angeles would burn. It absolutely felt like that, and even more so, when you looked at a map, it was surrounded. I mean, you looked at all the fires, and it wasn't the sunset fire that I was referring to.

It was called the sun swept fire. It hopped over from that fire, the sunset, that the wind was blowing a certain direction, it went down into Studio City and started a whole other fire. That's the kind of thing that was happening. And there are more fires that were not even mentioning, which is why it, because they were able to contain them, thank God.

It's terrible. It could have been even worse. The winds have subsided as compared to what, I mean, out here, I don't know how it was. Van and I live in two different areas. We were getting dust. for 80, 90 miles per hour out here where I live. I mean, they shut down.

I know somebody who was the last flight to land in Burbank. They could not see the runway. That's what the pilot told them when they were landing. And the plane was tilted. People were screaming. They were crying. It was a whole, it really, I can't even put it into words. Some of the stories that we've been hearing here locally

that probably aren't translated. nationally. And I think the question, Van, a lot of people on the outside are wondering, and we will talk to William about this, is like, how does this, how does it keep happening? And how can it be prevented? Can it be prevent? Yeah. So I'll get to that in the second and the way I feel about that.

But before I do, I want to make sure that we just lay out a couple of reasons. resources. If you're listening to this and you're local or if you're from out of town, you want to know who to help out. 211, LA is partnered with Airbnb to offer free temporary shelter for people displaced from their homes by the fire. Their evacuation centers at the Westwood Recreation Center, Superva de Boulevard to Pasadena Convention Center, El Camino Real Charter High School, Pierce College, all of those places for your animals and your pets, very close in my heart. The Los Angeles Equestrian Center, 480 Riverdale Drive, Burbank, is accepting large animals. The Agora Animal Shelter in Agora Hills, the Pasadena Humane Society is offering an emergency shelter for animals. The SPCA of LA is taking in animals, Dogtopia of East Pasadena. Also, somebody that we know, Rachel, Randy Savvy. Oh, yeah, I was watching him. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, and the brother's down there at Riverland Farms in Compton. Randy, we got to have you on, brother. We missed the boat on that, man. I apologize to Randy Savvy. We didn't get a chance to get him on before the end of the year. and he's somebody that we desperately want to talk to here, but they're doing large animal sheltering down there at Riverland Farms as well. Food, drinks, and retructed planet's fitness locations are offering anyone affected by the fires,

including first responders, free access to their facilities so you can go there, you can shower, you can use the locker rooms and Wi-Fi. AT&T is offering, it's a corporation. Boontown Brewery in the Arts District is offering to open its tap run. room during the day, I guess Airbnb is too. For those who need a place to be and or Wi-Fi, Odyssey Games in Pasadena is offering their shops to evacuees to charge cell phones. If you want this list and I'm reading off right now, go to lais.com.

And if you're sharing something around right now and you happen to be not from here or if you're from here, sharing pictures of the devastation is, of course, appropriate, right? because you want people to understand the seriousness of what's going on. But more than that, I would say that if you want to share something, also share people links to resources so that people know who might be showing up to help them. Okay. Now, now that we understand the sphere and scope of the damage of what's happening, now the questions will be asked.

We'll talk to William in a second, but before we do, the conversation over the wildfires, how we prevent them, what should be done, and who's to blame for, who's to blame if there has been some dereliction of duty or some incompetence is the question that people are starting to ask locally and across the country. Rachel, what are your thoughts?

What do you think? I mean, I have more questions more than I have opinions, especially because it's the first time that I've, you know, been this close to this type of situation. I mean, it would seem obvious to me that when your area is susceptible to this type of disaster, that you would have measures in place if there was some sort of perfect storm,

which this seems to be. And the reason I refer to it as perfect storm is the Santa Ana winds usually sometimes, I guess, are still in January, you would know that better than me. But the dryness that, the dryness that L.A., California is susceptible to, but knowing that we were getting this windstorm at the same time, I would think that, okay, what do we do if we can't get above it? If we can't, because not only were they not able to get above it as far as providing

water drops, there was no aerial view to even see it. The only aerial view we were getting were people who were flying into LAX taking pictures from their seat on the plane. We couldn't even see how widespread it was. So everything was delayed as far as the information of like the widespread damage. And then that's why the Altadena fire, it started at night. And by the morning, it had, it was the same size at one point as the Palisades fire, which had been burning for over 24 hours at that point, or almost 24 hours. So I think for me, I'm like, I'm wondering how, and I'm not, I don't have the knowledge

scientifically, but I'm like with all the technology and all the things that we create, how is there not something, some better way to provide assistance or prevention for wildfires? We've seen wildfires in California and outside of California, other states as well, completely devastate, a complete devastation of communities. And it just seems like we're behind it trying to play catch up. And there seems to be this ignoring, it feels like, of the problem. And I just feel more confused. And I'm trying to understand how something like this, not the fire,

but just how the, you know, when you watch the news and it's like zero containment. Like, why aren't there measures in place to, to, I know you can prevent the fire, but the widespread nature of. Hmm. Interesting. Donnie, first of all, keep all of this in, by the way. But I'm going to ask a question in real time. Should we go to our interview with William and then get my thoughts on this on the backside?

Because I don't want to be redundant. Yeah, go ahead and get his thoughts. Okay, so let's do this. What we're going to do right now is, Donnie, go ahead. We just filmed with William before we started. William Gould is going to join us. He is a community activist and someone who I was firing. I was following for fire updates.

And he's going to talk to us a little bit about how the fire in Hollywood, the Hollywood fire, the sunset fire itself, was contained. And also he's going to give us some thoughts on what he believes is the ineptitude or the lack of leadership surrounding Los Angeles. So I want to talk about something on the other side of it. Donnie, go ahead and cue up William, and then we'll jump back into this on the other side. The playoffs are here, and you can predict the action all the way to the finals with Fandul predicts. Predict the spread, total points, and even the game winner.

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Imagine being a million miles away. Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Trimfaya. Tap this ad to learn more about Trimfaya. including important safety information. Okay, as we continue to try to get to the bottom of what is happening all over Los Angeles, the greater Los Angeles area, devastating fires, leaving people unhoused, destroying generations and generations of memories, and causing untold as of yet financial damage to the city. We're trying to connect with people who are on the ground witnessing things.

One guy who I follow and have been following for a long time is William Gould. He is a fantastic follow on Twitter if you are interested in the accountability of police officers. His hashtag is at Always Film the Police. Tell him, William. It's at Film the Police, L.A. Film the Police, L.A. At Film the Police, L.A. I've been following for a long time.

He's always on the ground. and I noticed that you've had some updates or you were watching, particularly the Hollywood fires, the sunset fires, take place. Why don't you roll out for us the timeline of what you saw being in the area with the sunset fires, what was threatened, what could have happened in Hollywood

had these fires raged like the Eaton fire and the Palisades fire, and just the entire timeline of what you witnessed when you were on the ground? Sure. You know, it actually started a day before I had gone to the Palisades Fire early on, and just to check it out to see what the damage looked like, I'm very familiar with the area. It's an area I used to go hiking at Austin. And when I went over there, what I noticed was it was weird because I'd go down the street and there would be no destruction except for a random car on fire or a random house. So it was showing these embers were flying a good distance, but they were putting a ton of stuff on fire that you wouldn't necessarily expect, like a car. So I was disturbed by that, but what I was really disturbed by was the amount of traffic leaving that area took us two hours ago, maybe a mile or two, and a ton of fire trucks coming in, right? And so that was on my mind going into yesterday, because I was thinking we have all our resources tied up in the Eden fire and the Palisades fire and elsewhere. and I knew in Hollywood we would not have many resources,

and I was worried that there may be a fire that would start and say, Running Canyon or Griffith Park. So then yesterday, I thought it was evening. I was kind of tired. I was going to the store to get some milk. I walk outside, and I see Running Canyon's on fire. And I couldn't believe it. So I went over there.

I got up to Running Canyon before the firefighters got there, before all the first responders got there. And it was a ferocious fire coming over the course over the hill. And what bothered me so much is the way Hollywood Hills and Running Canyon sit, if the winds were to blow south, those embers were going to fly all over Greater Hollywood. Talking about it would have hit the Hollywood Walk of Fame and whatnot. Not to mention most of these houses in Hollywood are older, the 1950s, and there's just wood ready to go up.

So yeah, when I went up to right up to the base of Runyon Canyon, I'm telling you, those fires were coming right over the edge of the hill and they were just going to roll right through Hollywood. And I felt kind of hopeless because I was like, I don't know how we're going to stop this. Thankfully, at the last moment, the helicopters came. And it was a big deal because essentially for two days, the helicopters were landed. They were on the ground because of the winds were too strong for them to fly. If those helicopters had not gotten there, they had saved Hollywood. Those water drops back to back to back. I watched them save Hollywood.

So I'm deeply grateful for what they did. There's so much to talk about, and it's really hard to, like, I really don't even know where to start. Thank you for, you know, summarizing the way that you did. I think the question that I myself, I'm not from Los Angeles. I've only been here for four years, but I know that fires are frequent in California. And I think a lot of people who are watching from the outside of California have that same thought and are thinking,

some of the thoughts that maybe we all are, particularly in the question that I'm going to ask you is, I know that January fires might be more rare, but the Santa Ana wins are not. And I'm wondering, your thoughts, when you saw the Eaton fire and the Palisades fire, you immediately thought about Rift Park, you thought about running canyon,

other areas where hotspots could develop. What could have been done or why doesn't it seem like there was something to prevent a fire in this area? It didn't seem to be prioritized when such a possibility was likely, particularly with these wind gusts that we were seeing for at least 48 hours at this point. And sorry, I know that's a bit of a loaded question.

So, yeah, a few things stand out to me. My skin has been so dry for weeks now because these Santa, you know, it's not just the Santa Ana's that are here now, but we've had a dry winter as so far. You know, we usually have a fire season, but, you know, November comes, December come, we start getting some rain. We haven't had rain. It's been super dry.

And so when you add in those winds, and not just the winds, I mean, these were, so I think this is something that people don't know. If these fires did not happen, the winds, then the winds caused a lot of destruction on their own. I'm talking about there are trees that you go through Hollywood that are down. Matter of fact, one of a huge tree right in front of Running Canyon fell down last night from the winds. So the winds would cause devastation on their own. Then you add in the lack of moisture. it's incredibly dry. And then when you add in those winds and then the helicopters are grounded,

it's just you leave yourself in a situation that once the fire starts, there's no way to combat that. There's nothing you can do. People will say, well, I see firefighters and they're not putting out fires on individual houses. They can't. There's nothing they can do. They can put out one house. They could try at least.

But it's not going to do anything in the grand scheme of things. they have to focus on containment and, you know, rescuing people who are trying to evacuate. So, you know, in short, it's, I want to say it's a unique situation, weather-wise. But at the same time, I just feel like the evacuation plans were terrible. I'm talking about in the Pacific Palisades, talking about in Hollywood, I didn't see any real leadership there. leading up to this, we should have been prepared for some disaster, right?

We should have had, you know, we know these high winds are coming. We know we're going to have these fires, and we should be reaching out to the Navy to make sure that they have the equipment that we don't have. Make sure they bring the equipment in. Most of all, we shouldn't have our mayor running off to another country to go do a ceremony should be here handling the emergency management, right? because right now we have lack of leadership when it comes to that. The person who runs, the deputy mayor that runs that,

well, he's on leave right now because his house was raided by the FBI three weeks ago. So that's another layer of leadership law. So who knows who is running things? No one knows. I was asking that question. I know that Catherine Bass was overseas. We talked about Mayor Bass. When did she leave?

So that's what we don't know, right? So I know reporters have asked her press aides and they won't tell her, tell anybody. It seemed like she may have left on the fourth. If she did leave on a fourth, I know shortly afterwards she was posting tweets saying that we are going to have life-threatening weather occurrence. And the governor was sending resources down here. I would think that would be enough to say, you know what, I'm not going to go to this inauguration ceremony over in Ghana.

I should probably be here right now, especially again, when you have these winds, when you have the dry conditions. Listen, you could take away these winds right now. Even when the winds stop tomorrow, we are still going to be in a huge fire risk just because it's so dry. Imagine you take a hair dryer, right? And you just blow it on a towel or something over and over again for a couple of days. that it's going to be so bone dry that even when the winds are gone, these things can light up. So our fire danger is going to continue for days and weeks to come until we get some rain.

We need some rain. We need it desperately. I knew this. And everybody else around me knew this. If I'm the mayor, I'm not running off to another country, especially a country where it's going to be difficult to get, you know, back should something happen. And on top of it, if you are going to another country, there should be, you should have systems in place

so that the people can be educated on what's going on. Yeah, the only reason why I bring that up is because, look, I am not in the back for Mayor Bass or anything like that. But I do think that this fire is already being politicized to a degree. I think there will be lessons learned from the fire. There should be lessons learned. But, you know, I'm from South Louisiana. Being from South Louisiana, we know that.

that we get hurricanes all the time. If you get the rights of circumstances, God bless you. That's just, that's, that's, that's the way that it goes. If you get, when, when a hurricane finally hit us that was so significant, people couldn't get out right, we couldn't get the help people needed. The Superdome became, uh, just a complete tragedy in and of itself. So if things get bad enough, it's more important what you do after things happen

than what you do. do before them. So I just want to make sure that we're being fair to everyone. Rachel, what are you going to say? Well, I guess a little pushback, and I guess this is the conversation we can have because, again, I'm not from here, so I'm just not understanding.

You bring up a very good point. You have systems in place or when there's a hurricane because you know the area is prone to hurricanes. I'm from Texas. There are systems in place for a tornado, which is way more unpredictable than a hurricane. At least you have a warning. or a fire, then, and when there's still systems in place for that,

I guess I don't understand, and I'm trying to, why does it feel like we aren't prioritizing wildfires when we know the area is prone to it? And I guess the question is, okay, we don't want to, I understand not politicizing this situation, but it does bring to light the fact that a mayor Bass is not the first mayor to do budget cuts towards either the fire department or Garcetti had budget cuts to the climate emergency mobilization office. There seems to be this issue of ignoring these wildfires, which only seem to be getting worse, especially with climate change. Why is that the issue? I guess would be my question for you. Well, listen, at the end of the day,

if it could be, we have our budget and in our budget, we have to make priorities. last year we increased the LAPD budget by $100 million, while we cut LAPD fire department by $17.6 million. And we cut street services, and we cut a number of different agencies. But then we cut the emergency management department, the one that handles these sorts of disasters. We cut them.

And they begged, please don't cut us. But Karen Bass decided that it was best to cut them. And I didn't quite understand why. We're talking about only a couple million dollars. The LAPD has a $3.5 billion budget, and we still gave them $100 million increase. But then we're cutting this crucial agency by cutting positions from there.

That's a problem. We talk about prioritizing, and we know these things are going to happen. Listen, this fire was going to be inescapable once it started, right? And there was not, no matter if she was here or if she wasn't here, she was not going to have an effect on stopping it immediately. But at the same time, when you have her deputy mayor who's in charge of public safety,

who's in charge of the fire department, in charge of the emergency management department, well, he's on leave because he was doing crazy stuff and calling in fake bomb threats to city council. So when it comes to leadership, we have a void right there then, right? So she's out of the country. then the person who should be running this stuff is on leave. No one knew who was in charge. And when we're having a crisis like this, we need some sort of leisure. People need to, if you just had your house burned down, your apartment, you just lost their job,

you lost their shop, you lost their store, you lost your pets, you lost your possessions. You need to have somebody in charge saying, hey, listen, this is what we are going to do. But no one was to be found. For a couple of days, we had a void in leadership whatsoever. We had nothing. We had Joe Biden, when Joe Biden was here. And, you know, listen, I have my own thoughts about him. I felt like he was going to go to sleep at 6 o'clock once he had his milk and cookies.

We had no other leadership around to handle this crisis, to keep people calm, to tell people, hey, you know, you need to evacuate this area. And you need that voice. You need that person on TV leading people out, you know, tell the UCLA, shut down your school. Why are you reopening our schools? In West L.A., we had schools open yesterday. And then they said, you know, we have to get these kids out of here. They told the parents to pick them up at 12 o'clock.

you know, they should never have gone to school in the first place. We need those roads open for EMS and for firefighters. Power lines are down. You're putting people at risk. So, I mean, when it comes to the leadership on this, I think it's more than, yes, it is unfair to blame Karen Bass for, like, the overall fire. Nobody could have stopped that unless we can get the helicopter. Unless he was able to get the helicopters off the ground and she couldn't because of the wind.

You can't blame her for that. But at the same time, there were systems that should have been in place leading up to this. that were ignored or we had incompetence involved with them. William, I appreciate you being out there. I was going to your page to get information on the fires. I go on the page to see how someone is on the ground, dealing with the LAPD. Tell them where they can find you again.

We appreciate you being on the podcast this morning, man. Yeah, I'm on Film the Police, L.A. on Twitter. Film the Police at L.A. on YouTube. And my website, which I have, you know, I use for police accountability with offers some profiles and some investigative work is film the police, la.com. If you have anything else, you ever want to talk to us about, man, regarding LAPD and anything that you feel like our audience

will want to hear, do not hesitate to reach out. We'd love to have you back on, man. Thank you so much, William. That's a big mistake on your part because I will never, I will talk in your off. Thank you so much. Appreciate your reviews on high learning, man. Take care. Really great perspective from William, who had boots on the ground.

And for those of you who are watching this podcast, William was wearing sunglasses. And the reason he's wearing sunglasses is because he has been right there at the forefront of some of these fires. And because of that, his eyes are completely bloodshot red because of the smoke. So he's wearing sunglasses. We really appreciate him coming on the podcast, taking the time to inform us, let us know what's going on. And definitely we'll have him back as we continue. He's a friend of the show now. Okay.

Breaking news, the NBA has just postponed the Lakers Hornets game on Thursday at Crypto Arena because of the wildfires. Everything, we are remote right now. We would have been in the studio if it wasn't for the wildfires. Everything in the city right now is on hold, partly because partly out of respect for the just tremendous damage that has happened, but also because we can't breathe outside. So it is unsafe to be breathing the air outside right now. Some people that can, that are able, are leaving for places like Palm Springs or some people are going a little bit north.

Some people are headed to Santa Barbara. Some people are headed to different places. But some people are trying to avoid it to people that can. Once again, this is another situation that. you know, in Los Angeles, divides the haves and half-nots. There was a guy that got in trouble some investor on Twitter. Keith Wasserman. Keith Wasserman is his name because he asked if anyone knew of any private firefighters

that could come out and save his home. Okay. So the answer to your question as far as I'm concerned is, I don't know. I don't know any of that stuff. Okay. I don't know what's preventable or what's not preventable. or how it's supposed to go or who's to blame or anything like that.

Even when William was on and he was saying, hey, the Hollywood fire was contained by airdrops from helicopters. And those helicopters weren't able to be in the air the night before because the winds were too bad. I don't know what the capability was. I'm not sure who or what is supposed to happen

during the situation. And I mentioned Hurricane Katrina in the interview with him because we have hurricanes all the time. We have hurricanes all time. We have Hurricane warnings all the time. We have Hurricane Warning System. We have Hurricane This. We have Hurricane That. We knew that there was a possibility that we could have been hit by a hurricane in South Louisiana and around the Gulf area that was beyond our means in terms of combating that hurricane.

But we just hoped that it wouldn't happen. We just hoped that it wouldn't happen. We knew that if you get a strong enough cat five, and I don't think Katrina even hit us as a cat five, it might have been a cat three, just hitting the right place and the leverage is breached. So if you get a strong enough hurricane, you're fucked, right? So I don't know what the answer is.

But I'm going to ask you a question real quick, because I'm going to give my entire perspective on this. Do you know who Jessica McClure is? No. You might know her if I give her, if I give you another name. She's a 38-year-old woman right now from Texas. but if I give you another name, you might know who she is.

Okay. Do you know who baby Jessica is? That was safe? Yes. Yes. Okay. In case you guys don't know this, this is right on the cusp

of raciosity right here because I'm five years older than you. So this is right on the cusp. But I remember she fell in the drain or the hole or, yeah. She fell on a well. Well, okay. Okay, 1987. I'm two.

Yeah, I'm seven years old. Okay. A baby falls in a well. Name is Jessica McClure. Baby Jessica. And for 56 hours, America holds its breath. But do you know what America's thinking when baby Jessica is falling in the well? Get the baby out of the well.

Get the kid out of the well. that's what America's thinking. I remember being in the grocery store. I remember being in the barbershop. I remember being multiple different places as a kid and everybody collectively holding their breath while we figured out how to do one thing, get the baby out of the well.

And then after we get the baby out of the well, after the baby is safe, we can talk about how the baby fell in the well. We can talk about whether or not we need those wells. We can talk about how, who was watching them. That's what always happens. It's like, kid falls in a swimming pool

and get the kid, who was watching them? Who was looking after? Because we always want somebody to blame. Right. In situations like this, right? I want everyone to pay attention because there are going to be two type of leaders that emerge. There's going to be one type of leader

who looks for somebody to blame. There's going to be another type of leader who looks for somebody to help. And I'm hoping that people understand that when you're in a situation like this, that the best thing that you can do, this is coming from somebody who, I wasn't in New Orleans, but I watched my community

be decimated. by a natural weather event. The best thing that you can do in this moment right now is look for someone to help. And help doesn't mean money. Help doesn't mean resources all the time. Help means what I've seen a lot of people in Los Angeles do, calling, checking on someone,

giving them your energy, giving them your condolences, giving them your well wishes, just tapping in with people. So all I'm saying right now is all those questions are out there and I get it. But we live in a time right now where we can't even concentrate,

in my opinion, on getting the kid out of the well. Like, get the baby out of the well. And for as much bullshit as there was in the 80s, Reagan presidency, all of that stuff, as much fucked up shit as they were happening.

I remember a time when something happened and our main thing right away wasn't to look around and start in, I don't, I ain't got no allegiance to none of the people. But I'm saying it's a bunch of people right now that have lost their homes,

then they've lost their dogs and their cats and their family members and people that are sending me pictures. Let's take care of them. And then we can litigate what should be done because there will be another fire. That's the way I look at it. You're not wrong. I agree with you. I think both things can be true.

And I agree with you in the sense that there's a lot of. lot of people to the point that I was making when you said, they're always like, who was watching the baby? People always want to blame because they want, it's like within us. Like, who, who did that? Why did they do that? And I see a lot of, you know, like blaming of obviously, the mayor of L.A. You know, there's certain reasons as we talked to William about, she wasn't here at first. You know, of course people are, and you have, um, who ran against her? Rick Caruso. Rick Caruso, you know, on the news, taking it as an opportunity to blame. You have, um, other people

with power going on using the media to blame, blame, blame. You're right. It doesn't help at all. But I does, I don't think that that means that we can't still at the same time while we're helping, we still need to be asking questions. We shouldn't, be pointing fingers, but we should be asking questions because these questions should be front of mind because when things are contained and everything settles, those questions are going to need answers. And we need to work together to figure out. It should have been, but that's not the issue. And I understand exactly what you're saying of how we can prevent something like this, or not even prevent, but if it happens, how do we come together to minimize or minimize or minimize,

mitigate the damage. That's what I still think those questions need to be asked. And I don't mind them being asked right now, but I'm like you. I don't appreciate the blame. I don't appreciate the opportunity to politicize it. I don't appreciate it specifically because it takes the conversation away from what is at issue, which is humanity right now. You know, like we're getting, we're privy to these local stories that most of the world isn't. We're seeing people. I saw a man on television who his sister and his friend found him

in the yard with the hose in his hand because he refused to leave his property because he wanted to save the house that had been in his family for 55 years. He was found with the hose and his head. That's how his family found him. I'm trying to get emotional. That's what I want to focus on rather than saying than taking the focus away from these people who are losing their lives because they're trying to defend every single thing that they have, the memories, the legacy, all of it. And I'm not talking about the celebrities, just the celebrities, because there's a lot of focus on that too. I'm talking about the citizens of L.A. County who have faced these tragedies. I just hate that focus is being taken away from that and them,

but I still think the questions should be asked because I don't want people to lose side of that. Yeah. I get it. The most important thing is right now to reach out to anyone who you think might be affected by this and to understand that the city of Los Angeles

is in for a tremendous emotional, financial, and cultural rebuild. There have been wildfires before. We haven't seen a wildfire

quite like this. Like what I'm saying, the wind itself was knocking energy out. It was destroying transformers. It was doing all kinds of itself. The wind itself was its own weather event.

There are lots of questions to be asked and a lot of questions that people are going to have to answer. We'll see how that plays out in the coming weeks. Can I just have... I'm sorry. I mean... Sorry, sorry. I thought that's any sense. I just want to say, and I'm sure this resource is on the L.A. is what you mentioned.

But one thing I want to say, and I saw someone talking about this, and I think he gets forgotten, is the mental health aspect of this all, watching, you know, losing everything. I know kids, I'm talking to my neighbor about her and her son is terrified watching this. The trauma affiliated with all of this as well. If it's not happening to you, you're seeing it happening to your other friends and family. So I also want to note that take, if you're listening to this, you've been affected by it as well, whether you're watching it, whether you know someone, whether you're experienced at firsthand,

make sure that you find the resources that you need to also take care of your mental health because it is a lot as well. It's a lot. Okay. We're going to obviously be talking about this. You guys, literally, as I'm doing the podcast, I'm getting updates about people who have lost their homes.

So it's nuts. We're going to stop down and come back. Donnie, introduce the next topic. Should we? Real question. does it seem like a hard shift to be like, now let's talk about Allison Holper. Real question from everybody.

And I'm down to do that if everybody wants to. But I'm asking a, like, is it a, I know everybody who listens to the podcast isn't from L.A. So it feels different. We can talk about whatever we want, but the world will continue to turn. No, I know that.

But I'm just a real question. Donnie. It is a hard shift. It is a hard shift. I'm not trying. I'm down to talk about whatever. I just don't. I really don't know.

We don't have to talk about the Twitch thing. Let's do. I mean any of it. I just mean any of. Real question. No. I mean, I don't think it's a, unless we have a podcast that is,

no, we got to, we got to, we should talk about the, the, the, the, the, the, Michelle Obama, Carter, we, we should talk about the,

the Jimmy Carter funeral stuff, we should do to work. Yeah, I think we take a break. This is where we hop back, hop out, hop back, and finish off the rest of the show per usual. But like, I get it because it's tough, especially being away from the situation and watching it from afar. And I'm, I don't mean to go on a tangent, but I'm a big listener of sports,

radio. I listened to my Detroit Sports Radio a lot yesterday. And the way that they talked about the fire really pissed me off. And it just was like, so removed from the situation. They focused on talking

about how Michigan, after all of this, they're grateful for Michigan being where it is. And like, it shows that Michigan is the greatest place to live because we are enclosed by the Great Lakes. And we are, are kind of sheltered from these natural disasters.

And then that kind of pivoted into jokes and just like super lighthearted commentary. As I'm like getting the same kind of text messages that van are getting about people losing their homes and being worried about their pets, possessions and lives. And it just like, I appreciate you guys and William for giving perspective on the ground. And I think that this is very important for the thought warriors to hear it. from you guys. And I also understand that the pivot into these next topics

is very tough. But I do think it also is things that people want to hear us talk on. But that's why I think this is the perfect time to just take a break.

Hear from some sponsors and come back. Okay. Thanks. Thank you for the perspective. Just wanted to make sure we were being like, are we doing anything

to be disrespectful? Just wanted to gauge that. Don't not. talk about, we have to talk about Twitch. Don't pull that out. If we're going to talk about everything, we got to talk about Twitch. I don't want to not talk about it. Did you know about one and three people with plaques psoriasis may also develop psoriatic arthritis, which causes joint pain, stiffness, and swelling? Does this sound like you? Listen to what it sounds like to be a million miles away. Trimfaya, gusokamab, taken by injection, is a prescription medicine for adults with

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restrictions apply, services not available in all areas. I've been back into it switching gears. Let's talk about Twitch. Stephen Boss, aka Twitch, his widow Alison Polker, has been on a press tour recently promoting her memoir that has family and friends upset with the way that she's promoting it, the fact that the memoir exists in the first place. I'll start this off by playing her audio

that kind of kickstarted the fury. I had dealt with an ex that had addiction problems, and then I realized Stephen had addiction problems. And it's something that I kind of have been like, where was I involved in this? And I had to take some steps for myself to realize, like, you know, I was able to help one, and I wish I could have been that for the other. But it's also not my job to do that. There was a moment I was with one of my really dear friends, and we were cleaning out the closet and picking out an outfit for him for the funeral.

And it was a really triggering moment for me because there was a lot of things I discovered in our closet that I did not know existed. And it was very alarming to me to learn that there was so much happening that I had no clue. So that was, it was a really scary moment in my life to figure that out.

But it also helped me process that he was going through so much. And he was hiding so much and there must have been a lot of shame in that. And he was wrestling with a lot inside himself. And he was trying to self-medicate and cope with all those feelings because he didn't want to put it on anyone. Because he loved everyone so much.

He didn't want other people to take on his pain. Family friend Courtney Ann Platt spoke out and called the memoir and interviews by far the most tacky, classes, opportunistic act I have ever seen in my entire life. She also gave some insight and said that Hoker had the family sign in NDA before attending Twitch's funeral. She says that publishing a book shamelessly sharing the pages of Boss's

journal. What a joke. Yes. He took his own life, which is a fact all of us still can't fathom, and he was clearly having mental health issues hurting so deeply. And this is your example of empathy, of your love. What are you guys' thoughts on all of this?

I don't have many. I mean, I have some, but I think, Rachel, you're closer to the situation than I am. No, I'm not close to the situation, but you don't have any thoughts. Do you feel like it's not your business? Do you feel, I mean, not that I feel like it's not my business.

I think that, okay, so the situation here, obviously she comes across as inauthentic, but people have been saying this about her for a long time. I don't think people know that, though. We know that. that is a that is a Hollywood industry thing about the authenticity of it. I think when when he passed away, I'm going to compare it to something. I'm not saying these people are just alike, but it was, and they died and they both lost

their spouses in a different way. But remember when Amanda Clutes lost her husband at the top of COVID? And she was, people followed the journey because. Who is Amanda Clutes? Okay, she is a dancer. She was one of the after he passed away. She became a co-host on the talk.

She's blonde. Clutes, Amanda Clues. But the nation kind of rallied around her. There was a lot of attention. Nobody really knew who she was before that because her husband was on Broadway. He was young. He was fit.

Oh, I know you're talking about. This guy passed away. And wait, wait, wait, wait. He first lost his leg. He had a long battle with it. Right. His leg got. Okay, I know you're talking about.

And she was giving updates and people were really invested. Right. It went on for a long, long time. And they rallied around her. It's a little bit of apples to oranges, but I guess what my point is, is people rallied around her. Similar to with Allison,

people were so shocked and taken aback by the death of Twitch and were confused and we're trying to understand that people rally. I didn't even follow Allison before. Your heart went out to her, of course, in the children. and people were following along of like wanting to be there for, because, you know, from what we knew from Twitch,

he was alight and was brought so much joy to so many people. And people during COVID followed along when they were dancing and they were trying to bring joy into other people's households by doing these couples dancing and bringing his family. And him taking his life was so opposite from what we had seen and what had been presented that there was this rush to run. rally around her in the same way. So I'm saying that to say that just we might be privy to things and rumors or or are really firsthand knowledge as opposed to the the world did not

see Allison in that way. They rallied. So it is shocking, I think, for a lot of people to say like, whoa, she does come across as inauthent, which is not what we thought about her. So look, when you look her up, right, she is dancing with the stars. She is, so you think you can dance, she's been around for a while. She's something of a celebrity or something, like four million people follow her on Instagram or something. That happened after. It's like a member. All that happened after Twitch.

She was, I'm not saying she wasn't known, but it was Twitch that was the star. She was a dancer. She danced on one of those shows. She danced on one of those shows for sure, but it was attached to him. They did stuff together. All those followers, I'm one of them. I started following her after he passed away.

And that's kind of what happened, why I keep going back to the Amanda. All these followers, all these people wanted to support and rally because of the tragedy that they felt or that they saw was suffered because these two women went through. So a lot of this, like she became a judge on one of these shows after. All this stuff happened after, which is what one of the friends, Platt, I don't know, her first name, who was a dear friend of Twitch, is her, those are some of her accusations against Allison because all of this developed after his death. So his death has been unequivocally good for her career.

Has. Do you think that this memoir is, and I wrote a book and in writing that book, I talked very in-depth about the death of my father. Like, I started wearing hats. Like, I've been transformed by my father's death as much as I don't want to come to terms with it

because it's easier to talk. sometimes on the podcast about it, it's easier to talk. Sometimes, even on social media about it than it is to talk to my younger brother about it or to talk to my sister about it. Sometimes even doing this, it feels like shouting into the abyss. Like no one has to talk back. You don't have to like relitigate the life that you spent with somebody. You don't have to get into it. Expressing your grief on social media or in the public,

sometimes feels like empty calories. You know? Meanwhile, you say something to your mom about your dad or to your sister about your dad, and now you're going to have a conversation that rips your insides into and, like, leaves scars. And that's cowardly for me to do,

but it happens sometimes. Sometimes, you know, looking at a picture, I post a picture on there. Everybody's, oh, man, we're thinking of you, blah, blah, blah. But I don't have to have any conversations about it. I don't have to really talk to anyone about it. I don't have to, I don't have to, deal with somebody else's grief or their complicated feelings or anything like that.

It's just like, oh, my God. And then you get it back. So I understand the need for someone to sort of exist in a state of grief or mourning or discuss that. However, that is a far cry from somebody using the incident itself to kind of boost their stock if her stock has already been boosted and to to to become something different and to to continue the legacy of their relationship with him being a sort of ghost that she can trade on that's as bad as it gets yeah i mean listen i we're we're not close with with

Allison, the family, or I guess the question is what's appropriate. I don't, not to cut you off. I apologize. No, no, no, no, no, no. I understand what you're saying. And it's, I understand too that he was the, it appears that he was the sole provider.

And so she's got to make a living as well. So I understand that with that. But the other observation is there's a lot of things that aren't related to making money that seem to be celebrity adjacent. And if you had that speculation, before it was more confirmed by the best friend who put out this scathing social media post of over her frustration of what she's observed since the death of Twitch, which was December

2022, and she didn't decide to speak out until Allison wrote this book and is going on her media tour. Neither one of us have read the book. I know somebody who has, and I know somebody who refused to do an interview because of what they read, like, was like, I'm not touching this. I understand when you go through something, you feel like, I think a lot of people had questions after Twitch died because the way he took is him taking his life soon, as I said before, so different from the image that he presented to the world. So a lot of people have questions. So I feel, I understand the need for Allison to feel like maybe for his fans, she wants to say something or provide some sort of answer for closure. I understand that.

I understand, and as you said as well, writing a book is very therapeutic as well. It helps you get some of those emotions and feelings out in a way, a similar way of writing a diary or a journal. But the way that she is going about it, it's not even just inauthentic. It's like she's saying these salacious things that tarnish the legacy and reputation of Twitch in order to sell a book. I am sure she has put out a statement since then and saying that I'm not going to read the whole statement. It's on her social, her IG stories, if you guys want to look at it. But she does say that her intention in writing it was to share her own story as well as a part of her life with Twitch. And I'm sure that a lot of the book does that.

But the headlines are the things of you saying the journal, the pages of his book that you put in there, took pages of his journal, put them in the book. You're talking about his drug addiction. We didn't need to know that, and that taints his image. And I think that you're not, if you're writing this book for yourself, you're not thinking about his legacy, you're not protecting the children. Because these are the things that people are going to talk about. And you're changing the image that we have of him and replacing it with this. There seems to be a lack of respect for his family, for the children that you share together, which is what seems to leave such a bad taste in the mouth of others. And now the friends putting out other stuff up there that we didn't know.

I didn't know she took his name off of social media. There's been information about how quickly she was to date, not one, but a couple of other people. It's just all that odd behavior coupled with now the way that you're talking about this in the media. It doesn't look good. It's not a good look. And it seems very opportunistic. And that is what has people talking about it. a way for you to talk about your ex and the life of your husband and how this has impacted

you and your family and not do it in this way. And if that was your goal, you seem to be doing it, you're going about it the wrong way. So this is what I'll say. I don't see any reason to put the pages of somebody's diary. Man. You know, this just happened with the Luther documentary. People were mad at, I guess they were mad at Pallie LaBelle. They're mad of Pallie LaBelle because she there's always been speculation about his sexuality. She

actually spoke to it in an interview seven years after he passed away. Yeah. And I think that a couple of people have talked about that as far as Luther's concerned. Look, I've been very open about some stuff about my father

on here. I've talked about it. And that's because I'll talk about on this podcast anything that is affecting my life. If something affects my life, another reason why I don't want people to hold things over my head. If something is affecting my life and I feel like it's part of my experience to talk about it, then I'll discuss it. If I learn new information, then I will discuss that information. If there are things about that, then whatever. There are things about him and other people that I know that I would never discuss,

things that I've learned. Sure. Because it has more to do with just who he was. Not what he did. What he did and how these relationships that I now have to navigate with some of the stuff that I've learned after that, I can't keep a secret. I'm not, I won't keep your, I won't keep secrets that you made that I have to deal with. I won't keep it.

I won't do that. Some of the shit that you took to their, but other things about people that you learn after they're gone that fundamentally reshape things that they didn't want anybody to know. Sure. About them. Like, I don't understand doing that.

I don't. Now, that's going to be like, look, I get in trouble my family all the time. I'll be honest with you. Because I'll be on here. I'm sure you do. I get in trouble with my family all the time. I get in trouble with my family all the time.

If I'm in the middle of a story, like, for example, the whole hands coming so fast they thought they was feet story with Eminent Ian. Oh, they didn't like that? Nah, they loved it because they get it. They understand it, right? I talked to Ian. I haven't talked to Emmett, right?

Emmett heard it, though. They understand it. Ann, he called me up at me, Ian and laughing at Ian. Like, you're a whole for telling that story. We laugh at you. But, like, that's, a funny story from some kids that are being fucked up, right, with each other. It's a funny story.

In this situation, I do feel like some of this stuff that she's doing, if I'm being honest with you, is reactionary because there were a lot of people who blamed her for his death. Now, I'm not saying that that's fair. That's true. They did do that. I'm not saying that that's fair. Like, that's a hell of a thing to do to somebody, right?

But there are a lot of people that were blaming her for her death. So I think part of this book, right, if you're asking me and talking about all of this stuff, is to cast him in the light of somebody that people could imagine unaliving themselves. And the only way to do that is to expose certain traumas that he might have had or certain issues that he was dealing with personally because people on the outside didn't see that. And maybe if you see that, then you stop fairly or unfairly. I have no reason to believe that what happened to Twitch was anything other than what was reported that happened to Twitch. Very nice guy.

Very nice gentleman. But if she sort of speaks to that a little bit in this book or in interviews or whatever, then perhaps maybe people will stop saying that, hey, we don't know what you did to him or how you affected him or all of that stuff, which I don't think is fair, but that might be another reason why she's doing that. So then the question is, well, what's more important to you, changing your image in the public

or protecting your family legacy and your children? And there's a way to say, there's a way to say, there were things that I learned that I didn't know that came out. She's already said before this that he had mental health issues and you could have just said,

and you could have left it there. coupled all when you had all the circumstances together, it just feels very opportunistic. And again, I told you, I know somebody who read the book, and they were like, mm-mm. They're not fucking with it. You just said the word coupled.

Yeah. Is there news that you want to share with the audience? They already read the shit. No, I mean, I'm pausing. It's not because I don't want to share it. It's because I'm trying to think about how to say it. Like, I'm divorced. Thank you.

Donnie. Give us a little turn up, Donnie. Give us some freedom music. Some freedom music. We should play that Landlo Ball again. You're going to say, you're about to swear up in that corner. Whoa. Yeah.

But no. Yeah. But, yeah. But, yeah, it's a very weird feeling because. From the moment he finally left the house after being here for seven months, post separation, I felt divorced. But for me, I'll be honest, it's, um, there's a lot I want to say. And I'm looking at the step.

No, no, no, I'm not. Is the divorce final or agreed upon? No, no, no. The divorce is final. The divorce is final. It's been filed. There's a lot. I've let a lot of people.

do the talking without me saying anything. And that is because I, that is, there's an intention behind that. I want to respond to everything that's being said. But there has been a lot of stuff that is not accurate. And, you know, I said from the beginning, I have, I haven't talked, but I will. I will. And I'm just figuring all that out. But there's so many things that I'm going to address.

But I, this is all I'm going to say right now. there comes a point Well, I was just going to say there's, okay, maybe I'll say this and then maybe I'll say something about that. There comes a point in a divorce where you don't just have to be the bigger person when someone is, when someone is fighting

in fighting you in this way and willing to die on every hill and not willing to compromise at all for whatever reason they have. And, you know, talk about that later. But, you have to at one point let go and just be the bigger person and prioritize what is most important to you. Is it most important for it to be vengeful?

Is it most important to be vindictive? Is it most important to be hateful? Is it most important to just hang on? Or is it most important to just protect your peace of mind and let go? Which to me, the latter is priceless. I, for me, I had to say, I'm trying to move on. And I had to make concessions that I didn't necessarily want to do. And in order to say, my peace of mind is priceless at the end of the day.

And I really want to start rebuilding and I want to move forward. And I'm able to do that now. And that feels really, really good that I can start. the process of like, okay, let's rebuild. And there's no price on that. And yeah, I'm trying to be careful with my words. You said, pick one thing. The thing that's bothered me the most is that on his end,

there were certain things that were said to play into certain stereotypes that really were hurtful or bothered me. like playing into the stereotype, saying things that particularly play into the stereotype of me being an angry black female. There are certain things that were said to play into the stereotype of me being a career woman that were intentionally done

to try to win over the media. And it was really hard to see people run with that narrative that couldn't be true, that it couldn't be more false, that I place career over a marriage, that I place career over wanting to have children. Those things are emphatically so not true. And to see people run with that because it's the low-hanging fruit

and it fits a certain stereotype, we're really hurtful. And I can't wait to fully talk about those things. Yeah. And I'll just leave it there. You know, it's interesting. We talked about Did you know you were close when you were gaslighting us on the last podcast talking about how long it happens?

You lying. And then you get on there and all of a sudden I don't even get no. I don't get a text. I get nothing. I got to read the shit in in touchnews Weekly.com. Fucking the whole shit. And you know what? That's okay.

Niggin, come over there while a nigga was moving out. Got blamed for calling TMZ when you know he called him. And the whole shit. And then I don't even get a fucking phone call. You kicked the nigga in his ass To be honest, I thought Kalika would have told you And I was in the It was finalized in the middle of the fires

So and also And also like it Because it was finalized on a Tuesday That's when the fires had started And to be honest, I totally forgot Until I started getting messages that were like Finally, you know, congrats And I was like, what? And then I looked

And I was like, oh my gosh, it's all, you know, it's in the blogs. I really did forget because I was prioritizing what was happening in L.A. And I wasn't gas sliding. It was just like, are you going to accept it? Are you going to accept this, finally? It was, I didn't know.

Because even if you read some of the articles, it says that, you know, there was an agreement in September, but obviously it took until this point. There was still, you know, things happening. So, yeah. So I am happy to drop that. and move forward.

Last question. Will you ever, ever get married without a pre-up again? No, I wouldn't get married without a pre-knit. But I don't know. It's like changed my whole perspective on everything. I don't even know if I would get married again. I can't even like fathom that.

I just, it's, it's interesting. And because of the divorce, it's changed my time. line on things because financially things are so different for me now. It's like things that I wanted to do, want to be able to do, I really can't. And I think you know what I'm alluding to when it comes to that. So it's, that's also really disheartening, you know, even though allegedly I didn't want those things. Right. All right. I prioritize them. Yeah. Well, I, for one, I am extremely happy for you.

Thanks. Chapter close. Books still open. This episode is brought to you by WeatherTech. Everyone knows winter is the MVP and making a mess. You don't need WeatherTech floor liners in the summer, unless you hit the beach or go camping. Then you'd want a cargo liner.

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Crumbled bacon. Corn salsa. Forty grams of food. Protein. Made to keep up with whatever comes next. New sweet green wraps hit different. Order now at order.com. By the time of this recording, Jimmy Carter's public funeral was just wrapped up, and I believe his private one is starting later today. But presidential funerals is one of the rare occasions where we get to see former presidents get together and interact with each other. And this one was no different, except I guess it was kind of different. A former first lady, Michelle Obama, was no. noticeably absent from this funeral.

She had a scheduling conflict, and is currently in Hawaii, according to somebody familiar with her schedule. Obama would have been seated next to former President Donald Trump, who instead set next to former President Barack Obama. The two chatted for several minutes, and those images went viral. Her not being there is interesting for whatever reason, just because she's not there. It's a state activity, the death of the president.

but if she had to be somewhere, she had to be somewhere. I think the more interesting thing is that is the reactions that people are having to Donald Trump and Barack Obama having what seems to be, then Donnie put some pictures up, an extended conversation that looked a little jovial. At one time in the conversation,

it even looks like Kamala Harris, who was seated with her husband in front of the two ex-presidents, one president-elect, looks over to kind of see, like she goes to sit down, she looks over to kind of see

what y'all talking about. You know, George Bush walked past Donald Trump didn't seem to acknowledge him. But Donald Trump and Obama seemed to be at least cordial in their dealings with on another. I think a lot of people are surprised about that. Who knows?

what they were talking. They were definitely cordial, right? He was sitting next to him. They were talking. One moment you see him laugh at something that Trump says. Who knows if he was laughing at something ridiculous, he said, or laughing because he thought Trump was funny.

I guess when I saw it, I know you're looking at the point of me. I know what Trump said. What did he say? What did he say? He said, vagina. He said, Can you have that's what he said? He's got a cat name vagina.

But I guess I saw all the back and forth, and I thought to myself, like, would I have sat next to Donald Trump? I like to think that I would not have. But I also am like, what was he going to do? I mean, he could have just been like sit me somewhere else. Yeah. He could have just been, he didn't have to, but he did. And I'm not shocked from a politician.

I'm not shocked that they were having a causal conversation, laughing it up, and sitting next to each other. That seems very much so in line with what politicians do. And yeah, so this wasn't a big deal to me. Now, I did enjoy Kamala Harris turning back and looking at them. And what it seemed to be was like she thought something in her head and she tried to fix her face by looking at her program right after. And I thought, she's probably all of us in that moment looking back like, look at that. these two. I'm going to pull the veil back on something because I'm not on

I'm not on Capitol Hill, so I don't know what these guys do. But I am on various talking head talk shows with people who are across the aisle. They're across the aisle from me. Okay. So when you're going to go on one of these shows, you're going to mix it up. Everybody's mixing it up. Everybody that's sitting there probably wants their own show or to be deeper, more deeply entrenched with the network in some way. They want to make a good showing of themselves. You're going on the show. You want to be informative, but you want to be

entertaining. So there's probably going to be a foil somewhere on the show, right? Whatever. So you're going on the show, you're doing your thing, whatever. You're on TV to talk about stuff. It is spectacle. Hopefully you can be nutritious while you're doing it. Hopefully you can stand up and speak for people while you're doing it, but you are there to entertain people. It is a television show. All right. You're on the show for 45 minutes,

sometimes not even that. Sometimes you're on the show. That's lucky if you're doing like, sometimes you're on the show for seven minutes, eight minutes, nine minutes. But you know where you are before the show? You're in the green room. And you're not a big enough deal

to have your own green. You're not a big enough deal to be waiting in a place where you're by yourself. You know who's in the green room with you? Everybody on the show. And I want to let you guys know something. Nobody's fighting. Yeah. No one is.

People are talking about their hobbies. People are looking at each other and going, oh, my God, look at this guy. It's so good to see you. Haven't seen you in a long time. these people been doing TV with each other for years. They've been contributing to whatever the channel is for years. They've been seeing each other around Washington for years. Years.

And when me, who's only been doing this for the last, like, a couple of years, seeing people, I'm like, oh, you fuck with him? Oh, shit. Yeah, after this, let's go out and have a couple of years. drink at the old Washington Fox down in D.C. After this, let's go have a drink over at the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, that's how you're supposed to feel. Because, they can't do what they're doing unless you're doing, unless you're on the other side of the aisle, that's theater.

They can't do what they're doing unless you feel that way. You're supposed to feel that way. You're supposed to hate everybody and all that stuff like that. They need you to feel that way because they need you to get your ass up and they need you to go out there, need you to vote, you do all of this stuff. Whatever. The only thing that I care about in any of these situations

is where someone stands on policy, like what they actually believe. Like, who believes that little black kids in Baton Rouge should get health care? Who believes in that? That's what I care about, right? But am I surprised when I see people like padding each other on the head and being all jovial? Donnie put it in the chat, Michael Eric Dyson, Nancy Mace. Nancy Mays said Dr. Dyson was trying to shoot a shot. Dr. Dyson said he wasn't.

He said he wasn't trying to shoot. But he said we look good together. Dr. Dyson said he say everybody look good. Have you met him? Have you met him? Yeah, of course. Did he tell you you look good together? Nah.

With the kissy face? No, but look. I've met Dr. Dyson. He didn't tell me that. Maybe he's not fucking with you like that. The point is, that is my point. But maybe, but you think you're entitled to Dr. Dice? See, that's what I'm talking about.

That's your problem now. This just took a turn. My point is he definitely felt that way about her. Look, I can't say what was going on whatever, whatever. It was funny to do the show right after that happened, though. Shout out to Abby and everybody over there, Abby Phillips and what's going on.

But look, you guys hate Scott Jennings. You guys hate Ryan. All of those people right, you guys don't like them. But the people in that room, a lot of the time, they been around those people. And the people on the Hill, when you find out that Joe Biden is desperately against something, but you find out that him and Mitch McConnell are like,

their pals? Like, you should not be surprised. These people are colleagues. They're colleagues. Now, I'm not saying that everybody gets along. Obviously, we've seen even inside of the Freedom Caucus people fight. We've seen that, right? And we know that there are people up there.

Like, I don't think that Kevin McCarthy and Matt Gates are having beers together. They fucking hate each other. And we see a lot of that as well. But I'm never surprised when they don't. So all I'm trying to tell people out here in the actual world is take a breath, have a conversation. You do not have to get along with someone whose set of policies are diametrically opposed to your freedom, to your equality, to your bodily autonomy. You don't have to. But the vitriol that a lot of times is put into you to make you a good lemming and a good soldier, those people don't have it.

Those people don't have it. They're ours, right? What is not that, situation between it. What's real is the policy that you get from the people that you empower. That's real. Who's going to stand up for you? That's real. All of the other stuff is theater. And that's okay. Just, you know, it has to be that way. So they can reach across the aisle and come together and do bipartisan things, man. Yeah. I mean, right now, they're not doing very much of that. They filibuster and everything and they, nobody's getting anything done. But what I would say is just be passionate about the way you view society in the world. Don't be passionate about, don't get into the wrestling of it. It's not the MCU.

It's, you know what I mean? Once you destroy Thanos, you're not going to snap your fingers and everything is going to go back to the way it was. It's not the MCU. Sure. Sure. Do you got anything else? Oh, the top, Billboard ranks, the top, a whole, hundred artists in the 21st century. I'm going to read off to top ten. Drake, uh, excuse me, Taylor Swift, Drake, Rihanna,

Post Malone. That is not shocking. Number fucking four. That's not shocking. Poles Malone is number four. Nigel what? You know, post-e? That's not this.

I'm just like, Post-Malone is ahead of the fucking weekend. People love Post-Malo. Think about this. This is just, This is 2001. Think of all the stuff he's done, all the genres. Nigger Adel not in the top 10. Post Malone is number fucking four.

It does not shock me. Post Malone has multiple genres. His fan base is so widespread. People love... In 2024, I've seen the love of Post Malone, having seen him twice live, where I'm like, okay, he's on a level that I didn't quite understand.

That is not shocking. Eminem shocks me. Oh, no, no, no. That doesn't shock. I mean, is he? In the 21st century? When did the first album come out? What did the first album?

I guess, okay. The first album was maybe like... I think 98, 99. I was in high school. I guess it's like, still? Like, the beginning of the 21st century, but still? Okay, keep going.

Sorry. then six of the weekend, seven Beyonce, A Justin Bieber, nine, little Mars, 10, Usher, 11 Maroon 5, 12, Adele, 13 Morgan Wallin. That's shocking. 14, Ed Shearin, 15, Katie Perry, 16, Gagha, 17, pink. Getting it. 18, Chris Brown, 19, Ariana Grande, 20 is yay.

Kendrick Lamar shows up, some other notables. Kendraumae shows up on this list at 32. 50 Cent shows up on this list. at 31. Myly Cyrus is at 21. Jay-Z is at 29. Let me look and find where Lil Wayne is.

He's 30. Lou Wayne is 30. Ludacris is 39. Wow. Ludacris is a... Hold on for a second, man. This is why we hate these lists. Ludac is above Destiny's shop on a list.

Well, they already put Beyonce. That's how they looked at. And then, you know, You got the T.I.45, Siza, 45. You know, a lot of this stuff has to do with longevity. How much you put out. Destiny's Child, I think some of their stuff goes back into the 90s, which Ludacris wouldn't have been in.

I think Destiny's Child is a late 90s situation. So that first album might have been in the late 90s, so maybe not all of their work. Lucas first album came out in the 90s. That first came out in the 90s. The first ludicrous, when did Ludacris drop? What was Ludacris's first? Donnie, look up when Ludacris dropped his first year.

But yeah, and some of these people are newer artists. So Ciz's on here, but she hasn't... It's 99, okay. So Ciz's on here, but she hadn't been... She wasn't around. She hasn't been around as long. She's been doing music for a very long time. But that's why Morgan Wallin is shocking.

He is a newer artist, and he's... What number was he? He's 13. Like, this is why I hate these lists. But if it's Bill for, they might be going strictly on. off album sales. It might be strictly off units. An argument can be made

for all of these people except to me, Morgan Wallen, in this top 20. Like, all of it makes sense. You think they lied? You think they lied to the movie on the shoot? No, I just, he's such a newer artist than all these other people.

These other people have been around. So it makes sense. It makes sense what they've done since 2001. All that makes sense. Who is Lady A? Lady Antebellum. They changed their name. Oh, because they don't want to be Antibum.

Yeah. They should change it back. Hey, Lady Antebellum. That shit, that woke shit is dead. We lost. Change your name back. Where's the... I'm looking at Lady A.

I know you changed the name of Lady A. Brough. Fucking, Blake Wively got married on a plantation. She kicked. Justin Baldoni ass right now. Nobody gives them, fuck.

If you want to be known as Lady Antebellum, change the shit back. Look it. Nobody fucking cares. Like, what was the lady

that got in trouble on the Bachelorette because she had slaves? She didn't have slaves. She dressed in antebellum attire. Her name's Rachel. I thought she owned a couple

niggas, no? But anyway, whoever that is, like, like, whatever that is, hey, get back on your shit.

Go back to the go back there. Take soup kitchen with you. Give them some soup. Speaking of that, have you hit soup kitchen up about the divorce? What's the relationship between you and soup kitchen? I'm sure he's thrilled. He's probably like karma because, you know, they blame me for it. They blame me for the reason that it happened.

Remember, people love to find somebody to blame, right? They don't like to take responsibility. Okay. So we got to go. Shout out to everybody that's on this list. If you're on this list. No, except for R. Kelly, who's on the list. Well, obviously there's no shout out to R. Kelly.

Okay, I just stop. Or Jason Aldeen. Let me, who else can I? Who else can I take, not Jason Aldine. God, I can't stand him. Kid Rock. He can go. Is he on the list?

Mm-hmm. 83. Wow. Keir Rock made that bitch. Oh, speaking of Keir Rock real quick, something really funny happened. Why? I want to shout out one person. I want to mention something to happen.

And I'll tell you. an idea that I have. So I want to shout out Bill Simmons, and I'll tell you why. I don't know if y'all saw this, but Bill went to Monday night, Raw at the Intuit Center

for Netflix. It was a big deal. Everybody was there. They got the whole town to come out. I'm the number one voice in wrestling. I wasn't fucking there. Nobody reached out to me. Bill hid me.

He was on his way to the shit. I'm like, yo, Bill, what's going to? So he called you bragging. Bill was on his way to the shit. Didn't hit me. I can't go to the fucking shit. Shout out Michael Chey and everybody else that was there.

Nikki Bella is a temptress. Don't do that. She's a super puma minks cat. Well, she is, a temptress. Bill was sitting right there. And Nikki Bella was trying to body roll her way into the sports guy's heart. And what did Bill do?

I do not stand for this. K kept it G. He kept it G. You're not about to put me in the blender, Nikki Bella. You're not about to fuck over me. You're not about to have, if I'm going to be meaned, I'm going to be meaned doing the right thing. I'm going to be mean.

My eyes are down the middle. Pick something, focus on it. Pick something, focus on it. Pick something, focus on it. Now, if you're there with a girl, there's a different way you can go about it. you can be like, girl, look at her doing all of that extra shit. I can't believe she's doing that, all that extra shit she's doing.

But if there's no girl there, you look straight. You look straight. They said Bill was fighting for his life. They were having a failed day with Bill. They said Bill was like, he was zero in. Zeroed in. That's the way you play it. That's a veteran move.

That's a G move. So shout out to him. That's how I want to have my man check. You better look. You better not. Where the rest was at? Bill's looking. He's like, who's next up on the car?

Come on. Come on. Bill's probably trying to find. He's into it dome. He's like, is Kauai here? Where's Kaua coming out? Like, he doesn't know what's going to happen. But he knows that the Temptress Super Puma minks cat in red.

Stop calling her a Temptress. Stop doing that. Why are you body rolling doing the most? She was playing. She was playing into the camera. Let's not make it seem like she was trying to flirt with all the men behind her. She was giving a kid.

She was, I don't like it. I don't like it. I don't like it. I don't like it. Why are you body rolling? That's doing the most. If you, you just, hey, I'm not.

Do something like that. You know what I'm saying? Like, give a message. What would you call a man who was flexing his muscles and maybe ripped his shirt in front of the camera and show? Beef cakeing it.

Beefcake has such a different connotation He's beefcake in it First of all Well see this is I've accused niggas Are doing this all the time Licking your lips LL Kool-J

You drip caramel on his chest Niggers do this stuff all the time But there's no But beefcake is not This doesn't have the same connotation As Tintrists You're making the connotation yourself Donnie and Ashley

Tintrists They're seductive Thank you They're purposeful. They know what they're doing. They're Jezabels. Thank you, Ashley. They're just the...

The Jezabelle is completely different than Temptress. Timptris is a beefcake is like... Look at my head. You're beefcakeing it. You're beefcake in your shoe. No, no. I'll take my shirt off. I'll take my shirt off right now. No, please, don't.

You tiptrous. Let's just use the word universally. So fine. The man can be a tipter's then. I have no problem with that. A man can be a temptress too. A tempter. Because temptress is like...

It's been a... See, you're... Rachel, this is... This is little people... A woman who tempts someone to do something, typically a sexually attractive woman who sets out to a lure

or seduce someone. That's not what she was doing. She might have been showing all. Are you fucking kidding? She might have been showing all. Like, play with Nikki Bell. Meatcake is like a show-off. Oh, no, my God.

Rachel. Rachel. Ashley is with me. Are we going to have to have an intervention? Like, I'm like Rachel. Ashley's with me. Nikki Bella, they put the camera on people all night long and people were doing stuff.

Hey, hi, what did you did? Nikki Bella did a body roll and spent around. What are we doing? Like, are you fucking, look at Donnie. Did you see what Nikki? She's being a tempress. What's wrong with it? Beefcake definition.

An attractive man with well-developed muscles. Not alluring and seducing. There's a connotation. It's all my point. The small of my point is there's a connotation. Because those words aren't really reserved for men. That's all I'm trying to say. I don't care.

That's all I'm trying to say. That's my only point is that there's not the word. Every time you start doing it, we're going to get a button. You're doing it. For what you're doing it. Play the LLLJ song. You're doing it, Rachel. You're doing it.

Shout out to Bill. I want to say real quick, shout out to the audience for boys. went Hokohy. You idiot. You think people fuck with you. You stupid bastard. And by the way, if people want to make it political, my man, shout out to Kaz.

My man, Cass, said, Undertaker was out there. Nobody booed him. They just know you a piece of shit, Hulk Hogan. And so they booed the shit out of them. Fuck you, Hogan. That song still goes hard, though. Real American still goes hard. I'm going to be honest with you.

Can't believe. I can't believe childhood ruined. all of these people. We got to go. We gave you guys a lot of podcasts. We are praying for everyone. And now we're not just praying for everyone. We're doing stuff. If you want to be a part of something, look and see how you can make a difference. You guys, the baby's still in a well. Get the baby out of the well. All right. By the way, to the audience, we love you guys. Even when you don't love us. Tell you think, Kemp's off. Do not stop learning. I'm Van Lathin Jr.

I'm Rachel and Lindsay. Bye.