It Could Happen Here - The Death of Public Health Under RFK Jr.

Episode Date: November 20, 2024

Mia and Gare discuss the incalculable damage RFK Jr. will do if allowed to head the Department of Health and Human Services, home of the CDC, NIH, and other vital medical institutions. Sources: https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/13/politics/robert-kennedy-jr-chemicals-water-children-frogs/index.html https://time.com/7177027/rfk-jr-hhs-secretary-trump-public-health/ https://www.additudemag.com/adderall-shortage-dea-stimulants-adhd-medication/ https://futurism.com/neoscope/rfk-jr-adderall-labor-camps https://thehill.com/homenews/4993660-robert-f-kennedy-trump-health-human-services/ https://www.reuters.com/world/us/woman-who-accused-rfk-jr-sexual-assault-says-he-apologized-by-text-2024-07-12/ https://www.yahoo.com/news/rfk-jr-war-vaccines-could-213751533.html?guccounter=1 https://archive.is/QIIY7 https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2024/11/15/nx-s1-5191947/trump-rfk-health-hhs https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/rfk-jr-comes-home-anti-vaccine-group-commits-break-us-infectious-disea-rcna123551 https://thegrayzone.com/2021/12/03/flattening-curve-global-poor-covid-lockdowns-human-rights-vulnerable/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey guys, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast, Post Run High, is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Gracias Come Again,

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Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jacqueline Thomas, the host of a brand new Black Effect original series, Black Lit, the podcast for diving deep into the rich world of Black literature. Black Lit is for the page turners, for those who listen to audiobooks while running errands or at the end of a busy day. From thought-provoking novels to powerful poetry, we'll explore the stories that shape our culture. to powerful poetry, we'll explore the stories that shape our culture. Listen to Black Lit on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. AT&T, connecting changes everything.

Call Zone Media. Welcome to It Could Happen Here, a podcast where it has happened here. I'm your host, Mia Wong. With me is Gare. Hello. Gare, how are you doing this accursed day? Oh, I'm feeling very healthy. I'm up on my vaccines. I'm doing pretty good. Just had a nice bowl of cereal. Hell yeah.

It's great. Well, you're doing better than the country is about to be doing because this one, this one's bad, folks. So a couple of days ago, we promised that RFK Jr. was getting his own episode and he's getting 85, 90% of his own episode there's one other guy we're going to talk about but unfortunately former presidential candidate robert f kennedy i don't know what the f stands for fitzgerald i'm assuming fitzgerald robert fitzgerald kennedy jr has been nominated by donald trump to lead the department of health and human services i first off need to to note that RFK Jr. has been credibly accused of sexual assault, and when asked for comment by the Washington Post, he said, and I quote, I said in my announcement speech that I have so many skeletons in my closet that if they could all vote, I could run for king of the world.

Now, legally, I cannot make an interpretation of how you want to piece together those sets of facts but he was accused of it and that's what he said when the washington post acted for comment so you know that's great between that and like all the like sexual misconduct allegations against musk and like everyone else involved in trump's orbit matt gates vince mcmahon and and his wife the whole like me too era feels kind of dead and it kind of has been for a while but really the the general voting public does not care at all yeah it does not seem to it's very bleak that's not even remotely the bleakest part about this appointment though. So, Oh no, he's, he's bad for so many reasons. Holy shit.

So I think if you are like most people listening to this, I don't think people tend to have an understanding of how many fucking departments there are like under, under the department of health and human services, just how many different organizations there are. I originally, I had listed them all out and then I was like, I can't do this. It's too long to read in the podcast. So here are the important ones for our purpose.

This isn't even all the important ones, but here are some of the important ones. So under the Department of Health and Human Services is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, the Office of Inspector General, and the Office for Civil Rights. So, we've just put probably the U.S.'s most famous anti-vaxxer in charge of all of these organizations.

And I say we've just put. He still has to get confirmed, and there is some chance that he doesn't make it i don't know we it would be much better for everyone on earth if he fucking doesn't get appointed but it's still very up in the air yeah if any of these guys are going to get pushed in through recess appointments or whether the senate will just completely cave to trump who knows yeah and i mean i you know and we'll get to part of this later. There is real political opposition to Trump in parts of the Republican Party base.

Especially the Senate. Yeah, he is about to fuck with the money. And sometimes you can do that, and it's fine, and sometimes you can't, and we simply do not know yet. And so I think before we get into how, again again an anti-vaxxer leading the u.s is like health services is going to just obliterate us all i think it's actually worth taking a look at what this means politically in terms of trump's base in terms of sort of the power compositions of it because in in 2020 the last time he was running he had a real problem with the anti-vaxxers,

because, you know, on the one hand, Trump, like, did a bunch of anti-vax stuff. On the other hand, he did spend a bunch of money to develop the vaccine, and this pissed off an incredibly large number of people. You have, like, your Alex Joneses yelling about how he was, like, tricked into making the vaccine,

and there's a kind of split in his base between the people who are anti-vaxxers and people who think that covid was like designed in a lab as a bioweapon because those people in theory if you're if you're following this coherently right people who think that covid was created in a lab as a bioweapon you should also want a vaccine then because that could stop the bioweapon well unless the bioweapon was invented so that people would get vaccinated and the real danger is the vaccine. See, Mia, you got to be thinking one step ahead with these people. But there's another thing, too, which is you also have to simultaneously argue that COVID

is pretty mild because that's another thing that all these people believe, because you have to be anti-lockdown and to be anti-lockdown, you have to believe that COVID is mild. So the chain of things you have to believe, and there are like, I don't know, like a third of the population of the U.S. believe some variants of like COVID was made in a lab as a bioweapon. It either escaped or was deployed. It's also mild and also the vaccine is trying to kill you. So this is bad. this is bad and trump has kind of papered over this issue with his base by again just handing all of the fucking health departments over to rfk jr and and a sign of of what rfk jr's

tenure is going to look like assuming he gets appointed is that he has been putting together lists of people he wants to head all of these agencies and chief on that list is Jay Bhattacharya who's he wants to be the head of the National Institute of Health Jay is a an anti-lockdown maniac whose thing was that he thought that the lockdowns were bad and that we should have just sent everyone back to work in in this was just absolute peak of the pandemic before we had vaccines and he thought that like only 40,000 people were going to die because of COVID and that if you just sent everyone back, everyone would get COVID and this would create like quote unquote herd immunity. And then the disease would be okay. Yeah.

Yeah. And that's nonsense, right? That did not happen. We can actually say for sure. Yes. More than 40,000 people died. It wasn't just a flu. Yeah.

And also, you know, there were countries like i think norway tried this where they tried to like ease lockdown restrictions early and it just killed a bunch of people and you didn't get an immunity benefit because then the thing about herd immunity right so herd immunity is this concept and this is kind of this is important for the vaccination angle of this it's this concept that there are there are some people in a population who medically cannot be vaccinated you know there's like actual health right, for this that aren't just like anti-vax shit. But if enough of the rest of the population is vaccinated, then it doesn't matter because there's not,

there's enough immunity in the entire herd that it's hard for the disease to spread. And the way you're supposed to do this, again, is with vaccines, right? But there was a whole crowd of people who wanted to try to do this, not with vaccines, but just by giving everyone COVID. And these are the people that RFK Jr. wants to, like, put in charge of the nation's health services.

Now, the political response to this from our side is also really complicated because, you know, the way that the battle's already playing out in the media is RFK Jr. versus Big Pharma. And the problem is no one likes Big Pharma unless you're being paid by them. Like, we don't like Big Pharma. These companies suck shit. versus Big Pharma. And the problem is, no one likes Big Pharma unless you're being paid by them. Like, we don't like Big Pharma. These companies suck shit. They're really bad. They're, like, parts of the reasons why none of you can afford your healthcare. But also the reason they're evil isn't because they make vaccines.

And this is a complicated sort of tension to manage. And if you read a lot of the media coverage of this so far, NPR has this just fawning article over RFK Jr. sort of tension to manage and if you read a lot of the media coverage of this so far npr has just fawning article over rfk junior that's like oh he's gonna like cut through the bureaucratic red tape with his controversial things and like help treat chronic disease and no he's an anti-vaxxer he's a very hardline anti-vaxxer i also want to read this absolutely insane thing that he said about COVID being a... I'm just going to read this. I don't know how to preface this.

COVID-19. There is an argument that is ethnically targeted. COVID-19 attacks certain races disproportionately. COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese. Oh. We don't know whether it was deliberately targeted or not, but there are papers out there that show the racial and ethnic

different impact. Oh. Oh, no. That's... That's not what those papers are trying to say. No. And I will also say this. One of the things that you can just... You know something very bad is about to happen is when someone uses the word Chinese as a noun. You are about to hear the most racist shit you've ever heard in your entire life well

not not to mention us can honestly juice oh yeah yeah and and so you know what those actually whatever to briefly talk about those studies were actually saying is like well yeah there were certain communities that were hit worse by covid and there's certain communities that were hit less by covid and that largely has to do with things like income and how much you're forced to like go work to read the plague living conditions class poverty yeah where you live gentrification there's lots of aspects how strong your anti-vax movement is definitely another one not to mention just like medicalized racism yeah which is a massive problem in the American healthcare industry. Oh, yeah. And RFK Jr. not going to make that better.

No, I don't have an inkling that's going to be on the top of his priorities beyond nationalizing essentially chickenpox parties instead of vaccines. Yeah. OK, so RFK Jr. has been playing the world's most obvious shell game with the media, which the media, I don don't know a lot of press outlets are just sort of rolling over for trump right now and so he's been playing this game where he's been telling the press oh i'm not going to take vaccines away from everyone from anyone and it'll be fine and like we know that he thinks that vaccines cause autism

like he just says this all the time he has promoted books about that yeah yeah so like you know we know that he's anti-vax that he spreads he spreads anti-vax propaganda we know that he spent a bunch of money doing this specifically also in minority communities so there's there's a lot of dangers here some of which we're going to get into more when we go into what specific agencies can sort of fuck with stuff but one of the biggest dangers in the very short term is that he is now in control of what is effectively the u.s's medical science apparatus and he can use this to spread all of the anti-vax horse shit that has been spreading through like less official channels before this i think it's worth remembering that this this whole anti-vaccine

craze started with one guy getting one shitty paper published in the journal lancet and the reporting on that and the media frenzy around that was enough to turn the anti-vaccine movement from like 10 people into a worldwide movement that has killed unbelievable numbers of people and the reason that's true is because if an official authority tells you like that this vaccine isn't safe people will believe it and he's going to be able to use the national institutes of health he's going to be able to use the cdc he's going to be able to use the journals that they publish he's going to be able to fill these people with his cronies it's going to take a lot of fighting but he's going to be able to use this to push

anti-vaccine bullshit even with even just leaving aside his regulatory abilities, just the ability to like legitimize this complete horseshit as actual science is going to do incalculable damage to this country. And it's going to do incalculable damage to the world because also a lot of the, one of the things that's under, uh, health and human services is the is the U.S. is like international medical and health care programs and sort of prevention programs that we do internationally. So this is all very bad. Do you know what's not very bad? Oh, all of the ads that are going to play right after I stop talking. Surely none of them could be slightly problematic.

Surely none of them could be slightly problematic. Hey guys, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast, Post high is all about it's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories their journeys and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together you know that rush of endorphins

you feel after a great workout well that's when the real magic happens. So if you love hearing real, inspiring stories from the people you know, follow, and admire, join me every week for Post Run High. It's where we take the conversation beyond the run and get into the heart of it all. It's lighthearted, pretty crazy, and very fun. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jack Peace Thomas, the host of a brand new Black Effect original series, Black Lit, the podcast for diving deep into the rich world of Black literature. I'm Jack Peace Thomas, and I'm inviting you to join me and a vibrant community of literary enthusiasts dedicated to protecting and celebrating our stories. Black Lit is for the page turners, for those who listen to audiobooks while commuting or running errands, for those who find themselves seeking solace, wisdom, and refuge between the chapters.

From thought-provoking novels to powerful poetry, we'll explore the stories that shape our culture. Together, we'll dissect classics and contemporary works while uncovering the stories of the brilliant writers behind them. Blacklit is here to amplify the voices of Black writers and to bring their words to life. Listen to Blacklit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast, and we're kicking off our second season digging into how tech's elite has turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires. From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google search, Better Offline is your unvarnished and at times

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the iHot Radio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get your podcasts. Check out betteroffline.com. Apple Podcasts, or wherever else you get your podcasts. Check out betteroffline.com. Hola mi gente, it's Honey German, and I'm bringing you Gracias, Come Again, the podcast where we dive deep into the world of Latin culture, musica, peliculas, and entertainment with some of the biggest names in the game. If you love hearing real conversations with your favorite Latin celebrities,

artists, and culture shifters, this is the podcast for you. We're talking real conversations with our Latin stars, from actors and artists to musicians and creators, sharing their stories, struggles, and successes. You know it's going to be filled with chisme laughs and all the vibes that you love. Each week, we'll explore everything, from music and pop culture,

to deeper topics like identity, community, and breaking down barriers in all sorts of industries. Don't miss out on the fun, el té caliente, and life stories. Join me for Gracias Come Again, a podcast by Honey German, where we get into todo lo actual y viral. Listen to Gracias Come Again on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On Thanksgiving Day, 1999, a five-year-old boy floated alone in the ocean.

He had lost his mother trying to reach Florida from Cuba. He looked like a little angel. I mean, he looked so fresh. And his name, Elian Gonzalez, will make headlines everywhere. Elian Gonzalez. Elian. Elian. Elian. Elian. Elian Gonzalez. headlines everywhere. At the heart of the story is a young boy and the question of who he belongs with. His father in Cuba. Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him. Or his relatives in Miami. Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. At the heart of it all is still this painful family separation. Something that as a Cuban, I know all too well. Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story, as part of the My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And we are back. Okay, so when I was first writing this in the halcyon days of last week, right, I had a whole thing written here about how one of the other effects of this is not just going to be the attack on vaccines. It's going to be the destruction of basic virological research right like our basic research on viruses and on diseases is going to be destroyed you know and this is because the people that rfk jr is surrounding himself with are the lab leak truther people and the lab leak truthers have convinced themselves that anyone who does any kind of research with a virus is actually like creating a giant a bioweapon that can at any moment like break containment and kill the entire population and you know so i was like okay i'm gonna i was putting together all this stuff and then he just straight up said that when he gets in charge he's going to

go to the nih and stop studying infectious diseases for eight years first week i'm going to call all the division heads and i'm going to call all the bureau chiefs and I'm going to say we're going to give drug development and infectious disease a break. A little break, a little bit of a break for about eight years. And we're going to study chronic disease. He's just saying straight up, he's going to try to stop all infectious disease research for eight years. Now think about diseases, right? I talked to a virologist beforehand who will rename nameless for security purposes, but their response was, hold on, let me read this exactly because it's extremely funny. I would love if pathogens would decide to give it a rest for

eight years. Sadly, I do not think pathogens will get the memo because they're random microorganisms. The big issue here, right, is, okay, so we're stopping all infectious disease research. Now, you know, we're already, I mean, we're still in, like, we gave up trying to end the first pandemic that, like, that would happen on the Trump administration right we were our our solution to this and this is also part of the problem of the decay of these institutions even under Biden was that you know we we gave up trying to stop COVID we're just we just we're just just like nascar it too much work so you're all gonna die now have fun well luckily there won't be another global pandemic anytime soon because these things really only happen once a century

no but you know the consequence of this right is when the next pandemic hits we're going to have Well, luckily, there won't be another global pandemic anytime soon because these things really only happen once a century. No, but, you know, the consequence of this, right, is when the next pandemic hits, we're going to have an administration that is sort of broadly anti-vax, whose everyone around them is anti-vaccine. And we're going to have just destroyed our capacity to do infectious disease research. Well, and specifically, this was this was a joke about the bird flu. Oh, yeah. yeah yeah yeah why the thing is right so it could the next one could be that fucking bird flu strain that's it could be something else too we don't know there could be other ones we'd you know like if you go into like the actual sort of causes of these things which have to do with things

like factory farming and like increasing human they call it human zoological contact but it's like humans going into places where there weren't people before and there are a bunch of animals and coming in in like increasing contact with the animals right that's all stuff that they're driven by by structural elements of the economic system and like our constant need to develop land and the way we've set up our meat agriculture and that's not stuff that like rfk junior gives a shit about like actually tends to deal with so instead we're gonna just do whatever this infectious disease research stop is and i think this also aligns with a lot of the stuff that all of the that you know trump's cabinet appointees broadly have been talking

about right which is this this desire to just sort of kneecap and, you know, sort of purge the American bureaucracy. You know, I've been seeing some very, very optimistic people going like, oh, well, you can't really do a purge because like what competent people are you going to replace them with? It's like, no one. That's the problem. That's the problem.

They're either going to be replaced with no one or they're going to be replaced with like one of the like hundreds of millions of weird anti-vaccine freaks these people have found have like cultivated over like a giant global international network right they have so many crank doctors we're just gonna be like governed by like a conspiracy theory cabinet uh which is kind of what it's looking like yeah you're just to be governed by the fox and friends weekend host segment team and oh boy yeah and i will say you know this is all going to be very bad i do want to do a little bit of panic calming which is i've seen some people freaking out about the potential of rfk jr just

sort of destroying the american food system by just implementing a total ban on fertilizers and pesticides. And could he do that in theory? Maybe. But that one I don't think is really likely to happen, because if he does, if he tries to do this, he is immediately going to face like one of the most ferocious lobbies in in the entire history of american politics which is the american like i guess you would call them the farm lobby but really it's the american big ag like big agricultural lobby yeah it's the agricultural lobby yeah yeah and like you you're about to face like the power of fucking bayer monsanto they are they are a ferocious opponent if you try banning their pesticides they're going to come for you they

already hate him because he's already he's like has sued them over a bunch of stuff over the years. And the thing about this combination of companies that make chemicals for stuff and also the giant farming conglomerates who run most of America's food production is that unlike, for example, the farmer lobby. The farmer lobby is very powerful, but its power sort of dispersed over over a broad geographic area it's not it's not like centralized very well which which makes them sort of weaker in an attempt to like stop rfk jr the thing about the farm lobbies that they're not there are a lot of plain states where just straight up they're senators and it doesn't matter which party you elect your senator is just a cut out for like the agricultural lobby yeah and those people work together right like they have worked together they will work together they caucus together all the time in order to get agricultural subsidies

and stuff and these people are unbelievably powerful they are united political bloc in the senate and they can bring the entire u.s government screeching to a halt so that's not a fight i don't really think that he can win but i mean there's still some kind of chance that he tries to do something like this but on that one and i've seen a lot of people panicking about it i think that one will probably be okay that said we're giving a guy who one of his big things is that like the government's been like repressing raw milk. And we're giving this guy control of the FDA. Oh, the raw milk people.

Oh my god, yeah. Yeah. And luckily there's been no FDA-related fiascos this year, which has led to thousands of food recalls that are incredibly challenging to keep up with and now the joke here is that there actually has been massive fta fuck-ups which actually has led to thousands of food recalls which actually are pretty challenging to keep up with because oh boy our whole regulatory state was uh kind of gutted uh the past eight years and it is still recovering and the deregulations have led to massive uh food born illness uh failures in the production scene so yeah that's that's been happening i'm sure one of you has been affected by this yeah and you know i think there are some people who tend to read the way that rfk jr talks about like we need to eliminate

like toxins from the food supply or whatever and read that as oh he's gonna like try to do more agriculture regulation and that man's brain has been eaten by worms like that is his his brain is is a bunch of conspiracy theories matched together like that's not going to be how this plays out unfortunately for us yeah and i really think this is something to keep in mind is anyone who is treating this guy as like some kind of serious reformer of u.s health policy do not trust anything that they say right like keep notes of what fucking media outlets are saying this right now because with rfk jr a man who says one absolutely like i said that thing earlier right about about suspending research for uh infectious diseases right that he said that like friday last friday at an anti-vaccine conference he was on on like zoom he says this shit literally all the time

and if you're a sort of journalist and you're treating him as like a semi-serious guy and not this person like you are not sort of qualified for the task of of covering what's going to be happening in this administration i mean really the worst thing about RFK, in my opinion, is that he has ruined the Kennedy conspiracy search results. If you Google Kennedy conspiracy, it sucks now. Now it's just RFK conspiracy theory beliefs that he has. Terrible. It's ruined one of my great hobbies,

which is trying to find new JFK conspiracies. You know what else is ruining JFK conspiracies? Probably these ads, because my God, the more time I have to spend looking at advertisements is less time I could be reading about how JFK was secretly... Hey guys, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast, Post Run High, is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories,

their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. You know that rush of endorphins you feel after a great workout? Well, that's when the real magic happens. So if you love hearing real, inspiring stories from the people you know, follow, and admire, join me every week for Post Run High.

It's where we take the conversation beyond the run and get into the heart of it all. It's lighthearted, pretty crazy, and very fun. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jacqueline Thomas, the host of a brand new Black Effect original series, Black Lit, the podcast for diving deep into the rich world of Black literature. I'm Jack Peace Thomas, and I'm inviting you to join me and a vibrant community of literary

enthusiasts dedicated to protecting and celebrating our stories. Black Lit is for the page turners, for those who listen to audiobooks while commuting or running errands, for those who find themselves seeking solace, wisdom, and refuge between the chapters. From thought-provoking novels to powerful poetry, we'll explore the stories that shape our culture. Together, we'll dissect classics and contemporary works while uncovering the stories of the brilliant writers behind them. Blacklit is here to amplify the voices of Black writers and to bring their words to life. Listen to Blacklit on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast, and we're kicking off our second season or wherever you get your podcasts. look at the underbelly of tech from an industry veteran with nothing to lose. This season, I'm going to be joined by everyone from Nobel-winning economists to the leading journalists in the field, and I'll be digging into why the products you love keep getting worse and naming and shaming those responsible. Don't get me wrong, though. I love technology. I just hate the people in charge and want them to get back to building things that actually do things to help real people.

I swear to God things can change if we're loud enough. So join me every week to understand what's happening in the tech industry and what could be done to make things better. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever else you get your podcasts. Check out betteroffline.com. Hola mi gente, it's Honey German and I'm bringing you Gracias, Come Again, the podcast where we dive deep into the world of Latin culture, Hola mi gente, it's Honey German and I'm bringing you Gracias, Come Again.

The podcast where we dive deep into the world of Latin culture, musica, peliculas, and entertainment with some of the biggest names in the game. If you love hearing real conversations with your favorite Latin celebrities, artists, and culture shifters, this is the podcast for you. We're talking real conversations with our Latin stars, from actors and artists to musicians and creators, sharing their stories, struggles, and successes. You know it's going to be filled with chisme laughs and all the vibes that you love. Each week, we'll explore everything from music and pop culture to deeper topics like identity, community, and breaking down barriers in all sorts of industries. Don't miss out on the fun,

el té caliente, and life stories. Join me for Gracias Come Again, a podcast by Honey German, where we get into todo lo actual y viral. Listen to Gracias Come Again on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On Thanksgiving Day, 1999, a five-year-old boy floated alone in the ocean. He had lost his mother, trying to reach Florida from Cuba. He looked like a little angel. I mean, he looked so fresh.

And his name, Elian Gonzalez, will make headlines everywhere. Elian Gonzalez. Elian. Elian. Elian. Elian. Elian Gonzalez. At the heart of the story is a young boy and the question of who he belongs with.

His father in Cuba. Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him. Or his relatives in Miami. Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. At the heart of it all is still this painful family separation. Something that as a Cuban, I know all too well. Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story as part of the My Cultura podcast network

available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, we are back. Mia, I would love to learn more about rfk jr if possible or maybe some other random guy who's also bad what else do you have for me here oh boy uh we we have from here adderall oh wow one of my favorite prescription drugs that's not true actually i'm actually not on stimulants everyone thinks just because I talk fast and sound like this, I probably am on stimulants. This actually isn't true.

This is me completely sober. So just imagine how worse I would be if I was on Adderall. Yeah. So, okay, let's do Adderall first, and then we'll talk about antidepressants. So, okay, if you've had to get Adderall and I'm actually not on it somewhat miraculously, I don't know, not miraculously, whatever.

It's not my favorite thing, not being on this. But, you know, if you've tried to attain Adderall or something like Vyvanse or one of the other sort of treatments for ADHD, you have probably noticed that there's just shortages. And there's two explanations for the shortage. If you read the stuff the Food and Drug Administration says, they're like, oh, it's because of labor shortages at drug manufacturing plants. And that's, explanations for the shortage. If you read the stuff the Food and Drug Administration says, they're like, oh, it's because of labor shortages at drug manufacturing plants. And that's like not really the reason. The actual thing that's going on here is that, so these are technically like restricted substances, right?

In order to produce substances like this, the DEA sets like a quota of the amount of these drugs you were able to produce in a year. And the DEA became absolutely obsessed with like the fact that people were like getting a hold of other people's adderall and this made them absolutely lose their fucking minds and start imposing these unbelievably draconian production quotas on on these stimulants which is why there's been a fucking shortage of them for like three years now it's it's worth noting on the one hand you know the the fda has kind of been trying to fight the da on this because the fda is looking at this and it's like okay so we

just have a bunch of people who have adhd who can't get their meds and that can just straight up destroy your life like getting getting taken off of one of these things immediately is really really bad for you and also like not having executive function is real bad but we have the mild upside of the fact that dea isn't technically going to be under rfk junior's control wait is is it going to be under christy gnome's control yeah it's it's justice department, so it could maybe Gates. Well, maybe, maybe Gates. Because we have since learned that Trump has conceded that Gates might not make it through a Senate confirmation hearing. So we will still see if these recess appointments are actually going to happen. Yeah, so we don't know who's going to be running the Department of Justice, but, comma, what we do know about RFK Jr. is this quote from Futurism, quote,

I'm going to create these wellness farms where they can go get off illegal drugs, off opiates, but also illegal drugs, other psychiatric drugs if they want to, to get off SSRIs, to get off benzos, to get off Adderall and spend as much time as they need, three or four years if they want to, to get off SSRIs, to get off benzos, to get off Adderall and spend as much time as they need, three or four years if they need it, learning to get reparented, to reconnect with communities. So as a lot of people, including Futurism, have pointed out, he is framing this as if it's voluntary. But what this is, is instead of treating people for like mental health issues, you send them to a labor camp to do organic farming for the government and that's very bad and it's also worth noting that these programs are supposed to be quote-unquote voluntary have this sort of nasty way of suddenly becoming involuntary

the moment someone's actually in power so the the the worst possible read of this like the most bleak and dystopian read of this is that this is going to be implemented as a method of solving the the indescribable human cost of evicting tens of millions of people one of the things that we'll do is just absolutely obliterate our labor supply for agriculture right because it turns out that the people who actually know how to do agricultural work is not the white planters who fucking own the farms so this is a thing that could be used to try to replace that labor right i i don't know how much i think that specific one is going to happen it's unclear how he could use

the power of the state to do this right there's not a direct path yeah this seems this seems really this seems really goofy frankly yeah like i've seen some panic over it it's like i i mean maybe that's a like i don't know thing that's like a like i don't know we're in like year six of the trump of the second trump administration and like yeah i i really don't see how they could even get anywhere close to the numbers for like a voluntary drug like rehab program that puts you into like agricultural farm work that's not going to replace any of the missing farm labor. No, no, it won't work. Right. Even if you could do the compulsory labor thing, there's not just simply aren't enough people right to do it. And also agricultural labor is skilled work right like yeah you actually have to know what you're doing but comma i will i will mention you know as this is kind of this is an unlikely

but technically possible thing to happen the thing that's more likely to happen is that this is a good time to mention that one of the organizations that's under health and human services is the substance abuse and mental health services administration and there are a lot of ways using this administration and also just cooperating with the dea because again we have to remember this the dea is just unbelievably pissed off at the thought of like a single person getting their prescription so i don't think it will be hard for rfk jr to find his allies in the justice department to intensify the crackdown that's already been happening on on things like on things like adderall and on things like antidepressants because you know there's a whole other range of conspiracy theories that we've covered this on

the show right that have to do with like people who think that like oh all the all the mass shooters are on antidepressants or whatever and that kind of stuff is that kind of thinking is incredibly powerful and there's a there's a real chance that we are about to see a bunch of people who believe that shit suddenly in control of much of the agencies that are supposed to be doing drug regulations there are other things that we can see him do he's going to have some authority over approving new vaccines which is real bad it's going to be hard for him to just like i don't like he can't just like do a vaccine ban but what he can do is he can also fuck with people's insurance covering vaccinations and he can fuck with like to what extent they're recommended by the government this is really

upsetting for the potential like hiv vaccine that's oh it's like nearing its completion we're gonna get to that that hold on give me give me one second because we're getting to that no okay so before we get to the fact that our fit junior is an hfva denialist we need to point out one more thing he can do which is that he can use the office of the inspector general as a weapon to you know i mean it is is the office of the inspector general and like the the regular the legal and regulatory capacities of the other agencies under health and Human Services, are they supposed to be a thing that you can use to go after drug companies for making vaccines? No. Will he be able to do it?

Probably. Because we are about to enter an era of lawfare, and what is it isn't considered legal that is going to make the past eight years seem like the most functional democratic regime the world has ever seen so we're probably going to see that and we're also going to see the effects of rfk jr's hiv aids denialism and this shit is so i don't know if people even remember this but there was a whole like one of the earlier kind of anti-vax conspiracy movements was about hiv not being the cause of aids and it's been so long since this has been a public thing i think most people sort of forgotten about it i think dave gruel

is is probably the most famous one of these guys but he was in this camp of people who thought that like aids was caused by malnutrition. RFK Jr., not in that camp. RFK Jr. in an even worse camp of people who were just like, oh yeah, no, it's because gay people were doing poppers. That's his actual thing, right? He thinks it's just... You think it was

poppers? Yeah. He thinks it's because of just literally the gay lifestyle is why HIV happened. This kind of shit wiped out an entire generation of queer people he thinks it's because of just literally like quote the gay lifestyle is is why hiv happened this kind of shit wiped out an entire generation of queer people our best hope here is that he's forgotten about most of this and is is on to more and new like just gets sidetracked on his other conspiracies and it just gets obsessed with raw milk or whatever. But, yeah, this could be really, really fucking bad for... If he actually decides that this is one of the issues he's going to focus on, right?

He's now in charge of a bunch of the agencies that helps people fucking deal with this, right? Because HIV-AIDS now, you know, getting it is not a death sentence. You can live a perfectly functioning, normal life as long as you have the right medical care. And there's, as Gare was talking functioned, normal life as long as you have the right medical care. And there's, as, as Gare was talking about earlier, there's, there is a pretty promising vaccine that could fucking stop this shit. Right.

But if, if this is something that he remembers and he focuses on, there's a real chance of him using his power to fuck with it because he is a kind of homophobic that like up until really two or three years ago had kind of like mostly vanished from like the mainstream even from sort of like the heart but like the homophobes tended to have different homophobia now than like this shit yeah so this is like a classic 80s 90s homophobia yeah yeah and at this point also we need to mention that again one of the offices that he's now in charge of is the Office for Civil Rights, the OCR, which is something we've talked about on our episodes about trans policy.

He's, I don't know, RFK Jr. is kind of one of those people where it's like it's not clear to me if like his heart's really in the anti-trans stuff. He says all of the most hideous anti-trans shit, right? But that's also like it's also a pretty recent position that he's adopted. I mean, yeah, same thing with Trump. Yeah, but now that might not matter right sure i'm just saying these are more recent changes from them yeah yeah that kind of reflect a growing shift in politics for like the gop and their and their base yeah whereas like historically trump has has felt fine sexually harassing trans women yep yep uh because they're women because of misogyny you know yeah anyway but

you know but our issue here is that the office of civil rights is the office that you're supposed to that's supposed to be the thing that stops discrimination in health care oh okay and in fact this is the organization that the biden administration had just left trans people to the mercy of where if like if your health care got banned, you were supposed to like submit a complaint to the OCR. So like, it's not like an incredibly functional agency right now. Right. But it's about to get a lot worse. There's a couple other things that I should mention before we close out here that are I mean, you could do a full episode on in and of themselves, but there's just so much shit here. One of them is that he's also like

anti-fluoride in drinking water yes yes yes now this is one where i don't know how much power he's gonna have to do this because a lot of fluoride stuff is done at the local level well luckily for our friends in portland this won't affect them at all because there already is no fluoride in your drinking water yep so our dental health is just fucked because of this um he's probably going to use this is going to be another bully pulpit thing where he uses his position to push anti-fluoride shit and i think the last thing i want to end on is just one of the like cruel petty things that he's probably going to be able to do is one of the like bug bears of the right is that like people on food stamps aren't eating healthy enough food.

And so we're probably going to see a bunch of these just really hideous restrictions on what you can buy with SNAP benefits. Yeah. Well, and the rest of these guys also just want SNAP benefits and welfare to also just go down the toilet entirely. Yeah, so they're trying to make them as unusable as possible. And again, it's like, okay, so if you can buy like fresh fruit with this and you live in a food desert yeah because you're poor what the fuck you know right it's just it's just compounding classism yeah and the general trend of this is things are either going to get monumentally worse or merely sort of worse i do love those two options yeah when your best chance is you hope you're hoping

the brain worms ate the part of his brain that remembered this specific conspiracy you're in real trouble oh i mean rfk jr is so emblematic of like the type of like democrat kind of wingnut hippie environmental guy who then slowly has been pivoting to like the right-wing conspiracy sphere like you see this with a lot of like you know like hippie moms from like the 90s right who had very like you know fluoride beliefs vaccine beliefs like all this type of stuff that was kind of more associated with this like kind of like slightly conspiratorial wing nutty uh section of like the left and how much that entire sphere has been totally eaten by the right and now it's a pretty like successful and reliable voting block for them and this has only become

more the case under trump's first term yeah and now we are seeing it again with these types of guys not just on like facebook comments sections but now actually like heading up entire departments of state yeah and and it's also worth mentioning that part of the reason this stuff happens is because it's really profitable. The anti-vaccine lobby, and it is a lobby has an unbelievable amount of money. You see a lot of people pivot towards it. I'm going to close this out by yelling at,

there's a, there's a media organization called gray zone, which if you've been involved in anti-Palestine activism, you've probably seen some of the reporting. They are also like pivoted into this kind of anti-vaccine stuff and you know remember at the top when i talked about jay badachira who's that anti-lockdown fanatic who's going to be in charge of the national institutes of health he's a guy that like gray zone interviewed on their fucking website and put out a bunch of

articles in support of his anti-lockdown stuff right and so you you then this is something that we've been seeing for the last four years is a lot of people who are supposed to be leftists pivoting towards his anti-vax stuff jimmy door is another example of this yes yes literally purely because it makes you a lot of money and now that now these grifters just have their guy in office and all of us are going to have to live with the consequences of it unless unless we stop this jackass from being put into office which is not impossible it's it's it's not without hope this guy has a lot of enemies both among like the people and also in in corporate america so uh and also in the animal kingdom that's true true. That's true. He has many enemies.

The families of the dead carcasses he draws around. Well, and just the families of the microbials in those carcasses, which have wormed their way literally into his brain. Yeah. It Could Happen Here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, visit our website, coolzonemedia.com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can now find sources for It Could Happen Here listed directly in episode descriptions.

Thanks for listening. Hey, guys. I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast, Post Run High, is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast, and we're kicking off our second season digging into Tex Elite and how they've turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires. Welcome to Gracias Comigas. Nothing to lose. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get your podcasts from. Welcome to Gracias Come Again, a podcast by Honey German, where we get real and dive straight into todo lo actual y viral. We're talking musica, los premios, el chisme, and all things trending in my cultura. I'm bringing you all the latest happening in our entertainment world and some fun and impactful interviews with your favorite Latin artists, comedians, actors, and influencers.

Each week, we get deep and raw life stories, combos on the issues that matter to us, and it's all packed with gems, fun, straight-up comedia, and that's a song that only nuestra gente can sprinkle. Listen to Gracias Come Again on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. us come again on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On Thanksgiving Day, 1999, five-year-old Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez was found off the coast of Florida. And the question was, should the boy go back to his father in Cuba? Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him. Or stay with his relatives in Miami. Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jacqueline Thomas, the host of a brand new Black Effect original series, Black Lit, the podcast for diving deep into the rich world of Black literature.

Black Lit is for the page turners, for those who listen to audiobooks while running errands or at the end of a busy day. From thought-provoking novels to powerful poetry, we'll explore the stories that shape our culture. Listen to Black Lit on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. AT&T, connecting changes everything.