Shaun Newman Podcast - #278 - Allison Royal

Episode Date: June 15, 2022

Former MSM journalist turns independent after refusing the mandates. We discuss her journey into independent journalism & going below the surface on critical issues.  Let me know what you think Text me 587-217-8500 Support here:⁠ https://www.patreon.com/ShaunNewmanPodcast⁠

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Now she's an independent journalist traveling to where the story is in the United States. I'm talking about Allison Royal. So buckle up. Here we go. Hey, everyone, this is Allison Royal, and this is the Sean Newman podcast. Well, welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Today, I'm joined by Allison Royal. So first off, Allison, thank you for hopping on.

Thank you so much for having me, Sean. Now, on a really side far note, you realize when you search your name, there was a WW something wrestler named Allison Royal from the early 90s. That's really funny. I do, because when I was a kid and my family got a talk, first computer. One of the first things I did is Google my own name as any vain person would do, right? And so I googled Allison Royal. And lo and behold, there is a very accomplished woman's wrestler named Allison Royal. So I would like to meet her one day, but it's funny that you mention that

because even to this day when you Google her, she's one of the first, if not the first result. My understanding is she was pretty good. Honestly, I had no idea. I was hoping you're going to be like, oh, yeah, it's like my mom or my aunt. And I was like, oh, fair. enough. You're named after a famous wrestler, but I'm fair. I thought it was, I thought it's cool, because when you search Sean Newman, you don't find a famous wrestler. I'm just saying that. Now, that isn't why I brought you on talk wrestling, but I thought it was a, as soon as I googled it, I'm like, that's pretty cool. Anyways, I know, who is Alice, I got a bunch of listeners. They're going to be going, who is Allison Royal? And maybe you could start, we could just start there.

Let's start with a bit of your background and we'll jump into your story or all, all, you know, hop in whenever I feel fit. Sure. Well, I'm a part-time woman's wrestler and then a full-time. And then a full-time, you know, it's funny is my parents actually, that was an accident because they named me owls and I'm named after a child, a friend of my mom's. And they didn't have Google back when I was born, which is so funny when you talk to kids nowadays when they're like, well, didn't your parents just have Google?

I'm like, no, they didn't have Google in the 90s. But anyway, so I am a journalist. I'm originally from Los Angeles, California, which is maybe. why some of your wonderful listeners haven't heard of me because I'm assuming most of them live in the lovely country of Canada where I understand some not know it's not so lovely things are going on right now anyway so I'm from LA I've moved a little bit around the country as an adult because I knew I always wanted to be a journalist and so I was going you know wherever I was needed I did the whole small market big dreams thing in south Dakota which is you know it's like a little it's south of

Minnesota or yeah, it's like southwest of Minnesota. So, which isn't too far from Canada. Anyway, I was there for a few years. I went to San Diego, which was my dream job. I always wanted to live back in California, a few hours of my family, close to the beach. And then COVID hit. And then I think I realized that the news industry was not the rose colored glasses world that I thought it was going to be. When you talk about getting into your, dream profession, journalism, wanting to do that, traveling, you know, different parts of the country to, you know, tell people what's going on. What was it about journalism in the beginning that you're like, yeah, this is where I'm at, you know, I think, you know, I just go for myself. This isn't,

if I can be, my listeners hear this over and over and over and over and over again, but I did not start into podcasting to, I started into podcast to hear people's stories, right, and learn lessons and some truths and whatever else. And for me, COVID when it hit, like, if it wasn't for this, I don't know what I'd be doing because it was my one branch of sanity. And for a lot of people who listened, I think that's what it became. And as the world continued to spiral, it became something that, you know, tethered you to place.

Like, we're going to hold on of this because we got to keep talking to people and find out what's going on. And then as people talk, we both know good things come from that, right? It's, I mean, even though the world was a bit insane, but that's my backstory. What was it about journalism? Because in the beginning, I don't think you were doing the Alice and Royal show. You were doing, you know, running around, covering the beat, so to speak. Well, the Allison Royal Show would be a great title. So when I was a little kid, I always wanted to be a writer and I was good at writing. And when you were a little kid, you know, you go through phases where you want to do this, you want to do that.

you know my sister wanted to be a price is right girl you know who spins the wheel i don't know if they have the prices right in canada but everyone has like their cute little everyone everyone has the prices right so you have it in canada i didn't know that absolutely is it the same do you have a different host there or is it just like the la version that's broadcast in in canada it's mr drew carry everybody misses the the previous guy drew's great but i'd like him back on any uh oh I used to work on a lot. Like where they film it. Yeah, I was one of my first news jobs was in college. I was an intern one summer for CBS, Los Angeles. And so they film it on the lot. I never actually went to a taping. I should have. They filmed Big Brother and all those shows on the lot. Anyway, so I always wanted to be a writer. And then I wanted to be a detective for a little bit. I didn't really know how to marry those, which obviously journalism would be like the exact marriage of those, but I didn't put it together at the time. And I'm a really, this is kind of funny. I'm a really bad liar. I'm a really bad liar. I'm a, my, cheeks get really red when I lie. So it's terrible because it's like if someone took enough too many cookies from the cookie jar or something, I can't be like, oh, I don't know who did it.

Like it's very obvious from my cheeks that I'm hiding something. And so when I was a kid, my remember my parents told me one time, don't go to Vegas, you'd be a really bad liar. And so it's like, well, I love writing. And apparently I have to tell the truth or it's going to be blatantly obvious. So I guess journalism is the right answer. And I don't know. I just fell in love with it. like I love video. I love getting good sound. Oh, well, I got a good sound bite. I'm like, I'm so excited. I'm like a kid in a candy store. I'm like, oh, I cannot wait to put this together. I've always been that way. So yeah, that's kind of how I found it and I fell in love with it. And then my dream job was always to go to San Diego. And I worked for the CBS News affiliate there as a reporter,

which I worked really hard to get. That was like a job I wanted for a long time. But of course, the news industry and the world. I don't want to see the world change, even though the world did change. but I think certain elements of the world that I was naive to became so obvious. And I had to confront the reality that I was facing every day and the organizations that I was supporting and being a part of. And I had to kind of draw my line of like, okay, what's my line going to be? And I think my line was a little bit different than a lot of the line of the people around me. First, the truth thing. I think it's something we share in common because I'm a horrendous liar.

My wife knows this very well, right? I can't, I can't, I, I've just, you know, the truth nozzle is always open. And I just, I take that as a very good quality. I think that's what, you know, once you start line, I think that's a very, very slippery slope. When you talk about, you know, the world changing. Yeah, I think for a lot of us in 2020, you kind of had rose colored glasses on maybe. Like you just kind of viewed the world through, yeah, things are great, blah, nah. And then, you know, the pandemic's coming.

Oh, okay. Yeah. No, okay. Whoa. This is like a moment in history. And then, you know, certainly up here. And I assume down there as well, the longer it's stretched and continues to stretch, the stranger and sillier it becomes.

Except that people's lives are now at stake and mental well-being and everything else. Kids certainly talked with doctors from. all over the spectrum. And like there's some repercussions of what went on not only in Canada, but across the world that we're going to see play out, which is a scary thought. Absolutely. And it's it's sobering too because again, you realize it's not like, oh, now it's just these questionable things are going on. You realize they've always been going on. I just maybe wasn't as cognizant of them as I should have been. You know, like in retrospect, I think since probably the 60s, shady things have been going on in the United States.

States, probably Canada as well. I'm not quite as familiar. But it wasn't until COVID that I was confronted with it because I was such a diehard journalism. Like I love news raw, raw person. I knew it's what I wanted to do. And I still love telling stories and I love telling the truth and finding the best information. But I, you know, I realized that it was a big propaganda machine and it was just owned by pharmaceutical companies. And no one was really willing to confront that or talk about that. I didn't know that when I was 17 years old and I decided that this was what I wanted to do with my life. But as you mentioned, I think a lot of people are having an awakening. And then once they see this, then you have to question, okay, this is what we know about. Imagine what we don't know about.

And that's what I do is I kind of dig into what isn't entirely out there. What isn't something that we're already confronted about? Because what we know on a surface level is what's out there. But that's what news is it's the most surface level that you can get if you turn on. I guess it's CBC for you all. But that's what you're going to get. And it goes through so many filters and so many gatekeepers. But what about a couple layers deeper? And then a few layers deeper than that.

Oh, I got to dig on that in a second. I want to go back, though, before I've written it down. I got a note here. Sure. But when you're 17, you say you don't know. How in the hell could you possibly know, Allison? anyone who enters any workplace doesn't understand how things work. It doesn't matter if we're talking media or, you know, for me, the Emmington Oilers,

for you, the L.A. Kings, the Dodgers, whatever, sports I'm talking. At the end of the day, at 17, you walk in and, you know, you just, I assume you're excited and everything else. At what point, though, do you start going, Hmm, that doesn't make sense because I talk to a ton of media people that have never, that either don't acknowledge it, like just act like it's not there, or no, it's there, but it's my career and it's part of what I do. Right? There's very few Allison Royals. I've met a few Allison Royals. And certainly you're unique to where you are, but there are a few people that stepped out and said, I'm done with this.

Like I'm not doing it anymore. What point does Allison go, this is strange? I think, well, so obviously I had my career for a few years out of college. I guess you call it University in Canada, but I had that for a couple of years. I thought nothing of it. Everything was going really great. In retrospect, there were definitely red flags now that I look back at just the world and what was going on and some propaganda that we were putting out to the public. and that we were just kind of repeating mindlessly like talking heads on TV.

But I think it was obviously in 2020 something started to happen. And I remember one of the first things was, and this was at the point where everyone was like, what the hell is going on? Like is the world ending? You know, everyone needs to grab grandma and save us, right? I remember they had reopened hair salons because they had closed them and then they reopened them at some point where I lived.

the government allowed them to reopen, I should say. I'm sure there were some that were like flying under the radar. They reopened. And then a couple of weeks later, they on a Wednesday say, oh, quote, COVID numbers are going up again, which are BS, but whatever. That's kind of the side of the point. They go, COVID numbers are going up again. So on Sunday, we are going to announce all hair salons are closed. So, yeah, they make an announcement on a Wednesday.

and then Sunday for the foreseeable future, it was probably a month or something, we're going to have these closures of hair salons. So on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, it's completely safe to get your haircut. But if you walk in on Sunday, COVID is going to get you. You know, COVID takes Friday, Saturday off, but it's there. And so everyone rushed to get their haircut in those four days hair salons stayed open to like 11 p.m. to accommodate for everybody. And I remember talking to my managers and being like, you know, this doesn't add up. That makes no sense. I'm like kind of laughing at it and people looked at me like, oh, you know, like you shouldn't, you should take COVID seriously. Like people are dying at. I'm like, you know, kind of looked at me like that. I'm like,

that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. You don't have to be, you know, a quote, full bone conspiracy theorist to think that did not add up, right? And so there's all these little things where it's like, oh, that completely defies logic, right? And then it was early, or probably really late 2020, really early 2021 where I'm like, okay, this is completely BS. Like I completely buy zero percent of this. And I started to see exactly how much

pharmaceutical companies were influencing news companies. It was directly impacting my life. I saw how hard that it was getting pushed behind closed doors. And it was impacting my own life. And they were pretty much telling me what to say. And I put my foot after several months of it. I put my foot down

every time. But eventually I was getting more stern about it. Like, you need to asking me to tell things that we do not know to be true. And if they have made me do that, hmm, gosh, I have a lot of stories. Like kind of stories. Well, I mean, I'm sure the listener would be very interested, Alison, and to hear some of them.

Um, gosh, there are a lot. I think one of the ones that stands out was, and there's kind of a backstory to it, but they, man, this one's kind of a long story, but as kind of a punishment. And I promise you I was a good employee. Like if you were to pull my file right now, when I left this woman in age car,

she called me a highly efficient employee. She was a very nice person, actually. I really enjoyed working with her. There are just a couple people who are as shady as they come at my workplace. But the way that it worked was, I felt like they were just telling, they were, I mean, a lot of news reporters, you get sent press releases all the time.

Management will send them to you companies, will send them to you, government officials will send them to you. And I feel like you kind of are expected to take it as verbatim as fact. And the way that the news model is set up is you kind of just need to repeat it. Because if you get your story assignment at 10 o'clock that morning and your story needs to be live at 4 p.m., you have six hours. And the odds that you're going to be able to do a full deep dive watergate investigation in six hours are impossible.

So that's why it really irks me when you are watching the news and they say, you know, reporter so and so did a deep dive. I'm like, no, they did this in six hours. Like a day turn is not a deep dive. That is actually quite inaccurate to say that. And that has nothing to do with the journalists abilities to dig and do their job. That is the time restraints that are on the industry that is so go, go, go, that like 24-7 news cycle are just spitting out content, wanting out wall-to-wall to fill between commercials. That is what it's all about. I don't know if you guys have commercials between news segments in Canada because I know the government sponsors and sanctions pretty much all of the information that you have on TV.

So I'll ask you that first before I completely finish my answer. Well, here's the thing. I haven't watched our media in so long. I actually can't even remember. I certainly know what you mean by the states. One of the things Canadians do is we watch a ton of American television. So everybody knows about Pfizer sponsoring right in the middle of everything. And it being like, this is hilarious.

I assume it's similar here, but at the same token, it's funny. You ask the question. I just, I haven't tuned into Canadian talk. Like, see, after I was in Ottawa and saw exactly what they were doing, I just like everything. It's just like, I'm not watching any of the same. I don't trust a single cent of it, which is sad because of like, you should be able to tune to something to get your, you know, what's going on in the world, right? But now it's, you mentioned the propaganda and seeing it once you've seen it you're like oh my god right you can't unsee it you can't unsee and the thing in the states you have is you got fox you got cnn you got multiple things competing in a really weird way it's like a really weird ecosystem here in canada we have

the cbc and it was infallible until covid honestly but it's bailed out by the government so it's supported right by the government so you're like well that's strange and whole bunch of major magazines or papers sponsored by the government. So you don't need Pfizer. You can, it's literally public knowledge that the government is supporting a bunch of media outlets. So you think they're going to criticize the hand that's feeding them? Not a chance. And then who's paying for the government to say whatever it wants? Right. Right. Like when you talk about layers that go deeper and deeper, you're like, this is, this is where you, man, this is where I get like, uncomfortable because like, whole, it goes deep, right?

It does. It goes so much deeper than I initially thought. I mean, any investigation that you see on TV were like, oh, we did an investigation. Okay, well, that was one that several paid off people and several pharmaceutical companies paid for. And so many people okayed that going out. So it was filtered by so many unethical people who really just care about making money. That's another thing, too.

Like, I don't consider myself liberal or conservative. if I always just consider myself an independent, like I make the use of whatever information I have to make decisions. And I think so many people are now like that because of COVID. I think so many people maybe would have considered themselves one way or another. I think a lot of people who maybe considered themselves liberal are now like finding themselves like, hey, oh, that hair salon rule doesn't make a lot of sense. And they start having these internal battles like, oh, maybe wearing three masks isn't going to do anything and is just going to severely mess at my child if I make my kid with two or three masks.

I mean, there is a school up in Northern California that up until recently was making it students to chew their lunch underneath their masks and keep their masks on during lunch. I don't have kids at this point in my life like you do. I would raise hell if my kids had to do that. And I'm not like the, you know, I don't consider myself the most extreme person. But we have to question these things. I do think this has been very polarizing because I think some places like CBC and all these outlets that we have here in the States, I think that in some cases they're going to thrive because people who are already brainwashed and don't question anything are going to go gravitate towards that even harder and double down because they don't want to be wrong.

It's like when people are confronted with evidence that they're wrong, they just like double down in their opinion. And then we also have this growing faction of people that are saying, hmm, like all these very fair questions that I have are not being answered. they are not being addressed. So I'm going to go somewhere else and I'm going to poke around and they're going to find someone like you. They're going to find someone like I. All of the awesome independent journalists that I've had the opportunity to connect with in Canada, they're going to go find one of them.

And that is how we're going to get so polarized because half are going to like double down on the mainstream propaganda, corporate news stations or government sanction stations. And then the other half are going to go find the, I hate to say alternative news because like we are real news. Absolutely. Like I hold myself to, I think I would argue, higher journalistic standards than any pharmaceutical own news station does. But it's going to make things even more tense because each half is going to think that the other half is on the wrong side. So I think, yeah, I feel like each side and in some way is growing.

Yeah, I think after going through the last two years, well, now it's past that now. Like it's just like it's just wild to me in Canada right now. I just literally had on Kathy Wagonthal, which I don't expect you to know that name. But she's an MP, so kind of like a senator of Saskatchewan. Not senator, sorry. Like Congress. Yes. Is she in parliament?

Yes. Okay. Yeah. No, I know a parliament is. Okay. Okay. Sorry. It's funny talking to America, Canadian.

I would laugh at some of the things you're like, the Canadians have this. I'm like, do Americans do that? Anyways. I love your Canadian. accent when you know when you're a kid and you're making fun of accents and you're like do your best australian accent do your best british accent or do your best canadian people are it's just funny because people are always like oh i was out in a boat and i i hear you i hear you have that like authentic canadian accent and i don't know maybe the stereotypes are wrong but i picture everyone

i picture like from the time you're four years old in canada they give you a hockey stick and they're like okay this is what you do now like this is what you do you play hockey you drink maple syrup and this is what we are about. We are Canadian. Oh, about. That's what we're about. Hockey stick skates probably at two years old, at least for myself and my kids. The maple syrup thing, I think is, I don't know, I actually had a listener, send me maple syrup. And I know that. And it was quite delightful, but like the store about maple syrup, I'm not a big fan of. Wait, you like give viewers your address and you're like, here, send me stuff. I tell you what.

I would get a bomb. I'm not even joking. I feel like I would, I would get a bomb. I'm sure someone would send me maple syrup and be nice, but I think I'd be too afraid to touch it. Well, I hope that somebody listening now doesn't try and pull a fast one on me.

But yeah, I don't know. I guess I have, whether it's optimism, naivity, whatever it is, I trust in my list. I've had my listeners,

the majority of them, and certainly it's been growing. And, you know, it's been when when you were the one person talking differently in the area compared to everyone else you get you had a lot of people gravitate to you but i don't know i if i look at the world at all times like it's out to get me and pretty much do me in i think that's a tough way to live life i everywhere i go i find good people and so i try and approach it that way now obviously i'm not

doing too many extreme things and i'm trying to to make sure that I'm not just giving my address way to everyone, Allison. But at the same token, I don't know. I've been fortunate and the people that are surrounding me have had my best interest. I don't know. I guess I've never looked at it strange, but maybe that's Canadian being a little bit naive and too nice and whatever else. I don't know.

But I'm proud of that. I got no issues with it. you, I've decided, because I've, I've had the beauty, the wonderful opportunity to connect with a lot of Canadians over the last maybe year or so. Just with the Freedom Convoy, it was so censored in the U.S. But I heard about it. I'm like, what is going on? I can't find out on the news. So I'm going to have to like reach out to Canadians and find out.

Canada has the nicest, most genuine, kindhearted people and the shadiest leaders. That's what I found out. The shadiest leader, yes. Leader. I think like the fact, the whole Trudeau black. was also very much downplayed over here and couldn't find a whole lot about it. I mean, if you Google it, you're going to find it if you want to poke around. But that shocked me that that wasn't like the number one story in the world. Like the leader of a free country does blackface and then

has the audacity to get behind all of these causes. I mean, hypocrisy is beautiful and that it unites people of all political affiliations because it stings for everybody. And that was so blatantly hypocritical. I couldn't believe that we weren't all like, you don't know about this? You don't know about Trudeau? Yeah, but that's on Trudeau, that's the tip of the iceberg. Like, honestly, that's the first layer. Yeah. For me and Trudeau, I just like, I'm embarrassed that he's my leader, right? Like I'm embarrassed that a country voted him in, even if back in the day it was because he was young and good looking and said things and was passionate, whatever else. Right now, like, he's an embarrassment to me. he is a Canadian. I don't like, like, he's got a, he hardly got in again, right, minority government.

He's teamed up. Actually, you're probably right, leaders, you know, Jagmeet Singh, leader of the NDP, they've formed a coalition so they can hold on to government for until 2025, right? And you're like, oh man, like, how much worse can this get? Like, but you listen to him talk. Some of the things that have come out of his mouth through the last six months, let alone the last two years, is, insane to be living in Canada, have a leader say that about his people is, is wild. I mean, I used to follow a bit of news and watch other countries do that and be like, oh, glad I don't live there. Wow.

And here we sit in Canada and we're dealing with it. You know, I come back to Kathy Wagonthal. She, she is a lady who wouldn't disclose her vaccination records to sit in the house commons and got removed. And like, that was a big, like, literally, like, less than a week ago, maybe 10 days ago, that just happened in Canada. Like that's still going on, right? At our highest form of government, we can't, you know, like they're just holding on with all

their might to keep, you have to show vaccination status, anything federal, right? To fly, trains, buses, leave the country, anything you want, you got to show your card. And it's like, you realize the rest of the world is just moving on from this? Like, I understand parts are trying to hold on. but that's where we're at. Isn't it weird how some people are treating it almost religiously? Like this is something that's devout to me and I have to hold on to it and I have to keep it alive and I almost have to worship it. You know, like people treat this like a religion or like a god in some way.

It's a little weird. It is. But I once again, I probably go like, it's the two extremes and it's just the one extreme. And I think they're a small percentage. They're just a loud percentage. Yeah. And that loud percentage, for whatever reason, has really found a way in social media, in media and politics to continue to keep that dial over there.

Because I think the majority of people are like in Canada here, I can find people that are like, we need more mandates, lock it back down. I don't see it here in Canada at all. Honestly, I think one of the most unifying things that Canadians have right now, whatever side of the political spectrum are on, no matter beliefs and everything else, I don't know how many people go, Justin Trudeau is a great relator. I honestly don't. But here's the thing, you're going to have a whole pack of dogs and you're only going to hear the one that barks the loudest. It's true. That's exactly what it's like. That's what news is like. That's what you will have

the perception that you're in the minority when in fact, you're really not. And I think, I mean, that's how 2020 happened in the U.S. is because you heard the dogs that were barking the loudest, and it was the quiet dogs that were going and were voting for someone that you didn't expect. But the thing is, Allison, now people like Allison, have come up. People like Sean are willing to, you know, when I first brought on my first couple of doctors to talk in the middle of like, that was as uncomfortable as I have ever been. And now, you know, you fast forward, there's Sean. There's other people starting to speak their voices. So now it's getting harder and harder to allow just one voice to do exactly what happened

in 2020 for the exact reason because we all went through it. And we're like, well, never again when we want to do that. So let's start talking about some things. And I can safely say that in the last six months, for sure, if not more, I'm starting to run into more Alice and Ross. And I'm happy to say that I'm starting to see them in Canada. And for the longest time, I wasn't seeing them in Canada. You Americans have your, you love being disagreeable. You love just like the difference between Canada and the states is just like you believe in something I find watching your country.

being married to an American, that you stand up for what you think. And us Canadians, I don't want to be disagreeable. Like, no, let's just get along, you know, unless you get us on the ice. You put it, I keep saying, just imagine the world is a big sheet of ice. We're playing a hockey game. We want to win. Oh, all Canadians will be the meanest sons of bitches you ever seen. I need to go to a Canadian hockey game.

That would be amazing. I don't know you were married to an American. So do you feel like your kids have attributes from both, you know, world perspectives. I mean, Canada in the U.S. It's all North America and Biden and Trudeau probably make out. But I think that, you know, I don't know. Maybe that's just my hypothesis. Oh, well, put it on the record. Anyway, yeah, do you feel like your kids have attributes of both in terms of like their worldview and how they approach things? Well, the thing is they're so young, right? My oldest is only six. And then to have two years pretty much stripped of them, it'll be interesting to watch

over the next decade, right? How being able to like kind of have an ecosystem from both sides, right? Obviously, they live in Canada, but to go to the states and have family and friends and everything else there to have that ability to go there, you know, eventually being dual citizens and all that. Like that'll be interesting to watch because, I mean, it's new to me. I, you know, I played hockey in the States. So I got to experience your culture for, you know, close to five years.

and that was interesting as well. But for my kids, it'll be different. Like, they're going to have access to things that, for a lot of people, you know, who live in one country don't have that, right? So I don't know. It'll be interesting to watch. Now, somehow, a good reporter like yourself,

you've switched this. I still want to hear what happens to Allison to get you to go to independence. Yeah. How did you, how, like, we started into some stories, but I think for myself, I'm like, what on earth happens? happens that you're like, you know, you said it was your dream job. You want to, you want to be here.

This is what you want. A lot of people that we both know for their dream job will sacrifice some things, including some of their values. Yes. Yeah, there are definitely people that will do anything or anyone to get where they want to be. Yeah, no, I'm serious. No shame, I guess. But the news industry is definitely like, the TV in general, I would say is definitely like that, especially like L.A. San Diego. That's just kind of how it is. Again, not very surface level, very under wraps. But that shouldn't surprise that, sorry, that shouldn't surprise. To be on TV, to be radio, you have to have a good voice, but you don't need, you don't need the look, right? No, no. My hair, I just like woke up like this. Yeah, you can just roll up when you podcast. You can,

I can have a face for radio any day. But yeah, exactly. You do have to. But on television, it's a bunch of of us looking. Yeah, but on television, overall, you have to be, you have to look a certain part, right? Like, yeah, it's, it's, you walk in. Some places more than others, but yes, absolutely. But you walk into a news station, you sit down, I've heard this lots. You can have a mind. I'll stick with sports. You can have a mind of a sports guy. And sure, sports guys and women, maybe they get away with a little bit more, but you got the mind and then they sit down and like, that guy can't go on television, right? And you're just like, that's how vain. it is but it makes sense to the human population you're like yeah i don't want to i want to stare at somebody

that i think is attractive like that's probably pretty simple to explain to the people i don't want to stare at a weatherman who's like well well he's covering up half the screen well no yeah i do think especially meteorologists i do feel like they try to find like really likable good looking people um i mean like the chief meteorologist for the station i worked at in south dakota he's he's like married and is a very nice person as a lovely wife. But I mean, he's like such a likable charismatic guy. And so that's definitely, you know, what people gravitate towards because otherwise, why wouldn't you just look up the weather on your phone? Right? Like, not to say that that's more accurate. But anyway, the reason I left is because so I decided I'm like, I saw so much BS. I don't know if I can

curse on here, but. Yes, you can. Okay. I saw so much bullshit, Sean. I saw so much bullshit. And I kept my mouth shut. And I just decided like, okay, they keep government. media, everybody, they keep like, you know, moving back the line. Like so for example, it's like, okay, you have to wear a mask. Okay, some people, but most people, at least initially, we're like, okay, I'll do it. And then it's, okay, this vaccine's coming out. Old people have, should probably get it. And then it's like, okay. Like, so I know from my company, it was like, all right, a vaccine's coming out. If you want to get it. Okay. If not, if not, managers are not allowed to ask you about your vaccination status. That is information that we're

not allowed to ask you about in the workplace per our human resource policies. Fine. And then I went to, okay, you can optionally tell us your vaccination status. And then when you're outside in some settings, they flipped up, flopped on this, you won't have to wear a mask. But again, we cannot come up to you and directly ask you, this is voluntary if you want to do this. But if you suspect somebody is not wearing a mask and they're not vaccinated, like you should go tattle on them, basically. And then the next step was, okay, you have, everyone is now required to submit your vaccination status and tell HR about it, but whether or not you are, you can keep your job. And, Annie, obviously, I saw this, I think way before a lot of people did. I'm like, obviously vaccine mandates are coming. And then

it graduates to, not only do you have to tell us what your vaccination status is, but you have to be vaccinated by November 12th fully, like two weeks post your second shot, I guess two weeks post your first shot if you do Johnson and Johnson. And you have to have all the paperwork in, or you are no longer welcome at this station or at this company. And so that's what they sent out. Granted, most people already were vaccinated because I'm going to go 90% of my coworkers who had on-air positions. So reporters, anchors, meteorologists, they did it on camera. You know, they posted it on Instagram. They took pictures and they took videos of when they got their shot and they made it this whole life event. So there were only a couple people who didn't do that. So even though like there wasn't,

I never like asked, because I just don't feel like it's my goddamn business to ask somebody what shots they have and what shots they don't. I've never had a flu shot. And it was never a problem. I had a couple people like casually judge me. And then not being vaccinated was like, you know, suddenly and people looked at me like, oh my gosh, you're going to die. Are you okay? Are you okay? Like you're going to kill grandma. So for me, I decided like, okay, like that is what my line is going to be because I know they're going to push it further and further. And in 2020, a lot of people thought, probably thought I was crazy because I said, hey, not only do I think a vaccine is coming out, but I'm going to bet $100 that they're going to mandate it for the military. People were like,

oh, no way. July 2021, they mandated it for the military. And this was, again, people, you know, six, seven months before said, not only is I don't even know if a vaccine is going to be here, but they're definitely not going to require it. And they're not going to kick people out of the military if they don't get it, if they don't inject it into their veins. I had my line because most people didn't have one. And if you don't have one, they'll walk all over you, right? Like, if you don't decide what your limit's going to be, it's almost like when you're a little kid, I don't know why I think about it like this, but I remember like in those drug prevention and education programs that they had in elementary and middle school and high school when I was a kid, they would talk to us about

how like you need to decide what your decisions are going to be and what your boundaries are going to be prior to going into situations because otherwise you're just going to be pressured in the spot. like you need to decide oh um i'm not comfortable smoking cigarettes because otherwise you might be in a social situation one day and some of my hand you a cigarette and because you haven't thought about it before and decided like what you're okay with and what you're not you might end up smoking a cigarette and then you're down the tobacco loophole and that's how i felt about this like i decided ahead of time i gave it a lot of really careful consideration i don't trust pharmaceutical companies i have reason not to and i don't really think anybody should be so you know open arms to them

but if you want to, that's your choice. And I, you know, I believe in choice more than I believe in anything. So that was my line. And of course, that day came. And so when November 12th came, I had about a month's notice, but I told A. Shah, I'm like, look, I'm not going to get this. And the day that I found out, I actually did apply for an exemption. I didn't get it.

But the day I found out that my exemption was denied, which didn't surprise me, I knew they weren't going to give it to me. There's no reason to have an unvaccinated person in news. like there's none like it completely defeats the whole narrative that this industry is trying to push and pays for there were like a complete hazard to their massive marketing campaign that they've had for the last two years so um i had about a month's notice and again like i actually thought the woman who works for human resources for my station was a really wonderful person and i felt bad that she even had to tell me this granted she's also standing behind an unethical company because another thing that

I point out to people and people have pointed out to me is if a company has a vaccine mandate, again, that's surface level. That's a very unethical, corrupt policy in my eyes. Think about the ones you don't know about. Think about what's going on to that company behind closed doors and who's funding that company that you don't know about. It is completely public record that BlackRock and Vanguard fund every single news company in the United States. Not a secret. You can do two Google searches. Who owns da-da-da-da. Bam, it's right there. People will, don't really like to talk about it. And if I were to acknowledge that in a news report,

oh my God, I would get an email right away. I'm sure a manager would have emailed me right away to talk about it. There's just no question, even though it's completely factual, completely public information. Anyway, so I just knew that that wasn't what I wanted to do. I don't consider myself like the anti-vax poster child. That's not me.

I'm just anti-blindly trusting pharmaceutical companies. And I felt like I already felt like things were on the wrong side of history. And I had been like mentally preparing the leave for many, many months. I'd say April 2021, I knew even though I was pretty deep into it at that point, like very, very deep into it. I knew that like there's no way I can keep doing this. Like I just saw the 24-7 COVID death fear porn that we were putting out. I saw who was paying for it.

And I just like was sick to my stomach. and even though I would distance myself from it and I would never, ever go on air and say anything I didn't know to be true. I would always attribute it to some source, even if, you know, just to like kind of distance myself from it because I didn't want that following me as much as management would probably love me to. I knew that like this wasn't, this isn't when journalism is supposed to be. It's just it's not. We're not, we're supposed to tell people about things. We're not supposed to tell people what to do. And we have completely, we haven't even blurred that.

line. We've just gotten rid of that standard. It doesn't exist anymore. Journalism is dead. It breaks my heart, but like little independent journalists like I knew I wanted to be are really the only hope we have. They don't have the funding to compete with the big monsters, but that's okay. I hope whoever's listening to this, there's probably some little independent journalist in whichever town you're in. Please find them and seek them out and follow them. And they're probably reporting on stories that you're not hearing about. Even if you're in a big city too, absolutely, there's definitely independent journalists. And, you know, send them. your story pitches, have them look into something that you feel like corporate news is completely

ignoring. Yeah, I agree with everything. You just like 100%. I interviewed a guy named Byron Christopher. He was an independent journalist, well, is out of Eminton. But he's, you know, he knew about this 30 years ago, right? Like this isn't something brand new. It's just that for a lot of people you were it's never been so you know it's right there in your face you can see it everywhere and um he he talked about it back on the radio stations way way way way back when and he's an interesting man uh geez that's over a hundred episodes ago that i did that like see and like like that's it's a long time ago and um you know it's when it comes to independent journalism and you'd saying journalism is dead. It's like, or maybe it's coming back on the rise because I think for a lot

of people, they're searching out, you know, I have listeners now send me shows, clips, news articles or substacks. Like, if it was six months ago, Allison, it was probably doable to read through it all in the day. Honestly, it was like, okay, I'm going to start. We're going to get through. I got two podcasts, a couple substacks. And, oh, there's seven people. that are talking about this. Right now it is like information by fire hose on that side. And it's good stuff. Like the substack articles that are being written is is fantastic. And honestly, there's so many people that are jettisoning the sinking ship. And moving on to things that I think the public is is craving for. They're wanting to hear,

um, you know, like I'm, I'm an independent now. Yeah. I was never a part of the establishment. But I have my own biases. I acknowledge it fully, right? Like I certainly have my own biases, but I'm pretty open about that. Whereas when you watch our government, the CBC, that type of thing, they will never acknowledge that, you know, like how, you know, like when it comes to COVID and different things, that there's so much bias in what they do. And the funding from Black Rock or different organizations is so evidently right there, but they won't even acknowledge the tie that is influencing them. And you're like, this is strange, but that is, that is the corporate media, right? That's what it is. I'm so glad you brought that up because I feel like the best part

about what I do now. And again, like I was for months, I was like, I need to get out of this situation. I want to be an independent journals, but I don't really know how to do it. I don't really know how to make a living off of it. And I'm like, I was having stomach problems. Like I was throwing up because I had so much guilt about being a part of what I believe like in 10 years is going to be look back as the most corrupt institution ever. I felt like, oh, man, I can't be real with people because I think journalists aren't supposed to have opinions. I think obviously every human being is opinions, but it's not supposed to affect the product you have on air, but it does. And so I feel like people are just like putting out bias pieces and passing it off as journalism. So what I like,

what about what we do now is I can kind of be more real with people and I can sometimes preface that I have an opinion. But if it is an opinion, like I'll make it very clear that this is my opinion. You know, like I think it's wrong to the way that we've locked up the elderly and solitary confinement for almost two years. I think that's wrong. That's an opinion. But I can say that and I can preface that. It's an opinion before I go ahead and get into whatever it is I'm going to talk about. I don't try to, you know, pass it off as this super, you know, boxy blazer news report that has no little snippets of my own personal agenda in it.

like that's an opinion that I have and I can you know I feel like people appreciate that like fresh authenticity that I can be real and just say like this is what I think um this is what we know you know like you can be more of a human being with people and that's probably what I'd imagine you like with your podcast is you can you don't have to be that like super robotic personality you can just talk about things organically yeah well and the other thing I I really enjoy about it is if you're full of shit it'll come out oh yeah Oh, yeah. Oh, my gosh. Because to me, one of the things that I detest about watching the news is they take, they interview me, let's say. And they take a 15 minute and then they have to because of time constraints and everything. They take 15 minutes and they turn it into whatever they want it to be. And I watch that and I'm like, I know, I never want to be. So I want to be where, you know what? people are going to listen to you know when you asked off the top like how long is it

I'm like well like I've done things from half an hour because people need to be in and out to three and a half hours right yeah and the thing about it is is that way if I if I'm like I love podcasts I love getting to know somebody right because then if they come back on in the future you have that timeline to like okay this is who they are and certainly we want to talk about the things that are going on in the world and certainly things that are affecting not only your life but guest lives but by doing a podcast and doing it over your personality comes out your beliefs come out everything you start talking and people get a feel for that and to me that's what's so great about long-form conversations is you start to feel

out if you can trust someone and if you can trust someone that goes I mean I feel like that's why you follow certain podcasts or journalists or substacks writers, etc. is because they build a rapport with their readers or listeners. And that's something like you watch, you watch the corporate media. Yeah. And it's just gone. It's just like they're not even talking.

They're like, oh, man, this story sucks. And I'm sure at times they have to be sitting. You had to have been sitting there going, oh, this is a tough piece. except now it's COVID. Now it's like telling, you know, kids to go or parents to get their kids a vaccine that, you know, I look at it right now. And I go like, I remember being harassed for that in the early days. I'm like, I just don't see the, I have no idea why you would do this. And now as it goes further and further and further, you know, like that, those stories had to be horrific to be a part of for someone like yourself that's like, you know, you said stomach problems because you're like, how can I go on?

and talk about this. You're completely on the money. I like how you said that if somebody is full of shit, it will be apparently obvious. It would make me so angry when, like, the news anchors, I mainly did the morning show. They would be, you know, interviewing somebody live. It'd be, you know, a mayor or something,

or I would go interview him. And I'd be, like, through my teeth, I'd be like, this guy is so full of shit. And I can't say anything. I cannot call him out because he's, quote, on our side. Like, he's exactly who the news media lives. love like these paid off talking head politicians that just repeat the same talking points that they've been paid off to say. And it's so hard because you can't call them out. And the whole point

about journalism initially is you're supposed to hold people accountable. You're supposed to ask fair questions. And you're supposed to take the people's concerns to government leaders and get answers for everyday people and then report on that and bring that to light. And it's completely the opposite. We go to press conferences and we get the messaging from these corrupt leaders. And then we take it with a megaphone and we broadcast their orders out to everyday people. The narrative has been completely flipped. So I'm so glad you brought that up because they are completely full of shit. And people look way too much into the whole Democrat, Republican thing or liberal

conservative thing. That's this like very well-funded partisan divide, in my opinion, to keep people angry at each other. I mean, a lot of these politicians who claim to be on different teams, I guarantee you behind closed doors, they're on the same team and they all just really care about money. That's what it is. I mean, money changes people. I mean, that's why so many people are going along with all these pharmaceutical narratives.

It is the most lucrative industry you could even imagine. I mean, they make more money in a day than I will even be able to make in a lifetime. It's hard to grasp the pull of the pharmaceutical industry. I mean, the reason that we don't talk to people about eating healthy and exercising when it comes to lowering their cholesterol is because Lipitor is the most well-sold drug in history. I bet you Pfizer and Moderna. Maybe they've since passed it, but I know when I is, the kid libator was the number one drug ever.

And so that's what we push. And that's the information you see, and that's the advice your doctor's going to give it, influences your prescribing patterns because the doctors are paid off. It is a whole corrupt system. And then once you find one of these little breadcrumbs, whether you're like a professional journalist like myself or you're just an everyday person who has these very natural curiosities

that you're often shamed for, that's when you start to kind of connect the dots and think, okay, there's so much more out there that we need to know about. and people have a goddamn right to know about this stuff. And they don't. And it's a shame. You wonder if you were the leader of a country, I feel like they go, people can't handle the truth.

So let's, let's like, you know, layer it. And we'll keep them happy and fed and smiling. And there's going to be some people that are go-getters. There's going to be some people who just want to work a job and whatever else. and I think, you know, to each their own. But when it comes to leading, I go, I don't know. I feel like people can handle the truth. Like, yeah.

I mean, I just, because sometimes they even get hit with the truth, and then they just carry on with their life anyways. Like they just, oh, yeah, okay, they carry on, right? But by hiding it, it just spurs. Oh, man, it just spurs divisiveness. Because now you have people who dig it out. people who listen to that and the other people who are just like yelling, you're lying. You're not telling the truth. And it just spurs on this like animosity. You go, man, I wonder if that's like

strategic. Right? Because at this point together, when people talk, like humanity can be so like healthy. And when people aren't talking, well, we see what happens. Like it just gets worse and worse and worse. I don't know if Canada does this, but I know in the United States growing up in history class, certain events would be in history books or would be omitted from history books. And a lot of the arguments was, well, kids can't handle the truth. Kids can't handle learning about maybe like a certain violent conflict. But these super violent conflicts where the U.S. behaved favorably, we would cover those extensively in history class.

But when the U.S. messed up or maybe did something where we want to sweep it under the rug, that's when people would use the excuse of, oh, kids can't handle the truth. Kids can't handle the sad reality of this conflict. It's like, really, well, we learned about a war where we're, you know, so many people die, but the U.S. looks good in that one. So that one we really capitalize on and we have lots of required reading about in English class or in, and there are several conflicts that follow under this umbrella. Really anything that like paints the people in charge in a good light is what you're going to see. And then they use the whole you can't handle the

truth thing. I do think that it's a very sobering experience and it does kind of shake your soul up a little bit when you learn about what's going on. And so, yeah, like the truth is very sobering. That's what I, it's like, you know, it's like getting hit with a bunch of cold water. It shocks to you, but what was, what was the, what was the, the cold water when you started digging? What was the, what was the cold water moment for you? I think I would just say like how much of the news industry and our government and everything is completely controlled by pharmaceutical companies. how much of it is out there, yet we're not allowed to talk about it. You know, like the fact that Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson, and Johnson pay for every news

station, and then we're required to do all these news stories about them promoting them. You know, Pfizer pays news stations, and I'm not even talking about like commercials. I'm just talking about news segments, and we're not allowed to acknowledge that. If you want to pay for airspace, go ahead and buy a commercial. don't buy a news story. I just did a story on my own, like an independent report, maybe about a month ago, a couple weeks ago. And it was all about Bill Gates.

And it was about how, I mean, I would encourage people to go watch to it because I get more into it. But like the quick synopsis of it is that I was looking into the baby formula shortage that's impacting us really hard here in the U.S. For people who can't breastfeed for one reason or another. I was like, oh, that's kind of weird. And then Bill Gates has this startup called, bio milk, B-I-O-M-I-L-Q, and it's this lab-made chemically breast formula that's supposed to be this climate-friendly alternative to baby formula, which last I checked breastfeeding didn't have any

environmental impact, but you can't bat in breast milk, so they have to come up with some lucrative solution to that. Anyway, I started looking into it, and I saw that it's kind of complicated, and I do a much better job with a timeline, breaking it down in the story, but the So Bill Gates raises $3.5 million for bio milk. And then almost immediately, the Gates Foundation takes that $3.5 million and pays the Guardian, which is a newspaper over in the UK. And then the next day, the UK publishes a story, this hit piece on breastfeeding. It's like how breastfeeding is sometimes bad for mother's health.

I don't know if your wife breastfed or like what your opinions are on all that, but that is a very clear, shady paper trail. And yeah, maybe you could call it a coincidence, but like people should be talking about these kinds of things. And the whole reason I started looking into it is because it's like, okay, we have a pandemic. Bill Gates is involved in pharmaceuticals. We have these food shortages.

He's involved in buying up all this farmland. And then we have a baby formula shortage that's kind of suspicious, doesn't quite add up. We're stopping FDA shipments of European baby formula. And now he's involved in the baby formula game. I'm like somebody needs to hold him accountable to an extent. I don't think he'll ever be held accountable for all the damage that he's caused to the world, really, not just the U.S., but really to the whole world. But I started looking into that.

I would have never been able to run that story in corporate news. I would have been, someone was telling me the other day, they said someone would have assigned you to fact-checked that story. You would have been on the side like discrediting me. So that's just one example. Yeah, the Bill Gates thing. is if you took the media portion out of it, you could be like, man, he's just a smart business guy. It's like reading the tea leaves and seeing there's going to be issues

and I'm going to fix the issues, right? Yeah. But then when you start digging into it and understand how much he's funding different media outlets and how things are portrayed because of money, he's just creating problems, giving it a solution, making lots of money. And that is shady as fuck. And Bill Gates, you know, I'm sure I'm on here like eight months ago going.

I'm sure Bill Gates isn't that bad of a guy. But the longer this goes on, the more I'm just like, oh, man, he gives me a headache. Now, to go to the kid thing, yeah, my wife breastfed, but she didn't breastfeed for, you know, like there's women who can't. There's women. There's, this is a complicated discussion. issue. But to act like breastfeeding is bad is ridiculous, right? Like it's, I mean, what's going on right now with hit pieces on having kids,

uh, the breast milk thing, right? Like, uh, like, beyond meat, things like that is more healthy than meat, right? Like we're about to have there, they're trying to get warning labels put on ground beef here in Canada. to and I'm like for meat that like this is we're we're attacking so what the institutions are are attacking I call them institutions but what it feels like is getting attacked is the the the the family unit community how without a doubt like all the things that are I I laugh on this at some point in the podcast I laugh at one point and I go I feel like I'm a traditionalist I never thought I was like I thought I was like

this guy that was on the cutting edge. And I'm like, but I feel like the longer this goes on, the more traditional I become. Like, I don't think there's anything healthier than the family unit. Uh, and keeping that intact is what's healthiest for kids. A healthy community helps support that, right? But you need, you need, and all that is just going, I don't know, it's just getting hit piece after hit piece put on it. I mean, yeah, I tweet about that all the time. I feel like I read on your Twitter after we talked the first time about, you know, having more than two kids is as bad for parents' mental health. And they're an IQ too.

It's this subliminal messaging telling people like have fewer children. Like if you don't want to have children like you float your boat, I'm in no position to tell people what to do. But if you do want to have children, don't be afraid that your IQ is going to diminish because of a couple nights of a lot of sleep because of a baby. Well, here's the thing. You have more kids?

Your stress level doesn't go up? Yeah. Anyone with kids can tell you that. Like that's, that's a stupid piece in the beginning all together, right? Mm-hmm. But the thing is, is like, this country that I live in was built on families of like 10 kids. There is a lot of ingenuity that comes at a kids and how they interact with one another and everything else, siblings. You don't want to have three kids.

Fine. Is it stressful? Yeah. But is it a ton of fun? Yeah. And are those kids going to be smart? I mean, that's for every different situation, right? Like it has nothing to do with whether you have two or three, such a load of bullshit, in my opinion, on what they're trying to put out there about family units and everything else.

It's like family unit, be healthy, be good to one another, stay together, talk. Like there's things with couples that need to be ironed out more so than how many kids you're having. Yeah, I completely agree. And I mean, it all ties together kind of like you said, the whole beyond meat thing. They're telling people because of climate change, you need to stop eating meat because of climate change. do we need to stop having kids? Okay, so are we just going to completely rob a generation of people by stopping. I mean, our population would go away if we stopped having kids. And, you know, Rachel Letus are going to continue having children or like hiring circuits to have children for

them more so. Why should everyday people like you and I have kids? And that's because they don't, they want us outnumbered. Family, like you said, like societies are strong when families are strong. I remember, like this is embarrassing. I remember a couple of years ago, I had a therapist tell me if we, I've never, ever spoken about that publicly, you've gotten exclusive, but somebody told me, you know, if you take care of yourself and take care of your family, and if everyone does that, we have a utopia, right? Like if you just take care of yourself and you take care of your kids, the entire world would be

taken care of. We would have an absolute utopia. Homelessness would seek to exist. We don't entirely operate like that. So like we should be encouraging families to be strong and have the resources that they need. And so when you see Vice News publishing things about how the feminist future that we need is to abolish the family, abolish the family. To me, that sounds like population control, which again, people might think that sounds a little kooky. But if you start looking around, you're going to see their little breadcrumbs like sprinkled into all of it.

You know, just the other day I was speaking to a friend of mine from college who's like a really smart. guy and he's like, oh, you know, like, just been reading a lot recently and I don't think I'm going to have kids. I'm going to adopt because of climate change. And it's like, if you want to adopt children, I think that's a beautiful thing. I think you'd be a great dad. But like, don't do it because of climate change. I think that is something that has been hammered into our brains because they want people to have fewer kids. They want less people with certain ideologies to procreate and then of raised generations. That could be any kind of opposition. Yeah. Well, we've had our own experiences in adoption. While I watch the time, I better watch the time here, Alison. How much time do I have you for?

Like, you'd mentioned having a hot time. About 10 more minutes. Okay. 10, 15, yeah. So when it comes to adoption, that was something my wife and I were like actively, pursuing. But since we'd had our own kids, they basically made it impossible. And I, I still think back to that, right? Like, do I want to be at the back of the line? Because other people can't have kids and they should be at the front. I'm like, sure, like, sure, okay. But I'm like, I think the whole point of adoption and foster care and all that is you want to give kids a healthy home. So if you have good homes, you'd want to foster that, right? And the adoption thing is really, really interesting because that is, honestly, I couldn't believe we went to a couple conferences. We talked to a bunch of

people about it. We looked into it quite, you know, like my wife was very pro. Like, let's help someone who's less fortunate have a better home. Okay, done. And the further we got into that, the more I was like, this is a murky world when I, you know, I've had kids of my own and I'm all sudden, we don't want you. That's the way the adoption run is. So that's wild. The climate change thing, you know, we have a problem of, and I'm not saying I'm great at it. I just realized that if you do something today, it has repercussions tomorrow or maybe a year or 10 years from now. So if all of a sudden here in Canada, you stop, you know, if we had the average household had four kids 10 years ago and then two kids this generation and the next year, one. One is, sure, it's populated, but two is, or one is population control, sure, but two is your workforce.

Like we have a terrible time right now, whether it's XYZ. I have no idea. They always talk about the boomer generation and how many kids, you know, how big those families were. and they were such a good workforce, right? Well, if you're the government watching this go down, you're like, well, what are we going to do when people want their stuff and they can't get it anymore, right? And that type of thing.

And that's a very, like, real high up look at it. If we all stopped having kids, I mean, that's what drives economies too. Mm-hmm. Absolutely. And like you said, Canada used to have 10 kids. My dad was one of six kids. and they got along just fine. I was one of five.

I don't know if you felt this. It's like I haven't reached the point in my life. Like I do want kids for sure. I think I want three. That's like what I'm in my mind. I've like been determined to have because I think it's important to have a middle child. Oh my gosh. We should talk about this.

Did you know the middle children are going extinct because people are only having one or sometimes two kids? And they're claiming it's because having children are so expensive these days. Which granted with inflation, you know, it is really. very expensive right now. But like middle children are going extinct and that made me so sad. Like my sisters are a middle child and my family and it's weird to think about life without her or life without my brother if they hadn't had him or you know, like I have, you know, siblings of my own. It's just weird to think about like the world not having middle children. And I guess your family is a middle child too in the middle of the five of you. Like it's weird to think about or only children

like not having siblings. I can't imagine growing up not. Yeah, not having a sibling. I can't imagine that. Like share a bathroom. It builds character. You know, like I'm, I'm Adam and I don't want one kid. I want like at least, at least two. Again, if someone's out there and I don't send me an email saying, like, I have one child and I found it offensive. Like, no, like, please enjoy your family of one child. I'm not coming for you. That's not at all what I'm trying to do. But, you know, do that because you want to do it, not because you felt like you were forced to only do that. Yeah, the expensive, so kids are expensive. They are. But once again, I go, it's all on how you like tackle it, what you want them to be a part of,

what you want them to experience, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like, I mean, would life have been easier having no kids? Let's go there to start with. I don't know about easier, but I would have had more money. Sure. But I find so much meaning in life comes through having kids, that responsibility of like having someone to care about, protect. have to think about their interest. I tell you what, there's nothing more,

even if you don't have kids, there's nothing more gratifying in the world than watching kids develop. So like I got to coach U7 hockey. I am a horrific coach. I'm not horrific, but I mean, I'm like,

I'm not a great coach. I don't think I am. But watching kids under me like get better right in front of my eyes week to week is probably one of the most gratifying experiences I've ever had. I didn't understand why teachers teach. because I'm like, how do you handle that many kids? Yeah.

And then I explained to my wife, who's a teacher, after watching kids get better hockey, she's like, oh, that's why I love teaching because you see it with reading and writing and everything else. I was like, oh, I just had never even put that, you know, together. And the thing is, if you never have kids, unless you, like, are active with, I don't know, maybe your teacher or you get somehow active with kids and their growth, you miss out on that. And I'm like, I'm telling you, that is maybe one of the coolest things. ever is watching a kid get better at whether you know for some it's going to be math for whether it's reading for you know for me like it was hockey but i lots of parents talk about that right

just seeing the growth in their children is a wild experience i think your wife is a saint for being able to do that especially in this time and to have that experience of like watching them grow and being able to nurture that i mean we i don't know about Canada, but the U.S., like we desperately need teachers like that. We're losing the good teachers. We are. And we're getting nothing but bad apples. And that's why people are pulling their kids out of school and doing homeschooling. It's like a whole broken system. I don't know if Canada's have the same experience. Certainly, the last, you know. And I say that as a public school kid. I went to public school from kindergarten through college. Like my whole life of, I've never gone.

to private school before. So like I say that as somebody who's not hating on public school, but like I think the cracks in the system have become so glaringly obvious because of COVID. Because of COVID, more people than I've, like, than I'd ever known are pulling kids and going to homeschooling. But I still have a lot of faith in, uh, our area specifically and the teachers here that they've been, we've had, we were not immune. to some of the things that happened to kids, masking vaccination, kids that didn't get vaccinated, being treated differently. Like, I mean, it has happened everywhere.

Nobody was immune to that. But, and being married to a teacher and her being, in my opinion, the best teacher I've ever seen, certainly there's my bias. Everybody can see it for what it is. But I have a lot of faith in the public school system here. Maybe that's naive. but I don't think so. And I hope, you know, as many cracks as there might be in an institution that's given such a

difficult job of teaching kids and everything else. I feel like here in Canada, they're still trying to do their absolute best. But there are bad apples. There's bad apples. It doesn't matter what industry you're in. There's always bad apples. And they always try and twist things or influence things. or and certainly here in Canada we're not immune to that either and they're here and once again

I think one of the things that people learnt is they need to get involved and if you're not involved whether that's on school boards or politics or council or whatever else then these things go unchecked and the longer they go unchecked the worst they get and I think that's maybe one of the biggest lessons from the last two years has been, I think a lot of us were just rolling along and not paying attention to what's going on. And now that more and more people are becoming, you know, aware of what's going on, I think or I hope that it can be kind of changed. I mean, you're never going to go do a 180.

And I'm not sure, Alison, do we want to do a 180? Do we want to go back? Like, you can never go back. Can you even do a 180? I feel like at this point, just you're just nudging the ship a little bit, you know, in a different direction. No, the world is, is, is changed. That was intentional.

And they might give you an illusion of like things can go back to normal and you can get your old life back. And maybe parts of it you can get back or, but that's your choice and like what you've decided to like hold solid about your life and what you've decided to change. But the world itself is never going to go back to 2019 100%. if maybe if we want to, but like they will always have these COVID waves. We will always have this unrest. I mean, there's so much conflict that has come about because of this.

And like, that's intentional. The world is never going to go back. I think this is going to be pushed for a long time to have a cashless society. So it's easier to track people's financial information. The world is never going to go back to 100% what it is. I mean, places like I mentioned, I used to live in South Dakota. It was the only state of the 50 United States to not have a stay-at-home order. And I see my friends and their kids are thriving in comparison to other places that never shut down.

And so life there in a lot of ways, certain towns less, some towns were able to get around the governor's order and do temporary mask mandates. But like in those parts of the country, like they have held on to their like 20-9tholes that have tried to come in and like push, oh no, you need to do this and no, you need to do this. Like obviously South Dakota still is under some kind of like level of control or influence. but people there, I've met people there who like have their farm and have their life and like just kept the show on the road and things never changed. But the world is never going to go back. And there were problems that like you mentioned like were there three years ago that we just maybe weren't on the surface as much. I mean, I think we've learned how bad addiction is.

You know, we've seen so many people overdose and they could maybe hide it when they were maybe like functioning alcoholics or functioning addicts when they, you know, had so. social outlets and we're able to leave the house. But then we locked people down really hard in some parts of the country. And I imagine most of Canada. And now we're seeing overdose deaths and you can't hide the bodies at some point. So we're starting to see that like there were flaws with the old ways that we used to do things. And it's like to addiction. We're not helping people out of addiction. But we could do a whole other episode on that. My gosh. But no, we have to. We could use this as an opportunity to make the world better. I feel like for me, it's like really affirmed how important my relationships are. I was not going to let that get in the way of my family or my relationships, because as we've mentioned, like when people learn how to talk about people, they disagree with and keep that family unit together and families are strong, regardless of any differences of opinion, like that is when society flourishes. And there's a second, I've mentioned, this really well-funded

effort to divide people and keep each other at each other's throats. So I made that really conscious decision that I was never going to be that crazy lady in the grocery store getting in a fist fight with somebody because they're not wearing a mask or because they are wearing a mask. I was never going to be that person and I was never going to be that person that's like, oh, my uncle voted for someone different so he's not invited to Thanksgiving. I think those people are like a cancer in society, those people who are just so polarizing and problematic and who will delete anybody from their social media that dares think a little bit different than them. Yeah, that's when you can't listen to the other side, when you're so stuck, well, that's why you have to work on yourself, right?

Like, you got to take ownership of you first before you can do anything else. And that's honestly harder than one thinks. That's a tough ask. Now, before I let you slide off here, and I certainly think at some point here, Alice, and we'll have you back on. but we do the final five brought to you by crude master transport just a shout out to heath and Tracy McDonald's supporters of the podcast since the very beginning if you're going to stand behind a cause that you think is right then stand behind it absolutely that's words of heath from when he was on the podcast what's one thing Allison stands behind oh first amendment in the u.s like freedom

of speech I want to have that right and I want somebody who disagrees with me to have the right to voice their opposition to me. Freedom of speech is completely under attack from so many different, again, in so many different capacities that's under attack. In Canada, it is as well. On social media, it is. Freedom of speech, if we lose that, which we already are in so many ways, I mean, the internet becomes a less free place every day and the world does. That's how society falls apart. Like I said, if you disagree with me, I want you so badly to have the ability to tell me why you disagree with me. That I believe and I will die on that hill.

Freedom of speech. That's, that's, and freedom of journalists in general, but just everyday people. That is without a doubt something I hold so paramount to my life. Yeah. The censorship and the ability to, uh, well, I mean, this, this avenue has given voice and open things back up, but I mean, I know firsthand removed from YouTube my entire channel because of covering the Freedom Combole, right? And so it's pretty glaringly evident they don't want certain things talked about. And those are the things that need to be talked about so that everybody

understands how things are being influenced and what isn't being covered because those are the topics. Now, while I want to keep you here for another hour, I appreciate that. I appreciate you giving me some of your time. I've certainly enjoyed sitting with you this morning and appreciate you hopping on. Thank you so much, Sean. It was awesome. I hope one day I'm allowed back in Canada and I can come meet you and your family in person and we can record an episode in person. Sounds great. Thanks, Allison.