The Ben Mulroney Show - Why you should care about a regime change in Iran

Episode Date: January 13, 2026

GUEST:  Julie Rocchese  / Iranian Canadian Guest: Carmi Levy / tech journalist If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! ⁠⁠⁠��⁠⁠⁠⁠https://link.chtbl.com/bms⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Also, on youtube -- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@BenMulroneyShow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Insta: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ Executive Producer:  Mike Drolet Reach out to Mike with story ideas or tips at [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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They'll fill their stomachs with a great meal and enjoy a sense of community. Visit goodshepherdscenters dot CA and donate today. It's the Ben Mulroney show and I thank you and I thank our house band, the Ben Mulrooney and the Intrepid producers for that way back hit. Really keeps it fresh around here. It could be the, what, Ben Mulroney and the Benettes? No. No. No. Like, like John Bonet Ramsey? No, that wouldn't be good. No good.

No, Bueno. That is no Bueno for sure. No. I'll work on that. Well, welcome to the show. Thank you for joining us on this 13th of January. I believe it's a Tuesday. Some people say Tuesday.

I don't like that. I don't like Tuesday. I don't like grocery. It's grocery. Grocer. It's a grocer. Grocer. No, no.

Grocer. Some people say grocer. Some people say grocer. They say grocer. And one thing I've never understood is Americans. They'll say the word social and they'll say the word security. But when they put those two words together, some Americans will say social security. Okay.

Yeah. Social security. They won't say social. Like it's social justice. They'll say social security. Ah, the English language made up of exceptions. Welcome to the show. And we want to jump right into a segment that we're going to. We want to call.

Today in socialism doesn't work. There you go. Yeah. Oh. What's this, Ben? A little. Please stand for the national anthem of the USSR. Just embrace it, Ben.

Let the warm flow over you. If you're on social media, you may have seen a graphic asking the question. How is BC's budget deficit so out of control comparing it? to California. Now, according to Americans, a lot of Americans, who are not fans of Gavin News, but the governor of California, he has lit that state on fire.

Apparently, they say it's a disaster. How much of a disaster? Well, they got a population of 39.4 million, almost a population of Canada. State budget is 340, almost 350 billion, and a budget deficit of 3 billion. So population of 40, state budget of 350, budget deficit of 3 billion. British Columbia, just to the north.

Population 5 million. So 40 million, 5 million. Provincial budget, 83 billion. So almost a 350 billion versus 83 billion. Budget deficit. California, 3 billion. David E.V.'s British Columbia, 11.6. And how does that math work?

Well, I mean, because... That's a huge deficit. It is. But I didn't know the... I've never done the compare and contrast. I'm sure it's far more nuanced than that. I mean, those are three data points, right? Yeah.

I'm sure it's far more complex than that. I'm not even the one making this point, but I am pulling out. But that number is the number that affects us the most, the budget deficit, right? That's the one that we're on the hook for. for, or at least in British Columbia, you guys are on the hook for that. I just, I don't, I don't know, I don't know. I just find that interesting. I just find it interesting.

Well, especially when you look at all the issues that are plaguing British Columbia under the, you know, it's called what, it's a socialist government. Yeah, no, yeah. Very socialist. Well, listen, Canada had a socialist government under Justin Trudeau. It was the most left-leaning government in the history of this country. Oh, by far. I mean, look over those numbers in a second there.

Yeah, when you, as a political, tactic decide you're going to leapfrog the NDP to take their votes? And that means you're going far left. Yeah. Far left. Right? The darling of the socialist crowd, the most powerful socialist in America is not Bernie Sanders anymore.

It's the new mayor of New York City, Zoran Mamdani. And you could argue that some other ones are coming up. The mayor of Seattle is really making a name for herself. Yes, she is. She isn't. But she's cut from his cloth. He's a proud socialist. He's a self-avowed, self-described socialist.

I'm not calling him that as a name as some sort of pejorative. He's a social Democrat. No, no, no, no. He's a socialist. He's not, I promise you, he was nominated by the Socialist Party of America. Okay. Yeah, like he won the Democratic nomination, but he comes from the Socialist Party, like 100%. Okay, so now that he's the mayor, he's putting his whole team together.

And every day there's something new. Last week, the housing person. Yeah, last week was the housing person. Cia Miller. Yeah. And she was, you know, a lot of her hot takes from the past came back to bite her in the butt and she cried. You could say that. You could say that again.

She cried. She was suggesting that housing. A property is a weapon of white supremacy. Like these words, all these word salads. I'm done. I'm done. But the week before. he hired a former EMT to run the fire department in New York.

Yes. Yeah, that was that, was that. It's never been a firefighter. Never been a firefighter. But said that she knew the job. Hey, look, I wish her well. But, you know. But this one might take the cake.

This one takes the cake. This is Momdani's new crime advisor. Let's listen to a little bit of Tamika Mallory. I don't give a damn if they burn down Target. Because Target should be on the streets with us calling for the justice that our people deserve. Don't talk to us about looting. Y'all are the looters. America has looted black people.

So here's what's going to happen, right? And that clips from 2020. It's 2020 after the riots in Minneapolis following George Floyd's murder. And black Minnesotans took to the streets. In a lot of cases, there was a lot of looting, right? Across America, actually. Across America, and she's pointing out that that really sounds like what we've experienced in Toronto with that group of people who are very proud to espouse the notion of we are the people who let cities break. Like what you're seeing with your eyes, that's not crime.

The crime is the reason that they are looting. That's the crime. The crime is not the looting. The crime is what you did to those people to make them loot. That's what that is. But here's, I know exactly what's going to happen. Can I tell you? I'm going to predict this.

Okay. Let's see. Put on your... My Creskin hat. Yeah, okay, there you go. Okay, so she will be challenged. She's going to present as an elder statesperson now. She's going to come out very polite.

No, no, no, no. I'm here for, on behalf of all New Yorkers. No, well, what I said then reflected a time of anger, but that's not what I believe anymore. Or she might even not say that. She might say, no, those problems, I'm now in a position where I don't have to be angry because I'm in a position of power to affect the change we need for all of New York. And she will

not. Look, if they're... Did they even check her past social media history? No, of course they did. Mamdani is doing this on purpose. He wants everybody to know he's the boss. How much of a boss am I? I can hire

a bad... I can hire the inmates to run the GD asylum. I can do that because I'm the mayor and the buck stops with me. This is all done by design. But what did I say a few months ago? We have created a permission structure on the left to allow for some of the foulest behavior. This woman's a racist.

This woman is a racist. She's a racist. She goes on. That is just the tip of the iceberg of what she said. She is a racist. And this would not be allowed on the right. If Donald Trump had hired somebody who said this sort of stuff on the right, the press would be lined up.

up, they would not get a press conference done without demanding everyone's position on that person's beyond the pale comments. But in this case, no, these are just the rambles of an angry activist. And of course they deserve to be angry. But if somebody on the right said something about, I don't know, the Charlottesville Tiki Torch people, well, every single person had ever met that person would have to line up and condemn them and marginalize them and say, they do not speak for me. That doesn't happen on the left because we've allowed a permission

structure to exist and thrive that allows bad behavior like this to be rewarded free of consequence or relatively free of Congress. Look at Minnesota. Like Minnesota is just is the example of that going on right now where it's, they're saying, well, if you are against fraud in this, well, then you're a racist. And I'm sorry, fraud is fraud. Yeah, of course. Fraud. It doesn't matter who's doing it. There's nothing to do with, like, there's no race involved with fraud. I know. But it is what it is. It's what it is.

All right, we've got to go. It's so much more to talk about. Okay, when we come back, I want to know where all the leftist screaming about Gaza have gone. When I tell you the story, when we hear the story of an Iranian-Canadian and what she went through in Iran, you're going to wonder, Greta Tunberg, what has happened with you? Why are we paying for tax tools? Our team doesn't even use. Is now really the right time to make it? Why are we paying for tax tools our team doesn't even use?

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over the last quarter. We're projecting a positive outlook for her new one plus den. Invest in what you're really invested in. With custom goals on Scotia Smart Investor, Scotia Bank, you're richer than you think. It's Tuesday, clear across the country, it's Tuesday. And so that's one thing that we have in common. And one thing that we all have in common is in this moment.

We are all participating in growing the Ben Mulroney show. And whether you're listening on radio or the IHeart Radio streaming app or on podcast platforms or YouTube or Spotify or Apple. Apple Music or Amazon or TikTok or you name it. That's where we are because that's where you are and we thank you. So for all the leftists that have been screaming about Gaza for a couple of years, where are you now? How are you not screaming about women's rights in Iran? And if you're saying there saying, well, why should I care?

I want you to listen to the story of our next guest. Please welcome to the show Iranian-Canadian Julie Roquezzi. Julie, welcome. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me and providing this place. platform to sort of be a voice for all the brave Iranians fighting for their freedom in Iran. Yeah. And living in total darkness.

Everyone, yeah, Julie, every everyone around the world has their own life and their own story. And I'm so glad that we have the opportunity to highlight yours because while it's yours and unique to you, it binds you to the myriad stories of so many other women from Iran or who are still in Iran. So why don't you tell us about your life in Iran? How long were you there for? What was it like? So I was in Iran. I was born in Iran and the revolution occurred on, you know, 1979 and the Islamic regime took over and occupied Iran. When I was 10 and a half years old, and I, you know, back in a day, you know, we were free. I mean, children is unlike today that you have to be constantly with an adult.

You know, you could go to walk to school and walk to the corner store. And I actually was going to a store to get a birthday card for my father. And I was on the street, the way I can, you know, give you a visualization like Dundas Square, very busy. And I was 10 and a half years old, so I did not have, I was not wearing a hijab. And I was brutally attacked. by so many men, Hezbollah, morality police. And I was beaten.

At 10.5 years old. So you're just, you're walking, you're walking through the town square as a 10 and a half year old. Yeah. Thinking 10.5 year old things. Seeing the world as a 10.5 year old. Yeah. And a bunch of men, adult men, descend on you. And what do they do?

Well, let's put it this way. By time they were done, well, at that time, there was the war between Iran and Iraq. And so there was also civil war going on for those people that had to leave those cities that were impacted by the war. I just remember a man just grabbing me like a dog grabbing the puppy and throwing it to the side and just told me to run. And I cannot tell you how long it took for me to get home, but somehow I made it home. And my parents could not take me to the hospital. Why couldn't they take you to the hospital? Because then they would be asking why I was beaten.

And then my crime would be, I'm not wearing a hijab. So I'm sorry, I don't, I don't mean to interrupt. I just, I'm trying to understand as somebody who is, you know, learning in real time. So you were beaten by a gang of men. Your parents couldn't bring you an injured 10 and a half year old to the hospital because the rules were such that they would ask, what did this girl do to deserve being beaten? and they would have to say, well, she wasn't wearing her job, and you would be in the wrong.

And your parents would probably be under some sort of intense scrutiny for allowing their daughter to dress in that immodest way. You've got that right. That's sick. What happened was my dad had a friend who was a doctor, and he also was impacted because of the religion. you see the Jewish Christians, Baha'is, everybody was impacted because everybody was basically told that they had to follow Islam. And he could not practice.

And my dad called him. And anyways, my parents were given 48 hours. Either I was going to die or I was going to be disfigured for the rest of their life. And truthfully, that was a defining moment in my life. It changed me completely. And I think that's been really, you know, they took my innocence. And that was the moment that, you know, I started really trying to understand honestly about God and Koran and Bible and, you know, wanted to know what did I do to deserve this? Because it was chanted every single day that, you know, as a woman, as a girl, if you don't cover your hair, like you go straight to help.

and you deserve this. And to this day, I cannot find the answer. And you know, the funny thing is, in Islam, the requirement for a girl to cover her hair is tied to the onset of puberty, which typically coincides with the beginning of menstruation. I had not reached puberty. Really? It was just a child. Yeah.

Well, but were those, so those men who attacked you, were they officials or were they simply emboldened by the regime? By the regime. So they were vigilantes who had been allowed to roam the streets and extract justice for X, Y, or Z. And they decided you had run afoul of the religious laws and you must be punished. Yes. and be called whore and... At 10 and a half years old. And for...

And I hear these days, some even women are saying that, oh, Iranian women just want to flaunt their hair. But this is why I am so grateful for your station, for Mike the producer, and for you guys to give me this platform, to really highlight this important piece that I was a child. Yeah. And this is my lived experience.

And, you know, no child should ever go through that. No girl, no women, you know. And Ben, but I don't mean to interrupt again, but, you know, you're telling the story of one girl, but this is, this goes on every day on mass and has since 1979. Yes. And the difference is at that time, there were no social media. There was nothing where, you know, what happened, you know, just a few years ago with, you know, a 22-year-old Iranian girl that was, again, brutally attacked and killed. I mean, because of the social media, the information, you know, leaked out and, you know,

Iranians everywhere protested and that led to the Iranian regime, you know, killing, going on it basically on a killing spree and killing people. And so imagine, it hasn't changed 47 years of hell. Yeah.

And, you know, women have been oppressed. You know, it's just, it's constant. I have seen war. I have seen tanks on the street. I have seen, you know, bullets flying around. and I have seen hanging,

which actually they're about to do tomorrow morning for some of the innocent protesters. And I have seen that. And I have seen that in my lifetime. The irony is there's a certain type of person in North America that looks down to the United States. And you know that show The Handmaid's Tale? Oh, yes.

So they let's, oh, that's happening. Oh, my goodness. That's the future in America. That's going to happen in America. Meanwhile, it happened in 1979 in Iran. And these people are fixated on an imaginary potential that could and maybe might one day possibly, who knows, happen in the States. But just over there where it's actually happening, those people who are so intent on talking about women's rights, they're doing nothing and saying nothing about the gender apartheid that's happening in Iran.

Julie, don't go anywhere. We're going to continue our conversation. We're going to continue this conversation about one woman's, struggle in Iran and a life in Canada since then. Don't go anywhere. The Ben Mulroney Show continues. Yes, indeed. It's a Ben Mulroney show.

And we have been in conversation with Julie Roquez. She's an Iranian-Canadian, and she was sharing her story with us before the break of a bloody interaction that she had while living in Iran as a 10-5-year-old girl just walking down the street, walking through the town square, being assaulted and beaten violently by a band of religious zealots who felt that her imp... Her lack of a hijab made her immodest and somehow against whatever rules these guys thought existed. And I want to thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing that part of the story. I want to close the loop on that part of the story because, as you said, you couldn't go to the hospital. Because to go to the hospital would mean your parents would be, and you would be subjected to even more scrutiny for doing something to deserve the beating. And so how talk to me about your convalescence. How did you get better?

I basically fought for six months. I think it was a miracle. You know, my mother always says, like, I am a miracle that I'm here. And no matter what they decided to do, and I was meant to be here. And I think I had a purpose to serve. And I took that. And I have carried out all these years in my life, trying to fight for women's rights for human rights. and it was just with the grace of God

and I think it was a major determination because I was angry I was filled with rage I wanted to understand why this was happening and it just gave me a purpose that this cannot be real I don't say I probably am dreaming I became to be like

looking at everything the same it was just it really really changed me And to a point where, like I said, even it affected me when I got to this country, I couldn't look at everybody the same. You know, and even with my own Iranian community, I wasn't really in contact because I was so afraid that, you know, they're going to find me. My nightmare growing up, honestly, it was always that I. I am in some cell in Iran and kept and beaten and tortured and just because I'm not wearing a hijab. Well, Julie, I have to assume, you know, there weren't adequate mental health resources for you in Iran to deal with the trauma of being beaten up and bloodied and within an inch of your life for six months.

So I'm sure you carried with you not just the physical scars, but the burden of that trauma. And I do hope that since then you have gotten some help to work through and process those feelings. And yes. And, you know, I had loving parents, you know, and my mom, I called her my hero. And to be honest with you, you know what, when I got into this country and, you know, it was just like I'm telling you, there's no price to freedom. And I kissed the ground that I just landed on. And, you know, it's, and I put it aside. It just, I buried it.

But since October 7th, it's been a huge trigger. And, you know, when I look at the Jewish community and, you know, what happened to all those innocent people, they just, like, I felt like I was reliving that. And then for people to not believe, you know, individuals of stories and it's just like assault to your wound. Well, I mean, you must have come to Canada, thinking one thing and thinking having a certain view of Canada that more or less must have been positive or your family wouldn't have come here.

And then, you know, during the Me Too movement, we believe all women. That must have felt, you know, that must have felt a certain way. But then for October 7th to happen and see, well, it's believe all women unless there are Israeli women. And it's believe all, you know, look at all the death and destruction in, in in Gaza, but let's let's forget the victims of Hamas. And now that, and now that, uh, the, the, the ills of the Iranian regime are on full display, on full display, despite a great number of members of media, uh, trying to marginalize a story or doing nothing to highlight the story. That's right. Um, how do you feel about this place that is now your home, Canada? And, and, and,

and more largely, you know, Western societies that seem to be picking and choosing the fights that work for their worldview. They don't have the courage of their convictions. They are, a lot of them are just blatant hypocrites or have been revealed to be anti-Semitic because otherwise, and they, you know, they don't really believe in women's rights. They don't really believe in social justice. They don't really believe in equality or they would be all over this. How do you feel that those failings have been so,

have been revealed so shamefully? First of all, I want to say that Canada is my home. I am so grateful to have, you know, I was able to find sanctuary with my family. And I tell you, I never imagined, because I followed all the rules. I never wanted, I never, you know, wanted to object my ideology to anyone. Yeah.

And I just, it is so difficult to grasp the fact that here I run away and I escape from all that tyranny and brutality and barbarism and an astound sanctuary here just to be facing the same people that I run away from. Yeah. and, you know, and fighting the same fight. And once again, being silent and not having a voice again. And then if you're going to say something, you know, you're going to be called names and target it. And it is not fair.

It's very much double standard. Now, you know, in terms of that's, I'm very grateful to this country. You know, my children are born here. This is my home. Yeah. But that doesn't mean, Julie, that doesn't mean like, listen, we all love this country. And I want to fight for it despite the fact that it is in the grips of an illness. Like, we have to identify and we have to diagnose the illness.

For those people to say, this is not who we are, hate has no place here. They're not diagnosing it. They're saying there's nothing to see here. And so the illness will grow. The illness will grow and it will spread. And I don't want that to happen. I want to identify it. I want to treat it.

and I want to cure us. And so when I look at Time magazine saying the death toll in Iran may have already reached the thousands. And at the UN, zero resolutions, zero investigations, zero emergency sessions. This is an illness in the West and it needs to be dealt with because otherwise it's only going to get worse. Absolutely. And that's why I feel so disappointed and somewhat, I feel betrayed. by the same government that took us in and now they have brought all these terrorists here

and they're supporting. And IRGC, it's recognized as a terrorist organization. But only after years of pushing the government to do it. It was crazy. I couldn't believe it. That's the easiest. That's the lightest lift that they could do. Just name the, they are terrorists.

Call them terrorists. And now that they're terrorists, there's still a whole bunch of them there's living here. And why don't they're not? being deported. Why are they not being publicly, you know, provide their names and kick them out because they don't belong here? They're poisoning. You know, it's, it's really hard to watch. Yeah. Julie, I only have a minute left, and I'd love to ask you, what do you think needs to happen? Because we've seen uprisings before in Israel, in Iran, I'm sorry. We've seen them before.

This one feels different. And yet there's still so much, I'm sure, that needs to happen. for it to cross the threshold from uprising to revolution. What do you think has to happen? And if you can tell me in about 40 seconds. What needs to happen at this point, I think, for United States, for Donald Trump to act on his words and come to the rescue of Iranian people because we've had enough, you know, lip service for many years. Iranians are getting killed by the minute, if not by second.

They have been working, you know, fighting forever to get their freedom back, but they have nothing. They have no weapons. There is no one to help them out. And yes, people are talking about, you know, the crown prince to come back, which would be amazing. But at the same time, somebody has to come and, you know, help them. They're in complete darkness, no internet, no electricity, no power. I just America, United States, has to come in. and help them out and free them from these mothers.

Julie, thank you so much for telling your story. I appreciate it and more to come on the Ben Mulroney show. And welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show. Always appreciate our next guest because there are so many stories around the world that have technological components to them. And who better to walk us through those than Carmi Levy, tech journalist and friend of BMS. Carmi, welcome.

So great to be with you, Ben. Thanks for having me. So one of the most chilling parts of, what's going on in Iran with the protests, the uprisings that could potentially lead to revolution and the unseeding of the Islamic regime is the shutdown of the internet. Now, that's the stock and trade of so many terrible regimes in the world whenever they are under attack. But there's suggestion that it happened at a precise time for a precise reason. Yeah, I mean, this is the Iranian regime using a national blackout of all telecommunications. services. So phone, internet, broadband connections, wireless, you name it, to shield its

activities because if the word isn't getting out, if imagery isn't being shared with the rest of the world, and if individuals on the ground protesters aren't able to communicate with each other, that gives the regime carp launch to do as they wish under the cover of darkness. And, you know, you're right, this is a go-to for repressive regimes. That's what they do. They turn off communications as a way of shielding themselves from scrutiny. But this is next level. You know, we've seen this in Egypt. We've seen this around the Middle East during the Arab Spring in 2011.

We've seen it in Afghanistan more recently as well. But this is different. This is far more sophistication. It shows sophisticated. It shows that Iran really has raised the game. For example, one of the workarounds whenever the regime decides to shut everything down is satellite connectivity. things like Starlink. We've seen that in Ukraine where, you know, to overcome connectivity or communications blackouts, individuals will use Starlink to get the word out. However, what we're

seeing in Iran is very focused military grade jamming that is ensuring that Starlink receivers cannot see the satellites. And even though in Ukraine, there were workgrounds to it, Russia tried to silence Starlink terminals did not succeed. SpaceX was able to roll out a software update. That does not seem to be the case here in Iran. Starlink is for the most part absolutely dark. And it is next level communications blackouts. And it is incredibly concerning given what we are hearing coming out of the country. And we are seeing some pictures coming out. And what we have seen is absolutely bone chilling. And the only thing that is sort of on par with that is the silence of those who've been screaming in the streets for human rights for the past few years.

I don't know where they went. I don't know why this is any different, but they're very, very quiet. That's just me editorializing for a quick second. All right. Let's move on to Amazon because, you know, for years it's been, Walmart had the bricks and mortar. Amazon was the digital equivalent. And every now and then they would try to sort of compete with each other on the other guys turf with varying degrees of success. Walmart's a pretty successful online retailer now as

well, but Amazon has had not so much success in the bricks and mortar space. Well, now they're taking another kick at the can. Yeah, this comes out of Chicago. It's that there's a suburb there, Orleans Park, and they voted to approve Amazon's plans to develop a very large stretch of land, about 35 acres. They want to build a 229,000 square foot retail sales. center, which when you compare that to, say, a Walmart super center, it's much larger than that. And what it will be is it will be like a regular big store super center. It'll sell groceries, merchandise, foods, you name it. But it'll also be an Amazon fulfillment center in the back. So if you order something on Amazon, you want to pick it up from there, you absolutely can, or you can

never go there at all, and it will still serve that community. So it shows that Amazon, they've been sort of kicking at the can. They've had convenience stores. know as Amazon Go. They've had pop-up shops. And it just really hasn't worked out to them, you know, for the most part. In many cases, they launched and then a few years later, they kind of shuttered them very quietly. The only real success that they've had in brick and mortar retail is Whole Foods. But this is kind of next level, right?

This sort of takes the fight to Walmart. Yeah. And it one-ups them with, you know, the scale of an e-commerce retailer. And it'll be really interesting to see if this is just a prototype of one or if this becomes the first of many, because if it is, that's the scale. That's kind of the next chapter in the big battle for both brick and mortar and e-commerce retail supremacy. It'd be interesting to see these two companies duke it out. And look, it's sort of like a no-lose situation for Amazon here because if they decide that the bricks and mortar aspect of it is not what they want, they can just retool that entire area and make the entire thing the fulfillment center.

And they've got their investment still stands. Yeah, exactly. And then of course they have data from this experience that then informed. their other centers around the country and around the world. So either way, they're going to learn from this experience, and maybe, just maybe, we might find ourselves shopping not only at a Walmart super center in the near future, but an Amazon super center as well.

And if it means greater competition in this market, greater accountability and maybe holding the line on prices, maybe that's not such a bad thing, right? This could make that market, maybe groceries, a much more competitive marketplace, and I think we would all approve that. Well, so years and years and years ago, somebody had the bright idea of bringing Burmese pythons into Florida and given the fact that they are such perfect predators, they really messed up the food chain.

And there's been this question, what to do with these pythons, how to get them under control. And now it looks like they're bringing robots onto the food chain to try to stop them. Talk to me about these robotic rabbits. Yeah, normally they use just sort of, you know, like almost like little statues like inner statues of them, but of course the pythons are way too smart for that. They're not fooled and there's no

way that they're going to they're going to be tricked into kind of appearing the problem with these pythons. Yes, they're invasive. Yes, they are consuming huge percentages of the small mammal populations by some estimate reductions of 95% just because of these snakes

and also major declines in native birds. And they're very, they camouflage them themselves incredibly well. They're really hard to find. So they're out there and they're killing the ecosystem. They're embalancing it, but there's really nothing conservationists can do. So they've created these robotic rabbits. They call them cyber bunnies. They cost about $4,000 a piece, but they're designed to mimic what a real rabbit looks like. So they've got internal heaters. So, you know, it's the same temperature. We know snakes are very temperature sensitive. It's got a solar powered motor so that it can twitch like a real rabbit.

That's important too. Snakes, they key into movement. And this is my favorite one. They have aromodifers that release synthetic scents that smell like a rabbit so that the snake will come. And so then once, of course, they're attracted to these. They put about 120 of them out into the Everglades and surrounding areas. Then conservationists can come and trap them and then humanely bring them somewhere else where they will not ruin the ecosystem. So it's technology for a really focused solution.

and yet, you know, I think it's fascinating. Because you simply wouldn't be able to scale your conservation efforts without all of this technology. And it really is kind of an appropriate use of tech in what up until now have been a pretty hopeless situation. Yeah, no, I love it. It actually seems like a pretty simple application of technology. I don't think they're pushing necessarily the boundaries of technology here.

They're just, they're taking known quantities and applying them to a problem, and it looks like they're getting the results that they want. And this could be a model for other spaces and other areas where they have invasive species that don't belong there. It certainly could. And so what we're hearing from the South Florida Water Management District, they were working with the University of Florida to develop these rabbits is they haven't just made a bunch of rabbits and deployed them and said, we're done. They're actually creating a template that they will make available to other conservation districts, other researchers, other universities in other ecosystems. So, yes, they can sort of take that template. Adapt it to other situations and hopefully achieve the same success that they're achieving in Florida,

which to me, that's the real exciting part. Scale it up and help other parts of the country and beyond, even here in Canada. We have our own invasive species, use technology for good. And we are going to leave things on a high note. Carmi Levy, thank you so much. So great being with you. Thanks, Ben. Bye. The world is changing from the misuse of AI and the rise of deepbakes to the dangerous spread of misinformation.

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