The Daily Beast Podcast - The Marine and The Doctor Taking On Marjorie Greene and Lauren Boebert

Episode Date: February 14, 2021

Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert weren’t elected to their positions in the House of Representatives by accident. They ran campaigns like everyone else, and won. Given Greene’s “nutty” aka QAnon-supporting and anti-mask-censorship antics in particular since she arrived in Washington, it may be hard for lots of people to understand why. In this bonus members-only episode of The New Abnormal, co-host Molly Jong-Fast sat down with Doctor John Cowan, the Republican surgeon who lost to Greene in her district despite both candidates supporting Donald Trump, to get an idea for what people may have had in mind when casting their ballots for her. “I think this is why she got elected is because people really felt like these guys are absolutely crazy in Washington DC,” he explains. “And they are, many of them are, trying to actively destroy the country through their policies and rhetoric and whatnot. And [voters] looked at someone like Marjorie and said, ‘we've got the answer to that. You know, she's a fighter she'll say or do anything.’” Essentially, says Molly, she won for the same reasons Trump did. Cowan agrees: “I think they just thought, well, we've got somebody who's literally going to kick it to the government and maybe he can crack that or drain the swamp as he was off to say.” Then, Molly talks to Gregg Smith, a former Marine and ex-colleague of Erik Prince, who is running against the GOP’s Rep. Lauren Boebert in Colorado. He feels that he can and will defeat her. Donald Trump had support out there because “people out here will generally vote against the mainstream,” but that support has dwindled, and Boebert’s response to the insurrection is being questioned, he says. But Democrats aren’t going to win the area by pushing Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders-level ideologies too hard. “You've got to address the issues that are important out here.” That’s basically what both Cowan and Smith have in common with one another: hope in the voters. “I do think people eventually will wake up and see that there's a lot of darkness there,” says Cowan. Plus, Smith shares the moment he knew Erik Prince couldn’t be trusted: “I never want to see him again.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello and welcome to another members-only Beast Inside episode of The Daily Beast, The New Abnormal. We thank you so much for being here. Today we have an extra special bonus episode where we're going to talk to two of the upcoming opponents to two of, well, let's call them our listeners' least favorite congresspeople, Lauren Bobert and Marjorie Taylor Green. We're first going to talk to Greg Smith, who's running against Lauren Bobert in Colorado's third district. And he's going to tell us about why he feels he'd be a worthwhile opponent. to her. And after this, we will talk to John Cowan, who's actually a Republican who ran against Marjorie Taylor Green in the primary in 2020 and lost to her. And he's talking about how he would run against her in the upcoming election next time. Hi, Greg. Hello, Molly. Welcome to the new

abnormal. So I have many questions for you. Let's talk about why you decided to run for Congress and what your district looks like. And then we'll talk about it. Sure, and it's all related. I made a decision based on January 6th. You know, I've been involved, I've been on site for numerous terrorist attacks in my life. I know what a terrorist attack looks like. You know, what I saw on January 6th was probably the most egregious attack in my lifetime on America's democracy. And, you know, I'm sitting out here by ranch in Westcliff. And I had to decide whether I was going to continue to sit at my ranch in Westcliff or whether I was going to do something. So I decided I could run against Warren. in Bulbert, who's my congresswoman, who seemingly was live tweeting the location of the Speaker of the House where terrorists were looking to attack and killer. Wow. Talk to me about, so you were a Marine. I was.

And where were you stationed and talked to me a little bit about that? I was what is known in the Marine Corps as a grunt. I was an infantryman stationed primarily at Camp Lejeune. Probably the most notable deployments I had were into Beirut, Lebanon in 19. 1983. You know, I was there for most of the spring and early summer of 83. My cousins grew up there. Yeah, I have a fondness for Beirut. But on October 23rd, 1983, when Hezbollah blew up the Marine Corps barracks, along with the French and Italian barracks, I was on one of the first C-141s out of North Carolina back over to Beirut to help dig out my brothers.

Wow. Then as you continued on, you joined Blackwater. Well, I never actually joined Blackwater. So what happened is after I got out of the Marines, I went back, got an undergraduate degree, got an MBA from University of Michigan. And in 1997, I met a gentleman by the name of Eric Prince. And, you know, Eric at that point was a former seal. I was a former Marine. And we became friends. So I spent two decades working very closely with Eric Prince.

Wow. Yeah. That's the same reaction to my parents had, Molly. What was the thing that made you know you couldn't do that anymore? Well, there was a couple of things, you know. So even though I was working closely with Eric, it was as an advisor. I actually, I was probably one of the first phone calls he made after Nesor Square in 2007 and said, Greg, you know, get down here to Moyok and we got to sell this company. Can you explain a little more that after what and where and the company?

Yeah, so sure. Nesor Square was a square right outside the green zone in Baghdad where four, maybe five blackwater contractors slaughtered, I think, 17 civilians. Yes. And it was a horrific event. This shouldn't have happened. And children, too. The training is inadequate. Right.

They were all civilians, Mali. It was a massacre. It was people with automatic weapons slaughtering civilians. So, you know, Eric called me and he said, come down to Moyak, which is where Blackwater is located. It's a small town in North Carolina. And he said, you know, you've got to come down here and you've got to help us figure this out. And I went down there and I said, Eric, you're done with Blackwater. You're done. Blackwater's done. If you want to sell this to someone who knows how to run a private military contractor, because that's not you. It took us three years, but we eventually got it sold. That case actually ended up with charges, and Trump ended up, I don't know if he pardoned those people. He did. So, yeah, in December of this year, as a gift to Eric Prince, which really set off every radar I had, is a gift to Eric Prince. He pardoned the four block water shooters that participated in the massacre. Yeah. I remember seeing an interview with a person who had gone to America to testify in that trial.

Yeah, there were numerous Iraqis that came here to testify. And, you know, it is, it was nothing more than a war crime perpetrated by Americans' private military contractors that we were using to secure the green zone. Yeah. So, I mean, that's what that was. So it was a horrific event. I looked at it and, you know, as a former military person, I understood what it happened. But it was, it shouldn't have happened. It was a horrific event.

and people have never paid the price for that. You know, certainly Eric never paid the price for that. That was through 2010 I sold Blackwater for Eric. At that point, I didn't think I'd be doing anything else with Eric Prince. But a couple years later, he called me and asked me to help him set up a logistics company in Africa, which I did. And it was simply a logistics company where we... Can you explain what that is? Yeah, it's really two things.

We were looking to move goods in people intra-Africa. So really from the Cape to Cairo, you know, from Kinshasa to Mombasa, we wanted to have aviation and trucking capabilities to move goods and services into Africa and then around Africa. So we set up a company and we, you know, we agreed to be a simple logistics company. And I actually took over the helm of that company is the CEO. Eric was the chairman. And our principal financial backing was the Chinese government. Wow. Through a company called Citic.

So back to your question. though, Molly, you said, when did you part ways with Eric Prince? Yeah. When did you know it was over, Greg? Well, probably should have been over in 2007, but in 2015, it was reported to me that Eric was no longer interested in running a logistics company, that he was actually weaponizing our aircraft in sending them into the South Sudan and other places. So I confronted Eric.

I went to our board. I talked to a person I respect more than just by anyone in the world. Admiral William Thauland, who was on our board, former CENTCOM commander. And Admiral Thalen and I launched an investigation. As part of that investigation, we reported Eric to the State Department and reported him with the Department of Justice. And I was getting ready to resign from the company, which I'd had enough. But then Eric and the Chinese government officials that were on our board

decided to also notify me that going forward, forward, we would no longer be a logistics company, but we would be a security company supporting China's Belt and Road initiative. Jesus. Eric and I parted ways. Admiral Fallon and I immediately at that board meeting resigned. And I haven't seen Eric Prince in five years and hope never to see him again unless it's in a courtroom.

Do you think that Eric Prince could ever be held to respond? I mean, clearly this man has committed innumerable crimes. Do we think that there will ever be a day when he will be a day? held responsible for some of these? Well, Molly, and that's the issue. So people who know me, and certainly all the national security reporters in New York and Washington, and most of the investigative gator reporters know me. So I pan it on November 4, 2016. Yeah. And that date doesn't mean anything to a lot of people, but it means a lot to me because that is the day that Eric Prince and Rudy Giuliani pressed hard right before the Clinton Trump election and pressed hard on the James

Colby Anthony Wiener laptop. And I really think that the lies they were telling that day affected the outcome of the election and affected the press coverage leading up to that election. So it was clear to me that Eric had gotten into bed with Donald Trump. And I believe that for the last 40 years that Donald Trump, William Barr, Jared Kushner, and a whole host of folks in that administration, have been covering up for Eric. I know there was an active investigation into Eric up until December of 2019. I know he lied to the congressional hearing, helped by Adam Schiff, and I know he admitted he lied because he took a proffer from the Mueller investigation. to whitewash his lies. So do I think he will ever be held to account for the things he has done? If Trump would have been reelected, the answer is no. Right. But in fact, Trump was not reelected.

The number two person in the Department of Justice right now, Molly, a guy by the name of John Carlin, is the person I reported, the crimes I suspected Eric of. I reported to John Carlin in 2016, those crimes. And I'm hoping he's going to take him back up. So this district is leans pretty heavily Republican. A lot of Democrats are always skeptical about what somebody is running against one of these Republicans that we really can't stand. This podcast particularly put a lot of weight behind Louis Gomer's opponent. How do you win in this district? But that district is really, I mean, that district is worse. Yes.

Texas is first district. Yeah, no, no, I'm a little bit of a political junkie. So Colorado three, you know, we're our plus six. Texas one was R plus 44 or something. Go on you. Yeah. Yeah, R plus 44. I might set that one out. But R plus six. So Diane Mitch Bush only lost by 30,000 votes out of 800,000 cast. Yes, see, Jesse, I was right. It's not so red. Thank you. Go on. Sorry. I'm sorry. I'm not here to torture Jesse, but I kind of am. Continue. Sorry. Yeah, yeah, Jesse. I've learned in 10 minutes that Molly is always right. The thing about this district is it's got really three different components, right? So you've got the component that's out of Pueblo, which is really a blue-collar town on the front range, okay? And then you've got everything once you leave the front range, everything else, which is really rural. I mean, the county and I live in Custer County, I think we have 5,000 residents.

Wow. You know, I don't see a neighbor unless I go out of my way to see a neighbor. Right. And that goes all the way to the western slope over to Grand Valley. Grand Junction in the basic county. So we are a very rural area except for Pueblo. And then we've got a little bit more of the ski population, if you will, out of Aspen, and then parts of Eagle County where Vale is, although I don't think Vail is actually in the district. Wait, Aspen and Vail are part of your district?

Well, Aspen is. Wow. Half of Eagle County where Vail is is in the district. Oh, wow. So, you know, we're going to get a lot of nationally, there's a lot of people in, you know, your neck of the woods, Bali, that are very interested in this election out here. So how do you win this election? How do you flip 15,000 voters to vote for Donald Trump?

Well, I'm going to do it with my military background and my rural background. So, you know, I'm going to go into VFW halls, American Legion halls. I'm going to talk to the vets. And I'm going to say, you know what? I understand why you voted for Lauren Bolberg. I disagree with you. I disagree. I disagree.

But I understand why you did. But if you want to represent a fifth district that has the same beliefs you do, we don't believe what happened on the Capitol on January 6th was anything except a treasonous attack on our country. And I've talked to enough that's out here over the last two weeks, Maui, to know that they, well, they may not completely distance themselves from the Trump movement. Many, if not most of them, believe that that was absolutely a treasonous act on January 6th. and they're disgusted by it, and they're disgusted by Lauren Bowler's response. Yeah. No, I mean, I think that's really important.

Do you think some of the reason why Lauren Boper got elected was because she was sort of a celebrity? She got elected for a lot of the reason that Donald Trump got elected, which he wasn't part of what people out here consider the mainstream. You know, we move out here to rural Colorado because, frankly, we want a government that functions, but we want to be left alone. Right. So people out here will generally vote against the mainstream, and that's why I think I'm going to be a particularly good candidate. Up until January 6th, I was going to retire out here on my horse farm.

I was going to raise horses. But after January 6th said, you know what, if people are willing to elect me, I'm willing to go to Washington and serve. Right. How do you think Democrats can win these areas that really aren't traditional democratic areas? Well, you're not going to win them by pushing. a hard left Elizabeth Warren Bernie Sanders agenda. That just doesn't work out here. And it shouldn't work because most of us, we want government support, but we don't want it in our faces, right? So, you know, let me just tell you about the two primary issues that I think about in this district

right now. You've got to think about health care. Rural health care, Molly, it's a travesty. Yeah, that's certainly something I think about a lot. I've got to travel over an hour to see a doctor. Jesus. And then I'm lucky to see it. And the other thing that we have out here is we have tremendous food insecurity. Wow. So I live in a county of like I said, 5,000 people.

We had a food pantry show up at our local K through 12 school on Saturday. There were hundreds of cars lined up, Bali. Yeah. And I'm like, that's 20, 30 percent of my neighbors that are clearly in a position where food is an issue. So you've got to address the issues that are important out here, but you still have to be a mainstream Democrat, which I am. I believe in all of the issues on the 2020 Democratic National Platform, although I'm probably well under the right of the platform on Second Amendment issues. But my entire district is. Right. Well, that, I mean, I think fundamentally you have you have to run people

who can get elected in their district, especially with Congress. Well, and the example I've been using with our campaign team is, you know, someone like Connor Lamb out of Western Pennsylvania. When you look at Connor Lamb, he is a good Democrat. He believes in the Democratic platform, but he's got to still be true to, you know, himself in the values of his community. So if you give up on the values of your community to kowtow to East Coast or West Coast far-left liberalism, you'll never get to. get elected out here. Thank you so much. This was so interesting and we hope you'll come back as this keeps going. Yeah, it's going to keep going, Molly. And thank you so much and thank you so much,

Jesse. And now we have an interview with John Cowen, who's going to be running against Marjorie Taylor Green. Hi, John. Hi, Molly. How are you? I'm Molly. How are you? I'm good. Welcome to the new abnormal. Thank you. Tell me the story of your life as it relates to your congressional run. Well, it may be hard to believe, but I actually ran for Congress out of a strong desire to serve the people that I work and live around. Right. This was no necessarily career aspiration or long-term goal or something that in my mother's womb I was formulating and others said, let's run. I generally saw an opportunity for someone to maybe retake the mantle that the framers had put before us. and said, hey, we want just regular people to come serve in the people's house and not make a career out of it.

So I decided to jump in. Because you're a neurosurgeon. That's right. And let's talk a little bit about you ran in 2020 in a primary in which there were many people running. Tell us a little bit about your primary. Sure. Yeah. Well, it was an open seat.

Tom Graves had resigned or he was saying he was stepping down. and pretty much in January of 2020, a lot of people started jumping in the race. Right. Marjorie had already jumped in. Literally the day that, I want to say the day that Tom stepped down, she immediately switched her campaign to the 14th district. She moved to the 14th district to run, right? Yeah, and she had been running for Congress for about eight months prior in the 6th district,

which is a harder district. Right. It's the one Lucy McBath ended up winning. And so there were, I think, seven other men who ended up jumping in the race. Several of them didn't live in the district either. There was a state representative, one former state representative, one former state superintendent, maybe one other businessman, and then an attorney. And so it was a pretty crowded field.

And then it was also interrupted by the shutdown in the middle of our promise. So I've never run a race before, but I've never certainly run one, didn't anticipate running one in the middle of a pandemic either. And that's kind of when everybody really locked down for about six, eight weeks. And you're a doctor, so you probably believe in science. I do. I actually do. I do believe in the germ theory and that masks help and social distancing and handwashing are good things. Right. You know, so we did shut down and never really could have any face-to-face debates. During the debate, our appearances were limited. We did one Zoom debate with everybody on there.

And basically, we were doing a lot by phone and social media trying to raise money. Right. I mean, talk to me about your district and how it elected Marjorie Taylor Green and if you think they could do better next time. Well, you know, our district is a very conservative district. It's one that it's relatively rural. education, health care, and the carpet industry are kind of our three big areas. And then agriculture. There's lots of, we have chicken farms, we have dairy farms and beef cattle farms and soybean, cotton, you know, you name it, we grow it. And but it's, it's been very conservative for really the last 50 years, whether that's been led by a Democrat, who's what I would call very conservative or Republican. It is an area, and I felt this too, that has been very frustrated with what's happened

at the federal level. And I think this is why she got elect is because people really felt like these guys are absolutely crazy in Washington, D.C. And many of them are trying to actively destroy the country through their policies and rhetoric and whatnot. And they looked at someone like Marjorie and said, we've got the answer to that. And they said, you know, she's a fighter. she'll say or do anything, and she's perfect. And I do think that's what they thought. We disagreed with that. We agreed with the fact that we've got real problems at the federal level

and that our country, certainly with this national debt, cannot sustain itself. And with the rhetoric and the level of just dysfunction, we're destined to fail. So you feel like Marjorie Taylor Green actually got elected for the same reasons that Donald Trump got elected, this idea like, let's just blow it all up. Look, she was a female Donald Trump. I mean, there was no question about it. She cast her mold just like Donald Trump. In fact, she even called herself Trump in heels. She was Trump's biggest fan. It was really almost pathologic how much she worshipped Donald Trump. And it's not to say that, I mean, I was pro Trump as well. I mean, everybody in our primary was and supported President Trump. But she worshipped the guy. And literally her rhetoric, her manner. or tweeting were very simple. Do you think that the Republican Party can ever kind of go back to the way it was before Trump?

I think the problem is, is people viewed that as being ineffective government, that there was too much quagmire. I mean, those are the days of the quagmire, and then Republicans were spending as much money as the Democrats were and expanding government, yet were the limited party, you know, limited government party. But Trump spent a lot of money, too. I think they just thought, well, we've got somebody who's literally going to stick it to the government and maybe he can crack that or drain the swamp as he was off to say. And Marjorie would say the same thing.

I think what we've seen is we have a battleship of a government and it takes slow course correction to try to change it. And we've certainly, but I think unfortunately we've entered into a minefield. And we really have to re-steer this big ship lest we sink. My question for you is, do you think there's a way in which the Republican Party could actually help working people? Because they're soon to be a cry from working people that they would like to be represented in the government. I think the problem is we don't have working people representing them. And again, I think it's why I was really pushing my candidacy is like, guys, I'm a guy who is very happy, very comfortable, working and living in my community. seeing my family every day. And yet I'm willing to go serve in this capacity to try to restore

some semblance of sanity, normalcy, and fiscal responsibility to a system where people, to my appearance, just they want to go live there. They enjoy the power. They love the prestige. They go there and stay forever. So, and to that, one of the things I've done since I've been out of politics is I'm the Georgia chair of U.S. term limits. And I honestly think we're at the point where we've got to limit these guys' terms and at least say, look, we're going to let you go up there and serve for a while, but don't get the idea that this is a permanent career for you, a permanent job. And I think if you do that, we might get a different breed of Republican and Democrat

who volunteers for this job instead of says, you know, this is a great opportunity. I'm going to say or do anything I can to get elected and then stay elected. Here's a question, though, for you. We see in the House, they're up every two years. They don't behave better because they're up for re-election more often. If anything, a House is more partisan and more scary. So at least like when you see what happened yesterday with Bill Cassidy... He's a surgeon, by the way.

No, I know. He makes me think of you because he's a surgeon, but he's conservative, but he has a moral compass. So he voted his conscience, and one of the reasons he felt comfortable doing that, he didn't say that, but one has to assume that's one of the reasons is because he's not up for election for another six years, and who knows what the landscape will look like that. I mean, I actually am for a term limits. Well, I think that gets back to the concept of he's exhibiting what the framers intended a senator to exhibit is, is they are there for six years. And so they can make these more deliberative, maybe controversial decisions and not necessarily. a power of the purse decisions, but sort of long-term strategy decisions that may initially not be popular, but best for the country. I would say in the House, I think it is still important,

even though the electoral cycle has become so crass and so ridiculous, to expose those members to re-election frequently. I think you could argue maybe a three-year term in this day and age might actually be a little bit better because they are representing so many people. And it's a, a bigger job than it used to be. But I think you solved that problem when you say, look, you've got eight years at most. And then at a minimum, you take four years off and then you can run again. I mean, I go back to Benjamin Franklin in the original Pennsylvania Constitution that had an alternate-on, alternate-all theory to it. And I think there's something valuable to that, that it says, look, you're here to serve a purpose for a certain amount of time. And then if you're great at it and you're

wonderful, take a sabbatical, and then come back to us. You know, maybe once you've actually done something for your district, again, other than serve it in this capacity. And I think we just see, if you look at these same old voices, these same old people, ginning up discord and dividing us further, these are the guys and gals who've been there for a decade or more, you know, and I think that's a real problem. And it's something that if we don't, I just don't see any other good solutions. And certainly after January 6th, we've got to come up with some real strategies because, like I said, I think we're in a minefield now with this battleship.

And we need to make a quick course correction to at least pull us out of the minefield. No, I am very excited about the idea of a Republican Party that is committed to lowering the temperature and a Democratic Party that is. I mean, I think that everyone in the world feels that way. Are you concerned about the Republican leadership? Like, it feels to me there are a number of people who could be the leader of the Republican Party. I read that Trump is, but Trump is not on social media. And I wonder if you think there's a world in which there's a sort of that another leader emerges in the Republican Party. I think there will be.

And I think there has to be. And I would say that a true conservative will say there's probably not a single leader, but there is, if we want to be a big tent party, that we lead by committee, that we have. have several leaders, thought leaders. I mean, there was a time where the conservative party had some great and ferocious disagreements within being constitutional conservative. And I think we've lost that. I mean, and even I felt this when I was running, it was sort of like, gosh, if you're not in lockstep behind the president, we've got a problem. And again, it became acutely aware to me when, you know, whether or not Trump was projecting this or not, that sort of, you know, masks were a

problem or, you know, and as a physician and as a surgeon who wears a mask every day anyway, I'm like, yeah, what's the big deal, guys? I mean, and it keeps me from spitting in the wound. And so it'll keep me from spitting on the people I talk to and probably stop the spread a little bit. We can't have a party where it discourages dissent, where it tamps down good ideas, because there is an omnipotent leader who says, you know, it's my way or the highway. And I think we got ourselves into that a little bit over the last several years. Oh, yeah. I think it would be hard to disagree with that. So you said that you supported President Trump. Did January 6 change anything for you after that and what you saw in the trial this past week? Yes. You know, really since the election

and the continued refusal to accept the results made me say that Trump either was unable to acquitue. to the demands of our democracy, because there has to be a loser, a winner a loser. And I knew this too. I lost a margin. But he was unable, incapable of doing it, or at least he surrounded himself with enablers who convinced him that the election was truly stolen from. And I think that's a problem. And I think that really, to me, is the problem. That that concept happened in our democracy that has happened, you know, 40 times before. And we, you know, and we really never had a problem sort of saying, you know, we may take a couple weeks, maybe a court case here or there, but we get a month and a half out. Electors have been certified, and we're on cruise control.

We should be on cruise control at that point, and we weren't. To me, that's a problem. And I'm going to take, and I will go to my grave, happy knowing I took issue with that. Yeah. What I've read about the district, and I've read there's a really smart guy who writes a lot for the New Yorker about the district. And he was saying that you could elect a non- nutty conservative in that district? I definitely think you can, and I think we will. I think Trump's appeal and his seductive persona that was sort of imputed to Marjorie was very powerful at the time when we were running.

And I think that did it. I do think January 6th changed some things for people. I think this light being shed on Q&ON to making it more public, these folks who have been on Facebook may be dabbling in Q&N, only to realize like, whoa, those guys are manipulative and they're crazy, it may pull them back and saying, you know, there were a lot of tentacles that reached out into the dark corners of the internet that, frankly, Congresswoman Green was a part of and peddled in that I do think people eventually will wake up and see that there's a lot of darkness there. Yeah, I didn't do. Thank you so much for joining us. I really appreciate you.

It's my pleasure. On that note, we'll wrap up this episode of the new Abnormal from The Daily Beast. In future episodes, we'll be talking with smart folks in the Daily Beast and beyond from media, culture, politics, and science, who will help us understand what's happening to our country and the world. We hope you'll subscribe to us on your favorite podcast app and share the show on social media. If you'd like to follow us on Twitter, I'm at Molly JongFast,

and he's at the Rick Wilson. Thanks so much for listening, and we'll see you again on the next episode. Want more great listens? Check out our comedy podcast, The Last Laugh, and our star-studded The Daily Beast podcast at the Daily Beast.com slash podcasts. If you enjoyed this episode, consider becoming a Daily Beast subscriber. Subscribing is the best way to feed the beast and support all of your podcasts as we cover what might become the darkest timeline.

Head to the DailyBeast.com slash membership slash podcast and sign up today.