The Edge Breakfast - EXCLUSIVE: Podcast Listener Cindy LIVE from Minneapolis

Episode Date: January 19, 2026

Yesterday one of our podcast listeners Cindy reached out to the show speaking about the current state of America. She is a resident in Minneapolis and can't believe what's happening in her back yard. Check out the full chat here.

This is a podcast from Rover. Clint Megan Dan. Sureda, everyone. It's producer Neeps here. Clint Meg and Dan are currently in a big, massive planning session with producer Carl, and I'm here getting some podcasts up for you. Now, we recorded this yesterday as a bit of an OnlyFans podcast, but we felt like it was a wee bit too heavy to start the year.

But also, we needed to share this with you because it's such not an amazing story. It's a very, very real story. This is one of our podcast listeners, Cindy. She is from the United States, and she is in Minneapolis. She texted through to the show yesterday and we decided to give her a call after the show and have a bit of a conversation with her about what is currently happening in America

as she sees it. It's a very, very interesting chat. It can be quite confronting, so this is your fear warning for that, but it is a very, very interesting chat, and this is our conversation with Cindy from yesterday. Yeah, her name is Cindy, and she's a listener of us.

I'd love to find out how she found us and, you know, being a podcast listener or finding on social media, but she's in Minneapolis. Minneapolis. I mean Minneapolis? Minneapolis. I think you're putting too many.

From what I've seen online is in a really insane place at the moment when it comes to ICE and the government. Morning, Cindy. Hey guys, thanks for talking with me. So you are Americans. I wasn't sure if you were a Kiwi that's living over there or whether you have come here found our show and then taking it back home with you? No, I found you guys on top. TikTok way back.

Meg's MIDI spicy rub. Oh my God. That was ages ago. Way back. I spoke it before. Yes. And I've been listening since then. Have we spoken before?

I called last year the first show when you guys were talking about TikTok being gone in the US. Oh, that's right. That's right. I actually literally this morning found another two bottles of spicy rub I still have in my drawer. MIGTil photos are over summer. What, seven bucks now? And we were like $7, you were getting it for like three cents or something? Seven cents.

You were getting it less than wholesale price. Everybody wants to try. We all remember the general. Yeah, Cindy, we wanted to chat to you though about obviously something way more serious. We were talking off here just before happened to be talking about travel and stuff and talking about America and how some of our family members want to go and visit America. And we thought maybe it's not the best time to go and visit because it just seems wild from over here in New Zealand and seeing the new stories and what is happening on social media from videos that we can see.

How has it been on the ground in Minneapolis with Renee Good recently and the death of the passing of her due to an ICE agent? What murder, I should say? What is it the vibe for you? Honestly, it's really terrifying. So I have lived in Minneapolis for a while. I was here during George Floyd, the city of the city of. looked like a war zone during that uprising, and it is 10 times worse. And I understand that things are not being accurately reported outside the borders of Minnesota.

Yes. Oh, my gosh. So we went grocery shopping. Yeah. So we went grocery shopping today, and we actually picked the store where we got our groceries from based on the parking situation and how quickly we could get out if anything happens. And so can you explain to people that don't, the ICE agents who don't know why these people are inhabiting Minneapolis and other cities around America? Yep. Yep. So ICE stands for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. And basically, Trump is using them as his personal army. And they are supposedly going after immigrants. But they have been given from the White House multiple messages from.

the White House, they've been given complete immunity for anything that they do in the line of of their job duties. And they are racially profiling people. They're stopping people based on their skin color, based on if they have an accent, if they don't sound like they speak English well enough. It's out of control. It's out of control right now. Can I also ask Cindy, I tried to look at up myself and do some research on it because I felt really naive. When I found out, you know, what ICE agents were and people that are, you know, in theory, on paper, what they're meant to be doing is anyone that is an illegal immigrant and doesn't have the right paperwork to be living in America is kicked out of the country.

And I know it's very, being very wishy-washy. I even looked up how you become a citizen of America and how you, it's a very hard process and it's really messy. It's actually nearly impossible to, like, do it anyway, to do it properly because it's, there's so much backlog and it takes a year. but what happens if somebody does get taken, where do they go is what I don't understand. Where do they get taken and put and they've got kids,

they've got family members that are just literally left in the lurch because you're picked up from where you are and you're taken in a van and then you're gone. Where are they taken to? Yep. Excuse me, here in Minneapolis, there is a holding center at the government building, the Whipple government building,

but we've also heard that people are being sent to the detention centers in Texas, but it's hard to know where people are taken because ICE agents, when they arrest somebody, they'll take their phone and they'll turn on, they'll turn on airport, airplane mode, so their family can't track them. And they take their phones away. So if you don't have phone numbers memorized, you don't know how to contact your family members. There are private prisons over here that are contracting with the Trump administration.

to house, well, house, to incarcerate folks. And we don't know where many of these people go. Yeah, and they're just there with no contact. So it's different to being, like, say, if you were arrested Clinton, you became a prisoner, you have more rights to be able to do that. Could you make a phone call? You get a lawyer and stuff.

You don't get this at all. You get shoved in a cell or something, and we don't know. And then did people come back? Do they, I just don't understand what, you know, how it's all organized. and then are they just dropped back in their country with no... I don't think even the Trump administration know what they're doing. Yeah, I know. You know? I think it's a bit of a...

They're not... As I understand it, they're not being deported to their countries of origin. Most of them are held here. Locally, people are released from detention, and they're just basically let go from the facility. They just walk out with no phone, with the clothes on their back. It's zero degrees here today. It's very cold.

And so there's, like, people literally will die in the cold today. It just sounds like they're moving them then around America, like taking them, detaining them, and then releasing them somewhere else. Doesn't that not make any sense? It doesn't make any sense, and that's what's happening. Wow. All of this is happening without due process. Yeah.

The ICE agents need to have warrants signed by a judge, and they're signing them themselves, so they can just randomly pick people up. It's a horrible thing that's happening over in the States, and I think it's happened so, so quickly as well, which I think is the concerning thing. My question to you, Cindy, is obviously, by the sound of the way you're talking, you're not a Trump supporter.

How is it for you, I'm sure you know people that are Trump supporters and that have supported him, maybe they're not now, but they were? How is your relationship with those people? And how do you sort of push through that? Oh, Dan, that's an interesting question. So many of my family members voted for Trump three times. And we, I'm not currently talking to those people.

None of them have even message to check to see if I'm okay. They know what's happening here. And it's, you know, I grew up in a cult. And so I think that that's how I see them as just in another cult. Yeah. Wait, like a religious cult? Yeah. And so were you obviously out of that now?

How were you when you got out of the cold? Right. I left when I was 31. Wow. That was a long time ago. Yeah. And are these people that did vote for him three times? Are they now going?

What have we done? What have we done? Surely no one's going, this is the America I want. I think there are. Well, my sister had a phone call with a family member. I'm not going to say who that person was, but said, you know, this is what Trump has said about Somali folks. This is what Trump has said about people who are Mexican, whatever. And it's really, I really need you to have something to say here.

And that person was just silent on the phone. They didn't really have anything to say. Eventually got around to saying, I don't agree with their rhetoric, but I like some of its policies. Yeah, right. I think people are dodging, dodging some very tough questions by answering that. It's like religion, eh? they go, I don't like that. I'll just ignore that bit. But he is like the slipperiest dude in the world.

Like he can say stuff where you go, that's going to be the now in his coffin. And then he just wriggles out of it. And no one seems to care or mind that he did or said something that you would expect from someone who is like the lowest of the low, not someone who's going to be representing and leading one of the largest countries in the world. It's crazy. It's a very dangerous individual. We say this when we hear crazy stuff, we go, Max, So good to be living in New Zealand.

We're on the other side of the world. We're so far away from it. You couldn't be happier. How many people in America are like, we're going to move? And actually do. Yeah. Well, it's hard to do. You can't just up and leave your life.

Exactly. But have you thought about it? It's very expensive. I wish I could live in New Zealand. I know it's a smaller country and I just, I wish I could live there. I'm so sick of living in a country that makes international headlines for all the wrong reasons. and it is very expensive to move.

It's a difficult process. Not a lot of people have like education or career that would be acceptable for a country that they want to move to. Also, I'm guessing that pretty much the entire world hates Americans right now, which I wouldn't blame them for. Yeah. I don't think that's the case. They're just not rushing to book a trip.

We're definitely not wanting to go and visit. But I think there's a lot of empathy and sympathy for the people that, like you, Cindy, that we can see are just like caught in this, like what the hell the fire is happening in America right now? Yeah, so your country, you should love your country, and there's a lot of things I'm sure you do love about it, but it's just very hard when you have someone, yeah, who is like moving it in a direction that has just seems so destructive.

The term civil war has been talked about quite a bit of late, Cindy. Does it feel like being there? Does it feel like that is now a possibility? Uprising. Yeah, you know, like it sounds like a black hair episode. Okay, so. apparently there are reports that Trump is sending in 1,500 paratroopers. They're on standby, and there are two army battalions that are on standby,

so he's actively planning on using the military against its own citizens. So it's very scared. Just to keep you online? Are there riots? Is that what's happening? No, there's no riots. People are demonstrating against ICE and what they're doing. People are mobilizing very quickly when they see agents.

But the narrative here is being spun that there are paid agitators, quote unquote, that the people who are demonstrating are just trying to stir up trouble and make the Trump administration look very bad. I don't think we're in a current civil war right now. I think that takes both sides firing shots. And the only reason we're not in a civil war is because people on my side have not fired a shot yet. Yeah. And it's going, I doubt that it's going to happen very soon, actually.

I mean, yeah, I mean, it seems like it's at the point where it could happen, right? There's, I mean, there's other states around as well that have ISIS agents, or is it just Minneapolis? It's, yeah, so there, it's, if you look at the website, ice out.org, those are people that are reporting when they see agents across the country. and Minnesota right now, the state of Minnesota, is a particular focus. So, yes, the ICE agents are everywhere right now, but they are particularly focusing on us because Donald Trump is mad at us for some reason. Oh, yeah, I can say that you guys have a lot of... I mean, our governor is Tim Walves.

Yeah, I know, and I see, aren't they trying to, I guess, are we Stim for something? Yeah, somebody, yeah, there's an investigation into him and into them, Minneapolis governor or mayor of Minneapolis. Yeah, yeah. But it's all bullshit, just like every other investigation is bullshit. They just are mad at people for not supporting them, basically. And you must feel pretty helpless, because they can hear on your voice.

Yeah, right. What do I do? You just feel helpless to it all and just hope that it'll die down. Right. So one of the things that I learned about living during the uprising after George Floyd is that my neighbors and communities here, will band together, and that is exactly what we've seen. The people are self-organizing patrols,

just standing out on the sidewalk in their neighborhoods, in freezing temperatures, with their whistles ready, to alert anybody in the area if ice agents arrive. Yeah, even there's Netflix shows. We're fighting back our own. Yeah, it does. On the isout.org website, it says people over papers, which I think is a nice way to put it of like people over like the papers of them being in there.

And then all these people with the alerts. Like there's one that I've just read. Ice agent is at Target. Be careful. Someone was pepper sprayed at 7 a.m. So it's like the fact that, I mean, the fact that people are doing this to help others is, I mean, the one part that you can sit there and go at least there's the humanity in that. It's the lining of seeing people come together and destructive. Trying to look after each other.

Do you have kids, Cindy? Yep I don't I'm child free by choice okay yeah that's probably you'd probably be thankful for that right now

yeah it's a good thing probably yeah if I was over there now I had George I'd be like what is his future you know like what is it like I'd be trying to get out as quickly as or as easily

as I could keep an eye on the story Cindy and as and if it develops I would love to be able to keep in touch with you about sort of what is actually going on on the ground if what the media is reporting isn't the reality of what you're actually experiencing. Sure thing.

Yeah, I'm reposting on my TikTok, like all the hyper-local videos that I'm seeing. And then, yeah, also I'm a therapist by trade. And so one thing I did want to say is I keep telling my clients that you have to stay connected to your joy because that retains your humanity, which they're trying to take away from us. and I just want you guys to know like your show is one of my joys and I really appreciate you guys Wow we appreciate you and we are thinking of you as well

No Cindy we love you I'm just going to be sitting here thinking about you I'm worried about you and you can as Clint said hearing your heart in your voice that you're feeling lots of on your shoulders at the moment and we wish we could take that away from you and we'll continue to try and what's your favourite

that you want you want Clint to do a fart babe what do you want actually if Clint if you could do a hawka for me that would be great are you married already I only really do shoeless ones at weddings I mean I could make a wedding happen I guess that means doing a harker you message me I'll marry you and them and then I'll give you a hucket

yeah okay all thanks Cindy all the best and we'll hopefully talk to you under better circumstances surely. Thanks you guys. Thanks, Cindy. Bye. Wow.

Yeah, it is. Just makes you so thankful to be able to just walk out of work today. And not Google how crazy the exit strategy is from your local supermarket before you go. I think about that with the school shootings as well, you know, thinking about my, you know, not worrying about it with my kids. I did a post over the holidays. I don't know if you saw it, but it is a... No, I blocked you. Yeah, yeah.

oh you'll like this then. Fucking how we complain in this country, don't we about the shit that we have to deal with. And we're not perfect. But man, we are so like Clint said just in that interview, we're so lucky to be living here. Because everywhere else in the way, even Europe now with Greenland and, you know, Iceland and all those.

No, I fought over the holidays too. You don't know where? What could happen next? Yeah. I went for a walk in the park with my family with a coffee. And I looked around I said, who we are, like one of the top ten luckiest people in the world right now. We've got two healthy

kids in the sunshine, in New Zealand where we're not in some sort of, you know, dress. I was walking down the beach the other day, family's playing. You know, like, dogs running around. I'm like, you can't do this a lot of places. And it is nice that we are so far away from the turmoil and we're so small that no one really is going to bother

with us. Well, don't say that touchwood. Oh, that will do it. Well, done, Dan. Thanks for that. I'm going to say, what about New Zealand? No, Dan did Tepwood 19th Jan when he was talking about it. Those are the rules. Thanks for everybody. Double stampy.

I got you. I got you. Oh no, I just wanted to thank Dan on behalf of everyone out in the booth in here for saving our country. Thanks, Dan. Thanks, guys. You guys are fucked. You guys got to touch your own wood. I'm going to touch Neepia's wood.

I'm going to touch Nipia's wood. Oh, yeah. Okay. That's a whole way, talk. Bye, everyone. Okay, catch you tomorrow.